Although the program hasn’t been operational since the start of the pandemic, the return to in-person classes is making note-taking services even more necessary for students with disabilities.
As students head into Concordia’s first finals session since their return to campus, many students with disabilities are facing an uphill battle. The university has not reinstated its peer-run note-taking program, leaving those who relied on Zoom transcripts for a year in the dark.
University Spokesperson Vannina Maestracci expanded on the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities’ (ACSD) decision to end the program. “During the winter of 2020, the ACSD completed a review of its service offerings and the peer note-taking program was ended for a number of reasons mostly related to the difficulty in finding reliable peer (or volunteer) note-takers as matches.”
Kaity Brady, a fourth-year student who deals with cystic fibrosis and is registered with the ACSD, is not impressed with the university’s handling of her health and safety needs.
“Because of my medical condition, I have to miss a lot of class due to chronic pain. It wasn’t an issue last year because I was already home,” she said. When asked about safety concerns, Brady had some choice words for the school.
“Do you really think the Hall Building is the safest place for me to be when the school won’t even enforce a vaccine mandate? I would feel safer in my journalism classes in the CJ building, but something as big as Hall? I feel way less safe. I also want to point out that for some disabled students, going back in person has been very beneficial. But because my issue really is physical, it’s been a challenge. I didn’t think they could do it, but Concordia found another way to disappoint me.”
Maestracci confirmed that students registered with the ACSD were notified about this change last year. However, the situation regarding in-person classes was radically different in the summer of 2020 than in the fall of 2021. As of September 2021, Concordia has implemented a hybrid teaching method that combines online classes with in-person ones. Students who relied on lecture transcripts automatically produced by programs like Zoom only have that luxury if their classes happen to be virtual. Every faculty within Concordia has been abiding by the university’s general health and safety guidelines, but some have been more cautious than others.
Brady can attest that before the note-taking service was taken away, the quality was not great. “It really wasn’t fantastic, but it was better than nothing. Now school has never been more inaccessible for me.” One of Concordia’s main reasons for the suspension of the program, as pointed out by Maestracci, was mostly due to a lack of reliable peer notetakers.
Maestracci added that “Students registered with the ACSD can still request professional note-taking at the beginning of the semester, if they face barriers related to written output or accessing print or visual information, for example. Each student’s request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis and when deemed as a reasonable accommodation, the ACSD will hire and pay a professional note-taker for that student.”
In the coming weeks, thousands of students will be entering exam periods in order to complete their fall 2021 semester. The community of students with disabilities who relied on note-takers could face additional obstacles in the final sprint to the academic finish line.
Graphic by Madeline Schmidt
Edit: A paraphrased comment by Vannina Maestracci in this article was corrected
Radiohead release KID A MNESIA, a double reissue album featuring previously unreleased material and B-sides.
Following the release of OKNOTOK in 2017 — a 20-year anniversary reissue of Radiohead’s most acclaimed album, OK Computer — fans expected similar treatment for Kid A. But 2020 came and went, and it wasn’t until this fall that it all began to come together.
The first hint towards a new release came in the form of the band’s foray into TikTok on April 1. What followed was a series of unsettling videos featuring Radiohead’s longtime character Chieftain Mews, played by producer Nigel Godrich, which ultimately culminated in an announcement of the band’s new project.
On Sept. 6, the band announcedKID A MNESIA as “a coming of age for Kid A & Amnesiac” that would also include unreleased material and B-sides from their Kid A era in a brand-new album, dubbed Kid Amnesiae.
Considering both albums were recorded at the same time (2001’s Amnesiac consists of leftover songs from Kid A), it makes sense that the band waited until now to release a twentieth anniversary reissue.
The story behind these two seminal classic albums is intricate and slightly convoluted. At the end of the ‘90s, Radiohead were at the top of their game. After OK Computer came out in 1997 and won the band their first Grammy Award, fans excitedly anticipated what would follow; but the turn of the millennium marked a stark change in the sound that had come to define them.
Gone were the moody guitar riffs from The Bends and OK Computer’s anthemic rock ballads; instead of what seemed to be the logical next step, Kid A was the band’s electronic left turn. The record was Radiohead’s first real attempt at making electronic music, and was a quiet, hollow, and unsettling continuation from what was once considered their peak.
Now, it’s impossible to dissociate electronic music from Radiohead; Kid A and Amnesiac firmly cemented that production style into their repertoire, and have influenced all their albums since. In Kid Amnesiae, the band explores this sound once again and combines near-forgotten bits and pieces from two decades ago to form a brand-new record, proving they’re just as willing to experiment now as they were back then.
The new album opens with “Like Spinning Plates – ‘Why Us?’ Version,” a superb reimagining of the Amnesiac rendition as a piano arrangement. Amid a cacophony of otherworldly electronic flutters, frontman Thom Yorke opens the album on a strong note, asking “Why us? / Why not someone else, not us?” in his familiar falsetto as the piano comes in.
“Untitled v1” follows, featuring creepy and distorted vocals reminiscent of Kid A’s title track, and is the perfect lead up to the new album’s first single, “If You Say The Word.” As Yorke croons over an eerily comforting, drum-led backing track, the almost-forgotten song breathes new life into Kid Amnesiae and evokes both the frigid emptiness of Kid A and the uncanny nostalgia of Amnesiac. A music video accompanied it, complete with the unsettling and abstract visuals that always seem to accompany the band’s new releases.
“Follow Me Around” is the album’s other single. An acoustic track, it’s a distinct departure in style from the rest of the album’s electronic sound, more akin to something from The Bends, but the lyrics are what make it fit with the rest of Kid Amnesiae: “I see you in the dark / Corner of the street / Calling after me, yeah.”
The rest of Kid Amnesiae is made up of other instrumental tracks and alternate versions of existing songs, but the most compelling of which is definitely “How to Disappear into Strings,” a hauntingly beautiful instrumental-only rendition of Kid A’s “How to Disappear Completely,” serving as the perfect ending for the album.
