Conflict of interest alert: 20 minutes before Sextile closed out le Festif! on Saturday night (July 25), I tried to buy a sticker for the new laptop that I've been putting off buying. I attempted tapping my phone, then my card, then I tried inserting my card. Nothing worked.
The machine was disconnected. As Brady Kheen, half of Sextile, troubleshot the device, he apologized and thanked me for my patience. I got three free stickers, but I didn't let that affect my opinion of their ensuing performance.
While this move may have been an American psyop to butter me up to the electronic duo's 1:30 a.m. set, that exact strain of North American paranoia is the exact thing that Sextile aren't about. Their bag is EBM and aggressively moody, borderline-sexy tracks.
They began with "Disco," Sextile's top-streamed song and kicking-off point for their 2018 debut EP 3. Within 30 seconds, Kheen sprayed a bottle of water into the audience as they lapped up throbbing drums and creaking synths. Sunglasses on, black hoodie underneath and a windbreaker over it with camo pants — conspicuously dressed for a summer night. His yells bordered on screams, giving his voice a medium-rare sizzle that paired well under the stage's red lighting.
For the second song, he tapped out, taking the spot behind the decks while Melissa Scaduto grabbed the mic and went at it. With a halo dyed into her hair like a saturated oil slick, she owned the crowd with a leaned-back strut. She swagged out, and when the digi-garbled synth revs up on "Push Ups," stomped on beat, moving stage right-to-left while Kheen strummed on a guitar fully integrating into every other sound.
They're a prime duo, balancing each other out while sucking everyone in like a black hole. When one is at the front and working the crowd, the other is on guitar and on deck. When they went into "S is For," the pit writhed between itself, crowd surfers bobbing overhead and people danced rave-adjacently underneath.
A quartet of friends did poppers and chain-linked their arms around each other in a circle as they spun downward. A dude beside them lit a cigarette and swayed his hips back and forth with feet shoulder-width apart. Another bottle of water hit the crowd; maybe someone tossed a beer. I was wet. Everyone was slick. Kheen shook his index finger at the audience with his thumb extended; I didn't know that was allowed.
Scaduto swapped microphones and stepped back up for the penultimate track: "Women Respond to Bass." Yeah, so does this guy; so does everybody else. Before their last song, she held up a white flag. "No one is free until everyone is free," black text read upon it. Still on the mic, Kheen crowd surfed.
"Fuck Trump, Free Palestine, Peace and Love," Scaduto said as Sextile ended their show, citing the US's treatment of basically the majority of its citizens at this point. It was the most direct, outward political statement I heard at le Festif! Make of that what you will.
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Forty-five minutes avant the new CEO of Quebecois independence hit the stage, 45 young nationalists were already grouped up at the front of the pit. There, they would look up onto the stage, and Kinji00, the 18-year-old messiah of la belle province, would hold mass.
Amongst the crowd of cultural shareholders: a Super-Queb with a flag draped around his shoulders, a group of broccoli-headed teens posted up with small flags in hand, and the half of the remaining crowd in blue. If anyone figured out I was Anglophone, I knew it'd be over.
As midnight approached, les citoyens raised their hands, index fingers interlocked with their paws' remaining digits bent outwards to form Cs; above their heads, a meadow of fleshy fleurs de lys. When they glimpsed Kinji00 behind the stage as he prepared for the set, a single shriek pierced the canvas above and the howls began. And tabarnak, there he was.
Chest-hemorrhaging bass kicked in; I felt it rattling my digestive system and expediting the poutine in my system. Pulling up in a black wife beater with a fuzzy hood and head under a Quebec flag-patterned bandana alongside collaborator lp66, Kenji00 lankily swagged out like an un-cringe version of Timothée Chalamet. They play deep cuts and unreleased tracks. Unlike Lil Timmy Tim, he can actually rap.
Online and on paper, he was playing le Festif!, but vibe would tell you that he was headlining Coachella. One by one, he brought out a handful of surprise guests onstage. First, it's French artist tktkkt out to perform a new single. Then it's Shadow Wizard Money Gang — who loves casting spells — lumbering around the stage, backpack on and tree trunk dreads swaying.
Kenji00 and his comrades are young hos blissfully tackling big issues, while also referencing Roblox's Dress to Impress on tracks like "Johnny Test" and rapping over the game's iconic "Oof" sound, which has been branded into the psyche of anyone born this century. They move between styles and influences like brain-fried teens scrolling reels at max speed before landing back in reality, spreading love and hating hate.
Earlier in the day, they played a surprise set on the streets of Baie-Saint-Paul with Canada's Drag Race star Sami Landri, hyping her as she interpolated Britney Spears' "Gimme More," dropping the chorus's lyrics in lieu of her own to repeatedly ask you if you have a cigarette. During the show, Kenji00 also performed his biggest hit to date, "Fleur de lys"; 11 hours afterward, he parted the crowd down the middle for that new nationalist anthem.
As the wall of death loomed and the separatists got divvied up, the tent screamed along: "Moi je feel comme Gru / Today might steal the moon." Kenji00 and his cabinet went out on an unreleased rave track from lb66.
This is a new nationalism; less exclusionary, seemingly built on the love for one's own culture in the face of an ever-not-fully-competent federal entity. There's a reason Kenji00 cast a spell on Parliament Hill in November 2025: because yo, juste comme Peter Griffin once said, the independence of Quebec is a very important issue, even today.
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The horror began before I even got to the stage.
Fulu Miziki had gone several minutes over their time, and the Mummies were starting their set roughly 236 metres away; in between me and the bandaged OG garage punks were two dimly lit parking lots and loose packs of drunk 30-somethings. As I haul ass, a dude standing alone under a street light with a tallboy in hand pitbull barks at me.
When I arrived, a cantankerous 100-person lineup was waiting to get into the free show. Suddenly, the bass churned, and the crowd began to swell. Ruh-roh: having emerged from their sarcophagi, the Mummies are here, snarky as hell, in Baie-Saint-Paul for Le Festif!
Beer-gutted and wrapped in gauze, the band from San Bruno, CA, took to the stage and immediately started their set of surf rock-adjacent tracks as they reprimanded the audience in between songs, the fog machine blasting that specifically smelly artificial gas. "Smells like an air coolant leak," the drummer joked dryly.
When each song ended, a sparking crack rang out — like the one you get when you pull a cord from a guitar before you turn off the amp. "This is our last song. It's free to get in. But to get out, you gotta pay $40," the lead singer explained after their third track.
The Mummies were four unsympathetic ghouls on stage, acting like they were only there because someone was paying them, or because they could get some gas money from selling buttons and 7-inch bootlegs of their own material. Having come up in the early '80s, these dudes were determined to be the crudest DIYers on the scene.
These ancient, wonderfully facetious punks had a Doric electric organ, some old-ass guitars and maybe even older-ass amps. The former rig was the most mobile one I've ever seen. Greyed-out beige with what could've probably been duct tape patches, that thing was flipped up and played sideways like an accordion, bounced on, and, at one point, balanced on the back of that fully sardonic lead mummy.
When the crowd cheered, he told them to shut up. "Big deal, we got through a song," they said, half-assedly riffing over each other in deft performance. The bass player sucked on a freezie between tracks. "Eugh, brain freeze," he complained like an aloof Gen-X teen.
"Here's for you classical music fans," they said, before shredding into a cover of DEVO's "Uncontrollable Urge." Below them, the crowd unwrapped. The men were shoving the shit out of each other, the queer community was pogoing like Pee-Wee Herman, and everyone else tried to support crowd surfers whose form ranged from the floppy and recently deceased to complete rigor mortis.
On stage, the keyboardist leaned over his device unbothered, eyes darting back and forth in a Kit-Cat Klock cadence. Afterwards, he joined the mummy on guitar and the mummy on bass up front, standing centre stage. Connect the dots between the three heads, and there's a pyramid.
And then, 45 minutes in, the set ended suddenly, as the lead mummy carried his collaborator's kick drum off the stage above his head and everyone stood waiting for them to return. Sorry nerds, show's over.
In other news, I broke my personal record for longest crowd surf during that set. I attribute it to my totally awesome and waifish build. Actually, you know what? PRs are stupid. Fuck you. I don't give a rat's ass.
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Garbage music. That's what Fulu Miziki roughly translates to in Lingala.
Hailing from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, the eco-punks took to the stage Friday night (July 24) for a free set, and it was one of the best at Le Festif! 2026.
But before the longtime live band, active since 2003 (and who were promoted to record their first EP not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began), were even on stage, their ethos was. Amidst a full band's worth of DIY instruments, two PVC pipes sat front and centre, bolted together by 2x4s. It was a two-tone slapaphone, meant to be played with a bandless sandal.
All of Fulu Miziki's instruments and costumes come from 100 percent recycled materials — a practice derived from their upbringing in Kinshasa, where 98 percent of daily waste is either burned or openly dumped; it's almost 12 tonnes of material for the band to create whatever sounds and looks they need.
When they came out, everyone saw the full glory of the collective. The bassist wore a chromed cap with leopard-like ears, cycloptic goggles, pteruges and sneakers-turned-boots bearing the same platinum sheen. Underneath fingerless combat gloves, a bass with a motherboard green body not much wider than the instrument's neck sat in his hands.
Another member wore shortened overalls in Kevlar black and bore a guitar of the same build. Behind them, a percussionist's skirt tassels bore festival passes at their ends. All six members on stage are masked and/or goggled, the inspirations for their looks ranging over several centuries and culminating in an eco-cyberpunk ensemble.
And then they began. Singing in Lingala and Ngbaka and playing atop their own creations, Fulu Miziki recycled trash into rumba, garnering head nods from the crowd and some hype. Then they exploded.
A seemingly impromptu dance battle broke out on stage, with two members circling their hips with a ridiculous amount of control, rotating and isolating movements to mass applause. The percussionists slam 16th notes, and the crowd begins to vibrate. They swing their arms back and forth above their heads like reeds in a hurricane. After a winner isn't declared, one of them turns towards the audience, all of them at attention, and he instructs them to drop it with one arm raised.
Within seconds, everyone had their hands up, dropping it every couple of beats. I've never seen an audience follow a performer so quickly. Down at the front of the crowd, someone in the media pit pulled a marathon session of throwing it back as the groove intensified. Fulu Miziki brought her on, and she kept up. Everyone on- and off-stage barrelled toward euphoria, side-stepping and their hands strobing as they shake above their heads.
