Ask the experts: Opeth have made a number of perfect fall albums, and North American audiences will surely hear songs from them on an upcoming tour. Today, the Swedish outfit have announced plans to tour the continent in October, playing 16 total shows between Canada and the United States. Canadian stops come early in the run, with Opeth first performing at Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 14, ahead of a stop at L'Olympia in Montreal the following evening (October 15). Tickets for all dates go on sale April 26 at 10 a.m. local time, following select pre-sales opening tomorrow (Ap ..read more

d'Eon conjured remarkable feeling through arrangements of digital chamber instruments on 2021's Rhododendron (an album we hope you didn't miss that year). New song "Figurine" — the first arrival from new album Leviathan, out June 21 via Hausu Mountain Records — picks up right up where the Montreal-via-Nova Scotia composer and producer left off, cleverly channeling bygone eras in compositional and technological approach. "Figurine" compels me to tend a garden and organize an Exclaim! staff trip to a rumoured renaissance fair around Barrie, or log an unfathomable amount of hours scrolling @Red ..read more

Are you a fan of old-ass guitars and also have tons of disposable income? Then here's the story for you. John Lennon's long-lost guitar — which he used during the making of Help! and had spent the last 50 years in an attic, is headed to auction.  Both Lennon and George Harrison played the Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar while creating Help! — the album and film — and Rubber Soul. It's the guitar that Lennon is strumming during the performance of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" in the Help! film, and you can hear it on "Help!", "It's Only Love," "I've Just Seen a Face ..read more

The Toronto Japanese Film Festival (TJFF) is returning to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) this summer with a stacked slate of 23 Japanese movies. All screenings will take place at the JCCC's Kobayashi Hall from June 6 to 20. Leading the way is the special screening of Studio Ghibli savant Hayao Miyazaki's latest effort The Boy and the Heron with commentary and presentations by the movie's composer Joe Hisaishi and animation director Takeshi Honda. The film won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature last month. TJFF will also screen Peter Michael Dowd's documentary Mr. Jimmy, which t ..read more

Vancouver DIY pop minimalist (and New Faves alum) Future Star has announced an album for her new label home of Mint Records. It's About Time! is out July 5. As a preview, Future Star has shared the new single "This Is the Part That's Too Hard to Explain." It's a characteristically twee and lovely pop ditty that bursts into some lively electronic beats. The album was produced by Andromeda Monk. According to an announcement, "The album is at times minimalistic in texture with upright piano and voice, and at times lushly arranged with additions of synthetic strings, flutes and drum machine. Bre ..read more

Boris have announced a North American tour on which they'll perform their 1998 album Amplifier Worship in its entirety. Featuring support from Starcrawler, the 31-date Amplifier Worship Service Tour will see Boris perform with two drummers and an extended backline. Regrettably, there are no Canadian stops on the run, but the full itinerary can be found below if you're looking to take a trip. Tickets for all shows go on sale April 26 at 10 a.m. local time, with further ticket details available via the band's official website. Boris last delivered a trio of albums in 2022, with W, Heavy Rocks ..read more

Ahead of some June tour dates behind their 2023 album I Held the Shape While I Could, Bodywash have shared a new remix from Khotin. The Edmonton-based electronic artist has reworked the Montreal-based duo's "Kind of Light," and you can hear it in the player below. As Bodywash explain, the collaboration came out of regularly playing Khotin's Exclaim! Staff Pick-certified album Release Spirit on tour in 2023 (in a Cadillac Escalade, perhaps). "Khotin's Release Spirit was in heavy rotation while we were on the road last year, soundtracking everything from the craggy cliffs of the Pacific Northw ..read more

The Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival is hitting the quarter-century mark this year, and organizers have announced a jam-packed lineup to celebrate.  Festivities will take place from June 19 to 23 at multiple venues in Victoria.  Led by Less Than Jake and Dead Prez, the fest will also feature Suicide Machines, the Slackers, Creepshow, Fort Knox Five, Mephiskapheles, Chris Murray and the New Victorians, Gondwana, Macka B and the Roots Ragga Band, the Planet Smashers, Mungo's Hi Fi and Marina P, Big Mountain, Antidoping and many more. Full festival passes and single-day tickets are ..read more

Texas post-rockers Explosions in the Sky introduced us to the End late last year, and now, they've decided to mark their first new album in seven years by playing another batch of shows in its honour. Bringing their show across Canada (and the Pacific Northwest), the band's the End Tour will rip across the continent over the span of 18 days in September. It starts in the east with a show in Montreal on the 12th, with subsequent dates in Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver lined up throughout the month. The tour will close on the 30th in Seattle. Tickets go on sale t ..read more

"Am I the only one in the only world?" Annie Clark sang in a panic 10 years ago, her question dying with a muted thud against the desert air. "Rattlesnake" opened 2014's St. Vincent with a personal apocalypse, a piece of sun-baked mythology that found Clark suddenly and completely alone, danger behind her and nothing ahead. As St. Vincent, Clark has always kept one eye on the darkness at the end of humanity. Time and light exploded into oblivion on 2007's "The Apocalypse Song"; on Strange Mercy's "Northern Lights," she stood transfixed under the aurora, convinced the end had come; on Daddy's ..read more