Mixtape Magazine #1

The Ba l con i e s | Cous i n s | Ango | The Wooden Sky

Joel Plaskettten crazy weeks

Apr i l 2012$7.99 DEB

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GRAND FALLS | WINDSOR | PARIS | MOOSE JAW | PICTOU | KINKORA | EVERYWHERE

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GRAND FALLS | WINDSOR | PARIS | MOOSE JAW | PICTOU | KINKORA | EVERYWHERE

www.geto!heinternet.com

A look at the Halifax record label that’s keeping it classic by only releasing on tape.

Contents

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#mixtape

We catch up with Halifax singer-songwriter Mo Kenney over breakfast.

Illustrations of the most stand-out musicians of the moment — from the neck up.

This issue’s most hilarious rapper tweets, curated by Ryan Hemsworth.

Recommendations for the albums you won’t find in physical format.

Best online albums

Trendspotting

Body of work

Dine with an artist

We review new album releases from Eight and a Half, Grimes, Zeus, Boxer the Horse and more.

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Album reviews

APRIL12 MIXTAPE.COM 3

The monthly mix

Inside out

Play

Full house

Artists & their spaces

Style

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Our top 10 album/performance/artist lists. This month: songs to listen to while daydreaming and staggering home.

Joel Plaskett sits down with us to discuss his new album, Scrappy Happiness.

Halifax band Nick Everett & Everybody open their home to friends and strangers for a house show.

A look inside the spaces where artists Babette Hayward, Tim Crabtree of Paper Beat Scissors and In-Flight Safety’s John

Mullane get creative.

Folk rocker Willie Stratton talks fashion and pirate style.

A look inside DJ James Reid’s backpack.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chelcie Soroka, Editor

Listen up!Letter from the editor

Welcome to the first issue of Mixtape Magazine. Mixtape is a thoughtfully crafted guide to inform music lovers. Stocked with interviews, infographics and lists, we feature the best of Canadian and international alternative, folk and electronic music.

Mixtape’s nostalgic tone and intimate portraits appeal to any nerd who views music as a lifestyle and appreciates the beauty of a three-part harmony or late nights spent hunched over a laptop. Over the past several weeks all five of us have been up into the wee hours, hands hovering over keyboards, working toward this final product.

Our aching wrists and strained eyes have toiled to create the magazine you now hold in your hands.

For our debut issue, we take a look at this year’s nominees for the Juno’s New Group of the Year and talk to Exeter about his time at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid last fall. We look at the hairstyles, grills, masks and facial hair of 20 artists. We peek inside the studios of a few maritime

musicians and hang out with Cousins while they package tapes for their tour to SXSW. We follow The Balconies from Halifax to Moncton and discuss the merits of garlic fingers. We talk style with Nova Scotian folk rocker Willie Stratton and go to a house show.

My favourite part of editing this issue has been getting to know my team. Until now I have never enjoyed working with other people – there’s always someone who doesn’t do anything, someone who has no idea what’s going on and someone who micromanages everything. I’m pleased to report no one on our team fits any of those descriptions. Except maybe me and the micromanager thing. And while putting this issue together hasn’t been easy, it has been a lot of fun. I have learned a lot about the technical side of putting a magazine together and a lot about music and musicians.

Mixtape is something to covet and collect and we hope the stories and pictures are just as interesting five years from now as they are this month.

It’s been a long time coming, but Ryan finally had some fun at work. Go back to his drawings in elementary and you can dig up the roots: mock-ups of imaginary Nintendo Power issues and fake music magazine covers made up a chunk of his adolescence. Mixtape finally gave him a taste of the real thing: layouts, editing, designing, and quietly sobbing when Adobe doesn’t cooperate. He loved (almost) every minute of it.


ContributorsAs editor of Mixtape, Chelcie was responsible for ensuring the first page of the magazine felt the same as the last page. She watched and worried as all of the right parts fell into almost all of the right places. She wrote a couple pieces as well as editing most of the words you are now reading. She learned a lot about people and a lot about music over the past six weeks and hopes you will too in the coming pages.

Chelcie Soroka, Editor

Samantha is pretty obsessed with organization. As managing editor, she made really intricate schedules and was constantly marking down important notes in her agenda. Usually she was just annoying her team with pesky due dates. In her free time, Samantha can be found knocking back energy drinks or devouring any and all of Chelcie’s baked goods. The best part of working on Mixtape for her was mixing three of her favourite things together: Joel Plaskett, caffeine and sugar (not necessarily in that order).

Samantha Chown, Managing Editor

Although she enjoys writing, Hilary is in her element when she’s involved with design. Laying out content, working with typography or selecting colours—she loves it all. She also enjoyed listening to, learning about and meeting new bands. When pop and rock ‘n’ roll band The Balconies came to town, Hilary realized bringing earplugs to a concert is a must - unless you want to hear miniature gnomes banging cymbals in your ears for days afterward.

Hilary Creamer, Art Director

Briggins is a bit of a music junkie. He sent lots of emails and texts to some of the coolest bands coming out of Canada at the moment for Mixtape. If you were to walk into a Mixtape meeting, chances are he would be wearing a band t-shirt and sipping on a pop. He also loves to take concert pictures on his iPhone. His favourite part of the magazine process was staring at Gavin Gardiner’s beard (from The Wooden Sky) at Taz Records.

Jonathan Briggins, Photo Editor

Ryan Hemsworth, Copy Editor/Fact Checker

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Cover shot by Matt McMullen

Mixtape logo design by Morgan MacDonald

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All the good stuff we couldn’t fit in the magazine

mixtape.com

Check out mixtape.com for a behind the scenes video from our shoot with

Joel Plaskett.

See more photos from our road trip with The Balconies.

Go to mixtape.tumblr.com for outtakes from our style photo shoot.

Follow us on twitter, @mixtape_mag, for the latest updates.

Subscribe to soundcloud.com/mixtape for your monthly mixes.

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Little Mountain by Canadian folk darlings Said the Whale, is no small feat. Clocking in at almost 50 minutes and with 15 tracks, it seems a little daunting.

On first listen, the songs blend together and it’s hard to distinguish when one song ends and another begins. But listen a little more carefully. It’s the third studio album by the Vancouver band and their first full-length album since winning New Group of the Year at last year’s Juno Awards. So there might have been a little bit of pressure to live up to after the success of Islands Disappear.

Sure, Little Mountain has a couple unnecessarily whiny tracks the album could do without –

think “Lover/Friend” and “Guilty Hypocrites”. But just like an essay, the weakest points are hidden in the middle and by the time the band’s danceable single “Heavy Ceiling” rolls around, I’ve completely forgotten.

The album’s lyrics have a storytelling quality and are completely relatable since they talk about common problems like heartbreak and leaving home. Standout track is the instantly catchy, “Loveless.” Little Mountain is indie rock I’ve heard a hundred times before but it’s just different enough that I don’t mind listening on. I want to throw it on my iPod, pop it in my car and drive out to Vancouver. - Samantha Chown

On first listen, Busting Visions

sounds good but almost cacophonic. However on a second, third, fourth (and counting) careful listen, I began to appreciate each song individually as well as the album as a whole.

The album shows Zeus is comfortable and confident in its designation as a pop rock group. Their first album Say Us features a too-wide range of sounds and the album feels incomplete because of it. Say Us was written with input from many people, but Busting

Visions was written entirely by three of the band’s four members. This method clearly pays off in the tight and cohesive sound and feel of the record.

The great opening track, “Are You Gonna Waste My Time?” is an upbeat and promising start to their second album. The fourth track,

“Let It Go, Don’t Let It Go” slows things down but things kick back into an arm-waving, body-swaying groove with “Hello Tender Love” and “Messenger’s Way”.

The songs are interesting – not at all predictable and by the fourteenth song, Busting Visions doesn’t feel formulaic or mechanical. Zeus delivers on the promise contained in the album’s first track. “Love/Pain” and “Love In A Game” stick out as particularly catchy.

As a whole, the album is genuine, high-energy and exciting without being overbearing or harsh. - Chelcie Soroka

Zeus - Busting Visions (Arts & Crafts)

Said the Whale - Little Mountain (Hidden Pony). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Album reviews

“Infinite <3 Without Fulfillment” is the first track off Grimes’ new album, Visions, her fourth release over the past two years. It begins on the first beat of a clunky drum loop, which starts so abruptly it makes you wonder if you somehow skipped past a smoother introduction. But no, this is your intro to Grimes’ world: a messy, mumbly and mesmerizing dark hole.

As her first proper release with British record label 4AD, Claire Boucher (a.k.a Grimes) greets her new listeners with a slew of pretty pop songs at the front-end of the album. The two-hit combo of “Genesis” and “Oblivion” kicks you back into the days when musicians really cared about tracklists and pacing. From there,

the album submerges itself deeper into this musty, swampy pop world. “Circumambient” evokes thoughts of Mariah Carey recovering from an MDMA hangover, muttering lyrics beneath her bed sheets at home.

