rjd2 photo 2016

RJD2 – History Repeating #Not

Back in the early to mid 2000s, many musicians had great success by blending cool new beats with key loops, often from old blues or soul, to create new music. It started with hits such as History Repeating in...
plants and animals 2016

PLANTS & ANIMALS – That Montreal Summer Feel…

The Montreal trio has gained a lot of experience since their fantastic debut, "Parc Avenue", back in 2008. On top of the 4 albums and 2 EP they made together, each member of Plants & Animals became an...
islands 2016

ISLANDS – Too Darn Easy

Everything seems too easy for the talented musicians that form Islands. In 2016, Nicholas Thorburn, Evan and Geordie Gordon and Adam Halferty launched not one but two albums simultaneously. Both include great...
Methyl Ethel 2016 Cr Mia Mala McDonald

METHYL ETHEL – Perfect Balance

It is tough to find the balance between catchy music and solid artistic direction. Some fall into the more pop side of things (e.g. LaRoux) while others are more on the art side (e.g. Blonde Redhead's "23"...
laura sauvage photo officielle 2016

LAURA SAUVAGE – Extraordinormal Indeed!

There has been a trend in the last few years of strong-minded heavy-guitar female musicians that have gathered respect for both their playing and rock attitude. PJ Harvey, St. Vincent, and Corin Tucker and...
iggy pop 69

IGGY POP – Rebirth at 69

Music legends are falling one after the other. In the last few months, we have said fairwell to Scott Weiland (48 years old) Lemmy (70), Bowie (69), Glenn Frey (67) and Prince (57) and Lonnie Mack (74) just a...
dan san band 2016

DAN SAN – Close to me

Now, this is an interesting album. I found it a bit by accident as I always throw all new albums we receive at RREVERB into a random mix in my cell to listen to when I commute to work (Yes, I do work. Can’t...
travis the man who

TRAVIS – This guy’s got soul

Back in late 90s, rock music was reinventing itself (as it is constantly doing), somewhere between lounge music, electronic experiments as grunge days we're close to be over. Morcheeba, Amon Tobin and...
greyhounds

GREYHOUNDS – Heart and Soul

This album is unique. Every song on this album is unique. Greyhounds could be compared as a rock and soul mix of TV on The Radio, The Black Keys with Danger Mouse-type of production. Two middle-age (white)...
air how does it make you feel

AIR paved the way

Before Daft Punk took the pop world by storm with Get Lucky, the most prominent French band outside of France was Air. At the turn of the century their dreamy lounge music traveled efficiently in international...
ashley riley photo 2015 records

ASHLEY RILEY – Pursuing Dreams

Ashley Riley is a singer songwriter in the true meaning of the word: her own voice, her own music, her own path. On "All the Pretty Things", she displays her talent in various styles: Made of Dreams is a pure...
girls-in-hawaii-absence

GIRLS IN HAWAII – The Missed One

There aren't many albums that are focused on the death of a loved one that are fun to listen to. Belgian indie rock band Girls in Hawaii have released a beautiful and thoughtful album in 2013, entitled...

JON COHEN – Smooth Talking, Groove Dancing

I had noticed Jon Cohen's musical project in 2006 when his “Self-titled” album landed in my Inbox, when I was writing for the indie rock magazine emoragei, back in the day. I was pleased by his mix of rich...
cross record image 2016

CROSS RECORD – Not Every Musician is an Artist…

…and not all artists are musicians. Every musician is an artist, but not necessarily at the same level. The ones that target the charts as a goal in their career, or dumb beer drinking rockers have a way...

HEARTSTREETS: Montreal Girls Crawling South

A few years ago, two girls from Montreal started posting some great tunes on YouTube and a lot of people paid attention. I definitely felt they would get snapped up by a label, do an album and go big. It...
trstss band image

TRSTSS – LoFi Garage Panache

Indie hard punk rockers TRSTSS have put out a solid 4-song EP last autumn where we sense influences from power alt-rock à la Strokes (Problems) and deeper Velvet Underground lofi garage art style. On...
ty segall 2016

TY SEGALL – The Strange Animal

Indie art-rock freak Ty Segall could have been the persona Gowan was referring to when he sang "You're a Strange Animal, I've got to follow" in 1985 (click here if you really have to). Segall wasn't even born...
Donovan Woods photo

