Cody's song of the day - June 18, 2009

Today's pick I have for Song of the Day is Je veux dancer avec toi (I want to dance with you) by Les Prostiputes. Great rocky tune!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccsfFi0YbGE

Les Dales Hawerchuk!

Apres Les Dales Hawerchuk!

Originally uploaded by shadygrady85

A year ago today, I saw Les Dales Hawerchuk perform a concert in Quartier Champlain in Quebec City. Les Dales Hawerchuk are a rock band from Quebec that got their name from the former hockey player, Winnipeg Jet Dale Hawerchuk.

I was amazed by the amount of energy this band had. I wasn't expecting much, but they delivered an evening of raw live music, that was amazing! They played their hit (title) track Les Dales Hawerchuk, as well as some nice slower songs like Papillon.

Check these boys out, I definitely will be again! I was even wearing a Jets t-shirt I bought here in Brandon, Manitoba, and lead singer Sylvain Seguin actually walked up to me on the street just to compliment it! Cool guy.

Cheers.. oh and GO JETS GO! With the whole NHL controversy going on right now, I wish the Jets would return to Winnipeg.

10 Songs I'm Digging - April 29, 2009

I think I might do this every once in a while. This is a list of 10 songs that I dig "right now", at this very moment. Give me your top 10 you dig "right now"! I've also included links to the songs:

1) Hannah Georgas - The Beat Stuff
2) Malajube - Porte Disparu
3) The Two Koreas - Hotel Christina
4) The New Pornographers - Hey Snow White
5) Joel Plaskett - Through & Through & Through... Yeah I know some of you are sick of this song already, but I lovvvvvve this song
6) The United Steelworkers of Montreal - Son, Your Daddy was Bad... I loved this song live in Quebec and in Brandon, always great!
7) Howie Beck - Watch Out for the Fuzz
8) Julie Doiron - Consolation Prize... This song is kind of getting old, but it's still a great tune!
9) American Flamewhip - We Were Never Friends
10) The Dudes - Pretty Lies

Your turn.

Join our Flickr group!

Usually I tend to mainly discuss Canadian music on this blog, but something that goes really well with a great live Canadian act is a pint of Canadian beer. I have created a Flickr group that's all about the discussion of Canadian beer and the posting of various beers throughout Canada. If you are interested in beer, and have a Flickr account, join it today!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/beerbiere/

Feist performs her hit 1-2-3-4 in French in Quebec City

This is the first post of 2008.. almost a year since I last blogged, but I was in Quebec City for most of this summer and saw more concerts than my feet and ears could handle. I was able to obtain this YouTube video of Feist singing en français (in French).

She performed her mega-hit 1-2-3-4 in French for part of the song, replacing one-two-three-four with un-deux-trois-quatre. The crowd went crazy with her attempt with la belle langue.

Enjoy!

Hugo's Shakin' all Over

I was watching TV last night, and while waiting for 30 Rock to come back on from commercial, an ad for Hugo Boss cologne came on, with a familiar tune. The tune being Shakin' All Over, not by the original artist Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, but by Chad Allen & The Expressions of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, who would later on be named The Guess Who, famous for American Woman and These Eyes. When the song was covered and made famous, the band were only in their early twenties, pretty amazing for being a song from the 1960s, plus being from the middle of nowhere in Canada.

You can check out the video on Youtube

Feist featured on Verizon Wireless commercial

It's rare for me to hear Canadian music on American television, especially when it's recent independent Canadian music, but hopefully we start see a trend south of the border.

Calgary rocker Feist is starting to become huge not just in Canada, but also in the United States. Her song My Moon, My Man was used for a recent Verizon Wireless commercial. This is something I would have expected by Rogers Wireless.. but have the song ruined by some college students going on a road trip tell their life story in 30 seconds.

You can check it out on Youtube. Also check out the song Valentine by The World Provider, which features Feist.

The Beer Pick of the Week: July 15, 2007

It's that time again folks! Time for the Beer Pick of the Week!

The Beer Pick of the Week is Winnipeg's Wall of Sound, Novillero.

Novillero is already one of Winnipeg's biggest success stories for the music scene, but still are one of the most underrated groups in Canada.

Novillero started out in 1999 as a group formed by other various Winnipeg groups, including Duotang. The band released two albums since 1999, both feature a soul-rock based influence. Their biggest hit was the Hypothesist, and boy was it a toe-tapping rocker with a great deal of piano.

Novillero hasn't released a new album for a few years and is not predicted to release another album until early 2008, but to appease to the fans who want something different, the and released demos of a few songs on their MySpace page. The group also tours from time to time as the Novillero Soul Revue, which covers famous soul hits by musicians such as James Brown and Tina Turner, which proved to be a huge hit when I saw them in concert, although the band members themselves only sung a few songs, leaving three female vocalists on vocals for the majority of the tracks. While I would be hoping to hear lead singer Rod Slaughter on vocals, it is a definite change of pace, plus the band is able to bring a Novillero style sound into all their songs.

