January / February Event Listings for Phog Lounge

January
Wednesday 4 – Knit, Nicole, Knit! Art Show Opening Reception/Birthday Party wsg Den-igan
Friday 6 – The Blue Stones w/ Kess Carpenter and The Phonogarde
Monday 9 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Friday 13 – Hands and Teeth (Toronto) w/ The Locusts Have No King and Jackie Robitaille
Sunday 15 – Film Night – 2012
Monday 16 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 18 – TOAST Open Mic Poetry
Saturday 21 – Art’s Birthday Party w/ acts TBA
Monday 23 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Friday 27 – The Tyres w/ The Eric Welton Band, and Years of Ernest
Sunday 29 – Film Night – The Wild Bunch
Monday 30 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L

February
Thursday 2 – Some Kind Of Invasion – US Comedians Attack Again
Friday 3 – Gypsy Chief Goliath w/ Cellos, and Thunder Hora
Saturday 4 – Will Currie and The Country French (Waterloo)
Monday 6 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 8 – Funk Fest Five as part of WCMF (Windsor Canadian Music Festival)
Friday 10 – Ron Leary (Toronto) w/ Great Aunt Ida (Toronto) and Henry Svec (Toronto)
Sunday 12 – Film Night – Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Monday 13 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Friday 17 – Mark Bragg – full band (St. John’s, NFLD), w/ TBA
Saturday 18 – Awake To Dream w/ Diesel Junkies, and Stone River (Toronto)
Monday 20 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 22 – TOAST Open Mic Poetry
Sunday 26 – Film Night – The Untouchables
Monday 27 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L

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Joe Strummer Day at Phog Lounge via CJAM


There’s a lot of performers tonight at Phog, from every ilk, and they’re all paying tribute to Joe Strummer.

There’ll be loads of giveaways and draw-prizes. And Frank will be cooking up loads of the new menu items (platinum pizzas and plentiful poutines with TONS of toppings!)

Featuring

The Rowley Estate
Your Best Bet
Jeffrey David’s Blues Connection
Allison Brown
and
Shrimp Yogurt

MC – Chris Crossroads

There will be a killer draw at midnight for Clash/Mescaleros CD’s, Terra Cotta gift certificates, Graphic Novels from Rouges Gallery, T-shirts from The Mill Tavern, CJAM swag and more!

A Super Community Event with all proceeds going to the Windsor Youth Centre on Wyandotte Street East!!

ONLY $5!!!

See you there!

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Run With The Kittens (Toronto) w/ Speakeasies (Guelph) and Menos Mal at Phog Saturday, December 17th


This is one of those shows you book KNOWING that everyone that comes to see it will be raving about it afterward.

It’s been YEARS since we got Run With The Kittens into Phog. That’s why Saturday, December 17th is so special. This is the band that notoriously arrives in a full length black school bus with their band name emblazoned on the side in white letters.

This is quite simply one of the most electric, schizophrenic, hilarious, talent-soaked bands that bothers with our little building. They have ridiculous energy, and a penchant for wild antics onstage. We are THRILLED that they’re returning.

They bring along the oft-headlining Speakeasies from Guelph who bring a ton of rock, and fantastic Guelph peeps. They’ve been to Phog a lot more lately…and that’s a very good thing. Their last show with The Locusts ave No King was amazing.

Also playing this gig will be Menos Mal…who seem to be getting more and more attention with each show they play. They’re eager to get on this bill with such dynamic musicians…and this show will impress the likes of neophytes like me, or the accomplishes musician.

Bring a friend.

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November / December Phog Event Listings


Behind Sapphire is going to make their December 1st show (with The Elwins) after a much-publicized detaining in China while on tour…

When I heard that members of the band were being held in a Chinese prison…I was beyond concerned, but within days of finding out, the news changed for the better. Click here for the full story of the 10 days spent in detention…and then bring your butts out to their show on Thursday, December 1st to give the warm Windsor welcome to a fellow Canuck happy to be on Canadian soil…playing their first gig in our town.


December 2nd…a Friday…we have the Juno-nominated D-Sisive bringing some killer hip-hop to Phog along with the much-loved Windsor DJ…dstruct.o playing in support. This will be his second time at Phog…and we’re super excited to have him back with his tour-mate, CityReal.

