Land of Talk‘s Elizabeth Powell talks about her upbringing, rebelliousness, artistic influences, and latest album, Life After Youth, which is available via Saddle Creek and Dine Alone. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, Planet Bean Coffee, Grandad’s Donuts, Freshbooks, and Hello Fresh Canada.
Alanna Gurr is a musician, singer, and songwriter who is based in her hometown of Guelph, ON. She and her band, the Greatest State, have just released a new EP on Missed Connection Records. It’s called Stand Still and it has prompted Gurr to play a few shows over the coming months. Alanna and I met at the CFRU studios in Guelph recently where we discussed things like her band Cupcake Ductape and Steph Yates but not the band Esther Grey, her role as a piano tuner and technician and what it’s like dealing with people who want their pianos tuned, the lure of St. John’s, Newfoundland, misogyny in music scenes, and much more. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, and Planet Bean Coffee.
Bruce McDonald is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and director based in Toronto and Nick Craine is an acclaimed graphic artist who calls Guelph, Ontario home. McDonald’s fifth film was an adaptation of Michael Turner’s novel, Hard Core Logo, and chronicled a first wave punk rock band’s disastrous reunion tour across Canada. The influential 1996 film was an underground hit; even Quentin Tarantino became smitten with it, securing its U.S. distribution rights. The next year, Craine’s graphic novel adaptation of McDonald’s film was published and, to commemorate its 20th anniversary, House of Anansi has issued an expanded edition of Craine’s Hard Core Logo: Portrait of a Thousand Punks, and the occasion is being marked with book launch events and screenings of the film. I met with Bruce and Nick at Bruce’s Toronto office recently and we discussed how they first met some 25 years ago, the work of comic artist Chester Brown and other underground comic artists, making road movies and graphic novels, Canadian content and hockey, the weird but cool resonance of Hard Core Logo 20 years later, the rise of mockumentaries in a world obsessed with fake news, the Bucky Haight song “Never Done,” and much more. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, and Planet Bean Coffee.