Visions isn’t the type of album you’d get as a stocking stuffer for your mom — you’ll be better off if you’re already familiar with the spiritual imagery, the DIY sound and punk ethos that Grimes has been associating herself with for a while now. And although her background is one that many people attribute to the sub-genre “witchhouse”, the new Grimes sounds perkier and more ambitious than ever, somehow striking a balance between alienation and allure. - Ryan Hemsworth

Broken Social Scene announced the band was going on a hiatus in September 2011. The Stills wrote an open letter in April 2011 telling friends and fans the band had broken up. Fast forward a few months and we have a new project: Eight and a Half.

Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff along with Liam O’Neil and Dave Hamelin of The Stills have been focusing their creativity on a synth-heavy, not-quite-side-project.

On their self-titled debut, the trio show creativity through experimenting with synthesizers and samplers. They create an ambient atmosphere that is a departure from the usual sounds of The Stills or Broken Social Scene. They also avoid the trend of using synths to create vintage sounding music that can end up coming

across as a load of cheese. But these are still pop rock

songs. The single “Go Ego” is built around one of Peroff ’s distinctive drum beats, Hamelin’s conversational vocals and strange synths and sounds that fill in the gaps without being overpowering.

Eight and a Half avoids coming across as a pure experimental album. While it is bookended by two short instrumental tracks, none of the other tracks deviate from the three to four minute, verse-chorus-verse formula that normally make up a pop-rock record.

By the end of the album, I was lost in a dream-like haze, enjoying the swirling sounds and vocals that stuck because of the way they are delivered – not because of their lyrical content. I also forgot who was in the band. - Jonathan Briggins

Eight and a Half - Eight and a Half (Arts & Crafts)

Grimes - Visions (4AD). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sometimes an album cover gives a good indication about the content of an album. The cover for Phèdre’s debut album is a mishmash collage. Artwork that doesn’t quite make sense but is intriguing. After a close listen, the music also comes across in a disorganized, messy way. It’s hazy and can be confusing but it works.

In 30 minutes, Daniel Lee and April Aliermo of Hooded Fang along with Airick Woodhead of Doldrums combine to create a lucid sonic attack. The songs combine the catchiness of Hooded Fang and throw in the weird electronic experimentation of Doldrums in a way that is danceable and catchy. The product of restless musical minds that are always pushing themselves creatively.

The track “Ode to the Swinger” is an example of the

collision of the sounds of Doldrums and Hooded Fang. The song has Lee’s distinct deep vocals over catchy loops that eventually go off the tracks and dissolve into choppy chaos in typical Doldrums fashion.

A constant stream of danceable energy propels the album together. A song like “Cold Sunday” featuring Arowbe has a kinetic structure that will be hard to shake from your head.

There are other moments that leave you scratching your head and chuckling, wondering what they are talking about. For example, “In Decay” contains lyrics about Colt 45s, inviting neighbours for pie and blowing up a shop with TNT. It doesn’t quite make sense, but it’s experimental pop that’s catchy and not too over the top. - Jonathan Briggins

Listening to French Residency, Boxer the Horse’s sophomore album, visions of minimally rebellious teenaged years flood my mind: beers and bonfires on the beach, all the good, all the bad; the fun and the heartbreak. The P.E.I. natives certainly know how to bake up a good batch of memories.

“Nostalgia can kill you” lead vocalist Jeremy Gaudet sings in the highly danceable “Party Saturday.” Apparently it doesn’t, because Boxer the Horse is alive and kickin.’ This album is all about nostalgia – obsessed with the girl, getting the girl, losing the girl.

Although the lyrics aren’t particularly poignant, French

Residency has a strong, clear, cohesive sound. And the band hits all the right notes, particularly

with tracks one and seven, “Karen Silkwood” and “Community Affair.” Their slightly spastic, ’80s surfer punk sound makes for an easy, fun listen, whether you’re alone or with a group of friends.

Boxer sings about their youth, but they’re walking a thin line, as though they can’t quite let go. French Residency isn’t the most original sound, but they do seem to be hitting the mark for the sound they’re going for.

So close your bedroom door, turn up the volume, and dance to French Residency like you’re 17 again. It took us right back. - Hilary Creamer

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Boxer the Horse - French Residency (Independent)

Phèdre - Phèdre (Daps Records). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


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#mixtapeA glimpse at the inner thoughts of 2012’s finest (and perhaps craziest) rap artists

We all share sentimental feelings for physical albums (see: the name of this magazine). We buy them because they’re something to hold in your hand and share with your friends. We feel a sense of terror if a record is lost or a CD scratched. But now artists are forced to hustle more than ever to spark that feeling of value in their art – sometimes without even charging the consumer. Bandcamp and SoundCloud are websites that musicians

around the world are now using to sell and preview their albums online in high quality. Thanks to these sites, 2011 became a strange year; some of our favorite albums were completely free and legal to download. These are five of those albums that have come and gone from the blogs, but still get regular play from our cars and computers. Google, download and zone out.

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Best online albums

G-Side – The ONE… COHESIVE (January 2011)G-Side might look and talk like they’re from the dirty south, but The ONE… COHESIVE is one of the most beautifully orchestrated albums of the past year. Ranging from tracks with melodious violin riffs (“Came Up”) to almost percussion-less, symphonic anthems (“Y U MAD”), this album would work as a Superbowl soundtrack as much as it would for a mix CD in your car. (Standout track: “Imagine”)

Squadda B – I Smoke Because I Don’t Care About Death (February 2011)It’s hard to look past an album with a title like that. Oakland rapper Squadda B supplies us with some deep, contemplative rap over cloudy instrumentals – fortunately never veering too far into strictly lyrical (boring) rap territory. It’s one of the eight albums he released online last year, but stands out as the most conceptually daring and fully formed of the lot. (Standout track: “Fakest Year Ever”)

Spaceghostpurrp – Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6 (1991) (May 2011)Cassette tape rap for lingering fans of Three 6 Mafia and other demonic rap coming out of Memphis in the ’90s. Spaceghostpurrp’s kitchen sink production makes up for any of the weak verses you might notice on this one – the music drawing on samples from ’60s jazz, Godzilla movies and Mortal Kombat, just to name a few. (Standout tracks: “Tha Phonk”, “My Hood”)

Jesse Futerman – Super Basement EP (June 2011)A native of Toronto, Futerman’s sound is a reconstruction of the music he loves. Super Basement EP is a project that works in almost any atmosphere: crisp soul samples to do work to and funky breakbeats to dance along with. You can probably find Futerman in his basement right now, chopping up samples off some old vinyl he picked up last weekend. (Standout track: “Black Is The Colour”)

Danny Brown – XXX (August 2011)The rapper from Detroit broke onto the rap scene last year as the dude with weird hair and an even weirder voice. People are still talking about that stuff, but his music is the reason he’s still on everyone’s mind. Brown namedrops Charles Bukowski, Squidward Tentacles and Kirby before you can even turn up the volume. XXX is 19 tracks of relentless, shocking, and jaw-dropping lyricism over some very, very odd beats. This is one that takes a long time to digest. (Standout tracks: “Pac Blood”, “30”)

The top 5 releases you’ll never get your hands on

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Who said cassettes are obsolete? Not Jon Dempsey. The Halifax resident is starting a label called Clocks & Daggers that will only release music on cassette tapes.

In the last couple years, Dempsey began to really appreciate physical music. He says people consume music way too fast in the age of the iPod. Entire albums are downloaded but never really absorbed.

“When I was younger, (cassettes were) the first form of music that I ever bought or listened to,” he says.

And he’s not alone. The supposedly dead medium is seeing a comeback. According to Nielsen

SoundScan, sales of albums on cassette are up 46 per cent from last year. Over 20,000 units were sold in 2011, up from about 15,000 in 2010.

Cassettes have a warm, rich sound – more comparable to vinyl; says Dempsey. MP3 sounds the same every time but a cassette tape degrades with each listen. “It takes on its own character,” says Dempsey and that’s one of the reasons its more interesting.

The label Clocks & Daggers – named after a Free the Robots song – will focus on marginalized music. Dempsey describes his ideal archetype as the husband-wife duo, Peaking Lights – trippy,

psychedelic, lo-fi pop music. Another advantage of releasing

albums on cassette is the feasibility. “I always thought you had to have tons of money but then I realized that I can release physical music on cassette for really, really affordable (prices),” he says.

An order of 300 cassettes costs 30 cents per unit. That’s less than $100. Vinyl is pricier at about $3 per unit says Dempsey. Plus cassettes have the added bonus of being easier to ship and store. They also have less chance of breaking during their voyage.

Dempsey is currently using his free time to expand the label’s roster. Clocks & Daggers is

currently home to two artists, both friends of Dempsey. In the future he expects to approach other acts he’s interested in, whether he sees a band he likes at a show or hears good music on the Internet.

Albums will be sold on the label’s website, clocksdaggers.com. Dempsey says he doesn’t want to offer downloads of the albums. Instead he’s considering 30-second clips of songs to give listeners a taste and leave them wanting more.

Dempsey hopes to have a new release ready for this spring. So dig out that walkman from the back of your closet and don’t forget the AA batteries.

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TrendspottingA Halifax music nerd melds new sound with old technology

Words by Samantha Chown


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Musicians love to say they don’t stress over their appearance, but with the way things are these days, we see artists before we hear them. These are a few who we don’t just love to listen to, but we can’t help but stare at as well.

