Video: Chris Page at Compact Music

February 16, 2010 was the official release for Chris Page's A Date With A Smoke Machine (Review).
Did a in-store session at Ottawa's Compact Music.
Short review on here.
Here is a short clip I took.

Basia Bulat to Launch New Album with NYC Performances

The much-anticipated new album from Basia Bulat, "Heart of My Own," will get its New York City live debut this week. Bulat will open for My Brightest Diamond on Friday night, January 22nd at Bowery Ballroom.



And Bulat's schedule shows an album release party for "Heart of My Own" the night before at Professor Thom's on 2nd Ave and 13th Street. Doors open at 7 pm and the album release party's flyer says there will be "an intimate live performance by Basia Bulat" at 8 pm. It also says the CD will be on sale at the event.

"Heart of My Own" will be released officially in North America on January 26th.

From New York, Bulat heads to London and Paris, and then back to Canada in early February for dates in Ontario and Alberta.

You can find out more about Basia Bulat at her Web site and her MySpace page.

Olenka and Slow Down Molasses at Ottawa's Raw Sugar Cafe

On Oct 27th at Ottawa's Raw Sugar Cafe.
Playing there were:
Jonathan Pearce

Olenka and the Autumn Lovers

Slow Down Molasses
Here is a 12 minute interview I did with one member of Slow Down Molasses.


Review of the show is here.

Audio interview with The Ghost Is Dancing

Interviewed the Toronto band The Ghost Is Dancing on October 17th.
In this 15 minute interview, we talked about their tour, album, bands, Toronto, Ottawa, the music video for "This Thunder", USA and music stuff.

Review of the show.

Photos of Pop Montreal 2009

This year I went to my first Pop Montreal.
It was a fun experience.
Here is a photo slide show of who I saw this year at the fesitval.

For reviews click here.

Conservatives Shift Music Funding to "Profitable" Artists

There is a great deal of controversy over the Conservatives decision to shift funds in Arts funding to direct money toward more 'commercially viable' artists and projects. There is a story at the Globe and Mail that summarizes things a bit.

"Many who benefited from the eliminated grants say innovative, avant-garde albums such as The Perilous Beauty of Madness by indie band DarkBlueWorld or This Riot Life by Veda Hille (which was long-listed for the 2008 Polaris Prize) will no longer be made, dulling Canada's cultural edge. But other musicians, as well as the associations who distribute the funds, defend the decision and are praising the Tories for offering sustainable funding. On Friday, July 31, the Conservative government renewed $27.6-million per year in funding for the Canada Music Fund, for five years. They also “streamlined” the fund, eliminating two of its seven components and pouring those funds back into the remaining five in an effort to “increase the visibility of Canadian music on digital platforms and in international markets.”

Given the Conservatives approach to the arts I don't think "Is this good for art" is even a question. The Conservatives have made no secret of the fact that they strongly dislike art and culture.

Hooded Fang's Dance Cuts on Harper's Arts Cuts: Arts Gala!



What I will say is what I've been saying for a last few years. What the arts community (musical and otherwise) needs is a new organization. A non profit arts granting organization that receives it's money from patrons of the arts, successful artists, private citizens and corporate sponsors and that exists beyond the whims of politics.

Political parties exist to get re-elected. Though there may be some, individual, political leaders with morals, values and standards but political parties do not have them. In their quest for more seats in Parliament they will read the polls, read letters from their constituents and do what they think will win them a few more votes - whatever that may be. So long as the arts (musical and otherwise) rely on government as a primary source of funding the arts will be subject to the same whim and fancy as every other area of government funding.

The whim of the current government is that art isn't art unless it's profitable because money is the only language that conservatives understand and they do not know the difference between art and oil. If it can't be measured in dollars they are not interested.

Dan Bejar to Perform Unique Collaborative Concert in New York this Weekend

Dan Bejar's side project Destroyer comes to New York City this Saturday, and this performance has a unique twist. Bejar will be appearing with Scott Morgan, who has been the drummer for Destroyer, and who has his own side project, the electronic-ambient outfit Loscil. In this collaboration at the Wordless Music Series at Columbia University, Bejar and Morgan will "perform a rare collaborative set of original music from each artist's catalog," according to the description from the series Web site.

