blogONESo NXNE, the sister music-and-film-festival conference is happening June 12-15, and tickets/bracelets have been on sale for at least a month or so now. For those that don’t know, there are supposed to be 500 bands performing during the 3-days at various venues scattered around downtown Toronto. You can find all NXNE related information at the NXNE site.
I decided I would sample all 500 acts to determine if I would mission down there to check out…which took me a few days to load and listen and digest. There are a few bands that I’d definitely want to see, and some more than others, but in the end my list of acceptable bands came out to an even seventy. I conjured up the list while I was checking out the bands, so I made little notes as well, but Moja from Japan gets special mention because I think they were the first band I checked out before I started going in sequential order. Regardless, check after the break to see which bands made my 70, out of 500!
City Riots
The Tiger and Me
The satellite Nation
The River Raid (Brazilian, can’t understand everything)
Afterhours (Italian tracks were good, English got boring…)
We Are Balboa
Ian Britt (cancelled; death of manager and unable to get funds to come over)
Alex Cuba (Spanish/Cuban, can’t understand anything but very mellow/soothing)
Ari Shine (mixed feelings…)
Frida
Perla (Swedish…can’t understand)
Dance Electric (nice beats! very loud though…)
The Gin Riots (LOVe!!!)
Unkle Bob (soothing…and entertaining)
The Knifings
6 Day Riot
The Flying Bulgars (nice Jewish stuff!)
Pete Samples (free albums, soothing)
God Made Me Funky (SO FUNKY!)
Dan Mangan (soothing, nice voice…)
Money Mark (interesting…)
The Wet Secrets (grooooooovy!!! Maybe a bit more secular than I’ve listened to usually)
Scouts Honor (voice reminds me of Project 86)
Triple Cobra
Cut Cut Shape
SPIES IN LIMBO
The Vibrants
Adrienne Pierce (as special note…sounds like a teenager…BUT ISN’T I THINK)
Amos the Transparent
Andy Sheppard (guitar bliss..like Andrew White!?)
Battle Creek
Cancel Winter
Donovan Woods
Grand Analog (K-OS anyone?)
Jackfish River (Jeremy Camp…with swearing and no God background)
Julian Dean Taylor
Liam Titcomb (not bad…)
MARIENBAD (Quote their MySpace: WE ARE A LIVE BAND
AT OUR GIGS, YOU WILL WITNESS LIVE SYNTHS, LIVE BASS, LIVE HORN, ELECTRONICS, et cetera.
WE ARE NOT A LAPTOP BAND / !! WE DO NOT SPIN RECORDS
WE ARE NOT FUCKING DJs.)
Shelter With Thieves
The Arsoncityscape (hrmm, kind of emo)
The Coast
The Gods of Now
The Mercy Now (Deep Purple’s Speed Demon the whole time!)
The Sainte Catherines
The Worst Pop Band Ever (soothing!?)
Slowcoaster (so danceable!)
Wordburglar (HAHAHAHA!)
Crush Luther
The Tom Fun Orchestra (WHEEE!!)
The Elastocitizens (oh my, so funky)
Public (THEY PLAYED AT CAMPUS FEST 06…and sold me their 3 song CD-R for $10? 
)
Modernboys Moderngirls
Hey Rosetta!
James Murdoch band (not bad! not bad!)
Animate Objects
Morning Electric
Fred (mmm)
Bunmi (smooooooooth. Pronounced boon-mee)
OPOPO (whoooooooooo)
menwhopause (smooth, my Indian brothers :D)
Clothes Make The Man (hrmm…could grow to love it?)
Mad Staring Eyes (its like I am on acid…energy!!!)
Medallions (ooh)
Paper Lions
Warren Flandez (smoothness)
Black Lungs (AMG…NICENESS)
Kill The Lights (”Palest Form of Sabotage” is 7mins of craziness! I LOVE! But the other songs aren’t exactly overly epic, maybe “Winter Jackets” though…)
Beast (so trippy…damn son! “City”!)
Moja (LOVE!!!)
**Note: by no means does this confirm my attendance at NXNE 08**