Canadian Music Thread Redux (one video per post)

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Quick question... this band is from here, but this particular song has been HUGE here. I'm curious if it's a local hit or if CBC has made them national.

Have you heard this song 100 times already this week?

[YOUTUBE]ogzR6EhHiYQ /YOUTUBE]

The video credits reference Ontario so SOMEONE has picked them up and is trying to make them national. Are they already? I'm half hoping not... I LOVE when someone is HUGE here and unknown elsewhere. Reaffirms the separate culture thing for me, which is rare when it's something mainstream in character, as this song is.

I doubt that it is known in Canada in general. A lot of NL music is only known locally, it's rare to see otherwise. I used to listen to CBC radio 2 all the time, but I got tired of so much Canadian music; after a while it just felt like a knock-off of something else.

But here is one I do like:

Frazey Ford - Indian Ocean (2014)
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[SignalHillHiker]

I just hate the way CBC strains to find Canadiana or intelligence in everything. It could be a pop song with a stupid haiku as the only lyrics and they'll drone on about how it speaks to the heart of everyone from Prince Rupert to Bonavista and exemplifies what it means to be Canadian. That shit drives me crazy - it's just a nice, fucking pop song - relax, CBC. Relax. Like Dukes. Imagine if I went on about how that "exemplifies Newfoundland"? That's how stupid you sound, CBC. We know it's just American music. So, yeah, that aspect of it gets so nauseatingly strong sometimes that I have to turn it off. But in every other respect, I like CBC Radio. They're definitely good to us. It was all I listened to when I was in Winnipeg because it was all-NL-all-the-time. Gordon Pinsent even read stories from the bay on there during the morning commute.

*****

Fortunate Ones finally struck out with me. Hate their newest...

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****

To compare, this is what they're usually like, and how I prefer them:

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[Architype]

^ While admittedly limited by my own tastes and age, I appreciate my music mostly based on it's musical merit, and not by where it's from, or what genre or style it is, and definitely not how good it sounds in a live venue while you r drunk (that's a different kind of experience). I hate to criticize, but I know that NL'rs mostly do the other thing. There's good and bad from everywhere.

Spirit Of The West - And If Venice Is Sinking (1993)
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[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Fortunate Ones finally struck out with me. Hate their newest...

Sounds like they ended up working for an alt-country producer. Yeah, a big meh from me. I like some alt-country but I don't like that Nashville sound. Ugh.

Speaking of alt-country, from British Columbia with a BC sound.

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[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Architype

I used to listen to CBC radio 2 all the time, but I got tired of so much Canadian music; after a while it just felt like a knock-off of something else.

See, that's the thing. It is. So why bother? We have the technology and the distribution systems allowing you to hear the good stuff. And life is short. It confounds me that anyone would feel the need to consciously seek out and listen to Canadian music "because it's Canadian" through some misplaced, tedious sense of patriotism.

Canada is not a musical nation. Literally no one would care if you were somehow able to wipe the analog, digital and human memory banks free of all Canadian music from the last sixty years or so. With the notable exception of Glenn Gould. In some forty-plus years of Cancon regulations, how much really vital, good Canadian music standing on its own merits has actually been produced in this country? I can't think of more than a few artists of any quality that seem quintessentially Canadian without being forced:

Gordon Lightfoot
Bruce Cockburn
The Tragically Hip

Are there others? Shrug. The template is essentially a sort of easygoing blandness leavened with earthy, folky tones. It's never cathartic, beautiful, gut-wrenching, alarming or epochal because it reflects the country we are in. And when music made here pretends to those qualities, it just sounds like, as you say, a knock-off.

[Xelebes]

That is a very Ontarioan focus there and just waltzed by John Mann and Devin Townsend posted just above you.

Edit: that said, English Canada has little musical theatre tradition. French Canada had cabarets in Montreal. Instead, Anglo-Canada has bars (perfect for drinking country music - think Stompin' Tom) and coffeehouses (perfect for strummy, quiet stuff.) Schoolhouses as key music venues were actively crushed in the 1960s.

[Laceoflight]

For me, Harmonium and the likes represent what Canada has the best to offer.
This piece is from their 1975 record Si on avait besoin d'une cinquième saison.
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Other songs by Harmonium have become all-time classics in Québec too.
Like this one : Pour un instant.

