Music

When the JUNO Awards return to Halifax on Mar. 24, 2024, there will be a healthy dose of homegrown talent in the running for silverware. Six current and former Haligonians are up for JUNOs at the annual Canadian music industry awards ceremony: Reggae artist Jah’Mila, indie-electronic act Rich Aucoin, classical soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, […]

One of Canada’s best-known rock duos will reunite for a string of Maritime shows this May. Toronto dance-punk rockers Death From Above 1979 (bassist Jesse Keeler and drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger) will perform in Moncton, Halifax and Charlottetown between May 24-26. The tour visits Halifax’s Light House Arts Centre on May 25. Keeler and Grainger are […]

In the earliest days of the 2000s, pop punk had something akin to a renaissance. Canadian bands like Sum 41, Treble Charger and Gob were at the peak of their powers—not just in terms of output, but in crossover appeal: Albums like All Killer No Filler, Wide Awake Bored and The World According to Gob […]

It’s been five years since indie rockers Wintersleep have been onstage together in Halifax. That hiatus ends May 11, when the JUNO award winners behind “Weighty Ghost” and “Amerika” take to the stage at the Marquee Ballroom. The band that got their start in Halifax in the early 2000s—playing the likes of the Seahorse Tavern […]

The full list of nominees is here for the 2024 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. A total of 48 different local artists, engineers, media personalities and venues made the shortlist for the annual celebration highlighting the best music from the East Coast. That includes six nominations for homegrown singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, on […]

Take the laid-back, bassline-riding funk of Tom Misch and sprinkle in a little psychedelic dreamwave for good measure: That’s the feeling you’ll get from Mat Elliott’s new single, “Two Years.” It’s a precursor to the Halifax-based singer-songwriter’s debut EP, South Endings, set for release in April. A project Elliott describes to The Coast as “a […]

What do McLean Street, Cunard Street and Connolly Street all have in common? For Enfield’s Luke Boyd (better known as rapper Classified), they were the backdrops to some of his earliest days as an aspiring artist, when the “Oh… Canada” and “Inner Ninja” emcee moved from his small town to Halifax at age 19. In […]

The first keyboard chords build with intensity before Paul Murphy’s tenor filters into the song’s frame. It’s a voice you’ve heard before: One that lights up that innermost part of your ear, like the first crackle of a needle on vinyl. A good voice—a great one, even. The kind of voice that commands JUNO accolades […]

What do you get when you take Nas’ Illmatic, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s Mecca and the Soul Brother, and then bounce them off the walls of a Torbay, NL bedroom studio? The answer, in this case, is producer Darrell Kelloway (better known in rap circles as […]

Tim Baker is searching for something. What it is, he hasn’t quite managed to pin down. It’s there, at the edge of his imagination, when he picks up a guitar to write a song or a verse, or when he sets off on a months-long tour of mostly sold-out shows across Canada, or Europe, or […]