Teen Anger
NXNE, Toronto, ON June 17 to 21, 2009
By Ian Gormely

Toronto group Teen Anger throw down old school punk riffs with a bit of twang on the side. The quartet played a solid set in the horribly laid out Silver Dollar Room. The lead singer did his best Ian Curtis moves while the female bass player rocked out in a leopard print leotard. The crowd was game but didn't seem visibly interested until the singer wandered down into the crowd to try and coax some animation out of them, They quit just as the crowd was peaking in either a brilliant reading of their audience or a lack of more material.

Ruby Coast
Though hungry for a record deal, Ruby Coast began tentatively, building a drone-y, mostly instrumental tune up, layer by layer before digging in for a set of moody, emotional rock. If anything was going to kick things into gear, it was the band's poppy "More Than Television," and the song's dynamic ...Read More
Jason Collett
In the midst of making a new record, Toronto's Jason Collett wrapped his twang around a wack of unreleased material that an appreciative and packed Horseshoe Tavern lapped up. Backed up by his great band Zeus, Collett's got some nationalism in his blood, celebrating and examining Canada on his lates ...Read More
The Black Lips
Blood Ceremony
Brent Randall and His Pinecones
British Columbia
Burning Brides
Change of Heart
Dillinger Four
Elephant Stone
The Ghost is Dancing
GZA/Genius
Hexes & Ohs
Japanther
The Juan Maclean
King Khan & The BBQ Show
The Lovely Feathers
Matt & Kim
Melissa Auf der Maur
Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
No Age
The Novaks
PARLOVR
Pirate Love
So So Glos
The Sonics
Spiral Beach
Woodpigeon
You Say Party! We Say Die!
Zeroes
Zoobombs
The Music Box
The term "videogame music" is often intended as an insult, deriding electronic beatscapes as rudimentary by comparing them to the 8-bit by necessity, bleep-based soundtracks of early Atari and Nintendo games. (See: Castles, Crystal) That Super Mario's theme music remains embedded in the frontal lobes of anyone under the age of 40 proves the critical weakness of the diss ― but it's also hopelessly archaic considering how much videogame music has evolved over the years.... Read More
Etaoin Shrdlu - Mating Calls
Explosive and precise, Etaoin Shrdlu knowingly wink at the perception that their post-hardcore math rock musical approach might be a throwback while simultaneously contributing something vibrant to punk rock with Mating Calls. Featuring members of significant bands like Blake, I Can Put my Ar... Full Review
Bayonetta [PS3 / Xbox 360]
"I've got a fever and the only cure is dead angels."
-Bayonetta

Ever since the Christmastime gaming deluge ended, I've been killing a lot of angels. Though God's messengers have been bad guys in other pop-cultural products ― His Dark Materials book trilogy, the pas... Full Review
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