Something's really going around! BC troubadour Dan Mangan recently had to postpone his Bowen Island show, and now he's done the same for his appearance on Salt Spring Island.
He posted on Instagram, explaining in a scratchy voice that he was "still so sick." On the bright side, he used his downtime to beat Zelda: A Link to the Past on Super Nintendo. Nice one, Dan!
His Bowen Island show, which was supposed to be today, has been pushed back to October 16. His Salt Spring Island show for tomorrow (September 27) has been delayed to November 4.
Mangan is set to return to the stage on October 1 in Prince Albert, SK. Speedy recovery, Dan! Not to make this about myself, but I just got over what seems like a very similar illness, and it was a doozy.
Dan Mangan 2026–2027 Tour Dates:
09/25 Bowen Island - BC - Bowen Theatre09/27 Salt Spring Island, BC - ArtSpring Theatre
10/01 Prince Albert, SK - E.A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts
10/02 Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
10/03 Swift Current, SK - Living Sky Casino
10/04 Regina, SK - Darke Hall
10/05 Winnipeg, MB - West End Cultural Centre
10/16 Bowen Island, BC - Bowen Theatre
11/04 Salt Spring Island, BC - ArtSpring Theatre
11/13 Montreal, QC - Church of the Gesu
11/14 Quebec City, QC - L'Anti
11/16 Kingston, ON - The Spire
11/17 London, ON - Aeolian Hall
11/18 Meaford, ON - Meaford Hall Arts & Cultural Centre
03/20 Quadra Island, BC - Quadra Community Centre
Under a bright harvest moon on September 25, London-based grunge-infused punk rock power trio Thunder Queens took to the main stage at Punk Rock Flea Market London to celebrate the release of their sophomore album Deep Below.
Their hometown release show could not have taken place at a better event, their formation brought about thanks to PRFM London seven years ago, marking a full-circle moment for the band. Dundas Street was packed with people of all ages, their community showing up in full force to support them.
The trio started their set a little differently with the live debut of "Falling Rain," the acoustic closing track on Deep Below. The vocal harmonies between Lola Good, Violet Bruneel and Clara Magnan were off the charts; everyone's voice was strong and playing perfectly off of each other.
After the band talked about what PRFM London meant to them, Good called for everyone to move up, the audience taking one big collective step forward as the band launched into the rock blast of "Wait." Even though the album came out the day before, people were already singing along, having already learned the lyrics by heart. This would continue on throughout the set, reaching a fever pitch with "Birds on a Wire" and "Bluebells."
The dynamism of the band was on full display on a trio of songs from their new album, "Walk With Me," "Deep Below" and "Misplaced Heart," which are made to be played in sequence. The songs embodied the band's musical growth, showcasing their mastery of deeper tones, frenetic energy, carefully controlled chaos and seamless harmonies. The crowd was clapping along, adding extra depth to the trio's full sound. They moved through the songs flawlessly, never missing a note and inspiring the mosh pit to kick into high gear.
"If you're moshing, leave my accounting teacher alone!" Lola said with a laugh before the band started up "Teenage Years," another riot of singing and clapping, moshing and dancing. This raucous energy carried through into the only song in the set not from their new album, the pure punk ripper "Stereo Cat"; this was the first song they wrote together, a favourite of their tourmates Cancer Bats.
There were several parents with young kids around me, including a father and daughter I'd seen before at a Thunder Queens show. The kids, mostly girls, were protected from the pit, but that didn't stop them from rocking out, banging their heads, dancing like there was no tomorrow, and singing at the top of their lungs. At one point, I heard a kid behind me explain to her mom how cool she found Good's drumstick technique.
There is nothing more heartwarming than seeing kids have some of their first experiences with live music, being moved by the sheer sonic power and collective experience, and finding their voice within it. It's powerful to see generations unite in the worship of punk, and showcases the vital need for more all-ages spaces, because when we share music together, we're all better for it.
Thunder Queens closed the night in a flurry of singing and dancing, the pit in full effect and everyone as close to the stage as possible, proving that no one rocks harder than them. This was more than a show; it was a statement of intent, cementing Thunder Queens' rightful place as one of the most vital live bands and the future of rock. I want to be like the Thunder Queens when I grow up.
]]>
Gracing the Creative School Chrysalis on Toronto Metropolitan University's campus last night (September 25) was the most prolific name in Iranian contemporary folk music, Rastak. They played for approximately two hours with no opening acts, and carried the crowd along a journey through different Iranian cultures and periods in history through song.
Rastak has made it a mission to travel Iran and immerse themselves in different Indigenous and nomadic cultures to learn their traditional music, reimagining and reinterpreting it and performing these songs all over the world. It's a noble mission, one full of very clear reverence the original cultures that these songs were collected from — clear in the way the band would introduce each song during the performance, explaining its background, who they learned it from and who helped with the interpretation, as well as the different folktales and true stories the songs were about.
The truth is, we live in a world that is largely ignorant of the cultural and ethnic diversity within Iran. To many westerners, everyone in Iran is just either "Iranian" or "Persian," so it's even more important to spotlight the traditions and music of Iranian Kurdish, Azeri, Baloch and other peoples to audiences that may have no personal experience or knowledge of them. Rastak took us from the Gilan region of Iran to Khorasan, Lorestan, Southern Iran, Balochistan and Kurdistan, also making a brief stop in Afghanistan.
The performance felt massive. Down to a six-piece due to one member's visa difficulties preventing them from entering the country — a very common issue plaguing Iranian performers touring internationally — but it didn't sound as though anything was missing.
While six members isn't small by any means, it sounded like an entire orchestra. They were larger than life with layered vocals and instrumentals, a rhythm and groove back-lined by traditional Iranian percussions such as dafs and tombaks and some contemporary hi-hats, snares and regional drums. On the stage were a traditional Persian tar; a kamancheh, which is a traditional bow and string instrument; an electric oud, which acted almost like the bass; and the standout was the incredible and dynamic qanun-playing, with hypnotic melodies compelling you to get out of your seat and dance.
The communal aspect of folk music as a genre was on display the entire night. This image has been diluted slightly, as the term "folk music" has almost shifted to describe singer-songwriters who may play a harmonica and guitar at the same time, with static audiences who might sing along to a cover of a classic.
The entire crowd at the Chrysalis was energized, people were clapping along without instruction from the band to join in, and it was maybe one of the most in-time and on-tempo crowds I've ever seen. Rastak's co-founder and percussionist/vocalist Behzad Pournaghi would teach the crowd portions of vocals to songs, earnestly and solemnly imploring them to sing along and read lyrics to the Gilani song "Gol-e Pamchal," off of an online playbill to further participate in the performance.
People were were doing dasmal-bazi — a traditional Iranian dance, popular among Southern Lors where a scarf or handkerchief is swung in rhythm with the music — while seated, and some got up and danced in the aisle between rows of seats, arms around each other. By the last few songs, these few people in the aisle become a group of around 30 who all danced in a circle in front of the stage. Two of the band members even joined in, doing a traditional Kurdish line dance.
There was a powerful sense of community that I carry with me still even after leaving the show — it felt powerful to sit in a crowd and sing along with people, feeling that deep cultural connection with strangers that had somehow become known to each other on some level through this shared experience; we'd gained an insight into each other's hearts, me and the person on the other side of the concert hall, even if we never spoke.
Rastak gave Iranian communities who may not have a large presence in the minds of people in the west their rightful spotlight. Hopefully more than a few people went home and decided they want to learn more about the different cultures of Iran and the surrounding regions you don't often hear about, read up on the traditions, and delve deeper into the music and dance of the Kurds, Lors, Baloch, Azeris and more.
]]>
Soy un perdidor
I'm a loser, baby
So why don't you kill me?
Weezer's thesis statement for the night came just before they took the stage, and it wasn't sung by them. Beck's 1994 breakthrough hit played right before the headliners arrived, and the message was clear: this was a night for and by losers.
Their tour is called Weezer: The Gathering, a nod to the nerdy card game Magic, with visuals drawing heavily on runic symbols à la fantasy tabletop games. The stage was even decorated like a suburban house with a white picket fence, evoking a Stranger Things-esque anonymous Americana in which a young dork's imagination can run wild.
Throughout Scotiabank Area, the fans proved themselves every bit as nerdy as the band, with at least a few dozen keeners donning gold capes, sparkly jackets and face paint in honour of this year's Gold Album.
Following an opening set from Silversun Pickups, the Shins followed with their own take on catchy nerd rock — more of a vibe of aughts hipsters yearning for manic pixie dream girls while digging through vinyl crates for Smiths first pressings. Not quite the same as your classic D&D nerd, but pretty uncool all the same.
The Shins haven't released an album in nine years, so it's not fully clear why they're on the road now, but the lack of new material allowed them to pack the set with heaters from their first couple of albums. A closing cover of R.E.M. didn't quite land, but I came away with a strong desire to revisit Oh, Inverted World! and Chutes Too Narrow.
As Weezer began, a video skit showed a young geek summoning them to his house using magical symbols drawn in a school notebook. This explained why they were outside of the suburban house, and also provided fodder for what was essentially a show-length skit: there were visuals from a ring cam, a drum kit got delivered to the house for Weezer's instrument-swapping on "Pork and Beans," and the telephones poles erupted with sparks before a "power outage" that led to a fireside acoustic set with "Longtime Sunshine" and "In the Garage." I'm not quite sure how the blasts of pyro during "Hash Pipe" and "Say It Ain't So" fit the theme, but who cares, because it rocked.
