The Dead Milkmen Metaphysical Graffiti (Reissue) The Giving Groove When I was 14 years old, my dad joined some mail order record club where you’d get 10 to12 albums for mere pennies with the agreement being that you buy the same amount at [...]
Pink Mountaintops Peacock Pools ATO Records Peacock Pools, the first release in eight years from the Vancouver-born experimental, folky, psychedelic rockers Pink Mountaintops may be a difficult album to digest for some fans while leaving newer [...]
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE OLD DEAD YOUNG: B-SIDES & RARITIES ARTS & CRAFTS It’s been almost five years since Broken Social Scene have released any new material, and though Old Dead Young is far from new, it quells the thirst of those who [...]
Amyl And The Sniffers Comfort To Me Rough Trade Records Straight out of the gate, Comfort To Me, the second full release from Australia’s garage punk quartet, Amyl and the Sniffers, grabs you roughly by the collar and throws you into a [...]
Gordon Downie Coke Machine Glow: Songwriters’ Cabal Arts & Crafts It is not an easy task to spin words about an album that was released 20 years ago, penned by one of this country’s most beloved characters, musicians, ambassadors for a [...]
Steve Benjamins Volume 1 Independent Sometimes a musician comes along whose approach and delivery of their craft speaks volumes to the soul. Steve Benjamins has been one of those for me, with his music that speaks of faith, love, the beautiful [...]
Islands Islomania Royal Mountain Records The definition of Islomania is to have an enthusiastic obsession with islands, where the mere thought of being on a little world surrounded by water has one quivering with excitement. It’s an odd [...]
Bell Orchestre House Music Envision Records/Erased Tapes House Music is the first full-length release from Montreal six-piece Bell Orchestre in over ten years, and what a glorious return it is! Energetic and beautiful, this slice of improvised [...]
Melvins Hostile Ambient Takeover (Vinyl Reissue) Ipecac Recordings One of my favourite things is when music completely surprises me, as it did with the recent vinyl reissue of Hostile Ambient Takeover, Melvins 14th studio album from 2002 and [...]
Melvins Gluey Porch Treatments (Vinyl Reissue) Ipecac Recordings Years ago in the small town of Montesano, WA, a three-piece band was playing with a musical fire they likely didn’t fully realize was burning at the time. Somehow, they tamed [...]
Still Corners The Last Exit Wrecking Light Records Like a long drive through barren desert red rock canyons in a vintage ragtop, even at night the dwindling heat invades the nostrils and you can almost taste the dust laced humidity. It parches [...]
Danielle Durack No Place Undertow Music “Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~Rumi Writing an album can be pretty [...]
Dan Mangan Thief Arts & Crafts “I get sick of the same taste in my mouth and sometimes I need to sing someone else’s song to cleanse my palate.” A good cover song ought to sound as if the artist has connected to the beauty that exists in [...]
Oh Susanna Johnstown Continental Records My first foray into Suzie Ungerleider’s catalogue of pretty and dark country pop was her second full-length, Sleepy Little Sailor. I remember playing that album often, loving her tough-as-nails voice and [...]
Said The Whale Cascadia Arts & Crafts For me a favourite thing is listening to bands that share a strong kinship with one another as well as to their music. Vancouver, B.C trio, Said the Whale have been playing with a rich heartfelt woodsy [...]
WELCOMING AND WARM DIVERSIONS A CONVERSATION WITH DAN MANGAN Way back in the days of Myspace an emerging young musician named Dan Mangan commented on a song embedded on my profile as being one of the most beautiful things he’d ever heard. [...]
Handsome Jack Everything’s Gonna Be Alright Alive Naturalsound Records Handsome Jack is a blues rock trio from upstate New York and while their city of Lockport may be known more for the Erie Canal running through its center rather than sporting [...]
Richard Reed Parry Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 1 Secret City Records “First the rain begins, and the quiet, it settles in/And it’s awesome.” ~Richard Reed Parry, “Gentle Pulsing Dust” There is much to be said for retreat. To shut out the roar [...]
