Sylvie Hill

The Ottawa XPress– March 8, 2007 Anvil’s power tools: Lips, licks and live shows What do a sober woman and Toronto’s heavy metal legends Anvil have in common? Both turned down Lemmy from Motörhead! Mid-tour in Toronto, 1983, Motörhead’s guitarist Eddie Clarke quit the band and Lemmy asked Lips (Steve Kudlow), Anvil’s frontman, to fill [...]

Ottawa XPress – Shotgun – March 1, 2007 I scream, you scream, we all go to extremes to score the one we want to tease and please. Well, okay, some more than others, and the rest of us only sometimes. Folks trek vast physical distances or make large leaps in logic to win the ones [...]

The Ottawa XPress – January 18, 2007 The Setbacks’ nod to rock gods If male rockers pushing 40 could get pregnant, I’d believe that Ottawa’s The Setbacks were the product of a three-way shag in the back of a van between Tricky Woo, C’mon and Maximum RNR. Baptized with Labatt’s 50 and weaned on MC5 [...]

The Ottawa XPress – November 6, 2006 BOOK REVIEW Matthew Firth’s Suburban Pornography (Anvil Press, 207 pp.) Matthew Firth’s tales of degenerate one-night stands “Relax, girl. It’s just like taking a big shit. Only in reverse.” These are the lines I recite readily and adoringly when I’m asked about the best in contemporary Canadian pornographic [...]

The Ottawa XPress – August 24, 2006 OttawaMetal.com hosts first annual metal benefit concert For a subculture that gets such a bum rap, Ottawa’s heavy metal scene is lucky to have a solid core of fierce familiars to set the record straight. “I just want to do as much as I can to diminish the [...]

The Ottawa XPress – August 24, 2006 F#@! The Facts are coming to kill you… musically speaking Ottawa-Gatineau Grindcore band sheds uniformity for diversity One listen to any track off Stigmata High-Five, the new Fuck The Facts album, and you’ll understand why people sometimes crap their pants when they’re scared. This multicultural quartet of girl [...]

Ottawa XPress – Shotgun – June 29, 2006 I have an outhouse to decorate. I’m fascinated by cottage outhouses. My mom has managed to transform hers into a wooden superbooth of hope and “Believe in Yourself!” messaging plastered all over the walls. There among the E.T. poster and dream catchers are watercolour scrolls of the [...]

The Ottawa XPress – June 15, 2006 Fringe performer Brendan McNally gets set to go the first round with Heads or Tails. Sleek schooners set sail for Ottawa’s urban theatre world with tales of adventure and intrigue. With this year’s theme being “X Marks the Spot,” get thee ready, matey, for some swashbuckling action at [...]

Ottawa XPress – Shotgun – June 8, 2006 Ever try talking dirty to your lover? How’s that working out? I used to believe it was enough for ladies to splay themselves out naked on the centre of a cool, white bed, and – presto! – their job was done. For the most part, I think [...]

The Ottawa XPress – June 1, 2006 BOOK REVIEW Jennifer Whiteford’s Grrrl (Gorsky Press, 252 pp.) Whiteford’s channels her own rock star dreams through the novel’s riot grrrl Play. Stop. Rewind. Jennifer Whiteford’s distinctive debut novel, Grrrl, is like a killer mixtape from the early 1990s that you want to play over and over again. [...]