Halifax Pop Explosion 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Q&A with Take Part Coming to a Super Bowl near you, maybe Interview by Geoff Tobin
Colin Darcy, Eddie Spriggs, Curtis Spriggs, and Sean Parsons are pro-participation. Since releasing their debut album, Albert, in 2012, the four gentlemen of indie-rock band Take Part have kept busy playing shows alongside rambunctious local bands such as Like A Motorcycle, Billie Dre and the Poor Boys and The Odd Socks. In 2013, they released a 5-song EP, The Harbour, and promise that there’s more to come in the new year. To tide you over, they released a warm, watery single, “Catch-22”, last month, and, in anticipation of their upcoming Halifax Pop Explosion slot opening for Tokyo Police Club, Darcy and Spriggs answered some questions for Mixtape about Dartmouth, not giving a fuck, and their sweaty live shows. Describe, in exactly 20 words, what a great Take Part show feels like. It’s like losing your virginity: sweaty, confusing, uncomfortable, and in the end we hope you might call us back again. You grew up in Dartmouth, and you often play shows with other Dartmouth bands. Can you tell us something that distinguishes Dartmouth bands and the ‘scene’ from Halifax, or other places you’ve played? I mean, most bands in Dartmouth tend to play in Halifax a ton anyway. There isn’t really a difference between bands from Halifax and from Dartmouth
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other than the people from Dartmouth tend to get a little rowdier after a few Gus’ gold beers. What is the Dartmouth-iest thing about Take Part’s music? Artists tend to be influenced by their upbringing and surroundings. Having all grown up, played, gotten together as a band, written and recorded in Dartmouth, we don’t tend to give a fuck. Cross the bridge on the bus sometime, nobody in Dartmouth seems to give a fuck. It’s awesome. People just are who they are. There haven’t really been any songs brought to the table between the four of us that somebody said, “Nah, we can’t write a song like this, it doesn’t sound like Take Part”. We don’t care to stay in any particular place when it comes to writing. We don’t care what it sounds like as long as we like it. What artists and bands are you most excited to see at the Pop Explosion this year? Eddie Spriggs: Raekwon and Ghostface Killah for sure, I was mega-bummed when I missed out on seeing Ghostface a few months back, so it’s awesome that he’s playing here again and we have the added bonus of Raekwon being on the same bill. I saw Badbadnotgood twice last year and they were so insanely sick, so seeing them again will be awesome. Plus, BBNG and Ghostface have been working on stuff together and doing shows so they’ll probably do some stuff together. Danny Brown is going to be in-fucking-sane. I saw Twin Shadow three years
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Press photo by Alyson Hardwick
back at the Palace, because a girl I liked was going and I had never heard them before. But I really dig their sound, it’ll be awesome to see them live again. That’s sort of the magic of Pop Explosion, you end up hearing a band for the first time, and then they become your favourite band for a while. Colin Darcy: I’m pretty excited to see some sketch comedy from Good Morning Tonight, there’s not much else out there that will make you laugh that hard. Mark Little’s facial expressions are priceless and Rich Aucoin’s music to go along with it is going to be pretty kick ass. As far as shows go, while we were writing this we stumbled on some Chad VanGaalen and it gave me goosebumps, so I will definitely be checking him out this week. You released a single, “Catch-22” last month. Was this just a one-off single? What are Take
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Part’s plans for the dreary Dartmouth winter? We were going to do a four song EP and release it this fall because we were feeling anxious to get new stuff out after having no new material since last October, but we’re going to be patient and spend the winter writing and recording with our eyes set on having an album out at some point next spring. We want to do an album and actually take the time to properly promote and tour it, make some merch, play some more shows out of town, do more “real band” type stuff. Maybe do a kickstarter campaign or a petition or something to raise the funds to play the Super Bowl halftime show, now that would be publicity. Take Part joins Coyote, Glory Glory and Tokyo Police Club tonight at the Olympic Hall.
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Tuesday Reviews Our take on HPX opening night
The real beauty of Negative Rage is the performance.
Vogue Dots at Reflections
Cody shows a completely unpretentious manner of
Jonathan Briggins
nonchalant in everything he does. He starts off the
Halifax’s dream synth electronic band played their first Halifax Pop Explosion show and released the Mauka EP on the same day.Vogue Dots is centered by co-producers Babette Hayward and Tynan Dunfield, two musicians from New Brunswick with a new creative turn in their musical careers. Joined by a drummer and a bass player, the band opened the night with post-Madonna grooves, synths and vocals, which started the night swirling counter-clockwise against the grain of boring synth pop. Their take on the Cousins slow burner “Thunder” was a surprising re-working of the original track. Vogue Dots were good, but create the kind of sound that you long for later at night when the booze is really flowing and dancing is a necessity. A later HPX time slot is certainly in their future.
