Merge As the students among us head back to become more learned in the coming weeks, some might wonder what the point of formal education is -- especially after a summer of new tunes and live shows brought to you by people who make a living making music. You can be happy, successful and ...

Courtesy of Nightbox It's not often that bands come to Canada to further their careers, but that's what dance-rockers Nightbox did a year-and-a-half ago -- and it seems to be paying off. The five-man band hopped the pond from Ireland in early 2010 and settled in Toronto -- the childhood home of brothers Jake (vocals) and Nick Bitove (drums). ...

Getty Images (2) So long as there have been song lyrics, there have been listeners getting them wrong. The typical knee-jerk reaction is to cover up any confusion with a string of indecipherable mumbles, but the more confident among us belt out our own homophonous interpretations. After years ...

Jag Gundu, Getty Images Using another artist's music without permission is a surefire way to boil up some bad blood in the music industry. When rapper Drake sampled part of a piano track by self-proclaimed musical genius Chilly Gonzales without permission, the multi-talented ivory tickler was understandably none too pleased. Back in 2009, ...

Arts & Crafts West Coast folkster Dan Mangan is a fortunate guy. In his relatively short career, he's toured the globe, made the Polaris Prize short list, become a Glastonbury regular and joined the Arts & Crafts roster. It's no coincidence, then, that his latest creation (to be released September 27) is titled 'Oh Fortune.' But it ...

STAN HONDA, AFP | Getty Images With about a million space nerds camped out around Cape Canaveral praying for no rain, the very last space shuttle of NASA's historic Shuttle Program launched into the wild grey yonder this morning (July 8). Atlantis' 33rd mission not only marks the end of an ...

Liam Maloney, Sub Pop Handsome Furs' Dan Boeckner was a self-proclaimed "angel from sweaty heaven" at the band's much-hyped NXNE showcase at the Garrison in Toronto on June 18. The packed and humid room got even sweatier as Boeckner (who put his "other" band, Wolf Parade, on "indefinite hiatus" just last month) and his wife and bandmate ...