Music scenes: by the time you’ve found them, they’re usually over. “You had to be there, man,” is their mantra. They live, die and burn out (better than fading away) by word of mouth, to such a degree that the bands, venues, labels and even the fans come second to the buzz. Is Canada any different? DailyXY’s blog miniseries will examine the great Canadian music scenes of the last five decades.

Part 1: HALIFAX (1991-1998)

“Halifax was so isolated that if you wanted to see a band, you had to start a band.”
—Jay Ferguson, Sloan

Like it or not, Canadians are often lumped in — and often lump ourselves in — with our neighbours to the south, at least when it comes to nicknames. The Toronto/Vancouver movie biz? “Hollywood North.” McGill University? “The Harvard of Canada.” So, in the early 1990s, when Halifax bands started to draw the attention of grunge-hungry industry types and music fans alike, the nickname “The Next Seattle” became inevitable.

Seattle, a city now synonymous with grunge, had as its cred hub the Sub Pop indie label: the unlikely brainchild of a college kid and a publicist whose involvement with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Sunny Day Real Estate propelled Seattle to next-big-thing status, seemingly overnight, once Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” took over commercial radio.

Halifax, the new kid to the north, eventually had a seminal label of its own in Murderecords. Sloan’s Chris Murphy was the owner/operator, and he spent the majority of the 1990s releasing albums from local bands like Sloan, Thrush Hermit, The Super Friendz and Nova Scotia-via-Newfoundland band The Hardship Post.

The Halifax scene didn’t start with a label, though. It started with a coastal college town with an endless stream of artists, musicians and occupationally nondescript hip young adults bred by the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Dalhousie University, and King’s College.

Neither was Halifax, Seattle. They didn’t look the same and, more importantly, they didn’t sound the same. Contemporary Seattle sounds had been built around heavy, washed-out guitar, heavy downbeats and, in the middle of it all, heavy choruses. Halifax grunge was a different breed: the ’60s Merseybeat pop influence was prevalent in the vocals, which stood out among the distorted guitar lines. This music wasn’t the blues rock aggression of the American West: It was college music, first and foremost. And it was about making something new rather than something loud.

As Ferguson alluded, maybe the Halifax scene was born out of necessity. But it might have been that Halifax was simply the proverbial right place at the right time: a young crowd eager for something to call their own mixed with an abundance of live venues and bands that easily could — and often did — play on the same bill.

It all seemed to happen so fast.

In 1993, a year after Sloan released their first full-length album, Maclean’s ran a story on the emerging Halifax scene. Already they noted that at any given show, there were likely to be a few American scouts in the crowd.

To paint a fuller picture, it’s worth nothing that 1993 was also the first year of the Halifax Pop Explosion festival, as well as the year that The Hardship Post won Best Alternative Band at the East Coast Music Awards.

The allure of the American market was ever-present. Sloan had released Smeared on Geffen, and stuck with the label for another album before starting Murderecords. In time, The Hardship Post, Jale and New Brunswick natives Eric’s Trip all signed to Sub Pop.

Halifax grunge bands tended to have short life expectancies. The Hardship Post broke up in 1995, with Jale and Eric’s Trip following suit a year later. Thrush Hermit called it quits in 1999, though singer/guitarist Joel Plaskett’s career was only just beginning.

Sloan is, of course, the exception, still going strong with 20 years under its belt and a surprisingly strong late-career album released earlier this year. But its four members all left the East Coast and now call Toronto home.

If you visit Halifax today, you won’t find Doc Martens-wearing twentysomethings sipping coffee at Café Ole (which, like most cherished ’90s Halifax hangouts, is long gone) and circling an upcoming Jale show at the Double Deuce (also gone) in The Coast (thankfully, still around).You will still find a city alive with music, though, albeit all types. And whether they know it or not — or appreciate it or not — successful Halifax artists in any genre may be indebted to their grunge predecessors.

“The early ’90s put Halifax on the radar of people thinking, ‘Oh wow, it’s not just all fishermen and people with fiddles.’”
—Jay Ferguson, Sloan

The DailyXY SoundScenes Playlist: Halifax
(Suggested alphabetically, by artist)
The Hardship Post, “Rock Is My Life”
Jale, “Not Happy”
Sloan, “Underwhelmed”
The Super Friendz, “10lbs”
Thrush Hermit, “Hated It”

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Image courtesy of Alison Dwyer.