Feature

Forget travelling this summer, take a trip around the world with these 10 musical acts coming to this year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival. By Sean Flinn, Graham Pilsworth and Sam Worthington. Orquesta Tipica ImperialWith e-stringz, Friday, July 11 at the Festival Tent, 8pm, $25-$30 Kicking off this year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival is Argentina’s not-to-be-missed Orquesta Tipica […]

In the span of a year-and-a-half, Erin Costelo’s gone from playing for her cousin, her sister and her husband (that trio, she says, were the only folks there to witness her first flirtation with playing live) to performing at the cabaret-style Holiday Inn Select Commons Room July 13. In honour of the leap from the […]

Katie Patterson is home just long enough to do laundry after a gig with Drum! in Ottawa and then she’s taking off again, this time for Privateer Days in Liverpool, where she’s playing with pop/rock band Modern Citizen. The 20-year-old drummer talks breathlessly about playing on a “turning stage” in front of a crowd she […]

When Mardeen emerged in 2005, releasing the critically acclaimed EP Friends Don’t Love, it wowed listeners with their tightly arranged pop songs that seamlessly bounce from hooky guitar crunch to catchy jingle jangle, accented by their characteristically anthemic vocals. Deepening the sound on their new debut LP, Read Less Minds, Mardeen’s layered vocals paint engagingly […]

“I didn’t expect this at all. It took five years to get used to this sort of attention,” says José González, calling from his Gothenburg home, a day before leaving for his North American tour. “It was really strange when we first released the album in Sweden. I recorded it at home and for me […]

When Tanya Davis performs, her fingersmove fluidly over guitar strings. She sings in a low and clear voice, annunciating each word. Some say they hear a hint of a PEI lilt in it. Her lyrics are personal—“straight ahead,” as she puts it. Davis says she didn’t look for her voice: It was there as soon […]

They only have six minutes to save the world.Six minutes on the stand is all they have, which is just enough time for Brian Pelrine, AKA DJ IV. “It gives you a little room to breathe, go through your catalogue and show people as much as you can,” says Pelrine. The DMC Eliminations take place […]

When the time came for titling their first full-length album, Tomcat Combat did not want to let it be an afterthought. I’m Okay You’re Okay, coming out this weekend on local label Noyes Records, is named after a self-help book. The five-piece instrumental group is directing this ironic plea for recovery at what Noel Macdonald […]

At first glance,Cross appears to be a band that buys t-shirts for the sole purpose of tearing the sleeves off. Made up of members of some of the best punk and hardcore bands the city has produced over the last three years, Cross features Sam Wight and Alastair MacDonald on bass, Ben Radford on drums, […]

In a word, Martin MacDonald’s new job as Symphony Nova Scotia’s conductor-in-residence comes down to education. “A big part of my job is going to be doing the education shows in the schools. That’s really important work to be doing, especially as a young conductor,” MacDonald says from his home in Hamilton, where he’s wrapping […]

Orquesta Típica ImperialWith e-stringz, Friday, July 11 at the Festival Tent, 8pm, $25-$30 Orquestra Tipica Imperial Kicking off this year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival is Argentina’s not-to-be-missed Orquesta Típica Imperial. In much the same fashion that local favourites Gypsophilia reinvigorated Django-jazz from a somewhat caricatured, moribund-stylized musical form into something more earthy, soulful and thrilling, this […]

Four years after moving to Quebec City, Mary Beth Carty is returning to Halifax to release a CD with her (romantic and musical) partner Gabriel F. Ouellette. Carty brings the Bette and Ouellette brings the Wallet to Bette & Wallet, a bilingual duo driven by accordion, violin and Ouellette’s stomping feet. Carty (The Johnson Sisters) […]