Fort Saskatchewan gets first radio station, lots of Bon Jovi, with Mix 107.9
Tucked away at the end of the radio dial, waaaay up at 107.9 FM, is Fort Saskatchewan’s very first radio station – which launched Tuesday morning as Mix 107.9 FM with a format that could only be described as “Somewhat Contemporary Hits Radio.” Once CFKT’s big-ass 20,000 watt transmitter is fired up, we’ll be able […]
Are the Chili Peppers modern age Beach Boys?
Not since the Beach Boys has there been a band that’s as all about California as much as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Playing Wednesday and Thursday at Rexall Place, these keyed-up Angelinos are the quintessential modern Golden State rock band. Thanks to a wonderfully raucous cover of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground in 1989, they […]
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 […]
Leonard Cohen the Godfather of great singers who can’t sing
The Return of Leonard Cohen Sunday night reminds us of a very special class of singer-songwriter for whom the art of singing is secondary to the art of songwriting. Let’s just say that Len – like Neil Young, like Bob Dylan, like Tom Waits, like Lou Reed, like Nick Cave, name your legendary croaker – […]
WEEKEND MUSIC PREVIEW: Canada loves the Metric system!
For a band tagged as “modern rock,” Metric’s extraordinary popularity soars across age ranges, across income levels, across, well, across everything – as we shall see when the band plays Rexall Place Thursday night, its first time in the Big Building. Half the nation’s men are probably in love with vocalist Emily Haines, but the […]
Nelly Furtado returns to Edmonton in January with new album, new sound
You know who we haven’t seen around these parts for a while? Nelly Furtado. She’s coming back to Edmonton, first time since 2007, to play the Jubilee Auditorium on Tuesday, January 15, touring behind her new album, The Spirit Indestructible and the new hit single therein, Big Hoops (The Bigger the Better). Tickets go on […]
Alice Cooper revisits Nightmare, Obama re-elected – coincidence?
Alice Cooper is one of a number of rock stars expected to be bummed out by Obama’s re-election – but at least he’s taking it in good humour. He tweeted before the election, “If I’m #elected I promise the formation of a new party A third party, the #WildParty!” And afterwards, “Did I win?” Contrast […]
The Fifth Estate looks at the uncertain future of elephants in zoos
Lucy the elephant is one enormous local media celebrity. The old girl is going national again this Friday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV as the star of The Fifth Estate episode “The Elephant in the Room” that takes a hard look at the “bitter fight over the future of elephants in zoos.” The only thing […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Wiz Khalifa show goes to pot
If not for the security and police presence at the Wiz Khalifa concert Sunday night, you wouldn’t even know it was Movember. Nary a soul in the Shaw Conference Centre crowd of 4,900 could grow more than a zit on his or her upper lip. The facial hair was limited to the pencil ’stache on […]
Gay love on the Rez: award-winning play comes out in Edmonton
The bullying and self-loathing Waawaate Fobister suffered as a gay youth wasn’t derived from his own aboriginal culture – but from the Christian dogma that was forced upon it. “As a teenager growing up as a Christian, I just hated myself because they told me I was going to go to hell because of who […]
SCARY TIMES: 13 Halloween events for grown-ups who don’t want to grow up
It’s no mystery why Halloween has been completely co-opted and dominated by grown-ups – it’s because many modern grown-ups have failed to grow up. Joe Flaherty – SCTV’s Count Floyd, so he ought to know about this sort of thing – complained that many of the adult students in his improv classes back East were […]
MUSIC: Adam Cohen, son of Leonard, embraces the family business
One so rarely gets a chance to talk to the child of a musical superstar that the famous parent tends to become the central thesis of every story about them – including this one about Adam Cohen – or at the very least the elephant in the room that gets tiptoed around. It’s such a […]
