Our city’s musical acts are so diverse and dynamic that it’s hard to get a proper sense of the year that was by looking at the achievements of any one group of them. Nevertheless, we thought it’d be fun to comb through the past 12 months in Toronto music for some highlights.

Click here to see what we found.

It’s the return of the Mensch Awards (a.k.a. “The Menschies”), The Grid’s annual compilation of amazing people who rocked the city over the past 12 months. (Check out last year’s list here.) In Yiddish, mensch means “a person of integrity or honour”—basically, a good guy. Our 2012 nominees are all of sound character, to be sure, but they also possess a breathtaking mix of other gosh-darn-great qualities. This year’s nominees include the masterminds behind the Junction Flea, an Olympic gold-medal winner, and an artist who works with butter. Oh yeah, and there’s a horse on the list. (Sorry, Ikea monkey, maybe next year.) Once again, the trophy—which features a twister bagel, that quintessential Toronto creation—is up for grabs. And you’ve got a job to do: The Mensch of the Year will ultimately be determined by our readers. Vote for your favourite right here. The online poll will close at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 6; we’ll tell you who won in our Jan. 10 issue. Vote with your head, your heart, or your stomach; just be sure to vote.

Illustrations by Andrew Zbihlyj

FOR MAKING ASIAN SUBS MAINSTREAM

Phil, Peter, and David Chau

Banh mi sandwiches aren’t a recent invention—or even new to Toronto, where they’ve been sold at Chinatown takeouts for years. But it was the brothers Chau who put the Asian subs on the city’s radar when they opened Banh Mi Boys in December 2011. Having worked for years at family-owned food businesses, the boys branched out on their own with breathtaking success. They use pork belly, beef cheek, and short rib to create a Canadian spin on Vietnamese subs and Korean tacos. Lineups at their Queen and Spadina shop stretched outside the door this year, and the brothers will open a new location at Yonge and Gerrard in January—further evidence that the city’s appetite for their takeaway magic is insatiable.

FOR BEING ONE OF LENA DUNHAM’S FAVOURITE “GIRLS”

Sheila Heti

If you define “having a very good year” as “getting a whackload of American attention”—and Canadians often do—then Sheila Heti enjoyed one hell of a 2012. Her drawn-from-real-life novel, How Should a Person Be?, received praise from The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times; Girls creator/lightning rod Lena Dunham displayed it prominently on her shelf. We love it when a hometown author makes good, but we’re just as impressed with Heti’s achievements on the page: her ambitious narrative form, her frank sexual writing, and her clear-eyed examination of female friendship in all its messy, vital glory.

FOR MAKING US BELIEVE IN THE JAYS AGAIN (AGAIN)

Alex Anthopoulos

Admittedly, we’ve been down this road before: Last year was supposed to be when the Jays came alive. Fans put their hopes in Bautista and Lawrie and promising young players; what they got, instead, was a beleaguered bullpen, a shaken starting pitcher, and a homophobic shortstop. But let us never forget that Alex Anthopoulos is the wunderkind who unloaded Vernon Wells and his albatross of a contract. This fall, the general manager got to work, somehow nabbing a sizeable chunk of the Miami Marlins’ entire roster, then signing San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera. His latest ninja move? Snatching away the New York Mets’ Cy Young Award–winning pitcher, R.A. Dickey (whose walk-up song, awesomely, is the theme from Game of Thrones). These moves alone won’t wipe away two decades of major-league disappointment. But it’s nice to see Anthopoulos get some of his swagger back.

FOR REMINDING US THAT LEGO DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

The red-and-blue clad plastic figure soared at three times the altitude of standard commercial jets, a serene perma-smile stretched across his little yellow face. Though the figurine landed in a field near Rice Lake, south of Peterborough, Ont., after being airborne for just 97 minutes, the subsequent 90-second video went viral (over three million YouTube views to date), and scored the teens a Twitter trending topic, speaking engagement offers, and kudos from the folks at Lego. Thanks to some impressive scientific know-how and a dash of adolescent ingenuity, Ho and Muhammad took us where no child’s toy has gone before.

FOR BURSTING THE REAL-ESTATE BUBBLE, ONE BLOG POST AT A TIME

Melissa Hart

You may have lost a good few hours this year peering down the rabbit hole that is FML Listings, a blog highlighting the worst examples of a real-estate market that has spiralled out of control. Following a futile three-year search for a reasonably priced two-bedroom house anywhere in Toronto, advertising project-manager Melissa Hart took to Tumblr to vent her frustration—and quickly found that even realtors were entertained by her candid commentary on the silliest, most ridiculously hyperbolic, crazy overpriced listings.