The hairiest, gnarliest, most grilled-out and yes, the prettiest looks in music

?uestlove Danny Brown Grimes Nicki Minaj Bon Iver

Jesse Tabish Stalley The Weeknd Rick Ross CocoRosie

SBTRKT MF Doom Tupperware Remix Party Tyler, The Creator R. Kelly

Flatbush Zombies A$AP Rocky Lana Del Rey Squadda B Robb Bank$

Body of work

Mo Kenney thanks the waitress as she hands her a mug of coffee on a Sunday morning at her favourite restaurant, The Greek Village in Halifax. Kenney never used to drink coffee, for no reason she can think of now, but since the middle of February she’s started drinking it again. “It’s magic. It makes my morning so much easier.”

Kenney’s favourite meal is breakfast – “hands down” – and she orders her favourite dish: eggs, bacon, home fries and white toast. By the time the food arrives, Kenney is on her second helping of coffee. She peels the lid off a pack of raspberry jam but doesn’t spread it on a triangle of toast until halfway through the meal. Her

paper napkin lays scrunched up on the table.

Kenney, 21, is a relatively new singer-songwriter on the Halifax music scene. Her debut album will be released on Joel Plaskett’s label New Scotland Records, with Plaskett producing the album. She’s been working on the album since last April and describes her sound as pop rock.

She first met Plaskett when he visited a small recording studio in the Shambhala School in Halifax. Kenney, a 17-year-old at the time, was working on her music in the studio when he stopped by to listen to her and a couple of other people’s music.

Kenney is thoughtful, it’s evident in the pauses she takes

before answering a question and in the careful and planned rhythm of her music. She’s quiet; soft-spoken. She mumbles the trailing end of a sentence into her coffee mug once or twice.

The only piece of jewellery she’s wearing is a thick ring of silver metal loops on her left thumb. A small black Batman symbol is tattooed on the inside of her left forearm. When asked what her favourite piece of clothing is, she looks at the wool sweater pushed down behind her. “I’ve been going to Value Village for like three years, trying to find a sweater like this. I finally found it the other day.” The sweater is the subject of the most recent news update on her website.

Kenney says her songwriting process is similar to the way she thinks, “a lot of the time when I’m writing it’s not really a story. It’s really scattered and all over the place.

“I usually come up with the guitar part first, some kind of music part. And then I have to sit with that for a while,” before she can put words to it. Her inspiration comes from her relationships with people, “sometimes I get the urge to write and I don’t really know what it’s going to be about. And then I don’t really know what it’s about still, until a couple days after.”

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We sit down with Halifax singer-songwriter Mo Kenney

for her favourite meal of the day

Words by Chelcie Soroka

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The monthly mixWe’ve been there. We can help. Our playlists for your life.

Songs to impressyour dad

1. Yukon Blonde - Wind Blows2. Matt Mays & El Torpedo - Travellin’3. Neil Young - Tell Me Why4. Catherine MacLellan - Keep on Fighting5. The Deep Dark Woods - Charlie’s (Is Coming Down)6. Fleetwood Mac - Big Love7. The Gertrudes - Sailor8. The Guess Who - No Time9. Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine10. Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood

Staggering home songs

1. Grouper - Disengaged2. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica3. Jacques Greene - Another Girl4. Kendrick Lamar - Buried Alive (Interlude)5. Shlohmo - wen uuu6. The Weeknd - The Morning7. Bwana - Take It Slow8. Usher - Climax9. Sepalcure - Fleur10. A$AP Rocky - Wassup

Daydreaming songs

1. Bon Iver - Beth / Rest2. SELA. - early3. Elliott Smith - 2:45 AM4. Aphex Twin - Rhubarb5. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne6. Radiohead - Treefingers7. Clams Casino - Numb8. Main Attrakionz - Perfect Skies9. Squarepusher - Tommib Help Buss10. Burial - Shell of

*We asked Newfoundland artist Jon Janes (a.k.a. The Mountains & The Trees) to make this list. He has spent countless hours on the road during the past few years listening to the radio,

CDs and making coffee stops while touring North America and Europe.

Travelling songs*

1. Bahamas - Southern Drawl2. Hayden - Dynamite Walls3. Joel Plaskett Emergency- Drunk Teenagers4. The Black Keys - Everlasting Light5. Daniel Romano - Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)6. Wilco - Dawned On Me7. The Wooden Sky - Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)8. St. Vincent - Actor Out Of Work9. Shotgun Jimmie - Late Last Year10. Elliot BROOD - Fingers And Tongues

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Braids

Hey Rosetta!

Alberta Advantage

The Rural

Mother Mother

The Sheepdogs

Formed in 2005

Formed in 2006

Formed in 2005

Formed in 2005

Formed in 2005

Set Pieces EP 2008

Native Speaker2011

Plan Your Escape2006

Into Your Lungs 2008

Seeds2011

Self-titled EP2006

Hometowns2008

Departing2011

Mother 2005

O My Heart2008

Eureka 2011

Trying to Grow2007

Big Stand2008

Learn & Burn2010

Touch Up2007

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By the numbersNominees for the Juno Awards’ New Group of the Year


The 2012 Juno Awards take place on April Fool’s Day in Ottawa and the nominees for New Group of the Year are a joke. Not because the nominees aren’t deserving – they all deserve a Juno nod – but when a band with origins dating back ten years, like the Rural Alberta Advantage, are nominated, it’s hard to take the

award for best new group seriously. Bands who have never been

nominated for a Juno are eligible but the name of the award is misleading and doesn’t give an accurate picture of actual new Canadian bands.

It’s tough for artists who have just released debut albums to get publicity on a national scale when

indie veterans such as Hey Rosetta! get the nod.

The Junos should consider making a new award for breakout group of the year. This would allow young bands to get attention and bands who have been working hard can also get paid their dues.

The infographic below takes a look at the five nominees for New

Group of the Year. Five bands that have released 14 albums altogether and have all been around for at least four years. Until they make changes to the award, it will remain a joke.

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Needles for turntable & earplugsAlways bring back-up

– technology always

fails. Plugs help filter out

muddy bass & annoying

requests.

A SIDE


1

2

Control record &felt mat for scratchingStay in control and stay

in charge.

Computer chargerEveryone’s life depends

on this one, especially

DJs.

Dicers & cablesMini controllers used to

set up loops and keep

everything in sync.

Scratch Live boxEmulates the sound of

vinyl/where all those

messy wires go.

Caffeine pills, tooth-brush & toothpaste.You can’t have a cup of

’jo on the job without it.

And dental hygiene is

top priority.

Inside out

3

4

5

6

Our once-a-month excuse to snoop through talented musicians’ stuff.

This issue we look inside DJ James Reid’s backpack.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words & pictures by Samantha Chown

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BWRwhen you want to find out what time

it is you can check your phone.

these days watches are the ultimate style choice

keep it cooljust because you can.

PLAY

It’s been three years since Joel Plaskett released an album of new material. Still riding a wave of confidence from his last album, Plaskett followed his nose with an ambitious project: record and release one song a week over the course of 10 weeks. The end result? The album Scrappy Happiness.

Starting with the release of “You’re Mine” on Jan. 10, Joel Plaskett Emergency recorded, mixed and mastered a new song every week for 10 straight weeks. After a noon deadline every Thursday, the tracks debuted on CBC Radio 2, Radio 3 and were then made available on iTunes.

The experience of his last album Three - pumping out a large number of songs in a short time and receiving more adoration from his fans - gave Plaskett the confidence he needed for the new record.

“Even if it’s a song a week and there’s a deadline, I can do it. I did 30 (songs) in a relatively short period of time. And I can write a lot,” says Plaskett while sipping a cappuccino at Two If By Sea Café in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

He first came up with the idea in the fall of 2009. It was around the time he was chosen to write a song about the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia for CBC Radio 2’s Great Canadian Song Quest. He was busy working on David Myles’ album Turn Time Off. Myles was chosen to write a song about the Hopewell Rocks in

New Brunswick.“Neither of us had written

our songs. We were working on his album and the deadline was looming. One night after working at the studio, I went home and wrote ‘On the Rail’ and came back to the studio the next day and was

like, ‘I wrote my song last night.’ (Myles) was like, ‘You bastard! I haven’t written mine yet,’” said Plaskett.

He wrote his song, recorded it and delivered it to CBC on Sunday night. On Monday morning it was on the radio. “I remember thinking it was so cool just to have done something so quick, to be so in the moment on it,” said Plaskett.

The songs from Scrappy Happiness have been kicking around in some form for over a year. The Joel Plaskett Emergency tested the new tracks in December 2010 and 2011 at The Seahorse Tavern in Halifax for its annual fan appreciation Concerts. Despite being written and performed live, the tracks were never demoed.

Plaskett recorded the new songs one at a time, released them to the public and moved on to the next track. This process differed from previous albums where he would sometimes record drums for the whole album, then guitars for the

whole record. “You can get hung up on the

idea that there’s some sort of definitive version that is expected of you. I’d sooner just write it, record it, release it and then do the same thing with a new song as opposed to (thinking) I have to

make this my Stairway to Heaven,” he said.

