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Entering a dreamscape where reflection and exhilaration entwine, Inhaler presents their much-awaited third studio album Open Wide. Where Inhaler’s earlier albums (It Won’t Always Be Like This and Cuts & Bruises) were heavily rooted in indie rock tradition; big choruses, driving guitars, and a polished but live-feeling production, Open Wide feels more layered, and unpredictable. It carries a sense of urgency as if the band is reaching for something beyond their grasp. 

Inhaler took a risk by enlisting Kid Harpoon as the producer for Open Wide, and it paid off, helping to create their most daring album to date. Harpoon, who is well-known for his collaborations with Florence + The Machine and Harry Styles, is known for fusing modern, sleek production with organic instrumentation, and this influence is clear throughout the album. 

Kicking off the album with something almost nostalgic to their old sound is “Eddie in the  Darkness”. The track is both haunting and inviting—it doesn’t explode onto the scene but instead pulls you in slowly, setting the tone for an album that thrives on exploration and emotional depth. 

“Your House” is one of the album’s more immediate moments—an indie rock anthem with flair; shimmering guitars, a backing choir and a driving beat, reminiscent of their earlier work but with a smoother, more refined edge. “A Question of You” takes a dreamier, more introspective approach, built around swirling synths and melancholic vocals. Whereas everything about “Billy Yeah Yeah Yeah” feels designed to get people moving. It's the type of song that seems unstoppable and doesn't let up until the very end, whether it's the addictive vocal delivery, the driving beat, or the punching guitar riffs. 

Despite its sonic evolution, this record still delivers those cathartic moments that Inhaler  fans love. The album's most emotionally impactful tracks, “Even Though and Again”, combine some of their most heartfelt lyrics with simple composition. It's a vulnerable moment that highlights the band's development; not every song has to have a huge chorus to make an impression. — “It's life,  it's heavy, tears at your sleeve sometimes. It's gold, it's glory, after the battle lines. And you'll love too soon, too soon it'll be removed. Let's go at this again. Again," (Lyrics from Again). 

Elijah Hewson’s performance on “Open Wide” is undoubtedly his most versatile and nuanced to date. He balances the confidence and energy of his earlier work with a newfound restraint and emotional depth. As the band broadens their sound and Hewson pushes his voice to new heights,  this vocal development reflects the album's musical development. 

In the context of the album, “All I Got Is You”, “Still Young” and “The Charms” sit at an interesting crossroads. They tend toward a more optimistic sound, which feels almost refreshing for the collective. Songs that seem effortlessly cool at first glance yet have a lasting impact. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the charm is in the subtlety.

Thanks to guitarist Josh Jenkinson — one of the biggest shifts in “Open Wide” is its greater emphasis on rhythm and feeling rather than perfected chords. Where their previous albums relied heavily on driving guitar lines, this album leans into deeper, more hypnotic rhythms. Bassist Robert Keating and drummer Ryan McMahon play a more central role in the album’s sound, often providing the foundation while the guitars and synths weave around them. 

“X-Ray” and “Concrete” prove to be the most daring and sonically adventurous tracks on Open Wide, marking a significant departure from Inhaler’s signature anthemic indie rock. “Concrete” is one of the most intense and heavy tracks in the album. The song evokes a feeling of distress and chaos with its frantic energy and elevated tempo. In contrast, “X-Ray” uses its atmosphere, groove, and hypnotic rhythm to pull the listeners into a much darker and more electronic space. 

Closing an album is just as important as opening it, and with “Little Things”, Inhaler deliberately chooses to leave listeners on a reflective yet quietly powerful note. While their previous records ended with roaring finales (It Won’t Always Be Like This’ “In My Sleep” and Cuts &  Bruises' “Now You Got Me”), “Little Things” feels like a soft exhale rather than a dramatic climax. It’s reflective and filled with a sense of a bittersweet closure, bringing Open Wide to an end not with a bang, but with a deep exhale. 

