Max Hill
Album Reviews: Camera Obscura, Baths, and a throwback to The Velvet Underground
June 10, 2013By Max Hill Camera Obscura — Desire Lines On their fifth release as a group, Camera Obscura have their shy, nostalgic twee pop aesthetic down to a science: each one of their records have seen the group capitalizing on their ‘better to have loved and lost’ balladry and tender guitar work, all brought home by Tracyanne Campbell’s clear-cut, subtly Scottish vocals. Where some bands seek to chart new territory with each release, Camera Obscura are content to hone their craft. Borrowing from twee titans Belle & Sebastian and Heavenly and spinning lyrical webs of literary lovers and youthful rebellion, the Glaswegian…
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Album Reviews: Dirty Beaches, Alice in Chains, and a throwback to The Magnetic Fields
June 3, 2013By Max Hill Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love is the Devil Through his solo project Dirty Beaches, electronic artist Alex Zhang Hungtai, expresses his experiences as a world traveler, exploring the globe without a place to call home. Born in Taiwan and…
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Album reviews: Queens of the Stone Age, Wild Nothing, and a throwback to Talking Heads
May 27, 2013By Max Hill Queens of the Stone Age — ...Like Clockwork The easiest reviews to write are always the ones fueled by intensity, by passion, by that indescribable feeling of having something worth writing about. However, with ...Like Clockwork, the new…
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Album Reviews: Daft Punk, The National, and a Throwback to Neutral Milk Hotel
May 21, 2013By Max Hill Daft Punk — Random Access Memories We all knew this was bound to happen, 2013 seems to be the year of the comeback: so far Justin Timberlake, David Bowie and even My Bloody Valentine have emerged from prolonged…
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Album Reviews: Vampire Weekend, Savages, and Kate Bush
May 13, 2013By Max Hill Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City Let me begin this review by admitting that I don’t like Vampire Weekend. No, scratch that — I didn’t like Vampire Weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I love when educated…
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In Review: DOXA Film Festival’s Wrong Place Wrong Time and East Hastings Pharmacy
May 13, 2013This year’s documentary film festival shows its artistic side By Max Hill Documentary films aren’t always considered artistic or creative: they tend to be categorized as straightforward, didactic and anonymous, not unlike a news article. The Documentary Media Society, a…
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Album Reviews: Deerhunter, Phoenix, and The Clash
May 6, 2013By Max Hill Throwback Review: The Clash – London Calling The best punk rock album of all time is barely a punk rock album at all. As much Bob Marley and The Beatles as it is The Stooges and The Sex…
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Album Reviews – April 8, 2013
April 7, 2013By Max Hill Artist: The Flaming Lips Album: The Terror The Flaming Lips have never been an easy band to categorize, but one mood they’re rarely associated with is melancholy. There’s a wistful, nostalgic quality to their The Soft Bulletin…
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Album Reviews – April 2, 2013
March 31, 2013By Max Hill Artist: Justin Timberlake Album: The 20/20 Experience Justin Timberlake makes it look easy. He oozes charisma and charm with what seems like little to no effort, and his appeal seems to stretch endlessly: It’s hard to think…
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Spiegelman featured at the Vancouver Art Gallery
March 24, 2013The newest exhibit is a one-of-a-kind experience By Max Hill Photo courtesy of Vancouver Art Gallery Art Spiegelman is the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and essayist behind Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, In the Shadow of No Towers and a wide variety…
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