I don't know if this collaboration is an ongoing thing or just a one-time performance, but fans of Bejar and Destroyer will want to check it out. The show takes place Saturday, Sept. 12th at 8pm at the Miller Theatre on Columbia's Upper West Side campus (2960 Broadway, at 116th Street). Tickets are $20.

For more information and tickets, see the Wordless music Web site: http://wordlessmusic.org

Raw Sugar Cafe: September 2, 2009

On August 2nd I went to see three acts at Raw Sugar Cafe
They were:
Tissø Lake from the UK

Brooke Manning from Toronto

The Wilderness of Manitoba from Toronto

It was a nice intimate acoustic show for all three acts playing.
Full review is on here.
Listen to the interviews I did with each musicians.
Full review is on here.
Tissø Lake

Brooke Manning with Erin Lang

The Wilderness of Manitoba
The Wilderness of Manitoba: Interview by blurasis

The New Yorker Looks at the Return of Leonard Cohen

As the legendary Leonard Cohen continues on his worldwide comeback tour, The New Yorker magazine takes a look at his career and his return in this week's issue.

Pop-music critic Sasha Frere-Jones looks at Cohen's remarkable life and career, from young Montreal poet in 1964 to his first album three years later, his status as one of the world's most-covered songwriters, his time living in a Zen center, and his discovery that his former manager had defrauded him of several million dollars, prompting his return to touring.



Leonard Cohen is currently touring Europe through mid-September and will then take a few weeks off from performing before playing another month of shows in the U.S. (See all Leonard Cohen tour dates here.)

The Wooden Sky: Bedrooms and Backstreet Tour in Ottawa

August 17th, the band Wooden Sky made a stop in Ottawa for their Bedrooms and Backstreet tour.
They played at a nice small store called Canteen.
Here are the photos from the show.
The first band was Ottawa's Old Crowns.

Here is a interview I did with them before their show.
Interview: Old Crowns by blurasis
Here is a photo of Wooden Sky.

After their set I got a chance to do a quick interview.
Interview: The Wooden Sky by blurasis
Overall it was a nice set they put despite being a hot humid summer day.

Arietta in Ottawa

I went to see Arietta play at Zaphod Beeblebrox on July 25th.
Apparently they were suppose to open up for Black Diamond Bay but the drummer fell ill.
So it was just a solo show for Arietta.
Here are some photos.

Also I did a interview with the band.
Its about 20 minutes.
Sorry if the waitress happens to come in part of the interview.

Bear Claps: Interview

On July 23rd (same night as the Bruce Peninsula show).
I interview the Ottawa band Bear Claps.
The members consist of:
Derek Ledoux

Jenna Johnson

Tyson Everitt

I interview them at the chinese restuarant Imperial Palace on Dalhousie St.
Derek: Pop music, more nitty gritty which is more electronic music and pull in folk and rock
Who are your influences?
Derek: Radiohead, Pavement, Modest Mouse
Jenna: Blur
Tyson: Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, My Bloody Valentine
Favorite venues in Ottawa?
All three:Babylon
Derek: Blacksheep Inn
Tyson: Dekcuf used to do webcast shows.
Who have you played with local or out of town musicians?
Locally: New Teeth, Silver Birch Society, Ennuie, Adam Saikaley
Out of town: Mina May, Bruce Peninsula
What's coming up for Bear Claps?
Going into the studio to make an official EP
Here is the audio part.

Japandroids Make Strong Impression on New York

A band has to be pretty loud to drown out the din of the Coney Island boardwalk, but Japandroids apparently made quite a racket (in a good way) at Saturday's ninth annual Siren Festival on the famed Brooklyn, New York waterfront.



