Bill Johnson contributes eight originals to his Still Blue, each one a fine example of a contemporary blues song, not merely a retread of a familiar 12 bar theme, and each sung in his evocative voice. The variety of approaches, from the sne...
Soprano’s Bar, Victoria’s only live karaoke joint and notorious dive bar, has closed its doors for good, going out with a bang on New Year’s Eve.
A message posted on the bar’s Facebook page on Dec. 31 served as the official annou...
BLACK MOUNTAIN
In The Future
Jagjaguwar
When I hear Stephen McBean’s slowly-picked A-minor guitar intro for “Stormy High,” I’m almost tricked into thinking it’s a cover of “Hell’s Bells,” but then the swing-time Black...
Black Wizard
s/t
Vancouver's music scene seems to be traditionally known for two things: drugs and hard rock. Despite the critical pitfalls of these influences, the city has a habit of inexplicably turning out the most palatable and au...
Lay it On Me
Self-distributed
Waa-BOOM! With an album title ripped from frontman Ryan Hoben’s muscleman tattoos, indiefolkrocksters Minto punch it open with sludgy dirge, “New Bones” – formerly a chooglin’ alt-country number i...
Cadence Weapon
Afterparty Babies
Big Dada
4/5
Canada doesn't produce a whole lot of hip-hop in general, let alone the sterile mall haven of Edmonton. As such, the sophomore album from Rollie Pemberton (aka Cadence Weapon) is going to ...
Fans of guitar tone have a lot to learn about Bill Johnson. His fourth album, Cold Outside should be the one that has this Vancouver Island native flying high above the radar, finally. Ripe with an abundance of select tracks, Johnson proves...
The Japandroids are a two piece guitar wailing, drum pounding, singing machine, (do droids get angry when you call them machines?) and ‘Lullaby Death Jams’ is their recipe for a good time. It’s made up of five interestingly good track...
ENGLISH MOTETS
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park · Hyperion CDA68256
The Gesualdo Six hardly need a review of this their debut CD: within days of its release around Easter it was top of the iTunes classical chart. The CD is a collection of E...
A review of Everybody Left's Season One (2009 - 13) compilation album.
Crop Circle may have taken their name from the controversial 70’s phenomenon, but they have also managed to contribute to a more recent enigma: the earworm. Traditionally, this little beastie takes the form of a trite pop song (think Ms. ...