“Drag at its best will revive you,” says Christopher Frazer, a professor at St. FX. Known onstage as C. Leah Cruise, Frazer is an old queen in the scene beginning research on the history of drag in Halifax. He says that even with the social and economic challenges of the last 50 years, the city’s […]
Adria Young
Posted inArts + Music
Gay play
The best thing about sex toys is that everyone can use them: gay, straight, transgender. Whatever your preference or orientation, there’s a toy for it. Everybody has nipples, right? Luckily, Venus Envy stocks a variety of products that can be tailored to almost any desire and kink. The sales staff is informed and eager to […]
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Evolve yourself
It’s not too late to hit up Evolve 2013! One of the largest eco-conscious camping and music festivals kicks off on Friday on lush, rolling hills just outside of Antigonish. With over 150 musical acts ranging from techno to electro to funk to indie rock, Halifax and Dartmouth have a serious number of local artists […]
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Long Weekends
Halifax’s Long Weekends returns with six-track Tell It To My Heart, recorded over a long weekend (what!) in May. A replacement for my well-worn copy of Warmer Weather, new songs go deeper into the sinister rattle of the band’s distinct lo-fi pop-punk. Vocalist/guitarist Noel MacDonald rings like a cynical Elvis Costello after a mean, messy […]
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Shawn Mrazek
BC’s Shawn Mrazek is constantly compared to Lou Reed, which is tiring given how much energy and full, careful orchestration bubbles over his first solo LP venture, Thought He Was Dead. Not saying Lou Reed isn’t a happy guy, but you know. By comparison, Mrazek is high on life, taking his post-Evaporators honesty and building […]
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Grass roots
The Appalachian mountain range, from New York to Alabama, is considered the home of American bluegrass. Just a few miles north of the range, in Montreal, five-piece bluegrass band Notre Dame de Grass has been perfecting the folk-revival tradition for the last 10 years. At The Carleton on Wednesday, NDG hits both the peaks of […]
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Piper time
“The last time we played Halifax was in 2010 with A.A. Wallace’s former band, Sleepless Nights,” says Brad Weber, the force behind Toronto’s organic-electro outfit, Pick a Piper. “It’s really neat to play together again at this next stage of our work, if you are looking at us now and then. We still like to […]
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From Australia with love
“Growing up, my dad was a clown and my mom was a comedian, so the idea of performing wasn’t foreign to me,” says Australian folk-singer Jordie Lane. “But the idea of being a rock star, I didn’t even know what that was.” Then, when he was 10, a new kid moved to Lane’s school, sharing […]
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Socks it to me
Four dudes from Dartmouth have spent three years goofing around with folk-punk. Jeff DeCoste (vocals), Ian Rogers (guitar), Nick O’Leary (bass) and Dylan Jewers (drums) started The Odd Socks in high school because bands seemed cool. But playing garage shows in Dartmouth turned into headlining at Jacob’s Lounge, which turned into two albums and small […]
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New Music 2013
Bricks Following up December’s self-titled demo, Halifax/Newfoundland noise-punk band Bricks has been working on a new split-tape with local d-beat pals, Sleight. Anticipating the release this summer, Bricks will also hit Montreal and Ottawa with its raw hardcore like a sushi special. “One of our best shows so far was total chaos in a six-foot […]
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Broken Deer
As Broken Deer, Lindsay Dobbin spent last winter in an off-the-grid cabin outside of Whitehorse recording Polaraura on two cassette recorders with built-in mics. Sharing the valley with wolves, who started to visit her in dreams, Dobbin began incorporating the sound and feel of the isolated landscape into five improvised tracks. “It was so quiet […]
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Pete Swanson
“I have never felt as much like a musical outsider as I have this year,” says experimental sound artist Pete Swanson. Moving from the psychedelic-noise-rock of his former group, Yellow Swans, to the electro-techno of releases like Punk Authority, Swanson notices the reactions to his unconventional and genre-bending productions. “There are preconceived ideas regarding how […]