To be honest, advocating and keeping up with Canadian music is exhausting, especially when you are trying to finish up a university degree, and your laptop dies for a few months…but that is done with and I am now able to dedicate all my time to this blog—

Ok we all know that is not what is going to happen but we can dream.

To be honest, I moved to Toronto a month ago, which should enable me to be somewhat more active in my listening habits, and hence blogging, in theory.

Well this wouldn’t be a music-related blog unless I posted something music related, so here is an awesome tune by Guilty About Girls called Candy Candy

Music circles all over the world critically praise Canadian artists in a wide array of genres, but these same artists have a hard time garnering attention from Canadian audiences. What’s going on?

Three years ago I was at a barbeque listening to Feist’s 200 4 release Let it Die. Aside from the owner of her album, no one was singing along to “Mushaboom” or “Inside and Out”. Feist was background music. None of us knew that 2 years later she’d be a Polaris Prize Nominated, Juno-sweeping phenomenon gracing iPod commercials. We were too busy listening to Rhianna and the Black Eyed Peas to pay attention to an established young artist on the verge of a commercial breakthrough.

The music industry has come along way from the days of record players and jazz standards. With the integration of technology and the internet, musicians hold more and more power in their hands to have their music heard by the right people. With the right equipment and computer software anyone can create a decent quality recording and distribute it for minimal cost and with limited help. Artists are able to tour more successfully and venues can draw larger crowds by advertising on the internet. Yet still, international artists like Coldplay and Miley Cyrus are dominating singles charts while Canadian musicians such as Joel Plaskett and K’Naan are pulling up the rear end.

Sure we could blame the media outlets around us, the radio and television, but are they really at fault? Radio stations tailor their music to play what they think their audience wants to hear. Music Directors aren’t just sitting in their chairs and pulling songs out of a hat; larger radio stations perform research to determine which music their listeners want to hear. This research determines which songs are put into heavy rotation. Thanks to the internet, smaller radio stations can immediately find out what these larger radio stations are playing in high rotation and make appropriate modifications to their playlist. Ian Sterling, the current music director of 103.1 Fresh FM admits, “Whenever we do research asking Canadians what they would like to hear on a radio station, typically American music is at the top and Canadian music is towards the bottom.”

While Canadian audiences would rather listen to our American friends, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission regulates that radio stations must ensure that at least 35% of their playlist contain Canadian content, known as CanCon. Canadian content is defined by music that is wholly composed, performed or produced by a Canadian. It’s not a stretch to imagine the difficulties radio stations face trying to meet both CanCon requirements and the desires of the listeners. This explains why artists such as Nickelback and Avril Lavigne receive so much airplay. Not only do listeners want to hear them, but they are also CanCon.

“From a business and radio standpoint, we’d like to play less [CanCon]. [Because] that’s what people want to hear” says Sterling. Unfortunately, radio stations are losing more listeners each year. Think about how much more time you spend listening to your mp3 player than you do to the radio, it’s an epidemic. According to the 2008 Communications Monitoring Report the weekly hours tuned in to the radio have been decreasing by 2% each year since 2003. It’s not in the best interest of a radio station to take a chance on the seldom heard Canadian kids, although Sterling points out, “I think the 35% we do play is pretty good. We give chances to artists who maybe wouldn’t be on the air otherwise.”

Sterling believes, “If you were to ask the listeners without saying which song is Canadian and which is not and you played them [the Fresh FM] music library, including the 35% [CanCon]. The Canadian [music] would be for the most part at the bottom of the list.” Does this mean Canadian made music sub-par in comparison? There are many indicators that suggest otherwise. Each year there are multiple cash awards given to Canadians based solely on artistic merit, for example the Roger’s Media sponsored Polaris Prize, which awards $20, 000 to the best album produced within the last year judged by a panel of Canadian music journalists. In 2008, two Londoners (folk darling Basia Bulat and hip hop extraordinaire Shad) were among the top 10 shortlisted for the prize.

