Mr. Scruff is a DJ, music producer, tea salesman and cartoonist out of Manchester, England. Suffice to say, your mother is already more proud of him than she is of you. Though Scruff’s childlike cartoons mainly appear on his record artwork, posters and website (“I don’t really do cartoons to illustrate anything other than my [...]

Rolling African plains, herds of galloping Zebras heading towards a watering hole, chants of the Massai in the distance. What does this have to do with Buraka Som Sistema? Absolutely nothing. Buraka Som Sistema are the first wave of Kuduro producers to gain worldwide notoriety. Hailing from Lisbon and Angola, the foursome have picked up [...]

[1] Twitter
How often do you Twitter? We’re on there all day, every day sucking in factoids, details about what you had for dinner and how Shaq is doing. Please add us when you get a moment. It’s an amazing way to keep abreast of ION-related activities and contests.
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“We have no distributor as of yet,” Glenn Ficarra and John Requa said on stage after the world premiere of I Love You Phillip Morris at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. “Who’s buying?” So far, no one. Months after the festival came to a close, its most star-studded selection remains distributor-free.

We love to prop up our incredibly talented team of contributors whenever possible. Read all about some of the people who slaved away on Issue#56

We have now been printing for six years. Man, are we old. Up until recently we were still talking about how long the magazine had been around for in months. It was only last year we stopped having week-a-versaries.
We’ve come a long way from a magazine that you wouldn’t take home even after 12 beers. [...]

Sparkly, shiny, loud and in your face. These are just a few of the terms that have come to define the bling wrapped around our necks, hanging off our ears, and even gleaming from our teeth. Bling tends to conjure up images of big-time celebs like Lil’ Wayne and Beyonce. But for most of us, [...]

ION wishes you a Happy Earth Day on April 22nd, which makes this month’s prize so fabulously green-tastic. Green is chic, so “covet” this: an amazing organic collection of lustrous and delicate fabrics that will have you tree-hugging in no time. No brown potato sacks and plain Ts here. [...]

We talked to Pascal about Martyrs during the Toronto International Film Festival. This movie is so sick, nasty and disturbing we thought no one would ever distribute it… we were wrong. Martyrs is out on DVD now.
Every year the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival does an amazing job screening [...]

Reviews of the latest from The BPA, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Bruce Cockburn, Great Lake Swimmers, Junior Boys, N.A.S.A., Papa Roach, The Prodigy, Propagandhi and the War Child “Heroes” album.

On the cover this month are Isis and Grahm Zilla, aka Thunderheist. This dance-rap duo from Montreal just released their first full-length on Big Dada, but they’ve been killing it on the blogs and in the clubs for ages with a sound that reminds us of a disco-fied Missy Elliot. We don’t like to throw [...]

“The way this record is presented is more honest as what we are as a band,” says Dan Boeckner of The Handsome Furs’ latest album Face Control. Dan, who also co-fronts Wolf Parade, and music/life partner Alexei Perry’s personas and music stand out from their indie-rock comrades. Face Control, their follow-up to 2007’s Plague Park, [...]

Everyone likes …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. If you like indie music, you like them. If you like metal, you like them. If you like radio-friendly music, you like them. So if everybody likes them, why aren’t they on North American FM airwaves? Sometimes those in charge have no clue [...]

Robert Edmonds (aka Robe, a name accidentally bestowed upon him by a television salesman who couldn’t understand his Australian accent) is a partner in design company Evoke International Design and part owner of delicious and stylish Vancouver restaurant The Cascade Room. He started designing posters for the Melbourne garage/thrash bands he was a member of [...]

Aries
Like the mysteries of the famous pyramids, you too have secret compartments you hide your favourite lamps in. Centuries from now, all the grade seven goths are going to wonder how you got your brain out of your nostril. Tell no one. Your secrets are all there is left.