Music Review: Angéline, Back to Pike Place

By Tyler Hodg

Angéline is the type of singer-songwriter that is impossible to not find inspiring. Her music is soulful and true, and her latest release, Back to Pike Place, is no exception. The EP compiles five beautifully-written songs (and one intro) that are all unique in their own ways. While the music may not necessarily make you want to jump up and dance, it will, however, make you want to cheer for its honesty.

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Blu-Ray Review: Immoral Tales

By Jeffery X Martin

The 1970s were a time of sexual revolution. Women’s liberation, bra-burning, birth control pills, swingers, orgies, and who knows what else? It’s not like people didn’t know about sex before, but in the ’70s, sex exploded (which sounds gross). Suburban couples were lining up around the block to see Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, two pornographic films that found both mainstream success and legal troubles, as both films were placed on trial for obscenity.

Obscenity still has an elastic meaning, and at times the line between artistic license and simple prurient leanings is blurry and hard to see. That’s precisely where 1974’s Immoral Tales lives, in that strange tesseract on the corner of Softcore Porn and Arthouse Loophole.

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Music Review: Duran Duran, Paper Gods

By Jeffery X Martin

Duran Duran has been around for a holy crappin’ 37 years. Is that possible? How old am I? Never mind that question. The amazing thing is they’ve never been out of the public eye in all that time. Well, there was one album, Medazzaland, that just sort of fizzled, but we’ll just give that time period a miss, shall we?

It’s possible that the band is on the verge of their third career resurgence with the release of Paper Gods, a schizophrenic dance album for those with bad backs and broken hearts.

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Concert Review: Sloan At Massey Hall

By Tyler Hodg

Photo shamelessly stolen from Sloan’s Facebook page

September 11, 2015
Toronto, ON

For only the second time in their career—and the first time since 2000—Sloan brought their talent to the legendary Massey Hall in Toronto on September 11. As singer/guitarist Chris Murphy pointed out, the band “never really got massive,” but the venue was packed with their die-hard, loyal fanbase. For those who were in attendance, it was a night to remember. For those who weren’t in attendance, it will be a night you will hear about for a long time.

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Music Review: Holly Golightly, Slowtown Now!

By Melissa Bratcher

The new Holly Golightly album, Slowtown Now! is a complete delight from start to finish. There’s a relaxed affability and a charming retro-ness to the songs, and Golightly’s voice is wonderful. She sings with an ease and grace, clearly enjoying the material, which ranges from girl group harmonies, to smart jazz, to throwback garage rock. It’s such a fun album and compulsively listenable.

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Top Five: TIFF 2015 Picks From Brendan Ross

By Brendan Ross

Green Room

As much as I enjoy watching Willem Dafoe movies and crazy 1980s music videos on YouTube, sometimes I need to break out of my comfort zone. Here are my fave choices from this year’s TIFF lineup. P.S. I may or may not have a man-crush on Ben Wheatley.

GREEN ROOM:

Patrick Stewart as the leader of a white supremacist gang. Do you really need to hear more?

THE LOBSTER:

Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos is back with a film that looks set to satisfy all my existential surrealism AND John C. Reilly needs.

ANOMALISA:

It’s an animated Charlie Kaufman movie for Christ’s sake!

YAKUZA APOCALYPSE:

Because I really want to know what goes on in a Yakuza knitting circle

HIGH-RISE:

Anybody have an extra ticket?

Top Five: TIFF 2015 Picks From Less Lee Moore

By Less Lee Moore

Men & Chicken

I tried to pick movies that I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see in the multiplexes. Also, I’m a sucker for the Vanguard and Midnight Madness programmes at TIFF.

MEN & CHICKEN:

Writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen hasn’t let me down yet, and neither has Mads Mikkelsen. As great as he is as Hannibal Lecter, he’s equally great in Jensen’s twisted black comedies.

DER NACHTMAHR:

A young woman is haunted by a deformed creature that no one else can see? Sign me up.

THE MIND’S EYE:

Joe Begos’s Almost Human was the movie that 1982’s Xtro should have been, so I know his latest will be a wild ride.

THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS:

Great cast, including Katherine Isabelle and Mitch Pileggi, in a film about serial killers and starfuckers that’s lensed by Dean Cundey. That’s like catnip to a horror junkie.

THE DEVIL’S CANDY:

Satanic possession movies are kind of my thing and Sean Byrne is the kind of director genre fans kill for (but not literally, OK?).

The Five Movies I Would See If I Were Actually Going to TIFF (Which I’m Not)

By Jeffery X Martin

Baskin

If you’re looking around town and noticing a lack of Beautiful People, don’t be alarmed. This week, they’re all in Canada for the Toronto International Film Festival. They’re hobbing their nobs, going to movies, shaking hands at fancy parties and sleeping in theatre lobbies to make sure they don’t miss an anticipated showing. Obviously, I’m not there. I’m not beautiful enough. I’m sitting on my couch watching wrestling matches from the mid-nineties. But man, if I were there at TIFF, with all of those pretty folks, these are the five movies I would punch Stephen Harper in the balls to see.

BASKIN:

This Turkish movie about police officers who stumble upon a Satanic cult looks dark, unsettling and bloody. The hope is that this one gets truly weird, and early buzz is good.

THE WITCH:

Early American rural homesteaders fall prey to religious frenzy and grimy evil befalls them. The preview plays out like a mud-covered sequel to The Village.

HELLIONS:

A pregnant teen is the victim of a home assault led by creepy trick or treaters. It looks like a great combination of the French movie Ils and living in Detroit.

PORTAL TO HELL!!!

In his final film role, my personal hero, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper fights Cthulhu. If that doesn’t sell you on the movie, nothing else I could possible say will.

THE DEVIL’S CANDY:

An artist moves his family to Texas and gets possessed by Satan. I imagine that’s what happens when you move to Texas, anyway.

Someday, I’ll get to go Toronto and walk around with filmmakers and movie stars, and that will be amazing. In the meantime, oh, look! It’s a ladder match! Time to start drinking.

Music Review: Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls, A Season Undone

By Melissa Bratcher

Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls bear the trappings of the catch-all Americana label: banjos, mandolin, a gruff-voiced lead singer, excellent guitar with the occasional wildcard instrument (accordion, horns, kazoo—it’s been a very good year for the kazoo, musically). But the strain of Americana they play is filtered through the sometimes harsh light of L.A. There’s a grittiness to the music, a feeling of mid-1980s Sunset Strip crawling in the heavy guitar solos, and an anthemic quality that permeates many of the tracks on their second release, A Season Undone.

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Retro Review: Dario Argento’s Deep Red

By Tim Murr

In honor of Italian horror master Dario Argento’s 75th birthday this week, I wanted to take a look back at one my favorites of his films, Deep Red a.k.a. Profondo Rosso from 1975.

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