NEIGHBOURHOOD EVENT Dog Day, The Cold Warps, Bloodhouse, Quivers It is generally assumed by most people that New Year’s Eve is the most overrated holiday of the year. For those of us not interested in going to a local club and hearing “California Gurls” pound out on the subwoofer for the millionth time, Dog Day […]
Matthew Ritchie
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Holidays with Higgs
Rebekah Higgs has been a busy bee lately. Cheap puns aside, the Halifax native has been working extra hard as the frontwoman for Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees and her solo project, which she’s currently touring with The Rural Alberta Advantage. As the tour comes to a close, Higgs rolls into town just in […]
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Gloryhound’s glory days
The rock ‘n’ roll purist tramps that make up Halifax’s Gloryhound have their paws full this week. A summer’s hard work sweating it out in Toronto’s Chemical Sound Studio lead to the creation of the band’s sophomore EP, Electric Dusk, officially releasing on December 10 at The Seahorse Tavern. Forming in their teens while living […]
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Tupperware Remix Party
I don’t think the guys in Halifax’s Tupperware Remix Party take themselves too seriously. Mixing the sounds of classic Rush with the electronic textures of Daft Punk, TWRP creates highly danceable rock music devoid of pretension. Because seriously, it’s hard to look cool when you and your friends are playing intergalactic hard rock dressed in […]
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Donkey Kong Country Returns
If you grew up in the early ’90s, chances are you owned one of Super Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country video games. Released by Rare in 1994, Donkey Kong Country became one of the standout titles for the SNES by mixing fluid graphics, thought-provoking gameplay and game physics that gave weight to the cartoon gorilla. Donkey […]
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Crystal clear
You would think that when you’re as famous as recording duo The Crystal Method, you would have run out of things to do after a 20-year-long career. But as Ken Jordan prepares for the band’s trip to Halifax this week, delivering a DJ set at The Paragon Theatre on December 3, he speaks excitedly about […]
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The Drums
The Drums are a preposterous band. Hailing from Florida and looking like what would happen if The Smiths and The Thompson Twins had four babies, these Brooklyn transplants dance awkwardly with their instruments and sing sentimental love songs that recall the 1980s. But it’s not the ’80s, which makes these guys’ musical merit seem questionable […]
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Magdalen magnified
Halifax based filmmaker Donna Davies’ new documentary on CBC-TV’s Land and Sea wouldn’t have been possible without some moonshine. Not necessarily the ingestion of it, but interviews from a previous documentary involving the trade on her native PEI. A search for interview subjects brought her to the town of Souris and its ferry port to the Magdalen Islands, five hours off the coast, under Quebec jurisdiction. Recent years have shown a surge in population in the remote area. “A lot of people were going away to places like Montreal or Toronto, but the quality of life was so great on
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Kanye West
Kanye West has always been the David Bowie of mainstream hip-hop, constantly changing his sound and getting into trouble in the media for his controversial persona. But Taylor Swift interruption and public breakdown aside, West has produced a record to shut all the haters up with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Originally titled Good Ass […]
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RJD2 everywhere
In early 2007 when American television network AMC released the first episode of the widely popular show Mad Men, a lot of people took notice. Sure, there was some fine acting and storytelling, but two things really stood out about the show. One: A properly tailored suit makes a bold impact in the workplace. Two: […]
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Kin words
Violent Kin is a family band. Not of the Partridge Family variety, but a family nonetheless. It’s fitting, then, that the brother-and-sister duo of S.J. and Maygen Kardash got their start with the birth of a child. Although they grew up playing in an orchestra together, the duo never wrote their own music exclusively together […]