Category: Features

Posted on

Talk – Action = 0 – Canadian punk legends hit the road again

By Sheldon Birnie

Over 30 years after forming Canadian political hardcore pioneers D.O.A., band leader Joe “Shithead” Keithley is back with on the road with a retrospective, Talk – Action = 0. Unflinchingly political, D.O.A. have played thousands of shows, and well over 200 benefit concerts for causes such anti-racism, women’s rights, anti-globalization and the environment. The book contains extensive rare photographs, show posters, hand written notes and lyrics, as well as a detailed history of the band and their activism. Preparing for the next leg of their tour, Joe took time out to speak to Stylus about the book, the band and the state of activism today.
Continue reading “Talk – Action = 0 – Canadian punk legends hit the road again”

Posted on

Hillbilly Highway – Gettin’ loose with Those Darlins

by Sheldon Birnie

Those Darlins are a group of three babes and one sweet dude who rock. The formula is sure fire – who doesn’t love babes? – but their output is above and beyond the pale.

The Hillbilly Highway is filled with groups with similar dynamics. Hell, Winnipeg itself is infested with successful groups of rootsy babes. But there’s more to kicking ass at every honky-tonk on the Hillbilly Highway than a pretty face or three. Those Darlins are different. Hard work, crotch punching songs and a bunch of hearts hungry for rock have combined: the result is an act to catch while you can.

Currently riding the road in support of their sophomore LP Screws Get Loose, the band is set to play in Minneapolis next week with the Drive-By Truckers, one of my favourite groups in the world. I am making the pilgrimage to Twin Cities, America to catch the gig, and I’d be a goddamn liar if I said I wasn’t pumped. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Gettin’ loose with Those Darlins”

Posted on

Napalm Death – Brutalizing


Photo via U-Zine.org
By Kevin Strang
Napalm Death to brutal music is the equivalent of your parents’ genitals to your existence: absolutely essential. Since the release of Scum in 1987, the name Napalm Death has been synonymous with brutal music. When disillusioned teenagers turn their heads away in disgust of the mainstream they are greeted by Napalm Death. The band has consistently and abrasively has been pounding the message that shit is fucked into people’s heads for over 20 years now. I got the privilege to ask vocalist Barney Greenway a few questions via email regarding the band and their upcoming Canadian tour. Be sure to see them play at the Zoo on October 17 and if you can, make it to Brandon to see them on the 18th.

Stylus: 1) Greetings! You are embarking on a Canadian tour on which you are being very thorough with the places you play.
a) Any anticipations or reflections on how it will go?

Barney Greenway: I’m always open-minded about places the band plays and I just roll with it– which is probably one of the reasons why we get to cover more of the globe than most. Speaking from the position of not having started the tour yet, I’m pretty positive it will go well. I believe we were one of few bands to do an ultra-comprehensive tour of Canada back in the early nineties, so we have a little bit of past form there.

Stylus: b) What are thoughts on playing in Canada?

BG: Like anywhere, generally looking forward to it and will take whatever comes. We’ll just give it 100% playing-wise of course and we won’t be making that tired old joke of saying “ay” after every sentence. Continue reading “Napalm Death – Brutalizing”

Posted on

Tim Hoover – Should Have Grabbed More Napkins

photo : Tyler Sneesby
By Adrienne Yeung

I know you’ve heard/seen Dj Co-op around town sometime, somewhere –  perhaps DJing at Grippin’ Grain, or as half of the Co-op/Hunnicut duo. But less ubiquitous is the name of the man behind the turntable. Meet Tim Hoover and his most recent project, which is a huge departure from hip-hop beats you might hear him spinning on any other night. He’s created 60 minutes of richly layered instrumental music, stirring together lost-and-found samples with his own compositions. The day after his album listening party at the Planetarium, we got away from the heat and the traffic at Bar Italia to talk about recording under his own name this time to produce this totally different sounding album, More Napkins.

Stylus: You said the “real” title of the album at the show last night. What’s that?
Tim Hoover: It’s I Should Have Grabbed More Napkins. It’s just a thing that I’ve been saying for years. It should be on my tombstone. But it seemed a bit clunky for a full album title. I love napkins, but I never have enough of them!

[Stylus hands Tim a napkin. Tim says thanks.]
Continue reading “Tim Hoover – Should Have Grabbed More Napkins”

Posted on

Hillbilly Highway – Pit stop with Tim Hus

Tim Hus is a Canadiana Country singer based out of Calgary, AB. Born in Nelson, B.C., Hus has traveled the Hillbilly Highway back and forth across the Great White North countless times, by train, by truck and by thumb. On Thursday, October 20th, he rolls into the Times Change(d) here in Winnipeg for an intimate set in one of his favourite watering holes.

