It’s not exactly shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, but country singer Troy Gentry, of the hit-making country duo Montgomery Gentry, improperly tagged a bear he’d shot on a private reserve as if it’d been killed in the wild—a surprisingly serious crime that set him back $15,000 in fines. The mis-tagging debacle . . .

Blending a mix of narrative lyrics, lush instrumentation and synth-pop flourishes, the Toronto-based indie-pop collective Stars has distinguished itself from fellow bands treading this well-worn terrain. Led by vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan, both sometimes members of Broken Social Scene...