review

Artist: Black Lips Venue: The Phoenix – Toronto, Ontario, Canada Date: April 2011 No decade has produced more relentlessly touring bands than the 2000’s. Since the decline of record sales, bands have had to work harder to get noticed and get paid, and there is no better way than to play live shows all over the world all of the time. Every time The Black Lips return to Toronto they get bigger and more fantastic. Even though their show remains...

In art, as is the case in life, it has been proven time and again that the population of intelligent people in the world fall into one of two groups: those that consider themselves to be smart and those that simply are. So what’s the difference? Those that assume themselves to be intelligent usually come by the notion honestly – they might be scholarly, they might be good (if fairly humorless) conversationalists, they may be the ones that their friends...

The single most important construct to the fabric of humanity and the condition of it is the establishment of motivation. ‘Motive’ is the cornerstone for crime, punishment, change, virtue, vice and myriad other human endeavours but, most importantly, defining motives and qualifying motivation means articulating cause for the purpose of allowing others to understand outcomes and effects. Without that understanding—that relatable human element that everyone can find within themselves—people get very nervous. That was the instinct the...

The single most important construct to the fabric of humanity and the condition of it is the establishment of motivation. ‘Motive’ is the cornerstone for crime, punishment, change, virtue, vice and myriad other human endeavours but, most importantly, defining motives and qualifying motivation means articulating cause for the purpose of allowing others to understand outcomes and effects. Without that understanding—that relatable human element that everyone can find within themselves—people get very nervous. That was the instinct the...

“Every band I love, they have something in their hands and create something unique,” explains singer/guitarist Leif Koren of Norway’s Bonk. “Shitloads of bands just make a copy and don’t throw themselves inside it.” There’s really no way to properly explain what Bonk is in Koren’s eyes, as explaining art is often more difficult that it may seem. But just know that the band’s sophomore album Bonk Against Nothing (Ace Fu) has all the elements of a classic punk/rock album,...

If turning something old into something new is what’s going on in music right now, then Toronto’s k-os is the man. His third record since 2003, and first for new label Virgin, clearly puts him as one of the most creative and talented musicians and producers in the game right now. The first track off 2007’s Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, “Electrik Heat – The Seekwill,” is yet another take on the “Funky Drummer” break, but there’s homage and a fresh...

“The original blueprint was to combine Carl Craig or early Warp records sounds with that of German groups like Kraftwerk and CAN,” explains David Best of UK’s newest innovation, Fujiya & Miyagi, about their 2007 release Transparent Things. “I like the fact that we can incorporate different styles into our music and it hopefully still sounds like us.” From the first note on “Ankle Injuries,” your ears perk up like when you’re driving down the freeway and you hear a...

How White Flight is a solo project is beyond any sort of musical comprehension. The “project” rivals any Beck or Arcade Fire record for its imagination and pure listenability. White Flight is Justin Roelofs of Lawrence, Kansas, where he says “is a place where the conditioning is put on an individual in a very heavy way.” After taking a few rides on the White Flight, perhaps rural Kansas isn’t such a bad place to be conditioned. The album is a...

Song for song covers of albums tend to be a pretty lame affair. Every once in a while, someone knocks out an all star Beatles re-enactment and effectively flattens it of any spirit. Which is why it is practically startling just how good this track-for-track version of Harry Nilsson’s Pussycats is. Why does it work? Because this notorious album, (originally half sung in drunk-speak with John Lennon), was never very good to begin with. What people expected to be a...

After making the leap from indie to major, the Atlanta-based metal band Mastodon release their long-awaited third album Blood Mountain. Not many bands have the skill to evolve and encapsulate an entire ideology of metal from one album to the next. The first two Mastodon records—2002’s Remission and 2004’s Leviathan—were thunderous and venomous, while Blood Mountain seems to have a little more groove. It’s still heavy enough to rip paint from the walls, but it’s just not as ominous. It’s...