Music

Anyone who has ever spent a little bit of time around Vancouver’s music scene knows that this city is known for not only breeding huge worldwide hitmakers but also for an underground of artists who intend to create something that is unique and, at the very least, interesting. Cue Brutes, a new analogue synth-based darkwave project from vocalist Lindsay Dakin, keyboardist Christian Pelech and programmer Jonathan Salvatore.

Today Vancouver’s Louise Burns has debuted the video for "Storms", the lead single off of her upcoming, and quite lovely, album Young Mopes (2/3 on Light Organ Records). The clip shot in beautiful black and white and directed by Exquisite Corps, the filmmaking team of Justin Gradin and Ben Jacques, shows Ms. Burns trying to flee a haunted dollhouse. The house comes complete with floating sharks, man-eating furniture and a melted faced doppelganger waiting on the other side.

There are bands out there that transcend trends and time. Bands that we’ve come to expect to a certain level of experimentation, bands that push themselves to create music that is not only good but also interesting, that offer a point of view other than to sell out arenas and garner social media likes. Kings of Leon are not one of those bands. After a three-year wait the band has dropped their new album, Walls.

Vancouver sibling two-piece Smash Boom Pow hit the road in “Listen To Me”, the new single from their EP Higher Power Of Desire.

Directed by the enigmatic Room Collective, the clip finds the brothers embarking on a journey through a myriad of psychedelic backdrops in hopes of reaching the higher power of desire. Set to a distorted riff and an air tight drum groove, the pair travel through time, space, the ocean, Vegas and other assorted green screen-ery on their search.

In an ideal world, Alex Cameron (or someone like him) would be a big pop star, but we don't live in an ideal world. We live in a world where the things that are bad for you taste the best, and the works of people like David Fincher are allowed to be considered high art. Cameron's specific type of pop music can be cumbersomely described as a polite amalgam of Bruce Springsteen fed through a filter of an under-produced Jack Ladder, with a tiny peppering of the parts of Nick Cave where he doesn't insist you listen to his hook-less nouveau riche goth storysongs.

Rather than give any attention to today's obvious music story of Sum 41 soapboxing about how they're not pop even though they tanked once they stopped writing their own songs, let's prod at the curious decision by La Sera to cover Led Zeppelin.

Today, Toronto’s second favourite son dropped the video for his Daft Punk collab, "Starboy". The clip begins with our pompadoured hero, tied to a chair and asphyxiated with a plastic bag over his head by a mysterious figure all in black. A moment later as the mystery man struts down the hallway of the recently deceased’s Hollywood hills home, he pulls off the balaclava revealing a freshly shorn Weeknd. New haircut Weeknd sets about destroying old haircut Weeknd's house and platinum records.

Before LCD Soundsystem decided that the wine bar business wasn't as good at the top tier North American festival business, Holy Ghost! somewhat unsuccessfully tried to do to them what the Black Keys did when the White Stripes retired: take their place and immediately charge three times as much for a show. The move made sense. The world needed an outfit to replace the premiere live dance act.

Today electropop veterans New Order have shared the new video for People On The High Line in advance of the release of their People On The High Line 7” picture disc on October 21^st.  The track, with guest vocals from Elly Jackson of La Roux, is a throwback to the band’s 80s output with just the right amount of Madchester-esque piano thrown in to keep things moving.

It's about that time! POP Montreal starts today and runs until Sunday the 25th, so it's time to break out those show-hopping shoes. Every year is special, but 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of the grassroots festival. We can't believe how fast the time has gone by, but, you know, as Oettinger said, "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." Anyhoo, this year definitely won't disappoint.