Besides being a mouthful of a name, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald (MBF) has been steadily growing as a Canadian commodity in the west for the past few years.

The Calgarian has become a staple in his hometown, playing the last two Virgin Festivals in his hometown, and selling out a 1800-person capacity hall for the release of the Love LP back in June.

But he's left Calgary, and as of two weeks ago he now lives in Toronto. I figured there were at least two good reasons to give him a call.
1) He is playing a one month residency at Supermarket starting November 18th.
2) With no long distance fees to deal with, it's a totally affordable call.

Elias, Vancouver's up-an-coming act, is coming to Toronto to play two shows on tour with Pilot Speed (formerly Pilate). The indie-rock band released its second full-length, Lasting Distraction, in mid-October and are currently working the tour van hard to promote it.

Although the vocal stylings of the two bands are very different, their music is easily comparable to Pilot Speed, so the two bands should complement each other quite nicely and it'll definitely be beneficial for Elias to be on the bill.

I got on the horn with Rob Tornroos (lead guitar), who was just taking his lunch break to get serious about what's doin' in his life.

Gregory Pepper and His Problems is an unusual, musical fella. I don't know him personally, but I was sent this picture of him and his cat, and his song topics range from being a john, to a fairly descriptive - and possibly accurate - song about building a boat. It's tough to pigeonhole his style of music, so I won't bother.

With two upcoming Toronto shows -- November 5th at Kensington's Teranga and November 7th at the Mod Club -- with the Islands, I decided to give Gregory (which is not his real name) a inquisitive phone call...

The Vanishers perform rockabilly - a genre I used to consider somewhat strange.

Four years ago, I would have sworn that the fusion of country, punk, and rock could never work on any level, but exactly four years ago something changed for me. While I was checking out a punk band at the Kathedral one evening, I ended up staying to check out the following act and it changed the way I will view rockabilly forever.

I met up with Paul Pengelly (vocals) and Paul McGrath (guitar) at Sneaky Dee's for a beer and to chat about how they ended up here, their new album, and the scene in Hamilton.

At times, Slow Down, Molasses are hard to categorize. They're a grassroots ensemble from Saskatoon, but pegging just who "they" are is difficult... because they are not always composed of the same members. That may make it seem as though people are constantly being kicked out and are thus always disgruntled, but the process is actually surprisingly harmonious.

They're just finishing up a national tour and will be stopping at the fairly new Toronto venue, The Garrison on October 29th to play a final gig before returning out West.

I had to get the skinny on this band, so I arranged a phone interview with founding member, Tyson McShane. This is his story.

Amy Millan, of Stars fame, is moving forward as a solo act. Though it's not her first album, Masters Of The Burial, is arguably her best work yet. It's a calming composition of her own tracks peppered with a few covers and is what I describe as morning music. Millan is a poignant proof of the amount of talent often contained in the many-membered bands sprouting up across Canada.

She's currently in the middle of an ambitious North American tour with Bahamas accompanying her as the opening act. They both play the Mod Club on Wednesday, October 14th.

I went for a brisk bike ride down to the Arts & Crafts headquarters for a quiet discussion with Millan in the boardroom. Topics contained in the day's docket included, but were not limited to, the new album, people, and elephants.