We sat down with Plaskett to go through the album, one song at a time, to get a glimpse into the process and ideas behind the tracks that make up Scrappy Happiness. An album about finding happiness in the unfinished.

Lightning Bolt (Released March 13, 2012) “Lightning Bolt is the song the album has been based around in my mind.” The album opener was the last of the ten songs to be released. “It’s playful lyrically, train of thought driven, about that rub. It’s not your fault, time flies, this life’s a lightning bolt.” Clocking in at over six minutes, the epic track is both the longest song and has the most guitar on the album. “It goes from pretty stark to the biggest moment on the record.” Plaskett says the song covers the sound and lyrical scope of the band.

Harbour Boys (Released Jan. 17, 2012) This acoustic anthem was originally a full band song, but was recorded acoustically with a solo show or solo part of a full band show in mind. “I want a song that when people listen to it on record, it’s going to sound like it does live solo. I want a song or two in the set that are really strong sing-along songs that aren’t band songs.” Lyrically it was inspired playing summertime festivals in small towns across the Maritimes. It’s also a song he just enjoys playing. “It ties together my love of independent rock ’n’ roll and folk songs.”

You’re Mine (Released Jan. 10, 2012) The newest song on the album was written before the Seahorse gigs in December 2011. It was released in the first week. “It’s about what I like about rock ’n’ roll, how my memories are tied to music. It connects to the other records in my mind. From Ashtray Rock through Thrush Hermit. It was brand new but I felt like it had a central history,” The song touches on the central theme of the album. “Your past is finished, but your life isn’t. You’re always in movement. Nothing’s perfect and then it’s done. I wanted a song that kind of pulled that into the present.”

Tough Love (Released Feb. 28, 2012) The playful song is one that captures the sound of The Emergency. “When I wrote it, I was like this is ‘Extraordinary’ or


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Jonathan Briggins

Joel Plaskett’s pursuit ofScrappy Happiness

We dissect the Dartmouth sweetheart’s latest release track-by-track

“It was so cool just to have done something so quick, to be so in the moment on it.”

‘Through & Through & Through’ for this record.” He envisions it as a polarizing track. “It will either be people’s favourite or their least favourite. If people like to party and like the rock tunes, this will be for them on the record. If people are skeptical of that, and only like the goober heartfelt stuff, this will be their least favourite. And I’m happy either way.”

Slow Dance (Released Jan. 31, 2012) As the oldest song on the album, “Slow Dance” was originally going to be recorded for Three with the title, “Oh my, oh my, oh my.” It was the hardest song for them to record on the album. It was going to be acoustic, but Plaskett wanted to add percussion. Eventually, drummer Dave Marsh added a his part, but the full band version of the song was abandoned. “It was one of those (songs) that I second-guessed right down to the last minute. When I listen to

the recording now I can still hear a little of, ‘Well I had to get it done!’”

Time Flies (Released March 6, 2012) Recorded on the first take when the band was hungry waiting to eat fish and chips for lunch. Drummer Dave Marsh told them it was good to play hungry. “Then we just rolled and it was like ‘Hey man, we got it.’ We weren’t sluggish. We were just like ‘Let’s friggin’ nail this because I’m hungry.’” The Emergency originally wanted a John Bonham drum sound but the track ended up with one softer and sounding closer to Neil Young or Paul McCartney.

Somewhere Else (Released Feb. 14, 2012) “It’s about the desire to get outside yourself.” Plaskett based the song on his wife who’s been living in the city and missing the country. He focuses on “what she

experiences on a daily basis versus what she’d like to see.” Early live versions of the song had a heavy guitar outro that was cut. “It’s already kind of Zepp-y, if it went even further, it might have been too much.”

Old Friends (Released Jan. 24, 2012) This song may be Plaskett’s favourite on the album. “It’s about the passage of time with people you know, and how you don’t necessarily see eye to eye all the time. You search for some sort of resolve where things are simpler.” It’s also a central song to the album’s theme: “You’ve got to find happiness regardless. It’s a hard thing to do.”

I’m Yours (Released Feb. 21, 2012) This song originally featured a full band, but is now acoustic. His father Bill Plaskett, who appeared on his album Three, plays guitar on this song. Just like

“Harbour Boys,” this song was written with an eye on playing live shows. “I want to be able to play acoustic guitar too, and I want to take a few minutes to myself every night to give my voice and some of my adrenaline a break. I thought this would be a good one for that.”

North Star (Released Feb. 7, 2012) The song is “written from the perspective of a grizzled dude in his truck driving down the highway, but he’s a good time dude. He just wants to be happy.” It’s like a fantasy version of Plaskett. “It’s me, but it’s not me.” It’s about “some guy’s perspective that’s kind of skewed through his own filter through time. That’s what mine is. This guy rolling with the punches, sniffing permanent markers and partying. Just doing whatever comes to mind. At the end of the day, in a perfect world, he’s no worse off than the rest of us. He’s probably happier that way.”


Mat

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1976

5I\\a�>IVLWVQAvAilAble Anywhere you wouldn’t be embArrAsed to be seen in or would wAnt to be.

PLAY


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Hilary Creamer

Full houseAn invitation to Nick Everett & Everybody’s living room

This page:

concertgoers watch

as Nick Everett

& Everybody

begin their

set; right page,

Kristen Wells of

Willie Stratton’s

band claps to the

music.


“It’s perfect. You can say, ‘Hi, everybody

- have a seat’... try that at a bar.”

Three police cars are parked a few houses down the street, but there’s no need for them. The house Nick Everett and his bandmates share is quiet. In fact, it seems that no one is even home. But when I walk in the door I’m greeted by dozens of shoes and voices traveling down the hall from the kitchen. I figure I’m in the right spot.

My first ever house show opens with the heartbreakingly beautiful sound of Mo Kenney. She plays in the living room, with the lights down low. Everyone is silent. Probably, like me, in awe of Kenney’s sweet, honest sound. The intimate venue seems like the perfect space for any artist looking to spill their heart to a small group of people.

By the time Kenney is finished, the crowd has grown from about 50 to 75. People shift out of the kitchen and move up the steps into the living room. A bare light bulb dressed in brown paper is hung from the low ceiling.

Willie Stratton and his band circle around the light with their instruments. People stand around them, stomping their feet while Willie screams his guts out. A real Maritime kitchen party. “Is this the same house,” I think? The

atmosphere has shifted drastically from five minutes before.

After Stratton finishes his set, Nick Everett & Everybody move to the living room. Now, over a 100 people have crammed themselves into the modest space. Everett & Everybody play for over an hour to an audience that sits on the floor, stands in the kitchen and hallways, and peers through the windows from the back deck.

House shows are Nick Everett & Everybody’s venue of choice. Their home is a space where they have control over the area, and the people who attend their shows. “It’s perfect. You can say, ‘Hi, everybody have a seat’ … try that at a bar,” says Ben Levitan, the band’s lead guitarist, after the show.

“There’s this comfort here because this is where you jam and these are all of our friends and it’s our home … it’s an intimate thing,” says drummer Adam White.

“People come specifically to see you. They’re not necessarily coming to get super hammered. Or socialize,” chimed in bassist Scott Boudreau, “They make an effort and intentionally come to watch your show. It’s flattering and sweet.”

The band advertises their shows (this one is their fourth)

by printing miniature posters and distributing them at places they frequent, “We leave them at places we like going to instead of postering the town,” Everett says,.“We don’t necessarily want everyone to come here. We want people who are going to enjoy what we’re trying to do to come here.” The band also created a Facebook group for the event. Setting up for the show doesn’t take the band much effort because they don’t have very much furniture or many personal belongings. All it takes is a bit of rearranging.

When I asked how they decided where each set would perform, Nick said they never particularly plan it out, “An hour before the set it was, ‘okay, we’re going to play in here, Mo’s going to play in here and everyone is going to shut up. Great then everybody is going to be standing up for Willie.”

“I’d like to say we had some grand scheme but we really didn’t,” Levitan laughs.

“But the lighting is very intentional,” says Boudreau. “The darker you can make certain areas the quieter (people) will be. And all it takes is Christmas lights and tea candles and people will just (pay

attention).” They also prepare by letting

their neighbours know what they’re doing. “We wrote letters to all the neighbours telling them if they have any problem to let us know.” To date there hasn’t been a single complaint.

Nick Everett & Everybody also say that they’ve never had a problem when it comes to guests in their home. They don’t know everyone who shows up but are amazed by the respect people show. “I’ve had three people tell me that they weren’t sure that they came to the right house because … they didn’t even know if people were home,” says Levitan. “And we’ve got almost a 100 people in our house.”

The band says they plan on having more house shows in the future. “People act in a certain way,” Everett says because (it’s our home). And it’s free!”

Hilary

Cre

am

er

live it.Photo: Alistair Holmes, Montréal 1976

half6

live it

live it.Photo: Alistair Holmes, Montréal 1976

half6

live it

PLAY


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Jonathan Briggins

The ultimate DIY bandCousins prepare an encore for SXSW

Cousins, the two piece garage-rock group from Halifax, aren’t your typical band. Go to one of their shows and chances are you’ll see a merch table stacked with cassette tapes they recorded and made themselves. You might also find the band camping in a backyard and later playing a show in that same space. If you saw them play last year, don’t get too comfortable because they might have a different lineup in tow the next time

around. Cousins play by their own rules.