The ensemble once told The Guardian, "If Africa is the dumpster of the entire world, it is already facing difficulties that everywhere else will face very soon"; non-futurist William Gibson once told interviewers that, "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."
When you watch Fulu Miziki, you're seeing the future — and you realize there's no stopping it. I have no notes; I was dancing too. They performed for roughly 15 minutes past their time slot's end, vamping and jamming atop 2024's "Tamatu" as the crowd maintained the frenetic momentum they osmosed.
Le Festif! staffers, beside the stage and questioning whether they should end the set, paced back and forth with massive grins. They didn't want it to end either. Why would they?
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Seeing Tame Impala is like watching a neon-clad chameleon. The brainchild of multi-hyphenate Kevin Parker, the genre-less band have experimented with everything from lo-fi to house, and on their latest record, 2025's Deadbeat, Parker leaned heavily into rave culture and electronic music, a decided shift from Tame Impala's synth-driven psychedelia.
Returning to Toronto for the first time since 2022, the band made it their mission to get the bodies moving with an exuberant, light-filled extravaganza replete with confetti, lasers and indulgence. Flower crowns, impractical sunglasses and indie bro 'staches all featured in selfies as the blue-hued arena filled before the show, their wearers walking down from much higher seats to the gate at the floor, maintaining the illusion of cool.
Djo — the musical alter ego of one Joe Keery, who you may or may not know as Steve from Stranger Things — opened the night, taking the stage to uproarious cheers from the already packed Scotiabank Arena. Keery is quickly becoming more and more recognized for his synthy, '80s-indebted musical output, and he made the audience swoon with selections from his latest album, last year's The Crux, as well as choice cuts from across his discography.
Thunderclaps and roaring drones burst from the speakers as the lights dropped, before a pulsing tone brought the band to the stage, the crowd cheering, squealing, vibrating. During opener "Awake," Keery's dark, mournful voice swam through the venue, a simple arm raise and point leading to a tremendous scream from the throng. (Audience, meet palm of hand.) When the song burst at the bridge, the heavy power chords and booming bass thundered under Keery's vocals, the lights and crowd both exploding, before it all collapsed into cacophonous distortion and feedback.
Not to be outdone, "Roddy" and the Beatlesque "Charlie's Garden" were worthy successors to the response. Yellow and purple beams encased the stage and encircled the audience during the churning "Change"; cellphone lights sparkled and illuminated the arena during "Link"; while "Egg" saw him singing prostrate, laying on the grated stage and sending the vocals into the lights and screens above him.
Photo: Djo by Isabel Glasglow
Set closer and signature song "End of Beginning" — all bruised and triumphant — unsurprisingly received the night's most uproarious cheers and loudest sing-along, the lights going awol before the song started. Its epic finale was distorted by flashing lights and fuzz, the proper end to a quick but notable set.
Although it's all a bit too referential, too consistent for my liking, the performance itself was excellent, Keery's energy transferring to the crowd. The end of "Egg" was fantastic, and I sincerely hope he records more noise. His band played it tight yet surprisingly groovy, even if the bass was a bit overpowering at times, the guitars overtaken by low end.
Keery's a consummate performer, able to control an arena with much skill and little trepidation, pacing the stage, smiling at the audience while playing big chords, and running full tilt dangerously close to the edge of the raised stage. He's loving it (as he should), and that's apparent in every note, every shake and strut, every knowing grin. He puts on a good show; catch him before he's playing venues this big exclusively.
In almost-total darkness, faint yellow lights illuminating their instruments, Tame Impala walked out to the sound of cheers and swells of waves both aquatic and textured. Parker came up to the stage last, a tremendous cheer following his every move (later in the night, simply saying "alright" would send the crowd into shrieks of delight).
For this tour, Tame Impala played in the round, and the number of mixers, cables and machines was astronomical. The stage itself — an enormous circular platform in the centre of the floor — was practically Cronenbergian, with cables jutting out from all the open slats as lights shined underneath, cameras and lights raising and lowering in mechanically organic fashion.
The band opened with "Apocalypse Dreams," and the set was a good blend of older material (particularly Currents), as well as Deadbeat, which they leaned on heavily throughout the set. Parker's attempts at Balearic exuberance are not always successful on record, yet live, the energy was palpable, satiating the voracious, shuffling crowd.
The "octagon" of lights raised and lowered, the streaks trapping the band in a shimmering polygon of beams as lasers spread and collapsed from the stage, portraying images of clouds, all while the filmed visuals melted the band's bodies into ghostly streaks. There was something unmistakably Floydian about the proceedings.
Photo: Tame Impala by Isabel Glasglow
During the end of "Deadbeat Jam," the screens lowered, obscuring the band behind giant white letters that orbited the stage and spelled out "DEADBEAT" as Parker circled the perimeter. "Borderline's" melancholic bounce plunged the arena into blue while starting the first proper dance party of the night, which followed into the much more brightly lit "Loser." The ring of lights tilted and changed height like a Kubrickian spaceship for "Breathe Deeper," imposing yet inviting, as the house chords brought forth clap-alongs and more lasers.
After "Gossip," Parker told us it was time to get rowdy, and then the band played "Elephant," which is the correct song to play for rowdiness. The fuzzed-out bass carried it all, the lights flickering and sputtering like a fractured disco ball. This was followed by the equally rowdy "Afterthought," wherein Parker walked around the inner ring next to the crowd, singing to the front row and the jittery steadicam, which was the perfect accompaniment to the lights throughout the show.
While Deadbeat is certainly not the band's best work, live, the songs from the album turn into raucous dance anthems, bombastic, loud, and appropriately in the red, particularly "Afterthought." Similarly, older tracks like "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" were a rainbow-coated comedown, the band winding down the first set on the main stage with the very popular "Dracula" and the instrumental "No Reply."
As the band played, a camera followed Parker through the back alley catacombs of Scotiabank to the bathroom, where he peed (just number one? Go all the way, sir!), before the B-stage performance, a small raised platform away from the main stage that looked like a living room but felt more like a rave.
Throughout the show, there was a bit of pretension and a lot of ego, but that's what rock n' roll needs! Nuts to humbleness: give me some indulgence, someone who plays techno while laying down on a rug and under a hypno lamp in front of 20,000 people.
Still, there was a definite lull during the B-stage section, with people either sitting, or following Parker's cue and heading for the bathroom as he played through "Ethereal Connection" and "Not My World," two fairly forgettable Deadbeat tracks. The band peaked through the perforated screen during "Not My World," before Parker returned to the main stage, the throngs of fans running after him.
Photo: Tame Impala by Isabel Glasgow
Set 2 heavily featured songs off Currents, including the tremendous "Let It Happen," which brought the crowd back to its dancing feet. Confetti burst from canons and the audience went ballistic — and we were just over halfway through the show! The paper sprinkles slowly floated to the ground and through the grates on stage, a strangely peaceful image amidst the dancing and chaos.
"Piece of Heaven," with its pulsating tones, slowed things down and saw Parker sitting pensively on the stage, singing out to the audience. Unfortunately, it also led to large sections of the audience also sitting for a rest. The cell phone lights came out in droves, but the song was a strange choice that interrupted the flow built during the first part of the set. Luckily, it was followed by "Eventually," which brought the energy back up with a huge sing-along, even in its slower sections.
Overall, the second half of the show was a little less successful than the first part, sequenced in a strange way and lacking the power of the rambunctious first half. The main set ended with the dark, slithery "New Person, Same Old Mistakes," as the light ring sent cascading, spinning beams around the confetti-drenched, before the band retreated under the stage for a brief pre-encore break.
The Less I Know the Better" then had one of the loudest sing-alongs of the night, particularly during the bridge, while the all-out explosiveness of Deadbeat standout "End of Summer" brought the proceedings to an appropriately dance-y, tripped-out close, echoing and pulsing and raving-lite into the night, the sound sputtering and lights flashing into silence and darkness.
Tame Impala are popular enough that this is no longer simply a concert: it's a colourful spectacle. They certainly put on a real-deal show, and it's worth the price of admission — even if the heavy reverb made some of Parker's vocals get lost in the cavernous, concrete arena. Thankfully, the band's sound never wavered, and the segues and instrumental bridges made the whole thing feel like a connected mass of movement and sound.
Kevin Parker clearly wants to be a pop star, and he's succeeding (TikTok's made sure of that). Let's just hope he doesn't forget the riffs entirely.
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Swedish duo Roxette have cancelled their entire North American leg of their 40th anniversary tour.
The band wrote on social media this morning, "Due to logistics and hugely increased touring costs, Live Nation US has decided to postpone the North American tour. Hope to see you some other time down the road."
In a subsequent message, guitarist Per Gessle added, "Lena, I and the band are of course disappointed. We were really looking forward to this North American tour and US is by far our biggest streaming market. This decision was made by Live Nation USA, which they probably based on their own calculations. I hope we can play for our fab fans in the USA and Canada at some point in the near future."
The North American tour was due to make two Canadian stops: Toronto's RBC Amphitheatre on September 11, and Montreal's Bell Centre on September 14.
Roxette 2026 Tour Dates:
07/26 Neu-Ulm, Germany - Wiley Sport Park
07/28 Bremen, Germany - Seebühne Bremen
07/30 Schwetzingen, Germany - Schlossgarten Schwetzingen
08/01 Ringsted, Denmark - Ringsted Festival
08/03 Bonn, Germany - Kunstrasen
08/15 Tammisaari, Finland - Raseborg Summerfest
08/28 Arbon, Switzerland - Summerdays Festivals
08/29 Spiez, Switzerland - Seaside Festival09/10 Clarkston, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre09/11 Toronto, ON - RBC Amphitheatre09/14 Montreal, QC - Bell Centre09/16 Mansfield, MA - Xfinity Center09/18 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center09/20 Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion at Highmark Mann09/22 Alpharetta, GA - Ameris Bank Amphitheatre09/24 Dallas, TX - Dos Equis Pavilion09/25 Austin, TX - Germania Insurance Amphitheater09/26 Houston, TX - The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Sponsored by Huntsman09/30 Phoenix, AZ - Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre10/03 Concord, CA - Toyota Pavilion at Concord10/05 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre10/09 Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre
It was always going to be impossible for Charli xcx to follow up the titanic influence of BRAT — and she didn't even try. The official follow-up Music, Fashion, Film is here, and it's a humble, understated work, with 11 songs barely clocking in at half an hour and a rough-around-the-edges style of demo-esque arrangements and stream-of-consciousness lyrics.
