The Arts team preview NXNE music festival in Toronto, and ask: does it matter? Plus, a round of Please Say A Prayer For My Demo.

Ole! In this week's arts podcast, we examine the songs of the World Cup.

Toronto-based singer Lily Frost plays songs from her new album, Viridian Torch, and discusses how she came to pen the theme song for CBC’s Being Erica.

Brooklyn-based singer and violinist Alicia Jo Rabins joins the Post’s Brad Frenette for a chat about her musical project, Girls In Trouble, which creates songs based on women of the Old Testament.

Canadian singer Hawksley Workman joins the Post’s Brad Frenette for a chat and exclusive acoustic performance.

Toronto crooner Royal Wood visits the Post to play songs from his recent ep, Lost and Found, and tells Brad Frenette about his next project. Toronto crooner Royal Wood visits the Post to play songs from his recent ep, Lost and Found, and tell Brad Frenette about his next project and upcoming gig at Glen Gould on April 10.

In Studio Podcast: Irish singer Lisa Hannigan and her band perform two songs from their Mercury Prize shortlisted album “Sea Sew” and a chat with the Post’s Brad Frenette.

Music is what brought singer/songwriter Royal Wood from his hometown of Peterborough, Ont., to the bright lights of Toronto, but along the way he found himself working on a different kind of stage: the trading floor. “I was a foreign exchange trader,” the 32-year-old Wood says, relaxing in a coffee shop on Toronto’s West End. “But I wasn’t supposed to be. I came to Toronto and quickly realized I couldn’t record, I couldn’t hire musicians or buy guitar strings by working retail. I needed a full-time job that paid well. So I went in for an office job -- data entry. The next thing I knew they had me training to be a trader.”While working in a career far from his passion, Wood put his money to good use, self-funding and releasing his first recording, The Milkwood EP in 1999, drawing comparison to singers such as Jeff Buckley, Ron Sexsmith and Rufus Wainwright. Word-of-mouth grew on his next release, Tall Tales and with his third recording, A Good Enough Day, Wood toured in Europe, establishing a fan base outside of Canada.“E

A rare water lily painting by Claude Monet will star among dozens of modern masterpieces this month in what is being billed as the 'most valuable' art auction ever held in London, Christie’s said Thursday. Painted in 1906, the work is part of the French Impressionist’s iconic Nympheas series and was included in his historic exhibition in Paris three years later, the auction house said

Actress Rue McClanahan, best know for her role as Blanche Devereaux on the 80s TV hit The Golden Girls, has died at age 76, according to her manager, Barbara Lawrence

In Peter Carey’s new novel Parrot & Olivier in America (Random House Canada), the author introduces us to an aristocratic Frenchman named Olivier who travels to America in 1831 to document the young democracy. If that narrative sounds familiar, it is

If Gord Downie didn’t exist, Canada would have to invent him. After all, who else unites such a wide spectrum of Canadians, from sensitive nature-worshippers to surly, lager-swilling brawlers? On his new solo album, The Grand Bounce, the Tragically Hip front man even sings about how the two extremes can have more in common than one may suspect -- although he comes down on the side of the softies

Only on a stage with three female figure skaters would Russ Courtnall look huge. But there he was at the CBC’s downtown Toronto headquarters late last week, a former NHL star who was diminutive by pro hockey standards, bounding up a few steps, flashing a smile that showed an impressive number of teeth by pro hockey standards, and standing next to the three seriously diminutive ladies.He was there to promote his upcoming role on the CBC’s Battle of the Blades reality show, which pairs former NHLers with figure skaters in a Dancing with the Stars on ice contest.His message was simple; he was excited to be on the show. But the subtext of the message for the audience was also simple: You should be excited to advertise on it.Welcome to “Upfront Season” for Canada’s television broadcasters, a series of glitzy events that preview fall lineups in an attempt to impress a roomful of advertisers and media buyers.So i

In the early 1960s, a young American named Jeff Johnson cast off from the jagged coast of California, on a solo sail across the Pacific. He landed in Hawaii, on the North Shore, settled there, started a family and became a surfer of high regard. Years later, the youngest of his three sons, Jack, became a noted surfer in his own right, and made a few popular surf films. Then he started recording music, eventually selling millions of records. Jack’s latest album, To The Sea, is an ode to Jeff, who died last summer

Nothing says 25th Anniversary like having a suspender-sporting Gaga on your show. Larry King celebrated being on-air for a quarter of a century by having an ‘exclusive’ interview with Stefani Germanotta, also known as Lady Gaga

Hosted by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, the Dora Mavor Moore Awards is an annual celebration honouring over 200 theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Winners receive a bronze statue sculpted by John Romano

It was inevitable that Chris Noth would experience a moment of sadness when the cancellation of the original Law & Order series was announced in May.After all, he propelled himself into the big time when he played Detective Mike Logan on the groundbreaking show’s first five seasons, and although he has had something of a love-hate relationship with the Law & Order franchise in the years since, it will always represent a key event in his career. But he does try to be philosophical about the show’s demise

Hollywood still hopes to shake off early symptoms, but there is spreading concern that the summer box office will be plagued by a nasty case of sequelitis. Conditions are ripe: Studios have planted 11 sequels or franchise reboots in the fertile May-August span, up from nine last summer and seven from the 2008 season. Those that have opened so far have underwhelmed, with seasonal box office off by a double-digit margin and studio executives beginning to feel woozy.

Brad Frenette, Ben Kaplan and Mark Medley discuss some of the best of the year's Canadian music just before casting their Polaris Prize votes.

Those who downloaded Hurt Locker may have saved about 15 bucks but now, they might have to pony up $1,500, according to a report from TG Daily