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Infomonkey's Music Blog
In this space: Music news, interviews with local artists, album and concert reviews ... and whatever else comes along.
Contributor Kim Kinrade is a musician, novelist and blogger based in Dartmouth.
LINKS
Kim Kinrade's blog Music Before the Money
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Are You Quite Illuminated? Then Call Richard Bonner |
 MAY 4, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
You may never notice him as you enjoy the show but you see his every move. From his nearly invisible perch he responds to a series of subliminal cues weaving with the music and/or actions on stage so that his touches actually bring the scene to life. In this case his name is Richard Bonner and he is but one of a host of unsung artists called Lighting Technicians.
Long-Time Lighting
For 42 years Richard Bonner has been lighting the stages for premier acts and shows around the Maritimes. From his beginnings above the stage at Prince Andrew High School his expertise has evolved and today he is a sought-after lighting technician for musicians, actors and novelty acts such...
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The Soul of Acoustic Soul |
 MARCH 31, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
There are a lot of great players around these days and many of them are extremely young!. My 12 year-old son can play Tom Sholtz's organ solo from "Foreplay/Longtime," a series of riffs that used to boggle my mind well into my 20's. He got it from YouTube and his best friend, Noah, can play "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, a series of chords that requires a bit of dexterity. So it is suffice to say that the kids today can blow us away playing our own heroes' stuff.
But if you listen to many of the new songs on radio, as well bands who play the live venues, it sounds like the guitars have one volume (loud) and one sound (fuzz). I don't mean sustain, just blathering fuzz. I...
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Kathy Gurholt: The Musician’s Photographer |
 MARCH 18, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
For musicians, getting that great promo shot can be as easy as smiling or as difficult as waiting years for the right photographer to come along. This is why many of us are so touchy about having our pictures taken and we're a hard bunch to satisfy.
Many feel that Sherman Hines is among the best scenic photographer in the world. For years he has honed his craft so that almost every standard depiction of Peggy’s Cove and the Bluenose schooner is either Sherman’s or a knock-off of his shooting style. But Sherman's human shots are okay, not great, but okay. So here's a question: Can a photographer be good at both?
In that regard Dartmouth photographer Kat Gurholt also do...
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Scott Ferguson is a Recording Studio Success |
 MARCH 8, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
Tough Business
These days it’s not very often you hear about a success story in music that keeps getting better. Usually the airwaves are filled with “one-hit-wonders” who fade after the second CD fails to take hold or the recording studio that costs $1/2 million to build and then goes broke after the first year. Even in the ’70’s and ’80’s, which I recorded, 2 inch tape was $150 a roll and, ironically, that’s how much an hour cost in the studio!
Scott Ferguson - Against the Grain
In 1999 Scott Ferguson started his studio up in his garage, basically a practice studio with light recording abilities to get down basic tracks. His clients included local musicians and h...
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Donna |
 MARCH 3, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
Since the early 1990's tribute bands have been a mainstay in the music industry. The Beatles take the cake, as it were, as being the most copied band and Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones have many too. And. of course, Elvis Presley has to be the most copied entertainer in the world.
In my many years in the entertainment business I've seen many impersonators come down the pike. But outside the Legends show in Las Vegas I've never seen anyone do Marilyn Monroe until my last birthday.
On one of my birthdays (not saying which one!) I had Marilyn sing for me and she was adorned in with a white, tight dress and a feather boa . . .which she immediately lassoed around around...
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Meaghan Smith: Vintage Sound In a New Way |
 FEBRUARY 20, 2009
by Kim Kinrade
Musical talent, in many cases, is singing or playing an instrument, or both. Celine Dion has a voice, Yo Yo Mah makes a cello sing and Nora Jones accompanies her great voice on the piano. Halifax-based singer-songwriter Meaghan Smith adds another dimension to her performances in that she can weave stories through her songs.
Her style is drawn from a legacy of family musical talent as well as her own visual creativity, a skill that was brought to life during her studies as an animator. In fact that’s what brought her to Halifax from Ontario in the first place.
“I think when we are young we are held captive by our parents’ choice of music,” Smith explains.“ My mom was a...
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All You Need is Hal Bruce |
 FEBRUARY 13, 2009
By Kim Kinrade
The tribute band industry began with Elvis impersonators in the 1970’s. When Elvis died the numbers blossomed. The Beatles were next and, today, Australian Pink Floyd is one of the biggest tribute shows on stage. So where does one guy get the brass ones to take on a tribute to the most famous band in history?
For almost 20 years Hal Bruce was known around the area as the leader of Hal Bruce and the Hired Hand Band. With this group he won Canadian Recording Artist of the Year on more than one occasion. So with all this success in country why rock the boat? Well, Hal did. He folded up the band and began to perform Beatles songs as a solo act.
Does this sound odd? Wel...
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HPX: Zoooooboooombs. |
 OCTOBER 19, 2007
By all accounts (AkA, people I've talked to) things have been going really well for the 15th anniversary of the Pop Explosion. Festival pass holders seem to be happily mapping out their nightly destinations and for those with the extra cash, the Cunard Centre and St. Matthew’s Church shows have yet to disappoint. Things continue tonight with a bunch of really good shows, so let’s get right to it, shall we?
Top of the Pop for Friday, Oct. 19
The Seahorse
Featuring: The Moist Towelettes, Windom Earle, The Zoobombs
$8
With so much good music going on tonight, I had to make a choice based on a bunch of outside factors and while it’s something of a treat to see bands coming in from M...
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Brother Ali @ The Attic (Wed Oct 17) |
 OCTOBER 18, 2007
By Adam Miller
(Staff Writer)
Brother Ali exploded at the Attic last night with a wild group of DJs and MCs that produced some of the best hip hop to hit Halifax in a long time.
Toki Wright was the first of 2 opening acts, he is a tactical lyricist who at times seemed more like a comedian than an MC, and who managed to get a bar full of people who don’t know shit about his music to go nuts for this talented up-and-comer. The main DJ of the night was DJ BK One, and he complimented the
high energy of Toki by laying down thick and intricate beats that damaged my hearing beyond repair. One of the best lines of the night was when Toki turned to the crowd and said “You hang with more deadb...
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HPX: Now with caveats! |
 OCTOBER 17, 2007
I was able to pick up my Pop Explosion Pass today, which is pretty key given what I want to try and see for Thursday. It’s definitely a good night for music, so check the schedule and scour Myspace for bands that sound interesting. Chances are, you’ll find something new you like.
Of course, if all that internet searching is too taxing for you, feel free to just listen to me.
Top of the Pop for Thursday, October 18 (with caveat!)
The Attic – Drake Hotel Showcase
$5
Featuring: Their Majesties, The Ghost Is Dancing, The Dudes, Two Hours Traffic
Their Majesties feature really solid powerpop of the finest kind, with intelligent songwriting and listed influences including The Cla...
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HPX: Decisions, decisions... |
 OCTOBER 17, 2007
Last night I took in the Pigeon Row showcase at The Attic and man, let me tell you, it was a good night.
I love Blue Heeler so much more as a result of that show and I strongly suggest that you check them out. The Dick Morello/Julie Doiron Blue Heeler though, there’re a couple BH’s out there and I’m pretty sure I only love this one. The Bicycles were awesome, pulling out an encore set of nothing but covers. Good ones. I count myself among the lucky few who got to see The Bicycles covering Tiffany. Yes, Tiffany. It was also a night for especially good stage banter, something I take to heart. Also, as the Bikes’ Dana Snell pointed out, every drummer that evening was a woman (Julie Doiron, ...
