Arts & Crafts hosts a two-night stand (June 17 and 18) at the Courthouse (57 Adelaide East), with secret surprise acts at midnight both evenings. Entry for both nights is reserved to holders of badges or five-day wristbands, which also give you access to the entire festival. So make sure you get yourself hooked up at nxne.com (see complete ticket info on page 68).
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Wednesday, June 17
8 pm
Jason Collett
Broken Social Scene alumnus Collett’s songwriting is based in classic rock ‘n’ roll. They’re the kind of songs you’d want blaring out of your car on the way to the cottage.
9 pm
Years/Happiness Project
Years is the ambient-orchestral solo project of Ohad Benchetrit, who some might know from his work with Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Expect expansive, epic journeys. Benchetrit will be splitting his slot with another BSS/DMST offshoot, the Happiness Pro-ject, which is Charles Spearin’s lighthearted (and heartwarming) investigation of the melodies hidden in speech.
11 pm
Apostle of Hustle
Andrew Whiteman, BSS’s resident guitar god, explores off-kilter trance rock ideas in Apostle of Hustle.
Thursday, June 18
8 pm
Zeus
These guys don’t actually have a direct connection to BSS, but some of them do play in Jason Collett’s backing band, which gives you some idea of the type of back-to-basics rock they champion.
9 pm
Timber Timbre
Kevin Drew and Jeffrey Remedios simultaneously discovered this art blues project (one of our favourite albums of the year) and needed them on board. Instead of stealing the band from their home at Out of This Spark, they helped the whole label out with distribution.
10 pm
Still Life Still
Still Life Still are naturals at that urgent/drifty fuzzed-out wall-of-guitars indie pop thing and will soon be releasing their debut album, produced by Kevin Drew.
11 pm
The Most Serene Republic
The first band with no connections to BSS to sign to A&C, the Most Serene Republic make futuristic art pop that sounds like it’s been sprinkled with magic dust.
