Yoav Sadan, born in 1975 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Today he is known worldwide simply as Yoav. The name alone stands out from all the musicians and band names I have ever heard. A growing star, Yoav manages to not only maintain his personal identity, but he has uses his intriguing personality to appear to a worldwide audience. I have a personal connection to Yoav because he was born in Israel, which I will have the pleasure of visiting this summer. There is a strong connection between the meaning of Yoav’s...
I won’t lie, as I made my way over to Club Soda for this particular round of performances; I made a somewhat mischievous promise to myself that I would hear no Ska music that evening. A lofty goal, given that the show was headlined by none other than Streetlight Manifesto, one of the most popular bands left in the floundering North American Ska scene. However, my interest in the show had absolutely nothing to do with upward guitar strumming or horn sections and had everything to do with the monstrous Bad Religion meets Dillinger Escape Plan sound of New Bedford, Massachusetts’...
The odd thing about 
Flogging Molly
Wasting no time on hyperbole, I’m just gonna jump right to the quotable: 
Of all the musical pairings I've seen on Montreal stages these past few years, not many have been as inspired as this one: a collision of two of Canada's most enduring punk bands, both of whom have a penchant for twisted humor and social commentary - and surprisingly labyrinthine tunes. With the unenviable task of opening up for two long-standing punk institutions, locals 
Now let me just start this review by saying I was slightly worried while going in to the latest Montreal appearance from Manitoba’s 
The constant, hours-long rain spell that befell Montreal did little to dampen the spirits of those who showed up for the Riverboat Gamblers/Rancid/Rise Against show at Parc Jean Drapeau, on Ile St. Helene. The crowd appeared to be predominantly youthful and seemed eager for the proceedings to start and jockeyed for position in front of the stage well before the start of the show.
The rain. The kids. The runny make-up. It wouldn't be a Warped Tour without some acknowledgment about the fact that I am fucking old in relation to the Warped crowd. As they continue to be 16 and wear tight jeans, I realize the fact that my time as an attendant is quickly coming to an end. After swearing up and down that last year was my final year, promises of free entry, good times and a chance to interview some people I really admired me meant that I'd be getting into the (guyliner-dominated, severely terribly-dressed) ring once more to tango with the throngs of eternal teenagers and see some sets from bands that I both love and hate while...
Around mid-to-late 2007, Florida’s own Against Me! were burning up the charts and landing on seemingly everybody and their mother’s “Best of 2007” lists with their major label debut New Wave. This sudden hotness of Florida’s folk-punk elite inevitably resulted in many assumptions (or accusations, depending on who you ask) as to who “the next Against Me!” would be. The forerunners of this ham-fisted contest were undeniably New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem and their fellow Floridians Fake Problems (and Texas’ O Pioneers who, despite being the closest to AM! sonically...
The last time I saw the Raveonettes was when they were touring behind their sophomore full length, Pretty in Black, with LA noisepop trio Autolux. While I’ll admit I went primarily for Autolux (who are probably, and pretty much a well known fact around these CJLO halls, my favourite band currently), having the Raveonettes on the bill was an added bonus, as I was a fan of their Jesus and Mary Chain knock off songs. It was pretty much a dream show for anybody who likes their pop songs covered in white noise, fuzz, feedback, and the occasional droney rhythms, and the Raves were spot-on that night -...
If you’ve ever tuned into my show, you’re probably well aware of my love for Sugar, Husker Du, and all things Bob Mould related (loud guitars? Check. Huge power pop hooks? Check…moving on…) While Mould got the bulk of adulation for Husker Du and for his successful post-Du career as a solo artist and as a “modern rock” chart topper with the noisy power pop guitar maelstrom that was Sugar (arguably my all time fave band and one of the, if not the, band that took me down this “indie rock” path…yay, wasting time with music…sigh), Grant Hart was always regarded as the “...
