Stuart Berman

Hamilton

Freelance Writer and Editor at Freelance

Producer, Commotion at CBC Radio-Canada

Producer at @commotioncbc; writer for @pitchfork, @stereogum, @torontostar; author of This Book Is Broken + Too Much Trouble

Articles

These eight summer music festivals are short, fun road trips from Toronto

2 weeks ago | hamiltonnews.com | Stuart Berman

The southern Ontario road trip is a summer tradition for Torontonians who can’t splurge for more far-flung getaways, but this year, being a tourist in your own province has become something of a patriotic duty.
Preoccupations: Ill at ease

1 month ago | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

When Calgarian siblings Patrick and Matt Flegel dissolved their beloved indie-rock band Women in 2012, they effectively mined its components like a couple divvying up their assets after a divorce. Patrick imported Women’s uncanny sense of melody into the phantasmagoric pop project Cindy Lee; Matt and fellow Women exile Mike Wallace repurposed the group’s foundation of dissonance and drone for their new band, which would come to be known as Preoccupations.
Population II: Maintenant Jamais

2 months ago | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

Population II tick all the boxes for a proper prog-rock act. They can easily fill an entire album side with a single track. Their drummer is also their lead singer. The guitarist and bassist double as synth players. And they hail from Quebec, historically the proggiest of all Canadian provinces. But approached from a different vantage, the Montreal trio is also a prototypical garage-rock band, fueled by maniacal energy, blistering fuzz, and a belief in raw power over precision.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: IC-02 Bogotá

Mar 28, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

Over the past decade and a half, Unknown Mortal Orchestra conductor Ruban Nielson has often resembled two different artists wrestling for control over the same soul. He’s a savvy pop synthesist who stands as one of his generation’s most reliable purveyors of vibed-out indie streamcore, but he’s also a restless musical nomad drawn to free-flowing exploration that steers clear of the algorithm.
Black Flag: My War

Mar 23, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

Every punk agrees that Black Flag were an important band. Few can agree on what exactly made them so.
Yves Jarvis: All Cylinders

Mar 6, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

Yves Jarvis’ relationship with songwriting is akin to a sommelier testing wine—he’s perpetually drunk on melody, yet he savours each one just long enough to register a brief blissful taste before moving onto the next. Unlike noted data-dump tunesmiths like Robert Pollard, Jarvis isn’t on a mission to flood the market; rather, he’s motivated by the challenge of seeing how much he can pack into a two-minute track.
Ela Minus: DÍA

Jan 29, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

The club is traditionally the place where you can escape all the problems in your life and the world at large, but it’s where Ela Minus goes to confront them.
Mogwai: The Bad Fire

Jan 23, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

Over the past 30 years, Mogwai have gifted us some of the greatest song titles in the history of music-naming rights. Where their post-rock peers lean toward earnest sentiment or alarmist messaging, Mogwai treat their tracklists like bathroom-stall graffiti.
Jennifer Castle: Camelot

Nov 12, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Stuart Berman

If any musician has mastered the art of the work/life balance, it’s Jennifer Castle. Once embedded in Toronto’s fertile mid-2000s indie-rock scene but now ensconced a few hours outside the city in the Lake Erie coastal town of Port Stanley, Castle makes unhurried music at an unhurried pace, averaging a new album every four years and favoring short regional tours that keep her close to home and family.
A conversation with Frank Black/Black Francis from 2004

Nov 6, 2024 | stubermania.substack.com | Stuart Berman

Welcome to stübermania, where I dig into my box of dust-covered interview cassettes from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s to present bygone conversations with your favourite alterna/indie semi-stars. This is a newsletter in three parts: The Openers (links to recent writings, playlist updates, and/or other musical musings), The Headliner (your featured interview of the week), and Encores (random yet related links).