Archive for category Music
Canadian Indie in TV commercials
Posted by Brad in Music, Television on 02 June 2009
We were watching Numb3rs last night when an ad for the Honda Insight came on:
The song is the excellent “See You On The Moon” by Great Lake Swimmers.
Also appearing in a car ad is Holy Fuck, whose song “Lovely Allen” can be found in this Chrysler ad:
Free Sub Pop sampler on Amazon
Geof points out this free Sub Pop sampler of eleven songs from various Sub Pop artists, including Fleet Foxes, Flight of the Conchords, and Canadian indie stars Handsome Furs and Chad VanGaalen. Go grab it!
U2 at ‘Imiloa: A Review
Yesterday I received an invitation to see a sneak preview of the ‘Imiloa Planetarium‘s upcoming Friday Music Show featuring the music of U2. Produced by the Clark Planetarium, the “digital dome experience” features “U2’s timeless classics and modern hits, set to lighting and animation effects using the latest in CGI and laser technology”.
U2′s timeless classics and modern hits are there. Lighting and animation effects using the latest in CGI are not. The CG effects look incredibly dated — watch the trailer and tell me that those effects aren’t at least ten years old. Everything I saw looked like it could have come from a video card demo CD from 1995. Honestly, the videos could have just as easily come from a computer graphics class’s final project. I can see it now… “your final project is to take a U2 song and make some graphics for it. Don’t worry if the graphics don’t fit with the song, everybody loves flying through tubes when they’re in a planetarium!”
And if it wasn’t 3D computer graphics it was something out of an iTunes visualizer — except those usually have some kind of musical feedback so they change with the music. Not so the U2 videos, the effects were essentially random.
The video for Sunday Bloody Sunday really stuck out. It was CG, but in an incredibly ham-fisted over-the-top with symbolism kind of way. Kids playing chess and the pawns explode? Kids being stamped into soldiers on an assembly line? Isn’t that all a little cliched? And again the CG, it’s old! Seriously, it’s on the level of Anniversary, a CG short produced for the National Film Board in 1989! And that had more charisma and style!
I don’t remember seeing the “latest in … laser technology” either.
The only two things I can say about the whole thing is that the songs were good (although the sound quality was lacking) and that it was free.
I’ve found one other review and his verdict was that it was crap.
My verdict: save your money and go see a movie in the theater instead.
U2 at the ‘Imiloa Planetarium opens on 9 January 2009. Shows are Friday nights at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. Admission is $8 for members and $10 for non-members.
Albums I Loved In 2008
After Geof’s list, I decided to come up with my own list of albums I loved in 2008. Here are the criteria:
- I added it to my iTunes library in 2008.
- The album rating is higher than three stars.
- Over half of the songs on the album are rated, because I haven’t rated every song in my library yet.
That said, here are the albums I loved in 2008, along with sporadic commentary:
- Arcade Fire – Neon Bible: Epic and overwhelming.
- The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out: How could you not like 5/4, 9/8, 6/4, and switching between them all?
- Explosions In The Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
- Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
- Massive Attack – Mezzanine
- Metric – Grow Up and Blow Away
- The New Pornographers – Challengers: “Adventures In Solitude” is one of the best songs ever written, and the rest of the album holds up to it.
- The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land: “Narayan” is the best song on the album, and it unfortunately gets less play than “Firestarter” or “Smack My Bitch Up” or “Breathe” or “Minefields”, all of which are excellent tracks in any case.
- Radiohead – OK Computer
- The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
- The Tragically Hip – Day for Night: This only shows up because I re-ripped it because of a faulty rip.
- The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site: “Plea From A Cat Named Virtute” makes me happy.
- The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour: “Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure” makes me sad.
- Various Artists – CBC Radio 3 Sessions Volume 3: Mixed, and awesome, bag of Canadian indie.
There you have it!
Songs to defibrillate to.
Staples has an awesome deal on this $1300 defibrillator: a free MP3 player with every purchase! Clearly this is so you can get your rock on while you get your live-saving on.
What songs would you listen to while giving someone the zaps? My favourites would be “Ride The Lightning” by Metallica, “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, and “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.
[tags]staples, defibrillator, metallica, ac/dc, led zeppelin, humor[/tags]
Meat Draw
Posted by Brad in Music, Personal Updates on 09 September 2008
Meat Draw is a band from Victoria, B.C.
