Skip to content Skip to navigation

stop-look-listen

What James Adams is Listening To

Mostly jazz — an idiom in a hard way these days (once Sonny Rollins dies, that’s it for the giants who shaped it from the late 40s onwards; the Toronto jazz festival this year has the nerve to bill KC and the Sunshine Band as its headline act!). Still have a lot of vinyl and have been playing a fair amount of — you guessed it! – Prince, Merle Haggard and, for some unfathomable reason, R.E.M. from the mid-80s.

James Adams is a reporter at The Globe & Mail covering a variety of arts topics.

What James Langer is Listening To

Aside from waiting for the new Strokes EP to drop so I can buy it just to burn it? I’m listening to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Obvious choice, I know. May as well get it out of the way. This is candid Radiohead. Seems to be Johnny Greenwood driven, symphonic and organic. It’s not In Rainbows, but what is?

Then there’s Marlon Williams. Self-titled debut album of a New Zealand singer-songwriter providing his take on American country-western. Voice like something you have to take methadone to kick. Eclectic and fucking eerie.

"Turner et la Couleur" at Caumont Centre d'Art

By John Reibetanz

Ironic that at the same time as Brexit is gathering momentum, the best exhibit I’ve ever seen on Turner should be mounted by the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix en Provence. “Turner et la couleur” throws aside all the stereotypes of Turner as a flag-waving nationalist and — on two floors of rarely shown paintings and watercolours — reveals the intricacy and coherence of an internationalist’s imaginative vision.  

Remembering Prince

By Ross Leckie

An 18-year-old kid gets a record deal with Warner Bros. and he demands complete control over his music. I doubt that Warner Bros. knew what that meant. They cheerfully announced that the album would be produced by Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire. Prince Rogers Nelson replied, “No one produces Prince music but Prince.” He had, after all, spent an entire year in a friend’s studio when it was free at night recording and producing his demo.

Griffin Poetry Prize Shortlists

Congratulations to all of the finalists for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize! This year's international shortlist includes Norman Dubie's collection The Quotations of Bone. The Fiddlehead has published Dubie's poems on two previous occasions, in issues No. 241 (Autumn 2009) and No. 262 (Winter 2015), and those poems appear in The Quotations of Bone.

What Mark Jarman's Listening To

I’ve been playing a lot of Kurt Vile, especially Smoke Ring for my Halo and b’lieve i’m going down; the latter took longer to grow on me but now I like it a lot. Also dug out some old vinyl, including Gilded Palace of Sin by Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Bros and can now declare that Sneaky Pete on steel guitar is an unheralded genius of the 1970s.  Also want to plug an odd tune, "Saddle in the Rain," by John Prine: produced by Steve Cropper of Memphis, has horns, and about as funky as you will hear Prine the folkie get.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - stop-look-listen