January 2012
8 posts
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Top 10 albums of 2011: Jenny Charlesworth, The...
If this were about top songs, I’d be the laughingstock of the Straight’s music department. Not only would Britney Spears be getting a shout-out, so would Rihanna and Drake. For the sake of my street cred, thank Christ almighty we’re looking at long-players.
Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams
A 20-something girl singing about her dead mother doesn’t exactly scream “record of the year”. But nothing...
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2011 Year End Picks
For my 2011 Year End picks as Spinner’s Deputy Editor click here: Top Albums|Top Songs
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Thinking Outside the Manager
PHOTOGRAPH BY TENZIN DORJE
A look inside the non-denominational nativity play that’s taking over the Brick Works… “Silent night, holy night” might be the traditional setting for a certain holiday tale, but The Story, Theatre Columbus’ outdoor play based on the Nativity, promises very little of either. The imaginative walk-about—which weaves its way throughout Toronto’s historic...
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Bon Iver's Justin Vernon 'Stands Behind'...
After slagging the Grammys and going head to head with the Avalanches on account of his “sell-out” Bushmills Whiskey endorsement, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is trying to set the record straight.
Speaking to Q host Jian Ghomeshi during a live tapping of the CBC show in Toronto Thursday morning, Vernon addressed the comments he made to the New York Times regarding the...
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Cadence Weapon: Rapper Sounds Off on Drake Diss,...
‘Tis the season for year-end lists. But it’s not just music critics and bloggers tallying up the records that rocked 2011, Cadence Weapon is also taking stock of the releases that moved him this year — and he’s not pulling any punches when it comes to albums that fall flat either. So whose record failed to make the cut? Well, after his recent tweet comparing Drake’s...
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Let's all chill out and let Courtney Love do her...
By Jenny Charlesworth
Courtney Love’s ta-tas are back in the news this week. It seems a Hole concert in Sao Paulo was all it took for the 47-year-old to peel off her over the shoulder boulder holders and expose her boobies yet again. Just a glimpse of those nips and the gossip rags snap to attention, all too happy to ridicule Kurt Cobain’s wild widow. But isn’t it time we gave this train...
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Turn on the bright Lights
The MuchMusic darling reinvented herself with a littlebit of help from hip friends like Shad and Holy Fuck
By Jenny Charlesworth
If you are a MuchMusic darling looking for a hip overhaul, getting Holy Fuck to guest on your new record is a good place to start. With a name too profane for TV and a sound too experimental for the mainstream, the electronic outfit provides instant cred for a pop...
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What do you say, Coeur de Pirate?
Inked Quebec indie popster Béatrice Martin (a.k.a. Coeur de Pirate) goes Blonde for her latest album.
1. Parlez-vous français?
Our country may have two official languages, but unless your name is Celine Dion, it’s pretty damn hard to become a major Canadian pop icon if you sing exclusively—or even primarily—in French. Happily, that hasn’t slowed down Coeur de Pirate’s Béatrice Martin. She might...
November 2011
3 posts
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AUSTRA
Whenever a touring musician rolls into a new town, there are certain must-Google spots: the closest Guitar Center, the cleanest laundromat, the cheapest auto body shop. Or, in the case of Toronto electro-goth contingent Austra, the nearest Whole Foods.
For a band that maps out their travel itinerary based on organic grocery pit stops, it seems bizarre to meet ringleader Katie Stelmanis in a...
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Ground control to Amon Tobin
_PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWARD CARREON
For the better part of two decades, electronic music maven Amon Tobin has dazzled audiences with mind-expanding cuts that marry vinyl samples with his uncanny sonic sensibility. Despite his impressive résumé, the Brazilian-born visionary balked at touring his new album ISAM. Tobin insisted this latest disc—which he calls a “sound sculpture” of field...
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Death Cab for Cutie taxis to the bright side
When Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard got hitched to Zooey Deschanel in 2009, his bandmates saddled up for a lifetime of dodging questions about the She & Him bombshell. And now thanks to a certain studio where the Seattle band recorded parts of its latest album, Codes and Keys, the doe-eyed It Girl isn’t the only one popping up in interviews.
“As a kid growing up hearing ‘Summer...
September 2011
3 posts
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Bellwoods social scene
BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH
As St. Lawrence Market opens, merchants are setting up sandwich-board signs and sorting through day-old croissants. Coffee in hand, Ohbijou ringleader Casey Mecija navigates the maze of grocery stalls to a secluded picnic table. After the previous night’s excitement—the hood of Ohbijou’s van flew up and cracked the windshield while the band was en route to a video shoot...
