Music

All Toronto's Parties combines Toronto's brightest musical minds

by Mark Teo

At face value, All Toronto’s Parties is an event. A diverse, mixed-media event, featuring a non-stop flow of music, installations and projections, but an event nonetheless. But what it represents is something much more: It’s a coalition encompassing major players in Toronto’s D.I.Y. music scene, a collaborative outing combining Toronto arts powerhouse Wavelength, Canada-wide blog-turned-culture resource Weird Canada, Tad Michalak’s beloved beyond-Broadview mainstay Feast in the East, party-starting DJ troupe-cum-bloggers Silent Shout, and—breathe!—Pleasence Records, who’ve emerged as one of the city’s top independent labels.

At its core, though, remains two principles: Cooperation and collaboration. And while those might sound like corporate buzz words, they’re not—ATP’s concept is derived from the fact that each organization was tired of unintentionally competing against each other. “It’s about being able to work together,” says Pleasence’s James Lindsay. “We’ve all spoken about doing something collaborative like this. We all have experience throwing shows, but when you throw an event, you’re inevitably conflicting with another show—and another show you might want to go see. You split your crowd, you create competition.”

Gay were Pleasence Records’ pick for ATP.

In the case of Toronto—whose independent music circles are prolific, but don’t run exceptionally large—competition isn’t always helpful. (Sorry, grade 12 economics class, you’re wrong.) It’s a fact that Wavelength’s Adam Bradley has long known—and the ATP coalition was initially started by him and Silent Shout’s Andrew Pulsifer. “We have all co-presented shows together in the past, and I saw the opportunity for us all to band together and create something awesome, even if we didn’t know exactly what would emerge at the time. We noticed later as well that Weird Canada had listed the formation of a Toronto’s promoter’s coalition as one of their goals for 2013, so that definitely lent fuel to the fire.

“We’re all friends, admire each other’s work and musical taste. We all bring something unique to the table as well, so to join forces and work towards common goals made a lot of sense.”

Weird Canada editor (and sometimes AUX contributor) Jesse Locke agrees. “[The idea] might’ve been the result of a hive mind situation… we all believe in inclusivity and putting on a show where anyone could feel welcome. We all believe in genre agnosticism. We love mixing and mashing communities together to create new hybrid forms. There’s no point having five shows going at the same time when people would want to check out all of them,” says Locke. “Why not just throw a big bash together instead? It’s more bang for your buck!”

Lido Pimienta were Weird Canada’s pick for ATP.

Throwing a “big bash together” required a meeting of the minds—which largely occurred over an overstuffed email thread, overstuffed panzerottos at Bitondo’s and beers at the Monarch Tavern—with each organization bringing different skills to the fray. Weird Canada, Locke notes, had dabbled in a similar idea with Edmonton’s Wyrd Fest, which centralized touring musicians onto a single bill. Wavelength, for their part, brought their expertise in working with installations. Silent Shout added their ability to promote shows in city limits (and, it should be added, the Silent Shout DJs are no stranger to the Garrison, where ATP is happening). Pleasence, the only label partner, is issuing a small-run batch of cassette compilation to commemorate the night, featuring unreleased tracks by each artist.

“Communication was tricky, and we’re still working the kinks out. We met monthly, and have representatives from each party there,” says Silent Shout’s Alt Altman. “Everyone’s busy, but usually there’s enough of us able to make any given meeting. But the rewards are clear: nothing gets forgotten when there’s so many of us involved. We can consider every angle, and have enough people to take on any task that might come up. Another thing is we get to hang out with each other more.”

Young Guv were Silent Shout’s pick for ATP.

Of course, hanging out would certainly result in good-natured debates over who to include on the bill. In the spirit of collaboration, each organization is represented on the bill: Silent Shout picked Young Guv, helmed by Ben Cook. Weird Canada picked the rising experimental pop of Lido Pimienta. Pleasence picked—and released a record by—Gay. Wavelength picked Holiday Rambler, a project from Hooded Fang’s D. Alex Meeks. Feast in the East initially picked Actual Water, but after singer Anthony Price broke his collarbone, they were replaced by Ken Park.

Holiday Rambler were Wavelength’s pick, who Bradley calls “unsettling, enigmatic, exceptionally poetic, and beautifully composed.”

And everyone—we mean everyone—seems to be amped to see a rare performance by the woozy shuffle of Still Boys.

“We had input throughout the selection process, but the two performers that werere most in our wheelhouse are Still Boys and the secret as-yet-unannounced project that aren’t Still Boys,” says Silent Shout’s Altman.

“I picked Still Boys because the cyclops appeared to me in a dream and tricked me into selling my soul for a +1 to Slayer,” says Wavelength’s Bradley.

“They’re so incredible, we’re so lucky to have them,” adds Weird Canada’s Locke. “They’re definitely a consensus pick.”

Still Boys were a consensus pick.

Add that to an endless array of A-V distractions—let’s not forget, projections are provided by General Chaos and Peter Rahul, DJ Brian Borcherdt spins between sets, and installations will be showcased by Lido Pimienta and Tough Guy Mountain—and ATP isn’t just collaborative. It seems like an an interdisciplinary overload in the best possible way. And while each organization says they’re anxious to see how the night goes, they’re mum about whether ATP could be become serialized.

“We’ll have to see where it goes from here. It’s been a pleasure to work with everyone,” says Pleasence’s Lindsay. “I hope more stuff like this happens all the time, because as independent labels and promoters, you either have the option to work with each other or against each other.”