Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 6:55AM Oliver Schroer, A Million Stars from Dwayne Beaver on Vimeo.
Dwayne Beaver: "This is a valentine to my friend and collaborator Oliver Schroer who passed away in 2008."
Share Article Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at 4:35PM 
No gesture or no sound
Mired in hollow ground
Like a sparrow in a cyclone
You have me spiralling around
From the 90's into the 00's, there was no harder working band in Alberta than Painting Daisies. Helmed by co-frontwomen Rachelle Van Zanten and Daisy Blue Groff, P.D. evolved from an acoustic folk duo to a four-woman juggernaut that toured seemingly non-stop, purveying passionate prairie rock across Canada, the US, and Europe before disbanding in 2005. While Van Zanten went on to release two critically acclaimed solo albums in 2006 and 2009, Blue Groff has kept a lower profile, taking time to settle into the Vancouver music scene before entering the studio to record her debut solo release, Sparrow In A Cyclone.
Ably supported by producer/engineer Joby Baker's (Alex Cuba, Cowboy Junkies) slick production, elastic bass and chunky drums, Blue Groff's voice and guitar swing effortlessly from sultry to edgy with the confidence of a seasoned performer. From the swirling electro-tinged opener Forever, Slowly and the sinuous seduction of Electric Love Song(for LA), to full-on rockers like Give Up The Ghost and Gunslinger, Sparrow possesses an engaging swagger neatly balanced by the intimate warmth of songs like Full Heart, Shrug It Off and the stripped-down voice/guitar/strings of Queen of Chain. Clocking in at less than 30 minutes, Sparrow is a compact and charming calling card that will hopefully bring some attention to Blue Groff's skill with pen, voice, and guitar.
Daisy Blue Groff can be found at CBC Radio 3 (where you can also listen to four songs from the album), in the book of faces, and on Twitter.
Share Article Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 7:56AM Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, "Jubilation Day" from Moving Colour on Vimeo.
Share Article KR Wolfe, Music, Our Daily Bird Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11:33AM Share Article David Shepherd, Film, Music, Quiet Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 8:41AM 
From Who Is Arcade Fire??!!?
In her upcoming book, Monoculture: How One Story Is Changing Everything, our very own FS Michaels discusses how economic thought has infiltrated the world of art. She quotes Stephen Weil, a leading commentator on museums:
If a million people a month would pay three dollars to see, for example, a Matisse exhibition, we would not need financial support. And if we deliberately set out to find out what a million people a month would pay three dollars to see, then we would not be museums anymore – we would be Disneyland.
Michaels points out that in a world where artists are seen as entrepreneurs, art is no longer about offering challenge or critique, but regurgitating what people want to see or hear. After all, as the eternal maxim of business states, the customer is always right. And after years of this being trumpeted as truth, the public has come to believe it and to dare to challenge their taste is to invite revolt.
Case in point is the the backlash against Arcade Fire's recent Grammy Award for Best Album. Who Is Arcade Fire??!!? has collected some of the hyperbolic vitriol directed at the judges for daring to momentarily consider something other than popularity as the chief mark of artistic validity. While I freely admit to being amused by Unhappy Hipsters, and not connecting with a fair number of the albums on Pitchfork's Top 50 albums of 2010, I find myself both chuckling and taken aback at this strange mix of claimed populism, anti-hipsterism, and disbelief that anything could be good without mass market validation. It's an entertaining and troubling glimpse into some modern attitudes about art, and how personally some people take it when they are denied affirmation of their taste in consumption. Apparently there are plenty who prefer mouse-ears over Matisse.
From KR Wolfe: FS Michaels is one of our very own Hedgies. If you'd like to get first dibs on the upcoming Monoculture website, conversations, and book, you can leave a "Let me know" in the comments and we'll notify you when she flips the "On!" switch. It's a really good book.
Share Article Art, David Shepherd, Music Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 9:55AM
Opus 23 by Dustin O'Halloran, animated by Marco Morandi. Thank you to Jett for sharing this on Twitter.
Share Article Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 7:56AM 
If you ever attended a wedding in the 1980's, I guarantee you know this song. Though originally written by a Swiss accordionist in the 1950's, "The Bird Dance" (aka "The Chicken Dance") was resurrected by dance-hall band, The Emeralds (who just happen to be from my hometown) in the late 1970's and became a ubiquitous staple of weddings, parties, and elementary school music classes (at least in my neck of the woods). It's been enduring enough to spawn a Chicken Dance Elmo, so maybe the kids are even still doing it today.
For your enjoyment, here's an incredibly awkward performance of it on The Lawrence Welk Show. Of particular note is the increasingly off-time clapping as the song progresses. Is it bad dubbing or a spectacularly poor collective sense of rhythm? You be the judge.
Share Article Monday, January 17, 2011 at 9:22AM 
I first met Joe Gurba - aka The Joe - around 6 years ago as a fresh-faced kid with a streak of geek and a love of hip-hop music. Back then he was pushing his rough, but engaging debut album and performing for church youth groups. Since that time, Joe has transformed himself into a sharp slinger of intricate, and sometimes surreal wordplay, an indie music warrior, and a tireless champion of fellow artists. To get there Joe went subversive, working the indie rock scene from the bottom up. He played every show he could find with whatever bands would share the stage. He began promoting shows as Robot Human and joined with friends to found the Old Ugly Recording Co. whose roster includes rising local indie acts like Mitchmatic, Doug Hoyer, and Kumon Plaza.