Of course there are also the annual Juno awards, which were recently held in Vancouver. Do you take them as seriously as their American counterpart, the Grammys? Not many people realized the along with the awards galas, Junofest, a weekend music festival is held each year in the host city showcasing current Canadian acts, many of whom haven’t been nominated. “I’d watch the Junos if they were relevant” says one casual listener. It’s not the Junos that are irrelevant, but perhaps Canadians need to be more aware of the happenings in today’s music scene.

Over the past few years, Canadian musicians have been finding business partners in the unlikely form of American television. If you were to revisit the last few episodes of Gossip Girl you PVR’d or pull out a disc from Season Three of The O.C. you’d find many Canadian musicians tinkering in the background. Charlettetown’s Two Hours Traffic has particularly experienced this phenomenon. If you watch Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, The O.C. or Castle you’ve more than likely heard their work. Despite declining record sales industry wide, Two Hours Traffic bassist Andrew MacDonald says, “For us, it has been a way of staying afloat. There is not much money in the music industry for independent bands and licensing music has become a one of the big ways to sustain being in a band. “

That’s not to say Two Hours Traffic are the only ones receiving exposure on the tube. Artists like Sam Roberts, Tegan and Sara and Feist license their music as well, and it’s not just to television shows. Anyone who turned a television on in 2007 is familiar with Feist’s future classic 1234, which aired for Apple’s iPod nano commercials. You probably don’t realize it, but you’re familiar with a few other Canadian anthems as well. Zellers used a series of Canadian artists for the promotional ads in 2006, including Joel Plaskett, The Golden Dogs and The Salteens. Telus is another example, featuring many Canadian artists in their ads. The music our fellow countrymen are producing is good enough for primetime American network television shows and national ad campaigns, so there is no reason to see it as inferior to the music we import from across the border or ocean.

Next time you’re at a barbeque, don’t dismiss that Arkells’ album playing in the background, the next time you hear about them they may be dominating their airwaves of our American friends.

To be honest I was stuck in a musical rut all summer, but new releases from Moneen and Two Hours Traffic solved that.

Congrats goes out to Fucked Up on their surprising, but deserving Polaris win!

Also, The Get Up Kids confirm one of my suspicious.

Cursive – “I Couldn’t Love You”

Joel Plaskett – “Through & Through & Through”

Arkells – “Ballad of Hugo Chavez”

Young Rival – “Your Island”

AC Newman – Get Guilty
Carl Newman writes the catchiest of melodies as the lead man of The New Pornographers, and his solo is no exception.

Arkells – Jackson Square
I’ve already expressed my love for this album, a strong debut from a hardworking band.

Attack in Black – Years (By One Thousand Fingertips)
Another album that has already received my stamp of approval.

Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows
A cohesive folk-death-country album that shares a story.

Hey Rosetta! – Into Your Lungs
Like you really need me to once again pump this album

Joel Plaskett – Three
Another cohesive album. Plaskett shows off a lot of songwriting chops on this (or is it these) album(s).

Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes
Strong songwriting, good flow. Oh I already told you that

Mother Mother – O My Heart
One of the finest pop albums to come out last year. Amazing harmonies supporting catchy melodies.

And before you mention Fantasies, been there, heard that, wasn’t impressed.

Chrysler isn’t the only car company hopping on the Canadian indie train, Honda recently released this commercial featuring the children’s song, “See You On The Moon” by Wainfleet, Ontario’s Great Lake Swimmers

While “Help I’m Alive” is a suspenseful train ride showcasing Metric’s musical range, “Gimme Sympathy” (the first single released off of Fantasies) is just plain boring. It’s too…nice. Not that there is anything wrong with nice, but I don’t really associate nice with or expect nice from Metric.

The melody is too repetitive and restricted. Specifically within the chorus, which is the same short phrase of music repeated 3 times. This may have worked in a verse or if the phrase was longer, but the chorus itself is repeated enough times to just annoy me.

