Tag: The Concordian

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Hockey Sports

The puck has officially dropped for the Stingers’ preseason

Stingers' Captain Phélix Martineau closes in on the puck. Credit: Liam Mahoney / Concordia Athletics

Concordia Stingers Men’s Hockey split their first two preseason games, winning 2-1 and losing 5-4

The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team hosted two non-conference preseason hockey games against the Saint Mary’s Huskies on Sept. 15 and Sept. 16.

This marked the first time that Saint Mary’s and Concordia have faced off against each other in preseason play. The Huskies are coming off a successful season in 2022–23—one that was very similar to the Stingers’. Both teams qualified for the U Sports University Cup in Prince Edward Island in March 2023, with the Stingers at rank six and the Huskies at rank seven.

These two games also featured Concordia’s new goaltenders, Nikolas Hurtubise and Kevyn Brassard. With two of their three goaltenders leaving after the 2022-23 season, the Stingers will now have to adjust to a new goalie tandem. This includes the loss of last season’s starting netminder Jonathan Lemieux who signed with the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League. 

“We liked what we saw out of [Hurtubise and Brassard] but it’s an adjustment,” said head coach Marc-André Élément. “They played junior last year and now they’re at a higher level. We are going to continue our evaluation through the preseason, but I’m happy with what we saw this weekend.”

A scoreless contest persisted through the first 30 minutes of game one. Huskies defenseman Cameron Pound opened the scoring in the second period with a wrist shot beating Hurtubise. Concordia finally got on the board in the third period after solid defence and goaltending on both sides had kept the scoresheet relatively empty. 

Stingers defenseman Nathan Lavoie netted his first goal of the preseason with 15 minutes remaining, tying the game at one. However, the Stingers could not capitalise on their late power play, causing the game to be sent into overtime.

A short 14 seconds into overtime, Stingers forward and captain Phélix Martineau put the game to rest on a gorgeous individual effort. The 2-1 Stingers win was a fitting way to start off the preseason on home ice.

Game two on Sept. 16 had a very different feel than the first. As a result of having played each other the day prior, the first period saw a much faster pace with more goals scored.

The Stingers got off to a quick 2-0 lead with goals from Martineau and forward Isiah Campbell. This was followed by the Huskies retaliating with two goals of their own, making it a 2-2 contest.

In the second period, the Stingers retook the lead on a goal from alternate captain Tyler Hylland. This did not last long, however, as the Huskies scored three unanswered goals, bringing the score to 5-3.

As the clock favoured Saint Mary’s and their lead in the third period, the Stingers got a goal in with only two minutes to go. A last-ditch effort saw the Stingers come within inches of tying the game as the puck snuck in behind the Huskies’ goaltender, but could not find the back of the net. The team fell just short and game two ended at 5-4.

Despite the result, coach Élément was pleased with the resilience and leadership shown by his team in the final minutes. “The guys, when they are on the ice, they want to produce and they want to have success. Our leadership group is amazing, so for sure they are going to step up at big moments and get results,” he said.

The Stingers will continue their preseason with one more game versus McGill on Sept. 30. Concordia will kick off their regular season schedule with two games on the road against McGill and Carleton, and will return for their home opener against Ontario Tech on Oct. 11. 

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Uncategorized

Master your Photo Skills with the Concordian

Students at the climate protest in downtown Montreal on September 23, 2022. Photo by Dalia Nardolillo/ The Concordian

Photography is as easy as one, two, three!

Are you ready to switch out the average camera on the phone in your pocket for a more professional camera? The team at the Concordian put together a simple guide to help our fellow photojournalists out with some advice based on journalistic situations you would find yourself in.

To start things off, before you even start fiddling with your camera settings, set your camera to Manual mode. This will give you full control of the camera versus other default settings where the camera might automatically adjust settings based on the situation.

Understanding the basics of your camera – 

Now that your camera is in Manual mode, you have to understand the interaction between light and the camera, also known as the exposure triangle. The exposure triangle balances three elements: your shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. 

Think of shutter speed as curtains for a window. Your shutter is the curtains that close inside the camera when you press the button to take the picture. It essentially opens and closes the shutter to either slow down or freeze movement. 

