If you need further proof that people will just say anything on the internet, when Olivia Rodrigo's "drop dead" — the lead single from the forthcoming album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love — came out on Friday (April 17), someone on Twitter said she had "successfully reheated the 'don't delete the kisses' nachos.'"
If you're not already offended by this comment, you should be! Put some respect on Wolf Alice's indelible classic's name! But the more I think about it, I understand where this person was coming from: Rodrigo does a brazenly syllable-stuffed attempt at Ellie Rowsell's lithe speak-singing in the second verse, having evidently attended the Gracie Abrams school of over-enunciation with a minor in Taylor Swift vocalization studies.
As a whole, "drop dead" is less offensive than its comparison to "Don't Delete the Kisses," but it feels manufactured as such: a cut-and-copy, paint-by-numbers pop hit engineered in a lab with research drawn from the AI artists popping up all over the Billboard charts in the "other" world. There are plenty such instances, but it feels like a rarity from Rodrigo, who has previously seemed willing to break the mould by subverting expectations, breaking through with the swelling piano ballad "drivers license" and — to borrow that Twitter user's verbiage — essentially reheating her own nachos, adding some new toppings with the expansive vocal chops she flexed on "vampire."
Instead of a Wolf Alice gem, the first comparison that came to mind when I heard "drop dead" was "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus, a hit I found perhaps disproportionately grating in its refusal to be anything but some of the blandest self-love Top 40 radio fodder in recent memory. Not only was it unrepresentative of what Cyrus can do vocally, it was so tepid and mild that I couldn't even mindlessly bop to it in passing — which I recently succeeded in doing at the mall with a sombr song, so it's not like I have a particularly high bar for these things.
Part of what made the lead singles from both of Rodrigo's previous albums show-stopping moments was the affect of her vocal delivery; the gradual build from whisper-quiet hurt of "drivers license" crescendoing into major heartbreak as the rain on the windshield intensified, to the different type of betrayal that called for a more defiant vengeance, calling out a traitor for their wrongdoing on "vampire." It's fine that "drop dead" has an entirely different atmosphere — refreshing even — but as hyperbolic as its title is, the realization of the laboured "fem-in-ine in-tu-ition" jammed into the chorus doesn't feel nearly as intense as Rodrigo's previous offerings.
"One night I was bored in bed / And stalked you on the internet," she sings, feigning detachment with a relatable vignette we all know isn't detached at all. This instance of the words meaning one thing on the surface and betraying another, deeper thing is somehow the most emotionally resonant moment of the entire song. I guess I might listen to "drop dead" one night, but I'll probably get bored and stalk you on the internet instead.
Dead Bob, the project lead by John Wright of Victoria punk pioneers NoMeansNo and the Hanson Brothers, has released a new album along with annoucing a Canadian tour.
The album Nothing Changes Everything is out today via Wrong Records. It follows 2023's Life Like, which came out three years ago to the day. The album is a mix of brand new and archival material, including a couple of the final songs demoed by NoMeansNo.
Wright and his band are hitting the road in Canada in support of the LP. They will be touring from coast to coast in May, playing 14 shows in total. They will expand the tour internationally later this year.
Tickets and more details are available at the band's website.
Dead Bob 2026 Tour Dates:
05/01 Toronto, ON - Horseshoe Tavern
05/02 London, ON - Palasad SocialBowl
05/03 Waterloo, ON - Revive Karaoke
05/05 St. Catharines, ON - Warehouse Concert Hall
05/06 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware
05/07 Greater Sudbury, ON - Townehouse Tavern
05/08 Ottawa, ON - The 27 Club
05/09 Québec City, QC - La Source de la Martinière
05/12 Moncton, NB - Xeroz Arcade Bar
05/13 Charlottetown, PE - Trailside Music Hall
05/14 Halifax, NS - Seahorse Tavern
05/15 Fredericton, NB - Charlotte Street Arts Centre
05/16 Montréal, QC - Pouzza Fest
05/23 Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
Nothing Changes Everything:
1. Centre of the Universe
2. Punk Rock-a-Rama
3. Nothing Changes Everything
4. Save Me from Myself
5. Hard Is Hard
6. It's Hard to Care
7. The Present
8. No Fun
Legendary producer Daniel Lanois is bringing his live trio to the East Coast for a couple of shows this fall.
He will make two Nova Scotia stops in October: Wolfville's Devour! Studios on October 10, and Halifax's Rebecca Cohn Auditorium the day after.
Tickets go on sale this Friday (April 24) at sonicconcerts.com.
This trio features Jermaine Holmes on drums, Jim Wilson on bass and Lanois himself on guitar, with all three singing. "The more I travel, the more it all bleeds together, record making, radio, internet, TV, festivals, life itself and of course SINGING," said Lanois in a statement. "The original instrument, that being the voice, is alive and well in this trio configuration."
Daniel Lanois 2026 Tour Dates:
09/10 Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia
09/14 Stockholm, Sweden - Nalen
09/16 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
09/18 Bergen, Norway - USD Verftet
10/09 Wolfville, NS - Devour! Studios
10/10 Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
For the second time in a week, Drake is imposing on the City of Toronto by putting a massive block of ice in the middle of a parking lot for some reason.
The inside of the sculpture — which is currently sitting at 81 Bond Street near Dundas Street East — supposedly contains the release date for the rapper's upcoming album, Iceman. Naturally, people who refuse to admit Drizzy lost his rap battle with Kendrick Lamar are taking it as an opportunity to be annoying.
As per CityNews, law enforcement was called to the site around 11 p.m. yesterday (April 20) as people had climbed to the top of the massive ice structure and refused to come down. A fire was also set atop it to help it melt faster.
People were also using hammers and pickaxes to chip away at the ice, and large chunks began to fall, which is obviously very dangerous. No arrests were made, but police stayed on site to monitor the situation.
The stunt comes after Drake freaked out the entire Downsview Park neighbourhood last week by setting off an explosion for an upcoming music video. If that's what it takes to get people's attention after taking a massive L, go for it, we guess.
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After playing headlining sets at Coachella over the past two weekends — and having been warned not to speak out against ICE or risk losing her visa — Colombian superstar Karol G will be embarking on a massive headlining tour of her own this summer.
The Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour will begin in Chicago, IL, on July 24. She'll pop up to Canada for a single show at Toronto's Rogers Stadium a few days later on July 29.
The rest of the tour will see her play stadiums across the US, Central and South America, throughout the year and into 2027. A UK and European leg will take place next summer.