Weezer were in full crowd-pleasing mode, dropping in local references whenever possible: Rivers sang "Drake knows the way to reach the top of the charts" in "Pork and Beans," replaced "Beverly Hills" with "Toronto, Ontario," and began "El Scorcho" with "Goddamn you half-Toronto girls" (later swapping Green Day for Rush in that song's second verse). Silversun Pickups singer-bassist Nikki Monninger dropped a slightly deeper local cut when she joined Weezer to sing Gold Album cut "We Might as Well Be Strangers" and the TikTok hits "Go Away" and "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams," as she departed by saying, "I'm gonna go see Sex Bob-Omb tonight."
This show fell one day after the 30th anniversary of Weezer's 1996 classic Pinkerton, an album that's seemingly gone through a few different cycles of reappraisal: initially dismissed for its raw production and creepy lyrics, it was later celebrated for its raw honesty, then people seemed to reconsider it as problematic, and now it feels like we've swung back around again to embrace its uncomfortable beauty.
As well as playing the deep cut "No Other One," Weezer unabashedly performed their horny ode to an 18-year-old fan "Across the Sea" along with the lesbian love song "Pink Triangle," with frontman Rivers Cuomo telling the crowd, "In 1996, critics advised against this song. Thank you for disregarding their professional guidance."
Weezer were always a meme, even before memes existed — starting with their goofy 1994 video for "Buddy Holly," which inserted them into an episode of Happy Days. Naturally, that tradition carried on, with the band turning the camera on a young fan to air guitar that song's iconic lick before the final chorus. After this, huge blasts of confetti covered the crowd, and the screens read, "you just got weezered!!"
After that, they dragged out some inflatable pool toys for a blissful "Island in the Sun," with Cuomo ending the show by cannonballing off the back on the stage and into the house's CGI swimming pool. After that, the lights came up and Weezer didn't return for an encore — arguably the only genuinely cool thing they did all night. Encores are for fuckin' losers.
]]>
Soon after the OBGMs took to the main stage at Punk Rock Flea Fest in London, lead vocalist and guitarist Denz McFarlane informed the crowd that they were a Nickelback cover band and absolutely no Nickelback hate would be tolerated before listing their hits to the great delight of everyone on stage and in the crowd.
The Toronto-based quartet — this night's lineup made up of McFarlane, drummer Cola Humphrey, bassist Joe Brosnan and guitarist Camila Milla, who was filling in for Simon Outhit and did an absolutely amazing job — did not start up "Photograph," however, instead launching into the frenetic punk of "Outsah" from their 2020 album The Ends.
McFarlane jumped into the crowd, getting the pit going before getting back on stage to lead the crowd in a sing-along of. "You can meet me outsah," the first rendition earning a "That was cute," which encouraged the crowd to turn up the volume. McFarlane's mic was a bit fritzy, but he didn't let that stop him, giving even more energy, turning 100 percent into 500 percent. A new mic soon appeared, adding more clarity to his vocals.
McFarlane picked up his guitar and introduced "GET UP" from their 2024 album SORRY, IT'S OVER as, "This is a song about crippling depression," which was met with cheers. The next song, "BUFFALO" was introduced as, "This is a song about my ex." "Pick a side, don't be Ed Sheeran," McFarlane said to the crowd after noting how the song intros draw differing responses, with some people not knowing how to respond. One thing everyone agreed on was clapping along to Humphrey's superb drum beats, making the space in front of the stage feel like one collective heartbeat.
The pit was in full effect, everyone letting the pure kinetic energy of the music move them and singing along. "Look after each other in the pit. No kung fu. Pick people up if they need it. Give people space if they need it. Just don't be a fucking asshole," McFarlane said, setting the ground rules for the pit. This was more than obliged, everyone making space for each other, picking up items that had fallen out of pockets or off heads, and making sure to lift up those who fell. It was one of the strongest feelings of community I've ever felt in a mosh pit.
After raising some good points about why Batman actually sucks, including the fact that he's a billionaire who terrorizes low-income areas in Gotham — not to mention his massive carbon footprint, added Brosnan — McFarlane said, "Punk is political!" This statement is needed more so than ever as more and more so-called punk bands turn a blind eye to what's going on in the world or, even worse, embrace harmful politics in a gross perversion of everything the genre stands for. It's heartening to hear artists take a stand instead of embracing neutrality for the sake of profit.
"Look to your left, look to your right — there's more of us than them. Do with that information what you will," the frontman added. Everyone felt united in that moment, a feeling of solidarity pervading the space.
The band played several new songs, McFarlane telling us that they are in the process of working on three new albums and want to test the songs live to see what's actually good. Spoiler alert: they're all good, each new track pushing the band's sound to new heights, especially one called "My Baby," which showcased the power and range of McFarlane's vocals, especially his screams that shifted octaves all in one breath.
"Brightside" was also a highlight and featured the memorable opening question, "Who here has an ex you hate?" Before the band started up the song, McFarlane asked someone in the audience to say the name of an ex who had wronged them. The name given was "Ash," the first Ash that they'd gotten in the time that they've been doing this particular tradition on stage. "If you're here Ash, thanks for coming and supporting us, but you did wrong. Fuck you," he said, leading the crowd in several cathartic rounds of "fuck ash."
The song absolutely exploded, everyone jumping around the stage and on the pavement, envisioning jumping on the wrongdoer. This was one of the most cathartic moments of the set, everyone releasing anger all together and finding an immeasurable amount of joy in doing so.
Throughout the set, the band proved themselves as crowd participation virtuosos, with thunderous sing-alongs and McFarlane getting into the crowd more times than I can count, getting low with us before all jumping up and leading us side to side with chants of "Thunder Queens! Thunder Queens!"
At the end of the set, he divided the crowd, telling everyone to pick a side as he ran down the centre leading calls of "hell yeah," "fuck yeah" and "OBGMs," prepping everyone for the inevitable wall of death — which contrary to the name, was done in a safe way, everyone looking out for each other even as we were running full tilt at the other side.
This was easily one of the sweatiest shows of the night; my glasses fogged up and I had to roll up my pants, creating makeshift shorts. You can count on the OBGMs for four things: incredible tunes, electrifying energy, spectacular stage banter, and joyful, sweaty catharsis. I purged many a demon that night in London.
]]>
On a sunny Friday (September 25), the sound of chimes welcomed the Montreal-based Ribbon Skirt to the main stage at Punk Rock Flea Fest in Downtown London.
The band, their live lineup made up of singer-guitarist Tashiina Buswa, lead guitarist Billy Riley, bassist Chrissy Lawson and drummer Brennan Doyle, came out swinging with "Deadhorse" from their 2025 debut album Bite Down, filling the air of the outdoor venue with their signature propulsive blend of indie rock, post-punk and psych.
The music ran through everyone on stage and in the audience like an electric current, the all-encompassing songs demanding full body reactions, none more so than Riley, who put every ounce of energy into the immersive guitar parts. Following the first song, Buswa set down her guitar and moved around the stage, leaning into the crowd to sing several times, her voice joined by more people each time she did, reinforcing a sense of connection between the band and audience.
"Off Rez" and "Cut" went off like bombs of energy before Buswa asked the crowd to "let them know what's good" in London, having never been there before. This elicited multiple enthusiastic suggestions from the crowd, including local venue Honey Dip, the site of the following day's afterparty. Buswa interacted with a few of the suggestions, striking a conversational tone before the band launched into the glorious heaviness of "LUCKY8" off their 2025 EP PENSACOLA, the crowd reacting with an explosion of movement.
One of the most impactful moments of the set came when Ribbon Skirt played a new song called "Ice Age". "It's about something that happens in this country when police drive Indigenous men into the middle of nowhere and leave them for dead. It's called starlight tours. I haven't heard a lot of people in the media talk about this, and it always weighed heavily on me," Buswa said to introduce the song.
Starting with a sample of a man talking, the song evolved into something ominous, deep guitar and bass tones filling the space with a sense of unease as Buswa's powerful vocals captured the strong emotion held within the track. This song was visual and visceral, the lyrics and instrumentation combining to bring the subject matter to life, opening people's eyes and commanding attention.
The power of Buswa's vocals also shone through on "Earth Eater," the last note of which she held for an extraordinarily long time without losing any strength. It felt like time stopped and all that existed was her voice, ringing out clear and full.
"You guys can go crazy for this last one!" Buswa said to the crowd, who obliged as the band closed out their set with "Look What You Did". Even though it was their last song of the night, Ribbon Skirt was more energized than ever, moving around the stage with increased vigour. Riley laid on a monitor and went over to give Lawson a quick embrace, not missing a note at any point during the process.
Buswa climbed off stage and headed into the crowd, becoming the centre of a mosh pit vortex which morphed into a group hug to close the song as Riley saluted the crowd with a still-ringing guitar, a fitting end to a set defined by connection.
]]>
Toronto's newest music festival, Second Summer, descended upon a dozen bars and clubs around the city's West End on Thursday (September 24) to begin its three-day-long showcase of independent music's best offerings of right now.
If you were at the Bovine Sex Club, maybe you were watching Lord of the Rings, The Batman (Robert Pattinson's Version), or WWE playing simultaneously on the string of TV screens above the bar rail. However, at quarter after midnight, you would've wanted to turn your eyes to the stage, where Halifax's idialedyournumber were ready to show off what the Canadian DIY scene is really all about.
The bitpop emo project is the brainchild of frontwoman Jessie Everill, who originated it as a self-produced solo endeavour in her bedroom. Everill released three LPs over the past three years — the latest being this year's Teenage Widow — making waves from the Atlantic piers of the East Coast to emo scenes across the rest of Canada and the US.
