Missing Toronto: About Arts & Crafts

Sometimes you like a bunch of different bands, and you try to find out more about them, and you find the record label for one of them, and then you realize that all the other bands are also on the SAME record label, and then you feel like you might not be so alone in the world after all, and that there might be some master plan in the universe, or at least some other people in the world who are kind of like you. And maybe, if you lived in a big city or something, you'd even get to see some of those bands live when they came through town, or if you happened to live in the same town they do, you'd get to see them all the time. This is the kind of stuff that goes through my head when I look at the Arts & Crafts roster, a label from Toronto, Ontario, the beloved city where I used to live. Unfortunately, right about the time when I want to be living in Toronto again and getting into the music scene for reals, it's also right about the time I've pretty much settled down in an entirely different country and am--let's face it--no longer living a late-night life in da club like I used to do.

All I know about Arts & Crafts I learned from their Web site, www.arts-crafts.ca. I first visited it when one of my favourite favourite (pls note Cdn spelling there) bands Stars moved from Le Grand Magistery label to Arts & Crafts. It was one of those fancy sites with lots of Flash animation and music that started playing very loudly as soon as everything had loaded, even if you were at work and weren't really supposed to be visiting record label Web sites, especially not ones that play loud music just spontaneously. Since then the site has become a bit more "normal" looking and less arty, and that's OK. Anyway, I was looking up some of the new music that made up the 2 shows below, and I found several links back to Arts & Crafts. I was like, "Who is Brendan Canning anyway? Wha--he's part of Broken Social Scene? On Arts & Crafts just like BSS? And this Apostle of Hustle sounds like Feist is singing in the background. Wait, this guy is from Broken Social Scene too? And on Arts & Crafts? And that really is Feist? Who is also on Arts & Crafts? And... OMG, The Stills are on Arts & Crafts too? What is going ON? And of course there's a new Stars EP Sad Robots, the existence of which means I am not one but TWO discs behind on one of my allegedly favourite favourite bands?" Like that.

Beef Jerky Time playlist, 11*12*08

Beef Jerky Time playlist, 11*19*08
  • Juicy: Rafter
  • Churches Under the Stairs: Brendan Canning
  • Real Animal: The House of Love
  • Kings & Queens: Apostle of Hustle
  • The End: David & the Citizens
  • My Alarm: New Faces
  • Publish My Love: Rogue Wave
  • Neo Violence: The Tough Alliance
  • Lay Down Your Weapons: Scissors for Lefty
  • God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me: CocoRosie
  • Independence Day: David Byrne
  • The Ghost of Genova Heights: Stars
  • Missing: Beck
Posted by "Prof. Kitty" on 11/24/2008
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