Category: Columns

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Maggie A. Clark’s Favourite Albums of 2024

The year draws to a close. The usual signifiers of the season put in their scheduled appearances: the sidewalks and rooftops lined with snow, trees and eavestroughs strung with lights, doors bedecked with wreaths. There is a palpable cheer in the air. All of this can only mean one thing.

It’s time for some half-baked listicle slop, baby! Seemingly every media outlet spends their December churning out their curated selections of the year’s best songs, albums, movies, books, games, etc. — so why shouldn’t I compel Stylus to get in on the fun? Who am I to resist the omnipresent allure of list-making?

Continue reading “Maggie A. Clark’s Favourite Albums of 2024”
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Winnipeg State of Mind

By Nigel Webber

“Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.” – KRS-One

2017 was the year hip-hop took over the music industry. With huge hits by Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar among others, it seems only natural for Vulture Magazine to call 2017 “the year hip-hop won the music business.” Through streaming platforms like Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube, hip-hop now reaches it’s biggest audience ever. The music has come a long way from DJ Kool Herc throwing jams in Cedar Park in the Bronx, but hip-hop still struggles to find acceptance in the mainstream pop radio world. Continue reading “Winnipeg State of Mind”

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Prairie Punk Perspective

by Kaitlyn Emslie Farrell

It’s early in the morning, too early. You drag yourself out of the house into the smoke filled city streets of Winnipeg. Summer is burning it’s way out across the country. Nothing but the quiet lull of traffic is to be heard as there hasn’t been enough time for humanity to consume their coffee intake just yet. Whether going to school or going to work, you have somewhere to be.  As the days go on these mornings get darker, and colder. The smoke clears and invites a mist of frozen water to crystallize on your scarf as you continue to go, still needing to be somewhere. Continue reading “Prairie Punk Perspective”

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CKUWHO: Exile Files

quannnn

By Omri Golden – Plotnik

The sun slow roasts Winnipeg patio-goers, and a damp heavy air blankets the city. I am sitting with a beer in one hand and a pen in the other, scratching notes onto my legal pad. Across from me, my companion Dave Quanbury explains the logic behind his song selections for his 90-minute radio program on CKUW, Exile Files. His tendency is to focus on jazz and blues, and particularly songs with an emphasis on brass instrumentation and big vocals.
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Retrospectives on May Releases from Manitoba Musicians: Basic Nature, Carly Dow, Raine Hamilton, and Rayannah

womeninwinnipeg

By Selci

Recently I ran into local musicians Raine Hamilton and Rayannah at Thom Bargen and we discussed all the women releasing albums in May. It seemed like a great idea to get everyone together at Munson Park and talk about music and being women in the scene in Winnipeg. Raine, Ray, Carly Dow, Basic Nature, and I spent an afternoon in the sunlight and had a lovely and productive discussion about music and equality. It all began with one question: Continue reading “Retrospectives on May Releases from Manitoba Musicians: Basic Nature, Carly Dow, Raine Hamilton, and Rayannah”

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Fear of Music :: Time’s Up for Creeps, Abusers and Sexist Jerks

 

illustration by Tiff Bartel
illustration by Tiff Bartel

by Jenny Henkelman

I started writing this piece on October 23, when things seemed so much simpler. Back then, I thought CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi was just a garden-variety creep, not a serial abuser. As Melissa Martin so brilliantly elucidated in her Nothing in Winnipeg post on the subject, those of us in music/CBC circles Knew About Jian, even if we didn’t know about the alleged punching, choking and rape.

If Jian seems like an outlier, a rare case of narcissism and misogyny enabled over decades with devastating results, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong. Rare is the man with the kind of fame and power Jian had, but abusers like Jian exist everywhere. And they definitely exist in our music scene. Continue reading “Fear of Music :: Time’s Up for Creeps, Abusers and Sexist Jerks”