If summer was cruel to producer Kanye West, this album makes me wonder if it was just because his artistic ambition was not up to its usual standards. Coming out on the tail end of the warm season, G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer largely misses the mark of a classic summer[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Sic Alps: Sic Alps
Nostalgia is the first word that comes to mind upon hearing the first strings on the new self-titled album from Sic Alps. Nostalgia, in this case, refers to a wistful longing to have had experienced the wild changes of the ’60s. Listening to this album feels similar to being transported[Read More…]
Dwight Yoakum: 3 Pears
For the past 20-odd years, Dwight Yoakam has been writing and singing what he calls “Honky-tonk music.” Honky-tonk indeed: his new album, 3 Pears, released last month, has a distinct ‘bang-that-keyboard, strum-that-guitar’ feel. 3 Pears both is and isn’t a typical country album. While Yoakam’s voice is tinged with Southern[Read More…]
In search of lost love
Chilean director Cristián Jiménez’ Bonsai is at its roots a familiar modern love story: shy boy falls for punkish girl, love blossoms, love fades, melancholy grows, lives separate, and girl dies. No spoiler alert there; its tagline is its ending. From the first frames, we know Emilia dies and Julio[Read More…]
POP Montreal Wrap-up
I don’t order bottle service at clubs. Nor do I have ‘hook-ups,’ know ‘a guy,’ or am part of anything exclusive apart from opt-in emails regarding sales at The Gap. A media pass to POP Montreal was, therefore, a revelation. For those unlucky souls who have yet to step onto[Read More…]
The Noble Thiefs: Beyond the 11th Deck
We live in an age of the retrospective—of Adele, sampling, and electro swing. The challenge for vintage-inspired artists is updating oldies to the tastes of the 21st century. The Noble Thiefs, a Winnipeg-based band, are foraying into vintage-modern territory by combining a gaggle of genres. Their debut album, Beyond the[Read More…]
Christopher Smith: Earning Keep
Christopher Smith is more than just a musician. Hailing from Vancouver, Smith began as a visual artist but found the the medium’s boundaries too constricting. Naturally, he transitioned to music, and now works as a singer-songwriter. Moving away from the sound of his previous album, The Beckon Call (2010), Earning[Read More…]
Paper Lions: At Long Creek
Indie-rockers Paper Lions’ new acoustic EP, At Long Creek, is only one of the exciting ventures the Prince Edward Island band is embarking on this year. Other projects include the release of a full-length sophomore album this winter, and the video for their song “Travelling.” At Long Creek is a[Read More…]
In concert: Passenger
At first listen, Michael Passenger—who performs under his last name—sounds akin to a mix of Ray LaMontagne, Marcus Mumford, and Ed Sheeran. Even this comparison, however, fails to do justice to his unique musical style. There’s something hauntingly familiar, yet unplacable about his vocals, which could lead you to spend[Read More…]
The long arm of the law is dripping with blood
“It’s a fucking meatgrinder,” says one soon-to-be meat patty towards the end of Dredd. He is talking about Mega-City One, the dystopian cesspool of violence and despair in which the story is set, but he might as well have been referring to the film itself. At its best, the action[Read More…]
