Acclaimed violinist Oliver Schroer is spending his final days in a Toronto hospital bed but, with remarkable poise, he’s also finishing records and preparing for a farewell performance. After battling leukaemia for over a year with multiple rounds of chemotherapy and treatments, Schroer was recently informed that nothing could save him. “Basically they’ve parked me; they’re out of options so I’m at the end of my life in some kind of way,” Schroer says, a relatively cheerful lilt in his steady voice.
“Elisabeth Kübler-Ross talks about the five stages of dying, the first one being denial, the last one being acceptance. It seems that I’m in denial but it feels more like acceptance. I’m just getting on with living at an accelerated pace; I’ve got a lot of things I want to do and I’m doing them.”
With a laptop full of new songs within reach, Schroer’s music-driven work ethic isn’t surprising. An eclectic session player, he’s composed astonishing albums over the past 20 years, including 2006’s Camino, recorded during a 1000-kilometre walk of the Camino de Santiago. Since his 2007 diagnosis, he’s released two inspirational albums (Hymns and Hers and Smithers), is mixing long-forgotten projects (i.e., a stellar 1998 record by his old band Stewed Tomatoes), and emailing reports to friends and fans. Though day-to-day, his most recent missives detail “Oliver Schroer’s Last Concert on his Tour of this Planet,” scheduled for June 5 at Toronto’s Trinity St. Paul’s Church.
“If there’s one thing I hope people take away from this whole thing, it’s don’t procrastinate; do it now,” Schroer says. “I’ve gotten a lot of communication from people more cognisant of this, partially because of my situation. That means this illness isn’t just a personal thing for me to suffer through but actually a gift for hundreds of people to make something out of [and that] makes me very happy.”
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Full Review
The vibrant Toronto art scene now has its own variety show. Self-dubbed “video-vaudeville,” King Kaboom plays like schizophrenic YouTube viewing. Each 22-minute episode contains a mishmash of comedy, music, spoken word, dance and sideshow acts strung together with bizarre segues.
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In October 2007, Fucked Up hosted their third annual weekend of punk rock mayhem in Toronto. This DVD is exactly what it purports to be: a straight document of every performance, capturing the manic energy of three straight nights of young, loud, and snotty. Brutal Knights’ cross-dressed trasher
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Though all signs point to an increase in vinyl sales, this hasn’t stopped some labels from releasing frustratingly limited records of all shapes and sizes. Brooklyn-based weirdo-peddlers Aagoo Records take it a step further with a six-piece series of picture discs that pairs the candid Polaroids of
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The nostalgia for British director Tony Palmer’s work continues with the astounding five-DVD set, All You Need is Love, rescued from obscurity for the benefit of music history geeks everywhere. Palmer’s notorious 1968 BBC rockumentary All My Loving re-emerged in full digital glory
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"I'm sorry, I'm so soaked!" Elizabeth Powell apologizes as she approaches and immediately leans in to greet me with a hug despite the fact that, just moments before, the skies emptied a sweltering hot summer's worth of pent-up precipitation over downtown Toronto....
Check out the hottest new releases in Canada this week, including: The Clientele Minotaur, Deep Dark Woods Charlie's, Hot Panda How Come I'm Dead, Interpol S/T, Parkas You Should Have Killed Us When You Had the Chance, Philip Selway Familial, Rae Spoon Love Is A Hunter...
From their sunny harmonies and chipper arrangements, Magic Kids appear to be the offspring of a Wilson brother or three. Like Big Star before them, these sprightly 20somethings sound more like your standard pop act from California, but instead call Memphis, TN home. Magic Kids are proud of their...
