Music

• Tonight! In East Van! The Fugitives! Brendan McLeod chats about new album, Eccentrically We Love

• The Appleseed Cast at the Biltmore, March 9 2010 “Nothing spectacular happened on stage, and this lack of showmanship emphasized the Appleseed Cast’s outstanding musicality and poetic lyrics,” writes Catherine Carmichael.

• Little Boots’ Victoria Hesketh The British electro-pop singer doesn’t like Captain Beefheart nearly as much as she likes Human League.

• Against Me! at the Rickshaw Theatre, March 2 2010 Against Me! plays Vancouver at the start of a tour a few months before the release of its next record. It is rock.

• Review – El Perro del Mar and Taken by Trees, Feb 27 2010 Two Swedish bands in town in time for the tail-end of the Olympics make hockey jokes to an appreciative full house at the Biltmore.

• Review – Four Tet at the Biltmore, Feb 24, 2010 Nearing the end of his North American tour for his sixth album There Is Love In You, the post-rock/electronic artist Four Tet comes to Vancouver.

• Review – The Neil Young Project at the QET, Feb 19 2010 Where’s Nardwuar when you need him?

• Review – Stars at the Orpheum Theatre, Feb 19 2010 The Montreal/Vancouver indie pop band plays to an adoring crowd at the Orpheum. White rose petals and Shakespearean soliloquizing optional.

• Review – Yacht at the Biltmore Cabaret, Feb 19, 2010 The Portland band delivers an interactive and theatrical show at the start of its See Mystery Lights tour.

• Review – Bell Orchestre at Great Northern Way Campus, Feb 18 2010 ‘A unique and extremely Canadian experience’ is how Kristina Mameli describes her immersion in the Montreal instrumental act’s Cultural Olympiad show.

• Review – Elliott Brood at LiveCity Downtown, Vancouver, Feb 14 2010 The Toronto trio draws an appreciative crowd to its show during the Olympics. ‘Where were the masses in October when the Toronto three-piece brought the Biltmore to its knees?’ asks reviewer Kristina Mameli.

• Interview – Spoon River’s Tavis Triance Adrian Mack interviews the former Montrealer about his band’s new album Kingdom of the Burned, working with a hungover Cate Blanchett, and the world’s most wasted man.

• Review – High On Fire at the Biltmore Cabaret, Feb 10 2010 The Oakland band cements its reputation as THE metal band to see, writes reviewer Kyle Harcott.

• Review – Anvil at the Venue, Vancouver, Feb 13 2010 Rachel Fox gives as good as she gets amidst a frottage-happy crowd of middle-age sausage owners on ‘Anviltine’s Day’.

• Review – Vivian Girls at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, Feb 12 2010 A ‘hipster fight’ breaks out and someone steals one of the band’s distortion pedals. Welcome back to Vancouver, Vivian Girls!

• Review – Jenn Grant at the Park Theatre, Winnipeg, Feb 9 2010 Jenn Grant plays a $20 guitar, sends our reviewer into a swoon, and covers Laura Veirs’ ‘Don’t Lose Yourself’.

• Interview – Dessa The Minneapolis rapper talks about her current tour, her new album, and what students can learn by taking her hip-hop composition class.

• Review – The VSO Performs Gershwin, Feb. 6, Orpheum Theatre How could Mike Herle not love it? It’s Gershwin, aka the music from the Woody Allen movie Manhattan.

• Review – Nouvelle Vague at the Venue, Feb 5 2010 Guttersnipe ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ of the French band, which had hundreds of showgoers swooning into their cups at its Vancouver show last Thursday night. Ria Nevada reviews, Michael Caswell shoots.

• Review – St. Vincent at the Venue, Vancouver, Feb 4 2010 Annie Clark is an amazingly fun guitarist to watch; and Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums put on a great opening set. With photos by Michael Caswell.

