Articles by Al Smith

Yo La Tengo / Rose Melberg
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC October 21
PUBLISHED Oct 26, 2009
Starting with 1986's Ride the Tiger, you've been able to count on an above average to good Yo La Tengo album every one to three years, and...
Butthole Surfers / Psychic Ills
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC October 12
PUBLISHED Oct 15, 2009
Butthole Surfers mean a lot of things to different people. If you followed the burgeoning college rock movement in the 1980s, they were the...
Grizzly Bear
Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, BC October 14
PUBLISHED Oct 15, 2009
Before the release of 2009's Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear stood at a career watershed of sorts. Critical darlings without much mainstream succ...
School of Seven Bells / The Depreciation Guild
Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver BC, October 9
PUBLISHED Oct 14, 2009
With the volume of critical love for last year's full-length debut Alpinisms, it was only a matter a time before School of Seven Bells laun...
Brasstronaut / An Horse
Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC September 23
PUBLISHED Sep 25, 2009
This show was originally supposed to be a release party for the album Brasstronaut recorded during their artist residency at the Banff Cent...
Manic Street Preachers
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC September 22
PUBLISHED Sep 23, 2009
Before the Internet obliterated division lines in the early '00s, the hottest music in the UK and Europe was totally different from what wa...
Sunny Day Real Estate / The Jealous Sound
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC September 17
PUBLISHED Sep 19, 2009
Remember when "emo" wasn't an insult? In its '90s heyday, bands like Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz and Braid all fell under the emo banner, playin...
Gang Gang Dance / Basketball / Machu Picchu
Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC September 4
PUBLISHED Sep 8, 2009
A show by New York's Gang Gang Dance is always hotly anticipated in Vancouver, so the Biltmore Cabaret was tightly packed with eager fans a...