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Optical Sounds
Optical Sounds is a Toronto based record label that was launched in 2008 by brothers Robert and Richard Gibson. The label is focused on a community of underground bands with broad psychedelic influences with The Embassy Bar in Kensington Market serving as a common meeting place for the musicians. Optical Sounds operates without contracts or employees and the organization’s main focus is on community based events rather than record releases. The name Optical Sounds was taken from a track by the 1960s LA psych rock group The Human Expression. It is distributed in Canada by the Outside Music group. Optical Sounds' roster has included Action Makes, The Auras, B17, The BB Guns, Bodies That Matter, The Disraelis, The Hoa Hoa's, The Flowers of Hell including Odes and "O", Magic Shoppe, Mimico, Ostrich Tuning, Planet Creature, Postcards, Sounds Around, Sun Stone Revolvers, Tess Parks, Twist, The Veldt, and Your 33 Black Angels. The label's 2012 compilation ''Psych Pop From Toro ...
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Outside Music
Outside Music is a Canadian record label and distributor founded by Lloyd Nishimura in 2001. In 2007, it expanded to include an artist management division which includes Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Aidan Knight, Justin Rutledge as management clients. The Outside Music Label released The Sadies's ''Tremendous Efforts'' and albums by Billy Bragg, Tinariwen, The Super Friendz, and the soundtrack to the indie film ''The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico''. In 2010, The Sadies's '' Darker Circles'' and The Besnard Lakes's ''The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night'' appeared on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist while in 2011, Little Scream's ''The Golden Record'', Sloan's ''The Double Cross'', Black Mountain's ''Wilderness Heart'' and One Hundred Dollars's ''Songs of Man'' all garnered Polaris long list nominations. Matthew Barber, Jill Barber, Oh Susanna, The Sadies, and The Hylozoists have all received Juno Award nominations for albums released on the Outside Music Label. O ...
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Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English neo-psychedelia space rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance-like neo-psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizers, and minimal chord or tempo changes. Following their debut album '' Sound of Confusion'' (1986), Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and through albums ''The Perfect Prescription'' (1987) and '' Playing with Fire'' (1989), went on to have greater success towards the end of the decade.Lazell, Barry (1997) ''Indie Hits 1980–1989'', Cherry Red Books, , p. 213 However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album ''Recurring'' post-split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways. They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug-taking habits and Kember's candid interv ...
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Drowned In Sound
''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''DiS'' began as an email fanzine in 1998 called ''The Last Resort'' but was relaunched by founder and editor Sean Adams as ''Drowned in Sound'' in 2000. The freelance writing team is currently spread across four continents – North America, Asia, Europe and Australasia. The site is mostly based on contributions from unpaid writers and has an integrated forum to allow for discussion and comments on interviews, news and reviews. It also includes a user-rated database of artists and bands as well as details for most live music venues (big and small) in the UK. The site has over 60,000 registered members, and gets around 470,000 unique visitors per month. In 2006, the site launched a podcast called ''Drowned in Sound Radio''. In November 2007 ...
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Vice (magazine)
''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, which consists of divisions including the printed magazine as well as a website, broadcast news unit, a film production company, a record label, and a publishing imprint. As of February 2015, the magazine's editor-in-chief is Ellis Jones. History Founded by Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes, and Shane Smith (the latter two being childhood friends), the magazine was launched in 1994 as the ''Voice of Montreal'' with government funding. The intention of the founders was to provide work and a community service. When the editors later sought to dissolve their commitments with the original publisher, Alix Laurent, they bought him out and changed the name to ''Vice'' in 1996. Richard Szalwinski, a Canadian software millionaire, acquired the magazi ...
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Noisey
''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, which consists of divisions including the printed magazine as well as a website, broadcast news unit, a film production company, a record label, and a publishing imprint. As of February 2015, the magazine's editor-in-chief is Ellis Jones. History Founded by Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes, and Shane Smith (the latter two being childhood friends), the magazine was launched in 1994 as the ''Voice of Montreal'' with government funding. The intention of the founders was to provide work and a community service. When the editors later sought to dissolve their commitments with the original publisher, Alix Laurent, they bought him out and changed the name to ''Vice'' in 1996. Richard Szalwinski, a Canadian software millionaire, acquired the magazi ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ...
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Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis over generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. The daily sponsors an annual book award and publishes a " Person of the Year" feature. The paper was founded in January 1888 as the ''London Financial Guide'' before rebranding a month later as the ''Financial Times''. It was first circulated around metropolitan London by James Sherid ...
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Pitchfork (website)
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working at a record store in suburban Minneapolis, and the website earned a reputation for its extensive coverage of indie rock music. It has since expanded and covers all kinds of music, including pop. Pitchfork was sold to Condé Nast in 2015, although Schreiber remained its editor-in-chief until he left the website in 2019. Initially based in Minneapolis, Pitchfork later moved to Chicago, and then Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Its offices are currently located in One World Trade Center alongside other Condé Nast publications. The site is best known for its daily output of music reviews but also regularly reviews reissues and box sets. Since 2016, it has published retrospective reviews of classics, and other albums that it had not previously review ...
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Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 issues per year, distributing over 103,000 copies to over 2,600 locations across Canada. The magazine has an average of 361,200 monthly readers and their website, exclaim.ca, has an average of 675,000 unique visitors a month. History ''Exclaim!'' began as a discussion among campus and community radio programmers at Ryerson's CKLN-FM in 1991. It was started by then-CKLN programmer Ian Danzig, together with other programmers and Toronto musicians. The goal of the publication was to support great Canadian music that was otherwise going unheralded. The group worked through 1991 to produce their first issue in April 1992, with monthly issues being produced since. Ian Danzig has been the publisher of the magazine since its start. James Keast ...
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South By Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987 and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas; both years, there was a smaller online event instead. SXSW is run by the company SXSW, LLC, which organizes conferences, trade shows, festivals, and other events. In addition to SXSW, the company runs the conference SXSW Edu and the upcoming SXSW Sydney festival, and co-runs North by Northeast in Toronto. It has previously run or co-run the events North by Northwest (1995-2001), West by ...
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Wavelength Music Arts Projects
Wavelength is a music series and annual festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The project was founded in 2000 by Jonny Dovercourt, Duncan MacDonell (Doc Pickles), and Derek Westerholm. It was founded on the basis that many others would share their enthusiasm for independent music from Toronto. The concept evolved from an open-table meeting of musicians and enthusiasts on September 11, 1999, this then developed into a weekly Sunday showcase and annual festival. The first instalment of the music series took place February 13, 2000 at Ted's Wrecking Yard, featuring Toronto legends Mean Red Spiders and Neck. Wavelength became well known as a hotbed for Toronto's creative music community and featured breakout shows by such notable Canadian bands Broken Social Scene and The Constantines. During Wavelength's second month Canadian artist Michael Snow personally screened his legendary 1967 piece "Wavelength" before his performance at Ted's Wrecking Yard. Wavelength moved to Sneaky Dee ...
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North By Northeast
North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival's main focus is live music, but it also includes an eSports gaming tournament, comedy, a conversations series, a flea market and more. The festival events happen in a variety venues with free events on Canada's largest street, Yonge Street with events on the Street and in Yonge Dundas Square. In addition to full-time staff, the festival also has about 1,000 volunteers in festival operations. The alternative weekly newspaper ''Now'' was a major sponsor, and ''Now'' co-founder Michael Hollett owns NXNE in partnership with SXSW. History NXNE began in 1995, patterned on the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It was co-founded by Michael Hollett.
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