More than 2,500 songs shared, some 200 LPs and EPs reviewed, thousands of photos from concerts and festivals, and dozens of premieres later, we’ve arrived at our annual tradition of sharing our favorite songs of the past 52 weeks – also known as The Mega, Mega Playlist of 2017. This year’s playlist is the biggest yet. The 2015 version had […]

Phases by Angel Olsen Angel Olsen is one of the most compelling songwriters and performers in the world. Her lyrics can be heart-wrenching, surreal, or frantic, and her voice always suits her words. Whether it’s her frenetic screaming on “Shut Up Kiss Me” or the brooding “White Fire”, Olsen crafts her music perfectly, which is why it is a bit […]

It’s almost been two weeks since Weekend Two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival came to a close, and it was once again another stellar year. It was still a bit warm in Austin, but luckily it started to cool off on Sunday. The Festival made a few layout changes from last year, which proved very successful. The new […]

Weekend Two of The Austin City Limits Festival kicks off today and in case you haven’t planned your schedule yet, we have a list of 20 bands you need to see. We all know why we are going because of the headliners (Foster The People, Ryan Adams, The XX, RHCP, Spoon, GORILLAZ, etc.), but it’s always fun showing up earlier […]

It’s Friday the 13th, and we could share a creepy playlist or just share great music regardless of the tone. We’ve opted for the latter because a good spooky tune can be shared year round in our opinion. So put on the headphones or turn up the speakers, and enjoy this terrific selection of new music on The Matinee October […]

Another fabulous week in music has passed us, and the next 6 to 8 weeks look incredible. In the meantime, take a moment to reflect back on the week that was with the Weekend Showcase 3.37 edition. Fifty-four songs are on this playlist, although not all of them are on SoundCloud or Spotify. Fifty-three are on the former while the […]

As we do every Friday, The Matinee September 22nd has nine songs to help you kick off the weekend. We kick things off a bit differently, featuring one of the great indie-rock artists and arguably the best songwriter of her generation as well as the return of a great UK band.   Angel Olsen – “Special” (Asheville, NC, USA) RIYL: […]

Summer brings with it a few favourites like lazy days on the beach, the smell of ice cream waffle cones in the air, and the famed 3-day Osheaga Arts & Music Festival. August 4th to 6th, 2017, heralds the arrival of its 12th installment, and it brings music lovers from far and wide to Parc-Jean Drapeau on Ile Ste-Hélène. Having […]

Just like Day 1, the second day of Newpork Folk Festival is filled with conflicts, as is expected. The first half of the day features several international artists, some of whom occupied many of our “Favorites of 2016” lists. The mid-afternoon to evening portions are littered with some of the biggest names in indie, folk, Americana, and alt-country. Oh, there […]

As is tradition on the last day of the year, we share The Mega, Mega Playlist of 2016. After featuring more than 2,500 songs through The Matinee, Melodic Tonic, Saturday Sampler, album reviews, photo essays, and premieres. We’ve reduced that list to 120 songs just in time for New Year’s Day. These songs aren’t a complete representation of what we’ve […]

Happy Holidays everyone. If you’re finished unwrapping gifts, possibly too stuffed from all the turkey, ham, and other goodies, or maybe trying to avoid the Christmas cake, take a moment to review the full list of our Favorite 50 Albums of 2016. A playlist is also provided that could be spun on Spotify (no Thee Oh Sees) or SoundCloud (Go […]

Today and for the rest of the week, we will be revealing our Favorite 50 Albums of 2016. This is not a “Best of” list since we did not listen to every album released this year (that would be, to quote Vizzini from The Princess Bride, “Inconceivable!”). So who makes our list this year? Are there any returnees from the […]

Weekend Showcase 2.35 has a bit of everything from everywhere. Maybe you want some blistering indie rock or enjoy old school country? Is euphoric indie pop or shimmering world music and electronica your thing? Soul-crushing ballads and moving indie folk are what you fancy? Possibly you want to get moving to some spatial shoegaze, classic blues-rock and funk, and hip-shaking […]

Ever since she released her debut LP, Half Way Home, in 2012, Angel Olsen has been considered one of the more unique singer-songwriters out there. Her distinctive voice and wide range of influences resulted in something truly different. She’s also gained a reputation for high quality. Her 2014 record, Burn Your Fire For No Witness, is arguably one of that […]

It was just on Sunday that the Ottawa Bluesfest finished, but back on the road for another festival. This will mark the 4th consecutive year that my wife and I will attend the Newport Folk Festival. No offence to the many festivals we have attended, but NFF is by far our favorite. It’s an extremely intimate festival, where roughly 10,000 […]

We shared our top-20 SXSW picks two weeks ago, which is definitely a hard task with how many great bands are in Austin this week. Today, we look at some bands to see as well as some very awesome day and night showcases that you do not want to miss. We decided on a few choice bands in the evening to […]

We commence our countdown today of our 50 favourite albums of 2014. We’ll be listing five albums per day for the next week-and-a-half in order to give each album some well-deserved attention. We say “favourite albums” because we haven’t listened to every album produced (although collectively we’ve listened to probably close to 1000) and we don’t consider ourselves to be […]

New Zealand’s Nadia Reid just released a beautiful, melancholy record called listen to formation, look for the signs last week.  From the first track, “Runway” I was hooked.  “Runway” is a gorgeous track that immediately made me think of fellow New Zealand band Tiny Ruins. However, those similarities are thrown aside with “Reaching Through”, a great indie rock track with […]

On November 18, one of our favorite albums of the year, Angel Olsen’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness, will be re-released as a deluxe edition on Jagjaguwar records.  Today, Jagjaguwar and Olsen hare “May As Well”, which will be on the deluxe edition.  It’s a stunning acoustic track, with Olsen’s unique voice singing “I’ll never forget you all of […]

The first three months of 2014 brought to us some excellent music. To review the first quarter, we, Rich and Ben, have provided our favourite 15 albums so far. If you’ve been following us, we say favourite because we’re not experts nor are we qualified critics (is there such a thing?). This list was really tough to determine and we […]