Kelowna, BC folk-rock heroes and seemingly cryogenically preserved pop stars Hooper/Kane/Hooper The Grapes of Wrath returned to Vancouver for a live shot, before hitting the ol’ studio…for the first time in 21 years.

Winnipeg’s The Watchmen returned to Vancouver after a nearly 9 year absence, for Grey Cup (that’s football) celebrations, and the BackstageRider is thrown back through time. Check out the lush gallery of photos and a fun little story.

Death from Above 1979 rebuilt their Wall of Sound and brought it crashing down on Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on November 20 & 21. We survived, did you? Pics by Ashely Tanasiychuk.

New wave vocal/synth awesome from a Canadian triple bill of Tasseomancy, Young Galaxy and Austra happened on November 16 at Electric Owl in Vancouver and I was there, swooning. Check the gallery of all three bands.

Diamond Rings talks guilty pleasures, his ideal collaborators, what he’d like on his backstagerider, and oh, answers 8 more questions. Here is the first-ever, on-camera BackstageRider Top 11 Questions With…Diamond Rings. Includes moccasins.

The PACK A.D. release their first video”Take”, offa their new album UNPERSONS, and both are out today. And one of them is based on Gary Numan’s “Cars”. I hung out with Becky Black and Maya Miller and we time travelled back to 1980 together.

Wandered out into das Berlin night to check out Vancouver’s Destroyer to see if Dan Bejar was any more lively. Nope. But still sounded lush. Also met a new band, Zulu Pearls. Here are the pics.

Huh, wasn’t expecting much from this, but it actually made me smile. Here’s my ode to a new Canadian documentary about a band called Said The Whale, airing on CBC on July 23rd at 7pm (and online at cbcradio3.ca after that). Plus…THERE’S A ROCKHAND!

Sloan brought an enormo list of songs from their 20-year back catalog to the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on June 3rd and it was rockin’. Still woulda liked to have heard “Underwhelmed” but, hey. Here’s the review and mega gallery.