It was “a dark day for Halifax, a dark day for Nova Scotia, and a dark day for Canada.” At least that’s how a heated Halifax 2014 Board of Directors Chair, Fred MacGillivray, saw it after the city withdrew its Commonwealth Games bid. Three years later it’s unclear how losing the 2014 games affected not […]
Mike Landry
Posted inArts + Music
Jon Lajoie’s musical chairs
Jon Lajoie moved to LA about a year ago “because,” he jokes on his website, “he’s an opportunistic douchebag.” It worked, and with conflicting emotions the Montreal-bred, R-rated musical comedian had to postpone his national theatre tour earlier this fall. But when Lajoie comes through Halifax this week, it’s not just as an internet celebrity, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Mushkat
Why isn’t Mushkat more talked about? Even in our tiny pond, overrun with schools of singer-songwriters, Bill Travis stands out. With a Ben Lee-like voice, Travis effortlessly moves from traditional singer-songwriter pop to perfect bossa nova, smoky cool jazz and quiet folk. The lyrics tend toward didactic, with environmental themes that can be a bit […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jean-Pierre Gauthier’s Noise control
Hours before Jean-Pierre Gauthier’s Machines at Play opens at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the gallery is chaos. Yellow ladders loom among pushcarts of tools and cleaning equipment. Gauthier’s work fills the air with honks, scratches of graphite, gurgling bubbles and piano flourishes. It’s a bit much for Gauthier, the 2004 Sobey Art Award […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fresh Flesh
Dear Pop Culture, I don’t want to talk about that new HBO series or debate this year’s Oscars. That’s boring. Let me introduce Halifax’s Fresh Flesh. Stacy Brown’s cassette-recorded Casio beats and Zoë Solomon’s stumbling rhymes about ham, miracle vomit and space diamonds are as consumer-friendly as performance art. These handmade cassettes are a breath […]
Posted inArts + Music
SISTER says it all
Carla Gillis has liked Scott Pilgrim for a thousand years, but she’s utterly co-dependent on her sister. Starting with local indie darlings Plumtree in the early ’90s, Carla and Lynette Gillis have always played in bands together. This week they bring their latest venture, SISTER, home to Halifax. “I think I’m actually scared to play […]
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North End Metal All-Stars blazing
When the North End Metal All-Stars play, everyone buys two beers at a time. Along with pumping fists, this is the ultimate compliment for NEMAS. Founding member J. Quinn’s goal from the start was “good pub metal where people can go out and have a good time.” Quinn formed NEMAS from the ashes of veteran […]
Posted inArts + Music
Textile artist Brownlee weaves a message
It’s 1995 and Sandra Brownlee has stopped weaving. It’s not quite the reaction she expected following the success of her internationally touring solo exhibition, Weaving Out Loud. But that dust has settled, and the physical repetition of the loom has begun to worm itself into her thoughts and ideas. After first sitting down at a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bridging Brooklyn with La Strada
James Craft sometimes feels a bit out of place in the States. But the frontman for Brooklyn six-piece La Strada was right at home playing his accordion in Montreal. This is because La Strada’s music is the kind usually molded by cold winters and small communities. It’s an indie-rock fuelled by group harmonies, violin and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Gravity Wave
The artist’s task is to capture the world. The mark of a great artist is the ability to offer a glimpse inside their mind. Ken Farrell is such an artist. Tossing off any semblances of singer-songwriter dynamics, Gravity Wave’s first label release, Gambol, channels the feeling Beck’s Mellow Gold or Odelay on virgin ears. Like […]
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Vocal hero Sean MacGillivray returns
Tofu, watermelon, peaches, plums, strawberries and beans—just a few of the foods that nearly ended Sean MacGillivray’s music career. Beginning in early 2008 and lasting six months, the top end of MacGillivray’s vocal range started disappearing. “Honestly, I was working on exit strategies,” says MacGillivray, en route to Montreal with Jenn Grant. “I’ve been singing […]
Posted inLifestyle
The Best Books and Comics of 2009
BOOKS Boy in the Moon, Ian Brown (Random House) The old cliche of “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry” stands true for Ian Brown’s essays on his son, who was born with a rare genetic defect. Brown lets down his macho journalist persona and delivers an incredibly honest reflection on manhood. —SCF February, Lisa Moore (Anansi) I […]