• Interview – Nouvelle Vague’s Olivier Libaux Olivier Libaux of the new wave/punk covers band on working with lovely French singers and (not) dating co-workers. Oh, and a little about the music, too (but not too much).

• Review – The VSO Performs Symphony of a Thousand, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 A cast of (literally) over a thousand performs Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand.

• Interview – Pointed Stick Romila Barryman, not yet a mote in the eye of the universe when Pointed Sticks released its debut album Perfect Youth, talks to the Vancouver power-pop band about its new record.

• Review – NOMO at the Biltmore Cabaret, Jan 30 2010 The Ann Arbor afro-beat band bring the horns to the Biltmore Cabaret. Mt St Helens Vietnam band opens, Jessica Bardosh photographs, and, uhm, Nutty Bearpaws reviews.

• The Fugitives, East Vancouver, Jan 31 2010 Fresh from selling out the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, the Vancouver band hosts an informal performance for 40 of its closest friends, and us.

• Interview – Fanshaw Singer/songwriter Olivia Fethersonhaugh on taking New York by storm, the only album she listened to for 10 years, and the lowercase ‘f’.

• Review – Motley Crue at GM Place, Vancouver, Jan 24 2010 The Bad Boys of ’80s Hair Metal entertain non-fan Rachel Fox at ‘the predictable sausage-fest’. Jordana Meilleur photos

• Review – Fiddle and the Drum at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Jan 22 2010 The self-proclaimed ‘best project’ of Joni Mitchell’s career, a collaboration with the Alberta Ballet, comes to Vancouver to help kick off the Cultural Olympiad 2010.

• Review – Phoenix at the Orpheum, Jan 22 2010 French dudes play Vancouver as part of the Cultural Olympiad in support of their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. A sold-out audience freaks out.

• Review – Monotonix at the Pyramid Cabaret, Winnipeg, Jan 19 2010 Eugene Osudar sings the praises (again) of the Tel Aviv band, with some fab Mike Latschislaw pics.

• Review – 100 Monkeys at the Venue, Jan 17 2010 Jackson Rathbone fans threaten to tear the roof of the Venue with their screams. It’s all in a night’s work for the Twilight star, on tour with his jam band 100 Monkeys.

• Review – VSO at the Orpheum Theatre, Jan 16 2010 The VSO performs Dvorak’s Carnival Overture and Respighi’s Anicent Airs and Dances and Pines of Rome, while Jennifer Koh plays ‘like an angel possessed.’

• Review – Tegan and Sara at the Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, Jan 14 2010 Sometimes all it takes is one goon to ruin a show. But Tegan and Sara handle the jerk with aplomb at the first of two shows at “the Burt” in Winnipeg.

• Review – Switchfoot at the Commodore Ballroom, Jan 13 2010 Watch out, it’s Christian rock with a Mandy Moore connection. Alicia-Rae guides us into the light.

• Interview – 100 Monkeys Jackson Rathbone. Twilight. There, are you happy, Google? 100 Monkeys swings through Vancouver on its 100 Dates tour.

• Review – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre, Jan 9, 2010 Mozart goes to the heart, writes our reviewer. The VSO repeats the program tonight at the Orpheum Theatre.

• Best Concert Photos of 2009 Pt I!!! From thousands of photos in hundreds of galleries, we’ve picked some of our favourite shots from the last year, including pics of Bison, Kid Cudi, Saul Williams, Mickey Avalon and Eddie Vedder.

• Review – Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, Jan 8 2010 For our reviewer, a see-and-be-seen crowd almost ruins Owen Ashworth’s songs of love and adulthood.

• Review – Tegan and Sara at the Orpheum Theatre, Jan 6 2010 A setlist and photos from the first couple of shows from the Quin twins’ current Sainthood tour. Review to come.

• Interview – Laura Smith The Vancouver musician talks about touring with Dan Mangan and why it’s more fun to play a gig on New Year’s Eve than attend one.