Category: Canadian Music Week

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Canadian Music Week: Two Songs From: Alex Lamoureux

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Alex Lamoureux is from Manitoba, and was ranked in the top 10 at the Grand Master Fiddle Championships in 2008-2009. Watch these videos, and you’ll see why.

By himself, with Old Reel of Eight, Métis style, at the Manitoba Fiddle Association Championships in 2012:

Alex Lamoureux – Metis Style – Manitoba Fiddle Association ChampionshipsAlex Lamoureux - Metis Style - Manitoba Fiddle Association Championships
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At the Manitoba Fiddle Association Championships, and joined by his mother, three-time Grand Master Fiddling Champion Patti Kusturok, also in 2012:

Alex & Patti Lamoureux – Twin Fiddles – Manitoba Fiddle Association ChampionshipsAlex & Patti Lamoureux - Twin Fiddles - Manitoba Fiddle Association Championships
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For more recent activity, check out Kusturok’s YouTube page, where she’s doing a series entitled 365 Days of Fiddle Tunes.

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Canadian Music Week: Two Songs From: Brock Zeman

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Brock Zeman, singer/songwriter, is from Ottawa, Ontario, and plays indie rock with country-folk undertones. He recently released his 11th record (!), Pulling Your Sword Out of the Devil’s Back.

The title track is more spoken word poetry with music involved than a song. It’s meta-commentary on the art and science and struggle of songwriting and broken hearts and stories that don’t belong to you don’t belong to you and that won’t go away. You won’t be able to sing along, he says, as he rolls to a crescendo, which is true. Still, if I had a car and oceans of prairie to get across, I think I would start my driving playlist with it, just for the satisfying rhythms and final, thundering stop.

Little Details, on the other hand, is, for lack of a better term, a rollicking break-up song, and you definitely can sing along:

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A Good Read A Good Listen and A Good Drink, Adam Sturgeon, WHOOP-Szo

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

WHOOP-Szo is a fluid musical collective currently operating out of Guelph/London, Ontario, Canada. Previously they were my most favorite purveyor of tone-poems inspired by the Canadian Arctic, but with Mirror North, the a-side of their offering for Record Store Day, things have taken a turn for the sludgy.

The record/song was created … Continue reading

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Canadian Music Week: Canadians at CouchxCouchWest

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For those of you who don’t know, CouchxCouchWest is an annual music festival that is held exclusively on the web, where brave souls flip on their recording devices and sing a song anywhere but a stage. Pants are optional, pets are encouraged, and you always get a front row, er, screen, seat. Canada sent several acts this year; below are some of the highlights.

Modern Day Poets, of Vancouver, British Columbia, with This City:

Modern Day Poets – "This City" – #CXCW2015Modern Day Poets - "This City" - #CXCW2015
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Norine Braun, also from Vancouver, B.C. with Drunk, which is about love and day-drinking:

#CXCW2015 Norine Braun Drunk#CXCW2015 Norine Braun Drunk
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The Holy Gasp, of Toronto, Ontario, with a conga-driven song about creepy crawlie nightmares, aka Bedbugs.

And then to clear your mental palate, Winnipeg, Manitoba radio host Nancy Slater with her interpretation of Heavy by The Glorious Sons:

Heavy-The Glorious Sons Cover CXCW2015Heavy-The Glorious Sons Cover CXCW2015 Continue reading

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Canadian Music Week: A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink, Mary Caroline

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

For our second Very Special Presentation of A Good Read . . ., we’re jumping all the way up north to Yellowknife, NorthWest Territories, where singer/songwriter Mary Caroline divides her time between television and making indie-folk music.

As an introduction, here are some songs from her debut studio album, Life on Earth:

Songs of … Continue reading

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Canadian Music Week: Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, Sterling Road

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Previously on NTSIB’s own personal Canadian Music Week: some rock, some punk, some sweet dirty blues, from the rust belt and the praries. Today we’re jumping out to the Maritimes, to Nova Scotia, and to Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, who have an invigorating sound that draws from Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton traditions.

Here are a few tunes from their new record, Sterling Road:

Jimmie’s, written for an uncle and the family farm, is a charming delight, sweet as sea breeze on a warm summer day:

The Dusty Meadow Variations, a glorious piano and fiddle romp:

And finally, their interpretation of Buain A’ Choirce (Reaping the Oats), a Scots Gaelic milling song, which I like because it is both beautiful and gloomy:

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Canadian Music Week: A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: Luke Bentham, The Dirty Nil

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

A Good Read normally happens on Fridays, but this week we’re having a Very Special Monday Presentation. In the spotlight today are The Dirty Nil, of Hamilton, Ontario, who have some very exciting plans this summer: they’re headed out on their first Warped Tour.

If you have not already had the pleasure of … Continue reading

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Canadian Music Week: Two Songs from: The New Wild

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thenewwild2

The New Wild are Sean and Daniel Guezen of Winnipeg, Manitoba. They play heavy, bluesy garage rock, the kind of thing that will rattle your bones and pin your ears back if you’re standing in the front row.

This is Dallas, the first song from their self-titled EP, which causes me to sway along in my chair, grinning, every time I listen to it:

The New Wild by The New Wild

And this is Play It By Fear, from the same EP, which is . . . something of a cautionary tale, complete with guitars that burst out like the sharp end of a buzz-saw:

The New Wild by The New Wild

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Canadian Music Week: Steak and Eggs, Flamingo Bay

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flamingobayse

Steak and Eggs is the latest record from Flamingo Bay, of Hamilton, Ontario. Like it’s diner-staple namesake, this record is solid, filling, and comfortingly familiar without being tedious.

Here are some of the highlights:

Culprit of the Tahiti Pearl, is seven minutes long, and is really two, perhaps three songs in one. It is also the first song, and sets the swamp-garage tone for the record:

Steak n' Eggs by Flamingo Bay

Checkout Line is the second song, and brings some stompy bluesy swagger to the proceedings:

Steak n' Eggs by Flamingo Bay

And finally, Righteousness, the closest thing they have to a slow jam:

Steak n' Eggs by Flamingo Bay

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Canadian Music Week: Heart Static, YouYourself&i

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So, as some of you may know, Canadian Music Week kicks off today in Toronto. I am not there, but, in honor of the occasion, I’ll be shining my light on some Canadian bands and musicians that I love.

First up: YouYourself&i (Daniel Gélinas), of Montréal, Québec, with a new EP Heart Static which I like because a) he does actually use static as an instrument! and b) the songs are like sonic puzzles, full of unusual shapes and complicated connections. The tone is gloomy, in places, but yet also shot through with bright shimmery tones.

As an example, here is Mummies, the first song on the EP:

Heart Static by YouYourself&i

And also Blubber, which I could perhaps describe as “a heartbroken computer muttering to itself:”

Heart Static by YouYourself&i

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