“I don’t believe it’s the last record, but if it is, I think I will be satisfied with the body of work left behind. Ski Mask would be a graceful exit,” says Islands’ Nicholas Thorburn. “Stylistically, the music represents the entire catalogue and even the songwriting spans the last seven years, so it is an […]
Music Festivals
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Big breaks
Toronto grunge/noise punk trio METZ has one of those career stories that most bands only ever dream about. Formed in 2008, METZ jammed it out for awhile, cultivating a sick live show and releasing a couple EPs before getting signed by Seattle’s Sub Pop Records, the home of grunge. It’s a tale that doesn’t get […]
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No Joy’s luck
“We do not wear earplugs and as a result are deaf which leads us to turn up our amps even louder,” says No Joy’s Jasamine White-Gluz. Fair enough, considering the intense wall of sound No Joy produces every night. With Laura Lloyd, White-Gluz’s reverb-heavy guitar fill every empty space of the Montreal band’s latest, Wait […]
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Shad’s Flying high
The machine guns and machetes were half a world away, but Shad still flinched at the sound of their wounding jabs. His parents hailed from Rwanda, but they raised him in London, Ontario. That meant the would-be MC first heard his homeland’s piercing violence from the stereo speakers of his family’s television. He describes that […]
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Barry alive
“I’ve never been to Halifax and up until a few months ago, I thought it was in western Canada,” says comedian Todd Barry. As a comic, actor and voice actor, the Manhattan-based funny guy has appeared on all of your/my favourite things: Wonder Showzen, Chapelle’s Show, Bored to Death, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Sarah […]
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Trillion to one
“Trap music is the space where southern hip-hop & electronic dance music collide,” say Halifax’s new trap duo Trillionaires (Michael Molloy and Nick Hood). “In the past couple of years, producers combined the sounds of both genres, mixing the drums of the southern hip-hop with the synths and builds of dance music to create something […]
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Woodpigeon’s too coo for school
Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton, a recent transplant to Vancouver from Calgary by way of Vienna, will wind down his current cross-country tour with a set at the Company House. “Intimate venues are great,” he says. “Grand halls are great. I’ll play in a bedroom or a field and be eternally grateful for the opportunity to do […]
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Zulkamoon
“What’s on the horizon for us? Well, we’re coming out with our own coffee—we’re gonna be selling it as merch,” says Mike Nahirnak, one of the guitarists behind Zulkamoon’s “folk, rock, blues, jazz, reggae, ska, cumbia, you name it, it’s in there” sound. Inti Gonzalez, Mexico City transplant, the other guitarist and the nucleus around […]
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Gypsophilia
Keep your eyes peeled for Gypsophilia this summer. Identifying features, you ask? Well, what do seven people lugging around at least as many hefty instrument cases getting on a Greyhound bus look like? If Ross Burns is to be believed, probably like they’re having a lot of fun. Burns and six of his best pals […]
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A Tribe Called Red
It’s National Aboriginal Day when I finally get a chance to chat with DJ Bear Witness, one of the trio that make up A Tribe Called Red, and the Ottawa native is already in the midst of what he says will be a non-stop summer. The day before Bear Witness, Ian “DJ NDN” Campeau and […]
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Cyndi Cain
Cyndi Cain’s newest album, Soul Food, released Saturday, July 13 at the Marquee for the Jazz Festival, is a live off the floor, recorded straight to tape R&B wonder, and it came from a little pain, a little love and a lot of friendship. “When I think soul food, I think community, it’s not always […]
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Alex Cuba
Alex Cuba (AKA Alexis Puentes) moved to Canada for love, but so far, the sentiment is unrequited. “It’s not a secret that there is no market for Latin music in Canada. Anything I do will be considered world music, but world music has a very small-minded way of thinking about music,” says the Smithers, BC-based […]