The Tribune

musicvice.com Back for its 17th year, the annual North by Northeast (NXNE) festival and conference brought over 600 bands to Toronto over the course of five sweltering days in June. One of the most anticipated shows was Toronto’s own Fucked Up playing a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square,[Read More…]

David Irwin Unless you’re deep into experimental and avant-garde saxophone, chances are you’ve never heard anyone play quite like Michigan-born, Montreal-based Colin Stetson. Between using circular breathing (simultaneously breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth in order play continuously), the keys as percussion, and singing into his[Read More…]

style.ritzgirl.com West-coast duo The Pack a.d. revisited Montreal this past summer with a powerful June 10 performance at Le Divan Orange. Guitarist and main vocalist Becky Black is disarmingly slight in person, given that the androgynous power of her voice captured on disc creates the impression of a giant. But[Read More…]

Released exclusively online on Aug. 8, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne embraces a growing trend in the music industry that prioritizes digital music over the aging CD. With this release comes an album that, according to the duo, will bring commercial and critical legitimacy to another game-changing movement[Read More…]

sickchirpse.com Amidst all the madness of late spring season finales, television addicts like myself were treated to an unexpected surprise in HBO’s newest show Game of Thrones. Based on a critically acclaimed series of fantasy novels by author and screenwriter George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones has been highly anticipated[Read More…]

ramascreen.com At first glance, Matthew McConaughey’s new mystery/suspense/legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer might strike you as an unusual project for the actor. A stray from his typecasting as a shirtless hunk in every woman’s favourite romantic comedy, McConaughey plays Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney. When he is[Read More…]

Eureka, the third album from Canadian rock band Mother Mother, really packs a punch. Full of dance hooks, swelling harmonies, and heavy percussion, the first four tracks showcase what the five-piece band does best. The pop and rock elements are spot-on, and the addition of heavier synth beats makes the[Read More…]

When I saw Hey Rosetta! play in a crowded band shell in the pouring rain at Osheaga in 2009, the last thing on my mind was “Man, these guys sound like Coldplay” (coincidentally that night’s headliner). But when I started listening to Seeds, their third full-length album, I realized that[Read More…]

All Eternals Deck, the newest  album from the Mountain Goats, represents an evolution from their last record, The Life of the World to Come. Their latest release is a melting pot of brilliantly worded social and political commentary, combined with an expanded instrumental repertoire. This latest release captures the listener[Read More…]

deconrecords.ca Nowadays, the words “Canadian hip-hop” usually lead to a discussion of Toronto hitmaker Drake, whose surge in popularity has earned him fans all over the world. But Sunday’s Juno Awards saw Drake lose Rap Recording of the Year to Vancouver-based rapper Shad, whose 2010 album TSOL has also been[Read More…]