Music

Sure, most of us can trace the broader consequences of the Cold War signing off, but what happened on Thunder Road when the Berlin Wall came crashing down? Bruce Springsteen’s sleeper hit “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”, lifted from his 1992 album Human Touch, tackles the question head-on, providing an understated commentary about the meaning of the American Dream in an age of post-Cold War ennui that resonates deeper with every listen.

The Charm Offensive definitely has one foot firmly planted in the one of our most colourful decades, the 1980s. This has been explored previously in their collaborations with director Ash Middleton and with their latest joint, the Vancouver based band have decided to jump right in and place their other foot firmly in the aesthetics of said decade. The new video for “Machinations Of Love”, a bonus track from their debut EP Polite Mouth//Honest Hands, is set in a 1980s idea of dystopian future. So, a dystopia but drenched in gorgeously hot neon.

Perhaps it’s his outsider perspective, being an Ontario transplant residing in BC, that has allowed songwriter Justice McLellan to craft an album of songs that are so quintessentially Vancouver. Whatever the case may be, McLellan with his band Blue J have been putting out consistently winsome, sardonically melancholic songs that detail the plight of being young and struggling, with music, work and in love, in our fair city.

When your rap rock outfit’s big riffs and take-no-prisoners approach leave you shitlisted from every club in Europe, how can the show possibly go on? By playing some historic ruins, I guess. Pissy suburban icons Papa Roach accomplished just that with “None of the Above”, the eighth music video culled from their 2017 album Crooked Teeth. Eight music videos, can you believe that shit?

Jo Passed are gearing up to release their debut album Their Prime on May 25th through Royal Mountain Records (Canada) and Sub Pop (US/INTL), and before that gets to hit our ears the Vancouver, BC foursome have just released the video for their track “Millennial Trash Blues”. Directed by Justin Gradin (Louise Burns, White Lung), the surreal clip brings us into band leader Jo Hirabayashi’s nightmare-ish dystopia which features his bandmates as ghoulish monsters who tempt him with trash and melt off his face amongst other horrifyingly hilarious things.