Eels with StringsLive at Town Hall(Vagrant)MTV Unplugged established a useful test to see what pop-rock songwriters could translate to a stripped- down environment. These records often involved other stringed instruments, mainly the cello, or whole sections to augment the six-string acoustic guitars. Today, Eels would surely pass the test. The band, fronted by E (Mark […]
Sean Flinn
Posted inArts + Music
El Perro Del Mar
El Perro Del MarEl Perro Del Mar(Control Group)El Perro del Mar has a song called “Coming Down the Hill,” calling up Kate Bush’s classic song, “Running Up that Hill.” In fact, the Bush influence seeps into this entire album. Swede Sarah Assbring (the one-woman-show that is El Perro Del Mar) favours Bush-isms, especially in the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Shotgun Jimmie
Shotgun JimmieThe OnlysDelorean RecordingsIt’s hard to keep it simple—to take away excess, the extraneous material, until only the strongest stuff remains. Clearly Jim Kilpatrick stuck to the rule. The simplicity evident here makes for smart and sophisticated songs. Though under 40 minutes, you will not reach an end to the discoveries with repeated listens.Sean Flinncategories: […]
Posted inArts + Music
Destiny’s child
The interior lives of kids are far more complicated and mysterious than adults believe. Sometimes it takes a 15-minute short film and a filmmaker like Adam Garnet Jones to reveal the youthful mind, and to remind the rest of us of the power of that long-forgotten state. Cloudbreaker, which screens Friday at the Mi’kmaq Native […]
Posted inArts + Music
NeoCraft Exhibits
Mary E. Black Gallery (1061/1096 Marginal) Start the day at the south end of the waterfront with The New Cartography of Craft: Charting a Course from Regional to Global. Immerse in every imaginable craft practice in one room. Sally Ravindra’s rounded pottered forms (vases and other vessels), Maria Rakel’s clothing shot through and shaped with […]
Posted inArts + Music
Big horn
Stephen Hughes laughs often and easily during conversation, out of sheer enjoyment from talking about what he’s doing. A vocalist, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Hughes founded The Blown Gasket Orchestra with seven of his closest musical pals. Some of them go way back—for example, Hughes and guitarist/vocalist Jon Andrews first met during grade eight in Port […]
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Pop quiz
More pop explosion:Tonight’s Listings | Blog | Playlist | Photo Blog | Public photos | Video | CD Reviews | Stories Apostle of HustleAndrew Whiteman, an integral member of the Broken Social Scene collective, taps into the solo-terrain bandwagon with Apostle of Hustle. The trio present themselves at the Marquee on October 18. “I’m a […]
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Eyes on the prize
Downstairs at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, what you see in the Sobey Art Award exhibition is the work of five young artists from across the country. The five regional finalists in this year’s running—the first year of the annual iteration of the award—are as follows: Moncton-based Jean-Denis Boudreau (Atlantic), Michel de Broin (Quebec), […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Shifting gears
The tentative agreement that kept Metro Transit buses rolling and ferries chugging this week has been sent to HRM council and to membership of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 508 for ratification. Details of the five-year contract will not be made public until the agreement is ratified by both sides. During negotiations that ran […]
Posted inArts + Music
Table talk
In North America, we don’t share tables with strangers in public places. We’d sooner give up our spot right away, decline the request to share, or begrudgingly agree, only to rush our dinner, beer or coffee, and get gone. Even families are reportedly spending less time at the dinner table together. These social realities run […]
Posted inLifestyle
blind faith
Michelle Butler Hallet shows great empathy for her characters in her short stories and in her new novel, Double-blind, which she’ll read from at Word on the Street this weekend. Psychiatrist Josh Bozeman narrates the story of his own work with a secretive research group, the losses that plague him, the damage he’s done in […]
Posted inArts + Music
Circuit school
Adam Kelly awaits the arrival of his breakfast at a cafe near his north end home. All around him, tables are occupied by groups of friends. Voices and laughter erupt often from one crowd, causing everyone else at the closely neighbouring tables to turn in curiosity, surprise or annoyance. It’s a common enough occurrence. But […]
