You are eight years old and today is the first day of fishing season. Your father has finally taken you out with him and even bought you your own pole. Though you’re too young to understand adulthood, you can tell that this is how you become the person you hope to be. Your chest swells […]
Hugh Stewart
Posted inArts + Music
Home is where the Doom is
The first thing that comes up when talking to Doom Machine member Bill Arsenault is what the heavy metal community is like in the Annapolis Valley. Seemingly everywhere you go in Nova Scotia you’ll find tiny pockets of metal kids, keeping everything heavy and dark alive in their tiny metal loving hearts. “The valley scene […]
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Not Friends for life
Jono Whittle from Not Friends wants to emphasize, first and foremost, that the show this Friday at Plan B is DEFINITELY all-ages. Whittle is stoked on Plan B, which he says is a great host for punk shows, providing an “overwhelmingly positive atmosphere.” Not Friends, from St. John’s, is touring its new EP. It clocks […]
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April Reign
April Assault VI emerges from the broken, burning earth this weekend to lay waste to Dartmouth’s unsuspecting masses and raise money for cancer research at the same time. Ten bands over two days are ready to pummel your soul with their dark rituals, including the Best of Music’s winners Black Moor and Orchid’s Curse, who […]
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Protest The Hero’s welcome
The critically acclaimed Whitby, Ontario band Protest The Hero sounds like eight or nine classically trained honeybees playing fingerpick guitar solos at the same time. Sometimes one of the bees is also wailing and sometimes one of the bees is shouting or dying. The intricate, hardcore influenced brand of metal will be on display during […]
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Waka Flocka Flame game
After months of rumors and hearsay, Waka Flocka Flame (given name Juaquin Malphurs) is finally hitting the Halifax Forum on Saturday night. In a city that has a reputation for cancelling big-name rap acts at the last minute due to border troubles and booking issues, it seemed like it might never happen. But it is—Waka Flocka […]
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Good jeans
“I was thinking about this band for a long time before it actually existed,” says Eleanor King, when asked about how Wet Denim formed. “I knew I wanted to play with other women and was trying to come up with my own dream team.” King and fellow dream team members Leigh Dotey, Victoria Parker and […]
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Charli XCX
Bleep-bloop gauze-y pop music about being in love. This record is like the music played at a “cool” party on Gossip Girl. Sometimes CXCX raps, though, and it is the worst. Personally, I listen to “What I Like” first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed so I always have […]
Posted inArts + Music
Young Thug
Normal responses to my constant beseeching to listen to Young Thug’s new Brick Squad-affiliated mixtape include: “the auto-tune sounds like he’s euthanizing sick farm animals”; “he isn’t even singing on key”; “he mumbles half his lines and the ones that aren’t mumbles are horrid shrieking yelps” and “the weird half-singing half-rapping cadence sounds like listening […]
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King Louie
Just by existing, King Louie questions hegemonic capitalism, paradoxically celebrating capitalist excesses while drawing attention to the crippling social inequality that is its natural result. Still, songs like anthem “My Hoes They Do Drugs” are doing nothing to destroy patriarchy, reifying a truly revolting kind of misogyny. Even at his most hateful (AKA always) Louie’s […]
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Chief Keef
Could anyone really recommend 17-year-old Chief Keef’s big label debut? On one hand it typifies an exciting new generation of Chicago rap production: hybrid hard-nosed Lex Luger trap beats and weirdo melodic auto-tune anthems. On the other hand, every track is a parade of dead-eyed misogynistic boasting. Like on bonus track “Citgo”—-where Keef warbles out […]