Alice and I held our wedding reception in a Royal Canadian Legion hall in Nanaimo, B.C.
These two facts seem unrelated, but become related once I relate this story that I sent to CBC Radio 3, where they read it on the air:
We received this letter from Brad Cavanagh, we got a letter here from Brad Cavanagh who’s in Hawaii.“Hi Craig and Pedro! The appearance of Meat Draw and the subsequent banter on the R3-30 prompted this story. My wife and I were married in Nanaimo…”
That’s not in Hawaii.
“…in 2004. The day after we were to have the reception at a friend’s house but it was raining, so we had to scramble to find another venue. Enter one of the local Canadian Legion halls. We took over half of it and the vets moved to the other half. Part-way through our reception the Legion held a meat draw. Yes, raffling off fine cuts of meat was a part of our wedding reception. My mother-in-law won a pound of chicken. So I’d like to request The Devil In Our Bones by Meat Draw.”
Oh how can we, y’know, refuse a request like that? Here’s Meat Draw, at number 21, The Devil In Our Bones.
[tags]meat draw, wedding, royal canadian legion, cbc, cbc radio 3, r3-30[/tags]
Yahoo! Music being turned off
Compare this snippet from c|net news:
Yahoo is shutting off support for Yahoo Music after September 30, which means starting October 1, if users want to move music to new hard drives or computers, they will be out of luck.
…with this snippet from canspice.org:
However, if the company goes bust or raises its prices, you’re left high and dry. You could either continue to pay the monthly fee or not be able to listen to your music.This disadvantage for the pay-per-month scheme is huge, and is the major reason why I think it’s the stupidest idea ever, and people who “buy” their music this way are throwing away their money.
I hate to say “I told you so”, but I told you so. Subscription-based music stores were stupid, are stupid, and will continue to be stupid.
[tags]yahoo, yahoo music, drm, subscription[/tags]
CBC Anthem Challenge’s leading entry is awesome
Remember back a month and a half ago when the CBC lost the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song? Well, to make up for this outrage the CBC started a contest called Canada’s Hockey Anthem Challenge. Anybody could submit a song that would become the new HNiC theme song. And over 1200 songs have been submitted to date.
But if you look at the entries and sort by rating, you’ll find that only one song has a score higher than 2/5. That song is Hockey Scores:
Like James Mirtle said, “It’s about time bizarre hockey-stick limbed creations got their due.” Damn straight.
[tags]hockey, cbc, hockey night in canada[/tags]
Your Debut Album
Posted by Brad in Internet Memes, Music on 19 June 2008
The instructions are simple: your band name is the first random Wikipedia article title, your debut album is named after the last four words of the last quote, and the album art is the third picture of the most interesting Flickr pictures from the past week.
That said, Government of Ontario would like to announce their debut album, “Really Don’t Want It”. The cover art is La musique des vagues….
[tags]meme, debut album, music, domesticat, slidingconstant[/tags]
SHOCK! OUTRAGE! GNASHING OF TEETH!
Posted by Brad in Hockey, Music, Television on 05 June 2008
From the CBC:
One of this country’s most familiar tunes may have been heard on CBC-TV for the last time Wednesday night when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins and won the 2008 Stanley Cup.The Toronto agency representing the composer of the theme tune for Hockey Night in Canada says the CBC has declined to enter into a new licensing agreement for the song for next NHL season.
A news release posted on the website of Copyright Music & Visuals quotes company president John Ciccone as saying the CBC’s licence agreement for the hockey theme song ended with the Stanley Cup final.
The CBC “has advised the composer, owner and administrator of the musical composition that it is not prepared to enter into a new licence agreement with respect to the use of the theme,” the release says.
The CBC had no immediate comment Thursday.
The familiar theme music for Hockey Night in Canada was written in 1968 by Dolores Claman, who was raised in Vancouver.
In the news release, Claman expresses her disappointment that her song will no longer be heard in homes across Canada during hockey season.
“I am saddened by the decision of the CBC to drop the Hockey Night in Canada theme after our lengthy history together. I nevertheless respect its right to move in a new direction,” she says.
Copyright Music & Visuals says it had offered the CBC a chance to renew its licence to use her song on terms that were “virtually identical to those that have existed for the past decade.” Each use of the song in the past has cost the broadcaster about $500, the company says.
[tags]cbc, hockey night in canada, Dolores Claman, hockey, nhl[/tags]
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