Articles By Matthew Ritchie
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Features
An Essential Guide to Danny Boyle Films Published Jun 26, 2019Danny Boyle was once asked to describe his movies in three words; he chose "visual, violent and nostalgic." It's a good encapsulation of...
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Features
Panda Bear's 'Buoys' Finds Noah Lennox Revisiting the Guitar and 'Sung Tongs' Published Feb 06, 2019Animal Collective member Panda Bear is being characteristically open, honest and dry as he sits and talks in an Exclaim! interview about his...
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Reviews
Panda Bear Buoys Published Feb 05, 2019Animal Collective have rarely looked back while making music, together or separately, Since the band began their mainstream-ish ascent in th...
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Features
Ryley Walker Covered an Entire Unreleased Dave Matthews Band Album and It's No Joke Published Nov 14, 2018For the uninitiated, you'd be forgiven for thinking Ryley Walker was trolling when he announced, back in late September, a full covers album...
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Reviews
Ryley Walker The Lillywhite Sessions Published Nov 13, 2018According to a theory first made popular on the internet by since-suspended Twitter user @Swank0cean, the number one song on your 14th birth...
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Jack White TD Place, Ottawa ON, November 9 Published Nov 10, 2018For a long time (perhaps fairly), Jack White was considered a rock'n'roll purist: a Luddite who plays and records on archaic pieces of equip...
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Reviews
Sturgill Simpson RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 13 Published Jul 14, 2018Sturgill Simpson is a lot of things to many people: a modern day country outlaw, a hard-hitting soul artist, a cosmic warrior, a father. ...
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Dave Matthews Band RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 11 Published Jul 12, 2018The Dave Matthews Band are at a strange point in their career and the zeitgeist as a whole. On one hand, their recent album — Come Tomor...
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Foo Fighters RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 10 Published Jul 11, 2018In the lead-up to the release of the Foo Fighters' ninth studio album, last year's ambitious and ostentatious magnum rock opus Concrete and...
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Greta Van Fleet RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 10 Published Jul 11, 2018On the surface, Greta Van Fleet — the Michigan-bred, four-piece rock band — look like the kind of thing David Fricke dreams about. They...
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Ghostface Killah RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 7 Published Jul 08, 2018Ottawa's RBC Bluesfest has had a divisive relationship with hip-hop in recent years. Back in 2015, the inclusion of Kanye West sparked s...
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Jethro Tull RBC Bluesfest, Ottawa ON, July 6 Published Jul 07, 2018Most bands don't make it to their 50th anniversary; band members retire, people pass away and fans move on. So, while everyone under the...
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Reviews
Herbie Hancock TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa ON, June 30 Published Jul 01, 2018Ottawa, like a lot of Ontario cities, was expected to reach record-breaking highs this Canada Day long weekend. With the possibility of the...
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Tanya Tagaq TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa ON, June 28 Published Jun 29, 2018For the 2018 edition of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, organizers invited a select number of artists from the Circumpolar North to play the fe...
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Reviews
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa ON, June 28 Published Jun 29, 2018Halfway through their Thursday night set, and seconds before Béla Fleck and the Flecktones — the bluegrass fusion jazz odyssey jam band — la...
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Reviews
Alison Krauss TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa ON, June 26 Published Jun 27, 2018On Tuesday night, acclaimed country singer Alison Krauss's performance outside Ottawa City Hall felt like a homecoming of sorts. Part of...
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Reviews
Iceage / Mary Lattimore The 27 Club, Ottawa ON, June 24 Published Jun 25, 2018Former post-punk wunderkinds Iceage have grown increasingly ambitious in recent years, moving away from the buzzsaw riffs of their youth in...
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Features
Ray LaMontagne The Exclaim! Questionnaire Published Jun 14, 2018For a professional songwriter, Ray LaMontagne is a man of few words. "You should know something about me: it takes me a long time to answer...
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Reviews
Ray LaMontagne Part of the Light Published May 16, 2018After stepping into the tone zone with Dan Auerbach for 2014's unexpected rock breakout Supernova, enigmatic folk artist Ray LaMontagne recr...
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Reviews
Fu Manchu Clone of the Universe Published Feb 02, 2018Southern California stoner rock gods Fu Manchu are the musical equivalent of a van with an interplanetary dust-up painted on its side. Their...