Ampline Passion Relapse SofaBurn Records Pure energy from the first second to the last, Passion Relapse begins with the short-but-powerful “Shrunken Heads” and does not let up to the last few seconds of the last track, “Stab.” This is energetic [...]
Project Pitchfork Akkretion Trisol Music Group Project Pitchfork is an electronic band based out of Hamburg, Germany. Akkretion is their 17th studio album, and their first since 2016’s Look Up, I’m Down There. This is yet another album delving [...]
Omhouse Eye To Eye Independent Omhouse’s Eye to Eye has been a long time in the making, and the wait was well worth it. Omhouse is a Toronto-based band and until recently was one person, Steven Foster. For Eye to Eye, Omhouse’s debut album, he [...]
Tune-Yards I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life 4AD The Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE–yArDs) is a duo who has been recording since 2009. The band is really the brainchild of Merrill Garbus, who started the band in 2006. In 2009, [...]
Belle And Sebastian How To Solve Our Human Problems – Part 2 Matador Records One of the things I love about Belle and Sebastian is that one never knows what the band is going to do next, both musically and in terms of releases. On December [...]
Soho Rezanejad Six Archetypes Silicone Records I like organized noise. I really like albums by artists who are not afraid to be a bit noisy and seemingly chaotic. Six Archetypes falls into this category, but let’s be very clear: This music is [...]
Denny Doherty Of All Things – The Complete ABC/Dunhill Masters Real Gone Music Denny Doherty got his start in 1956 in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia before he became one quarter of The Mamas & The Papas in 1965. The Mamas & [...]
GUNDERSEN LEAVES HOME A CONVERSATION WITH NOAH GUNDERSEN Noah Gundersen is getting set to leave for his 2018 tour. ‘I leave Thursday for the tour and I am getting everything ready,’ he said during our recent conversation. ‘I have subletted my [...]
Leeann Skoda Call Me Back Home Big Ego Records Leeann Skoda has been recording since 2014. Call Me Back Home is her third album, and her first since 2015’s Didn’t We All. It is also her first for Big Ego Records, a label created by Chris Schlarb [...]
Philip Glenn Outsider Big Ego Records In 2017, Chris Schlarb (of Psychic Temple) announced the launch of a new record label, Big Ego. It is a subscription-based label, which means you pay a fee once a year and receive four albums a year. All of [...]
NO MAP OR COMPASS A CONVERSATION WITH SILLS AND SMITH Sills And Smith is Jeremy Sills and Frank Smith, both based in Ottawa and both very talented. Since 2011 they have been releasing albums that are distinctly their own sound. They have been [...]
Elovet Empath Independent Elovet is one person, Aljournal Franklin II, a young and talented artist. Empath is his third full-length album. His last album, Rift, was released almost a year ago, and since then he has issued a single. But Empath [...]
Daniel Romano Nerveless + Human Touch You’ve Changed Records Releasing two albums on the same day through Bandcamp may be something you would not expect from your average musician, but Daniel Romano is far from average and he is not so [...]
GENESIS FOR A NEW AUDIENCE A CONVERSATION WITH STEVE HACKETT Steve Hackett, one of the most interesting and innovative musicians of the last 50 years. Perhaps best known for his years in Genesis (1971 to 1977, he left the band following the [...]
Sills And Smith Maps – Burned Or Lost Independent Maps – Burned or Lost is the sixth studio album from Sills & Smith. And although they have produced some mighty fine music in the past, they knock it out of the park with this [...]
July Talk @ Massey Hall, Toronto December 23, 2017 Three sold out nights at Massey Hall; July Talk returned home in a big way. I caught them on the third and final night of their stint at Massey Hall, and although there were some issues, July [...]
A PSYCHEDELIC RETURN A CONVERSATION WITH CLIVE BAYLEY OF MABEL GREER’S TOYSHOP In the history of rock, there are a few stories that are just too odd to be fiction. Mabel Greer’s Toyshop is one of those stories. Their history could only be [...]
VIDEO DIDN’T KILL THIS RADIO STAR A CONVERSATION WITH GEOFF DOWNES Geoff Downes is a legend. Not simply because he co-founded The Buggles and co-wrote the profound and foreboding “Video Killed The Radio Star” (from 1980’s The Age of [...]
OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark) The Punishment of Luxury: B Sides And Bonus Material White Noise Records The Punishment of Luxury by Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark (OMD) proved to be their biggest album in 16 years, peaking at number [...]
The Beatles The Christmas Records Apple Corps Ltd./Universal Music In 1963, Beatlemania was hitting the U.K. in full force. It happened to be touching down in Canada too, a full year before the ‘British Invasion’ in the U.S.A.. Back in the U.K., [...]
Mabel Greer’s Toyshop The Secret Hagger Bailey Music Before there was Yes, there was Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, a band that formed in London in 1966. The band was formed by Clive Bailey (guitar), Robert (Bob) Hagger (drums) and Paul Rutledge [...]
ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TURNTABLE! A SPILL MAGAZINE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE TOP 2017 CHRISTMAS RELEASES You can blame Bing Crosby, or thank him, it all depends on how much you like Christmas music. In 1928 Bing Crosby provided the [...]
THE 13th ANNUAL ANDY KIM CHRISTMAS AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDY KIM Andy Kim is rock/pop royalty, plain and simple. Born in Montreal, this artist wrote in the famed Brill Building. He wrote “Sugar Sugar”, and many more hits. He had numerous hits on [...]
Quintron – Europa My Mirror Goner Records – December 1, 2017 ISBN – 978-0-999-5400-0-8 Book Review By Aaron Badgley Europa My Mirror is a memoir about a tour through Europe, written by Quintron, a [...]
