Through the sale of the company a little while back to Rogers Media (what doesn't he own?), CityTV lost their iconic studios on Queen West. In what is surely the scoop of the century, however, CityTV is announcing that CityTV has some new digs: the former Olympic Spirit "tourist attraction"/eye sore at Yonge-Dundas Square.

On the one hand, this will hopefully bring a little more life to the square and the area, just at a time when the square is poised to really take off.

On the other hand, however, this is not an ideal space for those of us who like to peer in the windows and watch the News Crews do their thang. Though the building certainly has the space and street-level glass that is a hallmark of CityTV's style, this 43,000 tower has barely any sidwalk for gawking out front... and half of its frontage is a street-car only turning radius. Not even close to the near perfect integration into street life. Though, with Yonge-Dundas Square being private property, maybe now they won't have to worry as much about being interrupted by Zanta during outside reports.

No word on whether the news truck will make an appearance at the new location.

Photo by nyabg on Flickr

The bands that former Torontonian Nathan Lawr (he's relocated to Sudbury) has kept time for is a virtual who's who of the TO roots/alt-country scene, including the late, lamented Royal City and Fembots.

This might overshadow the fact that Lawr has released three albums, the most recent is A Sea of Tiny Lights, and is a talented singer and songwriter is his own right. He's returning to Toronto to play a CD release party at Supermarket on October 18.

Q: Tell blogTO's readers a bit about yourself.

NL: I play music and that's about as specific as I could possibly get.

The latest effort from Vancouver's Mohawk Lodge, Wildfires, finds the band moving away from their acoustic folk roots and embracing a gritty blue-collar roots rock sound that recalls the music of Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen's early material.

They've also earned a reputation as one of the best live bands out there thanks to their incendiary live shows. Singer/guitarist and White Whale Records impresario Ryder Havdale said that the band plans to rock Toronto at their two upcoming shows.

Q: Why did you make the shift away from acoustic folk on the new album in favour of a plugged in sound?

RH: I guess it kinda came up by chance because we had a number of problems with acoustics on stage.

Vancouver's GreenTaRA (aka Tara Donald) has been told she's a "talkaholic". What you're about to read is just a small portion of the hour plus conversation I had with the amiable genre-defying artist.

It's fitting that she named her latest effort Global Baby because she's seemingly lived in every continent at some point in her life. The disc's 13 tracks encompass her multi-cultural background with sounds that vary from jazz to funk and R 'n B with a strong Hip-Hop influence.

GT took some time out of her Thanksgiving holiday to speak with me.

Q: Tell blogTO's readers a bit about yourself.

GT: I was born here in Vancouver, born and raised and then I took off and traveled the world when I was a teenager, I think it was shortly after my nineteenth birthday I was like, "Gotta get out of here!"

I went down to Australia for a while and New Zealand and came back from there and decided I wanted to live in warm places so I ended up moving to Florida. Moved down there for a while, toured for about five years in a band down there and decided actually shortly after, I think it was after the Clinton administration bombed Afghanistan and destroyed the pharmaceutical plant there that was supplying Africa with pharmaceuticals and I was like, "Wait a minute! I don't want to be here!"

In the 18 short months they've been together, The Details have toured Canada multiple times, including two jaunts during the winter, and released an EP and their debut full-length, Draw a Distance, Draw a Border.

It's not surprising that the Winnipeg band has earned a reputation as one of Western Canada's hardest working bands. Singer/guitarist Jon Plett took a few minutes during a tour stop in Charlottetown PEI to chat with me.

Considering Michele Mele's background in theatre, it should be surprising that she decided to stage her own show. After graduating from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music in 1984, she went on to study directing and directed several productions, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie.

She's also an accomplished jazz musician who's released three albums, her most recent effort, Feel, was released in 2006.

Her new show, Naked on the Rocks, blends theatre and music. Mele took time out from raising four teenage children to talk about what led up to her decision to stage the show.

Q: What can you tell me about the show and what inspired you to stage it? It almost sounds you were caving to pressure when you finally decided to go forward with it.

MM: Oh no! But in fact kind of the opposite, maybe it sounded that way (on the video on my website). Well, it just kind of tumbled into that because my first three albums were predominantly jazz and I had a lot more to say I think. I had a lot more passion inside that need to be expressed and so I started writing in a different direction.

I have a great piano, jazz whatever, teacher and he says "Never stop yourself from writing anything in any direction, anywhere, anyplace, any time ever." I think that's the way I was feeling and so I just strung it all together.

It's still my shtick, it's still what I do on stage, but just with a bit more talking and a bit more scripted but I leave a room from improvisation, which I guess, is the kind of jazz influence of my life, right? The concept of improvisation and spontaneity. So that's a major part as well of the show. And it's fun! That's all! That's the main thing! You gotta have fun and you can take yourself too seriously. That's another thing, it's not about me, it's about the music.