From D-Sisive’s CBC Radio 3 profile:
“D-Sisive, a prolific Canadian rapper, best known for his Juno Award-nominated EP The Book, his hit single “Nobody With A Notepad” (for which D-Sisive and collaborator Muneshine won SOCAN’s fourth annual ECHO Songwriting Prize) and his 2009 Polaris Music Prize-nominated album Let the Children Die (which was launched by the success of “Nobody With A Notepad”).

D-Sisive first emerged in the late 1990s with a number of independent singles which were popular in the Toronto hip hop scene, but took a six-year break from performing and writing due to a battle with depression following his mother’s death in 2001 and father’s death in 2007. The death of his mother inspired him to release the EP J.A.C., named after her, while D-Sisive’s response to losing his parents is heavily documented on releases such as The Book and Let the Children Die. Despite this absence, his talents were showcased on DJ Format’s popular 2005 album If You Can’t Join ‘Em… Beat ‘Em, and D-Sisive performed alongside fellow Canadian rapper Abdominal in the music video for DJ Format’s hit single ’3 Feet Deep’. Further, a collection of recordings from the early period of D-Sisive’s career has been released on a widely available bootleg entitled Yesterday. The Mixtape.”

November
Wednesday 23 – Shred Kelly (Fernie, BC) w/ The Creekside Strays (London) and The Phonogarde
Thursday 24 – Charlotte Cornfield (Montreal) w/ Ben Caplan (Halifax) and Kara Kaufmann (Windsor)
Friday 25 – Schomberg Fair (Toronto) w/ Leighton Bain (Windsor) and The Pat Robitaille Band
Saturday 26 – The Heels (Toronto/Windsor) w/ Menos Mal
Monday 28 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 30 – Grace Laporte Art Show Closing Party – FREE

December
Thursday 1 – Beyond Sapphire (Vancouver) w/ The Elwins and Den-igan
Friday 2 – D-Sisive (Toronto) w/ CityReal (Vancouver) and dstruct.o (Windsor)
Saturday 3 – EARLY – Chase Davidson BMX video premiere and Paul Jacobs performs
EVENING – Kenneth MacLeod and the Windsor Salt Band
Sunday 4 – FILM NIGHT – Home Alone
Monday 5 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Thursday 8 – SHOW AT THE CAPITOL THEATRE – The Sadies, Sunparlour Players, Locusts Have No King, and Field Assembly
$15 Advanced or $20 at the Door
- AT PHOG – FREE Shirk Dance Party with DJ Stephen Pender starts at 10:30pm
Friday 9 – The Tyres w/ Eric Welton Band
Saturday 10 – Ron Leary (Toronto) w/ Tara Watts AND with Scotty Shooze Hughes, Kenneth MacLeod and Robin Pirson
Monday 12 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Tuesday 13 – Crissi Cochrane Video Shoot 5pm-9pm
Wednesday 14 – Jackie Robitaille Collective Party – Guests TBA
Friday 16 - The Tighe Brothers Band w/ The Blue Stones
Saturday 17 – Run With The Kittens (Toronto) w/ Speakeasies (Guelph)
Sunday 18 – FILM NIGHT – National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Monday 19 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 21 – “Myskow Family n’ Friends Christmas Sing-Along”
Thursday 22 – Joe Strummer Day (CJAM Event) with several acts!
Friday 23 – ASK w/ Years of Ernest & Construction and Destruction (Halifax)
Saturday 24 – The Unquiet Dead – Christmas Eve Special w/ R.Y.E. and George Manury
Monday 26 – Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Friday 30 – Kenneth MacLeod and The Windsor Salt Band

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The Sadies, Sunparlour Players, Locusts Have No King, and Field Assembly on Thursday, December 8 at The Capitol Theatre

The Sadies, Sunparlour Players, The Locusts Have No King, and Field Assembly on Thursday, December 8 at The Capitol Theatre! Are you kidding me? And the price in INCREDIBLE! Can you say “early Xmas gift for the music lover in your life”?!