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HPX: The Attic vs The Seahorse |
 OCTOBER 15, 2007
The Pop Explosion is upon us.
Keep checking back for regular updates, previews and reviews of Pop Explosion shows because over the next several days the Infomonkey music crew is going to completely cover the city. We’re going to give you the low down on what to try and see during the festival and coverage of all those bands you really shouldn’t have missed. Of course, we can be wrong, so if you’re out at the same show as us and disagree with what we said, let us have it. We can take it. We’re tough.
Tomorrow evening is a rather quiet start to the festival, but with the varied start times it’ll be possible to check out both showcases for pass-holders (or people with more money than me)....
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Pop Montreal (day 3) |
 OCTOBER 7, 2007
I'm sad to say that I got really, really lost.
I meant to make my way to the artists' lounge to do a posting for "day 3" on Saturday, but the map given out by Pop Montreal is a lot like that Krusty Burgers Across America map from the Simpsons, read: really shitty. Besides which, one would think that a street with a name as glamorous as "The Esplanade" would be this fantastic, cobblestoned majesty, complete with requisite gas lamp lighting and rows of charming shops with bells over their doors. Maybe a horse or two.
Mais non.
The Esplanade, it turns out, is this tiny little one way street that most of the other major Rues don't even intersect with, so by the time I made it to The Ar...
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Pop Montreal (day 2) |
 OCTOBER 5, 2007
Just try and blame me.
I went out last night (after several high class cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon) with every intention of checking out the East Coast revue at Barfly here in Montreal, but it simply wasn't meant to be.
Seems like Dance Hall Free For All, a Guelph ska inspired group that has yet to graduate from high school, had taken up all the free "reserved for artists" spots allocated for each event. This meant that my nifty green wristband was rendered null and void when I confidently flashed it at the door.
Share was on stage and was sounding really good so after a few moments of indecision I coughed up the eight dollar entrance fee just in time to see them wrap up their set. ...
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Pop Montreal (day 1) |
OCTOBER 4, 2007
I arrived in Montreal late last night.
After my excessive postings on various rideshare sites resulted in success, I arranged to meet a man I knew only as "Carl" at five in the morning. Carl turned out to be a wonderful human being; he had been trained by the same zen buddhist monk that taught Leonard Cohen and you really can't get much better than that for a random five a.m. drive. Carl also drive stick, which I don't, so he became the sole driver by proxy. He also shared a melon with me. Carl = rules.
Though I later learned Magnolia Electric Co was playing that night, I groggily made contact with my cousin upon arrival and stumbled back to his place for some much needed sleep.
T...
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The Tragically Hip Live at the Metro Centre, September 13, 2007 |
 SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
(PHOTO: The Hip onstage at The Metro Centre... from quite far away)
BY CARSTEN KNOX When The Tragically Hip came out for their encore, there was no predicting what they were going to play. That’s what’s great about our journeyman rockers from Kingston, ON, they’ve been so consistent with their radio-ready hits over the years, it’s hard to know what’s going to pepper their set. Me, I’ve been a fan so long I almost enjoy the rarities more than the popular songs.
I knew they wouldn’t play “Little Bones,” “New Orleans Is Sinking” or “At The Hundredth Meridian” because the band had already tickled the crowd with those favourites. But no, instead, they brought out, of all things, a cover: ...
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CD Reviews August 2007 |
AUGUST 22, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX
Thom Swift • into the dirt (Festival)
It’s probably only a coincidence, but a telling one, that the artwork on the disc of Swift’s album is very similar to Dire Straits Brothers in Arms CD art, evoking the National Steel guitar. Like Mark Knopfler or Warren Zevon towards the end of his career, Swift has a deep, friendly baritone, and a journeyman’s technical skill with a guitar, clear in the slide mastery on the instrumental “My Dog”. He also enjoys the ambient darkness and the trailer-park gothic similar to that plumbed by Tom Wilson and his old band, Junkhouse, in songs such as “Healer Man” and “Mother’s Arms”, though without the grit and desperation. Swift’s day job ...
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CD Reviews July 2007 |
 JULY 28, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX
Queens of the Stone Age • Era Vulgaris (Interscope)
I was a latecomer to the mad metal of the QOTSA appeal. Oh, sure, they always had chops that impressed, and lead Queen, the California man-mountain Josh Homme struck a blow for unorthodox rock music with his collaborative spirit, the regular guest players and vocalists he invited to join the party. Queens of the Stone Age being an always-evolving project seems a more apt a descriptor than just “band”. But, it took until Lullabies To Paralyze for me to really come aboard, an album that many critics dissed in comparison with the wild, riff-driven earlier releases, Rated R and Songs For The Deaf. Going back, there’s a lot...
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The Police: Concert Review, Air Canada Centre Toronto, July 22 2007 |
JULY 23, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Strolling through the ACC turnstiles with my small band of diehard Police-ophiles, I tried to reconcile 25 years of being a fan of the band with all that has happened since their original dissolution and the recent reformation. Unlike most of their contemporaries in the late 70s early 80s, most of their music doesn't sound dated, due to its odd fusion of punk/ska/reggae/rock and the bizarre chemistry in a trinity of talented and ambitious musicians who didn't always get along.
On the elevator ride up to the gondola suites high in the ACC rafters where we'd scored an overlord view of the show, I also rewound in my head footage of the reunited Police, Sting on bass and lea...
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Jazz Fest Round Up |
JULY 19, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX As the second and last weekend of the 2007 Atlantic Jazz Festival nears, all evidence tends to suggest it has been a serious success. A varied program of international musicians have made for a delightful time to be in Halifax, and of that success, well, even your humble reporter was barred access from the Ellen McIlwaine show last Saturday night. Oh, it was my own fault for showing up after show time, but a sold out room is a sold out room, even to the press.
I did find a great deal to enjoy at the Main Tent show of Mike Cowie the following afternoon. Three trumpeters playing in unison was something to see (and hear), and I stuck around to check out The Hylozoists, who,...
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Music Obsessive: Divest of the Fest |
 JULY 19, 2007
(IMAGE: Ron Sexsmith)
BY CARSTEN KNOX The Jazz Fest has been on the mind of most distinguished music connoisseurs this week, but there’ve been other things going on around town. It’s frustrating some nights, as it’s tough to choose what to go and see. Oh, what problems we have.
Before we get to the live music heads-up, I should mention word came down in the past week that local singer songwriter Catherine MacLellan has been signed to True North Records, the legendary Canuck indie that has released albums by Canadian artists Bruce Cockburn, Stephen Fearing and the Rheostatics. They will be re-releasing MacLellan’s second disc, Church Bell Blues in the near future.
MacLellan, who i...
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The Interpreters |
 JULY 15, 2007
(IMAGE: Andy Milne)
BY CARSTEN KNOX In rock music they call it "covering", but in jazz, it is a tradition much deeper and more respected. It’s interpreting, whether standards within jazz or looking further out to other forms of music, folk, pop and rock.
Jon Ballantyne and Andy Milne have much in common, besides sharing the Atlantic Jazz Festival Monday night bill at The Commons Room of the Holiday Inn Select. They both have Canadian connections, both Toronto educated, with Ballantyne having spent much of his childhood in Saskatoon, and both are headquartered in New York City but live in Pennsylvania.
