Feature

On Sunday a can of corn could get you into a top-notch chamber music concert. Robert Uchida and friends will perform in St. Matthew’s Church.When he was three years old Uchida saw Itzhak Perlman play on Sesame Street and fell in love with the violin. Twenty-six years later Uchida is concertmaster for Symphony Nova Scotia; […]

Home invasion In a way, when Montreal-based trio Plants and Animals play The Marquee this Saturday, they are hosting their very own Christmas special—Home for the Holidays with Plants and Animals. “Christmas is always a little bit of a shitstorm,” says guitarist Warren C. Spicer. “It’s a little like going inside a pinball machine, you […]

The first time I saw The Gideons, I stopped in my tracks, staring up at five boys in flashy outfits, all hair and impudence, playing dirty garage rock. There seemed to be too many of them to fit on the stage. Is this The Stance, I wondered? No—these boys were too young to be The […]

The idea and practice of the co-production has been in the film industry for ages. Producers and broadcasters from Country A and Country B join financial and creative forces to make and distribute a movie or TV series. More informally, this happens in music, too. Take Mexican-born-and-raised musician Inti Gonzales. After spending most of his […]

Julie Doiron has been quietly rocking her way into peoples’ hearts since 1990, when she started singing and playing bass in Eric’s Trip. Numerous solo albums, a Juno and a Polaris nomination later, Doiron is based near Jean-Talon Market in Montreal and is still very happy to be making music. “I love performing every night,” […]

It’s no secret. The Rhythm Method is pregnant. Forget the gender-specific baby gifts, cigars and cooing. This time around, the stork is dropping Celebrities with Low Self Esteem, The Rhythm Method’s debut EP, at the Khyber ICA on December 6. “We’re turning the ballroom into our 12-year-old dream bedroom with posters of hunks,” says Sascha […]

“It seemed like a loser’s instrument, you know, like a real underdog,” says Old Man Luedecke of his chosen tool, the banjo. “Here’s this happy-sounding thing that’s full of life and totally unknown to me and everything I’ve known.” Luedecke, given name Chris, is seated in the back corner of a downtown coffee shop, under […]

Luke Doucet is tired. The Winnipeg-born singer-songwriter’s voice is rusty with sleep when I reach him on his cellphone, somewhere around Grand Prairie. After some fuzzy but pleasant greetings, he asks me to wait a minute. I hear him cover the phone. “Uh, babe, when are we leaving?” he says. A female voice that I […]

“It really crystallizes everybody’s energy for writing, performing, thinking about it,” says Ross Burns, after a weekend of recording live off the floor with Gypsophilia at Charles Austin’s Echo Chamber. “There’s a bunch of new compositions and new insights on old stuff.” The band—Ross Burns, Sageev Oore, Matt Myer, Nick Wilkinson, Adam Fine, Alec Frith […]

Alt-folker Rae Spoon sings of travelling through Canada’s most isolated corners.

This week’s sure thing….

Ricardo Lopez seems to like technology. You’d at least think so checking out his first album under the alias Oldfolks Home. Knowing he’s the sole performer, composer and recording engineer on Oldfolks Home’s We Are the Feeding Line, you’ve got to marvel at his craft. Full of skittering beats and strange sounds burbling beneath his […]