CBC presenter Grant Lawrence ranks NXNE #2 in his Top Ten Canadian Music Festivals of 2012.

It’s a pretty comprehensive list of sun season highlights (and also a good snapshot of the line-ups) and features our friends over at Osheaga, Sled Island, Wolfe Island, Dawson City, Evolve, Regina Folk Fest, Sappy Fest and Home County.

Check out – and add – to their comments section for your summer highlights, some informative asides on rail promotions and some of the niche-r, under-the-radar events you might otherwise miss out on.

Working on something cool that you’d like to share? NXNE wants YOU.

Our friends at Bike Hugger are hosting Built, a series of talks by people who create, in the NXNE Lounge next month and they are seeking speakers.

An attendee favourite in Austin for SXSW and Portland during WebVisions, it’s a make and tell event with 5 minute presentations. So if you’re a creator who has made or is working on any kind of project, be sure to apply for your chance to share. We want to hear what you’ve got to say about your ideas and how you’re making them into realities, and “bonus points are available for bike-related ideas or robots.”

How do you take the ordinary and create the extraordinary? Let us know by submitting your talk now.

Built will take place onstage in the NXNE Lounge at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from June 13-15 at 1:20pm to 2:00pm each day, and is run in conjunction with NXNEi.

We’re sorry to announce that Death Grips have cancelled all scheduled dates – including an appearance at NXNE – to work on a new record.

They were previously released alongside The Flaming Lips, Raekwon & Ghostface, the Men, Bleached, Purity Ring and many more as NXNE’s first 2012 music announcement.

For more information on the cancellation, check out Pitchfork‘s new story or visit their apologetic Twitter post.

Last week we ran a Twitter contest before our big music announcement.

So after all that work (29 + the announce date in numerology, to be precise) – how many bands did you guess correctly? Well, we may be an evil rabbit, but you didn’t think we’d keep you in the dark forever, did you? Check out the (victimless – we hope) trainwreck, a.k.a. our thinking, behind the #NXNEhints. And feel free to let us know over on @nxnefest how many you got right.

Questions

1. Just how far can this band roll?? We’re hoping all the way to Dundas on Saturday night. #NXNEhint
2. And that’s just what Jesus would have said to him. #NXNEhint
3. This year, it’ll be a four-piece that could wear hats (if they wanted). #NXNEhint
4. We’re going to a beach, we hope there’s no le(a)d poisoning. #NXNEhint
5. WoW – those are some firm handshakes. #NXNEhint
6. He was on the Coachella bill this past weekend. #NXNEhint
7. These Hints I Think Help. #NXNEhint
8. We assume they’re Hogwarts certified. #NXNEhint
9. We’re glad to see them go… all the way to this year’s fest. #NXNEhint
10. From ATL to TO, he helped out on one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. #NXNEhint
11. Nord-est, oui? #NXNEhint
12. Now that two of them have come over to the dark side (muhahahaha), next stop… Turning into TML fans (not going to happen). #NXNEhint
13. They collabed (or at least played odd couple) with one funny guy. #NXNEhint
14. Graduation, citizenship, wedding, Nobel Prize. #NXNEhint
15. Have good faith that this band will kick ass. #NXNEhint
16. Slip it on, never take it off. #NXNEhint
17. Maybe they just had uncreative parents? #NXNEhint
18. I do wish we could chat longer. #NXNEhint
19. Look at the time. I’m late. #NXNEhint
20. 2 halves of this act are ¼ of this band that will be around forever. #NXNEhint
21. Not actually from there. #NXNEhint
22. Expect make-up and (hopefully) a dragon. #NXNEhint
23. Ummmm… Maybe expect some stranger danger and briefcase liaisons. #NXNEhint
24. He really likes to makeout in night clubs. #NXNEhint
25. I think mine might be havarti (esp. if it was made in the ’90s). #NXNEhint
26. There’s much ado about this band’s videos. #NXNEhint
27. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but avoid the rapids if you can. #NXNEhint
28. Influences from ‘60s pop music to Norwegian black metal. #NXNEhint
29. Important to have, just ask the guys that live across the hall. #NXNEhint

Answers:

1 THE FLAMING LIPS
2 MATTHEW GOOD
3 THE MEN
4 BLEACHED
5 DEATH GRIPS
6 OBERHOFER
7 THE HUNDRED IN THE HANDS
8 YOUNG MAGIC
9 GOOD RIDDANCE
10 KILLER MIKE
11 METZ
12 EIGHT AND A HALF
13 THE BLACK BELLES
14 CEREMONY
15 BAD RELIGION

16 PURITY RING

17 NO USE FOR A NAME

18 ACTION BRONSON

19 2:54

20 RAEKWON & GHOSTFACE KILLAH

21 OF MONTREAL

22 YAMANTAKA//SONIC TITAN

23 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

24 MAC DEMARCO

25 BRAN VAN 3000

26 HOLLERADO

27 PORCELAIN RAFT

28 VIOLENS
29 FRIENDS

And congrats to @emptysthemepark for correctly guessing the cheese reference had to do with Bran Van 3000. We’re proud of you. All else, we’ve got priority passes and wristbands conveniently for sale here.

Click above image for competition.