DONOVAN WOODS – The Woodman’s Vulnerability

I first became aware of Ontario-born singer-songwriter Donovan Woods through an UNCUT Magazine Cd Sampler that featured his song, No Time Has Passed from his 2011 album, "The Widowmaker". It was love at first...
Besnard Lakes 2016

THE BESNARD LAKES – Makes You Wander

Masters of sound Jace Lasek and his band The Besnard Lakes strike again. The Montreal crew that handles the Breaking Glass studio where Jace Lasek recorded some of their best work creates an awesome opus of...
men i trust

MEN I TRUST – Perfect Beauty

For guys and gals who miss the cool loungy feel of the late 90s that bands like Morcheeba used to infiltrate in our bodies, here's Men I Trust. This Quebec City band nails the soft lazy sexy and spleen-esque...
10ft ganja plant

10 FT GANJA PLANT – Grows on ya’

Great roots reggae are hard to find these days. Melodies and arrangements are important in reggae that, otherwise, can become a very redundant music genre. The upstate New York-based band 10 Ft Ganja Plant got...

OUR BOOK AND THE AUTHORS – Many Pens, One Style

The Montreal-based band serves great music on its 2015 EP. Electro jazzy songs like Bus Ride are somehow a mix of very different types of ambiances. A little of James-Blake-type of cold electro beats mixed...
basia bulat good advice

BASIA BULAT – Pop Goes The World

Singer songwriter Basia Bulat, 31, isn't a newcomer anymore. We have been seeing her on every Montreal and Toronto stage since her 1st EP came out in 2005. She played everywhere in Canada and the US since...
lorde 2016

LORDE – Beauty in Boredom

Lorde's rise to fame late 2013, was a refreshing one. The young lady made a few statements right off the bat refusing her pictures to be photoshopped, and her dark kind-of-gothic look changed. By doing so, she...
the high dials 2015

THE HIGH DIALS bring back the good part of the 80s

This Montreal band (previously called The Datsons) is making a name for itself, since 2003. More and more, their Smiths-influenced new wave rock is finding its own route, thanks to strong music riffs (Echoes...
cass mc combs

CASS MC COMBS is all about contrasts

Cass McCombs is an indie-rock artist that combines garage art rock with strong Velvet Underground influence. You can hear the VU through his chord progression and guitar distortion (A.Y.D., which stands for At...
dralms drowning

DRALMS – Dark and Hypnotic Explorations

Imagine you're in a dream. It's nice, not freaky, but you kind of feel that something isn't normal. You are not scared but you aren't 100% comfortable either. Vancouver-based band Dralms's new album "Shook" is...
calexico hot rail

CALEXICO – Welcome to Broken Heart Country

In the late 90s and early years of this century, the Tucson, Arizona-based band Calexico was one of the most interesting ones of the indie rock world. Their unique Mexican music tainted folk rock was one that...
dusted

DUSTED: Far away, dirty and beautiful

Brian Borcherdt is a genius. He has all the skills. This guy can get pure melodic gems out of lo-fi garage rock. Like Cobain could. Like Corgan could. He considers guitar like Neil Young does. He can play...

Remember the pre-weird BJÖRK?

To many ears, the Icelandic elf always has been weirder than your average rocker, but in the early days of her solo career, she still created pop songs that were way more melodic and danceable than her later...
david bowie lets dance

DAVID BOWIE nails the perfect pop album

If this album would have been recorded by anybody else but David Bowie, we would all be in awe. “Let’s Dance” is one of the best albums of the 80s decade, one of the best pop albums of all times. But,...
Emi R Roussel

What’s hot in JAZZ in 2015?

A top 10 list is very hard to do as there is so much more out there to enjoy. I tried to keep it as local as possible, because here in Montreal and the Quebec area we have so many talents and wonderful jazz...
moon duo poster

MOON DUO – Hypnosis under the Stars

Have you ever been hypnotized by music? Had the feeling where your brain cannot get out of a musical loop that almost makes you dizzy? That's exactly what Moon Duo is trying to do. With success! If you never...
kinski band 2015

KINSKI, Like There’s No Tomorrow

Kinski is a rock band in the true sense of the word. You sense right from the first chord that these guys don’t anything else in life than look for the perfect sonic feeling, for the best riff or beat. Then,...
angela desveaux photo 2008

Who Will Mend ANGELA DESVEAUX’s Broken Heart?

Angela Desveaux signs beautifully. We don't get to hear her enough. It has been seven years since this small format blonde Montrealer has released an album, and I miss her music. Her music is carefully...