Esthero When electro/jazz singer/songwriter Esthero first started to consider funding options for the release of her forthcoming album, Everything is Expensive, she was leery of turning to crowd-sourcing sites like Kickstarter. "I've always been weird about that stuff," the Toronto expat tells Spinner in a phone call from Los Angeles. ...

Williams + Hirakawa When Las Vegas, Nevada's The Killers decided to name their new album -- and the home studio where they recorded most of it -- Battle Born, it was more than just a superficial nod to the phrase that adorns their home state's flag. To the rockers, those two words are an ethos and a rallying cry. They represented where the ...

Universal Music Canada There's something surreal about seeing one of the country's biggest and most iconic bands play in a small club in Toronto's perennially underground Kensington Market. The crowd packed into the back room of Supermarket -- renamed "Now For Plan A" Headquarters for the duration of The Tragically Hip's three day ...

Island When British singer/songwriter and recreational surfer Ben Howard first started making waves, for lack of a better term, on this side of the pond earlier this year, he received almost as much attention for his hobby as he did for his music. Critics were quick to latch onto his surfing in an effort to paint him as England's answer to ...

Starfish Entertainment When Toronto's beloved underground country rockers The Sadies first met and collaborated with Canadian folk icon Neil Young, drummer Mike Belitsky could barely believe it was happening. After a lengthy and fruitless struggle to find enough free time in both of their schedules to actually meet in a studio and play ...

Vice | Haunted | I U She After 11 days of red carpets, concerts, parties, celeb spotting and, of course, actual films, the 2012 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close. While this year's festival and festivities couldn't quite match the overwhelming musical star power of 2011 when U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young ...

I U She Productions Long before Toronto's Merrill Nisker stumbled into a career as the electro art provocateur Peaches, she had every intention of becoming a theatre director, at least until reality set in. "I quickly figured out that I didn't want to work with actors or all of these factors I thought would give me a heart attack by the ...