Toronto concerts worth knowing about in June, 2013.

Attention Toronto landlords: if your pockets are empty and your brow is furrowed, stop before you accuse tenants of blowing rent money on crack. We're not all (allegedly!) Rob Ford. What unites us as a city is that most of us spent all our money on summer concert tickets again. Well, that and Indiegogo.

As the summer season kicks off, we bring you news of a free show on the beach, dirty good times at Toronto's stadiums, weird noise in the dark, some amazing electronic producers, a show in a field, and that little acronym that could, NXNE.

Did you hear that Induced Labour is re-uniting? No? Then you heard it here: the band credited with inspiring Toronto's Pleasence Records will make June one to remember fondly, even if you're currently downsizing to a cardboard box on Budapest beach.

HOT TICKETS

TOKYO POLICE CLUB | JUNE 2 | SUGAR BEACH | FREE

This Canadian indie band have a knack for popping up at sponsored shows, and Sunday they'll be at Sugar Beach playing a free afternoon set courtesy of Red Bull. Why pass up a free indie rock show on the beach? No really, I'm asking.

All you need to do is RSVP on the Red Bull site and*** show up. Recommended attire: "festival fashion."

***the RSVP form is now closed, but buck up! RB says: "While our list is closed, RSVPs were taken to properly anticipate attendance in order to build out Sugar Beach accordingly. As it is a public park, the event will not be fenced in, and you and any guests will be accommodated on site. Arrive early to ensure best sight-lines for the concert. The event starts at 3 P.M."

PITBULL and KE$HA | JUNE 5 | MOLSON AMPITHEATRE | $29.50 - $99.50
Ke$ha gets a lot of hate but have you heard her song with Iggy Pop? Have you? Ke$ha thinks you should relax out and feel the dirty love. She's hitting the Molson with rapper Pitbull and it's fairly affordable, because you need your money for glitter.

FYI, Pitbull is a match for Ke$ha because he's a man who is invested in fun. I pulled this from Wikipedia, which can be a fun place:

"In 2012, Pitbull was involved in an advertising campaign with Walmart [Editor's note: yes Walmart bad, but stay with us here], in which the Walmart store that received the most Facebook "likes" from June 18 to July 15, 2012, would have Pitbull visit and put on a show there. An orchestrated campaign entitled "#exilepitbull" started by The Boston Phoenix reporter David Thorpe and SomethingAwful.com writer Jon Hendren urged people to vote for a remote location, namely Kodiak, Alaska. In an email to the Associated Press, Walmart confirmed that Kodiak was the winning location.

Pitbull visited Kodiak on July 30 where he received a key to the city from Mayor Patricia Branson and then made an appearance before a crowd of hundreds at the Coast Guard base."

Recommended attire: a goddamn smile.

RUSSIAN TSARLAG | JUNE 6 | DOUBLE DOUBLE LAND
Carlos Gonzalez's American woozy-pop project Russian Tsarlag (Not Not Fun), which sounds like noisy Kurt Vile but better, is about to play a couple of shows with the best band in the U.S.A., aka Angels in America.

While the bad news is Angels in America won't be playing the Toronto gig (anyone want to roadtrip to Montreal?), at least Russian Tsarlag, Human Beast, and Bill Bill will be throwing down lo-fi, corrupted and freaky Thursday night. Recommended attire: loud patterns, homemade Angels in America shirts.

MOUNT KIMBIE | JUNE 6 | THE HOXTON | $15
If you were at the first ever Toronto "Boiler Room" in May, (a fake Boiler Room: actually just a live screening of a Boiler Room set taking place in London, glitches and all), you may have seen Mount Kimbie play for 30 minutes in a very tight space to British people portraying varied levels of enthusiasm. The drummer was wearing a snuggie, and their set was a mixture of really excellent, chill production and strained Lucksmiths-esque vocals and live drumming which wasn't entitely saved by the snuggie.

It might be worth checking out Mount Kimbie just to see for yourself if they can pull this odd combination off live, but listen: illusive, subtle Manchester producer Holy Other is opening the show, so it's a solid night to bliss out at.

VIDEODROME | JUNE 7 | MOCCA | $10
The Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art will host the weirdest event of the month: Videodrome 2013, which, like years previous, promises an audio / visual overdose. Recommended if you like your live experiences aggressive and challenging.

Recommended attire: black, shiny, spine-y.

Aside from live sound - musicians playing include Toronto's ϟ†Nϟ, Montreal's OUANANICHE and Toronto's breakcore/speedbass artist Skeeter - there will be a video battle, art installations, and general madness.

ACTRESS | JUNE 8 | BLK BOX | $15
Fans of experimental techno are salivating over this one. London's Darren Cunningham, AKA Actress, makes minimal abstract house and hip hop influenced electronic music with a lo-fi sound you can feel in the back of your neck. BLK BOX's Funktion One should be up to the challenge of getting his subtle sounds just right.

Also playing is Toronto's own SlowPitch, who impressed us with his live turntable drones and slow rhythms at TV Party. He promises a special sci-fi "adventure soundtrack". Should be brilliant.

ARTS & CRAFTS FIELD TRIP | JUNE 8 | FORT YORK: GARRISON COMMON $55 - $75
We just keep plugging this so here I go plugging this again.

C. SPENCER YEH / NATE WOOLEY / RYAN SAWYER | JUNE 8 | THE MUSIC GALLERY | $13
The final installment of The Music Gallery's all ages Pop Avant showcase, which last month featured a line up created by Weird Canada.