With Open Wide, Inhaler proves they’re not just repeating the past. Though they are moving forward, changing, and reinventing their sound, there is a hint of nostalgia throughout the record,  but not in a way that makes it feel stuck in the past. Open Wide wants to be felt just as much as it is heard. 

Listen to Open Wide here

ConUHacks held its ninth edition of its annual hackathon on February 1st and 2nd. The 24-hour coding competition is put together every year by HackConcordia, Concordia University's hackathon society and student-run group and it is open to anyone older than 18.  Teams of participants have 24 hours from 11 am Saturday to 11 am Sunday to submit their project. There are also general challenges offered by ConUHacks and sponsor challenges that make teams create a more targeted project

But ConUHacks is not just a hackathon.

“We have also the career fair,” says Sabine Hleiss co-president of HackConcordia. “We give the participants the chance to network with the sponsors we have. We also have workshops.”

Some workshops at the event were given by Major League Hacking (MLH) and trading firm DRW. 

“We also have some activities such as a spicy noodle challenge,” says Hleiss.

A team of CEGEP students called We’d Rather Not Say worked on an AI tool for Far West duels. 

“We're trying to make an AI that would detect and give you instructions when to turn around,” says Samuel Bergeron. 

We Rather Not Say came to the hackathon to improve their skills.

“We want to start being more competitive in the informatics field,” says Beregon. “So, we thought it would be a great opportunity for us to come here.” 

The team did not win any prizes. However, they did say they were proud of their accomplishments on their project submission page.

Cache Me If You Can, a team of Concordia and Polytechnique undergraduates, were ready for the challenges. Lizzie Gudino says their idea is to create software to help airport businesses with optimization. 

“So around flights, they'll know the rush time, and it also helps a lot for waste management, and in general, because it's better to know the different trends and how they can optimize the amount of people coming for sales,” says Gudino.

Although the team did not win a prize for their main project, they did win “Best Social Media Post” in a mini competition to create a LinkedIn post sharing their hackathon experience, project, and key takeaways. 
Code Alchemist was the final team that spoke to CJLO. They worked on an AI tool that was designed to look at bank accounts and spending data to provide users with tailored financial advice. 

“We are really close friends and we wanted to build a project together,” said Sadath Roshan. “We thought, what better platform than just attending a hackathon together.”

Adding to why they signed up, Pankaj Deep Sahota says, “Plus on top of it, you get to learn a lot of new technologies within 24 hours."

Their project won a mini competition for the best use of Lovable, an AI tool that generates code from input ideas. It got the team interview opportunities with Lovable for Customer Success roles. 

This year the event saw over 800 participants. The number of projects submitted and completed was 179.

The thirty-seventh annual  Folk Alliance International Conference will be taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in Montreal from February nineteenth through the twenty-third. With over one hundred and seventy-five artists representing twenty-six countries, nineteen U.S. states, and all thirteen of our Canadian provinces. This stands to be one of the biggest showcases of folk music in the conference’s history. 

   "We are thrilled to present an incredible lineup of artists from around the world, each bringing their unique voice to our vibrant folk music community," said Jennifer Roe, Executive Director of Folk Alliance International. "Our 37th annual conference, themed 'Illuminate' and inspired by the Northern Lights, will be a celebration of diverse musical traditions, artistic expression, and the shared experience that connects us all. It will be great to come back to Montreal, site of the 2019 conference; returning to Quebec highlights our continued commitment to artists in Canada and elsewhere outside of the United States."

  The Annual Folk Alliance International Conference is the largest gathering of folk musicians and music industry professionals in the world. An international crowd of artists, venues, labels, DJs, agents, and organizations come together for five days of professional development, networking, and music. Official Showcases highlight the best folk music in the world across a vast variety of genres. Over 175 jury-selected artists perform on the largest stages of our conference to an audience of venue bookers, agents, record labels, DJs, media companies, and more.