As the album's title indicates, Music, Fashion, Film follows a period in which the pop artist threw herself into other mediums: she fully dived into being an actor, made her own film with the divisive mockumentary The Moment, and soundtracked Wuthering Heights with a side-quest album earlier this year.
In a group chat, Exclaim! staff members shared their knee-jerk reactions to Music, Fashion, Film — the way it picks up after a slightly shaky start, a throwback to the electro-rock sound of 2007, and our extremely different opinions about how it compares to Wuthering Heights.
Stay tuned for our proper review of Music, Fashion, Film next week.
Welcome Back to 2007
Alex: Happy "Music, Fashion, Film Summer," everyone. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue like Brat Summer.
Allie: Hey Angels.
Alex: I'm pretty sure we're on the same page about BRAT, but where do we stand on Charli's work since BRAT?
Allie: I'm a massive Wuthering Heights fan, after having previously been pretty tepid on Charli.
Alex: I for one am very frustrated by her attempts to break into film, which I don't think she's very good at. The Moment was the worst piece of junk I've ever tried to subject myself to (and failed to complete).
Karlie: I listened to Wuthering Heights once in full since it came out, and I did get through The Moment and thought it was just okay.
Allie: Notably, I still haven't actually watched Wuthering Heights and have no plans to. I fear it may ruin the album, which is a year-ender for me 100 percent.
Karlie: I really dislike Emerald Fennell's movies, so I think that definitely impacted my desire to revisit the album, unfortunately.
Alex: I also haven't watched the movie. I like Wuthering Heights (the album) when I listen to it, which I've done a couple of times, but then I forget about it completely. I can't really remember what any of the songs sound like.
Karlie: Aside from the TikTok-ified "House," it kind of went right by me.
Allie: Very sexy, very romantic. This album is obviously very, very different, but kinda understated in the same way. I know there's been much said about whether it is or is not "rock," and I have decided that it is "rock" in the same sense that ORod is "rock," but with that Charli sing-speak style.
Alex: Honestly, to me this is unequivocally rock. No asterisks or irony — this is as much a rock album as almost anything in 2026.
Allie: Maybe 2006.
Alex: A lot of it does sound like 2006! "Wink Wink" reminds me of an aughts new wave dance rock indie sleaze thing. Like when you'd go to a Bloc Party show and the Bravery would be opening, or whatever.
Allie: My ears piqued at "2007" like a DOG. Favourite year mentioned.
Alex: Quick, fave 2007 albums?
Allie: KALA. Explosions in the Sky did that one. Bjork's underrated masterpiece Volta. Alive 2007. Strawberry Jam. Person Pitch.
Allie: Person Pitch
Allie: Jinx
Alex: Jinx
Allie: LOL
Alex: FUCK
Allie: But for real, I think "2007" is my favourite non-single from the album.
Karlie: It's so catchy. The production really scratches an itch in my brain.
Allie: Same with "Yeah," which I think will be really good for remixes.
Karlie: For me, "Yeah" really did what "Rock Music" was lacking for me; I didn't really like that single when it came out!
Rising Above "Rock Music"
Alex: For me, the whole back half of the album just goes 📈
Allie: Totally.
Karlie: Total foot on the gas moment.
Allie: I wasn't expecting to like much of this, if I'm being real! But the back half is fun and low stakes.
Alex: "Rock Music" feels like a thesis statement. It HAS to be the first song because it wouldn't work anywhere else, but it feels like the first song she wrote, and then the concept evolved to the point where she probably didn't need that song anymore, but she couldn't let go of "Rock Music" (even though she probably should have, and that's coming from someone who reasonably liked the song when it landed).
Allie: "Rock Music" did to me what "House" did to other people, I think. Bit much and TikTok-ified for my tastes. That said, "SS26" is pleasant still, despite being overplayed.
Karlie: "Rock Music" was decent ragebait and a conversation starter at least, with so many people online pretending to be angry over the "I think the dance floor is dead" line. It seemed obvious to me that she meant that about her own music.
Allie: Manufactured controversy queen.
Allie: She knows marketing above all else! No shade.
Karlie: She invented anti-marketing.
Karlie: I think "SS26" is more of a thesis statement for me than "Rock Music," mostly because I see myself completely skipping over that one when doing a full-album relisten (but I won't because that's blasphemous). "Wink Wink" is by far my favourite of the singles; it's so cheeky. Charli post-punk era when?
Allie: I know you're both not Wuthering Heights stans, but "Persona" really sounded like the spiritual offspring of "Eyes of the World" featuring Sky Ferreira. Like, she's definitely taking vocal cues from her.
Alex: My favourite song on Wuthering Heights is "My Reminder," and there are definitely shades of that song here. Just a straight-up kick-snare beat on the quarter notes.
Allie: Yes!
Karlie: Listening to "Persona" now and can definitely hear the Ferreira-isms. Glad Charli could get her out of the house.
Toronto Makes Its Mark
Allie: We gotta talk old-guy features too: how do you guys feel Cronenberg's spoken word outro on "No One Lasts Forever" stands up to Cale's on "Home"?
Alex: I kinda hate "Home," but "No One Lasts Forever" took the same sort of concept and made it a bit of a masterpiece. David Cronenberg sounds awesome on it. Apparently they recorded an hour-long conversation, and that's what they ended up using. Gimme the ultra-ultra-long cut!
Allie: Love that.
Karlie: I actually really liked it. I found it very effective.
Allie: Same! It's like if "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)" weren't corny as fuck.
Alex: It's so sad and beautiful and really takes the album's ideas of art and purpose and legacy and brings them to the ultimate conclusion. Apparently they recorded it at TIFF!
Allie: Toronto remains that girl.
Karlie: TORONTO RAHHH!
Allie: If you listen closely, you can hear the King streetcar.
Alex: You can hear the longboard yell-singer. YAAAHHHHHHH!
Karlie: As our currently on-vacation colleague Sydney texted earlier, "they are dead they are gone loop is OK Computer as fuck."
Alex: Happy birthday, Sydney.
Allie: As Exclaim!'s resident Sufjan stan, I hear "Fourth of July" in the end there. Like specifically the rave-y live version he was toting around in 2016 or whatever. We're all gonna die fr.
Karlie: The Cronenberg feature is kind of the perfect culmination of all of Charli's acting and musical ambitions.
Allie: Speaking of, where's the fashion feature? "SS26" and "Card Declined" obviously go there, but maybe I'm not in the fashion know enough to hear the rest? (PS that "Card Declined" outro claps.)
Alex: On the film side, I appreciated these lyrics of "Camera," when she sings: "Do I wanna make music? Am I being fuckin' stupid / If I try to be a girl on the screen when I'm turning 34? / But all I know is how it makes me feel / When the camera's on." As mentioned before, I think she's a just-okay actor, and The Moment sucks. But if she's following her own personal interest and excitement, there's not much else I can ask for as a fan, even if I don't like it.
Allie: Yeah, she definitely hasn't escaped the cameo allegations.
Karlie: The Moment could've been an email, or in this case, just "Camera."
Allie: True
Alex: LOL
Karlie: I will tune in when Erupcja comes out though.
Alex: Erupcja is good! I saw it at TIFF. But it's not good because of her. She's fine in it, but the other performances are way stronger.
Save Us from the Country Revival
Allie: Okay, so we've covered Fashion and Film. Where does Charli stand on Music now?
Alex: I HOPE that "Camera" is a moment of self-awareness that music is what she's great at. Better to be amazing at one thing than just-okay at a bunch of things. An inch wide and a mile deep, vs. a mile wide and an inch deep.
Allie: This album will not be on my end-of-year list, whereas WH will be.
Alex: The first time I heard BRAT, despite not initially being impressed by the singles, I was blown away. By halfway through my first listen, I could instantly hear that it was going to be a huge album. It was just electric. There was an aura. This one feels like a decidedly minor work. It's almost self-effacing in the way it seems intentionally small. This will likely be on my year-end list. WH is quickly forgotten for me.
Allie: Give it another listen!
Alex: It's good, and I will. It just has no stickiness to me.
Allie: Headphones?
Alex: Always.
Allie: I would prefer if she didn't go full Beyoncé into other genres and just went back to making regular Charli music, despite this album being generally likeable. Despite her protests throughout MFF, I wanna hear cocaine music.
Karlie: MFF still reads as very Charli to me! Granted, I'm no Charli scholar, but it generally has everything I like and expected from her.
Alex: It reads as Charli to me too! She did a song with Weezer once. This electro-rock has always been in her DNA.
Karlie: I think she has a strong enough personality that her dipping into other genres for future projects wouldn't bother me. I would not support a country pivot, but I do not think she'd do that to us lol
Allie: A Charli country album would put an end to the country revival.
Alex: Ugh, in that case Charli should make a country album.
Karlie: On second thought, maybe she should do it. Save us, Charli!
Allie: Booooooooo! Long live country.
Alex: Country needs to go back to being underdog music. Probably any genre that gets that big is bound to start sucking.
Karlie: I'm pro country, but not pro country revival that's going on right now. I learn about new people every week because of it against my will. Like, who the hell is Ella Langley?
Alex: This is a whole other topic, but when did Nashville forget how to write memorable songs? "Choosin' Texas" is the most bland, boring, anonymous, forgettable dogshit I've ever heard. Morgan Wallen doesn't have a single hook. What is going on?!
Allie: Don't get me started on Ella. (Not a fan, to be clear lol)
Karlie: Is "Choosin' Texas" Ella Langley?
Alex: Yes. Country is great, but let's leave it to the Janky Bungags of the world.
Allie: Knew you were gonna say Janky.
Alex: If Waxahatchee counts as country revival, then yes. But mainstream country is horrible right now.
Allie: 100 percent agree. ANYWAY, I've already started my re-listen of Wuthering Heights.
Karlie: Katie is my queen. Congrats to her Waxababy.
Allie: WaxaHATCHED!
Once It Gets Going, It Gets GOING
Alex: If you had to give MFF a grade out of 10 right now, what would you give it?
Allie: I will once again be abusing the only-whole-number-Exclaim!-rating-system and give it a 6.5.
