Know what the best thing about MySpace is? Having friends like Tanya Donelly who leave surprise bulletins saying “Demos that eventually made up most of Star are now up on the website”. No, the message didn’t come from Tanya herself, but as promised, Slumberland now hosts ten demo versions of songs that would go on to form the bulk of Belly’s 1993 debut, Star.

As Tanya notes in the accompanying notes, the songs were originally meant for the second Breeders record so Kim Deal plays guitar on a couple of the tracks. The tracks are naturally rough and Tanya’s vocals mixed pretty low, but the dark charm that drove me to wear out my original copy of Star (it was a cassette, this was physically possible) are wholly evident even at this stage. An unexpected and welcome treat from the past.

Here’s a couple of the demos with the accompanying videos for the completed versions. Be sure to head over to Tanya’s site grab them all and hit up the tip jar if you feel so inclined. There’s also some demos from her first couple solo records up for grabs. As for what she’s up to now, The Phoenix mentions that she just wrote a handful of songs for Boston tween girl-group Girl Authority, of whom her daughter Grace is a fan. Awwww.

MP3: Belly – “Feed The Tree” (demo)
MP3: Belly – “Slow Dog” (demo)
Video: Belly – “Feed The Tree” (YouTube)
Video: Belly – “Slow Dog” (YouTube)

Hour.ca talks to Grizzly Bear, in town at Lee’s Palace on Tuesday. Congrats to Paul, Lana and Erik for winning my contest for passes and for the record, the consensus is that Paddington, Pooh and Tenderheart are all evenly matched so they’d likely agree to collectively turn on Boo Boo and feast on him like a small, furry picinic basket.

The Age talks to The Shins.

Some reasons to be at Sneaky Dee’s in the near and distant future – Chin Up Chin Up and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin bring some indie pop action to the club on February 16 and looking ahead to June 8, Voxtrot and Au Revoir Simone will be gracing the corner of College and Bathurst (full tour dates at BrooklynVegan). I have to say – Sneaky Dee’s was pretty crowded when Voxtrot played there last April – for them to be playing the same club again when their star has risen considerably in the intervening 14 months (their debut full-length will be out May 22) is just… well, let’s just say that if you want to go to this, when tickets go on sale you better move FAST.

And finally, I’m taking part in a Toronto concert photographers exhibition at the Embassy in Kensington tomorrow evening. Full details at Stille Post, but basically a bunch of us who hog the front row at shows in town will be displaying (and selling) prints of some of our Canadian indie subjects. There’ll also be acoustic sets from Woodhands, The Rural Alberta Advantage and dd/mm/yyyy. Doors at six, music at 7, over by 10.