Name:

Miserable Weekend

Genre:

Softcore Punk

Founded:

2019

# of Albums:

3

Latest Album:

We’re Just Like You

Latest Single:

Chordada

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Adrian: John Paul Jones.
Mitch: John Bonham.
Andrew: Munky.
Pavel: David Gilmour.
Cecil: Nat King Cole

Favourite musician now:

Ad: Micheal Becker.
M: Cindy Lee.
An: Ari Hoenig.
P: Skinshape.
C: Prison Affair

Guilty pleasure song:

Ad: What’s Up? – 4 Non Blondes.
M: I Touch Myself – The Divinyls.
An: Deliverance – Opeth.
P: Believe In Yourself – The Creatures.
C: MacArthur Park – Richard Harris

Live show ritual:

We huddle in a circle, we chant an invocation to the old gods, shake each other’s hands firmly and hydrate.

Favourite local musician:

Zones, Luge, Slash Need, Aniqa Dear, C’est La Fete, Essie Watts, not a band, Forming, High Alpine Hut Network, B.A Johnston

EP or LP?

EP’s are fun because two of them make an LP!

Early bird or night owl?

Depends on whether we have work in the morning

Road or studio?

Layin’ tracks is fun, but there’s nothing like going on an adventure with your buds!

Any shows or albums coming up?

Our new EP ‘We’re Just Like You.’

Where can we follow you?

Bandcamp | Instagram

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Pho Linh for pre-show vermicelli

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Shaw Street, the North-South expressway of choice for West Toronto cyclists.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

Bickford Park is always full of life. The dog park provides plenty of free entertainment, and in summer evenings, bats swoop over your head to eat mosquitoes. Saw a hawk teach its fledgling how to fly here once, very cool!

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Seen so many amazing shows at the Danforth Music Hall, would be awesome to play there one day. But for local shows, Handlebar feels like home.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Paul’s Boutique! Their retro synth collection is miraculous.

The post Five Minutes With: Punk Band Miserable Weekend appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

His debut single, “Frankenstein,” dropped on November 18, 2025, captures that signature duality: bright, surf-infused guitars and dreamlike textures wrapped around lyrics that explore loneliness, longing, and the search for connection. It’s upbeat and nostalgic on the surface, yet quietly aching underneath, a song about the push and pull of a love that leaves you chasing ghosts and wondering what was real.

With influences stretching from Beach House’s ethereal haze to Dick Dale’s surf energy, Echo the Screen crafts a sound that feels like summer through a cracked lens, lush, bittersweet, and deeply human. Collaborating with Grammy Award-winning Patrick Kehrier (mixing/mastering), Ethan Conway (vocals), and Chris McQueen of Snarky Puppy (instrumentation), the project blends polish with vulnerability.

For Echo, music is both an anchor and a compass. It’s how he channels the noise of ADHD, anxiety, and self-doubt into something clear and deliberate. Each song is a small act of translation, taking the unspoken and giving it shape. Like Frankenstein, his work reflects a constant effort to piece together feeling and identity, creating something honest from the mess of experience.

Echo the Screen is both an artist and an idea. Echo is the individual, but “echoing the screen” is the mission: to carry the creativity, ideals, and wonder from behind the glass and into the real world, where stories can move, evolve, and live beyond their reflection.

Name:

Echo the Screen

Genre:

Indie Pop

Founded:

April 2025

Latest Single:

Frankenstein (Surf/Indie Pop)

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

My parents, and by extension my family’s, favourite musicians have always been exclusively David Bowie and The Beatles. So you can probably guess at their disappointment when I became a hardcore fan of Imagine Dragons. They were one of my first concerts, and I really loved the kind of music they were putting out. I still do! It’s super catchy and motivating, and I’ve always loved how they did cool collaborations with other artists and brands.

Favourite musician now:

My favourite right now would probably be Grandson. He’s such a talented guy, especially when it comes to making moving rock music. He makes really catchy stuff, but he’s also very politically active. His songs are always loaded with themes around class struggles and solidarity, which I really think we don’t hear enough of in music these days.

Guilty pleasure song:

I don’t love the term guilty pleasure, to be honest. I think when it comes to anything creative, people can own what they like, and we really don’t need to be judging ourselves based on what we consume (within reason of course). That being said, I do have a K-pop song I love that usually surprises people since they don’t associate that genre with me at all. It’s “Girl Front” by LOONA. It’s so fire. It’s super catchy and upbeat, and it’s got this breakcore-style piano in it too. It just scratches my brain in a fun way.