FOR PUTTING THE “JUNK” IN THE JUNCTION

Micah Lenahan and Paul Mercer

Homemade popsicles, screen-printed leather bags, Tarot readings, Mason jars as far as the eye can see: Back off, Brooklyn, ’cause two can play the curated-flea-market game. All it took was a couple of storeowners with the urge to shake things up in a budding west-end neighbourhood. Enter Micah Lenahan, owner of the vintage emporium Russet and Empire, and Paul Mercer, the man behind furniture shop SMASH. Lenahan and Mercer organized the first Junction Flea in a lot near Dundas and Keele in June, and continued to run the market on the second Sunday of every month through to the end of August. But summer came and went, and the people demanded more vintage Art Deco jewellery. So Lenahan and Mercer moved the flea indoors to the Great Hall to keep it running year-round. (The event is scheduled to return to its outdoor location in May.) It may winter in Queen West, but the flea has quickly become the Junction’s calling card. It’s almost enough to make you forget about that just-past-prohibition thing.

FOR BEING SOMETHING OF A HERO. TWICE. IN ONE NIGHT

FOR COACHING A TORONTO PRO-HOCKEY TEAM THAT DIDN’T SUCK

Dallas Eakins

If you were hanging around the Air Canada Centre this year looking for signs of intelligent hockey, well, we can assume the NHL lockout came as a blessed relief. But a few kilometres west, at the Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto Marlies coach Dallas Eakins took his team all the way to the AHL final this past spring. (They lost to the Norfolk Admirals.) In addition to that quality known as basic competence, what really endeared Eakins to local puckheads was his gracious response after being passed over by the Leafs’ “brain-trust” for their head-coaching job after GM Brian Burke deep-sixed the perpetually sour Ron Wilson. “Thank you to the City of Toronto for your overwhelming support,” Eakins tweeted. “Disappointed, yes. But if not me…no one better than my friend Randy Carlyle.” With his squad off to another solid start this season, it’s just a matter of time before Eakins get his shot at the big time; sadly, it probably won’t happen here.

FOR GIVING CONDOS A KICK IN THE ASS

David Mirvish and Frank Gehry

There are plenty of good reasons to get excited about the trio of Mirvish-Gehry King West condo towers: They’ll offer a 60,000 square-foot (free!) museum, a giant learning centre for OCAD, and new housing in the heart of downtown. But here’s the real selling point: These towers aren’t typical glass boxes. They’re sculpture. And if you’re going to remake the city’s skyline, you might as well do it with art.

Next Page: More Menschies!

After endless discussion and many rounds of voting, the 2012 Polaris Music Prize was awarded to none other than our beloved Feist for her album Metals.

If you weren’t among the lucky few who scored a Golden Ticket to last night’s gala at the Masonic Temple, don’t fear. We’ve collected all the best highlights in this animated GIF gallery.

Best shirtless performance goes to…

Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham, who used this athletic manoeuvre to get back to his feet after his dramatic pratfall onto the Masonic Temple stage.

Next: Yamantaka // Sonic Titan do it for the fans

Club: Ted’s Wrecking Yard/Barcode, 549 College St.

Years in operation: 1997-2001

History: Ted Footman was no stranger to the stretch of College west of Bathurst when he set out to open second-floor venue Ted’s Wrecking Yard, with Barcode below it. Footman lived in the area, and had opened the nearby College Street Bar in the early 1990s. After splitting from his partner in that venture, Footman opened rock-bar hangout Ted’s Collision and Body Repair at 573 College in 1994. (It became known as simply Collision after Footman sold it.)

“Ted’s Collision was a bit of a shock for the neighbourhood,” Footman chuckles during a recent phone chat. “It was all supposed to be pasta and jazz, and all very quiet.”

For many of us living in the area—I rented on Brunswick, just north of College, for 17 years—Ted’s Collision was a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. What it wasn’t, despite Footman’s attempts, was a live-music venue. A 1995 City amendment to the area’s zoning by-law, ushered in by then-City Councillor Joe Pantalone, limited the size and “entertainment-type uses” of restaurants and lounges on College between Bathurst to Ossington, thus dashing Footman’s hopes of expanding Ted’s Collision to two floors.

Instead, Footman turned his attention to a two-floor spot at 549 College. Once home to a series of less-than-busy bars, the location had stood empty for some time.

“It was existing and licensed as a banquet hall, which meant it came with a liquor licence, so we were able to get around the new bylaw,” says Footman. “I thought, ‘Good—I’ll just take this existing place and do a much better live-music venue.’”

Ted’s Wrecking Yard and Barcode opened in July of 1997, with customers welcomed on both floors seven nights a week. Legal capacity was in the area of 200 people per floor. Of the name, Footman says: “Basically, if you can’t fix it over at Ted’s Collision, you go over to Wrecking Yard.

Courtesy of Ted Footman.

“Upstairs, Ted’s—as it said on the front door—was home of ‘Both kinds of music,’” Footman explains. “You could read that as ‘country and western’ or as ‘country and classical.’ Ted’s was the dark room, with loud rock ‘n’ roll and country, while Barcode downstairs was more of a terrazzo, a nice bright room—we did some classical shows that were really great. We once did Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto in the [adjacent] parking lot, but the rehearsals in the room were the most amazing thing.”