Both are pianists, having collaborated with giants in the jazz world, and have c...
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Concert Review: The White Stripes, The Cunard Centre July 13, 2007 |
 JULY 14, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Friday the 13th came on strong, the fog of past days gone, with bright sunlight and a cool breeze.
Halifax was pumpin’, what with the jazz fest, tall ships and the White Stripes. Rumours were flying as to where they might play a secret gig, something they’d done in every town they’d visited across Canada. Would it be the Skate Park? The Citadel? Jack and Meg showed up at the fortress to fire the cannon and pose for a photoshoot, but no gig. The show did take place, at the Locas bar at about 4:30pm, and the not-so-secret 30 minute show was taken in by a 100 or so lucky fans, while the disappointed crowds out on Salter Street were large enough to block the street altogethe...
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Our Jazz Fest Isn't Just Jazz |
 JULY 13, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX It’s a decidedly healthy thing when a jazz festival plays a lot of music not traditionally thought of as jazz. Wynton Marsalis and his purist lot may take offense, but for jazz to appeal to an audience broader than the bohos, beatnicks and hipsters, it sometimes needs to be many things outside the box.
This year’s jazz festival is all about being outside tradition. Yes, Bill Frisell and Jerry Granelli’s V16, launching the festival this evening at 8pm at the Festival Tent located at Queen and Spring Garden (tickets still available, I hear), fits comfortably under the jazz umbrella, but what of slide guitar virtuoso Ellen McIlwaine, playing the Commons Room at The Holiday ...
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Review: Icky Thump (2007) |
 JULY 12, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Here’s the one people are talking about. The White Stripes, for the first time, go into a high tech studio in Nashville, recording for one of the big labels, Warner Brothers, also for the first time.
And how has it changed them?
It’s hard to say whether being on a major has made any difference. The pro studio has made for a very full-sounding record, but I think Jack and Meg were well on their way to rock glory and weird craziness before they intersected with the folks at Warner’s.
Icky Thump is encouraging in that it rocks a whole lot harder than Get Behind Me Satan, and it shows that Jack’s imagination and creativity is no longer satisfied with the template so ...
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Review: CBC East Coast Sessions |
 JULY 12, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX First off, mighty props must go to Geoff D’Eon, the producer of the CBC East Coast Sessions, a great idea well executed. The show has been shooting for the past week, two or three musicians per evening on a gorgeous CBC TV studio stage, playing and recorded for broadcast at some point in 2008. I hope it gets a national slot, which would be great for these performers, some of the best in Atlantic Canada.
The nights began last week with Gordie Sampson and Jenn Grant, then followed with Amelia Curran and Hey Rosetta. This week has been Old Man Luedecke, David Myles and Meaghan Smith, Rose Cousins and Fall Horsie were paired, and Jill Barber and Nathan Wiley yesterday evenin...
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Review: Get Behind Me Satan (2005) |
 JULY 11, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Easily the most different-sounding of the The White Stripes’ six full-length releases, Get Behind Me Satan is almost as a result the most frustrating. It was released in June 2005, on V2 Records.
Jack and Meg expand the band’s sonic palette far beyond the template as had been established, and with the artificial obstacles they’d set up no longer in effect, something was lost. There’s pushing the envelope and there’s throwing it away, and on some songs they were almost unrecognizable. The marimba on “The Nurse” almost seems like a reaction to the electric nastiness on Elephant, and the soft piano ballad “White Moon” wanders in from some other band, but for a comment about...
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Review: Elephant (2003) |
 JULY 9, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Elephant was the album that solidified the band’s hold on the popular imagination. When it came out on V2 Records in April 2003, with the rampaging “Seven Nation Army” as its first single, the critics were doing cartwheels. Even hip hop artists were heaping praise on the album, specifically that seven note bassline in “Seven Nation Army”, maybe the most insidiously catchy riff of the new millennium, next to Kylie Minogue’s “I Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.” It was everywhere,
covered by Audioslave and The Flaming Lips, among others.
The White Stripes fourth release was recorded in east London, a typically quick and dirty job, the way Jack likes it. The UK was where the ...
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Building a History |
 JULY 9, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Jeff Parker is ordering t-shirts in bulk. This isn’t an unusual activity for the guy in an indie band who manages the business side of things, and it’s a necessary evil if you want to make a little extra money on merch. That the t-shirts, designed by Paul Hammond at Yo Rodeo, need to be ready for Thursday, when his band A History Of goes on its first tour (that Parker booked) to points west with The Medium Mood, labelmates on Noyes Records. It doesn’t appear to be causing him much stress.
“It’s been very last minute, but we’re getting everything together,” he says evenly.
A History Of is a fourpiece Halifax band, consisting of Parker, who is singer and lead guitari...
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Review: White Blood Cells (2001) |
 JULY 9, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX This is The White Stripes’ third album, the one that made them big across the planet, and the third installment of my look at the band’s recordings.
For newcomers to the Detroit duo, this is where you should start. It’s where 95 percent of the band’s following first heard them, thanks to a video directed by Michael Gondry for the album’s first single, “Fell In Love With A Girl,” which was largely animated Lego blocks.
The song fell snuggly into the new garage rock sound that was popular that year, but looking back at the album, it's the first four tracks that pretty much tell the story of who The White Stripes are:
“Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground” speaks to the Zepp...
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Random Thoughts While Watching Live Earth |
 JULY 8, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX What strikes me about this show is how made for TV it is. It’s not so much about the event that TV viewers are lucky to be looking in on, it’s a show made for television that the live audiences paid big bucks to attend in order to provide a backdrop for the home viewers' experience. Maybe this has always been the case, since Live Aid in 1985, and I have been a fool to think otherwise, but the point was driven home with CTV having purchased CHUM. The fact I could flip between Channels 9, 17, 19, 37 and 57 to see London, New York, Hamburg, Washington DC and Rio made for a surreal look at the global scale of this show.
The idea of watching rock and roll in aid of climate ch...
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Review: De Stijl (2000) |
 JULY 6, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX This is my on-going series of reviews of The White Stripes recorded output. This is the second album from the band, released in
June 2000 on Sympathy for the Record Industry.
A term often bandied about by music critics is the “difficult second album syndrome.” It’s the idea that bands say and do everything they can in an initial recording, and are crushed by their own or their fans’ expectations on their second, unable to achieve a similar level of brilliance.
The fact of it is, De Stijl, named for an early 20th century Dutch art and architecture movement, seems less meaty than The White Stripes' first album, and though may not quite reach the same peaks and troug...
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This Weekend in Singer-Songwriters |
 JULY 6, 2007
(IMAGE: Meaghan Smith)
BY CARSTEN KNOX For many who go out to see live music on a regular basis, this weekend may be the last chance to take a break from it for awhile.
Next Friday is the beginning of over a week of stellar jazz music as
the Atlantic Jazz Festival begins. For those with a broad
interest in music, it's a little disappointing
that the same night is The White Stripes. Weeks can go
back with barely a blip on the international-acts-in-town
front, and then two big deals on the same night?
At any rate, there are other things going on if you do
want to see a band or two in the next few days:
The East Coast Sessions have begun. It's a series of
concerts celebrating...
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Review: The White Stripes (1999) |
 JULY 5, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX As promised, here’s a look at the first of six full-length White Stripes albums, the eponymously titled The White Stripes.
Before we get to that, here’s something to get you in the mood: The dynamic duo performing on public transit recently in Winnipeg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOl1e5FRA..
