We really didn't want the Class of 2022 to end, but this Saturday (April 23), nearly three months after the concert series' originally scheduled finale, Exclaim! and Dan Burke's annual celebration of up-and-coming Canadian music will finally wrap up with a massive celebration at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, featuring some of Toronto's most inventive guitar-centric acts. Meet the final members of Exclaim!'s Class of 2022.
Breeze
Everyone in the Toronto music scene knows Josh Korody (whether from his old shoegaze band Beliefs, solo techno outfit Nailbiter, electronic label Nodding Heads and recording studio Candle), and recently unearthed rock project Breeze has been endearing him to audiences outside of his hometown. He tells Exclaim! that Only Up, Breeze's Madchesterian debut album, has "gotten the most attention I've had so far with a musical project, which is a nice feeling when you're 36 and have been doing music since you were 12."
"I've been working on the follow-up as quickly as I can to keep the creative juices flowing," he adds. "I plan to get the live band on the next record in some capacity, as well as try and collaborate with more artists because I think that's one thing that is special about this project, is all the possible collaborations." Breeze's existing roster of collaborators includes Cadence Weapon, Tess Parks and members of Broken Social Scene, Zoon, Ducks Ltd., and a recent covers set featured tributes to the Walker Brothers, Gang of Four and Talking Heads, so the possibilities are truly endless.
PONY
Saddle up for the flashing lights of PONY's scuzzy, spirited power pop, chock-full of crunchy riffs and hooks laced with sugar-coated sardonicism. As bandleader Sam Bielanski puts it, "PONY sounds like the music that would play in a 2004 Lindsay Lohan movie." Also something of a screen star, Bielanski got into voice acting after losing their job at the beginning of the pandemic, voicing a My Little Pony character in a remarkable act of equine synergy. They also started 2 Much TV, a podcast doubling as a songwriting exercise, with partner Pretty Matty. Ahead of PONY's summer tour with Fucked Up, their Class Of performance will mark the first time the band have gotten to play songs from their cable-raised 2021 debut album TV Baby live — but rest assured, they also have new music they're chomping at the bit to share.
Bliss Fields
After some name and lineup changes, shoegazers Bliss Fields are finally hitting their stride. "We sound tighter and more confident than we ever have," says guitarist and primary songwriter Scott Downes, "so it's so exciting to be able to play these songs." The Exclaim! New Faves released their debut full-length Slowly, Forever at the top of this year, dragging out their transient, shapeshifting rock; sounding akin to what would happen if Smashing Pumpkins wanted to sound like Slowdive, according to Downes. Bliss Fields are already working on the follow-up, with the writing sessions feeling like a breath of fresh air — perhaps gently gusting through a field of bliss.
Only God Forgives
Googling them will have you sifting through results for that Ryan Gosling film, but what the band lack in PageRank they make up for in pure style and charisma. Built around the partnership of former WLMRT vocalist Shelby Wilson and Hobby guitarist Stephen Pitman, this idiosyncratic group kicked things off in 2020 with debut album Power and Prowess, an eclectic, arty mix of off-kilter post-punk vignettes, including ditties about eating green sand and hating vegetables. Their adventurous energy is unsurprising given band members' other pursuits, which include filmmaking, visual art, audio engineering and "do[ing] your taxes at a PWYC rate," according to Wilson. She adds that the band plan to "maybe record another record. We have a big handful of unfinished songs from a year ago. Stephen is an audio engineer so we fortunately have easy access to tracking/mixing songs."
For more information on the show, check out the Facebook event and Showclix ticket purchase link.
Breeze
Everyone in the Toronto music scene knows Josh Korody (whether from his old shoegaze band Beliefs, solo techno outfit Nailbiter, electronic label Nodding Heads and recording studio Candle), and recently unearthed rock project Breeze has been endearing him to audiences outside of his hometown. He tells Exclaim! that Only Up, Breeze's Madchesterian debut album, has "gotten the most attention I've had so far with a musical project, which is a nice feeling when you're 36 and have been doing music since you were 12."
"I've been working on the follow-up as quickly as I can to keep the creative juices flowing," he adds. "I plan to get the live band on the next record in some capacity, as well as try and collaborate with more artists because I think that's one thing that is special about this project, is all the possible collaborations." Breeze's existing roster of collaborators includes Cadence Weapon, Tess Parks and members of Broken Social Scene, Zoon, Ducks Ltd., and a recent covers set featured tributes to the Walker Brothers, Gang of Four and Talking Heads, so the possibilities are truly endless.
PONY
Saddle up for the flashing lights of PONY's scuzzy, spirited power pop, chock-full of crunchy riffs and hooks laced with sugar-coated sardonicism. As bandleader Sam Bielanski puts it, "PONY sounds like the music that would play in a 2004 Lindsay Lohan movie." Also something of a screen star, Bielanski got into voice acting after losing their job at the beginning of the pandemic, voicing a My Little Pony character in a remarkable act of equine synergy. They also started 2 Much TV, a podcast doubling as a songwriting exercise, with partner Pretty Matty. Ahead of PONY's summer tour with Fucked Up, their Class Of performance will mark the first time the band have gotten to play songs from their cable-raised 2021 debut album TV Baby live — but rest assured, they also have new music they're chomping at the bit to share.
Bliss Fields
After some name and lineup changes, shoegazers Bliss Fields are finally hitting their stride. "We sound tighter and more confident than we ever have," says guitarist and primary songwriter Scott Downes, "so it's so exciting to be able to play these songs." The Exclaim! New Faves released their debut full-length Slowly, Forever at the top of this year, dragging out their transient, shapeshifting rock; sounding akin to what would happen if Smashing Pumpkins wanted to sound like Slowdive, according to Downes. Bliss Fields are already working on the follow-up, with the writing sessions feeling like a breath of fresh air — perhaps gently gusting through a field of bliss.
Only God Forgives
Googling them will have you sifting through results for that Ryan Gosling film, but what the band lack in PageRank they make up for in pure style and charisma. Built around the partnership of former WLMRT vocalist Shelby Wilson and Hobby guitarist Stephen Pitman, this idiosyncratic group kicked things off in 2020 with debut album Power and Prowess, an eclectic, arty mix of off-kilter post-punk vignettes, including ditties about eating green sand and hating vegetables. Their adventurous energy is unsurprising given band members' other pursuits, which include filmmaking, visual art, audio engineering and "do[ing] your taxes at a PWYC rate," according to Wilson. She adds that the band plan to "maybe record another record. We have a big handful of unfinished songs from a year ago. Stephen is an audio engineer so we fortunately have easy access to tracking/mixing songs."
For more information on the show, check out the Facebook event and Showclix ticket purchase link.