On March 1, the band kicked off a 66-day tour that stops in 56 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. They’re returning to SXSW, an annual festival in Austin, Texas, where thousands of bands from around the world take over the city. This time around, the band won’t be heading into uncharted territory. Last year at SXSW, they made some lasting connections.

“The friends we made last year on the road are way more valuable than I thought they would be. They’re such good assets for booking, having places to stay and keeping in touch with people,” says drummer and guitarist Aaron Mangle.

As festival virgins last year, Cousins didn’t realize just how big SXSW really was. Streets are closed off and the city is packed. “I’ve never been to Mardi Gras

in New Orleans, but that’s what I sort of relate it to,” says drummer Leigh Dotey. They ended up going to calmer parts of the city to play unofficial laid-back shows. Mangle said, “The shows were more pleasant and not so hectic.” One of those unofficial shows ended up being in the backyard of a studio that was the band’s campground the previous night.

On this trip they’ll play a number of all-ages venues, art

centres and house shows. “We end up in a lot of basements,” said Dotey.

Cousins prefer playing house shows over bar shows since they get to meet people in a more meaningful way. Plus, the chances of the house show’s homeowner being in a band playing that night are pretty high too.

The band formed in 2009. The first Cousins album Out

On Town was recorded solely by Mangle. Afterwards, he toured with four people. The band was then reduced to Mangle and Pat Ryan. Dotey joined the band for the SXSW tour last year. For this year’s tour the band is just Mangle

and Dotey. Cousins like switching up the lineup and keeping things fresh, both for the band and the audience.

Mangle said, “It’s sort of nice to have that feedback and dialogue because people get comfortable with the way something sounds. They see the band and want to see it again. Mixing it up is good for us for the challenge, and it’s good for people too. We don’t want people to get too comfortable.”

On Feb. 24, Mangle and Dotey sat down at the Khyber in Halifax and assembled the packaging for Singing/Drums, the band’s cassette tape available only on tour. Recorded on side A are three

songs featuring vocals while side B is three drum-only songs. The tape was recorded in a couple days — a nice break after working for over a year on the full-length album The Palm At The End Of The

Mind, released in March. The songs “are kind of scrappy, but really fun because we don’t usually write that way,” said Mangle.

Cousins love the archaic format of cassettes. “We listen to tapes in the van all the time. At home we make mixtapes all the time. It’s a format we still use. It’s sort of kitschy, but for me it’s really practical,” said Mangle.

The band orders blank tapes from Montreal and then record

music onto them. A friend of the band has a duplicator used to create multiple copies of the recordings. Cousins do all the work: ordering, recording and packaging the tapes. Because the tapes are cheap to make, they’re cheap to sell. Cousins likes having something physical you can buy at a show and shove in your pocket. Mangle also likes the aesthetics of the cassette. “They don’t look stupid like CDs,” he said.

For Cousins, SXSW is just a pit stop on their extensive tour — they’ve got 39 shows left before they come home again.


Jonath

an B

riggin

s

This page, Mangle (left)

and Dotey put together

casette tapes; left page, a

suitcase with the band’s

name printed on it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Hilary Creamer

Artists & their spacesWe take you into the rooms where 3 maritime musicians make it happen

PLAY


This page, Backstreet

Records in Saint John,

NB; right-hand page,

from left picture, Hayward

on the job; Backstreet’s

selection and display of

posters and artwork.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Babette Hayward

Saint John musician Babette Hayward’s life is music. In the past few years, she has dedicated herself to writing and composing songs. And one of Babette’s favourite places to write and find inspiration from is at her place of work – Backstreet Records on Germaine Street. “When I’m working, I get to listen to whatever I want, and people come in and recommend music. I think being able to listen to other artists really opens a lot of (creative) doors for me. If I was working somewhere else I wouldn’t get to explore so many genres.”

Being around people all day has its advantages, and Babette doesn’t just take inspiration from music, “A lot of ideas come to me from conversations I have,” she says. “I might be like, “oh that was really interesting what they just said.’” Babette loves Backstreet’s atmosphere too, “You feel like you’re in a time warp. It really hasn’t changed since the ‘60s. (Plus) I can be writing and doing other things at the same time.” Babette says Geordie, the owner of Backstreet Records, is very supportive of the arts. And it isn’t uncommon for the shop to have its employees put on concerts.


Tim Crabtree of Paper Beat Scissors

Some artists can multitask; others have a hard time concentrating with lots of activity around them. That’s why Tim Crabtree of Halifax’s Paper Beat Scissors does all of his writing from home. “It’s very, very important for me to have a space where I can get work done quietly,” Crabtree says as we sit in his home studio. We’re surrounded by wires, microphones and instruments. The ceilings are high and the huge windows allow the sun to stream in. It’s a cheerful space with heaps of character. “There are a lot of great things about it. I love the wooden floors, and the light … But that said, I’ve got those bed sheets that are hung up there as curtains. I block out the light when

I’m trying to (write). I get so distracted.” Crabtree doesn’t consider his space a studio, “I consider it a studio setup,” he says. “I would really like to have a place that’s a little bit more soundproofed and a little bit more private – that doesn’t have the noise of people coming and going. But at the same time I like this room. It feels cozy.” But for Crabtree, it’s all about the atmosphere, “I could have a place that’s set up (perfectly) in terms of sound that I wouldn’t want to go into because it would just feel like some hermetically sealed box.”

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Left-hand page, Crabtree

in his home studio; this

page, clockwise from top-

left, a colourful display of

guitar pedals; light streams

through floor to ceiling

windows; Crabtree and

his housemates’ guitar

collection.


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John Mullane of In-Flight Safety

“I didn’t want it to be ordinary,” John Mullane – lead singer of the Juno nominated indie rock band In-Flight Safety – says of his home studio. The instrument-filled room is a refreshing pop of green, “I really loved that colour around the time we made The Coast is Clear, which is why the cover is that colour. It’s sort of ‘60s,” he says. Although the small studio is packed with keyboards, guitars and recording equipment, it’s organized, “I’m not the kind of person who wants to set up every time I have to work. I just want to plug in and if I have an idea I just want to” work on it.” As a result, Mullane “never leaves the house, and I totally should.” But he’s always had a home studio, “Ever since I got my 4-track when I was 16,” the now 28-year-old says as his cat, Marten, clambers on top of him. Mullane says writing and singing at home all day can be a

“lonely process.” A recording studio outside of his home would eliminate much of the solitude but would also be “crazy,” he says. “I would love to but there’s just no money in it.” Don’t get him wrong, though, Mullane says there are tons of upsides to working from home, “If you’re not feeling well you can lie down. If you’re feeling hungry you can eat. If you’re feeling uninspired you can read a book. It’s great – distracting too, though. “The hardest part,” Mullane says, “has been learning how to shut down (the creative process) a bit, to have a real life outside of your work. If Allison comes home and she wants to talk about something you just have to turn it off. In my early twenties I sucked at turning it off, I’d be like, I’m thinking about this idea and it’s so important,” he says with sarcasm. Now I’m better at stopping. So you really have to learn that skill.”

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Hilary

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am

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Left-hand page, Mullane in his home studio; this page, clockwise

from right, harmonium and reel-to-reel recorder; Mullane’s guitar

collection; a better look at Mullane’s full studio.

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Our two-night stand withThe Balconies

We tailgate the band from Halifax to Moncton

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Samantha Chown

Exactly what goes on when a band isn’t on stage? Mixtape tagged along with The Balconies as they made a pit stop on the East Coast before heading to Austin, Texas for SXSW.

Jacquie Neville fronts the band and is responsible for lead vocals and guitar along with her brother Steve on bass. Liam Jaeger (also

Jacquie’s boyfriend) is on drums rounding out the group. Originally from Ottawa, the band met back in their university days while studying classical music. When they realized Ottawa’s music scene was just a little bit too small, they made the move to the music hub that is Toronto.

The Balconies new 7” Kill

Count, can get just about anyone on their feet with their upbeat mix of pop and rock ‘n’ roll. We’re talking even the minimal crowd that formed on a Wednesday night at The Seahorse Tavern in Halifax - where we started our adventure. We then went from one province

to another – from night to day, twice – to find out what goes on when a band is on tour. We were shocked that pizza places in Moncton close way too early. We weren’t shocked to find that The Balconies are just as cool on the stage as they are off.

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........................................Wednesday, 9 p.m., The Seahorse Tavern

11:45 p.m., The Seahorse Tavern

Thursday, 4 a.m.

12 - 4 p.m, Halifax to Moncton

9 p.m., Plan b

11 p.m.

Photos, in chronological order:

Steve singing; Jacquie sings at

The Seahorse Tavern; the band

playing at the Seahorse Tavern;

Jaeger eating breakfast at Ard-

more Tea Room; a full plate of

breakfast; The Balconies ready

tour van; on the road; Jaeger at

Plan b in Moncton.

