There are few bands that posses both the longevity and commitment to collective songwriting that Sloan does. Each member of the Halifax four-piece—consisting of rhythm guitarist/vocalist Jay Ferguson, bassist/vocalist Chris Murphy, lead guitarist/vocalist Patrick Pentland, and drummer Andrew Scott—has contributed significant material since the band’s debut in 1992. However, according[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Album Review: Mother Mother – Very Good Bad Thing
The man who knew too much
If it’s the story at the heart of Citizenfour that gives the documentary its breathtaking urgency, it’s the film’s multilayered nature that makes a powerful statement on the modern relationship between a government and its citizens. Both a stunningly intimate character study and a larger, more global overview of governmental[Read More…]
Birdman successfully walks a tightwire
I’ve often wondered why actors don’t just retire after starring in a high-grossing film. Presumably, they have more than enough money to do whatever they want for the rest of their lives, so what makes them turn away from a life of comfort? Is it fear of boredom? Is it[Read More…]
Album Review: Calvin Harris – Motion
Nearly seven years after his first album, I Created Disco (2007), Calvin Harris continues to be a relevant fixture at house parties, summer festivals, and clubs everywhere. His latest production, Motion, strays further away from the dance-pop that defined his previous album, 18 Months (2012), and provides a more somber[Read More…]
Ladies’ Book Night provides brutal honesty among hilarity
Librarie Drawn and Quarterly, a snug little bookstore in the Plateau, welcomed four American writers—Mira Gonzalez, Elizabeth Ellen, Chloe Caldwell, and Chelsea Marti—to present their monotone yet dynamically comic collections in spoken word. The synergetic flow between the four writers is astounding, yet makes perfect sense. All four women write[Read More…]
Gas Girl’s flame is futile
Written by Canadian playwright Donna Michelle St. Bernard, Gas Girls is an aesthetically intricate play that shares the story of two African girls who survive by trading sex for gasoline, which they then sell for cash. Loosely based on a real-life occurrence in Zimbabwe, the play has immense potential to[Read More…]
Music soars, plot sinks in God Help The Girl
Focusing on the subtle insecurities and adult tragedies that plague young women emerging from adolescence, God Help the Girl provides a surreal look at an improbable situation. The film centres around Eve (Emily Browning), a young woman being treated for anorexia nervosa who aspires to be a musician. Visually, the[Read More…]
Deep Cuts: Songs that Give you the Creeps
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) Artist: Nancy Sinatra Album: How Does That Grab You? Released: January 1, 1966 Originally written by Sonny Bono and recorded by Cher, this song has been covered by a number of great artists since then, but no version is quite so[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: A tale of two musicians
When I heard Neil Young would be putting out an album on Nov. 4, the same day that Bruce Cockburn was set to release his autobiography, along with a nine-disc collection of career-spanning music, it got me thinking about how the two artists relate to one another. Young needs no[Read More…]