Area Resident | Phosphene: Exclusive Album Premiere + Track-By-Track
Doug Hempstead — the Clark Kent-like alter ego of Ottawa indie-rocker (and Tinnitist columnist / reviewer) Area Resident — endured a bit of a wild pandemic. When it began in March...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | I’m Your Captain
When we were little boys in elementary school, a few of us decided to become "captain" superheroes for our recess adventures. One of my friends — I don't remember...
Thunder Pie | Things We Told Ourselves
“Conflict is the beginning of consciousness.”
— M. Esther Harding
What remains are the remnants of a bird. It is evaporated more or less. There are a few downy feathers that...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Tapping Out
We hear a lot about famous musicians who became acid casualties, but what if they're addicted to VLTs instead of LSD? Gambling addiction is the most-common type of non-substance...
Thunder Pie | Tender & Choppy Goes the Kid Piss Memoir
In the hallway outside the bathroom, where it’s mostly dark, I almost fall over a pile of kid piss blankets. I guess Arle put them there when she was...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | ‘What Does The Dark Side Of The Moon Mean...
Towards the end of the Dark Side Of The Moon sessions, Roger Waters got the idea to get what the British call vox-pops — clips he could tailor for...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Hey, Isn’t That … ?
Nobody sings TV show themes anymore. I used to have one of the many volumes of Television's Greatest Hits, which compiled awesome TV theme songs from the ’50s to...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Retired Seems To Be The Hardest Word
Elton John’s farewell tour has been going on longer than the entire career of some musicians. I've been a fan of ol' Reggie since I was four years old,...
Thunder Pie | Something In The Night
Long before I understood what it means to be alive, I felt isolated on leafy streets. At the bus stop in the morning, I would stand there calmly: observant...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | No. 1 With A Casket
I'm not sure about the first time I remember liking a new song by a dead person — It's either something from Double Fantasy or Elvis Presley’s Guitar Man.
Two...
Thunder Pie | Three People in Line At The Echo Cluster
One look up and down this street, in all this sunshine, and I connect with it. Some towns are nothing. You climb down out of the van or step...
20 Questions With Justine Blanchet
Justine Blanchet puts her heart into her work. In more ways than one. The Montreal country-pop singer just released her 10th single Heart Less, a girl-meets-bad-boy story of loving,...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Vanished!
In the salad days of my journalism career, I was a newspaper editor in rural Renfrew County, Ont. — in a community which was home to many American expatriates.
On...
Thunder Pie | And Then We Have Breakfast and Then We Meet Up with...
Many years ago when I was a boy, I began to wonder about God. My mom said she believed and I guess she did. But it was half-assed by...
Area Resident’s Stylus Counsel | Mom’s Just Not Cool Enough
There are loads of examples of musicians recording or performing with their parents or their kids, but almost nobody seems to have their mom in the band. I'm kind...
