The CanCon Catalogue

cross-posted at NXEW.ca

It's hard to say what role Hot Hot Heat play in the Canadian music scene. The Victoria quartet (who have gone through a few original members over the years) have been around since '99, though you could argue that their modern incarnation didn't start until 2002 with the release of their debut full-length Make Up the Breakdown. Even so, that puts them smack dab in the middle of the garage rock revival of the early 00s, following the 2001 releases of the Strokes' Is This It and White Blood Cells from the White Stripes but preceding (and anticipating) the dancier new-wave sound that would be cemented by Franz Ferdinand. At the same time, they were one of the first independent Canadian rock groups to start making waves around the world and usher in the modern golden era of CanCon, pioneering the movement alongside the New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene, generating northern buzz a full three years before Arcade Fire blew everything out of the water with Funeral.


"Bandages" from Make Up the Breakdown"


And yet, despite the critical and popular success that Breakdown achieved, Hot Hot Heat never quite reached the status of musical geniuses given to any of those groups, even though Make Up the Breakdown is one of those rare beasts where every song could be a hit single, and the follow-up Elevator saw them successfully transition from a singles band to an album band that still managed to put out great singles (in the form of "You Owe Me an I.O.U." and "Middle of Nowhere"). And since they failed to secure genius status, that meant by the time 2007's Happiness Ltd. came out the musical elite were prepared to write them off as has-beens who were just riding the scene created by other, more talented groups, even though Hot Hot Heat were there from the start and have released more stuff worth listening to than the Strokes. Regardless of how middle-of-the-road you take Happiness to be, it's certainly no less listenable than any of the last three Jack White projects. All things being equal, it's Bloc Party who should be opening for H.H.H. on their Canadian tour, and not the other way around.

"Middle of Nowhere" from Elevator



Revisionist history being what it is, however, Hot Hot Heat now find themselves in the unfavourable position of being one-hit wonder bargain-bin fodder unless they can mount what will have to be, regardless of how inaccurate the term is, a genuine comeback. And last night at Nanaimo's the Queens Pub, they gave a preview of what that might sound like. Having had to drive in from Victoria just to check them out (what's with snubbing your hometown, Hot Hot Heat?) I unfortunately missed the first ten minutes of the set, so can't comment on that. But walking in, if it weren't for the familiar voice of Steve Bays moving over top of things, I could have sworn I walked in on some sort of punk-metal fusion band. This was to be expected, perhaps, with the addition of bassist Parker Bossley of the spastic Fake Shark, Real Zombie and Bays warning Spinner magazine that the new album actually started as a side-project with the goal of making "a crazy album that sounded like it was from the future and it wasn't anything that we had done before."

While it's hard to judge live performances of what are essentially works in progres, I think it's fair to say this new sound draws on groups like At the Drive-In and even Rage Against the Machine for inspiration, because while HHH aren't going as far down the heavy-fusion road as either of these groups, they're definitely headed in that direction. It actually makes sense when you consider how rhythm heavy the group has always been and the fact that lyrically Bays has always had more in common with the verbosity of rap and speed metal than he has with most minimalist rock bands. What will be key for making this sound like a natural evolution on record will be how high up in the mix Bays vocals are and how much of his hook-writing skills he retains. Unfortunately, that is not something I could judge last night thanks to a rather muddy sound in the high-end.

All that being said, though, if you are a Hot Hot Heat fan of old, do not be discouraged from checking them out when they come to your hometown-- and if you never have, definitely go. They retain the energy that gave them a reputation for being a worthwhile live show, and managed to get the audience packed on the dancefloor even when they were playing multiple previously unheard songs in a row. And they are not stingy on songs from either Breakdown or Elevator, playing all the singles from the latter and at least "Bandages" and "Talk to Me, Dance With Me" from the former to close out the night (I would guess they opened with something from Breakdown, too, but cannot guarantee this). However, if you want to hear Bays ask the crowd "Are you ready to be burned by Hot Hot Heat?" as he did last night, you're probably out of luck. As he said, "That's the first and last time you'll hear me make a band-name related pun."

Hot Hot Heat on tour:

23 Apr 2009 20:00	Avalanche	Courtenay, British Columbia
26 Apr 2009 20:00	Commodore Ballroom (Sold Out)*	Vancouver, British Columbia
27 Apr 2009 19:00	Commodore Ballroom (Sold Out)*	Vancouver, British Columbia
29 Apr 2009 20:00	Shaw Conference Centre*	Edmonton, Alberta
30 Apr 2009 19:00	Big Four Building*	Calgary, Alberta
1 May 2009 20:00	The Distrikt	Regina, Saskatchewan
2 May 2009 19:00	The Odeon Events Centre (Sold Out)*	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
3 May 2009 19:30	Burton Cummings Theatre (Sold Out)*	Winnipeg, Manitoba

*opening for Bloc Party

Talk to Me, Dance With Me on Letterman

Cross-posted at nxew.ca.


While physically I am here in the city of perpetual flowers (Victoria), spiritually, I am in Prince George, and it's on days like today I miss my northern home. Because, as you should know, tomorrow is Record Store Day, and where better to celebrate than in Canada's Number One Independent Record Store?

