Risky Business became a band almost as joke because Mike Scarth, Ian Hart, Dave Prime and JD Gaudet wanted a band so their friends could sing along. Hart, the bass player, is as surprised as anyone. “If someone had told me that we would tour Europe twice in one year…I would have punched them in […]
Mark Black
Posted inArts + Music
Memories Attack
Published November 29, 2007. Memories Attack Memories Attack Little Mafia Memories Attack, ex-members of blah, blah, blah…it doesn’t matter, simply know that this collaboration between Chris Thompson and Ron Bates is a goddamned good record. Leading off the record with melancholic lyrics, beautiful melodies and catchy hooks, “Love in the Time of Hate” is my […]
Posted inArts + Music
Under Pressure
Under PressureCome CleanEscape ArtistWith lyrics like “sing no songs of joy/where love and hope are failing,” Under Pressure’s Come Clean is at once mesmeric and depressing. A shift towards a nihilistic sound is an omen of things to come. Raging thrash and dense sludge might not come close to describing the misanthropic and sublime moments […]
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VKNGS
VKNGSVKNGSNoyesVKNGS’ debut LP on clear, one-sided vinyl was the most punishing and aesthetically pleasing record to come out of Halifax in the last 12 months. The trio of songs is just barely a taste of a band that is known throughout the city for their unrelenting wall of sound. Mark Blackcategories: Best of the year […]
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The Memories Attack
The Memories AttackThe Memories Attack(Little Mafia)The CD The Memories Attack is the debut self-titled release on an Oklahoma label from a lo-fi duo with roots in a Moncton, New Brunswick Cub Scout troupe. The band The Memories Attack consists of members Chris Thompson (of Eric’s Trip and Moon Socket) and Ron Bates (of Orange Glass […]
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The Ergs!
The Ergs!Upstairs/Downstairs Dirt NapSo long as The Ergs! keep putting out records like this, I do not care if The Descendents ever record or tour again. This is the type of record that can erase years of damage done by painful Christian pop punk and terrible, no good bands like The Ataris and Alkaline Trio. […]
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Markit
MarkitMark My WordsFax 4 ProductionsWhether he knows it or not, it’s a foregone conclusion that Markit will join the growing list of gifted former Halifax MCs now living outside of the 902. Until that time, I will enjoy Mark My Words, the output of a phrenic talent coming into its own lyrically and musically. Mark […]
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Interplanetary craft
My roommate walks in just as I am on the phone casually asking, “So, do you believe in life on other planets?” Any concerns he has are assuaged when he figures out who’s on the other end of the line. His birth name is Kevin Donovan, but he’s better known to audiences as Afrika Bambaataa. […]
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Markit’s work
Markit’s solo album Mark My Words isn’t motivated by misplaced ambition and delusions of grandeur. This isn’t Markit’s big move in an effort to “make it.” If anything, Mark My Words seems part of an organic process, growing out of his love of poetry and concepts, and a desire to work outside the collaborative process […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Docu-drama
“‘The only good Indian is a dead Indian’ has been changed to ‘The only good Indian is a Non-Indian.’” That’s how Pierre Loiselle of the non-profit group Praxis Media sums up the shift in policy regarding Canada’s “Indian problem.” Praxis Media, in conjunction with the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, has developed an audio […]
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No compromises
The last song on NOFX’s latest full-length, Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing, begins with: “We’re the band with our own label/That’s money under the table, that’s answering to no one/But still, other bands just love to hate us/Talking shit behind us, but smiling to our face.” NOFX is a band that writes its own ticket. It’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trash talking
In the late 80s, due to a number of environmental and waste incidents, panic struck North America: we had no more room for our garbage. Closer to home, the problem reared its head in the form of the Sackville Landfill. The landfill, closed in 1996, produces 90 to 100 tonnes of methane gas per year […]