"OOOOMMMGGGG!!" say the indie kids. "Oh! Em! Geeeeeeeee!!!"

Walking through a certain hub for the kids these days, one was overheard yapping on their cellphone excitedly, breathlessly exclaiming "OMG OMG PLANTS AND ANIMALZS ARE COMING WOW WE HAVE TO GO YA YA YA."
True story!

M 09.22
Genghis Tron with Bison bc, Alaskan, at Mavericks
Wise, Young & King with The Februarys, Le Carse, at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Tu 09.23
Butterflies & Zebras, at Avant-Garde Bar
Insurgent Inc. (cd release), at Zaphod Beeblebrox

W 09.24
Shane Phillip, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Real McKenzies with Rookers, at Mavericks
The Wind Whistles, at Irene's Pub

Th 09.25
Plants & Animals with David Macleod, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Grass Mountain Hobos, at Elmdale House Tavern
Jetplanes of Abraham, at National Gallery of Canada

F 09.26
Ronnie Hayward, at Elmdale House Tavern
The John Henrys, at Babylon
Jon Lajoie with The Unknown Wrestler, at Zaphod Beeblebrox
Martin Tielli with Jenn Grant, at The Black Sheep Inn

Sa 09.27
Castor & John Westhaver, at Irene's Pub
Dead Science with Kingdom Shore, at St. Brigid's Center for the Arts
Golden Girls with 84.85 and tmdp, at Clocktower Brew Pub
Hilotrons with Yellow Jacket Avenger, at The Black Sheep Inn
Jon Lajoie with Lefty McRighty, at Zaphod Beeblebrox
The Oh Yeahs, at Elmdale House Tavern
Ship Shapes with Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy and Innes Wilson & his Opposition, at Avant-Garde Bar

Su 09.28
Bad Religion with The Bronx, at Capital Music Hall
Hilotrons (420pm) with The Darling DeMaes, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Undesirables, at Elmdale House Tavern
You Say Party! We Say Die! with Winter Gloves and Beast, at Babylon

Hank Williams - I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive
Celebrate his birthday on Wednesday Irene's faves Ball & Chain and The Wreckers

M 09.15
New Teeth with The Sheepdogs and For The Fairest, at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Tu 09.16
Square Root of Margaret, at Irene's Pub

W 09.17
The Supersuckers with Eddie Spaghetti & Jordan Shapiro, at Zaphod Beeblebrox
Hank Williams Birthday Bash ft. Ball & Chain, at Irene's Pub

Th 09.18
Clear, at Elmdale House Tavern
Contrabandit with Hartford, Clepto and Al-Kinda, at Mavericks
Land Of Talk with The D'Urbervilles and Psychic Hotline, at Zaphod Beeblebrox

F 09.19
The Balconies with Ennuie and e.s.l, at The Black Sheep Inn
Ellen Carol with Colleen Costello, Richard Weisdorf and Shawn Sage, at Elmdale House Tavern
Jay Harris & The Transceivers, at Irene's Pub
Kissing With Poprocks, at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Sa 09.20
Evil Farm Children, at The Dominion Tavern
Melissa Ferrick with Andrew Ripp, at The Black Sheep Inn
Orquestra Sarandonga Tropical Band with Esmeraldas Colombia, at Zaphod Beeblebrox

Su 09.21
Ladyfest ft. Rae Spoon, Tara Holloway, Andrea Simms-Karp, Krista Muir, at The Black Sheep Inn
The High Dials (CD release, early show), at Babylon

Feel free to appoach Tusks on Saturday night.

M 09.08
Eppiphane* with The Woodrunners*, The Face Of Jam* and The Weeds*, at Zaphod's

Tu 09.09
The Pack AD with Micarza Camaro* and The Hotel Lobbyists, at Maverick's

Th 09.11
Anti-Flag with Black Lungs, The Creep Show and The AKAs, at Babylon
The Love Machine* with The Junction* and The Sunjet Records Band*, at Zaphod's
Timekode* with Trevor Walker*, at Mercury Lounger