Imagine you open and shut the curtains at 1/500 of a second. Not a lot of light can get in during the short time it was open, right? You maybe get one brief glance out your window due to how fast the curtains shut, but not the whole scene. However, if the curtains closed at 1/30 a second, think of how much more you could see. The longer the shutter stays open, the more information the camera takes in. Longer shutter speeds can lead to motion blur, while faster shutter speeds freeze motion.  

Up next is your ISO, which is essentially light sensitivity. This concept goes back to the film days—each film had its own level and amount of light it was able to process. Think of it as a scale of light with 100 being a full sunny day and 3200 being nighttime. You can use this as wiggle room on your shutter speed or aperture. 

One more thing to keep in mind is higher ISO also comes with a bit more noise, or grain, and the camera would work harder to capture the scene.

The final component of the exposure triangle is the aperture. A camera is basically a hole that opens, lets light in, and then captures it in its simplest form. The aperture allows you to decide the size of that hole—it can either be wide open and let lots of information in, or tiny and only let a little bit in. This determines how much of your image will be in focus. 

Let’s say you just want to capture the foreground—whatever element is closest to your camera. You would use a smaller aperture of around F/2.8. For something like landscapes, where you would want everything in focus, we would suggest a wider aperture of F/14. 

Different journalistic situations –

As long as these three elements balance, you can conquer a lot of the photojournalistic scenarios you’d find yourself in. Are you on the news beat? In a lot of situations, you’ll be taking portraits of your subjects for a visual. In these types of situations we would suggest:

  • Shutter Speed: 1/100 or faster
  • Aperture: F/1.8 – F/5.6
  • ISO: 100-400
  • Focus: Auto (AF)
  • Focus Type: Continuous/Servo
  • White Balance: AWB
  • Drive Mode: Single Shot

Student leading the climate protest in downtown Montreal on September 23, 2022. Photo by Dalia Nardolillo/THE CONCORDIAN.

Do you like to capture the action of athletes on the field during a game? We would suggest the following settings for sports photography:

  • Shutter Speed: 1/500 at a minimum to ensure the movement is captured
  • Aperture: F/2.8 – F/5.6
  • ISO: 400
  • Focus: Auto (AF)
  • Focus Type: Continuous/Servo
  • White Balance: AWB
  • Drive Mode: Continuous/Burst 

Photo by Catherine Reynolds / The Concordian

Maybe you prefer to photograph the emotion and excitement of a concert. This can be a little trickier with all the crazy lighting typical to shows. One important thing to remember is that red light is the hardest to photograph in. Here are some settings that we would suggest to elevate your concert experience:  

  • Shutter Speed: 1/250 or faster (pro tip: try lower for some artsy motion blur) 
  • Aperture: F/1.8 – F/4 ( preferably as low as it can go!)
  • ISO: 1600 – 3200
  • Focus: Auto (AF) as well as spot-metering 
  • Focus Type: Continuous/Servo
  • White Balance: AWB
  • Drive Mode: Continuous/Burst

Photo by Catherine Reynolds / The Concordian

Long story short, this little guide does not cover every situation you’ll be faced with. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what works for you and we hope above all that this is a good start for your photography adventure!

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Hockey Sports

Introducing the new professional women’s hockey league

Illustration by Maggie Zeng

The PWHL strives to bring more attention to women’s hockey and the talent its players offer.

On Aug. 29, 2023, it was announced that there would be a brand new ice hockey league in the works for a start date in 2024. The newly-launched league would be known as The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which will include three teams in Canada and another three in the United States.

Why is this league a big deal? It all goes back to 2019 when the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) had to cease operations due to economic hardship. Following this situation, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) was created. The union consisted of dozens of female ice hockey players who worked to ensure adequate funding, health insurance, and resources to the women players of different hockey leagues.

Though the CWHL shut down in 2019, the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) was still active and had offered to add the players affected by the shutdown. However, the former CWHL players declined the offer, refusing to play in a North American league again until sufficient resources and funding was presented to the players.

This year, the NWHL—now named the Premier Hockey Federation—made an announcement that they would be selling the league to a new owner. This new owner would be the founder of the new PWHL. The members of the PWHPA have finally established a league that would have the resources and financial structure to support the athletes who had been fighting for change for several years.