So, if you happen to be in downtown PG this week, head over to Meow Records and check out some of the performances taking place. It gets a little loud in the morning, before calming down a bit, then loud, then soft, soft, loud, soft. Or something like that. As I write this, the performers are:

10:30: Vexen
11:20: The Loudest Thoughts
11:50: Illicit Dissent
12:45: Colin Pearson
1:40: Corbin Spensley (of Tiny Little Boom and Big Old Eyes)
2:35: Maple You Know
3:20: The Concerns of Royalty
4:15: Gyibaaw
5:00: The Arbitrarys

I haven't seen all of them, but I can vouch for the Arbitrarys and the Concerns of Royalty for putting on very good live shows.

Cross-posted on nxew.ca

You may remember the Raccoons as a classic Canadian cartoon portraying the adventures of Bert Raccoon and his friends in Evergreen Forest. However, I predict that within a few months, the top Google result for "The Raccoons music" will be not "The UnOfficial Raccoons Homepage" (as good as this page is), but instead the website of Victorian up-and-comers the Raccoons.
The first I heard of these guys was when they opened for Mother, Mother, I quickly grabbed a copy of their EP and set about praising them (show review here, EP review here). It seems I was only slightly ahead of the curve, as they have now won the Monday Magazine award for "Most Promising Band" and been touted by none other than Grant Lawrence of CBC Radio 3 as the heirs-apparent to Hot Hot Heat, Wolf Parade, and Black Mountain.

Well, as it much as it pleases me to be able to say "I saw them when," I am a little disappointed I won't have the chance to check them out live again until  June, when they return to British Columbia for the release of their first full-length album. The reason for this long absence is what seems to be a North American tour, starting in Hollywood, California on April 20, and then winding its way all across this great country of ours. If they're coming to your neighbourhood, I strongly, strongly recommend you check them out (tunes below the tour dates).

Tour Dates
20 Apr 2009        20:00  The Knitting Factory     Hollywood, California
27 May 2009       20:00  TBA                               Montreal, Quebec
28 May 2009       20:00  The Casbah                    Hamilton, Ontario
29 May 2009       20:00  Lee’s Palace                   Toronto, Ontario
30 May 2009       20:00  Zaphods                         Ottawa, Ontario
2 Jun 2009          20:00  Royal Albert Arms         Winnipeg, Manitoba
3 Jun 2009          20:00  Amigos                           Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
4 Jun 2009          20:00  Liberty Lounge               Calgary, Alberta
5 Jun 2009          20:00  Pawn Shop                      Edmonton, Alberta
8 Jun 2009          20:00  TBA                                Vancouver, British Columbia
9 Jun 2009     20:00 Official CD Release - TBA  Victoria, British Columbia

If you've never been to the Alix Goolden Hall in Victoria, British Columbia, then consider yourself among those who have not experienced one of the better concert venues around. And if you've never seen Jill Barber in concert, then consider yourself among those who have not experienced one of Canada's better live performances. And so, if you were among those who saw Ms. Barber at the Alix Goolden last night, you may consider yourself lucky.

The show was opened by a game David Myles, who entertained the crowd with the story behind the song he wrote to convince his wife to marry him ("I wrote it five years ago, and we got married last fall, so it didn't work as well as I wanted it, too") and how despite being an East Coaster, failed to visit Cape Breton for years because he had it so built up in his mind. An old friend of Barber's, he was a good fit for the opening act.

Barber, for her part, took to the stage with a four piece band that included a stand-up bass and multi-instrumentalist (violin, clarinet, saxophone) and a glittery backdrop that was, apparently, the first thing she ever bought online. I was curious as to how she was going to mix the fifties soul sound of her most recent disc, "Chances" with the singer-songwriter-country-folk fare of her earlier releases, but she pulled it off ably. She started with a couple of "Chances" songs, before donning a guitar and delving into her back catalogue. She switched back and forth throughout, sometimes losing band members for the more intimate numbers. What gave it all continuity was her gift for putting fresh legs on old themes (love found, love lost, love never had), and her formidable pipes. Powerful but never overdone, she can lay claim to being a female chanteuse in the tradition of Patsy Cline.

The highlight of the night came with the last song before the inevitable encore, this is when she pulled out "Chances" first single, the propulsive, call-and-response blues of "Oh My My." With the audience joining in, the band going all out, and the church setting, you could easily picture a similar sound coming out of a southern gospel church circa 1923. Alas, that's the only song she has in that style, I'm sure if she wrote a few more, there would have been dancing in the aisles. As it was, there was simply a rush to the merchandise table. Definitely a show to check out.

Jill Barber plays Vancouver tonight at The Rio Theatre and in Penticton, BC, on April 5 at the Dream Cafe.

It's been a good, long while since I posted here, and yet I'm still getting something like twenty visitors a day, so I should probably start up again. Before we get to today's post, let me just point you in the direction of a new, pan-Canadian music blog I've been writing for, called North by East West, and which seems to be taking off very nicely.