The brighter Barcode was a good spot to go read, grab a coffee, and generally hang out. The room, complete with a grand piano and round metal stage at the back, was filled with mismatched furniture and reclaimed materials before that became a codified College Street look.

A steep set of stairs took you up to Ted’s Wrecking Yard, a rectangular room painted black, with tire-track prints, rarely functioning toilets, a wooden floor, and a long bar running down one side. A set of couches looked out onto College while, at the south end of the room, behind a sizable stage, was a rarely used kitchen that acted mainly as the bands’ green room and impromptu jam space.

Footman had occasional run-ins with the city, especially as he was partly licensed as a restaurant, but didn’t often sell food.

“I tried with a French chef and had lobster and steak, but nobody trusted in it,” he says. “That didn’t work, so all we ended up with was a nut machine.

“I’d put bloody tables and chairs on the stage when I knew the City inspector was coming. He was pretty good; it was the City councillor who was trying to shut me down.”

The Barcode Stage. Photo: Courtesy of Ted Footman.

Why it was important: Footman’s fiery personality, coupled with his aesthetic and preference for live music rather than DJs, made Ted’s and Barcode stand out on the strip. The rooms became magnets for the many musicians, artists, and lovers of indie culture who’d moved to the area. Art was hung, super-8 film festivals took place, and readings were held.

“Ted’s was fresh; there was an innate excitement about the rough-and-tumble aesthetic that related to—or was even out front of—what was beginning to happen culturally and artistically in town,” says musician Jason Collett, who performed there in many contexts, and hosted his Radio Mondays songwriters’ showcase events there.

“Historically, Toronto has such conservative roots,” Collett adds. “Ted’s stuck its neck out and shook off some of that past. I think that resonated in the music scene and beyond.”

Upstairs, Ted’s featured live music seven nights per week. Sound was so-so (“we had an old CNE PA in there, so it was a bit rough,” Footman says), but the bookings were spirited. The club’s first booker was Paul Laventhol, former guitarist for British psychobilly band King Kurt who’d relocated to Toronto and next played in The Texas Dirt Fuckers. Both bands played at Ted’s, as did a bunch of rockin’ roots-based acts, including The Backstabbers, who hosted Dodgy Mountain Music Mayhem on Thursdays for a stretch.

Downstairs at Barcode, live music could be found a few nights each week, with Footman’s beloved classical concerts eventually giving way to Terry Wilkins’ and The Swing Gang’s Wednesday weekly, and a Thursday residency held down by Lori Yates’ band Hey Stella.

Hey Stella. Photo: Courtesy of Ted Footman.

The attention paid to Ted’s Wrecking Yard and Barcode picked up a great deal after Footman hired well-respected talent booker Yvonne Matsell in 1998, and gave her free rein.

“Ted’s Wrecking Yard was limping along as a local music bar [at the time],” recalls Matsell, who’d finished stints of booking for clubs including the Horseshoe Tavern, The Ultrasound, and Reverb.

“I didn’t have to conform to any musical genres, which gave me the ability to discover new talent and work with them, to build up an audience and gradually fill up the room.”

That she did. At a time when there weren’t a lot of quality venues prioritizing local indie acts, Matsell upgraded the sound system, took advantage of the room’s great stage and sightlines, and turned Ted’s into a showcase spot nurturing Toronto talent.

“Ted’s arrived just as the Toronto Renaissance did, and was the perfect mid-size room that the city needed,” enthuses Collett. “Ted was a real character and his bars reflected that, and with long-time booker Yvonne—the biggest sweetheart of a matron you could ever meet—they were a great team.”

Ted’s Wrecking Yard quickly became an indie haven. Acts like Collett, Feist, and Broken Social Scene—a band in which they were both members—played plenty in their early years.

“I love discovering new indie bands and helping them to climb the ladder, so that became a focus,” says Matsell. “Some other discoveries were Kathleen Edwards, The Weakerthans, The New Deal, Metric, Andy Stochansky, and Sarah Slean—all early in their careers. I was able to book bands there that created a really vibrant, thriving musical scene—a musical community, which is really important to stimulate creative juices in other new bands.”

Ted’s did help foster a culture of collaboration by providing a consistent place to play. Most influential local labels—like Teenage USA, Three Gut, Paper Bag, Blocks Recording Club, and Broken Social Scene’s Arts & Crafts—started up after Ted’s did, and most of their core acts graced that stage.

“For Broken Social Scene in the early days, it really felt like Ted’s was our venue, our scene,” says BSS co-founder Brendan Canning. “Looking back, it was important to feel some kind of ownership and be comfortable in a space where you were throwing a party for your friends. Like, ‘This is where we do what we do.’”

Canning estimates that BSS, in various incarnations, played seven or eight shows at Ted’s between 2000 and 2001.

“BSS once opened up a Ted’s show with a song called ‘The Stuck,’ which had such a long outro at the time, so the song probably went well over 10 or 12 minutes. Then we took a twenty-minute break. We all enjoyed that gag—Kevin [Drew’s] idea of course—an awful lot.