No purchase necessary. The Dose.ca 2012 NXNE Contest is open to all residents of Canada. The odds of winning are dependent upon the number of participants. One entry per person, per day. Winners must correctly answer a skill-testing question. Contest begins Friday March 30, 2012 and closes Friday May 25, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The Grand Prize has an approximate total retail value of $2,500.00 CDN. Winner is not entitled to monetary difference between actual prize value and stated approximate prize value, if any. See contest rules: www.dose.ca/contests/nxne2012/contest-rules.html/

NXNE Film has announced further programming, including six Canadian premieres and eight world premieres. More than 40 movies will be screened from June 11-17 at the NFB Mediatheque, Royal Cinema, and Toronto Underground Cinema.

Audiences will be treated to a gala presentation of the Canadian premiere of My Father And The Man In Black, a feature-length documentary focusing on Johnny Cash’s talented but troubled manager, Canadian impresario Saul Holiff. Written and directed by Saul’s son Jonathan Holiff, the film includes previously unreleased footage that weaves a fascinating yet tragic story: Holiff, estranged from his father for 20 years, discovered a storage locker just six months after Saul’s death in 2005. Inside were hundreds of hand-written letters between Saul, Johnny and June Carter, taped conversations with Cash and an audio diary reaching back to 1965. Holiff himself will be in attendance.

Another highlight is the Canadian public premiere of My Hometown, an animated short produced and directed by Canadian filmmakers Jerry Levitan and Terry Tompkins, and narrated by Yoko Ono. The film captures Yoko’s original poem of peace and the importance of hope, using illustrations done by children from across the globe. The film will be screened alongside I Met The Walrus, an animated film directed by Josh Raskin and produced by Jerry Levitan. Nominated for an Oscar in 2008, it features a 14-year old Levitan and his encounter with music legend John Lennon.

Irvine Welsh’s loveletter to British club culture, Ecstasy, and Gorman Bechard’s loveletter to the Archers of Loaf, What Did You Expect? – as previously announced – will also both be showing.

We have also released details of 15+ more films, including renegade hip-hoppers in Fugitives: Wax Lives; Jim Talks, a portrait of fine art photographer Jim Allen reflecting on his early rise to prominence in New York; 5th grade choirs taking on the Academy Awards in Once In A Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story; and the zero-budget celebrating Disposable Film Festival 2012 Competitive Shorts. For the full list please visit our NXNE Film subsite.

Fans can attended NXNE Film showings free with any NXNE wristband or pass (recommended!), pay cover at the door of each showing (not recommended!) or – if it’s just movies you’re after – buy a Film Festival-only wristband for just $25. Click here for more information and to buy. There will be further announcements in the very near future, so please follow NXNE on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

We’re giving away two pairs of Mundo Combo passes, which’ll give you priority access to all that is NXNE. This means you’ll be able to jump to the front of the line for every show, screening and interactive session that NXNE has lined up, plus registration in one of four hands-on all-day workshops. To enter all you need to do is tweet and include #mundocombo @nxnei and @nxnefest by May 1, 2012. Winners will be notified on May 2, 2012, via Twitter (and yes, in case it wasn’t obvious – you must be a follower of @nxnefest or @nxnei to win).

Can’t stand the suspense..? Then why not head over to our Tickets page to check out our wristbands, priority passes, film passes, interactive passes and combo offers now.

CONTEST NOW O-V-E-R.

The three members of Young Magic were guided together by providence from across the globe. Isaac Emmanuel and Michael Italia were on similar but separate travels across Europe and South America, both recording music while escaping their native Australia. Realizing they were chasing the same thing, they arranged to meet in New York – where they’re now based – and invited an old friend, Indonesian vocalist Melati Malay, to begin a new genre-hopping project.

This sprawling geo-narrative is pretty key to understanding the group. Debut album Melt was recorded in ten separate countries but is one intense sonic mélange which sounds like it comes from a different planet. Although electronically sequenced – it’s very much the sound of guys hunched over their MacBooks – it has a unique and chameleonic organic groove and takes in West African rhythms, Flying Lotus-style neo-hip-hop and psychedelic 60s soul, melded together with lush, shoegazey textures.

WEB: http://youngmagic.bandcamp.com/

This year’s NXNEi programme features Rosie Siman, Jerry Paffendorf, Dave Olsen, Christie Nicholson, Dr Michael Geist and many others taking a deep dive into DIY and humanizing digital content. Other highlights include rapper D-Sisive hosting The Rise of the ‘Artistpreneur’ & Entertainment Industry 2.0, Youtube stars EpicMealTime‘s How to Win at Youtube, and artist Other‘s Graffiti Goes Global: How Street Art Culture Thrives Online.

Visit the presenters and presentations sections of NXNE.com for further information and full programming information. NXNEi is the result of a creative partnership between NXNE and international design and technology events company, FITC.

We’re proud to announce the first of NXNE’s annual one day record show. Curated by Kops Records and hosted at Toronto’s Hyatt Regency Hotel on Saturday 16th June, it’s a unique chance to take in all the wonders of the vinyl medium.

Vendors from Arts & Crafts, Vinyl Alibi, Of A Kind, Alleycats Music & Arts and many more will be lining up their merchandise for you to browse and purchase, and there’ll be plenty alongside the vinyl stalls to pique your interest in the world of records. Expect museum-piece artefacts from across the Kops archives, a kids’ station for youngsters to get their sticky fingers around some black wax, and first aid-style info on vinyl storage and maintenance. To soundtrack your crate-digging, there’ll also be a selection of DJs – including Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) – performing for your aural delectation.

Tickets are $5 or free for badge/wristbands holder and you can join the Facebook event here. Come early and remember, you can’t cuddle an mp3.