Something about the cymbal sound is very annoying.
I don't mean to be so negative, Stanley. You're a good kid.
Aren't you, like, four days older than I? Sheesh.
I think you're actually older than I am.
Not sure what you're getting at here, precisely.
Fun fact: although the members of the Rural Alberta Advantage are from various parts of Central and Northern Alberta, the band itself is a Toronto indie-buzz outfit formed in Cabbagetown. This makes them a close Canadian equivalent of Williamsburg hipsters in the States, and for those who'd like to form some opinions based on that... I'm not going to stop you.
I'm pretty sure Amy Cole wears her sun dresses ironically, for instance.
>a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcZb80f5VE">Here's my new jam.
That I like. Not that I made. I have not made a new jam in some time.
In fact, from sufficiently far away, RAA are indistinguishable from Williamsburg hipsters.
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Last night:Samehada otoko to momojiri onna Katsuhito Ishii, 1998 (translated as "Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl" which, to start, is interesting that "onna" became "girl" instead of "woman";umm, it also is not really "hip" IYKWIM)
...begins credits with the actors one at a time in front of a white screen in costume playfully in character...
...with the actor's names in romaji, with no kanji.
I'm instantly WTF? I may, maybe have seen kanji + romaji once or twice. (Once a personal name in hiragana)
"It would be like" an American crime comedy having its opening credits in kanji. Wouldn't it? If not, why not? What does this say about Americans, about the Japanese, about the discourse?
Movie highly recommended. Like Tarentino with a brain and heart.
Stirling Newberry ...sums up The Hunger Games in oh fifty words.
The Liberal Industrial Complex is killing our pure kids from the hinterlands, but violence still won't solve anything.The Panem set up is the pitch to the christo-feudalist right, the last book is the sell.
Why is the "left" in love with shit written by an Air Force brat from fucking Hartford? I could say nicer things involving the "masculinization" of the movie from book (good links at Kotsko's other blog;still reading Carol Gilligan) but mainly...
Get your head out of this reality show abbatoir of a nation
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Also, on Hartford's behalf, fuck you.
I love this song. It was one of my favorites from 2009.
k-sky,
I like that Kishi Bashi song. I'll have to explore further.
I've been listening to this 2010 album a lot lately.
LC, how would somewhat older Tronto acts fit into that analogy. Because if Stars, Metric and Broken Social Scene are Canadian Williamsburg hipsters, then I'm pro-that.
19: All those acts have been thoroughly mainstream for years, so I guess it depends on where you came down in the previous debate about whether hipster could be mainstream.
However, RAA are as indie as it comes, so no hiding in the lamestream for them. Also, Nils was recently seen drinking Pilsner Lager... it's just like PBR! He reportedly had this look on his face, like: "Yeah, motherfucker. All I need is the hard hat."
(Broken Social Scene is a Montreal band, I'm pretty sure.)
Sundresses worn ironically?! Unacceptable.
Stars are also from Montreal, I think. And they have really paid their dues (having seen them in SK in like 2004?) so I don't think they're hipster.
I have no thoughts on RAA because they are post my leaving Canada.
But does anyone want to have a discussion about how CanCon effects independent bands in Canada? Or maybe it's a population size thing or the fact that there are great swaths of emptiness in the country or that I grew up where no one ever toured; anyway, it seems like independent music in Canada is much more prevalent than in the US and alt-country is/was more popular (i.e. 5 or more years ago I listened to a lot of alt-country in Canada but of the small bands I've seen in the US maybe one or two have a country feel). Maybe this is my musical ignorance.
Wikipedia has BSS as Toronto, but I know that Metric has sometimes been based in Montreale as well as the states.
To nerd out for a minute, I don't understand what definition of "idie" you're using. It seems to be essentially a generational distinction, or a have made it to some degree v. haven't quite yet thing. Wiki tells me the RAA are signed to Paper Bag Records, which also put out early Stars and BSS records. I guess Metric and Stars's most recent albums have been self-released, but Stars and BSS were on Arts and Crafts before that, which is still an indie by US standards.
23: From my Canadian friends' reports, it seems like CanCon means that indie bands are more prominent in Canada than they are in the US, more likely to get radio play. If you look at critics lists and the indie music circuit, however, indie bands are plenty thick on the ground here and more accessible than ever. Arcade Fire are on Merge here and still managed both a #1 record and a Grammy out of the deal.
22: Exactly! Although it's also possible that she wears them sarcastically.