Between 2006 and 2008, Joe wrote and recorded Float or Flail, a slick collection of electro-beats, crisp bleeps and bloops, and creamy synth washes that perfectly match his seemingly endless poetic energy. Sadly, the album was shelved until Joe could raise the necessary funds to free the master recordings. Three years later he's succeeded and his labour of love is finally seeing the light of day. Joe has expressed some mild embarrassment about releasing the album so late as he feels that he's grown beyond it as an artist and a person, but there's nothing to be ashamed of here. From rapid-fire fun jams like "Spaceman", "What Not", or "On My Right Shoulder", to the contemplative spoken-word flow of "Sorry If It Singed You", Joe's lyrical prowess is indisputable. He displays a complete mastery of vocabulary which he pours into a frenetic torrent of truly unique metaphor, simile, and pop-reference. Equal parts party and genuine poetry, Float or Flail is entertainment that both feeds your mind and bobs your head and Joe has made it's 15 tracks available to the world for a mere $7.50. I heartily encourage you to check it out.
Share Article David Shepherd, Good Fun, Music, Poetry Friday, January 14, 2011 at 2:13PM Share Article Friday, December 24, 2010 at 10:55AM 
The McGarrigle Christmas Hour
Kate and Anna MCGarrigle ( and Rufus and Martha Wainwright and Emmylou and Beth Orton...just get the whole CD, and look up a bit o' history on the McGarrigle family at the same time.)
>> Play "Counting Stars"
(just for a few days in hopes you'll get the whole album)
Every year around Christmas or New Year's, the big black phone tucked into the cubbyhole of our yellow kitchen would send its loud bbbbb-ring into the house late into the night. We'd all wake up as mom ran for the phone knowing that it was my uncle, loudly talking about eternal life and Jesus while mom tried to calm him down. He was always half in tears and more than drunk. Being drunk was his thing, his lifelong thing.
The song Counting Stars reminds me of him, gone now to lung cancer. My last memory holds a thin man sitting in a low-rent apartment hooked up to an oxygen tank, a necklace of plastic tubes on his stained t-shirt. This spoken word piece reminds me of him and other hims and hers that might be "in damn trouble again" as Christmas rolls around. I listen to this song and try to send hope along. I hope they're all counting the best kinds of stars as the chorus sings and the pianos play. I hope when they call - all drunk and thinking of Jesus - that someone picks up the phone.
Share Article Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 7:52AM I'm very close to the time I've arrived at the Seasonal moment when only German lullabies and a Huron Carol will soothe my weary, distracted mind & warm my not-so-ho-ho-or-hopeful heart.
Tonight I'll curl up in the oversized armchair in my darkened living room, lit only by the fireplace and the LED lights twirled around the floor lamp, and imbibe Chor Leoni's Yuletide Fires in one long, uninterrupted dose. I won't be the same afterwards.
On the last couple evenings before December 24th, it's balm and massage that refresh and restore the body, mind and spirit.
When asked about the CD, Artistic Director Diane Loomer said, "Much of the CD is quiet, peaceful, and serene. Its intent is to calm and encourage listeners to relax into Christmas, let them escape from all that Christmas is hyped up to be and rarely is. Our hope is that Yuletide Fires will allow listeners to slip into surroundings of beauty, grace, and balanced quietness."
Yuletide Fires was voted the Outstanding Choral Recording of 2004 by the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, and won a Western Canadian Music Award as the 2004 Outstanding Classical Recording.
To listen to some samples, including the gorgeous Huron Carol and Stille Nacht, and read a list of all the album's songs, scroll down to the bottom of the Yuletide Fires page. You can purchase the CD from the Chor Leoni site or download the entire album or individual songs from iTunes.
Share Article Tuesday, December 21, 2010 at 7:26AM What do you get when you mix Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa", a black Santa, one creepy looking elf, and a heaping helping of old-school rap? You get Run DMC's 1987 Christmas classic, "Christmas In Hollis." The staccato shout and dead straight rhyme schemes of early rap never fail to make me nostalgic, remembering how it cool and exotic it seemed to an uptight, Christian kid in the suburbs. And since Christmas is all about nostalgia, this a perfect holiday song for me. Rev Run spoke to AllHipHop.com about writing the song:
Share Article David Shepherd, Music Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 9:01AM 
If you're an indie music fan, the fine folks at The Line Of Best Fit have an early Christmas present for you - the second edition of their Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada Christmas compilation. The first Cd, (Not So) Silent Night features an upbeat mix of country, rock, and pop celebrating everything from snow to picture books to a Christmas Eve spent in the drunk tank, performed by groups like the Paper Lions, By Divine Right, Ox, and Great Lake Swimmers. The second disc, FrozenOutside/Warm In is a more meditative acoustic collection featuring Basia Bulat, woodpigeon, In-Flight Safety, Snailhouse, and The Provincial Archive. Both are available for free download and guaranteed to make a fine background for eggnog swilling, present wrapping, and general holiday cheer. Help yourself and have an indie little Christmas.
Share Article David Shepherd, Music Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 8:26AM In October 2009, Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Sam Phillips announced the formation of her Long Play subscription service. For $52, over the course of a year, fans of her music would receive 5 digital EP's, one digital full-length release, and occasional bonus downloads. Amongst the EP's was last December's Cold Dark Night, a slightly dark collection of four traditional Christmas carols and two originals: the title track, and "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas." While, in my humble opinion, Sam's voice is worth the price of admission all on it's own, the quality of the songs and recordings make it well worthy of the dollar-a-week she's seen fit to charge. Check out "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas" above, or the promo for Cold Dark Night here, and consider giving yourself a little Christmas present from Sam. After December, it'll be gone...
Classic 90's folk-pop band Toad The Wet Sprocket is also offering a free download of their cover of Sam's song. It's their first group recording in 10 years, and they're still sounding strong.
