Chris McCluskey

What fans of local synth rockers HOTSHOTROBOT will never hear is the initial direction of the band’s first EP, Everyone Die. The project, initially titled Eat My Heart, was born of a different genre altogether. “Everyone Die was decided upon when all of our songs were power-metal originally,” says vocalist and keyboardist Jen Clarke. “But […]

Fans of local act Mardeen are starting to hear some new material trickle out onto the group’s MySpace page. Making the song “Kids” available is the first step in the band’s movement towards releasing their first full-length record in spring 2007. “It’s called Read Less Minds and it will have 10 to 12 tracks on […]

Curry’s flavourEarlier this year, singer/songwriter Andrea Curry received three nominations at the East Coast Music Awards—Female Artist of the Year, Pop Recording of the Year and CBC Galaxie Rising Star of the Year. Although she didn’t walk away with the pewter, she has two more opportunities to win an award in 2006, vying for Nova […]

It’s been four years since The Rascalz released an album and eight since they pushed Canadian hip-hop toward commercial viability by refusing a Juno to protest being excluded from the televised portion of the awards. Now releasing material independently, Vancouver MC Red1 is coming to Halifax with a purpose. The Red1 Love Tour’s national campaign […]

The title of folk pop troubadour Jason Bajada’s sophomore album, Up Go the Arms, holds a variety of emotive interpretations on the surface. It could be conveying celebration, exasperation or anger. Bajada explains his effort as positive. “Mostly celebratory…I think I wanted people to notice the hopeful side in a Jason Bajada song,” he says […]

Feeling more confident, The Self Conscious ditched its name this summer, after only a pair of shows, in favour of The Beginners. But Mike O’Neill says there were other reasons too. “There were many bands out there called The Self Conscious and few, if any, called The Beginners,” he says. “There might be The Beginners […]

In the latest installment of his adventures in exasperation, self-defeatist satirist BA Johnston throws his arms in the air and tells the world to let him know when the world is less image-based. The new album, titled Call Me When Old and Fat is the New Young and Sexy, will be debuted in Halifax on […]

The Common was the best place to feel like you weren’t in Halifax last weekend, with a massive stage, bleachers and numerous concession tents materializing on previously familiar territory. About the only reminder you lived nearby were the sheets of rain. Halifax-bred group Sloan represented the east with a short set before a longer (and […]

Some say no band has been more important to, or synonymous with, Halifax music than Sloan. And with their eighth full-length studio album hitting shelves September 19, they now have an equivalent number of releases between their formative home and their adopted home of Toronto. Bassist Chris Murphy says the town they grew up is […]

Tumbleweed Publishing—a subsidiary of local music co. Tumbleweed Entertainment—is releasing its latest in a vegan-oriented print series this week. Author Claire Gallant decided to branch out from the strict cookbook format of her last two efforts. She says A Cure for Vegoraphobia: A Vegan Dining Guide to Halifax will help local vegans know what establishments […]

Between KC Spidle (Dog Day, The Hold, Attack Mode) and Crystal Thili (Dog Day, The Hold), Halifax indie rock’s only husband-and-wife team constitutes a large chunk of the vision for our city’s progressive underground. For his solo CD release on September 3 at the One World Cafe, Spidle goes it alone as Husband and Knife. […]