23: "Alt-country" is pretty current west of Ontario. Amusingly, Torontonian reviews of RAA are at very great pains to stress how not-country they are, so I guess the gospel hasn't made its way to the Big Smoke just yet. As for indie music in most of Canada, it tends to consist of a local scene known mainly to the local scenesters but with very limited outlets to the outside world (unless we're talking Toronto, Montreal, to a more limited extent Vancouver, and to an even more limited and campus-radio extent Halifax). I suspect that's a lot like indie scenes in most of the States? For a long time everyone was very neurotic about how to become "the next Seattle" but that's dead by now.
26: Yeah, ulitmately most Brooklyn bands just play brooklyn and surroundings too.
All those acts have been thoroughly mainstream for years, so I guess it depends on where you came down in the previous debate about whether hipster could be mainstream. However, RAA are as indie as it comes, so no hiding in the lamestream for them.
These statements seem entirely content-free.Is this meaning "indie" and "mainstream" in terms of aesthetics, or record sales, or what label they record for, or physical location, or what?
26: I certainly don't claim to be an expert on the local music scene, but I do have a few connections to people who are pretty firmly entrenched in it. And it seems like here, we sort of have the best of both worlds, in that there's a strong local scene, with many people (often in positions of power and influence) who are boosters of the good local acts, who occasionally rise to national prominence, and often stick around rather than moving to the coasts (with some notable exceptions), keeping the local scene strong. So kind of a virtuous cycle.
Of course, there is our great municipal curse of being really neurotic about how much better than/similar to/more authentic than NYC we are. That is not so much a feature of other local big-city scenes, right? It gets a little old to see all these upper middle-class, gently-bred white folx constantly gushing about how righteous the local scene is, although some of them are pretty good about really supporting it, rather than just being Christmas-and-Easter types who MUST be seen at Rock the Garden, but who just never seem to make it to the Turf Club or the Entry.
It does help to have a big land-grant university right in the middle of the metro area, that's for sure.
Bonus Canadia question: A friend of my from the anarcho-punk scene, himself a Canadian, is adamant that everything about Toronto sucks and Hamilton is a comparative paradise. How widely is that opinion held, and who holds it? Anybody?
That Toronto sucks? Everyone outside Toronto (at least jokingly). That Hamilton is a paradise? Nobody? I'd guess even people in Hamilton are like, well, at least we're not Windsor.
31: That makes sense re: Hamilton. I had the impression that his opinion was very much scene-specific.
Halifax, where I grew up, and St. John's, where I spent undergrad, have a very active local music scene with a lot of public support from both people going to shows and radio stations (university and CBC). That a lot of these bands are not well known outside the Atlantic provinces may be a function of how far away the provinces are from other large population centres.
In these two areas, the really interesting thing is that live bands don't end with university-aged/30 year old musicians and audiences. There are live Celtic bands that play in several pubs (owned by muscians), a jazz band that my dad is a huge fan of and watches every Friday, open mic nights that host some amazing fiddle players. Live music, as opposed to signed acts on radio, are much more popular there than anywhere else I've lived.
Does indie mean 'made it in Canada' and mainstream means 'made it in the US'?
Broken Social Scene and Stars are from Toronto; it's Arcade Fire who are from Montreal. My bad.
Yeah, I guess my usage of "mainstream" above was unhelpful. "Mainstream" used to mean "signed to a record label," but it's possible to generate considerable profile these days without that benefit -- especially because of the roles played by Much and CBC (both radio and television) in promoting "indie" bands -- and to use venues on the series of tubes (esp. iTunes) to drive awareness (Feist being the most spectacular example). So I guess when I think "mainstream CanCon" now I'm mostly thinking of Canadian bands with a cultural presence in the league of the Tragically Hip -- the defining marker of mainstream Canadian rock -- or at least of Sloan.
is adamant that everything about Toronto sucks and Hamilton is a comparative paradise
As far as I can tell, this is believed mainly by Hamiltonians.
(And having said all that, 29, hopefully you realize the statement you were responding to is a joke...)
As I recall, Steve Smith (Red Green) lives in Hamilton so there's that. Saw a documentary during which he tooled around town in his Jag(? something fancy like that) and it caused a certain amount of cognitive dissonance.
I'm mostly thinking of Canadian bands with a cultural presence in the league of the Tragically Hip -- the defining marker of mainstream Canadian rock -- or at least of Sloan.
Ha! When I was hanging out with a bunch of Canadians in West Africa 7 years ago, they kept bringing up either the Hip or more often Sloan as Candian Bands That You Really Should Hear, And Why Can't They Make It in the States? So I dutifully listened to some, and they're both Just OK. Given that this was around the time that New Pornographers were breaking through, I kept thinking, "You know there are some actually great Canadian bands. You don't have to be boosters for mediocrity."
38: But Sloan and the Hip are ours! They're so Canadian - the topics of their songs, their 'look'*. The Velvet Underground (who I love) seem too slick and urban or something. I always forget they're Canadian.
