$100
Toronto ON, March 11 to 14
By Scott Tavener

More classic than alt, country combo $100 commandeered the back of the Horseshoe, harkening back to the venerable bar's roots (or at least the mid-'80s). In a sweaty early slot, the locals played a shit-kicking set brimming with confidence, pathos and steel. From round-about hoedowns to heartbreaking comedowns, the tight-as-a-corset crew delivered on their recent hype. Singer Simone Schmidt's robust, boozy croon sounded like Patsy Cline filtered through a bottle of whiskey and some good ol' fashioned heartache. Whether musing about rings on fingers or nights wept away, she held the overflowing audience rapt throughout.

Bloc Party
Any show that starts with a bra being thrown on stage and ends with multiple encores has to be good, right? Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke even managed to mix things up in the middle and announce he had just picked his nose in front of 2000 people. But those frivolous things weren't the highlights o ...Read More
Abdominal & the Obliques
Basia Bulat
Black Hat Brigade
Chad VanGaalen
The Darling DeMaes
The Disraelis
Duchess Says
Gentleman Reg
The Ghost is Dancing
Give Us the Daggers
Grand Pocket Orchestra
Halves
Herman Dune
The Hoa Hoas
Holy Fuck
Hooded Fang
Japandroids
The Lovely Feathers
People You Know
Radius and Helena
Said the Shark
Slim Twig
The Superstitions
Tanya Davis
Valery Gore
Will Currie and the Country French
Women
The Music Box
The term "videogame music" is often intended as an insult, deriding electronic beatscapes as rudimentary by comparing them to the 8-bit by necessity, bleep-based soundtracks of early Atari and Nintendo games. (See: Castles, Crystal) That Super Mario's theme music remains embedded in the frontal lobes of anyone under the age of 40 proves the critical weakness of the diss ― but it's also hopelessly archaic considering how much videogame music has evolved over the years.... Read More
Etaoin Shrdlu - Mating Calls
Explosive and precise, Etaoin Shrdlu knowingly wink at the perception that their post-hardcore math rock musical approach might be a throwback while simultaneously contributing something vibrant to punk rock with Mating Calls. Featuring members of significant bands like Blake, I Can Put my Ar... Full Review
Bayonetta [PS3 / Xbox 360]
"I've got a fever and the only cure is dead angels."
-Bayonetta

Ever since the Christmastime gaming deluge ended, I've been killing a lot of angels. Though God's messengers have been bad guys in other pop-cultural products ― His Dark Materials book trilogy, the pas... Full Review
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