The PWHL owners established a collective bargaining agreement that will be effective through 2031 by working closely with the PWHL and partnering with the Billie Jean King group. This is great news for the future of women’s hockey. Not only does the collective bargaining agreement include a minimum salary that the members of the PWHPA are satisfied with, but it also ensures that the league will be around for several years—allowing it to grow instead of fearing another league shutdown.

The National Hockey League (NHL) also released a statement following the announcement of the PWHL that they look forward to helping grow the sport and supporting the new league. Past collaborations of the NHL with women’s hockey leagues, like their All-Star Game, have already brought positive attention to women’s hockey. 

The future is bright not only for the players of the PWHL, but for the fans as well. As we know so far, there will be six franchise locations: in Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. 

Montreal hockey fans already have a reason to be excited. Star players Laura Stacey, Ann-Renée Desbiens, and even Marie-Philip Poulin—known to many as the best women’s hockey player of all time—have agreed to contracts with Montreal’s new team.

Fans tuned in to watch the inaugural PWHL draft which took place on Sept.18. Franchises until this point have been able to sign up to three free agent players to contracts. During the draft, the six teams were able to fill out the remaining spots on their rosters. The draft player-pool includes some impeccable talent, including dozens of Olympic medalists as well as rookie players. With 268 athletes from around the world eligible to be drafted, it surely is a sight to see for hockey fans.

With this being the first time that the best women’s hockey players will be playing against each other in a league, the start of the PWHL is certainly one to be excited for. Once the teams are set following the draft, training camp will open shortly after. Fans should keep an eye open for information on purchasing tickets, as the league is yet to announce dates, times, and venues for its games. Before we know it, the calendar will flip to 2024, and the first PWHL season will be ready to launch. Whether you are a player or fan, it is undoubtedly an exciting time for women’s hockey. 

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News

Woman, life, freedom: a year of protests in Iran

Demonstraters walk down sherbroke street bringing traffic to a halt. Kaitlynn Rodney / The Concordian

As the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death approaches, Iranian Montrealers reflect on one year of protests and uprising.

A year ago, in the weeks and months following the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran, Pooya—then a graduate student at Concordia—was hopeful that this event and the protests that followed might be the spark needed to finally bring about change in his home country of Iran.

“Last year, I was personally thinking that this time is the time that something good will happen,” he recalled. “A hope was in our heart and our mind that a change will occur. But right now, when I’m talking to you right now, after almost one year, I’m devastated.”

Pooya, who asked his last name to be withheld for safety reasons, said he has lost hope that the people of Iran have the power to change the regime. His parents and sister, who still live in Iran, recently got work permits and are planning on moving to Canada this fall. “I don’t want them to stay in Iran anymore,” said Pooya. 

On Sept. 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran’s “morality police” for wearing her hijab incorrectly. She later died in custody, and witnesses claim she was beaten by officers. Her death sparked protests throughout Iran and the world. 

According to Amnesty International, more than 22 thousand people have been arrested in Iran in relation to the protests, including over 90 reporters and 60 lawyers. Seven people have been executed for their involvement in the protests, hundreds more were killed and thousands injured during protests. 

Despite all this, the chant of “Woman, life, freedom” still rings through the streets and on social media. 

For Forough Fereydouni, psychology student at Concordia and Iranian community activist, there is still a lot of hope in the movement. She said their biggest achievement is the widespread awareness of women’s situation in Iran. The fight isn’t over, and women in Iran are still protesting despite the risks.

“They know the Islamic Republic is going to arrest them, charge them, put them in jail,” said Fereydouni. “And they know suppression is very brutal. But these women are fighting for their rights.”

In the last few months, the regime’s crackdown on protesters has gotten even worse. “They are arresting activists very widely, many activists. They are [charging] them without any logical reason, they are suppressing women in the street very strictly,” said Fereydouni. “They are making themselves ready for the anniversary. They want to scare people.”

Aboozar Beheshti, a Concordia-graduated Iranian activist in Montreal, pointed out that protesting is almost impossible in Iran. “It is not possible to be there in the street and not be attacked by the police,” he said. “And when I say attack, it means attack. It means brutal attack, arrest, charges, prison.”

For Pooya, his hopelessness does not come from a feeling of having missed a chance to change the Iranian regime. It is a question of whether there was any chance to begin with. “I don’t think it’s possible to change the regime only by counting on the powers of people,” he said. “The people do not have guns, government have guns, and it’s a simple equation. They have guns. They kill.”

