The second album of her young career, Heather Green’s Your Last War is a reverb- soaked pop-rocker that sounds like it was pulled from a nook between Radiohead’s The Bends and OK Computer. Dynamic layering gives the album a refined feel (unusual for a home recording) with handclaps and doubled vocals giving the record a […]
Matthew Ritchie
Posted inArts + Music
Snow report
Following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia, Halifax-based documentary filmmaker Rohan Fernando travelled to his native home of Sri Lanka to document the aftermath of the disaster. But while filming overseas, there was one interview subject he couldn’t shake from his mind upon returning to Canada. “There was one particular woman I met […]
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Heather Green’s land
If her stage fright had its way, Heather Green never would have become a musician. Growing up in Santa Monica, California, Green spent her weekends at church, performing in the congregation and learning how to play guitar from her mother. But by the time she started high school, Green stopped singing for the lord and […]
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Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
Being Elmo is the critically acclaimed documentary that tells the story of Muppets puppeteer—and Elmo creator—Kevin Clash. The film details the rise of Clash from a childhood of adversity in suburban Baltimore, to hobnobbing with Jim Henson and co. in New York City, to becoming one of the most respected puppeteers of his time. Even […]
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This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl
Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan’s new biography, This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl, tells the triumphant rise of everyone’s favourite drummer from punk rock obscurity to fronting one of the biggest arena rock acts. Brannigan does a good job detailing Grohl’s early years but sometimes gets lost in the details, devoting […]
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Spiritualized
After a lengthy wait, Jason Pierce returns with Spirtualized’s seventh studio album. Inspired by the band’s 2009 front to back live performances of their landmark release, Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space, Sweet Light is a poppier album. Album opener “Hey Jane” is an eight-minute Kraut-rock groove inspired by early Rolling Stones, while […]
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Mono sound
When Halifax’s resident garage rockers The Gideons decided to call it quits, guitarist/singer Josh Salter decided the band should go out with a bang. “When I was in The Gideons we put out a double LP and it was just a stupid, dumb idea,” he says. The record didn’t sell, staying on the shelves at […]
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Rose Cousins
Light and darkness have always guided the best records—think Jimmy Page’s light fretwork and heavy riffing. We Have Made a Spark, the new LP from singer-songwriter Rose Cousins, sounds nothing like Zep’s metal sludge, yet similarly uses multiple sonic shades and refracted imagery to create an extremely polished album. With piano playing that recalls the […]
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Revenge of the Electric Car
As the old proverb goes, success is the best revenge. In the follow up to his critically acclaimed 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, Chris Paine’s Revenge of the Electric Car details the insurgence of electric vehicles on the commercial car world, following Nissan and GM as they attempt to make the world’s first […]
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Spark plug
Singer-songwriter Rose Cousins is no stranger to the ECMAs. As she speaks on the phone from her Moncton hotel room during the annual convention, she talks about the numerous incarnations of the festival she’s seen since joining the east coast musical landscape 10 years ago. But for her new record, We Have Made A Spark, […]
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BA Johnston’s ‘80s music
Consummate showman BA Johnston (born Christian Johnston) has never shied away from his love for the past. On his 2010 release, Thank You For Being a Friend, Johnston posed on the cover with animated versions of John Candy, an evil gremlin from Gremlins and the Hamburglar (he even sang about Police Academy‘s Steve Guttenberg). But […]
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The Boxing Girls of Kabul screens at Viewfinders
When Ariel Nasr was asked to film his first feature for the National Film Board, he packed his bags and moved to Afghanistan for what he thought would be a short trip. “I really wanted to tell a story about Afghanistan and decided to move there for six months, which seemed like a long time […]
