The Seahorse Tavern

There’s a lot about the banjo-driven five-piece from Fernie, BC that just stuck—the name, which stems from the Aussie in the band, guitarist Steve Polit, who spent a year snowboarding and calling himself Shred Kelly after the Robin Hood of Australia, Ned Kelly. And the descriptor “stoke folk” which might just be the perfect tag, […]

Something you might wonder while listening to Halifax-based hip-hop group The Caravan’s eponymous album: who is that remarkable crooner singing throughout “The First Thing I Do”?  “Niven Miller,” says MC Kyle McKenna, referencing an obscure Scottish-born gospel singer. “We went up to New Brunswick and we were trying to do a promo where if you […]

“I‘m on the fence about ghosts. People say they see them, but they could just be lying,” says CROSSS’ Andy March. “I’ll go out on a limb and say I believe in psychic surgery, something like exorcism, but you know, the real kind, the underworld/subtle-body type.” The high priest at Youth Club Records summons the […]

After spending a day at work in front of the computer, AA Wallace comes home to his bedroom studio in the north end and, surrounded by a medley of machines, starts to play. Like any good armchair voyager into the deep space of the internet, Wallace realizes the escapist pastoral dream of weary office workers and […]

It’s been a long winter, but like the much-anticipated spring sun, Halifax is finally going to get its CD release celebration. The Wax was originally supposed to play this show in November but things didn’t quite align. “The Marquee’s liquor licence wasn’t ready,” says frontman Phyl La Ferriere, “finally we couldn’t get it so we […]

With tons of acclaim under their beards, including two ECMW nominations for Loud Recording of the Year, the Dartmouth dudes of Orchid’s Curse release their third studio album, Words, at The Seahorse on Friday. Presented by Red Tentacle PR and the label Diminished Fifth Records (both co-run by vocalist Josh Hogan), Orchid’s Curse will be […]

Two Hours Traffic has dubbed its new album Foolish Blood. But Liam Corcoran, the PEI indie-pop troupe’s frontperson, adds it’s inspired by a serious classic—a line that bassist Andrew MacDonald came across while reading James Joyce’s “Araby.” “It describes the moment when your impulses and desires are telling you to do something, that your rational […]

What time are you playing?” It’s a text many local musicians have received and it’s possibly even more annoying than asking for guest list, especially since the answer is always “show o’clock.” This is a town with notoriously late start times and lineups that play it fast and loose, so Old Blood’s Josh White and […]

When he was a teenager, Nick Everett dropped out of high school in London, Ontario, headed to the highway and stuck his thumb out. He wanted a job on a boat, and Halifax was a natural stop on that quest. “I got out here and didn’t find a job easily,” he says. “I also didn’t try very […]