See the full list of dates below. Artist presale begins next Monday (April 27), and general on-sale timing varies by market.
As always, head over to Concert Central for more Canadian tour announcements.
Karol G 2026–2027 Tour:
07/24 Chicago, IL - Soldier Field Stadium
07/29 Toronto, ON - Rogers Stadium
08/02 Landover, MD - Northwest Stadium
08/07 Las Vegas, NV - Allegiant Stadium
08/14 Los Angeles, CA - SoFi Stadium
08/21 San Francisco, CA - Levi's Stadium
08/26 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field
0829 Phoenix, AZ - State Farm Stadium
09/02 San Antonio, TX -Alamodome
09/06 El Paso, TX - Sun Bowl Stadium
09/12 Boston, MA - Gillette Stadium
09/17 East Rutherford, NJ - MetLife Stadium
09/24 Atlanta, GA - Mercedes-Benz Stadium
09/27 Houston, TX - Reliant Stadium
10/02 Hard Rock Stadium
10/09 Tampa, FL - Raymond James Stadium
10/15 Dallas, TX - AT&T Stadium
11/06 Monterrey, MX - Estadio BBVA
11/13 Ciudad de México, Mexico - Estadio GNP Seguros
11/27 San José, Costa Rica - Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica
12/04 Bogotá, Colombia - Estadio Nemesio Camacho El Campín
01/15 Quito, Ecuador - Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa*
01/22 Lima, Peru - Estadio Nacional
01/28 Santiago, Chile - Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos*
02/05 Buenos Aires, Argentina - TBC
02/12 São Paulo, Brasil - Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu
02/19 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez*
02/26 San Juan, Puerto Rico - Estadio Hiram Bithorn Sosa
06/03 Barcelona, Spain - Estadio Olímpic
06/11 Sevilla, Spain - Estadio Olímpico La Cartuja
06/18 Lisbon, Portugal - Estádio da Luz
06/24 Madrid, Spain - Riyadh Air Metropolitano
07/01 París, France - Paris La Défense Arena
07/06 London, UK - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
07/10 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Johan Cruijff ArenA
07/14 Warsaw, PL - PGE Narodowy
07/17 Düsseldorf, Germany - Merkur Spiel-Arena
07/21 Lyon, France - Groupama Stadium
07/24 Milan, Italy - San Siro
Too often, the world pushes people to abandon hope and call it "maturity." Friko write songs as if that option was once presented to them with brute force, but then they decided to keep choosing hope anyway — the kind that's boundless, a bit naïve, and still worth the risk.
The fast-rising Chicago indie rockers channel that into something real and well-earned on Something Worth Waiting For, a sophomore effort that sharpens their emotional aim while widening their sound. The hush-to-burst dynamics are as present as ever, as are the hooks that land like pressed bruises. But now, with founding duo Niko Kapetan and Bailey Minzenberger joined by guitarist Korgan Robb and bassist David Fuller, Friko play with more lift and propulsion, creating songs that sprint and bloom with a confidence their debut, 2024's Where we've been, Where we go from here, only hinted at.
Minzenberger's drums no longer just explode songs open; she guides their hoist, too, while Robb's guitar and Fuller's bass open them toward the same sense of possibility Kapetan's words aim to transpose. From the piano-ballad melodrama of "Certainty" to the freak folk of the title track, the band's arrangements give their sentiments a sense of purposeful altitude, without sacrificing that small band intimacy. Amidst the drudgery of every day, there's a sense that every note played and every word uttered are the only thing that matters.
At a time when so much rock music either aestheticizes despair, for better or worse, or hides behind irony (sorry, Geese), Friko make their earnestness feel cool, like 2000s indie cool. Some might liken their posture to the bright-eyed early years of Arcade Fire, but I would go even further to compare Something Worth Waiting For's endearing schmaltz to acts that arrived a little later, at the height of the millennial idealism that emerged after the 2008 recession, like Grouplove or Passion Pit.
This might not be the best sell at first blush, but these songs move similarly like introductory statements — a first kiss, the moment a broken heart stops feeling permanent, a hot-air balloon taking flight, the rush of bombing a hill on a bike at too much speed. The feeling Friko chase and so effectively capture in their music is unmistakable: a full-body yes. This exhilaration becomes the record's governing atmosphere, and the motif it circles, too; the need to keep moving before life hardens anyone into the sensible person the world expects.
That tension between push and paralysis is evident from the outset, with Something Worth Waiting For opening by treating hesitation as something to overcome. On "Guess," uncertainty is a daily unraveling. "Don't make me guess if that's a cry or a laugh," Kapetan repeats, rolling through binaries like a frustrated mathematician making sense of this confusing life. The chorus offers the album's first shift toward light: "So I'll guess that it's a laugh" — bleakly funny, half-deflective decisiveness being the LP's thesis in its simplest form; if "There's hardly enough in this world to make us happy," you either surrender to that scarcity or you don't.
"Still Around" makes that decision vivid. "There's hope in every kill / Home in every hell / All is not a failure," Kapetan sings, the line landing as both a survival technique and a motivational poster receding upon the facade of some downtown scaffolding. It doesn't deny disappointment, but the song refuses to let it grow paramount. Under the pressure of fulfilling the promise their debut instigated, in Friko's hands, presence — "You're still here / You're still around" — isn't consolation; it's reason to keep going.
From there, this ultimately heartening record keeps reaching for routes to push against the pitfalls of stasis and status quo — whether by bike, train, or balloon — because movement is the lifeblood to the beautiful delights of life: laughter, roadside friendships, the last flickers of youth before time turns them into memories.
The fast-moving "Choo Choo" is a charming and frantic transit piece that confuses state lines with stomach knots, attempting to capture the need for fluid routes through your own anxious brain. "New York to L.A. isn't long enough," Kapetan admits, the track coming off like a song about tour fatigue until you decipher the deeper confession underneath, that even distance can't outrun what you're carrying.
The restless urge of "Choo Choo" mutates into a fantasy of lifting clear of both the private panic and the social theatrics built around it with "Hot Air Balloon," Kapetan name-checking the ecosystem of art-world posturing — singers, painters, poets, "Boys with their pretty sayings" — only to reject it in favour of a simpler, more innocent image: a flame beneath a balloon, floating above the mess.
The dream is gorgeous and a little suspect, and the song admits as much: "I don't wanna see it / I don't wanna be it." Friko treat fantasy less as denial than as fuel. If the ground is crowded with sadness and strain, then flight becomes one way to keep the heart from yielding to it all and calcifying. But they won't let escape be the point: in Friko's world, hope isn't a private revelation, but a communal one.
