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Metallica's Reputation Vindicated By Their Live Show

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By Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack) October 27, 2009 4:06 pm
It's been 13 years since the haircuts and the "alternative" Load album, nine years since Lars Ulrich versus Napster and five since the group therapy of the Some Kind Of Monster documentary. That's a long time for the biggest and baddest band in the heavy metal world to be lost in the wilderness, but if Monday night's show at Toronto'...
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Metallica's James Hetfield (Photo by Carrie Musgrave)
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Raveonettes, Black Angels Bring The Noise

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By Steve McLean (CHARTattack) October 23, 2009 12:58 pm
Austin, Texas psych rock band The Black Angels were a good match for The Raveonettes on this North American tour, as both groups revel in using lots of reverb and feedback. But while The Raveonettes surround those aspects with melodies and harmonies to create great, compact pop tunes, The Black Angels songs usually tend to drone on a bit too...
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The Black Angels

Dead Man's Bones Are Thrillingly Alive

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By Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack) October 21, 2009 3:27 pm
Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields shouldn't be good. Their singing voices hover around adequate, their playing is often rudimentary, their songs usually contain one or two solid verses and shouty choruses that can't sustain even a modest three minute single, and their live shows are patchworked, underrehearsed affairs that have the feel of a high...
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Dead Man's Bones (Photo by Carrie Musgrave)

Echo & The Bunnymen Embrace Their Past

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By Caitlin Hotchkiss (CHARTattack) October 21, 2009 2:29 pm
You can say this for Echo & The Bunnymen: They know how to do a tour right. That's to say, it's rather difficult for any of the old '80s British rock bands to do tours these days, let alone ones to promote new material what with people only really wanting to hear the hits and classics. Having just put out new album, The Fountain, they chose...
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Echo & The Bunnymen (Photo by John Papamarko)

Two Hours Traffic Let Music Do The Talking

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) October 20, 2009 3:18 pm
Charlottetown's Two Hours Traffic have had one of the most organic rises in Canadian indie rock over the past few years. They've certainly had a lot of lucky breaks — their recording partnership with Joel Plaskett yielded a Polaris Music Prize nomination for their excellent record Little Jabs — but everything has felt like baby steps rather...
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Two Hours Traffic

Everclear Show Focuses On Second, Third Albums

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By Steve McLean (CHARTattack) October 20, 2009 1:30 am
The Mod Club is poor at letting people know about opening acts and set times on its website and in its advertisements. So when I arrived just after 9 p.m. and was told Tracy Lyons was on stage, Paper Tongues would follow and Everclear wouldn't go on until after 10:30, I beat a retreat across the street to Metro to buy some groceries. Everclear...
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Everclear (Photo by Steve McLean)

Cuff The Duke Still Winning People Over

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By Kate Harper (CHARTattack) October 19, 2009 4:43 pm
Cuff The Duke's first of two nights at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on Friday began with a fairly average set from Boys Who Say No. The Toronto country/folk/indie quartet were without their customary banjo, which made their set sound far more indie than country. While their set might have been ordinary, the banter was not. "Fuck you!"...
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Cuff The Duke's Wayne Petti (File photo by Aviva Cohen)

Paramore Still Fiery Despite Change In Hair Colour

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By Sheena Lyonnais (CHARTattack) October 16, 2009 4:39 pm
When I arrived at the Kool Haus, Michigan's The Swellers had just taken the stage and the packed crowd was already dripping in energy and excitement. Having recently recruited ex-Sydney member Anto Boros on bass, the added local touch fueled their performance as the band passionately played through some of the most fun punk rock I've witnessed...
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Paramore's Hayley Williams (Photo by Carrie Musgrave)

Wilco Prove Price Was Right

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By Travis Persaud (CHARTattack) October 15, 2009 4:37 pm
Bob Barker would have been proud. Wilco walked on stage with the theme music from The Price Is Right filling Toronto's Massey Hall as all three tiers of the aural pleasing venue whooped and hollered. Wilco (the band) began the first of two sold-out shows with "Wilco (The Song)" to warm up the crowd — the entire floor section standing...
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Wilco's Jeff Tweedy (Photo by Zack Vitiello)

Horrors Show Benefits From Fucked Up Surprise

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By Erik Missio (CHARTattack) October 15, 2009 2:42 pm
What a difference a little more than a year makes. In 2007, The Horrors were just another of many hyped U.K. bands — a dime will get you a dozen alleged punk/garage saviours these days — with a one-trick gimmick and a rep for live performances that were either incendiary or, well, too much style over substance. But now? Now, they're making a...
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The Horrors' Faris Badwan (Photo by Joseph Fuda)