This one was put together by Feast in the East's Burn Down the Capital, but there won't be any food - just music that ranges from "cosmic jazz to sound art to rough and ready, home-made electronics". AKA the music will be just nerdy enough to be cool, and cool enough to be openly nerdy.

Taiwanese improv musician and sound artist C. Spencer Yeh will be joined by Nate Wooley (trumpet) and Ryan Sawyer (drums). Toronto's Undo and Carl Didur are also playing.

SOME FESTIVAL CALLED "EN EX EN EE" | VARIOUS VENUES | JUNE 11 - JUNE 17 | FREE - $275
You won't guess it from looking at Toronto's weeklies, but during the middle of June, some bands will be in town to play at a place called "Various" which apparently just opened up. Kidding, yes we're talking about NXNE, one of Canada's biggest multi-venue pop music festivals. 1000 bands will be in town to play the fest (though only some of them will make anyone's radar).

Soo... who's on your radar for NXNE? Names on ours include both headliners and little people: The National, Big Boi, Social Distortion, Coeur de Pirate, Bad Brains, Blue Hawaii, Dan Deacon, Braids, Joey Bada$$, White Lung, No Joy, Nu Sensae, Drainolith, Buke and Gase, We Are the City, Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano, and Tonstartssbandsht, plus Toronto's Diana, Ryan Hemsworth, Petra Glynt, Fin, Marker Starling, Moon King, The Beaches, Dusted, and (holy shit) an Induced Labour reunion.

NXNE will also showcase film, comedy, art, comics, and interactive presentations, all of which are listed on their website along with schedules and wristband/ticket bundle options: nxne.com. Individual tickets will be available at the door for some shows - for others you'll be screwed.

MATANA ROBERTS | JUNE 22 | THE MUSIC GALLERY | $15
The Music Gallery is promoting Chicago-via-NYC saxophonist Matana Roberts as a Jazz Festival challenger, which honestly is more than apt. While we can't talk too much about the Jazz Fest's failures this year beyond complaining they followed up 2012's unique pop entertainers Janelle Monae and Destroyer with 2013's overwhelming focus on, like, jazz (not our specialty), we'll take the Music Gallery's word that the Toronto Jazz Fest didn't get very avant-garde in its booking either.

Roberts' 2011 album Coin Coin 1: Gens de Couleur Libre on Constellation Records was a thrilling contemporary exploration into her African American heritage through emotional voice compositions, sax, and a huge array of instruments and musical guests. It's a hard but worthy listen. She's also recorded with some big names including Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mt. Zion, and TV on the Radio. The Toronto performance should be, well, a hard but worthy experience.

KINGDOM | JUNE 29 | SMITH (533 CHURCH ST.) |
Toronto Pride 2013 is going to get shaken to its rainbow core by this set. Brooklyn's Ezra Rubin is behind label Fade to Mind, whose roster includes NGUZUNGUZU, Rizzla, MikeQ, Fatima Al Qadiri, and Total Freedom. The deep bass music he makes as Kingdom threads small slivers of r&b vocals into electronic sound that lives in the corners of a sunken warehouse haunted by demonic raves gone by: industrial ideas snuggle up with grime, crunk, dance hall, and house beats, never crowding but always over powering. It's divine.

OTHER NOTEWORTHY CONCERTS

THE UNCLUDED (AESOP ROCK & KIMYA DAWSON) | JUNE 2 | BLACK BOX THEATRE |$20
JONATHAN RICHMAN | JUNE 5 | THE GREAT HALL $20
ELEANOR FREIDBERGER | JUNE 5 | THE HOXTON | $15
THE DANDY WARHOLS | JUNE 5 | THE PHOENIX | $32.50
THE XX and GRIZZLY BEAR | JUNE 6 | ECHO BEACH | $59.50-$99.50
TWIN SHADOW | JUNE 7 | THE PHOENIX | $26.50
CROSSS | JUNE 7 | PARTS & LABOUR | $7
FEAST IN THE EAST 26 | JUNE 8 | GERRARD ART SPACE | $7
ARTS & CRAFTS FIELD TRIP | JUNE 8 | FORK YORK: GARRISON COMMON $55 - $75
CRYSTAL CASTLES | JUNE 8 | SOUND ACADEMY | $28
BEN CAPLAN | JUNE 8 | RIVOLI | $12.50
!!! | JUNE 10 | THE HORSEHOE | $16.50
PORTUGAL THE MAN | JUNE 10 | THE PHOENIX | $18.50
THE POSTAL SERVICE | JUNE 11 | AIR CANADA CENTRE | $49.50 - $99.50
LUMINATO | JUNE 14 - 23 | VARIOUS VENUES
TAYLOR SWIFT | JUNE 14 & 15 | ROGERS CENTRE | $41.95 - $124.75
JAPANDROIDS | JUNE 17 | ADELAIDE HALL | $25
MAN OR ASTRO-MAN? | JUNE 17 | LEE'S PALACE | $17.50
STARE CASE | JUNE 19 | TBA | $7
ALABAMA SHAKES | JUNE 20 | ECHO BEACH | $37.50
THE TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL | JUNE 20 - 29th | VARIOUS VENUES
TIGER HATCHERY | JUNE 21 | TBA $7
COLD CAVE | JUNE 26 | PARTS & LABOUR
ASTRAL GUNK | JUNE 27 | HANDLEBAR | $5
DIGITAL DREAMS: TIESTO | JUNE 29 - 30 | MOLSON AMPITHEATRE | $79 - $249
MAC DEMARCO | JUNE 30 | THE HOXTON | $14

@AubreyJax on Twitter.