Hus’s latest album, Hockeytown, is a Canadiana beauty in the vein of classic Canadian storytellers like Stompin’ Tom Connors and Ian Tyson. The title track is arguably one of the best hockey songs ever put to tape, up there for certain with Tom’s own classic and Propagandhi’s “Dear Coaches Corner.” I caught up with Tim as he was rolling through rural Quebec, after spending Thanksgiving playing shows on Prince Edward Island, and we quickly got talking about the Jets.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that Winnipeg has the Jets back again,” Hus told me. “I always figured that if there was ever a Canadian city that should have a hockey team, it would have to be Winnipeg. So, I was disappointed when they lost the Jets, and I’m thrilled that you’ve got them back.”
Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Pit stop with Tim Hus”

Posted on

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart + Suuns // 09-28-11 // Lo Pub

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in Winnipeg
Photo by Mike Chiasson at the Lo Pub in Winnipeg.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were recently in Winnipeg to play an amalgamated show with Montréal’s Suuns at the Lo Pub. Opening for these two would-have-been separate shows were Jersey’s Big Troubles and Montréal-based Valleys. Tons of the Stylus fam was on hand to take in this faux Battle of the Bands: National Edition that saw each act compliment one another as if it were a single renegade tour of rising face melters.
Continue reading “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart + Suuns // 09-28-11 // Lo Pub”

Posted on

Bog River – Muddy and Simple


Photo by Brendan McGuire
By Victoria King

It’s a near perfect August evening – hot without being sweltering, vanilla ice cream in a cup and conversation about music, travel and inspiration with one of the city’s newest and arguably most talented groups, Bog River.

“In the ninth grade, I had a really awesome band teacher who just made me want to go to band camp every year. He just made me love music,” Ben Hadaller of the local folk trio tells me as the four of us sit around a picnic table at Sub Zero Ice Cream. Carly Dow, lead vocalist of the group, jokes that the extent of her family’s influence in her musicality came from the occasional inebriated family member banging on a piano at parties. On her left, Dave Barchyn, former associate at a music store, explains that, “If you work at a music store long enough, you end up owning a music store.”
Continue reading “Bog River – Muddy and Simple”

Posted on

White Dog – Noise Below the Wall


Photo by Cole Peters
By Taylor Burgess

For Cole Peters and Chris Jacques two years ago, it all began as an outlet to release their music but since Prairie Fire Tapes’ inception, Jacques has made seven albums under the name White Dog—some really cool and psychedelic, but most others approach horrifying parts of your brain. Since he’s going to be a performer at this year’s send + receive festival, both of his tape labels are releasing killer stuff, and his own music is taking wild turns, Jacques welcomed me up to his “East Berlin” office space which he shares with No List Records so we could discuss shit.
Mostly, I just wanted to know why his music is usually such a head-trip.
“It’s not meant to be creepy or dark or anything,” he said. It’s because of being a high school guidance councilor that he internalizes a lot of the darker side of the human nature. “I deal with people every day in their psychological needs and hear lots of crazy shit from kids and then their parents about what’s going on in their lives. My teaching has always dealt with people who are marginalized, or downtrodden, abused, and all that kinds of crazy shit. I’m a history student, so a lot of that stuff—things about rebellions and resistance come through as themes in my stuff a lot of time.”
Continue reading “White Dog – Noise Below the Wall”

Posted on

Frenchies? Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooon

KARKWA W/ AIDAN KNIGHT
@ WECC
Thursday, September 29, 2011
By Victoria King

As if there weren’t already loads of benefits to knowing French, (eg: a decent-paying government job, an upper hand in travelling abroad and a couple nifty pick-up lines to whip out once and a while) now there’s Karkwa.

I really shouldn’t say ‘now’ though. The guys in Karkwa have been playing and recording together for 14 years, with their most popular and recent album of being 2011’s Le Chemins de Verre which earned the band the Polaris Prize. And FYI, that year’s nominees included favourites like Tegan & Sara, The Sadies and Broken Social Scene. Before I’d listened to their latest album earlier that day, I really wasn’t too sure of what to expect and was only looking forward to the opener of the show, Aidan Knight. Not a big deal, but I sorta fell in love with LCDV not long after hitting play.
Continue reading “Frenchies? Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooon”

Posted on

Hillbilly Highway – High & Lonesome Times

Sometimes when you’re cruising down the highway, some slick somebody cuts you off and burns away, leaving you in their dust.

This week, I was going to write about the Times Change(d), as beauty a rest-stop on the Hillbilly Highway as any in the free world. See, there’s a film coming out about the joint this Thursday at the Times itself, with screening and performances by Times regulars Andrew Neville & the Poor Choices and Guerrillas of Soul.

But Kent Davies beat me to it, the truck driving son of a gun. And he did a good job of it too, summing up the event and the beauty of the bar succinctly. Like an experienced vet; like a pro. Read about it on the Uniter’s blog.
Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – High & Lonesome Times”