Music News Digest: Melissa Auf Der Maur Will Launch Her Memoir At Wavelength, Clipping. Curates Sled Island
Also this week: Terra Lightfoot has a release party show in Hamilton, the Toronto Jazz Festival announces four 2026 headlining shows and more.
Melissa Auf Der Maur
Festival News
Calgary’s Sled Island Music & Arts Festival has announced L.A.-based experimental hip-hop trio clipping. as the guest curator for next year’s festival, running June 17-21. Along with guest curator duties, the group, led by former Hamilton actor Daveed Diggs, will perform at the #1 Royal Canadian Legion (116 7 Ave SE) on June 20. Each year, Sled Island’s guest curator puts their stamp on the festival through special programming choices and their presence at the event. The group's curatorial selections will be announced in the coming months, along with 200 additional bands, comedy, visual art and conference programming chosen by the festival in multiple venues across Calgary.
Past notable guest curators have included Sudan Archives, Julien Baker, Deerhoof, Flying Lotus, Peaches, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Kathleen Hanna, Tim Hecker and Fucked Up. Early bird passes and individual show tickets for clipping. go on sale this Friday, December 12. More info and tickets here.
– The Wavelength Music Festival + Conference has long been an important player on the Toronto independent music scene. Presented with Sonic Boom in partnership with TO Live, Wavelength is expanding its annual winter season festivities to include conversation programs and interactive activities over the Spring Equinox weekend. The 2026 edition will be global in scope, with emerging Canadian artists spotlighted alongside international guests from Australia, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Portugal and the United States. In addition to the 30+ live acts, the fest presents a book launch event for the memoir by Melissa Auf der Maur, Canadian alternative rock star (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), in partnership with the AGO.
Other West End host venues include Lula Lounge, the Baby G, the Garrison, InterAccess, and the home base of Wavelength @ St. Anne’s Parish. For the full festival schedule, more information and artist bios, visit wavelengthmusic.ca. Conference programming will be announced in early 2026. Tickets and passes here.
– The Toronto Jazz Festival has just announced four headlining concerts to take place during the fest's 39th season. These feature Juno-winning vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow (Koerner Hall on June 23), eclectic UK ensemble Kokoroko (Phoenix Concert Theatre on June 25), Grammy-winning pianist Hiromi with her quartet Sonicwonder (Koerner Hall, June 27) and French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf (Danforth Music Hall, June 27). Expect more artist announcements in the coming months. More info here.
Industry News
Live from the Round Barn is a new four-part series featuring live performances by and intimate interviews with some popular East Coast artists, including Alana Yorke, Garrett Mason, Champagne Weather and Old Man Luedecke. The series, set in a 135-year-old octagon barn in Old Barns, Nova Scotia, has its premiere on Bell Fibe TV1 and the Bell Fibe TV App on Dec. 17.
– Open since Nov. 21, when it was launched via a Paul McCartney show, Hamilton's rejuvenated downtown arena, TD Coliseum (formerly known as Copps Coliseum and FirstOntario Centre) has already made a major mark on the city's music scene. It is now poised to also impact the Hamilton food scene via The Iron Cow Public House, an on-site restaurant modelled on a British gastro-pub (the name is a nod to The Hammer's industrial roots). It is helmed by celebrity chef Matty Matheson (also an actor and producer on The Bear).
The resto opened on Dec. 8, and Billboard Canada was invited to taste its culinary wares. On hand to greet the small media group were both Matheson and Coulson Armstrong, the most recent winner of Top Chef Canada and the chef who will be running The Iron Cow. Our group was highly impressed with both the spacious (185 capacity) room and the food sampled. The Iron Cow will also remain in operation on days with no arena events scheduled.
Artists News
She may no longer be based in the city that nourished her musically, but noted singer-songwriter-guitarslinger Terra Lightfoot still calls Hamilton "my spiritual home." It was fitting, then, that she returned last Friday to play an album release show at Bridgeworks. This involved playing her new album, Home Front in its entirety, with many of its songs featuring Lightfoot solo, on acoustic guitar or piano. That matched the intimate and laidback feel of much of the material, though her rhythm section bandmates and guest Jesse O'Brien on keyboards fleshed out some tunes. Her fresh take on Treble Charger song "Red" was a highlight of this section of the show.
Lightfoot then returned to more familiar terrain by cranking up the volume and her electric guitar for spirited renditions of such favourite tunes as No Hurry" and "Paradise" and "Cross-Border Lovers," dedicated to her husband, American musician/producer Jon Auer, who was in attendance. A real road warrior, Lightfoot recently toured Europe with Matt Andersen. She headlines shows in Guelp, on Dec. 11, and Sarnia, Dec. 12, and opens for The Trews in London on Dec. 13. Itinerary here.
