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This article was published 06/10/2016 (3582 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Iansucks 

As you might guess from the name, Winnipeg alt-pop group Iansucks is known for embracing the more morose aspects of youth in its lyrics, but the foursome tones down the doom-and-gloom through playful instrumentation.

The band is dropping its second full-length, Don’t Give in to the Bad Feelings, Thursday, Oct. 6, and the band will take the stage at the Good Will to celebrate the release.

The band added two additional members this time around, expanding from duo Ian Ellis and Emma Mayer to include Kelly Beaton and Adam Nikkel. Ellis says the four members have known each other for a long time, playing with or in each others’ bands, so it only made sense for him and Mayer to ask them to join. 

“We approach our songs from a primarily pop perspective, but still the songs are confessional in nature,” says Ellis, the group’s namesake. “The band is a venue for Emma and me to deal with our saddest thoughts. That’s not to say listening to our music will make you sad; our live show is generally uppity.

“We try to take our worst feelings and turn them into something positive.”

Iansucks began as a solo project for Ellis, who chose the self-deprecating name so that listeners would know that, even though it was “his thing,” he wasn’t taking himself too seriously (though he adds he now regrets the name).

“It also was nice to lower people’s expectations before they listened to the tunes,” he jokes.

With the addition of Mayer, the band’s first full-length record, Boring Stuff Go Away, was given more texture, with Mayer’s twinkling contribution to the vocals working nicely over reverb-heavy guitar lines. While the bones of that record had a damp feel, Mayer added some brightness, but Boring Stuff Go Away was raw nonetheless.

As they began to play more live shows — which was, funnily, never the intention when the project began — Ellis says, “The music had to change from something you would listen to as you quietly cry yourself to sleep in bed to something you could tap you shoes along to at a bar while drinking a tasty beer.”

The first single from Iansucks’ new record, Person Box, already feels more polished and mature, both in terms of the recording quality itself and the content. It’s still distinctly Iansucks, but the complexity of the composition has increased for the better.

Don’t Give in to the Bad Feelings was a DIY effort, with the band handling the recording and producing on their own, though they did get some help with the mixing. Mayer says she also handled the album art — a image of a couple curled up in bathtub in their bathing suits. While they enjoy the hands-on approach, both Mayer and Ellis say that sometimes, it’s just better to pay someone to help you out. 

“Sometimes we take on too much,” Mayer says with a laugh.

The album-release show starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $10 at the door. 

 — Erin Lebar

Rowdy reading

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s and paid even the most marginal attention to professional wrestling knows the name “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Always sporting a kilt and often blowing on bagpipes as he entered the ring, Piper (also known as “Hot Rod”) came to be one of the most infamous, often-loathed wrestlers of his generation.

At the height of his career in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, as it was then called) between 1984 and 1992, Piper hosted his own short talk-show type segment onChampionship Wrestling called Piper’s Pit, was a longtime rival of Hulk Hogan, and once boxed Mr. T.

In 1992 he won the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship title over Jacques Rougeau, better known to wrestling fans as the Mountie. Piper lost the title to Bret Hart shortly thereafter, then left the WWF before returning (to the WWE, as it’s now known) between 2005 and 2015.

In addition to wrestling, Piper dabbled in acting, appearing in dozens of films and TV shows and most notably holding down the lead role in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live.

But before becoming “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, he was known by his birth name, Roderick George Toombs. Born in Saskatoon, Toombs was raised in Winnipeg (where he learned to play the bagpipes), also lived in The Pas and wrestled one of his first professional matches in Churchill.

Toombs began researching his youth in early 2015 for a planned autobiography, travelling through Western Canada and revisiting the pivotal people and places of his formative years. When he died in July 2015 of a heart attack, his book unfinished, two of Piper’s children — Ariel Teal Toombs and Colt Baird Toombs, the latter a wrestler himself — took up the task of reworking and completing Piper’s memoir.

The resulting book, Rowdy: The Roddy Piper Story, was released earlier this week. It includes plenty of stories about Piper’s antics in the ring, including eye-gouging, hitting opponents with coconuts and egging on the crowd as they booed. In addition, there are plenty of behind-the-scenes stories that will certainly satisfy wrestling fans.

Most importantly for Piper’s kids, Rowdy details the wrestler’s youth, his childhood friends and his role as a loving father and husband, no matter how crazy things got against his opponents.

Colt Baird Toombs will read from and sign copies of Rowdy Friday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

— Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson

 

Kanye West

Winnipeg hip-hop fans can breathe a sigh of relief; the heist of Kim Kardashian West’s jewelry isn’t going to affect the timing of her husband Kanye West’s concert at the MTS Centre on Wednesday, Oct. 12.

The rapper called a halt to a New York concert after learning about his wife’s encounter with thieves in Paris, who made off with millions of dollars in jewelry. A couple of stops on his Saint Pablo tour were rescheduled, but Kanye resumes the tour Friday in Chicago and the MTS Centre date is on as scheduled.

The tour supports Kanye’s 2016 album The Life of Pablo, which has received favourable reviews from critics and listeners. The critics’ aggregator site Metacritic gives the album 75 out of 100, with a New York Times’ review saying West is “shape-shifting in real time and counting on listeners to keep up.”

Reviews of the Saint Pablo tour mention a dramatic stage resembling a floating platform that will lift West above the audience on the arena floor. Ticketmaster’s website suggests a theatre-in-the-round setup for the concert. 

Tickets range in price from $29.50 to $129.50 and remain available at Ticketmaster.

— Alan Small

 

Ziggy Marley

Ziggy Marley is a man in perpetual motion, a man of countless muses. The man born David Nesta Marley’s artistic journey began at age 10, when he first sat in on the recording sessions of his father, legendary reggae star Bob Marley, and the inspirations he drew from that experience have informed his every musical move.

Nearly four decades, a dozen record albums, seven Grammys and an Emmy later, Marley — whose best-known single may be Tomorrow People, from 1988’s Conscious People album— brings his latest tour to Winnipeg on Friday, Oct. 7, at the Burton Cummings Theatre (tickets are $40.50 to $60.50 at Ticketmaster), in support of the eponymous sixth solo album that was released earlier this year.

In addition to returning to the concert stage, Marley has authored a children’s book, I Love You Too, inspired by his 2009 album Family Time.

— Brad Oswald