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Hospital stay didn't keep Cave Singers frontman...
It’s only been a few months since the Cave Singers’ frontman, Pete Quirk, was forced to trade in his tour bus for a tiny hospital room, but he’s already making light of the situation. “The new album will be about the Cleveland hospital system and how thorough they are,” the singer-guitarist jokes on the line with the Straight from his Seattle home.
Quirk blames “three months of epic nights”...
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August 2011
1 post
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July 2011
5 posts
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Hyperballads and hyperlinks
How a Toronto web design company helped Björk realize her latest online vision. BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH
The remnants of a recent brainstorming session are splashed across the IdeaPaint-coated walls of Liberty Village new-media studio Jam3. Six months ago, the cryptic equations and rushed shorthand would have been engulfed in a constellation of marker points as studio partners Mark McQuillan and...
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WatchCults Plan Hip-Hop Mixtape, Talk Jim Jones Influence — Exclusive Video
My interview and co-direction credit
They may offer a nod to fearsome Jonestown icon Jim Jones on their record and have a slightly creepy name, but there’s nothing off-putting or diabolical about New York duo Cults. Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion — partners both musically and romantically — have...
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Sled Island Comes of Age With Help From Buzzcocks,...
Getty Images for Vintage at Good
Sled Island doesn’t have the desert skyline backdrop of Coachella, nor the clout and history of SXSW or its north-easternly offshoot NXNE, but the Calgary festival sure has heart.
Over the course of its five-day run — which wrapped up on Sunday, June 26 — Sled Island transformed the Alberta city into an indie music paradise, where it was...
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Sled Island Suits Up for Another Year, Celebrates...
Sled Island Flickr, James Stangroom
There’s a sea of music lovers spilling out of a hot dog joint, tunes are blasting as folks chow down on chili-smothered smokies, the sun is shining and sooner or later someone in a cowboy hat is going to saunter past. SXSW? No, Sled Island in Calgary, Alberta. Since 2007, Sled Island — which kicks off today and runs until June 25 — has...
June 2011
4 posts
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May 2011
3 posts
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Timber Timbre makes haunted-house doo-wop
There are a bevy of standout tracks on Timber Timbre’s latest album, Creep On Creepin’ On, but don’t expect to immediately recognize them when the trio performs at the Orpheum next week.
“The live show is completely different, it’s always been different from the recording,” ringleader Taylor Kirk says on the line from his adopted home of Montreal. “Playing music this way and touring, it’s...
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What do you say, Robert Longo?
Photograph: Terry Richardson The New York artist and (very) occasional filmmaker insists he had nothing to do with Mad Men’s opening credits BY: JENNY CHARLESWORTH
“They were in horrible condition, they looked like I had kept them in my shoes.”
The photographs of men and women twisting and contorting against the Big Apple’s skyline were only ever intended as source material for Robert Longo’s...
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April 2011
3 posts
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Black Lips to Produce Punk Track for Ke$ha, Make...
Leave it to Black Lips to take a shining to records with subliminal messages and decide to whip up their very own exercise in mind control. Don’t believe us? Wait until you hear the song ‘Mad Dog’ featured on their upcoming album, ‘Arabia Mountain.’ “‘Mad Dog’ is about playing records backwards, like in the ’80s, bands like Judas Priest used...
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Black Lips Drink Champagne From Mark Ronson's...
Black Lips have no shortage of juicy details to share from their recording sessions with ace producer Mark Ronson. But it seems things got interesting long before the infamous Atlanta quartet joined Ronson in a New York studio to work on their new album, ‘Arabia Mountain.’
“A couple of my friends invited me over to his house when they were house-sitting before I even met...
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The sound of silence
Toronto punks-about-town Fucked Up lend their sound to a 1928 classic at the Images film festival
The scene is strangely civilized: tacked to the wall is a pristine takeout menu advertising calzones, not one empty beer can litters the tiny room and the blue Rubbermaid containers packed with miscellaneous gear are safely stowed overhead. Add in the 1928 silent film West of Zanzibar playing on a...
March 2011
5 posts
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My Juno Preview on CTV
The lovely folks at CTV National News had me back again this morning to talk Junos.
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Bare souls and F-bombs hit Rain City Chronicles
You might come to Rain City Chronicles to hear tales recounted on-stage, but cofounders Lizzy Karp and Karen Pinchin insist it’s actually the anecdotes exchanged off-stage that make their local storytelling series so much fun.
“At the end of the show, people usually stick around and tell each other stories on the theme of the night,” says Karp, on the line with the Straight. “It’s like a...
