Arts
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Still with enthusiasm
The members of up-and-comers autumn still are a humble group - too humble to even use capital letters in their band name. “We’re not looking to be in-your-face,” vocalist and bassist Bethany Swanson says with a smile.
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Home with the Bell
Carey J. Buss first picked up a guitar at age 12 after hearing his dad’s copy of AC/DC’s Back in Black on a primitive cassette tape. But it was a piece of life-changing advice - “If you can’t find the music you really want to listen to, make it yourself” - that inspired him to dust off his guitar and start writing songs of his own in 2013.
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Ready for take-off
Most of the musicians in Mabel’s Flight are still in their final year of high school, but that isn’t stopping the band from starting to establish itself in Winnipeg’s indie music scene.
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Where are they now?
FINN
This quintet released its debut EP in December. Our reviewer found it reminiscent of late period Death Cab and early Teenage Fanclub, praising its diverse use of vocalists. Catch the band January 24 at The Good Will with Close Talker and ATLAAS.
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The grant and the fury
So you’re a poet songwriter, dropping Dylan-level science on your tiny but dedicated fan base in trendy coffee shops around town. Yet, you’ve never recorded a note and EarShot’s not in your vocabulary, so the notion of grant writing seems daunting.
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À La Mode
Local songstress Dominique Lemoine has been making music as À La Mode and with others (Eagle Lake Owls, etc) for years, but this trio of tunes marks the first proper release from her solo project.
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Johan Agebjorn
Swedish electronic artist Johan Agebjörn’s latest album Notes is being labelled as an ambient record, which is a bit of a misnomer.
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ALFA
Local hip hop artist Alfa’s latest, Harmattan is a solid, bob-your-head slice of funk, totally free of DJ work and samples we’ve come to expect from decades of hip hop.
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Crooked Brothers
Recorded in both a warehouse and a hand-built log cabin, The Crooked Brothers’ third studio album Thank You I’m Sorry resonates with the lonesome snarl of a concrete outlaw.
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Various
Opening with The Civil Disobedients’ “Car Seat” - a track about a woman murdering her two children - this 14 song comp from local label Elephant Bell is intense, heavy and free on Bandcamp.
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The New Wild
In just four songs, brothers Daniel and Sean Guezen deliver more grit and dirt than a lot of bands do in a whole career.
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Backstage costs
Who doesn’t love a local show? It’s an evening for hanging out with friends, watching cool bands for cheap admission and drinking beer. Winnipeg loves its local performers and they love us back. However, most of us are not cut out to be in the bands we enjoy seeing - the hours are long and irregular and it often takes months before they see the kind of cash they need to move forward. New bands need a combination of talent, energy and a determination that is downright stubborn.
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Speaking Volumes
By its very nature, music is a mode of expression. It affects people in ways that other mediums fail to do and messages conveyed through music often create a ripple effect throughout society.
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The Final Frontier
Campus radio has been thriving in Winnipeg for decades, and in 2015 it’s still going strong.
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Fill your spare with song
For the busy student or educator puttering away on campus, music can be an escape.
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The Uniter 30
Hey, it’s that Uniter 30 issue.
We asked you to vote on your favourite local people, places and things of 2014. We tried to find categories that interested our readers. Yes, we’d love to include every type of restaurant and every type of dancer, but as some of us ex-Uptown contributors can attest, that is a lot of categories to get through so we’ve kept it at 30. You’ll see some people that won last year, some names that regularly appear in the paper and a few surprises.
Yeah, normally we put out the Uniter 30 as our December issue, and it sits on the shelf for a month while the students take a break, and everyone smiles if they liked what got picked or they complain if they don’t like what got picked. But when I went to tabulate the votes (a task that took me two days last year) I realized that a lot more people submitted ballots. Last year there were 194 ballots, while this year there were 1,506 (two of which were handwritten). I’m guessing it took me about 70 hours to tabulate everything. So you’re getting this issue now (I almost abandoned the concept entirely in favour of a cute puppies issue, but then I’d have to choose WHICH cute puppies to include and I got stressed out). That being said, thank you SO MUCH FOR ALL THE VOTES.
We then asked our writers to talk to these people, visit these places and hold(?) these things that you voted for. Some people took pictures of them, while other people drew pictures of them. It all turns into this thing in your hands RIGHT NOW. I think it’s a decent representation of what makes up Winnipeg, or at least what a Uniter reader is into. Not your favourite stuff? I don’t know what to tell you.
-NJF
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Building a community one member at a time
Wanda Wilson wanted more than a solo project, she wanted to build a community.
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2015 Uniter Fiver voting page
Cast your vote!
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Collector Studio Underground Sessions - Animal Teeth
Animal Teeth performs live off the floor at Collector Studio in Winnipeg, Canada.
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2015 Uniter Fiver
Since 2009, The Uniter has compiled a list of the five local musical acts it believes to be the most intriguing to watch in the forthcoming year. This list has included Royal Canoe, Del Barber, The Lytics, Cannon Bros, Jodi King and Eagle Lake Owls.