Music
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Whose House? The Mariachi Ghost’s House
If you’re looking for any of the members of the Mariachi Ghost on a Tuesday night, chances are you’ll find them jamming together in a basement.
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From Onanole, with love
Solo artists Carly Dow and Logan McKillop have a lot in common: familial roots in Onanole, MB, an appreciation for the captivating beauty of Riding Mountain National Park, a comfortable niche in the local singer-songwriter scene and an intimate show set for Feb. 17 at the Times Changed High and Lonesome Club.
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A personal Brood
Instead of focusing on historic battles, Elliott BROOD decided that its latest record, Work and Love, would be more about the band members’ actual lives.
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Celebrating Dilla
Winnipeg is finally catching up to other cities in paying tribute to the late J Dilla, an influential rapper and record producer who was based out of Detroit, Michigan.
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Someone always pays
Terms like “veterans” or “pioneers” get used pretty loosely when describing bands. But they rarely hold truer than when used to describe Napalm Death. The English band, active since 1981, essentially created the grindcore genre, laying the groundwork for much of today’s heavy and extreme music. The group’s current lineup, intact since 1991, just released their sixteenth album, Apex Predator – Easy Meat. It’s a chaotic blast of discordant noise and rabid spontaneity.
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Up All Night
Inside the windowless cube of the Empress Street Walmart, open 24 hours, time doesn’t seem to move. Blue-smocked, zombie-like employees shuffle past, throwing inquisitive looks at the two bearded fellows who’ve just come in from the cold. Folk musician Micah Erenberg’s in the market for a new rug, so we’re cruising the aisles in search of carpeting.
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Still Breathing, but barely
On the third night of the year I got into the backseat of my parents’ Mazda next to my aunt and uncle. My dad drove and my mom fretted over whether she’d fit in. We were headed to a chilly Exchange District studio, where my cousin and her friends hosted a hip hop dance battle.
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Oi-maica
DC Sound System is tired of cliches, like Ska is dead, and The Sex Pistols weren’t punk. Alex DeChoiseul believes ska is very much alive and well.
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Dance party promises
The Big Fun Festival is set to showcase over 40 of the best up-and-coming artists from Manitoba, as well as some hand-selected acts from across Canada. Running from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1 at venues around the city, the festival is sure to bring warmth to our cold winter nights.
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Hear That Lonesome Whippoorwill
Often you have to let go before you can move on.
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Gig life
It’s almost been three years, but new METZ material is coming.
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Whose House? Christine & John’s house.
Christine Fellows greets me at the door and immediately offers a cup of ginger tea, and it barely takes half a moment to feel welcomed and warmed. Fellows and John K Samson are each notable musicians, writers and all-around creators with a vast body of work between them.
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Business and pleasure
The role of talent management in music has existed as long as the music industry itself. Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman and unofficial “fifth Beatle” Brian Epstein were essential to the success and influence of those artists.
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Another fiver
Margaret Howison - Like a Noise (February)
Recorded at the legendary Private Ear, this six-song EP from Howison will hopefully host tunes similar to the intimate, campfire-ready tracks that pepper her soundcloud page (think Ruth Moody, Haley Bonar). Catch her release show at The Good Will on February 5.
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The Show Must Go On
Among all of the new businesses cropping up in West Broadway and the West End, there is one familiar old mainstay with a colourful facade that rarely fails to draw a crowd.
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Making music look good
Scrimping on album art isn’t a smart choice. Winnipeg is lucky to have a number of talented graphic designers eager to help bands create eye-catching pieces of art to inspire interest in their sounds.
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Good and evil
J. Williamez might be familiar to Uniter readers for a number of reasons. For years the musician/comedian penned his Good and Evil column for our back page, and just last week the latest record from his band The Civil Disobedients, Another Dead Medium, was voted the favourite local release of 2014 by our readers.
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The Uniter Fiver Showcase
In December we asked new artists to submit their best songs and you voted on them. The idea is to give a leg up to people new to this business we call show, and to do it with a little ceremony.
It’s not always easy to get your sounds out there, so Manitoba Music is giving the Fiver bands one year memberships. The “winner” (chosen by an industry panel) is on this very cover and will get to record at Collector Studio with Will Grierson and Arthur Antony. Maybe we’ll come up with a few more goodies between press time and the show, who knows.
Come on out to The West End Cultural Centre on January 15 to see The Janzen Boys, Carey J. Buss, Somebody Language and the Way it Feels, autumn still and Mabel’s Flight play an industry showcase. Doors are at 7:15, show at 8pm, $10 at the door, all ages.
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Sprechen Sie Somebody?
There are many contradictions at the heart of Somebody Language, the creative musical brainchild of songwriter and frontman Benjiman Figler. This singer-songwriter project is also a huge, sometimes eight-piece band.
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Sing along, Boys
The Janzen Boys have come a long way from after-dinner sing-alongs and silly hallway jingles.