“Ted’s was also the first place where the Big Band all got together,” recalls Canning, who’s now busy with his recently revived Cookie Duster project and is writing the score to Paul Schrader’s film, The Canyons, starring Lindsay Lohan. “I can remember being choirmaster during the quiet moments of ‘It’s All Gonna Break‘ and thinking, this is really so much fun.”

“The Broken Social Scene shows were great,” enthuses Footman. “One night, Feist played downstairs with Peaches, and there must have been 20 people on the stage. It was so good; it went to three or four in the morning. I just locked the door, kept throwing beer at the band, and they kept playing.”

Broken Social Scene, in fact, played a number of their earliest shows as part of Wavelength, a genre-defying Sunday night showcase of underground music that launched at Ted’s Wrecking Yard on February 13, 2000 and ran there until October 21, 2001.

Inspired by nights like Sedated Sundays at the El Mocambo, ° (a.k.a. “Degrees”) at the Lion Club, and William New’s long-running Elvis Mondays, Wavelength was founded by a collective that included co-programmers and ‘zine co-editors Jonathan Bunce (a.k.a. Jonny Dovercourt) and Derek Westerholm (a.k.a. Paddy O’Donnell), fellow programmer Minesh Mandoda, Duncan MacDonell (a.k.a. emcee Doc Pickles), and a host of ‘zine contributors.

“The aim of Wavelength was to foster excitement around the local Toronto music scene, which at the time was pretty under-loved,” begins Bunce, who then also played in bands including Kid Sniper, Christiana, and Currently In These United States.

“This was pre-BSS, so there had really been no breakout successes from the local scene to put the city on the international music map. Though bands like The Deadly Snakes, Danko Jones, and Do Make Say Think were bubbling under, a lot of people still associated Toronto indie music with ‘wacky’ bands like Barenaked Ladies and Moxy Fruvous, or rootsier fare like the Lowest of the Low and Blue Rodeo. Most people with edgier, noisier, or more experimental musical tastes still glamourized bands from the U.S. and U.K.”

Each Sunday at Ted’s, Wavelength featured two live bands and a related scenester DJ who shared sounds ranging from noise-rock and free-jazz to indie-pop, shoegaze, math-rock and experimental electronic.

Mean Red Spiders backstage at Ted's. Photo: Courtesy of Wavelength.

Peruse Wavelength’s archive of early shows, and you’ll find band names like Do Make Say Think, Constantines, The Fembots, GUH, Manitoba (now Caribou), Russian Futurists, Mean Red Spiders, Picastro, Deep Dark United, and The Hidden Cameras.

“I was stocking the fridge before that Hidden Cameras show and saw a tall, nerdy looking guy [band leader Joel Gibb] cutting holes into white sheets,” recalls then bartender Stephanie Comilang.

“I asked if he needed help, and he said, ‘Sure.’ Later into the night, the band performed with these ghost costumes singing about golden showers and banning marriage. It was the best.”

Now a filmmaker living in Berlin, Comilang also occasionally did projections, including for Final Fantasy and the Singing Saw Shadow Show, on Sundays.

“Working Wavelength was really interesting,” she says. “I sort of blindly entered into a pretty small, but established DIY music community. Jonny Dovercourt and the Wavelength people fostered an environment that wasn’t known yet outside Toronto, or for that matter Canada. It’s where I saw Peaches doing Peaches, with dildos, rapping about nastiness, and not giving a shit that the room was empty. It’s where I came to know what the Toronto indie-music scene was.”

Two other favourite moments for Bunce: “Michael Snow playing in a trio with John Oswald and Eric Chenaux, and also screening his 1967 classic experimental film Wavelength. And Vancouver’s Dan Bejar playing solo at his first Toronto show, under the name Destroyer.

Adds Bunce: “Ted’s and Wavelength felt like the start of a new music movement on College, one that was unabashedly nerdy and eager to share.”

Ted’s Wrecking Yard helped establish an audience for other indie ventures in the neighbourhood. Soundscapes—the record store across the street opened by Greg Davis in 1999—had a Ted’s section, for example, while the originally tiny Big Chill served ice cream largely to big kids late into the night.

Ted’s became both a clubhouse for musicians (says Matsell: “The Blue Rodeo guys seemed to look at Ted’s as a second home—Bazil Donovan and Bob Egan would get their bus to drop them off at the venue when they got back from a tour”) and a key venue for bands to be seen and potentially signed.

Courtesy of Jason Collett.

Who else played/worked there: “Now, all the bands that were playing there are on the CBC all the time,” says Footman. “It’s kind of nice to hear, but when Yvonne first started booking them, bands would be in for weeks in a row. There’s be nobody there, then 10 people, then 15, a hundred, and then 300.”

A condensed list of folks who joined Jason Collett at his Radio Monday showcases further confirms Footman’s CBC statement: Jian Ghomeshi, Kurt Swinghammer, Andrew Cash, Luke Doucet, Hayden, Jose Contreras, Kathleen Edwards, Carolyn Mark, and future Dragonette frontwoman Martina Sorbara are just some of the songwriters booked in by Collett after he launched the series in April, 2001.

