Back Stories: My 2016 Interview With Tony Bennett
In the summer of 2016, Sony Music Canada sent me to New York City for several days so I could sit down for a chat with living legend Tony...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Locked Groove Is In The Heart
If you've never listened to This Is The Kit, I invite you to do so. Kate Stables fronts the duo-turned-band from the U.K., who create beautiful, cool alt-folk music...
Thunder Pie | Fake Gold Chain Turns Green: Tiny Essays About Inspiration
A Jar of Bugs I’m Holding
Last night, after work, Arle came up through the yard balancing the mushroom pizza box and the hoagie in a bag on top of...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Screwing Up Your Kids
I have always detested children's music. Even when I was a kid. I found it pandering and lame. My parents were older — both in their mid-40s — when...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Diss Tracks
John Lennon could be really pissy. This week I scored a quadraphonic copy of his 1971 classic Imagine. I don't have the 2021 "ultimate mix" 2LP special release, so...
Thunder Pie | Once We Watched A Train
“We live in a rainbow of chaos.”
— Paul Cezanne
Chest pain on the road down the valley. I raise an eyebrow. Could be a thing. My first thoughts of slamming...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Ernie Tucker, The Old Pornophoner
In many ways, the movie Boogie Nights was no work of fiction. But the sex industry wasn't confined to cinema in the filthy 1970s — there are plenty of...
Concert Review: Death Cab For Cutie | Ottawa Bluesfest, July 9, 2023
OTTAWA — It's a show Death Cab For Cutie should have been up for, and they were — a muggy night under the cloudy skies in the Nation's Capital...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Pink Floyd & Montreal
Pink Floyd had a complicated relationship with Montreal. We often think of the city, and the province of Quebec in general, as a historically safe space for prog bands....
Thunder Pie | The Kitchen In The Daylight
“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky
It’s the 4th of July today and everyone is...
Rewinding 2023 (So Far) | Area Resident’s Favourite Releases & Reissues
I can't say for certain these are the best albums and/or singles of the year so far — because I haven't got all the things I've wanted yet. But...
Rewinding 2023 (So Far) | The Short List: Tinnitist’s Top Albums (Part 1: A-M)
Wait, it's July already? Damn. That was fast. I'd say time flies when you're having fun, but I don't know anybody who's actually having any. But even if the...
Rewinding 2023 (So Far) | The Short List: Tinnitist’s Top Albums (Part 2: N-Z)
Wait, it's July already? Damn. That was fast. I'd say time flies when you're having fun, but I don't know anybody who's actually having any. But even if the...
Rewinding 2023 (So Far) | The Long List
Another six months, another bajillion albums, EPs, box sets, compilations, anthologies, retrospectives, soundtracks, bootlegs and vinyl reissues. Here's every title that found its way into my ears and onto...
Rewinding 2023 (So Far) | Tinnitist’s Top Interviews
I spent about 30 years interviewing musicians the old-fashioned way: Talking on the telephone, transcribing the tape (and then, eventually, the digital recording) and turning it all into a...
