The Duhks reunite! Featuring members Jessee Havey, Scott Senior, Tania Elizabeth, Jordan McConnell, and founder Leonard Podolak, "Canada's premier neo-tradsters romp from world-beat to blues, urban-pop to old-timey, with wild-eyed invention, haunting traditionalism, and spine-rattling groove." (Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe) GRAMMY nominees and JUNO award winners, seeing The Duhks live is nothing short of a spiritual experience. A syncopated bluesy banjo number seamlessly follows a Brazilian samba; an old-time jaunt nestles comfortably next to a gospel performance by vocalist Jessee Havey - her soulful voice piercing like the heart tattoo on her chest. One of the most musically adventurous bands to come from the roots scene in the past decade, The Duhks return to the stage is definitely a cause for celebration.

Mention Glenn Tilbrook and most people may immediately think of Squeeze. After all, with his writing partner Chris Difford, Tilbrook was responsible for Top Ten hits all around the world such as “Tempted”, “Hourglass”, “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction”. Ever since their first EP in 1977, Squeeze has delighted audiences with their brand of honky-tonk new wave and pithy lyricism, while their stock in the music world has seen the likes of Jools Holland, Paul Carrack and Elvis Costello all contribute to their work.

However, since an acrimonious split in 1998 Squeeze has been on the backburner. Although you might forgive him for resting on his laurels after 13 albums and countless tours all over the world, Tilbrook has continued to write and perform with the same enthusiasm that he brought to Squeeze’s earliest recordings. With his two solo albums, “The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook” and “Transatlantic Ping-Pong”, he proved he’s lost none of the joie-de-vivre that became Squeeze’s trademark.

Pere Ubu was supposed to be an end, not a beginning. Assembled in August 1975 as the Crosby Stills Nash & Young of the Cleveland music underground, the plan was to record one, maybe two singles and exist no more. Within months, however, those first self-produced records were being snapped up in London, Paris, Manchester, New York and Minneapolis. Pere Ubu was changing the face of rock music. Over the next 34 years they defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and inspired the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, Sisters of Mercy, Thomas Dolby, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others. Pere Ubu make a music that is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, "found" sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians and fans for decades.

Hickman is best known for co-founding the band Cracker. His fiery lead guitar sound and spirited co-writing give flavor to that band's alternative radio hits, including Teen Angst, Low, Get Off This, and Eurotrash Girl. Cracker, founded in 1991 with childhood friend David Lowery, has nine full-length releases to date. Kerosene Hat (1994) remains an alternative music collection staple. Lowery and Hickman together are seen as godfathers of the alternative music scene, who turned gently away from plaid-clad grunge in the 1990s with more countrified and bluesy stylings. Their collaboration with the jam-band Leftover Salmon in 2003 further proved that no one genre could contain them. Cracker's most recent album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey (2009), garnered indie press rave reviews, with the song "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out" finding its way into the soundtrack for the cult TV hit Californication. Cracker (Lowery, Hickman, drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida) continue to tour internationally, with a future release likely to appear in 2013.

Ed Anderson says, "I don’t have a schtick. And I don’t say a whole lot on the mic. I like to have a good time and will tell a story or two, but usually let the songs do the talking. Music has taken me back and forth across this great country and into a couple of others. I’ve gigged everywhere from the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta with the Squirrel Nut Zippers to the Bowery Ballroom in NYC with Los Lobos to the US Cellular Coliseum in my hometown of Bloomington, IL with the great ZZ Top to the Independent out in San Francisco with the Cold War Kids . And I’ve had the chance to meet and play with some of my heroes along the way."

Known for writing and playing catchy 1960s-influenced power pop that inspired countless alternative rocker including Kurt Cobain while writing Nevermind, The Smithereens gained popularity with “11” the album the spawned college campus favorites “A Girl Like You”, “Blood and Roses” & “Blue Period”. On April 5th Smithereens will release “2011” their first album of new material in 12 years. Produced by Don Dixon (who helmed Especially For You, the group’s breakout debut), Smithereens 2011 features 13 new tracks and finds the seminal New Jersey rockers picking up right where they left off: with irresistibly catchy hooks and rapturously fuzzed-out guitars. Eschewing extensive pre-production, the band cut a raw and electric album in the best tradition of Cheap Trick or Big Star that just begs you to roll down the windows and crank up the volume.