Reviews

Robyn Continues To Shine

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) June 6, 2011 4:19 pm
Robyn's made three Toronto stops in the last year, but Hogtown's appetite for her seemingly knows no bounds. As people crowded into the rather haphazard and makeshift "new" venue, Echo Beach, it was clear many had caught one of her previous appearances, while another large cloister of fans were just coming around to the Swedish chanteuse's brand...
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Robyn
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Warped 45s Would Benefit From NQ Arbuckle's Grit

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By Scott Bryson (CHARTattack) June 6, 2011 2:16 pm
You won't meet a nicer, funnier guy than Neville Quinlan, but you'd have a tough time inferring that from watching the growling, badass dude who leads NQ Arbuckle on stage.Quinlan has spent almost 10 years molding his band into a gritty hoedown-rock outfit, and by all accounts, they've finally arrived at the end he envisioned. It only took a few...
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Live Review
The Warped 45s

Matthew Good — Lights Of Endangered Species

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By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) June 3, 2011 4:51 pm
Matthew Good and longtime producer Warne Livesey — who's worked on every Matthew Good album, solo and with his former band, with the exceptions of Last Of The Ghetto Astronauts, Hospital Music and Vancouver — first had the idea to record this album, featuring extensive orchestral arrangements, a good 14 years ago. But then some things got in the...
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Matthew Good's Lights Of Endangered Species

The Donkeys — Born With Stripes

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By Jody McCutcheon (CHARTattack) June 3, 2011 2:11 pm
The proliferation of animal-infused bands names continues: wolves, deer, gorillaz, horses, crocodiles and... donkeys?Yes, The Donkeys' name may seem like a silly joke, but it aptly describes their lazy, languid psych-pop sound. The San Diego quartet have been paying tribute to their So-Cal music forebears for three albums now, and Born With...
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The Donkeys' Born With Stripes

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi — Rome

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By Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack) June 3, 2011 11:46 am
People started to figure out there might be more to Norah Jones than mom jeans soft jazz in 2006 when Mike Patton used her on his Peeping Tom project to coo and cuss through the naughty/filthy song "Sucker." In a sort of parallel, when Jack White put down The White Stripes and started to branch out producing, partnering with others and, best of...
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Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi's Rome

Fleet Foxes — Helplessness Blues

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By Kyle Carpenter (CHARTattack) June 2, 2011 5:40 pm
Fleet Foxes are hard folk. Not aggressive, but strict. Helplessness Blues is the band's second full-length album following their 2008 self-titled debut.  After a full listen, it's noticeable the album contains a lot of the same type of songs. The trend seems to be Robin Pecknold's echoing vocals over fingerpicked acoustic guitar melodies and...
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Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues

Silverstein — Rescue

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By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) June 2, 2011 4:57 pm
Screamo would have been a cash grab for major labels had they gotten in on it a good... I don't know... eight years ago when most of these bands like Silverstein and Alexisonfire were still slugging it out at YMCAs throughout the Greater Toronto Area trying to get signed. But by now screamo's gotten exceedingly tired, and it's becoming harder and...
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Silverstein's Rescue

Snailhouse — Sentimental Gentleman

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) June 2, 2011 2:07 pm
While its title suggests a more maudlin approach, don't think Michael Feuerstack's latest outing as Snailhouse finds the artist going soft. Rather, on his sixth time out, the former Wooden Star has crafted his most direct album to date, proving it's possible to remain vital and wise in indie rock years into the game. Feuerstack's got a tight three...
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Snailhouse's Sentimental Gentleman

J Mascis — Several Shades Of Why

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) June 1, 2011 4:43 pm
We've known for quite sometime that J Mascis was capable of more delicate musicianship than the fuzzed-out bombast of his guitar histrionics in Dinosaur Jr., but we rarely get a chance to hear the alt.rock legend unencumbered from some form of backing band. Freed from the guitar squalls that accompany his day job, Several Shades Of Why offers a...
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J Mascis' Several Shades Of Why

Sondre Lerche Goes Electric

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By Scott Bryson (CHARTattack) June 1, 2011 4:27 pm
Check your bad day at the door; there's no room for cranks when Norway's favourite expat Sondre Lerche is in town.It's getting so even the thought of an impending Lerche appearance is enough to produce a club full of giddy, grinning patrons. They're not afraid to gush openly, either, when Lerche does finally take the stage. One dude at this Mod...
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Sondre Lerche (Photo by Graham Kennedy)

