Aloe Blacc, Good Things (Stones Throw) Apollo Ghosts, Mount Benson (independent) It’s criminal to have so many equally passionate and comical pop songs squeezed into 25 minutes, so I plug in my air guitar and press repeat. –RH Arcade Fire, The Suburbs (Merge) Mature and grown-up without losing their trademark energy, Arcade Fire take on […]
Ryan McNutt
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Flash Lightnin’ comes rockin’
With artwork straight out of 1975 and a typography that would make Bob Seger or ZZ Top proud, the self-titled debut from Toronto’s Flash Lightnin’ means rock ‘n’ roll business before you even press play. When it does hit the speakers, what you get is a love letter to all your favourite blues rock records: […]
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Girl Talk
A magic act, repeated, risks getting stale—especially when there are a zillion copycats ribbing the tricks. So it’s a wonderful surprise that All Day, Girl Talk’s third album since becoming a hipster household name, is every bit the joyous thrill of its predecessors. Released as a free download in the wee hours Monday morning and […]
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HPX spotlight: The Hold Steady
If The Hold Steady are not America’s greatest rock band—and there’s a case to be made for it—they’re certainly its most deceptively great one. A casual listener may wonder why their five albums of seemingly familiar power chords and piano histrionics have earned such cultish devotion. Sure, the band’s ability to suture the punk/classic rock […]
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HPX spotlight: Tokyo Police Club
In 2006, Tokyo Police Club’s A Lesson in Crime EP—16 minutes of speedy, punchy indie rock gold—quickly made the Newmarket, Ontario, foursome one of North America’s hottest buzz bands. Four years later, the harsh internet hype cycle having moved on, the band has been able to record and tour its excellent second album, Champ, on […]
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Halifax Pop Explosion on parade
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 Tasseomancy The Company House, 10pm, $10 Sisters Sari and Romy Lightman play the Pop Explosion in mid-transformation. They’ve already changed their band name from Ghost Bees to Tasseomancy, the title of their excellent 2008 release. The changes are going deeper, explains Sari Lightman by email: “We’re focused on developing our skills as […]
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Matador turns 21, Vegas turns hipster
Ryan McNutt travels to the Nevada desert for three days with some of the greatest indie rock bands of the past 20 years. Oddness and epicness ensues.
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Saturday Night Live
A bad SNL premiere is more depressing than a bad SNL in general: “They had four months to think up material, and THIS is the best they came up with?” But Saturday’s episode was particularly depressing as the show was returning from arguably its worst season of the modern era, a black hole of unfunny […]
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Layers of Autumn Lovers
It’s easy to get lost in Olenka Krakus’ voice. That’s not to say that there isn’t lots to love about And Now We Sing, the second full-length from Krakus and her band, the Autumn Lovers. But it’s the vocals that hit first and hit hardest. Krakus has one of those magnificent voices that can be […]
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Neil Young
A 100-voice choir singing about impeaching President Bush. Concept albums for cars and environmentalism. A sequel to an unreleased record. The idiosyncrasies of Neil Young’s 2000s output almost make his ’80s material seem mundane (…almost). Young kicks off the new decade with another experiment: a noisy, guitar-only record with Daniel Lanois producing. There are hints […]
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Superchunk
I’ve always seen Superchunk as akin to an alternative universe version of Sloan: same pop sensibilities, but with one primary vocalist, a punker edge and the record label they started becoming kind of a big deal. Though Superchunk has worked together in spits and spurts since Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance began spending most of […]
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Weezer
Hurley is Weezer’s third record in as many years; it’s as if the band’s trying to turn the teasing and torturing of its comeback-hopeful fanbase into an annual tradition. As per the routine, Hurley serves up fleeting moments of redemption—the acoustic-driven “Run Away,” the Desmond Child-assisted “Trainwrecks”—in between fine-but-forgettable riff rock and a couple of […]