There were moments of giddy transcendence a few weeks back when this very magazine held its official Launch Party featuring a host of Vancouver talent, among them a long-standing (but largely overlooked punk band) named Aging Youth Gang, wh...
“You shouldn’t start telling a story if you don’t have a story to tell.” From his seat in the lunch room of Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, Tuomas Holopainen leans forward and speaks into the digital audio recorder resting on the coffee table in fr
I’ve heard from numerous sources that the dance floor at the Commodore is supported by a layer of tennis balls, but I’ve never had cause to believe it until TV on the Radio unknowingly put this hearsay to the test. During a visceral tak...
The Sweatshop, June 22nd
I walked into the dimly-lit Sweatshop to catch the tail end of System Shit’s wonderfully sloppy set. Who would have thought that a punk gig would start at 7pm? Fear of Tomorrow hit the stage and began to sonica...
It's a rare occasion when an album captures me with such force on the first listen and keeps me rapt until the closing note, but this one takes the prize. In fact this is one of the best albums i have ever heard. Rob Nicholls and Galen Rigt...
Hush Hush Noise - Band Of The Month
Deb Rhymer has worn numerous hats over the years, from Bette Midler impersonator to daycare operator. But the one that fits her best is blues booster.
Rhymer, a Victoria native, spends almost all her waking hours dedicated to blues, eith...
Fake Shark Real Zombie at Biltmore Thursday October 16
I missed opener The Green Hour to attend the fundraiser at Pub 340 for the guys in The Hotel Lobbyists. A tragedy of that scope has not hit the Vancouver scene in many years and the ...
Bill Johnson contributes eight originals to his Still Blue, each one a fine example of a contemporary blues song, not merely a retread of a familiar 12 bar theme, and each sung in his evocative voice. The variety of approaches, from the sne...
This is the Sleep Factory, Trish Shwart’s exhibition at Martin Batchelor Gallery that opened on November 7th, with a persuasive performance by the artist as a marketeer, and continues with a visual smorgasbord of parodies that explore the commodificatio