always listening
One In The Chamber Music is the latest offering from Kingston Can-rock vets the Headstones. They’ve gone through their back catalogue and have recorded acoustic arrangements of some familiar favourites. To make the package more enticing, a couple new songsRead more…
Sentimental as I am, I sometimes succumb to bouts of nostalgia and lament the passing of Toronto bands that I really enjoyed. Or somewhat enjoyed. Or barely enjoyed. Such feelings lead me to create playlists of songs from bands youRead more…
I wasn’t really aware there was a metal scene in Toronto until I saw Ash Lee Blade perform at the Rok Boutique back in 2009. Real metal, I mean. I knew there was metalcore to be found at the OperaRead more…
I have a good rule for parties. If you follow this rule, you will have good parties. AC/DC will always make your party better. It doesn’t really matter which record. Back In Black has the most crowd pleasers. Highway ToRead more…
Beneath Augusta was the evolution of (criminally under-appreciated) Toronto space-rock/shoegaze act Mellonova. After parting ways with their rhythm section, singer/guitarist Michael Brennan and guitarist Matthew Cromarty formed a new band and named it after one of the tracks on theirRead more…
The shoegaze revival has been in full force for a number of years now. I’ve been hearing other fun terms like nu-gaze and doomgaze. Today’s playlist consists of a handful of noisy bands that may or may not be fascinatedRead more…
Along with Dark Tranquillity and In Flames, At The Gates is considered to be an originator of the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal sound, or “melodeath” for short. The idea behind melodeath is to convey melody through guitar instead of vocals.Read more…
There are a ton of bad pop-punk albums out there. Most of them sprung up in the late-90’s in the wake of the success of bands like Green Day, NOFX, Pennywise but really mostly Green Day. Suddenly you couldn’t turnRead more…
Diamond Head is best known as the favourite band of Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. Ulrich and Metallica famously covered Diamond Head’s Holst-inspired “Am I Evil?”, making the song, if not the band, a household name. To say that DiamondRead more…
Torche tends to operate in two gears. First is their knack for writing catchy pop songs and recording them alongside booming drums and massively detuned guitars, giving the songs an unexpected heaviness. The second gear, perhaps their trademark, is theirRead more…