Live show ritual:

I haven’t actually played any live shows just yet! Once I do get out there and establish a routine, I promise the Toronto Guardian will be the very first to know about it.

Favourite local musician:

This is a tough one! I think I’ll name a couple if that’s alright, one on the bigger side and one that’s a bit more niche. First off, Alessia Cara. She’s just such a talented songwriter and vocalist. When “Scars to Your Beautiful” came out, I had that on repeat for so long. The other artist I’ll name is a group called Studio Mahilo. They’re a super-talented indie rock group, and I’ve actually met them a few times through my university program. I’m really hoping I can do a collab with them one day!

EP or LP?

I don’t strictly have a preference here, but if I had to choose, I’d go with the LP. If I’m listening to something and it’s got awesome tracks, I just want more of them. More good music is always better than less.

Early bird or night owl?

I used to be way more of a night owl, but I’ve recently fixed my sleep schedule, mostly because of university. I’m definitely a morning person now. I love getting up early to hit the gym, get to class, or jump straight into my music. I find I’m way more focused in the early hours, and I really like the sense of control it gives me over my life.

Road or studio?

I haven’t actually toured yet, so I’m gonna have to choose the studio by default. I just love going in with an idea and collaborating a ton with people to see where it ends up. The TMU facilities have been super good for that (shameless shoutout to my school), and there’s no end of talented people to work with here in Toronto!

Any shows or albums coming up?

I don’t have any shows planned just yet, but I’ve got some exciting stuff on the way. I’ll be releasing three more singles over the next few months and wrapping them all up into an EP. So definitely keep an eye out for those! In the meantime, I’d really love it if you checked out my most recent single, Frankenstein. I’d really appreciate the listen.

Where can we follow you?

YouTube | Instagram | TikTok

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Butter Chicken Factory is amazing. It’s such a funny name, but the food is super good and affordable. You’ve gotta get the Palak Paneer, Garlic Naan, and the Butter Chicken (of course!)

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

I absolutely love Yonge Street. It’s just so busy all the time, with a ton of interesting things to do and people to see. It’s really pretty down by Sankofa Square (formerly Dundas Square). I’ve walked the stretch from TMU to Union Station a bunch of times, and honestly, it’s always a treat.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

I adore Allan Gardens quite a bit. It’s very close to TMU and where I live. It’s really big, and it’s got all those exotic plants in the big greenhouse. It also has a more personal connection for me because it’s where I filmed the visualizer for my song Frankenstein! It’s always gonna hold a special place in my heart because of that.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

It might be a bit of a basic answer, but it’s definitely Massey Hall. What a venue! There have been so many amazing shows there, and there’ll continue to be amazing shows long after I’m gone. It’s such a significant landmark, not just for musicians, but for the city itself. It’s amazing!

What is your favourite music store in your city?

This is an easy one. Sonic Boom is my favourite by far. It’s a ginormous store with all kinds of records, CDs, and cassettes. They’ve got tons of cool merch as well, and they’re always playing fantastic music. I actually had a “mid” date there once, but that’s beside the point. You definitely need to check it out!

The post Five Minutes With: Indie Pop Musician Echo the Screen appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The project’s first milestone was the release of its first two singles, “The Waiting” and “January Bird Calls,” which were released in August, 2016. Both of these singles were later re-recorded and featured on Grotoko’s first album, entitled We All Fall Down, which was released in July of 2017.

In January 2020, Grotoko toured Western Canada alongside Winnipeg punk rocker, Greg Rekus, shortly before being forced into a hiatus by Covid-19.

After the lengthy challenge navigating a recording process through a pandemic, alongside other obstacles, Grotoko’s second album, entitled Periwinkle, was finally released on December 16th, 2022. The project continues to perform across Canada year after year, and is currently beginning the recording process for the next album, entitled All of the Flowers are Dead.

Name:

The project name is Grotoko. My name as a human being is Blue McLeod.

Genre:

Art rock/Pop Punk/Baroque pop/Alternative

Founded:

2016

# of Albums:

Two (We All Fall Down and Periwinkle)

Latest Album:

Periwinkle (Which was released in December 2022)

Latest Single:

Who Killed Rosallie

Latest Video: 

Favourite musician growing up:

Rise Against

Favourite musician now:

Glockabelle or Mischief Brew

Guilty pleasure song:

Chicken Talk by Richie Kavanagh, because I just cannot get over the chorus, and I still think it would slap as a punk rock cover, despite nobody agreeing with me.

