BUZZCOCKS ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT CHERRY RED RECORDS Attitude Adjustment, the new album from the Buzzcocks, shows that Steve Diggle and company are very serious about keeping the legendary Buzzcocks name and music alive and kicking. As with the [...]
URNE SETTING FIRE TO THE SKY SPINEFARM RECORDS When it comes to URNE’s sound, such textures thrive on the tension between emotional weight and the wonder that embodies their diverse melodies, which have come to make up the firestorm of grit, [...]
HOWARD JONES LIVE AT THE MARQUEE CHERRY RED RECORDS I was lucky to see Howard Jones on his first Canadian tour in 1984. It was just following the release of his first solo album, Human’s Lib, and he was brilliant and energetic. He put on a great [...]
GOLDFINGER NINE LIVES BIG NOISE Goldfinger is back in action, delivering another infectious dose of ska-punk with their aptly titled album, Nine Lives. The album’s name resonates, considering Goldfinger’s remarkable 33-year history since their [...]
JULIAN TAYLOR ANTHOLOGY VOL. II BOWLING TURTLE With over 25 years in the game, Julian Taylor remains among Toronto’s most prolific songwriters. Contrary to 2023’s Anthology Vol. 1, which focused primarily on his work with the Julian Taylor Band, [...]
LESS THAN JAKE BORDERS & BOUNDARIES (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) FAT WRECK CHORDS I really wish pop-punk bands would stop making me feel old. The latest in what seems to be a raft of anniversary releases, Borders & Boundaries is a portrait [...]
T. GOLD LIFE IS A WONDER AND IT’S CRUEL SLEEPY CAT RECORDS No, this is not a somewhat melancholic, soul-inflected singer songwriter behind a name or a moniker of T. Gold, but a core duo of Saman Khoujinian and Gabe Anderson, supported by a [...]
SYKOFANT LEAVES SYCOPHANTASTIC RECORDS Sykofant is a progressive rock band from Oslo, Norway, consisting of Emil Moen (guitar, vocals), Melvin Treider (drums), Per Semb (guitar), and Sindre Haugen (bass). Their new EP, Leaves, is actually part [...]
YĪN YĪN YATTA! GLITTERBEAT Dutch-based psychedelic band YĪN YĪN embraces the perfect imbalance in their fourth record, Yatta!, which translates to ‘We did it!’ in Japanese. YĪN YĪN is known for their blend of Southeast Asian influences, disco, [...]
THE JACK RUBIES VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY BIG STIR RECORDS The London-based band The Jack Rubies debuted in 1986 featuring Ian Wright (lead vocals, guitar), SD Ineson (backing vocals, guitar), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltnane [...]
THE EAST POINTERS SCHOONERTOWN NETTWERK The East Pointers emerged from the East Coast modern folk music scene in 2015 with their debut album, Secret Victory, which went on to win the Juno for Traditional Roots Album of the Year. Schoonertown is [...]
VARIOUS ARTISTS MUSIK MUSIC MUSIQUE 1979 – THE ROOTS OF SYNTHPOP CHERRY RED RECORDS The punk explosion of 1976 sent shock waves across the music world. One may not think of punk and electronic music, but there was a connection. A number of [...]
THE DAMNED NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE EARMUSIC The Damned formed in 1976 and featured Dave Vanian (vocals), Brian James (guitar), Raymond Ian “Captain Sensible” Burns (bass), and Christopher “Rat Scabies” Millar (drums). [...]
KATIE TUPPER GREYHOUND ARTS & CRAFTS Katie Tupper’s new album is the kind of project that doesn’t ask for your attention, it earns it. If I could describe this album in one word, it would be raw. There’s an unmistakable honesty threaded [...]
DELANEY BAILEY CONCAVE AWAL These days the term singer songwriter has grown in its scope from just a solo artist with an acoustic instrument and introspective lyrics to a solo artist that basically has a mind of their own and goes anywhere where [...]
OV SULFUR ENDLESS CENTURY MEDIA Sometimes in a band’s career, spicing things up a bit is what gets the creative juices flowing. Since their debut album, The Burden Ov Faith, much of their material has focused on anti-religious fury. With the [...]
WESTSIDE COWBOY SO MUCH COUNTRY ‘TILL WE GET THERE ISLAND RECORDS Four-piece English indie band Westside Cowboy has been described as “college rock”, which couldn’t be a more accurate way of describing its sound or ethos. So Much Country ‘Till [...]
JULIANNA BARWICK & MARY LATTIMORE TRAGIC MAGIC INFINÉ RECORDS It seems to be the time for the successful combination of modern classical and other modern (or not so modern) musical forms, and Tragic Magic, a debut joint album by [...]
ALEV LENZ 4 IN A CYCLE OF THIRDS INDEPENDENT If you think it is a straightforward process to combine a song form with classical music compositional structure, you could be way off, with so many such experiments, remaining just that – [...]
MICHAEL PAUL BINZ LET ME BE BINZ RECORDS LLC Very often, the independent road in music has many more thorns than roses. You can come up with music that deserves to be heard, but reaching a wider audience needs time, patience and strong will. And [...]
THE SHA LA DAS YOUR PICTURE DIAMOND WEST RECORDS The Sha La Das is an inherently perfect name for a group that methodically creates tracks with such a profound combination of sentimentality and easy-listening sensibilities; the album tends to [...]
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS EYEBALL IDLEWILD RECORDINGS They Might Be Giants are back with a new EP, which is in fact a taster if you will of a forthcoming album. However, even if this was just a standalone EP, it is well worth your time. All three [...]
THE CRIBS SELLING A VIBE PLAY IT AGAIN SAM Twenty years on the music scene as a band, you are bound to have both ups and downs, and Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman, trio of brother collectivelly known as The Cribs, have certainly had quite a few of [...]
CLÉMENTINE MARCH POWDER KEG PRAH RECORDINGS Clémentine March is a French British singer and multi-instrumentalist based in London, and if a first thing that comes to your mind is a possible connection to Stereolab, formally there isn’t [...]
