Feature

Growing up to be like our parents isn’t necessarily something children dream of. The inevitable moment when we realize there’s more of our parents in our make-up than we’d care to admit is usually more burdensome than inspirational. On his 2004 album, Feelin’ Kinda Patton, comedian Patton Oswalt has a bit about his preferred style […]

There isn’t a spiral-coiled shell trailing behind Mike Feuerstack, the Montreal-based brainchild behind Snailhouse, as he slugs into the Maritimes for a few gigs to give a sneak peak of his forthcoming release, lies on the prize. He’ll speed up the pace with Share as his backing band for a show at Gus’ Pub on […]

“It’s funny, just recently in the last few shows we’ve done in Toronto, there are people that are seeing us for the first time and that’s the song they’re familiar with,” says Paul Murphy. “They are surprised by the rest of the songs-—they don’t really expect our band to sound like our band. It’s neat […]

Imagine minimalist composer Steve Reich with his hand in a blender. If you don’t know what Steve Reich looks like, just picture pretty much any composer with their hand in a blender. Now imagine that as music. That’s how Toca Loca pianist and conductor Gregory Oh describes a particularly challenging piece he and bandmates Simon […]

At their heart The Darcys manifest dualism. They are one thing; they’re another. They’re both at the same time.
 The fellows in the group, who just released their debut full-length Endless Water, might appreciate such an analysis of human nature, since they’re made up of mostly King’s College graduates and soon-to-be grads of the Contemporary […]

Beauty seems most attractive when it’s unattainable. The unknowable and unachievable are always alluring. Hawksley Workman has experienced his fair share of longing. After more than a decade in music, he still feels in between things, he says. “The title suggests I’ve realized I’m never going to be satisfied with anything,” says Workman, calling from […]

“I think we really have the Beatles to blame for that.” There’s something you don’t hear every day. The Beatles are many things: influential, lauded, a cash-money machine—but rarely the subject of blame. To A.A. Wallace, lead singer and mastermind behind Halifax’s Sleepless Nights, it really is the Fab Four’s fault. “It all comes from […]

“Bearded stoner-rock revivalists” and “heir to the throne of Led Zeppelin” are phrases often applied to Vancouver group Black Mountain. So it’s a bit of a surprise when keyboard player Jeremy Schmidt says he still holds down a day job at a department store. Picture a hairy rock god morphing into a well-groomed retail clerk […]

It’s often said you can’t judge a book by its cover. When it comes to music, you can’t judge a band from its album cover. Take Protest the Hero’s new record Fortress—in the foreground is a female goddess, arrows piercing out from her shoulder armour, her long flowing hair blowing out from under a helmet […]

Like so many great bands before it, The Tom Fun Orchestra is an accident. The behemoth of sound from Cape Breton, with nine members at its core, began at the 2005 East Coast Music Awards in Sydney. Ian MacDougall, Tom Fun’s songwriter, vocalist and one of its guitarists, had returned home from a stint in […]

Geoffrey Pye is the quintessential modern Haligonian. Gone are the days of family trees that stretch back generations. That tradition is certainly not in danger of disappearing but, more and more, Haligonians come for school and just end up staying. Pye fits this mould perfectly. Originally from Ottawa (with a stopover in Toronto) he had […]