Articles by Michael Barclay

White Whale

PUBLISHED Mar 1, 2007

On paper, it seems like a great idea for a band to play four gigs in three days during a festival like this. But scheduling a show before 1...

Bettie Serveert

Bare Stripped Naked

PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2007

Carol Van Dijk’s Dutch drawl melts me every time, whether she’s singing Velvet Underground covers, raging over a recreation of her band’s g...

Gothic Archies

The Tragic Treasure: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events

PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2007

When Stephin Merritt started the Gothic Archies, the intention was to write catchy songs where "any glimmer of hope is absolutely extinguis...

Lotus Child

Gossip Diet

PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2007

If you’re going to make piano pop, it helps to have a great piano player — which this Vancouver band do in Tom Dobrzanski. But it also help...

Portastatic

Be Still Please

PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2007

Merge Records certainly isn’t suffering from co-owner Mac McCaughan’s relentless schedule, but his band Portastatic is. Beginning with 2003...

Tom Waits

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards

PUBLISHED Feb 19, 2007

"Forgive me, baby, but I always take the long way home.” Because this is Tom Waits, said journey through three discs of the oddest and the...

World Trade Center

Oliver Stone

PUBLISHED Feb 16, 2007

Oliver Stone’s idea of subtlety usually involves slapping you across the face with a wet fish. Which is why it’s so shocking that a man wit...

An Inconvenient Truth

Davis Guggenheim

PUBLISHED Feb 16, 2007

This hit film was shocking to many North Americans, and buried deep in the movie is a funny little statistic that explains why. Al Gore des...