FOOD: River City Revival House serves rock ‘n’ roll
Rage Against the Poutine made me angry. Instead of the expected cheese curds that squeak on your teeth (indicating freshness) was the surprise appearance from homemade Thanksgiving stuffing – which, like grandma on family holidays, dominated the otherwise perfectly-cooked house-punched French fries drizzled with rich bacon gravy, backed up by succulent flakes of pulled pork. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bon Iver Voyage!
Bon Iver makes a triumphant return to Festival City on Monday. Although not running amok under an frenzy of hype this time around, the indie folk act fronted and founded by Justin Vernon now has a weighty catalog of material underneath him, and curates his own annual music festival in his hometown of Eau Claire, […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Morris before us
The city was all abuzz back in 2010-11 when local Jeff Morris released his debut album, Original Songs on a Borrowed Guitar. He got mentions in press both near and far, and was nominated for an astounding six Edmonton Music Awards in 2011, including Best Live Performance, People’s Choice, Best Album and Best Single. Fast […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: From one Sloan to another
Here’s a tonsorial shocker: One of the guys in Sloan – Patrick Pentland – has gone full-on Greg Keelor. The guitarist’s suddenly hairy visage contrasts sharply with the rest of the guys (Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott), and with the image of the freshly-scrubbed college pop-sters they used to be when they released […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Attack on Sonic Titan
The Starlite Room’s Temple venue plays host to one of the nation’s most compelling musical projects on Thursday night. Yamantaka // Sonic Titan is an experimental-progressive music and art collective originating in Montreal. They started getting a lot of attention in 2012 with a number of festival appearances and their debut full-length titled YT//ST, which […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: Scenic Route to Alaska beautiful and mysterious
With their abundant talent, deep Alberta roots, strong work ethic and a career on the rise, Scenic Route to Alaska is the perfect subject for Who Named the Band – an ongoing series of essays in which much more than just the unusual or ridiculous band name is examined. Scenic Route to Alaska plays the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Time for 2000s nostalgia!
Two of Canada’s biggest alternative rock acts of the early 2000s have joined forces for two nights in Edmonton. Playing at the Jubilee Auditorium next Monday and Tuesday, Our Lady Peace and Matthew Good are in the midst of a 20-date co-headlining tour that spans the breadth of Canada, from St. John’s to Vancouver. Good […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Heat is on!
There was a seminal moment in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, in some garage somewhere, where rockabilly musicians decided to play punk rock – or maybe it was the other way around. There may have been a fist fight. Hey, what if I used this upright bass to play Black Flag songs? How dare […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Dears darlings of indie rock
The Dears have been around almost as long as “indie rock” has been a thing, forming in Montreal in 1995 and releasing their debut album End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story in 2000. Their particular brand of rock music, both dark and orchestral, has found them fans across the continent, and three of their albums […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Bahamas or Dwight Yoakam, tough choice
You concert promoters need to get it together. You give us weeks of nothing but sporadic metal and classic rock shows during a usually dead time of year – and then on the same otherwise unassuming first Monday night of March you book two must-see acts in two concert halls at opposite sides of town. […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Get your headphones on!
A couple of local well-heeled promoters – Mangled Tapes and Sweaty Palms – are putting on an intriguing little affair on Saturday night that will likely be the talk of the city’s core music scene for a good long while. Taking place at the Bleeding Heart Art Space (9140 – 118 Avenue) beginning at 7 […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Temple of the Starlite
The historic Starlite Room – originally constructed as a “citadel” for the Salvation Army before becoming the headquarters for the Citadel Theatre in 1965, and then a TV studio where the late Chuck Chandler hosted Disco Daze – first started running live music in 1978. It was later a popular underground club called the Bronx, […]