Novillero is also one of the greatest bands to talk to after a concert, I've had the pleasure of speaking to various bandmates of the band a few times, and it's always been a great time. I believe this band will some day be pretty successful in the United States, until then, they will always receive lots of attention in their home town of Winnipeg.

While the band had some misfortunes in the past, such as having all their instruments stolen while on tour, the band doesn't let the fans down and continued to play for the fans.

There are some Novillero based concerts available for your listening pleasure available at CBC Radio 3 and Bande a part.

Links
Official Website
New Music Canada profile
Myspace page
Wikipedia page

The Beer Pick of the Week: June 10, 2007

It's that time again folks! Time for the Beer Pick of the Week!

The Beer Pick of the Week is Quebec's Vauvandalou.

The name Vauvandalou is bizarre to any anglophone, and very hard to pronounce to most people, but don't let the name scare you off, it's a group full of stars. It is perhaps one of Quebec's largest supergroups to form, even if it is only for a short period of time, to date.

Vauvandalou features an allstar lineup which includes Fred Fortin of Les Breastfeeders, Simon Proulx of Les Trois Accords, Jean-Philippe Fréchette (aka Navet Confit) and Vincent Peake of Groovy Aardvark.

This lineup alone will make any French Canadian indie fan drool, myself included. However, I am not sure at the moment if this band is planning on becoming a permanent side project for these guys, or if it is a one-time gig.

The band recorded one song for the French CBC Radio station Bande a part as part of a podcast and various promotions that Bande a part has planned for on their website. The song recorded is called "0.99$", aka Quatre Vingt Dix Neuf Sou, or Ninety Nine Cents in English. I have a bit of a trouble understanding the lyrics, moreso than most Quebecois music, such as the music by Malajube or Les Trois Accords. While I may have trouble understanding the lyrics, with me being a French student, the song is still very catchy to my ear.

Bande a part uploaded a zipped MP3 of the song to be downloaded by anyone who wishes to download so, and also included it in a recent podcast. Some people believe that 0.99$ will become an instant summer hit, myself included. It's a great rocker that reminds me of how Canadian rock should be! Hopefully Vauvandalou will decide to release a full length album in the future. If they do release a full length album, they could break the French/Anglo language barrier for music even further than ever before!

Download and Links:
Link to 0.99$ (ZIP file)
Bandeapart.fm
Bande a part podcast featuring the track
"Fric Show" 0.99$ Video

iTunes: next best thing for Canadian music!

CBC Radio 3 is the best source for independent Canadian music out there, with thousands of tracks on their database, from a high school student's basement demo music to some of Canada's biggest artists, such as Sam Roberts or Arcade Fire.

iTunes is basically the best, right after CBC Radio 3. Every week, iTunes offers a Free Track of the Week, which many times has been songs by great Canadian artists, including Novillero, Immaculate Machine, Pink Mountaintops, among many many others.

It's a great way to buy Canadian music since many times you cannot find a copy of a certain band's album at an HMV, say a band like the Handsome Furs, instead you can buy it on iTunes, which saves the time for going to a local CD store and not being able to find the CD, or waiting for an artist to come to your town.

iTunes also has a weekly feature called Celebrity Playlists, where they ask an artist "What do you listen to while relaxing?" I've compiled a list of artists with clickable links (requires iTunes installed for it to work) of artists featured in the Celebrity Playlists feature below.

Immaculate Machine - June 4, 2007
Peter Elkas - April 2, 2007
Bell Orchestre - January 16, 2007
Doc Walker - November 14, 2006
Wintersleep - November 14, 2006
Swollen Members - October 17, 2006
Jim Cuddy - October 17, 2006
k-os - October 3, 2006
Tiga - September 19, 2006
Stabilo - August 22, 2006
Shout Out Out Out Out - August 1, 2006
Blood Meridian - August 1, 2006
The Meligrove Band - July 25, 2006
The Marble Index - July 16, 2006
Idle Sons - June 13, 2006
Ron Sexsmith - May 23, 2006
Wolfmother - May 9, 2006
Sam Roberts Band - March 22, 2006
Hawksley Workman - March 14, 2006
Corb Lund - February 28, 2006
Jian Ghomeshi - December 13, 2005
The Trews - December 13, 2005
George Stroumboulopoulos - December 6, 2005
Colin James - October 11, 2005
Nardwuar the Human Serviette - June 27, 2005
Steven Page - June 13, 2005
Gord Sinclair - May 2, 2005
Barenaked Ladies - April 5, 2005
The Be Good Tanyas - March 14, 2005

If there are any errors or anything missing, feel free to send a message!