F 09.12
Javier Conde, at Bronson Centre
The County Boys (CD release), at Irene's Pub
The Divorcees, at The Black Sheep Inn
Elemental Soul, at Mercury Lounge
Gd Made Me Funky, at The Black Sheep Inn
Lymbyc Systym with This Will Destroy You and City Of A Hundred Spires*, at Zaphod's
Shameless Blues, at Elmdale House Tavern

Sa 09.13
Grace Over Diamonds with Wise, Young & King and The Eric St. Cyr Band*, at Zaphod's
BA Johnston with Andrew Vincent, Muffler Crunch* and The Felines*, at Irene's
Kinnexa Cross*, at Elmdale House Tavern
My Tiny Circus*, at Avant-Garde Bar
Max Ulis with Ruby Jane, at The Black Sheep Inn
Tusks (CD release) with Poorfolk* (CD release) and Sarah Hallman*, at Maverick's

Su 09.14
Steve Dawson with The Hupman Brothers (4pm), at The Black Sheep Inn

* denotes local act

The show listings have been thoroughly updated. If you see something missing or have a show of yours to add, just send an e-mail.
Maybe there'll be a short rundown of some upcoming shows within the next few days.

Be careful about the show listings at Barrymore's, though: the venue (and Aloha Room below) looks to be in limbo right now with an ownership change, and shows are apparently being postponed/cancelled. dial613 has no extra info, but the best source for updates is probably Citizen writer Peter Simpson's The Big Beat blog. He's already posted this on it.

And dial613 totally agrees that the Barrymore's ownership change is hopeful, if anything. It was getting kind of sad in there. Though Barrymore's certainly isn't alone.. at least one other local venue instantly springs to mind as a place that could use a fresh start (that's polite enough, no?).

The big question now: where are the 80's and 90's night patrons going to go? American Apparel is only open until, like, 5pm on Sundays.

UPDATE: This was in today's Citizen.

Don't think too hard, there's no symbolism in this picture.

This week in Ottawa, two locally-based grassroots events kick off the city's festival season.

Westfest, the quickly-growing festival named after its Westboro base, celebrates its 5 year anniversary with its highest-profile lineup yet. Looks like they've done a great job of mixing it up beyond the usual (but surely not taken for granted) spoken word, tam-tamming, and focus on local music: there will be a different theme every night, beginning with a couple theatre productions on the stage at Richmond Road and Golden Avenue.

Concurrently running is the aptly named Gaga Weekend, featuring 4 shows in 4 venues over 3 days that'll give a nice platform for a whack of local punkrawk (and maybe a Queen cover or 2?).

Depending on time, we may go into a few more details about each fest as the week goes on.

There's a healthy amount of other shows this week, but dial613 isn't sure who to talk about. The Stills are back from wherever they've been, maybe doing something different and worth seeing, but who knows**?
And if you enjoy going 'woo' and making finger-in-mouth whistling noises, then you might want to head to the Black Sheep Inn and help Melwood Cutlery record a live CD. And OK, could that really be his real name? I hear when he plays in the US, he goes by the name of Melwood Silverware.

What are you looking forward to this week?

M 06.09
David Martel with Jacko* and Gini Sigler*, at Zaphod's

Tu 06.10
Christina Martin with Tara Holloway*, at Avant-Garde Bar
The Stills with Hollerado*, at Zaphod's

W 06.11
Erick Von Erick with Hellbros* and The Loose Ties*, at Zaphod's
Ship Shapes* with The Superfantastics, at Avant-Garde Bar

Th 06.12
1755 with Marie-Jo Therio and Julie Doiron, at Westfest
Gaga Weekend featuring Uranium Comeback*, The Felines*, Sedatives* and The Sick Fits*, at The Bytowne Tavern
Mary Kastle with James Lamb, Miss Emily Brown and Christa Couture, at The Black Sheep Inn
The National Parcs, at Mercury Lounge
Tom Fun Orchestra with The John Punch Band*, at Zaphod's

F 06.13
Joel Plaskett Emergency with Land Of Talk, Matthew Barber & The Union Dues and more, at Westfest
Gaga Weekend featuring The White Wires*, The Visitors*, The Holy Cobras* and The Sonic Avenues*, at 59 Argyle
Brights* (CD release) with The Love Machine* and That's The Spirit*, at Babylon
Good2Go* with The Bush Pilots*, at Irene's Pub
Melwood Cutlery (live CD recording) with Fred Guignon, at The Black Sheep Inn
Parade, at Avant-Garde Bar
Shameless Blues*, at Elmdale House Tavern
Slim Twig with Elfin Saddle and Caroline Keating, at Zaphod's

