Charting the history of the Toronto indie music community can be a process along the lines of taking core soil samples: it’s a glorious and somewhat uneven mess of impacted layers made up of elements that frequently recur throughout time.

One might, for example, fondly remember the ’80s heyday of Elvis Mondays at the Drake, then at the El Mo in the ’90s, and now at the Drake again. Some folks yearn for those golden years when Wavelength reigned at Ted’s Wrecking Yard on College in 2001; others celebrate Wavelength’s Sneaky Dee’s era (which is still going strong). And until recently, I’d all but forgotten about that brief glimmer of time in the early aughts when the stuccoed walls of Rancho Relaxo housed great indie shows on a regular basis, from Deerhoof to The Sick Lipstick.

Happily, if Lauren Schreiber has her way, Rancho might just be ready for a major comeback. The upstart promoter relaunched her weekly No Shame showcase at the tiny club just last week to a packed house of Laura Barrett fans. No Shame, which kicked off at Tiger Bar just over a year ago, has been steadily building up a strong following of folks drawn by Schreiber’s smart programming and exuberant bands.

 “I left the Tiger Bar because it was gonna close down, but I really liked the super unpretentious, really welcoming feeling there,” says Schreiber, who relocated to Rancho after a brief interim stint at the Drake. “Rancho provides that. It was a pretty big deal in its heyday, when [Paquin Entertainment agent] Steven Himmelfarb — who is my idol, and a totally honest guy who’s unlike anyone else in the industry — was booking it.

 “Rancho’s ignored by the community right now because people haven’t been booking bands there, but I love it.”

After realizing she didn’t have to “play in a band or teach lessons” to have a job within the music scene, the longtime superfan approached a slew of local promoters in the hopes of apprenticing with them. Nobody bit, until finally, Wavelength co-booker Ryan McLaren agreed to let her help out with his all-ages series ALL CAPS. Schreiber learned “all the things you’re supposed to” in her six-month tenure, then ventured out on her own with a killer inaugural night that featured Woodhands, Bocce and others.

 “The reason it’s called No Shame is that I didn’t like the way people were putting together shows,” she explains. “I felt like they were doing things for the wrong reasons — assembling lineups or orders to try to please the bar owners, or ignoring bands they liked in favour of acts who were ‘popular.’ I wanted to put on shows I believed in with bands I thought were amazing, to do something I could stand behind.”

This week’s No Shame, which happens tonight (July 10) at 9pm, features charming collective the Rural Alberta Advantage, and Mandibles, a newish Guelph band with an impeccable pedigree (including Evan Gordon and EYE WEEKLY scribe Vish Khanna).

PSST… The Polaris Music Prize short list for best Canadian Album was announced July 7 at the Drake. The nominees are: Black Mountain, In The Future; Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling;?Caribou, Andorra; Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers;?Holy Fuck, LP; Plants and Animals, Parc Avenue; Shad, The Old Prince; Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War; Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs; and The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour. The winner, who will receive $20,000, will be announced at a gala at The Phoenix Concert Theatre on Sept. 29.

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