July 2012
1 post
4 tags
The ROCKthusiast’s Guide to Surviving the Osheaga...
In seven short years, Montreal’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festivalhas become one of Canada’s preeminent destinations for hundreds of bands and fans. According to folklore, Osheaga was the first name used to describe the area that would eventually become Montreal by its European settlers, a word descended down from the native Mohawks as the place “where they met the people of the shaking hands.”...
June 2012
2 posts
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The ROCKthusiast's Tips for Surviving NXNE
North by Northeast 2012 is here and is rarin’ to eat unsuspecting festival goers alive by the sheer weight of its imposing schedule. A whistle-inducing 780 bands, up +20% from last year, will be taking over Toronto’s downtown core from June 11th to the 17th, causing many a music fan to run for cover, not unlike how Cary Grant does from the crop duster in the similarly titled Hitchcock...
6 tags
Rocking and Running for a Cure
I’m not one to beg for people’s support, even for worthwhile events I’m involved in. This one, however, is a little different.
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As many of you may know, my wife Luisa has lived with Crohn’s disease since her teenage years (which hasn’t been that long, I know, I know). In layman’s terms, Crohn’s entails an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in anything from an...
April 2012
3 posts
6 tags
Live Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers at Toronto’s...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are entering an interesting period in their nearly 30-year history as a band. They’re not quite ready to hit the nostalgic casino circuit, yet at the same time, more than a few people have turned their noses up at the sight of their name on festival posters, claiming their relevancy has passed. Even their most fired up fans would probably concede that these longtime rock...
15 tags
Festival Review: Slacker Canadian Music Fest 2012
It isn’t SXSW, with its dichotomy between free tacos and megastars like Jay-Z playing impossible-to-get-into shows, but for the past 30 years, Canadian Music Week has been an important event on the industry calendar. In 2012, CMW gained Slacker Radio as a title sponsor, and the festival portion saw more than 4,700 artists representing 43 countries play 82 venues over 5 days. It was also scheduled...
5 tags
Live Review: Band of Skulls at Toronto’s Phoenix...
On a night where the rest of North America could see them perform on the Late Show with David Letterman via the magic of videotape, Band of Skulls returned to Toronto to rattle some bones at a jam-packed Phoenix Concert Theatre on Friday, March 30th.
This was the second time in roughly six months that the English trio with the biker gang-sounding name have played to a capacity crowd in Canada’s...
March 2012
1 post
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Live Review: The Black Keys at Toronto's Air...
The Black Keys are rock music’s equivalent of being on a roll, a streak they more than kept alive as they blew into Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, March 14th. It didn’t take long for the duo born and raised in Akron, Ohio to make everyone wish it were August already and they were seeing the band in the open-air Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, where the North American leg of the El Camino...
December 2011
1 post
6 tags
Live Review: Green Day’s American Idiot at the...
Punk rock met theatregoing elegance on a snowy night, as after a full year on Broadway, where it was hyped as “the first great musical of the 21st century,” Green Day’s American Idiot made its national touring premiere at the classy Toronto Centre for the Arts on December 29th. It is a story of angst, sex, drugs, despair, and finally redemption. Oh, and lots of glitter too. The soundtrack isn’t...
5 tags
ROCKclusive: The 20 Best White Stripes Songs of...
And so, after a full week plus one day of sometimes intense voting, the ROCKthusiast and WhiteStripes.net are proud to reveal the 20 Best White Stripes of All-Time as voted by YOU, the Candy Cane Children of the World! A big, red-and-white-striped THANK YOU to absolutely everyone who took the time to let us know of their faves via Facebook, Twitter and even by email. Now that the Top 20 have been...
November 2011
9 posts
6 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: The Salads - Santa Claus Is...
I don’t mean to get all “bah, humbug” on everyone, but Christmas music just isn’t my thing. I think I’d rather strangle myself with garland than have to endure Michael Bublé’s new holiday themed album…or even worse, the Biebs’ Mistletoe! Thankfully, there are timeless classics like Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis”, as well as “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-D.M.C. to...
6 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: Marianas Trench – Ever After
I admit it — after I first heard the single “Haven’t Had Enough” upon its surfacing online, I feared the worst; Marianas Trench, the vocally acrobatic foursome from British Columbia, have come a long way since the release of their first album in 2006, and that’s in large part due to their massive sophomore album, 2009’s Masterpiece Theatre. The band began to fold...
6 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: The Love Machine - Love Is on...
Who says radio doesn’t do enough to support new artists? Early in the morning of November 19th, 2011, The Love Machine were declared the winners of Ottawa alt rock station LiVE 88.5’s “Big Money Shot.” Lots and lots of love, not luck, was on their side throughout the competition, which awards bands from Canada’s capital substantial funds and exposure to take their music careers to the next...
6 tags
Video ROCKmendation: The Rural Alberta Advantage -...
The Rural Alberta Advantage Say “Goodnight” to 2011
After a loooong year of touring behind their second album Departing, the Rural Alberta Advantage finally returned to their hometown of Toronto for their last show of 2011 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.
Yeah, never mind their misleading band name or the fact that a lot of their songs are about life on the prairies - The RAA are from T.O., and...
8 tags
Video ROCKmendation: The Raconteurs - Broken Boy...
Raconteurs Ride Off Into Orlando Calling Sunset
I would have loved to have been in Orlando, Florida on November 12th, 2011 for reasons that have nothing to do with someone dressed in an oversized mouse costume. The inaugural Orlando Calling music festival was happening, featuring The Killers, Pixies, and a band originally hailing from Michigan but now fighting out Nashville, Tennessee…The...
4 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: Hacienda - Savage
Yeah, winter weather is unfortunately on the way, but the occasional blast of musical heat can go a long way towards reminding me that a new festival season isn’t far off. San Antonio, TX foursome Hacienda have a new 7-inch hot off the record press - The A-side features a song called ‘Savage,’ and is meant to pique our interest for their brand spanking new album due out sometime this spring. Or...
6 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: Amos the Transparent - Sure...
Amos the Transparent are the latest group in a long, harmonious line of Canadian musical collectives. Well, actually, the Ottawa-reared band with the massive, multi-instrumental sound isn’t all that new - Their first album, Everything I’ve Forgotten to Forget, came out in 2007, with a 5-song EP called My What Big Teeth You Have following it two years later. Their recording dry spell is about to...
6 tags
Audio ROCKmendation: Dad Rocks! - Weapons
I don’t know if Snævar Njáll Albertsson was ever told that his birth name will “never fit on a marquee love,” but I think we can all agree that Dad Rocks! is a pretty awesome name for a solo project. While he IS a relatively new father, songs of his like ‘Weapons,’ despite its forceful title, won’t exactly inspire people to throw up the sign of the horns any time soon. More gentle plucking than...
