The five members of Make Your Exit were excitedly handling and examining their new EP, Remind Me The Reason I Came when I arrived at the Red Room. I think only two of the five looked up as I joined their table and it reminded me of children opening Christmas presents. They were excited and it was cool to watch.

On top of that, while I had mentioned that I only needed one or two members to be there they had insisted on all coming to meet me. While it makes it harder for me to transcribe (there are seriously three Mikes in the band), it shows a group solidarity that really shines on stage when all members of an ensemble are so committed and eager.

Whenever I meet someone who's thirty or under, actively creating folk music (or some variant of the genre), I'm always somewhat puzzled. I am generally interested to know their motives, and I wonder how they got into it. I guess it's like finding out that someone plays the harp. So, I have at least one question to ask Patrick Brealey.

With the release of his second album, Mercury in Songbirds, and an upcoming show at an interesting venue that I've never been to, I now had at least three good reasons to sit down with Brealey in the corner of an Ossington favourite, the Communist's Daughter.

Secret Broadcast are quickly becoming something. In two years, this Calgary-based rock band has accomplished a more than a few memorable feats, and experienced enough encouragement from industry big-wigs (Richard Branson of the Virgin empire) to keep them working hard at their craft.

They had already embarked on their tour to promote their first full-length, 'Exploding Spiders,' so I was happy to settle with a phone call from Toronto-native, Matt Lightstone (guitars, vocals) instead of the usual sit down interview. He told me about how sometimes just picking up the morning paper can land you in a band.

Corduroy has stepped it up this past year. After four months of what they describe as "a stagnant period," the songs started to come quickly, they began playing the Toronto circuit heavily, and with a demo released and an EP on the way, things look on the up and up. They're certainly not the band of yesteryear. I guess they've been really reinvigorated by a new member and a new name.

We arranged to meet up at the Red Room and discuss all of the above and a TIFF kick-off party they are scheduled to play. And, of course, Nicolas Cage.

I was first introduced to Tiny Danza through a friend while we were out drinking on a Tuesday night. I laughed at the suggestion because he and I are generally on different levels with music - I enjoy good music and he prefers the sound of chainsaws to a heavy bass beat - but he insisted that they were worth checking out, so the next day I went to their MySpace page. After listening to the first track, 'Hindsight,' I knew I had to go through all of the songs. For once my friend was right! (But only once...)

Shortly thereafter I arranged a meeting at Nirvana with Galen Hogg (rap vocals) and Andrew Santaguida (keyboards). Sweltering from the heat to the point of danger, we came to the conclusion that if we didn't hydrate ourselves we would surely perish. We thus immediately ordered two pitchers - one was water, the other was not.

Arts and Crafts indie darlings, The Most Serene Republic, released their latest full-length ...And The Ever Expanding Universe on July 14th, 2009. For me, TMSR is a band that is due to start making big splashes in the national music pool. That's not to say that they haven't put out good records... nor am I trying to say that they haven't played any great shows to terrific reviews. I'm simply trying to emphasize that they have yet to stand out at their label when I think that they possess the ability to do so.

To discuss the new album, their North American tour, and a surprising amount about Sean Woolven (guitars, and the official "seventh member"), I headed down to the Arts and Crafts office for a little board room meeting with Adrian Jewett (vocals, trombone) and Ryan Lensson (back-up vocals, piano, and self-described "tyrant").