On tour with new-wave synth-pop outfit Windom Earle last week, Jen Clarke left her alter-ego, Jenocide, back in Halifax. As the lone female in all-dude bands for almost five years, she knows some things can’t be addressed playing with guys. But her bottled-up feminism explodes 10-fold when assuming the exaggerated electro-synth-fuelled Jenocide persona, first felt […]
Feature
Share in the stars
A visit to an astrologer helped birth Share’s latest and fourth release, Slumping in Your Murals, according to the band’s songwriter, singer and guitarist, Andrew Sisk. “It was an opening to a new understanding,” he says. Sisk received a “proper” astrological reading, which required details beyond day, month and year, such as the hour of […]
Cleaning up Die Mannequin
It’s no secret that Die Mannequin’s lead singer and guitarist Care Failure has had a rocky life. The band’s press bio—newly updated to coincide with the release of its first full-length album Fino + Bleed—spreads the story bare: Failure wrestled with a friend’s suicide, ran away from home and fell into heavy drug use and […]
Super Shad
In an age where Paris Hilton wins her celebrity with poorly filmed pornography and you need a reality TV show to become a rock star, it is refreshing to meet a man whose art speaks for itself. To truly understand the greatness of Shad, come out to the Paragon on Thursday and watch as the […]
Smokin’ bluegrass
The band, made up of Amy Lounder (fiddle, vocals), Ben Sichel (guitar, vocals), Jason Dionne (percussion, vocals), Dave Ron (mandolin, vocals) and Graham Kerr (double bass, fingertaps), normally plays for contra dances—a style where dancers line up parallel to each other and execute dance steps as instructed by a caller, with a live band to […]
Fun with Fantods
Unsatisfied with their previous three studio albums, The Fantods lugged recording equipment through subzero temperatures and slushy puddles down stairs to the Blue Moon Bistro last January to record their latest album, Ride the Moose, during a free show. “It was just surprising how a live recording could be exactly what we wanted,” says drummer […]
Daniel LeDisko’s house rules
Daniel LeDisko has a couple of things to get off his chest. The DJ has racked up air miles playing shows all over the world over the past few years as one half of the electro-remix juggernauts LA Riots (the other half is producer Jo’B). The duo have produced a huge array of remixes for […]
Petunia’s flower power
This guy is timeless. Sixty years ago he could’ve been honky-tonking with Hank Williams, 20 years ago he could’ve been singing behind an episode of Twin Peaks. This weekend, with music that’s been described as “life-giving,” Petunia is bringing his surreal, avant-country swagger to Halifax. Saturday and Sunday night you’ll find the last real McCoy […]
Alpha Dogg
If you happen to walk past the Metro Centre and have a Woodstock seizure at the scent emerging, don’t fret, the hippies didn’t win. It’s merely Snoop Dogg taking his patented mid-set chronic break. Tickets are $44.50 to $54.50 (gin and juice sold separately). Many are unaware that Snoop Dogg’s real name is Cordazar Calvin […]
Ears ring for Cobra Jets
After a few line-up changes, Friday night at Gus’ with The Motorleague, The Cobra Jets, The Cuban Assassins and The Baketones promises to be a rip-snorting, ribcage-juddering rock ‘n’ roll party that will leave you with ringing ears and dry heaves. That’s the ambition of Frederiction’s Cobra Jets, anyhow. “Our sound has been described as […]
Andy Rourke takes a spin
If you trust the words of Morrissey, his old bandmates have been sitting on their collective thumbs over the past decade. In an interview with Uncut a few years ago, Mozzer bristled: “I feel as if I’ve worked very hard since the demise of The Smiths and the others haven’t.” Of course, the statement isn’t […]
York Redoubt on fire
York Redoubt has a self-deprecating streak, but the band doesn’t need it. Over sushi on Quinpool, the band gripes at length about how terribly they played at a PEI show the previous night, and refers to the content of their tape released this spring as “crappy York Redoubt.” All this bad press from a young […]

