So, if you aren’t into much of the live stuff that CMF is holding, we’re going to show you exactly what you need to go to club wise.

Wednesday March 10:

Check out CFCF at the Eyeweekly showcase down at the Roosevelt Room, along with Parallels and Styrofoam Ones.

Click here for a CFCF mix of Fabio Lendrum’s “Trouble”.

Nadastrom will be at Cobra this night too, and of course with an extended 4am license.

Thursday March 11:

RJD2 will be performing at Mod Club, which is going to be a definite good time. He’ll be on stage at 11pm. We did an interview with him, remember? Well if you don’t, check it out then see him live. Click here for interview.

At the Social there’s going to be a wicked event with Trouble & Bass DJs: The Captain and Star Eyes, alongside locals and some secret guest no one knows about.
Check out our interview with Trouble & Bass’ Star Eyes that will be up March 11th.

The Drake will also be hosting a late night event with Samiyam, of course with a 4am license. Check it out here.

Friday March 12:

There is going to be a crazy party at Mod Club, featuring Simian Mobile Disco on the Friday. Click here for facebook event.

Down on Queen West, Wrongbar is hosting an extended 4am license party- with performances by Vitaminsforyou, Ultragamma, Nasty Nav and more. You know that’s going to be a crazy night. Check out the facebook event here.

We asked Ultragamma the same stuff we asked the bands:

Of all the festivals you’ve played, which one was your favourite and why?
I think based solely on the experience I enjoyed playing last years
Jazz Fest the most. It was myself and Bombaman playing a b2b set to
headline at the Social. The vibe was excellent, the diversity in the
programming was great, and Mike and I were in pure terrorism modes,
which made for some… interesting times!

2.Who are you looking forward to seeing at this year’s Canadian Music Fest the most?
SAMIYAM for sure. Completely mind-blowing tunes every time, total
paradigm-shifting steez.

Saturday March 13:

Sound Academy will be having the Redbull 3style event, featuring A-Trak , Klever, Scratch Bastid, and of course the nation wide champs to face off for Canadian deck dominance. Doors at 9pm.

Note* Pink Mafia has a very limited guest list for this event. Click here for guestlist.

Tommie Sunshine, Arthur Baker, Barletta and more will all the at Cobra this night. This event definitely has a 4am license.

Check out this great remix of Barletta’s “Whisper” by Tommie Sunshine, click here.

At Wrongbar, Classixx, Azari and III will all be performing. Another event with a 4am license.

Saturday’s gonna be a hard one to get through. So much good stuff all over the city!

All photos are by Al D. All bullshit by the lovely ladies and gents of the Pink Mafia, and this bullshit took place at Century Room Tuesdays. Barletta and Medley in the front, Jedi in the back, a fucking sea of Jersey Shore between us and the back bar. Nothing but net.

Don’t know what to do for NYE? Live in Canada? Well we’ve got some top picks allllllmost coast to coast. Pick a city and a party and get crackin’.

Happy New Year ya’ll. Be safe if you can’t be good.

VANCOUVER

Intimate Productions combines the three clubs at the Lotus Hotel for their 10th consecutive New Years Eve event. The bash incorporates gogo dancers, FREE tapas before 11pm, party favors and a champagne toast at midnight, coinciding with a 3 room countdown.

It runs from 9pm until 4 am. Advance tickets are sold out but $50 tickets (which are also being sold quickly) can be bought on clubzone.

Check out facebook for more info.

VICTORIA

Lucky Bar is presenting NYE@NYPD this year. Being DJ’d by Bitchin’ and Bird Peterson, this year’s celebration is going to combine a mix of amazing beats and bass as well as remixes from a wide range of artists.

Get your $15 pre-tickets at Ditch Records or at Lucky Bar ASAP. (They’re also available for $20 at the door).

Get the 411 on facebook.

TORONTO

Toronto hot spot Wrongbar for a no bullshit wild & fun NYE featuring well-known DJs Barletta, Nasty Nav, Torro Torro and Rynecologist.

It starts at 10pm and has an extended last call (meaning more time for you to get your drink on).

A few tickets are still available here and also at Rotate This and Soundscapes. Email bottles@wrongbar.com for bottle info!

MONTREAL

NYE with Megasoid at Blizzarts: a way to bring in the new year with bass all night and free champagne at midnight. A one of a kind DJ set, bringing in “2010, the Year of the Real” and tickets are selling FAST (get advance tickets at Off the Hook)

Everyone is talking about the last 10 years like it’s 2011. But it’s only been 9 people. Way to jump that gun. We decided to just do a year end review and save the decade junk till we get into another one. Like for next year.

