One of my favourite music teachers once observed how challenging it can be to write music with a positive tone. Personally, I’ve never tried my hand at it, but I can certainly recognize that going the other way and digging into and indulging negative emotions is a potent source of inspiration. The one possible exception […]
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit Courtney Barnett has a way with words. Freewheeling and deadpan with a heavy Melbourne drawl, Barnett delivers some of the year’s best hooks to a backdrop of poppy, gently psyched-out rock. These eleven story songs focus on such everyday topics as insomnia […]
February 19th 2016 on Dead Oceans Records Pre-order Marlon Williams: CD, LP & ltd tan vinyl Download on iTunes Amazon Support your local independent record store “Hello Miss Lonesome”, the first single off the upcoming release by Marlon Williams, is a kinetic track – retro roots country played at breakneck speed. It’s a virtuosic turn […]
Let me tell you, Modest Mouse was my high school jam. I remember so many hours spent in the car, driving to and from school, rocking “Paper Thin Walls” like I was super edgy or something. Which is why I was excited to listen to the band’s newest effort, Strangers to Ourselves, when I learned […]
It may come as a surprise to find that Stereo Dynamite Sessions, Vol. 1, just released in Canada on October 16, 2015, is the debut solo album from Simone Denny. After all, we’ve been hearing her voice tearing up the dance floor for years. The five-time Juno Award winner is the former lead singer of […]
I was thinking of what to write about for this week, when I suddenly remembered an Amanda Palmer recommendation that I heard awhile back on some talk radio station (OK, you got me, I’m a wannabe hipster). So, indie rock it is! This week I listened to Heather Christian and the Arbornauts’ 2012 album Cabinet, […]
Release Date: June 12 2015 Upcoming Show: Smiling Buddha, July 3 Buy the EP & Name Your Price Simcoe is the eponymous first EP release from the Toronto-based indie music makers Simcoe, made up of Bobby Houston, Mike Barford, Jake Gehlen, Julian Hoyle and our own Mike Strizic. It’s a three-song taste of dreamy, atmospheric pop […]
Editor’s Note: For six years running, contributing author Zach Adler has spent the month of April putting out a poem a day. By turns earnest and wry, these poems are based on prompts (and often forms) chosen at random that range from “The Grandfather Paradox” to “Emotional Adultery” to “White Person Dreadlocks”. This year we […]