NXNE 2010: Picks

Generally speaking, I'm more about "wha'happened?" than "what's coming up". But with the musical overload of NXNE coming up fast upon us, I thought I might offer some gentle suggestions for guaranteed good times at the festival. I probably won't make it to everything below, but these are all bands that I've seen — recently if not frequently. And to maybe help push you over the limit to check some of these folks out, too, I've added some links to my live recordings, so you can get a bit of an idea what to expect. (And if you want any further thoughts on the bands, click through to my reviews from the recordings.)

Thursday, June 17th

Best Bets:

Young Galaxy (Mod Club Theatre, 8 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

The Besnard Lakes (Mod Club Theatre, 8 P.M.)

Times Neue Roman (El Mocambo (Upstairs), 10 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Zeus (Rivoli, 10 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

The Diableros (Comfort Zone, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

The Bitters (Silver Dollar, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Elliott BROOD (Horseshoe, midnight)

Other solid bets:

Grand Analog (Rivoli, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Friday, June 18th

Best bets:

catl (Comfort Zone, side stage between sets) (hear 'em live!)

Giant Hand (Drake Underground, 8 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Soft Copy (The Garrison, 9 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Timber Timbre (Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 10 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Diamond Rings (Wrongbar, 11 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Japandroids (Lee's Palace, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Other solid bets:

Leif Vollebekk (Sneaky Dee's, 9 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Katie Stelmanis (Wrongbar, 10 P.M.)

Rich Aucoin (El Mocambo (Downstairs), midnight) (hear 'em live!)

The Two Koreas (Comfort Zone, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Revolvers (Rancho Relaxo, 1 A.M.) (hear 'em live!)

PS I Love You (Lee's Palace, 1 A.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Murder Ford Monument (Silver Dollar, 3 A.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Saturday, June 19th

Best bets:

The Magic (Sneaky Dee's, 11 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

The D'Urbervilles (Drake Underground, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Maylee Todd (The Piston, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

Action Makes (Comfort Zone, midnight) (hear 'em live!)

The Peelies (Sneaky Dee's, 3 A.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Other solid bets:

Sean Nicholas Savage (Drake Underground, 9 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Bruce Peninsula (Horseshoe, 11 P.M.) (hear 'em live!)

Sunday, June 20th

Best bets:

Allie Hughes (The Garrison, midnight) (hear 'em live!)