"Dear Bicycle" finally pushes the album's need to move and escape toward a place of rest. With weary eyes, Kapetan addresses a rusting bicycle — wheels off, bones showing — behind a shed, the perfect stand-in for youth you can't quite fix or throw away. He neither romanticizes nor shames it. Instead, he roots for it. When he repeats, "I was empty then / I'm not empty now," it feels not like a victory lap, but a small dispatch from the other side of a few hard years. Time doesn't only take, it also provides new ways to stay.
That's the quiet feat Friko have managed on Something Worth Waiting For: admitting how easy cynicism is, then pledging to keep resisting it. "Home in every hell" isn't a conclusion; it's a method. Friko keep the engine running without pretending it's effortless. Formidably, they choose the laugh, the jab, the ride, the people beside them — and try not to miss the moment.
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Failure are gearing up to release their new album Location Lost this Friday (April 24), and have now succeeded in extending their North American tour itinerary for 2026 with a new slate of fall dates — including a single Canadian stop in Vancouver.
After capping off their spring trek in Toronto late next month, the band will hit the road again, starting September 30 in San Francisco, CA, immediately crossing the border to perform at Vancouver's Rickshaw Theatre on October 2 with special guest quannnic. Failure will wrap the fall run on October 30 in Los Angeles, CA.
Tickets go on sale Friday (April 24) at 10 a.m. local time, following various presales beginning tomorrow (April 22). Check out the full routing with the new dates in bold below, where you can also find "The Rising Skyline," the latest preview of the album featuring Hayley Williams. Be sure to also head over to Concert Central for everything you need to know about more upcoming Canadian shows.
Failure 2026 Tour Dates:
04/21 Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon (Album Release Show)
04/25 Las Vegas - Sick New World Festival
05/02 Chicago, IL - SPACE ECHO @ Radius
05/03 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
05/05 Nashville, TN - Basement East
05/06 Atlanta, GA Masquerade - Hell
05/08 Daytona Beach, FL - Welcome To Rockville Festival
05/09 Asheville, NC - Eulogy
05/10 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
05/12 New York, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
05/13 Cambridge, MA - Sinclair
05/14 Hamden, CT - Space
05/15 Washington, D.C. - Union Stage
05/16 Harrisburg, PA - Arrow at Archer Music Hall
05/17 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
05/19 Detroit, MI - Shelter
05/20 Toronto, ON - Opera House
09/30 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
10/02 Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
10/03 Seattle, WA - Showbox
10/04 Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
10/07 Minneapolis, MN - Fine Line
10/08 Omaha, NE - Waiting Room
10/09 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave II
10/11 Columbus, OH - A&R Bar
10/13 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
10/14 Providence, RI - The Met
10/16 Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom
10/17 Louisville, KY - Headliners
10/18 Grand Rapids, MI - The Pyramid Scheme
10/20 Indianapolis, IN - Vogue
10/21 St. Louis, MO - Delmar Hall
10/22 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
10/23 Oklahoma City, OK - Beer City Music Hall
10/24 Dallas, TX - Sick New World Dallas
10/26 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
10/28 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
10/29 San Diego, CA - Music Box
10/30 Los Angeles, CA - The Belasco
This summer, Feist, Alessia Cara, current Exclaim! cover stars Broken Social Scene and the Tragically Hip's Paul Langlois will be hitting the stage at Nathan Phillips Square for the inaugural TOgether Festival to raise money in support of Toronto hospitals.
Presented by Fitzrovia and powered by MRG Live, TOgether will take place on June 6 from 12 p.m. to late. The event's goal is to raise over $1 million to support the UHN and Michael Garron Hospital Foundations, and there will be live fundraising throughout the day, with opportunities to win prizes.
Daytime programming will focus on health, wellness and movement, and will also include curated food trucks and vendors, interactive hospital activations, kids programming, guest appearances by Canadian Olympians and more.
"At MRG Live, we believe that live events have the power to bring people together in ways nothing else can, and TOgether is exactly that," President and founder of the MRG Group, parent company of MRG Live, Matthew Gibbons shared in a release. "As a proudly Canadian company, based in Toronto, it means everything to us to be part of an event that celebrates the spirit of this city: our generosity, our community, and our commitment to one another and we're honoured to bring that to life on June 6. This is about more than a concert, it's about what we can build together for Toronto."
Check out the poster below.
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Continuing to support their 2024 sophomore album Where's My Utopia?, Leeds-formed band Yard Act have announced a slate of summer North American tour dates — including a lone Canadian gig in Vancouver.
The quartet hit the road on this side of the pond starting August 5 in San Diego, CA. Within the week, they'll cross the border for their sole performance on Canadian soil at the Pearl in Vancouver on August 11. From there, Yard Act will wrap up the run back in the US, finishing on August 16 in Boston, MA, before heading overseas to Europe and their native UK.
Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday (April 24) at 10 a.m. local, with presales beginning tomorrow (April 22); sign up here for access. Find the full itinerary below, and check out Concert Central to discover more upcoming Canadian shows.
Yard Act 2026 Tour Dates:
08/05 San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern
08/06 Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Ballroom
08/08 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands
08/09 Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
08/10 Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre
08/11 Vancouver, BC - The Pearl
08/13 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
08/14 Washington, D.C. - Black Cat
08/15 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts
08/16 Boston, MA - The Sinclair
A Kingston man ran the Boston Marathon yesterday (April 20) while carrying a Canadian flag and dressed as Gord Downie.
Joe Reid spoke with visitkingston.ca about his plans to run the 42.195 km race dressed up as Downie from the Tragically Hip's final tour, with silver pants, a Jaws shirt and fedora.
A photo accompanying the piece shows that he wore a similar outfit — carrying a guitar rather than a flag — at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2017, just days after Downie's death.
"I wanted to bring a piece of Kingston with me," he said. "What's more fitting than Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip?"
Reid's running playlist is "about 80 percent" made up of Hip songs, and his favourite song is "Nautical Disaster." He has a Hip-themed shrine in his garage, which is nicknamed "The Henhouse."
"I think Kingston is synonymous with the Tragically Hip," Reid said. "I'm quite excited to represent the city I live in, as well as the band."
The marathon took place yesterday. We haven't received any confirmation that Reid ran it as planned (since his interview with visitkingston.ca was published on April 17), so we'll have to assume that everything went smoothly for the Hip super-fan.
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Last year, Canadian Music Week rebranded and relaunched under the name Departure Festival + Conference, presented by TD, and following that successful inaugural edition, it's back for another week of industry events and concerts.
