All posts by Alex Cook

Like A Motorcycle Double Down on the Season’s Greetings With a Cover of The Screamers’ ‘122 Hours of Fear’

On October 13, 1977, Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230c jetliner travelling from Palma de Mallorca, Spain to Frankfurt, Germany, was hijacked by four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Over the course of the 122 hour-long ordeal, 86 passengers were taken as hostages, the captain, Jürgen Schumann, was murdered, the plane was flown 10,000km, finally arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, and conclude with the German counter-terrorism group, Grenzschutzguppe 9, recapturing the plane, killing three terrorists in the process.

A year later, Los Angeles-based technopunks The Screamers would release “122 Hours of Fear,” a song outlining the experience of the hijacking, sung from the perspective of one of the hostages. Forty-three years later, Halifax’s Like A Motorcycle have revisited the single to introduce their new sound, along with a new drummer. Continue reading Like A Motorcycle Double Down on the Season’s Greetings With a Cover of The Screamers’ ‘122 Hours of Fear’

Justin Fancy Sings About Never Looking Back, No Matter How Pretty Their Blue Jeans Are, on ‘Beauty Queen’

Sometimes, a situation will call for ripping off the proverbial bandaid and just dealing with whatever fallout comes after. Other occasions, however, suggest leaving the bandaid on. Wrap it well and tight. Bury it in soft peat. Resolve yourself to never, under any circumstances, giving it so much as a glance. Forget it exists altogether.

That seems to be the case for Justin Fancy’s “Beauty Queen,” a song about the kind of heartbreak you don’t want any air getting at, and the best way to handle that is never looking back. At least until some of the sting has gone out of it. Continue reading Justin Fancy Sings About Never Looking Back, No Matter How Pretty Their Blue Jeans Are, on ‘Beauty Queen’

Lawrence Maxwell Offers Advice for a Broken Heart on ‘Better You’

Lawrence Maxwell has prepared some notes from the school of hard knocks and offers them up with some soft-spoken country in the hopes that you might better yourself without having to endure the experience. Or, more accurately, so that you don’t have to foolishly endure that experience more than once.

The two-time Music PEI Award-winner’s latest single, “Better You” is a gentle reminder that matters of the heart are best taken slowly.  When things go sour, there are more than a million ways to find new variations of your past mistakes if you’re not prepared to spend a moment or two reflecting on them.

Continue reading Lawrence Maxwell Offers Advice for a Broken Heart on ‘Better You’

Alli Walker’s New Single is an Upbeat Introduction to the Whole Genre of ‘Country Music’

The new single from singer-songwriter Alli Walker is a treasure hunt for fans of country music. The appropriately titled track, “Country Music,” is an ode to some of the most influential country songs to have played a role in Walker’s life and drops names like we’re fighting a war for nostalgia. Continue reading Alli Walker’s New Single is an Upbeat Introduction to the Whole Genre of ‘Country Music’

Squintin’ Tarantino Goes Cold Turkey and Pushes the Boundaries of Folk on ‘Sandtrails’

Rock and roll has always had a complicated, and often disastrous, relationship with drugs. Rather than the typical romanticizing portrayal of said relationship—or far worse, the demonizing sermon—the new single from Squintin’ Tarantino offers a far more complex perspective on a chemical dependency gone wrong.

“Sandtrails” isn’t the average glorification of psychedelics, nor an enthusiastic lauding of cocaine, a boast of a chronic pot habit,  or even an ode to heroin. It’s a tale of prescription pharmaceuticals, casually prescribed by a well-intentioned doctor, Hippocratic Oath in hand, perhaps without fully considering the consequences. Continue reading Squintin’ Tarantino Goes Cold Turkey and Pushes the Boundaries of Folk on ‘Sandtrails’