“The future is electric because gasoline’s not measured in metric,” is a line from “The Big Three Killed My Baby,” the third song on the White Stripes’ first album, released in June 1999 on Sympathy for the Record Industry Records, almost two years to the day from the band’s first gig in its Detroit hometown.
The album remains the rawest of The White Stripes’ output, a...
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The Just Friends Revue Review: Live at The North Street Church, July 4 |
JULY 4, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX This evening was a bit of a surgical strike for your humble scenester, arriving late and leaving early, due to circumstances beyond my control. But what I saw I enjoyed: a large, friendly and social crowd, a DVD trailer, and two relaxed sets from members of the Just Friends collective of like-minded musicians.
I was disappointed to have missed Laura Peek and The Winning Hearts, but a veggie dog and a slice of apple pie with neopolitan ice cream helped matters greatly, as did Stephen Kelly and Eleanor King of The Just Barelys. Kelly has a fragile, surprising falsetto that made me think a little of Brian Molko of Placebo, the dour British alt-rockers, though The Just Barely...
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Just Barely, Good Friends |
 JULY 2, 2007
(IMAGE: Stephen Kelly and Eleanor King of The Just Barelys)
BY CARSTEN KNOX If you are American, and that would be OK (no yank bashers here), you might be looking forward to getting all this Canadian nationalism out of the way, and enjoying your country’s 231st birthday on July 4th.
Now you have an extra reason to celebrate: local music collective Just Friends are having a big revue concert at The North Street Church. I know, I know, “collective” sounds vaguely communist, but don’t worry, these bands are nothing if not red-blooded. There’ll be a barbeque, apple pie, the whole thing, plus, it’s all-ages. The musical acts include Their Majesties, Laura Peek and the Winning Hearts, The ...
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Ladies and Gentlemen, The White Stripes |
 JUNE 30, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX In just under two weeks, The White Stripes play Halifax. This is no small deal, as The White Stripes are the most revolutionary band in rock and roll to appear in the mainstream in the last ten years.
In the late 90s, bubblegum pop rules the radio stations, and grunge was a dead horse being flayed by bands such as Creed and Staind (yes, in Halifax this weekend). Nerd rock, mainstream riot grrls, and California mallpunk had rushed in, and though some of it was good (Alanis, Hole, Weezer, Cake, Green Day intermittently, The Offspring), the powerful strides hip hop had made into the hearts and minds of North American youth earned it the mantle of music rebellion. Rock radio...
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Music Obsessive: Canada Day Weekend |
 JUNE 28, 2007
(IMAGE: Brent Randall)
BY CARSTEN KNOX I’ve often found myself out of town on the Canada Day long weekend, but I’d be suffering some serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) if I went camping or took up the cottage invite this year.
For starters, CKDU is working overtime to promote not only the station but also great music in town. I should know, as, in the interests of full disclosure, I have a radio show on said station. Friday night is their ongoing Final Friday music showcase at The Khyber, and this time features up-and-coming acts from the all-ages scene Attack Mode, A History Of... and Gamma Gamma Rays. CKDU is sponsoring the Concert on the (other) Hill at Fort Needham in the north e...
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I Want My Nickelback |
 JUNE 27, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Though it’s only just begun to feel like summer, the Canada Day long weekend is upon us. Traditionally, there is a big show on the 1st, and this year is no different: Nickelback plays the Citadel, or, at least the corner of it that faces Sackville and the CBC Radio building.
It was only a few summers ago Nickelback played the same date here in Halifax, with Default on the bill (they’re back) along with other modern rock acts, such as Crush. This year it’s American Idol also-ran-turned-alt- rocker Daughtry, as well as Finger Eleven, Hedley and post-grunge despairoids, Staind.
Flashback to Canada Day 2003: I knew the band for its monster hits “How You Remind Me” and “N...
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Festival Season |
 JUNE 25, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX For many music lovers, summer is synonymous with festivals. Getting out, digging your toes into the soft earth and grass of a country field, opening your ears and head to some new sounds. Of course, there’s always the chance of rain, of mud, of bugs, of sunstroke and alcohol poisoning, but this is what makes it an experience, and a communal one.
We in Atlantic Canada have a few festivals we can look forward to: The Stan Rogers Folk Festival taking place next weekend, June 29, 30 and July 1, in Canso, NS. This year it features artists such as Nanci Griffiths, JP Cormier, Gordie Sampson, Catherine MacLellan, Carmen Townsend, and Jill Barber.
There’s Evolve, up in Antigo...
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Fall Horsie, Jenn Grant and The Tom Fun Orchestra, Live at The Seahorse, June 23 |
 JUNE 22, 2007
(IMAGE: The Tom Fun Family Orchestra)
BY CARSTEN KNOX A fundraiser for a surf school draws an interesting crowd. Especially for One Life, a surf school exclusively for women. I expected more hippie girls, but this gathering was hirsute, punky, a nice gender mix. Strolling into the show at 10:15, I think I just beat the rush. They’d been showing surf movies before the first act, Fall Horsie. By the time they came on, 10:30-ish, the room was at peak bar din, where you needed to shout to hear the person next to you.
This atmosphere, increasingly lubricated, didn’t serve the band well. The buzz about the four-piece has been promising: young, unorthodox pop led by Justin Karas on keyboards...
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Halifax Image Smith |
 JUNE 22, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX In the four years that Chris Smith has lived in Halifax, the guy has made a lasting and distinct mark in the music business, makin’, as his website says, “dirty, hairy musicians look good.” He’s even rebranded his name; you may have seen it spelled “CHR!S SM!TH”. Originally a designer with an interest in photography, the Newfoundland-native is a multi-award winner (ECMA Designer of the Year Award, Music Nova Scotia Visual Artist of the Year, The Coast Music Photographer of the Year) who has helped mold the careers of many Atlantic acts with his in-concert and promo photography and creative album design, including Patrick Boyle, Brothers In Stereo, Joel Plaskett, Matt Mays an...
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Music Obsessive: Live this Weekend and Beyond |
 JUNE 21, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Something happened to the Quin sisters between their third and fourth albums, If It Was You and So Jealous. Tegan & Sara found unerring hooks in their songwriting, providing a pop deliciousness to what was a very post-Ani Difranco folk act. Late July sees full-length #5 from the Calgary-native twins, called The Con, and we'll see them return to Halifax on October 16, playing St. Matthew's Church on Barrington. Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 22, $25 in advance, $30 on the day of the show.
Speaking of Ms DiFranco, she has expressed her fondness for Xavier Rudd, antipodean surfer and singer-songwriter who'll be gigging at The Marquee July 14. The Australian multi-instru...
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Random Thoughts While Watching the Much Music Video Awards 2007 |
JUNE 17, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Sprawling on my living room couch Sunday night, I had a rough idea what I was in for: an awards show that would make me feel like an alien. A night celebrating music videos on a channel that rarely plays them, with the music video directors rarely appearing to receive the awards bestowed upon their work. At least many of the artists are savvy enough to thank the creative minds behind the cameras.
But, yes, alien.
Sure, it’s partly that the demographic for what gets played on Much Music is twenty years my junior, but moreover it’s how music is served up and really, what it is: pop, a distinct kind of punk rock and rap. The mainstream has become so narrow there are gre...