Here’s our illustrious panel:

BEST ALBUM:

The only commonality we have is that no one thought there was a best album this year, however no one had a hard time coming up with a collection. And based on a lot of math equations, here’s what was good in 2009.

Jay-Z:  The BluePrint 3 + Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

We agree unanimously that Jay deserves a spot, but that this album is our least favourite in the epic saga that is the Jiggaman’s career, and we think Phoenix’s latest is the best of theirs. Phoenix may be the only group in the world that you can’t put on a mixtape since one track seems to never be quite enough.

Others we loved: It’s Blitz: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Fame Monster: Lady Gaga, Animal Collective: Merriweather Post-Pavillion, Major Lazer: Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do, Gossip: Music For Men, one half of Sasha Fierce only, and Judy Garland: Live At Carnegie Hall.

BEST TRACK:

We’re all feeling pop music for this one. Major Lazer, Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas got top ranks. I’m gonna have to break this three way and say “I Got A Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas is the top track, love it or hate, we all turned that shit up when it came one the radio.

Others we loved: When I Grow Up–Fever Ray, Gimme Sympathy-Metric, Sweet Disposition-The Temper Trap, Islands (Nosaj Thing Remix)-The xx, Drumming Song-Florence + The Machine, Bulletproof–La Roux, and a little tranny we all know and love named Beyonce for Single Ladies.

BEST PARTY (THIS IS A TORONTO CATEGORY)

I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in the bloggers for picking a lot of obvious and shit choices. Our parties aside, the best that this group of jerks could come up with was Drake 5th Anniversary (easy kill), Vice Magazine’s 15th Anniversary (easiest kill) and that dreadful Aoki party in the Bay Station Underground.

So here it is: The best parties of 2009 were: DJ AM @ This Is London, It was a great night with all the right people enjoying a beautiful space usually crawling with brawlers and skanks. Everyone danced until 2AM and AM really truly set that place a flame. Fake Blood (with our boy Barletta) @ Wrongbar: It was the best show of NxNE and even the owner had to sneak his own friends in the back door. And finally, RIP Randomland, you were fun while you lasted.

BEST CONCERT:

Not one of us over lapped in this category. So the best of’s are: Dead Weather secret show @ The Hoseshoe, Gossip & MEN @ The Opera House, Peaches & Amanda Blank @ The Phoenix, Fritz Helder & The Phantoms Platinum edition party @ Redbull HQ, Steam Whistle’s Unigned @ Sound Academy with Goldengirls, Creature, The Carps, and Woodhands, Bif Naked @ Mod Club, and The Hostage Life CD Release Party/Final Show Ever @ Sneaky Dee’s.

But the absolute best concert moment goes to Siobhan who saw GZA play with King Khan @ Dundas Square during NXNE. She watched from the media pit and shook his hand after.

BEST FASHION STATEMENTS:

2009 was a year of gothic black, big shoulders and impossibly skinny jeans paired with some serious heels. Shoes got good this year. They’re investment pieces after all. Not for nothing, but I predicted it all in my 2009 Prediction piece last lear. The standouts for our crew of not-exactly-fashion-bloggers were: Zooey Deschanel for Oliver Peoples, men’s ankle high tailored dress pants and dress shoes, they can be worn with or without socks and they’re still genius. A certain someone from Winnipeg voted that Canada’s Next Top Model, Meaghan Waller (a Winnipeg native) was the best thing and Vanessa V who has been chatting our faces off about Top Shop for months, is happy that that shit is finally here in North America (she went to NYC for the opening, she’s that crasssy).

We are making one mention of WORST IN FASHION Siobhan is so truly disgusted with Jeggings, that she insisted on a category just for them. Using my Beyonce tranny metre for all things trendy I rate them a like. Here’s my theory: if Beyonce’s wearing it, the rend is ovah, BUT if she looks good in it, then I know I’ll look better. Beyonce looks good in jeggings, which means this trend is gone and if you’re smaller than a size 14 it is guaranteed to look better on you.

BEST MOVIE

Apparently there are only 4 movies we all agree on: Coco: Avant Chanel, UP, The Hangover and 500 Days of Summer. Honourable mentions: The Carter Documentary and The Cove.