Many listeners came away impressed with the Vancouver duo, who played the festival's Main Stage alongside acts such as Scotland's Frightened Rabbit, Grand Duchy (featuring The Pixies' Frank Black), The Raveonettes, and headliners Built to Spill. It's not every day that a band has to deal with the noise of carnival attractions and with the famous Cyclone rollercoaster rumbling by the stage, but it sounds like Japandroids were up to the test.

Japandroids had played a couple of shows in New York the previous week, one of which was written up by the New York Times in a review entitled, "Kinetic, Exuberant and Loud on the Topic of Romance." And the Times reviewer called the duo's album Post-Nothing "one of the year’s most refreshing rock records."

Japandroids are touring the U.S. for the next few weeks, at least (with some Canadian shows as well), and rumor has it they'll be playing New York again in September. Having missed them at Siren and their previous NYC shows, I'll definitely have to see them then.

Bluesfest: Day 2

July 9th was my favorite night of Ottawa Bluesfest.
It was better than Day 1 mostly because I knew the bands/musicians that were playing on Day 2.
I had a great time running over from stage to stage.

The acts that I got to see:
Kyrie Kristmanson
Kyrie was totally amazing live. She wore her famous white fuzzy hat during Song X but took it off after it.
Nice to see her back from France for the summer.


Holy Fuck
Loved hearing Milkshakes and some new tracks.
They were absolutely amazing live and I was happy to catch Lovely Allen at the end.


Metric
Seen them alot of times now. Glad that they sang "Help! I'm Alive" live.


Iron & Wine
I wish I got to stay longer for his set.
Sad that I missed out on Such Great Heights


Ben Harper and Relentless7
All I have to say that he was totally loud.

Metric Plays Live on U.S. Radio, Coast to Coast (Free Download!)

Metric has been touring the U.S. recently to support its new album "Fantasies," and whether you've caught the band in concert or not you can now listen to a couple of these live sets.

Two weeks ago Metric performed an in-studio set for "Morning Becomes Eclectic," the acclaimed show on KCRW radio in Santa Monica, California. The set includes a couple of conversation breaks during which the band discusses "Fantasies" with host Nic Harcourt. Metric's set is archived on the KCRW Web site for you to watch or listen to.



On the opposite coast, Metric played at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club last week and National Public Radio not only Webcast the show live, but has made the audio of the hour-and-20-minute set available for free online streaming or download. The set focuses on the new album, but also includes some old Metric favorites such as "Monster Hospital." Since I unfortunately missed Metric's sold-out show at New York's Terminal 5, I was glad to be able to download and listen to the D.C. concert.

Metric's tour continues over the summer with shows in England, Canada (including Ottawa and Halifax), and Australia.

More Metric:
* Metric MySpace page

* Metric Web site (www.ilovemetric.com)

* Metric on YouTube

Some Thoughts on Music, the Music Business and File Sharing

Music, to me, is the primary thing that keeps me from being able to say I'm an athiest. It has frequently been said that art and/or math are the universal languages. Either may be true but music was developed in every civilization, everywhere in the world and even if you are from a different country, and a different culture you can appreciate the music of another culture without any training, without any education and without any knowledge of the culture that produced it. This can be said about some art but the soup cans of Andy Warhol or the films of Ingmar Bergman likely wouldn't grab you if you didn't have some context for it and while you may be able to write a beautiful mathematical equation only those with an advanced education in mathematics will fully appreciate it. So the universal making of and appreciation for music is the one thing, for me, that serves as evidence of a possible higher power.

I thought it would be good to say that and have it there as background before I moved on to being critical of certain parts of the music industry and even some musicians.

There was a really disturbing article on ReadWriteWeb about a week ago (June 2, 2009) entitled Ten Years After Napster, Musicians Are Still Getting Screwed which proceeded to lay out how labels and fans are both screwing over recording artists. The article made some fair points, but was ultimately one sided and ignored many important facts.

