Ani Difranco started her independent record label, Righteous Babe Records, after moving to New York and realizing the record industry wasn’t interested in embracing what she had to offer. Now with a staff of eight, and offices on two continents, the label has become more of a philosophy than a means to an end. Providing […]
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Making Noise
When asked who their influences are, the two members of Special Noise mention North of America first. Then Slight Return, Thrush Hermit, the Super Friendz and Burdocks—all Halifax bands the duo has seen live. Greg Napier, the group’s drummer, and Jef Simmons, who sings and plays guitar, sit around a table at the North End […]
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The smooth talker
Massari, AKA Sari Abboud, lives the life of a smooth talker. His words are like the fine-tailored white suit he wears on the cover of his debut CD—silky and sleek. A request for background information turns into a calling card for a burgeoning Don Juan at a singles’ bar. When asked how old he is, […]
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Hers to discover
Montreal songstress Neema’s debut album, Masi, is highly intellectualized pop music accompanied by probing philosophical insights. She is making two intimate stops in Halifax: at The Economy Shoe Shop on August 30 and on September 1 at One World Cafe. “The talented François Turgeon is joining me at both shows,” she says by phone […]
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Cuff love
Cuff the Duke frontman Wayne Petti is sitting in a ferry terminal in Kitchener. Together with drummer Matt Faris, lead guitar player Jeff Peers and bassist Paul Lowman, he has just finished a 26 hour haul from Winnipeg and is waiting for a boat to take him to play his slot at the Wolfe Island […]
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The Karen package
New York’s architecture is laid on an invisible foundation of stories. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Jonathan Lethem’s requiem for a Motherless Brooklyn, there are few cities in the world that have inspired as many tales of hope, love, loneliness and utter despair. Although it’s early in the morning, you can already hear evidence of […]
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Goodspeed you! Jazz emperor
The afternoon’s as hot as Beelzebub’s hip pocket when musician Jeff Goodspeed shows up for a chat about what’s got him so stoked about Cuban jazz. His trio is playing a wedding reception in an hour. Which explains why, on a scorching day better suited for baggy shorts and flip-flops, he’s turned out in black […]
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Buck and change
Movie director Vincent Gallo saved Richard Terfry’s music career. Living in near-squalor in a run-down apartment above the Black Market on Grafton Street, Terfry found himself in a deep hole musically and emotionally. His latest release at the time, Man Overboard, seemed headed toward the same relative obscurity as his previous work and his mother […]
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Live to tell
In the early ’80s, the done thing for any self-respecting Clash fan was to squat in the riotous, terminally unemployed south London neighbourhood of Brixton. That’s where I landed fresh out of university in fall 1984, sharing a busted row house with a messy pile of ex-pat Haligonians. It was all roses and tequila until […]
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Air supply
Dictionary.com defines the word “contrived” as an adjective: 1: showing effects of planning or manipulation; “a novel with a contrived ending” 2: artificially formal; “contrived coyness”; “a stilted letter of acknowledgment”; “when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation.” This is an apt assessment of the music made by the Halifax […]
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Death from above the 49th Parallel
Make no mistake—Death From Above 1979 is huge. But if you’re an average Canadian, you probably don’t know that. What many people don’t know is Jesse Keeler and Sebastien Grainger are rock stars in a lot of countries. Their first single “Blood On Our Hands” hit the Top 40 on the UK charts and the […]
