Coldplay have been around for over a decade now, and while immensely popular, they haven’t gone without criticism, often getting labelled as unoriginal and uninspired, both in their music and lyrics. Even so, they continue to produce music that their fans love. The band introduced a more upbeat, poppy sound[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Florence and the Machine: Ceremonials
Florence is back and her machine is in full throttle. While the new album, Ceremonials, isn’t a total stylistic departure from Lungs—it has that same dark, dramatic sound that so pleased critics—its material offers a newfound catchiness and a slightly more conventional pop feel that might appeal to an even[Read More…]
Sunparlour Players: Us Little Devils
Us Little Devils seems like a name too deviously coy for a band that’s named after their hometown’s sunny climate. Yet Sunparlour Players’ latest release is certainly not lacking in contradictions. Within a scant 36 minutes, listeners are dragged through a disorienting mixture of frenzied, eclectic, pop-rock Canadiana. What results[Read More…]
Difficult to explain, easy to like
Sometimes authors face a chasm between the critical and the consensus. Last year Johanna Skibsrud won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her debut novel, The Sentimentalists. Critics praised the book for its poetic language and complex themes, though many readers disagreed. Some found the work overwritten, and the storytelling murky,[Read More…]
The men who knew too much
alliancefilmsmedia.com alliancefilmsmedia.com Surviving Progress, as the name suggests, is a film that questions our understanding of progress by pushing viewers to see progress as a movement that threatens humanity, rather than as positive advancement. The documentary, based on Ronald Wright’s best selling non fiction book A Short History of Progress,[Read More…]
In concert: The Barr Brothers
Sam Reynolds “Where did you all come from?” vocalist and guitar player Brad Barr rhetorically asked the audience midway through the Barr Brother’s official self-titled album release show last Tuesday at La Tulipe. He was speaking to the fact that the band had already self-released the album last year to[Read More…]
Chad VanGaalen takes listeners on a trip to Diaper Island
Jeff Thorburn / killbeatmusic.com Jeff Thorburn / killbeatmusic.com We’re often told that success and happiness come from, amongst other things, being yourself. Calgary’s Chad VanGaalen has made a career of doing the exact opposite. The two-time Polaris Prize-nominated multi-instrumentalist is best known for his genre-bending song-based material. That he ended[Read More…]
Coma Unplugged is very much alive
Talisman Theatre It’s a terrible thing to watch a mind go to waste. Yet Pierre-Michel Tremblay’s Coma Unplugged makes it so infectiously fun. Talisman Theatre’s latest production is proof that when you mix a sharply written script with a cast whose energy knows no bounds, magic occurs. The play, translated[Read More…]
A fortress to take shelter in
killbeatmusic.com It only takes two minutes talking to Jennifer Castle to feel completely mellow. The light, pure tone of her singing voice matches the soft, relaxed tone of her conversation, and clues you into her laid back, organic approach to music. Evident in her newest album, Castlemusic, Castle’s take on[Read More…]
Iced Earth: Dystopia
That Iced Earth’s newest album Dystopia is nearly identical to its predecessors does not necessarily condemn it to mediocrity. The band’s leader (and sole fixture), rhythm guitarist Jon Schaffer, has been cutting songs from the same cloth for a long time, but has managed to produce a number of very[Read More…]