BEST SHOW

Since there were only four TV shows on the TV this year, all four take the cake: Mad Men, Modern Family, Glee and True Blood. Personally, I like Law & Order re-runs, but no one wants my opinion!

Looky Looky, a new Fall Mixtape from our boy Barletta.

It’s a fun one with Rock songs in honor of his latest passing fancy, the last British Invasion (Oasis not the Spice Girls). Plus that delicious new Cardigans edit of Lovefool is in there (that sucker peaked at #5 on Hype Machine yesterday).

If you live in Toronto, boy’s playing Mod Club tonight and he’s got some good tricks for ya a la live fun with Anna Cyzon. Just sayin’ don’t miss stuff.

Download Barletta’s Fall Mixtape–Rock Here

TRACKS:

The Yank – We Can’t Be Stopped (Dj Bam Bam Remix)

Danger Mouse – Justify My Thug

Stereophonics – More Life In A Tramps Vest

The Trip – Who’s That (Jack Beats Remix)

Nubla – Japan (Barletta Edit)

Kasabian – Vlad The Impaler (Barletta + Ernold Sane Edit)

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Heads Will Roll (Dan Oh Remix/ Barletta + Ernold Sane Edit)

Weezer – Buddy Holly

The Cardigans – Lovefool (Barletta Edit)

Green Day – Redundant

First, here’s what you missed on Friday…

Arcade: ar-cade
Pronunciation: \är-kad\
Function: noun
1: An amusement center having coin-operated games.
2: Your new favourite Friday night party!

Brought to you by Embrace, The Mod Club‘s new Friday evening plays host to an assortment of colourful, interactive activities, featuring your fave Djs and and a hoppin’ dance floor.

September 4th marked the official launch of Arcade Fridays, incapsulating new levels of epic. Main floor guest djs were Barletta, Nasty Nav, Milano, and Brandon Sek, while the upstairs loft hosted an intimate lounge with tunes by Vaneska and David Hall.

If you missed out last Friday, copy and paste these images into your memory and get pose on when LastNightsParty.com and Parallels take over College St, on Friday, September 11th.

(Above Words and Photos by Melania Fedyna)

We sorta skipped Saturday, Hot & Spicy fest had us filled with the itis. But by Sunday, it was Game On Again.

Barletta is our boy, and we’ve been shooting an amazing promo for his upcoming Whisper EP release by running around town getting into all kinds of trouble with Al D (our main man on the snaps)

Some morsels for ya:

Out takes from the video:

We know it looks bad, but it’s staged. Katchup and Sweetner. Still, so delicious

Anna Von’s new ride

It was Gillian’s Bday. We danced danced danced.

Hot off the tail of The Social, we hit Labor Of Love at the Guvernment just in time to catch Tiga’s jaw dropping set including our most delicious top fav, Fever Ray Triangle Walks (Tiga 1-2-3-4 Mix) was the real deal. None of these tried and true radio hit tricks. Actual talent. So rare. So delicious.

Photos courtesy of Al D!

A live music festival. An after hours rager. A DJ’s personal playground. Wrap all that into one and you’ve got yourself a sweaty dance party known as the annual Time Festival. Toronto hosts numerous music fests throughout the year, but none compare to the unique lineup of Time. Local djs and acts, as well and widely accredited artists like Crystal Castles and Rye Rye all came together to play this all-nighter, harboring an eclectic mix of crowd who know what’s up. With all those factors, you can’t help but get a decent recipe for a great party and potential for petty trouble.

This year’s festival was held July 25th, indoors at The Sound Academy vs. 2008′s August Sunnyside Pavillion setting. Crystal Castles tore up the main stage with their noisy noise and flashing lights, but if you weren’t into that, there were 3 other stages to chose from.

As always, Barletta controlled his room with a twist of a knob and press of a button. Among his followers, Toronto’s Meech with whom I caught up with to ask a few pressing questions:

1. Who are you looking forward to seeing tonight?
Barletta!

2. What was the last good thing you read or posted on Twitter?
That Nav was killing it in the main room tonight.

3. Who do you think is the most underrated artist of 2009?
Barletta, he’s going to be the same or bigger than Deadmau5!

Barletta doing what he does best.

Trying to interview A-Trak, I slyly maneuvered my way onto stage post-set to see if he’d take 3 seconds out of his life for me. He declined. It’s not like I was asking him to take his cap off, come on!

Mario J finished off the night on the main stage and the evening ended around 5:45am, music stopped and the leftovers shuffling out the door into 6am sunlight.