10:30 a.m., Ardmore Tea Room

Road trip with a pit stop by the The Balconies in Truro to pick up members of the

band opening for them.

Quick outfit change in the bathroom for Jacquie. Badass boots? Check. Leather vest?

Check.

11:45 p.m.

Balconies own the stage. Jac-quie is working it. Jaeger’s shirt is off. Steve’s hair? Still unreal.

Friday, 12:15 a.m., Cut Throat Pizza

We try to convince the Ontario natives to get the Maritime delicacy known

as garlic fingers. They opt for poutine pizza – yes, that’s a real thing.

2:30 a.m.Time for sleep. The Balconies

continue on ...

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Hila

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Crowd is small but the band has everyone swarming around the stage. So much

dancing. Even more sweat.

Steve holds down the merch table while Liam and Jacquie grab dinner. We can’t stop

staring at his incredible hair.

We regroup with the band at the venue. It’s smaller than the Seahorse

but already packed.

After packing up and grabbing a slice at Papa Mario’s, it’s time

for bed. Half the band is still snoozing.

Breakfast put on hold.

Breakfast at the local favourite. Can’t argue with a $4 special with bottomless coffee. Jacquie raves about the smoke

salmon and eggs benny.

10 a.m.

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T-Woo and the spirit of TribecaThe highs and lows of becoming Halifax’s most beloved hip-hop DJ

Trevor Wood has his first song cued up. Before he presses play, he starts to think.

Will this song work? Are people going to dance? Should I choose something else?

As he idles and quadruple-checks his set-up — outputs in the inputs, levels haven’t been tampered with — the questions continue to wash over him.

Should I have promoted more?Could I call someone to tell their friends?Is this enough people to get things started?

His expression never really changes. To look at him, you’d expect to hear in his head: Okay, I guess I’ll play now.

And with that nonchalance, he starts the party.

Over the past seven years, Wood has been DJing under the name T-Woo at practically every club or pub in Halifax. He’s 26 years old now and keeps up a number of regular nights, his two most popular being the bi-weekly Doin’ Damage and monthly Bleu Nuit.

In April 2007, Tribeca Bistro & Bar began hosting the first of his

Doin’ Damage events. Five years later, Doin’ Damage has become Halifax’s hip-hop night. Bleu Nuit, the other regular event that Tribeca hosted, is a mixed bag of dance, classic funk and contemporary electronic music.

Tribeca — “Tribes” — became Wood’s place of employment. The imperfect charm of the venue grew on him. Buckets scattered around the kitchen to catch ceiling leaks made you wonder how they prepared food — and going to the bathroom, that would be a last resort.

Maintaining a good venue is like maintaining a career as a DJ; you have to burn the candle at both ends. At the end of 2011, T-Woo’s workplace began going under.

The voice inside his head was getting louder, it was no longer just about choosing the right song but: Can I keep doing this?

For many kids growing up in Nova Scotia, there’s only one obvious, intoxicating reason to look forward to the milestone of a 19th birthday, Trevor Wood had a different reason. It was 2005 and

Ada

m S

cotti

he was freshly graduated from Halifax’s St. Patrick’s High School. St. Pat’s and the friends he made there had synced up the things he cared about — art, graphic design and most of all, music.

“DJing just looked cool,” Wood says from his home. He was a fan of DJ Cosmo, who had been performing in Halifax for years. “I started following him and some other DJs around and just talked after shows.”

Wood wasn’t against any type of music growing up. He was part of a culture that prided itself on finding the newest and most exciting music, whether it was Das EFX or Daft Punk. He got his cues from performers like Cosmo and DJ Double A. Over time, he learned what worked and what didn’t for the dance floor.

Which was why, on the day he turned 19, he knew what he had to do.

On May 12, 2005 Wood turned 19. He was finally getting the last chunk of change he needed to make his investment for the future: a set of turntables.

Wood strode through Musicstop’s entrance on Cunard Street. He passed the guitars hanging from the ceiling, ignored the non-stop earthquake caused by 10-year-olds and 60-year-olds hammering on the drum kits upstairs, followed the trail of loose guitar picks and homeless cords to the room designated for recording equipment, digital music controllers and last but not least, turntables.

Wood didn’t really know what he wanted, except some turntables — and a career as a DJ, if possible. One of the technology minions on staff helped get him on the right track. With less than two grand on him, Wood paid $1400 for his set of tables.

Wood left Musicstop that day poor but enriched.

He got home with his new equipment and began to set it

up in his parents’ basement. After a couple setbacks — figuring out which wires go where, talking his dad into letting him use one of his old stereos — he was ready to spin. He wasn’t yet the T-Woo Halifax knows him as now, but the early signs were there: his signature scruffy beard was sprouting, his fitted baseball hat collection was taking off and the music was playing. But it needed to be more than just playing; it needed to be the focus.

Wood’s legacy as T-Woo began in the summer of 2005. His brother, Ryan, had friends who would refer to the Wood brothers as R-Woo and T-Woo. T-Woo stuck — trumping the alternative, “Scratched Wood” moniker, for obvious reasons.

“The first time I ever DJed outside of house parties was at the Khyber. There was kind of an unofficial night, people would go there and there wasn’t really any entertainment.

“There were like five or ten people sitting in the back and a couple of my friends dancing.” Wood laughs as he recalls his early shows; packing a floor isn’t quite as stressful these days.

“All bars care about basically is if you can bring people. Once they see you can do that they give you leeway and some trust.”

It wasn’t easy in the beginning to win trust — or an audience.

“Our first night at Tribeca, it felt like we showed up with the turntables and people were just expecting a band or something on another Monday night. We were making next to no money.”

Sometimes Wood barely made enough to cover the cab home.

Doin’ Damage on Mondays started slow, but Wood always played what he wanted, never deterring from the music that could make people dance — regardless if there were people in the venue. And eventually, people came.

Loukas Crowther—“Loukas Stilldrunk” — was one of those people who kept showing up, in no time going from a guy in the audience to one of T-Woo’s regular DJ guests.

“Back when Trevor started,” Crowther recalls, “I used to just hang out, even when they were on super quiet Mondays.”

Crowther is now one of Wood’s regular collaborators.

Tribeca became the hub for T-Woo shows by late 2007. At the busiest point of Wood’s career (between 2008-2011), his regular nights included: Famous Players (Fridays), Rock Night (monthly), Bleu Nuit (monthly all at Tribeca), Martini Mondays (at The Bitter End), and the infamous Retro Night (monthly at the Paragon).

Although it might sound like chaos to some, keeping busy as a DJ helped Wood realize how good he really had it.

“One of the best nights I remember was on my 26th birthday,” Wood said, which he ended up celebrating at Tribeca, last May.

“The night started off slow, 11:30 p.m. rolled by and there was literally nobody but the staff and the DJs in the bar.”

Wood invited fellow DJs Gordski (Gordon Campbell) and Kelkashowz (Nigel Lutes) as guests to balance out the night — he started to worry he was wasting their time. But as the clock approached midnight, it was like the city knew.

People started to show up: friends, bar flys, new faces. Every time he looked up from his computer there were a few new bodies. Before 12:30 a.m. they had reached capacity.

“I looked up at one point to see Sacha (Tribeca’s bouncer at the time), a giant of a man, weaving through the crowd carrying something that seemed to be on fire.”

As the bouncer brought it closer

to the stage, Wood realized it was a birthday cake in the shape of two turntables and a mixer.

“It was that night I realized how lucky I was,” Wood said. At the time, Wood was supporting himself entirely with his music career — and enjoying it.

He blew out the candles quickly and prayed there were no fire marshals in the building.

Since his earliest DJing days, T-Woo’s music served as an escape, for both the crowd and himself.

“I was so into DJing by the time I graduated NSCAD that I just didn’t keep up the photography stuff.”

The “photography stuff ” was his four-year photography degree at NSCAD, which he graduated with in 2010. If you’ve ever seen the monochrome faces of rappers nailed to cable posts promoting Doin’ Damage, that’s Wood’s work.

NSCAD not only helped instill a work ethic in him, it also helped him meet his girlfriend, Angela Gzowski. Today, they share an apartment by the Halifax Common, which Gzowski doesn’t mind Wood sectioning off for his studio.

She’s understood his priorities since they met.

“I’ve never seen him with a camera,” she says smiling and rolling her eyes. Gzowski is petit, funny and as far from menacing as one can be. She was also the one who made that birthday cake shaped as turntables. At Wood’s shows you can either find her on the dance floor or working the door to make sure Wood gets paid at the end of the night. A freelance photographer, she and Wood moved in together this past September.

For Wood these days, photography is a thing of the past, though he can thank it for helping him meet one of his most important supporters.

Although his support and talent


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had become promising over the years, his regular venues weren’t having much luck.

In Aug. 2011, the city’s fire marshal hit Tribeca with its steepest drop, the capacity going from 192 to 60. Although their number was brought back up to 120 a few months later after some renovations, the bar had already reached the point of no return.

Wood said, “I definitely felt loyal to Tribeca. It was just one of my favorite places to play; not hard to get a dance floor started.”

