In true do-it-yourself fashion, Toronto singer-songwriter Danny Handes took pretty much whatever he could find—guitar, microphone, tambourine, knitting needles—and weaved an impressive debut album. The Asterisk Eye is a musical quilt, a patchwork of 14 songs that cover a lot of ground. It travels pretty much everywhere, from “So Bad” with its AC/DC-like driven riff to the softer land of “Our Leaves Are Green Again” and “Long Road,” which would be fitting on a mix-tape with the likes of Keane and Thom Yorke. “Hearts Again” is a catchy windows-rolled-down-on-a-cool-fall-night companion …

The word independent– indie– gets tossed around a lot, sometimes without people knowing what exactly it means– or, rather, what they mean. Are we talking about the form of the art itself, or the avenue of its creation? We’re obsessive classifiers; compulsive cataloguers. I suppose it helps to label things as a way to keep our shelves (and lives) from being in total disarray, but sometimes we don’t do ourselves justice.
There is a sound sneaking through Jeffery Straker’s music that I had trouble identifying. While on the surface Step Right Up feels very much like a pop …

In Fall From Grace Lindi Ortega has created what could just be the quintessential album of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of life as an Indie singer. Chock full of promise that borders at times on brilliance, the album is a testimony to never giving up and never giving in. From the first verse of the album’s opener, “Stumble and Fall”, where Ortega sings, “Lately I’ve been contemplating/Leaving all of this behind/There’s too much worry on my mind/Everyday my heart is breaking/Something’s always on the line/And I’m always racing against …