Crimson Shadows’ Journey So Far

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Where does a good metal band begin, to try and find fans and kick off what they hope will be a long history of head banging? With Crimson Shadows, the question is so much where to begin, but where it’ll end. The group’s already come a long way.

The Toronto, ON quintet started back in 2006. Since then, they’ve gone to release pair of albums, including 2014’s Kings Among Men on Napalm Records. Their journey’s been eased along by winning the Wacken Metal Battle in 2013, a big coup that earned them a spot onstage at what’s probably metal’s biggest festival. Then and before and after, it’s been on them to impress with their metal, which brings in soaring power metal parts along with the brute force of death metal.

Crimson Shadows are in the Exchange on Saturday, July 11 with Death Toll Rising, Lest We Fail, and Nine Gates. Doors at 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $12 plus service charges and are available at Vintage Vinyl. $15 at the door. All ages and licensed.

Two New Local Metal Releases in One Night

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If you’ve been paying attention, you might be one of the many around here eagerly waiting for Third Ion’s debut release. Now, the Regina prog metal group is ready to put out 13/8Bit, and they’ve got Black Thunder and Psyborum to turn Friday, July 10 in the Exchange into quite the concert.

That same night in the Club, Nactterror and Altars of Grief have their own release show going on. The two doom metal bands are putting out a split 10-inch called Of Ash and Dying Light and are both playing this night, with Toronto’s IRN opening.

Advance, individual tickets for each show are $20 each and are available at Vintage Vinyl. Each includes the record being released at its respective show. An advance ticket for both shows including both releases is $30. For more information, go to the Facebook event.

Polaris Prize Long List Released

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For the ninth year running, the Polaris Prize is getting ready to decide what the past year’s best Canadian album is. To that end, they’ve released their much anticipated long list for 2015.

You can read the full list at Polaris’ website. Looking around, you’ll find plenty of artists who’ve come through the Exchange and the Club recently, including Alvvays, Arkells, Bahamas, Viet Cong, the Weather Station, and Whitehorse.

Goatwhore’s Wicked Universe

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“In Goatwhore’s wicked universe, sexuality and the supernatural always go hand-in-hand –– an unsurprising paradigm, considering that the quartet hail from one of North America’s most haunted cities.”

So writes Pitchfork, in talking about the New Orleans, Louisiana band’s latest record, 2014’s Constricting Rage of the Merciless. They’ve been around since the late 1990s, finding a label home most recently on Metal Blade.

In that time, you can hear them tweaking their sound, playing with black and thrash metal as to which, Pitchfork says, vocalist Louis Ben Falgoust’s “range of growls and screams lend … terrific contrast.”

Goatwhore are in the Exchange on Wednesday, June 24 with Black Breath, Ringworm, and Theories. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Advance tickets are $20 plus service charges and are available at Vintage Vinyl, Madame Yes, and online at TicketEdge. Tickets available at the door barring a sell-out. All ages and licensed.

Recently Announced: Ron Sexsmith

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We’re pleased to tell you that the Regina Folk Festival is bringing Ron Sexsmith back to the Exchange on Wednesday, September 30.

Ron’s a true Canadian original, a modest man of stellar songwriting talents. From his 1995 debut through to his latest, this year’s Carousel One, he’s made a career of unassailable pop gems, airtight work delivered with his own affable charm.

Check back at the RFF’s website for more information and to see when tickets become available online.

Presenters Network Showcase: Work in Progress Dance Series

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Getting new work up on its feet can be difficult. Luckily, for dance choreographers in the prairies, there’s the Works in Progress New Dance Series.

The Saskatoon-based Free Flow Dance Theatre Company started the series back in 2003. Each year, they present works in studio, giving audiences the chance to take a peak at the creative process while also giving choreographers invaluable feedback.

The W.I.P. has a showing coming up on Saturday, June 20 at the Free Flow Dance Centre. It’ll feature choreographers from Regina, Saskatoon, and Calgary presenting and speaking to new work. Audience members will have the opportunity to offer written responses if they’d like.

