If you’ve been on the hunt for some chunky guitar-driven rock, your search would end happily with Halifax’s Dazor. Bringing together some of grunge’s best features like the plaintive vocal delivery with perfectly placed backing vocals. Couple that with crushing guitars and a powerful rhythm section, and you have what promises to be a really great release from Dazor. Continue reading Dazor Learn Their ‘Lessons’ at the School of ’90s Grunge
Tony Ronalds Opens His Diary for Us on His Latest Single, ‘Gone’
We’ve just finished up with the supper dishes when Tony Ronalds stumbles out of bed to start breakfast. The Cape Breton native who makes his home in Sydney, Australia is on a totally different schedule than you and I. In some ways, he always has been. Continue reading Tony Ronalds Opens His Diary for Us on His Latest Single, ‘Gone’
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’
Porch Light: Mo Kenney, Mama’s Broke and Dani-Rae Clark Organize Benefit Concert for Elizabeth Fry Society
Nova Scotia currently has the highest rates of police-reported human trafficking in all of Canada. In a report released this year by Statistics Canada, Halifax was shown to be well above the national average. It’s not a statistic most would be comfortable with, and it’s something Amy Lou Keeler of folk duo Mama’s Broke was not prepared to tolerate.
In response, Keeler has organized Porch Light: Music, art and poetry, a benefit concert for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia’s Girls Against Trafficking and Exploitation (GATE) program. Continue reading Porch Light: Mo Kenney, Mama’s Broke and Dani-Rae Clark Organize Benefit Concert for Elizabeth Fry Society
Dennis Ellsworth & The Electric Stars’ ‘Endless (Nowhere Else to Go)’ is an Argument for Perspective and the Grateful Dead
Dennis Ellsworth is a master of perspective. The award-winning songwriter has a habit of looking backward and forward all at the same time; a regular denim-clad Janus, armed with a six-string. His songs often seem to have us either peering into the future from the context of golden-hued childhood or back in retrospect with the burden of hindsight.
His new single with backing band The Electric Stars — Dan Currie (guitar), Mike Montigny (bass), Roger Carter (organ), Mike Carver (drums), and Adam Gallant (percussion) — questions that perspective and whether we’re getting a clear picture of where we are at all. Continue reading Dennis Ellsworth & The Electric Stars’ ‘Endless (Nowhere Else to Go)’ is an Argument for Perspective and the Grateful Dead