'Topp: Promoter Gary Topp Brought Us the World' Is a Deeply Affecting Tribute to One of Toronto's Unsung Rock Heroes By David Collier with Gary Topp and Patrick Lee

Published Sep 17, 2020

Rock history has little love for promoters. Over the genre's 65 years, promoters, the folks who book artists into venues, tend to be portray...

Fontaines D.C. Are as Uncertain as Ever, in a Good Way, on 'A Hero's Death'

Published Jul 31, 2020

What do you do when all your dreams have come true? This is the question that haunts A Hero's Death, the sophomore album from Dublin post-pu...

The Streets Stick to What They're Good at on 'None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive'

Published Jul 09, 2020

Few artists have managed to bottle the feeling of being a young, modern English urbanite quite like Mike Skinner. An everyman MC straddling...

100 gecs' Star-Studded 'Tree of Clues' Remix Album Proves the Haters Wrong

Published Jul 09, 2020

100 gecs tend to elicit a lot of strong opinions, as well as a lot of questions: Are they for real? Did they just call someone a "piss baby?...

With 'Women in Music Pt. III,' HAIM Finally Have an Album That Lives Up to Their Incredible Shows

Published Jun 26, 2020

There's always been an incongruity between HAIM in the studio and HAIM on stage. Whereas the trio's first two albums were polished and smoot...

Japandroids Prove Themselves Worthy of 'Massey Fucking Hall' on Triumphant Live Album

Published Jun 23, 2020

Japandroids seem tailored for the live experience – made up of shredding guitar, pounding drums and gang-vocal "whoa-oh" choruses, their mus...

Reunited CanRock Heroes Sleepless Nights Improve Upon Their Legacy with 'Every Word Is a Trap'

Published May 29, 2020

Sleepless Nights' star burned bright in the late aughts, before the band's 2009 disillusion. Yet the band's legend – at least on Canada's Ea...

The 1975's 'Notes on a Conditional Form' Is Less Navel Gazey Than It Has Any Right to Be

Published May 22, 2020

The 1975 have built a career taking familiar sounds and pushing them into unfamiliar places. It's a thread that winds throughout their disco...

Wares Make Personal Struggles Universal on 'Survival'

Published Apr 23, 2020

In a world lurching from tragedy to crisis and back again on a weekly basis, the title of Wares' new album, Survival, is uncannily prescient...

Every City Needs a Book Like 'Any Night of the Week: A DIY History of Toronto Music, 1957–2001' By Jonny Dovercourt

Published Apr 16, 2020

There are plenty of city-specific music books and plenty of books about DIY music, but Any Night of the Week might be the first about a city...

Pearl Jam Gigaton

Published Mar 24, 2020

Throughout the '90s, Pearl Jam were one of the biggest and most creatively restless bands in alternative rock. The didn't make videos. They...

​Gordon Lightfoot on Meeting Miles, Canadian Canoe Trips and That One Time with Ozzy The Exclaim! Questionnaire

Published Mar 23, 2020

Few Canadian musicians — or musicians, period — are as revered as Gordon Lightfoot. Across a career that's entering its seventh decade, Ligh...

Gordon Lightfoot Solo

Published Mar 20, 2020

Twenty-one albums of original material is a hell of an achievement in any artist's career, let alone one as successful across multiple decad...

​Gordon Lightfoot Says 'Solo,' Born from 20-Year-Old Tapes, Is His 'Nebraska'

Published Mar 18, 2020

"A little strange that a guy would be that ambitious."   That's what the people of Orillia, ON thought when Gordon Lightfoot set out to Ch...

Green Day Father of All...

Published Feb 06, 2020

What the hell are Green Day doing?   The ugly-ass cover; the unnecessary profanity in the title; the ridiculously short runtime (26 minute...

Pinegrove Marigold

Published Jan 20, 2020

The latest full-length from Montclair, NJ indie band Pinegrove comes with a giant asterisk. At the end of 2017, frontman and primary songwri...

Pinegrove Gently Return from Hiatus with 'Marigold' After a Year of Serious Reflection

Published Jan 15, 2020

"Let me pull over and be smart and be safe here," Evan Stephens Hall tells Exclaim!, as he guides his car to the side of the road. Hall is o...

Class of 2020: I M U R's Dark R&B Is Genre-Bending Makeout Music

Published Jan 13, 2020

Experiment. Explore. Refine. It's a simple process, but one that's produced tangible results for the members of Vancouver electro-R&B trio I...

Ducks Unlimited Get Bleak

Published Dec 04, 2019

Jangle pop — that loose, chiming style of indie rock — is one of those genres that's easy to make, but deceptively hard to do well. Ducks Un...

Ralph Flashbacks & Fantasies

Published Dec 04, 2019

If you caught Raffaela Weyman on one of her recent opening gigs for Carly Rae Jepsen, you know that the Toronto pop singer, who performs as...