Despite these setbacks, both Fereydouni and Beheshti believe the movement against the regime can still change things in Iran. The activists explained that now that public awareness has been achieved, they are one step closer to their goal. 

“This new generation in Iran is different,” said Beheshti. “They don’t tolerate suppression. They are very brave. I could not imagine even that something like this [would] happen. They go ahead, they go in front of the bullets, they go in front of the police and they aren’t scared of anything.”

Fereydouni is grateful that the movement remains strong on social media when it is too dangerous for Iranians to take it to the streets. “Yes, we have a long way in front of us,” she said. “Imagine a day every woman, not just activists, fights for her rights, against mandatory hijab—how beautiful that would be.”

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News Videos

WATCH: The Most Important Meal is Now Free at The Hive

Breakfast is open from 8:30 to 9:00 and again from 10:00 to 10:30.

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Opinions

Dreams Struck Down By Strikes?

Courtesy photo by Mingus Ferreira

Concordia film production students talk WGA/SAG strikes

In case you’re unaware, the WGA (Writers Guild Association) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild) are simultaneously on strike for the first time in 60 years. Both writers and actors are demanding fair compensation and better working conditions, standing toe-to-toe with Hollywood’s powerhouse studios. 

These strikes are now exposing some of the working conditions in Hollywood, and just how awful they are. On top of this, they’ve exposed how studios are cutting costs by not paying any residuals for content on streaming services. 

Does this sound like the kind of work environment you’d aspire to have? Well for some of Concordia’s film production students, it is. So how have they been reacting to these strikes?

Talking with Alvaro Gomez, a second year film production student, he explained the need for these strikes saying, “Action needs to be taken right now.” 

So, if you were to ask me these strikes have been a long time coming. Netflix began its streaming service in 2007. Since then, writers and actors have not received any residuals for their work in content shown on streaming platforms. For any of you non-math majors that’s 16 years of not being fairly paid for your work. 

I believe we can all agree that that’s outrageous and unacceptable, no?

Yet, there’s still talk online of strikers’ demands being greedy— to which Ellie Charette, a second-year film production student, says: “If they’re willing to pump $200 million into weekly blockbusters, I think they can afford to pay their actors and writers fairly.” This just showing how studios are more than capable of paying fair wages, they’re just choosing not to. 

“I don’t see how that is even remotely selfish… I’m not even asking for 1% of the revenue” said Gomez. Now, in a post pandemic world nobody would take issue if say, nurses were asking to be fairly compensated, but as Gomez pointed out ‘Everyone knows the industry is completely rotten with the most horrible people.’” 

On top of this, studios like Disney have been completely unwilling to budge. Instead of agreeing to the terms and taking a less-than-one-per-cent pay cut, studios are now pushing release dates for highly anticipated films, hoping to wait out the strikes so actors will return to do press.

However, through all this there’s been a shining light at the end of the tunnel. Strikers today are fighting not only for themselves, but the aspiring filmmakers, writers, directors and actors of tomorrow. Mingus Ferreira, a second year film production student, actually visited the picket line outside of Netflix offices in New York.

Ferreira spoke to the camaraderie and witnessed heartwarming solidarity. “It was raining, it wasn’t a very nice day but people were still out there,” he recalled. 

Gomez spoke to the same thing as he pointed out how, despite studios cutting down trees in LA to get rid of any shade in the sun, strikers still showed up. “You could hear them from far away,” Ferreira added.

So how come these awful working conditions haven’t deterred our film production students from the industry? It comes down to one thing— the love of film.

In speaking with these three film production students, one thing was made glaringly clear. The fact is that these strikes need to be happening now, because these young passionate and talented filmmakers deserve to be treated with respect.

Pay your actors and writers, that’s all. 

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Soccer

 Concordia Stingers Men’s Soccer draws 0-0 in defensive Duel

Stingers Midfielder John Cevik (front right) clearing the ball Credit: Reuben Polanksy-Shapiro / Concordia Athletics

Both the Stingers and Carabins failed to find back of the net in season opener

The Concordia Stingers Men’s Soccer team kicked off against local rival Montreal Carabins at Concordia Stadium on August 30.

