North of Nowhere: This northern Nova Scotia quartet are dredging up a modern, polished, and slick sound, juxtaposed under painfully sincere and lived songwriting. With no punches pulled, sung in literal first person about the loss of loved ones, regrets, things never said, and the torment that follows. But it’s not the gloom and doom that is the star of the show. North of Nowhere really hit their mark when the comedy emerges from the tragedy – the hope in the desperation – the (actual) major that follows the minor. Choruses that demand to be blasted from broken dashboard speakers, hail nostalgia for better days, while painting vivid pictures of late-night shouting matches, eulogies, and last goodbyes.

LeafGreen: “Jinn” – a songwriting genie, an ultra-violet cosmic “Rae”, and “Pinner” the punk-rocker along for the ride; LeafGreen carries a sound that makes you want to bust out the discman. As if Sloan, Nirvana, and Green Day had quietly planted a few punk rock trees in Truro, NS. Tortured, but too amused to dwell on it; LeafGreen is for the fun-loving kid in all of us. Even if they’re a little angsty.