Freeman’s Little New York 6092 Quinpool Road, 429-0241 Hungry Hour runs every Friday from 4:30 to 7:30pm. Freeman’s owner Laurel Harrington usually staffs the bar, while her husband Mark briskly walks the aisle, dishing out slices of pizza, cucumber and egg sandwiches and occasionally bowls of mussels—all totally free, as long as you have a […]
Alison Lang
Posted inArts + Music
Talk of the Townsend
There are worse places to chase away mid-winter malaise than The Paragon Theatre on a Wednesday. The tables are laid with tea lights flickering like fireflies, the apricot beer is on special, and people lean their heads in to hear each other over the music thumping through the speakers. It’s Carmen Townsend’s third time playing […]
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Hawksley Workman
Like a lot of Hawksley Workman fans, my feelings about his musical output can be likened to those of any tempestuous long-term relationship. I’ve been chasing the dizzyingly brilliant heights of For Him and the Girls for over 10 years now, and although there’s been times I’ve been on the verge of dumping him completely, […]
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Monotonix mania
The last time you saw Ami Shalev, he was probably dumping a garbage can on his drummer’s head. Or shoving a microphone up his ass. Or leaping off of a telephone pole in front of Gus’ Pub. Or crowd surfing atop a bass drum. Shalev’s band Monotonix had quite the year in 2008, mowing down […]
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Talk of the town: best music of 2009
A History OfAction in the North Atlantic (Noyes) High-octane, Maritime-themed math rock? Yes, please. A History Of gets the Halifax music scene right, and finally gives us a full-length record. —LK Black MoorThe Conquering (Diminished Fifth) The stuff of heavy metal legend: surviving a car crash, Black Moor channels death and Kill Em All hooks making you […]
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Pop goes a new Republic
The recording process for a band like The Most Serene Republic always sounds like the punchline to a lousy joke: What happens when you throw a big group of diverse, classically trained, cosmically minded musicians in a room together? Fortunately, the band (who mostly hail from pastoral Milton, Ontario) has somehow managed to produce a […]
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Auf der Maur one witchy woman
“I’ve been living in the shadow of larger figures my entire life,” Melissa Auf der Maur says. Even during an interview to promote her most recent project, the former bassist for Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins speaks warmly of the larger-than-life people that spurred her interests in music and art in the first place. Among […]
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Tegan and Sara
After the major critical and commercial success of 2007’s The Con, Tegan and Sara Quin could have recorded cats crying and taking poops on napkins and people would still be into it. Thankfully, our strange little sisters emerged with Sainthood, another album that explores those time-tested themes—relationships and fucking them up—with beautiful precision. Songs like […]
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The Gideons
Holy shit, The Gideons! The Halifax quintet’s spirited, joyful double album Oxford Street is perhaps the most ambitious local endeavour of the year—and the most successful. They have tethered their fun messiness without sacrificing any exuberance. It’s almost stressful finding a favourite song because you’ll have so many. “I Will Take You To The Ivory […]
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Golden Idlers
The Idlers want to make one thing perfectly clear: They may play reggae, but they’re not here to lecture. “With entertainment and politics, it’s a fine line,” says the group’s guitarist, Paul Schiralli-Earle (who boasts an uncanny ability to speak from St. John’s, play with a baby and cook bok choy at the same time). […]
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Cuff the Duke stay in the ring
When it comes to writing song lyrics, Wayne Petti likes to keep things at a distance. “I don’t often get too personal in music,” the Cuff the Duke singer admits over the phone from Toronto. “Usually I try to write stuff we all can relate to.” A perfunctory appraisal of the Cuff the Duke catalogue […]
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Think About Life’s family business
Think About Life is the type of band that makes music writers want to quit. It’s hard to write about them in any honest and meaningful way without descending into lifeless party-band descriptors. (“An exuberant live show! Charmingly shambolic!”) And really, it doesn’t really do them justice. The facts, on paper: A few years ago, […]