Along with keynote speakers and the Departure Honours awards show (presented by Ticketmaster), the festival will host showcase shows including Cam Kahin (pictured above), Choir! Choir! Choir! leading a singalong with a Canadian legend, and some of Toronto's finest indie talent.
Tickets and passes for Departure Festival are on sale now. Get more information at the event's website.
Choir! Choir! Choir! Angel: An Epic Singalong, presented by TD
Where a musical legend treads, Choir! Choir! Choir! are never far behind, leading Torontonians in singalongs of beloved artists like the Tragically Hip and Taylor Swift. Massey Hall's Angel: An Epic Singalong on May 6 will culminate in a singalong of "Angel" featuring Sarah McLachlan herself.
Cam Kahin
Exclaim! Class of 2024 grad and PUP pal Cam Kahin will be supporting his newly released debut album CHUG at Lee's Palace on May 9, alongside like-minded local rockers Chastity and SMUG LLC, all of them bringing their own unique blend of loud guitars and melodic hooks.
Lexxicon
Lexxicon has reliably been making sunny dancehall for close to a decade, and the Toronto artist blazed a trail with 2024's Pink Fraternity, which celebrated queer joy. "After having some talks with my family and friends, and healing some of these past childhood traumas, I got to this place where I was like: 'I'm just gonna be me. Forget what everyone else says,'" he told Exclaim! "Having good queer support around me helped. And they all said: 'This is needed.' That encouraged me." Bask in the joy at Lula Lounge on May 8.
Pick a Piper
Brad Weber is the longtime touring drummer for Caribou, and he uses his duo with Sophia Alexandra as a way to similarly explore the intersection between electronic music and organic production. Arriving at Rhythm on May 7 with the new album Dandelion in tow, the band's press materials promise "an intoxicating live show that combines vibrant movement with immersive lights and visuals."
Witch Prophet
Ayo Leilani has crafted her own niche in R&B, her psychedelic soul and jazz influences as intoxicating as ever on the new album Words Are Spells, Thoughts Are Magic. It includes her first song performed entirely in Tigrinya (the most widely spoken language in Eritrea), written while the artist was recovering from brain surgery in 2023. She plays Burdock Music Hall on May 6.
Despite her glamorous persona, there might not be another pop star as down-to-earth as Jessie Ware. The singer, food podcaster and mother of three certainly plays a lot of roles, but all of them contain her truest self. Who, when asked how she's doing, replies, "Just fucking cracking on, talking about myself all day," while laughing.
The musician has a tendency to lean on escapism, especially as it pertains to this atrocious decade. But as it continues, she's learning that two things can be true at the same time — you can face what's in front of you whilst still making life as indulgent as possible.
"I think I was actually trying to hold a mirror up more than I had done in the last two records," Ware tells Exclaim! of her new album Superbloom, out now via EMI. Like 2020's What's Your Pleasure? and 2023's That! Feels Good!, she wanted to make something "quite glorious and decadent and abundant and filled with theatre and melody and orchestration," without taking flight.
Her sixth album is still in alignment with those last two efforts, which turned her into a critical darling and combined her impeccable pop songwriting with a neo-disco affectation. This go-around, she's tapped into her more soulful proclivity, harking back to her 2012 debut Devotion while finding ways to keep her signature sound from going stale.
"I wanted to try my hand at a soul record with more maturity and experience and confidence, but with the informed elements of the success of the last two records in [its] rhythm and tempo," Ware says, acknowledging that she's ready to play with slower grooves again after "abandoning" them for some time.
That return mirrors her descent from the clouds, ready to find joy in the life she already has. The singer calls herself "her own boss" while doing "the biggest piss-take of a job," where there's never a dull moment. "I don't take for granted that I have this miraculous mad job, that it's so unique and beautiful and terrifying and changes every day, and creative," she muses. "And I'm so lucky for that."
Novelty is undeniably steamy, so there's no question how Ware can take these vignettes of her life and turn them into something so luxurious and high camp. Visuals of her posing with peacocks and pomegranates rule Superbloom's campaign, with tracks like "Don't You Know Who I Am?" and "Automatic" evoking excess while staying true to her real desires.
"I always want more, and I want more and more and more and more, and I probably will carry on being greedy like that," she admits. "But pleasure is what it's all about, right? I think for so long, I wasn't enjoying myself, or I was so scared that [now] I try to really focus in on this mantra like, 'Live your life, fucking say yes and enjoy yourself.'"
She lends that quality to the glamorous diva role she plays in her songs, an alter ego that she swears really isn't her at her core. But with Superbloom's recalibration, the musician has learned not only how to balance the two, but also to make sure her true self isn't being lost within it.
"If I go too fully into the character, people wouldn't be able to connect with actually me and what I'm trying to say. So that's why I was very, very aware that I wanted to have some real vignettes of real life that didn't feel so kind of camp and dramatic," Ware says.
Those real moments are actualized on "16 Summers," where field recordings of her and her family on the beach lead into a scaled-back ballad on passing time.
"I think there's definitely times where I'm being really, just Jessie," she assures me, but there's no reason for her to — she's always been there.
In Sophy Romvari's feature-length directorial debut, Blue Heron, she continues an investigation she began years earlier in "trying to understand if the act of filmmaking can help aid in the process of grief and trauma, memory recollection."
In pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at York University, Romvari interrogated this concept through her studies, even writing a paper about on the topic. Romvari shares with Exclaim! that it's a goal of hers to eventually teach others the art of filmmaking as a specific form of therapy. "I think there's a lot of potential there," she says. "Exposing yourself to difficult memories and then trying to accept things that have happened in your life."
Her acclaimed short film, Still Processing, took on this premise quite literally, following Romvari sorting through photographs of her late brothers that she hadn't seen before. The 14-minute film speaks loudly about her and her family's pain in losing two sons and brothers, without actually speaking much at all. In Blue Heron, Romvari takes a nuanced approach to her thesis.
Set during a wistful summer in the '90s, Romvari cast Eylul Guven as a version of her young self. We see the hardships of her parents and older brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) through eight-year-old Sasha, at once innocent and troubled, before we shift to a grown version of Sasha (Amy Zimmer) dealing with the aftermath of Jeremy's passing.
Romvari considers the film to be semi-autobiographical. Although she sets the film across one summer, she relays memories from across a number of different years, assuring me that what's shown in the film is a more subdued version of what had actually happened — "the tip of the iceberg" as she says, hinting towards more turbulent times for her family.
That particular summer, though, holds significance and was chosen entirely intentionally on Romvari's part.