What has happened to the "music industry" is about technology, but it is not about file sharing. It is about the cost of producing and distributing music. Once upon a time there were a handful of big record labels who would pump out a few hundred recordings a year. But the number of labels and the number of recordings produced has been going up for many years and in the last several years that number has gone exponential. According to the Toronto Star there were more than 750,000 albums produced worldwide in 2007 compared to 38,000 in 2002. There are no figures , that I can find, for 2008 or 2009 but we can assume that that number did not go down, and there is no reason to believe it didn't go up just as sharply as it has been going up in recent years.

So let's have a look at that number: 750,000 albums were produced. We'll assume that that includes full albums, EPs, singles etc., and pretend that the average is about 10 songs per album (it really doesn't matter how close that average is as you'll see in a moment.) That means 7.5 million songs and if the average length of those songs was about 3.5 minutes it comes to 437,500 hours of music.

The averages may be off a bit but that is irrelevant. It would take a person, listening only to new music (never hearing anything twice) for 16 hours a day, 365 days a year almost 75 years to listen to all of the music produced in 2007. If that person were more normal and spend an average of an hour a day listening to music they'd never heard before it would take almost 1,200 years to listen to 2007's offerings. So, in a way, every time someone listens to one of your songs you've won a sort of musical lottery.

That is how things are now. It is not file sharing that is killing the 'music industry' it is pure competition for the ears of music lovers. I have trouble finding sympathy for music labels and older musicians who complain about how sales are down since napster. Of course they are.

Making it in music is no longer about album sales. It is about a mix of things that includes some music sales, other merch. sales (t-shirts, buttons etc.) and most especially live performance. It also helps if you have multiple projects going (in a few bands, back up friends at their shows, have a solo repertoire) so that you can tour and generally play live as frequently as possible and if you can swing it, getting your music into television, film and commercials will usually provide a decent living all by itself.

The age of big rock stars being driven around in limousines and trashing four star hotel rooms is very nearly over but if we want to and we work at it, the music community - fans and artists (not the music 'industry') can create an environment where talented musicians can, without a day job, earn a living on par with other highly skilled professionals.

That is the music world as it stands and that is what the old 'music industry' comprised of the big record labels, their lobby groups and some of the professional organizations for musicians do not seem to understand. The music industry cannot go back in time no matter how many governments they lobby and no matter how many people the sue. Such behavior is childish and smacks of a detachment from reality. It is the equivalent of a industry temper tantrum.

Even if their methods are successful to a degree, even if they stop people from downloading/sharing their music - or if they are successful at making it clear that if you want to play their CDs at your place of work you have to pay for the privilege all they will succeed in doing is taking their music out of the draw for the musical lottery. There are enough musicians out there who are freely giving away their music and encouraging their fans to share it, play it wherever they go that saying 'don't share my music' will only (in a best case scenario) cause people to stop listening to your music.

What artists need (other than perhaps a few good friends who make commercials, film or television shows) are fans. Fans will buy your CD - not because they can't get it for free (they can no matter how careful you are) but because they like you, respect you and want you to keep making music. Fans will come to see you live, buy your t-shirt, and in some cases they will buy your CD before you've made it which will help you to make it in the first place.

The big machine of 'the music industry' as it was in the last half of the 20th century is gone but that doesn't mean that music is no longer a viable option. Let's say you have a band with four people in it. If you can find 25,000 people worldwide who are willing to spend $20 per year on your music (CDs, T-shirts, live shows ...). If you can keep your expenses under 50% of what comes in, each member of your band would take home $62,500 / year - which should be good enough to quit your day job.

(25,000 x $20 = 500,000 - 50% for expenses = 250,000 / 4 = 62,500)

So, if you're in music what you need (as has always been the case) is fans and the relationship with your fans (as it always should have been) needs to be based on mutual respect. Play good music, let people listen whenever and wherever possible and you've got a chance (though it will never be easy.) Lobbying governments for unenforceable laws, suing people or organizations, presenting large bills to people who are only trying to help and generally attaching strange fees to people's enjoyment of music doesn't help, it never has and never will. It may generate some quick cash, but it does not build a fan base for anyone.

