MUSIC: Mayhem by day, Kraftwerk by night
What happens when metalheads make dance music on modular synthesizers? Noisy dance music, that’s what. When local soundman and musician Jason Borys got together with Jeremy Greenspan of Hamilton synthpop duo Junior Boys, the resulting album yielded iterative beats and dark undertones that feel like they belong at a dance party in some seedy, dimly […]
MAIMANN ABROAD: Ultra Europe Festival how raves should be done
SPLIT, CROATIA – Picture Kim Jong-un dancing in the grass, donning a North Korean flag next to Barack Obama, who’s all smiles as he hammers out a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over a vodka-Red Bull. Despite Electronic Dance Music’s staunch apolitical nature, a party like this year’s Ultra Europe Festival in Croatia could be just […]
Promoters work to salvage flooded out Sled Island Festival
CALGARY – I woke up Friday morning to see downtown Calgary covered in brown water no more than a block from my vantage point at Hotel Arts, which was on evacuation order after power and water had been shut off. I’d spent the previous two nights getting soaked walking from venue to venue, trying to […]
Don’t be afraid of Death Toll Rising – be very afraid
Things can get a little awkward when you try to explain to someone why your band’s last album was called “Defecation Suffocation.” Of course, for those well versed in extreme metal, such titles are par for the course. Edmonton band Death Toll Rising, which dropped the aforementioned album in 2010, doesn’t expect anyone to take […]
EXTREME METAL REUNION: Disciples of Power rise again
It’s hard to believe there was a time when an extreme metal band from Edmonton could get on television. Disciples of Power first hit the MTV and MuchMusic airwaves in 1989 with “Crisis,” a thrashy technical-death metal number denouncing environmental degradation, from its debut album, Power Trap. The coming years saw the band relocate to […]
MUSIC: From punk to politics, Joe Keithley rocks the vote
Joe Keithley knows there’s no sense trying to hide 35 years of punk rock fury. When the legendary D.O.A. frontman announced last fall that he would run for the N.D.P. nomination in B.C.’s Coquitlam-Burke Mountain riding, he was well aware he had a spectacular rap sheet ripe for potential mud-slinging opponents to pick from. Keithley, […]
MAIMANN DOWN UNDER: Cross Turbonegro off bucket list
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – I waddled into the Hi-Fi club feeling the ground sway relentlessly back and forth, reeling from a three-day boat trip through the Great Barrier Reef. The hangover and ensuing plane ride that day probably didn’t help. But it was fitting that when I arrived to see Norwegian rock ’n’ roll cult heroes […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Leonard Cohen class all the way
In the Internet age, when success is so often determined by slick branding and youthful imagery, it’s telling that Leonard Cohen’s cheekily titled 2012 album “Old Ideas” is far and away his highest-charting record, in a career spanning 12 studio albums dating back to 1967. Cohen stepped out onto the Rexall Place stage Sunday night […]
With YouTube success comes responsibility for ‘goony’ local rapper
Video killed the radio star – only to be squeezed off the airwaves by vapid reality TV programming. The music video has only grown stronger since moving from MTV to the Internet, and it’s now more crucial than ever for unsigned talent. Young local rapper Jo Thrillz, a.k.a. Joel Vaillancourt, has mastered the art of […]
