Trying to determine "the best" album of the year is always going to be an exercise in subjectivity, and well it should be. You can assign points for technical proficiency, and set all kinds of arbitrary criteria as if this was a figure skating competition, but even at the Olympics, they're looking at artistic impression. In my year-end columns, I always stress that I'm very uncomfortable saying my choices are "the best" records of the year, deferring to the old stand-by "favourite albums" tag to define my choices. Being a Polaris Music Prize [...]
A recent interview that Lars Ulrich did with Spin Magazine turned out pretty interesting. One thing to come out of the interview was Ulrich's appreciation of indie throwback band, Best Coast that's fronted by Bethany Cosentino. Best Coast is the only female-fronted band at Metallica's Orion Festival. Read more »
Words by Jacob Barron In honor of the spirit of rebirth with which spring is so frequently associated, I'll be using this edition of Soundtracking Your Spring 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me to completely destroy everything you know and love about this column. Or, you know, freshen it up with a more piecemeal approach, whatever. The point is, last time got me thinking about the whole idea of seasons not as one monolithic thing, but a diverse set of vignettes, each with its own mood or temperature. In the end, you [...]
People who like what I do are music lovers, and those are the types that like to buy records. Toronto's Austra is one of those bands that when you hear their music for the first time, you either immediately fall in love, or you miss out. I first heard their now classic song "Lose It" [...]
Shervin Iainez Rose Cousins is not a new artist. The Charlottetown by way of Halifax artist has been releasing music for the better part of a decade and I've technically heard her before as she's guested on any number of Maritime-born records including Joel Plaskett's, but I'd not heard any of her own material until her third full-length album We Have Made A Spark , released at the end of February. And clearly that's been my loss. It's not a record that stops you in your [...]
Last week, Katy Perry released her "Part Of Me" video , in which she plays a Marine, sort of. Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham, who evidently did not like the video, Tweeted , "Seeing Katy Perry as a soldier in 'Part Of Me' really makes me think that we need to start a war so she can go die." That Tweet was partially a reference to Fear's punk classic " Let's Have A War ," something not picked up by the many, many news organizations who posted stories about Abraham's post. (Anytime someone writes anything insensitive on Twitter, [...]
The fifth annual 80/35 Music Festival runs July 6-7th in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Death Cab For Cutie, The Avett Brothers, and Dinosaur Jr. top this year's lineup and they'll be joined by Fucked Up, Dan Deacon, Freddie Gibbs, Leftover Salmon, and Greensky Bluegrass. The rest of the festival's lineup will be announced in early May. Advanced single-day and two-day tickets are now available via the festival's website .
![JUNOfest @ Babylon Nightclub [March 30, 2012]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4169278_lg.jpg)
Juno Awards fever has been hitting all this week. With that various venues in Ottawa was holding events showcasing the talents local, regional and national acts that Canada has to offer. JUNOfest was presented by SiriusXM Canada & SpectraSonic . I think the most talked and hot show on the first night of JUNOfest has to be at Babylon Nightclub . It was a long return for a band from Toronto who hasn't played in Ottawa since their release of two albums and winning the Polaris Music Prize. Playing at the [...]
photo by Christopher Nelson Apparently, actress Charlize Theron made singer Florence Welch bawl her eyes out. But in a good way. Florence & the Machine recently divulged details about a new track they contributed for the upcoming movie, Snow White and the Huntsman . Find out more here . Michael Franti is currently whittling down the 35 some-odd songs into what will ultimately become his fall release, which is purported to be more aggressive and almost punk-rock like, compared to his previous efforts. [...]
Outraged over Perry's new music video.
Filed under: News Matador Records | Getty Images Fucked Up 's Damian Abraham took to his Twitter account earlier today (March 29) to take aim at pop singer Katy Perry and her new military-inspired video for the song "Part of Me," wishing a war would begin to basically take out Perry. "Seeing Katy Perry as a soldier in 'Part Of Me' really makes me think that we need to start a war so [...]