"That [was] around the time my family moved from Gabriola Island to Nanaimo. I was trying to show this transitional period," Romvari explains. "For some reason, around that age is when my memories are the most vivid. I think I started to really find my friends and footing and found my place in the world."
She continues, "But then also, [I] was starting to understand that my family was dealing with things that were maybe unusual compared to other families around me. So I think I was developing a sense of how maybe I was being perceived, or how my family was being perceived. It's the age where you start to pick up on these differences between your life and other people's lives."
Romvari's father is a photographer, and Romvari used his photographs in Still Processing as the foundation of her exploration to her brothers' mental health issues and the subsequent grief of her family, and perhaps even the grief present while they were alive. However, the movement of captured video has been Romvari's chosen medium.
"It's the most one to one art form we have," she observes.
Romvari recalls looking through her father's photos in Still Processing to be "much more devastating" than looking back at family videos. The filmmaker attributes this to videos seeming more alive.
"It convinces you of being mortal, or maybe even immortal, because you can see someone in motion. Whereas photographs, and this has been written about beautifully by people that are much more intelligent than me, creates the illusion of reality much more," Romvari says with the humility of someone with a great deal of intelligence.
In comparing film to other art forms like dance or music, Romvari notes the creative distance that audiences engage with, "where film can be quite literal."
From her home in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto, Romvari describes herself as a literalist, kind of. In Blue Heron, adult Sasha time travels back to that memorable summer to speak to her younger self, to see her siblings as they were and to confront (and reassure) her parents.
In a striking scene in the film, an adult Sasha slowly and calmly walks into a bedroom in her childhood home where young Sasha and her three older brothers idyllically watch television. The Sasha of today lowers herself to be face-to-face with Sasha of yesterday, whispering something that's only shared between the two, a tender moment that will connect audiences universally.
"I wanted to show this experience that I think everyone has thought about at some point in their life, and everyone has envisioned, whether it's through therapy or just through your own thoughts of fantasy," explains Romvari. "You interrogate your childhood self and the different parts of yourself."
Romvari's endeavour to use filmmaking as a way of processing grief comes with a caveat that defines Blue Heron, and, in many ways, defines all of Romvari's work to date: memory is fallible. Even with documentation before us, whether photographic, video or otherwise, it's our divine right as people to remember our past as we wish.
Towards the end of the film, Jeremy says to adult Sasha, "I think there's a lot you don't remember." It's one of the few times Jeremy speaks in the film, and it underscores how Blue Heron exists as Romvari's best attempt at trying to remember.
"It's my interpretation of memory, and my interpretation of not only my experience, but my family's experience, and it's completely subjective," admits Romvari. "In some ways, the film is an acknowledgement of the limitations of art. I can't go back in time and change the outcome, and I can't actually recreate my brother through a fictional film, but that doesn't mean it's not artistically valuable."
In a year filled with strong Canadian output, Blue Heron stands alone in its uniqueness and soul. It also officially cements Romvari's place as an emerging talent in our country's filmmaking industry, in large part because of her courage to reveal such vulnerability to her audience.
But while the industry clamours around Romvari to offer her awards and plaudits, the film marks something more personal and cogent.
"Film is a really great way to acknowledge realities in your own life," Romvari says. "Still Processing was me still processing, and, in this film, it's much more of an acceptance of the reality."
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Get ready to hotbox the himbo dome, because MariJuana Lenderbong has added a weed grinder and rolling papers to his official merch store.
Yesterday was 4/20, and the famously chill singer-songwriter celebrated the occasion by updating his online store and selling grinders with his face on them ($25 USD), plus rolling paper branded with his 2021 album The Ghost of Your Guitar Solo ($7 USD).
Lenderman hails from North Carolina, a state where cannabis is currently illegal, although possession of less than half an ounce has been decriminalized. Possession of up to 1.5 ounces is a Class 1 misdemeanour, and possession of more than that is a Class 1 felony.
Check out Lenderman's online store here.
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A day after he released his latest single "Ride Lonesome," Beck has announced that he'll be heading back out on the road for a North American tour this fall, which will see him play three Canadian shows in two cities.
The Ride Lonesome Tour will begin at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on September 16. After several dates in the US, he'll pop back up to Canada for a two-night stay at Toronto's Massey Hall on October 14 and 15, before continuing the rest of the trek stateside.
Presale begins this Thursday (April 23) at 10 a.m. local, and general on-sale will start on Friday (April 24). Check out the full schedule below, and head over to Concert Central for more Canadian tour announcements.
Beck 2026 Tour Dates:
09/16 Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
09/18 Woodinville, WA - Chateau Ste. Michelle
09/19 Portland, OR - Keller Auditorium
09/22 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
09/23 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre
09/25 San Francisco, CA - The Masonic
09/26 San Francisco, CA - The Masonic
10/01Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
10/03 Omaha, NE - Steelhouse Omaha
10/04 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
10/06 Milwaukee, WI - Landmark Credit Union Live
10/07 Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
10/09 Chicago, IL - The Auditorium
10/12 Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
10/14 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
10/15 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
10/17 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway
10/18 Philadelphia, PA - The Met Philadelphia
10/22 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
10/23 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
10/25 Washington, D.C. - The Anthem
10/27 Durham, NC - Durham Performing Arts Center
10/28 Asheville, NC - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
10/30 Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy
10/31 Nashville, TN - The Truth
On time rolls, and on we all float, alright? Modest Mouse have announced the upcoming release of their first new album in five years, plus an additional expansion of their already-expanded North American tour itinerary for 2026.
The follow-up to 2021's The Golden Casket, An Eraser and a Maze arrives June 5 through Glacial Pace / Virgin Music Group.
"For this one, I turned off my filter and just let it all happen," frontman Isaac Brock explained in a statement. "Thoughts, emotions, feelings, all that stuff… you're like the soup, and it's not always easy to pick out the ingredients. I don't dwell on things much. I don't grieve much. I'm not sure I'm a person. I feel like I should have more feelings than I do. But then, you know, I'll sing stuff. And I'm like, 'Oh, there it is. Oh — it's in there.'"
The band will also head off on a fall North American tour starting September 16 in Clearwater, FL. In October, they'll venture across the border into Canada to make stops at Ottawa's History (October 4) and Toronto's Meridian Hall (October 5) with support from Caroline Rose.
Tickets go on general sale this Friday (April 24) at 10 a.m. local time; check out the full schedule of dates — as well as a visualizer for new single "Picking Dragons' Pockets" and the full LP tracklist details — below, and visit Concert Central for more upcoming Canadian show listings.