So, what I want to direct your attention to is the online comic Hark, A Vagrant by Kate Beaton. Basically, Ms. Beaton riffs on history, mostly Canadian but a fair amount of British and American, as well, in simple-yet-detailed line drawings. The more familiarity you have with the people and events being depicted the better, but many of them are accelssible to anyone who ever saw those Heritage Minute bits during their Saturday morning cartoons, one of my favourite Beaton pieces is a direct take-off on the Heritage Minute depiction of the invention of basketball.

According to the Maclean's profile on her she has no interest in writing a book, but according to her homepage caption a while ago she's actively working on one. In the meantime, it looks like she's published in the National Post fairly regularly, and, of course, she's online. If you like skewed humour and have seen any episode of Canada: A People's History, definitely check it out.

I talked about how great Nathan Fielder was on This Hour Has 22 Minutes before on this blog, but have been somewhat less impressed with his output this season. I haven't caught the last few episodes, but I just found this one from two weeks ago. It works if you're into this sort of humour.

If you read this site, you're probably a fan of Canadian music. And if you're a fan of Canadian music, then I almost guarantee that you listen to CBC Radio 3 (if you don't, you should). Well, it seems that due to the financial situation taking on the world, Radio 3 might be on the chopping block. This is a problem. To my mind, CBC Radio 3 is one of the most important components of the Canadian music scene, providing a national forum for independent bands to be heard. It is 100% Canadian, and is better than any other music station I have ever heard, and losing it would be monumentally bad for this country. If you feel the same way, I would strongly urge you join the Facebook group, sign the petition, and get involved.

Information

Petition

Facebook Group

Contact CBC

I'm a bit behind on my live reviews, so I'm condensing them into one post here.

First, the Tranzmitors at Lucky Bar last Friday. I was relieved to see that Lucky, which I'm going to be seeing more than a few more shows at, is a good and honest rock bar, well set up for drinking, dancing, or just watching. The Tranzmitors make the kind of music for doing the first two, and the audience obliged. They clearly learned from the past, taking to the stage with skinny suits and vintage gear, including an Ace Tone keyboard, which is probably the only kind of keyboard that should be allowed in bands like that from now on.

Between the jagged guitar, vocal harmonies, and ska-influenced keyboard, I couldn't help but feel like  I was seeing the logical next step in a lineup that starts with Buddy Holly, moves over to the Beatles pre-Please, Please Me, and was picked up by the Clash of 1977, the Specials, and Elvis Costello. If you ever wished you could have been packed into the sweaty early shows of those groups, the Tranzmitors are a must-see.

****

On to Hawksely Workman, who also draws on rock history, only a lot more of it comes from the 80's and the alt-rock movement. Opening act Geoff Berner was... interesting... as a one-man accordion band who writes songs about World War II and government programs that are cut while the Olympics continue to get funding. There were laughs, yes, but awkward, awkward laughs, too.



As for Workman-- well, he can sing and he can play the guitar, no question, but it would be nice if he spent a little more time doing it and less time telling long, rambling stories that go nowhere, are unrelated to the song, and are full of pauses as he tries to think of words that I don't think once came to him. Banter is one thing, but this was more listening to a less humorous Grandpa Simpson.

As much as I might be rattling old-school Workman fans here (if there are any), this is an act who could benefit a lot more from focusing on his newest albums and ditching his back catalogue save for a few songs. Between the Beautifuls is easily his strongest album and he only deemed to play one song from it, "The City is A Drag," completely foregoing "Piano Blink," one of the single best songs of the last three years, and one that he actually has placed on CD THREE times over the last year. Why would you not play it?



Instead, he chose to focus on his Eurocentric dance-rock stuff, resulting in extended jam-ups that were only interesting half the time. Basically it was song (3 minutes) jam (4 minutes) awkward talk (3 minutes), which drains a lot of the momentum. The only place it really picked up was when "I'm Jealous of Your Cigarette" went into a medley of the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and then, INSTEAD OF AWKWARD BANTER, they went right into "Striptease." He also spent some time with ballads, such as the opening song "Almost a Full Moon," which musically has the gravitas of U2, but whose feeling is undermined by shopping list lyrics ("Pumpkin and parsnip, carrots and turkey bones/Bay leaf and pepper, potato and garlic cloves," ending with multiple repeats of "Let's make some soup"). Again, given the strength of the lyrics on his later work, it just seemed odd he would spend time with this.


In the interest of full-disclosure, he did get a standing ovation and an encore, but in my opininon people are WAY too generous with both of those things these days, and the encore was just an attempt to get him to play the songs that people came to hear (he did do "Smoke Baby," but, as I said, no "Piano Blink"), and if it weren't for the fact that we were blocked in, we probably would have taken the opportunity to leave early. If you're an old-school fan, yeah, you'll like the show, but otherwise I wouldn't go over a $20 ticket price.