Karlie: I think I'm decidedly a 7! A few tracks in the beginning that kind of drag down the momentum, but once it gets going, it gets GOING.
Alex: It's an 8 from me. I've already listened to it more times than I ever bothered to listen to WH, and I will be revisiting this a lot. That being said, I'll do a WH relisten this afternoon just to appease Allie.
Allie: ❤️
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Shut up… Shut the fuck up… Shut the fuck up!… Shut up (x3)…
That's what Otoboke Beaver's Accorinrin duly ordered the 1:30 a.m. crowd at Le Festif!, halfway through the set. She stands with one leg on the monitor in front of centre stage; one arm pointed straight up and the other raised so she can check her imaginary wristwatch. The crowd whoops, someone howls, and then grown men start shushing so they could get on with touching each other moshing.
And within that eventual second of silence, Kyoto's 4-piece punk outfit thrashed into their next track. (I think it was their 2019 banger "binge eating binge drinking bulimia.") The crowd accepted it as an invitation, and the worst kind of pit emerged: a mass falling back-and-forth while waves of concertgoers, enticed by a free show and infinite paid alcohol, vacillate between kawaii hops and lumbering shoves.
I made the mistake of being too close to the front, and for 30 seconds, I'm fully aware of the organs in my torso as I'm hydraulically pressed. Thankfully, I was caught by the tide and blown to the very back of the pit.
On stage, Accorinin chopped at her own throat, her head raising 20 degrees to accommodate her speared hand. Her other arm slices outwards, and the neon pink cord and the end of her microphone follow. Half an hour earlier, she was chanting "Go to hell" while bent over and facing away from the audience, spanking herself. She and guitarist Yoyoyoshie pivot their left arms up in unison on the off-beats.
Bassist Hirochan leans back, looking concerned for the crowd of Quebecers, drunk and high and on the verge of killing each other. I couldn't see Leo, OB's drummer, from behind the swelling mass in front of me. All in sundresses of different flavours, they link up to sing blaring three-to-five-word-per-second phrases with a hivemind's coordination.
Eventually, the crowd subsided a bit, and I couldn't tell if the band were frustrated; their music comes from that feeling. Their 2022 album Super Champon has tracks like "You're no hero shut up f*ck up you man-whore," while preceding 2019 LP ITEKOMA HITS boasts titles such as "6 day working week is a pain."
They had to wait two or three times for the assembly to shut up, with Accorinrin patiently gazing at her invisible watch. But, on each occasion, they came to an unspoken truce with the audience, commanding their attention via slight choreography with an upright precision unexpected for a punk band. It ruled.
Last night (July 23), Yoyoyoshie was Otoboke Beaver's MVP. She love-bombed the crowd between tracks in fractured French, hand hearts abounding and yelling about how much she loves la belle province. The whole time, she rocked a massive grin, looking as excited as the crowd was mobile. At the end of the majority of their songs, her fried voice screams the grateful coda: "THANKYOUWEARETOBOKEBEAVER."
And before the band's encore, after a good percentage of the crowd has suffered casualties or recoiled home (eight hours later, my right leg still hurts), they returned on stage, holding out a cake with pigeon-shaped candles for Yoyoyoshie's birthday and a cartoonish inner tube with a beaver's head.
As they abused and whipped castoridae around like they were the Hudson's Bay Company in the 19th century instead of letting it bounce or glide aloft, the crowd was left in awe of Otoboke Beaver's full and total control over them.
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There was a one-two punch Thursday night (July 23) at the Scène Chez Mag à la bétonnière, the stage housed atop a dirt parking lot and underneath the shadow of a ready-mix concrete distributor. At 8 p.m., Parisienne DJ u.r.trax set the vibe with her brand of club music and sound design to an increasingly dense crowd, including a man costumed as a mushroom flair bartending a baby bottle, and a dude in a patchwork bucket hat doing tricks with an old-fashioned spinning top.
But it was 90 minutes later, as action figures of classic wrestlers were lined up and the Great Seal of the Halluci Nation was draped across the front of the decks, when Tim "2oolman" Hill and Ehren "Bear Witness" Thomas properly kicked off the first night of Le Festif!
As the dudes from Six Nations got on stage and announced themselves with a booming echo, they proceeded to immediately rip into their all-time hit "Electric Pow Wow Drum." While the siren-like megaphone intro took off, 2oolman laid some extra zest on it. The crowd riled up.
And when the drop came, Creeasian (né Matthew Wood) hit the stage in full regalia. Everyone lost their shit. He glided back and forth while the duo behind him do their thing: 2oolman pounding the shit out of the pad in front of him, Bear Witness laying it on coolly with headphones atop his head like a carbon-fibre halo. Above them, a crane-suspended wrecking-disco ball pixelated the audience back at them while the synths crunched and the snares snapped atop traditional samples. Behind them, a net of LEDs pulsed inward.
They played the big hits, like the Yassin Bey-featuring "R.E.D.," while maintaining their no-brakes momentum. They also played "Burn Your Village to the Ground," the track from a few years ago released on American Thanksgiving, sampling Wednesday's based monologue from Addams Family Values.
As she recited the future disparities between Indigenous people and settlers, 2oolman gave a wry smile to a crowd, on whom the joke might be lost, both hands on the knobs as he leaned forward towards them. "I have decided to scalp you, and burn your village to the ground," the macabre girl's voice said before he cranked those tiny dials into a jumpstyle instrumental.
Eventually, Creeasian pulled back up in a zip-up, launching a T-shirt into the crowd and giving the audience its second wind. He's a phenomenal hype man. Then for a moment, the music stopped. The crowd paused. "FUCK JOHN WAYNE!" 2oolman yelled into the microphone.
The audience went back to going nuts. A blasted-out snare pierces through a throat singing sample. Two caucasians with dreads have their tongues down each other's throats in the pit.
For a minute, the Halluci Nation got a little Latino with it, giving the crowd a splash of cumbia before taking their set to the jungle. As the audience undulated and I grew increasingly worried that the folks thrashing in the pit with beaded earrings might catch them on something, the Halluci Nation blasted into drift music; the sound of a 2000s Honda Civic tearing down a dirt road in the middle of summer. It was divine.
As 11 p.m. approached and the dirt underneath had been pounded into the same density as Béton Provincial's product, 2oolman and Bear Witness ended their set with a remix of Bob Marley's "Everything's Gonna be Alright," asking the crowd to sing along and fill in the gaps.
It's a radical move, given the dread felt across Canada as more people — especially Indigenous folks — lose their homes to wildfires and increasingly violent climate events. But, borrow their name from John Trudell, the Halluci refers to "the vast global community of people who remember at their core, what it means to be human." So go donate, and help out where you can. Everyone should.
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Last night (July 23), I had the pleasure of attending a benefit concert for the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC) at Parkdale Hall. A great demonstration of a community coming together to support each other, last night reignited some hope in my heart for the future of not just music in Toronto, but the future of the city as well.
As developers and greedy politicians continue to carve up every aspect of our public lives and social services, it was comforting to see people come together and not only push back, but support each other through these hard times. The bill was a mix of new blood and old legends with a great variety of sound and levels of energy.
Walking into the venue felt like walking inside a cloud. A malfunctioning smoke machine enveloped the hall in a haze that cleared more as the night went on, as though waking from a dream.
The first act up was Diatribe, a three piece whose sound was an interesting mix of sludge, punk and early-2000s alt-rock. They had sludgy and slow riffs combined with screechy scrams-like vocals that would give way to melodic sections almost reminiscent of late '90s butt rock. I'd say they were an inspired combination of Eyehategod and Chevelle.
Following Diatribe was more new blood: post-punk/noise rock five-piece Duchess. I'd seen them a few times prior, and had always found them intriguing. They were loud and frantic as often as they were mellow and soft, and this set in particular actually had more slower melodic passages than usual.
What stood out the most was their bass player, who I recognized had previously played in Small Man, Big Mouth. The crowd was incredibly engaged, and commanding vocalist Kate Congress had great energy. It was impressive to see how many people were clearly just there for Duchess.
Next up was the act I was personally looking forward to the most: Siyahkal and their Persian hardcore punk rock from hell. This was my fifth time seeing them live, and every time, I'm impressed by how well vocalist Kasra manages to translate the energy, sound and level of performance on their recorded work into their set; it made me realize how desperately I need to do more cardio, being already gassed after two songs in the pit.
A spokesperson from PARC then got the mic to thank everyone for coming and speak a few words. They told us a history of PARC, which started in the '70s to support psychiatric survivors and other people in need — work that has continued on to today, and is even more vital during the current housing crisis.
At this point in the night, the crowd was a pressure cooker waiting to burst. All that energy they'd built up for the openers burst out for Toronto hardcore legends S.H.I.T., who capitalized perfectly off Siyahkal's audience warm-up; the energy was absolutely palpable.
It's hard to say anything about S.H.I.T. that would really do them justice. They've been doing this since 2011, and will hopefully keep going for a while. If you live near or in Toronto and have never experienced the blistering speed and cutting riffs, or one of the best hardcore vocalists working right now (Ryan Tong), there's no excuse — catch a S.H.I.T. set as soon as you can.
Ending off the night I finally saw 9Million, one of the most prolific rock acts the city has to offer, for the first time. A big band that sounds it, they very effectively filled the space and sounded loud enough for the venue — and almost overwhelming at some points. There was more hardcore DNA present in their post-punk and shoegaze soundscapes than I'd expected; there was a lot happening, and it was equal parts loud and mellow, very melancholic.
This was something consistent for almost all the bands. Maybe it was a matter of the backline being used, but the venue didn't seem like the best sonic fit for many of these acts. The space itself was lovely and accommodating for everything, but I'd have to catch another show to have a more fully formed opinion on the sound.
My main takeaway from the night is how prevalent this idea of "community" really is in Toronto's music scene. That camo 9Million shirt has become almost iconic contemporary Toronto music iconography that, whenever I see it in public, immediately signals to me that this person likely runs in circles similar to mine.
Even more than the fact that I've seen so many of these bands before, I've also seen their members in other bands as well, and people in the crowd I recognized from seeing play in other bands. As much as it's easy to focus on the negative circumstances, music in this city is lively and thriving — and sometimes it comes together to try and do something good.
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Every week, we reconnect with our primal hunting-and-gathering instincts to put together The Eh! List, a curated playlist of the best new Canadian music — a place where the latest tracks from faithful CanCon favourites and burgeoning new discoveries collide.