Following the Stingers women’s team’s lead, the men would be in for a tough test as the Carabins finished atop the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) standings in 2022. This match would also serve as an opportunity for revenge, as the Carabins shot down the Stingers’ hopes of a play-off berth last season.

Several new players made their Stingers debut, as injuries and the loss of ten graduates from 2022 were absent from the roster. Stingers’ head coach Greg Sutton says the biggest challenge was the loss of their graduates last year. “We have to understand that not everything is going to happen overnight,” he said. “There will be some time and progression for this team, but we will get there and we will be better in those big moments of the game.”

The first half of the match saw the Carabins come close to scoring on several occasions. A shot glanced off the crossbar which bounced in the Stingers’ favour and stayed out. Twenty minutes later, a Montréal corner kick led to another close call, this time ringing a shot off the post. That being said, the Stingers persevered.

The second half offered much more even playing surface. While the Stingers’ offensive opportunities were hard to come by, their defence was the story of the second half. Stingers’ goalkeeper David Desbarets stopped all eight Carabins shots on goal throughout the match, earning the fourth-year goalkeeper player of the game honours.

Yellow cards and free kicks were all that filled the game sheet in this match, as the game concluded with a score of 0-0.

Coach Sutton reflected on the tightly-contested affair postgame. “This first game was more about the resilience we showed, in the sense that the character we showed was strong,” he said. “We were able to do what we were able to do and get the result against a good team.”

The Stingers will head across town to face their next opponent, the McGill Redbirds, at 1:00 pm on September 3.

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Opinions

The controversy behind talc-based makeup

Diana Tkachenko/THE CONCORDIAN

Talc-based makeup is not as dangerous as you think.

Have you ever thought that makeup might be potentially harmful to your health? Talc-based makeup products have raised safety concerns due to potential contamination with asbestos. The HBO Max investigative documentary Not So Pretty explores the danger of talc, a chemical ingredient found in most of our daily makeup products, and its link to cancer. 

The first episode on makeup introduced the sensational stories of two women—- Corrin Otillio, who believed that her makeup is contaminated with, and a mother who exposed Claire’s makeup for having asbestos in their kids’ makeup sets. 

Otillio sent all her makeup products to the laboratory after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. The results showed that 10 out of the 25 products had traces of asbestos. Surprisingly, the directors of this episode invited lawyers and a journalist to support the case of Otillio, rather than having a cosmetic chemist and a toxicologist speak on this case and educate the audience on the potential risks of chemical ingredients in makeup.

I think that the documentary is clearly biased due to the lack of scientific evidence presented and their choice of experts. Another point that I find intriguing is that an episode that is strictly supposed to focus on makeup, was mostly spent talking about the case of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder, a case that has way more solid evidence of causing harm than makeup.

India-Lynn Upshaw-Ruffner, a Concordia student in art history and studio arts, says “I have heard of talc being dangerous due to a Johnson & Johnson lawsuit, but I or anyone I know has never had any reaction to talc from makeup.”

A lot of women who have decided to eliminate talc from their makeup routine have been using TikTok as a platform to raise awareness, by posting videos of themselves throwing out their makeup products using #notsopretty. This shows how this documentary has successfully influenced much of its audience into buying clean beauty products. 

It is important to mention that at the end of the episode, there was a list of recommended applications that makeup consumers could download to scan their products and find out whether their ingredients are harmful. I find that the controversy over talc-based makeup products is just a marketing technique that clean beauty brands have implemented to make their way into a highly competitive market.

In reality, there hasn’t been enough evidence to prove that the level of talc in makeup products is high enough to cause cancer. This means that the anecdotes about women who blame their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma on makeup are just outliers. 

Besides, people who contract diseases from asbestos are those who work in construction sites or environments that contain high levels of asbestos particles. I think that Not So Pretty is a partial documentary that simply wanted to promote clean beauty products by capitalizing on makeup consumers’ fear of being diagnosed with cancer.

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Opinions

“Girl Dinner” or Disordered Eating?

Keven Vaillancourt/THE CONCORDIAN

How a Playful Trend Turned Sour

I’m sure we’ve all heard the viral Tiktok audio “Girl Dinner.” In case you haven’t, it’s an audio accompanied by videos of women showing off their mismatched dinners consisting of non-nutritious ingredients and/or snacks.

