July 2012
65 posts
1 tag
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 12. Cœur de...
More Francophone pop courtesy of Cœur de Pirate, the alter ego of 22 year old, super-tattooed Béatrice Martin. Think a modern take on the 60’s chanteuse-style pop like Françoise Hardy, as channeled via Adele (or something…). Stella Artois should look into maybe licensing one of her tracks for their throwback, continental style TV commercials. Just sayin’….
Blonde by...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 4. Avec pas...
Astronomie by Avec pas d’casque
I can’t say I really can give the Francophone albums like this one a fair shake because of the language barrier, years of middle, high school and college French be damned. That being said music (and love) are truly the universal languages and you can still feel the emotion conveyed in a voice even if you don’t understand the language the lyrics...
2 tags
WatchIn honor of the most excellent “Cherry Wine” track from Nas’s Life is Good album dropping…
Terry Urban Presents: Nas x Amy Winehouse - Me & Mr. Jones [Mixtape]
[via Potholes in my Blog]
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 20. Fucked Up...
This was a frustrating album to listen to for me. Prior Polaris Prize winner, Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life is a period ‘rock opera’ set in a fictional English town called Byrdesdale Spa in the 1970s/80s. If that’s not already enough to make you say, ‘Huh?’ trying to follow along with the story by simply listening to the album will likely only lead to even...
“Where the real hip-hop fans at? Apparently, not... →
Really, rap fans didn’t want to go see The Art of Rap??! Smdh…
[via @RapRadar3]
1 tag
[Event] TODAY in Toronto: The Other Side of...
If I wasn’t working I’d take a run out the east end to check this….
On Tuesday July 3rd from 2PM to 4PM, Ernie Pannicioli, who has photographed everyone from the late Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. to Eminem and Lauryn Hill will be presenting his works to Scarborough youth at the Scarborough Civic Centre inside the City’s council chambers. During this one of a kind...
June 2012
91 posts
3 tags
1 tag
88 Days of Fortune: 3rd Anniversary Party...
If you read this blog regularly, you already know about Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White aka Stas and Cat of THEESatisfaction. If you live in the T.Dot/GTA region and you have at all dug what they do, then you need to be at their performance tonight at the Third Anniversary celebration for the local urban progressive artist collective, 88 Days of Fortune. Don’t sleep, NOW magazine...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 38. The Weeknd –...
This is one of the few nominated albums I was already familiar with before the Polaris long list was announced last week. Not to toot my own horn but I was the person largely responsible for getting The Weeknd short-listed last year. But as you know if you read this blog regularly, neither The Weeknd’s Thursday or Echoes Of Silence mixtapes made it onto my Long List ballot for this year....
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 26. Mares Of...
Look at that picture up top, then hit play on this album. Not to be sexist but yes, those women created this music. Others are raving about this ‘noise-doom’ (read, ‘metal’) duo’s album, The Pilgrimage. Frankly, I found it tough to get through, and even harder to process from a crticial point of view. Did I like it? Was it good??! I wonder if this is how pure...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 40. Yukon Blonde...
This was an interesting one. The songs were very down-the-middle and accessible in sound. Nothing really cool or cutting edge about it. Tiger Talk kicked off with some tracks that reminded me of all those knock-off ‘new wave’ songs that you’d hear in 80s era teen B-movies and then some tracks that reminded me of the post-new wave UK acts who followed that era like Big Country...
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 27. Ariane...
This Quebecois singer’s synth-y flavored, bi-lingual indie pop wasn’t bad. I would term it pleasant and innocuous even (actually kind of liked the steel pan-powered “Too Late”). But music that sounds like it could soundtrack a late 20-something professional women’s kind of hip dinner or cocktail parties in their CB2/West Elm-furnished downtown condo lofts are...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 21. Great Lake...
Heard this group’s name for while but never really knew much about them or their music. I finally got to hear the music because they headlined a show that Cold Specks opened for them on a few weeks back. Truth be told, I really went to see Cold Specks who blew me away live pretty much just as much, if not more than, she did on record. I stayed for a few songs of GLS’s set but ended...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 22. Grimes -...
Grimes is one of those photogenic buzz artists, popular with critics and hipster fans alike, that you wanna hate. She looks .like an oddball Scarlet Johansson (sort of) and sings like Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) mixed with Minnie Ripperton (at least with the aid of studio trickery, she does. IRL? No idea). Her 80’s informed electronic, synth pop sound is heavy on effects and...
1 tag
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 10. Kathryn...
I guess the most notable thing about Kathryn Calder is that she pinch hit for Neko Case as replacement vocalist in The New Pornographers when the latter left that acclaimed indie pop powerhouse collective to pursue a solo career.
But almost as notable is that this record was the second of two Calder recorded in her living room within a one year period while caring for her terminally ill...
