HIP-HOP: Going straight, coming clean with Feenix
In the world of gangsta rap, street cred is key. But when does “keeping it real” go too far? Local rapper Shawn Bernard, who also goes by the alias Feenix, has been to the edge and back in the rap game. Bernard will drop his new album Collabonation with a show at Empire Ballroom in […]
MUSIC: Jenn Grant’s Egyptian solitude
Jenn Grant admits she’s a bit of a home body when she’s not on tour. Traditionally, Grant has always written songs at home, and her friends have to drag her out of the house these days when they want her for a night on the town. But when she wrote the opening track to her […]
PREVIEW: Flat-out on the road with The Flatliners
The members of Toronto punk band The Flatliners never learned what it’s like to live a normal life after high school. Now in their early 20s, the guys have spent their last four years slugging it out in bars and tour vans across North America, Europe and Japan. The quartet recently tried to give life […]
Go big and go home with the Edmonton Music Awards
If Niagara Falls could have its own music awards, why couldn’t Edmonton? You can’t argue with the logic that led local promoter/musician Danny Fournier to create the first-ever Edmonton Music Awards. Fournier was struck with the idea while going through submissions for a songwriting contest called Rockstar 101, which he was running through his label […]
PREVIEW:Diamond Rings appreciates the attention
Everybody wants a piece of John O’Regan these days. The Canadian indie-pop sensation known as Diamond Rings can find his colourful image splashed all over the Internet. And the phone calls keep coming. After Gig City connects with O’Regan, behind schedule, our conversation is abruptly cut off. We reconnect a few minutes later as O’Regan […]
MUSIC: DJ may be a Bastid, but he loves audience participation
It’s true what they say. These days, everyone’s a DJ. You’d think that might frustrate someone like Skratch Bastid , who was in the biz before computer software made his job infinitely more accessible. But the Halifax native has wisely embraced the new, inclusive musical climate. Skratch Bastid, real name Paul Murphy, will brought his […]
THEATRE: Quasimodo, fully satisfying
There’s music, dancing and Quasimodo — but there is nothing Disney about Catalyst Theatre’s take on Victor Hugo’s classic 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This is a tour-de-force examination of humanity’s darker traits. With Hunchback, playing at the Citadel’s Shoctor Theatre through March 27, Catalyst’s core team of Jonathan Christenson, Bretta Gerecke, Laura […]
PREVIEW: At the Artery, Nu Sensae does it up Old School
Forget e-mail. Vancouver punk duo Nu Sensae is connecting with its fans the old-fashioned way. The band launched a fan club a couple months ago, and has already packaged and mailed out flyers, buttons and other goodies to fans all over the world. Nu Sensae will show you just how much noise two people can […]
POETRY: the deep meaning of rap-rock lyrics
Who knows where the cookie came from in Limp Bizkit’s 1999 hit Nookie, nor why the song’s subject was told to stick it up her ‘Yeah.’ I also never quite deciphered what Kid Rock meant by “bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy.” Angry rap-rock bands provided a smorgasbord of horribly juvenile lyrics, and perhaps that’s […]
FUNK ALERT! Alarm set to attack Edmonton with skanktastic beats, riotous horns, disruptive attire
Almost exactly one year ago, Canada was tied with the U.S. in overtime of the gold medal hockey game at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. The air was tense across the nation, and not far from GM Place where the game was being played, one band waited for what might be the best or worst gig […]