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Four things you need to know about... Salem
If you’ve ever asked “what the heck kind of music is witch-house?” then you’ve probably already heard of Michigan buzz-band Salem. The trio became the poster kids for the subgenre (though rather begrudgingly) after taunting eardrums with the sludgy, raved-out beats heard on their 2008 EP, heartwarmingly namedYes, I Smoke Crack. Now with full-length King Night under their belt, the group is on...
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SXSW Turns 25: Celebrating a Quarter Century of...
Photo Credit: Daniel Boczarski, Redferns
Stroll through downtown Austin, Texas, during South by Southwest and you’ll be bombarded by cowboy hats and neon wristbands; drunken hipsters and sunburned executives; lineups snaking down sidewalks and songs blaring out of any space musicians can squeeze gear into. Often dubbed “indie rock spring break” or compared to like-minded film...
February 2011
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Phil Spector Documentary Reveals his 'Agony and...
[Photo Credit: Getty Images (2) - via Spinner]
Phil Spector is one of the most successful music producers of our time. He is also a convicted murderer.
The studio genius gave the world a host of classics from ‘Be My Baby’ to ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” and ‘River Deep - Mountain High.’ That was then. In ‘The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil...
January 2011
4 posts
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Renovated Waldorf Hotel brings the South Pacific...
Photographer Credit: Eric Cairns
Special to The Globe and Mail
Waldorf Hotel
1489 East Hastings, Vancouver; waldorfhotel.com; 30 rooms with rates from $110. No eco-rating.
Unless you’re a penny-pinching backpacker or a rough-and-tumble longshoreman, an invitation to stay at the Waldorf Hotel only a few months ago would have elicited quite a stare. Tucked away in an industrial pocket in...
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The Lake & Stars Lingerie Sets Up Shop at the...
*Styling & Concept by Maayan Zilberman
When Nikki Dekker and Maayan Zilberman, the lingerie-design duo behind the Lake & Stars, unveiled their Moon Landing tights, they raised some eyebrows with the bumless tie-dyed style. Though the company’s name is taken from a Victorian euphemism for a woman’s prowess in the boudoir, the racy, easy-access leggings caught some off guard.
“People...
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Shad Sings the Praises of 'Live Forever'...
Photo: Chromewaves | Patrick Lemieux
After teaming up with Cadence Weapon and Broken Social Scene’s Lisa Lobsinger andBrendan Canning, Shad is back at the collaborating game, this time aligning himself with City and Colour / Alexisonfire mainstay Dallas Green. Today marks the release of their two-track EP, fittingly titled ‘Shad & Dallas: Two Songs,’ with all proceeds from...
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Cake's John McCrea Shows No Mustache Compassion...
When Cake frontman John McCrea sat down to write his band’s sixth studio album, ‘Showroom of Compassion,’ he knew it was high time that he faced his fears and penned a song about a lifelong concern. And so, McCrea wrote about mustaches. “I think people are dealing with mustache issues in our culture,” McCrea tells Spinner. “A lot of people grew up with men...
December 2010
6 posts
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Psych-Rock Purple Rhinestone Eagle Soars High
Andrea Genevieve is a woman of many talents. Not only can she channel the fury of Blue Cheer while fronting Purple Rhinestone Eagle, the Portland guitarist can negotiate with a five-year-old like nobody’s business—which, depending on who you talk to, might actually be more impressive than the former skill.
While it’s apparent from the trio’s latest album, The Great Return, that Genevieve has...
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Silver Gleams at Shiny Fuzzy Muddy Craft Sale
Could there be a greater compliment for a jewellery designer than attracting the eye of those who’ve sworn off bling? Probably not, which is why Kari Woo shouldn’t be shy about her ability to make adoring customers out of nonbelievers.
“There are lots of people who don’t wear jewellery that are attracted to my line because it’s so simple and understated,” Woo says on the line from Canmore,...
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Spinner's 30 Best Albums of 2010
04‘Halycon Digest’Deerhunter
It wasn’t long ago that Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox would go onstage smeared with fake blood, delivering a 20-minute monologue about his childhood. On what just could be the band’s signature album, the Altanta friends have truly come into their own. Unique pop melodies take the edge off their signature fuzz and fury, and guitarist Lockett...
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Barenaked Ladies Say Ex-Singer Steven Page...
Barenaked Ladies drummer Tyler Stewart doesn’t sugarcoat it when discussing his band’s feud with former frontman Steven Page. “Back and forth pissing match” are his exact words when his ex-bandmate’s name is brought up — as it usually is during interviews. While Page’s departure (and a rather scandalous one at that) is an obvious topic of interest, the...
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November 2010
2 posts
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