Unfortunately, unlike OKNOTOK, none of KID A MNESIA’s songs were remastered — Kid A and Amnesiac received no special treatment for their re-release. While the entire album clocks in at just over two hours, the new material spans only 34 minutes.
Listeners who are left wanting more out of this release can turn to the KID A MNESIA Exhibition, a fever dream of an interactive audiovisual experience, which was released Nov. 18. While not a replacement for new music, it allows fans to experience the albums in a completely new way. Players can explore virtual landscapes inspired by both albums while specific songs from Kid A and Amnesiac play, depending on which area the player finds themselves in. It can be downloaded for free on PC, Mac, and PS5 on the Epic Games store.
KID A MNESIA is a perfect celebration of Radiohead’s most unique albums. Longtime fans will appreciate the inclusion of reimagined existing songs and previously unreleased tracks in Kid Amnesiae, and any excuse to listen to Kid A and Amnesiac back-to-back is a good one.
After management woes and pandemic slowdowns, The Woodnote is beginning to take shape
After opening in 2020, The Woodnote Solidarity Cooperative has faced many challenges. The pandemic, a rotating door of board members, and a lack of training and guiding policy have made things difficult. However, as the pandemic slows down, along with a new student board elected on Oct. 17 and president elected on Nov. 5, things are beginning to change.
Sylvia Pascua-Matte joined The Woodnote’s co-op board in October 2020 and is the only remaining resident board member from that time, despite board members being elected for two year terms. She is now president of The Woodnote’s Solidarity cooperative’s board.
“I think that the [current] board has a lot of potential. I think that the board [members] are very confident people, and I love their work ethic and I love the project. But the project in itself is riddled with errors,” said Pascua-Matte.
The housing project is the first of its kind, intending to give students access to affordable, not-for-profit housing. Instead of just the usual landlord-tenant model, The Woodnote is a solidarity co-op, meaning it also has a board made of primarily volunteer tenants who help to manage community living within the building. The board consists of six seats for tenants and three for support members — one from UTILE, the other from the CSU and one representative from the Montreal community.
The three main groups who helped bring The Woodnote to life are UTILE, the not-for-profit housing company that designed, developed and owns the building; the CSU, who were the initial investors in the project, fronting almost two million dollars for its development; and the co-op’s board.
Before The Woodnote opened in summer 2020 a provisional committee of students was created to guide the developmental phase of the project, before passing things onto the board.
The co-op struggled in their first year due to an overwhelming lack of training, and balancing administrative tasks they felt unprepared for, like finding insurance for the building’s common room and creating the co-ops governing policy, while trying to foster a community.
“Nobody in the past provisional committee had even thought about [training]. There wasn’t proper onboarding, because everybody who was on the provisional board [left] and didn’t look back,” said Pascua-Matte.
One reason for the lack of support was that neither the CSU nor UTILE deemed it their responsibility to be involved in the student governance of The Woodnote. However, both groups hold support seats on their board.
“We don’t have any legal obligations to The Woodnote. There’s nothing on paper that ties us to The Woodnote other than this support member seat,” said CSU general coordinator Eduardo Malorni.
“The plan was never for the CSU to be the landlord of this building. The plan was never for the CSU to manage this building. The plan was never for the CSU to be involved in the day to day operations of the board. The plan for the CSU was always to be the initial investor, to allow this building to come to existence, and for the students within the building to really play the main role in managing their own building.”
A sentiment which UTILE executive director and co-founder, Laurent Levesque also shared.
“We handle our management partnership in all of the building operations. So all of the maintenance, rent collection, all of the baseline work to make sure people are safe and the building is well maintained is handled by our team of professionals,” explained Levesque.
“And then there’s the community living layer on top of that, which is handled by the co-op, which is led by students. And in that layer, we only play a support role.”
But it wasn’t just community living that the board was left to deal with.
Stephen Beker has been involved with the project since July 2019. He was a member of the provisional committee put in place prior to The Woodnote’s opening and is the former president of the board. He claims that the provisional committee put in place didn’t do enough to set the board up for success.
“We had meetings every week, and we tried to solve problems we weren’t equipped to solve. And we were tasked with making policy.” Beker said. “The problem is that the committee had no expertise.” Today, much of The Woodnote’s policy regarding finances, labour agreements, anti-opression, sexual assault and misconduct remain unfinished.
“The problem was that when people moved into The Woodnote, the building blocks were not built. As we speak today, the building blocks are still not built,” said Beker. “I would spend hours and hours on the phone, doing the most simple things like trying to get us a bank account.”
These issues have made it difficult for The Woodnote to cultivate its co-op identity, and students have noticed. Dylan Gitalis has been a resident at The Woodnote since it opened in 2020. He says his experience has been “very positive.” But, there are things he thinks it could do better.
“There’s definitely a good strong community here.” Gitalis said. “But it doesn’t really feel like a co-op, it feels like UTILE kind of owns it. It doesn’t feel like we have ownership over the building […] But, we’re still all people here so there is so much in our control in terms of the social dynamics and the culture.”
A Woodnote resident, Dylan Gitalis shares his experiences living in the co-op. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Even though the board is supposed to represent students living in the building, when residents have issues related to the building or their apartment unit they have to take them to the property manager employed by UTILE. This limits the board’s ability to represent students on these issues. Julia Belmore is a former woodnote resident who found it difficult to get help when she had problems with her apartment.
“Every time we brought up an issue, it kind of felt like it became our fault — like my fridge broke, and I wasn’t there and then all of a sudden, they were saying that we’re gonna have to pay for repairs. My apartment had no fridge for like a month in total.” Belmore said.
“But, if anything happened, it was on you to deal with.”
When applying to live at The Woodnote, students are asked what they can bring to the co-op . But, the pandemic and a lack of consistent access to their common room made planning these events difficult.
