Hut Hut’s “Hut Hut” to Hit Shelves Shortly

The members of Hut Hut frolicking next to an intermodal container. Photo: Sara Smith.

Longtime readers of this publication could be forgiven for wondering if we’d heard the last of Mat Klachefsky.

For the past six years, the erstwhile Boats and Hut Hut frontman has shied away from the spotlight, choosing instead to focus on his job and raising his young children. Recently, he even concluded a term as president of Dodgeball Canada. But when faced with what he called a “reduction in [his] responsibilities” at work, he found himself with more time on his hands.

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“If You Weren’t There, You Didn’t Hear It”: Introducing the Stylus Magazine Collection at the University of Winnipeg Archives

Cover art of Stylus vol. 6, no. 2 (November 1994), chosen arbitrarily to illustrate the point that old copies of the magazine are now being digitized

If you’re anything like me, you have an incorrigible fondness for what Walter Benjamin would call “[poking] about in the past as if rummaging in a storeroom of examples and analogies.” In which case: I am delighted to announce the good news. Stylus is saved!

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Album Review :: Jeff Parker ETA IVtet ::THE WAY OUT OF EASY

 (or, “The Dialectics of Improvisational Jazz”)

by Maggie A. Clark

I listen to a lot of jazz at this time of year.

Between my graduate studies and biweekly Leninist reading group, I spend many an afternoon with my nose buried in a PDF. But, you see, my mind wanders, and I can’t stand to be left alone with my thoughts for longer than about 50 seconds at a time. Naturally, this is a situation that calls for some tunes, but lyrical music often distracts me from the text I’m supposed to be reading or writing! What’s a girl to do?

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Album Review :: LEON’S GETTING LARGER :: YOU BE GOOD NOW

a punpkim head lying in a chair surrounded by beer cans (prairie and killter)

by Bradi Breckman

“These aching bones, these two years at home, all these things I own, I think they’re plotting against me.” — Leon’s Getting Larger (“Oh the Places You’ll Go”)

After several years of live shows, singles and EPs, Manitoba band Leon’s Getting Larger released their first official album last fall. You Be Good Now is a collection of old and new tracks that combine aspects of alternative, rock, indie and emo genres into a cohesive sound. The album features a mix of short and long songs which, when listened to in order, blend into one another, engulfing the listener in the sound, and not letting them leave until the final chord is struck.

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Album Review :: Orelands :: Secrets and Select Missions

album cover starry sky with clouds neon sign that says Orelands on the horizon.

by Mykhailo Vil’yamson

Even though one might see the We, Here and Now! record label and mistakenly assume that Orelands must be made up of Shakespearean bards from the Stratford Festival in Ontario, the band itself emerged from the hard rock, zinc-laden mining town of Flin Flon. Though only one member of this three-piece actually lives there – i.e., the drummer, Dean Martin – both Jay Hovland (songwriter, guitarist, vocalist) and Scott Ellenberger (bassist) also have roots in Flintabbatey Flonatin.

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Concert Review: Holy Void

Photos by Keeley Braunstein-Black

by Sabbir Hossain

I had been unaware of the local scene despite being a self-proclaimed “music lover” for much of my youth and adolescence. It wasn’t until I joined Stylus which presented me with a valid excuse to get out of my shell and see what Winnipeg’s vibrant music scene had to offer. There was only one problem — I didn’t even listen to the local artists. Much of my playlists were of artists signed to major record labels. My parents were immigrants and obviously weren’t immersed in the city’s arts or culture, and as a result, neither was I. 

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EP Review :: WITCH HAZEL :: CASA ROSSO

by Maggie A. Clark

Clicking around on Bandcamp again, I stumbled upon a local indie-rock outfit known as Witch Hazel. Now, maybe I should have heard of them by now; I am, after all, a writer for Stylus Magazine. But what you might not know about me is that I am a lousy, no-good dilettante, so it takes me a while to catch on to small details like “what bands exist in Winnipeg in 2025.”

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Concert Review :: Sam Singer and the Beautiful Movers Orchestra

West End Cultural Centre (November 22, 2024)

Photos by Jakob Spence

written by Jonah Strassel

Mere moments before accepting the illustrious 47th annual Schmolaris Prize, Winnipeg’s own revered singer/songwriter Sam Singer was busy gracing the stage at the West End Cultural Centre to celebrate the release of his second full-length album, Where the Rivers Do. What made this a truly special night was that Sam had assembled many of the key players from in and around the Winnipeg music scene, a collection of folks which he had dubbed The Beautiful Movers Orchestra. Ten moving parts on stage, each of them adorned in uniform jumpsuits sporting name tags, soulfully bringing layers of gorgeous sounding strings, horns, piano, and pedal steel guitar to the personal and emotional lyrics being crooned into the mic. Sam’s voice is so unique and the inflection he uses to accentuate it sounds almost as if Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen had a baby and that child grew up to join The Strawbs. 

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Album Review:: Attica Riots:: Life’s a Sugar Pill

Album cover a ceral bowl full of pills

by Jamie Glenwright

After six years of radio silence (aside from live performances), Attica Riots finally released their second EP.  Life’s a Sugar Pill dropped on December 9th of last year,  and it doesn’t disappoint at all.  It has the same upbeat, melancholy-ish vibe they are known for. Their new EP has five songs that are all lovely in their own ways, and I’m thrilled to have the pleasure of reviewing them all as my first article for Stylus.

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