Even though it is almost as repetitive as the melody, the accompanying music is far more interesting. The music contains various rhythmic combinations and riffs. There is a nice contrast between the verse and chorus, but it’s not enough to give this track the support it needs.

Either way I do not enjoy this track on its own, even though it consistently gets stuck in my head.

Go to Metric’s MySpace for a listen (because after my strong endorsement I know you want to listen to it anyway)

Don’t get me wrong, Mama has some great tracks. “In The Now” is a heavy opener, staying in true Cursive form. “From The Hips”, the album’s first single showcases Cursive’s musical range. I’m not really sure what “Donkeys” is about yet, but it has some clever lyrics.

The album itself gels together fairly smoothly. There are no tracks that stick out like a sore thumb or should have ended up on a b-side. The album is fairly intricate, tracks often refer to other tracks and so on. The themes of the album are quite clear from both a lyrical and musical stand point, but there is something missing. This album is missing the next step. Each album I’ve listened to from Cursive has been unique and displayed a way in which the band has grown, but this album feels like a stasis, any of these tracks could easily be mistaken for belonging to another album.

My friend and I theorize these boys are going to release a spectacle of an album, and this was more of a tie over to keep people interested and assure us Cursive are alive and well.

B-
It’s okay Cursive, I’m still going to listen to it incessantly and wait for it to grow on me

Toronto country act $100 started the night off with foot stomping, heart wrenching, bluntly written music. They were a bit on the quieter and country side to be opening up for two rock and roll bands but they did a great job. Simone Fornow did a respectable job entertaining the anxious crowd by introducing each of the band’s songs. Although Fornow was only accompanied by two guitar players, they band played a tight set and I’m looking forward to hearing from them again.

Next up were my favourite live act, the Constantines, this is only my 6th time seeing them, but this was definitely one of the most energetic sets I had seen from them. There was a short period of time where I was afraid I was the only fanatic in the crowd but was quickly proved wrong by the time the boys broke out “Nighttime/Anytime”. To tease the crowd, John K Samson came out to sing vocals on “Little Instruments”, which was great. All in all I think the boys managed to garner a few new fans.

Finally at 10:30 (which normally at Call the Office is when the 2nd band is getting ready to play) The Weakerthans opened their set with “Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call”. They played many fan favourites including “Left and Leaving”, “A Plea from Virtute The Cat”, and “Civil Twilight”. During “Wellington’s Wednesdays” Samson helped an audience member play guitar, but I was sort of upset they only played one song off of Fallow. Lucky for me, they played two more during their encore.

The Waking Eyes‘ Rusty Matyas was wonderful as the Weakerthans’ fifth man. He did a great job supporting them not only on the keys, but on trumpet and taking over a female vocal part here and there.

Overall, a show well worth the $25 ticket, $5 beer and $12 cab ride home.

I like to think of Attack in Black as a punk band at heart. They put on a stellar show and write great music, and these are the things you need to keep in mind when listening to this album.

I once read somewhere that the fellows weren’t happy with the way Marriage was done (happy or unhappy, Marriage is a fine album indeed) and instead of sulking around and complaining, they did something about it. Less than 4 months later the lo-fi, folky The Curve of the Earth was released. I’ve only heard a few tracks off this album but I’ve heard enough to know that fans of the The Curve of the Earth will appreciate Years.

Years explores an abundance of melodies and and arrangements. The title track sets the tone for the record, it’s simple, but it moves along nicely. To be honest, there isn’t one song on the album I dislike, they’re all quite pleasant and full of investment. For example take the track “Leather Jacket” which closes with simple humming but I think it adds a nice level of personal emotion. The music is full of vivid imagery and the lyrics are clear.

Before you pass judgment on this record, think about how many directions each track could go in once played live, I think that’s one of the most interesting parts of this album. I’m fairly certain unless I end up at an acoustic Attack in Black show, I’m not going to be hearing renditions of the songs so close to the recordings. I like to imagine the different ways they’ll back these songs at Call The Office.

A-
A great album, you just have to stick with it and see these guys live!