“Fink Ployd – The Thing Remixed”, the new remix EP by Minotaurs, is out now on Static Clang. Featuring interpretations of tracks by Jim Guthrie, I Am Robot And Proud, Kite Hill and The Straggler “Fink Ployd” is currently available as a digital download exclusively from the band’s bandcamp page with all proceeds will go directly to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. A group dedicated to fighting for YOUR rights.

Check out Kite Hill’s reinterpretation of “Crystal Cave” here.

The EP will be widely released on iTunes, Zunior and other fine digital providers on June 28, 2011.

King Cobb Steelie has announced a 20th anniversary benefit show to be held at Lee’s Palace on Saturday, April 16th.

All proceeds from the show will be donated to Ontario Hands & Voices, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting families and their children who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as the professionals who serve them.

Advance tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster, the Horseshoe Tavern and Toronto record stores Soundscapes and Rotate This for $13.50.

An additional show in Guelph has also been added on Friday, April 15th as part of the Kazoo Festival. The show is at Van Gogh’s Ear (10 Wyndham St. N.) and M.A.G.I.C is also on the bill. Doors at 10pm – ticket prices are $10 advance and $12 at the door.

Festival details below;

Minotaurs “The Thing” is #7 on Exclaim Magazine’s year-end 2010 Soul and R & B Chart. We’re proud to be included with some pretty fine company – Budos Band, Janelle Monae, Gil Scott-Heron and Sharon Jones and the Dapkings amongst others.

“7. Minotaurs The Thing (Static Clang)
In becoming a fully integrated band unit, Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs have found their calling as Afro-beat soul pop maestros. The Thing is a masterwork of skilfully amalgamated influences, marrying the emotional grandeur of pop songwriting with the rhythmically complex bouncy grooves, dynamic horn melodies and semi-improvised jams of African and Jamaican music. Lawr’s gently lilting voice is a mighty sharp hook to pierce listeners across genres. Reminiscent of Thom Yorke’s haunting croon, minus the operatic upper register, and coupled with tasteful guitar punctuations, it provides a consistent anchor to the ensemble’s genre hopping and cross pollinating.”
Scott A. Gray, Exclaim Magazine

The fine folks at Southern Souls have just posted a couple of live videos from The Minotaurs show Friday, November 5 at The Great Hall. Check them out above or at Southern Souls.

Today is the official release date for Minotaurs “The Thing” and it’s Disc of the Week in the Globe and Mail – “Its bumpy Afrobeat rhythms are built to make us move…a big shaggy dance band that often diverges from a charted route into a delta of melodic possibilities”.

You can also stream the disc here, mail-order it here, or download it from Zunior, iTunes, and emusic. Or go to your favourite record store!

Inspired heavily by the work of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, MINOTAURS take the funky, slinky backbone of afrobeat and apply it to the indie-rock-folk songs of Nathan Lawr. Its propulsive rhythms and syncopated horn arrangements are catchy, inspiring, and mind-boggling funky all at once.

Featuring appearances from vocalists and songwriters Bry Webb of Constantines fame and Gavin Gardiner of The Wooden Sky, and Hylozoists mastermind Paul Aucoin, The Thing is a record about the invisible powers that hold us together and pull us apart. It is a rhythmic exploration of the kind only a band full of drummers could make! Engineered and co-produced by Don Kerr, The Thing was written and arranged by Nathan Lawr, who has drummed with many of Canada’s brightest stars like Constantines, FemBots, Royal City, and Feist. Howie Beck (who produced albums for Hayden, Jason Collett, and Matthew Barber) also lends his mixing talents to the project; and Andy Magoffin, who is known best for his work with his own band, Two Minute Miracles, and his production work for Jim Guthrie and Great Lake Swimmers, was behind the mastering.

It is an ambitious and captivating sound. It is truly a new strain in the Canadian indie-rock genealogy. Part funk, part psychedelic, part protest record, The Thing will knock you off your feet while gently caressing you in the process.

Cd released August 17, 2010 on Static Clang; digital out two weeks earlier on August 3.

Upcoming shows;
E-bar – Guelph, June 24, 2010
The Horseshoe Tavern – Toronto, June 25, 2010
Hillside Festival – Guelph, July 24, 2010
The Piston – Toronto, August 28,2010

GENERAL CHAOS VISUALS will also be providing their unique lighting effects
plus DJ DAVID DACKS (CIUT/Abstract Index) spinning throughout the evening.

$15 Admission includes CD
$10 Admission only

Static Clang has been looking after the digital release of “49 Swans”. For digital downloads go to your favorite online retailer or follow this link to the iTunes store; “49 Swans“

Here’s an MP3 preview of the first track from the new release – “Gravity And Air”