Time for my belated and bloated annual look back at the past year... yes, we're mere hours away from February, but I started a dangerous precedent last year when I posted my year-end review at the end of January. Last year saw a dramatic drop in my post count, less than half the posts of 2008 and my lowest total since 2006. I partially blame the lingering effect of that blogger crackdown, but another contributing factor is the new job I started around the same time in late '08. Now I'm more or less happy with one [...]
It's Canada Day today, which means it's also free agent frenzy in the NHL, like a double national holiday. Like every year it seems, there's lots of high drama surrounding my hometown Oilers trying, and often failing in a spectacular manner, to lure the big fish to town. I'm a big fan of our goaltending switch (from Roli to the Bulin Wall), but that's enough hockey talk for now. I've got my all-CanConCover playlist going and I'll share some tunes with you in honour of our country's birthday. [...]
A week or so ago, I randomly happened across free concerts by BC rockers 54·40 on two consecutive days. First they were playing a free street concert in celebration of the re-opening of Cambie Street, which has been majorly disrupted for over 3 years as the SkyTrain was extended underneath the street to the airport in anticipation of next year's Olympics. The next day I went skiing up at Whistler and I guess they were playing a free show up there too. I have no idea how well they're known outside Canada, but they've been [...]
The Juno Awards are this weekend in Vancouver, so I figured it'd be a good time for some CanCon. Tonight I'm going to see Elizabeth Shepherd as part of JunoFest, the 100 Bands/19 Venues showcase over the next couple days. I recently found out a guy I used to work with at the library in Edmonton actually plays in the Juno-nominated band Souljah Fyah , so I want to check out their JunoFest gig tomorrow. I'm also going to the Songwriter's Circle show on Sunday, which features Hawksley Workman, Doc Walker, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor [...]
The Oscar pools are over and the little gold men have been doled out, so now it's time to roll out the blue carpet and hand out the little furry blue monsters! As a belated tie-in to the Academy Awards, I've made up some arbitrary Oscar-themed categories of cover songs for you, the Academy of Fong Songs Readers, to vote on by secret ballot. Write-ins are welcome, but please no ballot stuffing, this isn't the NHL All-Star Game. Note: if Google Reader is any indication, voting won't work from the RSS feed, so drop by for a [...]
Some belated Canadian cover happenings... On August 14th in Toronto, there's a whole tribute night devoted to Canadian cult rock film Hard Core Logo with a screening of the film, a Q&A with director Bruce McDonald, punk bands covering the fictional band, lots of prizes, and " unannounceable but very special SPECIAL GUESTS ". Hmmmm... Joe Dick himself perhaps? Mr. Hugh Dillon is currently enjoying success on Flashpoint , a big hit both in Canada and the US, which is cool because it's clearly filmed in [...]
Fong Songs
mp3: soko – i just want to make it new with you
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
VIDEO: Shearwater – Breaking the Yearlings
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
