
Like the big ol' showoff he is, the Ack has already managed to post on three great local releases, and we're but a mere six days into the new year. How am I supposed to be expected to compete with that? Well I'm going to start trying with some rather new Haligonians, Cursed Arrows , a "gender-blanced" two piece that re-located to Halifax from Upper Canada last year, and they have themselves a shiny new Bandcamp site , on which you can not only get their first two albums, but also d/l their new cassette release [...]

It's not hard to be impressed by the hustle displayed by organizers responsible for the Long Live the Queen festival about to take over Halifax. Honestly, they are doing everything right to help a grass roots, community focused festival get the traction to stick around and grow. Family friendly? Check. Kids under ten are free. Diverse attractions? Check. The festival has local art, yoga, music, literature and clothing on display. Affordable? Check. Most festivals jack up the rates so high that the community can't afford to attend, but for $50 bucks [...]
80 mins : 29 secs | 55.2 mb Cursed Arrows "Superspecies" ( noyes records ) Telepathic High Five [ amazon ] website | myspace | facebook Renegades "Home" ( independent release ) Renegades 2 EP [ amazon ] website | myspace | facebook The Futureheads "Bricks And Stones" ( dovecote records ) The Chaos [ amazon ] website | myspace | [...]

A few years ago, I was sent a record from an young two-piece from Guelph called Arrows . I liked Knives Are Falling From the Sky ( review ), but thought that they were struggling to find their sound as they sampled from the sounds we all the love ( Pixies, Nirvana and Hey Mercedes were three that I heard). Then they kind of disappeared. It's not unusual for a DIY act to lose steam so when I hadn't heard anything from them in a couple of years I assumed they packed [...]