Album Reviews: Talking Heads, Dehd, Orville Peck

 Various Artists – Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute to Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense Various With a discography as varied and excitingly weird as the Talking Heads have, the one problem their tribute album has at times is simply how often the cover artists basically do a karaoke-esque remake. But

Album reviews: Elton John, Hand Habits, Snail Mail

     Elton John – The Lockdown Sessions (Pinner, England) Like many artists, Elton John has taken the tour setbacks of the pandemic to facilitate collabs that would’ve otherwise never happened. While the record isn’t quite cohesive, it’s a great scattershot image of all the colours that John can paint, and why

A year in music — the best albums of 2020

 10. U.S. Girls — Heavy Light (Toronto/Chicago) To evolve the ideas she crafted on In a Poem Unlimited, Meg Remy has found a lot more groove than grow in her new record. This doesn't shake out the same level of pressing art-pop she got before but it merges narrative, abstract, and

Giles Martin brings “Rocketman” to life

 Photo credit: Alex Lake Making a musical like the Elton John biopic Rocketman is a monumental feat, but getting the songs just right takes a special kind of magic itself. For Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George Martin) to craft the film's music however, this meant finding new ways

Rocketman Takes Off

 The term ‘jukebox musical’ has been around for decades, as well as the concept in which it is named. Musicals that celebrate the work and art of a particular musician are an amazing way to look at those musicians within a new perspective. They’re also generally just a delight to

From the Church Choir to Ottawa’s Jezebel, Terry Steeves Lives for the Music

 Photos supplied by Terry Steeves. She is ten years old. Terry Steeves looks down at the little yellow and white record player her parents have just given her. Some gifts provide momentary elation, some collect dust in the attics and garages of the world, others change your life. Looking back,

Mock and Roll at Ottawa’s Air Guitar Championships

 All photos by Andre Gagne I’d never seen a giant banana have a seizure before. To tell you the truth, it’s a soothing kind of hypnotic I can liken only to the times where I may have drunk more NyQuil than the cold required. As one in the bewildered crowd

Ottawa Stakes Its Claim as a Destination for Big Music Acts

 Every summer, Ottawa is host to the RBC Bluesfest which never disappoints (this year’s entertainment being no exception). With this gaining traction, more and more artists are choosing to include Ottawa in their international tours instead of by-passing it on their way from Toronto to Montreal. These past few months

Back When Every Night Was Saturday Night

 By Jean-Pierre Allard I was much too young to remember Elvis Presley’s 1957 concert at the old Auditorium on Argyle, but how can I ever forget when the Beatles invaded North America in February 1964 and changed our humdrum existence overnight?  Having just lost my dad a few weeks before, the