Psychedelic Furs, Happy Mondays Step On Nostalgia Train

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By Cameron Gordon (CHARTattack) October 15, 2009 1:35 pm
A curious pairing of moldy oldies touched down in Toronto this Wednesday night, forging a bridge between new wave and Madchester, and having a lot of fun in doing so. Make no mistake, the combination of The Psychedelic Furs and the Happy Mondays was primarily a nostalgia trip for the thousand or so bodies jammed into the Kool Haus, but cast...
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Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler (Photo by John Papamarko)

Priestess Give Fiery Preview Performance

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By Andre Mihsin (CHARTattack) October 15, 2009 11:09 am
It took a little longer than I'm sure the band would've preferred, but Priestess are finally set to drop their sophomore record, Prior To The Fire. The band held a private release party in Toronto on Wednesday night to celebrate. Record industry politics may have slowed Priestess down in terms of studio output, but the live stage remains the band...
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Priestess

Gaslight Anthem Shine, But Don't Explode

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By Steve McLean (CHARTattack) October 14, 2009 3:28 pm
I hope Broadway Calls fans will forgive me for thinking that meeting a friend for a couple of Ontario microbrews at C'est What was a better way to spend the early part of Tuesday evening than seeing the Oregon pop-punk band. I'm sorry, kids. But the Kool Haus was already pretty full when we arrived a couple of songs into Jesse Malin's set, and I...
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Gaslight Anthem

Them Crooked Vultures Fail To Deliver

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By Shehzaad Jiwani (CHARTattack) October 14, 2009 1:43 pm
Full disclosure: I worship Dave Grohl and Josh Homme. These guys are automatically included any fantasy band I dream up in my head, and I have gone on record defending some of their less than noble musical outings. No one could have been more excited to see these two musicians — along with fucking John Paul Jones — than I was. Yet, even with this...
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Them Crooked Vultures' Josh Homme (Photo by Richard Beland)

Kylie Minogue Show Is More Fun Than Madonna Show

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By Erik Missio (CHARTattack) October 13, 2009 3:53 pm
Invariably, any North American review of Ms. Kylie Ann Minogue's work — album, concert, video, haute couture — has to include some sort of definitive speculation on why the Australian pop princess has yet to become a cultural force on U.S. or Canadian shores. She's super-huge in the places pop matters (i.e. across the Atlantic), but semi-...
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Kylie Minogue (Photo by John Papamarko)

Dragonette As Sexy And Sassy As Ever

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By Sheena Lyonnais (CHARTattack) October 9, 2009 3:21 pm
Life became a dance party as soon as I stepped foot into The Mod Club. The lights went dark and Egyptrixx began spinning some serious European-influenced beats that made it feel like 3 a.m. rather than 7 p.m. and most of the audience hadn't even had their first drink yet. He was a welcome departure from the usual iPod deejay posse, but he wasn...
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Dragonette

Built To Spill Succeed By Playing What They Want

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) October 7, 2009 4:11 pm
No one really expected much from Built To Spill leading up to their record release gig at Toronto's Lee's Palace. Although they delivered a pair of the '90s best records in 1997's Perfect From Now On and 1999's Keep It Like A Secret, the new century has not been kind to the Idaho five-piece. Ancient Melodies Of The Future and You In Reverse...
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Built To Spill

Pop Montreal Warehouse Show Ends In Glorious Near Destruction

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By Erik Leijon (CHARTattack) October 6, 2009 3:37 pm
As you may have noticed, this year's Pop Montreal coverage at CHARTattack comes with photos. Anyway, new photographer Cindy Lopez and myself took the opportunity to strategize the festival's biggest night while taking in the Montreal Canadiens-Buffalo Sabres game at designated home base Copacabana's. It was an introductory conversation over...
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Think About Life (Photo by Cindy Lopez)

Japandroids Noise Finishes Pop Montreal Day Three

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By Erik Leijon (CHARTattack) October 6, 2009 11:20 am
So it wasn't just me: the mood surrounding this year's Pop Montreal did feel slightly different. The shows were definitely more packed than usual — to the point where not getting into your favourite show seemed a likelihood — and the preconceptions about what an ideal Pop Montreal weekend were vastly changing. If you wanted to have a good time...
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Japandroids (Photo by Cindy Lopez)

KISS Are Far Less Alive At 35

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By Ian Gormely (CHARTattack) October 5, 2009 4:33 pm
Three minutes into their first song at the Air Canada Centre on Friday night, the P.A. completely cut out on '70s costumed rockers KISS. With the band seemingly unaware of the technical malfunctions, the quartet kept playing and mugging for the audience as if nothing was wrong. Watching KISS parade around onstage without musical accompaniment...
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KISS
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