Culture & Interests
Book of the Month: Savage Beauty
Arguably the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designer of his generation, Alexander McQueen both challenged and expanded fashion conventions to express ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment.
Album of the Week: Quickness
By melding punk with reggae, Bad Brains became one of the definitive American hardcore punk groups of the early ’80s.
Ben Schumacher – Reverse Boustrophedon
Tomorrow is very pleased to announce its inauguration and Ben Schumacher’s first Canadian solo exhibition. Opening June 24th from 7pm – 10pm sharp.
Album of the Week: Best of Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton only notched one national hit in her lifetime, but it was a true monster. “Hound Dog” held down the top slot on Billboard’s R&B charts for seven long weeks in 1953.
Album of the Week: The Age of Quarrel
Formed by New York punk child prodigy Harley Flanagan and guitarist Parris Mayhew, the Cro-Mags helped define the East Coast hardcore movement with their now legendary debut, Age of Quarrel.
Book of the Month: America and the Tintype
Featured in this book are more than 200 remarkable examples of tintypes, mostly drawn from the Permanent Collection of the International Center of Photography in New York. America and the Tintype was a companion to the exhibition that included over 150 remarkable examples of tintypes.
Album of the Week: Pee-Wee Get My Gun
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist T-Model Ford (James Lewis Carter Ford) plays a raw-edged, visceral style of blues from the Mississippi Delta, accompanied much of the time by his drummer, Spam (Tommy Lee Miles).
Fucked Up’s Midnight Madness Pop-Up Record Shop
Do you remember when music was cool, and people actually went out to buy records in person? So do our friends in Fucked Up.
Album of the Week: New Brigade
There hasn’t been a shortage of bands that borrow the monotone of Joy Division. But the kids in Iceage pair it with a ragged, snotty attitude. There are times they sound like a version of Ian Curtis et al. that never lost those Stooges affectations
Album of the Week: 21
Adele’s 2009 debut album, 19, was a Grammy-winning smash hit that revealed the British singer/songwriter’s knack for bittersweet soul and folk-infused love songs that brought to mind an infectious mix of Dusty Springfield and Terry Callier. The album earned her a ton of fans, and interest was high for the inevitable follow-up.
Album of the Week: Substance
Substance is a double-disc set collecting New Order’s singles, including several songs that were never available on the group’s albums, at least in these versions.
Album of the Week: Garlands
Those hearing Garlands for the first time who only know the Cocteau Twins’ other material will likely be more than a little surprised.
Album of the Week: Yuck
It’s tough sometimes to decipher a band’s true intentions or divine its motivation when releasing a record — especially when the band members are so influenced by a sound or an era that you can’t tell if their appropriation is based on love or cynicism.
Book of the Month: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1948, and lives and works in New York and Tokyo.
Album of the Week: Misanthropic Generation
Metal March continues at Sydney’s with Disfear’s Misanthropic Generation.
Album of the Week: Reign in Blood
It’s Metal March! And to kick it off, our album of the week is what Sydney calls “pretty much the best metal album ever”, Slayer’s Reign in Blood.
Shared for Trattoria Mercatto
Our friends at Shared, a local line of Canadian-made basics, has teamed up with design firm Device 222 to produce the uniforms for the newly opened Trattoria Mercatto.
Album of the Week: Conference of the Birds
While it’s true that having two instruments play repetitive droning grooves over and again leaves room for little true variation, it hardly matters. Conference of the Birds has the ability to get underneath the skin of the listener and keep burrowing.
Stephen Appleby-Barr Exhibit
Our good friend, Stephen Appleby-Barr, is exhibiting a selection of his work at the Nicholas Metivier Gallery from March 10 to April 2.
Album of the Week: Suuns – Zeroes QC
While trying to form their identity on their Secretly Canadian debut, Suuns makes their influences known.
Album of the Week: Girls – Album
For their 2009 debut (simply titled Album), Girls’ two free-spirited San Francisco burnouts (one appearing relatively clean-cut, the other greasy-haired and disheveled) JR White and Christopher Owens go for the Mellow Gold with their take on D.I.Y. California pop.
Album of the Week: The Modern Lovers
Compiled of demos the band recorded with John Cale in 1973, The Modern Lovers is one of the great proto-punk albums of all time