It started out as a way to make fun of the chaotic snack dinners women tend to gravitate towards, poking fun at how these dinners are sometimes deemed as more satisfying than cooking an actual meal.

This trend started out as one of my favourite trends of the year on Tiktok, because I felt seen. However, watching it unravel made me seriously think about the ramifications of taking trends like this too far. 

Working in a restaurant, I am no stranger to girl dinners. Coming from work having just had a slice of birthday cake, fries, half a salad and a comically large Shirley Temple, I’d say I’m a near expert. Not the healthiest, I know. It is, however, healthier than what this playful trend has morphed into.

Showing off handfuls of fruit to a single glass of wine, it quickly went from showing off full plates of mismatched foods and snacks, to glorifying disordered eating. 

According to Healthline, disordered eating is defined as: “food- and diet-related behaviours that don’t meet diagnostic criteria for recognized eating disorders (EDs) but may still negatively affect someone’s physical, mental, or emotional health.” 

Usually disordered eating manifests itself in seemingly harmless ways that are actually precursors to full-developed eating disorders.Examples of disordered eating include binge eating, fasting for weight loss, fad diets, obsessive calorie counting, etc. 

Now I get it, why does it matter? It’s just a trend online that’ll disappear within two weeks, it’s not that big of a deal. The issue, however, is that it is. As I’m sure you’re aware, eating disorders have been a serious issue on the rise since the dawn of social media. Trends like this only encourage it further. 

Young girls are now seeing the older girls that they look up to, seemingly bragging about eating nothing but a handful of chips all day. Think of how you looked up to the young adults in your life. 

My boyfriend has sent me girl dinner videos that imply the only thing I’ve had in my system all day is an iced coffee, and there are days where that’s not wrong. At the end of the day we’re all (at least for the most part) broke university students. We can’t exactly always afford to make the healthiest nutritional choices.

I just ask that we don’t share it on social media as if we’re winning some sort of award for barely eating. The issue has only grown as social media has become more intertwined with the fabric of culture and society. I understand that eating disorders are painfully normalised and joked about, I only worry about the influence we hold. 

If you have little siblings, cousins or even nephews or nieces, would you want to see a video where they joke about the fact that they’re borderline starving themselves? 

Because at the end of the day, Tiktok’s demographic is split between young adults and easily influenced children/teens, and now they’re being inadvertently influenced to not eat. Shouldn’t we care more or be more conscious of what we post?

Now, if you don’t exactly love the constant girl dinners but money is the issue, we do have resources open to you on campus. Places like People’s Potato at Sir George Williams (SGW) campus provide healthy, sustainable meals at low prices.

Other options include The Hive’s free lunches on the Loyola campus everyday from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Hive on SGW also has a pay it forward program where you can get meals that were prepaid by fellow students or faculty. Concordia also has more information on off-campus food resources on their site. 

The occasional real girl dinner dinner aside, let’s all be healthier for ourselves and for the younger generation watching and learning from us. Let’s not instil our own bad habits in them too. 

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Music Quickspins

 QUICKSPINS: Plastic Eternity – Mudhoney

 One of Seattle’s greats proves they’ve still got it.

Mudhoney, one of Seattle’s last alternative strongholds from the late ’80s/’90s, just released a concept album entitled Plastic Eternity on what they most like to talk about in their album: issues like pollution and fascist ideologies, and the political commentary that comes with it.

Plastic Eternity marks their 15th studio LP, which is no mean feat, especially for bands from that era. Clearly, vocalist Mark Arm still has serious topics to tackle in their songs. He starts off the album by yelling “Everyone tells me it’s nice to have me back,” which is completely true for those who love the ’90s. 

Staying true to the name, the album starts off with “Souvenir of My Trip,” which sounds like quite the trip. If you got Curtis Mayfield bongo funk and Dry Cell nu metal together in a studio, that’s what the instrumental sounds like on the second track. Then add Mark Arm’s psychonaut, spacey vocals and you have “Almost Everything” it takes to make a psychedelic song that even Hunter S. Thompson would appreciate. In fact, I think he would play this entire album on repeat. 

The instrumental in “Cascades of Crap” puts you in the middle of a desert. A Mad Max-esque desert, to be precise. The lyrics, however, depict the social satire that Gen Z wants. They are their own political commentators in this concept album. 

