Apartment613′s Samantha Everts recently caught up with drummer Greg Alsop of Toronto indie darlings Tokyo Police Club, who are in town Jan. 13 at the Captial Music Hall. Tokyo Police Club is no longer the little Toronto indie buzz band that burst onto the music scene back in 2005.  They’ve gone international: as drummer Greg Alsop points out, the guys just got back from Jakarta, Indonesia, where they opened for Slank, one of that country’s biggest bands. “We opened for their Led Zeppelin,” he says about their Indonesian  tour mates’... | Continue reading article

Ah, the first full weekend in 2011. The perfect time to reward yourself for keeping all of those well-intentioned resolutions so far, after a busy week of fitting in those 6am workouts and cutting out all trashy tv. And unless you resolved to avoid all things fun and exciting, you shouldn’t have to worry about breaking any of those resolutions this weekend. Kicking off the new year is a plethora of new art shows. There are three vernissages just tonight – Enriched Bread artist Joyce Westrop will be exhibiting her... | Continue reading article

Ottawa indie rockers Amos the Transparent are hitting the big time.  After All That, It’s Come To This off the group’s 2007 album Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget is being featured in a national ad for Plenty of Fish. It’s a great song and a decent commercial, so we thought that we’d share it with you all.

Post by Gloria Song. The Jon Cohen Experimental will be performing at the Avant-Garde Bar, 135 Besserer Street, on Thursday, January 6, with openers JF Robitaille and Ottawa’s own Loon Choir. It’s always this time of year that people compile their “best of 2010” lists. A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago about the best albums of 2010. After some thought, I would have to say that I would include Behold, the latest album put out by the Jon Cohen Experimental, on my own personal list of... | Continue reading article

Broken Social Scene took over Bronson Centre late December for not one but two sold out shows.  Apartment613 was lucky enough to be invited to pick their brains before sound check on December 17, 2010. BSS needs little introduction to anyone familiar with the Canadian music scene. They’ve been around for the past 10 years, have won several Juno awards and have received tons of critical international praise.  With all members having known each other for at least 15 years, guitarist/vocalist Andrew Whiteman admits, ‘We’re one big dysfunctional family.’ And... | Continue reading article

The Start is playing the Pour House (62 William Street in the Byward market) on Saturday, October 2nd from 10 pm till late. I’m a little embarrassed to be posting a favourable preview for a cover band. Usually, when I’m searching out live local music, I’m drawn more to the hip, the underground, and/or the indie scene. But on a sweaty July evening in a Hintonburg tavern this past summer, Ottawa Brit pop/punk/mod band The Start got my attention, and admittedly, a lot of my energy. Cover bands are often... | Continue reading article

Some of you might be thinking, hey, how can you call this the second part of the SUMMER music preview when, past 48 hours notwithstanding, it’s been cool and rainy nearly every day for the past six weeks? To which I answer: because we already called the first part a summer music preview.  You do not want to be wrathfully smote by the blogging gods for switching something like that. Also, the weather this Sunday was positively Venus-like, and before my front porch burst into flames I was having a... | Continue reading article

While the Queen is off seeing the sights of our lovely country this weekend, (unfortunately, we’re pretty sure that our alternative itinerary for her wasn’t taken up by the royal schedulers) there’s a lot for us plebians to get up to as well. The JazzFest continues in all of its groovy glory, but if that’s not up your alley, have no fear. The Blacksheep Inn has good lineups on Friday and Saturday (with the Sessions tour continuing on Saturday night – a perfect summer’s evening activity). Richard Laviolette and the... | Continue reading article

So you’ve survived the crippling heat of this week’s soaring temperatures, and finally have enough energy again to actually move around without breaking into a sweat. What to do? If you discovered that your entire wardrobe was best suited for winter, head to the 3rd annual Love the Clothes, Hate the Cancer clothing swap. Or, if your kids are eager to get out on the town (or if you need to release your inner 5-year-old), the International Children’s Festival down at LeBreton Flats should suit. For those of you who... | Continue reading article

It’s almost the weekend – again! And this one’s got an extra day tacked onto the end – so much more time to have so much more fun. Given that it’s Victoria Day on Monday, you might want to head down to the building officially called the Victoria Memorial Museum Building to celebrate. Otherwise known as, to those of you who aren’t local history buffs, the Canadian Museum of Nature. The renovations are complete and opening day is Saturday – and what a day that will be. You think free... | Continue reading article