Sa 06.14
Buffy Sainte-Marie with Holly McNarland, Kinnie Starr, various aboriginal music, and more @westfest
Gaga Weekend featuring The Savage Crimes, Army of St. Joan*, Psychic Hotline*, Four'n'Giv'r* and more (1pm), at The Bayou
Gaga Weekend featuring The Botched Suicides*, The Fucking Machines*, Teenanger* and The Million Dollar Marxists* (10pm), at Babylon
Dry River Caravan*, at Irene's Pub
Mighty Popo, at The Black Sheep Inn
Ashley Newall Band* (CD release), at Zaphod's
The Rebel Wheel with Poligraf, at Avant-Garde Bar
The Undesirables*, at Elmdale House Tavern

Su 06.15
Lynn Miles & Sue Foley* with The Polymorphines*, Flecton Big Sky*, Melissa Laveaux*, Voices Of Praise Choir* and more Ottawa music @Westfest
Mighty Popo (4pm), at The Black Sheep Inn
Lina Allemano Four, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Summerlad with Parlour Steps, at Zaphod's

* denotes local act
** denotes wishy-washiest sentence to date on this site

Jamie Lidell might not have seemed as out of place on Chess Records as he does on this curiously checkered floor.

Just listing and a couple mp3's this week; dial613'll be back in the full swing of things next week.

dial613 is hoping to get out to Babylon on Friday to see Jamie Lidell.
Who are you hoping to see this week?

M 06.02
A Dream Of Descent* with A Plot Against Me*, Eternal Paradox*, and International Maniac Institute*, at Zaphod's

Tu 06.03
Left Spine Down with H-427 and Encephalon*, at Zaphod's
Super Awesome Club, at Avant-Garde Bar

W 06.04
Birthday Boys with Dave Bean and Sunjet Records Band*, at Zaphod's
City and Colour with Sleeper Car and The Black Lungs, at Bronson Centre
Holy Fuck with Crush Buildings* and Squelchbox*, at Barrymore's
-->Crush Buildings - Ghoul Pounds (myspace)

Th 06.05
Bloomistry*, at Elmdale House Tavern
Corboe* with Owel Five* and The Foreign*, at Zaphod's
The Golden Dogs with Hunter Valentine and Hey Rosetta, at Maverick's
-->The Golden Dogs - Elevator Man (website, myspace)
Jerome Derradji, at Mercury Lounge
Alan Ganey*, at Avant-Garde Bar
Luther Wright & The Wrongs with The Chiselers, at The Black Sheep Inn

F 06.06
Dyalek* with Django Libre*, at Avant-Garde Bar
The John Henrys*, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Kingmakers*, at Elmdale House Tavern
Jamie Lidell with Jennifer O'Connor and Denzal Sinclaire, at Babylon
-->Jamie Lidell - Another Way (website, myspace)
-->Jamie Lidell - Multiply (Herbert's Hoedown Bump mix)
Adam Puddington* (cd release), at Irene's Pub
Riishi Von Rex & The Dire Royalty* with Dry River Caravan, and Maxime Cossette, at Zaphod's
Shanneygannock, at Capital Music Hall

Sa 06.07
Benefit For Burma Cyclone Victims, featuring The Murder Plans*, Tony D*, Steve Marriner*, and Bob Wiseman, at Barrymore's
Ball & Chain & The Wreckers*, at Elmdale House Tavern
Jon-Rae Fletcher with Entire Cities and Alex Newman, at Babylon
Nathan Lawr & The Minotaurs with Kyrie Kristmanson*, at The Black Sheep Inn
The Sheepdogs with The Deep Dark Woods, at Irene's Pub
Tokyo Sex Whale* with The Magnificent Butchers* and Speedhair, at Zaphod's

Su 06.08
Kate & Hollis with Emory Lester and Kene Hyatt, at The Black Sheep Inn
Ruby Coast with Fire Heats Water and Blazer, at Zaphod's

* denotes local act