  The crowd-favourite of every FAI Conference, Private Showcases give everyone an opportunity to perform. Late at night, hotel guest rooms transform into small stages with hundreds of performances hosted by different organizations.

   Among the many artists scheduled at the conference are Canadian Folk Music Award winner Abigail Lapell, and Roots-rocker Adrian Sutherland from Attawapiskat First Nation on James Bay. His unique melding of rock, roots, folk and blues draws inspiration from his life, the land, and his Cree language and culture. Expanding the definition of folk, Bella’s Bartok is a band known for raucous theatrical performances with influences ranging from Punk to Folk and Pop to Americana. Representing the deep south Dusky Waters's soulful lyricism meets high-powered harmonies that ebb and flow like the Mississippi River. From Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Mama's Broke are a folk music duo consisting of Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria. Two strong voices blend to create haunting harmonies, while they artfully juggle fiddle, banjo, guitar and mandolin. David Howley, founding member of We Banjo 3,  has been at the forefront of Irish folk music for over a decade. His new solo album has been called “ a thing of rare beauty” by the Irish Times. 

  Founded in 1989, and governed by a 21-member board of directors, Folk Alliance International (FAI) is the world’s largest membership organization for the folk music industry and community. Its mission is to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation, and promotion. For more information, visit the Folk Alliance website at: http://www.folk.org

After being in Montreal for almost 2 years, I was confident that I had experienced every Montreal venue worth experiencing. From grand theatres with horrible air circulation to gravel pits under graffiti-ridden bridges, if music could be played there I assumed I had had their stamp on my wrist at some point. Though, as I stand here in a living room on Saint Urbain, beer and earplugs in hand (both cost $5), I realize that was stupid. From the outside, mai/son is your average Mile End townhouse. Inside, however, it’s a haven for art of all kinds, a bootleg student-run gallery, and the most well-run house gig you'll find anywhere in the city, all smooshed into a charming 7½. With a seemingly ceaseless blizzard bustling outside, mai/son packed itself full of Mile End nerds this past weekend for what proved to be an unmissable display of everything the neighbourhood has to offer, as well as some truly fantastic sweaters. 

Starting off the first night, which I can’t imagine is easy on the nerves, was singer/songwriter Peter Lannon. Lannon’s music reminds me of what my sister would play for me on a road trip; something I am content with floating along to, folky, but leaning towards a poppier sound than some. Armed with only a guitar and notebook paper, Lannon’s down-to-earth set worked perfectly to ease into the concept of mai/son as a venue, and if you’ve ever sat on a living room floor and listened to some guy play guitar, I’m sure you’d agree. Thursday night continued to herald this cozy intimacy with Brad Barr, one-quarter of Montreal Indie-folk mainstays The Barr Brothers, and I feel pretty secure in saying that this set changed my life. With near inhuman pedal precision, Barr spent the better part of an hour unravelling every expectation I hold for a folk show, literally tearing apart his guitar in the process. Barr’s music removes me from any feeling of time and space, placing me instead in a nostalgia-fired vortex of warm, echoing distortion. Very rarely am I so drawn to a set that I take no notes on it, but by the end of Barr’s performance all I had written down was “I need to call my Dad”. After taking a moment to recuperate, grab another beer, and draw a vaguely recognizable Garfield in mai/son’s art room, I returned to the living room’s double-door guarded entrance for the final set of the night. In a flurry of knitted sweaters, pornstaches and synth lines, the four-piece indie up-and-comers Hank’s Dream took to the stage, backed by a thunderous round of applause. Hank’s Dream pumps charming psychedelia into the sounds they create, laying a cloud of haze over crowds akin to a sonic shroom comedown. Very rarely do I hear bright sparkling synth lines and say “man, this could use some steel lap guitar”; in the case of Hank’s Dream, it works beautifully, merging some Lenderman-ish twang with their vibrant indie rock sound. While I was fully aware of my presence in that snowed-in Mile End living room, I could have just as easily been on the backroad hippy town beaches I grew up on, transported there solely by smooth, rolling basslines and sun-baked nostalgia. As the show came to a close, and I trekked through the swampy marshes of the boot room back onto snow-caked Rue St-Joseph, I felt invigorated; not only to thrift more wool sweaters and learn the steel guitar, but to come back the next night to see all mai/son had in store. 