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Danny Michel Live at Ginger's June 15 |
 JUNE 16, 2007
(IMAGE: Danny Michel by Barry Roden)
BY CARSTEN KNOX Danny Michel was a little nervous just before his show on Friday night. He had brought his effects pedals from Ontario, but did not have a guitar. It was lost in a boating accident, or so the witty songsmith claimed. Fortunately, at 10:29pm, a minute before his set was about to begin, a friend came through with a newly-strung axe for the slightly high-strung performer. Michel was happy, especially with how the guitar made him sound like Dire Straits.
The backstory and the between-song banter are an essential part of a Danny Michel show. If all you know of him are his well-crafted radio hits (for instance, “Perfect” from Tales Fro...
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Insomniacs United |
 JUNE 14, 2007
(Image: The Sleepless Nights)
BY CARSTEN KNOX It’s ironic that The Sleepless Nights’ new EP—which is in fact a self-titled reissue of their earlier release Hang Up—leads off with a song called “Godspeed You Deathwolf”, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on all those musicians who felt they had to go to Toronto or Montreal to make it big.
It’s ironic because core band member, drummer Mary Cobham, also of The Maughams and Songs In The Key Of Jay fame, has just left Halifax. For Toronto.
“We’re still trying to figure out what to do,” says Trevor Murphy, who plays bass. “We’re in a position right now where we’re touring a lot more frequently and our tours are based out of Ontario a lot. ...
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Music Obsessive: More Summer Concerts |
JUNE 12, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Man, as more and more shows are announced, 2007 is looking pretty damn good in terms of quality musical acts making it out to the Atlantic region.
Add to the list: Alexisonfire, the screamy, Juno-winning
modern rock act from Southern Ontario, will play the Civic Centre (all ages with a licensed area) on July 20th. They're joined by Attack in Black and Cancer Bats. They come at an interesting time in their career. Still a little too raw for across-the-board mainstream success, they have a pretty hardcore cult following. None the less, Alexisonfire's side project, Dallas Green's City and Colour, has found a broad new audience with it's soft grunge sincerity. It meant the...
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Amelia Curran's |
 JUNE 11, 2007
(IMAGE by Dave Ceiplinski)
BY CARSTEN KNOX Amelia Curran is in pain. The spring deluge on this Monday evening has the intensity of an Indian monsoon and the damp is creeping into her fingers and wrists. Arthritis affects a few unlucky before their 30s, and the rain, combined with bones broken in Curran’s Newfoundland childhood, has her hitting the Ibruprofen. She spends the interview with her hands on the table in front of her, bending her lean fingers individually and tapping her wrists, with the odd snap and pop.
“I’m pretty good at ignoring it usually,” she says. “Sometimes I have to decompress.” Her laugh is easy, slightly graveled by cigarettes and experience.
The aches, tho...
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Old Man Luedecke & Catherine MacLellan, Live at Ginger's, June 8 |
 JUNE 8, 2007
(IMAGE: Catherine MacLellan at Ginger's Tavern Friday Night)
BY CARSTEN KNOX The two folk singers used the Friday night stand at Ginger’s to debut new material in an unusual format. Instead of the ordinary opening act-headliner scenario, the banjo wizard and the songstress traded sets, two each, with Luedecke starting at just after 10:30.
I’ve gone on at length about the wonder of Chris “Old Man” Luedecke. The 30-ish singer-songwriter has chosen his stage name well, he does seem like a relic of sorts, and yet absolutely and utterly vital. Sitting on the small, corner-room stage at Ginger’s in his hat and jacket, deftly strumming his banjo, he looked like a 1930s photograph come to lif...
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Music Obsessive: Jazzfest, Plaskett and Flip The Switch |
 JUNE 6, 2007
(IMAGE: Hugh Masekela)
BY CARSTEN KNOX This morning was the launch of the Atlantic Jazz Festival, complete with croissants and refreshments at the Holiday Inn Select Common Room (where a number of shows will take place during the festival). The festival will run this year from July 13 to 21. As much as I love the Atlantic Film Festival in September---being a mad film buff---there’s nothing like a downtown jazz festival to make a little city like Halifax feel cosmopolitan. Jazz musicians are, for the most part, class personified. Going to see live jazz makes you feel connected to great art, to history, to the cafes of Europe and the hidden, smoke-filled bars of Manhattan, all at once.
...
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Music Obsessive: Record Reviews |
 JUNE 4, 2007
(IMAGE: Feist)
BY CARSTEN KNOX
Feist • The Reminder
An artist who releases a massively well-received first album usually finds a bit of pressure waiting with the second. Most forget that in Leslie Feist’s case, she had a little-heard full-length indie release in 1999, called Monarch, and also put out a remix album following Let It Die, called Open Season, which had a charming selection of new songs amongst the remixes. The singer has a body of work, especially when you consider her contributions to the Broken Social Scenesters. The Reminder feels like the product of a mature artist, one who has taken the time to know her own sound. The opening track, “So Sorry”, is pleasant and acous...
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Music Obsessive: Summer Concerts |
 JUNE 2, 2007
(IMAGE: Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings)
BY CARSTEN KNOX So, you might be excited about The Tragically Hip coming to the Metro Centre in September. Or The White Stripes at the Cunard Centre in July.
Or even Nickelback playing Canada Day on the Citadel.
Now you can add a couple more dates to your concert calendar.
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, former bandmates in the legendary Canadian rock act The Guess Who, they're coming to town July 22 for a date at the Metro Centre. Expect a nostalgia-fest, but a classy one.
And, if you are someone who likes being outside to see live music in the summer, the Evolve Festival in Antigonish, coming together August 5, 6 and 7, has secu...
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Waylon, Wee-hours and Whiskey |
 MAY 30, 2007
(IMAGE: The Whiskey Kisses at the Khyber)
BY CARSTEN KNOX In 1975, it would have been unheard of. The generation gap was a chasm, not to mention the sheer opposition in values, but as time as passed, country music and punk rock have rubbed up against each other in a salacious and fertile fashion.
Fabian O’Brien had been playing music in punk bands for years, but after hours, when the bars closed and the spit had dried, he and his buddies would get together, drink and listen to old Buck Owens and Johnny Cash records and think, wouldn’t it be great to play music like this?
The Whiskey Kisses is the answer to those late-night, lubricated imaginings of musicians without a country mus...
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Music Obsessive: Remembering Jeff Buckley |
 MAY 29, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX I was in HMV the other day, browsing the new releases, as I am wont to do, and I came across another Jeff Buckley compilation, purporting to offer his best. At the time I wondered why we’d be seeing yet another Buckley release of selections from Grace paired with rarities and live tracks, but today I figured out why: A note I scribbled to myself in my daytimer months ago reminded me that it was May 29, 1997 that the 30-year-old musician decided to go for a swim in the Mississippi river, still wearing his boots, and drowned.
For those who aren’t familiar with his stuff, Jeff Buckley released Live at Sin-é, an EP, in 1993, and the full-length Grace, in 1994. These are real...
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Music Obsessive: Reunions |
 MAY 27, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX IMAGE: Smashing Pumpkins, circa Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
'Tis the summer of beloved bands reuniting to play music. There's little debate that the most anticipated reunion tour is The Police, which launches in Vancouver on Monday night. Word has it the Policemen have been enjoying their rehearsals so much they've even begun writing songs together again. Guitarist Andy Summers has been quoted as saying that recording an album after the tour's end is a good possibility. The Police play in Toronto July 22 and 23, and Montreal July 26, with a return-to-Toronto date in November.
