Three days left. Fifteen venues. A shitton of bands. The sum: too many choices to be made in the next 72 hours. If spontaneity’s your thing, tuck this geographical list of bar-only Halifax Pop Explosion venues (there are nine) in your pocket today, so that when you—or someone you know—-inevitably arrives at the Paragon at […]
HPX
Posted inArts + Music
HPX spotlight: The Hold Steady
If The Hold Steady are not America’s greatest rock band—and there’s a case to be made for it—they’re certainly its most deceptively great one. A casual listener may wonder why their five albums of seemingly familiar power chords and piano histrionics have earned such cultish devotion. Sure, the band’s ability to suture the punk/classic rock […]
Posted inArts + Music
Amazing HPX ’94 Video
Rad Halifax local Mary posted this on halifaxlocals.com the other day. It’s a video of Muchmusic clips from Halifax Pop Explosion in 1994. Within lies footage of Sunny Day Real Estate, Stereolab, Treble Charger (good Treble Charger!) and a host of faces you may recognize. I was twelve when this was shot and watching it […]
Posted inArts + Music
Pop Explosion Night One
Last night was the best “first” night of Halifax Pop Explosion in my personal memory. Others who have been around here longer might disagree. But the one-two punch of a mind-blowing Paragon performance by Kylesa plus a glass-smashing, moshy, screamy, drunky Mark Sultan set at Gus’ Pub will have me smiling and giggling through my […]
Posted inArts + Music
HPX preview: The Superfantastics
While nursing post- Thanksgiving turkey hangovers, celebrated Halifax indie-pop duo The Superfantastics chat over the phone from their respective abodes. But shortly after the call gets underway, things get awkward. It’s the “third member” question that did it: the one that explorative couples often broach, surely with the same bashfulness. Lead singer and guitarist Matthew MacDonald […]
Posted inArts + Music
HPX preview: Mark Sultan goes solo
It has been a tumultuous few months for Mark Sultan. After spending the better part of the last decade as the “BBQ” half of the King Khan & BBQ Show, Sultan left the band amid swirling blogger accounts of cancelled shows, wild drunkenness, trashed apartments and screaming arguments between the two musicians across a Pacific […]
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HPX preview: New town for New Pornographers
“That’s crazy,” he says on the line from Woodstock, New York, where he bought a house last year. “We should mark that,” he says, recalling the debut album came out in late October 2000. The collection of roughed-up new wave was released by the Mint Records label in Vancouver, the city where Newman grew up […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cop vs Cop
A bizarre battle between supporters of the Halifax Police Department and the RCMP played out last week, as the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners tried to wrap its head around an unlikely scenario: What would happen if the 30-percent federal subsidy to the city’s contract for RCMP policing services in rural and suburban areas dried […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hpx Night Five: Part Trois
Anna Conner of Thrushes I’m sorry but the Toothy Moose is absolutely the worst bar in Halifax. I’m fine with the club scene doing it’s thing, but it is unacceptable that they would book unknowing bands into that environment. Walking in to see Baltimore’s Thrushes, I was appalled to see a large group in the […]
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Hpx Night Five: Part deux
Little Girls My excessive drinking came in handy last night. Standing outside the Paragon I ran into two of my old bartenders from Toronto. As luck would have it she knew leading man Josh McIntyre from Little Girls. I didn’t know much about the band except the unbelievable hype the group has fostered, but we […]
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Hpx Night Four: Devil Eyes and Japanther
I bet you can just smell the sweat by just looking at this pic of Japanther at The Seahorse. Can you believe there are ladies in the crowd there? Don’t tell The Seahorse bouncers! I tried to go see The Danks at Coconut Grove, but the place was at capacity and the bouncer was a […]
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Hpx Night Four: Eddie Orso and Dan Mangan
Teddy bear Dan Mangan enthralls a packed Company House. I never thought I would see the Company House turn away patrons, and yet at capacity, with people packed shoulder to shoulder, they did so last night. It was by far the most surprising show of this year’s pop explosion. By the time Eddie Orso took […]