If the British Friendly Fires were a Canadian band, they’d be from Montreal and they’d be out all night dancing on Ste-Catherine. Bringing to mind the electro-pop of acts like Hexes and Ohs, the Friendly Fires are warm and sparkly. Their debut self-titled album is a mostly dancey affair but you can hear some nerdy […]
Laura Kenins
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The Danks
PEI loves its keyboards and I’m OK with that. I haven’t paid much attention to its music scene, but as recent EPs and conversations with island-born musicians have shown me, this is a mistake. There are danceable bands over there, The Danks being no exception. Featuring members of Two Hours Traffic, hitting somewhere between that […]
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The Paperbacks
I wanted to love this literary, punk-rooted Winnipeg band. Their lyrics lean to the wordy side, but the lyrical passion doesn’t match musical. The lit-rock sound picks up through the second half of the album, but not enough to stand out. Produced by The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson, this, their second full-length, sounds like they’ve […]
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Mary and Joe
I argue with my mother over church. I can’t ruin a family tradition of going to church once a year, Christmas Eve, see, but I worry that my atheism might spoil the mood more. And later we go smoke cigarettes under the bridge, Mary and I, and she’s got her hair done up all loose […]
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Swallow Me Whole
Swallow Me WholeNate PowellTop ShelfComic book artist Nate Powell has made his name on quasi-surreal tales of punk lifestyles, which has garnered some criticism from reviewers who like his illustrations but find those stories tedious. With Swallow Me Whole, he moves into the mainstream with his first full-length story from a bigger publisher and a […]
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Harper’s cuts lower the curtain on arts funding
Arts professionals have been up in arms across the country over the last few months about funding emergencies due to government budget cuts and the economy stalling donations. But how is the economic crisis hitting here in Nova Scotia, where we’re already famous for our lack of arts funding? As one of a couple of […]
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Cool air
Between militant security guards patting you down for bottles of shampoo over 10ml and the energy crisis, air travel isn’t much fun these days, so the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s Flight Dreams is a refreshing escape. Inspired by the story of Ken Barnes, an aeronautical designer for the doomed Avro Arrow, the exhibition brings […]
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Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of WealthMargaret Atwood(Anansi)Only Margaret Atwood can turn finance into a gripping tale of mythology and history. In her 2008 Massey Lecture, she looks at debt in all its forms—credit card, budget deficits and debts that require a human life to be repaid. Going from prehistory through classical and Middle […]
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The Creeps w/Fear of Lipstick and Tongan Death Grip
Halloween may be over, but if you’re still looking for scary music, The Creeps are here to regale you with songs about stalkers and serial killers this Saturday. Though they’ve been playing since 1999, this is the Ottawa punk trio’s first Halifax appearance. Playing catchy pop-punk with a decidedly dark slant, their music has garnered […]
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Canteen Knockout
[image-4]Published November 06, 2008.Canteen KnockoutNavajo Steel(weewerk)An unpretentious country band out of Toronto, Canteen Knockout’s irony ends there. Navajo Steel is a record of road-trip country songs. They’re adept musicians, but where many of their weewerk labelmates (United Steelworkers of Montreal and Barmitzvah Brothers) push the folk and country envelopes, Canteen Knockout is straight-up old-school country. […]
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Monotonix did not set anything on fire tonight.
I was going to write about some other bands, but then I went to the Monotonix show. I was having a hard time deciding if I’d stay at the Marquee for The Inbreds or head up to Gus’ and hope they weren’t at capacity, but I feel fairly confident that while The Inbreds were on […]
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Wednesday Night, Part 2: Bands that didn’t take the show on the road
I headed to the Marquee to see a couple stylish indie bands in Hell’s Kitchen, and generally stray back and forth between floors showing off my press pass. I caught the last couple songs of The Love Machine, who’ve got this sort of timeless movie credit thing going on with their music, that sounds like […]