Nicholas Friesen
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Whatever happened to that one band?
Every January since 2009, the Uniter has been putting the spotlight on local artists to watch (2008 profiled Canadians to watch, but included late locals the Liptonians). We thought we’d take a look back at the past picks and see what they’re up to.
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Another fiver
Having not even compiled a proper 2013 mix (yet), this music nerd is now quickly thrust into anticipating what is coming out in 2014. Here’s a look at five artists with releases slated for the first few months of the year, as well as a short list of artists who have planned releases.
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The Pack A.D.
This Vancouver duo has delivered a shocking, heavy and full sound on its fifth proper LP and though it’s not a far cry from the sounds made on 2010’s We Kill Computers or 2011’s Unpersons, it is slightly different and continues the trend of this great band getting better with each release.
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Dustin Bentall & The Smokes
This is a big sounding country popper with guts, hooks and back up vocals to burn in all the right ways.
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The Belle Comedians
This five song EP from Fredericton quintet The Belle Comedians hosts some melancholy pop (“Rosy”), sparse baroque drones (“Margaret”) and dainty acoustic ditties (“Louise” - the disc’s true standout) and at only 19 minutes, it’s a nice taste of what this tightly warbled outfit has to offer.
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Drowning in sports drinks
Jamie Graham never thought she would spend more than $750 at one time on Gatorade and soft drinks, but that’s what she did late last month.
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Was it something I said?
Director Alan Zweig (Vinyl) has made a career out of being eccentric and inserting himself in with his documentary subjects, so it’s curious that in his latest film, When Jews Were Funny, he chooses to stay planted behind the camera in this talking head interview feature, despite being part of the conversation.
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The New Thing
A few years ago I was looking for a space to do a music video for the band Federal Lights.
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The Manitoba Festival
Winnipeg Folk Fest, we love you, but you're bringing us down. Let's hope that 2013's yawn of a lineup was only a celebration of the past and not an indication of the years to come.
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The Parking Space
The Uniter is a downtown street weekly, but it’s also the official newspaper of the University of Winnipeg.
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The Theatrical Production
Winnipeg theatre happens all year long, but to many people it’s all about checking out the Fringe in July.
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Rusty and Savanna
Christmas records are hit and miss - classics from Vince Guaraldi and Phi Spector beat out contemporary attempts from The Flaming Lips and Meaghan Smith (who, by removing the "ba-rum-pa-bum-bums" from "The Little Drummer Boy" is now dead to me) but if you can somehow embrace the campiness of Christmas classics while making the songs your own and doing it all with complete sincerity and a pop sensibility that can't be denied, then you must be Rusty Matyas of Imaginary Cities.
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Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Where these gentlemen (Stephen Fearing, Colin Linden and Tom Wilson) find the time to make all the music they do, I will never know.
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Magnolia
This six-track EP from Halifax duo Magnolia is all kinds of cute (think July Talk without the high energy sex appeal) and not just because singer Leanne Hoffman is a dead ringer for Partridge Family-era Susan Dey.
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Lucky Dog
Opening with “Ramblin’ Man’s Lament” and skating through nine other tracks of sleepy, Nick Drake with a twang acoustic mumbling, Zachary Lucky’s latest is best served with a Sunday nap and a warm blanket, listened to with a stray cat that you named after your wife who committed suicide.
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Dog Day
Having to double check whether or not I’d popped in a mid-90s Sonic Youth disc, I was happy to find that the sombre yet menacing guitar lines were that of Halifax’s favourite husband and wife duo, Dog Day.
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Woodshed Havoc
Local riff-rockers Woodshed Havoc deliver 10 tunes of southern fried shout rock to get you up and dancing, but is their formulaic radio rock ready for you?
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Moonface
Moonface, the solo project of Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown, etc) is a simple showcase for Krug’s trademark warble and piano playing.
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Mark Berube
A far cry from his folk work with the Patriotic Few, this record with muliti-instrumentalist/vocal collaborator Kristina Koropecki and producer Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes) is infectious (“Carnival”), old-timey (“Confessions to a Streetlight”) and tribal (“Ethiopia”) while still being a solid indie pop record.
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Personal politics
Winnipeg music vet Darryl Reilly (Subcity, the Afterbeat) and Zimbabwe-born vocalist Noma Sibanda first formed Guerrillas of Soul in 2010. After playing a few gigs as a democratic five piece, things fell apart but the duo kept going.