Sneak Preview Video to close in July – 18,000 rare vids to be sold

Sad news for movie nerds: Sneak Preview Video – Edmonton’s coolest and most venerable independent video store – will be closing its doors on July 20, its entire inventory of 18,000 rare and hard-to-find videos sold off. Owner Sandy Muldrew issued the following statement, a beautiful piece of prose that deserves posting the full version: […]

Madeleine Peyroux will be smoking at the Edmonton jazz festival!

American jazz singer and smoker Madeleine Peyroux has temporarily switched to du Maurier Light because the Lucky Strikes she asked for aren’t available in Canada. Coincidence? We think not! It’s a Big Tobacco Conspiracy! Jazz festivals in Canada wouldn’t be where they are today – or where they aren’t, depending on how you look at […]

YOU SAID IT: Rihanna Rocks Rexall

[View the story “YOU SAID IT: Rihanna plays Rexall” on Storify]

YOU SAID IT: Jethro Tull plays Edmonton

[View the story “YOU SAID IT: Jethro Tull plays YEG” on Storify]

Jeff Beck to thrill area guitar worshippers at the Winspear Oct. 25

The generational divide between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers can be summed up with one simple name: Beck. Which one came first to your mind? If you stand, or more likely, sit, on the Jeff Beck side of the line, this is your lucky day. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 25, to be precise. That’s when the […]

Rihanna’s hidden message: Never hit a woman

It’s interesting to examine Rihanna’s musical trajectory since she was beaten up by her boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. You have to wonder if things might be different if it had never happened. She performs tonight (Wednesday, June 22) at Rexall Place (buy). Maybe S&M wouldn’t have become such a massive hit, its sexy video […]

Edmonton rapper to open for Eminem this fall

Edmonton rapper Doug Crawford has an unlikely organization to thank for getting to open for Eminem on D12’s American tour this fall – Canada Customs. If it weren’t for our polite and efficient border patrol, who obviously didn’t like the look of this posse of Detroit rappers when they came to entertain the good folks […]

Moody Blues brings ‘Precious Cargo’ to Jube Oct. 3

It’s been far too long since a visit from one of the founders of “symphonic rock,” for which we all owe a huge debt of gratitude – so let’s roll out the welcome mats for the Moody Blues, returning to the Jubilee Auditorium on Monday, Oct. 3. With the 1967 hit Nights in White Satin […]

GIGGLE CITY: Neil Hamburger, hold the cheese

Once in a great while Edmonton is privileged to host one of the old-time stand-up comedians, a stubborn hold-out from the days of yore where men were men, women stayed in the kitchen where they belonged and show business was an honourable profession – not the cesspool of fart jokes it’s become today. Neil Hamburger […]

THIS WEEK: Concert season kicks into gear with Rihanna, Jube schedule

* Looking for tickets to these shows? Click the buy links on our events page There’s an odd sense of kismet around the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium over the next week, a cosmic counterbalancing of musical forces to address the pop extravaganza kickin’ it new school over at Rexall. And if you buy that hippie […]

GIGGLE CITY: Matt Lisac ‘leaves them laughing’ – and thinking

Matt Lisac has attacked Edmonton’s comedy scene by stealth. He did a one-man show at the 2010 Fringe, innocuously called “A New Canadian Century,” for which he appeared on stage as a kindly, bearded Christian with guitar and a story to tell. About one minute into his opening number, it became obvious that this performer […]

TRUE TALES OF THE PIT: Bill Eddins meets Stalin’s ghost

There aren’t a lot of stories of drug abuse, groupies and biker brawls at pig roasts among classical musicians. That’s why they call them “legit,” isn’t it? But that doesn’t mean crazy things don’t occasionally happen in symphonic circles. We caught up with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra conductor Bill Eddins recently as he was getting ready […]