“Radio Monday was about putting five or so musicians in a half circle on stage, sharing songs and stories, and being purposefully informal so that we could approach a kind of domestic intimacy in a club,” explains Collett.

“The series served a unique social function for a burgeoning community of musicians interested in getting a closer look at what their peers were working on.” (Collett now produces the similarly minded Basement Revue series at The Dakota Tavern, and will release his fifth solo album, Reckon, Sept. 25 on Arts & Crafts.)

Ted’s grew to be such a popular spot that established bands were happy to do multi-night residencies. The Rheostatics played a number of such stints between 1999 and 2001.

“The biggest plus was that Ted’s was close to everyone’s homes,” says band co-founder Dave Bidini, whose parents grew up in Little Italy. “It was also upstairs, and upstairs clubs kinda rule, with music pouring into the streets. Footman was always loopy and easy to be around, and we could play pretty much as late and as long as we wanted. Some nights we didn’t stop till 3 a.m.”

The author and now leader of BidiniBand recalls, “Drummer Don Kerr’s last show with us was at the end of one of those runs. The Weakerthans had opened all seven shows, and, on the last night, we played for so long and were so loud and intense that we destroyed the sound system. Ted had to cancel a week of shows. We felt bad for that, in a way, but we were also sort of emboldened to have destroyed all that equipment. Also, crowds drank the bar dry pretty much every night and I know Ted really had to scramble and call in favours to keep it wet throughout the week.”

Yvonne Matsell also carries a number of Ted’s Wrecking Yard moments close to her heart.

“The Sadies’ New Years Eve shows were always brilliant fun,” she begins. “Richard Ashcroft of The Verve did his first solo showcase performance outside of the U.K. at Ted’s [in May 2000], with music press flying in from everywhere to cover the show. Richard was a major rock star at the time, but he was very down-to-earth.

“Sum 41, then very young, did a six-week residency of Tuesdays that went from a half-dozen attendees to packed-out nights. A&R men from the U.S. flew in to see and eventually sign them.

“I also remember a shy 15-year-old called Avril Lavigne being brought in by her then-managers to say, ‘Hello.’ She didn’t think I was very funny when I told her she couldn’t drink.”

As for other key staff at Ted’s and Barcode, bartenders included future weewerk label-head Phil Klygo, then just launching his Teenage USA Recordings imprint, and Kaili Glennon, now in country band The Pining. In-house sound techs Les Charbonne and Mark Finkelstein are mentioned fondly by Brendan Canning and others.

549 College St., circa 2005. Photo: Kate LeBlanc/Toronto Star.

What happened to it: Ted’s Wrecking Yard and Barcode were closed Oct. 24, 2001. On a related tip, the nearby El Mocambo had recently been sold to Abbas Jahangiri and it was believed he would convert that legendary Spadina club into a dance studio. As is documented in a number of articles from that time (including here and here), former El Mo booker Dan Burke had made contact with the leaseholder of 549 College, with plans to open “The El Mocambo on College.” When Footman was late on rent, chains were put on the club’s doors.

“Originally, they were going to do an El Mo room downstairs, and I was going to keep upstairs, but it didn’t work out like that,” shares Footman. “I was getting a bit older, so staying out till three or four in the morning probably wasn’t the best. It was an okay time to get back into architecture so, really, I wasn’t that bitter.”

In a twist of fate, Burke encountered resistance from the City and was never able to obtain a liquor licence with a permit to present live entertainment at that address. The El Mocambo, of course, remained a club in its original Spadina location; Yvonne Matsell has been its booker for the last decade.

Footman now runs his own architectural practice, doing “everything from heritage work to really modern projects.” He’s worked on libraries and houses, but has also left his stamp on more than a dozen restaurants and clubs, including The Social, 3-Speed, Reposado, and Woodlot. He ran for City council in 2010, but has no plans to run again. “This ward seems well taken care of with Mike Layton.”

549 College remained vacant for 10 years. Plans to convert it into boutique hotel Inn On College were never fully realized. It opened as an LCBO last December.

“Ted’s will always be the spiritual home of Wavelength,” says Jonathan Bunce, the Founding Director who helped lead the series to Lee’s Palace, then Sneaky Dee’s, and now into its current capacity as a more selective, site-specific, concert-promotion organization, hosting events like the recent ALL CAPS! Island Festival.

“I always felt a little glum when I passed by the building, and felt a strange satisfaction in it remaining vacant for the better part of a decade,” says Bunce. “In some ways, I’m glad that it became an LCBO; 549 College is still providing good cheer for the neighbourhood.”

Thank you to Brendan Canning, Dave Bidini, Jason Collett, Jonathan Bunce, Stephanie Comilang, Ted Footman, and Yvonne Matsell, as well as to Darrin Cappe (Rheostatics archivist), Heidi Krohnert and Kieran Roy at Arts & Crafts, and Stuart Berman.