One of my favorite songs from this album was “Plasticity.” I mainly enjoyed the intro with the vocoder, that was followed by guitars and synths galore. The whole song consists of the singer naming plastic objects, not unlike Kanye in “All of the Lights.” Another song that I appreciated a lot was “Flush the Fascists,” because it’s another song whose title and lyrics feed into the political commentary that Arm sets as a solid precedent. The song depicts the band’s desire to rid society of fascists, or rather “flush ‘em down.” This is very much solidified when Arm describes them as “teeth that are rotten to the core,” needing to be pulled out.   

The song “Severed Dreams in the Sleeper Cell,” especially the chorus, sounds like a satirical answer to Rage Against The Machine’s “Wake Up,” which was coincidently used in the movie “The Matrix.” Where Zack de la Rocha (RATM vocalist) belts “WAKE UP,” Arm sings “We don’t wanna wake up now,” attempting to convey the message that people don’t want to get out of their day-to-day rat race.

Also, move over Justin Timberlake, Mudhoney is here. Where “Cry Me a River” is a tale depicting Timberlake’s unsuccessful relationship with Britney Spears, the Mudhoney track “Cry Me An Atmospheric River” boasts a manic Arm taking the persona of the weather on Earth who cares not “what happens to humans.” 

While the album isn’t bad, I feel like there is a quantity-over-quality issue here. Songs like “Human Stock Capital” and “Tom Herman’s Hermits” could’ve been killed off the tracklist and put in a vault for B-side releases. 

The other songs, such as “Flush the Fascists” and “Move Under,” give a hint of what the band feels towards our society. Yes, it is true that you can’t go into too much detail when singing about a pressing topic. However, the runtime of Mudhoney’s songs on this record are shorter in comparison to other alternative bands, and even compared to their own older hits like “Touch Me I’m Sick” and “Suck You Dry.” Overall, listen to your discretion if you want to hear old ’90s Seattle drug-infested-port-city mavericks rage against our society.   

Trial Track: “Almost Everything”

Score: 6.5/10

Categories
Concert Reviews Music

Festival Review: FungeonFest 2023

Graphic by James Fay @jamesfaydraws

 “A safe space and the place to be.”

On March 18 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., the underground (literally!) hidden gem in Mile End, The Fungeon held its first-ever festival, appropriately named Fungeon Fest. The DIY festival delivered 12 hours of indie/indie-rock performances from various bands, like Toronto’s John’s Cottage and Montreal’s Hole in Heaven, among many others.

Leading down to the fabled stage in the basement stood a room next door, decorated ceiling-to-tile with the various bands’ merch booths on one side and on the other, handmade art from talented independent sellers such as Muskoka’s lovable mother-and-son duo The Hippie Pocket, or Montreal’s Low Life High Road, and others. 

Due to the occasion, the customary basement-reserved venue was flowing through the entire apartment. It started with the regular lively gaggle of strangers and friends alike, smoking, talking, and laughing outside the back door, moving to the ticket setup in the kitchen and the temporarily empty living room, bathed in soft pink lighting along with host Morleigh Mo Ida Smith’s spellbinding visual art. The magic then moved into the previously mentioned art and band merch seller’s room, and then finally to the illusive star of the show, the basement. 

With a handwritten setlist crowning the entrance, the underground venue glowed. Multi Coloured Christmas lights on one pillar, twinkling fairy lights on the other, bright blue light projections in the corner, dining chairs neatly lining the back wall, and even more decorative art pieces graced the concrete walls of the unfinished room. As the night went on, more and more festival-goers passed through this local haven. The crowd consisted of city locals, non-locals, artists and art enthusiasts of all ages, genders, sub-cultures and walks of life. Everyone stood present under the basement’s tapestry-adorned ceiling. They were watching, listening, and occasionally headbanging to the earnest music of the artists in front of them. By 10:30 p.m., the night was coming to a close, and one last performance remained: The Fungeon’s very own host and owner Joe Cassis. 

Cassis moved to Montreal from his hometown of London, Ontario six years ago. He moved into The Fungeon’s address a few years later with his ex-fiancé and her two children. The Fungeon had come to life through the now-separated couple’s desire to remain in the local music scene while still staying at home with the children. Eventually, The Fungeon as we know it formally opened its basement doors for the first time on June 18, 2022, and has been making a melodious name for itself ever since.  Cassis describes the venue as a “safe space for people to f—ing play” and a beacon for others to make their own statements.  

