Black: On your song, “Did That,” is that a Josh Martinez sample at the end? I can’t place it. Boy-ill: It is a local sample…Y-Rush told me once and I can’t remember. Markit: Y-Rush just does his own things in his attic at 4 am and the next thing…we hear it. Boy-ill: It is local […]
Mark Black
Posted inArts + Music
Bike Rodeo du it clean
Made up of Nigel Tinker (Joyless Streets), Mike D’Eon (The Establishment), Matt Nichols (The Stance) and Niall Skinner (Their Majesties), Bike Rodeo play a loud blend of 1960s garage rock and ’90s Brit rock. D’Eon says, “It was the first band I was in where we just jammed for a good couple months to find […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Pushers keep pushing it
Because you’ve become an old and boring punk, doesn’t mean the music you make has to be the same. The Pushers, who have about a million years of collective experience playing in bands, are one of the more exciting acts playing punk rock in Halifax. The reason stems from the fact that this band is […]
Posted inArts + Music
Road Rash: worship the skateboard
There hasn’t been a band in the Maritime punk scene since FYM that worships skateboarding as much as Road Rash. Their demo, released earlier this year and sold out of an old pizza box, could and should be the soundtrack to the movie Thrashin’. Made up of Dartmouth inhabitants Bobby Swagger, C-Wilk, Peter Van Shmansen […]
Posted inArts + Music
Great Scots! reunite, play first ever Canadian show
It seems oddly Canadian that a band dubbed by the Canadian press as our country’s Beatles have never played a single concert in their homeland, but that’s the story of The Great Scots—often strange and seeming like the stuff of legend. Unravel The Great Scots’ story and it’s easy to understand why their recordings are […]
Posted inArts + Music
B.A. Johnston
B.A. Johnston has proven that he’s one of the best live acts to ever call Halifax home. Does it matter that he wrote a great album, Stairway To Hamilton, chronicling a life of dirt malls and dead-end jobs that channels the spirit of Ford Pier and the Bonaduces, as long as he still continues to […]
Posted inArts + Music
Snailhouse w/Grand Theft Bus
Mike Feuerstack’s list of collaborators is exceeded only by his admirers, as evidenced by the recent Snailhouse tribute album, Do You Want to Talk All Night? (Sappy Records). Feuerstack, the heart of Snailhouse, got his start playing in the well-loved, but often overlooked, Moncton hardcore band The Underdogs alongside Rick White (Eric’s Trip/Elevator). The list […]
Posted inArts + Music
Trans AM w/The Jimmy Swift Band, Grand Theft Bus
The last time Trans AM played Halifax, as a part of the Halifax Pop Explosion in 1997, they placed duct tape over the names of their keyboards and synths to the chagrin of local gear heads. Making nerds sweat once again, they released the poorly received T.A. in 2001. The album, which featured vocals on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Pop Explosion: Numbers Game
Thursday Spiral Beach St. Matthew’s Church (1479 Barrington) 8pm, $15 Toronto’s Spiral Beach play with a twinkle in their eye, youthful abandon and confidence well beyond their 20-and-change years. Their show with Polaris Award-noms Two Hours Traffic may just be the sleeper of this year’s Pop Explosion. “We’ve been playing together for almost six years […]
Posted inArts + Music
Pop eyes
TUESDAY Emm Gryner The Music Room (6181 Lady Hammond), 9:30pm, $15 Emm Gryner is one of those musicians who can make people collapse from the power of her blinding, all-encompassing coolness. Most of you know bits and pieces of the Gryner lore: She started her own label at 23, she played keys in David Bowie’s […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bednarski’s Strangest Dream
“Since the end of the Cold War I think that many people believe that any danger posed by nuclear weapons has simply disappeared.” It is this unfortunate truth, asserted by Halifax filmmaker Eric Bednarski, that lies at the heart of his debut feature-length documentary, The Strangest Dream, which screens Friday at 7pm, in Pugwash, on […]
Posted inArts + Music
Full metal racket
“Well what do you Thrash?”–Chrissy“What do you got?”–Corey Webster (From the skater-gang film, Thrashin’) Described as two days of insanity, Thrashfest moves from a Halifax basement to the confines of Gus’ Pub on August 29 and 30. With the move comes an expansion of the lineup, with over 13 bands playing this year. The brainchild […]