Lisa Lipton works with many moving parts. There’s her drumming practice, developing since 2011 and showcased as the marquee exhibit BLAST BEATS at Nocturne 2012. There’s the film she’s making, The Impossible Blue Rose, which she’s been writing, filming and assembling on the road from California to Windsor, Ontario. Unlike most features, which are unveiled […]
Music Festivals
Posted inArts + Music
Jef Barbara’s midas touch
“I’m influenced by things that are glam and weird, one of my friends said Little Richard was a direct impact–even though I’ve never actively listened to Little Richard, maybe I’ve been influenced without really knowing. First fixation I had while I was trying to find the ‘Jef Barbara look’ was Dynasty and Dallas–sequins and padded […]
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Julianna Barwick quiets all pain
Julianna Barwick says the weather is beautiful in Brooklyn. She just rode her bike for the first time in a long time. But she misses Iceland. Two years ago, she was recording her album Nepenthe there. Sigur Ros producer Alex Somers invited her to record with him and the result is a precious thing. A wandering […]
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You must listen to Surveillance
Tri Le is hitting two firsts this season–graduating from college and playing OBEY. The two go hand-in-hand: as a recording arts student at NSCC, the former bedroom recorder had new techniques to put to work on pop-punk trio. Surveillance’s month-old EP Stressed and Depressed. “I learned there’s a proper way to do things, there’s no […]
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White Poppy has robotics, will travel
Like fellow OBEY act Julianna Barwick, Crystal Dorval (AKA White Poppy) trades in ethereal layers, guitars and vocals piled atop one another, emotional and cathartic, best heard in headphones or churches. The difference is Dorval records everything by herself–she’s her own writer-editor. “I remember someone telling me something about painting once–a painting can technically continue […]
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Each Other: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
First there was York Redoubt. Then there was Long Long Long. And now there is Each Other. When Brad Loughead and Mike Wright moved to Montreal in 2011, they teamed up with ex-Burdock Christian Simmons, another Haligonian, and formed the dream-space trio. After a string of EPs, and discarded digital versions, Each Other is two […]
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TV Freaks: Short and sweet
The Hamilton punk quartet TV Freaks is named after a song by Australian band The Victims, but “I do like TV,” says bassist Kevin Bell. “Me and my girlfriend have been watching Kitchen Nightmares. It’s a staged-reality kinda thing to to watch. You don’t have to think about much to watch it. Kinda like our […]
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Halifax Rumi Ensemble’s universality
OBEY Convention’s mission statement says that the event’s “only consistent theme is a spirit of adventure and innovation.” Fitting then, that the convention will be capped off by a performance by the Halifax Rumi Ensemble, a local collective of artists who are taking part in an ongoing, international musical collaboration that celebrates the life and […]
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Low shows what two decades can do
OBEY festival focuses on artists who embrace innovation and experimentation, and though Minnesota-based band Low is known more for its downbeat music and minimalist arrangements, they’re also pretty progressive when they want to be. Note the furor stirred up by their set at last year’s Rock the Garden in Minneapolis, in which they played one […]
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Dana Beeler
“I just wanted to amp it up,” says Dana Beeler. “I was tired of being nice.” Beeler is referring to a recent shift from her country and bluegrass beginnings to an edgier sound. Beeler’s roots are country-fried, having played bluegrass with her family and releasing the twangy debut full-length The Long Goodbye in 2012. But […]
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Ostrea Lake
“They think it’s the place in Germany,” says Elias Abi Daoud, leader of Ostrea Lake, of when people say his band’s name aloud. Really it’s the road he grew up on in the decidedly more rural Musquodoboit Harbour, between Porters Lake and Lake Charlotte. But his baritone ukulele-based, harmony-grazed pastoral folk songs do have their […]
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Fiver
Over the phone from Sackville, NB, Simone Schmidt says that she’s “feeling good, just relaxing in a room that isn’t” hers. The Toronto-based singer is referring to her disposition during some downtime on tour, but the offhand comment functions just as well as a more symbolic statement; an inferred reference to Virginia Woolf’s feminist text […]
