Features

The Shazam Festival 2022

The Shazam Festival took place over the weekend of July 9, where the hills of the eastern townships were alive with the sound of music and mayhem. Free from Covid restrictions for the first time in years, the festival was able to go ahead at full capacity. 


Montreal Fringe: A Murder Mystery and a Raunchy Bonhomme Carnaval

An Awkward Apologetic Evening with Leighland Beckman

I was at the Petit Campus once again to spend an evening with Leighland Beckman. The Fringe description for his show promised the audience a guitarist, dirty songs, profuse apologies and a happy ending. 


Montreal Fringe: What About Albert?, A Mini Essay

Not everyone is lucky enough of having a workplace that’s at least a smidgen enjoyable, as evidenced in The Malicious Basement Theatre Company’s What About Albert?, written by Xander Chung. The plot follows a day in the shift of two part-time workers, a grill sergeant named Pod (Jordan Prentice) and fry cook named Pick (Fanny Dvorkin), in the hell-scape of the fast food chain they work at.


Montreal Fringe: Sire: A Father-Daughter Vampire Story

The other night I got the chance to see actress, playwright and producer, Darragh Mondoux’s “Sire: A Father-Daughter Vampire Story,” brought to the Montreal Fringe fest by A Heart of Gold Productions. Joining Mondoux onstage is painter and graphic designer Robert Mondoux, who portrays Vera’s vampire father and who offstage, also lives the role (sans being a vampire, of course).


Hip-Hop for Life: the Music Video Edition

Lately there’s been an effervescence ringing through the city, and my bets are on it being from CJLO celebrating its third Hip-Hop for Life this week! The Afro-American music genre transcends itself into an impetus that sparks social change, awareness and community. In addition to curated shows, playlists, conferences, and workshops all dedicated to celebrating hip-hop’s vast and pervasive influence within art, the media, politics, culture, language, fashion and so much more; the magazine team wants to hop (pun unintended) onto the zeitgeist too and show some love.


Montreal Fringe: The Sky Never Looked Better, Thanks to Plateau Astro’s Night Sky Tour

The popular Montreal Fringe Festival has finally begun. Of all the indoor art, music and theatre performances it usually hosts, this year’s Fringe is back in full swing and expanding to outdoor activities again. Taking advantage of the summer clear skies and this expansion, Plateau Astro has joined Fringe to organize The Night Sky Tour.


​​Lloyd Cole’s “So You’d Like to Save the World”: A Song Best Paired with 21st Century Existential Angst and a Morning Metro Ride to Work

In 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche declared “God is dead” and then in 1945 Jean-Paul Sartre posited, “existence precedes essence”. But nearly 50 years later Lloyd Cole sang, “you might call it ultraviolet radiation / it’s only sunlight”.


Try A Little Tenderness: Dark Folk Solo Artists As An Introduction to Metal

We get it. Not everyone loves metal like we do. The harsh vocals, heavy distorted guitars and blast beats can often be a turn off. But even the most hardened metalheads didn’t start their musical journey listening to the most brutal of death metal bands. We had to be slowly eased into the genre, beginning with something accessible before diving deep into pure aggression.


The Cannibalization of Nomenclature in Metal Music: Will We Ever Run Out of Band Names?

From a sociological perspective, music genres have completely plateaued. Analyzing any style of music, from psych rock, hip hop, folk, to metal, undoubtedly reveals a past point of origination and a list of artists who founded the genre within a scene. Easy examples of these historical points are psychedelic rock and the 1967 Summer of Love, disco sprawling out of urban nightclubs in the 1970s, goth rock and the UK scene of the same name in the 1980s… you get the idea.


HEAVY METAL BOOK CLUB: Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion

Songs about getting reckless, getting wasted, and getting naked tend to fall in and out of fashion frequently, but for the better part of a decade, they absolutely dominated the airwaves. The hair was high, the clothes were tight, and the dudes looked like ladies, because hard rock ruled, the supply never ran dry, and it seemed like the party would never end. Of course, it did, as all good times do, and no matter how many bands have tried, a true hair metal revival has always been perpetually around the corner, and also forever out of reach. What that era left behind is a legion of true believers, semi-regular airplay in strip clubs and sports stadiums, and the stories. Holy shit, the stories.


Radio Lantern: Your Guide Through 15 Metal Subgenres

Everyone has to start somewhere! Whether you just found out AC/DC existed or you can’t wrap your head around what the hell Kawaii metal really is, this little guide might help you understand the difference between the following 15 metal subgenres and maybe help you expand your playlist a little. 


The Unorthodox Romance of Julia Daigle and Un singe sur l'épaule

“I hope it's going to make people dream. Because I dreamt a lot about that project,” said Julia Daigle, skittish about whether that was too pretentious a statement to make about her recent album, Un singe sur l'épaule.


CJLO Year End Top 2021

2021 was a trying year. Despite many adversities in and out of the station, CJLO delivered quality, around-the-clock programming to its listenership without missing a beat. What better way to celebrate the music that reverberated across our airwaves in 2021 than with a good ol’ fashioned list?
 

Hey Joni

This article originally appeared in the 2021 POP Montreal Programme


Porches Wants Listeners to "Feel the Joy" of 'All Day Gentle Hold !'

Photo Credit: Jason Nocito

“This song really slapped / brought me back to life.”

So sings Aaron Maine on “Back3School,” one of the singles from All Day Gentle Hold !, his fifth and latest album under the moniker Porches. After a global health crisis that caused the most turbulent 18+ months that any of us have ever lived, the New York City-based artist wanted to write music that went in a completely different direction than the prevalent mood of the time.


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