MUSIC PREVIEW: Aoki dokey to eclectic weekend
While all eyes are on Rexall Place for Sunday night’s performance by the renowned Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, the rest of the weekend promises a little something for everyone. From top electronic with Steve Aoki, to folk-rock with The Stanfields and Chris Carrabba’s new project, Twin Forks, all the way to country and […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Stars align in Edmonton
The city plays host to a milieu of exceptionally talented touring music acts this weekend and beyond. Friday night is punctuated by alt-country Lindi Ortega’s sold out show at the Royal Alberta Museum, which is getting a reputation as one of Edmonton’s best acoustic venues, and the buzzworthy Hollerado gig at the Starlite Room. Saturday […]
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 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The show must go on
There’s a trio of rock bands performing in Edmonton in short order that are on the very cusp of making it very big – Strumbellas, Boreal Sons, and Belle Game. Until then, here’s one that’s already huge: the one and only Slayer, which performs Monday night at the Shaw Conference Centre (6:30 pm, $49.50 plus […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Country giants among us
It’s been a bit of a disappointing week here in the city, what with two major shows being cancelled in the last six days – first Deer Tick (family emergency), and then Pink (laryngitis and inflamed vocal cords). It’s getting so that you need an injury roster to track your favourite bands, much like hockey […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Austra extraordinary
Perhaps most interesting of an eclectic batch of artists coming through town over the next few days is Austra – the middle name of its extraordinary singer Katie Stelmanis, whose classical training shows through at each step and turn. Playing Tuesday, Oct. 8 at the Avenue Theatre, the Toronto synthpop act hit a chord with […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans
Pop quiz: Name the album that was voted the No. 1 Canadian album OF ALL TIME by respondents to a Chart magazine poll. The answer may surprise any but true Sloan fans – and there are lot of them, an entire generation moved by the iconic Toronto quartet’s ground-breaking 1994 album “Twice Removed,” which contains […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Home for a Party!
Here’s the perfect verse for the end of summer: “You’ll have to excuse me, I’m not at my best. I’ve been gone for a month, I’ve been drunk since I left. These so-called vacations will soon be my death. I’m so sick from the drink I need home for a rest.” Most music fans of […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Sled Island Spillover Effect
NextFest continues through the weekend with a deluge of intriguing and diverse gigs, and we bow to their offerings for much of the weekend as summer festival season starts to kick into full gear. The big upcoming date in the music calendar is next Wednesday, June 19th, as the “Sled Island Spillover Effect” takes hold […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Primus to get trippy
It turns out you didn’t actually have to decide whether to see Mumford and Sons or “xx” on Wednesday night – you could’ve gone to both shows, what with the Rexall curfew and a late set time for xx. Though maybe your bank account would’ve said differently. This weekend there’s a few shows worthy of […]
Record Store Reunion to celebrate coolest job ever
Like steam locomotive repairmen, harpsichord tuners and silent movie title card calligraphers, record store clerks are nearly extinct. People of the future will look back upon four decades, the 1960s to the 1990s, and no doubt have a few questions: What were “albums?” What’s a record store? Why was being a record store clerk such […]
WEEKEND MUSIC: Third time a charm for MGMT?
The band MGMT – coming to play two shows at the Starlite Room Saturday night – may be a classic case of the infamous “sophomore jinx.” Formed by Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, who met as students at the private liberal arts college Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the band’s first album won critical and popular […]