The thing about side-project bands is that they are always a gamble the first time around…and when gambling, the outcome can go one of three ways: win big, lose bad or come out even. The latter is how it was last night at the Green Room when 
Months ago, I found out about the young singer with an unusual name. The Youth Novels CD arrived at CJLO and I was not very impressed after the initial listen. I had a feeling there was something to her judging by how her name appeared on charts and lists I came across. In a discussion with a colleague, he mentioned her live performances are "off the hook." When the opportunity came to see her at Club Soda on February 4, I took it in the hopes of learning what the big deal about 
The Tom Fun Orchestra
The last time I saw 
It’s always an unfortunate circumstance when a writer needs to review two shows right after one another since there are only so many creative juices to be spread around. That having been said, I apologize to the Street Dogs for phoning in most of their review because I really need everything I’ve got to adequately describe how blown my mind was by 
I was excited to see 
Il Motore, despite the slightly sketchy location, is well equipped to put on a rather good show. Being fairly new to the concert-going scene, I (yet again) showed up obscenely early, once more misinterpreting “doors open at 8” as “show begins at 8”. Alas. On the bright side, I definitely had the best seat in the house: a front row table all to myself. After waiting for a good hour (and a half), the opening act hit the stage. I had seen their name on the poster outside and wasn’t quite sure what to expect from 
I walked to the Metropolis. This is no normal feat, because springtime in Montreal is really February (a.k.a) icicle hell in disguise. However, March 18th was an exception, the weather was amazing. I took this as a sign from the musical Gods and automatically assumed that Bloc Party would put on a good show. Good old Apollo was working his magic that night because both 
Tokyo Police Club
Late March is always a time for Montreal to shrug off the last of its winter blues, but this is always signaled by the odd day or two of freakishly cold weather…winter’s final death rattle. So it was in a cumbersome winter jacket, layered with a sweater and t-shirt for good measure that I bustled my way down into the hot, crowded depths of Les Saints on March 30th to catch 
April 9th was a night of firsts for me. I went to Cabaret Du Musee to see Mates of State and Black Kids, two acts that I had never heard music from. I got to the venue early enough to be surprised by 
Oh 
In 1999, a very trendy, easy to listen to and easy to look at group was born. They even had a member named Bjorn…and Peter and John. On Monday, April 28th they came to Montreal with openers 
This was the third time 
You may not remember MTV's Spring Break 1996, but I do. I remember it because it happened back when every CD I owned was a favourite, and I knew all their track lists by heart. The moments that sunk in during this time will stay with me forever. Like sitting in front of the TV watching the live performance of "Glycerin" on MTV, with a rain-soaked 
I can easily say that this was by far the best concert I have been to in quite some time. The show was an overall hit. Though the crowd was fairly small, more people showed up than I expected. I really was convinced it was going to be a dead night due to the fact that Black Kids where playing with Mates of State that very same night. In the end it looks like I made the right choice by going to 
Some people have a way of making you feel like an asshole - people who seem to use every ounce of their energy radiating good vibes and generally make every effort to be singularly awesome. 
This year's Osheaga music festival went off without a hitch.... well, with the exception of a headlining act cancelation, torrential rain and ankle deep mud. This didn’t stop concert goers from flocking to the island however, with Saturday night capping at a whopping 30,000 spectators. Having Coldplay round out the evening will have that effect.
On Saturday, January 17th, I took the 55 bus through the frigid, negative-something weather, and wound up in front of Metropolis to be greeted by a swarm of black t-shirted, long haired fans -the tell tale signs of any self-respecting metal show.
Theory Of A Deadman
Back in 1994 
Ah, 
Call me an old fogey, but I’ve been attending hardcore and pseudo-hardcore shows for close to a decade, spent many sweaty nights at L’X and Café L’Inco during my time, and have come to watch the scene somewhat closely, and during that time, I’ve noticed the degeneration of “the scene” (as the kids refer to it as) into a muddled mess of wayward children who care more about their bandanas and cool kicks (often looking like a terrible biker gang than true fans of the music they’re there to listen to.) Although this has been happening for years, Thursday night served as a reminder of the disintegration of a once-enjoyable genre of music...
On April 17th I threw on my well worn, black t-shirt bearing a lightning bolt down the front -a shirt that has survived countless brutal slams in the pit and has been soaked in buckets of other people’s sloppily spilt beer. Wearing this shirt out could only mean one thing: I was going to a metal show. 
On May 21st, seasoned metal veterans 
So maybe this one was a little late, but late is frequently better than never (and lets be honest here...late releases are something comic readers should be used to right now.) To make it up to you though, not only have we got some reviews of some of the best comic books to land in the month of February (New Avengers #50 and Eternals #8) from some of CJLO's best and brightest comic dorks, but we also have we have the hilariously jaded debut of "THIS MONTH IN THE X-VERSE!" That's right, curious what the X-Men were up to this month? ALL of them? Wanna know if Wolverine finally had that nose...
In anticipation of the mighty Mastodon returning to Montreal this May (brought to you in part by none other than CJLO RADIO), our very own harbinger of doom Brian Hastie (host of Countdown to Armaggedon) has laid down a little history lesson for those poor, unfortunate souls unfamiliar with the band's vibrant, nine year history. Read on...
