Music

NXNE Day 3: Bleached, 2:54, Yamantaka//Sonic Titan, and a Q&A with Brasstronaut

by Nicole Villeneuve

AUX has a night of NXNE to make up for since we were holed up at our own AUX Magazine launch party all last night. Here are some of the places you will see our lovely happy faces tonight.

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan bring their noh-wave theatrics (and noise) back to the Garrisson.

British shoeglaze sister duo 2:54 play part of a great bill at Lee’s Palace, and I’m betting they go over very well here.

Bleached plays show a million of two million at NXNE but we haven’t seen them yet! So they’re in here again!

Also we missed The Men last night, so here’s take 2. Also also because they are playing with METZ, and we love METZ.

And Vancouver’s Brasstronaut warm up for their Yonge-Dundas Square show tomorrow with a set at the Garrison tonight. We talk to guitarist Tariq Hussain below about how they do the festival right.

AUX: Say you’re playing Toronto host for a day to a band/artist from out of town. Where do you take them?

Tariq Hussain: We’re playing a number of shows while we’re in Toronto, which is excellent so our tourist pursuits will have to fit into all the spaces in between. Food stops definitely include Sneaky Dee’s for the killer Nacho Plate—this is specifically for Brennan, our drummer, and hopefully he finishes it all this time! I always love to hit up the Ghandi on Queen Street for Roti–a bit of a tradition. Another favorite spot to hang out for us is The Beaconsfield—it’s right by the place we often stay in TO (a friend’s) and the vibe there is pretty great. If there’s time, I’ll make a trek over to Kengsington Market and a stop in at Paul’s Boutique music store. Oh, and the Dakota Tavern—gotta go there. Let’s face it, there’s too much to do.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing or adamant about avoiding at NXNE?

Flaming Lips would be an excellent show—I’ve never seen them before—but I think we’ll have left Toronto by the time they play, unfortunately. I would really love to see Archers of Loaf—I’m a big fan of Eric Bachmann’s solo stuff so I hope I can make that happen. Other acts I’d like to see: Julie Doiron, Hayes Carll, Octoberman, The Weather Station, The Sadies show with Andre Williams, Of Montreal. There are definitely more, but those are a few. There’s nothing I’m planning to avoid seeing. In fact, I hope to see some new things I’ve never heard of. Musical discoveries are often the best thing about these sorts of events.

What’s the best and worst thing about a festival like NXNE? Does it compare to others you’ve played or attended?

The best and worst thing about a festival like NXNE—so many acts, so little time.

What’s your favourite Toronto artist, and why?

Loving that new Bahamas record right now—we keep hearing it across Canada everywhere we go.

Tell us why your show is the show everyone should make sure to see.

People should come to our show for a lot of reasons. To start with, we’re touring with a talented young band from Reykjavik, Iceland called Utidur. They write amazing little gems of songs with a lot of surprising twists and turns. As for the Brasstronaut live show, we’ve brought along our friend and artist, Michael Markowski to add some visual flare to the show. That’s new. Plus we have a brand new album that just came out in May called Mean Sun so lots of new material in the repertoire. And who knows, one of the Icelanders might run naked across the stage during our set—he did it in Vancouver. Cheeky. Yes, he’s the drummer.

What else is Brasstronaut up to that we should know about?

Since the record’s so new, we’ll be working it for a while, promoting it, playing some shows around western Canada in the late summer. We are starting to throw around some new songs ideas too—always good to keep the writing muscle flexed. European tour in the works for fall 2012.