“Everybody has something they can bring, but nobody’s really doing it now unless you’re on the board and go through all these hoops,” said Gitalis.
“We can all run events that we’re talented at in the common room: someone can run yoga, we can all paint together. We can all do a jam session, and we can paint the stairwells, you know, and make our mark on it. […] That stuff to me means that this is our space, our cooperative. Right now it’s not.” Gitalis continued.
“We want to be a community together.”
Instability on the board also made running these events difficult. There was a very high-rate of turnover with board members consistently stepping down. Pascua-Matte was the only resident board member to return when the five new resident members were elected on Oct. 17. Former president Stephen Beker, who stepped down in October, had concerns that without stability and the removal of a great deal of institutional knowledge under a brand new board the co-op could fold. Something that neither UTILE nor the CSU have been worried about.
“The board is pretty much immune to folding.” Malorni stated. “Let’s say everyone left, every member of the board all decided not to show up. Someone could have gone to The Woodnote and been like ‘Hey, officially the paperwork [still says] that we’re a solidarity co-op. Can we organize a meeting and appoint a new board?’ An entire failure of the board will just result in one year of [a bad] experience, and then someone would restart the board and they would start fresh again,” Malorni stated. Levesque also shares this perspective.
“That’s the beauty of the model. If [the co-op folds] or decides to go dormant or dissolve by its own decision, it doesn’t have any impact on the building continuing its operations. The achievement of the goal of affordable housing is not directly tied to high-level student involvement.”
However, the co-op model is a big part of what makes the building unique, and it’s not something Pascua-Matte wants to see fail.
“To have them say if the board were to fail [it would be fine], that shouldn’t be in the realm of possibility. You’ve poured a [lot] of money into a project. That doesn’t mean you give it the option to fail. If you’re giving it the option to fail, then obviously it’s gonna fail.”
But UTILE said they are holding up their end of the bargain, and in many ways, The Woodnote has achieved many of its goals.
“Woodnote is a resounding success. I mean, they have newly constructed units at a very good price in a very good location and that’s the bottom line.” said Levesque.
“One of the things that The Woodnote does that deserves to be mentioned is the fundamental aspect of not trying to profit off of students,” said Levesque.
“Rents in the project increased by 1.5 per cent to follow inflation; but, rents on the plateau increased by 5 per cent, that non-profit approach to housing is important to make work in the short term. But, [it] has really important impacts in the long term, in ensuring affordable housing for future generations.”
The Woodnote Co-op in the Plateau Mont-Royal. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
To help get the co-op back on track after a rough first year, Malorni said the CSU is giving The Woodnote more attention by bringing in more experienced support members to give input on training and managing the board.
“I’m calling up people with board experience, who actually work in these sort of organizations to find someone willing to take up extra volunteer tasks of helping these people,” said Malorni. “I’ve been ensuring that pieces are joining the board which will ensure its success.”
“I’m playing a much more communicative role, which isn’t necessarily the role of the CSU to try and stabilize this board. We’re making sure that they do have the tools to succeed.”
While the CSU is trying to put more effort into supporting The Woodnote, Pascua-Matte still doesn’t feel she is seeing it enough and still feels the co-op’s concerns are being neglected and ignored.
“We would like to be properly supported and represented and what [they’re] doing right now is not representative of that.”
But as the pandemic eases, The board has finally been able to begin doing the community building it set out to do all along, the board is encouraging students to get involved and they’re responding by starting clubs and running events.
“We’re starting to work with different organizations that reflect what we want at The Woodnote. We are hoping to get some compost soon, […] we’re getting workshops done, like mandatory ones regarding anti-oppression and sexual violence.”
Now, with a new board of enthusiastic members some more training and hard work the student-run community can begin to take shape.
“People are seeing that the board is functioning, and we’re here and we’re supposed to represent you and they’re participating more and that’s what we want: participation,” said Pascua-Matte.
Pascua-Matte thinks The Woodnotes goals as a co-op are worth fighting for, and now with a more stable board they can begin to create a positive change and live up to the original promise of a student managed cooperative.
“Although there’s a lot of turmoil. I think that we can still follow the mandate that was originally given to us,” said Pascua-Matte. “I think the people on this board are willing to work for it.”
Feature graphic by James Fay and Catherine Reynolds
Attendees go maskless at a concert at the Corona Theatre on November 18th, 2021. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Following a 19-month shutdown, karaoke bars and nightclubs reopen in all of Quebec
On Nov. 15, dancing and karaoke singing became part of Montreal’s nightlife once again as Santé Québec continues to ease COVID-19 restrictions. Meanwhile, high school students in the city are no longer required to wear a face mask while seated in a classroom.
Karaoke bars and dance floors were forced to close in March 2020 and experienced a longer shutdown across Quebec than in most Canadian provinces and U.S. states. 19 months later, the long-awaited reopening has brought mixed results for Montreal’s nightlife.
La Muse karaoke bar, located near Concordia’s SGW campus, has yet to witness its usual, pre-pandemic volume of customers. Having worked at the establishment for nearly five years, Jack Yu said the reopening did not result in a full house of excited singers.
“It’s hard for us. We were the first ones ordered to be closed, and now we’re the last ones who are able to reopen — it’s been financially challenging all along,” said Yu in an interview with The Concordian. “We had a lot of Asian customers for karaoke, and many of these [international] students went back home, got locked down in Asia and just couldn’t come back,” he explained.
Yu also suggested that some may still be hesitant to attend such venues as the pandemic continues, adding that “the business is still taking a big hit despite being reopened.”
However, nightclubs witnessed a vibrant scene on St. Laurent Blvd. and downtown on Friday night, with hundreds of university students eager to step on the dance floor. While physical dystancing is not required inside the venues because of the vaccine passport system, Health Minister Christian Dubé made it clear that face coverings must still be worn while dancing.
