Category: Features

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Butterclock prepares for First Prom

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by Kristel Jax
Berlin via Paris artist Laura Clock has built Butterclock into an underground phenomenon slowly and mysteriously, fitting her foggy sound. Though Clock finds many fans through her live and recorded collaborations with Tri Angle oOoOO (NoWayBack, Try), Clock is committed to her own sound and vision: a dizzy blend of hip hop aesthetics, pastel-tinted fantasies, mirrored reflections of top 40 pop icons, and cold New German Cinema heroines. If this sounds like a visual artist you’d love to check out or at least follow on Tumblr, you’ll be glad to learn Clock’s new EP is due later this winter. 
Continue reading “Butterclock prepares for First Prom”
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555 Osborne :: Basement venue providing music in South Osborne

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by Darcy Penner

A Wednesday night a few weeks ago I stepped off a #16 bus to make my way down to 555 Osborne for the Songwriter Explosion night. The story of the venue is known, but still unique: a sign-less bar in the basement of a Thai restaurant showcasing singer-songwriters and new artists, all the while hosting acts from punk bands to DJs. Continue reading “555 Osborne :: Basement venue providing music in South Osborne”

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Hillbilly Highway – Lucero preview

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by Sheldon Birnie

I’ve been a big fan of Memphis, Tennessee’s Lucero for years now. So when it was announced late in 2012 that the band would be finally playing in Winnipeg, I nearly lost it. I immediately contacted their management to arrange for an interview. After some back and forth in January, I finally completed a nice little chat with Lucero guitarist Brian Venable last week. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Lucero preview”

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Hillbilly Highway – Top 5 tunes about truckstop waitresses, topless turnpike dancers, and backroads beauties

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by Sheldon Birnie

Last week here on the Hillbilly Highway, we spoke with Dustin Bentall leading up to his performance at the Park Theatre on Valentine’s Day.

Now that a few days have passed, I’m still stuck with his unbelievable tune “Emmylou” playing repeat on the jukebox in my brain. I can’t shut it off. I wake up in the morning, it’s there. I’m walking the streets of Winnipeg, it’s keeping me company. I try to drown it out by hitting the Windsor or the Times, but when I deke outside for some air, it’s right there. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Top 5 tunes about truckstop waitresses, topless turnpike dancers, and backroads beauties”

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Vancouver’s Cityreal keeping a close to ear to the pavement

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by Harrison Samphir
When Stylus asked Remi Huot, otherwise known as Cityreal, how he began making hip hop music in his early twenties, the answer was not unusual.“I fell into it accidentally,” he recalls, speaking with Stylus on the phone from Vancouver BC. “I had some knowledge of music from playing in high school bands, and later on started messing around with beats. I just stuck with it as a hobby.”Now 26 years old, Huot is among Canada’s most prolific rising emcees, boasting two records, three Western Canadian Music Award nominations, and a substantive list of associated acts including Swollen Members, Sweatshop Union, D-Sisive and even Leslie Feist. Continue reading “Vancouver’s Cityreal keeping a close to ear to the pavement”
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Hillbilly Highway – Dustin Bentall & The Smokes to light up the Park

dustin bentall

by Sheldon Birnie

Dustin Bentall is an award winning songwriter off of the West Coast of British Columbia. Since the early Oughts, he’s been travelling hard across the Hillbilly Highway, churning out a couple albums worth of solid storytelling songs about drifters, gunfighters, and guitar slingers. On his recent EP, Orion, Bentall has finally locked down a solid band at his back. With the Smokes in tow, Bentall, son of Canadian folk-rock hero Barney Bentall, is rolling into town with Lindi Ortega to take the Park Theatre by storm.  Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Dustin Bentall & The Smokes to light up the Park”

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This Hisses :: Balsamic reduction of Anhedonia

this-hisses
by Shanell Dupras
This Hisses formed back in 2010 with member Julia Ryckman’s urge to record after her last project, The Gorgon, was through performing. Ryckman recruited Pat Short after attempting to make a band with him in previous years. Ryckman also asked JP (Jean-Paul) Perron to join, having no idea what to expect. They quickly became This Hisses, and pumped out their first album, Surf Noir, only three months after forming. Their sound has slowly changed, and they are now releasing a second album to show their new, more evolved sound. Stylus sat down with Ryckman, Short, and Perron over a meal of Rold Gold pretzels and wine to talk about the new album, due out February 9th. Continue reading “This Hisses :: Balsamic reduction of Anhedonia”