After seeing a handful of the best bars in Halifax close last year — Paragon Theatre, Coconut Grove Nightclub, and Elephant & Castle — Crowther has felt wary as a performer living in Halifax.

“Having a blank slate to move on to would be great, but options these days are extremely limited.”

It’s early in the morning, Jan. 1, 2012. The final entry in Tribeca’s series of haikus is scrawled on the

chalkboard behind the bar.Drink it in peopleThe final curtain comes downAdios! Dear Tribe!The dance floor is empty now;

patrons are making their way home or onto the next spot. Wood, Crowther, Gzowski and a few other friends stick around a little longer and take pictures.

“I’ve been in this space in one form or another since, like ’96, when it was a spot called Cafe Mokka,” Crowther said. His eyes are tired.

Wood takes some more photos from his phone, uploads them to Twitter and grabs his stuff. He doesn’t really say anything, calm as usual. From his fellow DJs to his loved ones who double as business partners, Wood knows his team of support is strong.

The milk crates and wires are tucked under the table and the lights have been cut.

“I’ll miss the staff,” Wood said. “How the place sounded and the

creative control I had. But life goes on and I’ll continue to DJ.”

When T-Woo hangs up his hat at the end of the night, he wakes up as Trevor Wood again. This means you will find him during the day in the Hydrostone Market, at Eric Wood Marketing above Hamachi Kita.

Wood has the gamut of Adobe programs opened on his computer at all times, sitting in a small office shared with other graphic designers. His father, in the business more than 30 years, runs the company.

“I work for him and he gives me the easier tasks,” Wood says with a chuckle. “But I see myself DJing, some way or another, for as long as I can. You make some cash while you’re doing something you love I don’t see why you’d stop.”

A healthier schedule means he can distance himself from the constant worries of being a full-time DJ: scavenging the newest

music, avoiding the overplayed stuff and taking care of his liver. Free drinks are a blessing and a curse.

The Seahorse now holds Bleu Nuit one Saturday a month, and you can catch Doin’ Damage at its old time, now at La Trinidade, every second Thursday.

Wood gets to spend between 25 to 35 hours a week practicing for shows and hunting for music, the rest of the time he’s running to and from the office, helping with designs for his dad’s company.

And he can finally catch up on a good night’s sleep.

Previous page, T-Woo DJing at the Palace nightclub in Halifax; right page, Trevor Wood.

Cou

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“I approach making a record like a

fashion designer might approach a collection.

I sort of pick my elements and rough out

how the pieces should all work together.”

Richm

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am



Q&A with Ango

We uncover Andrew Gordon Macpherson’s Nova Scotian roots

and the elements that make up his electro-R&B moniker

Ango took a break from traveling the world with music kin Jacques Greene and let Mixtape into his world.

Ryan: How does a kid from

Truro get interested in synths,

U.K. dance & R&B?

Ango: Growing up in Truro can feel a little constricted and isolated but out of that can spawn a lot of creativity and perseverance, I think. A lot of amazing people who taught me about DIY have spent time in that little town. I got interested in the underground hiphop and sort of the neo soul-related commercial stuff. I started making hiphop and R&B beats with borrowed keyboards.

Then I got into FruityLoops and “digging” for a long time but wasn’t feeling completely fulfilled creatively by sampling. I didn’t want my creativity hindered by my ability to afford records to sample, so I saved and borrowed money and got a Roland MV-8000 (sampler).

I can’t think of a time I ever didn’t have R&B in my life really. My dad was a big Janet Jackson fan and had a few older funk records and stuff. I was really into Boyz II Men and Bobby Brown at like (age) 10. I also liked these ’90s dance compilations that had Robin S. and other classic house stuff, so I had kernels of that in my taste early on but rejected it until fairly

recently, to be honest. There was never a real rave scene in my teen years in Truro, so I was into punk rock and rap shows.

How did you feel when you

first came to Montreal?

It was cold. I had a job on a documentary shoot in Ottawa and a colleague brought me here for the first time. I visited some friends and experienced the Montreal way of life a bit, but it was the winter. I think if you’ve never been to Europe and you come here in the summer and just live the Montreal slacker existence for a month or something you’ll never want to leave. It’s a beautiful place to be in the summer and really, dare I say, “inspiring” to be here.

Working on songs, what’s the

most difficult part for you?

Finishing stuff. I can outline and demo a whole record in like two hours, but the meticulous detail work bogs me down and bores me. I don’t really seem to have a problem generating ideas.

Do you have a preference

when diving into a project like

Another City Now versus doing

a single track?

I approach making a record like a fashion designer might approach a collection. I sort of pick my elements and rough out how the pieces should all work together;

inevitably stuff gets changed or dropped. Another City Now started as about 12 demos that got narrowed to six songs, only three of which made the cut. The rest of the tracks and bonus cuts sort of flew in from other unrelated ideas. I kind of like working on a body of work better than just one song at a time — it allows me to tell a bit of a longer story and make more informed choices in my music. But I do like getting sent instrumentals from friends with a message like, “see what you can do with this.”

How do you decide whether a

song needs your voice or not?

And what motivates you to

sing as opposed to leaving a

track as an instrumental?

All my songs start with my voice. I demo everything by singing to a click track. Sometimes what feels like a vocal line ends up as a bass line. Whether or not I sing lyrics over it or leave any vocal element in just depends on the intention of the track — which often changes from start to finish.

I love the aesthetic your work

comes with, a restrained

approach similar to Jacques

Greene’s. How much

involvement do you have in

the way you’re presented

visually (artwork, videos, etc.)?

I know my visual reference points

and taste but I’ve had a lot of help from (U.K. record label) LuckyMe and Jacques Greene to execute those ideas. Obviously, LuckyMe is very hands-on with their branding, but we collaborated quite a bit. I think we all share a similar taste in things sleek, minimal and modern and fashion design.

Give your reaction to how you

feel about these people you’ve

worked with in some capacity:

Lunice: Humble genius.Jacques Greene: Meticulous, understated whiz-kid.Prison Garde: Destructive culture architect, visionary, mentor.Salva: Enthusiastic go-getter.Hudson Mohawke: Peerless absurd mind-freak.

Montreal filles: heart-breakers

or the best in the world?

Nothing I can say will not get me in trouble on this one. Come see for yourself.

Do you have a masterplan for

Ango in 2012 or will you go

with the flow?

Lots of irons in the fire. I think some are going to be really surprising. Keeping my cards close for now (laughs).

Another City Now can be ordered

in 12” vinyl and digital format from

thisisluckyme.com. Follow the site for

more to come from Ango.

HONey badger brew

The severy

your before-noon beer. Photo: AlistAir holmes, montréAl 1976

(

HONey

The sTarT of everyThing.

our before-noon beer. please recycle

rhoneybadger does care

PLAY


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words & pictures by Hilary Creamer

“Maybe someday I’ll dress up like a pirate…they’ve got such swag,” says musician Willie Stratton as we browse the racks at the Salvation Army in the south end of Halifax. “Pirate swag is next level shit for most people.”

Stratton, 19, is an up-and-coming folk musician. When he sings, he booms until he’s hoarse, and he describes his music as, “raging loud folk music, like how punk might be a 100 years ago.” But in his daily life, he speaks in a low, unassuming voice. One thing’s for certain, this man does not lack personality and it shines through not only is his music, but in his dress too.

On a cold March day, Stratton sports his favourite piece of clothing – a bright red tartan blazer. “I love this jacket so much.

It’s just sorta badass. It fits well. It’s hard to find blazers that fit well.” He picked it up at Value Village in Bayer’s Lake late last year.

I ask Stratton what his favourite look is. He answers without a moment’s hesitation.

“I like military uniforms a lot. I’m kind of a uniform nerd, and I like old English hunting clothes…they’re just designed to look strong and masculine, but they can be really ornate.”

Uniforms are, “delicious to the eyes. Not unlike this acid wash T-shirt of kangaroos,” he adds as we eye a particularly heinous top.

Stratton does the majority of his shopping at thrift stores. On this day, he picks up a pair of faux-leather combat boots for $7.99 and a Witchery Man striped dress shirt for $3.99.

“I really like button-up shirts. If I’m wearing a T-shirt it’s usually because I’m really tired. Button-up shirts just make me feel good. The more I dress up, the better I feel.

“I’m usually slightly dressy,” he says. “I wouldn’t say business casual … there are lots of twists.”

Although Stratton finds the majority of his clothes at consignment shops, he doesn’t limit himself to second-hand. “I’m not going to deny that I like big box stores ‘cause they’re great too. I find good shit at Wal-Mart. And the odd time, they’ll have something really weird and hilariously awesome – like cool suspenders.”

Stratton also credits Old Navy with having nice coats and pants. “I don’t think I’ve ever bought a pair of pants at a thrift store. Just

because I can never find ones that fit.” At 6’2, finding the perfect pair of pants can be a challenge.

“And, I mean, you can’t go a day without pants – like, legally,” Stratton deadpans.

As we wrap up and head to Point Pleasant Park to shoot some photos, I ask Stratton if he thinks it’s important for artists to have their own personal style. “I feel like a lot of people will say this is superficial, but musicians are really all about identity. So I think it’s pretty important to think about what you wear on stage.”

