music

Essentially a playlist

I just recently finished reading a great new book from former Winnipegger Alissa York. It’s called Fauna and, amongst other things, it’s a book about…


H.I.T.S parade

It is Tuesday evening at the Toad in the Hole on Osborne and everything is as it should be — that is, nothing is out…


Classical Rock

The south-facing exterior wall of the University of Manitoba’s Marcel A. Desautel faculty of music bears the words, “DEMOLISH SERIOUS CULTURE.” Attempts to remove this…


Welcome to Guantanamo

Jello Biafra, outspoken punk rock auteur and censorship activist, is coming to town with his new group, the Guantanamo School of Medicine. Biafra is the…



Hot Panda action

They started making panda porn to show male pandas,” explains Chris Connelly of Edmonton’s Hot Panda, “because they find that in captivity they can’t get…


Coffee music: The guide

There was a time when even Starbucks, now fast becoming the exclusive domain of sugar-crazed teenagers, was filled with safe but tasteful music. When I…



Jock jams

In 480 BC, as the Persians approached the Greek ships at the Battle of Salamis, they heard singing. According to Greek poet Aeschylus, “All the…