Time's whipping by so fast that I have to start planning out these last weeks of 2009 on CTRR. Last year, there were several festive year-end features on the old yuletide blog (groan if you must), including my Year-End Round-Up weekly mixes , the countdown of my Top 40 albums of the year , the Christmas weekly mix , and the New Year's Eve party mix . And I still have to work in my Day of 200 songs before all of this kicks off. This week's mix will be a winter one despite [...]
Traveling on the information superhighway, you are often forced to move at an autobahn worthy pace; hands gripping the wheel tight with eyes focused forward looking for potential pitfalls instead of enjoying the view. No matter how much you love a record, you need to find a new one for the next day or you have nothing to write about. Unfortunately, that means you almost never have the chance to reflect on what you see in the rear view or make a return trip to a town you wished you could have stayed in for a few extra days. [...]
Unlike some of my fellow Star Makers, I do not have a collection of rarities to draw upon. So I have had to approach this theme differently. But just as rarities have their stories, so, sometimes, do first albums. Before we leave our early theme, let's hear some of those stories. Michelle Shocked : (Don't You Mess Around With) My Little Sister [ purchase ] Michelle Shocked made her recording debut, quite by accident, in 1987. She never knew she was making an album until [...]
Kathleen Edwards: Hockey Skates [ purchase ] Jane Siberry: Hockey [ purchase ] Although I had plenty of songs I could have chosen for this theme (lots of baseball, and even a boxer... no, not the Simon and Garfunkel one), I'm not really a sports person - of course, at the eleventh hour, I remembered a tune I'd love to cover... and then discovered BoyHowdy already had ... So... since it's been a [...]
Ever since Paula left the house that Simon built, the TeeVee music programming has been begging for a kick in the summer-repeat hideyhole. This week it comes in the form of Cobra Starship, who get a second chance at Conan's house and… yep, blow it. The only thing CS is gonna make good girls do is go home. The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (NBC), Aug. 11 Cobra Starship Owch. Singer (and we use the term loosely) Gabe Saporta apologized to Conan last year for an offensive showing [...]
Reviews of All Of Your Friends, Lisa Mitchell and Bella Clava When I haven't been working, I've been either at a show or sleeping, which means that I haven't been frequenting this blog as much as I'd like to. The ironic thing about this is the fact that I've been getting more and more CD's and mp3's sent my way than ever before. So, although I do have some recent shows to tell you about, I'll hold off on that until next week, (or the week after) and try to dole out as many CD reviews [...]
This week I'm going to feature some of my favourite female artists. This is significant because for a long time during my teens and even a bit after, I didn't listen to music by very many female artists. There was absolutely no real reason for this - I just found myself inherently drawn to music produced by males, much in the same way I've usually gravitated towards books by male authors. In my teen years, the mainstream and alternative scenes seemed to be dominated by either pop tart music (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc.) or whiny/angry chick music (Alanis Morrissette, [...]
Jane Siberry : The White Tent The Raft [ purchase ] So far this week, my fellow Star Makers and I have done a good job of covering the black part of our theme. The white songs that have appeared so far have been linked to black musical counterparts. But there are many fine songs with white titles, that are not linked to anything. The White Tent The Raft is one of these. You could be forgiven for thinking that Jane Siberry's songs are always straightforward and sweet, based [...]
As I mentioned previously , Prof. Klein is a bit of a stickler about getting these Numerology pieces right beyond a shadow of a doubt. Instead of chalking early attempts up to the blogging learning curve like the rest of us, he stays awake at night, shaking with regret that low hanging fruit like the number 7 was not given its proper due. So today, before the 7th month bids farewell for another 12, we continue to rewrite history. (JK) "A movement is accomplished in six stages And the seventh brings return. [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Margot Livesey's seventh novel, The House on Fortune Street , drew rave reviews and finished last year on many critics' best novels of 2009 lists. The book was recently released in paperback. A novel told by four interconnected characters, The House on Fortune Street examines the role of luck in our lives. The characters brim with life and their interactions are real, honest, and relatable. Their stories [...]
