Turning to tunes through trials and tribulations
Making music is often as much of a business venture as it is an art form — a conduit for unspeakable feeling warped by an…
Kaelen Bell
JR Charron — ‘Impression,’ 3/5
What do you say about a record like JR Charron’s Impression? Its instant familiarity and country-radio soundalike style is part of the appeal, its lack…
Creative freedom in a restrictive time
PETRIC — Jordan Day, Jason Petric and his brother Tom — are experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance. After years under an exacting label, they’ve…
Vagina Witchcraft — ‘Vagina Witchcraft,’ 4/5
Vagina Witchcraft’s debut record doesn’t open with a scream or sludgy riff, but a missive, spoken with such raw feeling as to make the hair…
From back of the merch table to front of the stage
Nearly everyone, at some point, dreams of becoming a rock star. Or, perhaps not a rock star but a supermodel, an acclaimed actor or a…
Odario — ‘Good Morning Hunter,’ 4.5/5
There is a notion that times of political and social turmoil create incendiary music, the kind of essential, galvanizing work that inspires and unites people….
Creativity in a climate of constant change
As we plunge headfirst into another wave of tightening restrictions, it’s hard not to look back at the pandemic’s tentative beginnings in March, when it…
Madisyn Whajne — ‘Save Our Hearts,’ 4/5
One can imagine the sunlight that must’ve filled the studio as Madisyn Whajne recorded Save Our Hearts — pooling like melted caramel and casting flecks…
Christo Graham — ‘Turnin’,’ 4/5
With a voice that shares some forlorn fibre with the king of melancholy Townes Van Zandt — or maybe it’s a lovesick Alex Chilton on…
Big-budget studio quality that’s local and affordable
Filled with instruments and recording gear, the floor strewn with old rugs and ceiling lined with fairy lights, Adam Fuhr’s House of Wonders is a…