Ichi-Bons w/ Queens & Kings @ Monarch Tavern, Saturday

Those Ichi-Bons are back rockin' up a storm at the Monarch Tavern with Queens & Kings opening at 8 pm.

Tickets for the Ichi-Bons show at the Monarch Tavern tonight are $22.50 advance. Get 'em quick right here. 

Cheater Slicks, Retail Simps, Thee Terrible Threes @ Monarch Tavern, August 11

Those house-wreckin' Cheater Slicks return to Toronto for a blowout with Thine Retail Simps & Thee Terrible Threes on Tuesday!

Here's the scoop...

CHEATER SLICKS are back in Toronto to play the Monarch Tavern on August 11th!

Without a doubt, CHEATER SLICKS are among the most abrasive and confrontational band that “rock” music has yielded over the past four decades. Brutal, noisy, misanthropic, unfiltered and utterly delightful, they are legends of playing loud and taking no prisoners.

They’re out on the road with the ever elusive THINE RETAIL SIMPS, Montreal’s mischievous garage rock miscreants. Much indebted to the path carved by the likes of CHEATER SLICKS, THA SIMPS take no prisoners.

And newly added, we've got THEE TERRIBLE THREES, the self described "Toronto's Worst Garage Punk Unknowns." A band that's ready to remind you that the guitar was a weapon meant to be wielded on Spadina Avenue. 

Advance tickets for The Cheater Slicks with Montreal's Retail Simps and Toronto's Thee Terrible Threes at The Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St.) on Tuesday, August 11 (doors at 7 pm)  are $30.73 and available via Dice right here. 

Kentucky's All Seeing Eyes, Equator, Lunchmeat @ The Monarch Tavern, June 13

Soledad Brothers fans should check out that Johnny Walker's All Seeing Eyes are putting down at the Monarch Tavern on June 13.

All Seeing Eyes, Equator, Lunchmeat

at The Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton St) 

Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm

Tickets: $20 advance

The All Seeing Eyes

Born of a parade, the All Seeing Eyes are the pride of Dayton, Kentucky. The three-piece of multi-instrumentalists developed into the house band at Masonic Sounds Studios in that Kentucky river town. Housed in a Free Mason Blue Lodge, they created the new LP “In Us We Trust”, now available on Mauvias Foi Records (available via Bandcamp right here). The trio was recently defined as “the MC5 of the country blues” by Tav Falco, in the truest of descriptors.

Trone des Fleur, their second LP, is a brilliant follow-up to their debut and is set to explode.

Johnny Walker fronts the band, playing harmonica and guitar.  He is the progenitor of the Soledad Brothers, Pearlene, and Cut in the Hill Gang who has toured singing for MC5/DKT. It should be noted that Walker has done session work with the White Stripes, the Detroit Cobras, the Greenhornes, Low Cut Connie and James Leg, and dozens more. Walker has also been championed by noted DJs John Peel and John Sinclair.  Kane Kitchen (bass) has been keeping time for Barrance Whitfield and Savages and alt-country singer Jeremy Pinnell. Lance “Lucky” Kaufman is a multi-instrumentalist playing drums and singing for the All-Seeing Eyes. Lucky has toured the world with his trad-rockabilly band, the Star Devils, his collaboration with Cut in the Hill Gang as well as lending his talents to many session recordings and many other bands.

The All-Seeing Eyes was formed to play a party on a parade route for the largest annual celebration in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was quickly realized that the trio could fill the role as house musicians for Walker’s newly established recording studio, Masonic Sounds Studios, across the Ohio river. The All Seeing Eyes began writing and recording their LP in earnest while working in and recording for various artists in the Masonic Sounds Studios. They have played extensively in the Midwest and South of the United States, the UK, and France.

The bands live set has been showcased warming up for Jon Spencer, the Cobras, the Demolition Doll Rods, Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds,Dead Weather, Cedrick Burnside, Tav Falco, CATL, the Melvins, and so on.  They have managed to play over 60 shows a year, in spite of Walkers professional obligations as a psychiatrist and MD. The All-Seeing Eyes will be performing at Blues, Psych Rock and Garage Festivals all over the US and Europe in 2026 with a stop in Toronto for a show at the Monarch Tavern with Equator and Lunchmeat on Saturday, June 13. Advance tickets are $20 online @ Leap (Showclix) here. 

