Zaki Ibrahim Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON October 24

Published Oct 27, 2008

Not everyone at this concert was convinced of Zaki Ibrahim's star power. "Based on what I heard, I thought the shit was weak,” a sceptic tel...

Bloc Party Intimacy

Published Oct 25, 2008

Bloc Party's third album lunges at fans that kept their sophomore disc, A Weekend In The City, at a distance. It does this by turning loose...

Ratatat Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto ON October 4

Published Oct 10, 2008

Hadn't we heard this song already, I asked near the show's end. That, my friends, is the Ratatat appeal: cling tight to the formula. They’re...

Lollapalooza Grant Park, Chicago IL August 1 to 3

Published Aug 06, 2008

We applauded ourselves when it was over. Tens of thousands of concertgoers spilled out onto Chicago’s downtown streets. Sighs of joy paired...

Rock the Bells Arrow Hall, Toronto ON July 20

Published Jul 25, 2008

Nostalgia was on the minds and lips of most in attendance, even if younger fans were still enjoying naptime during hip-hop's golden age. Pro...

Measuring Up Declining record sales mean less opportunity for self-congratulation. Will web views be any more reliable for an industry in crisis?

Published Mar 24, 2008

Gold and Platinum awards for album and single sales exist both as a tool of the music industry and as a symbol of its decline in a digital a...

Hangar 18 Sweep the Leg

Published Nov 26, 2007

Too much that stumbles out into the world with the Definitive Jux seal of approval is too quirky for its own good. Sweep the Leg often fails...

Baby Elephant Turn My Teeth Up!

Published Nov 26, 2007

Renowned keyboardist Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic fills this disc with sprawling synthesisers like his old band were still cuttin...

Dragonette

Published Oct 26, 2007

To undress Dragonette's Martina Sorbara one needs to bundle up with a personality that reveals so much about of rock’n’roll and its desire t...

9th Wonder Dream Merchant Vol. 2

Published Oct 09, 2007

Cast aside any worry about 9th Wonder’s split from Little Brother; his debut, a solo album of his beats and other people’s rhymes, spanks ho...

Virgin Festival Toronto Island Park, Toronto ON September 8 to 9

Published Sep 24, 2007

It was spiritual. Nothing less than baptism upgraded with electronics, confetti and a laser light show. At the centre of this circus stood B...

Infinito 2017 & Unagi You and Eye

Published Sep 18, 2007

If A Tribe Called Quest’s Low End Theory gets regular rotation in your music collection, this seven-song EP walks the same territory. Unagi...

Mellow Black At The Speed Of Motion

Published Sep 18, 2007

What sinks most Canadian MCs is their inability to string together compelling narratives. Mellow Black (or MySpace alias Mello Black) may be...

Retro Tech Mixtape

Published Aug 20, 2007

Suck UK's designers demanded that modern technology dress retro. And damn it if a too-thin USB key — great for making digital mixtapes — doe...

RJD2 The Third Hand Instrumentals

Published Aug 14, 2007

Much of what was wrong with The Third Hand is avoided here by stripping away the vocals. That doesn’t completely salvage this album but it d...

Talib Kweli Ear Drum

Published Aug 14, 2007

Liberation for Talib Kweli meant freeing himself from the notion he had to be everything to everyone. With its slow stew of heartbeat drums,...

Mark Ronson Version

Published Jul 18, 2007

The brunt of the criticism circling Mark Ronson’s album says he was wrong to make these white bred indie rock songs strut in distinctly blac...

T-Pain Epiphany

Published Jul 18, 2007

Five tracks into this disc, a woman reveals to T-Pain — in a musical interlude — that she has H.I.V. He blames her at first, before relentin...

Fabolous From Nothin' To Somethin'

Published Jul 18, 2007

Fabolous has the kind of monotone flow that will put you to sleep. Conscious of his lack of personality, he ducks behind the status of other...

Buddy Picture FILM

Published Jun 22, 2007

Forget about Facebook, drop your remote and steer your web browser to clarkandmichael.com. There, in the tradition of so-awkward-it's-funny...