Just a friendly reminder that Jon-Rae & The River, a Torontonian band via Vancouver, play Zaphod's tonight. Their gospel-tinged Canadian folk music features plenty of operatic screaming from a man who, at first glance, looks like he couldn't shout down a mute. It's nicely balanced, though, by some really sweet (as in "Aww, that's so sweet"; not "Dude!!! SWEET!!") balladry full of strumming and Hallelujah's and backup female harmonics.
-->Jon-Rae & The River - Just One More

Opening for JR (that's what his buddies call him) is Woolly Leaves, a.k.a that guy from The Constantines. You know, Whil? No, not that one, the one who plays keyboard. No, I don't remember if he has curly hair or not. It might be brown. Yeah yeah, he spells it Will too. Now you know? Maybe? Whatever, dial613 doesn't have any mp3's, but the new album Quiet Waters sounds pretty good, you can hear a bit of it over at the myspace.

But first on stage is Ottawa's The Soirée, who are quietly making some noise, both literally and figuratively. They've got a new record about to come out, and last dial613 heard, their material was sounding very tight.. both literally and figuratively.
-->The Soirée - Turn This Car Around (I will pull over right this minute and do it, I swear)

Alternatively (pun intended!), you can go on over to Maverick's and get your thrash on at the Ottawa instalment of Exclaim's Aggressive Tendencies Tour, which features Pelican, a Chicago band whose throat fire will surely beckon your thaw. That's probably deeper than I realize. I hope so, anyway.

BONUS:
-->The Cars - Just What I Needed (covered by Jon-Rae & The River, mp3 in last post)