Before beginning his set, Cassis gave a very humble thank you to the crowd that had gathered in his warm and welcoming basement. He then gave a deeply captivating performance of unplugged, raw, self-written songs, with the exception of “Everybody’s Talkin’” by Harry Nilsson which was performed in honour of his late father.

When detailing the Fungeon Fest, Cassis recounted crying in the arms of John’s Cottage lead singer Max, as they performed one of their more emotional songs. “That’s the thing about these bands being so genuine to themselves is that they have the potential to save people’s lives and the lives they’ll save the most is the kids,” he explained. “That’s what these bands are perpetuating. That it’s a safe space and the place to be.”

Graphic by James Fay @jamesfaydraws

Categories
Interview Music

Enter: Sons of Rice

Ram Sleibi is one-half of the duo Sons of Rice, with Bob Mood.

Sons of Rice sit down to talk about their latest album Guts To Skin

The music scene, especially Montreal’s music scene, needs more iconic and theatrical groups. What does this mean? Think about it: in the past decade, besides Arcade Fire, Half Moon Run, and (maybe?) The Damn Truth, we haven’t had anything of their caliber rise from this diverse and multicultural city.  

Sons of Rice is a duo that is trying to stake its ground in Montreal’s music scene. Enter Ram Sleibi and Bob Mood. Sleimi, who grew up with parents who are actors, stated, “I’ve always been passionate about filmmaking as a source of expression, but my priorities changed when I met a guitar player [Mood] who became my best friend. They met in high school at sec. three [grade nine], in the music room on the first day of term.   

In July of last year, they released their debut album Guts To Skin. Topping off at a short 26 and a half minutes, it seems a bit small for an LP, but don’t let it fool you, for quality is more prevalent here than quantity. According to Sleibi, the umbrella theme for the album is “Identity.” “Under the identity umbrella falls many themes: expression, diaspora, community, death, nationalism, and culture,” he said.    

Their writing process is “all over the place,” said Sleibi. When they first came together as Sons of Rice, they would tumble over lyrics, melodies, and chords while in the same room. Their process has changed drastically now, where Sleibi is in the producer chair. 

“Lyrics are equally written by Mood and I depending on the songs, and the melodies are also a collective effort,” he said. In terms of guitar, Mood is the man for that and Sleibi does the rest (bass, piano, synths, drums). This is due to them getting separated due to immigration issues on Mood’s side. 

Sleibi grew up in Damascus, Syria, while Mood was raised in Saidon, Lebanon. Consequently, the duo brings a touch of their Middle Eastern upbringing into their music.  

“We both have a natural sense to how we implement our Levantine Arab culture into our current music.” said Sleibi. 

When asked about their easiest song to write, Sleibi immediately replied, “Our ego trip ‘Suns of Rise.’” The reason for it was that the core of the track is a loop of a song from Asmahan, a famous Syrian singer. Contrasting with that, their hardest songs to write were “Come Happy Time,” “The Flame,” and “Chase Me Back.”

Unlike many artists, when asked about their influences, Sons of Rice don’t let other musicians/groups get in the way of their songwriting. “I’m mostly influenced by films, stories and people I know in real life,” said Sleibi. However, they do love ’90s/2000s rap and hip hop, Levantine Arab music and rock groups like Twenty One Pilots, Pearl Jam, and Jack White. 

The title of the album Guts To Skin is a lyric in their song “Suns of Rise.” The full line is “Guts to skin is not enough,” which tells the audience that they, as a duo, are not done with just one album. 

“It is not going to be enough for us to express what we feel, and we are also aware that it won’t be enough for the listener to fully trust us into becoming his or her new favourite band.”  

This album is what Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was to Kendrick Lamar: therapeutic. “We’re human,” said Sleibi: “We think and we must express to share how what we think makes us feel to achieve a sense of relation between people that in return could achieve a state of peace.” 

As a final note, the future for Sons of Rice is working on a second album, but their main objective now is to “offer a term [Sons of Rice] that can give people who use [it] a sense of belonging to one another, a term of unity.” 

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