Antony Hegarty’s connection to the natural world, earlier explored on 2009’s lovely The Crying Light, continues to drive his work with the Johnsons. Their latest release, Swanlights, is the aural equivalent of viewing the earth from a satellite just above the stratosphere: beautiful, austere, a little difficult to recognize. The voices and textures of nature are present throughout the album; some songs, like the chilling “Ghost,” conjure a fierce wind on the sea, while others, like the title track, can only be properly described by Antony himself. “Swanlights,” he tells us, are “the reflection of light on the surface of the water at night,” or “the moment when a spirit jumps out of a body and turns into a violet ghost.” Read More
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Holy Fuck
with Indian Jewelry & Clipd Beaks, October 12 @ Rickshaw Theatre
Review By Jasper Walley
Holy Fuck, photo by Steve Louie
Now, I’m all for the promotion of smaller labels, but if Holy Fuck are such big fans of Lovepump United, they must know how much better they could have done for openers. Pictureplane and Health? Fun! Genghis Tron and AIDS Wolf? Exciting! Clipd Beaks and Indian Jewelry? Swing and a miss, you guys. Read More
Five Alarm Funk
Anything Is Possible (Skylar Entertainment)
Review By Nathaniel Bryce
Five Alarm Funk - Anything is Possible
The front cover of Five Alarm Funk’s latest album shows a silverback gorilla and great white shark about to engage in fierce battle, eyes ablaze and teeth gnashing. This seems a clever ruse though, because behind the scenes the two are quite close and appear to make beautiful music together. With Gorilla’s brute strength and ability to command attention and Shark’s sleek swimming groove and relentless bite, they’re able to create a party that’s nearly unstoppable. Read More
Philanthropy
Or, How to support your favourite nonprofits
By Brenda Grunau
Close your eyes and imagine a philanthropist—a tucked in blouse, waist high skirt and immaculate lipstick, perhaps a lawyer who spends her life sitting on boards, speaking at galas and cutting the ribbons of new museum wings. Or, maybe you see a portly man with a moustache and an eye glass spending his millions on cancer research, malaria medication and textbooks for orphans. Instead, look around, and you’ll see philanthropists in the people surrounding you. Read More
Film Stripped
The Woodmans by C. Scott Willis (2010)
Review By Angela Yen
Going into C. Scott Willis’ film The Woodmans, all I knew was that it was a documentary about a family of artists and that the daughter, Francesca Woodman (1958-1981), committed suicide. It’s definitely a subject that if left in the wrong hands, you could end up with a movie completely contrived and overly dramatized. In his first feature length documentary, Willis finds a way to avoid those annoying, “struggling, tortured artist” clichés. Rather than picking away at biographic details and obsessing over possible reasons for Francesca Woodman’s death, Willis takes the film in a far more honest and refreshing direction. Read More
Teenage Fanclub
with The Shilohs, October 16 @ Biltmore Cabaret
Review By Andrea Bennett
Teenage Fanclub, photo by Steve Louie
Teenage Fanclub, along with XTC and a bunch of other ‘80s/’90s British bands, form a special part of the soundtrack of my childhood. My brother and I both played on travelling hockey teams, and my father would tell us that it was time to develop some cultural pride before slipping a tape into the deck and air-guitaring to “What You Do To Me.” So when I heard they were headed to Vancouver, I was so down for the show. In fact, I may have spent the weeks preceding the show sharing most of their 1991 album Bandwagonesque with my entire department. On repeat. Read More
Superchunk
with Telekinesis, October 13 @ Biltmore Cabaret
Review By Alec J. Ross
At the risk of being hated by a substantial amount of early-’90s rock fans, let me first say that this concert was difficult for me to enjoy. During the show, after blatantly lying about his annual income to a women way past her prime, a mid-thirties assclown in a tight Rock & Republic t-shirt was jumping on my foot and almost knocked over my camera three times. I may be a big guy, but this guy had serious signs of steroid use in his neck veins, so I tried to make due. Anyways, on with the show. Read More
Beekeeper
Be Kept (Independent)
Review By Kaitlin McNabb
Beekeeper and their debut LP, Be Kept, are self-advertised as a post-pop band burgeoning into the world of math rock dissonance with massive hearts on their experimental Southern Ontarian sleeves. Not sure what that means? Well it’s not certain if the band knows either, but what is clear is that this record of life, small towns and slain dragons was derived from maximum fun and excitement. Read More »