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With Victoria Day having past and summer unofficially starting in Canada, it’s time for the music festival season to kick into high gear. Southern Ontario in particular will be getting louder over the next little while – On Saturday, May 25th, it’s the inaugural CBCMusic.ca Festival, taking place at Echo Beach, Toronto’s sand-covered concert setting on the shores of Lake Ontario. (And yes, it IS named after the famous Martha and the Muffins song!)

The CBCMusic.ca Festival is a celebration of sorts for the just-over-one-year anniversary of their digital music service, and will feature performances by Sloan, Kathleen Edwards, international imports Of Monsters and Men, and topped off by Sam Roberts Band. If you can’t make it, there will be an audio stream available at CBCMusic.ca/Festival.

Two weeks later (June 8th), on the grounds of historic Fort York, it’s indie label Arts & Crafts’ 10-year birthday bash, AKA the Field Trip Music & Arts Festival. Label co-founders Broken Social Scene are reassembling for one night to headline the event, to be supported by Feist, Stars, and Bloc Party among others. If you aren’t too battle-weary following Field Day, the day after is the S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival, where well over 150 bands take over the downtown core of lovely St. Catharines, Ontario for a jam-packed day of rock madness. Better grab a case of energy drinks before you even consult the S.C.E.N.E. schedule!

The granddaddy of multi-venue extravaganzas in Canada is North by Northeast. Besides film screenings, comedians, art installations and a full-blown interactive conference, 2013 will see 1,000 acts play more than 50 stages from June 10-16, including free shows at Yonge-Dundas Square by Social Distortion, The National and Big Boi.

If this isn’t enough “festival-tivity” for you (for now, at least), there’s also Burlington’s Sound of Music, which bills itself as Canada’s largest free music festival. Running June 13-16, they have a harmonious, family-friendly blend of promising up-and-comers (i.e. Lights), as well as veterans like 54-40 who can still rock. There; that ought to keep you kids busy for a bit…

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Giving the Dirty South some love this week, I put on Rehab’s 2012 Gullible Travels and it’s been on repeat since. Blending tongue-in-cheek humor with country, rock and hip-hop to produce a sound their own, Rehab’s weathered several storms internally and with former record labels asking them to unsuccessfully conform to fix in a nice, neat one-genre box since the band formed in 1998. With singles like “Waho by the Hoti” which means “Waffle House by the Hotel”, the platinum-selling “Bartender (Sittin’ At a Bar)” and latest “Whore” , Rehab is as raw and real as they come. Touring with acts like Linkin Park, Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker and Rittz, performing 200-300 shows some years, they’ve worked hard, grinded on the road and now have a loyal fanbase to show for it.

I connected with MC Demun Jones from Rehab right before a tour show in Seattle recently to chat about Rehab’s history, funny tour stories, how digital jukeboxes and word of mouth created a platinum selling single without a label and much more! Peep the interview soundclips and videos below and check Rehab’s website for more info on upcoming tour dates!

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Queens of the Stone Age are playing an intimate show tonight (May 23rd) at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre before they head off to Europe, where they’ll run the overseas festival gamut until mid-July. To make this concert extra-special for their home state fans, the band intends to play their new album …Like Clockwork in its entirety, followed by a selection of some of QotSA’s greatest stoner rock hits. Thanks to the good people at NPR Music, we can all experience what’s sure to be a monumental event, as they will be broadcasting the proceedings starting at 10:30PM EST (7:30 PST). All you need to do is click here and…you’re welcome!

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In case you missed the big news, the Chicago-based Riot Fest (And carnival!) announced its first wave of bands recently. An absolutely massive punk, rock, and alternative lineup will descend upon Humboldt Park the weekend of September 13-15. Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy are headlining, along with what can only be described as a smorgasbord of awesomeness.

(Deep breath now)… Violent Femmes, Motörhead, Rancid, AFI, Sublime with Rome, Blondie, Public Enemy, Brand New, FLAG, Guided by Voices, All Time Low, Pierce the Veil, Taking Back Sunday, Rocket from the Crypt, Bad Religion, Atmosphere, The Dismemberment Plan, Dinosaur Jr., X, DeVotchKa, Yellowcard, Screeching Weasel, Pennywise, with more to come!

