In the tradition of the Bob Dylans and Leonard Cohens of yesteryear, Josh Ritter is an unashamed balladeer. His deep, enchanting voice flows over folky acoustic guitar, Hammond organ and percussion. The sound is clean, rich, and maybe you’ve heard it before. It really would be a bit silly to say he’s crossing musical borders, […]
Last night I had the shit kicked out of me by the Arcade Fire.
In the afternoon Colin and Amy came up and they, I, and Brian saw the play ‘The Love List’ which had Colin’s uncle in it (so we got 2 free tickets which made it quite worthwhile). It was very funny, light-hearted, […]
The Arcade Fire wsg Heston Rifle, Belle Orchestre Live at The Underground in Hamilton - October 02, 2004
my camera became a bit of a community commodity this time, so only most, and not all, of the pictures were taken by my own hands
Heston Rifle
Belle Orchestre
THE ARCADE FIRE
Clarence “Citizen Cope” Greenwood’s descriptively titled sophomore disc is an unfortunate step-down, or at least sideways, from his promising but not spectacular self-titled debut. Greenwood’s music is an interesting hybrid between downtempo, hip hop, and reggae. He croons and half raps lyrics about our troubled times, but they are too specific to carry universal import […]
The Sadies wsg Rick White Live at Call The Office in London - September 24th, 2004
Rick White
The Sadies
The Sadies like to defy easy categorization. Their sound takes on elements of bluegrass, country rock, surf, and psychedelia, but it’s not such a strange combination: all these allegedly disparate styles sound natural together.
Favourite Colours is a wash of deep bass, clear-ringing picked steel and good old fashioned country twang. The melodies themselves are straightforward […]
I’ve had this album for a while. Last year I listened to it once, was impressed, listened to it again, thought ‘this has good chance of becoming a contender for top 10 albums of 2003 or some such silly nonsense like that’. And then I promptly forgot about it completely.
Enter late August 2004, stage right. […]
Canadian songstress Kate Rogers is probably best known for her collaborations with artists Aim and Rae&Christian. Her work on Aim’s truly monumental “Sail” got her some attention, and proved beyond a doubt that her voice is among the leaders in the biz. Haunting, delicate, beautiful, and on that track slightly unintelligible. Now she releases St. […]
Expectations can be a real bitch. I’d been keenly looking forward to the Ted Leo show at Call the Office for a rather long time. It was a strange situation: I found out they were playing at CTO a month and a bit ago, and the name sounded familiar, so I looked into […]
Ted Leo/Pharmacists wsg The Reputation Live at Call The Office in London - July 17th, 2004 - Review
The Reputation
Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Manitoba wsg Junior Boys Live at Call The Office in London - June 19th, 2004
Junior Boys
Manitoba
THE UNICORNS Live at Call The Office in London - June 1st, 2004
This was one of the more disappointing concerts I’ve been to. I did have high expectations, though.
And one bonus, out of focus (because I forgot to use the flash) picture of the anti-racism consortium held on stage during the end of the […]
Quannum is an underground hip hop record lable, and my favourite one at that. At least for this show, Quannum consisted of: Blackalicious (Gift of Gab produced by Chief Xcel), Latyrx (Lyrics Born, Lateef the Truthspeaker), Lifesavas (Vursatyl, Jumbo the Garbageman), plus solo performances in various capacities by most of those involved, and other […]
I think I mentioned yesterday that i’ve really been into The Decemberists lately. Sunday was basically taken up by me falling in love with that thing they do. Songs that tell stories, often intriguing, varied and historical stories (one of the things I like about Nick Cave) which is something I love to […]
THE MATADORS Live at the Corktown Tavern in Hamilton - March 27, 2004
“Those pictures of ‘the midget blow-job queen’ are incredible! Great job!!!” - Joel “Hooch” Perkins