Bison members I spoke to agree that the closure of The Cobalt would (or is it will?) be a “huge blow” for the Vancouver music scene. “Bison has played The Cobalt probably about five times,” guitarist/ vocalist James Farwell tells me...
“We weren’t necessarily going for an animal name,” Bison BC co-guitarist/ co-vocalist James Farwell tells me when I ask about the name Bison. “We’d tossed around these Godawful made up words - ‘what looks good in a good metal fo...
Wreaking havoc on the Vancouver scene for more than a decade, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets never fail to come up with strange and exhilarating new ways to reach out and clutch their victims. Staying true to their uniquely horrid app...
5 questions for the JUNO-winning act ahead of their Slush Puppie Place performance
Interview with Dope Soda was done in June, 2012 by D'Arcy Briggs
Ska Fest: When and where do you guys meet? When did you decide to form the band?
Dope Soda: Well Dope Soda was a project I have been wanting to do for a v...
I'm a white rocker, born of Abbotsford. All through high school I associated rap music with delinquents farting bass out of Honda Civics and punching people. But time passed, and at SXSW in Austin this past March, I stumble upon the Canadia...
It always does me proud to discover a local band making quality music that's true to the landscape of this varied terrain. Rocky, cool, stormy, eclectic, thoughtful and laid back, these words only begin to describe the Parlour Steps sound. ...
This is the Sleep Factory, Trish Shwart’s exhibition at Martin Batchelor Gallery that opened on November 7th, with a persuasive performance by the artist as a marketeer, and continues with a visual smorgasbord of parodies that explore the commodificatio
“You shouldn’t start telling a story if you don’t have a story to tell.” From his seat in the lunch room of Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, Tuomas Holopainen leans forward and speaks into the digital audio recorder resting on the coffee table in fr
On Sunday, June 9th, the Blu Martini will host a special fundraiser to support the Grad Club, a beloved music venue in Kingston that has been facing financial difficulties. The event, organized by local musician and guitar legend Tom Savage...
There aren’t a lot of modern rock bands running around spouting an ethos of love, harmony and goodwill toward one other. In a market where the gloomy, aggressive or just plain aloof is king, you wouldn't think these kinds of happy cuddly ...
Thee Manipulators
The morning after I first saw local 5 piece garage rock band Thee
Manipulators I woke up with two maracas in my bed and a lot more pins
on my jacket. Strangely, I had acquired a pin of an intoxicated/hungry looking fe...