Now appearing as a five-piece band for live performances, with Everill joined by Maury Chesterfield on synths, Jack Phillips-Bourguignon on guitar, Sebastian Wu on bass and Dante Kierstead on drums, idialedyournumber ripped into their set with "The Home We Built Is Gone," an angry yet hope-filled track off of Everill's 2023 debut, Hourglass. Strumming an awesome eBay-themed guitar, she immediately began to release her impassioned, biting screams into the microphone.
Layering bright guitar riffs with glitchy synths, idialedyournumber's chiptune sound is for and by a generation raised on computers, yet the Bovine was packed with a crowd of all (legal) ages. Some festivalgoers jumped around enthusiastically in front of the stage, likely stoked to seize the opportunity to see the East Coasters pass through Ontario, while others stood back and subtly nodded their heads along to the sweet, melodic tunes.
The band pulled tracks from all three of idialedyournumber's albums, including "Ghost Hands" from Teenage Widow, as well as "Holiday Dog" and "Linen Shroud" off 2025's Mourning Glow. Everill whipped her head back and forth as she shredded chords on her guitar, and the band shone with every member visibly having fun on stage.
Before their final song, the band was given a five-minute heads-up, ushering in a prompt setlist change where the 10-minute Teenage Widow title track was dropped in favour of an unreleased (and time-sensitive) track, "Happy Anniversary." Introducing the song, Everill said, "This one, like all my songs, is for the yearners."
While idialedyournumber's lyrical content often explores coming-of-age angst, growing pains and bittersweet relationships, Everill dulls the ache with her cathartic and explosive instrumentals. Between songs and sniffles, she apologized for her current illness and any effect it had on her vocal performance — but the band prevailed in delivering a sick set.
]]>
On Thursday night (September 24), Sloppy Jane mounted the stage at the Baby G to perform a headline set at the inaugural edition of Toronto's Second Summer Festival. At 9:50 p.m., the Brooklyn-based five-piece settled in at their keyboards, flutes, cellos, violins and drums, while vocalist and composer Haley Dahl confidently took her place centre stage.
With her back to the audience, she raised her arms above her head and, in sharp movements, began to conduct the band in an entrancing performance of the overture from their 2021 chamber-pop concept album, Madison.
In her signature sparkly blue fishnets and long, blue, Victorian-style costume jacket, Dahl was the compelling maestro of the Sloppy Jane symphony. She and her band immediately drew festivalgoers into the haunting world of Madison through eerily plucked strings which crescendoed into "Party Anthem" and "Jesus and Your Living Room Floor."
Then shifting out of conductor mode and into vocalist mode, Dahl turned to face the crowd for the first time, looking comfortable and cool as she wore a sly grin and wrap-around blue shades.
Sloppy Jane are a band that have experimented with many sounds over the years, spearheaded by Dahl's impressive compositional instincts. Their debut album, 2018's Willow, offers raw and fuzzy punk tracks, while Madison takes a theatrical turn with its darker lyrical themes and classical orchestration. Dahl and her band masterfully oscillated between these two poles throughout the set, the musicians trading their flutes for keys and synths, cellos for guitar, and violins for bass.
In a transition out of the macabre world of Madison, the middle of Sloppy Jane's set was filled with an energy-building mix of old and new tracks, including some hits off Willow and three unreleased tracks. During "Where's My Wife," Dahl descended the stage to crawl amongst the festivalgoers' legs. She stood up only to climb atop a table along one of the venue's walls, where she continued to repeat the song's titular phrase. She held her microphone out to the audience and had everyone wondering aloud, Where's my wife? At this point, the crowd was loosening up — a result of a different kind of conducting by Dahl.
During the final track of the night, "The Constable," Dahl paused midway through its nine-minute runtime to speak to the crowd. She confessed her favourite holiday is New Year's Eve, and informed everyone that we would partake in a New Year's countdown at the end of the song, in case anyone felt like they could use a reset.
As the symbolic clock was about to strike midnight, Dahl asked with fervour, "Are you ready to leave the past behind? Are you ready to welcome in the new?" We counted down from 10, cheers'd to a Happy New Year, and Dahl jumped down from the stage to reach out to the crowd for a celebratory embrace.
It may only be September, but the everyone readily welcomed a New Year's reset. After all, what do we need now more than ever than a future we can really look forward to?
As Dahl's band proceeded to exit, she took a seat at the edge of the stage, eye-to-eye with the audience. Finishing out the song by herself, it was a quiet end to the set. Everyone revelled in the peaceful optimism of a New Year's Day.
]]>
Tinashe's Popstar reads like an employee training video for wannabe idols. There's a liminal quality to the work: like she's slowly rolling the TV to the front of the seminar, a technology that looks both 20 years old and somehow chic again, worth paying attention to. Then she hits play.
The album has finally arrived, but its title now feels more like a certification than it does a musical concept. Its R&B and experimentalism are refined and polished. The artist sounds both ready and rested, offering a sound of institutional smoothness that slips between throwback and forward-thinking production without too much explanation. Yet its energy is rebelliously restrained throughout, as if it won't be told what to do, and in fact, is here to teach and won't be taking questions until the end.
Album singles "Too Easy" and "Melatonin" stand out as thesis tracks, both steeped in the record's retro-futurist vibe and slickness. "Melatonin" is especially interesting, wandering off into noisier and experimental territory, with a slow-brewing refusal to steady its pace when you'd really want it to. Like Popstar itself, the track is stubborn. It moves exactly as Tinashe wants it to, even when a tiny bit more focus could be a good thing.
The album's hyperpop influences and eccentricities are reminiscent of Camila Cabello's C,XOXO, a record that has itself picked up some recent cultural momentum through reappraisal. From Tinashe, however, those influences come across as much more authentic, as though coming from an artist present for the the arrival of modern pop — and is now a sage at the front of the class who has every right to pull from the lexicon she helped shape.
The final two tracks are noteworthy for both what makes Popstar special and what holds it back. "Cloud 9" is one of its most exciting moments, rushing the energy straight to the front of the brain and repeatedly bashing away until you see stars. It's fun and substantial without becoming self-serious or too self-aware, an album highlight that sounds like a genuine risk and a much-needed break in pacing. There's a little bit of SOPHIE's "Immaterial" in there too, as if filtered through Mariah Carey at her peak: a heavenly and destructive musical hybrid.
Then comes "Heavy Weight," another standout, but for opposite reasons. Its production falls away into simple singer-songwriter guitar strums, sitting everyone around the Tinashe bonfire on the final day of summer camp. It's an effective comedown, and one of the few moments where the person underneath Popstar's chrome surface comes into view.
Still, it's just too bad that the lyrics themselves, here and throughout the project, aren't always as consequential as the production surrounding them. They can occasionally sound lean, silly or even saccharine. "Keep on repeating the cycle / Maybe that makes me a psycho," she sings on "Heavy Weight," and it simply doesn't land with the emotional weight she believes it carries.
Effortlessness is one of Tinashe's greatest strengths, but it can also become a problem for Popstar. There are stretches where she sounds almost too comfortable, like an artist whose musical instincts have been practised so thoroughly that they now operate automatically. After a while, it can also resemble cruise control; like a job you're almost too good at.
All of this makes sense coming from an artist like Tinashe, who has spent so long lingering at the brink of pop superstardom while being used as an under-appreciated case study for its next generation. Recent discourse around her influence on K-pop has made that dynamic literal: Pentagon's Kino has recalled watching Tinashe's videos while training, calling her influence on his generation obvious. Sure, she's the blueprint. But does she want to be?
I guess there's gotta be something purgatorial about becoming a prof at Popstar University. The gig is stable, and your influence is unquestionable. But it must be tough watching as another group of trainees files through the door, only for another class to arrive behind them. And then the cycle repeats. On Popstar, Tinashe remains at the front of the class, teaching material she has known long enough to deliver with her eyes closed.
]]>
SQUARE Festival returns to Northern Portugal for its second edition this winter.
Running from January 27–30, the fest will take place across Braga, Famalicão, Guimarães and Viana do Castelo. Like its sister festival, São Miguel's Tremor, it aims to connect artists in regions that border the Atlantic — namely Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Ahead of the festival's full lineup, SQUARE has shared the first wave playing in 2027, including Anna Vis, Carme López, CHISARA, Gisela Mabel, Helviofox, I'A'V, IBSXJAUR, Miguel Pedro and Serge Fritz, TRAVO, LETUS, Land Whales, iD-sus, Nico Espinoza, SGO, and Crizin Da Z.O.
SQUARE 2027 brings together a stack list of international partners, including Iceland Airwaves, New Colossus, Ment, Rewire and more.
Early-bird passes for the fest are on sale now. General passes start at €35, with Pro Passes listed at €50; both prices rise after 50 tickets are sold. More information can be found on SQUARE's website.
]]>
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 Tegan and Sara, Rochelle Jordan, Les Shirley, Daphni, Thunder Queens, Kardinal Offishall, Alanis Morissette, Zeus and more. You can also catch up on the latest album releases here.
Listen below on Spotify or Apple Music.
]]>
Happy Primetime release day to all who celebrate! Lance Oppenheim's narrative film debut about To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen hits theatres today, and Phoebe Bridgers — who also makes her acting debut in the film — has treated us to a new song from its soundtrack.
"On Video" is grungy and atmospheric, and perfectly sets the tone for the movie. Bridgers also delivers a chilling vocal performance, and the track's bridge builds with a terrifying, undeniable power as she wails, "I saw you making angels in the snow / Watching you like a common criminal / On video."
As reported by Pitchfork, Bridgers wrote the song specifically for Primetime, and drew influence from composer Ari Balouzian's original score. "On Video" plays during the end credits.
