Victoria Symphony brings frights to stage with film-score performance

Orchestra music doesn’t normally go bump in the night, but that’s about to change. Sean O’Loughlin is conducting the Victoria Symphony this month in Hollywood Thrillers, during which the symphony will perform songs from scary movies such as, among others, Hitchcock films, classics Jaws and Psycho, and the ’90s smash Jurassic Park. “This kind of […]

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Louise Burns uses full band to get new sounds on Young Mopes

Vancouver’s Louise Burns says that once she started writing material for what would become her most recent album, she couldn’t stop. The end result is Young Mopes, which came out in February and landed itself on the Polaris Prize long list earlier this year. But Burns admits now that even though it was easy to […]

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New Music Revue: Propagandhi’s Victory Lap and Counterparts’ You’re Not You Anymore

Propagandhi Victory Lap (Epitaph Records) 4.5/5 Victory Lap, the seventh full-length album from Winnipeg hardcore band Propagandhi, twists my world. I’m not just talking about the full and hearty riffs and drum work, although the music alone would make this album special. Guitarist Sulynn Hago’s debut with the band is full of her fierce playing. […]

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Sarah Slean looks at creative process, marketing process

Canadian musician Sarah Slean says that downtime helps her realize what she really wants to be doing. And she’s clearly taking some downtime: her 11th album, Metaphysics, came out this April, more than five years after her last album. “I bought a farm and decided I was going to attempt something that was not transient, […]

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Dead Reckoning recounts woman’s tale of meeting her father’s murderer

Carys Cragg’s Dead Reckoning is an emotional and compelling memoir about meeting her father’s murderer. While also looking at the injustice that surrounds the case, Cragg gives an in-depth view into an intense process, with details about her thoughts and experiences as she meets the man who murdered her father 20 years earlier. Cragg’s active […]

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What’s Going On: October 4 to 17, 2017

Until Saturday, October 14 Down the drain Langham Court Theatre is presenting its newest play, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, until October 14. The play is about a 10-year old girl, her goldfish, and how she deals with her parents’ deteriorating marriage. As a bonus, check out a group art exhibit up at Langham Court […]

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Tei Shi uses knowledge gained from the road on new album

Musicians are constantly on the move when they’re on tour. But Valerie Teicher—who goes by the name Tei Shi and is touring in support of her latest album, Crawl Space—has conquered the turbulence of the road. Teicher—who was born in Buenos Aires, moved to Vancouver when she was younger, and now lives in New York—says […]

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Harry offers unique perspective on dogs’ lives

Chris Czajkowski’s new book, Harry: A Wilderness Dog Saga, surprised me with every turn of its pages. I’m not a huge fan of dogs in general, but when I started to read the book, I quickly felt like I was reading something out of the excellent Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Harry is told from […]

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The Good Soldier Schweik examines Czech survivalist mentality through Brechtian lens

Developed and staged in Toronto in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Michael John Nimchuk’s stage adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek’s legendary Czech novel The Good Soldier Schweik hasn’t been performed a lot since then, especially around these parts. But now, director Don Keith and his team have welcomed the challenge of bringing this lesser-known work […]

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New Music Revue: Neil Young’s Hitchhiker brings peace to a chaotic world

Neil Young Hitchhiker (Reprise Records) 3.5/5 Listening to Neil Young’s Hitchhiker—recorded in a single session in 1976—is a pure, tranquil way to spend a rainy afternoon. Some songs, such as “Human Highway,” have been on other albums, while others have remained unheard, except for the occasional live performance, for decades. When these songs are compiled […]

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