Read the entire Then & Now series exploring Toronto nightlife history here at The Grid. Feedback can also be shared at Denise Benson’s related Facebook page.

It’s gearing up to be one helluva month for Matt Cully and Louis Calabro, two best buds known professionally as the Goin’ Steady DJs—although, with these dudes, I’m sure it’s cool if you stay on a first-name basis. When no one was looking, the Scarborough natives spearheaded two mega-successful party nights, and some spin-offs, that are about to hit hall-of-fame status within the mythology of Toronto nightlife. And no one was looking because they were all too busy dancing. It’s true: You can’t go to a Goin’ Steady-led jam without coming out the other end a dripping wet, mashed-potato’d mess. (And, trust me, it’s an entirely favourable outcome.)

Both Calabro and Cully are musical crusaders, with ties to all corners of the city’s metamorphosing arts scene. When he’s not sleuthing in record shops from here to Detroit by day or dropping way-back playbacks by night, Calabro works with the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television managing the Genie and Gemini Awards. Before that, he curated “The End of the Internet,” a performance series that attracted best-selling Canadian poet Christian Bök and absurdist composer Dan Deacon. (He’s also a published author, and can be found performing “action poetry” during, say, Nuit Blanche.) On the other end of arts spectrum, Cully cut his teeth as an independent DJ before iPods were even a thing. He went on to start Poor Pilgrim, a music series focussed on presenting the fringes of folk, noise and improvised music that just took over Toronto Island last weekend for its fifth edition. Along with his own night shift-ing on the decks, Cully works as the central nervous system (a.k.a. manager/composer) of the expansive musical collective Bruce Peninsula, and plans to record a debut solo record this fall.

The two champion a retro realness, with the goal of reviving a youthful musical “golden era.” After doing the house-party thing—like so many party people before/after them—the duo’s first splash of success came in 2005 with Goin’ Steady, when they teamed up with pal Wolfgang Nessel (who bid adieu in ’07) for a night of way-old-school jams—“from jump blues to doo-wop, swing to calypso, girl groups to surf and the weird and unseen world of American and international rock music”—that didn’t require big, booming, barely bearable clubs of the time. They’ve since jumped around from The Boat in Kensington to Footwork Bar, The Garrison, and Lee’s Palace. In many ways, I like to think of Goin’ Steady as one of the original nostalgia-tinged jams that began to offer the city’s westward, after-dark exodus something more. For Cully and Calabro, you can tell instantly that it’s always been about the music, and that they’ve never needed (or wanted) to rely on the cliché or kitsch, nor the “brand name” or the theatrics. And it shows. This Saturday (July 14), Goin’ Steady will scratch its seven-year itch with a big bash at The Gladstone Hotel. Later this month, Chronologic, a spin-off party of even older hits and newer generations, will celebrate its fifth anniversary.

In advance of the celebrations, I caught up with Louis Calabro to talk shop and talk about the days when Facebook was just a twinkle in a party promoter’s eyes.

It’s the seven-year anniversary of Goin’ Steady. Describe it in 60 seconds. Go.

We came up with a lot of other DIY parties in the early 2000s. We catered to the growing alternative dance scene that hated clubs but loved to dance. With Goin’ Steady, we wanted to capture the raw energy of the original punk music: ’50s and ’60s rhythm and blues. We dug deep into the past and started collecting a vast repertoire of soul, rock, and everything in between. We like to think that we’re outlining the whole history of pop music in each set.

You’re also known for a few other nights you organize. Tell me about those quickly.

In 2007, Matt and I started another party called Chronologic. We play music from every decade in order, from 1890 to 2012. That means Dvorak to Drake and everything else. Homework is our newest party—it launched this year and can be described as a survey of new American and U.K. dance music with an emphasis on future bass and house. Think xxxy, Danny Daze, Julio Bashmore, etc. Matt’s just celebrated the fifth edition of his Poor Pilgrim Island Show, which has become a magical tradition for the summer.

Aside from Goin’ Steady and your other regular nights, bring me back to the beginning.

Matt and I have always had a knack for throwing great parties. When we lived together during university in a house on McCaul Street, all of our parties were neighbourhood-famous. We would push our furniture against the walls to make a dance floor, set up turntables and invite all of the University of Toronto. I think we had 300-plus people the first time and our white linoleum floors were turned black from all the dancing.

When did you get into DJing? Do you have a “sound”?

In the early 2000s, Matt started a party called POSTMOD, which ran for a couple years at Labyrinth Lounge. Guest DJing that party was my first real gig, and I was really nervous. I was all over the map, playing Jeru the Damaja, Corey Hart, and Paul McCartney—in other words, I really didn’t really know how to work a crowd. Matt and I are both fans of pop music and weirdo stuff, and although we take our sets seriously, we also like including things like “OK Blue Jays,” or ’50s novelty jams about wiener parties.

How has the scene evolved since you started? What’s changed?