$15 Advanced
$20 at the Door

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/The-Sadies

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Sunparlour-Players

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Field-Assembly

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/The-Locusts-Have-No-King

The Sadies, Polaris Prize Short-Listers for 2010, are described on enotes.com:

“Music has always been a family affair for The Sadies’ Travis and Dallas Good. After watching their father, Bruce, and uncles Larry and Brian play folk and country music across Canada as The Good Brothers (members of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame), it was only a matter of time before the brothers started a band of their own. The Sadies may have grown up listening to punk rock behind their parents’ back, but good old country music was always in the house. Often dressed in tailored suits, the Sadies became the ultimate vehicle for the mesh of both punk and country. The band’s unusual mix of surf guitar, garage-rock, pyschedelic pop, and country music has continued to evolve on each of their albums.

The Sadies play with Blue Rodeo and Friends in Austin, TX

Surf-rock riffs, raw rock presence, the California country sound of groups like the Byrds and touches of pop psychedelia, nearly all of which was instrumental at this point, caught the attention of Chicago’s insurgent country label Bloodshot Records and the Sadies toured with alt-country chanteuse Neko Case. The label quickly signed up to release the band’s debut album, Precious Moments in 1998. Recorded by Nirvana producer Steve Albini, the instrumental album combined epic spaghetti western atmospheres borrowed from Ennio Morricone and took them into a dark and dirty bar where patrons downed shots of whiskey. “We don’t consider ourselves an instrumental band. We never even thought about it until our album came out and everyone filed it under ‘instrumental band.’ By then it was too late to do anything about it,” Dallas confessed to Now.”

Tour partners will be Windsor-area’s own Sunparlour Players who bring more foot-stompin’ fury than any others. They’ve played with Plants and Animals, Mumford & Sons, and Blue Rodeo!

From Sunparlour Players bio page on maplemusic.com:

“Sunparlour Players originated in the mind of Andrew Penner, but over the last few years, after extensive touring, Sunparlour Players can now be called a group. Michael “Rosie” Rosenthal and Dennis Van Dine joined up with Penner during the recording of the debut album Hymns For The Happy which was released on the Baudelaire Label in 2007. Now, 4 years later, the band releases Us Little Devils (Outside Music), their third album, and without a doubt their most diverse and strongest effort to date.

Growing up on a tomato farm in Southern Ontario, Andrew had his first musical experiences singing in the choir of a Mennonite church. These roots had an influence on the subject matter of Hymns For The Happy. The songs were about finding a home and settling in new places. It also references farms and migrant workers with songs like “If the Creeks Don’t Rise.” Their sophomore album, Wave North, was recorded at Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studio in Toronto, Ontario. The band experimented with homemade microphones, percussion, horns, strings, and a choir. Teaming up with New York producer Jeremy Backofen (Felice Brothers, Frightened Rabbit), they tore apart their songs and built them back up with a sonic force that hadn’t been discovered yet by the band. Wave North was on many “best of” lists of that year and word had begun to spread about their live show, helped by shows with Mumford & Sons, Blue Rodeo and Plants & Animals as well as their own rigorous touring schedule of shows in barns, backyards, theatres, and of course, clubs. The cathartic and euphoric live show was where the band won fans, converts and accolades and it’s the live show that they’ve managed to bottle in this album, Us Little Devils.”


Also playing this show are the folk/roots/rock monsters of Windsor…The Locusts Have No King. And if that weren’t mindblowingly awesome enough, Field Assembly will be performing as a DUO with Adam Fox doing his usual phenomenal live performance with Dean Drouillard who was recently in the area as guitarist with Sarah Harmer.

This is a hum-dinger.

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What the heck is an Open Mic Night?


What is an “Open Mic” anyway?

There’s, like, a bajillion of these things in Windsor. They happen every night of the week, mostly on weekdays, but now they even happen on weekends.

We’ve been running a steady Open Mic night on Mondays since we opened almost eight years ago with the intent on bringing in those musicians that are intent on cutting their teeth on live performance. Playing in front of a crowd. Taking your craft (whether singing cover songs or playing originals) to the stage in front of an intimate crowd is the bridging point between your bedroom and booking a full-blown gig.

You don’t compete with a TV (or twelve) at Phog. We love sports and weird old movies, but when there’s music playing on stage, it’s music time. And we have an actual piano if you think the room will be quiet enough (until we get an area mic for it).