What's to say? If you've listened to Hawksley Workman lately, you know that he's one of the best (and most prolific) singer-songwriters in Canada, putting out two albums last year alone, one focused on pop and ballads and the other more dance-rock. If you haven't listened to him lately, you probably think of him as the guy who did "Striptease," and "Jealous of Your Cigarette" and not much else. Well, back then he had moments of greatness, but was somewhat inconsistent. Since then, well, he still has moments of inconsistency, but they are far fewer and far between, and the greatness is, well, greater. If you wrote him off before, it's time to take a second look.

Hawksley Workman plays tonight at the Royal McPherson theatre. Tickets and details here.

Tuesday Revue: In which I write about the new releases that might actually be worth checking out.


The Tuesday Revue: Remember back before the internet? Back when if you wanted to hear a new album you actually had to wait for it to be released, and then go, physically GO, buy it? Those days sucked, right? But there was also something to the experience of carefully considering which works were worth your time and cash, and then experiencing them as a whole. The Tuesday Revue tries to present, for your consideration, albums that might actually be worth more investment than the time it takes to find a torrent. This week: Gentleman Reg and K'naan.


I. Gentleman Reg- Jet Black

I don't know whether it's microtizing or a huge marketing blitz across the spectrum (my money's on the former), buts ads for this release have been following me around the internet for the past much. Fair enough. Because from a marketer's perspective, this album is right up my alley: a semi-quirky singer-songwriter who is a former member of the Hidden Cameras and Broken Social Scene member and is regularly compared to (and works with) Sufjan Stevens releases his long-anticipated fourth album? That's definitely within my niche, even if I have the same amount of passion for Sufjan Stevens as I do for, I don't know, flax (I'm aware it exists and may even get a taste once in a while, but darned if I know or remember-- how's that for a metaphor?)

But even with the targeted marketing coming my way and the buzz coming out of ear-to-the-ground outlets as far back as November '08, I really expected to shrug my shoulders at this one, so when I actually sat down to give it a listen, I came out surprised. The first fourteen seconds of the first song, "Coastlines" had me thinking all my expectations were correct: acoustic guitar? Check. Lo-fi vocals? Check. Backing female vocals that sound like someone's sister? Check. But then, fifteen seconds in the song drops in key for mere moments, and suddenly the song sounds like mid-90s alt rock circa the Foo Fighters, and then at 0:36 there's actually some Talking Heads style guitar noodling. When the not-quite honky-tonk piano comes in, I'm sold.

And that's where Gentlemen Reg gets his strength. He plays the style of 2007-2009 indie rock that we all love to hate, but it's rooted in and draws from (alt) rock history, throwing in enough variety to keep it interesting. "When Heroes Switch Professions" sounds like it's recorded underwater, "How We Exit" has some Queen of the Stones Age type riffiage going on, and "Rudy" cribs an organ line from the Trojan Records catalogue. Every song has at least three distinct parts to it, and the variety of instruments is always used for effect, not novelty. Don't get me wrong, with the possible exception of "We're In A Thunderstorm," which draws on the trance movement of a decade ago, this album is firmly within the "twee" (if that's the word) singer-songwriter spectrum, but is better than average.

If nothing else, check out the first single "You Can't Get It Back," (posted below). This is a definite highlight, with Reg at his most rock and roll, the mumbled lyrics coming off like Hayden and the slightly distorted guitar coming off like Randy Bachman.

You can preview the whole album at Gentleman Reg's myspace, and you can buy the album from Arts and Crafts or cheaper at Zunior.

"Coastlines"




Next Review: K'naan, "Troubadour"

Tuesday Revue: In which I write about the new releases that might actually be worth checking out.


The Tuesday Revue: Remember back before the internet? Back when if you wanted to hear a new album you actually had to wait for it to be released, and then go, physically GO, buy it? Those days sucked, right? But there was also something to the experience of carefully considering which works were worth your time and cash, and then experiencing them as a whole. The Tuesday Revue tries to present, for your consideration, albums that might actually be worth more investment than the time it takes to find a torrent. This week: Gentleman Reg and K'naan.

II. K'naan- Troubadour

Like Gentleman Reg, this is that rare indie Canadian release that comes with a lot of pre-release buzz, although this time I think it's a little more mainstream. As the X3 Artist of the Month K'naan has been getting love from CBC Radio 3, aux.tv, and Exclaim! magazine, but perhaps more notably (in terms of the level of exposure he's experiencing) he's been everywhere from CNN to Jimmy Kimmel over the last month. Say what you will, he's out there working.

Musically, Troubadour starts out promisingly enough with TIA (standing for This Is Africa), with a beat that could almost be an M.I.A. throwaway. For anyone who listened to The Dusty Foot Philosopher, we are immediately given a familiar theme: Africa is way, way, way worse than anything most North American rappers are familiar with. From the first verse:

"I take rappers on a field trip any day.../I know where all the looters and shooters stay/Welcome to the city we all call doomsday."

The problem I had, and continue to have, with this type of track is that while it ostensibly trying to put self-styled North American gangsters in their position, it's being done in the same way that they put each other in their position: by bragging about how much toughter their hood is than anyone else's. Granted, it's undoubtedly true that K'naan's seen harder times, but it's still the same game of one-ups-manship that he's supposed to be against.