"See Your Midnight Breath In The Shipyard" starts with a gorgeously soft melody that is reminiscent of mornings I've spent sitting on a porch at a friends cottage with a cup of tea, the lake covered with mist as the sun slowly burns it off. Haunting harmonies sound like they are coming from the bowels of a submarine, yet Hamilton's voice keeps the song from floating away, grounding the song like the pines trees standing beside the cottage. Hamilton's voice is like a mix of Issa (formerly Jane Siberry ), Allison Crowe , Buffy Sainte [...]
Sometimes to define a musical vision it can all come down to a live performance. For Canada's roots/folk trio The Wailin' Jennys , any doubt that they have what it takes to deliver a stunning concert set is forever erased with their third album Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House , due August 11 via Red House. Co-founders, vocalists and multi-instrumentalists Ruth Moody and Nicky Mehta have joined with newcomer Heather Masse for [...]
In honour of this past week's Canada Day, I'm going to do a Canadian music mix. I've discussed my often diffident home country before (see last year's post ), and I'm not too sure I have much more to say about it right now (okay, there's always that anecdote about a boy, whom my friend and I will always refer to as Fat Leo, who approached us in Minneapolis at the Warped Tour and insisted he would be much better off immigrating to Canada - no concrete reason, but he was adamant). As much as I've embraced Canadian music [...]
The night was called "Outlaws and Gunslingers" and some of Canada's premier country/alt country artists took the stage last night for an evening of good music and beer. I got to Lee's Palace on Bloor St. just as opening band, The Swallows, were ending off their set. I managed to hear four songs and did like what I had heard. I would love to see them again. Glen Milchem has a good voice but struggled a bit in his upper register, that could easily have been just a bad night because his middle/lower registers were very [...]
Io non so se a voi capita ma a me spesso sì, la mattina è sostanzialmente un dramma svegliarsi ed andare a lavoro. Il dramma non sarebbe questo ma il tragitto da casa alla metro e dalla fermata della metro a lavoro, parlo della sonorizzazione. Che è una cosa che fatta male è in grado di mandare in vacca (o mantenere su standard decenti) una giornata intera. Le regole di base per quello che mi riguarda è che la sonorizzazione sia sempre qualcosa di non portentosamente aggressivo, massimo 80 bpm. In buona sostanza una di quelle robe che sul [...]
What exactly is New Wave music? Beats me. It ends up becoming a catch-all term for New Romantic/synthpop, post-punk, and many a late 70s/early 80s band. Well, even current bands can still be described as such. Despite this ambiguity, I've attempted an assemblage of what I would consider New Wave artists for this week's mix. The only one that doesn't quite fit into the time period is the Alcian Blue track, but considering you can hear the New Wave influence dripping from it, I've included it anyway. Also, for your viewing pleasure, I've included the music video for Les Rita [...]
I've spent the whole weekend writing a sermon about the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook for this weekend's lay service at our church. Now I've got hymnal on the brain, and the thought of switching over to folk music makes my head hurt. Which would be a problem, if it were not for the fact that the modern Unitarian Universalist hymnal is about as folk-oriented as a hymnbook gets. It wasn't always that way. The UU hymnal has gone through several incarnations since the first one was published in 1937. [...]
Look, we're a music site through and through. However, that doesn't mean we're not film enthusiasts. Therefore, we came to an agreement, one that makes total sense. We're going to focus on film soundtracks. Personally, I feel that in the wake of file sharing and digital downloads, film's soundtracks are swept under. That wasn't always the case. The truth is, a film's soundtrack is a sacred, sacred thing, and it's something that still exists today (e.g. this year's Adventureland). Therefore, we're going to give them back the much deserved spotlight. We're calling it Cinema Sounds and each week, god willing, [...]
worldsgreatestmusicdad writes: This Jane Siberry song from k.d. lang's excellent album 'Songs of the 49th Parallel' is truly amazing - one of those songs you can't hear too often. k.d. lang - Love is Everything ( iTunes )
Though Joni Mitchell would be an obvious comparison, it is actually the other quirksome Canadian songstress with which Barber would likely find a kindred spirit in: Jane Siberry.
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
The Beach House Theory of 2k10.
