Last month, Jim Meade, the bouncer and doorman of Gus’ Pub & Grill, suffered a stroke that’ll keep him off work for awhile. As he recovers, Gus’ is hosting the Black Sabbath Jim Benefit Bonanza on Saturday night—13 bands covering songs from the British gods of dark metal—to help alleviate Meade’s financial costs like rent […]
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Where I work: Ben Caplan
WHO HE IS Halifax singer-songwriter Ben Caplan is back for two 10-song concerts with Symphony Nova Scotia this weekend. He performed three songs with the symphony in 2012, “and it just whet my appetite,” he says. “This feels way more substantial.” It’s a rare occasion to see Caplan in town, so we caught up with […]
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Groundswell Music Festival celebrates all the local delights
“This festival is a cool thing to be part of because everything to do with it is local,” says Mike Ryan, vocalist/guitarist of The Town Heroes. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the band’s label, Groundswell Music, is putting on one heck of a festival. “The music, the food, the beer, wine and cider, it’s all […]
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Rob Halford and a brand-new Judas Priest are in Halifax
“Music is a revolution, an evolution,” says Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. “It has the power to change the world.” For the last 45 years, the Birmingham heavy metal band has made powerful, screeching head-banging music with Halford’s operatic vocals and fantastical mythologies that battle between good and evil. Last year, Priest released its 17th studio […]
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Reverse engineering Buck 65
Seven years ago, Buck 65 and Symphony Nova Scotia delivered a legendary concert of orchestral hip-hop. They’re plotting another this weekend, and The Coast caught up with Buck 65 to chat about how he’s been prepping and if that night seven years ago can possibly be topped. How did you decide what new songs to […]
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Highlight of the Season
“The festival lineup at the Halifax Urban Folk Fest is so good this year. The organizers have done such a great job of putting it together,” says New Brunswick’s folk-pop singer Andy Brown. “If you’re looking for a festival with strong musicianship and a great community-based atmosphere, then HUFF is for you.” On Friday night […]
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Thrash and learn
“Every human being deserves the right to a safe environment in which to lay their head to rest,” says Dwayne Wright, musician and organizer of Headbangers Against Homelessness. On Saturday at the Oasis, the fundraiser features four Halifax metal bands—Aikia, Snap the Butterfly, Forward Unto Dawn and Oceans Will Rise—with all proceeds going to Shelter […]
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The Sanctified Brothers shake up traditional gospel music
For Wallace Smith, music has always been a fact of life. “I was sort of born into it,” explains Smith, a member of the North Preston soul gospel group The Sanctified Brothers. “I don’t think there’s ever a day that went by in the whole time I’ve been alive that singing hasn’t taken place in […]
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The Mariachi Ghost is Winnipeg’s one-of-a-kind show
After moving from Mexico to Winnipeg in 2004, guitarist and artist Jorge Requena discovered the city’s vibrant and thriving Latin American community. By 2009, he was inspired to begin a Day of the Dead-themed graphic novel for Mexico’s important national holiday that honours life. This became the blueprint for the group The Mariachi Ghost. Travelling […]
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Word Nerd
Wordburglar Album Release Friday, August 14, 10pm Gus’ Pub and Grill, 2605 Agricola Street $10 “Sometimes I’ll just think of a line, or I’ll hear a word and love it so I’ll want to rhyme that word,” says comic-book writer and nerdcore rapper Sean Jordan Volpe, also known as Wordburglar. “You never know when an […]
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Wrecking ball: a Q&A with Lagwagon’s Joey Cape
Better break out the white glue and start spiking those mohawks, because Fat Wreck Chords’ 25th anniversary tour, Fat Wrecked for 25 Years, arrives in Halifax on August 10. In light of this exciting moment in Haligonian punk history, it seemed prudent to catch up with Lagwagon head honcho, Joey Cape. So, how have things […]
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A decade of $Rockin’ 4 Dollar$
Every Monday night there is a pilgrimage to downtown Halifax. It’s undetectable at first—a slow, leather-and-denim-clad flock making its way over the Citadel from the north end, running for the Dartmouth ferry terminal, stumbling in thin throngs from the university neighbourhoods. They might be carrying instruments. They will certainly be a little bit tipsy. The […]