I’ll admit it: I love MTV’s Teen Mom. I’ve been addicted since season one of 16 and Pregnant, thinking that the show would be exactly the mind-numbing hour of reality television I would need to carry on with my life. But three seasons later, I’ve come to appreciate the show[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Here comes treble: Effusion sings
Kelsea Whittle Creating music isn’t always easy with 23 people, but it’s something Effusion, one of McGill’s a cappella groups, manages to achieve. “It is a huge feat for us to create a tight sound with so many people,” says President Kelsea Whittle. Effusion held auditions at the beginning of[Read More…]
Sandman Viper Command: Everybody See this
Burlington, Ontario’s Sandman Viper Command’s debut album, Everybody See This, is a blend of both complex and simple songs played with a chemistry that can only come from being best friends. SVC has a raw, retro, garage rock feel, which gives off an authentic youthful rage. The theme of the[Read More…]
Matt & Kim: Sidewalks
Back with their third album, Sidewalks, indie rock favourites Matt & Kim please with their tried and true formula of shout-out choruses, heavy synths, and simple drumbeats. The songs on Sidewalks are just as good as previous efforts. The album opens with “Block After Block,” a tune filled with huge[Read More…]
The Details: The Original Mark EP
Winnipeg band The Details’ The Original Mark EP is a six-song collection of tracks that will go on their second full-length album. Produced by Stephen Carroll of the Weakerthans and recorded by Brandon Reid, who has worked with the National, the EP announces the band’s presence on the independent music[Read More…]
In Concert: Johnny Flynn
Johnny Flynn Sophie Silkes British folk troubadour Johnny Flynn played an enchanting show last Saturday at Cabaret Mile-End in support of his recently released sophomore album Been Listening. Though lacking his usual backing band, the Sussex Wit, and a little light on banter, Flynn was able to command the room[Read More…]
Kids for Ca$h?
In recent months, there’s been an influx of additions to the entertainment industry, and I’m not talking about popular university-targeted acts like Chiddy Bang or Mike Posner. I’m referring to significantly younger individuals—individuals who are surely not old enough to make a successful rise to fame by their own means.[Read More…]
Re-opening the files of A Film Unfinished
If A Film Unfinished were nothing but 60 minutes of raw Nazi propaganda footage filmed in the Warsaw Ghetto, it would still be the most affecting film viewers have seen in a very long time. If the five silent reels found in an East German bunker nine years after the[Read More…]
Animals go feral in Sedaris’s latest
There’s a clear reason why Ian Falconer, who illustrated David Sedaris’s latest book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, only uses shades of red and black in his illustrations. It’s because the stories, which tersely detail single events in the lives of animals, are often bloody and bleak. But it’s[Read More…]
Factor: Lawson Graham
Lawson Graham is a left-of-centre hip-hop release by veteran Canadian beat-maker Factor. A group of label mates, both singers and rappers, provide some vocals for his instrumentals, but this album begs the question of whether it’s hip-hop or indie rock. It’s tough to say—the tracks that give off the best[Read More…]