It’s a great chance for songwriters to meet one another when they would otherwise not know about one another. It’s a place where often-hidden talents come out and surprise those in the crowd…sometimes encouraging partnerships with more established performers. And that’s the kind of thing we want to foster.

It’s called Open Mic so that anyone can get up and play three songs. The host opens the night up with a handful of songs, and plays in between sets if there aren’t any willing performers in the crowd. James O-L is one of our city’s constant songwriters, and he’s connected to TONS of musicians in every type of musical genre…and he actually brings a guitar and keyboard for performers to use…so that you don’t need to bring anything aside from your willingness to play.

There are no expectations. I often hear that there’s apprehension to get up in front of a “Phog crowd”, but all our Open Mic spectators and participants want is “new”. They want new faces, new ideas, new sounds. It’s a place that you might get kudos, advice, or propositions to start a band. At the very least, you get to stand on a stage that has been occupied by some of the best in Canada and belt it out for a live audience. If you like it, you can come back and do it again.

People are often curious what kind of performance is encouraged at our Open Mic Surgery, and I’ll answer it by giving direct examples that’ve been very different, and all very qualified.

- Corey Temesy (pre-Bulletproof Tiger) guitar tapping on acoustic guitar
- Ray Whimsey playing banjo and singing
- Countless acoustic originals by Windsor songwriters
- Stephen Hargreaves playing Britney Spears covers on a Yamaha keyboard
- Touring artists with gigs elsewhere coming in to play three more (Craig Cardiff)
- Kimba Elliott singing a cappella covers of Leonard Cohen
- Ukelele jams from Stefan C. (of Michou)
- War Pigs cover by Dusty on acoustic

We’ve seen a heck of a lot. If you have something you want to share, try out, or get an opinion on…bring your butts out to James O-L’s Open Mic Surgery any Monday night. Now we have $5 micro-brew pints (20 ounces, which is larger than any other music venue in downtown). We do it right. So come and listen, maybe find your next band-mate, and be “open” to new sounds.

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November Phog Event Listings

November
Tuesday 1 - Falklands (Edmonton) w/ Previous Tenants (Vancouver), The Hypnotics, andState of Us
Thursday 3 - The Mark Inside (Toronto) w/ Explode When They Bloom (Windsor), Learning (Windsor), and Kess Carpenter (Windsor)
Friday 4 – Book Fest Event – 10:00 pm: Live Words. Klyde Broox performance poet, and Laurie Smith. Moderator: Braydon Beaulieu
Saturday 5 - The Blue Stones w/ Mad Ones (Toronto) & Nefidovs
Monday 7 - Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 9 – FREE SHOW by The Speakeasy Trio from 9pm until 11pm – Hugh Leal, Ray Manzerolle, Mike Karloff, piano, and bassist Mike Palazzolo
Thursday 10 – Some Kind of Invasion Comedy Night
Friday 11 – CJAM Pledge Drive - Imaginary Cities (Winnipeg) w/ Menos Mal
Saturday 12 - The Swillingtones w/ Years of Ernest
Monday 14 - Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Tuesday 15 - Wild Domestic (London) w/ Glory Glory (Halifax) and James O-L and the Villains
Wednesday 16 - TOAST Open Mic Poetry
Thursday 17 – FREE – World Philosophy Day EVENT (FREE) – George Manury solo set followed by DJ Stephen Pender
Friday 18 - Wax Mannequin (Hamilton) w/ B.A. Johnston (Hamilton) and Kess Carpenter
Saturday 19 - Frontiers (Windsor) w/ Learning (Windsor) and Papermaps (Toronto)
Monday 21 - Open Mic Surgery with James O-L
Wednesday 23 - Shred Kelly (Fernie, BC) w/ The Creekside Strays (London) and The Phonogarde
Thursday 24 - Charlotte Cornfield (Montreal) w/ Ben Caplan (Halifax) and Kara Kaufmann (Windsor)
Friday 25 - Schomberg Fair (Toronto) w/ Leighton Bain (Windsor) and The Pat Robitaille Band
Saturday 26 - The Heels (Toronto/Windsor) w/ TBA
Monday 28 - Open Mic Surgery with James O-L

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