Filed under: News , Video Invisible Children The controversy surrounding Invisible Children's viral Kony2012 video has reached the music world. While musicians like Stars ' Amy Millan and Jill Scott retweeted the link to the 30-minute video, which was produced by the organization Invisible Children with the goal of stopping Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army from kidnapping Ugandan children for army, others artists have said much more. "Just watched #KONY2012 the video," Amanda Palmer tweeted . "It's about a limited political cause, and it's also about something true-er & bigger." "Be the Change you want to see," former ...

(Shock) Canadian electro-pop starlet aims even higher with second album0 Canada has traditionally been blessed with singular female vocalists – Metric’s Emily Haines, Stars/Broken Social Scene’s Amy Millan, Young Galaxy’s Catherine McCandless and Black Mountain’s Amber Webber to name but a few. An ambitious solo entity, Toronto’s Lights Poxleitner certainly has a lot going for her: a knack for a decent tune; striking looks; 2008’s Juno Award for her self-titled debut EP and gold album award fo ...

Canadian experimental artist Anthony von Seck collaborated with the likes of Amy Millan from Stars, Basia Bulat, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, plus the players from A Silver Mt. Zion and Stars to create his conceptual debut album My Best Friends In Exile. The concept behind the album is that it “felt more like you were surfing through radio stations, starting as very dense and urban, and whittling down into something more earthy and fragile.” “The Music of My Best Friend In Exile” was launched to a packed audience during a live performance at Pop Montreal in October 2009. Here are three ...

Stars - Music Hall Of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY - 10.11.11 Writer: Vincent ( Photo: Carl Timpone - www.carltphotography.com/ ) This past Tuesday night, Montreal-based band Stars came through to a venue that didn’t quite have the capacity to hold their fan-base, let alone their sound. But that seemed to be the least of Torquil Campbell’s (one of two lead singers for the band) worries as he and the band began the night with a promise to the sold out crowd: “Let’s give them a show!” …a promise they surely kept, as their set lasted almost two hours. ( Photo ...

Tonight we get to experience Canadian indie-rock heroes, Stars , at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY. The idea of seeing them in such a small venue is brewing excitement that is hardly containable. What song could be a more perfect selection for this week’s “Throwback Tuesdays” than their song “Window Bird”?. “Window Bird” is the ninth track off of their break-out record In Our Bedroom After The War (2007). Amy Millan, one of two lead singers for the band, leads this soft-sung track, with harmonies by her counterpart Torquil Campbell. The power of Stars ’ simplicity truly shines ...

Pitchfork : Broken Social Scene’s fourth proper album, Forgiveness Rock Record , came out last year, and the indie rock supergroup has been touring for close to 18 months now. That’s a lot of months. Makes sense, then, that the band’s plotting a bit of a hiatus from the stage—and from doing much of anything as a big group, really. On October 1, BSS will play their last North American show for the foreseeable future at San Francisco’s The Fillmore (they have some South American gigs planned after that). The show sounds plenty epic, with a “mellow ...

Broken Social Scene 's fourth proper album, Forgiveness Rock Record , came out last year, and the indie rock supergroup has been touring for close to 18 months now. That's a lot of months. Makes sense, then, that the band's plotting a bit of a hiatus from the stage-- and from doing much of anything as a big group, really. On October 1, BSS will play their last North American show for the foreseeable future at San Francisco's The Fillmore (they have some South American gigs planned after that-- their full tour schedule is here ). The show sounds ...

Crocodiles: photo by Michael Ligon Since I had Friday[June 17] off from work, I'd had hopes off making it out to some of the daytime NXNE festivities but alas it did not happen. It figures just when it seems the daytime NXNE-affiliated or NXNE-related shows are stepping it up, I don't make it out to any of them. On the other hand, I made a conscious decision to try to start the night out early. My 8 pm pick went to Toronto indiepop group Persian Rugs . In my NXNE preview post for this night I picked Persian ...

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive Norman Wong Stars may have played one of the biggest shows of their career at Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square for NXNE on Friday (June 17), but they proved just a day later that they still have a soft-spot for their most dedicated fans, as they took the stage at the much cozier confines of the city's Edward Day Gallery on Queen Street West during the day on Saturday. The concert was the culmination of a "digital scavenger hunt" put on by AUX.TV (where it was also live-streamed). Fans lucky and savvy ...

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive , Q + A Yasmin Siddiqui Things have been quiet on the Stars front since the Canadian swoon-popsters released their fifth album, 'The Five Ghosts' (just long-listed yesterday for the Polaris Prize ) last summer. But the quintet has been anything but idle in that time: singer-guitarist Amy Millan and bassist Evan Cranley welcomed their first child this spring; frontman Torquil Campbell has been juggling not one, but two side-projects with his solo Dead Child Star guise and a new release by Memphis (his musical partnership with New York actor/musician Chris Dumont, a longtime pal ...

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive , Q + A Courtesy of New Country Rehab The members of New Country Rehab ar e musicians' musicians, go-to sidemen for the likes of Basia Bulat , Amy Millan , Justin Rutledge and players in bands like Foggy Hogtown Boys, Run With the Kittens, Flashlight Radio and Elvis Bossa Nova. United by their love of outlaw country and bluegrass, John Showman, James Robertson, Roman Tome and Ben Whiteley have stepped into starring roles as one of the most exciting new country (but not "new country") bands in Canada. We spoke to guitarist "Champagne" James Robertson about ...

youarestars.comThe promo and touring cycle for Stars’ last record The Five Ghosts – released just about a year ago – largely wrapped last Fall, just in time to take a break and allow Amy Millan to have her first child. The Montreal quintet are ready to get back into action, though, and are doing so [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive Courtesy of C'mon Ian Blurton is one of Canada's greatest unsung rock icons. Since leading Change of Heart in the '90s, Blurton has spent time playing in bands like Blurtonia and Bionic, as well as producing records for a diverse roster of musicians, including the Weakerthans , Amy Millan and the Rheostatics . Since hooking up with C'mon co-leader Katie Lynn Campbell, both musically and romantically (though rumour has it they've recently broken up), Blurton has been making some of the heaviest, most unabashed rock and roll of his career. The ...

Torquil Campbell and Chris Dumont were first in a band together in the 1990s; since then, Campbell has become part of two highly successful and respected Canadian alternative bands (Stars and Broken Social Scene), and Campbell (vocalist) and Dumont (producer and guitarist) have now reunited to form Memphis . A Little Place In The Wilderness is best described as an individual exploration of a collective concept: Campbell writes about dreams - their value, their futility, the role they play as part of the human experience. Not coincidentally, the music reflects this concept, tending to be atmospheric, sparse with swells toward richness, and ...

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Releases Arts & Crafts While dream-popsters Stars take a little break (in part thanks to the recent birth of Amy Millan and Evan Cranley's first child), frontman Torquil Campbell has been anything but idle, releasing not just one, but two albums in recent months. The loquacious vocalist (who readily chatters away about everything from pop to politics) has been on a creative roll, quietly putting out 'Cold Hands, Warm Hearts' -- his first collection of solo material earlier this year under the Dead Child Star handle -- before 'Here Comes a City,' the third full-length from Memphis ...