Uncategorized

Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis via Getty Images Published April 2021 on Billboard by Yasmine Shemesh This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago. Our 2001 Week continues with an honest conversation with Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 about his band’s All Killer, No Filler album, which became a runaway…

The ska-pop greats’ sophomore record not only featured some of the most definitive songs of its era, but its visceral lyrics and innovative genre-bending would make a significant impact on the fabrics of pop and rock music at large by Yasmine Shemesh Published October 2020 in Recording Academy / the GRAMMYs In the spring of…

Published as the cover story for the April 2023 print issue of the Georgia Straight The skin was important. A diagonal line from collarbone to thigh. And to be braless underneath an open, semi-sheer black shirt. Then, the posture: confident, at ease. It’s symbolic, all of it. She wanted a visual that was self-empowering, something…

“It created a lot of new fans, particularly in the U.S.,” Sarah Slean says of the show Published January 2021 on Exclaim! and in March 2021’s print issue by Yasmine Shemesh One of the greatest music moments in Dawson’s Creek took place halfway through the third season, in the episode “A Weekend in the Country.” The gang…

Published June 2023 in the Georgia Straight Photo courtesy of Rascalz In the early ’90s, the Vancouver Art Gallery was a central hangout for young hip-hop heads and skateboarders in the city. As Rascalz’s co-founder Red1 remembers it, everyone would play music on their boom boxes and skate around at the landmark on Georgia and…

Published April 2025 in RANGE Photo by Vanessa Heins Life can be funny sometimes. Funny in an ironic way, in a full-circle way, in a “sometimes you gotta laugh to get through the pain” kind of way. When PUP frontman Stefan Babcock was just a 13-year-old kid cruising around Toronto listening to iconic Canadian pop-punk…

Published July 2025 in RANGE Everything finally made sense. He made sense. Songwriting was something Adam Duritz had always needed—he just hadn’t known it yet. That’s how the Counting Crows frontman felt the first time he wrote a song in his dorm at Berkeley. Before that, Duritz still had music. Just listening was rewarding. It soundtracked his…

For the 20th anniversary of his multi-platinum ‘Shaman’ album, Carlos Santana discusses his second pop music triumph and how it reflects the purpose at the center of his work. Theo Wargo/WireImage by Yasmine Shemesh Published March 2022 in Billboard This week, Billboard is publishing a series of lists and articles celebrating the music of 20 years ago.…

Photo courtesy of Sara Johnston by Yasmine Shemesh Published April 2022 in print and online in Exclaim! James Di Salvio thought he was making an instrumental trip-hop record and that would be it. He never imagined those late-night jam sessions at the dawn of the ’90s, which opened their arms to Montreal’s artistic community, would…

How a whirlwind, last-minute scramble resulted in Coyote Ugly‘s unforgettable finale — and a cherished early-aughts anthem, 20 years later. by Yasmine Shemesh Published August 2020 in NYLON In 1997, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote an article for GQ about bartending at a dive in New York City’s East Village. At Coyote Ugly Saloon, the sexy, female-fronted staff danced on the…

Published as the cover story for Vol. 1 and the June 2022 issue of RANGE Magazine Rhian Teasdale holds her cell phone up high, arms extended, and spins in a circle. The Wedgewood Rooms, the venue her band, Wet Leg, is playing tonight in Portsmouth, England, whirls in a blur of navy and black and…

Published March 2021 on MTV News THE SINGER’S THIRD AND FINAL ALBUM STILL SHOWCASES HER FORWARD-THINKING R&B, EVEN AS IT CAN’T BE STREAMED ON DSPS by Yasmine Shemesh An eponymous album marks a major moment in an artist’s career. For women, owning one’s work, body, and artistry can be especially powerful, even political. Throughout Women’s…

by Yasmine Shemesh Photography by Coco and Kensington Photography Published February 2022 in MONTECRISTO Magazine At about four o’clock every morning, while her household is still asleep, Bif Naked watches the sunrise. She absorbs the rays slowly as they beam between the towers lining the street in front of her two-bedroom apartment, casting golden glitter…

After 20 years of era-defining anthems, the Canadian alt-punk heavyweights weather the storm with love and positivity. by Yasmine Shemesh Published January 2022 in RANGE There is something to be said about the weather in British Columbia this past year. How its apocalyptic nature—from the sticky heat waves to the atmospheric rivers that flooded the…

