One of my favourite music teachers once observed how challenging it can be to write music with a positive tone. Personally, I’ve never tried my hand at it, but I can certainly recognize that going the other way and digging into and indulging negative emotions is a potent source of inspiration. The one possible exception […]
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit Courtney Barnett has a way with words. Freewheeling and deadpan with a heavy Melbourne drawl, Barnett delivers some of the year’s best hooks to a backdrop of poppy, gently psyched-out rock. These eleven story songs focus on such everyday topics as insomnia […]
From the Malian countryside to Brooklyn, Amsterdam to Tokyo to Toronto and back, here are seven of the releases that stuck in my head this year – in chronological order. Tokyo Ska Paradise – Ska Me Forever (Nacional Records – February 10, 2015) 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of Tokyo Ska Paradise and they celebrated […]
Facing the garlanded stage with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra warming up, looked down on by the Etobicoke School of the Arts Holiday Chorus, I can’t help but feel the buzz of holiday cheer. I have not had the privilege to attend the symphony since I was a child, and am enjoying the energy of Roy […]
I recently had the extreme pleasure of seeing The Lone Bellow at Boston’s House of Blues, and I can’t have asked for a better way to spend a Wednesday night. The first opener of the show was Hugh Masterson, a singer-songwriter out of my very own Nashville, TN. He said at the beginning of his […]
Two nights in October, I did something I haven’t done in far too long- I went to the symphony. But these were not regular nights at the symphony. There was no Peter Oundjian, an uncharacteristic smell filled Roy Thomson Hall, the average age of the patrons was at least 20 years below expected and, when […]
February 19th 2016 on Dead Oceans Records Pre-order Marlon Williams: CD, LP & ltd tan vinyl Download on iTunes Amazon Support your local independent record store “Hello Miss Lonesome”, the first single off the upcoming release by Marlon Williams, is a kinetic track – retro roots country played at breakneck speed. It’s a virtuosic turn […]
Let me tell you, Modest Mouse was my high school jam. I remember so many hours spent in the car, driving to and from school, rocking “Paper Thin Walls” like I was super edgy or something. Which is why I was excited to listen to the band’s newest effort, Strangers to Ourselves, when I learned […]