This roundup features fresh releases from Orville Peck, Ruth B., Shania Twain, Shiv and the Carvers, Le Ren, Daphni, Sister Ray, Babygirl, TyriqueOrDie and more. You can also catch up on the latest album releases here.
Listen below on Spotify or Apple Music.
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Mongolian metal legends the HU released their new album HUN today courtesy of Better Noise, and you can listen to it in full below on the player of your choice.
Ahead of hitting the North American trail with Rob Zombie, then UK and Europe on their own headlining tour, the HU's latest — originally titled Between the Heaven and Earth — literally translates to "human" in their native tongue. With earthy beats and warrior vocals beckoning on its opening track, the album throws listeners for a loop by Track 2, which enlists NOTHING MORE vocalist Jonny Hawkins, adding an unexpected but seamless Western edge.
"In our third album, we tested many boundaries and used different techniques to perfect the combination of traditional instruments with heavy metal music genres," said Jaya (tumur khuur, tsuur, throat singing). "The concept of the HUN album comes from universal experiences we all go through collectively as humans in this world. Our hope is to remind our listeners the importance of introspection through variety of songs from slow to fast rhythmic songs."
Alongside the release, the band have shared a new music video for "Horsemen," inspired by "the legendary Mongolian warriors who once rode across much of the known world," according to the band.
They added, "These warriors were known for their discipline, intelligence, courage, and incredible skill. They were called the 'Army of the Heavens' because of their unmatched mobility and strength. This song celebrates their spirit and honours the qualities that made them legendary. It's a reminder that true power comes from discipline, wisdom, and unity." Lock all the way in for the song's second half!
Check that out below, where you'll also find the band's album streaming in full alongside their upcoming tour dates
The HU 2026 Tour Dates:
08/20 West Palm Beach, FL - iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre *
08/21 Tampa, FL - MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre *
08/23 Alpharetta, GA - Ameris Bank Amphitheatre *
08/24 Charlotte, NC - Truliant Amphitheater *
08/26 Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center *
08/27 Mansfield, MA - Xfinity Center *
08/29 Burgettstown, PA - The Pavilion at Star Lake *
08/30 Darien Center, NY - Darien Lake Amphitheater *
09/01 Toronto, ON - RBC Amphitheatre *
09/02 Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center *
09/04 Clarkston, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre *
09/05 Tinley Park, IL - Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre *
09/06 Noblesville, IN - Ruoff Music Center *
09/09 Maryland Heights, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre *
09/10 Kansas City, MO - MORTON Amphitheater *
09/12 Greenwood Village, CO - Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre *
09/14 West Valley City, UT - Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre *
09/16 Airway Heights, WA - BECU Live at Northern Quest *
09/17 Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheatre *
09/18 Ridgefield, WA - Cascades Amphitheater *
09/20 Concord, CA - Toyota Pavilion at Concord *
09/29 Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy ^
10/01 Bristol, UK - Prospect Building ^
10/02 Bournemouth, UK - O2 Academy ^
10/03 Newcastle, UK - O2 City Hall ^
10/05 Belfast, UK - The Telegraph ^
10/06 Dublin, Ireland - 3Olympia Theatre ^
10/08 Birmingham, UK - O2 Academy ^
10/09 London, UK - O2 Academy Brixton ^
10/10 Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo ^
10/11 Norwich, UK - UEA ^
10/14 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique ^
10/15 Hamburg, Germany - Sporthalle ^
10/17 Munich, Germany - Tonhalle ^
10/18 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle ^
10/19 Warsaw, Poland - Stodola ^
10/20 Warsaw, Poland - Stodola ^
10/22 Cologne, Germany - Palladium ^
10/23 Utrecht, Netherlands - TivoliVredenburg ^
10/24 Tilburg, Netherlands - 013 ^
10/27 Paris, France - L'Olympia ^
10/28 Lyon, France - Le Radiant ^
10/30 Zurich, Switzerland - X-Tra ^
10/31 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal ^
* supporting Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Orgy
^ with Skáld
He's done it again! Just as we've counted down Dan Snaith's best albums as Caribou/Manitoba/Daphni, he's released another batch of tunes under the last of those aliases. Leading up to a batch of new tour dates, the polymath has been testing out three new songs live, and now they're available to stream.
"I know Butterfly only came out a few months ago but I made this one after the album was already finished and wanted to get it out because it's been such a great vibe playing it for you at shows. I think I played it at Corsica first maybe?" Snaith wrote of the release in press materials.
Connected by a through line of bubble imagery, each track does feel a bit like Butterfly 1.5 — still whimsical and primed for sweaty, euphoric nights, but with a touch of tomorrow lingering on their edges.
The title track acts as the buffer between Snaith's full-length and the burgeoning sound he's developed on "Tally" and "Forward," whose minor keys offer a bit of spookiness to usher us into the second half of 2026. "Forward" especially reads like a haunted version of "Sad Piano House."
I'll be frothing at the mouth in anticipation of seeing these new tracks live at Standard Time next week!
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Dan Snaith has announced a short North American tour in support of Daphni's Butterfly.
Starting with a stop at Montreal's Piknic Électronik on Sunday (July 26), the tour will properly begin at Standard Time in Toronto on August 1.
UPDATE (7/24, 11:35 a.m. ET): Snaith has added a second Toronto show, also at Standard Time. Tickets are on sale now.
From there, there will be a break until mid-September, when the Caribou side project will play Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Los Angeles, Denver and San Francisco. After another break, the jaunt will end on October 17 at Miami's III Points Festival.
Fans can sign up for presale for the Toronto, Chicago, D.C. and Denver dates here. All other dates are on sale now. See the full Daphni tour run below.
Daphni 2026 Tour Dates:
07/26 Montreal, QC - Piknic Électronik
08/01 Toronto, ON - Standard Time
08/06 Toronto, ON - Standard Time
09/19 Chicago, IL - Smart Bar
09/20 Philadelphia, PA - Making Time
09/24 Washington, D.C. - Flash
09/25 Los Angeles, CA - Tenhouse / Wellness Check
09/26 Denver, CO - Static Proof
09/27 San Francisco, CA - Portola
10/17 Miami, FL - III Points Festival
Orville Peck is back with a new album — Mule arrives September 18 via Warner, and is previewed today by the single "Too Little, Too Late."
According to a release, the album explores Peck's struggle with addiction, his pursuit of sobriety, and the process of rebuilding himself with "honesty, humour and compassion." In an Instagram post, he described it as a "chronological account of the year I lost my way."
Peck will be supporting the new album with a North American tour this fall and winter, which will include three Canadian stops at Toronto's History (November 17), Ottawa's Hard Rock (November 18) and Montreal's MTELUS (November 19).
Presales will begin on July 27 at 10 a.m. local time, followed by general on-sale on July 31. Find the schedule below.
Mule:
- Prologue (Eulogy of a Man Turned Mule)
- Big Ol' House
- Already Gone
- Rehab Blues
- Ring the Bell
- Blue Skies
- The Fall
- Cowboy Heart
- The Breeze, the Grass, the Mourning Dove and Me
- Run Out of Road
- Too Little, Too Late
- War of the Worlds
- Mule
Orville Peck 2026 Tour Dates:
09/18 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
09/23 Troutdale, OR - Edgefield Concerts on the Lawn
09/26 Bonner, MT - KettleHouse Amphitheater
10/28 Sacramento, CA - Channel 24
10/29 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues Anaheim
10/30 Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
11/01 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom
11/03 Minneapolis, MN - The Armory
11/04 Madison, WI - The Sylvee
11//05 Milwaukee, WI - Landmark Credit Union Live
11/07 Chicago, IL - The Salt Shed
11/09 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
11/10 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
11/11 Philadelphia, PA - The Met Presented by Highmark
11/13 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
11/14 Raleigh, NC - The Ritz
11/15 Nashville, TN - The Truth
11/17 Toronto, ON - History
11/18 Ottawa, ON - Hard Rock Ottawa
11/19 Montreal, QC - MTELUS
11/21 Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway
11/22 Huntington, NY - The Paramount
Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield and Kevin Morby have welcomed a baby boy.
In a Substack post this week (July 22), Morby wrote that he "returned from my European tour just in time for our little beautiful baby to kick the door in two weeks ahead of schedule," on July 21.
He acknowledged that the European tour was "somewhat tense" because he didn't want to miss the baby's birth. "We all found ourselves holding our collective breath that he wouldn't come too early," he wrote. "And like clockwork, I was home all but eight hours before Katie's water broke. I like to think that the little guy waited for me."
Morby has cancelled this weekend's festival performance at the Eaux Claires festival in Wisconsin. He noted that he's listening to Grouper's "Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping" (from 2008's Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill) on repeat while holding the baby. Hopefully it's not an "Evil Spawn"!
Crutchfield was visibly pregnant during her tour with MJ Lenderman earlier this year.
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There's a porous distinction between Dan Snaith's many aliases: he began as Manitoba, before legal threats resulted in a name change to Caribou (and him subsequently rebranding his previous albums to the new name). Then he launched Daphni as a dance floor side-project — but that division has gotten blurry as well, with Caribou popping up as a featured guest on Daphni's latest album.
The reason, of course, is that Snaith's music doesn't fit neatly into boxes. From the psychedelic pop of his early work to the synthpop and DJ bangers of more recent years, he masters every style he tries with the precision you'd expect from someone with a PhD in math.
With his latest Daphni album bumping in clubs this summer — as well as the headphones of people who devour dance music at home — we're counting down his alias-spanning discography from great to even greater.
12. Manitoba
Start Breaking My Heart (2001)
Dan Snaith's debut album as Manitoba (later rebranded as Caribou) is an outlier in his discography: a low-key collection of all-instrumental IDM, finding Snaith dabbling in a range of palettes while trying to find his artistic identity in real time. It has traces of the psychedelia he explored in subsequent albums ("Brandon"), as well as some of the electronica he later dove headlong into as Daphni ("Schedules and Fares"), along with some glitchy electro jazz like nothing else in his oeuvre ("Paul's Birthday"). With its humble scope, Start Breaking My Heart is a minor work — inessential, but rewarding for fans digging back into the artist's origins.
