Nicholas Friesen
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PUP
PUP (formerly known as Topanga - changed after a tantrum because <i>Girl Meets World</i> is maybe a thing) is kind of Toronto’s answer to The Cribs or The Vines (and a million other bands that blend dirty guitars, group yells and mayhem with clean production) and the four piece is really immediate and intense while still being lots of fun.
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Molière gets Winnipeg’d
Many plays have been adapted for present day’s stage and screen, but award winning playwright Carolyn Gray’s adaptation of Molière’s 1668 satire The Miser is a little more Winnipeg-centric than most.
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Miesha and the Spanks
The words “produced and mixed by Ian Blurton” are always a comfort, from local favourites the Weakerthans to scads of heavy and mellow artists across our country, he’s the perfect fit for Calgary’s Miesha and the Spanks.
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Matthew Good
Spending the six years since his solo masterpiece Hospital Music in self-reflective throwback mode (a live album and two discs of sub-par 90s re-hashes), the hero of my teenage years returns with something at least fun.
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The Darcys
Remember when the Dears were moody and symphonic and falsetto-y?
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Writers schmiters
The Winnipeg IF Improv Festival has been going strong since the year 2000, making longtime fans of improvised comedy feel old and young improvisers feel more competitive.
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On their own, together
Sarah Roche, 28, and Lise McMillan, 30, have worked together for years, as students and company members of Winnipeg’s Contemporary dancers, but about two years ago the duo decided to break out on their own.
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So fresh and so clean
Since 2005, Winnipeg’s WNDX Festival of Moving Image has been breaking brains and melting eyeballs, exposing film audiences to the best in experimental film, installations, performances and video from here at home and around the world.
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The Proud Sons
This Winnipeg five piece evolved from radio rockers AM Glory (which evolved from Accepting Silence) and does power pop country served just right.
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The Young Pixels
To stop any Black Keys/White Stripes comparisons before they start - the Young Pixels are more in line with the Pixies’ Black Francis/Kim Deal, if they didn’t hate each other, had kids and lived on an organic farm near Brandon, Manitoba.
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The Heavy Blinkers
This Halifax project went away for a while, but it’s back and it’s beautiful and you missed it even if you didn’t know it.
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AIDS isn’t a punchline
Last week, the new season of The League, a semi-improvised knock off of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FXX (a comedy offshoot of the Fox offshoot FX) premiered.
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Federal Lights
Federal Lights’ debut LP follows up last year’s Carbon EP and its sounds are bigger, with a more fleshed-out sound and a higher profile (it’s the band’s first for Toronto indie label Aporia).
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Grand Analog
Odario Williams has been writing rhymes for as long as most of us have been listening and due to this, nearly every lyric on his band’s third disc sounds as natural as freestyle, yet as prepared as poetry.
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The Bros Landreth
The debut record from local group, The Bros Landreth, holds nine tracks of competent roots rock with sexy lead and slide guitars accompanied by Eagles-inspired harmonies.
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Where are they playing?
Whether you're a new post-secondary student wondering where the cool music can be found downtown or a music lover that can't keep track of which venues are open or closed (the last year has seen the Lo Pub, Negative Space, Pop Soda's, Republic and more shut down) the Uniter hopes this grid of its favourite downtown live music venues will fill your sound-hungry belly.
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The Uniter 30 - Behind the Scenes
Uniter 30 - Behind the scenes.
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Shine On Festival of Music and Art
Held in the heart of the Sandilands Forest, the Shine On Festival of Music and Art has been going strong since 2005 as a laid-back yet experimental music festival.
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Morden Corn and Apple Festival
Since 1967 the Morden Corn and Apple Festival has been going strong, and with its focus on all things free, from the admission to the entertainment, the hot-buttered corn on the cob and ice cold apple cider (as well as shuttle services) it’s definitely the hot spot for family friendly good times this summer.
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Rainbow Trout Music Festival
For the last few years Jean-Guy Roy (former member of defunct local rockers The Morning After) has been leading Federal Lights, turning it from a basement solo project to a full-on band with his wife Jodi, David Pankratz (Quinzy) and Rob Mitchell (The Attics). Last year the band released the six-song, Cam Loeppky (John K. Samson) produced Carbon EP and played a whack of industry conferences, festivals and gigs around the country.