Why bother? A response to a question
For the last few months, I’ve been helping to organize a project as a tribute to Chris Reimer, a friend of mine who passed away in 2012. It’s officially taking place through the not-for-profit where I work, the Quickdraw Animation Society, but most of the organizing has happened outside of office hours, and with help … Continue reading
An open letter to Jason Kenney
This is the letter I just sent to the Hon. Jason Kenney, in response to the increase in fees for international touring artists in Canada. As that article makes clear, these changes are going to hit smaller Canadian venues hard. Before people call this an attack on the arts, though, remember–it’s more likely that they … Continue reading
So Good playlists, December 11 and 18
Yes, I have been derelict, but if you’ve been patiently waiting, here’s what got played on the last couple of shows. Tune in next week for a very soulful Christmas (and keep in mind that I traditionally hate Christmas music, so I’ve gone out of my way to find songs that are actually good. It’ll … Continue reading
So Good Playlist: November 20
My apologies for the lack of links, as I’m kind of in a rush at the moment, but just so you know, there are free, legal downloads available from plenty of these folks, and the ones from Heems, Rainy Milo and Rhye are all especially worth tracking down. If you have a couple minutes and … Continue reading
So Good playlist for November 6
Kudos to Kat Dornian, the music director at CJSW. I took a bit of a different approach this week and mostly stuck to albums on the official playlist she compiles for the station (which includes 100s of CDs in pretty much every genre), and almost everything I checked out was amazing.
So Good playlist, October 16 edition
A bit more all-over-the-place this week, going from classic blues to garagier modern goodies and a relatively downbeat last 45 minutes to suit the weather. The spotlight this week was on offbeat girl group pop, which is why Dolly Parton makes an appearance and why you might’ve heard the most disturbing single the Crystals ever … Continue reading
So Good Soul Revue: Funding Drive edition (updated)
**NEW PLEDGE LEVEL ADDED If you pledge $500 (!), you’ll get Commonwealth’s Ambassador pass: You and a guest into every event at Commonwealth for a full year, no line, no cover. And considering they just announced a James Murphy DJ set next month, it’s safe to say there’ll be some darn good events. So, the … Continue reading
So Good playlist: October 9
Some really solid stuff in this week’s show. New tracks from locals Joanna Borromeo and Dragon Fli Empire were both great, and the SonReal and Rich Kidd track sounds like a potential crossover hit to me. I’ll try to talk about all of those in more detail on here in the next few days. But … Continue reading
So Good Playlist for September 25
I went back to the old-school soul today, for the most part. The Nick Waterhouse record is still blowing my mind, and probably will be for some time. And the new Heavy and Souljazz discs seem to be living up to their last releases which says a lot. But the one that’s creeping up on … Continue reading
Some Hot Little Rocket-based nostalgia
Hot Little Rocket is doing a reunion show at Broken City tomorrow. That’s kind of a big deal for me. Those guys were the third(ish?) band I ever interviewed as an aspiring music writer at The Gauntlet, and I have some pretty great memories of seeing them at the Night Gallery and other long-defunct places … Continue reading
The Consumption 