Feature

Local troubadour Jon McKiel is being pulled in every direction. While he ponders the great nature versus nurture debate, he finds himself home in Halifax for a few weeks—he holds postal codes both in town and in Calgary—with little free time on his hands. On the brink of releasing The Nature of Things, a 10-track […]

You Say Party! We Say Die! is a hard band to nail down. In its short lifespan, the group has been called dance-punk, party-rock, noise-rock, art-rock and pretty much any sub-genre in between. In fact, You Say Party! We Say Die! is one of the few bands that truly has to be seen live to […]

Markit’s solo album Mark My Words isn’t motivated by misplaced ambition and delusions of grandeur. This isn’t Markit’s big move in an effort to “make it.” If anything, Mark My Words seems part of an organic process, growing out of his love of poetry and concepts, and a desire to work outside the collaborative process […]

Newfoundland’s Don Brownrigg sounds like home. The displaced islander hangs his hat in Halifax, but the self-proclaimed stray will always belong to the landscape of the Codroy Valley. He celebrates his wandering ways with the release of Wander Songs, a debut full-length, with his wordy friend Tanya Davis at The Khyber on Friday night. “Tanya […]

Listen to “I Am Part Of A Large Family” and “Your Rocky Spine” off Great Lake Swimmers’ new album Ongiara. A funny thing happened in 2004: rootsy folk music made a comeback. After the success of Zac Braff’s Garden State, a cinematic paean to life in your twenties, people began talking about Iron & Wine, […]

When you think about current Canadian musicians on the world stage, there are a few names that immediately come to mind. Avril Lavigne. Nickelback. Arcade Fire. Feist. For better or worse—depending on taste—these artists are de facto representatives of Canadian culture, selling millions of albums and winning over countless fans while simultaneously waving the Canadian […]

“Hey!” Dave Azzolini shouts to someone in the room. Azzolini, on the phone from Toronto, is trying to spend the afternoon relaxing. “My brother’s in town,” he explains. “He’s filming me, making me feel uncomfortable…and I’m only in my underwear so it’s even more embarrassing. Leave me alone!” That evening, Azzolini is attending a friend’s […]

Allison Lickley wants to move to Halifax. Currently living in Montreal, the singer-songwriter is using her current month-and-a-half long pseudo-tour of Atlantic Canada as an opportunity to quiz anyone and everyone about our fair city. The thumbs-ups she’s received are encouraging. “Not everybody feels that way about their hometown,” she says. Lickley’s desire to move […]

“Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.” —Peter S. Beagle About a month-and-a-half ago, this quote would have come quite in handy, […]

Alec O’Hanley can’t multitask. One ofTwo Hours Traffic’s singer-guitarists tries to give an interview while relaxing in his parents’ pool, but decides mid-sentence that cordless phones and chlorinated water don’t mix. “I’m distracted by this pool,” he says, water splashing in the background. “I should get out, actually. It’s too nice to concentrate.” O’Hanley deserves […]

Just shy of a year after the release of Sloan’s eighth—and full-length redefining—album Never Hear the End of It, the quartet is home in Halifax for a visit before making arrangements to head back into the studio. “I don’t know what is going to be, if it’ll be another 30-song opus or not,” says vocalist […]