11. Daphni
Jiaolong (2012)
Snaith's first release under his Daphni moniker isn't his most experimental by any measure — he'd already explored a variety of electronic textures and genres as both Caribou and Manitoba across five albums by 2012 — but his first foray into recorded DJ material was a feat of engineering nonetheless. Long listed for the Polaris Music Prize (not for the first or the last time), the album went on to be favoured by industry insiders and diehard Snaith followers, not in spite of but because of its big swing. Its remix of "Ne Noya" remains among the project's most-played songs, and cuts like "Ye Ye" and "Ahora" represent the first stones laid in the architecture of Snaith's musical evolution.
10. Caribou
Andorra (2007)
Dan Snaith has been short listed for the Polaris Music Prize four times (and long listed an additional two times), but Andorra stands as his only win. And while it's far from his best album, it's easy to see how he won over the jury with this refined and pop-friendly take on psychedelia that sounds fairly streamlined and straightforward by Snaith's adventurous standards. Opening track "Melody Day" in particular stands out as one of his finest songwriting achievements, a glorious rush of '60s fetishism and chamber pop grandeur à la Elliott Smith.
9. Daphni
Butterfly (2026)
From the first taste of Butterfly, another Polaris long lister, it was evident Snaith was on a creative tear. After his 2024 takeover with Caribou's somewhat controversial Honey (the follow-up to 2020's vibey but understated Suddenly), Snaith's dance floor jubilance was an unstoppable force. Using his own voice on the project for the first time, we preemptively billed the effort as the first-ever collaboration between Caribou and Daphni — but what that kaleidoscopic merger would reveal itself to be upon release was much more akin to Daphni featuring Caribou, most notably on Snaith-sung "Waiting So Long."
8. Caribou
The Milk of Human Kindness (2005)
Snaith started out as a drummer in high school, and that time behind the kit informs the dizzying percussion clinic that is his 2005 album — his first to be released under the then-new name Caribou. Sprawling cuts like "Yeti," "A Final Warning" and "Brahiminy Kite" blur the line between drum solo and psychedelic groove, while "Hello Hammerheads" is a very aughts indie folk ditty, and the standout "Bees" beams classic blues licks into the future.
7. Daphni
Cherry (2022)
Airy and sweet, the second of Snaith's crucial lockdown-era offerings arrived just as it was needed. Building off of the downtempo haze of Suddenly, Cherry was yet another doubling down on the Daphni dance floor sound right around the time they began opening back up. Recorded in the era of Snaith's various collaborations with fellow electronic heavyweights Four Tet, Floating Points and Fred again.., their influences are present throughout Cherry, especially musical bestie Kieran Hebden's on the title track. In the end, it's "Cloudy" that would go on to foretell the project's next era, with its lofty beat summarized best by its creator in this statement: "For something so buoyant, I'm surprised how much it bangs in a club."
6. Caribou
Suddenly (2020)
The sleekest and most fashionable-sounding of Caribou's albums, Suddenly channels Snaith's dance influences into a streamlined set of songs equally geared for focused hi-fi listening and tasteful dinner party background music. "You and I" has a twinkling pulse pulled from synthpop and krautrock, while "Home" leans heavily on a cheery soul sample, and the aching "Magpie" emerges through the tape-warped haze of Boards of Canada. If there were ever an album to convert a Caribou skeptic, this is it.
5. Daphni
Joli Mai (2017)
When I think of Daphni, Joli Mai's opening track, "Poly," is what immediately comes to mind. As the follow-up to 2014's monumental Our Love, Snaith's next album faced an uphill battle; he was unlikely to top that peak without burning out the creative flame entirely, so perhaps the pivot back to his side project was both the safest (and most liberating) choice. The decision paid off: with musical mojo renewed following extensive album-cycle touring and releasing the club-driven Fabriclive 93 (technically a mix album and thus not included in this list) that would serve as the foundation for this project, Snaith returned with 12 polished and pristine tracks primed for dank, sweaty nights lit by lasers and LEDs. Look no further than "Vikram" to soundtrack your meandering journey to the club bathroom and back.
4. Manitoba
Up in Flames (2003)
An impossibly massive levelling-up after Start Breaking My Heart, the second of Snaith's two albums as Manitoba (and his first with vocals) is a psychedelic opus: a gigantic wash of sound, where trippy backmasking, acoustic strums, glitchy beats and aching hooks seamlessly coexist in sublime, heavenly soundscapes. With melodic nods to '60s pop and careening song structures from the distant future, Up in Flames is a heavenly moodboard, and an early creative pinnacle.
3. Caribou
Honey (2024)
Even as one of Caribou's most robust offerings, Honey didn't come without a bit of drama. Early on in its album cycle, The Guardian published a scathing review, trashing Snaith's decision to deploy AI as a vocal-modifying tool that allowed him to mask his voice as female or as a rapper. On the precipice of the AI apocalypse, the album drew heated debates between industry professionals behind the scenes, with some accusing Snaith of foregoing creativity altogether and others anchoring their arguments against the use of AI in social justice terms. But since the tool was decidedly not creatively generative, it's difficult for me to be upset at something hardly more sophisticated than Auto-Tune, and the album undeniably bangs. Where predecessor Suddenly represented a fashionable turn, Honey was a return to what some would rightfully consider the heart of Caribou's best sonic scope. What's more, the album runs more cohesively than 10 of the 12 albums included in this list, making it a singular listening experience (despite the multitude of fake Snaiths singing on it).
2. Caribou
Swim (2010)
Swim is the inflection point in Snaith's discography, marking his shift from psych pop soundscaper into dance floor maven. By this point, a seasoned DJ (and a keen swimmer, incidentally) in his adopted hometown of London, UK, he incorporated those club nights into the work he did in his basement as Caribou, as he allowed liquid textures and blippy arpeggiators to guide his hypnotic grooves. Still relying heavily on live percussion rather than going fully in the box, "Sun" turns a one-word mantra into a sprawling ray of light, while the earthy samples of "Bowls" and "Leave House" combine with synthesizers for a sound simultaneously futuristic and ancient. Throw in stunning opener "Odessa," with its unforgettable hook and vivid lyrics about escaping an abusive relationship, and Swim is a splash of creative magic that has guided Snaith ever since, even necessitating the creation of his Daphni alias as a way to explore DJ music fully.
1. Caribou
Our Love (2014)
Electronic music rarely stays on the cutting edge for more than a few years, but a spare few artists and projects do manage to forego trends and stay true to their sound enough to be considered timeless. Our Love is one such effort. A time capsule of 2014 and the incredible summer of music we were blessed with (Alvvays' self-titled album and Mac DeMarco's Salad Days also arrived that year), Our Love stays on repeat to this day — album opener "Can't Do Without You" remains Snaith's most-played song, with subsequent track "Silver" following shortly behind, suggesting fans are not only listening to the lead single, but sitting down to play the album in its entirety. As they should: Our Love has zero skips, from the dubby tumult of the title track's breakdown and the flute-led hi-hat beat of "Mars," to the R&B-inflected Jessy Lanza-featuring "Second Chance" and the slow build of "Back Home." Unsurprisingly, Our Love topped Exclaim!'s list of the best electronic albums of 2014, and also earned widespread acclaim from international publications as well. Where Swim catapulted Caribou into common parlance, Our Love cemented Snaith as one of electronic music's greatest creators.
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The latest roundup of new tours coming to Canada this year include two dates from Daphni (pictured above) happening next week, ATLiens descending upon North America, a cross-Canadian tour from True Mountain Laurel and more.
Head over to Concert Central to check out more Canadian tour announcements, show listings and more.
After Tour Dates:
10/29 Montreal, QC - Bar Le Ritz
11/01 Toronto, ON - Mod Club
ATLiens Tour Dates:
08/21 Toronto, ON - History
11/20 Vancouver, BC - Harbour Event Centre
11/21 Calgary, AB - Palace Theatre
Rebecca Black Tour Dates:
10/20 Montreal, QC - Club Soda
10/21 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
10/31 Vancouver, BC - Hollywood Theatre
Boyhood Tour Dates:
07/25 Toronto ON - Dina's Tavern
07/27 Ottawa ON - Irene's *
07/28 Montreal QC - Sala Rossa *
07/30 Fredericton NB - Bellwether *
07/31 Sackville NB - Sappyfest
* with Eliza Niemi
Mike D Tour Dates:
09/30 Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
10/20 Toronto, ON - History
Daphni Tour Dates:
07/26 Montreal, QC - Piknic Électronik
08/01 Toronto, ON - Standard Time
The Deep Dark Woods Tour Dates:
09/03 Winnipeg, MB - Park Theatre
09/04 Regina, SK - Artesian
09/05 Saskatoon, SK - Capitol Music Club
09/07 Calgary, AB - Festival Hall
09/08 Red Deer, AB - Bo's Bar
09/09 Lethbridge, AB - The Owl Acoustic Lounge
09/11 Edmonton, AB - Purple City Festival
09/18 Durham, ON - Riverstone Retreat
09/19 Peterborough, ON - The Canadian Canoe Museum
Eli Tour Dates:
08/23 Toronto, ON - The Mod Club
Silvana Estrada Tour Dates:
09/06 Vancouver, BC - Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
Greg Freeman with Hello Shark Tour Dates:
10/22 Toronto, ON - The Mod Club
Quadeca Tour Dates
10/26 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
11/05 Vancouver, BC - Rickshaw Theatre
Shiv and the Carvers Tour Dates:
08/14 London, ON - Palasad Social Bowl
08/15 Brantford, ON - Brandi's Kitchen and Bar
09/24–26 Toronto, ON - Second Summer Festival
Colin Stetson and Brìghde Chaimbeul Tour Dates:
09/09 Toronto, ON - Opera House
09/11 Montreal, QC - Outremont Theatre
09/12 Quebec City, QC - Le Pantoum
Thunder Queens Tour Dates:
07/31 Mississauga, ON - Rock the Coliseum
08/14 Paris, ON - Paris Drinks Fest
08/27 Quebec City, QC - TBA
08/28 Quebec City, QC - TBA
08/29 Montreal, QC - TBA
09/23 Barrie, ON - The Queens Nightclub *
09/24 Oshawa, ON - Biltmore Theatre *
09/25 London, ON - Punk Rock Flea Fest
09/26 Windsor, ON - Rose City Banquet Hall *
* supporting Cancer Bats
Trivium with In Flames and Frozen Soul Tour Dates:
11/17 Laval, QC - Bell Place *
11/18 Toronto, ON - Great Canadian Toronto *
12/07 Penticton, BC - Penticton Trade & Convention Centre ^
12/08 Vancouver, BC - Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre ^
* with Fit for an Autopsy
^ with Orbit Culture
True Mountain Laurel Tour Dates:
09/15 Waterloo, ON - Emmanuel United Church
09/16 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware
09/17 Gormley, ON - Harmony Hall
09/19 Ottawa, ON - 4th Stage NAC
09/22 Toronto, ON - Hugh's Room Live
09/28 Halifax, NS - The Carleton
09/29 Charlottetown, PE - Trailside
09/30 Fredericton, NB - The Cap
10/02 Iona, NS - Frolic and Folk Pub
11/03 Calgary, AB - Modern Love
11/04 Regina, SK - The Artesian
11/05 Winnipeg, MB - Side Stage
11/06 Saskatoon, SK - Amigos
11/07 Edmonton, AB - Double Dragon
11/08 Canmore, BC - Communitea Café
11/10 Rossland, BC - The Old Fire Hall Tavern
11/11 Penticton, BC - The Hub on Martin
Chad VanGaalen Tour Dates
09/24 Montreal, QC - POP Montreal at Rialto Theatre
10/04 Nelson, BC - The Royal
10/05 Penticton, BC - The Hub on Martin
10/06 Vancouver, BC - Wise Hall
10/08 Victoria, BC - Friendship Hall
10/09 Courtenay, BC - CVGB's
10/10 Nanaimo, BC - Crace Mountain
Emma Worley with Talel McBriar and Claire Hunter Tour Dates:
09/15 Montreal, QC - Quai des Brumes
09/17 Fredericton, NB - Charlotte Arts Centre
09/18 Bridgewater, NS - Harvest Moon Festival
09/19 Charlottetown, PE - Babas Lounge
09/20 Halifax, NS - House Show
09/22 Truro, NS - Commune
09/23 Sackville, NB - Greenslades
young friend Tour Dates:
11/04 Vancouver, BC - Hollywood Theatre
11/28 Toronto, ON - The Baby G
The Odyssey is out, and it's important to watch it on the biggest screen possible. But if that doesn't work out, just watch it on a refrigerator or SpongeBob SquarePants mini TV. On this week's roundup of the week's funniest music memes and entertainment shitposts, we've got Gracie Abrams's bald spot and a rap feud between Eminem and Drake.
