Some people don’t just make music, they make movements. For 19-year-old Alex “Cunny” Ross, R&B helps him take positive steps in his world. “I’m from Uniacke Square, born and raised,” he says. Last year, Ross sold all 50 copies of his first mixtape Young Coming Up in less than 48 hours. Encouraged, he started Family […]
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Devarrow (New Music 2016)
Last fall, Fleet-Foxy folk singer Devarrow (Graham Ereaux) moved to Halifax from Vancouver after a six-month tour. Originally from Moncton, he says the Halifax community is one of the main reasons he came back east, and it’s been an inspiration to his music ever since. While he was away, he chronicled his adventures on a […]
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Eddy (New Music 2016)
“It was like, why don’t we just get two drum kits and beat the shit out of them?” says Nick Dourado (XXVII, Century Egg) on the formation of EDDY. With drummer Nathan Doucet (Heaven for Real), EDDY is an experimental drum duo that pummels listeners with continuous, spontaneous and completely uninhibited music. In December, the […]
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Electric Spoonful (New Music 2016)
Here’s the scoop on Electric Spoonful: “Rudy [Pace] and I began playing music together after recognizing our mutual love of ’60s and ’70s styles of rock and roll,” says guitarist Brently Campbell. “We have been described as a scrappy rock quartet,” says Pace, guitarist-vocalist. The Halifax-via-Cape Breton band, also with C.J. Hill (bass) and Jesse […]
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Watch this new video “Wishing Well” from The Everywheres
Last month, Halifax psych-rock-weirdos The Everywheres released the full-length Dignity Fever, recorded around Halifax and the South Shore, to much praise and surprise. Production-wise, it’s sharp as hell; thematically, the eight tracks roam around what it’s like to live in Halifax. Sometimes, spending time in Halifax means making music with your friends. Filmed and edited by video […]
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Catching up to Laura Roy: a track-by-track of her new EP
Try and catch up to Laura Roy. The Halifax singer, based in Toronto, was just named the most popular of 10 Nova Scotia finalists in CBC’s Searchlight Competition, which puts emerging musicians on the national stage with huge cash prizes and recording deals. But after years of vocal study at NSCC, local shows, a songwriting […]
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New EP from Halifax’s “multi-race rainbow band” Century Egg
This morning, Halifax’s newest indie-pop/mandopop band Century Egg released Mountain God, a four-track EP of rock songs gorgeously sung in both Mandarin and English. Fronted by illustrator and video game designer Shane Keyu Song—with Nick Dourado (Special Costello) on guitar, Tri Le (Surveillance) on drums and Robert Drisdelle on bass—the band’s aesthetics and these four tracks […]
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Listen to two new songs by Vulva Culture
Currently on tour in Ontario with Kurt Inder, Halifax’s Vulva Culture are streaming two new songs from a Craft Singles release today via Exclaim!. The tape, Hydromorphone, features a track by that same name and the B-side, “Let’s Stay Dead.” It’ll be available tomorrow online to buy (cough it up, babies) — two more examples of why […]
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Meet Halifax’s newest “lazy pop” band Strongboy
Since last July, Halifax’s Strongboy has been releasing what they call “lazy pop jams” and playing here and there. Last week, the foursome released a new video for the track, “Maybe,” from the two-song EP of the same name. Between Brett Jarrett (vocals, guitar), Seamus O’Neill (drums), Tyler Popwell (guitar) and Alex Sheppard (bass), all Cape […]
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Listen to the new Mint Records comp feat. Halifax bands
Today, Vancouver’s indie label Mint Records — home to Nardwuar, The Evaporators, Jay Arner and Halifax’s very own, Monomyth — released Hot Heros 2, a compilation of hot new tracks from the label’s roster and friends, with another Halifax’s-very-own, Heaven for Real. Can you identify the label’s aesthetic throughout this comp? Maybe they’re isn’t a unifying theme; […]
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New Music issue 2015
Twenty-seven new bands to sink your teeth into this summer. From metal, rap, blues, jazz, rock, pop, punk, folk and some new genres that haven’t been invented yet, there’s something for you. Do yourself a favour—support live music and new, local bands. So much better than a Netflix binge. Anteater (Improv jazz) Arsoniste (Dance pop) […]
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Unreal Thought’s process
Roommates are usually known for a few things: passive-aggressive notes about the dishes, passive-aggressive reminders to get toilet paper, passive-aggressive encounters about keeping the TV down because someone’s got to work in the morning—but sometimes roommates transcend that nonsense and end up creating a really rad band together. At least that’s the case with Unreal […]