INTERVIEW: Checking in with Sum 41 and their depressing new album
There are two schools of thought about rock artists who express negative feelings in their songs. On one hand, maybe it’s healthy to get that stuff out there. “Name it to tame it,” the therapists say. But then it all might get to you. The lyrics of Chris Cornell, Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, and Kurt […]
INTERVIEW: Wide Mouth Mason slides home
Fans of Wide Mouth Mason may be in for a big surprise when the band plays Friday night at Blues on Whyte. It’s not going to be a classic rock nostalgia concert, though it’s been nearly 25 years since they started. This is an entirely new direction: Shaun Verreault – the prairie wunderkind who wowed […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Walk Off the Earth on a Fast Run to the Top
Generally referred to as an “indie band,” Burlington, Ontario’s Walk Off the Earth finds influences and inspirations from all manners of music, with virtually no limits on what they might pull out of the musicsphere to craft their material – from more traditional guitars, bass, and drums, to banjos, glockenspiels, ukuleles, and even a theremin. […]
LISTEN HERE: Black Mastiff goes to space
Coincidentally, the subject of Black Mastiff’s new video for the song Star Base 77 is a French Mastiff named Babette – who is not black. She’s yellow. Via “Rotoscope” animation (the technique of tracing over real footage, made famous by Ralph Bakshi in his 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings), the rescue dog […]
IN IT FOR LOVE: Herb Alpert and Lani Hall Perform in Edmonton next Spring
Trumpeting legend Herb Alpert was the “A” in A&M Records, and when he and his partner Jerry Moss sold their company to PolyGram in 1992, they each wound up with several hundred million dollars. Then there’s the royalty and licensing fees for all that music by the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s, including that one […]
Scary Good Alice Cooper Returns to Edmonton in Spring 2020
Like all of us, the older Alice Cooper gets, the scarier he looks – which works out well for the original King of Shock Rock. Even if it’s more burlesque these days, as much laugh as scream, the 71-year-old rocker is still going strong – thanks to clean living in his senior years (a contrast […]
LISTEN HERE: Clayton Congregation Comes Together
Clayton Bellamy has been several things to many people: A solo act, a member of the highly-decorated country-rock band The Road Hammers, a short-lived CISN Country radio announcer, and now the leader of “The Congregation” – new project he says “doesn’t have a sniff” of country. Take him at his word. It’s more like the […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Morrissey Shows Up in Edmonton
The joke here is that people were taking bets on when Morrissey would cancel his Edmonton show – again. This guy is George “No Show” Jones-famous for cancelling concerts. But no! Although he’d postponed the previously scheduled April show here, the Pope of Mope fulfilled his contract for the make-up date Thursday night in Edmonton, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Shinedown, you crazy diamond
Florida act Shinedown blitzkriegs through the city Friday night as part of their “Attention Attention” World Tour, supporting their 2018 album of the same name. A concept album, it finds an individual in the throes of negativity and charts their course to becoming reborn as a new and positive one. The alt-hard rock band was […]
LISTEN HERE: Obsessions Octet flying high on classical octane
He plays sax and is head of composition at MacEwan University’s music program. She plays violin for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. They make beautiful music together – literally. The Obsessions Octet is one of Edmonton’s more unusual bands. It’s basically a string quartet combined with a jazz band, in the tradition of Argentine composer Astor […]
REVIEW: Taj Express a bombastic bonafide Bollywood bonanza!
Last year, India’s Bollywood film industry sold more tickets than Hollywood. The plots of these films are as thin as a Bombay fakir but are tricked out in massive production numbers featuring a combination of traditional and modern elements. The films tend not to take themselves seriously, are self-aware, funny, bright and entertaining. Because of […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Elton John Crocodile Rockin’ in Edmonton
In 1973, it was still OK to leave 10-year-olds in the car by themselves as the adults went to the grocery store or whatever – so one day I was alone in the car and had the radio on for amusement. Until that moment, music was just a thing in the environment I never thought […]