Fortunately, these tracks never get out of control, and he's far more reflexive elsewhere, remembering the time he was nearly killed by a grenade, or the choice his mother had to make in leaving behind K'naan's cousins in order to get her son our of war-torn Somalia. "Fatima" is perhaps the best of these reflections, finding K'naan lamenting about the girl he left behind when he came to North America, crying, "Damn you country, so good at killing/ Damn you feeling for perserving." He's a gifted lyricist, no doubt, whether talking about life for a soldier in Iraq, praising his mother, or describing the "fifteen minutes" it takes for a money transfer to be processed so he can eat again.

In fact, K'naan is that rarest of breeds: a rapper whose lyrics are better than his beats. And while he attributes this to the need to send money home rather than buy Kanye tracks, it is a setback. With some notable exceptions like "TIA," first single "ABC's" and the inverted blues Mos Def collaboration "America," too often the music veers into the overproduced dance/pop/hip-hop sound that you may be familiar with if you've spent any time listening to local "world" music. Actually, when I think of it, K'naan is also strange in that he's a rapper who's better live than recorded, since he performs with a backing band, which make for a more organic sound than most of what you find here.

That said, this is still definitely worth getting. There's enough good ideas and K'naan is engaging enough that it overcomes the shortcomings, even when it's Adam Levine of Maroon 5 being completely unnecessary in the otherwise fantastic stutter-funk of "Bang Bang" or Kirk Hammett getting in the way on a redux version of "If Rap Gets Jealous." At one point K'naan brags "I made the list this year, I'm honour roll." If that's true, then let's hope his next album sees him ditching the big-name vocal collaborations from other genres (Damian Marley, and Mos Def, and Chubb Rock, who actually have personal relationships with K'naan and sound natural here, excluded) and spending the saved cash on some big-name beats. But then again, given how good his stripped-down live performances on Q were (listen here), maybe he should just pocket it and skip the money transfers.

You can listen to Troubadour on K'naan's MySpace (but you should probably read this first), and you can buy it here.

"TIA"

I like this article by Stephen Marche in this weekend's edition of the National Post. It's mostly about this ongoing conflict over the reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, but more broadly its a reflection on how Canadians relate to their history. The part I find particularly intriguing is:

It is good for us to be reminded of our national moments of madness because we have so few. Figures like Riel - Pierre Trudeau was another - represent the country while living outside the values that circumscribe it: quietness, common sense, self-deprecation. We need these figures of insanity to assuage the longing for wildness caged within our orderly, well-regulated society."

You can read the full article here.

Help me decide the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music Over the Last 10 Years

If you want to know the rules, click here.

Like many music lovers, I'm one of those people who enjoys lists. I'm not High-Fidelity compulsive about it, but at the very least I use the month of December to review the year in music and compile a list of what I think was the best to come out of the last 365 days, usually in the form of an iPod playlist.

Lately, though, the spark has been gone. There's only so many times you can see the "Greatest Artists" or "Greatest Albums" be topped by the usual suspects-- the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Presley, et al, before becoming bored with the whole thing. What catches my interest these days are the ones that enforce different limitations on who qualifies. You can do this by making time limits, as in Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born (ie 1980) or sorting by nationality, such as Bob Merseau's Top 100 Canadian Albums. Both of these are great because they (mostly) get rid of the names that everyone knows and allow the spotlight to be turned on to some other artists who are (arguably) just as or more worthy than the usual suspects (who are for the most part British and American artists from the 60s and 70s).

Which brings me to today's post. I've decided that with 2010 fast approaching, we should start looking back on the last decade of Canadian music. I genuinely believe that we are living in what will one day be considered Canada's classical period, when the musical scene of our country was full of great artists with as much depth to it as any other place at any other point in time.

So I'm going to compile, with your help, the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music Over the Last 10 Years. This is going to be divided into two parts. First, I'm going to count down ten reasons Canadian music did so well over the last decade. Then, I'm going to list the 100 Greatest Canadian Artists, 2000-2010.


I already have a lot of ideas, but this process would be completely invalid if it didn't receive as much input as possible. That's why I'm asking you to give me your suggestions: who and what should be on these lists, what criteria should be used to define "great", who is "Canadian", does Neil Young qualify even though he's old and in California, will anyone openly vote for Nickelback, and so on. So please, make your voice heard. You can comment on this blog, you can email canconcontact@gmail.com, you can find me on Facebook and Twitter, whatever.

I also hope that if you think this is a good idea you try to get other people involved by directing them here. And other bloggers, I encourage to start the discussion on your own sites as well, I only ask that you alert me that you have done so and direct your readers towards me as well, so that their thoughts can inform my decisions.

Let the discussion begin!


High Fidelity: Top Five

To read about the 110 Best Things About Canadian Music, click here.