Published August 2022 in Alternative Press by Yasmine Shemesh It was unlike anything that had ever happened before. The song flowed out in a stream of consciousness as he moved between his piano and guitar and back again. That was unusual — he usually stayed at the keys. A gothic symphony capturing the gnaw of…

JOYOUS, EMPOWERING SONGS BY MYRA, KRYSTAL PETERSON, AND MORE CRYSTALLIZED THE SPIRIT OF THE TIME. THE FILM’S MAJOR PLAYERS EXPLAIN ITS LEGACY Published July 2021 on MTV News by Yasmine Shemesh A couple years ago, after a cozy movie night at home, the former teen pop singer Myra’s daughter grabbed her mother’s hands. They had just…

Published in print as the cover story of MONTECRISTO Magazine’s summer 2021 issue by Yasmine Shemesh Photography by Trevor Brady The morning has been, Tegan and Sara Quin tell me, total chaos. Sara is in the midst of moving. She sold her house on the North Shore to relocate to the hum of Vancouver’s core, and…

Published May 2021 in Observer by Yasmine Shemesh There were many significant moments set in the Cohens’ pool house throughout The O.C., the venerable teen drama that ruled the aughts and centered on the growing pains of Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), and Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) in Newport…

Published March 2021 on ELLE Canada 25 years after its release, the impact of Falling into You — one of the best-selling albums of all time — on modern pop music is immeasurable. by Yasmine Shemesh In March 1997, just days ahead of the 69th Academy Awards at which “Because You Loved Me,” the soundtrack to Up Close…

HOW LOPEZ’S SECOND ALBUM CEMENTED HER DOMINANCE ACROSS POP CULTURE AND DEEPENED HER RESONANCE IN FILM AND FASHION by Yasmine Shemesh Published January 2021 on MTV News When Jennifer Lopez began recording her sophomore album, J.Lo, in 2000, she was in the midst of an incredible career high. With a $1 million salary for 1997’s Selena, she’d become the…

by Yasmine Shemesh Published November 2020 in MONTECRISTO Magazine It’s mid-morning on a Wednesday, and Jann Arden is sitting in her living room, looking out at the snow. Winter has arrived promptly in Alberta, where the singer-songwriter was born, raised, and still lives, now west of Calgary in rural Springbank. Her 14-acre property is tucked…

“Bride of the Living Dummy” from the Goosebumps TV show. Scholastic Entertainment by Yasmine Shemesh Published October 2020 in Observer One might think that R.L. Stine himself would be an inherently spooky and mysterious figure. After all, Stine has been keeping kids and teenagers up all night for nearly 30 years as the author of best-selling and bone-chilling…

(Foreground, from left) Natina Reed, Brandi Williams, Gabrielle Union and Shamari DeVoe in the iconic Bring It On scene where their East Compton Clovers publicly call out a white cheerleading squad led by Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku (background). Universal Studios by Yasmine Shemesh Published August 2020 in Observer It’s been 20 years since Shamari DeVoe and Brandi…

Photo: Tim Roney/Getty Images by Yasmine Shemesh Published March 2020 in Billboard Following our Billboard staff-picked list of the 100 greatest songs of 2000, we’re writing this week about some of the stories and trends that defined the year for us. Here, we look back at This Time Around, the stellar second from Oklahoma brother trio Hanson — who were the biggest…

Photo: Django Crosby by Yasmine Shemesh Published in print and online in the August 2016 issue of BeatRoute Magazine David Crosby is happy. Content in a way that audibly radiates from the easy tone of his voice to the rapture of his deep belly laugh — something that comes from knowing what’s important in his…

Photo: Ebru Yildiz by Yasmine Shemesh Published in print and online in the May 2016 issue of BeatRoute Magazine Slaying a dragon, marrying a princess, and becoming king. It’s stuff storybooks are made of and also, metaphorically, Violent Femmes. The longstanding band recite this fantastical tale in “I Could Be Anything” on their new album,…

Photo by Payley Photography by Yasmine Shemesh Published in print and online in the April 2017 issue of BeatRoute Magazine In 1967, the Zombies travelled to the Philippines to headline a 10-day series of concerts at the Araneta Coliseum. The band performed to more than 30,000 fans a night. It was a big deal, especially since…

Photo by William R Jans by Yasmine Shemesh Published in print and online in the September 2018 issue of BeatRoute Magazine Nardwuar the Human Serviette is leaning against the doorway of CiTR Radio, drinking out of a water bottle. Adhering to the University of British Columbia campus station’s “no liquids by the equipment” studio rule,…