Black Sabbath to hit Edmonton in April
Area metal fans have waited a long time for this – Black Sabbath is coming to Edmonton. With Ozzy! The date is Tuesday, April 22, 2014, at Rexall Place. Tickets range from $29 to $125 and go on sale on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 10 am at Ticketmaster. Expect the show to sell out, maybe […]
Kemo Treats: Sane Clown Posse
The theory that parodying something long enough causes one to turn into the very thing being made fun is put to the test with Kemo Treats. Six years after starting the most ridiculous gangsta rap duo in Edmonton – if not the entire world – its co-founder Greg Goa remains clear on the targets of […]
Hollerado: When pop punk gets smart
Next to American country music stars, there is no one in show business that gets accused of rampant stupidity more than “pop punk” musicians. These thinly disguised boy bands play songs just as fast and loud as punk, but with candy coated hooks and lovey dovey lyrics in place of snarling political satire. You can […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: Slayer slays the course
Slayer is such an awesome band name for a group of guys who loved nothing better than to frighten as many people as possible. “We knew that kind of stuff pissed people off,” says singer and bassist Tom Araya, referring to the devilish songs and imagery the California thrash metal band came to be known […]
Mr. Chi Pig at home in the city that punk built
Ken Chinn – aka “Mr. Chi Pig” – has been spotted wandering old Edmonton haunts as he prepares for SNFU’s CD release show at the Pawn Shop. He seems to be having a pretty good time. He shows up for an interview in a jolly mood, attired like a WWI pilot. First thing he does […]
MUSIC: The habits of Edmonton introverts
Even at North Country Fair – idyllic in its own happy, druggy, timeless way – Energetic Action felt like outsiders. “North Country Fair was our Stonehenge,” says bassist George Synnett (pictured) – and he’s not referring to the famous scene in This Is Spinal Tap. He’s talking about the famously strange Stonehenge Free Festival held […]
SONIC BOOM: What’s My Age Again?
At what point does modern rock become classic? You can be sure that none of the 13,000 fans at Northlands Park on Sunday evening were contemplating this pop culture question as two of modern rock’s most geriatric acts Blink-182 and Weezer headlined Sonic Boom 2013. They were too busy rocking out. Whatever the actual ages […]
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 […]
Ben Folds to rock ESO a second time
Maybe we can make Ben Folds playing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra a biennial event. The pop piano-meister will be back to wow his local fans a second time on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, at the Winspear Centre – less than two years after he came to Edmonton for the first time. Tickets ($69 or […]
REVIEW: Big league fun at Edmonton rock fest
If there is one thing classic rock fans know how to do – apart from drinking beer – it’s how to enjoy themselves. It’s hard to imagine people at the folk fest having any more fun than the joyful fans down at Heritage Amphitheatre on Friday Night for the 2013 edition of the Edmonton Rock […]
Fred Larose was a ‘musician’s musician’
Fred Larose didn’t live to see his own name in lights, but he probably wouldn’t have wanted it there anyway. His legacy will be as a prince among sidemen – the unassuming, rock-steady, hard-working bass player who holds down the crucial bottom end and puts his gifts to the service of making others sound great. […]
MUSIC: No soapbox on jazz crossover from activist folk singer
A folk singer has made a jazz record – is this news? Maybe it ought to be. It doesn’t seem to happen very often. Dale Ladouceur, Edmonton singer, songwriter, producer and the city’s chief practitioner of the 10-stringed “Chapman Stick,” says she didn’t plan for her latest album to be so, you know, “jazzy.” But what […]
