Articles by Helen Spitzer

Cuff the Duke

Life Stories for Minimum Wage

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Emerging from the depths of suburbia, Cuff the Duke developed their sound isolated from any burgeoning "insurgent" country movement. In fac...

Cat Power

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Why Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) is a coddled indie baby instead of a homeless musician is really anyone's guess. Certainly, she is the ki...

M. Ward

The Transfiguration Of Vincent

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Matthew Ward is blessed - with rare talent, a perpetually inquisitive mind and good friends. Several years ago after a Giant Sand show, he...

Camera Obscura

Underachievers Please Try Harder

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Girls who came of age in the UK during the late ‘70s, might be familiar with Puffin Books: paperback treasures sold alongside sweets and "g...

Diskettes

The Diskettes

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Canada seems to have a habit lately of generating outsider-tinged weirdo music, the Sick Lipstick, Barmitzvah Brothers and Barcelona Pavili...

Chad VanGaalen

Infiniheart

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Though his aesthetic is quite different, Chad VanGaalen comes across as Jim Guthrie's younger Calgary cousin. VanGaalen was also introduced...

Falconhawk

Hotmouth

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Falconhawk’s Kara Keith is done with being pretty keyboard wallpaper. She did time with various Calgary bands in the early ‘90s, but the co...

Nina Nastasia

Dogs

PUBLISHED Jan 1, 2006

Not everyone likes pretty. And not everyone does it well. There is something so deceptively easy about Nina Nastasia’s way with a song. It...