Arts & Entertainment

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

POP RHETORIC: R.I.P. MTV

The Buggles need to come out with a new one-hit wonder: “Internet Killed the Video Star.” This is the sad but true fate that our music age has come to. Remember when VH1 only played new music videos? How about MTV? Or MuchMusic? For the latter, you may be thinking, “but MuchMusic still plays music videos.

by Alex Knoll

STANDing tall against genocide

Since 2003, a reported 400,000 murders have taken place in Darfur, Sudan, at the hands of the state-sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, and their campaign of ethnic cleansing. While the main violence has ended – there are few villages left to burn – the atrocity has displaced over 2.

by Brahna Siegelberg

Everybody’s a terrorist in From Paris With Love

Pierre Morel’s new film From Paris With Love is exceptionally tasteless. Admittedly, action movies are meant to be vile concoctions of guns, cars, drugs, and racial/sexual stereotypes, but From Paris With Love is so strikingly problematic that it cannot be considered a harmless testosterone-fuelled fantasy.

by Grace Glowicki

CD REVIEWS: OK Go: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky

You may know OK Go from their infamous viral videos on YouTube – including the treadmill dance routine in “Here it Goes Again” – from their previous album Oh No. Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is the latest album from the unique digital rock band. The album starts out with a Prince-like track, appropriately titled “WTF?” OTBCOTS is a departure from their first two albums, with a funkier, dancier sound.

by Alex Knoll

CD REVIEWS: Line Spectra: Maps & Directions

Line Spectra has finally released their first studio album. For the past couple years, you may have noticed this all-girl trio playing at staple venues around Montreal and even a few shows at OAP. These ladies wield their instruments with a fancy, sparkle and a twist.

by Pamela Fillion

CD REVIEWS: Beach House: Teen Dream

Since 2004, Beach House has been the leader of the dream-pop scene with slow, simple pop melodies layered over lush soundscapes to create achingly beautiful songs of love and longing. Vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist/keyboardist Alex Scally have crafted a winning sound that is completely their own, and with Teen Dream it seems they’ve truly perfected it.

by Carolyn Gregoire

The Luyas are breaking all the rules

The Luyas are on cop watch. At least that’s what lead singer/guitarist Jessie Stein says as she attempts to drive and talk to me on the phone at the same time – an illegal activity. Add in the fact that it’s snowing, and I start to get worried that this interview could be hazardously cut short – which would be a tragedy for one of Montreal’s most promising bands, especially one with so much on the horizon.

by Ryan Taylor

The miracle in print

The Daily Miracle is the second play from former Montreal Gazette copy editor David Sherman. Sherman began writing in 2004, when he was a playwright-in-residence at the Centaur Theatre by day and a copy editor by night. The play departs from the traditional fictional focus on investigative reporters to take a look at life behind the editing desk.

by Carolyn Yates

CD REVIEWS: Basia Bulat: Heart of My Own

It’s clear from the opening track of Heart of My Own, the follow-up to her Polaris-nominated debut Oh My Darling, that Basia Bulat isn’t content with her previous success – she’s trying to soar to new heights. As a singer whose music too often gets the “sweet” label (which it undoubtedly is), it’s refreshing to hear her really going for it.

by Ryan Taylor

Women do it solo in The Vagina Monologues

Seeing The Vagina Monologues can be a bit intimidating – but it’s precisely that hesitation that the show is trying to counteract. The Monologues was created as an attempt to reclaim female sexuality by making “vagina” – both the word and the body part – less taboo.

by Alex Knoll
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Hot Take

“Artist 4 Ceasefire” pins are not enough
By Charlotte Hayes, Staff Writer

At nearly every major awards show this year, a number of (American) celebrities , like Billie Eilish and Quinta Brunson, have attended red carpets donning a small red pin on their lapel. The circular metal brooch showing an extended hand and a black heart is a symbol of the organization “Artists 4 Ceasefire,” a group of musicians, filmmakers, and actors urging the U.S. government to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. While raising awareness is a good start, it is only one small part of showing solidarity and cannot be where activism ends. Very few artists seen wearing these pins have spoken about a ceasefire on red carpets and even fewer in acceptance speeches—it is crucial that those with a platform actually, tangibly use it to advocate for Palestinian liberation.