Negative Rage at Gus’ Pub Michael McGrath Negative Rage is punk gold. The Halifax band is the brainchild of Cody Googoo who is also a member of Life Chain, Grump, Word on the Street, Envision, Concrete Asylum, Bricks, Never Human, Unreal Thought, Negative Circles, and Castle Wolfenstein.
set by quietly thanking “Molson” (an HPX sponsor) before launching off into a song where he yells “everybody’s got problems, so figure it out.” Cody performs with a level of ease that is very uncommon to see among punk musicians. When Negative Rage plays, all Cody seems to know is himself. He has no time for anyone else around him. And when all you’ve got to worry about is yourself, you’re gonna put on a good show every time.
Astral Swans at Reflections Jonathan Briggins
Calgary’s Matthew Swann didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the band’s playing Reflections; his music didn’t make you dance. There were no loops or synths, just a guy with his guitar sludging through and sharing his feelings. He spent time tuning his guitar mid-set while the attention of the crowd began to slip away. The music was good, but demanded more attention, something that’s hard to get in a club setting. Swan finished his set with a cover of “You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son” by Wolf Parade. The track will be on an upcoming compilation album from the Yellow Bird Project.
This impressive list of bands who are almost all relatively active just goes to show how diverse of a songwriter Googoo can be.
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When Petra Glynt took to the stage, the room was instantly transformed from a dance club into this mesmerizing structure built around layers of synths, loops, distorted vocals and a pounding drums. Her gear was set up on this flowing, shiny material and she wore a baggy sequin cardigan (I’m sure there’s a proper term for such an article of clothing). It was the shimmering mirage in the desert; reflections of light and refractions of sound in an ambient world.
debut, Stelmanis had the crowd in a tizzy. When she raised her hand, the crowd danced and raised their collective hands. When Stelmanis jumped, the crowd jumped as well. Austra played loud, pulsating beats while Stelmanis voice, full of power and importance, guided the crowd through a narrative of love and loss. After wrapping up their set, the band returned to the stage with Stelmanis saying “We’re allowed to play one more song, but then you all have to go to bed because it’s a Tuesday night.” Wise advice from a band who made a Tuesday night feel like a Friday night.
WTCHS at Gus’ Pub
Strange Attractor at Gus’ Pub
Petra Glynt at Reflections Jonathan Briggins
Michael McGrath
Michael McGrath
WTCHS were loud. So, so, so loud. It was an earcrushing performance that drained everything in my brain out onto the floor in the best possible way. The music was unique and bizarre, kind of like a mathy post-punk shoegaze that walked fine lines between black metal and punk; between shoegaze and grunge. I got the sense looking around the room that a lot
Strange Attractor are pure punk fury. And last night’s performance was definitely a testament to that. The Sudbury band got on stage and played a no bullshit, lightning fast set of some of the catchiest fuzzed out punk and power-pop songs to come out of Canada in the past few years.There was very little talking between songs and I think it was on purpose. It seemed as if the
of people were taken aback by WTCHS, but in a
band didn’t want to give the songs any room to breathe
way that was welcomed by them. The drummer
once they were over, they just wanted to blaze through
hit everything perfectly, never missing any of the complex beats that had to be hit. The vocalists traded off between a clean vocal and a kind of space-fuzz vocal on the other side in perfect WTCHY chemistry. They’re the reason my ears hurt right now and I am embracing it with open arms.
to the next one. The blazing-hit-them-in-the-gutwith-song-after-song approach worked perfectly for Strange Attractor. We didn’t have time to think about what we just heard because we didn’t really need to, we knew it was perfection already.
Austra at Reflections Jonathan Briggins
Yes, Austra has guitars, synths, keyboards and drums, but the instrument that stands out the most is Katie Stelmanis’ voice. Making their Halifax
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Vogue Dots at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Vogue Dots at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Petra Glynt at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Astral Swans at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Petra Glynt at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Petra Glynt at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Austra at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Austra at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Austra at Reflections -
Photo by Ming Wu
Mix Pick Wednesday Montreal duo Solids are a must see Words by Jane Caufield • Photos by Ming Wu
For the pair of besties behind Montreal’s revved-up lo-fi band, Solids, music is clearly more than just a passion. It’s an obsession. Listening to their music is like taking all the best fast-paced and distorted sounds of the early-tomid 90s and making them fit in 2014. Or, for me personally, taking my teenaged angst and letting it grow up so I can enjoy the same fuzzed out and gritty guitar riffs while driving my very responsiblelooking SUV. That may sound sarcastic, but it really isn’t. You see, guitarist Xavier Germain-Poitra and drummer Louis Guillemette take all the good parts of the early lo-fi scene and add musical complexities that are unexpected from a duo act. Both Germain-Poitra and Guillemette have played
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in heavier bands, but with Solids they create music that’s a bit more poppy and alternative while still preserving the aggressiveness and energy of, say a screamo band. The result is something that dances on a blurry line between alt-rock and post punk. Their debut LP, Blame Confusion, dropped in February and had reviewers comparing them to other Canadian rock duos such as Japandroids or Death from Above 1979. The heavier sound and feverish pace of most of the songs on this album creates a strong sense of power and purpose. While the duo seems determined to create a genuine sound, the album itself doesn’t necessarily break new ground. Instead, they present an old idea in a fresh new suit. And it’s pretty awesome. You can catch this powerhouse duo on Wednesday at Gus’ Pub. Show starts at 10 p.m.
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