Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune August Strindberg’s A Dream Play is a trailblazing masterpiece-surreal before the Surrealists, Brechtian before Brecht, and Kafkaesque before Kafka. Yet it is as bonkers as it is brilliant, with a plot mad enough to cause mental breakdowns. Because the scenes are so loosely interwoven, it[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Primal Rock Rebellion: Awoken Broken
Primal Rock Rebellion is the rather unlikely collaboration of Adrian Smith and Mikee Goodman: the former a guitarist from one of the titans of metal, Iron Maiden, and the latter a vocalist from the underground, and now dissolved, progressive/mathcore/avant-garde group SikTh. Their first album together, Awoken Broken, is a[Read More…]
Rose Cousins: We Have Made a Spark
Part of what makes Rose Cousins’ music so touching is its deeply personal nature. While her slow and folky strumming might be a far cry from Adele’s upbeat pop ballads, the two songstresses’ music have one thing in common: raw emotion. Like Adele, Cousins grants her listeners an all-access pass[Read More…]
Is art moral?
Though crooked celebrities are in no short supply, controversy shook the Grammys last month when Chris Brown won Best R&B Album for his latest release, F.A.M.E. He may be a good R&B artist, but many were outraged—how could the music industry endorse someone who physically abused his girlfriend (in his[Read More…]
Thomas D’Arcy McGee: the extreme moderate
smashinglist.com St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the most conventional starting point for a book review. The only reading usually done on St. Paddy’s tends be a cursory glance at a drinks menu. Yet it is a celebration of the Irish presence in Canada nonetheless, so it can still be deemed a[Read More…]
Big K.R.I.T.: 4Eva N A Day
Big K.R.I.T. is a rapper with very few vices. Sure, his carefree attitude and occasional codeine references are consistent with most up-and-coming MCs, but besides these infrequent mentions, he’s the closest thing to what hip-hop fans could call straight-edge. While the rest of southern rap remains fascinated by drug-themed lyrics,[Read More…]
Outside the canvas
artmur.com Art Mûr, Montreal’s dynamic contemporary art gallery, is currently featuring the works of four accomplished visual artists who all explore how the nature of perception is taken for granted. Although each artist’s collection might seem acutely different from the others, each piece is more than it appears when submitted[Read More…]
Octoberman: Waiting in the Well
Led by singer-songerwiter Marc Morrissette, Waiting in the Well marks the fourth full-length album released by Canadian indie-rock band Octoberman. At face value, it’s a collection of songs about the frustration and sacrifice that accompanies a long period of waiting. But in its use of despondent melodies and varied acoustics,[Read More…]
Fred: Leaving My Empire
Producer Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade) has left his mark on this five-piece alternative band’s most recent album, Leaving My Empire, for better or for worse. He possesses an impressive ability to make the band sound like they are walking a fine line between melancholy and joy, a talent[Read More…]
Waxing poetic at the Divan Orange
Meaghan Tardif-Bennett sat anxiously waiting for her turn on stage. She was dressed in black and white, with pink nail polish, pink lipstick, and a pink handbag. “I was really stressed, and was very conscious of the impression I would make on the audience,” she says. “But I also[Read More…]
