Troy Alistair At the tail end of January, Taran Guest and fellow Troy Alistair band members took to the Carleton stage to celebrate the band’s eponymous full-length release.  People may recognize Taran as one of the founding members of the Halifax-based act Brothers.  Guest has opted to assemble a band to bring his latest project to life.  This isn’t an album that fits neatly into a pre-determined box or genre, as it transcends any single one, while incorporating elements from a handful of genres at any given time.  This album is very much like a prism, in the way th ..read more

Jah’Mila – “Roots Girl” Long before the paradigm shifted due to this incessant virus, Jah’Mila traveled to Jamaica to record the video in support of her track “Roots Girl”.  This is a song that pays homage to Israel Vibration’s “Rudeboy Shufflin”, but twists the focus from a male protagonist to the titular female one.  In a genre that is largely male-dominated, Jah’Mila has taken her spot in the spotlight and dropped a great tune that showcases some typical Jamaican hang-out spots, while warming up this cold Maritime winter.  Jah’Mila is one of the most exciting artists to ..read more

  Sarah Harmer – Are You Gone After a decade-long hiatus, Sarah Harmer made a triumphant return to our collective hearts early on in 2020.  Are You Gone is something of a companion piece to her debut album You Were Here. Her sweet, folky lilt is a welcome sound to our ears — with poppy gems such as “Take Me Out”, “St. Peter’s Bay”, and “Squeaking Voices”, it’s a great album to which you can turn the lights low and cuddle up on the couch.  It’s an album that provides a great soundtrack to the dawning dusk. Hopefully we finally get to see Harmer make her way East to play live at ..read more

It’s been a bit since the last HAFILAX playlist, and we’ve finally made it to the tail end of 2020.   It’s not without its own surprises, like the return of Covid which has roared back in recent weeks.   Due to this, we’ve shuttered live music venues, and dialed things back substantially but we’re still bumping along, and it appears that with the emergence of at least 3 vaccines, we may be nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.  At this rate, who really knows?  Hopefully, we can start to see things open up and get back to some semblance of how things were bef ..read more

The Derby Showbar Covid 19 has thrown a lot of things into disarray over the past 8-9 months, and for touring musicians, there hasn’t been much availability beyond live streams with which to reach their fanbase. It’s also thrown a sense of uncertainty into the mix for those attending any scheduled shows, even in these modified socially distanced set-ups. Which is why it’s somewhat funny that for a venue I’ve been frequenting for roughly half of my life, there is this new trepidation and apprehension when arriving for a show, which wasn’t even something I thought of previously, even when I wa ..read more

I had an opportunity to catch up with Mav Karlo’s Menno Versteeg on Tuesday evening. Menno was fresh off of the PEI ferry, en route to Charlottetown where he will kick off his “I drove here and slept in my car and also I only peed on the side of the road and quarantined for two weeks, oh and the shows are all socially distanced” tour (a title only rivaled by the new Borat film for length). Upon arriving at the Atlantic Bubble, Versteeg encountered an inquisitive border guard who had several questions about his purpose here in the Maritimes, and one of which was rather interesting as the guard ..read more

It was a balmy November night in Halifax when we visited the Halifax Convention Centre to catch Petty Harbour’s own Alan Doyle in the throes of his 2nd of 4 socially distanced and nearly sold-out shows.  You could tell that he was as happy to be on stage, as we were there to witness his performance.  It was a fun night in Halifax, and for a moment we got to forget the nonsense swirling around outside of the venue, and indulge in some much needed musical therapy.   It has been far too long since we were out covering a show, and hopefully, this is just the beginning. If you a ..read more

Welcome back to the latest installment of the Midweek Mixdown, and here’s hoping that we have hit rock bottom of 2020, and now hopefully can begin the rebound with a more balanced Captain leading the ship that is the US of A. It’s been a dreadfully long 2020 already, and this political rhetoric is downright exhausting. Let’s just hope that cooler heads prevailed and a leader was actually elected last night, but with all of that being said, let’s just use this as a bastion of normalcy and tunes. This is a playlist of new tunes that caught my ear over the past week or two, and I want to share wi ..read more

Honestly, I don’t recall a more exhausting year than 2020.  From the ongoing struggle to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, to the battle to overcome systemic racism and inequality, it’s been a year of upheaval and unrest.   It would be fantastic to say that it’s unnecessary, but unfortunately, that just isn’t the case.   People have time on their hands, and priorities have been refocused and people have time and energy to make strides to make the world a better place, and while songs can be light, airy and fun, they can also come packed to the gills with emotion and impor ..read more

POSTFUN, a new indie-pop project in Halifax, will be releasing their debut single ‘When the Wind Shifts’ on October 24th. POSTFUN unofficially began in 2017 when Jack Murtha, creator of POSTFUN, started a high school co-op at Coda Pop Studios. It was there he first recorded his own music. “I’ve always admired artists who record and do all their own stuff”, he says, “so I took a crack at it.” On ‘When the Wind Shifts’, Murtha is the sole musician and song-writer, with the exception of saxophone by Jacob Hatfield. Murtha, who also plays in bands norc and the now disbanded Social Smokers Club, sa ..read more