Last Call Chernobyl: A Metal Cinderella Story

Who’s ever heard of a Cinderella story in metal? Well, one band out of the East Coast of Canada, Halifax to be specific, has truly proved that the underdog can wear the metal horns, and represent a contingent of metal fans and musicians from back home.

It all began when Last Call Chernobyl entered the 2010 Battle of the Bands, sponsored by Nova Scotia Music and Vans Warped Tour. LCC entered the battle among many other East Coast metal bands, but by winning over the unfamiliar crowds and judges their destiny was written in stone. Read more

CD Review: The On Fires “Betrayer”

For the last few years, The On Fires have split their time on the road between their home area of Australia and Europe, where they are developing a following. With two continents covered, The On Fires were ready to spread to North America. For that to happen, the band went about recording a new release. They are currently promoting that new release entitled Betrayer.

Musicians Maxine Harman and Marty Xenoff make up the base for the Australian rock band. In the band, Harman is the keyboardist/singer, while Xenoff is the guitarist/singer. But unlike many of the ever-increasing number of duos that exist out there in the music industry today with just two musicians, Harman and Xenoff call upon other musicians to help fill out the band’s sound so they don’t end up sounding hollow. Read more

Punk pioneers Pennywise ready for Canadian stint: September 3 – 17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PUNK PIONEERS PENNYWISE READY FOR CANADIAN STINT
TOUR BEGINS SEPTEMBER 3 IN QUEBEC AND WRAPS UP SEPTEMBER 17 IN VANCOUVER
BAND IS REINTRODUCING ITSELF WITH NEW LEAD SINGER ZOLI TEGLAS

August 24, 2010—California South Bay punk stalwarts Pennywise, a main stage standout on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour, with Zoli Teglas of Orange County’s Ignite as the band’s new and permanent vocalist, will be taking its act across the Great White North during a brief Canadian tour kicking off September 3 in Quebec and wrapping up on September 17 in Vancouver. Read more

Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison

In the summer of 2005, a package arrived at the Hollywood offices of Highway 61 Entertainment from London with no return address. Inside were two mini-cassette audio tapes dated December 30, 1999 and labeled The Last Testament of George Harrison.

A voice eerily similar to Harrison’s tells a shocking story: Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash in November of 1966 and replaced with a double!? British intelligence, MI5, had forced The Beatles to cover up McCartney’s death to prevent mass suicides of Beatle fans. However, the remaining Beatles tried to signal fans with clues on album covers and in songs.

Until now, the “Paul Is Dead”  mystery that exploded worldwide in 1969 was considered a hoax. However, in the film Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, the mysterious voice on the tapes reveals a secret Beatles history, chronicling McCartney’s fatal accident, the cover up, dozens of unknown clues, and a dangerous cat and mouse game with “Maxwell,” The Beatles’ MI5 handler, as John Lennon became increasingly reckless with the secret. The voice also claims that Lennon was assassinated in 1980 after he threatened to finally expose “Paul McCartney” as an imposter! Read more

Rock and Roll Photo Essay: The Scorpions Live in Concert

Scorpions
Molson Amphitheatre
Toronto, Ontario
June 27, 2010

I’m gonna date myself here. Back in 1981, I had just moved to a town called Prince George BC. Desolation Boulevard. Being the young extrovert I always was, I quickly hooked up with the neighbourhood partiers, young as we were, and dove headlong into the toxic realm of partying to the soundtrack of the new wave of metal that was pounding our eardrums.

One of my buddies found a tape. Remember those? The chunk of plastic with two rolling wheels of low quality, magnetic tape running in between? Just checking. So he finds this unmarked, home made tape with some of the best tunes we’d ever heard in our lives. We spun this thing relentlessly but no matter what, we couldn’t figure out who this mystery band was.

Read more

Shapes and Sizes: Out of Victoria’s “velvet rut”

Shapes and Sizes left quaint Victoria to settle into metropolitan Montreal. As the only Canadian band signed to Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty Records, Shapes and Sizes write layered progressions that jostle the listener outside of normative conceptions of genre. Caila Thompson-Harnett, Nathan Gage, Rory Seydel, and John Crellin led the way at Montreal’s Sala Rossa with new a-tonal progressions that demonstrated compositional complexity. The band played a number of tracks from their latest (third) record, “Candle to Your Eyes”, which abandons the formal aesthetics of both their self-titled release and “Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner,” and opts for poetic explorations of love, memory, and mortality. Caila and I then got to chatting about parks, loneliness, and the “velvet rut” of Victoria.

Q: What is your day job?

A: I’m a housekeeper. I’m like a 1990s Mexican housekeeper working in Texas. That’s me. In Montreal. Read more

Red Wanting Blue on why “the fucking road deserves the reverence of The Beatles”

We recently had the pleasure to bounce some “Qs” off of Scott Terry – lead singer of the Ohio-based roots rock band, Red Wanting Blue. The band has been touring relentlessly for 10 years now and their latest release, “These Magnificent Miles,” is a collection of engaging tunes centered loosely around life on the road.

Q: I’d like to get started with the band’s name: Red Wanting Blue.  Is this a political reference – your wanting a traditional red state, like your home state of Ohio perhaps, to become blue, or what? Read more

PIGSHIT: Through the past, smartly

For those who arrived at the party rather late – meaning the first new Stones record you ever bought had a big red tongue splayed across its label – the five years and ninety-nine minutes contained within Chrome Dreams’ fine new Rolling Stones: The Mick Taylor Years DVD will serve as a more than welcome addition to all of your recently-acquired Exile On Main St. collectibles. In fact, should you consider yourself a part of the ever-expanding constituency who swear the Stones’ best work was done during that key half decade between the death of Brian Jones and the arrival of Ronnie Wood, this is one documentary which absolutely deserves your undivided attention. Read more

Reliving some of Osheaga 2010′s greatest musical moments, from The National to Arcade Fire

Where else in the world would you rather have been on Saturday, July 31 than in Montreal, where the annual Osheaga Music and Arts Festival went down? Over twenty bands shared this eminent day, as music junkies gathered from across the country for this unforgettable experience of talent debauchery.

My heart was pulsating and I could feel the adrenaline creeping as I arrived at the gates of Osheaga 2010, all the bands running through my mind – Jimmy Cliff,  Stars, The National, K’NAAN, Arcade Fire – what an amazing day it was going to be! The weather was flawless: sunny, slight breeze, and immaculately warm. I entered, much to my surprise, without any wait, digging out my map to see where I was bound and the first show to see. Beautiful people littered the grounds, everyone eyeing one another up and down – I give kudos to those who braved the show with kids in tow. Read more

The good, the bad, and the unfortunate: A look at Osheaga 2010

July 31 and August 1 saw the fifth annual Osheaga music festival in Montreal. Usually a pretty modest affair, most of what Osheaga does, it does right. Beer, for instance. Osheaga does beer really well: the lines are short and the price isn’t too steep. And they’ve done away with beer tents, allowing Canadians the freedom to roam with their brew – just as God intended. There isn’t an overwhelming sense of corporate sponsorship, and the free metro ride home is very much appreciated. Oh, and the music is pretty good too.

In past years, Osheaga hadn’t attracted as many big performers as Coachella, Lollapalooza, or Bonnaroo, but this year it joined the ranks of the heavy hitters. Weezer and Snoop Dogg were some of the high profile names, but the band that made Osheaga truly transcendent was Montreal’s own Arcade Fire. Read more

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