For those staying in the city this long weekend, Sunday night rowdiness doesn't get much more colourful than electro kids Fritz Helder and The Phantoms at the new weekly Thunderpussy. Presented by Pink Mafia, the party at Bovine features Hump Day Bump's DJ Sandy alongside the live show from Helder and Co., who will christen the venue's new glass disco dance floor as the first live band to perform on it.

Heads-up for anyone wanting to feel the easy skankin' of the summer music vibe: Why not kick into the weekend tonight with a dose of SuperHeavyReggae? This time out, long-time jazz-punk-rockers Skaface and live dub from Kensington Market locals Resinators. Brought to you by Abi Roach and the kind Hot Box crew, the event promises fans and "make dub not war" proponents a live experience on the dubwise tip. It's not often these crews put together a show at Lee's (eh?), where the indie rawk often reigns supreme, so catch this fine combo of upbeat, horn-y 10-piece ska fusion, live-instrument-made dub and other heady treats from the SuperHeavy crew while you can. (It'll be especially cool to see Resinators outside the famed "Kensington bubble.") It'll be humid every day soon enough. Think of the tropical tunes as, er, a gateway to the hot weather.

This time around, Andrew Burashko's Art of Time Ensemble -- with which he aims to opens minds and ears to different forms of classical music through different innovations and fusions with other forms of music and performing arts -- focuses on the songbook Sarah Slean has chosed to work with. Burashko commissioned new arrangements of the songs Slean chose, including ones by the likes of Martin Tielli, Feist, Sarah Harmer, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Ron Sexsmith and Hawksley Workman. On May 10 and 11 at Harbourfront's Enwave Theatre, Slean will perform The Songbook along with Burashko (piano) and his stellar ensemble, including Roberto Occhipinti and Phil Dwyer, who arranged some of the pieces. The ensemble will also perform instrumentals by Dwyer, Christos Hatzis and Cameron Wilson.

Burashko has much, much more to say about Art of Time and about this upcoming program. Here he is in a recent blogTO interview:

Comedic musicals, especially those proclaiming themselves as such in their titles, have become something of a trend over the past several years, including local hits like the successfully remounted-and-still-going Giant Killer Shark: The Musical and Top Gun (:TM) as well as the travelling show Dogs (:TM), which visited for Fringe 2006.

But Bad Dog Theatre, whose origins as Theatresports Toronto birthed comedy troupes like The Kids in the Hall, boasts a different style entirely with their limited-run Show Stopping Number: The Improvised Musical, which ran through April and for which the company has added two Friday night shows: one this week, May 4, and another on May 10.

The sunny days that last weekend brought us outdoors in our summer duds will return -- but not this weekend. With a forecast of showers and nights that will still require a warm layer or two, it's a good thing there's plenty of interesting (and danceable) nightlife to make it a weekend of fine music: underground, overground, spread the sound. DJ lineups and fusions with live performance and theme elements -- sitar and tabla, spoken word, army fatigue costumes -- in particular mark this weekend's fun.

Dance, funboy. Dance, fungirl. Or chillax. Winter may be gone, but brothers and sisters, why not keep warm anyway, while the term still applies?

"Spadina Bus" by The Shuffle Demons (sources: videosift, youtube)

Long before Spadina Avenue got its right-of-way, the tune that started the Shuffle Demons' revolution crowed: "I want confirmation on my information about my transportation from Spadina station ... well, 77A -- I guess that'll be OK -- but I want 77B on the T-T-C ..." The track's opening standup bass, saxophone and drumkit riff should also sound familiar to some, as that sample served as the original theme music for Speaker's Corner on CityTV.

Founding Demon Richard Underhill (who still wears that dashiki he's rocking in the video) rounded up core and alumni players from the Demons' roster for tonight's show at Lula Lounge, their first in Toronto in two years. Another bonus tonight: the guys have issued this Streetnik alert for fans to come forward with stories, songs, memories and all things Shuffle Demons to vie for a spot in their upcoming DVD: