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OBEY Convention is always a head trip. The three-day fest, held the weekend of May 24, calls itself "Atlantic Canada’s most adventurous music festival"—a title it lives up to beautifully as it repeatedly exposes Halifax to sounds newly invented, or that few of us knew existed.
This week, the fest announced the full list of names that'll be leading us on an odyssey of noise this spring, and dudes, it's gonna be hype:
Un Blonde, the solo project of Montreal's musician, producer and composer Jean- Sebastian Audet, sees the walls between avant-funk and low-key soul crumble. Platitudes, meanwhile, sees a collaborative project between two inter-disciplinary artists do radio, performance and A/V presentations.
The dance floor'll be melting as Strange Froots blends musical traditions of Haiti, Ghana, Jamaica and Senegal into a chill soul sampler, and you can get your daily dose of reworked classical music as Melody McKiver delivers a stark, experimental blend of Western Classical and Anishinaabe traditions on the viola.
The sonic equivalent of a shot of green juice, you can get your hot hands on the full lineup's sonic tonic at obeyconvention.com/artists—and fill the time until the fun starts with this jam from Strange Froots:
Feist will be playing the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on May 25 and 26. Tickets are $66.50 in advance and $71.50 day of show will be available starting Friday, February 16 at the Dalhousie Arts Centre box office, by phone at (902) 494-3820 and online at sonicconcerts.com.
Known for its dreamy, decedent soundscapes and haunting vocals, Stars have been building sonic castles in sad-core style for over almost 20 years. Here, the band celebrates its impressive back catalogue (we hope "Take Me To The Riot" and "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" make the encore set list) and its latest effort, 2017's There Is No Love in Fluorescent Light, with a Marquee Ballroom show April 13.
Tickets go on sale this Sunday at sonicconcerts.com and are $38.49 in advance and $42.99 day of show.
Fill your time waiting with the soft, lush "Ageless Beauty" (and be prepared to happily hum the melody for days):
Formerly billed as the GroundSwell Music Festival, Into The Night Music Fest started as a way to highlight all the musical magic happening at GroundSwell Music's synonymous label. Since 2015, it was like walking through a live, label completion CD introducing Haligonians to local gems like the alt-rock The Town Heroes and punky Like A Motorcycle.
This year, though, Into The Night's shaking it up a bit, including Ontario punks The Flatliners and indie groove machine Said the Whale to the festival lineup.
The Flatliners and Like A Motorcycle kick things off Friday, March 16 while Said the Whale and The Town Heroes keep it chill on Saturday, March 17. While more acts are TBA, Black Buffalo Records will be on site March 17 for a record fair from 11am-4pm.
Tickets are on sale now for $25 so fans better get on this great way to spend St. Patrick's Day.
The Maritime Grammys are returning to Halifax this spring after what feels like too many years away, and with them are coming one hell of a big ticket. While the entire ECMA madness lasts from May 2 to 6, the awards ceremony itself (which takes place May 3) boasts a week's worth of talent, with old-stock rock royalty Sloan, the golden vocal chords of Measha Brueggergosman and folk queen Rose Cousins adding to a mix that already includes Joel Plaskett, Universal Soul, The Barra MacNeils, Les Hay Babies and The Once.
The East Pointers, Port Cities, Quake Matthews, Kinley, Makayla Lynn and City Natives round out the second wave of award ceremony performers for the Scotiabank Centre show, and tickets are available now for $40.
Canadian progressive-metal band Protest The Hero announced it will be having an extensive North American tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its gold-certified album, Fortress.
The 10-track LP was released in early 2008, debuting at number one in Canada.
The band will stop in Halifax at the Marquee Ballroom on Tuesday, April 24 at 8 pm.
Though this freakishly warm fall has winter feeling falsely far away, In The Dead of Winter Festival reminded us today that the snow is a-comin'—but luckily for us, so is the awesome singer-songwriter-focused festival with its folk-rock-Americana stylings.
The fest quietly put tickets on sale this morning for a slew of shows, including the trademark Songcircles, which sees much of the lineup share songs and stories in a more relaxed, intimate setting at Good Robot Brewing.
Also on deck? Waxahatchee at The Marquee, delivering the sonic equivalent of Mayan chocolate (sweet, rich, yet intensely fiery) to your frostbitten ears.
We’re also marking shows with Kaia Kater, an African-Canadian banjo player dedicated to sharing Old Time tunes with the masses, and the Boston-based Palehound, a lyrically-fuelled, emotionally-vast alternative group, to our calendar. Check out a video from Palehound’s latest album, A Place I’ll Always Go, below:
The fest runs January 18-20 with shows happening across the city and you can check out more at inthedeadofwinter.com.
Two concerts announced this week have me planning to make 2018 the year that listening to a shit ton more music becomes my official new year's resolution. These shows will surely help:
On January 12, Bahamas celebrates his fourth effort, Earthtones, which takes D'angelo-inspired rhythms sifted through a singer-songwriter style. The result? A show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium as warm as a dip in the Caribbean.
On January, 20, meanwhile, a ticket so hot it'll burn your hands lands at the Scotiabank Centre: Matt Mays, Dartmouth's own rock 'n' roll prince, celebrates his new wax Once Upon A Hell Of A Time with the gruff-soft, his-hers vocals of July Talk sharing headliner status. Warming the stage? The Beaches; the east-side Toronto offspring of Garbage and Hole that'll bowl you over with its punk goddess vibes and is literally worth the ticket price on its own. Check out what I mean with the band's latest vid, "Money":
Get full details on Bahamas' show here and the Matt Mays w/July Talk, The Beaches show here.
Prismatic Arts Festival, the annual celebration of culturally-diverse art in all mediums, dropped its first lineup announcement for the 2017 festival today. Running September 14 to 23 in a slew of venues across the city, the event boasts plays, dance performances, panel discussions and more.
Tickets for the fest go on sale July 25 and range from $5-$250 (including single tickets, festival packages, conference tickets).
While full details for events have yet to be announced, here’s a peek at some shows we’re marking on our calendars:
The Raft
A classic scene from Homer’s Odyssey—windswept, away from home and clinging to a dilapidated sea raft—gets updated with this play following desperate refugees attempting to outwit a temptress and make it to shore.
Orchestral Powwow
Cris Derksen marries traditional Indigenous Powwow music and dance with classic symphonic stylings for this, the ultimate cultural mash-up.
Broken English Karaoke
Stephanie Yee’s party-starting karaoke night has been a fan favourite at past festivals. This year’s Prismatic sees it return once again to push participants to navigate the boundaries between familiar and unfamiliar.
Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover
If you've ever felt literally lovesick, Shahin Sayadi’s workshop-stage musical play will ring a special chord: The story is set in a fishing village in Southern Iran where zar exorcism ceremonies, brought to the region by escaped East African slaves, are used to cure illness (and love.)
Re-Quickening
Santee Smith's beautiful, arresting show explores the intersection of Indigenous and new dance performance. Prismatic Festival adds this isn't your typical dance show: "Created through a process unique to Smith's culture, Re-Quickening is a spiritual resurgence, a piecing together of shards of knowledge that tips colonialism on its head."
After months of waiting (OK, maybe that was just me), the headliner for the year's biggest outdoor birthday party has finally been announced! Today the city confirmed that Deadmau5 will be rocking The Common with what he calls "the world's most transformative DJ stand" his CUBE 2.1.
It'll be the first time the cube sees Canada, so house heads will want to make sure they're within moshing distance to witness it in all its EDM glory. Rounding out the bill is a sonic buffet ranging from North Preston R&B giant Reeny Smith to poet laureate Rebecca Thomas to local rocker Matt Mays.
The party kicks off at 5pm but as this show will probably be the hottest ticket in town, you might wanna make a day of it—or at least arrive early.
While we wait for the fun, practice your moves with mau5's newest mix, stuff i used to do, which dropped earlier in 2017.