The first release from Heavy Fog, a new avant-classical imprint from stalwart Halifax outsider label Divorce Records, is spellbinding. It offers over an hour of shifting, tangled melodies from some of Toronto’s finest players. With introspective strings, blooming autoharp and ebbing cymbals, Bespoken moves the mind of the listener to a position of lightness. Which […]
Andrew Patterson
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Critics’ picks 2013: Music
DAVID DAHMS David Dahms AKA Odysseus Catfish Jenkins III, Big Titteh, Dubs, OCJ3, The Toothless Wonder, D-Double, DMN8R, One Dread and Potato Salad is a premature mic dropper and has been writing for The Coast since 2013. The Caravan LOCAL The Caravan (independent) “What Up Steve?” channelled frustrations with the federal government more than any other […]
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Corey Isenor: Mountain man
“It was the best of the worst case, really,” says south shore troubadour Corey Isenor, with a seasoned mix of hoarseness and optimism in his voice. He’s referring to a car accident that punctuated the beginning of his tour, along the highway nearing Dawson City. “We spun around a few times and ended up going […]
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Magik Markers
For all the meandering, all the fog and confusion and the splattering of sounds that happens on any given Magik Markers release (of which there are ostensibly countless), there is always something very pure and direct at the core. The Connecticut trio makes fevered, impressionistic rock music that has evolved slowly into something resembling song-formed […]
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Freelove Fenner
I can’t help thinking of the term “caper” when I hear the new LP from Montreal’s Freelove Fenner. Not the pickled flower buds, but the kind of mischief that usually involves concealed motives, hushed breath and stealthy movements. The vocals are at once icy and impelling (recalling the late Trish Keenan of Broadcast), the guitar […]
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You Good Thing
In this, Weir’s 11th collection of poetry, the Massachusetts-based poet refracts a multitude of selves along the cracked surfaces of 41 loose sonnets. By using a mathematical sketch by Fernando Pessoa (a Portuguese poet well-known for his many, many heteronyms) along with the caption “by the longest possible route” as an epigraph, Weir prepares the […]
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Crosss
To plot reference points for Crosss’ pitch-black groove seems pointless. It would be like discovering a heavy boulder in the depths of the Atlantic and pointing to some far-off mountain range. This is eternal stuff–dark, moving music on a prodigious scale. Over two years in the making, the precision playing and anesthetizing aura on this […]
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Soft Serve
On this digital-only EP from Vancouver’s Soft Serve, the influence can really be “felt,” if you catch my drift. Jangly leads and gently strummed backing guitars intermingle over driving drum beats and faithful bass lines. Sopping wet vocals come in from the rain to tell you that it’s actually quite fresh outside. While the playing […]
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Heaven For Real
On its contribution to the new batch of Craft Singles, Halifax’s twin-powered trio offers the listener two salient sides of the same smirk. Similar to its nomenclature, the A-side— “You Are One With The Iron-heart Device”—pokes sardonically at the idea of paradise. Singer Mark Grundy hints at several different moods and interpretations by peppering small […]
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Songs That Remind Us Of Factories
The work of New Brunswick poet Danny Jacobs is compulsive. It blends beautifully a kind of academic ascendancy with an overpopulated, everyday existence. His first book is ripe with intensely lyrical pieces about malls, call centres, houseflies and…the Higgs boson. Whether mundane or elaborate, Jacobs treats his subjects with great concentration. His description is gobsmacking, […]
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Weed
Some things you’re just born with. Born damn lucky to have, in fact. Vancouver’s Weed have been advantageously endowed with the great gift of rock ‘n’ roll instinct and shares it in spades on its full-length debut. The production is perfectly muddied, the melodies are simple and inspired and the playing is downright ferocious. If you’re looking […]
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The Plan, boss, The Plan!
Yet again, Halifax Pop Explosion has spurred a much-anticipated reunion of a seminal local band. This year, The Plan, a post-hardcore group featuring members of North of America, Equation of State and Cold Warps, will end a 12-year period of inactivity by performing at the festival. The band’s original lifespan was a scant and feverish […]