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Neil Young is forever Canadian
Every time Neil Young plays Winnipeg — he’s playing there tonight — it’s a big deal. While the legendary artist was born in Toronto and lived in Omemee, Ont., as kid, it was in the Peg where he spent his teenage years.
The city’s residents loves to claim Young as their own, and you can’t blame them — he played Winnipeg’s clubs, started his first band The Squires here, was friends...
Travel: St. John’s, Nfld
Compared to most of Canada’s major cities, St. John’s, Nfld., is tiny. And yet when the Juno Awards comes to town on April 15 to 18, visitors will be taken by the outsized personality of the place — not to mention the spectacular views of the Atlantic. Metric, Michael Bublé and tween hero Justin Bieber are set to perform at the event. But for pure entertainment, it’s hard to compete with...
Travel: Austin, Texas
From March 12 to 21, a huge crowd of bands, film nuts, movie execs and music lovers will converge in Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival. The event, now in its 27th year, is one of the city’s largest — more than 170,000 people pile into the growing desert locale to make deals, listen to copious amounts of music and explore this always-active college...
Last chance for Death Row Records
It won’t come as a surprise for you to know that I’ve never been to a Death Row Records party, but I can imagine what it would have been like. The venerable rap label, started by endlessly incarcerated Suge Knight and hip-hop legend Dr. Dre, played a major role, if not the biggest part, in gangsta rap’s popularity. It’s no secret that guns, drugs and dubious characters played a big role...
Olympic anthem doesn’t represent Canadian music
Three days before the Olympics began I had already lost count of how many times I heard I Believe.
The song, sung by 16-year-old Montreal phenom Nikki Yanofsky, must have been on three or four times a night, so you can understand, after 11 days of speed skating, hockey and skiing, just how deeply lodged that track (and its equally epic variations) is in my head.
We can debate whether or not the...
Joel Plaskett tops list of Canada’s finest of 2009
With just a couple weeks left in the year, every music fan is likely busy compiling a list of the decade’s best records. But we can’t forget how good 2009 has been. There was Sonic Youth’s infectious The Eternal, La Roux’s electro pop debut, Grizzly Bear’s harmony laden folk on Veckatimst and the list goes on. But five Canadian records really stood out. Not only are these better than many...
Neil Young — Dreamin' Man
Neil Young
Album: Dreamin’ Man
Label: Reprise/Warner
Rating: ****
Winnipeg-raised Neil Young can’t do anything wrong, even when he releases his least exciting live album to date. Dreamin Man was recorded in 1992 and features every song off Harvest Moon. In terms of the singer-songwriters’ live discs, it’s not as thrilling as Live at Massey Hall or Live at the Fillmore East, but it’s still...
Tags: Music reviews, Neil Young
Gucci Mane — The State vs. Radic Davis
Gucci Mane
Album: The State vs. Radric Davis
Label: Warner
Rating: *** 1/2
As we all know too well, being a rap star doesn’t preclude one from a jail sentence. While Gucci Mane did beat a murder charge, he’s now back in prison for violating parole. Luckily, he can stay in the spotlight with his new, and damn good, album. The appropriately titled The State vs. Radric Davis (his given name) is a...
Tags: Gucci Mane, Music reviews
Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based web and print writer, editor and blogger working mainly for business and entertainment publications. He regularly contributes to Canadian Business magazine, writes Metro Canada's weekly Audio Files music column and shares personal finance tips on Rogers TV's Daytime Toronto. He's also written for Maclean's, MoneySense, PROFIT, Chatelaine, Hello Canada, MSN Tech, Yahoo Finance and the National Post. He was recently nominated for five National Magazine Awards, winning one in an online category.