Find out more about the upcoming showing at its Facebook event and more about the Works in Progress New Dance Series at their Presenters Network profile.

Are you an artist, presenter, or part of a venue? Check out the Presenters Network! Anyone can browse or create a profile for free. You can find your next opportunity for a gig, the next person to fill your space with art, or the right place to put on your show. Find out more at the Cultural Exchange’s website.

How Swervedriver Are Keeping It Fresh

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“Legacy act”. That’s a phrase that can haunt many an act from the 1990s reunited in the 2000s and 2010s for another go. It’s certainly something UK shoegaze act Swervedriver have thought about. Talking with Drowned in Sound, though, it sounds like Adam Franklin feels they’ve avoided that fate.

“When we played New York earlier this year,” he said, “the show sold out straight away so we added a second night and that sold out too. We added a third night and thought it best we do something different so we played the new album in its entirety from start to finish without even announcing it beforehand. We just walked on stage, said we would be playing the new album, played it and people didn’t leave.”

Starting back in 1989, the group was influential in the early shoegaze sound, layering distortion and heavy psych sounds together to great effect. They’re still improving on that sound with 2015’s I Wasn’t Born to Lose You, their fifth album.

Swervedriver are in the Exchange on Saturday, June 20 with Shitty Dream. Advance tickets are $25 plus service charges and are available at X-Ray Records and online at TicketEdge. Tickets available at the door barring a sell-out.  All ages and licensed.

The Multitudes of Government Town

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If Government Town contains multitudes, it might in part be because there’s just a lot of them. The Regina band boasts eight members, which might a scene high for a rock band at the moment.

What are they doing with violin, mandolin, guitars, and all the rest? Any number of things. You might be able to fit the lot of them under the wide umbrella of rock music, but within that, you get touches of traditional folk, folk-rock, country, pop, indie-rock, alt-rock, and more.

They’ve got material out there for your sampling needs. Their second album, the appropriately-titled II, came out in 2014 and is a good roundup of where the band’s at.

Government Town are in the Exchange on Friday, June 19 with Josh Gonzales. Doors at 7 p.m. Show at 8 p.m. $5 at the door. All ages and licensed.

Limblifter Still Following Through

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When did we first hear word that new Limblifter material might be coming out? All the way back in 2012, when they returned to the stage and hinted at music to come. They’ve kept going since then, and this year, we finally got to hear their new record.

Pacific Milk comes a full 11 years after their last album, 2004’s I/O. We’re also nearly two decades out from their very first, a self-titled album released in 1996. They cracked the Canadian Top 40 and Alternative Top 40 charts a few times over those years, while still releasing rock albums beloved by fans.

The new album shows that, while they’ve returned to the height of their performing powers, they’re still able to switch up their sound when need be. You might hear influences from modern rock and indie-rock groups that the members have been around or played with in the intervening years popping up on Pacific Milk. At the same time, the record stays essentially Limblifter.

Limblifter are in the Exchange on Wednesday, June 17 with Library Voices. Doors at 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $20 plus service charges and are available at Vintage Vinyl and online at TicketEdge. Tickets available at the door barring a sell-out. All ages and licensed.

The Good in Everyone: Good Name, Good Band

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“The Good in Everyone” is the very first track from one of Canadian rock music’s most beloved albums, Sloan’s One Chord to Another. The track’s near perfect, catchy and raucous and full of youthful energy.

In other words, it’s the perfect name for a fresh-faced band from Vancouver, B.C. The group started in 2014 and has moved quickly since then, gigging around and recording with their good-nature indie-rock sound.

Take a listen to their debut EP, a quick self-titled number they released last year. It’s breezy. It’s catchy. It’s got rock guitars. In short, it’s doing its namesake proud.

The Good in Everyone are in the Club on Sunday, June 14 with Alea Rae, Nick Faye and the Deputies, and Dagan Harding. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Show at 8:30 p.m. $10 at the door. All ages and licensed.