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So many album releases, so little time. It goes without saying that there is an absolute wealth of new music being released on a weekly basis, so here's a handy little page to help you keep track of what's out today (in bold below), as well as recent releases from the past couple of weeks and what's on the horizon for the next couple.
Look for the little flag emoji to denote fresh homegrown LPs, and check out The Eh! List for more of the week's best new Canadian music.
July 10
Among Legends - Lose My Grip (Little Rocket Records) 🇨🇦
Apogean - Waste Where Life Begins (The Artisan Era) 🇨🇦
Baby Rose - Yearnalism (Secretly Canadian)
Chevy Beaulieu - Chevy Beaulieu (604 Records) 🇨🇦
Birds of Prrrey - Peace Love Homicide (Aves Records) 🇨🇦
Jacob Brodovsky - Tell the Kids We Tried (Independent) 🇨🇦
Daydream Plus - Second Last Day of Summer (Run for Cover Records) 🇨🇦
Michael Cloud Duguay - Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go (Watch That Ends the Night) 🇨🇦
Ebbb - Shallow Hits (Ninja Tune)
FATHERS - FATHERS (Blue Note)
Fiver - Cleaning House (You've Changed Records) 🇨🇦
Future - The Real Me (Freebandz / Epic Records)
Holy Wave - i'm DADA (Suicide Squeeze)
Houndmouth - Lordy (Dualtone Records)
Hurry - Zoned Out (Lame-O Records)
Jaco Jaco - On the Levee (AWAL)
Cameron James - On Time! (100 Collective Records) 🇨🇦
Kelela - new avatar (Warp Records)
Adam Lambert - Adam (More Is More LLC)
Luluc - Sweet Thief (Community Music Group)
Magi Merlin - POWER HOUSE (Bonsound) 🇨🇦
Julie Neff - fine. (Independent) 🇨🇦
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - A ? of WHEN (Domino Recording Co.)
Parts & Labor - Set of All Sets (Ernest Jenning Record Co.)
The Rolling Stones - Foreign Tongues (Polydor Records / Universal Music)
Allison Russell - In the Hour of Chaos (Fantasy Records) 🇨🇦
Sad13 - 1331 (Exploding in Sound Records)
Show Me the Body - Alone Together (Loma Vista Recordings)
Genevieve Stokes - Hiding Places (Independent)
sundayclub - sundayclub (Paper Bag Records) 🇨🇦
Volubilis - Theasterion (Theasterion Records) 🇨🇦
Suki Waterhouse - Loveland (Island Records)
Jack White - Frozen Charlotte (Third Man Records)
Finn Wolfhard - Fire from the Hip (AWAL) 🇨🇦
July 17
Gracie Abrams - Daughter from Hell (Interscope Records)
Babe Rainbow - ACID AND HONEY (Eureka / AWAL)
Big Loser - Spitting Distance (Independent) 🇨🇦
Gregory Childs & Heart Lung - Gregory Childs & Heart Lung (Independent) 🇨🇦
Eartheater - Heavenly Body: If I'm the Bottle, You're the Message (Chemical X / Mad Decent)
Eternal Drak - The Violence of Time (FirstWave)
Zac Farro - Operator - Live in Studio (Congrats Records)
Foreigner - In the Eye of the Storm (Sun Records / Virgin Music)
Helado Tropical - Helado Tropical (Psychic Hotline)
Bella Kay - My Reckless Abandon (Atlantic Records)
Steve Lacy - Oh yeah? (RCA Records)
Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything (SharpTone Records)
MEGGO - eavesdropper ;; the crash (Mayhem Productions) 🇨🇦
The Menzingers - Everything I Ever Saw (Epitaph Records)
Mock Media - Rat Bastard (Mac's Record Label) 🇨🇦
Nia Archives - Emotional Junglist (HIJINXX / Island Records)
N NAO - Nouveaux Langages (Mothland) 🇨🇦
Lido Pimienta - Caribenya (ANTI-) 🇨🇦
Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics (Equal Vision)
Rick Ross - Set in Stone (Gamma)
Sam and Louise Sullivan - Love & Devotion (Historic New Jersey)
Syd - Beard (Free Lunch)
Tricky - Different When It's Silent (False Idols)
Yard Act - You're Gonna Need a Little Music (Republic Records)
July 24
Babygirl - Stay Here Where It's Warm(er) (Arts & Crafts) 🇨🇦
Rachel Bobbitt - Where Do You Want to Be? (Fantasy Records) 🇨🇦
Alex Cameron - Late to Set (Independent)
Charli xcx - Music, Fashion, Film (Atlantic Records)
Cel Ray - Cel Rayzer (Exploding in Sound Records)
Cypress Hill - Dios Bendiga (HYBE Latin America)
FLO - THERAPY AT THE CLUB (Universal)
Nick Hakim - I Can See (Earseed Records / Stem)
IAN SWEET - Shiverstruck (Polyvinyl)
Lockimara - Only Sun, Only Moon (Play Dead) 🇨🇦
Lockstep - I Know What I Saw (Profound Lore)
Love Spells - Love Is the Law (RCA Records)
Jensen McRae - I Don't Know How, but They Found Me… Again! (Dead Oceans)
Rico Nasty - RX (Sugar Trap)
REZN - Cycles in the Infinite Dream (Sargeant House)
Sick Puppy - NOBODY GETS HURT (Halfcase) 🇨🇦
Ted Spear - A Moment Gone Too Soon (Lighter Than Air) 🇨🇦
The Strokes - Reality Awaits (RCA Records)
Sam and Louise Sullivan - Love & Devotion (Historic New Jersey)
Trophy Wife - Pathetic (Independent)
Shania Twain - Little Miss Twain (Republic Records) 🇨🇦
Tyla - A*POP (Since '93 / RCA)
Waterparks - JINX (BMG / Rise Records)
WILLOW - The Thread (Three Six Zero Recordings)
Rick White and Julie Doiron - Together (Blue Fog Recordings) 🇨🇦
July 31
Arca - XXXXX (XL Recordings)
Ami Cheon - aries baby (Sincerely Management Inc.) 🇨🇦
Collective Soul - Touch and Go (Fuzze-Flex Records)
Doghouse Rose - Born to Break Even (Stomp Records) 🇨🇦
DOMi & JD Beck - Who Asked (UMG / Apeshit)
Doohickey Cubicle - Good at It (Independent) 🇨🇦
The Durutti Column - Renascent (London Records)
Ariana Grande - petal (Republic Records)
Michigander - Over Before You Know It (Totally Normal Records / Thirty Tigers)
Preloved - Willow (Lauren Records) 🇨🇦
Fox Revett - I Don't Know Where I Left My Body (Independent) 🇨🇦
Shaboozey - The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales (American Dogwood / EMPIRE)
August 7
Cancer Bats - Give Me Dirt (Bat Skull Records / New Damage Records) 🇨🇦
Ceremony - Tell Me Your Dreams (Relapse Records)
Citizen - Halcyon Blues (Run for Cover Records)
Chic Chameleon - Losing Slowly (Independent) 🇨🇦
Crazy Clue - Where the Dregs Dwell (Beach Impediment Records) 🇨🇦
Dinner Party - Watchu Bringing? (EMPIRE)
Electric Callboy - TANZNEID (Century Media Records)
Margaret Glaspy - I Am Both (ATO Records)
Ravyn Lenae - Blue Island (Atlantic Records)
Corb Lund - Dark Horses (New West Records) 🇨🇦
Man/Woman/Chainsaw - Cannonball (Fiction Records)
MEGASOUND - Megasound (Don Giovanni Records)
Nicole Miller - SPIT! (Watch That Ends the Night) 🇨🇦
The Mountain Goats - Days (Cadmean Dawn Records)
Slow Fiction - dollhouse (Tight Knit)
Smoothie Lou - Gary (Smoothie Gang Entertainment) 🇨🇦
Emily Steinwell - but, there's beauty in the fall from Grace (Independent) 🇨🇦
Hana Stretton - tiarn (Independent)
Weak Hands - we can't! (Independent) 🇨🇦
Yana - Feelings Are Forever (Independent)
Caylie Runciman has announced a new album under her Boyhood moniker — I'll Dream InStead arrives October 23 via Hand Drawn Dracula, and you can pre-order it here.
