Around the Arts

Toronto band Mean Red Spiders will play at 8 p.m. tonight at Secret Sailor Books, 202 N. Walnut St. The band's latest album, Starsandsons, is on Teenage USA Recordings. They have been compared to My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain; bassist Lisa Nighswander provides the vocals, gaining them comparisons to Lush.\nThe Toronto Star described them as "caught between blistering white-noise freefalls and cocoon-like moments of dream-state ambience." Now, on a national tour, audiences can hear the ethereal music of the Mean Red Spiders that has been acclaimed by many magazines and music Web sites, such as cmj.com and musicemissions.com.\nBeing big supporters of independent music, Dave Humphreys on guitar, Greg Chambers on guitar, and Nighswander have organized five Canadian Independent Music festivals that took place in Toronto and Ottawa. They continue to support independent music while they spread their own independent sound all over Canada and the United States.