In a town that generally still seems to be navigating the musical hangover of SXSW, Austin Psych Fest is a welcome respite for those who aren’t ready for the festival living to be over. Instead of the apparent relentless and overcrowded feel that dominates during the former, Austin Psych Fest is a niche experience for
There are certain buzz words that appear over and over again in album reviews: fuzzy, crunchy, dreamy, maturing, etc. They’re not genres, necessarily, but they’re words used to almost categorize a band’s sound down to Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order-Family-Genus-Species status. They let you know exactly what you’re getting into before you even open the CD or, as is
Canada seems to be the breeding ground for crunchy electro pop these days, and Toronto-based Parallels may be one of the groups that helped start it all. The synthpop trio formed in 2008, when Cameron Findlay, the former drummer of fellow Canadian electro poppers Crystal Castles, teamed up with vocalist/composer/producer Holly Dodson. Since its inception
On Tuesday night, Los Angeles’ Echoplex transformed into a dance club hosted by the rapidly-ascenting promoter Check Yo Ponytail 2. The lineup was excellent, consisting of the lovely Danish Oh Land, the eccentric Blood Orange, and the dark sounds of TRUST. For those of you who have not heard TRUST before, picture a mix of
We all know Spencer Krug as the eccentric vocalist/keyboardist of Montreal’s indie rock outfit Wolf Parade, and a lot of us know him as the crooning frontman of the art rock solo-project-turned-quintet Sunset Rubdown, but how many people know him under his newest solo moniker Moonface? The answer: not many, or at least, not many
Zoe Boekbinder has always been a creative, free spirit. Born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, Boekbinder’s family packed up its belongings and took off to America in a big red truck towing a trailer when she was four years old. After six long months of driving across the western part of the United States,
The Apollo Effect came on to my radar when they uploaded their video for “The Honeymoon is Over” (posted below) to BNBTV. Their sound is a little bit of 80s glam, a little 90s-Brit angst, and maybe a little 2000s era post-grunge/pop-punk. Basically, the band sounds a bit like if The Killers’ Hot Fuss-era Brandon
The Albertans released their second full-length album, New Age, yesterday, and through my five back-to-back-to-back listens, I grooved and nodded and thought that these must be Sufjan Stevens‘ poppy, edgy siblings. This Canadian quintet, formed by a fateful convening of the five Albertan-bred musicians in Vancouver, brings a sound more rock than pop, but