Although I will be the final arbiter of who is on these lists and how they're ranked, I promise to be completely open to any and all suggestions. If I deviate drastically from popular opinion, I will let it be known, and I will present my reasons why. Heck, I'll even post the results of the popular vote alongside my own "official" list. The reason I'm acting as a gatekeeper, as such, is that I don't want this to be a matter of whoever has the most fans gets the top spot-- that's how the Junos work, and we all know what a fiasco that is. So while the popular vote will definitely be a factor, it won't be the only one. A well-presented, well-reasoned argument by one person could well have just as much impact as fifteen votes with just a name-- plus, if I really like something you write and you're willing to let me publish it, I will.

Like I say, I'm completely open in this process. I'm interested in starting a discussion and a debate, and am willing to let the criteria work itself out. I think 110 is a good number, but maybe we'll wind up with fifteen reasons and only fifty artists, or maybe we'll get so many nominations it should be expanded to 200-- who knows? It really depends on what happens over the next few months.

I swear, every Canadian of my generation knows this song. Concerned Children's Advertisers wrote some damn catchy tunes.

This Vancouver duo Japandroids is getting a lot of buzz, I guess mostly thanks to being covered on Pitchfork. I enjoy their stuff alright, but what I find buzz-worthy is the fact that they're releasing their April 28 debut, Post-Nothing, on vinyl and digital download. And that's it. Vinyl. Download. No CD. Last year, the Waking Eyes released Holding on to Whatever It Is, first digitally, then on vinyl, and then, months later, as a CD.

Is this a mark of things to come? Everyone listens to music on iPods now, and if you want a physical product, nothing beats the pop-art quality of a big ol' piece of vinyl. But the compact disc? Meh. Even in computers and cars, disc drives are no longer standard.

--- So what does this mean? Do you mourn the imminent demise of the contact disc? Or is it going to take on the collector's status we assign vinyl today? Leave a comment below!

Shad plays tonight at Lucky Bar. Here's him performing "I Don't Like To" live in L.A. for the Grammy weekend. Not only is his DJ the 2008 world champion, Shad himself plays the guitar. The whole concert can be found here.

Shad - "I Don't Like To" (live at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles)

The Tranzmitors - "Live A Little More"


*for more songs, hit "click to read more"*


So, tonight is Shad and tomorrow's the Tranzmitors-- and if you're keeping score at home, that's two shows in two days, meaning it will be concert work concert. This almost wouldn't be worth it except the groups involved are so great. I told you about Shad yesterday with his easy-going hip-hop vibes, and the Tranzmitors are a major shift with their jagged rock and roll. They trade in the sort of late-70s/early 2000s garage rock that made me fall in love with music in the first place, the sort of stuff that sounds like it's going to fall apart any moment, but even if it did it would still be amazing. I don't know why a bunch of guys from Vancouver sing with British accents, but the effect is to make you want to grab a pint and raise a toast to the working class. All I can say is don't expect too much from me for a few days after this.

The Tranzmitors play at Lucky Bar on Friday, February 20. myspace, radio 3

 OK, is this a great year for Canadian music, or what? We've already had A.C.
Newman and Malajube, we've got Joel Plaskett, the Great Lake Swimmers, Metric, the Tragically Hip, the Handsome Furs, MSTRKFT, K'naan, and more coming, and now we're definitely hearing from Swan Lake.

If you don't know who Swan Lake is, let's put it this way: you know how a lot of good bands like Wolf Parade, the New Pornographers, and Frog Eyes have that one crazy genius who completely ignores standard music sensibilities and yet still writes ridiculously great songs? Well, Swan Lake is three of those guys, from those exact bands, working together to write ridiculously great songs, only there's no A.C. Newman or Dan Boekner to reign them in.

At this point, I'm so high off of these songs that I can't even begin to describe them except in Haiku form. So here goes:

"Spanish Gold 2044" via Stereogum

Brian Wilson is broken
the jagged ocean crashes in the desert
prospectors rejoice, echo



"A Hand at Dusk" via Pitchfork

a concert hall?
Major Tom has found Stardust
it's a Day in the Life



Enemy Mine comes out March 24. More info about the disc can be found here.

"Pulling A Line"


"She Comes to Me In Dreams"


The Great Lake Swimmers have released their first single, called "Pulling a Line," from the March 31, 2009, release Lost Channels. As per normal, Tony Dekker throws out some great lyrics, evoking the nautical landscape from which the band takes its name. An upbeat track by GLS standards (though not nearly as snappy as "See You On the Moon"), it gives us a taste of the albums professed themes, namely, "telling tales of hidden histories, still "mining for light in the dark wells," still "tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design."

They've also have another track, "She Comes to Me In Dreams," up on the MySpace. This one is a little more in the band's standard style, EXCEPT when the song hits 1:18 and we get some epic drum hits echoed by some Hawaiian-style guitar picking. It makes me excited for the promised addition of cello and vibraphone to the lineup for some of the songs. The Great Lake Swimmers are one of the few bands with a sound that can actually properly accommodate these sorts of additions.

You can buy "Pulling a Line" here.