Rocco Balboni, manager of the Jet Nightclub on Crescent St., said the first dancing night since the COVID-19 lockdown was largely successful for both the clients and the business.
“It was a full house and the experience has been the same as during pre-COVID days. Of course we try to enforce the mask rule, but other than that, it’s back to normal,” he said.
When asked about the unpredictability of COVID-19 and pandemic-related restrictions, Balboni noted, “We’ll take it one day at a time and thrive to push forward. That’s been our philosophy since day one, and we’ll keep going in that direction.”
High school students have also been included in the latest wave of easing restrictions, since wearing a face mask in classrooms is no longer mandatory while seated. Ora Bar, a Concordia University journalism student, has a sister who witnessed the rule changes first-hand as a Secondary 5 student at Chateauguay’s Louis-Philippe-Paré school.
“My younger sister feels quite comfortable with the new rules, and she knows that pretty much everyone is vaccinated. Her classmates already took off masks for eating in classrooms before, so she believes the risk has almost remained the same,” said Bar.
Around 85 per cent of her sister’s classmates now attend classes without a face mask. “She said the remaining students who aren’t yet comfortable with taking off their mask aren’t obliged to do so, but those who make this choice — like herself — now have a chance to live normally again,” Bar explained.
Masks still remain mandatory in elementary schools, as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged five to 11 was only approved by Health Canada on Nov. 19. Dubé announced that Quebec aims to administer one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to every child in this age category by Christmas.
Meanwhile, Quebec Premier François Legault suggested that “most [public health] measures will disappear” for everyone in the province by early 2022, if the children’s vaccination rate reaches 80 per cent.
A march in solidarity with the transgender community precedes Nov. 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance
Kicking off a weekend of events for the Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ) held a solidarty march for the gender plurality community of Quebec in front of the Montreal Courthouse on Nov. 19.
The march, which saw over 50 people in attendance, was held to so show support for the trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming community, as well as to protest the proposed Bill 2. Notably, Manon Massé, one of the leaders for Québec solidaire, was present at the march.
Bill 2 would make it a requirement for people to undergo gender-affirming surgery if they want to change their assigned sex on their birth certificate. The bill would also make it so there is a new section for gender on birth certificates, with the possibility of a third non-male or female gender. Another aspect of the bill is that intersex people would have to apply for a change of designated sex as soon as possible.
“This really is a place for the whole trans community and allies to just to pour out our grievances against the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government for proposing the most transphobic bill ever introduced in Quebec and Canada,” said Celeste Trianon, a trans rights advocate at the Centre for Gender Advocacy (CGA) and a speaker at the march.
The CGA is a Concordia fee-levy group that promotes gender equality and empowerment, specifically as it relates to marginalized communities. The centre does various programming, campaigns, advocacy, and has resources and services open to Concordia and the LGBTQIA2+ community.
“[Bill 2] would lead to so much harm for trans people,” said Trianon, who explained that not all trans people would want genital surgery, and that the wait times for such a surgery could be up to five years.
They explained that without a recognized photo ID, people will struggle to apply for employment and housing.
“It’s like another coming out for people, and we don’t want that,” said Trianon.
Jason Noël, the treasurer, secretary, and event planner for ATQ, explained that the on the weekend of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, there were multiple events planned throughout the day, such as conferences and brunches.
“We are going to have a moment of silence,” said Noël, who explained that Nov. 20 is to remember the trans people that have disappeared and raise awareness of the violence against the trans community. “It’s a very special thing, I would say it is one of the most important parts of trans pride.”
“We are hoping that for the night, people will be able to forget everything that’s happening in the world right now,” said Noël, who stated that because of COVID-19 they had to delay trans pride three times, and the weekend would mark the first time since the pandemic began that the trans community of Montreal would be able to come together and party.
“We’re just gonna dedicate the dance floor to the people who are not with us anymore, who disappeared because of violence,” said Noël. “And then the next morning […] we will go to brunch and that will be super fun.”
According to Noël, multiple organizations will be going to court to try and reform the bill on Nov. 29, but it may be delayed until December or later in 2022.
“It’s a bill that’s bringing us back like 15 years,” said Noël, who criticized Canada and Quebec for appearing to be supportive of trans rights while allowing this bill to be proposed.
According to an article by the CBC, this bill is being presented as a victory for transgender people by the Quebec government, but could actually put trans people in a dangerous situation by outing them every time they show their ID.
“Get involved, be at protests, denounce the CAQ, hold your friends and entourage to do the same.” said Trianon. “We need more people to speak out against this bill.”
Musician and Concordia student Erin Tennant. JULIETTE CARPI/The Concordian
The second-year Concordia student is truly musically gifted
After a short conversation with her, it’s apparent that Erin Marcellina has proved a master of her craft. Her love and passion for the art is undeniable and her knowledge about the subject is truly impressive.
Originally from Ottawa, Marcellina moved to Montreal two months ago to study in the music department after one year of online classes. She is excited to face new challenges in a more arts-oriented city like Montreal, something that was lacking in Ottawa.
“There is not really anywhere that a musician could really go in Ottawa. There are not a lot of opportunities, but in Montreal, there are musicians everywhere and there are opportunities everywhere so that’s mostly why I’m here,” she said.
The 19-year-old has been submerged in the world of music since the age of three. Her mother taught her piano, an instrument she has been practicing ever since. She took a two-year break from music when she was 15 because she felt overwhelmed with how serious and competitive it was becoming. Later, she fell in love with it again. She taught herself the guitar, and began singing, writing, and composing. She comes from a musical family where both her parents are accomplished musicians: one in classical music, and the other in rock and metal.
“I was really lucky because I got introduced to both sides of the spectrum of music, literally like choral music and then heavy metal so then I was kind of able to explore within those genres and I am really grateful for what my parents showed me and I am super lucky that my family is so musically oriented,” said Marcellina.
