While crushing stoner metal is the easiest way to describe the vast, fuzzed-out sound of Vancouver-based Anciients, to limit them to this description is a disservice. Beneath the fat, distorted guitar tone and acrid smokiness is a deep vulnerability. There are moments of wonder, of tentative exploration on their debut, Heart of Oak, that speaks […] More »
This year’s Canadian Music Week was memorable for its surprises and pleasures. Easily overwhelmed by packed schedules, I narrowed my festival picks down to acts I probably wouldn’t get a chance to see again. There was Iceland’s electronic Apparat Organ Quartet, a keyboard-heavy band whose surreal performance swung from fist-pumping metal to Daft Punk–driven electronica. […] More »
Eyeswithoutaface is not a subtle band. They take their name from a 1960 French horror film wherein a demented doctor cuts the faces off young women in a series of botched attempts to graft them onto his disfigured daughter. The album title for their latest full-length, Warguts, depicts a soldier, dog tags around his neck, […] More »
Coping is the latest EP from experimental hardcore act Purity Control. Released on November 20th as a High Anxiety/ No Ideas joint venture, only 550 copies of the six-song 7” were pressed. Based in Toronto, the group refer to themselves as “aneurysm-core,” and for good reason, their songs are difficult, broken things that challenge the […] More »
Among the artists who made my 10 favourite albums of 2012, one takes listeners to the ocean, one is dirty and one is a doctor. No, I don’t mean Frank Ocean, Dirty Projectors and Dr. John, though all of these deserved consideration. For me, the standout records included those by Hey Ocean!, Dirty Ghosts and Dr. Dog […] More »
Katy Perry was recently named Billboard’s Woman of the Year, but she’d like you to know that she’s not a feminist. Billboard tweeted part of the pop singer’s acceptance speech, which goes: “I am not a feminist, but I do believe in the strength of women.” As you might have guessed, this caused quite an angry […] More »
If you spend time in any of the Maritime arts communities, chances are you’ll meet a back-to-the-lander. In the early 1970s, many artists, hippies and draft dodgers left the comforts of urban life to head east in search of fresh air and cheap land. I’ve heard amazing stories of long-haired painters trying to fit into […] More »
After a foray into deathcore with their last record that left many long-time fans questioning their allegiance, Montreal-based technical death metal band Cryptopsy have returned to form with the edgy, intense and self-titled Cryptopsy. Long-time guiding force Jon Levasseur has returned to the band on lead guitar, and his power and technical prowess is keenly felt […] More »
One of the things that sets Vancouver’s Bison B.C. apart from their peers is their caustic, merciless vision. On their facebook page, they list their band interests as “getting up early and driving to a far away place hungover.” They write clearly and unflinchingly about the most grotesque moments of loneliness and loss, those moments […] More »
Let me preface by saying that I am a huge fan of pop music. I grew up obsessing over everyone from the Spice Girls to Sugar Jones, and while my musical taste has significantly changed since my preteen years, my appreciation for the smart and empowered females in pop has not. Take one look at Ellie Goulding […] More »
The tipping point for musicians—from crisis mode to full-blown emergency—came when the commercial radio format died its sudden, though not entirely unexpected, death in 2015. Even Top 40 artists lost their most reliable tool of exposure, practically overnight. Faced with a new music order void of hit singles, a diverse group of independent artists and […] More »