[Architype]

^ Harmonium was well known for a short time in the seventies, but they only did three albums and disappeared quickly.

*********************


Frazey Ford - Done (2014)
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[Architype]

Chilliwack - Crazy Talk (1974)
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[Laceoflight]

Peter Peter's latest single : Noir Éden
He is, IMO, one of the most interesting pop artists (singer-songwriter) in Québec right now.

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[SignalHillHiker]

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Maybe, baby, maybe you just can't say you hate me this far into your life.
And maybe, just maybe, you're thinking my way lately...
If it's over tonight... let's finish the drive.

[SignalHillHiker]

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I won't know where I'm going until I get there.
You know I wish you felt the same.

[SignalHillHiker]

Another year, another ceremony. AWESOMELY, this year the Music NL Awards will be in Bonavista.

Everywhere in Newfoundland has, at minimum, everyone can play an instrument and knows our folks songs. But Bonavista is like a mini-St. John's, it actually has people taking that foundation and doing new things with it. It's a perfect fit. I really can't wait to watch, I should drive out because most of of the REALLY cool shit during the Music NL Awards is not official and just organized by local people at pubs and things around.

Anyhow, this year's nominees.

FACTOR Album of the Year
Rum Ragged
Repartee
Duane Andrews
Mick Davis
Pilot to Bombardier
Long Distance Runners

For this one, I have to go with Repartee. But Duane Andrews is legend here. Legend. He could win anything any year just based on his reputation alone. But this year, specifically, if that's what we're judging, it SHOULD be Repartee.

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[SignalHillHiker]

Alternative Recording of the Year

Long Distance Runners
Hot x Proxy
Pilot to Bombardier
London Above
Green & Gold
Cabbages & Kings

It has to be Green and Gold. I've been to a couple of their shows and the crowds always know every word, crowd surfing, etc. People love it.

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[SignalHillHiker]

Ugh, this one kills me.

Entertainer of the Year

Duane Andrews
Long Distance Runners
Everglow
Green & Gold
Fortunate Ones
Repartee

It's gotta be Duane, Everglow, Fortunate Ones, or Repartee.

I suspect a more abstract award like this has to go to Duane. The others can get a crowd going, and have a grand old time and all of that... but no one is going to get people crying, screaming, like Duane can.

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[SignalHillHiker]

Waterfront Fire is going to win this, even though they're kind of awful... they're several years old so I'm kind of surprised they're even in this category. Quote the Raven could swing an upset, though. They're doing very, very well locally.

Bell Aliant Rising Star of the Year

Lady Brett Ashley
Hot x Proxy
Gary & Whit
Waterfront Fire
Stephen Green
Quote the Raven

EDIT: Fuck it. I'll say Quote the Raven is going to win. Waterfront Fire, this year, is too embarrassing to post.

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[SignalHillHiker]

The Nickel Music Video of the Year

Repartee - "Dukes" [Director: Josh Warburton]
Fortunate Ones - "Lay Me Down" [Directors: Tatjana Green & Nazar Melconian & Matt Barnett]
Cabbages & Kings - "Earth"
Long Distance Runners - "Pulling It Together"[Director: Mike Simms]
Waterfront Fire - "First Light" [Director: Cody Westman]
Pilot To Bombardier - "Long Time Coming"

Okay, it's going to be Dukes if we've become American mainstream. But if not, if we're STILL ourselves, it's going to be Pilot to Bombardier. The homage to NTV late night is just perfect. This, oddly enough, is as Newfoundland as an Irish folk song with local lyrics.

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[Xelebes]

Montreal (Kannibalen) and Vancouver (Monstercat)

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[1ajs]

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[SignalHillHiker]

My parents went to see British Invasion at the Arts and Culture Centre. It has a lot of the same performers as Spirit of Newfoundland, which they both love.

Anyhow, they don't go on about things needlessly - if they pay a compliment, it's due. They've both raved about this kid from the west coast named Evan Smith. Mom said he's better than anything she's seen in New York or Las Vegas (she goes to at least one of those once a year, usually for plays), and Dad said he's better than Elton John and David Bowie. So I went searching, and I couldn't really find much.

It's piano/keyboard where he really shines, they said.

And this is the only thing I could find. I'm hoping some extended clips of British Invasion get posted on Youtube eventually.

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