Features

A conversation with Ben Frost and Tim Hecker. Photo taken by author.

Today was a day to celebrate musical diversities of Moogfest 2016. Well, after a quick trip to the Moogfest Record Fair, presented by All Day Records, Merge, and some delicious food from one of the countless food trucks surrounding the downtown core.

I spent part of the day getting acclimatized to Durham, North Carolina, figuring out the lay of the land, so to speak.

First stop was to the Carolina Theatre to get all of my press stuff sorted. While there I got to interact with the WiFi Whisperer, by Kyle McDonald. This art installation explores the social nature of WiFi, monitoring and manipulating visitors' data and activity, and leaking more then they might realize. Whoa…

A few years back, I wrote an article for the CJLO magazine about the creepiest thing that ever happened to me around CJLO studios. As I implied then, I don't actually believe in ghosts, but I would like to believe in them, if that makes any sense. I like listening to other peoples' paranormal experiences and am fascinated by the idea that fragments of the past have the ability to manifest in the present. For the most part, however, I believe that the unexplainable generally has a very real, very boring explanation.

We at CJLO (that is Joana, the host of Je Suis TBA and Christina from Yonic Youth) jumped on a plane in mid-March, leaving the confused Montreal spring behind to check out the hot lineup for the 2016 edition of SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin, Texas.

Hooked up by our generous host with bikes, a beautiful place to crash and a slew of insider’s tips on what is worth checking out in the city, we were set to overdose on new music.

Now that the dust has settled, here are a few things that stood out to us during the desert fest:

The task of identifying the worst vocalists to make their mark on the great musical genre known as heavy metal is difficult for a number of reasons. First, metal is a genre that has a history that spans over four decades and thousands of bands, and so that means that there is a ton of ground to cover. This is made easier by the fact that most metal singers in the present era sound exactly alike due to the fact that they all have watched the same "how to scream" videos on YouTube, but the challenge remains. Who is the worst? I think that I have found one very good candidate for the worst vocalist in the history of metal, and that is Sean Killian from Vio-Lence. 

Place-des-Arts is a very important arts center for this city and as the largest arts complex in Canada it is well renowned and respected. So its no small thing that the Montreal's Black History Month roundtable and Place-des-Arts have been collaborating for the past four years to bring Black-centric expositions to the public in the espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme during Black History Month. This year's exposition was named Black Muses and featured 12 Black female musicians who have greatly impacted Canadian music and paved the way for their sistren.