The Kennedy Suite, an All-Canadian collaborative album written by Scott Garbe and produced and arranged by the Cowboy Junkies (Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins, Peter Timmins, and Alan Anton), as well as Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson of Skydiggers, is an ambitious song cycle centred around the assassination of former U.S.[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Blue is the Warmest Colour: more than just a blue film
Blue is the Warmest Colour has attracted a lot of critical attention. This could stem from its accolades at Cannes this summer for its seven-minute long sex scene. What I found interesting were the comments that arose from the portrayal of the women in the film. Manohla Dargis, writing in[Read More…]
A supernatural force in the natural world
The Orenda, Joseph Boyden’s long-anticipated book on the 17th century indigenous peoples of Canada, is a sweeping epic that deals with the birth of a nation—a time when Jesuit missionaries arrived on the shores of Canada. This novel succeeds not in its strength of device but rather, its impact in[Read More…]
High concepts
McGill students window-shopping west of campus may encounter a different display on the exterior of Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA) Gallery. Just east of the windows showcasing North Face jackets, something else is being sold: conceptual art. A large print of Sol Lewitt’s Sentences on Conceptual Art is roughly[Read More…]
Lucius – Wildewoman
Rolling Stone nailed it when they referred to Lucius as “the best band you may not have heard yet.” Led by Brooklyn-based vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the indie-pop act emerged on the scene in 2012 and has been on the fast track to fame ever since. Wildewoman is[Read More…]
M.I.A. – Matangi
As an M.I.A. fan, it feels like I’ve been waiting eons to hear a satisfying amount of new material from the London rapper and singer. Fortunately, Matangi doesn’t disappoint. This album has been a long time in the making, and is quite a departure from her last noise-heavy release, 2010’s[Read More…]
West coast state of mind
Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain contains just the types of poems you might expect from a West-Coast Canadian lyrical poet like Russell Thornton, and then some, which is one of the reasons it manages to avoid clichés and remains engaging throughout. With Thornton’s Vancouver home as a primary backdrop, his[Read More…]
Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time
With so much recent attention on Sky Ferreira’s private life—most notably her September arrest for ecstasy possession—it’s a relief to finally hear some of her music. Thankfully, her first full-length release, Night Time, My Time is exciting and moody, featuring a wide array of potential singles. Although first single “You’re[Read More…]
Deep cuts
Headlights Artist: Eminem ft. Nate Ruess Album: The Marshall Mathers LP 2 Released: Nov. 5, 2013 “Headlights” is Eminem’s written apology to his mother. This may come as a surprise to fans of the rapper, as the bitterness harboured towards his mother has been far from secret. “But I’m sorry[Read More…]
Son Lux – Lanterns
New York-based Ryan Lott of Son Lux consumes our ears with Lanterns, his third album to date. Available worldwide on Oct. 29, this brainchild is 43 minutes of magnetic yet often indecipherable instrumentation. To say the least, Son Lux’s approach is left-of-field and transethnic, gravitating away from conventionality and familiarity.[Read More…]