The acts to check out on the opening night of CMW 2012.
What should you see tonight at Canadian Music Week? Here are a few ideas.
3rd Line Butterfly
Kool Haus, 11 p.m. (132 Queens Quay East)
The Seoul-based band 3rd Line Butterfly plays as part of CMW’s Wednesday night K-Pop showcase, and their lead singer, Nahm SangAh, sounds like a Korean Cat Power backed by an early-2000s Sonic Youth. In other words, the quartet’s sound, with its layers of gentle reverb and moody guitars, harkens back to the “it’s all boy bands on the radio so let’s just do the exact opposite of everything” days of indie rock’s not-so-distant past, and in all the right ways. Maybe ill-billed in a lineup that (somewhat misleadingly) implies an emphasis on bubblegum jams, the fresh-from-SXSW band will be worth seeing. And it’s refreshing to know that, after over a decade together, the band is finally getting the overseas exposure it so rightly deserves.
Go if: You’re jonesing for a Korean indie time warp. (Kelli Korducki)
Yellow Monsters
Kool Haus, 12 a.m. (132 Queens Quay East)
Punk is not dead; it’s alive, well, and hiding in South Korea. Yellow Monsters, a K-punk trio made up of members from Korean aggro bands Delispice, GumX, and My Aunt Mary, is a Seoul-based supergroup of sorts whose throbbing basslines evoke the comfort of a well-worn jean jacket—which is to say, while their sound is nothing unexpected or avant-garde, but it has badassery that feels just right. Like their fellow CMW Korea Night performers 3rd Line Butterfly, the trio recently played SXSW in Austin, Texas. Their second album, Riot!, released last summer, was nominated for last year’s Best Rock Album at the Korean Music Awards, and landed on a couple of Korean rock top-ten lists for 2011. Now we have our own chance to decide whether or not to believe the overseas hype.
Go if: It’s been awhile since you’ve sacrificed a Chuck Taylor to the mosh pit. (Kelli Korducki)
http://torontoist.com/2012/03/cmw-2012-day-1-best-bets/
By Carly Maga
Featured Artists : 3rd Line Butterfly / Yellow Monsters
CMW Korea Showcase (Planning/Production) : DFSB Kollective & KOFICE
International Agent/PR/Distribution : DFSB Kollective