By David Crosby
Charlottetown’s Two Hours Traffic returns with their seventh album, Foolish Blood, a lighthearted and cohesive piece that is a departure from the band’s traditional indie-pop sound. It marks a major shift in the band’s dynamic on and off the stage. Their breakthrough album Little Jabs introduced heartfelt lyrics and catchy guitar chords. Foolish Blood moves… Continue reading Spun: Two Hours Traffic
By David Kenney
Wilco’s latest album is a true culmination of everything the band has done. The Whole Love pulls sounds from the experimental folk-rock of 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the straightforward rock of 2009’s Wilco.The seven-minute-long epic opener “Art of Almost” starts with a barrage of loops and sounds not unlike the opener on Yankee Hotel… Continue reading Wilco
By Andréa Rojas
On a sweltering August afternoon, four bands with Alberta roots and five of the most prolific acts in alternative music of the last two decades, despite being emblazoned with the most ambiguous letter of the English alphabet, created a musical experience that was distinctly Calgary. Conceived of as early as 2006 by the founders of… Continue reading X-FEST
By Andréa Rojas
If your salt-stained winter boots have you yearning for clear springtime sidewalks again, Raleigh’s sweet folk-pop are like that perfect pair of canvas sneakers, to help you transition into spring. And if those canvas sneakers weren’t already more than welcome after a dreary season of cold, what’s better is that not only have you already… Continue reading Members of Calgary staples come together to form Raleigh
In the summer of 2010, two members of Kelowna’s We Are The City — Cayne McKenzie (vocals/keyboard) and Andrew Huculiak (vocals/drums) — started a side-project called High School. The project arose as both an escape and an outlet — We Are The City’s guitarist, David Menzel, was slowly drifting away from the band and wasn’t… Continue reading We Are The City are High School
Cool fact about Edmonton: they have a poet laureate. Cooler fact: their poet laureate is Roland Pemberton, also known as Cadence Weapon, the indie hip hop sensation. Pemberton has made a name for himself in several disciplines. Obviously, his poetry is highly regarded, and he continues to write poems and collaborate with the city to… Continue reading Poet laureate/rapper tackles Albertan history
By Ken Clarke
Pink Floyd co-founder and lunatic Syd Barrett was an integral contributor to the Floyd’s first two albums, but Barrett left in a drug-induced haze to work on solo material. He missed Floyd’s later fame and fortune, his solo career went nowhere and he died in relative obscurity in 2006. David Gilmour, who replaced Barrett in… Continue reading Spun: Syd Barrett
Dismembered bodies, drag queens and slutty women share one thing in common: they are frequently the butt of jokes. When they’re mixed together and seasoned with green slime and rock’n’roll they produce one hilarious, boundary-pushing musical. Toxic Avenger, local theatre company Broadway West’s newest production, is an award-winning show that takes the stereotypical juke box… Continue reading Toxic Avenger brings camp and satire
Lab Coast/Extra Happy Ghost is the first of a series of records featuring Calgary bands by the label Saved by Vinyl. Overall, experimental noise is the main river of sound, leading off into auditory tributaries of poppy surf rock, mournful shoegaze and over-indulgent psychedelia, all coexisting underneath a fog of ever-present distortion. Side A features… Continue reading Spun: Lab Coast/Extra Happy Ghost
The lyrics of Vancouver garage-rock duo Japandroids match their instrumentals perfectly — both are relentless and raw. The band weaves stories with the most basic human emotions — songs about leaving, loss and the primal and sometimes childish reactions to these emotions. “Heart Sweats” chronicles a breakup. Guitarist Brain King croons a series of insults… Continue reading Spun: Japandroids