Marcellina takes a singer-songwriter and folk approach to her music, and draws inspiration from artists such as Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, Men I Trust and Daniel Caesar. While she shares similarities with all of these artists in terms of style, she is also influenced by a multitude of different genres, from funk, to soul, to even metal.
Whenever she is composing, she will approach it in a music theory kind of way where whatever genre she is listening to, she will try to identify certain notes and chord progressions. She becomes inspired by these and writes them down to play and interpret them in her own style.
“My inspiration for my music isn’t just within the genre that I listen to. As a musician you can kind of pick out things, it doesn’t matter what genre it is. Like, I can listen to a super metal song and then through that find elements that I can put into a folk piece,” she said.
Marcellina released an EP in 2020, Wait for You, which was all independently produced, mixed, and mastered. It borrowed singer-songwriter elements with touches of folk and indie music. Her music can be described as emotional with her gentle piano and guitar lead ballads, personal lyricism and mellow vocal lines. It all makes for an appealing listen that captivates the listener into the world she creates with her songs. It can also be quite sad with tones of nostalgia spread throughout, a sentiment she likes to incorporate into her music and play with.
“I cry a lot when writing music. Composing is a very emotional process especially with the lyricism and the things that I write about. Everything that I write about and put out there is very important to me. […] Everything has an important backstory to it. It can be quite the emotional toll to write, especially an entire EP,” she said.
The Ontarian singer was supposed to release an album last year, but she felt differently about the love themes it explored. She then decided not to release it.
However, she hasn’t ditched the album completely because even though she doesn’t feel that way anymore, it’s still something to hold on to and is a possibility for her to change some aspects of it in order to maybe release another version someday.
“I have been trying to revisit the album but it’s one of those things that when you put so much emotional value into your music or into your work it’s kind of hard to go back and revisit it. It’s kind of like when you smell a perfume that you used to wear years ago,” she said.
In the meantime, Marcellina is set to drop a single in the near future, which she hasn’t done in almost two years. The song is called “Couple Years,” and while it is a folk tune, it is inspired by Radiohead’s “Let Down.” The song doesn’t have a release date yet but while waiting for it to come out, you can always listen to her first EP Wait for You.
With Valentine, Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan returns to form with heartfelt indie rock
On her sophomore album, Valentine, Snail Mail crafts beautifully simple and honest breakup songs.
Coming off her 2018 breakout debut, Lush, Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan had a lot to live up to, as the young singer and guitarist was launched to indie stardom seemingly overnight.
With that, Valentine does not disappoint. Fans of Lush will find Snail Mail’s beloved guitar-driven sound, as well as her typical lyrics of yearning and young love on Valentine — just a little more grown up.
Valentine kicks off with a title track, one of Snail Mail’s previously released singles. The synths starting out the song are a departure from Snail Mail’s typical garage style, yet as the track moves forward, the guitar-driven chorus bursts out, full of Jordan’s expressive, angsty singing style.
The next song, “Ben Franklin,” feels the most like a departure from Lush, with its bass-heavy instrumentation and Jordan’s tongue-in-cheek lyric delivery. In the song, she laments a broken relationship but is still self-reflective on her own shortcomings as well as her struggle with addiction, as she sings, “Sucker for the pain, huh, honey? But you said you’d die. You wanna leave a stain, like a relapse does when you really tried. And damn, this time, I really tried.”
“Headlock” is one of Snail Mail’s quieter tracks, where Jordan somberly discusses slowly losing herself in a dependent relationship. She sings, “Man enough to see this through, or is it one morе thing I won’t get to? Can’t go out, I’m tethered to another world where we’re together. Are you lost in it too?” Jordan, with rather simple imagery, is able to depict the fear of being too far gone in a one-sided relationship.
“Forever (Sailing)” is another highlight of the album. Much slinkier and sexier than her past work, this song finds Jordan crooning to an ex-lover about how much she still loves them, despite the fact that they are taking home another woman. The cool and atmospheric “Forever (Sailing)”, despite its familiar premise of a love lost, feels like a step towards maturity for the 22-year-old singer.
Moving towards the end of the album, the song “Glory” finds Snail Mail in signature form with her sometimes-nasal voice and moody guitars. The song is straightforward, without the production bells and whistles of some of Valentine’s earlier tracks. But, in some ways, Jordan is best in her element, just her voice, her Fender guitar, and unadulterated emotions.
Valentine has helped to cement Snail Mail as one of the best indie rockers of Generation Z. She is at once able to maintain a sound that is true to herself (a feat that eludes many of her indie and bedroom-pop peers) but is still moving forward, both lyrically and in her production.
Many students in a First Peoples Studies class walked out due to a speaker’s claims on residential schools.
Multiple Concordia students walked out of a class on Algonquian Peoples on Oct. 28 due to the comments of a guest lecturer, Toby Morantz, a retired McGill professor. Morantz told the class that the James Bay Cree suffered less in residential schools than other Indigenous people.
Morantz was invited to speak in class by the professor, Emanuel Lowi, on her book The White Man’s Gonna Getcha: The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec, which was assigned reading for the course.
“She basically tried to argue that the James Bay Cree suffered significantly less than other [Indigenous] nations,” said Mavis Poucachiche, who is from the Waswanipi community that is part of the James Bay Cree Nation. Poucachiche explained that Morantz was specifically talking about residential schools in Fort George, and how the children did not have to travel far from their homes to attend. It was common practice for Indigenous children to be sent to residential schools far from their community, and not allowed to return home for the summer or holidays.
Poucachiche said that another student in the class, who is also James Bay Cree, told Morantz that their grandparents, who were from Fort George, were forcibly taken away to a residential school. Morantz then apparently wagged her finger at this student, saying “No, no no, no.”
“A few students felt uncomfortable with what I had said and walked out of the classroom. That is their prerogative,” said Morantz, who explained that she miscommunicated the differences in the policies enacted in James Bay and elsewhere after WWII, and tried to correct what she said once she saw the students misunderstood her.