So, in short music is good, ReadWriteWeb is wrong and music is still a viable business - but maybe not an 'industry' at least in the same sense as before.

NYC Loves Canadian Indies

New York City is a major destination for musicians from all over the world to play, and on any given night the Big Apple is host to some of the finest independent Canadian artists. You'll find musicians from north of the U.S. border playing in all kinds of venues, from the smallest clubs to Madison Square Garden (where I saw Metric opening for the Rolling Stones a few years ago).



So if you're a Canadian visiting New York, or an ex-pat living the in the area, you don't have to miss out on seeing homegrown music. Here's a sampling of some of the Canadian indie artists with upcoming shows in New York:

Neko Case
Monday and Tuesday, April 13 and 14, 8 pm
Nokia Theatre Times Square, www.nokiatheatrenyc.com

Hawksley Workman
Wednesday, April 15, 7 pm
Joe's Pub, www.joespub.com

Great Lake Swimmers
Friday, April 17, doors 8 pm
Bowery Ballroom, www.boweryballroom.com

Sweatshop Union
Tuesday, April 28, 11:30 pm
Joe's Pub, www.joespub.com

Tragically Hip
Friday, May 8, 7 pm
Nokia Theatre Times Square, www.nokiatheatrenyc.com

Huge Live Music Archive (thanks Tyler)

Tyler Wade of Two Way Monologues and Zygiella fame pointed me to an amazing archive of live recordings at soundmann.com. The recordings go back to a Chris Brown and Kate Fenner show in October of 2004. Sadly there is no RSS feed for the site so you'll just have to check it regularly for new stuff but it's all in MP3 format and it's all free.

There are way too many shows to list but they include

The Burning Hell. 2008 Jul 26. Hillside Festival, Guelph ON.



Rebekah Higgs. 2008 Jul 25. Hillside Festival, Guelph ON.



D'Urbervilles. 2008 Aug 17. Dog Day Afternoon, Fergus ON.



Caribou. 2008 Mar 19. Starlight, Waterloo ON.



Forest City Lovers. 2008 Mar 15. 130 King, Waterloo ON



Julie Doiron. 2007 Sep 16. Jane Bond, Waterloo ON



Rock Plaza Central. 2007 Jul 28. Hillside Festival, Guelph ON



and that, as I said barely begins to scratch the surface a little. Dig In!

LIFE SUPPORT Leukemia Fundraiser Brings Montreal Musicians Together

Hey Guys,

I wanted to spread the word about a great event we are helping out with this weekend. It is a Leukemia Fundraiser at Foufs. Hexes & Ohs, Barton Fink, First You Get the Sugar and Straight to Memphis are playing.

If you're interested, check out the details. Should be a lot of fun!

Tickets are available at http://www.indiemontreal.ca/

Cheers!

Cera Live on CFUR Radio

I believe I mentioned yesterday that Cera is some sort of post-hardcorey (I don't do genres well) that manages to stand outside of most of the heavy-but-not type of music that I generally don't like. They are also kind of a Prince George supergroup, taking players from old scenemaking bands in the Prince George arena. Perhaps one day I should do a post on them. But right now I'll just let you know that in anticipation of their show tomorrow, they are appearing on CFUR radio, the campus station of UNBC, on what I think could well be the station's longest-running show, Fur Gone Wild (hey, it's in the Thursday sweet spot, if CFUR was NBC and this was the late 90s, it would be Friends and Seinfeld).

Anyways, the band will be performing an acoustic set at 7:00 pm Pacific Time. If you're in Prince George, that's 88.7 fm, and for the rest of the world, you can check it streaming at cfur.ca.

Oh, and we just passed 100 posts here. Congrats everyone.

How Many Bands Is Too Many Bands?

In researching my previous post, I found myself in the forum boredinpg where some commentators were debating the merits of adding a fourth band to a show, and whether this was one band too many-- after all, people have to sleep sometime, right?

