Japandroids / Two Koreas / Little Girls
El Mocambo, Toronto, ON July 16
By Cam Lindsay

The truth is, you couldn’t have squeezed another body in for the much-anticipated return of Japandroids to a city that seems to have adopted the west coasters as its own.

Kicking off the night was the leading local blog curiosity Little Girls. Josh McIntyre and his crew have made tongues wag with a couple of EPs, but this night proved that their gothy, lo-fi hum sounds so much more vibrant and fleshed out in a live setting.

Considering they’ve never had the chance to tour properly, the next act, Toronto’s editorial-heavy Two Koreas, have done plenty of work honing and droning their sound into an ardent post-punk machine, to the point where you forget they were journalists before musicians.

“We just wanna fucking rock out,” announced Japandroids’ Brian King, as he and compadre Dave Prowse finally took to the stage for their headlining spot. Any questions as to whether the Van City rockers could match the intensity of their debut album Post-Nothing were answered quickly with astounding approval from the ecstatic crowd.

Dropping a generous number of f-bombs and completely focused on “rocking out,” a nicely buzzed King was determined to treat the crowd to a good time, despite egging on the Leafs Nation by boldly yelling “Canucks rule! Leafs suck!” Amidst strobe lighting and fan-powered winds, the battered duo – King still on the mend from a perforated ulcer and Prowse nursing a “totally fucked up” right hand — played their distorto-garage anthems with a reckless energy, never losing control as they powered through an orgasmic “My Heart Sweats” straight into a pounding “Darkness on the Edge of Gastown.”

Showing their appreciation, the pair threw out dedications as often as the congruent exclamatory “woo!” By the time they knocked out signature tune “Young Hearts Spark Fire” and Mclusky’s “To Hell with Good Intentions,” the guys were bona fide heroes to more than 400 sweaty onlookers.

That they couldn’t do another encore because of Prowse’s mangled hand was hardly a disappointment, because at this point so many hearts sparked fire that anything more and the place would have burned down to the ground.
Neon Indian
Sunparlour Players / Sheesham & Lotus
The Idan Raichel Project
Real Estate - Real Estate
The Mayfair Set - Young One + Self-Titled
Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is Not What It Was
Kraftwerk - 12345678: The Catalogue
Cloak/Dagger - Lost Art
Bebel Gilberto - All In One
Lyle Lovett - Natural Forces
Will Hoge - The Wreckage
Will Stratton - No Wonder
Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend
Juliette Lewis - Terra Incognita
Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom
Yim Yames - Tribute To
Ambarchi / Fennesz / Pimmon / Rehberg / Rowe - Afternoon Tea
Wooley / Lytton / Grubbs - Seven Storey Mountain
Ganesh Anandan & Hans Reichel - Self Made
Todor Kobakov - Pop Music
Castanets - Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts
Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love - Feels, Feathers, Bog And Bees
Nocturnal Fear - Metal Of Honor
Slayer - World Painted Blood
Green Jellÿ - Musick To Insult Your Intelligence By
DRUDKH - Autumn Aurora
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Letting Up Despite Great Faults
Comanechi - Crime of Love
Brilliant Colors - Introducing
Star Fucking Hipsters - Never Rest in Peace
Bastard Child Death Cult - Year Zero
Antonio Valdetaro e Grupo - Letícia
Ken Aldcroft’s Convergence Ensemble - Our Hospitality
Devin Townsend Project - Addicted
The Expos - Blackwater
Ray Charles - Genius Hits the Road
Marek Hemmann - In Between
Emptyset - Emptyset
Bassnectar - Cozza Frenzy
Basement Jaxx - Scars
David Sait - Postage Paid Dues — Volume 2
Muskox - 5 Pieces
Friendly Rich - Presents Pictures At An Exhibition
March Fourth Marching Band - Rise Up
Fat Freddy’s Drop - Dr. Boondigga & The Big BW
Collage - 54’05”
The Quiet Nights Orchestra - Chapter One
Sabrina Malheiros - New Morning
Chief - Collabo Collection
Paten Locke - Super Ramen Rocketship
DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - The Secret Song
Scottt Catolico - Massacre
The Bushpilots - Seven Ways to Broadway
Coalesce - Ox EP
Black Anvil - Time Insults the Mind
Culted - Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Gossip - Music for Men
Bell Horses - This Loves Last Time
Shonen Knife - Super Group
Hockey - Mind Chaos
The Dudes - Blood Guts Bruises Cuts
Lee & Willbee - North Carolina
Teenage Bottlerocket - The Came From The Shadows
Krum Bums - Same Old Story
Los Yetis - Nadaismo A Go-Go!
Sacrifice - The Ones I Condemn
Priestess - Prior To The Fire
Various - Fire In My Bones: Raw & Rare & Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
The Schomberg Fair - Gospel
Various - D-Funk: Funk, Disco & Boogie Grooves From Germany 1972 — 2002
Grand Archives - Keep In Mind Frankenstein
7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came Out
A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage
Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control
Headlights - Wildlife
Jakartah - In the Nervous Light of Coincidence
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
The Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts
Tinted Windows - Tinted Windows
Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
Fashawn - Boy Meets World
Corporation - Return of the Corporation
Idlers - Keep Out
Mark Matos and Os Beaches - Words of the Knife
Genitorturers
The Jesus Lizard / Brides
Deastro / Max Tundra
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson / These United States
Dinosaur Jr. / Pink Mountaintops
Young Galaxy / Politique / Blazer
The Fiery Furnaces / Cryptacize
Jonas Reinhardt / Sinoia Caves / Valet
Muse - The Resistance
Ricca Razor Sharp - Causeways & C-Trains
Muneshine - Status Symbol
Magnolius - Mary Musht
Port-Royal - Dying In Time
John Abercrombie - Wait Till You See Her
Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
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