An Eraser and a Maze:
1. Picking Dragons' Pockets
2. Remember Yourself
3. Life's a Dream
4. Third Side of the Moon
5. Dogbed in Heaven / Give It a Skeleton
6. Interlude
7. I Can't Talk Right Now
8. Speak N' Spell (Or Not)
9. Rotten Fruit (feat. Justin Raisen)
10. Knocked Down by Waves
11. Absolutely Necessary Never
12. Song About Nothing
13. Stoner Party
14. Look How Far
15. Impossible Somedays
Modest Mouse 2026 Tour Dates:
05/12 Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory
05/13 Missoula, MT - The Wilma
05/14 Bozeman, MT - The Elm
05/15 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Block Party
06/04 New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall
06/05 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
06/06 Allentown, PA - Archer Music Hall
06/07 Virginia Beach, VA - Virginia Beach Dome
06/09 Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amp
06/10 Charleston, SC - Charleston Music Hall
06/12 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
06/13 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
06/14 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
07/02 Bellingham, WA - Mt. Baker Theatre
07/03 Vancouver, BC - Orpheum Theatre
07/05 Calgary, AB - Calgary Stampede
07/07 Saskatoon, SK - Saskatchewan Jazz Festival
07/10 Seattle, WA - 5th Avenue Theatre @
07/11 Seattle, WA - 5th Avenue Theatre @
08/04 Ojai, CA - Libbey Bowl
08/05 Del Mar, CA - The Sound
08/07 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Music Festival
08/08 Jacksonville, OR - Britt Pavilion
08/09 Portland, OR - Pioneer Courthouse Square
08/12 Chicago, IL - The Salt Shed
08/13 Saint Paul, MN - Palace Theater
08/14 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
08/18 Washington, D.C. - Nationals Park ^
08/19 Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore
08/20 South Deerfield, MA - Tree House Brewing
08/21 Shelburne, VT - The Green
08/28 Palmer, AK - Alaska State Fair
09/16 Clearwater, FL - The BayCare Sound
09/17 St. Augustine, FL - The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
09/18 Orlando, FL - House of Blues Orlando
09/20 Atlanta, GA - Shaky Knees Festival
09/22 Fayetteville, AR - Ozark Music Hall
09/23 Kansas City, MO - Grinders KC
09/24 Columbia, MO - Rose Park
09/25 Omaha, NE - The Astro Theater
09/29 Madison, WI - The Sylvee ^^
09/30 Cleveland, OH - Jacobs Pavilion ^^
10/01 Cincinnati, OH - MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor ^^
10/02 Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe ^^
10/04 Ottawa, ON - History Ottawa ^^
10/05 Toronto, ON - Meridian Hall ^^
10/07 Boston, MA - Roadrunner ^^
10/08 New York, NY - The Rooftop at Pier 17 ^^
10/09 Baltimore, MD - Pier Six Pavilion ^^
10/10 Pittsburgh, PA - Citizens Live at The Wylie ^^
10/13 New Orleans, LA - The Fillmore New Orleans ^^
10/15 Austin, TX - ACL Live at The Moody Theater ^^
10/16 Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ^^
10/17 San Antonio, TX - Boeing Center at Tech Port ^^
10/19 Phoenix, AZ - Arizona Financial Theatre ^^
10/20 Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Palladium ^^
10/22 Avila Beach, CA - Avila Beach Golf Resort ^^
10/23 Sacramento, CA - Channel 24 ^^
^ with My Chemical Romance
@ with Pinback
^^ with Caroline Rose
If the space of your concert calendar is feeling empty, long-running Walnut Creek, CA-formed pop-punk unit the Story So Far have announced a fall North American tour with support from the Starting Line and Ultra Q. The trek will include a lone Canadian stop in Toronto this October.
The band will hit the road starting October 17 in Virginia Beach, VA. Before the end of the month, the Story So Far will return to Toronto — after notably being banned from the Mod Club in 2016 as a result of frontman Parker Cannon dropkicking a fan off the stage while she was taking a selfie — to play History on October 28 before wrapping the run stateside on November 5 in Tucson, AZ.
Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday (April 24) at 10 a.m. local, following presales getting underway tomorrow (April 21). See the full itinerary below, as well as Concert Central for more upcoming Canadian shows.
The Story So Far 2026 Tour Dates:
10/17 Virgina Beach, VA - The Dome
10/18 Charlotte, NC - The Fillmore
10/20 Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
10/21 Pittsburgh, PA - Citizens Live at the Wylie
10/23 Wallingford, CT - The Dome at Oakdale
10/24 Providence, RI - The Strand Ballroom
10/25 New York, NY - Terminal
10/27 Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe
10/28 Toronto, ON - History
10/30 Cincinnati, OH - Andrew J Brady Music Center
10/31 Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom
11/01 Kansas City, MO - The Midland Theatre
11/05 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
Look, we can understand how invalidating it is to be left off big bills after hitting a career peak over two decades ago. It must not feel great! But Lil Wayne and Fred Durst might have a salve for those who no longer get to go to the Grammys or Coachella, as the latter has proposed a "gathering" for the "uninvited."
It all started when Wayne — who was famously salty that he wasn't asked to play the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show — tweeted his frustrations about being "uninvited" from some of music's biggest events. "It's truly a humbling experience when events like Coachella & the Grammys come around & like clockwork, I'm uninvited & uninvolved," he wrote.
This resonated with the frontman of Limp Bizkit, despite his band being headlining a few festivals this summer. "Let's start our own experience gathering and our own acknowledgment event to welcome all of the uninvited," he replied. "I've got a couple ideas I've been working on for quite some while now."
It's important to note that events like Coachella and the Grammys don't invite the same artists every year, so this feels less like an invitation being revoked and more like them simply not being invited over the past few years. Which is worse? We'll let you decide.
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A "sea change" refers to a complete transformation, so there's a certain irony to the way Beck has returned to his 2002 album Sea Change as a sonic frame of reference. His 2014 album Morning Phase copied the lush folk sound of it almost exactly, and now he's wading back into those same waters with the single "Ride Lonesome."
The song was mixed by Nigel Godrich (who produced Sea Change but sat out Morning Phase), and its retreads the melodic melancholy of Morning Phase's "Morning" (which itself revisited Sea Change's "The Golden Age"). The springy keyboard recalls the one from "Guess I'm Doing Fine," while the title is a heck of a lot like "Lonesome Tears."