I'm seeing Primetime this weekend and am also going to Bridgers's Toronto show as she tours in support of this year's excellent Lost Weekend, so consider me well-fed!
You either retire a hero, or you release music long enough to see yourself become the villain.
The sad truth about pop music is that nearly every superstar falls off at some point, and while some might produce a late-career classic — David Bowie's Blackstar is an obvious example, and Madonna's new album is really fun, too — it's inevitably going to be a rocky road to get there. All you can really hope for is that the old classics are preserved in amber and the artist doesn't embarrass themselves too badly in the meantime (being a Drake fan used to be a normal and respectable thing).
With each new Taylor Swift album since Midnights, I've begun to wonder why I liked her in the first place. And listening to the four new tracks that she just released as part of The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, I'm struck by that again.
All the songs have instrumental moments I enjoy: "Patient Zero" has pleasantly stately violins, the quarter-note snares and goofy xylophones of "Cleveland!" remind me of aughts twee (that could be a Los Campesinos! song), the synths of "Pink Clouding" could be chillwave if you scuzzed them up a bit, and "Babylon" recalls the pastoral pitter-patter of folklore.
And yet the hitmakers who brought us 1989 (Swift, Max Martin and Shellback) still can't find a proper hook, with Swift often drifting into a sing-speak that resembles the rapping from an after-school special. Swift's lyrics used to be the main attraction, but here the lyrics are either vapidly juvenile (the way "Cleveland!" teases swear words) or seem like Swift wrote it with an online thesaurus in front of her (she yet again lists shades of red, this time on "Pink Clouding").
These songs aren't good, but they do sound quintessentially like Taylor Swift, which is leading to a slightly uncomfortable thought: maybe I was wrong. What did I ever like about Swift's music in the first place? Someday, when she's a little less overexposed than she is now, I'll revisit them — but for now, I'm too afraid to listen to Red or folklore and discover they're not as good as I remember.
Ed Sheeran's concerts at Boston's Gillette Stadium — owned by Robert Kraft, who issued an ultimatum to the singer after Macklemore's pro-Palestine posturing during Sheeran's tour — have been cancelled because of inclement weather.
The area is expected to face damaging winds and heavy rain, with severe coastal flooding possible over the weekend.
"Stadium and tour management, along with public safety officials, have been closely monitoring the weather forecast over the past week. Due to the severe weather forecast throughout the weekend, the tour has made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium," reads a statement from one of Kraft's representatives [via TMZ].
The statement continues, "The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority. Refunds are available now at the point of purchase. Ticketholders who purchased through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded."
Sheeran and Ticketmaster were previously offering refunds for tonight and tomorrow's (September 26) shows, due to the changes in the lineup after Sheeran's opening acts dropped off the bill in solidarity with Macklemore.
Sheeran eventually came to regret his initial "both sides" stance on the matter, telling concertgoers at his September 19 performance in Philadelphia, "I am deeply worried about the idea that venues pre-approve content for performers. This happens in so many places that I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world."
Meanwhile, Macklemore has announced the Free Palestine European tour, which has three dates scheduled next month in London, Dublin and Paris. Proceeds from the tour will benefit organizations supporting various Palestinian causes.
]]>
The anonymous woman who filed a lawsuit in 2024 accusing JAŸ-Z and Diddy of raping her at a party in 2000, when she was 13, has now recanted her allegations, claiming to have never even met the rapper.
As Rolling Stone reports, the Jane Doe has written a 12-page court declaration claiming that her original claims were false, as well as revealing that she had disclosed certain "mental health conditions" to her legal team at the time of filing the lawsuit.
"Shawn 'JAŸ-Z' Carter never raped me. I have never met or spoken to Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter never engaged in any inappropriate conduct toward me whatsoever," she wrote in the declaration, filed in Manhattan federal court and obtained by Rolling Stone.
Jane Doe continued, "There is no truth to any of my claims against Mr. Carter. I understand my false accusations have caused Mr. Carter immense pain, suffering, and damage that can never be fully undone."
Last March, the Roc Nation mogul filed a countersuit, claiming the accuser's allegations were "false and malicious," after she had already admitted to inconsistencies in her story and dropped her lawsuit in January 2025 — when, as she's now revealed, she "began to doubt her claims against Mr. Carter," as well as that she'd "ever [gone] to a party with celebrities." She claimed that she doesn't believe her legal team did due diligence before filing.
Jane Doe's declaration arrives alongside the notice that JAŸ-Z has dropped her from his extortion case against celebrity lawyer Tony Buzbee and his Texas law firm, although she said she's not been promised — nor received — financial compensation for filing it.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Buzbee said he hadn't read the declaration. "We have multiple lawyers (at least four) who dealt with Ms. Doe long before she met me," he told the publication. "She gave the exact same story to each. If for some reason now she is claiming she lied to us and the court, that's new information."
]]>
Celebrated Maritime singer-songwriter Matt Andersen has announced an impressive 31-date headlining Canadian tour taking place next February and March.
The trek will begin with five shows in Quebec at the beginning of February. He'll play several shows throughout Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia throughout the following weeks, with the tour officially wrapping up in Cranbrook, BC, on March 18.
Tickets are on sale now. Check out the schedule, and head over to Concert Central for more Canadian tour announcements.
Matt Andersen 2027 Tour Dates:
02/04 Châteauguay, QC - Le Pavilion de I'lle
02/05 Repentigny, QC - Théâtre Alphonse-Desjardins
02/06 Trois-Rivières, QC - Théâtre du Cegep
02/07 Terrebonne, QC - Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne
02/09 Québec, QC - L'Impérial
02/11 Brockville, ON - Brockville Arts Centre
02/12 Brant, ON - River's Edge
02/13 Parry Sound, ON - Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts
02/14 Belleville, ON - Empire Theatre
02/16 London, ON - Aeolian Hall
02/17 London, ON - Aeolian Hall
02/19 Huntsville, ON - Algonquin Theatre
02/20 Lindsay, ON - FLATO Academy Theatre
02/22 St. Catharines, ON - FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
02/23 Burlington, ON - Burlington Performing Arts Centre
02/24 Ancaster, ON - Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre -Peller Hall
02/25 Aurora, ON - Davide De Simone Performance Hall
02/26 Markham, ON - Flato Markham Theatre
02/27 North Bay, ON - Capitol Centre
02/28 Sudbury, ON - Knox Hall
03/02 Orillia, ON - Orillia Opera House
03/07 Red Deer, AB - Bo's Bar & Stage
03/08 Sherwood Park, AB - Festival Place
03/10 Lake Country, BC - Creekside Theatre
03/12 Courtenay, BC - Sid Williams Theatre
03/13 Campbell River, BC - The Tidemark Theatre
03/14 Sidney, BC - Mary Winspear Centre - Charlie White Theatre
03/15 Chilliwack, BC - Chilliwack Cultural Centre
03/16 Vernon, BC - Vernon Towne Theatre
03/17 Trail, BC - Charles Bailey Theatre
03/18 Cranbrook, BC - Key City Theatre
Director Michael Dowse had the seed for The Stunt Driver planted about 12 years ago, when a friend turned him on to the National Film Board's documentary The Devil at Your Heels. It was a simpler time, when the need for phrases like "Canada down" and "elbows up" wasn't apparent just yet.
By the time production on the film began in Quebec last year, however, Jay Baruchel's run-through-a-brick-wall monologue as titular stunt driver Ken Carter — which ends with him declaring Canada to be "God's country" — took on a whole new meaning.
"I was absolutely expecting that, 100 percent," Dowse says of the uproarious reaction from the crowd at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. "Even when we shot it, as soon as he said it, I was expecting that reaction down the road."
Speaking with Dowse, Baruchel and Ed Helms in Toronto the day after the world premiere, the three continue to ride off the high of the evening's hooting and hollering.
"Evel Knievel is such a perfect vessel for America," observes Helms, who plays Dick Keller in the film, the engineer of Carter's infamous rocket car.
Baruchel adds with a laugh, "Johnny America."
The Stunt Driver arrives in theatres at a time when the urge to embrace all things Canadian has reached a boiling point; even though Ken Carter isn't as well-known as Terry Fox, Rick Hansen or Gilles Villeneuve (all of whom also had films about their lives at the festival), he's still a perfect vessel for Canada, to borrow a phrase from Helms.
Ken Carter (real name Kenneth Gordon Polsjek) was born in 1938 to a working class family in Montreal, QC. He left school at 14 years old and joined Joie Chitwood's travelling circus, which took him around the world performing car stunts. Eventually, he earned the nickname "The Mad Canadian" in his solo career as a gravity-defying stunt driver across North America.
The film centres around Carter's most ambitious project: kitting out a Lincoln Continental with enough rocket power to jump across the St. Lawrence River, a distance of a mile (1.6 kilometres). Today, such a feat would simply be considered daft.
"I don't know that anybody in 2026 would be like, 'You know what? I bet you I could get a fucking Lincoln to jump a mile,'" says Baruchel.
What makes Carter's aspirations, however misguided, so timely today is his sense of self-identity and pride.
"Identity is as powerful a motivator as there is for any person," Baruchel notes. "Understanding and seeing a thing that makes them valuable."
The BlackBerry and Mile End Kicks actor continues, "There's the sense of besting a thing, which is an addictive sensation unto itself. Every landing that he walks away from is a victory, and victory is another powerful motivator."
Dowse and Baruchel both add that the impetus for Carter to constantly put himself in harm's way most likely has myriad causes: "I don't know that you could pinpoint it. We'd be doing Ken a disservice by saying he just liked attention or he was an adrenaline junkie. I think it's all that and then some," says Baruchel.