According to press materials, much of the new record was recorded throughout the winter, and was written, performed, recorded and engineered by Runciman herself. It is previewed today by the new single "Loner."
"Loner" is about being, quite literally, a loner, "but a content one," Runciman emphasized in a release. "Feeling lonely but recognizing your contentedness in it — it's also quite tongue and cheek; I like to take the piss out of myself."
Runciman has a handful of live dates lined up this summer, which will begin this Saturday (July 25) at Toronto's Dina's Tavern. She'll play shows in Ottawa, Montreal, Fredericton and Sackville's Sappyfest throughout the rest of the month before heading down to the US.
Tickets are on sale now, and you can find her tour itinerary below.
Boyhood 2026 Tour Dates:
07/25 Toronto ON - Dina's Tavern
07/27 Ottawa ON - Irene's *
07/28 Montreal QC - Sala Rossa *
07/30 Fredericton NB - Bellwether *
07/31 Sackville NB- Sappyfest
08/20 Burlington, VT - The Publishing House
08/22 Brooklyn, NY - Lava Club
08/24 Providence, RI - Lost Bag
08/25 Brattleboro, VT - The Buoyant Heart
* with Eliza Niemi
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In Mary Oliver's essay collection Upstream, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet writes that the best literature "bends not toward the narrow and the absolute but to the extravagant and the possible." In the essay "Emerson: An Introduction," Oliver says that Ralph Waldo Emerson, her literary hero, doesn't provide straight answers to life's most quarrelsome questions. As any good writer, Emerson opens doors, telling us "that we should look for that is the liquor of life, that brooding upon issues, that attention to thought even as we weed the garden or milk the cow." For Oliver, Emerson constructs a way of seeing, equipping the reader with the tools that will come in handy on our journey of looking for ourselves.
It's a sweet, warm and loving essay expressing Oliver's poetic and philosophical indebtedness to Emerson, a thinker who taught her the importance of being in the world right now. Having beautiful thoughts and a wild mind is all well and good, but ultimately meaningless if one does not also put the mind's action in conversation with the world's. From Emerson, Oliver learned to un-closet "thought into the world's brilliant, perilous present." In looking at the world, when one's thoughts tumble and finds answers, Oliver learned, one is able to live a life. Her greatest gift was taking this lesson and packaging it into her own poems, teaching us how to look, and so to live.
Sasha Waters's documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World isn't so much a biography of Mary Oliver as it is an essay like "Emerson: An Introduction." In fact, most of the material facts of Oliver's early life are brief and covered within the first few moments of the film. It's not that Oliver's biography is unimportant, but rather that Oliver herself didn't wish to dwell too much upon her past in her life — and this is what makes this documentary such a triumph: it's keen understanding of Oliver. With Saved by the Beauty of the World, Waters paints an intensely alive and loving portrait of Oliver, as loving as something Oliver herself would have written in honour of one of her favourite writers.
The documentary at once honours and explicates Mary Oliver's philosophy. Featuring interviews with scholars, friends (such as John Waters) and famous fans (Maria Shriver, Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Steve Buscemi and Oprah Winfrey), Waters tells the tale of the makings and workings of one of America's most beloved poets.
Oliver lived through a tough and lonely childhood, finding company in nature and 19th century poets. She spent much of her adult life in Provincetown, MA, where she lived with her partner, Molly Malone Cook, until Cook's death. Intensely private about her personal life, she wrote extensively about her wanderings through the forests and beaches of Cape Cod, going on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984 for American Primitive, her fifth poetry collection.
Waters's film respects Oliver's privacy, telling the poet's story not through a hungry lens, but an appropriately poetic one. Even as Waters covers major events in Oliver's biography, the documentarian holds her focus on Oliver's seeing. Talking heads recite various of Oliver's poems, explaining what Oliver's words taught them, why they love them and how her works bettered them by allowing them to see the world. People like Colbert and Dacus speak of Oliver as Oliver speaks about Emerson, and, in turn, Waters's film handles Oliver as Oliver would have handled a poet she herself loved: with love and grace.
This is not to say that Oliver is deified. The film deftly considers issues various critics have voiced in the past about Oliver, such as whether Oliver was a feminist and why she didn't speak out about significant topics like the AIDS epidemic of the '80s. All valid criticisms to make about a public figure, and no easy answer is proffered by any interviewee in the film. Instead they express how Oliver often turned to the natural world to find and then offer the meaning and heft of life.
Carefully, with gestures as sparing and unadorned as Oliver's own, Waters suggests in the unspoken spaces that Oliver was doing something renegade in her persistent observation of the natural world. Oliver was learning to cherish every breath and every little life, packaging this lesson carefully within her poems and delivering them to the masses. In turn, the masses were able to learn to live, armed with the spiritual sustenance that allowed them to take profound, rebellious and civic action in the real world. Waters takes care to show how beloved Oliver was by people, how popular she was (and still is), criticizing in negative relief the scholars and academic poets who look down upon those creatives who gain mainstream success.
In a way, Oliver's body of work offers us the first principles of being: her poems about the clam, a cricket, her notes on the turtle, all living a life, working to live a life. At once, Oliver's poetry reminds us to consider these various little lives, and also, by placing herself as observer on equal footing with the various other animals' lives around her, that our various lives form a part of this great ecosystem of breaths. We are first and foremost alive, Oliver reminds us, and shows us how we might move forward from this first principle and maybe become decent people. Not morally good, but loving and kind. If we look, we will see the world, and if we see it, we will love it.
Waters understands Oliver's philosophy. Through her careful and loving documentary, she reiterates Oliver's message. Spaced throughout the film are images of animals — birds, dogs, fish — living; the film looks upon them with curiosity, like Oliver might have done. In the way that Oliver was prompted to look at the world with curiosity by Emerson, Waters's film prompts in us the same desire: to read a Mary Oliver poem, to go for a walk in the park.
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World isn't a groundbreaking achievement in documentary filmmaking, but rather, is as tender as a brushstroke, as the ephemeral stain of light, as a Mary Oliver poem itself. And as such, it's a beautiful success.
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Things weren't looking too good for Guitar Center a few years ago, as the instrument store (and popular meme muse for musicians) filed for bankruptcy back in 2020. But now things seem to have taken a turn, as Guitar Center is boasting an impressive period of growth.
A report from Modern Retail notes that the company's quarterly sales are up 5.2 percent, marking the ninth quarter of positive growth. And it's not all e-commerce, since store traffic is up for the first time in over a decade, with customer time in stores up 16 percent.
CEO Gabe Dalporto told Modern Retail that Guitar Center has focused on serving "serious musicians" who view music as "a big part of their identity." He said, "It could be a kid who's just picked up an instrument and is playing a couple of hours a day. It could be a major touring artist who's going across the country. It could be someone who has just enjoyed playing music their whole life."
Dalporto credits the company's success, in part, to two AI tools: an online chatbot called Rig Advisor, and an employee training tool called Pitch Practice that simulates conversations with customers. Guitar Center is also developing a private label guitar.
"We want to be the place where you feel comfortable hanging out, playing [guitar], forming bands," Dalporto said. "We've invested hugely in making Guitar Center a theme park for musicians."
This is all good news, but Guitar Center isn't in the clear quite yet, since the company is still working on paying off debt.
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After having already unveiled G-Unit co-founder Lloyd Banks as the Saturday headliner, Montreal's Harlem of the North — a free (!) block party bringing hip-hop culture to Parc Angrignon the weekend of August 8 and 9 — have now announced that Sunday's headliner will be Brooklyn, NY-born rapper Lola Brooke.
Brooke joins Banks and a litany of performers from two of the country's biggest hip-hop communities (the host city and Toronto) and beyond, including Maky Lavender, Choclair, Raz Fresco, Ryse & Drey, XLOWW, Slimmatic, Wahlee, Monk.E, Bosslynn, Ruby and Lyna Blu, Solo YS, Seko, DJ TVJAY and more.
Hosted by Dice B, the event will also feature numerous DJ sets throughout. Organizers expect to welcome upward of 10,000 attendees, anticipating at least 1,000 festivalgoers to be travelling to Montreal from across Canada, the US and overseas.
"With Lloyd Banks and Lola Brooke, we wanted to present two artists who represent both the legacy and the future of New York hip-hop," Harlem of the North founder Kevin Calixte said in a press release. "At the same time, it remains essential for us to spotlight Montreal artists, build bridges with Toronto and continue strengthening Canada's hip-hop community."
Visit the Harlem of the North website for further information.
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Toronto record label We Are Busy Bodies is releasing a box set of singles featuring an artist from each Canadian province and territory.
The Map of Canada Puzzle Series will be available on October 23, and features square flexidiscs that, when overlaid, form a map of the true north strong and free.
Contributors to the project include Joel Plaskett, PIQSIQ, fanclubwallet, Prism Shores, Laughing, Motherhood, Swimming, the Bros. Landreth featuring Begonia, Chixdiggit, Rebecca Law Gray and Brandon Wolfe Scott (Yukon Blonde), Terry Uyarak, Cryptozoologists and the Garrys.
The series will only release 350 total copies, with 200 box sets available for pre-order here. A hundred of every single artist's EPs will also be available directly. See the full list of songs for the project below.
Northwest Territories: PIQSIQ - "Unnukkut" (Live)
Nunavut: Terry Uyarak - "Hunting Song"
Yukon: Cryptozoologists - "If Artistotle"
British Columbia: Rebecca Law Gray & Brandon Wolfe Scott - "See You Later, I'm Gone"
Alberta: Chixdiggit - "Westjet & Coachella"
Saskatchewan: The Garrys - "Give Him A Great Big Kiss"
Manitoba: The Bros. Landreth feat. Begonia - "Knuckles" (Live)
Ontario: fanclubwallet - "Lullaby"
Quebec: Laughing - "Walk Into Room"
New Brunswick: Motherhood - "Kyle Hangs Ten"
Prince Edward Island: Prism Shores - "Seconds Flat"
Nova Scotia: Joel Plaskett - "Deny, Deny, Deny" (Live)
Newfoundland and Labrador: Swimming - "Retail"