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Slean times

Sarah Slean is shedding skins, leaving pockets of herself all across the country before she flees to France. She stops in at Ginger’s Tavern on December 7 and 8 to peel off a few more layers. “It is true,” says Slean, with a hint of a French accent, on an early-morning conversation from Edmonton. “I […]

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Lend us your ears

Tori Amos The Beekeeper (Epic)Amos’s first album of original material since 2002’s epic Scarlet’s Walk is a return to the ballad-based times of Under the Pink, with a gospel choir and Damien Rice thrown in for new colour. A political bent pokes its way through the (overlong) narrative, most bizarrely and beautifully in the Rice […]

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Field study

A radio cooking show host. A multimedia auteur. A Rickenbacker-wielding session musician. A video artist. A Super Friend and movie star. These are the personalities that make up City Field, one of the most original bands to come out of the Halifax scene in some time. Although the project appears occasionally as a part-time venture, […]

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Soundclash of music

Two thousand five has been a year to remember for Kingston three-piece Bedouin Soundclash. Since the spring, their hit single “When the Night Feels My Song” has gone from nonexistent to number one on Toronto’s influential radio station The Edge, number three on this week’s National Playlist on CBC and number three on the MuchMusic […]

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Merry mixes

Fun MixMarnie MacLennan1. “One Great City (I hate Winnipeg)” – The Weakerthans 2. “Ageless beauty” – Stars3. “Like Eating Glass” – Bloc Party4. “deceptacon” – Le Tigre5. “Not over you yet” – Kevin Devine6. “Gay Bar” – Peaches7. “Gold Digger” – Kanye West 8. “The way we get by” – Spoon 9. “This Boy is […]

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Come what Mays

Since his days with Dartmouth alt-country quintet The Guthries, Matt Mays has been among the most widely familiar and embraced musicians in Halifax. Due to geographic reasons, however, making the next step in his career and avoiding artistic purgatory meant the 26-year-old was faced with considerable time away from family and his oldest fan base. […]

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Gabe on

To the average person, Gabe Minnikin hasn’t changed much. He’s still the same friendly, deep-voiced, long-haired musician he always was. But over the course of a conversation, it’s apparent there’s something different about the ex-Guthries singer-songwriter, who recently returned from a year-and-a-half sojourn in Manchester, England. Although his eyes retain the look of someone who […]

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Hardcore icon

In life, there are cycles that are constant. Snakes shed their skin four to eight times a year, birds migrate north annually and roughly every two to three years Walter Schreifels starts a hugely influential and underappreciated band and puts out a seminal release. In Halifax to perform a solo show with friends and collaborators […]

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Blue Steele

Singer/guitarist Keri Steele has difficulty staying comfortable in a band for very long. She started the new age folk group Imaginary Heaven when she was still in her teens, making three albums before moving to Toronto and forming melodic loop-based female quartet Hush Hush. A pair of records later, Steele has once again switched gears, […]

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Groud Dwell

The Pocket Dwellers rumble through the mountains of Montana following a show in Tofino, BC. “It’s beautiful and desolate, man,” observes MC/vocalist NiGel (AKA Nigel Williams). The rocky landscape hurtling past Williams’s window couldn’t be more appropriate considering the shout-out he gives on “Stop,” the first track of the band’s new album, PD-Atrics: “This is […]

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