How cool are Winnipeg staples Garbage Mitts? So cool they wear parkas in the summer – that’s how cool.
They’ve internalized Winnipeg, and so, too, have internalized its winter harshness, its unbearable blizzards, its ragged iciness. Their torsos have become as cold as marble statues, and only the one-two punch of an insulated summer can raise their internal temperature to a state of dexterity and grip strength. In this respect, their thick black palm-sweating Rabers are integral to their climate-controlled ensemble, and with them they can not only grab on to their guitars but also on to the bumpers of life.
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To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
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Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.