Music
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A heavy metal folk tale
Illusive Mind Gypsy Crew has come a long way since their inception just a few short years ago.
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Origin of the synergy
Joel Gibb, founder of Toronto’s The Hidden Cameras, talks on his cellphone while sipping a soy latte at a trendy Los Angeles coffee shop, seated just a few tables away from “the dude from Rage Against the Machine.”
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Storytime on the run
Brendan McLeod, unofficial ringleader of The Fugitives, Vancouver’s foremost poet-folk ensemble, has reason to be tired.
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A sublime and smouldering package
Amber Epp, Winnipeg jazz scene’s “next big thing,” will be releasing her debut CD with Latin-influenced jazz combo Trio Bembe this Monday, Nov. 23 at the West End Cultural Centre. Epp, who plays weekly with the Papa Mambo Trio at Hermanos, the new Exchange District hotspot for Latin American food and music, recently graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Music School and has a burning passion to contribute as well as perform.
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Easy on the eyes and a treat for the ears
Steven Tyler impregnated a Playmate of the Month, Gene Simmons boasts that he’s been with over 4,600 women and even Lyle Lovett got to marry Julia Roberts. The occasionally-proven music industry myth that ugly dudes can make themselves infinitely more attractive with a little musical talent has resulted in a nation of less-than-remarkable-looking guys endlessly practicing Stairway to Heaven in their bedrooms.
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Little Girls getting bigger
Toronto’s Little Girls may have started as a side project, but with the release of their new album Concepts, the band has taken centre stage. “We’re still good friends, we just won’t be playing shows together for a while,” Josh McIntyre, Little Girls frontman, said of Pirate/Rock, the band from which they spawned.
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It’s all music
Alex Cuba, equipped with an afro, some mad sideburns and a love for creating music, will be making his way to town this week.
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Resistance is fertile
When Maxime Morin put the finishing touches on the follow up to Chill Em All – the highly acclaimed 2004 debut album under his stage moniker DJ Champion – he knew just what to do.
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Rebels with the cause to rock
They look like the boys with the bad ‘tudes that skipped class to smoke cigarettes in the parking lot behind school, cruised in nice cars, picked fights and listened to a hell of a lot of rock ‘n’ roll.
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A man under the influence
Vance Gilbert has played at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Given how confident he is in his performances, perhaps that’s no surprise.
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Arkells planning to take over the world?
When Arkells took the stage in 2004 at Hamilton’s McMaster Battle of the Bands competition and lost, it seemed unexpected that they would return triumphantly to a sold out crowd of cheering fans in their former stomping grounds four years later.
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Acting in Self-Defense
People with PhDs in plant pathology aren’t typically the inspiration for pop songs, but they are for Quinzy.
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Preparing for takeoff
When Alexander McCowan heads out to promote Thief, his latest EP, later on this year, he won’t be logging miles in a touring van and sticking to a premeditated agenda.
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Hannah takes the plunge
Three things you need to know about Hannah Georgas: She plays brisk, capricious folky pop songs, her full-length debut will be coming out this spring and she may one day marry Jack Black.
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Free-range troubadour
Matt Epp could be forgiven for taking some time off. From B.C. to Newfoundland, to California to Tennessee, to Mexico and a lot of the places in between, the local singer-songwriter played more than 150 shows in support of Orphan Horse, the CD he released in April of last year.
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No means business
Playing Winnipeg only once in the last eight years, legendary west coast punk rockers NoMeansNo have left fans here anxiously awaiting their return.
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Toponomy, topography and topology
Tyler Bancroft, co-founder of Vancouver’s Said the Whale, said of their first record that “it’s all songs about Vancouver and the places we knew.”
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Seven days in November
Originally part of the Manito Ahbee Festival, this year’s Aboriginal Music Week will be breaking away from MAF, starting its first annual stand-alone festival.
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When three become one
Music math problem: What is The Nods + Quinzy + The Waking Eyes + the ambience of a 1965, Frankie Avalon surf movie? If you didn’t guess Jicah, then you probably didn’t know that musicians from three of Winnipeg’s highly acclaimed bands have fused into one.
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The blues: As good as dead?
“Did you even listen to our new record?”