Helms points to the time of Carter's peak, recalling his own upbringing in the '70s and '80s when Hot Wheels was massive and Hal Needham was putting out great car films like Smokey and the Bandit and The Cannonball Run. "These car chases were just huge, and it was incredibly cool," he remembers. "It feels almost campy and silly now, but it was cool."
He also considers how intrinsically tied these acts of supposed strength and bravery were to the idea of being a man in Ken's lifetime.
"It's hard to remember 50 years on just how powerful jumping cars and big stunts — how that defined masculinity in that time," Helms thoughtfully offers. "Ken coming from the background that he did and needing to feel powerful and to feel masculine and tough in that way. There's just something about the scale and the violence of these stunts that just made him feel incredible."
Baruchel carefully adds, "At the risk of being overly analytical, I think it might be something to do with the generation that came after the war, and having all of their dads have their heads and souls nuked from fighting in Europe and Japan. It's some place to put all of that aggro masculine energy when there's not Nazi Germany to go fight."
In the end, Carter chose reason over ego and declined to take the jump from small-town Ontario into Upstate New York, doing what was best for himself and his family in spite of the fame and glory that could have been.
For all his devil-may-care attitude, Carter remained grounded in Canada, the Truth North strong and free. The land of the chosen. God's country.
]]>
Tucked into the woods and out of sight, you'll find Leslie Feist's house. When she initially sang about the lilacs and buttercups blooming around it on "Mushaboom," a track from her 2004 debut album Let It Die, it was all merely fantasy.
"I sang in present tense about something that had yet to occur. But then, three years later, I kind of realized I was standing in the song," she tells me now over Zoom from that very location, somewhere off-the-beaten-path in Toronto that no GPS of yesteryear could find. Against all odds, "Mushaboom" earned her the money to purchase the house.
By her next album, 2007's The Reminder, she says she was beginning to develop a songwriting vocabulary for herself to process life's emotional tangles. "I started to understand that if I sang finger-pointing, then I was reinforcing a feeling in me that was not going to serve me in the future," Feist remembers. "If I'm spending my days reinforcing a thought with a melody, in a strange way, that's almost incantation. That's almost manifesting."
But even she had no cognizance of some the prophecies she was writing into those songs almost two decades ago now: "1234," an adaptation of a song originally written by former Broken Social Scene tourmate Sally Seltmann (New Buffalo), would soundtrack an aughts iPod Nano commercial, then "My Moon My Man" and "Sealion" both appeared in last year's immensely popular TV series Heated Rivalry.
She's grateful that the songs that have brought her yet another wave of newfound attention are still ones she performs live, suggesting that "My Moon My Man" in particular remains relevant with an arrangement that doesn't date itself. "It's empty in a strange way," the singer-songwriter muses. "Having the drums and the piano being slightly disagreeing on whether it's swung or not, it's almost enough. It doesn't really seem to need much more than that."
It seems no coincidence that a new generation discovering the mercurial song about a mercurial man has led to another unintentional prophetic honour: Feist is now being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside the Tragically Hip, Loverboy's Mike Reno and Paul Dean, and Roch Voisine. She keeps joking that she's doing her best to ruin it.
"I have always felt that there's a dangerous hubris in assuming anything about songwriting," she admits. "You have to approach it humble to the altar of song. It requires a certain amount of blood and tears, and it's not ever to be presumed about. It's almost like Avalon; it's behind some mist over there, and you just hope the clouds will part and you get granted a song."
She continues, "It's something that benefits from being intuitive, and intuition doesn't want to be turned into a right angle. It wants to stay fluid. It wants to be sort of the roots of the trees, finding their way underneath and sneaking around any obstacle, and that route is always different."
As much as we agree it probably doesn't serve her to think about it too hard, it had been on her mind while biking back home from the gym prior to our interview. "I was hearing this melody, and I could kind of hear the bassline under it, and I thought that's kind of the key: it's when a thought and a feeling find the correct melodic or timbre or tonal expression in a way that provides almost like a tripod," Feist reflects. "You just get this integrity. It can hold itself up, and then it can withstand being arranged."
She pushed the envelope on her compositions' contexts when she started working on her most recent album, 2023's Multitudes. "In a way, the songs were getting written in this sort of formalist experiment of repeating them twice," the musician says of the intimate Multitudes 1.0 concerts she began performing in 2021, with nightly shows at 7 and 9 p.m. "I was in such grief at the time, as well that a lot of things entered this repetition that I would never have allowed to enter."
She continues, "But somehow, at that moment of where I was, the juncture I was at in my life, and how it echoed what was going on in there — and the whole goal of the production itself was to be all on the same plane. No one in that room, myself included, knew anything more than any other person."
When it became time to record the songs, however, she knew them — and what she wanted them to be serving — pretty damn well. "Often, a year after a record comes out, I will hear a line and think, 'Fuck! I pulled punches there,'" she admits. There were no such occurrences on an album produced from the rare opportunity the early pandemic afforded her to do "all this impractical shit" she'd always wanted to do.
Just before COVID and starting to write for Multitudes, she says a friend challenged her to "write songs to grow into." Now, Feist says she feels only maybe one or two songs on Let It Die have any DNA of the person she is today — "almost like the starter yeast or the mother sourdough," she laughs. That said, their integrity has made her the epitome of your favourite artist's favourite artist, with the likes of Chappell Roan herself, Carly Rae Jepsen and FINNEAS all citing the record with reverence.
And even now, she sings certain lines into a new existence. "I hear them come out of my mouth and I learn something new about them," the songwriter says. "That's another thing I started to experience [after Let It Die]: certain lines were so subjective that they became universal. So, as I grew and changed and became an entirely different person than whoever may have written that song, I would hear the lyrics, and they would somehow still be bringing me closer to the point."
Once again, her powers of prophecy are on display: just as she sang almost 20 years ago, there's so much past inside her present. The past can truly define our future, if we let it — and that's not my aspiration. I'd rather be in a fresh this morning, every morning."
Being a spin-off to a mega-success like The Office meant it was always going to be an uphill battle for The Paper to find its own voice and humour. While its sophomore season still finds them searching for that voice, it's clear they're well on their way.
Season 1 of The Paper saw the film crew who documented Dunder Mifflin's antics in Scranton, PA, move to Toledo, OH. They introduced us to the ragtag team behind a local newspaper hanging on by a thread, the Toledo Truth Teller (or TTT for short). While the workplace sitcom model was alive and well, the season focused more on laughing through the pain of journalism's slow and agonizing death.
Now in Season 2, the show foregoes the overarching satirical look at local reporting, and considers the effect and importance of advertising, and the deals with multiple devils a paper like TTT has to make. Unlike the first season, though, The Paper doesn't necessarily satirize this theme, instead they play the storylines straight while allowing for the ensemble to find better footing within a workplace comedy.
Sabrina Impacciatore continues to absolutely shine as Esmeralda. Her performance is eccentric, but Impacciatore somehow never makes Esmeralda clown-like, even when she's pretending to be a woman who now identifies as a preteen boy or accidentally writing an op-ed about a halfway house, definitely not a haunted house. Impacciatore continues to instil Esmeralda with so much charm, her antics, while wild, are never off-putting. It's one of the best comedic performances on television right now, and not enough credit has been given to Impacciatore.
Where the show struggles a bit in finding its stride is the relationship between Ned (Domhnall Gleeson) and Mare (Chelsea Frei). Carrying over their romance from Season 1, Ned and Mare's coupling remains a secret to most of the office, although a little hiccup temporarily sends Mare to Cincinnati to work as a reporter with one of their parent company's other papers. The will-they-won't-they long-distance divide never feels all that ripe, owing to a muted chemistry between the two.
Thankfully the rest of the ensemble more than makes up for any lulls. Melvin Gregg comes into his own as Detrick, and Ramona Young makes the most of every opportunity afforded to Nicole being an increasingly unhinged staffer. Undoubtedly, the constant callback to a hilarious tornado-induced act of survival between Gbemisola Ikumelo's Adelola and Eric Rahill's Travis serves as Season 2's funniest moment, alongside any one of Impacciatore's schemes. The callbacks demonstrate the comedic acumen of those working behind the scenes, and the aftermath between Adelola and Travis is exceptionally played.
British comedian Tim Key sadly doesn't appear as often in Season 2 as Ken, but the introduction of Lisa Gilroy as Lisa, the TTT's human resources representative, makes Key's absence a little easier. Fans of The Office will readily remember Dunder Mifflin's HR rep Toby, and wisely, The Paper goes the other way with Lisa. Rather than being a pencil-pushing, rule-following sad sack, Lisa is the very reason why HR departments exist in the first place.
The Paper still has a ways to go in finding their identity as a show, but at least their road to discovery is paved with clever dialogue, heartfelt performances and true laugh-out-loud moments. And let's not forget, it also took The Office a couple seasons before they really hit their stride.
]]>
It's no secret that David Ayer's a bit of a faux-teur. The filmmaker once said of himself, "I am ruthless as a director. I will do whatever I think is necessary to get what I want," which is exactly the sort of naïvely romanticized view of director-as-infallible-genius that Ayer would find appealing.
His "films," which have notoriously been hit or miss (and miss and miss some more), still have their supporters, and while it may be shocking that he can still get work, it's also shocking that his new film, Heart of the Beast, is actually pretty good!
Featuring some truly inspired filmmaking, great performances from the minimalist cast, and a strong first feature-length script effort from music video director Cameron Alexander, Heart of the Beast is a naturalistic epic, gruelling and sometimes gratuitous. It's also the director's best work to date.