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One of the best feelings as a music correspondent is stumbling upon an emerging artist with real humble beginnings (not fake Hollywood ones that look good on paper), in her own blues-influenced lane who is ridiculously talented and you see immediately has the potential to break through in a big way. Such a thing happened last year when I came across ZZ Ward, an opening act for a sold-out show I attended at the Troubadour in LA back in March 2012.

Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy

I luckily interviewed her in May/June 2012 , before the release of her debut album, Til The Casket Drops and so much has happened since then. She’s now played her own sold-out shows all over the country, been on shows like Good Morning America, Conan and Jay Leno and her songs have been placed in prominent NBC shows like “The Voice” and ABC shows “Pretty Lil Liars” and “Nashville”. Last week, I walked into a random hotel lobby outside of LA and heard her “Cryin’ Wolf” song featuring Kendrick Lamar playing overhead.

Photo courtesy of The Recording Academy

Getting press access to the Grammy Next event at the Grammy Recording Academy (where I geeked out thinking of who’s walked through those doors) in Los Angeles on Monday, I attended an intimate panel featuring songwriter/manager/screenwriter/producer extraordinaire Evan “Kidd” Bogart, manager/exec Larry Wade and ZZ herself (who I learned, sold her demos out of the back of her truck) discussing career progressions. Evan (who’s working on the upcoming “Spinning Gold” biopic about his father starring Justin Timberlake) spoke about being drawn to ZZ because of her songwriting and her voice and joked about the multiple game plans used when guiding her career early on.

ZZ then talked honestly about what worked and what didn’t, saying “for me it was about that imperfection that was special…what made me different, that we had to have”. The crowd laughed later on when the moderator said “It takes 15 years to be an overnight sensation”. ZZ (who performed “365 Days”, “Put The Gun Down” and “Charlie Ain’t Home”) and Evan later revealed her upcoming plans to hit Jimmy Fallon and Kimmel’s shows soon and touring plans, heading back on the road to play shows like the Sasquatch, Bumbershoot and Firefly festivals over the summer.

Check out the performance videos and my quick interview soundclip with ZZ (along with her new dog, Muddy Waters) and I catching up, below!
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Guess who’s back in town? That’s the final lyric of new song “Better Days” from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – It’s also the lead track off their upcoming, self-titled third album, out July 23rd via Community Music. Give “Better Days” a listen below, and then click here to see if the shaggy-haired Alex Ebert and friends will be coming anywhere near your town. The full, 11-member band will be on tour all this summer, including a few Gentlemen of the Road stopovers with fellow folksters Old Crow Medicine Show and Mumford & Sons.

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When a band that’s been around for 20+ years replaces its frontman with a singer from an active group (who are apparently working on a new album of their own), is it considered a supergroup, a simple lineup change, or something completely new? That’s no doubt what Stone Temple Pilots fans are asking themselves after the events of this past weekend. STP made surprise appearances at two California festivals, KROQ’s Weenie Roast and Live 105’s BFD, where they debuted new member Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.

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Listening to artist Beach’s new track In Us We Trust , I immediately loved the hype dance and frenetic energy of the song. Hooked by the 80’s alt electro-pop and modern day EDM influences, I had to hear more. Collaborating with Billie Jo (who goes by Alligator) to form Beach, Beach’s new album, In Us We Trust drops on July 16th and has garnered attention from outlets like Vibe Magazine already. Insistently picking up the violin at just four years old, her career has taken several interesting paths, leading her to form her own label, Short Story Records, in 2008. She’s toured with The Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco and produced albums for Canadian folk legend, Ferron.

I chatted with Beach (formerly Bitch) before her last residency date in Los Angeles at Genghis Cohen and had a lively discussion about Debbie Gibson, her label, her controversial artist name, her new music, her Shortbus film and more. Check out the video and soundclips below! To pre-order In Us We Trust, click here . Follow Beach/Bitch on Twitter and like her on Facebook !

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Damn.

I just heard my all-time favorite song by The Doors the other day on my local classic rock station, and was just thinking about how I need to introduce my piano-playing daughter to their timeless rock, especially as it pertains to keyboardist Ray Manzarek‘s contributions. Jim Morrison of course received the bulk of the glory, but Manzarek was a big reason why The Doors were such a unique band from 1965 to 1973, and one of the leaders of the psychedelic era. They eschewed a traditional bass guitarist, relying on Manzarek’s talents on the organ to drive the rhythm section along with drummer John Densmore and axeman Robby Krieger.

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