Walk the village in the park
Nowadays, you can't swing a cat without hitting a music festival. From California's Coacherella to Tennessee's Bonnaroo to this week's Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, it seems as if any abandoned airstrip or swatch of unused farmer's land is being allocated to accomodate bevies of musicans and comparably large swarms of fans, all unified by various shades of insobriety.
Local curator closes gallery and blog
Zeke's Gallery, a mainstay of Montreal's alternative art scene has closed its doors. After 10 years showcasing some of Canada's most interesting contemporary art, owner and curator Chris Hand has decided to move on. Hand, otherwise known as Zeke Zzyssus (a name he made up in order to be last in the phone book), first opened the gallery at a time when the alternative art scene in Montreal was barely existent.
Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird. The Broken Tongue. They say that smoking is supposed to be bad for your voice, but one sometimes suspects that throaty crooners such as Tom Waits or Captain Beefheart owe much of their signature sound to the old cancer sticks.
Local funnyman brings ambition and DIY-spirit to new comedy spot
Montreal has a long-standing reputation for its comedy. From the annual Just For Laughs festival to jokes about the Habs or the driving skills of Quebecois motorists, it seems as if the city is practically teeming with comedic promise. But while any number of Just For Laughs press materials or TV spots may tout her as the "funniest city on the planet" and though the July comedy festival, the largest of its type in the world, may provide a more-than-ample number of palpable outlets for your chuckles, chortles, titters and guffaws, many feel that much of Montreal's latent comedic energy lies largely dormant.
I've got a friend who listens to nothing but classic-rock radio. It's his one and only source for music wherever and whenever he needs his tunes-work, home, whatever. It's a foreign concept to me, really, with my 80 GB iPod and a multi-genre collection of music in my pants pocket at all times.
Children of Hurin fails to impress
Christopher Tolkien, the son and literary executor of foundational fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien, has a mixed reputation amongst fans of his father's work. For acolytes, he is the undisputed high priest of Tolkieana and the final authority on all questions regarding Middle Earth and elvish lore.
Music. The Banjo Consorsium, Sept. 7 at 9 p.m.; O Patro Vys (356 Mont-Royal E.). Founded by self-taught multi-instrumentalist 'Japh,' this Sherbrooke-based neo-folk group boasts a unique, avant-garde sound that mixes folk with electronic music. Their album, A Turning One, has been nominated the best experimental album at GAMIQ (le Gala de l'Alternative Musicale Indépendante du Québec).
Since you live under a rock
Here at the Tribune Arts & Entertainment desk, we're all well aware that our protracted four-month publication gap between the end of April and the beginning of September leaves our loyal readership suspended in a state of unknowingness: snowed under by an overwhelming sense of cultural vacuity which refreshing the Pitchfork homepage every twenty-minutes simply cannot fill.