The film follows a simple premise: retired Special Forces veteran James Belmont (Brad Pitt) goes on a picturesque camping trip in the Alaskan wilderness with his trusty canine companion, Odin (Uber). After a tranquil few days spent fishing and bird watching, the pair get in Belmont's seaplane for the long flight home. While helming the aircraft, Belmont suffers a heart attack, crash landing with only Odin by his side. The pair must navigate 58 miles of wild, freezing, waterlogged terrain, as well their shared combat trauma, in order to reach safety, their journey interspersed with memories of war and chaos.
Throughout the film, Ayer remains patient, letting scenes play on with minimal cuts. After the plane crashes, Pitt must retrieve a set of large cases that contain all of his gear. The moments in the water are practically nauseating, Pitt using a sliver of an air pocket for oxygen, before diving repeatedly to cut the cases out of their hold. Ayer keeps the camera rolling, extending the anxiety, refusing to give any respite through cutaways.
Similar scenes pepper the film, and with Heart of the Beast, Ayer finally shows some restraint, especially in comparison to some of his more maximalist efforts. The action sequences rely more on moody atmospherics and extended peril than on explosions and relentless gun play with anonymous henchmen, while Pitt's performance is nuanced and dynamic, even under duress.
The film contains a quiet intimacy, something often missing in Ayer's films, one that is unfortunately betrayed by intermittent and superfluous combat flashbacks. Bloody, loud and fiery, they feel like excuses for the aforementioned guns and explosions, padding out the runtime while adding unnecessary context about Belmont and Odin's past.
The film is practically haptic in its exploration of the body and what it can withstand. Ayer puts Pitt through the ringer, always wet, cold, and in pain. A scene featuring some cracking self-surgery will have the audience collectively gasping and gritting their teeth in solidarity. America: it's no country for old men.
The minimal cast — Pitt, J. K. Simmons, North of North star Anna Lambe and, of course, Uber — allows for space and scope, with Simmons and Lambe appearing only briefly. As a result, Belmont and Odin sit for long stretches of silence and introspection.
Much like his dog, and the terrain he must traverse, Pitt is gruff, tuff and ruff, covered in blank tattoos, his grizzled persona reflecting his fractured post-military psyche. He has, as Simmons's Watkins describes him early on, a "quiet, stern demeanour" befitting a military man. Pitt thrives in his element, stoic, joyous, broken, taking pleasure in performing and finding elation in pain.
While the film hits many of the traditional survivalist tropes — pain, cold, isolation, fear — it also explores the intimate bond between Belmont and Odin, and the trauma that unites them. The organic, otherworldly sense of isolation present in every scene exists not only in nature, but is undoubtedly felt by many soldiers upon returning to civilian life.
Fortunately, with Odin by his side, Belmont feels safe, understood and complete, and vice versa. Their relationship is tender and affectionate, the two relying on each other for comfort and reassurance. Odin, as per his name, has an almost mystical power: he is one with the forest, even if his duties as a military dog make Belmont his first priority.
Even still, the film ends up repeating itself in terms of its structure and execution, following the survival film template of "harmony, conflict, replay ad infinitum." The requisite animal attacks, a log-across-a-ravine crossing and near rescues from flyovers all find their way into the movie, and these predictable clichés and tropes dampen some of the tension.
The unforgiving "Alaskan" landscape (filming took place in New Zealand) is overwhelming, thanks to Mauro Fiore's beautiful cinematography. His sweeping shots of the lush yet desolate scenery, all frost, forest and sun-kissed water, are grandiose and awe-inspiring, the bodies of our heroes made minuscule by the mountains, valleys and rivers.
Ayer builds suspense through darkness and the unknown, with Fiore pointing his camera into the depths of the wooded maw. The ethereal score, courtesy of Jared Michael Fry, elevates both the unease and the joy. Ayer uses it sporadically but to great effect, the only blunder being the melodramatic ending.
Ayer concludes on a note so overwrought in its desire to move and inspire that it ends up being too patriotic, too insincere, too manipulative. The music, the lighting and the overt spirituality are all calculated to make us weep, a mess of meanings and intentions, none of which land. But don't worry — if you don't cry, it's not from cynicism or a lack of emotion; it's because you feel cheated.
The director's apolitical stance is ever-present as he crafts the film to appeal to all sides of the spectrum. Although the film attempts to show the cruelty and indifference of both war and nature, it ends up doing so superficially. War is unsurprisingly bad for everyone's brains, but that's as deep as it gets. The film says more about human-animal relationships than about the effects of war on either. It's a missed opportunity, and more ambiguity about Belmont and Odin's experiences and how their relationship began would have been much more beneficial than sepia-toned battle footage.
Heart of the Beast is not as bleak or as nihilistic as the director's previous effort with Pitt (Fury, where the duo notoriously sparred over the direction of the film), nor is it as asinine as some of his other cinematic efforts (the majority of his filmography).
Ayer presents the relationship between Belmont and Uber in surprisingly complex yet accessible ways, although the impact of war on human and animal psyches deserves much more scrutiny. There are moments of cruelty and violence, but also moments of levity and humour, and while the ending sours some of the overall experience, Heart of the Beast is still entertaining and heartwarming enough to succeed.
Remember to tell your pets you love them. Sometimes, even a beast needs some TLC.
]]>
This week's latest roundup of new tours coming to Canada include Lizzy McAlpine's stadium tour, Ninajirachi expanding her 2026 trek into the new year, new dates from Godspeed You! Black Emperor (pictured above), William Prince and more.
As always, head over to Concert Central for more Canadian tour announcements, show listings, recommendations and more.
Rayland Baxter 2027 Tour Dates:
01/28 Toronto, ON - The Great Hall
03/09 Vancouver, BC - The Pearl
Aubory Bugg 2027 Tour Dates:
02/16 Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret
02/27 Toronto, ON - Monarch Tavern
Jim Cuddy Tour Dates:
11/12 Keswick, ON - Stephen Leacock Theatre of Performing Arts
11/14 Morrisburg, ON - St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage *
11/19 Orillia, ON - Orillia Opera House ^
11/21 Brantford, ON - Sanderson Centre ^
11/24 Peterborough, ON - Showplace Theatre ^
11/25 Meaford, ON - Meaford Hall
11/26 Meaford, ON - Meaford Hall
11/27 Blyth, ON - Blyth Memorial Hal ^
* with Sam Polley
^ with Billianne
Daniel Romano's Outfit Tour Dates:
09/26–27 Newtonville, ON - Cultivate Festival
12/03 Brantford, ON - zBTFD Records
12/04 Cambridge, ON - Farm League Brewing
12/05 Windsor, ON - Meteor
Gnarls Barkley Tour Dates:
11/22 Toronto, ON, CA - History
Godspeed You! Black Emperor 2027 Tour Dates:
02/21 Quebec City, QC - Capitole Theatre
02/26 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
02/27 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
Ha*Ash 2027 Tour Dates:
04/20 Toronto, ON - Meridian Hall
Hey Rosetta! 2027 Tour Dates:
02/19 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
02/20 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
02/21 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
02/26 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
02/27 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
02/28 St. John's, NL - JAG Soundhouse
03/03 Montreal, QC - Beanfield Theatre
03/05 Toronto, ON - History
03/06 Toronto, ON - History
03/07 Toronto, ON - History
The Interrupters with Doom Regulator and RAT BOY 2027 Tour Dates:
04/09 Montreal, QC - MTELUS
04/10 Toronto, ON - History Toronto
04/11 London, ON - London Music Hall
Lukas Graham 2027 Tour Dates:
04/06 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
Marianas Trench 2027 Tour Dates:
01/08 Windsor, ON - The Colosseum
Lizzy McAlpine with Searows and Post Animal 2027 Tour Dates:
06/27 Toronto, ON - Scotiabank Arena
Ninajirachi 2027 Tour Dates:
01/21 Toronto, ON - History
01/22 Toronto, ON - History
01/23 Montreal, QC - Igloofest
Agnes Obel 2027 Tour Dates:
05/22 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
05/24 Quebec City, QC - Capitole Theatre
05/25 Montreal, QC - St-Denis Theatre
05/26 Ottawa, ON - Bronson Centre Theatre
William Prince 2026–2027 Tour Dates:
11/03 Courtenay, BC - Sid Williams Civic Theatre
11/04 Nanaimo, BC - The Port Theatre
11/05 Sidney, BC - Mary Winspear Centre
11/07 Whitehorse, YT - Yukon Arts Centre
11/09 Chilliwack, BC - Hub International Theatre
11/10 Penticton, BC - The Cleland Theatre
11/11 Lake Country, BC - The Creekside Theatre
11/12 Vernon, BC - Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre
11/13 Trail, BC - Charley Bailey Theatre
11/14 Revelstoke, BC - Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre
11/15 Cranbrook, BC - Key City Theatre
11/18 St. Albert, AB - Arden Theatre (matinee)
11/18 St. Albert, AB - Arden Theatre (SOLD OUT)
11/19 Sherwood Park, AB - Festival Place
11/20 Banff, AB - Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff Centre
11/21 Camrose, AB - Bailey Theatre
11/22 Sherwood Park, AB - Festival Place
11/23 Red Deer, AB - Bo's Bar and Stage
11/24 Medicine Hat, AB - Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre
11/26 Toronto, ON - The Carlu
01/09 Brant, ON - Paris Presbyterian Church
01/11 Richmond Hill, ON - Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
01/13 London, ON - Aeolian Hall
01/14 Guelph, ON - River Run Centre
01/15 Oakville, ON - Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts
01/16 St. Catharines, ON - Partridge Hall
01/19 Parry Sound, ON - Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts
01/20 Orillia, ON - Orillia Opera House
01/21 Belleville, ON - The Empire Theatre
01/22 Lindsay, ON - Flato Academy Theatre
01/23 Sudbury, ON - Knox Hall
01/24 Meaford, ON - Meaford Hall
Rough Trade and Spoons Tour Dates:
12/03 Montreal, QC - Studio TD
12/04 Ottawa, ON - Bronson *
12/05 Toronto, ON - The Concert Hall *
* with Images in Vogue
Lennon Stella Tour Dates:
10/29 Toronto, ON - Paradise Theatre
THAO 2027 Tour Dates:
03/14 Toronto, ON - The Great Hall
04/01 Vancouver, BC - Fox Cabaret
This Is the Kit 2027 Tour Dates:
03/27 Montreal, QC - Fairmount Theatre
03/29 Toronto, ON - The Garrison
tripleS Tour Dates:
11/11 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
11/26 Vancouver, BC - The Centre
Valley 2027 Tour Dates:
02/04 Quebec City, QC - Grizzly Fuzz *
02/05 Montreal, QC - Le Studio TD *
02/06 Ottawa, ON - The Bronson *
02/09 Waterloo, ON - Maxwell's Concerts & Events *
02/10 London, ON - London Music Hall *
02/16 Winnipeg, MB - Park Theatre *
02/18 Regina, SK - Casino Regina *
02/19 Edmonton, AB - Midway Music Hall *
02/20 Calgary, AB - The Palace Theatre *
02/23 Victoria, BC - Capital Ballroom *
02/24 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom *
03/20 Toronto, ON - Massey Hall *#
* with the Hits
# with Billianne
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.
