Album Review :: Lizzards :: Lizzards II

Lizzards - three lizard heads with a human body in white shirts and lizard hands smoking or holding something  . . .

by Myles Tiessen

The Lizzards have slithered back for their sophomore release, Lizzards II. Arriving via the local staple Eat Em Up Records, Lizzards II takes everything they brought to their S/T debut and brings a heightened ferocity. The vocals are snarlier, the guitars have quicker licks, the bass lines are boomier than ever, and the kit kicks with untethered tenacity. 

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Single Review :: Bush Lotus :: “Open”

by Noah Cain

As was the case with their first performance this March, opening for Tinge at the Handsome Daughter, there is a confidence to Bush Lotus’s writing and sound that feels at odds with their experience. 

Lyrically, “Open” is spare, but far from simple. When written out, it functions almost seamlessly as a series of linked Haiku. True to that form, songwriter Arielle Beaupre injects meaning and poignancy into a sliver of time. In this case, a moment of intense presence while stretching in a parking lot, presumably after hours in a car moving along tree-lined highways:

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Album Review :: Dil Brito :: Fences Glimpses Glances

by Gabriel Fars

In most parts of his music, he doesn’t need lyrics; the melodies say it all. The small comforts of this album make it feel incredibly warm and welcoming. It has almost a nostalgic haze type of vibe to it. I think the best part about it is that this isn’t some pretentious ass shit. It’s complex and beautiful, but it still doesn’t feel as though it’s trying to aim too hard for that target audience of ‘snobby hipsters who listen to folk music and probably think that they’re both better than you AND too smart for you.’ 

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Interview :: Taylor Janzen

Supplied photo

by Myles Tiessen

The music video for “Designated Driver,” one of the leading singles from Taylor Janzen’s debut LP, I Live In Patterns, sees Janzen behind the wheel driving an old 60s-era motorcar. Artistically shot using a conspicuous green screen, Janzen traverses various landscapes, supermarkets, and cattle pastures, driving with no clear destination. As the chorus builds and melodies intensify, so too does the speed of her travels. Like a bullet through a desolate purgatory with nothing to arrest her motion, Janzen cycles and flips through the pain and regret in her mind. “I swear to God I’m trying/ Not to ruin our plans/ I made myself a martyr with the holes in my hands,” she sings. 

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Album Review :: Living Hour :: Someday is Today

Living Hour Someday is Today album cover. White shirt covering white jeans with exposed belly button

by Daniel Kussy

I’ll remember Living Hour’s performance at the Winnipeg Art Gallery at the tail end of last year for two reasons: those spinning chairs the audience was seated in and the sonic expansion within the band’s sound across a collection of new songs that dug into my brain. With the release of Someday is Today, the Winnipeg indie darlings’ third LP is their most diverse release yet. My brain rests easy knowing the songs recorded sound just as good as they did in the Muriel Richardson Auditorium.

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