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Arts Roundup
May 14, 2026

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Edmonton punks take global stage and screen

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Synth-punk band Home Front took the opportunity to shout out Edmonton during a live studio session for KEXP, one of the biggest listener-funded radio stations in the United States. Frontman and co-founder Graeme Mackinnon hyped up fellow local acts Languid, Rhythm of Cruelty, and No Problem. He also praised mastering engineer and producer Nik Kozub — a member of Edmonton legend Shout Out Out Out Out alongside Home Front co-founder Clint Frazier — for helping to refine the band's sound.

Mackinnon, Frazier, and touring members Brandi Strauss, Ian Rowley, and Warren Oostlander played five songs from their 2025 album Watch it Die — Light Sleeper, Between The Waves, Eulogy, The Vanishing, and the album's title track. The band performed with typical fervour, with Mackinnon gripping the microphone like he's trying to crush it while breaking into a sweat from the exertion of his delivery.

The band is touring Canada, the U.S., and Europe this spring and summer in support of its sophomore album, which Range Magazine ranked among the best music of 2025. "Their dance-wired post-punk carries loss, political anger, and earned wisdom, but pushes toward collective hope instead of despair," wrote Stephan Boissonneault. "Fighting their way toward a better future, Watch It Die is a modified street punk album crafted intentionally for reckless freedom." The band last played in Edmonton to a packed Starlite Room in December, and Frazier told Taproot the band is planning a local show at some point in the fall. One could imagine that coinciding with the Purple City Music Festival, which will announce the first wave of its 2026 lineup on May 22 at Starlite.

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Books and publishing

  • Historian Catherine C. Cole is gathering oral histories for a book on Mill Woods, with listening sessions focused on how residents experienced the area's growth and diversity. Cole, a resident of Riverdale, said the creative process for the book deepened her understanding of the people who make up Mill Woods. "It's really interesting hearing from these people in those sessions, and it's helping me with writing the book, because they tell me things I didn't know," Cole told Taproot. "They also give me a perspective on some things that I had already read about or understood to a degree, but they give you a different flavour of what really happened to actual people."
  • Catherine Owen reviewed Marco Melfi's Routine Maintenance, calling the debut poetry collection a "delectable-for-the-ear examination of what we usually dismiss without the respect it deserves."
  • Frank Farley and the Birds of Alberta by Glen Hvenegaard, Jeremy Mouat, and Heather J. Marshall is "a long overdue recognition of a man, and a time, that Alberta would do well to remember," according to Kevin Van Tighem's review.
  • Skyborne Insight, Homemade Love by Katharine Weinmann was the top-selling poetry book on the Edmonton bestseller list from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.
  • The Stony Plain Public Library has joined other Alberta libraries in raising concerns about Bill 28, which it says creates new barriers to access, shifts decision-making away from local boards and trained professionals, and raises privacy concerns. The Coalition of Alberta Public Libraries has written to Premier Danielle Smith requesting a meeting.

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Happenings

Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:

And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:

Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.

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