Check out the All Seeing Eyes below...

 

Brown Horse @ The Monarch Tavern, Saturday

Promising UK country rockers Brown Horse hit the Monarch Tavern with the well-crafted songs from their Total Dive album out now. Doors at 7 pm!

Here's the scoop...

Brown Horse is a Norwich-based country rock band. Rooted in a collaborative approach to songwriting, the six-piece mix guitar-driven 90s alternative rock with the folk and country sounds of the 70s.

In April 2026 Brown Horse released their third album Total Dive on Loose Records. Their strongest and most grounded work to date, it showcases a new level of skill and assurance in the Norwich band’s thoughtful lyricism and musicality. Leaning away from the playfulness and eclecticism of their previous works, Total Dive sees Brown Horse step forward into the darkness with a cautious optimism. With songs from each of the four members (Patrick Turner, Nyle Holihan, Emma Tovell and Rowan Braham) the writing charts a world of small revelations and painful changes. As they move confidently between searing noise and delicate reflection, Brown Horse take time to note the beauty and agony of the mundane; the death rattle of a vending machine, headlights flashing in the eyes of a road-killed fox, the heather-pink of a winter sky. 

The new album is the clearest expression yet of Brown Horse’s unique sound - somewhere between Jay Farrar's darker impulses of Uncle Tupelo's country rock, the raw intimacy of early Cat Power, and the haunted landscapes of Magnolia Electric Co., while embracing the self-possessed noisiness of alt rock trailblazers like Built to Spill and The Breeders. Bolstered by the playing of Norwich drummer, Ben Rodwell, and the vocal harmonies of Leeds-based musician, Neve Cariad, Total Dive is the sound of a band coming fully into their own. These are songs inhabited by wide Norfolk skies, thousands of shared miles on the road, the noise of heartbreak and humour, and the echoing silence of long hours spent in strange in-between places.

Tickets for Brown Horse's much-anticipated Toronto show at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) tonight (Saturday, May 16) are $27.75 and available here. Doors open at 7 pm. Check out a couple of Brown Horse's videos after the impressive title track from their Total Dive album below.   

Béton Armé, Bruiserweight, Ancient Greece, Charade @ Monarch Tavern, Friday

Montreal's Béton Armé headlines a Not Dead Yet punk/metal barrage with Bruiserweight, Ancient Greece & Charade tonight at 7:30 pm. 

Tickets for Béton Armé's show at the Monarch Tavern tonight are $27.82 and momentarily available right here.

Gaijin Smash shares new video for "Mountain" in advance of Monarch Tavern gig

Gaijin Smash will be joined by Chinese Medicine & Ether Girls at the Monarch Tavern March 14. Watch the video for "Mountain"

From Gaijin Smash HQ... 

"The official music video for Mountain is out today. Filmed in London, UK by director Sam Harding with additional live footage in Toronto by Primal Note Productions. Hug."

Tickets for the Gaijin Smash, Chinese Medicine, Ether Girls show at the Monarch Tavern on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 pm are $22 advance and available right here. Watch the "Mountain" clip below. 

 

Sundecay previews new album with "Here Comes The Wizard"

The new album from Toronto's Sundecay, The Blood Lives Again, is out February 13th. Catch 'em live at Monarch Tavern on Friday.

Here's the scoop...

Sundecay’s third studio release, The Blood Lives Again, warns of tyranny and corruption while contemplating legacy and disillusionment. Their lumbering persistent march into the deep recesses of dread bring us to the furthest reaches of the doom genre constantly bellowing over the edge of darkness with gut wrenching tones from string, throat and skins. The Blood Lives Again takes us ever deeper into the relentless fever dream that defines Sundecay.

You can pre-order a copy of Sundecay's forthcoming album The Blood Lives Again via Bandcamp right here. They rock the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) with Space Pope and Grand Malheur on Friday (November 21). Doors open at 7 pm. Get tickets right here. Check out the video for "Here Comes The Wizard" below. 
 

The Courettes return to rock The Monarch with Mark Malibu, September 23

The Courettes are coming back for a sweaty Tuesday soiree w/ Mark Malibu & The Wasagas opening – get tickets right here,

LINKS

Philthy Mag The Courettes on Album 5

Bob Log III, Boy Wonder @ The Monarch Tavern, Sunday

Don't miss one-man-band Bob Log III tearin' it up at the Monarch – there may be balloons and a rubber duck involved. Tickets here.

