A few steps away from the Wolfe Island ferry, the Island Grill has wood paneling, beer logos and photo collages of local bar regulars—all the makings of a dad’s basement, complete with a conspicuously septic smell.
For the three laid-back bands playing this past Sunday—Blue Heeler, the Superfantastics and Nich Worby—the location couldn’t have been more ideal—particularly for Blue Heeler’s Dick Morello, who used to summer on Wolfe Island.

The Torngat mountains lie along the northern tip of Labrador and are best described as unpredictable.

Much in the vein of the band’s Britrock counterparts Keane and Coldplay, British indie quartet Athlete choose swooping, stretched out melodies and ambient riffs over fast-paced, catchy rock anthems. However this arrangement only works so well for a band who, despite beautiful harmonies, coast into a monotonous no-man’s land of placidity for sections of their new album Beyond The Neighbourhood.

When I reached Elliott Brood’s lead singer, Mark Sasso, on his cell phone, the band was in their tour van on their way to a show in Montreal. Though Sasso held the phone, the raucous interview was a whole-band affair, with Casey Laforet and Stephen Pitkins calling out interruptions and additions each time Sasso spoke.

Walk into Lisa Figg and Anna Elmberg Wright’s show currently on exhibit at the Union Gallery and you’ll be instantly greeted by a thoughtfully uncomfortable aesthetic. The show, titled REfuse_reFUSE, is an expression of both artists’ interests in the environment and the effects of human activity on the natural world.

Unlike most musicians, Craig Cardiff won’t only be hawking plastic-wrapped, jewel-cased editions of his new album Goodnight (Go Home) on his upcoming 60-date tour.
Instead, the Waterloo native wants fans to bring in USB keys to buy a digital download of the album for $10.

When iconic indie act The Rheostatics called it quits after 27 years of warming Canadian rock fans’ hearts, it was a sensible but bittersweet break-up. Fortunately, out of The Rheostatics’ shadow grew bassist Tim Vesley’s new band the Violet Archers.

On the evening of April 6, 1994, over the rolling hills of Kigali, President Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down in the city’s skies. His government scattered, his fellow Hutus were enraged and the events that followed were inhuman; the next 100 days of bloodshed were among the most tragic in modern history. In Rwanda, ethnic tension between the Tutsis—the privileged minority under colonialism—and the majority Hutus has existed since the initial Belgian occupation of the country in the early 20th century.

Visual artist KC Adams’ portraits are glamorous, subversive photographs that speak out on many levels, re-envisioning and playing with common perceptions of aboriginal people.

This fall’s Queen’s Players performance might refer to Clark Hall Pub’s closure, but the show’s director, Simon Paabor, isn’t giving anything away.
An Inconvenient Truth About Clark and Dog is currently in rehearsals, gearing up for two weeks of shows in November at Time to Laugh Comedy Club at 394 Princess St.

Performer-poet Sheri-D Wilson, one of Canada’s celebrated experimental artists, is responsible for paving the way for spoken word back in the ’80s. Though performing to the beat of her own drum with unique, jazzy words has garnered the Alberta native recognition, Wilson still forges ahead with her work and focuses on creating thriving artistic communities wherever she is.

The table-top role-playing game, Warhammer 40000, can be won and lost on the value of honour points, earned by killing enemies who were once good but have since become rebellious traiters.
The game—which is played using tiny metal figurines of soldiers and fantasy characters—and the morals and themes that it operates on, are at the centre of Ayaz Kamani’s time-based media installation, Someone Else’s Scene, which opens in the State of Flux room at Modern Fuel on Wednesday.

Toronto rock trio Hunter Valentine bring their gritty sound to the Grad Club tonight as part of EQuIP’s Queerientation. Though this concert marks their first time in Kingston, the band members love the road and have toured southern Ontario extensively.

At The Barricades isn’t just the title of a compilation CD produced by Wolfe Island resident and indie musician Chris Brown. It’s also the mantra for environmental justice group The Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. The grassroots organization, headed by environmental lawyer Mark Mattson, is one of 161 groups working globally to ensure peoples’ three basic rights to drink, swim and fish in clean water. Through negociating the legal system, Mattson and his charity fight, in court, for issues that affect the quality of Lake Ontario’s water.

On Monday night at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto’s east end, grand jury members for the Polaris Prize chose an unlikely candidate for the second year in a row. The award, which goes to the best Canadian album of the year, is based solely on artistic merit and comes with a $20,000 cheque.

It’s not often that small talk before class turns into a festive arts showcase, but for some education students, that’s exactly what happened.
Kate Dickson, ArtSci ’07, was sitting with some friends in a classroom, waiting for their music course to begin and talking about the beautiful weather that stretched from the summer into September.

Like the afternoon clock ticking away towards its deadline or the train steaming ominously along its tracks, 3:10 to Yuma is unapologetically relentless. This is the only apt way to describe James Mangold’s remake of the 1957 classic western with the same name. From start to finish, it doesn’t once let up, berating the audience with its fiery intensity. A worthy addition to the American Western mythology, Mangold’s film is in no way a mere homage to what has gone before. Rather, 3:10 to Yuma stands confidently as a psychologically intense thrill-ride that returns an urgent relevancy to the Western tradition.

Tonight’s concert at the Sleepless Goat is an indication of the value of building friendships through common interests.
Richard Laviolette, Chris Yang and Jordaan Mason are friends first and fellow musicians second. Their performance tonight will kick off their seven-week tour of Canada and the U.S.
For Laviolette and Yang, this tour is a return to their old ways. The two singer-songwriters have been touring together on and off for almost two years across North America.

The Junction have seen a lot of changes since their conception as a high school jazz outfit in their hometown Brampton, Ontario back in 1997, but they’re learning to roll with the punches. Some things have stayed the same such as core members guitarist and vocalist Brent Jackson, bassist Matt Jameson and drummer Mike Taylor and the group’s mutual love for defying parameters.