C & C Surf Factory Garage City Six Sooter Records C & C Surf Factory is a band with a great blend of garage-based rockabilly and surf guitar jams, brought to you by Toronto axe masters Colin Cripps and “Champagne” James Robertson. Their [...]
Limblifter Pacific Milk We Are Busy Bodies Limblifter is back and rousing nostalgia for old fans of the Vancouver indie rock band. Having first heard the heavy guitar songs “Screwed it Up” and “Tinfoil” off their [...]
Doldrums The Air Conditioned Nightmare SubPop The test of a great album isn’t necessarily that it blows you away at first listen. The true mark of a timeless record is that it grows on you steadily and gets better the more you play it, a very [...]
Loopity Goofs Secret Gems Hidden Weapons Black Crack Records The long awaited, debut full-length album from Toronto’s Loopity Goofs is LOADED with killer beats, sample and grooves. Gord Shields and Scott Atherton are the brains behind [...]
Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell Asthmatic Kitty The entrancing sound of Sufjan Stevens’ unmistakable music is beautiful. The unpredictable yet cohesive sonic journey through his new album Carrie & Lowell will undoubtedly hold your [...]
Ron Sexsmith Carousel One Warner Music Canada/Compass Records Ron Sexsmith is a great songwriter and his newest album Carousel One is full of lyrical highlights. The album, which was produced by Jim Scott (Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo [...]
Death Cab For Cutie Kintsugi Atlantic Music Kintsugi, the latest work from American group Death Cab For Cutie, is titled after a Japanese form of art involving fixing broken pottery where breakage and repair is not hidden but is acknowledged and [...]
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015 Mom + Pop Music “C’mon fellows, we’ve got pay respect!” Jon Spencer howls on “Funeral,” kicking off the Blues Explosion’s second post-hiatus LP. After 2007, the Jon Spencer [...]
Killawatt émigré Osiris Matthew Watt, widely known as Killawatt, shows the progression into a more mature artist with his debut album émigré. He is no longer simply putting out dubstep, but venturing into the realms of electronica, bass, and [...]
AWOLNATION Run Red Bull Record Run is an ambitious and impressive project. AWOLNATION’s sophomore album was written, performed, and produced entirely by lead singer Aaron Bruno. The album features 14 new songs that go in many different [...]
Tobias Jesso Jr. Goon Arts & Crafts Records Goon, the debut album of Vancouver-based songster Tobias Jesso Jr., sounds like it came straight from the 1970s. Part early solo-McCartney, part Billy Joel, and part Randy Newman, the songs on Goon [...]
Twin Shadow Eclipse Warner Bros “That moment when something pure and constant is broken, where you’re filled with vulnerability, that moment is what I live for in art,” says George Lewis, Jr., aka Twin Shadow. “I’ve [...]
Joel Plaskett The Park Avenue Sobriety Test Pheromone Recordings Without being too hyperbolic, Joel Plaskett’s latest album The Park Avenue Sobriety Test is perhaps his best yet. The album is a tribute to the artist’s own life. The acronym The [...]
Dope Stars Inc. TeraPunk Independent Dope Stars Inc. is an alternative and industrial rock band from Rome that was founded in 2002. The band has released four albums and three EPs, along with their upcoming TeraPunk. Described as having a [...]
The Lookouts Spy Rock Road (And Other Stories) Don Giovanni Records Thirty years before anyone would ever even conceive of Green Day, three guys got together and The Lookouts were born. The California punk band released a remastered album March [...]
Simple Minds Sparkle In The Rain: Super Deluxe Reissue Universal Music “Don’t You Forget About Me”….wasn’t that the song from the John Hughes movie? Yeah it was and it’s still probably the most well known song associated with the Scottish [...]
Purity Ring Another Eternity 4AD Another Eternity showcases some experimentation with space-like beats and synth patterns, with Purity Ring’s distinguishable sound infused within. The Canadian synthpop duo finally released their second [...]
of Montreal Aureate Gloom Polyvinyl Records Another year, another of Montreal release. Another smattering of discord psychedelic-funk-glam-breakbeat tracks that fascinate and confound in equal measure, with catchy melodies, sing-along hooks and [...]
Sonny & The Sunsets Talent Night At The Ashram Polyvinyl Records If you didn’t know it, you would never guess San Francisco native Sonny Smith is nearing his mid-40s. Imaginative, quirky, and possessing the ability to spin stories akin to a [...]
Drake If you’re reading this it’s too late Cash Money Records If there’s an Aziz Ansari equivalent in the rap genre, it might be Drake. But comedian Ansari’s swag lust and posturing comes off as personable and self-aware. Drake, [...]
Danko Jones Fire Music New Damage Records The return of Danko Jones comes with great timing, challenging a music scene that is overrun by shoeless, whistling and clapping hipster bands. Their new release Fire Music cuts through the crap and [...]
Alex Conde Descarga For Monk Zoho Music Reinventing the classics: In Descarga for Monk, pianist Alex Conde and his band interpret nine of Legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk’s compositions through the lense of Conde’s Spanish [...]
Father John Misty I Love You Honeybear Sub Pop Records I Love You Honeybear is a well thought out album. The slow romantic music, accompanied by realistic lyrics of relationships and the American education system, makes for an interesting album. [...]
Prima Donna Nine Lives And Forty-Fives Alive Naturalsound Records Los Angeles foursome Prima Donna is back with an impressive 11-song studio album. Nine Lives and Forty-Fives features eight original songs, and three covers: “I’m On Fire” (Dwight [...]
