Joanna Sternberg’s sophomore album, I’ve Got Me, is a heartfelt and introspective album that delves into themes of recognition, self-discovery, and resilience. With their raw and honest songwriting, Sternberg invites listeners on a deeply personal journey, showcasing their remarkable talent as both a songwriter and performer. The album opens with the hauntingly beautiful title track,…
To indie and alternative rock fans, PJ Harvey is well-known for early aggressive art-rock albums delivered with punk intensity, and her later works for her socio/political commentary and insights. Few are aware that she’s an artistic polymath, a sculptor, painter, and poet as well as a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. While it’s been seven years since…
Back when everyone was in lockdown due to the pandemic, Noel Gallagher recorded a bright, Britpop song with a bouncy chorus and full brass and string orchestration titled “We’re Going to Get There in the End,” a bold bit of optimism in the face of our common struggles. He put it out as a gift…
Pardoner, the San Francisco-based indie rock band, has returned with their fourth album, Peace Loving People, and it’s a fantastic display of their evolving sound and songwriting prowess. Building upon the foundation they laid on last year’s excellent Came Down Different, Pardoner delivers a collection of songs here that continues to push boundaries, experiment with…
There’s a determined, purposeful up-tempo feel on Jenny Lewis’ fifth solo project, the aptly titled Joy’All. It’s as if the former child actor and former Rilo Kiley singer has decided that little is gained by holding on to past harms when you can “follow your joy’all.” But she’s not living in denial either. In the…
Following its success last winter, a new, gorgeous exhibition of colour and creativity returns to the Royal Botanic Gardens this year. The after dark experience that is Lightscape features a stunning array of large-scale, colour-changing, illuminated sculptures. All but two are fresh designs. Back to captivate anew is last year’s piece de resistance, Winter Cathedral, and the…
When Sam Jones’ documentary, Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed, dropped earlier this year, music fans not only got an inside look into the making of the 2020 release from Jason Isbell and his band The 400 Unit, Reunions, but we also witnessed the tensions as the singer-songwriter struggled to get the words of…
The highly entertaining two-hour show could be called the soundtrack of the glorious Robyn Archer’s life. She, accompanied by a highly talented three-piece band – who also provide backing vocals – bring us largely a collection of little-known songs and a few poems. There are a few tunes she wrote and others that chart the path of…
Shadow Spirit is an artistic showcase – a microcosm of what is impressive and meaningful about indigenous culture. It is an eye and ear pleasing experience, which uses a variety of forms to bring to life 60,000 years of rich heritage and tradition. I speak of projections, artwork, sculpture, animation, video, music and more. Curated by Kimberley…
For all their efforts to expand their 8-piece band’s sound to include psychedelia and hip-hop rhythms, and as wide ranging as their lyrical pursuits have been – whether exploring Greek mythology, space travel and astronomical phenomenon, or sci-fi fantasy – St. Paul and The Broken Bones has always been a funky, R&B revue at heart….
