Your honour, I plead for leniency in the court of public opinion for my ignorance of By Divine Right until the release of their 9th album Organized Accidents. In my defense, they had been in between albums since I started writing about music (their last release was Mutant Message, in 2009). And there’s something about being a fixture of the musical world one’s immersed in that makes them easy to overlook. Who notices the scent of their own home until it’s been pointed out by a guest? And they have been around since 1989! I was barely out of the womb then!

Take a look at their most recent single/music video “More Thorns” (above). Listen to that irresistible pop sensibility that has surely inspired bands that followed, like Stars. And that guitar and drum tone has proliferated in the Canadian music scene and beyond, aided by frontman José Miguel Contreras’ influence as a producer.

By Divine Right is another act that you’d be wise to catch at NXNE. They play at St. James Gazebo on Friday evening.

Have you ever experienced seasons of musical antipathy? Periods when you want to listen to anything but the tunes that you have in your collection, because there must be something more interesting out there? The last few months have been like that for me, and I found myself digging more into foreign musical terrain, from the hyper local to the ubiquitously popular.

In the midst of this whole process, I bought myself an impromptu trip to Toronto for the NXNE Festival, And, mincing through its hundreds of artists, found some noisemakers that are worth perking your ears to.

First up, Toronto’s Mesa Mesa. Their name recalls alien landscapes of the California coast, these wind-eroded geographic features that stand out from its surroundings like tabletops. Similarly, their music chips away at its rock and electronic structures and reveals something layered and noteworthy. Check them out, and if you’re in town for NXNE, come see them with me.

Mesa Mesa on Facebook.

Sweet. CFCF is back with their overlapping instrumental wizardry. Their last EP Exercises was one of my favourites releases last year. Download a new track “Camera” over on Soundcloud and listen to it above.

Austra - “Painful Life.” Smart dance music performed by a band is in vogue right now and I couldn’t be happier.

Austra has a new album coming out called Olympia.

arts-crafts:

Broken Social Scene will perform You Forgot It In People in its entirety for Field Trip Music & Arts Festival. Watch them perform with Feist on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on June 6th.

Tickets to Field Trip available here.

Listen to You Forgot It In People on Rdio.

with Feist too.

This is gorgeous. Feist + Timber Timbre - “Homage”

“When It’s Real.” Digging this new chilled out single from Edmonton/Montreal’s Cadence Weapon, featuring Jarell Perry on those “ahh-ahh” hooks.

wearethecity:

The Sing It Forward live performance is now for sale by donation. Features That’s It, That’s All and us backing Shad’s Exile, as well as performances from Vancouver’s best and brightest.

Photos by Christine McAvoy.

Pay what you can live recordings for a good cause.