VanMusic: I’m here with Jimmy Cummins aka. I Braineater, well known musician and artist in Vancouver and Internationally around the world.

Jimmy Cummins: In various circle yes.

VM: So my first question for you is what came first your desire to make music or your need to create art?

JC: I started drawing when I was 3 or 4 years old, so I loved drawing from an early age. It’s been kind of a drive, I think you just get born with it or you don’t. And if you are born with it, the urge is always there. When the punk rock scene came around it was great because it was a time when the idea was, who cares?! Who cares if you don’t know how to do this or that. If you want to do it, then do it! So I was like I want to do it!

Ever since I first heard “Drinking Games” as a free download on iTunes some 17 months ago, I knew there was something different yet fascinating about Library Voices. From the wonderful vocal harmony arrangements, to the subtle and truly odd noises in the background, it caught my ear—and my interest. If you own or have listened to any of their work from their two full length albums or their debut EP, Hunting Ghosts, you’ll likely know exactly what I’m talking about. As it goes with most music, however, they may not be your “bag”.

Malcolm Holt from Gay 90s and Malcom and the Moonlight talks to Boogie Monster

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Diamond Dancer is comprised of long-time friends and lovers who have traded in their dysfunctional hardcore punk rock past for twinkly guitar hooks and heartfelt vocals.

The band encapsulates a throwback indie, ’90s emo revival feel – tropes of somber music accompanied by a shy narrator singing seriously about mundane problems.

Some have named Diamond Dancer “true emo”, as well as one of the first “twinkledaddies” from Vancouver (and possibly Canada.)

After 10 years of existence they went into the studio with Steve Albini to record the self title LP.

VanMusic invited local, new band, Hallow Moon to an East Van backyard, recently, to speak more about their music and projects. It was quite the avant garde setting and scenario

Alpha Yaya Diallo, guitarist, singer, songwriter is a three-time Juno Award winner. A true multi-cultural artist, he performs in French, English and his native Guinean languages of Fulani, Malinke, and Sosoxi. He was discovered in the late 1980’s by Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records when he was touring as the lead guitarist for the group Fatala.

100 Monkeys Interview by Danica Stewart
100 Monkeys -  Liquid Zoo

100 Monkeys are anything but typical. As their name might suggest, they are a little adventurous when it comes to all things music, but they take their craft quite seriously (in a fun-loving way of course). Sewn together by way of musical soul, 100 Monkeys are Lawrence “Uncle Larry” Abrams, Jerad Anderson, Jackson Rathbone, Ben Johnson and Ben Graupner. Taking their turns playing all instruments and singing (aka the “Monkey Switcheroo”), keeps this group creative, inspired and always creatively challenged.
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Jon Anderson is a legend in his own spare time as he jokes about it. He was the founder of the legendary band YES, lead singer and composer of many of the tracks including the hits “Owner of a lonely heart” “Leave It” and “It can happen”. YES was always labeled as a progressive rock band “there has always been progressive music, I don’t call it progressive rock, I would like to call it progressive music, we were not just progressive, our music was based on rock, jazz, folk, it was a combination of all that

After 8 years, the In The House Festival has become a Vancouver institution, bringing intimate, live performances right into your neighbours’ livingrooms!

Danica Stewart’s Interview with Sam Bradley and The Sam Bradley Band

David Vertesi of Vancouver indie band Hey Ocean! releases his first solo CD “Cardiography”. I review the CD as well as interview David.

David Vertesi is well known for having been part of the Vancouver indie pop group Hey Ocean!. He has just completed his first solo album, Cardiography, which is a diamond in the rough that sparkles with its beckoning intensity. Starting out with the song “Mountainside” with its fuzzed out feedback, bird-like chirps and prominent bass line, David’s beautiful baritone voice sings of sincerity to the point of being self painful (love’s a mountainside/that I wish I could climb/your love is a stormy sea)

Interview with frontman/singer/ songwriter/guitarist Jeremy Allingham from the Vancouver band Like A Martyr.

When Sam announced his Residency at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA, I inquired into doing an interview with him for “Stories from the Road” and was overjoyed when it was granted. So, on July 6, 2010 I sat down with Sam at Kitchen 21 for a chat just before his third show in Hollywood. I hope you have as much fun watching it, as I did putting it together.

Sam is currently scheduled for a nineteen day U.S. tour with Brooke Fraser, starting in Houston, TX and ending in his mother’s home town of Vancouver, with several of the dates already sold out.

László Hortobāgyi, a self described time traveler, is one of my favourite musicians. Away from rock and world music etiquettes which he despises, he goes beyond the realms of conventional music. He is a connoisseur of music, a collector of bizarre sounds. An auditive inventor of landscapes of imaginary ancient cultures. He is the equivalent in music of HP Lovecraft in literature, Bosch (El Bosco) in painting or HR Gigger in visual arts. Maybe a combination of Jodorowski and the Quay brothers in cinema with a touch of sci fi. He absorbs the millenarian knowledge of the old civilizations to extrapolate it to modern technology.