She also stated that she is upset by how people and the media have labeled her as racist, and that she has received many emails in support, saying that she is being misrepresented in the media.
Morantz is credited along with other historians in an open letter from August by the Dorchester Review, which disagrees with the Canadian Historical Association’s statement that the Canadian government’s treatment of Indigenous people was an act of genocide.
Shortly after Morantz wagged her finger at the student, multiple people, including Poucachiche, walked out of class.
“It was just so disrespectful,” said Poucachiche, who said that Morantz’s studies were from a colonial perspective; that in her book she only references the Hudson’s Bay Company and other non-Indigenous sources. “She just kept telling that we were wrong, like us Cree people were wrong.”
“It made us really uncomfortable and it was traumatizing for us to have to hear this,” said Catherine*, who is white-mixed and Mi’kmaq.
Catherine explained that Professor Lowi did nothing to stop Morantz for the entire class, besides stating during the class that some of Morantz’s comments were inappropriate.
Even as students walked out after Morantz said the children at the Fort George residential schools suffered less physical and sexual abuse compared to other schools, or when Morantz called Indigenous people Indians and referred to them as homeless and drunks, Lowi did nothing to intervene and stop the presentation.
“[Morantz] said that if you are a lawyer or a teacher, bush life doesn’t impact your everyday life,” said Catherine. Bush life refers to the social, cultural, and physical skills that Indigenous people practice in nature. “This was incredibly insulting, traditional life literally shapes our entire being, it’s not some distant thing.”
The class now has a new syllabus and is being taught by Manon Tremblay, the senior director of indigenous directions, and who is a nêhiyaw-iskwêw (Plains Cree) from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. On Nov. 4, Tremblay, alongside Dr. Catherine Kinewesquao Richardson, the director of First Peoples Studies at Concordia, and who is Métis with Cree, Dene, and Gwich’in ancestry, held a space for students to share their experiences and thoughts on the issue.
“It really reminded me of being back home with my family and where we would sit around the table and just laugh,” said Poucachiche, describing what having Tremblay as the new professor is like. “It was a heartwarming experience and I’m really grateful that Catherine [Richardson] and Manon are listening to us and taking this seriously.”
“I think her [Morantz] conduct in class is terrible and really disheartening,” said Richardson, who explained that she and her colleagues always work hard to implement cultural safety, and uplift Indigenous students who have already faced many obstacles to be in the classroom.
Richardson stated that for legal reasons she cannot say if there have been repercussions for Lowi, but he is currently not teaching any classes at the moment. She also explained that he was remorseful about what occurred, and there have been letters sent supporting Lowi, but it is also clear that inviting Morantz was a mistake and her lecture caused harm.
On Oct. 29, Lowi sent a Moodle message to the class, stating that Morantz’s remarks were outrageous, and that he had never met her before that class.
“Those students who walked out were totally right to do that. If I had been a student in the classroom, I would have walked out too,” said Lowi in the message.
Lowi has not responded to any requests for an interview.
Plante enters her second mayoral term with majority support
Valérie Plante won a second term in Montreal’s mayoral race on Nov. 7, earning 52 per cent of the vote. The mayor surpassed her main opponent Denis Coderre by nearly 60,000 votes, and 11 out of 19 boroughs in Montreal will now be governed by Plante’s Projet Montréal party.
In the next four years, the returning mayor promises to improve housing affordability, increase funding for the SPVM, develop more cycling infrastructure and public transit, and also revitalize Montreal’s downtown core.
“We will put all the effort in the world to continue making Montreal a city that we are proud of, where we can raise our children, study, work, and live out our retirement in an active way,” said Plante with a smile during her victory speech.
It was a difficult loss for former mayor Denis Coderre and his Ensemble Montréal party. In late October, the two frontrunners were within one percentage point of each other in the polls, but there was a clear winner on election night as Coderre lost by a 14-point margin.
“The results are clear: you win some, you lose some. But I am very, very pleased I was pushing ideas,” said Coderre at the Ensemble Montréal event on election night. “[…] And I was focusing on the people, because I love the people, I love Montreal and that’s what’s most important — to bring people together!” he exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Movement Montréal’s Balarama Holness, who promised to make Montreal an officially bilingual city-state, came in a distant third place with seven per cent of the vote.
Montrealers, however, did not have a strong showing at the polls, as the 2021 municipal election had a voter turnout of just 38 per cent. The participation rate was four per cent lower than in 2017, despite a larger number of polling stations, mail-in ballots, and the four-day advanced voting.
Michel Bissonnet, mayor of the Saint-Leonard borough, told The Concordian that voting was especially difficult for the elderly population.
“When you’re older and you have to go to vote and you have four [candidates] to vote for, they have four ballots at the same time. It’s easy when it’s a federal or provincial election, it’s one person. But when you get four people, you have to put a picture of the man they recognize — they can’t read, they are not happy,” explained Bissonnet, referencing the fact that voters need to pick the mayor of Montreal, their borough mayor, and city councillors separately.
Unlike the Plante-Coderre race, several boroughs had a very close election that resulted in premature celebrations and recount requests. In Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Ensemble Montréal’s Lionel Perez declared victory over Projet Montréal’s Gracia Kasoki Katahwa on Sunday night, as he was leading in the vote count on Nov. 7. The next morning, however, Katahwa stunned Perez by pulling nearly 200 votes ahead of her opponent by the time all votes had been counted.
In Quebec City, the mayoral race was even more controversial as media outlets made false projections and declared Marie-Josée Savard as the new mayor. Two hours after delivering a heartfelt speech thanking all of her supporters, Savard ended up losing to Bruno Marchand by just 834 votes. TVA Nouvelles and Radio-Canada have since apologized for their decision to call the election prematurely.
As for Montreal, the Plante administration promised its citizens a safer city in its second mayoral term. Projet Montréal is committed to investing an additional $110 million to reduce gun violence, increase the police force by 250 officers, and install body cameras on SPVM agents by 2022.