This got me to thinking-- ever since I started going to more shows, I've found myself less willing to be there for the entirety of every act. Sometimes this means skipping the openers, other times it means checking out before the encore. More than once, I'm sorry to say, I've found myself wishing a performance would just go ahead and end already so we could all go home without worrying about missing some sort of amazing finale. Usually two bands is fine, especially if the first act keeps it short and sweet, but I have to agree that four is kind of pushing it unless your limiting everyone to a five-song set, in which case you wind up getting less of the act you actually want to see.

So I'm putting it out to the (apparently rather large) NXEW community: when it comes to live music, is less sometimes more? Do you like having lots of openers, or do you find yourself arriving late (or leaving early)? Am I terrible person for skipping parts of a show? How many bands is too many?

April 3: Greater Than Giants, Cera, and Dangercat @ St. Michael's

The esteem I hold my hometown of Prince George, British Columbia in is a surprise to many people. For the most part all anyone has to say about is the smell, the cold, and the elitist snob position that it's nothing but a mill town. Well, yes, parts of it smell (although not all of it, and it's not as if other cities are devoid of offensive exhaust fumes or sewage plants), yes, it gets a real winter, and yes, people work in the forest industry. But it also has a thriving music scene (scenes, actually, with metal, blues, country, hip-hop, classical, jazz, rock, and punk components that don't always overlap), complete with its own, semi-secret venues.

One such venue is St. Michael's Church downtown. I assume that by day it is a normal, functioning church. But by night, it is often converted into a concert space for everyone from Canadian punk pioneers SNFU to the Prince George Symphony Orchestra to alt-country rockers the Sadies. And you know what? It's little more than a big room, sometimes set up with chairs, sometimes with space for a mosh pit, but it works-- and as anyone not from a metropolis can tell you, that's all that really matters.

The point of all this lead-up is to direct your attention to an event taking place there this Friday, April 3. If you find yourself out west and up north, you may want to step into St. Mike's for a show featuring new(ish) PG bands Somewhere in Silence and Dangercat as they lead up to what seems to be the hardest working Prince George band at the moment, Cera. These guys are made up bits and pieces of the old punk, rock, and ska scenes, but are exploring a more post-rock thingy, a genre I don't normally give much sway too, but in the case of Cera I actually enjoy, especially live. The headliners are Edmontonians Greater Than Giants, who have a cover of "Love in This Club" (Usher) on their myspace, and who therefore get my instant approval. The Beatles and the Stones always covered Motown, why don't more rock groups look to the R&B world for inspiration these days?

Anyways, the doors are at 7 with music scheduled for 7:30. Tickets are a mere $7, which comes to under two bucks a band.

April Shows in Victoria

Since I'm apparently still the only one doing this for Victoria, I should perhaps take a moment to give a run-down of the somewhat under-the-radar Canadian bands coming here soon. I spent Saturday night watching Bend Sinister at Lucky Bar, and it was a very worthwhile show. I was also won over by Inward Eye. Mobile? Not so much, but that's just my cup of tea versus yours.

Anyways, here's the breakdown for the next month and a bit. I'm basing this solely on what I'm interested in, if you're looking for complete lists, I would suggest livevictoria.com and atomique productions, for a start.

Tonight (March 31st): We get the folk-rock stomp of Elliot Brood

April 3: It's a tough choice between the rock of former DFA 1979 member Sebastien Grainger at Lucky Bar or the lush sounds of Jill Barber at the Alix Goolden Hall (the acoustics at the former, by the way, are great).

April 4: Mr. Chad VanGaalen, with opening act WOMEN at the Sugar Nightclub. Among Canadian indie fans this is like, I don't know, the Velvet Underground opening for Neil Young.

April 8: The well-named You Say Party! We Say Die! play Lucky Bar.

April 22: Shotgun Jimmie and Attack in Black at Lucky. Both worthwhile acts in their own right-- Shotgun Jimmie currently is among my ringtones.

April 26: Old school hip-hop meets new school beats when Thunderheist come to Lucky Bar. Pop rockers Winter Gloves support.

April 27: East coast hip-hopper Classified rocks the mic at Element.