Songwriter Neil Finn's popular combo Crowded House are back together, with an album...
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Music Obsessive: Back In The Saddle |
 MAY 25, 2007
(IMAGE: The Mahones)
BY CARSTEN KNOX Hey folks. Yes, I am returned, due to popular demand
(and certain outdated extradition laws).
On this sunny Friday, I have some tips for your weekend
live music options:
At Ginger's tonight (May 25) check out local afro-brazilian-caribbean (how many regions can I include here?) funk combo Zumbi. I wouldn't necessarily consider Ginger's to be a dance venue, which is a shame because I can't think of a local band that makes me want to dance as much as Zumbi. Maybe just hang out at the back, near the bar, where there is hip-shakin' space.
Also this evening, groovesome rockers Down With The Butterfly will be at The Seahorse along with Tanya D...
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88 Keys x 25 |
APRIL 15, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX For gigs at Tribeca or Gus’ Pub, the local multimedia multi-instrumentalist is simply listed at Rich Aucoin. But on Sunday, April 15, playing at the Music Room, he will be Richard Aucoin, a distinction that probably has more to do with the image of the venue than the pretension of the artist.
What it is actually reflective of is the fact that Aucoin is comfortable in the pop world where he’s made an impact by rescoring the soundtrack to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and playing it live for people while the long-running seasonal favourite is projected behind him, but can also perform in front of a crowd expecting a more classical edge. And all this at the age of 23, Auc...
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Music Obsessive: Coming Soon |
APRIL 9, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX After a traditionally slow time in album releases, with only The Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible stirring any kind of excitement in the music biz since the holiday season, the coming months of spring and summer appear to have a lot more to offer those who crave new music from our favourite artists faster than they can produce it.
Here is my list of soon-to-be fresh releases that we all can look forward to picking up at our local CD emporium or on-line in the coming months.
Locally, as I have mentioned a couple of times now in this space, we will finally be getting Jenn Grant and the Night Painters album Orchestra for the Moon to listen to on April 27 when she launches it by...
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The Bullet with Butterfly Wings |
 APRIL 6, 2007
(PHOTO: Down With The Butterfly)
BY CARSTEN KNOX Thirty-five days on the road might make a lesser band go to ground. Pulling into town, they’d have their feet up, enjoying the kind of sleep you only get in your own beds. But Down With The Butterfly isn’t slowing down at all these days. One Friday night off in Halifax, having played Fredericton the night before, and they’re off doing a show at St. FX Saturday and Gus’ Pub on Easter Sunday, with a recently reformed heavy meadows on the Gus' bill as well.
You might think that DWTB drummer Jason Burns has eight arms, not just because he's a damn fine percussionist, but for all the other work he does. The native of Thompson, Manitoba (he kn...
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The Junos: A Few Random Thoughts |
APRIL 1, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Why is it that we here in Canada are so bad at self-congratulation? Maybe it’s something we should be proud of, our inability to pat ourselves on the back when our music makers clearly have the talent and ability to compete with the best in the world, but our "rah rah" allergy is pretty obvious when you see our awards shows.
Maybe because I was at the Junos last year, the glitz and glam of the giant red carpet up Argyle Street and Coldplay in the Metro Centre blinded me to the fact of our Canadian cheese, so stinky in the telecast from Saskatoon on Sunday evening.
Lets start with the hostess. Nelly Furtado is (arguably) the biggest female star in the world today (as ...
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Music Obsessive: Myles Ahead |
MARCH 30, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX I can’t help but think we dodged a bullet.
It looked like we might have been getting new country powerhouses (and couple) Faith Hill and Tim McGraw as one of our late-summer Halifax Common concerts, but, darn it, Moncton nabbed them for a September 1 show at Magnetic Hill. So, not to generalize or nothin’, but I guess we’ll have to miss those beefy guys in ten-gallon hats driving their Jeeps all over town. As I said: darn it.
So, where does that leave Halifax? We still have two big dates where the Common is up for grabs. Will we see Aerosmith? Rush? The Police? I’m down with any of them. Or what about my original idea? An alt-rock festival. Bring in the New Pornogr...
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Pop-Up Stays Up |
 MARCH 26, 2007
(PHOTO: CHR!S SM!TH)
BY CARSTEN KNOX Pure pop songwriting is just something that keeps coming back in musical culture. The influence of 60s pop pioneers such as The Beach Boys is heard again and again, and though we can count four decades and the distance of a continent since that California band reached its peak, the pure joy of voices raised in melodious chorus over a hooky chord progression just can’t be beat.
That’s what The Superfantastics are peddling, and people are sure to buy it. With a sold-out 2006 EP behind them, their first full-length indie release Pop-Up Book gets its launch this Friday, when the band plays a show at the Seahorse. Produced and recorded by local friend-...
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Music Obsessive: |
MARCH 23, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Last Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day. I was browsing the New York Times when I came across an editorial, a fond recollection of the writer’s experience as a fan of Celtic-punk godfathers The Pogues, who were playing a few shows in Manhattan.
A little background on the band: The Pogues first came to prominence in the 80s with lead singer Shane MacGowan, the model of rock and roll excess, but also a lyricist of rare talent and subtlety. Albums such as Rum, Sodomy and The Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace With God endeared the band to both the young punks and fans of traditional Irish music, and singles such as Fairytale of New York, with guest vocals from the late, great...
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Constant Change |
 MARCH 19, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Everyone keeps comparing Guelph, Ontario-natives The Constantines to Bruce Springsteen, and though some of the more anthemic, songwriter-y material might be the cause for comparison, the band’s heart pumps blood the same colour of the plasma that ran through the Clash and other raw, British purveyors of melodic punk. In that, they stand out in a Canadian scene marked by a host of alt-country acts on one side and California mall-punk bands on the other. The Constantines, Steve Lambke (guitar and vocals), Bryan Webb (vocals and guitar and principle lyric writer), Doug MacGregor (drums), Dallas Wehrle (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Wil Kidman (keys and percussion), they ...
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Winterfest: Music That Pummels |
MARCH 16, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX I spoke too soon when I said things were all quiet on the eastern front. The all-ages scene never stops here in Halifax, largely due to the efforts of Chris Smith, the fellow who runs the Pavilion. This weekend is Winterfest, a three day live music event bringing together an interesting cross-section of music, with two out-of-towner hardcore metal acts headlining the Thursday and Saturday, Comeback Kid and Despised Icon respectively, with local rockers Great Plains the soft, meaty centre in that sandwich, with their Friday night CD release.
Thursday night found me wandering into the sold out Despised Icon-Job for a Cowboy bill at the Pavilion. When the crowd is at capaci...
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Absentees |
 MARCH 12, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Buck 65, who will be joined by Michael Catano at SxSW this week
Listen to that. You know what that is? That’s silence. If you really strain, and the wind is right, you may detect the distant sound of engines, as the best of our young musicians travel by car, van, bus and plane to points west.
This past weekend was Canadian Music Week (or CMW, as it is known by the cognoscenti), a big music industry event in Toronto. I can imagine what its like... just this side of madness. There are so few slots on the radio and in major label rosters for new bands anymore, but there'd be a deluge of smaller, boutique labels sussing out the hot new bands. Music Nova Scotia sponsored a...
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It's Official: The Halifax Common Concert Venue |
MARCH 7, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX
It’s March, and I’m starting to dream of festivals.
