My friends Mike Juneau and Kyle McCreight (the two parts that equal Humble Empire) made this pretty awesome dog-pool party themed video for Tokyo Police Club’s new track ‘Wait Up (Boots of Danger)’. And check out Live in Bellwoods while you’re at it- their NXNE sessions are phenomenal.

Tokyo Police Club- Wait Up (Boots of Danger)

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I don’t know what it is really, maybe the weather? Maybe the fact that I’ll only be here for five more weeks or so. I’ve never loved or appreciated my home town of Toronto (alright, Oakville.. but for argument’s sake). You know, this life would be much easier if I did in fact, love Toronto. After listening to Gavin from The Wooden Sky talk so sweetly about Toronto, I thought, alright- it can’t be all that bad. He said it took him a few years to find community, and I guess that’s the thing I’ve been looking for up here.

There is this community called Bellwoods- where hellos can be exchanged walking down the street. What a novel idea.. This is mostly a community of artists and musicians, formed around the extended family of Ohbijou, an extraordinary band I’ve previously talked about, along with Tokyo Police Club, Born Ruffians and other lovely people, cut from the same cloth. Anyway, as my luck would have it- could it be that I am falling in love with Toronto? I have come across (thanks to my friend at White Guys With Beards) the ‘Live in Bellwoods’ Series- along the same idea of La Blogotheque, featuring videos of live acoustic performances from said artists. Please watch these sessions, they are so so good. And while we’re on the topic, can we discuss how much I adore Born Ruffians. He is the closest we’ll ever get to Dylan circa ‘63. Thats it, I’m in love.

I want to dedicate this post to my friend Andrew who currently lives in Nashville. Not for any particular reason other than the fact that I miss him somedays when I feel like I’m talking to myself at night, playing ‘would you rather’ waiting for him to answer, then making up funny responses to fill up the silence. Andrew was out on tour with these dudes earlier this year, for Invisible Children. I’m still waiting for a ‘thank you’ for that one. Anyway, I’m just going to start dedicating all my posts to my friends, because I don’t have enough money to buy them something, and Facebook isn’t quite enough. Why not get even more personal while I’m at it? The common feedback I get is that you strangers all enjoy it when I include my personal stories, I think I just do it because I want to be considered a real person on the end of this, not just a news machine spouting tour dates. Blah. boring.

Anyway, back to Andrew. Andrew is the coolest and weirdest dude. We spent a whole week eating nothing but spaghetti, and I think I ended up getting really sick from it. I missed my flight just so I could eat bagels with him and my friend Craig one afternoon. Andrew doesn’t know this, but he is the one who first introduced me to Bon Iver and I’m pretty sure I passed it off as widely known information, like- psh.. I’ve totally heard of this band. That was last year, and if you asked the both of us, it feels like ten years ago that we shared the same bus. Although our friendship is young, it’s still good, because we’re far enough that I never get bored of his insanely entertaining messages. This one is for you- dream catcher. 

So, I love Tokyo Police Club, and I feel like they still haven’t gained the recognition they deserve, chalk it up to the Canadian music curse. They took Invisible Children out on tour earlier this year, which was very rad of them- and I haven’t heard much from them since, but I came across this video of David Monks for ‘Hands Reversed’.

He’s got these strange lyrics like, “because the breakfast of champions is a hedonistic hell” I think his voice is strange and unique, and it still has that awkward adolescent tone to it that’s very disarming. He seems like a sweet, introverted dude. I can’t wait for new stuff from this band.