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Montreal group Plants and Animals embark on exhaustive tour on the back of their new album The End of That

by on March 22, 2012 2:00 pm in Culture

As much as any other job, music can be a grind. With the hectic schedules that most independent bands set for themselves, making a living at it can really take its toll. Matthew Woodward, the drummer for Montreal’s Plants and Animals, sounds like he’s been touring for months.

The band — composed of Woodward, guitarist/bassist/jack of all trades Nic Basque and lead vocalist Warren Spicer — just performed a hectic five shows in three days at SXSW. Their time at the festival didn’t allow the band to slow down, said Woodward.

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Puppy Bowl VIII: the biggest little game of the year

by on February 3, 2012 2:00 pm in Sports

This Sunday marks another year of high stakes collision on the gridiron with two staunch rivals leaving it all on the field. In the grand tradition of organized football, the two best teams in the league will take the field, and play their hearts out to prove once and for all who is top dog.

The eighth annual Puppy Bowl kicks off Sunday Feb. 5 on Animal Planet and it promises to be just as heated, intense and confusing as the previous years. There aren’t many rules to the Puppy Bowl, but it involves 10 adorable puppies at a time taking to a miniature football field with the hopes of dragging a chew-toy across the goal line — or falling asleep.

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The Black Keys are all grown up

by on January 6, 2012 12:00 pm in Culture

The Black Keys may be single-handedly keeping blues rock out of the poor house. While in recent years there have been other heavies emerging in the genre, the undeniable leader of the pack is still this two-man outfit from Akron, Ohio. However, it’s getting harder to keep them rooted in the genre they’re accustomed to.

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David Myles’s Into the Sun does not represent his potential

by on October 23, 2011 3:00 pm in Culture

As a fan of Canadian music, and of independent artists, I always make a point of revisiting old favourites. With David Myles, I was a steadfast fan from the start. Over his career, he has released a series of steadily-improving albums that all represented his talents and style well. This is why I found his most recent album so disappointing.

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I am not a clan member, just a white guy

by on October 13, 2011 5:00 pm in Opinions

The only people who would disagree that racial equality is a positive force and a worthy cause are awful, so it would be really cool if I wasn’t automatically grouped in with them because I happen to come from a coastal region in Scandinavia where humans have white skin.

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Up with people, down with radical feminism

by on September 21, 2011 4:00 pm in Opinions

I learned very early on that a girl can hurt you physically, and that they’ll probably beat you at most things. In short, I learned that the only difference between men and women was a matter of anatomy; that equality was a reality and that it was something I should respect and promote. It wasn’t until high school that I was informed by a helpful group of Radical feminists that I was a cancer upon the earth.

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A Tribe Called Quest documentary captures the perfect tone

by on September 12, 2011 8:11 am in Culture

In Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest director Michael Rapaport documents the travails of the group, interviewing group members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad and occasional member Jarobi White to tell their tale.

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Canada is like a box of chocolates

by on June 27, 2009 1:01 pm in Opinions

Canada’s national identity is a tricky thing to pin down.
If you go looking for an explanation, the odds are it won’t be the same for any two people you ask ”” if you get an answer at all. Trying to explain the defining characteristic of the Canadian experience is like a layman trying to explain the big bang theory. It starts out strong, maybe they mention quarks or the words “quantum physics,” but then it breaks down into a laundry list of terms and everyone is left confused and unsatisfied.
Most of the time you can get as far as saying that we’re a “mosaic culture,” or that we’re multicultural, and you wouldn’t be wrong but you wouldn’t have really answered the question.

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