Ichi-Bons, Kewpie Dolls @ Monarch Tavern, Saturday

Saturday's Monarch Tavern throwdown featuring Toronto's Ichi-Bons & Kewpie Dolls is now sold out. Check the clips. 

Catl, All Seeing Eyes, Shook Boys @ Monarch Tavern, January 25

Catl will be joined by Kentucky's All Seeing Eyes (feat. Johnny Walker) in a jukejoint blowout at the Monarch. Get tix here.

Johnny Walker's All Seeing Eyes joins Catl @ Monarch Tavern, January 25

Tickets are now on sale for Catl's jukejoint throwdown with Kentucky's All Seeing Eyes and the Shook Boys  on January 25.

Get tickets via Showclix right here: https://www.showclix.com/event/catl-all-seeing-eyes-shook-boys

Kewpie Dolls & Thee Rogue Telstars @ Monarch Tavern, Thursday

Toronto's Kewpie Dolls are joined by Thee Rogue Telstars in a teen trash double bill with DJ Hideki spinning vinyl between sets!

Check out the Kewpie Dolls "Bad Boy Mine" seven-inch right here and Thee Rogue Telstars' "To The Moon" here.

Get tickets for the Kewpie Dolls & Thee Rogue Telstars double 7" release party right here. 

Tokyo's Zoobombs rock the Monarch, Thursday

Don't miss Don Matsuo and his Zoobombs crew tear it up in T.O. Get tickets here. And grab a copy of The Best, 1994-2024. 

Japan's Zoobombs return to Canada for 30th Anniversary tour

Don Matsuo and his Zoobombs crew hit the Monarch Tavern on Thursday (Nov 28) as part of their 30th Anniversary victory lap. Don't miss it!  

Here's the scoop from promoter Dan Burke...

Japan's Zoobombs – one of the greatest bands I've ever worked with – return to Toronto for a show at Monarch Tavern on Thursday (November 28)  as part of their 30th anniversary tour and upcoming release of "Best Of Zoobombs" vinyl LP.

Advance TICKETS just $18.50 online via Showclix right here. 

TOUR DATES also include...

HAMILTON 11/21 @casbahgram w/ @blandlordmusic 

OTTAWA 11/22 @houseoftarg w/ The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, @theshookboys 

QUEBEC CITY 11/23 @ Le Knock Out 

MONTREAL 11/27 @bar_lesco

w/ @shunkland , @lastwaltzon (presented by @popmontreal )

OSHAWA 11/29 @theatria_on w/ @shamfamilyshamfamily , @beefboysband 

LONDON 11/30 - venue TBA

Poster by David Kleiser @nation_of_kleisonia. 

Watch a recent Zoobombs performance of "Doo-Bee" followed by a clip of a Toronto music fest showcase shot by Mitch Fillion for Southern Souls below. 

U.I.C. rocks the Monarch Tavern, March 9

Don't miss U.I.C. at the Monarch with Mark Malibu & The Wasagas and Drums Along the Gardiner. Check the clips. 

Montreal's Steel Saddle w/ Roy, Rogue Tenant @ Monarch Tavern, Thursday

Montreal country crew Steel Saddle are back for another pickin' party at the Monarch with Roy and Rogue Tenant. Doors at 8pm. 

Get tickets for Steel Saddle's show at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) right here. 

One For The Weekend: Margo Cilker

Pacific Northwest-based singer/songwriter Margo Cilker plays the Monarch Tavern on Oct. 17. Listen to "Santa Rosa" & "Chesters"

Get tickets for Margo Cilker's Toronto debut at the Monarch Tavern here. Get her new album over there.

Bloodshot Bill, Bad Fortunes rock the Monarch Tavern, Sunday

Big venues or small, Bloodshot Bill wrecks 'em all! See him in action tonight: Bad Fortunes (8:15pm), Bloodshot Bill (9:15pm).

Get tickets for Bloodshot Bill's show at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton) here. But maybe keep your fashion tips to yourself. 

Japan's Bo Ningen tear up the Monarch Tavern, Wednesday

Japanese psych-rockers Bo Ningen will be joined by Biblical & Stillwaves at the Monarch Tavern on Wednesday. Get tickets here.