Few bands celebrate the release of a record simultaneously with an amicable parting of ways, but three-piece rock act Horses is doing just that. Guitarist Lachie MacDonald is packing his bags to be with his flame in Toronto, 1,800km from drummer Glenn Barrington and bassist Mark Gillis. “Basically the idea is that because I knew […]
Chris McCluskey
Posted inArts + Music
Great expectations
Listen to “Unnatural” off the new album Home of the New Totem. “Ultimately, I am at the point where I am only doing things I am passionate about. I don’t do anything in my life that is monotonous,” says Sean MacGillivray. “It’s been my goal and the way I’ve structured my life, and structured the […]
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Three fellows collaborate
A trio inspired by a concept first employed by Jerry Granelli during last year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival has wrapped up its first record with a similar notion in mind. TFC—made up of Jeff Torbert (guitar), Adam Fine (bass) and Doug Cameron (drums)—is releasing an album of original and improv jazz recorded in front of a […]
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East coast adds up
Consistent with enduring east coast character, the wealth was spread around at the East Coast Music Awards on February 18. A pair of artists, and an additional couple of bands, attended various post-ceremony festivities having garnered three trophies apiece. Country favourite George Canyon was the highest earning representative of the Scotia diaspora, being honored with […]
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Plum instrumentalist
While Catriona Sturton is most familiar as the bassist from beloved ’90s act Plumtree, her skills with another instrument pre-date the band. Sturton’s first experience performing was with a harmonica and she’ll return to teach a beginner’s workshop on the topic at the Halifax Public Library on February 10. “I studied it when I was […]
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Contact cement
After subtracting two members and adding one, The Contact are back in the studio recording bed tracks for a sophomore release as a four piece with a revised approach. “It’s going to be extremely different from the last record, which was more in the Brit-pop vein,” says Nathan Doucet, who was recruited last August to […]
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Goin’ Doane the road
Many years have passed since Melanie Doane left Halifax for Toronto and it has been almost a full three since her last local performance at The Marquee Club. Doane, in order to raise children, took a hiatus from touring but is now back on the road with the Bluebird North songwriters’ circle. With musicians Barney […]
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From the bat cave
On a recent Cancer Bats website posting, bassist Andrew McCracken disputes vocalist Liam Cormier’s ability to distinguish between band info that is newsworthy and info that is blogworthy. “Liam, you never listen. We explained the difference between blogging and news to you before,” he writes. “News is news; new record, tour coming up, Aner’s not […]
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Stevens is stoked
Determined to ensure a happy new year, Jonny Stevens has mapped out a pragmatic strategy to increase his already dedicated fanbase. The singer-songwriter recently overhauled his website, has reached the manufacturing stage of a new record and hopes to convert a music video treatment into a professional audio-visual representation of his material. “Hopefully we get […]
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The last jump
Several local bands travelled further and for longer, but none ventured as far north in 2006 than melodic rock act Turnstiles. The quartet fulfilled a desire to tour across Canada this summer, and topped it off with three shows in Whitehorse. Now, life circumstances have deteriorated any hopes of the group following up its LP […]
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Scene it all
JANUARY The Joel Plaskett Emergency counts down the seconds (at the Marquee, as usual) leading up to a monumental year in Halifax music. For the Emergency, that will mean releasing its first DVD/CD Make a Little Noise on March 14, which yielded the single “Nowhere with You” that catapulted the trio to Canadian mainstream stardom. […]
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The lost Pearlman
Some believe the music industry is the scum of the earth, but promoter Ben Pearlman presents a strong argument for the opposing point of view. The local promoter began working with bands in the fall of 2001, eventually establishing himself as one of Halifax music’s biggest assets. We’ll only have him for another week though, […]
