July 26, 2009
The Tragically Hip at Shelburne Museum
All four Martins had a great time at Shelburne Museum this evening. The Tragically Hip were excellent, as usual, and the setting was a wonderful place to see a concert. It's always kind of a surreal experience seeing The Hip here in Vermont because, although tonight's gig was sold out, the venues and crowds are vastly smaller than what one would find in Canada. So, it always feels like a special treat getting to see them in such an intimate venue.
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March 2, 2009
Save Radio 3
Although we don't know for sure what kinds of cuts we'll be seeing at CBC over the next few months, it sounds like cuts are imminent. The mere mention of the potential elimination of CBC Radio 3 by one of the heads of the CBC sent shockwaves through Canada's music scene this past week.
As a Canadian living outside of the country these days, CBC Radio 3 is a lifeline to Canada's music scene. More importantly -- and I speak as a music fan, a scholar and teacher of Canadian culture, and a former musician -- Radio 3 has changed the face of the independent music scene in Canada, allowing people around the world to learn about great Canadian bands and artists to whom they would otherwise never be exposed. CBC Radio 3 makes a contribution to Canadian culture nationally and internationally that far exceeds the investment put in by CBC.
Radio 3 has also been at the cutting edge of podcasting and internet broadcasting for years now and really broke new ground for the CBC. The importance of this cannot be underestimated either. If CBC Radio wants to continue to be seen as current and cutting edge, eliminating CBC Radio 3 would almost guarantee that they would never be thought of in this way again for a long time. Radio 3 really is the success story that the CBC should be looking at as a model for other parts of their operations.
Whether you are a regular listener to Radio 3 or not (if you're not, you should be!!), please take a minute and sign this petition.
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December 18, 2008
Canada rocks
A good article online here from Intelligent Life about the recent rise of Canada as a musical force to be reckoned with. One only needs to start listening to CBC Radio 3 to discover just how much amazing music is coming out of Canada these days.
Speaking of discoveries, my favourite new Canadian band is called Rural Alberta Advantage. They put out a terrific album this year called Hometowns. Pick it up. You will not be disappointed. You can find an interview with them here on emusic.com, where you can download their album if you're a subscriber.
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September 16, 2008
A Canadian music challenge for you
PIcked up this great collection of Canadian music today at Starbucks to add to the Canadian Studies Program's media library. There are only a few tracks on here that I don't already own myself, but I was enticed by the lovely packaging as much as by the fine choices of music made by Starbucks.
I also really liked their description of Canada and its music on the back cover: "United less by a common sound than a shared spirit, Canadians from the rock, jazz, and folk realms have made their mark with music that reflects the heartiness, humor and coast-to-coast diversity of their homeland."
Now, I'll be the first to admit that the list of tracks is a bit conservative, but I think they strike a good balance of artists with whom Americans are familiar and those who will be pleasant surprises to them. Here's the track list for "Northern Songs"
1. Feist - "Mushaboom"
2. Pilot Speed - "Knife-Grey Sea"
3. Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane"
4. The Band - "The Weight"
5. K.D. Lang - "Constant Craving"
6. Rufus Wainwright - "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk"
7. Sarah McLachlan - "Angel"
8. Ron Sexsmith - "All in Good Time"
9. Kate and Anna McGarrigle "Entre la Jeunesse et la Sagesse"
10. Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine"
11. The Be Good Tanyas - "Ootischenia"
12. Broken Social Scene - "Swimmers"
13. Holly Cole - "I Can See Clearly Now"
14. Diana Krall - "Temptation"
15. Leonard Cohen - "Anthem"
As I said, this is a pretty good list. If I had to choose 15 songs to represent Canadian music, though, I'm not sure if any of these tracks would make the cut. As I ponder just what my list would look like, I thought I'd pass this along to you, dear reader. What songs would you pick if you wanted to create a compilation of Canadian music that represented Canada's best and brightest while still representing "the heartiness, humor, and coast-to-coast diversity of their [or our!] homeland"?
Post your 15 songs in the comments below or, better yet, write about your choice on your own blog and link back here. Let me know you've posted on your blog, so that I can link to it from here as well.
