Few individuals have had as much impact on hip-hop, and few individuals have spurred as much discussion on the genre, as Nasir Jones.

Known better by his stage name, Nas, the Queensbridge rapper is back for the ninth time with Untitled. What’s important is that he’s back with a renewed hunger, a lyrical ferocity that earned him the “Nasty Nas” moniker that he wore like a badge of honor in the mid-`90s, a lyrical ferocity that has been sadly absent from much of his (albeit still solid) music since 2001’s Stillmatic. [more]

If you’re one of the people that still subscribes to the “rock ‘n’ roll is dead” mantra, Malcolm Bauld would like to have a word with you.

In fact, if possible, he’d like to have 35 minutes and 38 seconds' worth of words with you.

Or, if you’d feel more comfortable just cutting the middle man out of the picture completely, one listen through of Bauld’s Covered In Dust will have you believing that though it’s changed forms substantially since Bill Haley & the Comets first rocked around the clock, the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is alive and well in 2008. [more]

You ever have a great story that you just can’t wait to tell your friends about?

Joe Budden is that story.

No matter how excited you are to tell everyone about your trip to Europe or your luck in finding $100 on top of a paper towel dispenser in the 7-11, your friends will invariably be less excited to hear about it. For me, no matter how many friends I try to push Budden on, and believe me, I’ve talked to death about him, the response is less than stellar.

I’ve come to accept that Jersey Joe may stay my involuntarily-kept secret. [more]

Growing up an only child, I never had the responsibility of helping raise a little brother. Likewise, I never got to play the role of a little brother, though lately I’ve felt as such (especially the kind that’s “been getting into trouble” as Dead to Me so eloquently imparts in the title track of their latest EP). First, a bout with unemployment left me putzing around Minneapolis in a state of urban blight, armed only with naivety and big city dreams. [more]

Chris Owens has his own way of doing things. In the past two years, his dedication to Lords has left him punching out dubious Canadian tour promoters attempting to frame him for drug possession, defending the fact that he didn't pee on an audience but instead peed into someone's hands who ended up throwing it on the audience, dealing with losing a label for his band's second full-length which was shelved while he shopped it around, losing a drummer and founding member, and finally having to punch out a dubious touring bass player demanding money that the band didn't have. [more]

Tracing a band's influences doesn't always follow or equate to the band's own sound. That being said, listening to Sweet Cobra's Forever is a direct window into the band's lasting influences. Playing like a raucous `80s hardcore band like Born Against trying to cover "Paranoid" or "Symptom of the Universe" by Black Sabbath, Sweet Cobra's music is a punishing, straightforward barrage of hard riffs and dark imagery. [more]

Elliott Brood had the unfortunate luck of hooking me with what's become one of my favourite songs. "Oh Alberta" is, in purely academic terms, an awesome little ditty. It's a catchy banjo-driven ode to the provinces of Canada. It's campy, nonsensical and more fun than your most fondly remembered children's song. Everyone I've played it for loves it -- and it's pretty much completely out of character for this band. Elliott Brood is a three-piece from Toronto, an alt-country act for lack of a better term. The better term, by the way, is death country as far as the band is concerned. [more]

Nothing Nice to Say is the first foray into the dirty underbelly of print comics for Mitch Clem, and this collection of strips serves not only as a nice addition to any punk's second-hand coffee table, but as a surprisingly strong introduction to new readers.

This book collects strips that were originally published online from January 2005 to September 2006, and actually serves as volume two. There's no real description given in the book as to why volume two was printed before volume one, but when taking a peek at the . [more]

Warning: This review contains language not suitable for children. For realz.

During the first phase of the band and its pinnacle, 1999’s The Gay Parade, of Montreal was a psychedelic-pop-rock band and included a full band and a cast of Elephant 6 characters on the records. By the time of 2004’s fantastic Satanic Panic in the Attic, Kevin Barnes was working mostly on his own in the studio, and synths and drum machines were worming their way deeper into the mix. [more]

There's a truly spectacular class of independent music coming out of Canada, and it's so frustratingly genre agnostic and post-everything that to even bother labeling it is an exercise in futility. Toronto duo FemBots are often lumped into some quasi-fictitious indie-folk genre, and that's an absolutely uncomfortable fit. The duo of Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier once toured as members of the Weakerthans and that connection's far more revealing. The groups share an aesthetic if not a worldview. [more]