News that the latest Montreal appearance from 
As I’m standing waiting for the bouncer of the Cabaret Juste pour rire to find my name on the guest list (with the typical, what kind of name is that, implying that my name looks retarded, which I know). A situation between said bouncer and one of the night’s performers occurred which I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at:
I have been a big fan of 
If I were to tell you that I was so excited to be given the opportunity to see 
Big Daddy Kane
So I went to the Toronto Comic Art Festival this past weekend. One of the guests was Kagan Mcleod. Dude does a wicked comic called 'Infinite Kung Fu' as well as amazingly beautiful pieces for the National Post. He's also getting well known in rap circles for his ‘History of Rap’ poster. I purchased the first incarnation in 2003 which had about 80 heads. The newest version has over 200, but on both sheets, the female rappers are few and far between. As someone who pays attention to the girlie rappers, I found the whole thing a little disheartening.
Leave it to 
I am possibly the biggest Mark Ronson fan at CJLO, in Montreal and maybe in Quebec. I admire his production, his albums and his own radio show has been influential on me this year. His playlists are practically musical treasure maps. One night while listening to his show, he mentioned a group and played one of their tracks. Being a disciple, I paid attention to the group name and the track. Months later, the "Girls & Weather" arrived at the station and it is fitting that I get to review The Rumble Strips' debut CD.
Common Existence finds New Jersey’s Thursday at a crossroads: having been ditched by major label Island after their less-than-stellar studio album (2006’s A City By The Light Divided) and ending back up on their former home Victory Records, the band released a b-sides/rarities compilation in late 2007 entitled Kill The House Lights, and then last year dropped an EP with Japanese band Envy. The b-sides release showcased the driving, urgent rhythm that ignited what is arguably their best album, War All The Time, while the split with Envy showed a...
With three previous studio albums already under their belts, Australian death metal giants Psycroptic released their fourth this year on Nuclear Blast Records to a fan base that had a pretty good idea of what to expect from them: extremely high caliber musicianship and a certain captivating energy that set the band apart from many of their less dynamic contemporaries. On the first account, this year’s Ob(Servant) certainly isn’t lacking; on the second, however, it leaves fans to wonder what exactly happened to the inspiration behind the band’s tech death masterpiece, The Scepter of the...
I learned about The Knux weeks before their debut CD Remind Me in 3 Days was to be released in October 2008. 
“Hey, let’s do our Top Ten lists and post them on the website”. You figure that would be enough to send everyone scurrying to their keyboards and add to the avalanche of year-end lists that are fail-safe crowd favourites, if not the mark of lazy writing. So what happens when we’re too lazy to even do that? Well lure them with free alcohol. 
The thing with lists, especially year-end ones, is that they undercut the obsessive passion of the music lovers. There's no true way around it, as any discussion will eventually boil down to inane nitpicking. That's why CJLO, as a whole, does not have a Top Ten list based on votes or anything remotely objective. Instead, we're throwing together individual staff picks from our motley crew of DJs, not to represent anything else but their true love for this year's music (mostly). Remember, these are not your ordinary music fans; they are willing to trek on a weekly basis to the depths of NDG just to immerse themselves in the music...
Once again, CJLO grew this year and if anything, it grew even more diverse judging by the staff picks below. Besides perhaps Ghostface Killah's Fishscale and Return To Cookie Mountain by TV On The Radio, there weren't many albums that found themselves repeated often among the different lists. It's a testament both to the goldmine of releases this year and to the eclectic tastes of the boys and girls that entertain you night and day on the ol' dot com. Personally, I wasn't married to many records this year, instead opting to play a wider field...
As expected, CJLO’s third annual Staff Picks is a mixed bag of musical goodies from across the map. So much so that out of the thirty-one DJs who submitted their lists, no two #1 albums were alike. Of course, several of the year’s powerhouse releases resonated with the staff. Radiohead’s In Rainbows reigned as the most popular album, with The White Stripes’ Icky Thump, The Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible and High On Fire’s Death Is This Communion not too far behind. Other notables were CPC Gangbangs’ Mutilation Nation and ...
Well another year has come and gone and that means it’s once again time for the annual CJLO Magazine Staff Picks Round Up. It’s been an absolutely stellar year for music and our DJs here at CJLO have been eating it up. It seems Montreal’s own Wolf Parade may be the most represented band on this year’s lists, but New Brunswick, New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem, New York’s Vampire Weekend and Vancouver’s Bison B.C. and Black Mountain were also well liked by many. The differences between these artists speaks loads about our station and the variety we bring to the...
Playing Montreal for the first time in three years for the Suoni Per Il Popolo fest, NoMeansNo are perhaps Canada's greatest still-standing punk institution, a testament to the enduring partnership of its key members, brothers Rob and John Wright (along with estimable guitarist Tom Holliston, who joined the band in the early 90s following the departure of Andy Kerr), and the singularity of their sound. Their songs have spanned the breadth of many genres, touching on classic '80s hardcore, '70s hard rock, jazz, and psych, and their albums have varied...