The mayor also plans to expand Montreal’s blue metro line towards Anjou and build a new line from Montreal-Nord to Lachine — though this promise dates back to Plante’s 2017 campaign and has yet to be fulfilled. Moreover, seniors may be able to ride the STM network free of charge in the coming years.
Other campaign promises include the creation of 60,000 new units of affordable housing, extended operating hours for downtown bars and restaurants, more green spaces, and free parking on evenings and weekends downtown to encourage commercial activities during the holiday season.
The 33-year-old producer just released a collaborative debut album, The Art Of Vibe
Zack Sarkissian is an Armenian-Canadian music producer living in Laval and making his living in the music industry, notably sound engineering for artists like Yngwie Malmsteen, and Foghat, and festivals such as Osheaga and Jazzfest.
He frequents Marsonic Studios where he has a studio to write, record, and jam in. Zack doesn’t happen to be his first name, however. He said “Zack is my artist and brand name. Zohrab is my given name.”
Growing up in an Armenian household, one would find a smorgasbord of genres emanating from the speaker. The influence of traditional Greek, Armenian, and Arabic features only one side of the coin. The radio would introduce Sarkissian to a variety of pop artists such as Cher with “Believe,” and the phenomenon that was The Spice Girls. Rap, hip hop and R&B were other genres that made themselves known in his world in the shapes of Tupac, Biggie, and Nas, to name a few.
Over time, he started to notice patterns in the songs, igniting his interest to understand and develop music.“I’d hear the [musical] scales that they were using and I understood and started to speak the language more because these genres are all based on the blues.”
Metallica is the band that got him to pick up the guitar for the second time — his first time being by his parents, before Sarkissian declined their offer to pay for guitar lessons. “For eight years I never had the intention of picking up an instrument and playing, till I felt the instrument woke me up. I heard that initial ‘DUN, DUN DUN DUUUN’ of the guitar,” Sarkissian said, referring to the recognizable opening to one of Metallica’s fan-favourites.”
At 16, Sarkissian did not envision himself becoming a producer or a mixing engineer, or even working as a live soundman — that’s definitely not what he had in mind. Yet growing as a musician means evolving into something one would not have thought of before. “Being a guitarist is what I wanted, being on a big stage, playing in front of a hundred thousand people, touring the world, that’s definitely what called to me.”
As the internet became more prominent, Sarkissian quickly discovered that metal was just one thing that called to him. What drew him to metal was, “the sound and the freedom of expression to be able to talk to the guitar.” From metal, he changed his sights to classic rock and hard rock, inspired by guitarists like Joe Perry from Aerosmith to Saul Hudson (Slash) from Guns N’ Roses.
Through these genres he noticed that they all held a common thread: the blues. B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton all entranced him, but nobody did it better than Stevie Ray Vaughan.
“It was like thunder hit me. As a kid, I remember watching wrestling with my grandparents and I distinctly remember Hulk Hogan’s intro had SRV’s cover of ‘Voodoo Chile,’ and so when I heard it again all those years later it floored me.”
With this newfound passion for multiple genres of music, Sarkissian found himself in a five-piece band called Monroe. They released a five-song EP called “The Art of Marvelous” which was recorded at Wild Studios outside of Montreal.
Eventually though, he had tapped out Montreal in terms of the musicians that he worked with and the venues that he was playing at and wanted a change. The Sunset Strip called to him, just like it called the members of Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses and The Doors. But he didn’t just want to go there as a musician; more so as a sound engineer.
While there were schools in Montreal that taught with the same music curriculum, they didn’t interest him for a number of reasons. “I can go to L.A., go to school there, not too far from the Sunset Strip, with amazing weather and the beach, or stay in Montreal and pay a little bit less but learn from last year’s students who have no credibility per se,” said Sarkissian. Instead, he described how it was fulfilling to work and learn from acclaimed sound engineers in L.A. like Barry Rudolf (Lynyrd Skynyrd), David Isaac (Michael Jackson), Jerry Christy who worked on a number of Chaka Khan albums, and Jim Morgan (Eddie Kramer’s understudy).
Since his graduation at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, Sarkissian has done sound engineering for artists like The Winery Dogs (featuring Billy Sheehan from Mr. Big and Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater) and Gilby Clarke. Additionally, he has done sets at Ironman and Blues Festival.
Sarkissian advises upcoming bands and artists on the harsh realities of the music industry and how oversaturated it is. He added, “Learn social media. It’s your best tool. And learn the business, because you can easily get screwed.”
When asked about the longevity of bands nowadays compared to 20th-century groups and artists, he said, “It’s disheartening, not because the band is not good enough, it’s more of how the industry has made it out to be.” Nowadays anybody can make a single on a laptop, it’s easy, and the market itself wanting a specific sound and look has made the industry oversaturated.
Sarkissian and his old friend Jay, known by his stage name Jaay Noir, would dabble in their own genres; the former with rock and roll, and the latter with hip hop. In 2019 it clicked that they should mesh their styles and put out an album together after a series of successful singles. The style of music on the album ranges from country, R&B, reggae – with rock and hip hop being the predominant genres.
Sarkissian and Noir would learn to write songs together. Some songs were written within a week, while others would be spread out over months. The initial tracks took longer because they had to learn to collaborate, however, according to Sarkissian, “It all came naturally, an organic process.”
Sarkissian released the album in October this year, christening it The Art of Vibe, featuring songs like “Unde The Vermillion Sun,” and “Poison Ivy.” It is now available on all streaming platforms including YouTube and Spotify.
For now, he is keeping his future collaborations under wraps, but in the meantime, Sarkissian hopes to network with more musicians and continue to explore new horizons in the music industry.
The R&B superstar releases her sophomore album, and she’s back with a vengeance.
