If you put a lot of stock in popularity contests, as one should, Above & Beyond might be EDM’s prom king. Since the London-based group—consisting of Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki—formed in late 1999 they’ve been a perennial top 10 finisher on DJ Mag’s Top 100 list, been two-time winners of BBC Radio […]

Without question, Lady Gaga is the best pop star of our time. Twenty-six-year-old Stefani Germanotta’s songs are wonderfully infectious, her videos are mesmerizingly artful, and her outlandish style is unfuckwithable. The world’s most popular tweeter is panache perfect and it’s impossible to avert your eyes. Simply calling her a “young Madonna” needs to end, as […]

There were at least three young men wearing shirts emblazoned with “Suck My Dick” in attendance at the Zomboy show. Sure, there was a lot of what pickup artist extraordinaire Mystery would refer to as peacocking going on in the pretty packed Fortune Sound Club. Bridge-and-tunnel EDM enthusiasts were decked out in shirts with blinking […]

When asked how his night was going, the beer man petulantly responded with, “unbelievably slow,” as he took $18 for two thimbles of Alexander Keith’s. To say the co-headlining gig with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Snow Patrol at Rogers Arena was sparsely attended is an understatement as the place felt empty. One can’t […]

Is Madonna still relevant in 2012? One could certainly make the case that the 54-year-old Queen of Pop doesn’t deserve that moniker anymore as the crown now belongs to Lady Gaga. Madge’s latest album MDNA stalled well short of platinum, and she hasn’t delivered a timeless hit single since “Hung Up” from Confessions on a […]

Remember when The Tyee reported that dubstep is the new heavy metal? Well if dubstep is now heavy metal, then trap is the new dubstep. This summer, it seems like you couldn’t step into a club without hearing it. You also couldn’t listen to a song on YouTube without reading, “Yo, listen to my trap […]

Beats Antique is an in-demand act for end-of-the-world parties. On December 21, 2012, when Earth will be obliterated, Beats Antique will be playing next to the pyramids at a festival in Egypt. Not only that, they got invited to gig at the Mayan pyramids in Mexico on the 21st as well. “We decided that the […]

“Yeah, tonight I turn it up to 11 just to piss off the one neighbor that has moaned for over a decade to get this place closed,” tweeted superstar DJ and producer Kaskade before hitting the stage Saturday at the PNE Forum. The one neighbour he was referring to is Barry Sharbo, a curmudgeonly fella […]

Let’s just cut the shit for a minute and say it: electronic dance music is the stupidest music on the planet. It even has a fittingly dumb name, EDM, which makes me cringe every time I see it. More so than the acronym, though, the reason it sucks is because the amount of talent required […]

A little late to the party, but in the wake of the “Boo hoo, broke bands, quit asking for charity” article, Beauvillain Studios has released these t-shirts. I’m choosing to read the statement on it as “If you have sex with Michael Mann, it will help the Vancouver music scene.” You can buy them from […]

If listening to Skrillex is akin to cochlea assault for you, it likely means you’re old and you may want to give this article a pass as it’s going to make you feel like a geezer. The 24-year-old dubstep demigod has a protégé named Porter Robinson, who is 19 and wasn’t alive when Wayne and […]

I recently interviewed Tenacious D for the Georgia Straight while they were backstage at The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. You can read the article here on Straight.com. Below is the full transcript of our chat…

A dream come true, getting paid by the Georgia Straight to annihilate some random musician who didn’t like my Kickstarter article. You force the music section to take Michael Mann to the next general meeting of the Broke Vancouver Independent Musicians Association, and we reward you with a Payback Time T-shirt and two tickets to […]

A video response to my Georgia Straight Op Ed

Strange week! On Thursday April 12, I was invited to appear on CBC Radio 3 with Lisa Christiansen to discuss an article I wrote for the Georgia Straight. After that, I walked upstairs and got to be on Radio One with Stephen Quinn. You can listen to me on Radio 3 here (and hear a […]

Stop trying to get me to fund your fucking album with a Kickstarter campaign. Same goes for getting your merch produced, your motel rooms paid for, and your bar tab settled. It makes you and your bandmates come across as a bunch of shameless and entitled pricks. You don’t see me aggressively asking people to […]

It’s not often you get to witness someone of Pitbull’s stature end a concert by announcing he has diarrhea. However that’s what happened on the first Canadian stop of the Planet Pit World Tour at Rogers Arena. The Cuban-American battle rapper turned global pop superstar thanked the crowd and complimented the city. Then he announced […]

For a while, Steve Aoki was hipsterdom’s gateway drug. More than purchasing your first pair of skinny jeans, getting top-shelf vodka poured down your gullet by the 34-year-old Los Angeles–based DJ, producer, and founder of Dim Mak Records at one of his gigs was a hipster rite of passage. Sporting his trademark mane and facial […]

I recently completed this a website for the Wild Child Mandy-Lyn’s latest proeject, Hubba Hubba Magazine. Check it out www.hubbahubbamag.com