Think About Life

Dance indie-pop goodness from

Montreal. Gets your body moving.

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The Bicycles

Teeth-rottingly good bubblegum pop. Says Spin magazine of the band, "If Wes Anderson ever cottoned on to (The Bicycles) swooning chamber pop--which draws from the Kinks and the Beach Boys--he'd soak his scarf with tears of joy."

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Shad

Humourous, clever and meaningful lyrics; unique style & flow; near perfect delivery; refreshing beats.. this album has it all and is one of the best hip hop albums I've ever heard.

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Universal Studios Florida

Beachy, tropical, poppy ambience. Very good. Highly recommended.

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Michael Stearns

"What I hope is transferred to the listener of my music is a certain depth. I think the depth that I am really speaking of is that we as human beings are the artistic process here on the planet, as individuals, groups, countries and as a global experience. What we create and think of as our artistic outpouring, be it music, the painted art, a sculpture or just a beautiful dinner that we might create for somebody, are really metaphors or hieroglyphics for the depth of our own participation in the moments that we create them. I hope that this depth creates a context for other people to experience deeper things inside of themselves." - Michael Stearns

Spacey, melodic, droning, electronic ambience- takes you on a trip. Genius.

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*while you're at it check out Baraka. Scored by Michael Stearns and directed by cinematographer Ron Fricke it is definitely one of the most beautiful, powerful and awe-inspiring films you will ever see.

Eric's Trip

What the hell, I'll post an album too.

Self-described as “sappy melodic pop music on top of thick distortion” and "dreamy punk". Drawing influences from Dinosaur Jr., Neil Young, and Sebadoh, you know it's good.

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Sappyfest

In lieu of posting an album today (not like anyone's even reading this anyway), I will inform you of this great annual music/arts festival in my hometown- Sappyfest...

Let the informing begin:

"SappyFest is a little independent music festival produced annually in partnership with the Ok.Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre. This will be our fourth offering. The festival takes place July 31 - August 2, 2009, in Sackville, New Brunswick, the centre of our universe.

Now a registered non-profit organization, SappyFest Incorporated, the festival was founded in 2006 by the good people of Sappy Records, Julie Doiron, Jon Claytor and Paul Henderson. At the time it seemed like a more feasible way to get all our friends together than a wedding, and certainly more fun than releasing records into the ether.

We still don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re fooling more and more people each year. Hope you can make it out." -- via sappyrecords.com

It's a great little festival filled with some great East Coast Canadian music as well as bands from far reaches of the globe. Past performers include of note include Chad VanGaalen, Attack in Black, Eric's Trip, Constantines, Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening fame), Mount Eerie, and Miracle Fortress. This year boasts old favourites, banjo songster Old Man Luedecke, Mathias Kom's parlour pop outfit The Burning Hell, songstress Julie Doiron and the always entertaining and energetic live performances of B.A. Johnston, as well as some newer, more established acts like Destroyer, Mount Eerie, Wintersleep, Women and relative newcomers to the indie pop world, Clues.

#Line up can be found here

#Schedule can be found here

Tickets can be purchased here

Documentation of past events can be found here, here and here

#Subject to change.

Shotgun & Jaybird

Amateurish, lo-fi indie rock goodness. What you would make if you were talented enough to... only better.

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new music canada

Stars of the Lid

Beautiful, peaceful, dreamy, drony ambience. One of my favourite albums to fall asleep to.

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Chad VanGaalen

I posted this a while back on another blog- a collaborative effort on Wordpress that got suspended- so I decided it was a good idea to post it here because this artist deserves all the exposure he can get. I like him so much I even decided I would name this blog after a lyric in one of his songs (try to guess which one).

Chad is incredible talented in many respects and has drawn comparisons to the likes of The Flaming Lips and Neil Young. He’s an singer/songwriter; multi-instrumentalist (some of which are created/handmade by him); he's also a prolific illustrator/animator who makes his own album covers as well as animated music videos for himself and other bands such as Holy Fuck, Love as Laughter and Shout Out Out Out Out.

Here's one of his videos for his song 'Clinically Dead':

He has recorded all three of his LPs within the confines of a makeshift studio in his Calgary basement as well as produce Women's excellent debut album. He has also been a nominated for the Polaris Music Prize on two occasions- 2007 and is currently on the longlist for the 2009 prize.

Seeing him live is an amazing experience, watching him sing and play multiple instruments all at the same time will leave you in shock at how easily he accomplishes it.

Here’s some proof:

More proof:

So, without further adieu I present his three amazing LPs:

Infiniheart (2004)

Skelliconnection (2006)

Soft Airplane (2008)

ENJOY

P.S. if you enjoy the albums you can always purchase them here, here and here