Great Lake Swimmers: myspace, greatlakeswimmers.com

via the Ampersand

The problem I have with this idea is that the book works so well because it is vastly open to interpretation. **SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT**

There's a bunch of people who take it is a religious allegory about the importance of faith, a bunch who take it is proof of the non-existence of god, and then there are those who take it is as a simple adventure story. This works because of the medium in which the story is told. Could it translate into a movie? Maybe. But you would have to do a damn good job of keeping your own interpretation out of the screenplay. It would also be problematic if any hint of the book's "twist" (for lack of a better word) were hinted at at any point prior to the final act.

  The fact is, Life of Pi is a really good book. And movies that are based on good books, especially ones that are good precisely because of how well they use the written medium,  are rarely good movies.

Sometimes I feel like I'm something special because not only did I get a Bachelor of Arts Degree (political science/international studies), but I actually got a (temporary) job from it. Inevitably, though, there's a million people out there to knock me off my high horse. Shad is one of those people.

Not only does he have two critically acclaimed albums under his belt, the most recent of which was nominated for both a Juno and a Polaris Prize, but he made his name in the music world while at the same time getting an undergraduate degree from Wilfred Laurier University. And then not only does he get a much cooler job (professional rapper) than me, but he destroys any dreams of intellectual superiority I might have by balancing his pending superstardom by working towards a master's degree from Simon Fraser.

On top of all that, he goes and makes the best music video (see below) I've seen in years! The worst part is, his music is so good (organic hip-hop with a sense of humour) and his live show so well-regarded (apparently he often has a live band, and he's been invited to play the Vans Warped Tour this year), that I am handing over MY hard-earned money to give HIM more. DAMN YOU SHAD!

Shad plays at the Lucky Bar on Thursday, February 19. Tickets here, Shad myspace here.

Further Reading: concert review, mindyourmind.ca video interview, torontoindie.com interview, eyeweekly, the globe and mail, the national post, exclaim.ca

According to Dan Garnder of CanWest News, the Governor General's office has a secret plot to overthrow the Queen as the head of state. As he says,

What is not to be found on the website of the Queen's representative is a single picture of the Queen... The sentiment couldn't be plainer. To those who created and approved the website, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of Canada, is nothing more than a legal technicality the lawyers say ya gotta mention. So she's in the fine print, along with "Must be 18 years or older to enter. No purchase necessary. Offer void in Newfoundland."

He also cites the absence of prominent royal portraits in Rideau Hall. He blames not just Michaëlle Jean, but previous GG's including Adrienne Clarkson and Jeanne Sauve, and insinuates their staff are probably involved. The plan, apparently, is

When we have forgotten that we have a monarch, and the Queen has been rendered a constitutional dead letter, the Governor-General will cease to act as head of state in the Queen's absence.

She will simply be head of state."

Now, I'm personally all for bringing the head of state into Canada, especially since there will come a day when Elizabeth dies or abdicates, and everything will be changing then, anyways. I figure rather than spend a bunch of time minting money with Charles's bust and re-writing documents to read "His Royal Majesty," we may as well go all out and find a homegrown symbol for our head of state. Will it be the Governor General? Gardner worries this would "unbalance federalism" by making the Governor General the "superior" of provincial lieutenant governors, but since they're all symbolic anyways, does it really matter?

The problems I see are placing too much authority, symbolic or otherwise, in an office that is appointed by an elected official and that changes hands at least once a decade. The point of a head of state, in my mind, is to provide a consistent symbol for the country that exists outside the political field. The problems that arise from not having this can be seen in various forms, from the extreme of dictatorships (where a leader like Mao or Stalin is absolutely infallible) to the minor (such as the United States, where some people get upset if someone criticizes the President, seeing it as a criticism of his station as head of state, and by extension, of the USA).

But if these problems can be overcome, I would love to have the person in whom all symbolic authority is vested reside within, rather than outside of, Canada. It would be a big step towards the ultimate decolonization of the Canadian identity. So to Michaëlle Jean and the apparent abundance of co-conspirators walking the secret corridors of power throughout Ottawa in a bid to overthrow the Monarchy once and for all-- good luck in your high-class revolution. And to Mr. Gardner, who unveiled this far-reaching, multigenerational "stealth campaign"-- well, good luck. You're going to need it.

It's almost good I'm so swamped with work that I can't go to any concerts tonight, because that saves me the difficult choice of seeing either Kardinal Offishall (earlier post) or the Library Voices, a Saskatchewan band who I think may have the best name since the Tragically Hip. Because as much respect as I have for Kardi, you can't argue with the fact that it's almost impossible to get the beginning of this song out of my head.



Library Voices play tonight at Lucky Bar with Matt Goud.


myspace, thelibraryvoices.blogspot.com

Back in 1998, the single "Northern Touch" was released. Featuring a number of Canadian rappers, it was a coming out party for hip-hop on this side of the border. Since then, a number of homegrown stars have been touted as "the one"-- the rapper who was going to move beyond these borders and make a splash in the United States and beyond (apparently disregarding Snow, who had done that five years earlier with "Informer"). First it was going to be someone from the song: Rascalz seemed likely, then Choclair. After that, new names like Swollen Members and k-Os started to make waves. But no one made the jump. Until last year when, ten years exactly after "Northern Touch" came out, the man who was brought in at the last minute to be a part of that song (replacing k-Os and Jully Black, who couldn't make the session) and who had in recent times been somewhat disregarded here in Canada, returned in a big way by teaming up with international stars like Akon and Rihanna and becoming the first Canadian rapper in history to hit the top ten in the United States. The song? "Dangerous." The man? Kardinal Offishal, rudebwoy number one, leader of the underground sensations the Black Jays, and an undeniably dedicated and hard-working individual for having made it after so long.

