The Goatbox Rebel has constructed a thoroughly post-modern take on the blues. Transplanted into the 21st century, the music fuses analog crunch and buzz with digital thrum to create a compelling and fascinating re-casting of one of the foundational sources of rock and roll, given a new electrical tension from the fusion of man and machine. Continue reading
For many people, music attains its greatest emotive power when accompanying a moving image. Whether your thing is comedy or experimental art-house, it’s hard to imagine our favourite films without their respective scores. Here are three films that I saw at this year’s TIFF in which music played a pivotal role. Continue reading
The birds were leaving. Continue reading
Donalyn play sweeping, melodic, dramatic rock music that brings you to your knees. Continue reading
Roots rocker Sam Taylor of Sam Taylor & The East End Love.
Sam Taylor has had a strange and wonderful journey as a musician. He began as a professional jazz singer when he was a child, and he eventually found his way to the guitar and inevitably to the blues. Since then has been plying his distinct trade in Toronto venues and across Southern Ontario. His music is a potent mix of roots genres, which he dubs “soul rock”. With his band The East End Love, he’s been scorching Toronto bars for the last few years.
Dirty Church “Lies, Eyes, Toucan, & Bank”
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! -Psalm 150, V 1-6 Continue reading
Icons can influence people in indirect, peripheral ways. Artists who achieve some measure of cultural ubiquity quickly become diffuse and viral, influencing fashion and music and informing the hive-mind concept of what it is to be “cool”. Sometimes you end up becoming a fan without even realizing it. Continue reading
Devils horns and bone-rattling tunes. Meshuggah at Sound Academy, February 19th, 2013
Note: this post is entirely my own observations, not an objective review. Also the dialogues are fictionalized renderings of actual conversations.
After bypassing the draconian security gauntlet at Sound Academy, my friends and I finally made it inside. Continue reading
Toronto’s Nuit Blanche functions on a combination of spectacle and a willing submission to the transformative power of art. Here is what I witnessed at this year’s event. I experienced two excellent pieces which both utilized the limitless power of sound.
Audio Reckoning 