FASHION Magazine

Consider the mythical chimaera. It has the body of a lion, a serpent’s head for a tail, and a goat’s head jutting from its back. Weird, right? But considering its relevance to Brasstronaut’s debut full-length, Mt. Chimaera (Unfamiliar Records), it’s not all Classics Club geekdom. Grazing and gobbling up genres in its path with cunning sensibility, Brasstronaut manages to fuse pop, electronica, klezmer (yup, pokey clarinet) and jazz into one highbred take. Every moment of Mt. Chimaera is fresh—dashing your anticipations at each unexpected turn.

We don’t recommend you sit at home and listen to Woodhands’ Remorsecapade (Paper Bag). Get out and request their songs when you’re at a sweaty dance party—you’ll bounce along with this record’s front loaded punch and intensity.

Woodhands is Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt, an inditronica drum and keytar synth based in Toronto who rock in both drollery and sensibility. On Remoresecapade you’re either having far too much fun, or on the verge of bumming out. On tunes like “CP24,” Werb lets you know that “I’m gonna’ be on CP24, pointing sixteen-hundred roman candles at your door.” It’s relentless, it’s spastic, entirely danceable and lyrically odd.

Kieran Hebden first started releasing upbeat patchwork productions as Four Tet back in 1999 in order to find a creative outlet beyond his post-rock outfit, Fridge. Dialogue and four subsequent full-lengths constantly shifted personality while staying within the indie-electronic category of digital looping, slicing and pasting.

On his latest outing, There Is Love In You (Domino), Hebden shows that his work remains as richly syncopated, dynamic and elemental as it’s always been. This time around though, Four Tet plays partial to arching soundscapes over the hip-hop inflected basement-nerd tunes previously offered.

Always experimenting, but consistently sincere, you can always trust The Magnetic Fields aren’t just playing a one off. In the past they pulled out all the stops on 69 Love Songs, an album so comprehensive it spread across three discs and many, many inconsolable hours of your life. Then came Distortion, a much different tune, paying homage to shoegaze drone-fuzz and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Now on Realism, The Magnetic Fields’ third Nonesuch release, singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt takes the band into ersatz production on what is ostensibly a variety-folk concept album.

Someday I know my collection of rock T-shirts will be worth money and now I can fuel my addiction (without having to deal with the club scene anymore) thanks to the Yellow Bird Project (yellowbirdproject.com). The Montreal-based non-profit that has some of the coolest indie bands of the day–Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and the Dears […]

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Woodpigeon is often compared to Sufjan Stevens and Belle & Sebastian, which could have something to do with what follows. Woodpigeon’s third LP, Die Stadt Muzikanten (Boompa), offers some of the happiest sad songs we’ve heard in a while. Writing in a small Berlin apartment, Calgarian songwriter Mark Andrew Hamilton started “thinking in terms of couples, of people coming and going, of walls and windows,” he says.

Right about now, if you beat Lady Gaga in the download charts you’re doing something right. Enter Ke$ha. She spells her name with a cash symbol, sounds like she’s got somewhere better to be, and her slow-banger “TiK ToK” is beating out “Bad Romance” on iTunes. We had to check out her debut full length album, Animal.

WWD has an interview today with Montreal’s 15-year-old jazz star (and fashion fiend) Nikki Yanofsky. On a day where breaking news consists of a video of Miley’s 9-year-old sister Noah gyrating to Akon’s “Smack That,” and the two girls’ apparent role model, Lindsay Lohan, is still designing for a major fashion house, Yanofsky is a […]

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The Trill: A Journey So Far (EMI) is a condensed collection of K-os’ sprawling pastiche, a compendium of singles and album standouts that listens like a mix-tape (remember those?) you might make for a friend to prove that K-os has the chops.

Friend of FASHION Ashley Joseph hit Pop Montreal this month to check out the street style. Click the images below to see her snaps.

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Among the dubious charms of the Paris Metro is this recurring phenomenon: a grubby, often bereted man gets on, wielding an accordion, which he plays energetically for at least five minutes. This surprise isn’t free, of course; afterward he’ll stick out his hand for coins. If I were a nicer Canadian, I’d find this delightful. But I’m like: Hi! Can’t you see I’m trying to listen to Air?

Because the French pop princes have finally set free their latest effort, Love 2 (EMI), and it seems just the thing to listen to on steamy subterranean rides.

In the immortal words of Mick Jagger, “It’s only rock ’n’ roll but I like it!” There wasn’t much not to like about the award-winning documentary Rock Prophecies, which screened Saturday night at the Calgary International Film Festival. From director John Chester, this film explored the life of Robert Knight, an iconic rock photog who’s snapped everyone from Led Zepplin to Aussie band Sick Puppies.

After hearing the film’s wicked soundtrack, I was tempted to skip the after bash and head home to host my own personal party, complete with some long-shelved LPs, but I did my film fest duty and headed down to the Barley Mill for the bash.