Such self-referential songwriting might be repetitive if Beck didn't dabble in so many different styles in between his cosmic country albums. It's like a filmmaker returning to a franchise for a long-awaited sequel — throwing in some familiar Easter eggs is part of the fun.
Beck hasn't announced if "Ride Lonesome" will be part of an album, but he'll announce a tour tomorrow (April 21). "I've probably made multiple albums' worth of music that probably no one will ever hear, but hopefully it leads to something," he told NPR's All Songs Considered. "I've got lots of things cooking. I've been in the studio a lot on and off the last four years with my band."
At a time when major studios and streamers (especially and egregiously the latter) have more or less trained audiences to be complacent, non-critical movie-watchers, Mother Mary invites viewers to wholly lean into its gothic interrogation of the creative process. Audiences can walk away from the VVS/A24 film with a sufficient, if passive, appreciation of its artistry. At the same time, a richer and more fulfilling viewing experience awaits those who choose instead to participate in its labour. Toeing the line between dreamy and visceral, Mother Mary is not the easiest film to watch this year, nor is it supposed to be; and in this case, the struggle is precisely the point.
Written and directed by David Lowery, Mother Mary stars Anne Hathaway as the eponymous pop icon (think Madonna, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift morphed into one) on the brink of a career comeback. Like any great music diva, she needs a show-stopping dress for her upcoming performance. Not just any atelier will do, however, so she shows up at the door of her estranged best friend and former designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel).
To say the two have a thorny history would be an understatement. Sam isn't entirely enthused to see Mother Mary in her workshop — she, too, is at the top of her game in the fashion world and in the midst of preparing for a major show — especially after having been cast aside 10 years prior. What starts as a psychological drama between two formerly intertwined kindred spirits evolves into a gut-spilling ghost story, as the singer and designer wade through bad blood and examine old scars in an effort to find peace and resolution, both within themselves and with each other.
Hathaway in particular exudes a magnetism befitting her character's pop queen status. More importantly, she digs deep to give her rawest performance since her Oscar-winning turn in 2012's Les Misérables. Though she proved herself a capable singer there, Lowery's film demands more of her as a performer, and she goes above and beyond rising to the occasion. A standout scene involves Mother Mary showing Sam the dance to her new song without music or lyrics. Choreographed by Dani Vitale, who has previously worked with music legends like Rihanna, Mother Mary's contortions and writhing across the floor, not unlike an exorcism, are as mesmerizing as they are terrifying,
Coel, on the other hand, couldn't be more perfectly cast. Much of our discovery of the nature of Mother Mary and Sam's relationship relies on the latter providing emotional clues, and Coel's performance is sublime in this regard. Harsh and biting one moment, then tender and vulnerable in the next, she commands attention and makes music of Lowery's lyrical script.
At its core, Mother Mary illustrates a conversation between two wounded friends, which could have felt stifling given that it predominantly takes place in a single location. However, Lowery makes time and space in the film, mercurial with imaginative flair. It helps that costume designer Bina Daigeler, cinematographers Andrew Droz Palermo and Rina Yang, and songwriters Jack Antonoff and Charli xcx (the latter of whom is now two-for-two with writing songs for movies, following her exquisite work in Wuthering Heights) all prove to be excellent artisans here. Music becomes tactile, memory melts into nightmare, and catharsis is the mic-check before spectacle.
This kind of emotional and sensorial transformation isn't always the easiest to follow or digest. Just as Mother Mary and Sam toil to get to the root of their strained relationship, Lowery requires audiences to work for the reward. Mother Mary is one of those films whose meaning cannot be fully gleaned with one viewing, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile or beautiful.
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Following his arrest on Thursday (April 17), alt-pop singer d4vd has now officially been charged for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez, the missing teenage girl whose decomposed body was found in the trunk of his Tesla last September.
As Variety reports, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a press conference today that the artist born David Anthony Burke would face a first-degree murder charge that has the potential to make him eligible for the death penalty.
"I am a parent of three children, and a parent's nightmare is a situation where your daughter goes out one night and never comes back, as we will show in a court of law," Hochman said [via NBC News].
Burke will also face additional charges of lewd and lascivious sexual acts with an individual under 14 years of age (Hernandez was 13 when she was originally reported missing in 2024) and mutilating the remains of a human body.
After an investigation into reports of a foul smell emanating from a tow yard in Hollywood, CA, a decomposed body — soon identified as Hernandez — was found in the trunk of a Tesla registered to Burke on September 8, 2025. Burke's tour was cancelled shortly thereafter and the deluxe edition of his album was shelved, as photos of him and the victim surfaced online and the medical examiner's report revealed a tattoo on her finger matching one of his own.
"Let us be clear — the actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death," Burke's defence attorneys said in an email to the Associated Press following his arrest, adding that they would "vigorously defend David's innocence."
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Vancouver-hailing Exclaim New Faves alumni Concrete Vehicles (formerly Computer) are taking their new name on the road this spring and summer to perform in cities in Ontario, BC and Quebec — from support slots for heavy hitters and festival sets, to headlining gigs of their own.
UPDATE (4/20, 12:49 p.m. ET): Concrete Vehicles have now added more Canadian tour dates to their itinerary, announcing additional gigs in Toronto as part of Departure Festival, as well as in multiple cities in Alberta, in the month of May. Find the new dates in bold on the updated schedule below.
The art-rock band will start off their itinerary in Ontario toward the end of the month, opening for Fucked Up in Toronto (March 20), Guelph (March 21) and London (March 22) ahead of headlining Ottawa's 27 Club on March 25.
After performing in Hamilton for JUNOFest on March 27, Concrete Vehicles head home to Vancouver to perform with Ulrika Spacek at the Pearl on April 3. Picking things back up this summer with another performance at the Pearl with GOAT on July 13, the sextet will head back to Ontario for Alexisonfire's big RBC Amphitheatre Crisis anniversary appearances on August 14 and 15, plus a just-announced set at Vans Warped Tour in Montreal.
Tickets are on sale now. Check out the full schedule of dates below, and Concert Central for more upcoming Canadian shows.