Knee socks beat cleavage, DUH!

Words and Photos by Melania Fedyna

We just love those mixtapes. Here’s our special Barletta fall mixtape. Click the link below to download!

Barletta Fall Mixtape

Barletta – Panther (Zeds Dead Remix)
Amanda Blank – I’d like it better if we slept together (Barletta Edit)
Gingy – Swagger (Barletta Remix)
Green Day – Brain Stew (Barletta Dub Edit)
Anna Cyzon – Reputation (Barletta Remix)
Deadmau5 – Slip
Gingy – Asi9
Barletta + Gingy – Floodlight
John Dahlback – Pyramid (Dirty South Vs Barletta Edit)
Golden Gloves – Casablanca (Barletta Remix)
Bot – Alarma
Joachim Garraud – R U Ready (Chuckie Remix)

Pink Mafia sent me, Vanessa and Melania to to the first TIME Festival to get the dirt on what what the kids are up to.

TIME Fest swept into Toronto,with the goal to revolutionize the dance and indie music genres, with fast beats and hot weather.
TIME Festival was put together by Adam Gill of Embrace Productions fame, who was featured in last week’s 20 questions.
It was held at the Sunnyside Pavillion, but the weather was anything but sunny.
As 3 members of the Pink Mafia Street Team rolled in, we were greeted by rain and clouds. Sunnyside Pavillion is known for its more house/gay/raver parties but this one was the most  scenester event in recent history.

Near the entrance were some of the Oligarchy kids,

Who were pimpin` their threads for good deals and good times.

During the time we huddled under shelter to avoid the rain, Vaneska, Nasty Nav and Mario J spun some beats as some of the crowd, unafraid of rain, danced their hearts out.
We met some great kids: (L-R) SHANI, JASMIN, SABA

TARA AND SARAH

Mid afternoon, the sun came out, and the celebration was on!

With the sun finally out, everyone ran to the stage, for Fritz Helder and the Phantoms.

And I’m lucky to have seen it, because Fritz Helder and the Phantoms are losing Fierce! She will continue to pursue her DJ career as Van Helder (Check out the new release Van and Barletta dropped). See her below, wearing an awesome vintage necklace she stole from a friend and a pic of Van and her producer Barletta.

Now, I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually seen Fritz and the Phantoms live, and being front and center of the audience, made it a fantastic experience.

Meanwhile VND/LSM and Jokers of the Scene had the crowd dancing, shrieking and booty shaking their hearts out.

Also, note that throughout the day,the upstairs level featured some techno DJs including Eli Wilkie who did 20Qs last week, Kenny Glascow who was at Z last month, Heidi and more. (Check out the TIME Fest site for the full lineup)

Right after Jokers of the Scene, Vanessa, Melania and I ran into Adam Gill who gave us 5 minutes for some questions and a quick photo session.

Adam filled us in on the beginnings of Embrace, when he was a student at McGill and turned his passion for parties into a career. He’s been a strong advocate of dance and electronic music for a long time. He’s always intended to start a proper dance festival in T.O for a few years and the time was right. He told us the concept of TIME was, “to showcase what we think is on point musically right now at this point of time. “

When asked why TIME different from any festivals thrown in the city, he told Vanessa that the main difference is that “its pretty focused on the new cutting edge of electronic music. All the Toronto DJs, artists, nightclubs, promoters etc. sponsored it, and everyone worked together to create TIME, which is what made it great.“

Since Embrace has largely been known to throw gay-friendly and gay-oriented parties, some people were surprised by Embrace’s movement outside the gay community in recent history. When asked if he was still planning on pursuing gay-initiatives, he laughed a no comment, and pointed to our editor, XTRA columnist, and long-time friend Anna Von Frances, silently blaming her for throwing 3 girls at him with big questions, a tape recorder and a camera.

Since summer is coming to a close, Vanessa asked him what he does for vacation, and if he even gets one. Among his activities, he mentioned Miami, working out, and sitting in the sun.

“What’s next for Embrace?”, Vanessa asks him
“Just going to finish the year with lots of shows and start working on a plan for 2009.”

Adam made a quick escape from us back to the safety of crazy partiers and busy staff. We may be small, but apparently we can be scary.

A-Track, Erol Alkan and Soulwax closed up the night outside with a massive crowd.

Overall Opinion: The first TIME Fest seriously rocked. With another year of development, and better weather, next year’s is going to be f*cking insane.

See you later!