Jello Biafra is ever the activist: that much is evident on reaching his voicemail, a two-minute-long dissertation on things the American government is doing wrong, from 9/11 cover-ups to the terrorist watch list to sending aid to Israel. The former Dead Kennedys frontman has mainly focused on spoken word since that band’s breakup in the […]
Laura Kenins
Posted inArts + Music
Little Miss Higgins
Little Miss Higgins comes from another era; one can only surmise that the roaring ’20s are still raging on in the Saskatchewan village she hails from. Higgins wraps her deep, rich blues voice on tales from the traditional to the ridiculous, like “Bargain! Shop Panties” (“So lovely, so divine, I buy ’em all the time, […]
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Scott Conarroe gets railroaded
Sitting on a passenger train somewhere in eastern New Brunswick and listening to a voice announce that the train will be an additional four hours late getting into Halifax, it’s easy to forget that train travel was once a crucial mode of transport. Photographer Scott Conarroe is conscious of this change. Known for his large-format, […]
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Elizabeth Shepherd’s salvation
Vocalist and pianist Elizabeth Shepherd had an unlikely musical educator: the Salvation Army. Growing up with parents who were Salvation Army ministers, she spent her childhood moving around Canada and France, with the church as the main basis of the family’s social life. The Salvation Army “was a great foundation for music,” she says, listing […]
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The Wind Up Radio Sessions
Though the name is confusing, The Wind Up Radio Sessions have nothing particular to do with the radio—this is a poppy folk record made by two brothers and a friend. It starts off with a folkier sound, but hits nearly danceable numbers by the end. The songs feel summery and earnest, youthful and emotional, lyrics […]
Posted inLifestyle
Non-beach Summer Reads
I remained undaunted by every dense, dreary summer reading goal I set for myself until the summer I decided to read Gravity’s Rainbow and gave up after four pages; try checking out some slightly shorter recent and upcoming Canadian releases instead. Local writer Anne Emery’s Children in the Morning (ECW) is a Halifax murder mystery […]
Posted inLifestyle
Events and festivals
Choose a month: [ June | July | August & September ] Venom to August 8 & Riding With Meteorites to September 6 Venom and Riding With Meteorites When the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History reopened earlier in June, it did so with a bang, delivering two killer summer shows. The first, Venom, is […]
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Long, Long, Long
Long, Long, Long can’t sit still. They’ve barely played their second show, and they’re already working on their second release and preparing for a mid-June tour. After three of four band members began building a reputation across Canada as York Redoubt last year, the band’s sudden split late in the fall left plenty of disappointed […]
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Micro Organs
Jenny Gillespie (also of Meat Curtains) first began performing solo under the name Oil Spills and Microrganisms in 2008, but has since switched to the shorter Micro Organs. She teamed up with drummer Mathieu Blanchard in October of last year—“I thought you were good, I wanted to play with you,” Blanchard pipes up from behind, […]
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Quaker Parents
Quaker Parents began as a collaboration between brothers Mark (Gamma Gamma Rays, A History Of) and Scott Grundy (Gamma Gamma Rays), playing jittery, danceable math rock. They soon added Brad Lahead (Long, Long, Long) to the fold, and Mark calls the group “more of a band now.” “We’re more confident. We’ve developed well under the […]
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Quivers
Two-fifths of beloved-but-defunct psychedelic rock band The Gideons, the more punk-influenced Quivers began practising a few months ago, playing their first show in April. “My old band broke up and Lyle [Peterson] and I wanted to keep playing together,” frontman Josh Salter explains. They joined forces with bassist Ryan Allen (Cold Warps) and drummer Matt […]
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Union of the Snake
Coming from a strong Halifax rock pedigree, hardcore outfit Union of the Snake played its first show at May’s Long Live the Queen festival. Made of Chad Peck (Noyes Records, Kestrels, The Medium Mood), Jim MacAlpine (VKNGS, North of America) and Dave Kaufman (VKNGS), the band formed out of “boredom, sharing a practice space, and […]