And to top it all of, on April 30 the royalties of CanCon come to town, as the Rolling Tundra Revue featuring the Weakerthans and the Constantines bring the show to Element.

Oh, and if you're going into May, we've got the Racoons on the 2nd the Stills on the 9th, Joel Plaskett on the 10th, and the Dears on the 29th.

All in all, it looks like I'm going to be awfully poor this month.

Guelph's Family Thrift Store Says Goodbye

NxEW doesn't, as far as I know, have anyone in Guelph, Ontario yet. But the Family Thrift Store in Guelph is closing down. The store is owned by Ray Mitchell father of Jenny (Omnichord) Mitchell and is being forced to close by the city of Guelph (along with the stores around it) so that a new library, parking lot and green space can be built. Libraries and green space are obviously good (parking lots suck) but you would think a city as culturally rich as Guelph might have taken into account the impact that their actions would have on the community before making such a decision.

You can read all about it in the Guelph Mercury or the Ontarian. The photo top left is from the Ontarion and photographer Katie Malo.

Fortunately Colin Medley was there to grab some video. You can read Colin's comments on the closing on his blog.

Talented, young, prolific... Pierre Lapointe

Very well known throughout Quebec and in France, you may have heard or seen this singer-songwriter in his various projects... To give you a taste of Pierre Lapointe's upcoming album, this video offers some idea of his aesthetics and originality:

Lhasa's upcoming album

Lhasa is back! Yes, the same artist who moved us through and through with "La Llorona" and later on with "The Living Road" is coming up with a new self-titled album. Here is a glimpse of what to expect: http://bit.ly/J0ncb

Not all sad songs feel so good

You may already have read the great reviews that Jason Bajada's most recent album "Loveshit" has received. Perhaps you already have bought the album and all you're doing now is nodding in front of your screen as we all agree that it is more than a very satisfying piece of work.
On the other hand, if you are not familiar with his well-crafted indie pop and are curious to discover more of the new faces on the Montreal scene, then I strongly recommend that you explore his repertoire. Although he somehow reminds me of Beck at times e.g. "Evolution Kind", yet there is still more to find in him than the echo of another star. http://www.jasonbajada.com/

To all cats fans out there

Jazz is your thing? If you're in town in the next few weeks, then it's not too late to catch one of the concerts from Jazz en rafale (yeah, Montreal has a habit of presenting festivals after festivals).
For more info http://bit.ly/12DOR7
And if you can't make it... you might want to explore Effendi's catalog. Collaboration between local artists and internationally acclaimed jazz musicians will fill you ears with great compositions.
Please welcome this label in your home: you won't be disappointed http://bit.ly/nfZsY

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

First, a confession: I am not a music critic. Yet, I'll often share my enthusiasm whenever I listen to good music. This time I wanted to jump right in with a quick overview of some of the recent CDs launched in Montreal. Marie-Pierre Arthur's self-titled debut album would have been a good start. And then I realized that it is impossible to write about her without first mentioning Karkwa. Not only are they featured as musicians on her album but they also have produced it. They represent such an interesting example of the creative indie/alt Montreal scene. So, may I recommend instead that you listen to both albums? http://tiny.cc/ffhji http://tiny.cc/6xIZd Of course, you may want to listen to Karkwa & Marie-Pierre Arthur when they came to Studio 12 / Radio-Canada (also featuring Plants & Animals) http://bit.ly/K3zHu
Finally, should you feel curious to discover more of the French-speaking scene artists, I would truly recommend Jim Corcoran's show "À propos" on CBC http://www.cbc.ca/apropos who has done an outstanding job presenting and sharing his passion for over twenty years!

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

RiP: A Remix Manifesto is a film by Montreal's Brett Gaylor released under a creative commons licence that ask you to remix the film itself and contribute to the 2.0 version. This is just a trailer, for the full fim (in chapters) and information on how you can contribute to the next version (Remix Manifesto 2.0) visit http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/rip-a-remix-manifesto/.