Let me preface this review by saying Iâve known Summer since she was barely out of her teens and coming out to sit in or jam at various venues I was playing at around Victoria BC. Iâve watched her career with great interest and she has ...
Sopranoâs Bar, Victoriaâs only live karaoke joint and notorious dive bar, has closed its doors for good, going out with a bang on New Yearâs Eve.
A message posted on the barâs Facebook page on Dec. 31 served as the official annou...
BLACK MOUNTAIN
In The Future
Jagjaguwar
When I hear Stephen McBeanâs slowly-picked A-minor guitar intro for âStormy High,â Iâm almost tricked into thinking itâs a cover of âHellâs Bells,â but then the swing-time Black...
THE BLACK HALOS
We Are Not Alone
Acetate
God bless Billy Hopeless & the Halos. Theyâve earned their entry into that category that bands like Motörhead, AC/DC, & The Ramones (the Holy Trinity of Rock) fit into â you always know wh...
Sadly, this is One Dropâs final album. Thereâs worse news, too. One Drop has kicked the can for the last time. Yeah, the band has disbanded after a six year experience. Hopefully theyâll get back together sooner or later, as this five...
Bill Johnson contributes eight originals to his Still Blue, each one a fine example of a contemporary blues song, not merely a retread of a familiar 12 bar theme, and each sung in his evocative voice. The variety of approaches, from the sne...
Fans of guitar tone have a lot to learn about Bill Johnson. His fourth album, Cold Outside should be the one that has this Vancouver Island native flying high above the radar, finally. Ripe with an abundance of select tracks, Johnson proves...
Crop Circle may have taken their name from the controversial 70âs phenomenon, but they have also managed to contribute to a more recent enigma: the earworm. Traditionally, this little beastie takes the form of a trite pop song (think Ms. ...
CD REVIEW
The Bicyclesâ Oh No, Itâs Love is not the kind of record that warrants a large, wordy review filled with pretentious journalistic nit-picking. The fact of the matter is simple: Oh No, Itâs Love is filled to the rim with h...
Cracker
Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey
429 Records
Since the early 1990s, and most famously with 1993âs platinum selling Kerosene Hat, Cracker has been providing an interesting take on contemporary alternative country (think ...
Lay it On Me
Self-distributed
Waa-BOOM! With an album title ripped from frontman Ryan Hobenâs muscleman tattoos, indiefolkrocksters Minto punch it open with sludgy dirge, âNew Bonesâ â formerly a chooglinâ alt-country number i...