Kilmore Place is a five-piece rock band who has just recently broken into the music scene here in Vancouver with a style that is “nostalgically alternative”. And the reason why I say that is because not only do they possess similar D.I.Y. esthetics as their 1990’s predecessors, releasing and producing their latest EP, “…What Happened?” [...]
Growing up in Salt Spring Island, much of Bodhi Jones’ “folk-sensibility” was cultivated at an early age. After moving to Vancouver, the shy and withdrawn, budding musician felt lonely and sought out music for comfort. It is precisely because of this comfort, Jones began composing music. Releasing several EPs and full-lengths and performing at a [...]
The future of popular music, it seems, is rooted in electronics. The advances in technology and glossy new production techniques have become essential ingredients for monetary success. Even the most stripped-down folk artists in pop music are guilty of dabbling with these advancements in the industry (see: Bon Iver’s “Woods”), though not always with the [...]
The early 2000s proved to be the peak years for raprock. Rage Against the Machine released its final album of original material in 1999 with The Battle of Los Angeles, while Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit were transitioning away from the stylistic dichotomies that made Hybrid Theory and Chocolate Starfish and Hotdog Flavored Water so [...]
With the release of their 2009 full-length debut album, Post-Nothing (of which I briefly reviewed here), local noise-punks Japandroids not only put themselves on the international indie-rock map, but shamelessly propelled Vancouver into the center of their calculated madness. Outside of Vancouver, Post-Nothing was an unexpected gem that garnered the band a fair amount of [...]
Gentile, acousti-rock is a tricky genre. The divide between pop culture classic and overplayed, nausea inducer is frustratingly hazy and sometimes audiences just can’t tell the difference. For example, “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz could possibly be the greatest song ever written, but because I’ve heard it in passing more than any song in my [...]
Unlike other seasons, summer seems to be the only time of the year that has directly inspired an entire movement of music. Summertime music is completely inoffensive, soft-spoken, and expects little of the listener. It’s easily likeable, as it associates itself with bohemian beach busking and bikini babes swooning over acoustic mysticism. After all, there [...]
So much of the past decade’s best music seem to follow a trend of incorporating a largely folk or country influence into the alternative music scene. Bands like Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses are a couple of the more notable names that embrace the down-home vocal twang and organic, acoustic-based, organ-supported songwriting nature that [...]