September 11
Jhené Aiko - Westside Whimsy (Allel Records)
Angela Autumn - Believer (Gar Hole Records)
Bloc Party - Anatomy of a Brief Romance (Virgin Music Group)
Bonobo - Distance in Static (Ninja Tune)
CG Tears - CG Tears (Victory Pool Records) 🇨🇦
Chrome Sparks - Ball of Light (Chrome Sounds / AWAL)
Hip Club Groove - Bassments of Badmen 4 (Hand'Solo Records) 🇨🇦
Haruomi Hosono - Yours Sincerely (Ghostly International)
HUG - HUG (Luaka Bop)
Ibibio Sound Machine - Chopping Mountain (Merge Records)
Pokey LaFarge - Rent Money (Boxer Boy Records)
Mattmac - Smoke Signals (Independent) 🇨🇦
Jon McKiel - Gold Horatio (You've Changed Records) 🇨🇦
Starpainter - Cayenne Flowerbed (Ram On Records) 🇨🇦
Colin Stetson & Brìghde Chaimbeul - All the light in the world (Envision Records) 🇨🇦
Sylvan Esso - Ow ∞ (Psychic Hotline)
This Is Lorelei - The Singer in My Band (Matador Records)
The Tubs - Hard Life (Merge Records)
September 18
After - Fell Asleep in the Sun (Mom+Pop)
David James Allen - Jubilation Potpourri (Littleknown Records) 🇨🇦
Anthrax - Curium Perficio (Megaforce Records)
Francis Arevalo - Home, Grown (Independent) 🇨🇦
Babehoven - I See Them, I See Me (Double Double Whammy)
beabadoobee - Pylon (Dirty Hit / Interscope Records)
Beck - Ride Lonesome (Capitol Records)
Big Benny Bailey - Business Spice (Thirty Tigers)
Blonde Diamond - Love Is a Shadow (High Tide / Fontana) 🇨🇦
Laci Kaye Booth - Love Ain't for the Faint of Heart (Lost Highway Records)
Boy Harsher - Get Mean (Atlantic Records)
Cari Burnett - Don't Forget (Independent) 🇨🇦
Sean Burns - Better Off in Time & Other Songs for the Dance Floor (Department Store Records) 🇨🇦
Chaka Khan - CHAKZILLA (EarthSong Records / BMG)
Chest Fever - The 21st Century Last Waltz – Live at Massey Hall (Blind Owl) 🇨🇦
Clever Hopes - Even Gooder Than Tomorrow (Independent) 🇨🇦
Evan Cooper - Freshman (East & Nowhere Songsmiths) 🇨🇦
DAS RAD - RADAR (Independent) 🇨🇦
Sara Dufour - Dolbeau-Mistassini (Coyote Records) 🇨🇦
Dwayne Gretzky - Dwayne's World Vol. 1 (Dwayne Music / Fontana North) 🇨🇦
Echo & the Bunnymen - Apples for Isaac (BMG)
Empress Of - Dream House (Major Arcana / Giant Music)
Excuse Me. - Forever and a Day (Independent) 🇨🇦
Ezra Collective - Here Because of Hope (Partisan Records)
Freak Slug - Amulet (Future Classic)
Rhiannon Giddens - Hope Is the Thing with Feathers (Nonesuch Records)
Jake Xerxes Fussell - The Old Beloved Path (Fat Possum)
Susanna Hoffs - The List (Baroque Folk)
The Honest Heart Collective - Sheer Will (Independent) 🇨🇦
Isla Den - Heaven Can Wait (Divisions [Courage]) 🇨🇦
Marshall Jacklin - A Start to Coming Back to Life (Independent) 🇨🇦
Jardin Joue - Jardin Joue (Independent) 🇨🇦
Jawdropped - Secret to Spare (Transgressive / Canvasback)
Carly Rae Jepsen - Day and Night (Interscope Records) 🇨🇦
Céleste Lévis - Si elle (JOLY Records) 🇨🇦
The Mary Wallopers - Paddywhackery (BC Records)
Lizzy McAlpine - Angel (RCA Records)
Miesha & the Spanks - Visions (SUPERCONNECTED) 🇨🇦
Miley - Bass Persuades (Atlantic Records / Warner Music)
Agnes Obel - The Meaning of Flowers (Strange Harvest Limited / Deutsche Grammophon GmbH)
Orville Peck - Mule (Warner Records) 🇨🇦
Perennial - Modernism (Ernest Jennings Record Company)
Porch Light - Hush (Mom+Pop)
Rodrigo y Gabriela - OurHome (ATO Records)
Emma Ruth Rundle - These Killing Times (Errant Child)
Slow Pulp - Melodie (ANTI-)
Son Lux - Out Into (This Is Meru / City Slang)
Carleton Stone - Midnight Rose (Warner Records / ADA Music Worldwide) 🇨🇦
Storefront Church - Blue Movie (High Room)
Team Dresch - Furthermore (Jealous Butcher)
Tokyo Tea Room - Feel Forever (Nice Guys)
Lexi Valentine - Lo Claroscuro (Splendor House Records) 🇨🇦
Velours Velours - Seul à la Salle Claude-Léveillée (Bonbonbon Records) 🇨🇦
Weatherell - Lonely Soul (Independent) 🇨🇦
Emma Worley - Forever Beginner (acronym Records) 🇨🇦
Yaris Paris - Feeling Factory (Independent) 🇨🇦
neil young and the chrome hearts - Second Song (Reprise Records) 🇨🇦
September 25
Adult DVD - Adult DVD (Fat Possum Records)
Applied Communications - applied communications bites the big one (Rare Noodles / Bar-Non)
Steve Bates - An Infinite Antenna (Constellation Records) 🇨🇦
Jean-Michel Blais - mirador (Arts & Crafts) 🇨🇦
Blondshell - Violins (Partisan Records)
Rachel Bochner - I Guess a Sure Thing Couldn't Go Down Gently (Handwritten Records)
Leon Bridges - Happiness Anytime (Columbia Records)
Bug Bogart - Takes a Bite (Independent) 🇨🇦
Bullion - Nearly (Ghostly International)
Josh Cohen - We Are Home (Independent) 🇨🇦
Courant Zêro - Solari (Constellation Records) 🇨🇦
Daphni - Butterfly (Expanded Edition) (Jiaolong) 🇨🇦
Ethereal Tomb - Living to Dream Again (Bat Skull Records / New Damage Records) 🇨🇦
John Fellner - Avenues (MCMXVI / Slaight Music) 🇨🇦
gash - at least you know what you're laughing at (Angel Tapes / Fire Talk Records)
Gilla Band - Pugnello (Rough Trade Records)
Godflesh - Decay (Relapse Records)
Gurriers - Nobody's Coming to Save You (Play It Again Sam)
Hermanos Gutiérrez - Los Ojos Del Cóndor (Easy Eye Sound)
Hailstones - The Weariness of Hope (Independent) 🇨🇦
Dee Hernandez - Deshecha = Undone (Independent) 🇨🇦
Becky Hill - Rebecca (Polydor Records / Astralwerks)
Roxanne Izzo - Made (Hell for Breakfast) 🇨🇦
Jane's Party - Avalanche (Independent) 🇨🇦
Julia Jacklin - The Gem (4AD)
Kardinal Offishall - Firestarter Vol. 2: Everyday, Sometimes… (Independent) 🇨🇦
Les Shirley - Hail Mary (Duprince Records) 🇨🇦
Light Conductor - Sequence Three (Constellation Records) 🇨🇦
Living Hour - Magnet (Paper Bag Records) 🇨🇦
Meg Lui - Instant Validation (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
M83 - I Wrote You a Letter (Other Suns)
Maddie Medley - Fawn's Enemy (Wrought / Soundly Music)
Mistaken for Wayne - Whitefish (Independent) 🇨🇦
Tom Morello - Everyone Gets Everything They Want (Mom+Pop)
Joy Oladokun - Hope Is a Heavy Thing (Concord Records)
OSTON - Isn't That Sweet? (Independent)
Pain of Truth - Pain of Truth (DAZE)
Penelope Isles - 3 (Bella Union)
Protomartyr - Hotel Usona (Domino Recording Co.)
