A couple of years ago, Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors took Toronto by storm. To say that tix to this show were hard to come by is an understatement. I had access to an AGO Members pre-sale and I still had to sit online from 10 AM - 3 PM before I was able to get... Continue Reading →
The Mozzer question
This particular blog post has been brewing in my mind for a while. Since midway through last year in fact, when Morrissey's blatant racism became inescapably clear. A lot of the online discourse was directing anger not just at Morrissey, but at his fans as well. Admitting to any sort of ambivalence, shock, disbelief or... Continue Reading →
Live shows what I saw in 2019
2019 was a very good year for me, live music wise. I mean, it feels redundant to say that, but now that I think about it, not really. I spent a lot of time unemployed in recent years, and while I was lucky enough to still be able to see a fair number of live... Continue Reading →
Communion with the crowd – my top live shows of 2018
2018 was another tumultuous year. I feel like I've been writing that for several years in a row. World events continued to be a non-stop dumpster fire, and there were some definite ups and downs in my personal life. Through it all, whether I was mourning, celebrating or just enduring, there was live music. I... Continue Reading →
2017 – Live music kept me afloat
2017 was a hell of a year for me. To say that there was a lot of upheaval is putting it mildly. After being out of full-time work for over two years, I suddenly found myself back in the workforce. I was just starting to get settled when a member of my family was diagnosed... Continue Reading →
Teenage kicks all through the night
A few months ago, there was a meme going around Facebook where people posted the albums that influenced them the most during their teenage years. I had an interesting discussion with my friend Rik about it over drinks one night. Rik is a fellow music aficionado and writes his own excellent blog called A Pile... Continue Reading →
RIP John Lever, The Chameleons: We’re all souls in isolation
It was just a few weeks ago, wasn't it, that I said I was sick of writing RIP posts. I actually had a different post planned for today, and I still plan to write it. But this one needs to be written first. Because this time, it's personal. This is a post mourning someone I... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys – Viv Albertine
I was introduced to Viv Albertine's autobiography by a friend of mine who raved about it. Viv Albertine is, of course, the guitarist for The Slits, the seminal all-girl punk band. I confess that I wasn't hugely familiar with The Slits when I started reading Viv's book. I knew of them, but had heard very... Continue Reading →
We are ugly but we have the music: Remembering Leonard Cohen
It's taken me two months to write about Leonard Cohen. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was sick of the fact that every blog post I wrote last year was about the death of one of my heroes. Maybe it was that Cohen died the same week that the most unheroic cowardly man possible was... Continue Reading →
How a new wave kid fell in love with The Tragically Hip
It was the late 80s when I first heard The Tragically Hip. There was a family I babysat for often and the dad had a massive record collection. Ken would often send me home with mixed tapes full of music, and on one of those tapes was the Tragically Hip's self-titled debut album. Now, you... Continue Reading →
Rock 'n' Roll Animal 