Dead Leaf Echo — Verisimilitude

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By Scott Bryson (CHARTattack) June 1, 2011 3:07 pm
For good reason, remix albums still walk a fine line between necessity and wankery. For one of these collections to be proclaimed worthwhile, there needs to be significant deviation from the creations that inspired it. Dead Leaf Echo got a bit of both sides of that line with this six-track reimagining of their 2010 Truth album.The John Fryer mix...
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Dead Leaf Echo's Verisimilitude

Death Cab For Cutie — Codes And Keys

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By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) May 31, 2011 5:33 pm
It's fitting that "sleep" is the first word you'll hear when listening to Codes And Keys. 'Cause let's face it, this isn't going to be an album you'll be playing while you're barbecuing at your upcoming block party or house party, or anything else you've got planned for the next few months. While singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard's already gone on...
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Death Cab For Cutie's Codes And Keys

The Warped 45s — Matador Sunset

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By Scott Bryson (CHARTattack) May 31, 2011 12:12 pm
Song titles like "Pale Horse" and "Talk About Evil" lend credence to The Warped 45s' claims that the style of their music is "northern gothic" or "back porch of the apocalypse," but this sophomore album is far too sonically joyous for that label to stick for long. The Warped 45s aren't fooling anyone; either they're happy about the end of the...
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The Warped 45s' Matador Sunset

Seether — Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray

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By Mike Peters (CHARTattack) May 31, 2011 12:01 pm
Pain is rarely desired. But when it helps to creatively fuel one's own art, it can then be understood as an acceptable and worthwhile attribute or feeling. Seether's Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray is a painful expression of a wounded heart. It's an angry and volatile album that proudly bears its soul to a willing audience.The band's...
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Seether's Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray

Lissie Can Do Anything

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By Kyle Carpenter (CHARTattack) May 30, 2011 4:50 pm
What can't Lissie do?She can twist classic rock, and metal into something sweet and tender. She took a Kid Cudi song and turned it into what hip-hop heads might call a "game-changer." But most importantly, she can be herself. But what that is depends on where you're listening.On her debut album Catching A Tiger, Lissie delivers sweet folk pop with...
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Lissie

Glasvegas Put On A Tired-Seeming Performance

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By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) May 30, 2011 3:51 pm
Maybe it was jetlag. Maybe it was too much shopping on Queen Street. Maybe it was the fact that they were playing on a tiny stage when they're used to playing much larger venues. Maybe it was exhaustion already from being on the road. Whatever it was, something was missing from Glasvegas' set at Toronto's Lee's Palace on Sunday night. While...
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Glasvegas

Thurston Moore — Demolished Thoughts

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) May 30, 2011 3:14 pm
Few would have thought to pair Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Beck together; the music each made in the '90s is about as sonically disparate as you can get. But both artists were instrumental in ushering in the sense of detached irony and championing of the obscure past that has prevailed in the decade-and-a-half since each artist's peak mid-...
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Thurston Moore's Demolished Thoughts

Anna Calvi Has Hypnotizing Powers

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By Melody Lau (CHARTattack) May 30, 2011 2:55 pm
You may not expect it because of Anna Calvi's seemingly tiny frame and meek speaking voice, but she has quite the commanding stage presence. With the exception of the thumping noises of the rock band on the second floor of the El Mocambo, this was quite possibly the quietest show I've witnessed all year. She sang and we listened.Calvi took her...
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Live Review
Anna Calvi

Man Man Marvelously Eccentric On Stage

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By Michelle McGlynn (CHARTattack) May 27, 2011 5:51 pm
It's nice to know Man Man still don't take themselves all too seriously even though they've begun to professionalize their three-ring circus sideshow by bringing in a real producer (Mike Mogis of Saddle Creek fame) for the first time on Life Fantastic, their fourth LP.Shortly after openers Shilpa Ray And the Happy Hookers left the stage, the...
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Man Man

Seether's Short Set Leaves 'Em Wanting More

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By Mike Peters (CHARTattack) May 27, 2011 5:05 pm
If you like your rock 'n' roll immersed in grimy filth, The Opera House was the place to be Thursday night. South African rockers Seether were devoid of pretentiousness, and skillfully adhered to a back-to-basics sort of rock. They were loud and ferociously abrasive, and the jam-packed audience was sonically assaulted from the very first guitar...
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Seether
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