After addressing the many 'young music lovers' in the crowd at their Hillside Festival gig in Guelph Saturday, Los Lobos singer Louie Pérez called his band a "bunch of old farts."

Sporting graying hair and expanding waist lines, the members of the three-time Grammy-winning band from East L.A., Louie Pérez (guitar, vocals), David Hidalgo (guitar, violin, accordion, percussion, vocals), Cesar Rosas (guitar, vocals), Conrad Lozano (bass, vocals), and Steve Berlin (saxophone, keyboards) may have looked like a group of aging rockers during the band's headlining slot at the Hillside Folk Festival, but after recovering from a slow start, they didn't sound like one.

"I hope someone is recording this," Joey Burns told the soggy Saturday afternoon crowd at Guelph's Hillside Festival.

Dubbed the Colossal Jam, the late afternoon event saw the Calexico frontman -- along with singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer and Broken Social Scene's Jason Collett -- lead an all-star band through a bevy of unrehearsed numbers.

Collett called out chord changes before launching into 'My Daddy Was a Rock and Roller,' while Harmer led the band through a pretty version of 'Silverado' from her latest disc 'Oh Little Fire.'

The Kings of Leon were playing a concert in St. Louis, Mo. Saturday when they were attacked by an unlikely heckler: pigeons. The birds were hanging out in the rafters of the Verizon Amphitheatre when they proceeded to relieve themselves on bassist Jared Followill, prompting the band to cut the show short after just three songs.

According to the band's management, pigeon poop landed on Followill's face during the opening song of the night, 'Closer,' CNN reports. Followill was hit again on his arms during the next two songs. Though his bass tech was on hand to wipe off the mess, Followill is reportedly a germophobe, and was understandably distracted by the onslaught.

Northern Exposure is Spinner's MP3 column highlighting the best in new Canadian music. This week we feature some of the notable acts at Guelph's annual Hillside Festival (July 23-25).

Trying to track rising Montreal indie-rock quartet Braids is bit like a treasure hunt. The quartet began as a different band entirely and happened to live in a completely different part of the country. The co-ed dream-popsters (two boys, two girls) started life as hyped Calgary act the Neighbourhood Council before they picked up and moved to Québec in 2008 to be reborn as Braids.

The band hasn't so much as diverted from their atmospheric pop sound as simply honed it further, but it's clear their new environs have inspired them to take their sound to the next level. The Montreal indie scene has embraced them -- they were one of the few acts chosen last year to be filmed by noted French videoblog La Blogotheque during Pop Montreal (the band performed their song 'Lemonade' in an old train yard).

Another death has been reported from the stampede at the Love Parade, a German techno music festival in the western city of Duisburg, the New York Times reports. This brings the number of victims to 19. Since Saturday evening, hundreds more injuries have been reported, bringing the number of injured to more than 340.

As previously reported, the deaths occurred Saturday afternoon in and around a packed tunnel leading to the grounds of the festival. About one million people are believed to have made their way to the festival, and only one entrance was available to them. It is thought that the stampede was caused when people panicked as they were directed by police to turn around and leave the festival. The gates to the festival had been closed to new entrants by this point, but it was evidently too late to prevent the stampede.

Artist: CEO
Song: 'Everything Is Gonna Be Alright'
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Sounds Like: The Crystal Method

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A stampede at the entrance to a popular music festival in Duisburg, Germany killed 18 people and injured approximately 80 on Saturday, the New York Times has reported. The Love Parade, an annual techno music festival in western Germany, drew approximately one million attendees.

The stampede is believed to have broken out inside a tunnel shortly after festival security attempted to direct entering festivalgoers out of the overcrowded venue. Police had already closed off the event, but evidently the venue was already well over capacity.