expect delay
I’d like to think I’ve been reasonably diligent in covering music from non-English-speaking parts of the world, but my attention has been mainly focused on Asia and Europe. I think I’ve gone as far south in the Americas as Mexico so let’s remedy that a bit with a look at Encarta 98. The band, not […]
Luna return to Toronto tonight for the first time in seven years, settling in at Lee’s Palace, the room I saw them in every time before they bid farewell almost 22 years ago. Post-reunion they’ve played bigger and smaller rooms, but returned to Lee’s for their last visit in 2019 and it just feels right. […]
If the return of The Radio Dept. to both the stage and the studio this year wasn’t cause enough for celebration, they’re also returning to record stores this year. Or more specifically, their second album – Pet Grief – will mark its 20th anniversary with a limited edition vinyl reissue on November 13. This isn’t […]
We’ve got a rare foray into semi-self promotion today. The “semi-” because Blue Drops, the forthcoming debut album from Toronto’s Azure Rose, does not feature me in any way, shape, or form. It’s the solo project from Justin Grant, formerly of Toronto bands Fjord Rowboat and Bluescreen, both staples of the local ’00s shoegaze scene […]
The famous may be in Toronto right now for TIFF, but the otaku will be at The Horseshoe for the next two nights as this year’s edition of Next Music From Tokyo kicks off. The four-band lineup of Japanese indie acts is always a mix of new and familiar (assuming your frame of reference is […]
For a discography as long and deep as The Cure’s, there’s surely going to be some missed gems but I’m quite surprised I’d never heard their 2001 single, “Cut Here” before it showed up in my algorithm recently. Okay, maybe not that shocking – I can’t say that I was paying much attention to The […]
London quintet sadplanet threw their hats into the ring with a trio of singles spread out across 2024 but have waited until now to make their proper first statement via their debut EP Slowing Down, which came out last week. Their output has affirmed their understanding of and respect for the dogma of English dreampop […]
Most of the discourse around Sad Lovers & Giants hereabouts has focused on their earliest works and specifically the labyrinthine mess of singles, EPs, albums, and compilations that make finding and owning the material that cemented them as one of the best overlooked bands of early post-punk and new wave so frustrating. In doing so, […]
The two stages of Kinoko Teikoku’s career are pretty clearly delineated into their indie era and their major label era, each covering three of their six total albums (though trainspotters would probably draw that line one album earlier, into shoegaze/non-shoegaze). Their two 2018 digital “introduction to” compilations were split as such and their vinyl reissue […]
I usually don’t have too much trouble deciding if I am going to title a post about non-English bands with their native language or the translations – I generally prefer the former because it’s more “authentic” and I’m pretentious like that – but I had to think hard about this one, mostly because the English […]