Concrete Vehicles 2026 Tour Dates:
03/20 Toronto, ON - Cecil House *
03/21 Guelph, ON - Sonic Hall *
03/22 London, ON - Palasad Social Bowl *
03/25 Ottawa, ON - The 27 Club
03/27 Hamilton, ON - JUNOFest at the Corktown Irish Pub
04/03 Vancouver, BC - The Pearl %
05/04 Toronto, ON - Bovine Sex Club
05/07 Toronto, ON - The Garrison
05/09 Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
05/20 Lethbridge, AB - Owl Acoustic Lounge
05/21 Red Deer, AB - Vin L Den
05/22 Edmonton, AB - Temple
05/23 Calgary, AB - East Town Get Down Festival
07/13 Vancouver, BC - The Pearl #
08/14 Toronto, ON - RBC Amphitheatre ^
08/15 Toronto, ON - RBC Amphitheatre ^
08/21–22 Montreal, QC - Vans Warped Tour
* with Fucked Up
% with Ulrika Spacek
# with GOAT
^ with Alexisonfire
There's a tragic moment in Justin Bieber's 2011 documentary Never Say Never, when the subject discusses how Michael Jackson lost his childhood to fame. "Don't let that happen to me," he says, and the adults assure him they won't.
It happened to him.
It seems to be almost impossible for a person not to have their sanity damaged by becoming one of the biggest pop stars in the world; doubly so if it happens when they're young. Bieber's personal struggles since that documentary have been well-publicized enough that I don't need to recount them here, but he seems to have mostly come through the other side — and his Coachella set, which got mixed reviews after its first weekend (April 11), was a moving celebration of his journey, one that commemorated his career without shying away from the brutal scrutiny he's been under since he was a kid.
Bieber's first weekend was dismissed by many as "lazy," thanks to its minimalist production design and an extended section in which he surfed YouTube, singing over recordings of his early material and even watching meme videos (including the "deez nuts" guy and the "double rainbow" clip).
On its surface, loading up backing tracks from YouTube is a low-effort move — but it's so low-effort that it reveals its own conceptual framework. It was weirdly intimate, staring down his webcam while he searched for videos of himself online, switching between hits and deep cuts, and finding the occasional viral clip (like him smashing face-first into a glass door, or yelling at a paparazzo).
It accomplished several things at once: he paid tribute to the way he first rose to success through YouTube, highlighted the way his most embarrassing teenage moments have been documented and broadcast to the public, and recreated the very familiar experience of hanging out and looking at music videos online.
Poignantly, he often sang along to his own songs an octave deeper than on the original recordings — a man in conversation with his younger self. It's honestly kind of uncomfortable to see such a young teenager singing all these love songs (written for him by adults), and giving Bieber a chance to duet with himself was a heartrending reflection on how vulnerable he was in those early days.
It was a great concept that, for the second weekend's performance (April 18), he had polished to make even better. He shortened the YouTube chunk slightly, and brought out well-documented superfan Billie Eilish to serenade with "One Less Lonely Girl," a moment that made me tear up as Eilish melted down in Bieber's arms, showing the protective role he now plays over the next generation of young pop stars, hopefully saving them from at least some of what he's been subjected to.
SZA sounded fantastic singing with Bieber on her own "Snooze," while guest rapper Big Sean paused the show to speak directly to the headliner, thanking him spending so long in public eye: "You gave us your whole life."
That comment from Big Sean was the most emotional takeaway from Bieberchella. Despite all of the money and glory, being a pop star mostly seems like an absolute nightmare, and Bieber has been doing it since before he was old enough to properly make a choice about whether he wanted to.
On the second weekend, he spent much more time with the fans in the front row, singing into the camera while hands clawed at him from behind. It looked a bit like a hug, and a bit like getting mauled by a zombie hoard, which I'm sure is a lot like how it must feel to be adored by millions of people.
Speaking to those fans on the second weekend, Bieber said, "We all kind of grew up together." At just 32, having skipped a big chunk of his childhood in order to define everyone else's, he already has the wizened experience of a legacy artist.
A redemption arc and victory lap all rolled into one — and with the SWAG material sounding much better on stage than I recall it sounding on those kinda-whatever albums — his performance's minimalism was anything but lazy. Prowling around that massive stage highlighted just how alone he's been.
Everybody loves NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts series. It's always a fun surprise to find out which artist will be next to perform at the public broadcaster's famously itty-bitty (and distracting) offices — and, naturally, when a new act really starts to gain traction, alarm bells go off for their potential to show up on the NPR YouTube channel in the near future.
For example, it seems imminent that Angine de Poitrine will play a Tiny Desk Concert before the end of the year; you might even call it a "safe bet," except for NPR employees, who have now explicitly been banned from placing bets on who'll be next to perform.
Today, the New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin shared a screenshot from what is presumably an internal email memo sent to NPR staffers, saying editorial employees are "prohibited" from betting on the likelihood of such outcomes.
"NPR editorial employees are not allowed to use prediction markets or similar sties to place bets on developments of new events, or anything else we might cover, or on things NPR controls (i.e. next Tiny Desk guests, anything involving NPR personalities or hosts etc.) whether or not the employee is involved in covering that event," the message reads.
It went on to clarify that "gambling on sports is permitted where legal and small stakes office pools (the Super Bowl, NCAA, the Oscars etc.) are permitted as long as the employee participating is not involved in coverage of those events."
Notably, Rolling Stone recently published an article about how prediction market websites like Kalshi and Polymarket — typically used for sports betting — are being increasingly populated by fans and eagle-eyed music industry observers predicting album sales, streaming numbers, Billboard chart positions, and anything else you can think of.
Because of course NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts have a market of its own; of course employees need to be forbidden from putting down company money on it. People are betting on everything now, including war crimes, with the journalists reporting on them getting caught in the crossfires and having their lives threatened in the process.
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Jane Remover is heading back to Toronto on their upcoming Live Exhibit North American tour, which will take them across the US and up to Canada this summer and fall.
The tour will officially begin in June in New York City. After a headlining show plus a festival set at Governors Ball (on June 4 and 6, respectively), they'll head north of the border to play a lone Canadian date at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall on June 9 before continuing the rest of the trek stateside. They'll be joined by dazegxd on all dates.
Presales will begin this Wednesday (April 22) at 10 a.m. local, which will be followed by general sale on Friday (April 24). Check out the full schedule below, and head over to Concert Central for more Canadian tour announcements.
Jane Remover 2026 Tour Dates:
06/04 New York, NY - TBA
06/06 New York, NY - Governors Ball
06/09 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
06/12 Chicago, IL - Metro
06/15 San Francisco, CA - Regency
06/18 Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda
09/15 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theater
09/17 Detroit, MI - Majestic
09/18 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
09/20 Boston, MA - Paradise
09/23 Washington, D.C. - 9:30 Club
09/25 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
09/27 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
09/29 Austin, TX - Emo's
09/30 Dallas, TX - Studio
10/03 Denver, CO - Gothic
10/06 Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
10/07 Seattle, WA - Neptune