With his style and confidence, Stratton is a memorable gent. And in an industry that can be as fickle as it is serious, he seems to be carving a distinct image for himself without even trying.

The raging folk artist teaches us a thing or two about personal style

Style with Willie Stratton

Stratton is wearing: blazer,

thrifted; dress shirt, Old Navy,

Cardigan, thrifted; Tie, vintage;

belt, found on side of road; pants,

Old Navy; Boots, thrifted.


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Attempting to pick out a single story to represent my entire two week stint at the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a tough thing to do. I played on bills with heroes, brushed shoulders with legends and made friends with a worldly group of 29 other amazing people. To give you a better idea of the kind of day-to-day experiences we had, I’m going to share my Mannie Fresh/Trevor Horn story.

Arriving at the hotel on day one, we were given a schedule of the daily goings-on we were to expect. On this particular day, the schedule read: “Lecture with Trevor Horn.” If the name doesn’t immediately strike a chord, take a quick look at his production credits…absolutely stacked. His style is felt on just about every

‘80s recording whether he was involved in it or not. Needless to say, I was excited. I took my seat in the lecture hall and watched as bodies began to trickle in. In walks Mannie Fresh. I look to the participant next to me about to remark on his presence, but by the time our glances meet, both our eyes are wide. Nothing needed to be said, the excitement was tangible.

The lecture was great. Trevor Horn is hilarious. Animated and engaging, his lecture made sure we were all inspired for the night’s studio work. However, before we were let loose in the studios we were given another treat. Trevor’s personal studio engineer had brought the multi-track session file for what is possibly his biggest

song: Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax.” A multi-track session file is basically every channel of a recording separated into individual tracks. The sum of its parts is the final recording. RBMA had set up the tricked-out studio with these recordings and set us loose on it.

It was intimidating. Mannie Fresh is in the room. Trevor Horn is in the room. Oh, and there’s a mixing console with enough parameters to pilot a space shuttle. Mannie steps to the board and begins fiddling with controls. He singles out the rhythm section, it sounds amazing. Tweaks the bass on the kick drum. He finishes with a huge smile on his face and the whole room is impressed. Now the chair is empty. I’m scared, this is something I’ve never done before

but that’s what RBMA is all about. Pull us out of our comfort zone, and we will all grow as artists and find parts of our creativity we didn’t know were there. I muster up the cajones and sit in the chair. Now with Mannie Fresh on the couch and Trevor Horn watching from the side I’m mixing “Relax.” The excitement is hard to quantify. When people ask me to talk about the Red Bull Music Academy, I start to stutter, I laugh, I make guttural noises; basically I do anything but talk eloquently and in rational, sensible terms. It is genuinely hard for me to put the experience into words. Those two weeks have undeniably shaped my future.

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Story from an artist Exeter’s afternoon at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid

Dan

Wilt

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Photo: daniel Farrell

volcano

clothes

for men

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One of the East Coast’s favourite bands, Hey Rosetta! has been snaking around the globe on their latest tour. They’ve visited Australia, Canada, and

now the States before soon voyaging to Europe. Here’s a small peek at what the band was up to as they toured the West Coast opening for Gomez.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Samantha Chown

Life on the roadTour tweets from Hey Rosetta!

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After A morning of hAnging from the hAlliArds of A 28-foot cAtAmArAn, An Afternoon diving into the depths of the myrAn corAl reef, And A meAl cooked over open flAme, heAd to the greAt rocks to tAke in the serene simplicity of the BlAck WAter coAst.

At AnchorAge tours co., We cAll it tuesdAy.

you’ll cAll it the Best dAy of your life.

ANCHORAGE TOURS CO.y

Dimo Georgakakos is the owner and manager of Gus’ Pub, one of Halifax’s most popular bars. As manager, he hosts every type of act. His father Gus opened the place as a family restaurant in 1961. About 10 years ago the family turned the restaurant into a bar. Georgakakos says Gus’ is an incubator for music, “people call me every week from Ontario or B.C. for acts that want to come through here. Even though we’re small we fight way above our weight.” Most of the bar’s customers are in bands, “a lot of them are artists, musicians – they’re all cross-pollinating each other.” Three to four bands play

at Gus’ six nights of the week, which translates to about 500 shows a year. Seeing thousands of performances in the past decade has made Georgakakos a bit of an expert, we ask him what makes a good show, and what makes a bad show.

Separating the good and bad

“The people I like the best are the ones that come in here and they’ve got missing strings and duct tape on their gear and they play again and again just for the sheer excitement of it. A bad performance comes from people that come in and they’re arrogant and they’re not as good...as they think they are. They don’t respect

the customers as much and they’re not prepared – they don’t take it as seriously.”

How to motivate a band

Gus’ Pub is unique because bands and musicians get 100 per cent of their cover charge. They have to get someone to man the door, but all the money goes directly to them. Gus’ doesn’t pay any musician to perform. “If we had to pay the bands they wouldn’t be motivated to promote it. They just wouldn’t get as many people in here. This way they’re motivated, they get just as much of a boost – if they get more people then we get more people (buying drinks and food).”

Who gets to be on stage

Georgakakos is pretty hands-off when it comes to bands performing. “I provide the venue and I try to stay away as much as possible. People come in and set up their equipment, do their thing. They know the sound system. I just put out the welcome mat.” But he does have one rule: “I don’t let people sit on the stage when performing. I make sure people that are on stage have earned it.”

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Chelcie Soroka

Interview with a bar managerWe sit down with the manager of Gus’ Pub in Halifax

Chelcie

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ka

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Jan. 19, 2012 will stand in history as the day Internet pirates, producers and music engineers held their heads. Megaupload, the file-sharing site that stole the hearts of Kanye West, Will.i.am, and 50 million daily visitors, was shut down by the U.S. Deparment of Justice. This meant every file that was ever hosted by the website was frozen. All those zip files, like little presents with photo albums, TV shows, and countless music folders were gone forever. And the Department of Justice shows no signs of slowing down. Mega’s story is weird. I January, when I read that Swizz

Beatz was the secret CEO of the site, I was taken aback. How could the guy who was responsible for one of God’s greatest gifts, “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” bless us doubly with one of the most useful sites ever? Apparently he can’t — Mega was founded and run by some fat guy driving around New Zealand in a slim Lamborghini, going by the name of Kim Dotcom. Whether Mr. Dotcom was a legitimate guy or not doesn’t really matter to the people using Mega for the greater good. For many musicians, it became the new jam session — one without borders. You send me

your bass line and I’ll send you my vocal track, back and forth until we have a new song. Mega was the go-to site for these collaborations; with a file size limit over 300 megabytes, no hassle to make an account and less annoying advertisements than most sites. Once Mega dropped off, we swallowed our frustration and settled for the closest contender, FileSonic, which was seized not too long after. If Dropbox goes...don’t say I didn’t warn you. My concern is with how comfortable we’ve become using file-sharing sites to share our legal, free files. Many of us are guilty of downloading albums, from the

same sites that many musicians use to send the songs to their engineers and producers. What needs to change is how the authority (Department of Justice, in this case) views and understands who’s using these sites. A complete wipeout is as good a solution as blacklisting “questionable” celebrities during the Red Scare. This isn’t a shoot first, ask questions later situation. But y’know, do your worst, we’re a resilient bunch — one shutdown only allows another opening.

Column & graphic by Ryan Hemsworth

The flip sideThe real victims of Megaupload’s shutdown


Insta-replayConcert photography through an iPhone lens

Who Sam Roberts Band

Where Halifax Forum, March 9

Who Matt Mays

Where Durty Nelly’s, Feb. 29

Who The Balconies

Where The Seahorse, Feb. 29

Who Great Bloomers

Where The Seahorse, March 3

Who ISBN

Where The Khyber, Feb. 24

Who Catherine MacLellan

Where The Carlton, Feb. 22

Who Jadea Kelly

Where The Carlton, Feb. 22

Who The Wooden Sky

Where Taz Records, March 3

Who Ben Caplan & The Casual

Smokers

Where Plan b, March 1

Who Zeus

Where Halifax Forum, March 9

Who The Wooden Sky

Where The Seahorse, March 3

Who Nick Everett

Where The Khyber, March 4

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pictures by Jonathan Briggins

photo: RobeRt-paul Jansen

��High5DANCIN

GRABBIT

BREW

ERY

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Words by Jonathan Briggins Illustration by Ryan Hemsworth

On the spot

Our favourite artists, their favourite albums

Who Gavin GardinerBand The Wooden Sky

Favourite album Townes Van ZandtLive at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas

Release date 1977 (Tomato Records)


“The other day I was making breakfast and I put it on. It just blew my mind.”

Soundsgoodbluestring Stratocaster ZZ Electric teakthe bluestring series from soundsgood is new and innovative ��expanding the sonic horizon for people that like their bass up high and their beats real low. high�gain pickups get it done.

it's Sleek, supercharged, and sonicly supperior. 22 medium jumbo frets, gloss polyester !nish and full on stainless super bling steel hardware. it's beerproof.

get yours today from anywhere local rockstars hangout.

photo: Gabriela Serrano

BObby Londons

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