The “flavour of the month” attitude is still around in Toronto. For example, not many people who came to The Boat in 2005 still go there. Having lasting power as a party or venue becomes exceedingly difficult as the city grows. People no longer just request songs; they ask you if you will plug their iPhone in and play something on YouTube.

Has it gotten easier to get a crowd out? Harder?

We’ve been lucky that our crowd is loyal and always comes out in droves. We began the parties before Facebook and were used to promoting the old-fashioned way: postering the city and talking to people in the media and at record stores. These days, I fear Facebook is the only outlet that promoters use.

What’s been your most memorable moment/party so far?

Flirting with Rachel McAdams while trying to get her friend into The Boat was fun. Dealing with Ron Wood and Dan Aykroyd and their respective entourages at our second Goin’ Steady party ever. DJing at the abandoned hardware store before it became Parts & Labour was a jam; it was so dark you could hardly see anything. Playing Feist’s birthday party was also a highlight. Her crowd really responded to the left-field ’50s stuff we chose and they like Engelbert Humperdinck as much as we do.

Let’s talk about Toronto. What do you think is a nightlife strength we’ve got here?

It seems independent promoters are interested in giving people an experience along with a good show these days. Lots of unique spaces are being used for parties, like the basement of The Atlantic, the buildings on Sterling Road, pre-construction store-fronts in Parkdale. And the more we see what younger promoters are doing, the more we think the city is in good hands. We’re so happy that people who are just coming-of-drinking-age are open-minded and love to dance.

What could the city be doing better? What do you want to see more of in the 416 nightscape?

In the future, I hope the city eases up on the war they’ve waged against nightlife. The rigid capacity and alcohol laws are outdated and require review. Our city is so conservative it makes planning events more of a challenge, but maybe that’s what makes good parties so special.

When you’re not doing your own thing, what parties and places do you like to hit up?

Turning Point is such a hot time. The Mansion group is kind of on fire right now with their bookings. The Bellwoods Brewery has the most attractive clientele, so I go there often. The Red Light on Dundas West and the newly-opened Get Well is also swell.

What’s next?

I’m starting a music video–award prize, fashioned after the Polaris Prize, but for music videos. A call-for-entries should be issued by August. Matt is about to go to the Dawson City Music Festival next week and Sappyfest in August with his band Bruce Peninsula.

Goin’ Steady: The 7 Year Itch anniversary party happens this Saturday (July 14) at The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W., #WQW). Details are here. Chronologic: The 5th Anniversary happens July 28 at The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W., #DNW).

Remember that time we said Toronto was the best music city in the world? Well our case just got a little bit more convincing today, with the announcement of the Polaris Music Prize long list, revealed today at a ceremony in Vancouver.

Canada’s finest music critics (several of whom work in our office) voted an amazing total of 12 albums by Toronto artists onto the 40-album list. Naturally, Toronto’s haul is the most of any city in Canada.

The list contains the recent works by many of the city’s most visible stars, like Drake’s Take Care, Feist’s Metals, Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life and The Weeknd’s Echoes of Silence. Toronto’s long-listed artists also include: Great Lake Swimmers, Sandro Perri, Cold Specks, Bahamas, Azari & III, Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, The Slakadeliqs and Lindi Ortega. If all goes according to plan, the Polaris short list (which will be revealed here in town on July 17) could be comprised entirely of artists from the GTA. What are the odds of that?

Here’s the complete 2012 Polaris Music Prize long list:

A Tribe Called Red: A Tribe Called Red

Marie-Pierre Arthur: Aux alentours

Rich Aucoin: We’re All Dying To Live

Avec pas d’casque: Astronomie

Azari & III: Azari & III

Bahamas: Barchords

The Barr Brothers: The Barr Brothers

Blackie And The Rodeo Kings: Kings And Queens

Cadence Weapon: Hope In Dirt City

Kathryn Calder: Bright And Vivid

Cannon Bros: Firecracker / Cloudglow

Coeur de pirate: Blonde

Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas

Cold Specks: I Predict A Graceful Expulsion

Rose Cousins: We Have Made A Spark

Mark Davis: Eliminate The Toxins

Drake: Take Care

Kathleen Edwards: Voyageur

Feist: Metals

Fucked Up: David Comes To Life

Great Lake Swimmers: New Wild Everywhere

Grimes: Visions

Handsome Furs: Sound Kapital

Japandroids: Celebration Rock

Dan Mangan: Oh Fortune

Mares Of Thrace: The Pilgrimage

Ariane Moffatt: MA

Lindi Ortega: Little Red Boots

Parlovr: Kook Soul

Sandro Perri: Impossible Spaces

Joel Plaskett Emergency: Scrappy Happiness

PS I Love You: Death Dreams

John K. Samson: Provincial

Shooting Guns: Born To Deal In Magic: 1952-1976

The Slakadeliqs: The Other Side of Tomorrow

Patrick Watson: Adventures In Your Own Backyard

Bry Webb: Provider

The Weeknd: Echoes of Silence

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan: YT//ST

Yukon Blonde: Tiger Talk

Listen to this playlist right now via Rdio:

1. “Disco 2000,” Pulp’s anticipatorily nostalgic 1995 hit single.

