Arts & Entertainment

Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.

Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle

In their 17 years as a band, New York indie veterans Blonde Redhead’s unique and mesmerizing sound has taken on a number of permutations. Their eighth full-length album, Penny Sparkle—the culmination of a musical evolution which began with the gritty art-rock of their 1995 self-titled debut—is testament to the trio’s[Read More…]

Like daughter, like mother

You Again could have been written by a group of moms to convince their daughters that they can move past high school trauma. Successful publicist Marni (Kristen Bell) comes back home to finally meet her beloved brother’s bride-to-be, and finds that it’s her old high school bully Joanna (Odette Yustman).[Read More…]

Drinking in the footsteps of Richler

Alice Walker Alice Walker Mordecai Richler never attended McGill University, but it’s likely the university’s administrators wish he had. Richler, the acclaimed Montreal novelist whose works depict the city in gritty detail, is the namesake of McGill’s new writer-in-residence program, which will bring two authors—one Anglophone, one Francophone—to McGill to[Read More…]

Pop Montreal

With hundreds of performers gracing more than 50 stages across the city, Pop Montreal can be downright overwhelming. The good news? That means there’s something for everyone. The full schedule can be found online (popmontreal.com), but here’s a list of some big names, up-and-comers, and special events worth checking out.[Read More…]

Business Casual­ – Chromeo

Chromeo’s third album delivers the same blend of 80s synth-pop as previous efforts, replete with catchy hooks, tasty guitar riffs, and smoothly polished production. There’s nothing new about what P-Thugg and Dave 1 are doing, but there’s no denying that they are damn good at it.

Hurley – Weezer

Not content with the status quo of band photos and random artsy shots as album art, Weezer took a new route with their newly released album, Hurley (an ode to television’s Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Lost’s resident “dude”).

America’s Most-Trusted Comedian

Last week, New York Magazine put Jon Stewart’s cherubic face on its cover, accompanied by a bold headline: “The Jon Stewart Decade.”

In the article, Chris Smith outlined a fairly familiar argument: that Jon Stewart is our generation’s Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America at a time when the issues facing the country seem tailor-made for mockery.

Comeback Kid Sure Does Live up to its Name

Winnipeg isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of the Canadian music scene, but there’s a good case for bumping it a bit higher on your list. The city has produced some amazing bands over the years: the Guess Who (and spin-off BTO), Propaghandi (and spin-off the Weakerthans), and a little artist named Neil Young. Comeback Kid represents the heavier side of the ‘Peg, and has carried on the city’s DIY punk tradition. “There’s always been a healthy underground following for the punk hardcore kind of thing,” says Comeback Kid guitarist Jeremy Hiebert. “I’m 34 years old and it’s never been super hard to find people who book local stuff throughout the years. There’s still kids doing that, renting community centres or whatever.”

His town

At one point in The Town, Doug MacRay gazes upward at an airplane jetting through the sky, signifying the possibility of life beyond small-town Boston. But the image is as fleeting as the lives of the bank-robbing bandits the film portrays, and it seems as though MacRay (played by a melancholy Ben Affleck) is in this town to stay.

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