claire rousay & Martyna Basta - hotel room (Unsound) 🇨🇦
Michaela Slinger - Green and Trying (Chatty Cathy Records) 🇨🇦
Smidley - Murphy Horse (Royal Mountain Records)
Samantha Savage Smith - Little Place (Independent) 🇨🇦
Soft Cell - Danceteria (Republic of Music)
SO TIRED - Drop Me (Independent) 🇨🇦
Starcleaner Reunion - Umbrella (Take Care Records)
Kinnie Starr - DestroyHer (Violet Inch Records) 🇨🇦
Tinashe - Popstar (Atlantic Records)
Thunder Queens - Deep Below (Victory Pool Records) 🇨🇦
Zarouhi - Call me Zara (Independent) 🇨🇦
October 2
Amon Amarth - The Allfather Awakens (Metal Blade Records)
Samuel Bonnet - Slow (Independent) 🇨🇦
The Carringtons - The Reunion (Independent) 🇨🇦
Stef Chura - Dancing Alone on the Concrete (Saddle Creek)
Tara Davidson - The Reflection of an Echo (Independent) 🇨🇦
Dead Poet Society - Monarch (Spinefarm Records)
Deerhoof - Divine Schism (Independent)
DO, the Outcast & Lightitupav - After Sundown (Lighterfuel Records) 🇨🇦
Fat Dog - Cancel Me (I'm Tired) (Domino Recording Co.)
Greg Freeman - All Set the Bone (Transgressive / Canvasback)
Phoebe Green - Premature Nostalgia (The Green Dream Machine / Absolute)
Gizmo - All Your Worships (Victory Pool Records) 🇨🇦
Jon Hassell - Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three) (Ndeya)
Teagan Johnston - Big Time (Riot Daddy) 🇨🇦
Kurtys Kidd - This Dirty Machine (Mystic Music) 🇨🇦
King of Foxes - Someday You'll See Yourself as Others Surely Do, a Thing to Leave Behind (Ram On Records) 🇨🇦
Leenalchi - Sugungga (Luaka Bop)
Johnny Marr - The Age of Everything (BMG)
Miss May I - No Place for Me (Solid State Records)
Victoria Monét - Frequency of Love (Lovett Music / RCA Records)
Bob Moon - Dancing (Independent) 🇨🇦
Damian Moore - Physical Science (Independent) 🇨🇦
Gabriella Olivo - Reflexiones (Duprince Records) 🇨🇦
Preeper Rhaye MacKay - Blackberry Lane (Independent) 🇨🇦
Erin Propp - The Longing Years (Independent) 🇨🇦
Quadeca - Life 1 (X8 Music)
Quavo - QRÖMELIFE (Quality Control Music / Motown Records)
Revenge Wife - Alien Witch (Independent)
Emily A. Sprague - Cyano (RVNG Intl.)
Logan Staats - Peacemaker (Ishkōdé Records) 🇨🇦
Tricky FM - Twin Star Fantasy (Cherub Dream)
Twin Atlantic - Separation from the Animals (Dance to the Radio)
Vacations - Pursuit of Anything (Nettwerk Music Group)
Virgo Rising - Wishbone (Independent) 🇨🇦
Wishy - Nature's Pill (Winspear)
The Wldlfe - Revolver (Riser House Records)
October 9
Fatima Al Qadiri - 3TWI (عتوي) (Hyperdub)
Bodega - All Inside Aquarium (Chrysalis Records)
Jeremiah Chu - Edge Conditions (International Anthem)
Margo Cilker - Little White Cross (Fossil Records)
Sheryl Crow - Pick You Up (Old Green Barn Productions / Thirty Tigers)
Death Valley Girls - Welcome to Earth (Suicide Squeeze Records)
Drezus - Nagamo (Public Records / Fontana North) 🇨🇦
Dumb Crush - Can't Say It Wasn't Fun (Independent) 🇨🇦
Thompson Egbo-Egbo - Just a Thought (BespokeJazz) 🇨🇦
Dominic Fike - How to Quit Smoking (Columbia Records)
Flora Luna - Symphonie Nocturne 🇨🇦
Girl Ultra - RRRomeo (Big Dada)
Greta Van Fleet - Palace for the People (Republic Records)
HAAi - Digitise (Mute Records)
Helen - Linda's Head (Kranky)
Imperial Teen - All Over You (Merge Records)
Thierry Larose - Le X du Y (Bravo musique) 🇨🇦
V.V. Lightbody - Period Piece (Egghunt Records)
more eaze - valley and structure (Thrill Jockey)
Pet Shop Boys - A Man from the Future (Parlophone Records)
Danielle Ponder - Everything Has Changed (Dead Oceans)
John Prine - Found Dogs (Oh Boy Records)
Queen of Jeans - hard/SWEET (Memory Music)
Reuben and the Dark - If You Know Me, You Know My Brother (Pulling Up Arrows) 🇨🇦
Dawn Richard - Creole Creature (Merge Records)
SimbaSōl - Subject to Change (Nvak Collective) 🇨🇦
Troye Sivan - She's the Best (Interscope Records)
The Tallest Man on Earth - Just Beyond Endless Mountain (ANTI-)
Teenage Fanclub - Do Not Dare to Dream (Merge Records)
Twin Temple - Doomed Lovers (Pentagrammaton Records)
wakelee - Under Construction Forever (Wax Bodega)
Wayfinding - A Nest of Wrens (Are You Giving Me the Hi-Hat) 🇨🇦
Jess Williamson - A Mile South of Heaven (New West Records)
Remi Wolf - Mud (Island Records)
Joyce Wrice - Machiko (BMG Records)
Zeus - Lost & Found: They Say Us Archives (Arts & Crafts) 🇨🇦
The Charlottetown Film Festival has recently rebranded under the name ANCHOR Fest, and has now detailed its lineup of film, comedy, music and conference activities under its new title.
Running from October 14 to 18, the festival will be held throughout multiple venues in downtown Charlottetown, and its music programming will feature sets from Slash Need, Heavenly Blue, Penny & the Pits, Captains of Everything, Nick Doneff, Sam O, Uncle, Blige, Dear Blossom, Space Bud, Cathedra Grove, Green Eyes and Witch Hands.
On the film side, the festival will host screenings of the SXSW Special Jury Award for Performance Winner The Snake, TIFF Midnight Madness Award Winner Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney and Fantasia Best Canadian Feature Award Winner, Unholy Night.
Last but not least, comedy highlights also include the Big 3 LIVE (Nathan Hare, Sam Burns, Ben Stager) and Matt Wright: Matterday Wright Live featuring the cast of The Snake.
Select tickets are on sale now. You can head over to ANCHOR Fest's website for more details.
]]>
It's not a phase, mom — it's fresh, never frozen. You may never have associated the lady behind your favourite square hamburger patties with the side-swept bangs subculture, but think again: Wendy's has now released an emo EP.
Featuring Silverstein's Shane Told, Blessthefall's Beau Boken, Memphis May Fire's Matty Mullins, State Champs' Derek DiScanio, Winona Fighter's Chloe Kinnon and Holy Wars' Kat Leon, Songs to Listen to in a Wendy's Parking Lot is out now in collaboration with Rise Records. The project was executive-produced by Matt Squire (Simple Plan, Sum 41).
Now, I'm sure you must be thinking to yourself: why? Wendy's wants you to cross that notion out with a Sharpie, and replace it with why not? xD
The fast food company would also like to clarify that Songs to Listen to in a Wendy's Parking Lot was made without the use of AI — and fear not, it comes across as embodying a distinctly human vein of cheesiness with all of the puns about Frostys, fries and songs/bands considered hallmarks of the genre. I hope these very real musicians were paid very handsomely.
Listen to Told's contribution, "I Miss the Sunroom," and the rest of the EP below. Notably, this is not Wendy's first foray into music: in 2018, the restaurant chain released a five-song hip-hop mixtape titled We Beefin'?
]]>
A new music podcast, 2004: The Year Indie Rock Broke, has launched its first two episodes, with artists diving deep into the early 2000s indie rock music era, and its transition from DIY roots to mainstream culture thanks to syncs in film soundtracks and television shows, and the rise of internet culture.
Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino hosts the pod, which features interviews with artists from the era, including Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), James Mercer (the Shins), Britt Daniel (Spoon), Carl Newman (the New Pornographers), Emily Haines (Metric), Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Tegan Quin (Tegan and Sara), and more, as well as industry voices like Megan Jasper (Sub Pop), Josh Rosenfeld (Barsuk Records), Josh Schwartz and Alexandra Patsavas (The O.C.), and Helen Pai (Gilmore Girls).
"When I was asked to host this podcast, it felt like a pretty obvious yes to me, as this era of indie rock, and so many of the bands, and artists featured, are why I wanted to become a musician. When my band, Best Coast, had our own version of mainstream indie rock success in 2010, I felt like I had made it into the cool kids club," says Cosentino.
She continued, "Getting to play shows with Death Cab, and share festival bills with the Strokes, the New Pornographers, the Walkmen, and more — it was a dream come true for 17-year-old me. Getting to learn as much as I did about this era of indie rock, and these bands and artists, was like a peek behind the curtain of an era of music that really shaped who I later became. I'm really happy I got to be a part of it, and I hope everyone enjoys the musical and educational time machine back to 2004."
The first episode, "Champagne from a Paper Cup," sees Gibbard and co. discussing their signing to a major label and the lightning-in-a-bottle moment that redefined "indie." Hear that below. (Be warned: it's pretty heavy on the Dropbox ads. Thank goodness for the skip button.)
]]>