2. Robin Gibb’s plaintive new-wave nugget, “Juliet.”

3. The Bee Gees’ “Islands in the Stream,” performed by Feist + The Constantines.

4. Double the diva in “No More Tears (Enough is Enough),” Donna Summer’s duet with Barbra Streisand.

5. Metric’s thematically appropriate “Dead Disco.”

TRENDING UP

1. A report on the conduct of the RCMP during 2010′s G20 summit found the Mounties acted reasonably.

2. Feist has reissued her out-of-print debut album, 1999′s Monarch: Lay Your Jewelled Head Down, on vinyl.

3. In other out-of-print news, The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, released in 1968 (the DVD version has been out of print since 1999), is coming to a theatre near you!

TRENDING DOWN

1. Facing a $58 million deficit, the TDSB may close cafeterias, classrooms, and raise fees for groups to use schools outside class time.

2. If Toronto ever gets that casino that Mayor Rob Ford is gunning for, Woodbine Racetrack could face major problems: Without its slot machines, Woodbine wouldn’t be able to survive, says the vice-president of corporate affairs for Woodbine Entertainment Group. And that would mean 6,000 jobs lost. And that would be ironic.

3. Chris Bosh is out indefinitely with a strained abdomen.

CORRECTION, MAY 14, 2012: The original version of this article listed the TDSB’s deficit as $58 billion. The Grid regrets the error.

For fans of inspired, earnest rock ‘n’ roll the upcoming two-night stand at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre featuring the Joel Plaskett Emergency and Frank Turner can’t come soon enough. Tickets for the shows—happening May 18 and 19—are down to the shorts straws, and for good reason. Plaskett’s new album, Scrappy Happiness, is his most satisfying in a while and Turner has become a modern-day town crier with guitar. Last month, he played Wembley Areana in London and was bestowed the ultimate honour of having Billy Bragg open the evening.

MORE MERMAID!

Speaking of Bragg, he’s headed our way for a couple of festival dates in July. On July 4, he’s in Ottawa for Bluesfest and then hits the Toronto area for set at this year’s Mariposa Festival July 6- 8 in Orillia. And fans of Bragg’s and Wilco‘s Woody Guthrie project Mermaid Avenue, listen up: A new package, Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions includes both volumes one and two of the series, which saw the artists putting music to unearthed Guthrie lyrics. Volume one is my 11th-favourite album of all time and a must for any fan of Dylan, folk-rock, unions, and love. The new release includes a third set of unreleased tunes that is far superior to Volume Two, while The Making of Mermaid Avenue documentry shows the tension between Bragg and Wilco that fuelled the albums’ creation. Also included are all lyrics, some great photos of the Guthrie family, and liner notes from Woody’s daughter Nora, who spearheaded the whole thing back in 1998. And Wilco have released their summer tour dates and, with no local date on the schedule, the most feasible road trip looks to be Aug. 3 in Rochester, NY at the Highland Bowl, with support from Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth.

CAMOUFLAGE LP COMES OUT OF HIDING

Prior to going solo, Joel Plaskett was a member of 1990s Halifax scene-setters Thrush Hermit. The two other creative forces in the band, Rob Benvie and Ian McGettigan, have been fronting electro-rock band Camouflage Nights for some years now and, while both have been busy with other recording and producing projects, they found the groove they were looking for with a recently released debut full-lengther featuring contributions from friends Buck 65, Feist, and Chris Murphy.

DONT FEAR FUN

The drummer-turned-frontman discussion just got a lot more interesting. J Tillman, former stickman for the Fleet Foxes, released solo records during his tenure with the band, but nothing hinted at what he’s served up for his new record. Under the name Father John Misty, Tillman has released Fear Fun. Self described as “modern American popular song,” it’s as elaborate, sprawling, and raw yet elegant a collection as we’ve hard this year, and the perfect complement to his former mates’ recordings. And along with the music are packaging and line-note musings that make the physical copy a must-own. Tillman brings Father John to town next Monday at the Horseshoe.

LOVE IS ALL AROUND

Just two years after forming in Los Angeles, animated indie-pop band Grouplove has parlayed the use of their song “Tongue Tied” in an iPod Touch commercial to reach a much wider audience. The band return to town this Wednesday (May 9) for a sold-out show at Wrongbar. Prior to the show, the band will stop by 102.1 The Edge’s Sugar Beach studio for a live perfromance at 7 p.m. All are welcome.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word—unless you’re a pop artist. LMFAO, those purveyors of bacchanalian dance-floor anthems, recently released a video for their track “Sorry for Party Rocking,” easily the only apology primarily composed of laser synths and a farting bassline. Clearly, not all apologies are created equal. We’ve mapped out the spectrum of musical mea culpas to see which ones miss the mark.

Click here for a hi-res look at our Sorry Sincerity Chart.