Given the amount that "Dangerous" leans on the already established Akon and the extent to which Kardi has been taken for granted here at home, it's easy to write him off. And while it's true that his latest album Not 4 Sale is nothing if not a commercial venture, it still contains some of the catchiest songs to come out last year, and Offishal's back catalogue is consistent enough that he can be forgiven going pop in order to get some pay-off. I mean, aside from "Northern Touch," which would be nowhere near as good without him, he's got "On Wid Da Show," "Everyday Rudebwoy," "Bakardi Slang," "Ol' Time Killing," "Money Jane,"... the list goes on. And as for those who might accuse him of "going American", well, he is doing a Canadian tour in February, so that's got to say something.

Kardinal Offishall plays tonight (February 17) at Element (formerly Legends). Tickets here.
Kardinal Offishall: site, myspace

LIGHTS - "February Air"


At some point I almost completely lost touch with popular music. I don't know when. I think it has to do with getting an iPod, discovering CBC Radio 3, the Hype Machine, and various reliable music blogs, and deciding I really didn't have to deal with commercials and various incarnations of "Newlyweds with Nick and Jessica" (this dates me) in order to listen to new music, which for the most part wasn't even close to reflecting all the good stuff that was going on. For the most part this has been awesome-- not only is there a lot of great stuff that never goes mainstream, but mainstream stuff sounds better if it isn't overplayed-- allowing me to appreciate pop in small doses as opposed to being assaulted with it until it destroys my soul.

The one drawback is that outside of my own little ghetto, I really don't know what the rest of the world is listening to. The song I'm posting today is a case in point. I heard about LIGHTS through my cousin, who saw her perform some small show in Vancouver last year and said she was going to be the next big thing. I just got around to checking her out now, and figured I would post the track so you could hear it, but according to my research, you already have. See, my cousin was right(ish). Her music has been featured in a bunch of commercials for Old Navy, and she had two songs chart last year. This song, "February Air" was number three on MuchMusic. I didn't even know MuchMusic still played music, so there you are.

Anyways, even if you're sick of this song already, I'm not because it's new to me. The opening synths (done on Garageband?) are the perfect sound for the glossy sheen of pop music heartbreak, but her voice is organic enough to prevent it from getting all Europop. The closest comparison I can think of is the Postal Service
fronted by Robyn without the attitude, and that's exactly what you need for a song that conjures up images of the cold grey of February as the backdrop to a broken heart. This video here, using Toronto as a backdrop, captures this mood a lot better than the official one (which looks way too much like an Ikea commercial).

LIGHTS: official site, myspace

I have no idea how you feel about Valentine's Day. But if you're looking for some romantic songs for whatever reason, here's some of the best Canada has to offer. If nothing else, take a listen to "Some Kinda Wonderful" by Sky and reflect on the fact that we didn't appreciate the genius pop songwriting skills of James Renald before he left the band and they started getting all "Superhero" on us. Individual tracks are below, you can download the whole thing as a .zip file right here.


"Inside the Molecules" - Chad VanGaalen


"Lover's Spit" (alternate version f. Feist) - Broken Social Scene


"Astounded" - Bran Van 3000 f. Curtis Mayfield (youtube)


"Blue Moon (Song for Elvis)" - the Cowboy Junkies


"Your Rocky Spine" - the Great Lake Swimmers (mp3 via slowcoustic.com)


"Never Quit Loving You" - Jill Barber (mp3 via iheartmusic.net)


"Nowhere With You" - Joel Plaskett


"Heroes of the Sidewalk" - Two Hours Traffic (mp3)


"Fireworks" - the Tragically Hip (mp3 via wolveshawksandkites.com)


"Lovers in a Dangerous Time" (Bruce Cockburn cover)- the Barenaked Ladies (youtube live performance)


"Lost Together" - Blue Rodeo


"Crown of Love" - the Arcade Fire (mp3)


"Miss You Now" - Elliot Brood (mp3 via sixeyes.blogspot.com)


"Some Kinda Wonderful" - Sky (youtube)


"Oh You Delicate Heart" - Hawksley Workman


"I'm In Love" - Major Maker


"Taj Mahal" - Sam Roberts


"I'm Your Man" - Leonard Cohen (mp3 via themusicslut.blogspot.com)


"Tentacles" - Rah Rah (mp3 via iheartmusic.net)


"Before You" - Chantal Kreviazuk (youtube)


"Evergreen" - the Wheat Pool


"Oh, My Darling" - Basia Bulat


"My Favourite Chords" - the Weakerthans


"Proof of Love" - Old Man Luecedeke (mp3 via herohill.com)


"Oh Yes, It's Love" - the Bicycles