Live show ritual:

I set up equipment, get some water or non-alcoholic beer, and then tune my instrument(s) for an unreasonable amount of time before going on stage.

Favourite local musician:

This is a very difficult question to answer. A lot of them are tied as my favourites. I think I would still have to choose Greg Rekus, even though I’m in his backing band now. Some other favourites of mine are the Secret Beach, On Purpose, Perception Check, Borrowed Standards, and Housepanther.

EP or LP?

LP.

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird. I am up at 4 am every day, mixing demos, drawing, or attempting to do something creative before my day job.

Road or studio?

A bit of both whenever possible. Like many other musicians and artists, the time I spend on the road or in a studio is incredibly limited by my day job and budget, but there’s absolutely nothing I enjoy more than getting out of Winnipeg to tour. As well, I find working in a studio – especially with other people who are open to crazy ideas – incredibly fun.

Any shows or albums coming up?

Grotoko will be playing on April 4th, 2026, at Park Alleys in Winnipeg. I plan on doing some sort of solo tour over the summer, and have had the next two albums on a back burner for quite some time, both of which I’m very excited about. I hope to have some new music out next year, but I’m not ready to promise a date just yet.

Where can we follow you?

You can follow the project on Instagram or Facebook, which is where you can find the most updates. My social media handle for both is @grotokomusic. You can also download my music for a price you name through Bandcamp, where occasionally I post updates as well, although not nearly as often as on Instagram or Facebook. You can find all of these links, as well as other music-related links, on my website.

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Gohe Ethiopian Restaurant

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Osborne Street because it’s generally one of the places you would find street musicians back in the day, as well as a good handful of restaurants and venues.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

The first location that comes to mind (and I don’t know if I could really consider it a park) is Gibraltar Playground. I used to go for long walks with a notepad and recording device when I was a teenager, and I would often go to playgrounds during my walks and sit on the swings to work on ideas. One of the playgrounds I enjoyed writing at the most was Gibraltar Playground. It had a set of toy chimes, and occasionally the wind would blow through the chimes and hit notes that would trigger ideas. This location has a bit of a special place in my heart because it’s where I started writing the first-ever Grotoko song, which was called “Playground”.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Probably Park Alleys or Sidestage. I really enjoy playing smaller venues, especially ones with greenrooms, good non-alcoholic options, and top-notch staff.

What is your favourite music store in your city?

I don’t really have a favourite music store anymore. We’ve lost a few music stores in Winnipeg, so the options have been narrowed down. In terms of instruments, I tend to go to either Long & McQuade or St. John’s Music. In terms of records, I usually just buy directly from the artist at shows or on their websites. A record store that I do miss, though, is Vinyl Revival, which was a record store that, if I remember correctly, was also sort of a café that would have open mics, songwriting circles, and music lessons. It was owned by my friend, Darren Sawchuk, who was always incredibly supportive of local music. He unfortunately passed away from cancer, and his record store seemed to disappear shortly afterwards, but I could undoubtedly call Vinyl Revival my favourite record store of all time. It was a great place, and I had some good memories there.

The post Five Minutes With: Art-Rock Project Grotoko appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

“Ripped Blue Jeans” channels the late-’90s sense of freedom that defined a generation: cracked sidewalks, sticker-covered guitars, the mix of sweat and stale beer in community-hall venues, and endless summer nights when the world still felt small enough to imagine an escape. It’s music shaped by lived experience, recalling the DIY spaces and friendships that formed around shows, road trips, and shared mixtapes.

Formed in 2017, Wasting Time have steadily carved out a catalogue built on melody, sincerity, and consistency. Across five EPs, three full-length albums, and a run of singles, the band has earned a reputation for carrying forward the emotional core of melodic punk, drawing natural comparisons to Alkaline Trio, No Use for a Name, MxPx, Blink-182, and Green Day. Their most recent album, Hurry Up and Wait, solidified their place as one of Canada’s most dependable standard-bearers of the genre, and “Ripped Blue Jeans” continues that trajectory.

Mixed and mastered by Matt Gauthier at Arc Studios, the single offers the first glimpse of Wasting Time’s forthcoming full-length, Are You Out Of Your God Damn Mind?, due in the new year. The production balances polish with grit, letting the hooks shine while preserving the rawness that has always defined the band’s sound.

