Wednesday, March 01, 2006

CMW... Day No. 1

Today is the first day of Canadian Music Week. (the festival runs from March 1-4) To celebrate CMW, I will devote a huge portion of this blog to Canadian artists and Canadian music from now on until the end of the festival. I will be posting one or two (or ever three) featured Canadian artists each day. Well, it all depends on what I can dig up from my iTunes and CBC Podcasts as my knowledge of Canadian music is not that great. So, with that being said, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts and your recommendations of Canadian artists/bands in the comments section as it will be a great way to share and promote homegrown music! So, let me start off the first day with my favorite Canadian act right now...

Final Fantasy
I don’t even know where to begin with this band. I guess I’ll start by saying that Final Fantasy is not really a band, but it is a solo project by Owen Pallett. FF’s debut album, Has a Good Home was #4 on my 2005 top 20 list... if that means anything at all. Has a Good Home and the style of Final Fantasy is indie pop/rock influenced music and vocal style that features predominant violin instrumentation. (I think that is the best description I can come up with) Since I can only say so little about the musical style, I will tell you about my FF concert experience. I saw Owen perform twice so far, and I was blown away both times. In addition, the two concerts were completely different from each other. The first time I saw him, he brought along with him a string quartet. As a result, adding an orchestra feel to the songs. But really, he didn’t need any backups or extra members/players to accompany him because the second time I saw Owen, he performed solo for most of show. (with the exception of Lex Vaughn on drums for a couple of songs... oh Lex, she was so good!) The layers of violin music and the technicalities at this concert were just astonishing; I was staring in awe at Owen the entire time. He uses this foot pedal thing that loops his previously played musical phrases/melodies while he plays on top of that. (again, very hard to explain!) Final Fantasy’s second album He Poos Clouds is set for an early May release date.

Sounds like: nothing out there!

This is the Dream of Win & Regine
The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
Peach, Plum, Pear (Joanna Newsom cover)
Illusion Song (live)
buy Has a Good Home here


Boys Night Out
Like many hardcore bands from Washington, D.C. during the early 80s had done, Boys Night Out made the transition from being a hardcore band to an ‘emo’-ish band. Their album Trainwreck is one of the coolest and most interesting concept albums I’ve ever heard! I won’t go into details here because I don’t want to spoil the story for you. But basically, the album deals with the themes of love and murder, dreams and reality, freedom and restriction… very cool!

Sounds like: Blood Brothers, Cave In, Finch, Scary Kids Scaring Kids

Medicating
Composing
buy Trainwreck here

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Smacky feels that the term "Canadian Music" can be compared to phrases such as "Chinese Wine", "American Values" and "French War Heroes".

Jackman said...

umm, interesting analogies... are you saying that the term "canadian music" is vague or are you saying that all canadian music sucks??

Anonymous said...

Anus would appreciate if smacky left him alone every now and then, because smacky's over-sized head stretches and hurts his inner wall. Also his incessant, inane rambling in third person keeps Anus awake at night, preventing him from re-assuming his original shape, and Anus knows how smacky likes him to be tight so every plunge is like the first.

Anonymous said...

anus, preparation h thinks that you are brilliant!!!