“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 […]
Music Festivals
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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 […]
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In the Dead of Winter 2014
Nothing warms the body and soul like music. Put a cork in your winter whining and join the rest of the lovely neighbourhood at IDOW, January 23-25, a three-day festival of soft, loud, uplifting, heartbreaking and soul-exploding sounds from our cover star Tanya Tagaq, as well as Kathleen Edwards, Dana Beeler, Timber Timbre, Fiver, Ostrea […]
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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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HPX by day
Halifax Pop Explosion started on Tuesday, but if you haven’t made your musical schedule yet, I’m here. Of course you should fit in everyone we wrote about too, but that’s on you. Thursday Today we’re making a rap-punk-garage rock sandwich, but don’t forget to eat real food on today’s journey. Bring some trail mix, your […]
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Halifax Pop Explosion
Do your rock research! Click here for the 2013 Halifax Pop Explosion issue. TIPS FOR YOU 1. Do you have your tickets? Wristbands and priority passes (skip the lines like a boss) are still available $85 and $199, respectively. You can buy them online or at the HPX box office at the Atlantica Hotel (1980 […]
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Aqua Alta country
The vessel floated through the soupy fog and choppy waves of our city’s harbour. It was a hulking ship, and its name suggested that it had ventured all the way from Scandinavia. But rather than docking at one of the piers, it instead continued floating on—past the port and into the heart of our downtown, […]
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Land o’ (Besnard) Lakes
As Montreal band No Joy plays its set at the Marquee on October 26, Jace Lasek, singer-guitarist for headliners The Besnard Lakes, will likely be using that time to get a feel for the room. Or to stuff his face. “I have this weird thing where I don’t really like to stray too far from […]