The song hums with the spirit of a pre-algorithm era, when discovery meant burning mix CDs, flipping through liner notes, or catching a new band between Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks. You can almost picture the baggy Dickies, chain wallets, and flannel shirts tied around waists. It’s a nod to every kid who scrawled lyrics in the margins of a school binder or fell asleep with Dookie on repeat. Wasting Time captures that pulse without leaning on imitation—this isn’t nostalgia for its own sake, but a reminder of why those songs mattered in the first place.

Name:

Wasting Time

Genre:

Melodic Punk Rock / Pop Punk

Founded:

2017

# of Albums:

2 full-lengths + multiple EPs & singles

Latest Album:

Once More Without Feeling

Latest Single:

“Ripped Blue Jeans”

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Billie Joe Armstrong

Favourite musician now:

Matt Skiba

Guilty pleasure song:

“Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette, not even guilty pleasure, just a good ol banger.

Live show ritual:

Quick stretch, make a few “but what about?” (Insert pun) jokes, slam some water, check pedalboard 14 times, then say “don’t fuck up” in the mirror.

Favourite local musician:

Your Pal Bill, The Mendozaz, Doghouse Rose, Debt Cemetery, Sixteen Scandals.

EP or LP?

LP – way more room for dynamics with songs.

Early bird or night owl?

Early Bird when at home, on tour, depending on the night.

Road or studio?

Road. Nothing beats playing the songs live.

Any shows or albums coming up?

We are working on a new record, “Are You Out Of Your Goddamn Mind!?”

New single “Ripped Blue Jean” came out Dec 12 on People Of Punk Rock.

Where can we follow you?

Linktree

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Crown and Royal or L&P Jamaican cuisine always hits the spot, and the food never misses.

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Queen Street East! It’s the perfect blend of weird, artsy, and real. Great coffee, great shops, and always something happening.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

Trinity Bellwoods great place to chill, the dogs, the people watching… It’s like the unofficial backyard of Toronto.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

Bovine Sex Club. Legendary room, perfect size, and it always feels like something awesome is about to happen

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Sonic Boom, always a blast finding some new and old records .

The post Five Minutes With: Melodic Punk Band Wasting Time appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

She kicked off 2025 in explosive fashion, opening for Canadian legends Simple Plan on New Year’s Eve. Her soulful vocals, catchy new music, and electrifying stage presence carried into a high-energy 2025 National Summer Festival Tour, where she and her band lit up major festival stages across the country.

Blending edgy Pop-Rock with a punch of Punk attitude, CMAGIC5 delivers self-empowering anthems designed to ignite your main character energy. Her sophomore EP, Happy Never After—crafted alongside JUNO-winning heavyweights—promises to get your heart racing and invite you to unleash your most unapologetic alter ego.

Name:

CMAGIC5

Genre:

Pop-Rock

Founded:

2020

# of Albums:

2

Latest Album:

Happy Never After

Latest Single:

Lego My Ego

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

Miley Cyrus

Favourite musician now:

Lady Gaga

Guilty pleasure song:

“Your Idol” from Kpop Demon Hunters is honestly a banger

Live show ritual:

Vocal warm-ups, band huddle and tacoooss.

Favourite local musician:

The Weeknd

EP or LP?

EP — to satisfy those crash-out moments

Early bird or night owl?

Night owl — I mean, vampires don’t exactly do mornings… 🧛‍♀️

Road or studio?

Studio — that’s where the magic (and the madness) begins before it hits the road.

Any shows or albums coming up?

Yup! My sophomore EP Happy Never After — it’s my anti-fairytale era, packed with pop-rock anthems that turn heartbreak into empowerment. It’s all about unleashing your alter ego, finding strength in chaos, and embracing your main character energy.

Where can we follow you?

Instagram | TikTok | Website | Spotify

***

Rapid Fire Local Questions:

What is your favourite local restaurant?

Mezcalero — love eating tacos here with my band as our pre-show ritual before playing Lee’s Palace.

What is your favourite street in your city and why?

Queen Street West — endless art and inspiration.

What is your favourite park in your city and why?

Trinity Bellwoods, especially for the Fall foliage.

What is your favourite music venue in your city?

The Mod Club (formerly The Axis Club), where Baby C had her first show!

What is your favourite music store in your city?

Sonic Boom or Rotate This.

The post Five Minutes With: Pop-Rock Artist CMAGIC5 appeared first on Toronto Guardian.