CD Review – fun, “Aim and Ignite”
This band is fun. And, in what can only be described as a triumph of literal representation, they are also actually named “fun.” Finally! What…
Damian Purdy
Wild Things, I Think I Hate You
Like most people, I enjoy escaping to elaborately constructed fantasy worlds. I totally identify with Max, the protagonist of Maurice Sendak’s iconic 1963 picture book…
Lazy days and the indifferent gaze
The leaves rust and the sky turns white like clay. With heavy resignation, we consign our Chip & Pepper wetwear and cut-offs to the furthest…
Static prevails
Send and Receive, Winnipeg’s annual festival of sound, is on again this week and there’s nary a hook, harmony or hand-clap to be heard. Instead,…
The Ultimate Downer
On the morning of April 5, 1994, Jarrod woke up wide-eyed. Believing that he could fly, the teenager convinced his father to drive him and…
Hirsute, heroic, and hot
War! Yes! Like most children of modern privilege, I’ve always had a naive fascination with war and, even more so, her heroes. Yes, those rugged…
The Fine Art of Finances
Most university students spend their academic careers elbow-deep in couch cushions, digging for bus fare and maxing out that “emergency” credit card their parents pay…
Six so so so super sincere songs
The Smiths — “Please Please Please Let me Get What I Want” Three “pleases” and not even one “pretty” from Morrissey, a grown man whose…
CD Review : The Famines “Free Love is a Sales Technique”
Is there a crueler bait-and-switch than “reality”? All it does is savage the hopes and reveries we lay so desperately at its false altar. Indeed,…
A new noise
Crowds. Lights. A new noise. I stumble into the Toad on Osborne. The vast hum of the outside world recedes behind me, overcome by the…