Two years after Over It, Summer Walker has returned to the music scene in full force. Her latest release, Still Over It, can be seen as the follow-up to her last project. This is Summer’s second studio album and it’s brimming with incredible tracks.
Summer Walker continues to prove through and through in each of her projects that when it comes to R&B, she understands the assignment.Still Over It is the perfect album for listeners who love the early R&B themes of heartbreak and betrayal but also love modern beats and melodies. Tracks like “Constant Bullshit,” “Reciprocate,” and “Broken Promises” are all easily some of the best tracks in her entire discography thus far. Summer knows how to tear her ex-lover apart on one track, revel in her pettiness on another, and cry about it on a third — all while maintaining a palpable cohesion and flow throughout the LP.
Still Over It has a running time of just over an hour and contains 20 songs. It chronicles the public downward spiral of her relationship with producer and rapper London on da Track over the last two years. Summer has accused him of being a deadbeat dad, of not respecting her or their baby, and of mistreating her. Although this entire project revolved around criticizing London, he is nevertheless an accredited producer on half of the songs. The couple is no longer together, but they maintain a relationship professionally and they also co-parent.
If Over It was about needing love and finding intimacy, Still Over It is about coping with infidelity and embracing vulnerability. The album is chock-full of heartbreaking lyrics, zippy one-liners, and melodies that warm the soul.
Out of 20 tracks, eight contain features. A voicemail style recording by Cardi B plays at the top of the album, and one by Grammy award-winning R&B artist Ciara closes it out. Summer teams with SZA for the petty anthem “No Love,” and joins forces with Ari Lennox on the smooth and jazzy “Unloyal.” The project furthers its range of collaborators with Pharrell Williams and The Neptunes on “Dat Right There,” one of the danciest tracks on the album.
This album, at its core, is an homage to women struggling with disloyal partners, all while trying to find themselves. If there is a singular moment that captures this, it is on “4th Baby Mama,” where Summer sings “Telling people that I’m your queen / But all you mean is just of R&B.” After this release, it is safe to say that Still Over It is one of Summer Walker’s strongest projects to date.
The 26-year-old is fresh off the release of his debut project.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Peter Takis, better known by his stage name Takis, has always had a love for music. In high school, he absorbed as much knowledge about the industry as he could during his internship at a local radio station.
As many paths follow these days, Takis started off his career as a DJ before expanding into music production and songwriting. Although it came with its fair number of challenges, Takis took a leap of faith and ventured beyond his hometown.
He gained his software and production knowledge through collaborations and online tutorials.
2020 brought us his debut song, a star-studded collaboration with Tory Lanez and Goody Grace, called “Wait for Me.” The following year, he collaborated with Jamie Fine and Brandyn Burnette for the Billboard-charting hit, “All Time.” With the success of these songs, it piqued many ears and interests in what he had coming next.
On Oct. 22, via Armin van Buuren’s label, Armada Music, Takis released his anticipated debut EP, Season 1: Welcome Home.
The Concordian chatted with Takis about his musical journey and new music.
TC: Where your songs used to be a bit softer, a bit more pillowy, the newer music has a bit more grit to it, some more bottom end. How do you feel you’ve evolved musically in the last few years, and what brought that on?
PT: To me, writing honest music means creating in the moment. How do I feel when I sit down in front of my MacBook on that specific day? A bright song like “All Time” or even “Wait for Me” happens when I’m pretty optimistic or content with my personal life, and on the flip side a song like “Don’t Say I Love You” comes in moments of frustration. So I’d say beyond evolution, it’s more based on present emotion.
TC: Being from a smaller town like Winnipeg, did you find it difficult to expand out of just being a local artist?
PT: For sure, there were many cases where I didn’t feel like I had an example of someone who “made it out” if that makes sense. Thankfully, now there are a few examples for kids back home but for years it felt like I had to be that example which led to a lot of self-doubt, but this is a feeling most upcoming artists deal with as well.
TC: What was your first leap outside Winnipeg?
PT: My first leap was signing a record deal at age 21 and moving. It was scary but exciting. I always felt like I had to take the leap of faith to grow as a person and an artist.
TC: As someone who spent time as a radio station intern, is there a “full-circle moment” feeling when you hear your songs on those same stations?
PT: It’s surreal, to be honest. Going from interning at pop radio trying to figure out how to pay my bills, to hearing my song play every hour, was one of the coolest moments of my life.
TC: Where were you the first time you heard your song playing on the radio?
PT: It would have been when I was younger and coming up. Thankfully my hometown radio stations were always very supportive of my music, but I remember walking into my local gym in Toronto last year hearing my song playing on the radio thinking, “Wow this is incredible.”’
TC: You recently released your anticipated debut EP Season 1: Welcome Home. You describe the record as being an “emotional rollercoaster.” Tell me a bit about your highs and lows of the EP, and when you felt it was ok to let go of the safety bars, throw your hands up, and enjoy the ride?
PT: Creating my debut project took my entire life to figure out. While the writing process was two years, it took all 26 years I’ve been alive to navigate just to get to the point of making a project that matters. Everything from my team to the collaborators, it was a rollercoaster to attract and build all of that.
TC: Welcome Home features collaborations with Ant Clemons, Shaun Frank, and Always Never, among others. How do you go about selecting the people that you feel comfortable enough to create with?
PT: I have to start off as a fan. Creating a song takes time and effort so I have to feel genuinely inspired — every single person who is on Welcome Home I can honestly say I’m a fan first, friend second, and collaborator third.
TC: Riding on the name of your EP, you also started a podcast called Welcome Home. What can listeners expect from the show?
PT: The podcast has been a fun little side hobby for me to learn and enjoy myself. Music is my main priority and passion but doing the weekly podcast has become a really cool side project that I enjoy. I try my best to have on interesting guests and honest conversations.
TC: What has been your highlight moment of the podcast so far?
PT: The fact that over 150,000 people have tuned in is the coolest highlight so far.