I'd also add Blue Rodeo to the Canadian Bands That You Should Hear.
*For example, The Hip played the rival curling team in Men With Brooms.
Did I make up the Hip curling team? I can't find reference to it online and it's been years since I watched the movie.
The Hip or Sloan are so familiar and comforting to Canadian listeners of a certain age bracket that the question of their actual quality becomes invisible. The Hip are kinda like a latter-day Canadian working-class answer to the Beach Boys. (Though quality-wise, the question of Who Makes It In The States seems totally inscrutable to me. I mean, The Barenaked Ladies, I can maybe sorta see a soccer mom angle there... but Nickelback aren't fit to shine Gordon Downie Jr.'s belt buckle.)
The Velvet Underground (who I love) seem too slick and urban or something. I always forget they're Canadian.
Is this a subtle joke? If so, bravo.
The Tragically Hip is bland, inoffensive and mediocre -- perfect as an emblem of Canada.* Sloan is pretty good.
*Just kidding, maybe.
39: Yes! Blue Rodeo! Also, Big Sugar is an underrated Canadian act (although true, they spent most of the Oughties on hiatus).
40: No, you didn't imagine it. They play the Kingston rink.
42.2: Honestly, in terms of actual musicianship and inventiveness, the Hip are streaks beyond Sloan. But go too far down this road and one starts to sound like a rock critic talking up the epochal significance of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
(So are they Our Beach Boys or Our "The Boss"? Neither, really. They're just the Hip.)
Ah, I get my joke now. I mix those two bands up all the time! I don't know why both their names and their music is undifferentiable to me (but weirdly I do love them).
44.2.1 and 45: Agree.
38: Also remember these bands are from the 1990s so they were really the soundtrack to some of our lives but they're dated now.
CanCon means that when a Canadian band gets popular they get way over played. Which is tolerable for the Hip but sucks when it's Avril and Nickleback. Or that new song about calling me, maybe.
46.mid: Also remember these bands are from the 1990s so they were really the soundtrack to some of our lives but they're dated now
An early 1970s Guess Who concert is on my personal top twenty concerts of all time list ...
Not sure, are you dating me now?
I saw Neil Young play in a dive bar once. In the 70s. On a date.
One of my Canadian college housemates was really into Spirit of the West* which, apparently and very appropriately, will play a concert at Vimy.**
*Mediocre!
**Great moment in Canadian history!!
Spirit of the West are dreadful. The whole Celtic music thing, actually (Great Big Sea, too)... I'm not saying they should stop doing it, but for the love of God take it somewhere different.
But then I'm not exactly the target audience.
"Lord" Castock, okay now you're just talking crazy talk.
I only know one Spirit of the West song (Home for a Rest) but there is no better way to get a bar full of Maritimers up and dancing than playing that song. And by dancing I mean jumping up and down. Yes, it's even better than Jump Around.
You know, I've read about a million different references to The Tragically Hip over the years, but I'm watching a video of theirs on Youtube right now, and I think I might never have actually heard any of their music before now. If I'd only ever heard one or two songs by them, what would those likely be?
Also, has this Canadian music video been linked yet?
54: Maybe this one? Or maybe I only noted it due to geography nerdism (includes bonus Wry Cooter name check).
Courage, New Orleans is Sinking, The Hundredth Meridian, Poets, Bobcaygeon?
I'm fond of Wheat Kings but I doubt it was popular.
53.2: Oh, this I know.
Add to the list in 57.1 Ahead by a Century, Don't Wake Daddy, Blow at High Dough, 38 Years Old, Grace Too, Nautical Disaster, Depression Suite.
Huh. Today does appear to be the first time I've actually heard their music. I'd assumed I'd heard them and just not known what I was listening to, but none of those were familiar. Their chances might have been damaged by my sometimes confusing them with Barenaked Ladies, who I actively avoid.
I have a Subhumans/DOA/Canuckistani anarchist/hardcore documentary DVD sitting on the shelf that I have yet to watch.
I saw their justice/I saw the word of god/I saw their mercy/It was the firing squad.
My BF's former boss was a German who did a post-doc in Alberta and was a *huge* Tragically Hip fan. We went to their concert in Boston which was in a pretty small venue compared to what they play to in Canada. It was my first concert, having only ever been to classical music stuff. I found it underwhelming and thought that my ears hurt through parts of it. I'm really unsophisticated about these things, though.
After Belle Waring's post on Don Cornelius and Soul Train on Crooked Timber had me searching out some of that stuff, and I mean I love it so much. This video of the Five Stairsteps performing "Ooh Child" on Soul Train is so very awesome.
My God, there are people out there confusing the Hip with the Barenaked Ladies. Well, stands to reason... but how horrifying.
I fell for this song really hard at age ~14.