Photo by Jason Allen

As summer festival season approaches, music lovers are collectively getting giddier and giddier in anticipation of who will be headlining their favourite fest.

We recently announced that Feist will be headlining the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival this year, and it looks like she’s going to hit the mainstage at the Sled Island Festival in her hometown of Calgary as well.

After announcing guest festival curators Danny Vacon of The Dudes and Andrew WK earlier this month, festival director Lindsay Shedden announced the initial headliner lineup for Sled Island, taking place across central Calgary from June 20th-23rd.

Joining Feist in the list are Canadian acts like up-and-coming electro-popper Grimes and swamp-folk trio Timber Timbre, along with blue-collar rockers The Hold Steady, Andrew WK, as well as a bevy of 90s-related glory. Indie noise godfather and Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, Stephen Malkmus (formerly of Pavement) with his band The Jicks, and underrated 90s stalwarts Archers of Loaf, who reunited last summer for some summer festival dates in connection with the reissue of their first album Icky Mettle will all hit the stage at Sled.

You can get your Sled Island festival passes at the limited time “mid-bird” price of $179 by visiting their website. Keep checking back to find more info on hotel deals and the launch of their bicycle rental service!

CFCR will once again be attending the festival, sending out a squadron of reporters & photographers to bring you some great coverage of the various events. You can check out the coverage from last year on our blog. We’ll also be putting on a showcase of Saskatoon bands at the festival, so be sure to stay tuned for more info on that!

Saskatoon ex-pat emcee Leo37 has been working hard on his latest EP Fanfare. After five years of touring through 11 countries, the Taiwanese-Canadian producer, turntablist & emcee teamed up with Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist John Poon to record Fanfare, which is now finally out and ready for consumption! We showed you the EP’s aggressive title track, and now Leo has made the whole EP available to check out. See below to stream the EP in its entirety, or head over to Leo’s website to download it for free!

Leo’s been spending some time in Taiwan playing shows, and now with the release of Fanfare, he’ll be doing some gigs back in Canada. For now it’s mostly centralized in Ontario & Quebec, but stay tuned to CFCR for more info on Leo37 shows closer to Saskatoon.

The Sasktel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival made a huge splash today, naming Feist as one of the headliners for the 2012 edition of the fest! After a few years of schedules not lining up, today’s announcement was welcome news for fans.

Joining Feist will be the haunted three-piece stylings of Timbre Timbre.

The show takes place at the TD Mainstage (Bessborough Gardens), Saturday June 23rd. Tickets are available to the public starting Wednesday, February 29th at 10am.

Stay tuned to 90.5FM, cfcr.ca, and saskjazz.com for more great announcements!

Our local music cohorts over at Ominocity are celebrating their first anniversary… and they’ve assembled quite the party!

In order to properly party down, you are required to bring $15 to Louis’ Pub on Saturday, March 3rd, and you shall receive musical offerings from:

Shooting Guns
We Were Lovers
Reform Party
The Quitters Club
Lady Deathstryke
The Foggy Notions
DFA
The Seahags

Be sure to add Ominocity to your daily go-to bookmarks! A very fine e-zine that is dedicated to promoting the arts, music and independent media, with an emphasis on local events and emerging talent. Hey! Just like CFCR. That’s why we get along so well!

Advance tickets for Omfest are also available online HERE!

Congrats again to the crew over at Ominocity!

Zachary Lucky‘s Saskatchewan album release concert, Friday, March 2nd at Christ Church Anglican. Presented by CFCR 90.5FM!

Zachary Lucky is a patriot. Born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – he was never one to wander to far off the beaten track – until he showed up on the Canadian music circuit in August of 2010 with his debut full-length recording Come and Gone. “Striking and beautifully crafted, the songs on Zachary Lucky‘s debut album reveal a talent for melody and a newfound confidence – Come & Gone is an enticingly brief, but highly auspicious debut,” said exclaim.ca.

After spending nearly two years in the shadows, Zachary is back with the much anticipated release Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is a patchwork of words, melodies and stories entrenched in all that Saskatchewan is. Songs written about Saskatchewan and for Saskatchewan.

Opening the night will be Carly Maicher, with a special performance from Tyson McShane and Jeanette Stewart from Slow Down Molasses.

Doors at 7:30, with the show to follow shortly after. Tickets are $10.00 in advance and $15.00 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased from Unreal City Comics.

Christ Church Anglican is located at 515 28th ST W.

The bar will open at 7:30 and will run until the end of the show.

As CFCR got out of bed today, we were pleased to find an all-you-can-eat buffet of Juno nominations for a few SK bands/artists!

The Deep Dark Woods – Nominated for Roots and Traditional album of the year (The Place I Left Behind)

The Sheepdogs – Nominated for Best New Group, Rock album of the year (Learn & Burn), and finally, Single of the year (“I Don’t Know”)

Donny Parenteau -Nominated for Aboriginal album of the year (To Whom It May Concern)

Now, we’re sure the age old debate on the validity of award programs within the arts will be discussed to the bone, but let’s keep the important stuff in focus here, people! Band trophy cases! Appearances in the Juno Cup hockey game! Bragging rights at the local watering hole!

CFCR is very proud of the many years of hard work these artists have put into their art!

For a full list of award nominees, visit HERE

The Juno Awards take place in Ottawa on April 1^st, 2012, hosted by William Shatner!

First, Slow Down, Molasses decided to Walk Into The Sea. Then, they Lept Over the Sea, thoroughly rocking the End Of The Road Festival in North Dorset, UK.

Now, the Saskatoon Five-Pack continue their UK love fest, debuting their new video for “Bodies” at the venerable NME.COM. The video was lovingly created by local filmmaker extraordinaire Andrei Feheregyhazi, who recently completed a video for Regina’s Library Voices. He just can’t get enough of those Saskatchewan super groups. We don’t blame him.

Slow Down, Molasses have a huge year ahead of themselves, including a remix album Bodies of Water (slated for release this month), as well as a stop at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, UK in May.

Expect new recordings, record beer consumption, and a few hi-kicks along the way.

A little while back, we posted a tune by a new local band called Haunted Souls that was to appear on a 7-inch from Lethbridge, AB label Mammoth Cave. The record is entitled Bloodstains Across The Prairies and features one side of Saskatchewan acts and the other side from Manitoba. The idea of the release, which is limited to a pressing of only 300 copies, is for each artist or band to write a song about a minute long, loosely based around his/her/their home province.

Along with Haunted Souls, the Saskatchewan side features local faves Feral Children as well as Caves, Eyebats, Stephen Cooley, Auld Beak and Trees. The Manitoba side even brings some SK flavour, with Winnipeg’s This Hisses (featuring Saskatoon ex-pat JP Perron on drums).

Now you can check out a bandcamp page that features all the songs to appear on the release. See below to stream, then head over to Mammoth Cave’s website to purchase!