Filed under: News Today, Oh Boy! Douglas Mason, Getty Images " The Hunger Games " features a pretty great analog synth track from 1972, and the story behind its origins is incredible. [ Wired ] Green Day post a 30-second clip from the studio. What does it tell us about their new album? Mainly that they're recording it in a really nice studio. [ Antiquiet ] The Shins [...]
Frank Yang Despite only seeing four bands, I like to think that I covered a fair bit of ground - stylistically, geographically, exploratorily (?), what have you - on the first night of Canadian Musicfest . The Friday night stuck slightly closer to home on all fronts but yielded much better and consistent results. The evening kicked off at Rancho Relaxo with Neufovin in all the way from Finland (I mistakenly called them Norwegian in my festival preview and apologize profusely). Besides having an affinity for anything [...]
5 Songs is a weekly series where we point out the strange, the grand, and the unique connections between our favorite songs. Let's get weird. Words by Chris "Remember remember the 5th of November." Somewhere Alan Moore is rolling his eyes for like the hundredth time at our feeble attempts to adapt his insane narratives of the fascist illuminati running the Western World (not to give anything away). I wonder what he thinks about people [...]
Dine Alone Impressing with a live show is one thing, but eliciting a similar positive response with a record, away from the energy the crowd and the volume of the PA, can be a good deal tougher. Vancouver's Chains Of Love nailed the former and then some at NXNE last year , but despite one of the most impressive things about the show being that they obviously had good songs to go along with their crackling Motown-friendly, garage-soul sound and onstage charisma, I didn't immediately assume that their debut album - whenever it arrived [...]
Ben Cook and Mark Fosco have had a solid year in the music work, with their sweet jams being given out to via their respective bands, Fucked Up and Marvelous Darlings . The group, now dubbed Roommates initially set out to record some songs for fun, with the idea of limited releases, but I'm glad some of these tracks are making their way out. On March 20th Slumberland Records will be releasing a 73 comprised of two of these tracks, and we've got the A-Side to run for you [...]
Vanessa Heins It's gotten to the point where the Tuesday before an album is officially released is as much a day to look forward to as the day an album is actually released. That's because it's standard practice these days to make any record anyone might care to buy available to stream at least a week before its official street date - it theoretically helps offset downloads of leaks, gets the promo cycle revved up, all of that sort of thing. It's a trend I'm fully in favour of. And based on this, it [...]
"Year of the Tiger," the latest installment of Fucked Up's ongoing Chinese Zodiac series, is on the player in my little room, and I'm over a lyrics sheet, flashlight in my left hand, between index finger and thumb, because it's dark in here. What time is it? It doesn't matter. It's weird to consider punk rock in an individualistic setting, I think. And anyone that has seen Fucked Up live can support the claim that this music is, and probably always will be, no matter where its narrative goes, a largely communal project. Usually we're in crowds. [...]
Orion Music + More: Official | Facebook | Twitter | Metallica: Official My all time favorite band, METALLICA will be taking their musical journey to the next level and will be hosting their own two day music festival called Orion Music + More. The festival will go down in history on June 23 & 24 in Atlantic City, NJ and will feature two headling sets from the Metal Gods themselves, as well as a number of great artists hand selected by Metallica including Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, [...]
review by Suzi Pratt all photos by Marianne Spellman During the dreary Seattle winter chill, two Seattleites were lucky to escape to the other side of the continent for the second annual Bruise Cruise Festival , sailing from Miami to the Bahamas. The three-day escapade is hardly your retired grandmother's cruise, although there were plenty of those on board as well. Instead, Bruise Cruise is like summer camp for some five hundred tattooed, cigarette-smoking indie rockers and hipsters who devoured fruity drink concoctions and action-packed music sets all weekend long. Unlike other huge, multi-stage music fests, [...]
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Check Out: Freddie Gibbs feat. Young Jeezy & T.I. – “Pull Up”
Catcall – ‘The Warmest Place’
This Is Not The End (Gui Boratto 2012 Mix)
Lazy Sundays: Penalune – Not All Clouds Are White