Coachella is less than two months away, but it’s also in California, which may as well be another planet. Can you imagine the feeling of the grass between your toes, the pungent tang of skunky weed and patchouli, and the sun on your exposed neck as you crane it to watch Bjork, Rage Against The Machine, Kings of Leon, Manu Chao, New Pornographers, Damien Rice, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Damian and Stephen Marley, Gillian Welch, Amy Winehouse, Crowded House, Kaiser Chiefs, Lemonheads, The Roots, or The Decemberists, just a small number of the bands who will be playing there? Would it be so difficult to have a show suc...
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(Not So) Strange Fruit |
 MARCH 4, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX New York is a musician’s Mecca. Ask Matt Mays, who moved down there last fall. It's still true, as Ol’ Blue Eyes said, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
Chris Tarry has been living in New York for four years now. A two-time Juno-award winning jazz musician, with the electric bass as his weapon of choice, he made waves in Vancouver for years as both a player of exquisite style as well as a music teacher, before making the leap to the Big Apple. Since the move, Tarry’s career has blossomed even further, with collaborations with musicians as diverse as John Scofield and Mino Cinelu.
His most recent project is The Chris Tarry Group album Sorry To Be Str...
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A Fine Vintage |
 FEBRUARY 28, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Brian Greenway has been playing with April Wine since 1977. That makes this year an anniversary, 30 years with the rock warriors, minus a few years there in the late 80s when the whole band decided to call it quits for awhile.
The classic rock scene is very different these days than it was in ’77. Back then, April Wine shared stages with other huge Canadian rock bands like Rush, and the road was a crazy, excessive place. Over the years many of those bands self-destructed (Led Zeppelin), retired (Triumph), or became parodies of themselves (Kiss). But the members of April Wine are journeymen having found the right formula, they’ve kept playing live, kept bringing the music...
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Music Obsessive: One |
FEBRUARY 26, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Did anyone see The Arcade Fire on Saturday Night Live? The media has been doing cartwheels to herald the imminent launch (March 6) of their new album, The Neon Bible, and, you know, I don’t deny that they’re interesting. I even get that they’re a wildly creative collective of multi-instrumentalists, doing their own unique thing. And that’s fine. But am I missing something in all the excitement? I’ve heard their last album, I saw them when they played the Marquee, and I have somehow avoided becoming an acolyte, I haven't joined the cult of TAF whose members include David Bowie and U2 and almost everyone I know.
Live, they impressed me with their instrumentation and their re...
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The Many Worlds of Feral Bliss |
 FEBRUARY 21, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX “Sometimes silence is the better way,” sings Feral Bliss in “Silence,” a track espousing thoughtfulness and consideration from her forthcoming full-length release White Noise Intermission.
The Feral Bliss camp will be anything but silent in the days to come, and the buzz has been practically deafening. Her internet presence announces musical forbearers such as Erykah Badu and Sade in a jazz vein, and while there’s certainly no doubt of that, an electronic pulse is present in the beats, that speaks to a sound not unlike the work of Esthero or Poe. Bliss is an exception to the wordsmith-driven singer-songwriter style of Halifax music and an aberrant force in the urban sce...
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ECMA Beat: The Show |
 FEBRUARY 19, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Sporting my fancy blue suede shoes, I strolled into the Metro Centre through the “Artist’s Door,” as slick as can be, reasonably confident that by arriving 45 minutes before showtime I’d be able to ease into a seat in the stands and enjoy the proceedings. Boy, did I miss the memo. The non-televised portion of the evening’s celebratory awards had commenced more than an hour earlier, so I’d missed it, I’m embarrassed to admit. To compound my idiocy, I got a little lost on my way to the media room, which, when I found it, was barred due to JP Cormier’s stint in front of the TV guys. I did see Mr. Cormier exit, dabbing the perspiration from his brow as he was ushered off to make...
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ECMA Beat Saturday |
FEBRUARY 18, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Back from the market I tuned into CBC, I to hear Jenn Grant sounding great, doing that "Brown House" song, the one she recorded with Ron Sexsmith for her forthcoming album. An interview followed, and she seemed especially thrilled to be on DNTO. In-Flight Safety performed, and it occured to me they play very mood-setting music, with one song bleeding organically into another. I wonder if they’ve considered soundtrack work.
The Pavilion’s black light renders every bit of fuzz on my sweater a fluorescent purple. I’m surprised the hard, featureless concrete floor isn’t stained with the blood, sweat and spit of a hundred hardcore shows. The spirit lingers, though, somehow. ...
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ECMA Beat Friday |
FEBRUARY 17, 2007
Let the rants continue, I say.
BY CARSTEN KNOX I headed down to the Casino to see the afternoon taping of CBC Main Street, the daily radio show, today live to the entirety of Atlantic Canada with an excellent group of regional musicians performing. I acknowledge that the sound system in the Schooner Room is superb, it is astonishing how crisp and clear the particulars of every instrument and voice are amplified, but that admitted, the room is a windowless convention hall, with all the creative ambiance of a municipal council meeting room. And, of course, as everyone knows, the Casino is a huge pain in the ass to get to, either by road or by the circuitous elevated catwalks that always r...
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ECMA Beat Thursday |
FEBRUARY 16, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX There are a few things I’ve grown to loathe in the relatively short period of time that I’ve been working in this so-called music biz.
For starters, it’s the shlubby industry wanker who shows up at a showcase with his lanyard proudly dangling, and proceeds to sit close to the stage and talk through a musician’s set. That's #1.
The #2 thing that bugs me is the irritating choice of venues for shows. Thursday evening found me at the Music Nova Scotia stage at Tribeca, a place where the line-up started early. It’s just two damn small to accommodate all the interest in that stellar line-up. But I know perception at these kinds of events is a big deal (#3 thing) and we coul...
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Halifax Airmen See Blue Sky |
 FEBRUARY 15, 2007
PHOTO by Scott Munn
BY CARSTEN KNOX If you google In-Flight Safety, the first hit is an Air Safety Resource site.
The second is for the Halifax-based four piece, the soulful, modern rock act nominated for a fistful of ECMAs: CBC Galaxie Rising Star recording of the year, video of the year, alternative recording of the year and group recording of the year, for their January 2006 release The Coast is Clear. What’s notable about the google hit is that it reads, “In-Flight Safety, Halifax, NS, Canada – Welcome,” as if they were a local version of that resource site, to support the travellers through the recently renamed Robert L. Stanfield International Airport.
What’s telling about t...
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Queen of the Slipstream |
 FEBRUARY 13, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX The St. George Round Church was a chilly place on Saturday night, the over 200-year-old structure doesn’t hold the heat very well. Fortunately, the stellar line-up of musicians made the place feel very cozy indeed.
At the top of the bill, closing out the In The Dead of Winter festival was Jill Barber, the brightest light in the Halifax singer-songwriter scene. If you have any doubt to this claim, check out the past few months since the release of her universally acclaimed, full-length album For All Time: her ubiquity on CBC radio, tours in Ireland and the UK, opening dates for Ron Sexsmith out west, and now four (count ‘em) East Coast Music Award nominations, the awards ...
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Not the ECMAs... yet. |
 FEBRUARY 13, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Pretty much anything you read this week relating to music in Halifax will be related to the ECMAs, directly or tangentially. Hell, I have two interviews coming up this week with artists who have been nominated for East Coast Music Awards and I’ll be going out to see as many bands as I can on the days leading up to the awards.
But there is a danger in ignoring all the things going on not ECMA related.