Sadly, Friday was not the transportive experience Thursday had been, at least not for me. With all credit to the 55 Bus, I showed up an hour late and smelling like soup. Because of this mishap, I was unable to catch the debut performance from local reverb-wielders Amaryllis and heard only one gut-wrenching track from Sunray Minor. I still urge you to check out all they have to offer as musicians, which is what I plan to do after I’ve finished cursing out the STM.  it all works out in the end though, as the band I did manage to catch seemed to have more than enough energy for three performances. The Fake Friends are a five-piece post-punk direct-to-ear delivery system, one of those grab-you-by-the-collar and throw-you-at-the-wall type outfits. Blasting through borderline dance music intended to blow your head clean off, The Fake Friends represent a niche corner of music that remains criminally untapped: what if James Murphy’s side gig was working a deli counter in Snowdon? Their sound is an explosion of influences from all across the board, like an energetic, synth-powered sonic moshpit. After watching lead vocalist Matthew Savage basically peel himself off the living room floor, I left mai/son feeling infinitely sweatier than I had Thursday. Whether this is a good thing is still up for debate. 

As enjoyable as Thursday and Friday were, Saturday night at Mai/son takes the cake, at least in my opinion. For the third night in a row, I danced around the sludge-filled entryway and into the 7½’s cozy living room. Though attendance was high the entire weekend, the room was packed full on Saturday, with toque-toting, fleece-wearing hipsters. Opening the night was shoegaze band Fleeting Colours, a perfect local warmup for the Slowdive concert later that week. Fleeting Colours delivers everything one might want from a shoegaze show: drowning, distorted guitars, aching vocals, and minimal eye contact. I’ve long said that the best openers are the ones I can stand and sip a beer to while dramatically nodding my head, and Fleeting Colours delivers exactly that. Brightening up the room immediately after were scene newcomers Hearts of Palm, who seem to have this magical ability to make any listener kick and jump and fling themselves around in a joyous, manic frenzy (listen to “Dummer” and tell me this doesn't happen to you). There is a magnetic charm to Hearts of Palm’s music, luring even the most timid onlookers into their wonderful little post-punk world. We love you, Hearts of Palm! By the end, I had had  40 straight minutes of spilling beer and dancing like an idiot and was in need of a break. Thankfully, frown line were eager not to let this happen! Hailing from, surprise surprise, Montreal, frown line have seen wild success in the past 2 years, reaching widespread critical and public acclaim. Regardless of this, the best place to see them play is still a living room. frown line’s soft, fleeting sound feels like a gentle hurt, like a hug from someone who’s forgotten about you. Like the gently falling snow visible through the window behind them, frown line covered the room in a layer of tangible joy, nostalgic warmth beaming out from every guitar line. While I think every band displayed at mai/son was wonderful, I genuinely could not think of a better way to end this kind of festival than a frown line set.  

 As the last line of “What’s Leftover” rang out, and the sea of knit toques filed back out into the blustery Montreal night, I took a second to consider what I appreciate not just about mai/son, but about Montreal in general. A small, intimate festival put on by a group of friends to showcase music they like is a truly beautiful thing, and I think it's representative of the Montreal scene as a whole; a collection of wonderful individuals who just want to get together and show each other the art that they love. While this would all exist without Expo88, and other festivals like it, they serve as consistent reminders for how lucky we are to live in such a cool place, and with such cool people. I am happy to say I walked out of mai/son with a warm heart and very wet socks, and I will be thinking about my experience here for much longer than it takes for those suckers to dry. 

Sam Kitch is the magazine editor at CJLO 1690AM. He is also the host of I Think You Might Like This, a hip-hop show airing Tuesdays at 2:00 PM.