Ryan Hemsworth & Lucas - "From Grace"
Jazz Cartier - "Count on Me"
Vulva Culture - "Human Garbage"

In a couple of days I'll be piling myself into a rental car full of sweet friends and heading eastward for Halifax Pop Explosion, a festival I have never been to before in a city where I feel dangerously comfortable. It's going to be fun.

The festival runs from October 20th to the 24th. Below is a list of the shows I'm most looking forward to - highly subjective, probably missing more than a few things, but a start, if nothing else. Cross-reference it with the full festival schedule right here, if you're so inclined.

Tuesday
- Un Blonde + The Brood + Unreal Thought @ Reflections Cabaret
- Negura Bunget + Dynfari + Grimegod + Nightfall @ Gus' Pub // Okay, look: I do not know the first fucking thing about metal, Romanian or otherwise, but this show looks pretty nuts if that is your thing - or, alternately, if it's not, but you're maybe looking to start your week off with something completely different.

Wednesday
- Ryan Hemsworth + Skylar Spence + Suicideyear + Vogue Dots @ Olympic Community Centre // Ryan Hemsworth's songs are dreamy, surprising and savvy, pop-smart without being predictable. You can go to this show to dance or to just dissolve into a cloud and float above everyone's heads, throwing off sparks and glowing a sweet steady undersea glow. Either way it should be a good time.
- The Everywheres + Monomyth + Walrus @ Gus' Pub

Thursday
- Travi$ Scott + Jazz Cartier + Weirdo Click + T-Woo @ Halifax Forum
- Each Other + Heaven For Real + Dorothea Paas @ Gus' Pub // Thursday's great sadness is that Dorothea (a subtle, Joni-Mitchell-voiced genius of towering guitar-sounds that push you forward even as they pull you closer in) is the person who alerted me to Jazz Cartier, and now here they are playing on the same night. If you, like me, love Drake - but like you'd love a dear friend/on-again-off-again ex-whatever who moved away for school a couple years ago and is now deeply entrenched in a harmless but extremely performative Jock Phase - Jazz might be the sideways second six god you're looking for. Young and nimble, not quite so shiny yet, and all the more interesting for it.
- cousins + Jon McKiel + Quiet Parade @ The Carleton
- Majical Cloudz + JOYFULTALK + Mauno @ St. Matthew's United Church

Friday
- Fake Tears + Vulva Culture + BRAIDS @ Reflections Cabaret // As if you could do anything but love a band called Vulva Culture, especially when the're all whispery harmonies and drifting guitars like this one is, the kind of piercing clarity that dresses up as softness, does something harder to your heart.
- Walrus + Quaker Parents @ CKDU lobby
- Doldrums + Commodifier @ Reflections Cabaret
- Andy Shauf + The Weather Station + Nap Eyes @ St. Matthew's United Church
- Sheer Agony + cactus flower + Nick Ferrio @ The Company House
- Jean Grae + RealEyez @ The Seahorse Tavern

Saturday
- Monomyth + Tough Age + Energy Slime + Fake Tears @ The Seahorse Tavern
- Alvvays + Mardeen + Partner + GROUNDERS @ Olympic Community Centre // If you spend any time around here at all, you know that Partner is pretty much the greatest band of all time and that any opportunity you have to see them is an opportunity you should take. This is a STACKED BILL, as is the Mint records showcase at the Seahorse above, but the scheduling gods have made it so that you can go to both with plenty of time to spare. Now all you need is a way to split yourself in two so you can be at the Nap Eyes show at the same time, and you'll be set!
- Jon McKiel + Nap Eyes + Adrian Teacher and the Subs + Nick Ferrio + Marine Dreams @ Gus' Pub
- Purity Ring + BRAIDS + Doldrums + Moon @ The Halifax Forum

[get Taking Flight / Marauding in Paradise / In Vain ]