For example, don’t miss the Wednesday (Valentine’s Day, if you’d forgotten) show at the Khyber Club. It’s going to feature a series of collaborations between artists and local musicians in a variety of performance possibilities. The bands featured are all from the Divorc...
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A Warm Start to In The Dead of Winter |
 FEBRUARY 9, 2007
Sherry Ryan, who opened the festival. PHOTO by Justin Hall
BY CARSTEN KNOX Anyone who decided to drop by the Bus Stop theatre last night, whether a music fan or not, would have heard a delightful cross section of the best of the Halifax independent music scene, a group of musicians that pushed the genre boundaries outside folk and singer-songwriter into electronica, R&B, rock and even gangsta rap. Hell, it even pushed the geographical limits, with Toronto and St. John’s represented. The good news is, if you didn’t make it down, the fun continues tonight and tomorrow.
Yesterday evening started with a sparse audience who turned up to see an unusual song circle: Chester resident Old Ma...
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We Are In The Dead of Winter |
 FEBRUARY 8, 2007
PHOTO by Al Greer STORY BY CARSTEN KNOX After weeks of consistently arctic weather, could this folk festival have a better name? It really does feel as though we have reached the basement of our seasonal journey, so what better time to gather in a dark, intimate space and listen to some of the best musicians this town —nay, the country—has to offer?
Running from tonight right through Saturday (with videos and documentaries screening on Sunday), In The Dead of Winter’s headquarters is the Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen with Saturday gigs added at the One World and St. George’s Round Church. At the Bus Stop, starting at 7 this evening, a song circle with Sherry Ryan, Old Man Luedecke and ...
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The Return of The Police |
 FEBRUARY 6, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX By now anyone who’d be reading this blog for pleasure probably already has heard the news. The Police are reforming. The three bleached-blonde lads, two British and one American, who in a very short period (1978-1984) became the biggest band in the world over the release of five studio albums and a number of minor and massive tours, are back. A summer 2007 tour is rumoured to be in the works.
Aside from Talking Heads, I can’t imagine another band (whose original members are all hale and hearty) I’d be more excited to see get together to play live. But I have a fair amount of anxiety about the idea too.
Gordon Sumner aka Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland made g...
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Gordie Sampson: Songsmith |
 FEBRUARY 5, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Versatility. It’s a descriptor often ascribed to artists these days by wags such as myself. It seems almost everyone you meet is a hyphenate, pursuing multiple dreams of creative expression. It’s when you talk to someone who actually is able to walk the walk that you’re impressed.
Gordie Sampson is a Cape Breton native, a songwriter, a singer, a musician and a studio producer of other artists. He seems to do it all equally well, having released two albums of rootsy rock, Stones from 1998 and Sunburn from 2004. These days, when he’s not on the road, he splits his time between adopted home Nashville and his home studio in Cape Breton. Sampson is a hired gun in the American...
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Helen Hill Memorial at the Seahorse, Saturday Feb 3 |
 FEBRUARY 2, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Though I’d never even heard of her before the first week of January, the impact that Helen Hill had on the arts community in Halifax has been made very clear to me in the reaction of people to her death. By now most know the story: the South Carolina native was shot and killed in her home in New Orleans a few days after the new year, leaving behind her husband Paul Gailiunas and young son, Francis Pop.
She was an animator and an activist, and though she lived in Halifax for only a few years and has been gone a little while, it feels to me like people held her close, given the memorials and the stories and the goodwill she engendered. Would that we all could make that ki...
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February in Halifax: Reasons To Not Stay In |
JANUARY 30, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Yes, folks, if you hadn't guessed, we're on the verge of February. The wind is whipping across the wide open spaces, and we're in the midst of a deep freeze. It's enough to make you want to go into hibernation with a bottle of scotch and seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on DVD. Gosh, that Spike, won't he ever learn?
But before you get hypnotized by the flickering blue screen and lost under a mountain of blankets, keep in mind what the year's shortest month has in store in terms of live music. For starters, Matt Mays sold- out gig at the Rebecca Cohn Saturday night, with The Museum Pieces opening. El Primo Torpedo is supporting his solo release, a fairly ambitiou...
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Gypsophilia Cornucopia Redux |
JANUARY 27, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX The address on Hollis street is one of Halifax's first brick buildings, built in 1820. Renovated, the third floor is a cavernous loft, all exposed brick, exposed wood, skylights and strategically lit. Electric and acoustic guitars hang from hooks like the stuffed heads of wild game. Though the night outside is the sort of cold unloved by God, it's toasty in here.
This is Friday, January 26, the first night of a two night stint as Gypsophilia records an album, "Live in the Sonic Temple."
Studio wizard Dave Hillier introduces the event with a few hard and fast rules for the audience of a little over 60 people: no coughing, no clapping during the songs. Saxophonist Dani O...
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Gypsophilia Cornucopia |
 JANUARY 25, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Dani Oore, sax player for Halifax-based gypsy jazz band Gypsophilia, is dealing with a problem right in his wheelhouse. A food allergy has given him a bit of a swollen tongue, an issue that could potentially affect his playing. He says he feels confident that he’ll be fine for Friday and Saturday night, when his band plays two gigs that will be recorded for an album release, Gypsophilia’s first. He says he’s “just trying to get back to some simple food.”
Oore plays sopranino sax, which is even smaller than soprano, though he’s also trying out a new horn with the band, the baritone saxophone. All his talent as a performer and principle songwriter for the group will be on ...
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Jenn Grant's Moon Launch is Imminent |
 JANUARY 25, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Ah, synchronicity of Halifax. This evening I attended a meeting of my fiction writers group at Tribeca, the exact stylish watering hole where later on, talented local thrush Jenn Grant would be performing. It’s been a couple of months since I’d seen her on stage, and longer since she and I had spoken about her long-awaited album, Orchestra for the Moon. For my money, it is the most anticipated record by a Halifax-based artist this year… well, maybe the spring release of a new Joel Plaskett Emergency album is up there, too. But Grant’s disc, aside from being the launch pad for her certain to be world-conquering career, is a smorgasbord of local and not-so-local talent, includ...
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Jimmy Swift Band: Weight of the World |
 JANUARY 23, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX It’s rare that an album provokes such a stew of mixed emotions, from astonishment to frustration and back again. And, after three or four listens, that they are no closer to being reconciled is a testament to the
band’s versatility, if not its album sequencing.
Weight of the World is the fourth album from JSB, following on the heels of Now They Will Know We Were Here, Onward Through The Fog and the live release The Return of Hooch, and it records a band at full tilt, thrashing about and unable to settle on one sound. The Jimmy Swift Band is a rock band, a jam band, an electronica act. When most bands cleave to a single, repetitive theme, the JSB wires to everything and...
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Winning Hearts and Minds |
 JANUARY 21, 2007
BY CARSTEN KNOX Laura Peek’s journey from Toronto teen music fan to noted Halifax musician has a certain fairytale grace that suits the whimsical sound of her music. If it sounds like a made-up story, that’s fitting, given Peek’s fictional inspirations.
Peek (seen here with Joel Goguen and Dave Ewenson, members of her band The Winning Hearts) was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, the much-derided homogenous suburban sprawl on the east side of Toronto that produced Mike Myers and Barenaked Ladies. Falling in love with sounds of the east coast, she’d go downtown to check out Matt Murphy’s band The Flashing Lights and Sloan when they’d tour through Ontario, and was driven to write so...
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