Jimmy Smith, a one-man revolution in jazz, passed away on February 8th, 2005. Words cannot describe the singular impact that this man had on the history of modern music. Back in 1955, according to Ira Gitler, pianist Freddie Redd barged into the Blue Note offices in Manhattan with a "mouthful of something elses" about this guy in Philadelphia doing crazy things with the Hammond organ in jazz. This was a big deal at the time as the Hammond organ was the instrument of the church and gospel, and jazz was a secular "devil's music." Many thought that what Smith was doing was profane, especially considering...
So I'm thirteen years old, chilling out to Dark Side of the Moon in my parents' basement and generally being a weird little creep. Oddly, I don't gravitate towards the 7/4 cockrockery of "Money" or even the Oz-bait wail of "The Great Gig in the Sky" nearly as much as I do the eight-minute centerpiece "Us and Them", largely due to its soaring chorus, languorous pacing, odd spoken asides and lush arrangement. The key to that arrangement, of course, is Dick Parry's mournful sax wailing throughout. At that age, I'd never heard a jazz instrument used on a rock song in quite that way (as an...
Even though I'm a born and raised Montrealer, I have always had a special place in my heart for Brooklyn, New York. Memories of travelling to get there for shopping and visiting family are as vivid to me as if they happened yesterday. That said, I identify vicariously with any hip hop song or artist that makes reference to Brooklyn. 
Right now the popular music scene has seen a revival of country and folk acts. Oddly enough, a few older punk rockers are making some interesting strives with the likes of Drag the River, Tim Barry, Saw Wheel, Wayne the Train Hancock & Hank Williams III leading the way. Ask anyone of them who have influenced their music, and I’ll bet dollars to donuts, they’ll say Steve Earle. One of the greatest living songwriters on the planet, Steve Earle was in town on July 9th to bring not only his...
It is often hard to come up with the right words to describe heavy metal music. The words 'crushing', 'brutal' and 'dark' are often conjured up from the heads of writers… they are the go-to choices that evoke cheap imagery and simple cop-outs. Sometimes, though, these words are necessary evils that genuinely reflect the music, and in The Devil You Know's case, these words also manage to reflect the package as a whole. The word dark, in particular, matches the thematic qualities of the album.
Everything is Borrowed is the fourth album from Mike Skinner aka The Streets. I actually heard about The Streets last year through a guy I worked with. He gave me a copy of “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living”, The Street's third album released in 2006. I immediately became a fan of this UK rapper and producer. I was excited to get my hands on his new album. It is definitely different from the last one. “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living” had a Hip Hop sound. This album has more of a pop sound, mixed with rock and old school jazzy sound, it's a lot of different elements which...
So I'm sitting here with my headphones listening to what must be one of the most hyped projects of 2008/09. 5 years in the working, Sam Spiegel (related to Spike Jonze) and Ze Gonzalez (famous DJ) have rustled up the who's who of music, dead or alive: David Byrne, Seu Jorge, Karen O, ODB, Ghostface, Tom Waits, Kool Keith, Kanye, Lykke Li, Santogold, George Clinton, Z-Trip, etc. etc. etc. Basically, every conceivable niche represented by its respective master or artist-of-the-moment. Luckily, Spiegel and Gonzalez are very talented DJs and producers, and manage to pull together the huge array of sounds and...
As I got to Metropolis around 7:15 p.m., I noticed that the place was already packed. I still managed to get a decent spot not too far from the star that hung to the right venue wall. Around 7:30 the show got started with Devon Anthony (John Legend’s little brother) opening up for him. Anthony sounds a little like his older brother but with a different style; he has more of a dub reggae vibe mixed with a typical neo-, Chris Brownish R&B style. His songs were focused on acts in the bedroom and the women loved it. They especially loved when he took...
If anything, Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine must be applauded for his workmanlike ethic. The rather eccentric frontman/guitarist lay down the 'deth moniker earlier on in the millenium, only to decide to reform with new members for a pair of highly satisfactory albums (2004's The System Has Failed and 2007's United Abominations). These albums found Mustaine abandoning his desire to come up with "monster anthems"/hyper-accessible songs and instead become a veritable Memorable Riff Machine (patent pending). Both albums had great vocal melodies engaging songs...
I'm sure at one point or another, everyone reading this has been swayed by an alluring sticker on the front of an album. It may be something simple like a highlight of the singles, or a description of what the band sounds like. In truth, I'm all for these stickers when they tell me what the band sounds like, because if I'm going to throw hard earned money at something, I want to know what I'm going to be getting. So, when I was at CJLO and saw a sticker on the front of Corpus Christi's album, The Darker Shades of White, proclaiming that the album was "for fans of...