Articles By: Daniel Korn 
Daniel wants to be a rock star when he grows up. He is currently pursuing a career in music by studying at York University, where he hits things loudly with sticks. He is in two gigging bands - New Stems and The Formalists. He writes for MVRemix and Cadence Canada. He also has a weekly podcast called Two Loud Guys. Aside from music, he likes video games, comic books, puppies, and food. You can follow him on twitter @AmateurDan.
The Hives – Lex Hives album review
Are The Hives a band that people care about? I never really listened to them – I always got them confused with The Vines because they both had singles in the same garage rock revival style that were really popular at the same time, as well as both having five letter names that end in a plural and have a “v” in them. I know they used to be; they were one of the popular bands within that first wave [...]
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NxNE 2012: Day 4 (except not really)
I didn’t actually go to anything North by Northeast-related last night. Oh, I really wanted to – I love the Wu-Tang Clan, and seeing Raekwon and Ghostface Killah together was something that deeply appealed to me. But I just couldn’t reject the pull of my favourite ska band, and I went to go see Reel Big Fish with Goldfinger and Big D and the Kids Table with a few friends instead. It was kind of a bad day for me [...]
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NxNE 2012: Day 3 (June 16th)
I’ve never had a concert cancelled on me before. Last night, I was supposed to be going to the Radiohead show at Downsview Park. As you may have heard already, a few hours before the show was set to start, the stage collapsed, killing one person and injuring three others. Quite a tragedy really – I don’t understand why stages keep collapsing over the past year or two. I suspect the problem is with manufacturers and bogus materials – I [...]
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NxNE 2012: Day 2 (June 15th)
The middle-aged fat man in the purple-striped shirt wouldn’t stop hitting on young girls. This was, as my friend and bandmate Tal described, the “glue” of my second day at North by Northeast. But before I continue, some background information is necessary. About a month ago, my band New Stems played a show at the Horseshoe Tavern that was sponsored by the local modern rock radio station, 102.1 The Edge. When our set concluded and we’d finished packing up our [...]
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NxNE 2012: Day 1 (June 14th)
Hello all, and welcome to my North by Northeast coverage for this year! I’m aware that the festival has actually been going on for a few days at this point, but the music doesn’t really start until Thursday, and while I would have liked to go see some of the film festivals and other events peppered throughout the first few days of the week, the final days of my summer school course didn’t exactly permit me to do so. But [...]
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Hey Ocean! – Is album review
I think I’m tired of indie-pop. When it hit the mainstream, it was a breath of fresh air, effectively erasing the angst-laden drudgery of post-grunge and replacing it with the exact opposite – a genre featuring optimistic viewpoints, a sunny, relaxed vibe and the glorious return of the catchy guitar hook. It was sorely needed at the time, and it’s certainly still better than the wave of bands before its emergence, but right now, I can’t really find the energy [...]
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The Trypes – Music for Neighbors album review
You know what’s stupid about Rdio? There aren’t any liner notes anywhere. I don’t know how many of you still care about this kind of stuff, but personally, I’m a big believer in both the tactility and the informative function of a physical booklet. It’s especially good to have when your job is to critique an album. And the album is a career-spanning anthology. And it’s by an obscure band that’s an offshoot of another obscure band. Such is the [...]
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Iggy Pop – Apres album review
At 65 years old, Iggy Pop is up there with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan as one of the oldest people in rock n’roll. This is probably a weird position to assume in any industry (“Shouldn’t you have retired by now?”), but it’s especially so in one primarily concerned with youth. That awkwardness is multiplied when you‘re known primarily for two things: 1) being the frontman of one of the first punk bands ever and 2) extreme rock star [...]
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CFCF – Exercises EP review
Not enough people use the EP format effectively. A lot of bands just take it as a song dump, putting on random tunes from their catalogue that just don’t fit anywhere else, or using it as a mere teaser for a full album. This is fine enough I suppose, but few musicians realize the potential of the concise runtime of an EP – it’s really the short story to a full-length’s novel, a place to explore an idea in-depth without [...]
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Death Grips – The Money Store album review
I don’t understand this album at all. This is something of a fallacy for a self-proclaimed music critic to admit, especially for a young one with fairly eclectic taste. Critics are supposed to have the pretense of omniscient knowledge; as far as any reader is aware, a music critic is absolutely in-the-know about every genre of music, has their finger on the pulse of upcoming trends, and uses their vast knowledge to form a constructive opinion about whatever comes across [...]
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