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.

As Saskatoon's The Sheepdogs descended down the steps of the Dakota Tavern and sauntered their way over to my bar stool, it was obvious that I was about to speak to a band mid-tour.

I shook hands with the members, who were all dressed in 70's folk-rock attire, and I moved to the back of the bar to chat with Ewan Currie (lead vocals, guitar) and Ryan Gullen (bass, backing vocals), while the rest of the band did a sound check.

We Are The City are exactly the type of band that I look for. Fresh, new music, coming from a group of guys young enough to be experiencing the grueling industry for the first time. I think that they might even like it.

They recently notched their first full-length, first national tour, first music video, and experienced their first time seeing the country we live in through the window of a Toyota 1988 Land Cruiser. This will also be their first time playing a Toronto venue outside of a music festival.

When I first got Cayne McKenzie (lead vocals, piano) on the line, he didn't even know where he was...