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September 9, 2008
Speaking of contests
I'm not usually much of a fan of Canadian Idol, and even less so of American Idol, but I've been really taken by Canadian Idol this season. They've had a ton of great contestants and it's now down to the final two. One of the things I enjoyed about this season is that most of the finalists are also musicians and that we've seen lots of the contestants this year playing their instruments. Canadian Idol doesn't really have much, if any, of the cheesy showmanship we find on its American counterpart. The band is also much more front and centre than we see in the US show which, as a musician, I love to see.
My favourites this year have included Mookie Morris (check him out doing Valerie and Magic Carpet Ride), Earl Stevenson (who did a completely memorable version of With a Little Help from my Friends), Amberly Thiessen (she got voted out too early, but did a beautiful version of Redemption Song that stuck with me for days, as did her vesion of Everything I Own), and Theo Tams (he's had very few performances that didn't work, but his best include Collide, Heaven, and You Had Me, when he surprised everyone by finally stepping away from the piano).
Stevenson, Thiessen, and Tams are all from Alberta (go Alberta!) and so I think that split the vote a bit among the Alberta voters and gave Thiessen in particular an earlier exit than she deserved. In any case, I think we'll be seeing a lot more to come from at least two or three of these people. As for the final result goes, I don't see how it can't be Theo who wins. He's been great.
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October 17, 2007
This week in Ottawa
Tomorrow, 84 students, 5 faculty and staff and I head to Ottawa for the annual, legendary Ottawa field trip. We're going to see what promises to be an exciting Question Period, meet with four very interesting Members of Parliament, and catch an Ottawa 67s hockey game. As great as that's all going to be, I think the most exciting thing anyone will have seen in Ottawa this week is this:
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September 3, 2007
The next movie I want to see
Heima. Wow...
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August 25, 2007
It was only a matter of time...
The iPaul has landed.
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August 17, 2007
Canadian indie bands of the 1980s
(Artist: the inimitable Rick Clegg; source: http://www.punkhistorycanada.ca; this three-night benefit gig was put on by my pals Rob Stocks and Nick Copus in [1987]; I played on the Tuesday night as part of "i remember not," a one-time spinoff of my band Aardvark Safari)
This week's Radio3 podcast is a glorious (for me anyhow) trip back to the days where you were more likely to find me on stage than in a classroom. When I graduated from high school in 1986, I had no intentions of ever going to university. The plan was simply to keep making music. Indeed, after a year off from school altogether, I only started taking classes at the U of Alberta as something to keep my mind busy during the day while I rehearsed and gigged in the evenings. Then, I took Ted Bishop's class on the Modern British Novel (check out Ted's great book Riding with Rilke ) and Tony Purdy's class on 20th century French literature and I gradually moved to becoming more of a scholar than songwriter.
If you're into Canadian music or intrigued by the 1980s, make sure to check out the Radio3 podcast this week. Wow, does it ever take me back... I still love the song "Just Another Day" by Go Four 3, who I saw play in a memorable 1987 show at the Roxy Theatre in Edmonton, if I recall correctly. The Blue Peter track on the podcast is another old fave, too, though I've always preferred their song Don't Walk Past. The podcast also includes the quintessential Edmonton band of the 1980s and 1990s, Jr. Gone Wild. I saw Jr. play many, many times and if I were to create a soundtrack of my life between, say, 1985 and 1995, they would be a big part of it. Great to hear their song "I Don't Know About All That" again, as well as tunes by Deja Voodoo and the song "Curling" by the Dik Van Dykes.
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May 19, 2007
One of the infrequent signs that I'm succeeding as a parent
Overhearing my five and seven year old this morning in the car debating over whether their favorite band is The Tragically Hip or Arcade Fire.
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May 3, 2007
The White Stripes tour Canada -- all of it....
I've never been a huge White Stripes fan until now. This is pretty cool.
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April 15, 2007
Wow... the day has finally come.... The Tragically Hip are in town!
This might be something that only Canadians can truly understand, but you would not believe how excited I am to see The Tragically Hip on Tuesday night at Higher Ground.
The Hip are a Canadian institution, but for far more than simply making great music. Already inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the band's lyrics touch on everything from hockey to Canadian history to Canadian literature and their sound captures in some way the essence of the entire country. More than any other Canadian band, they've built a huge national following while maintaining a rich, yet down-to-earth connection with the people and the landscape. They are poetry, they are passion, they are the puck in the net as Team Canada scores the winning goal. If that sounds hyperbolic, so be it; it's hard to talk about them any other way. Explaining the significance of the Hip in Canada to an American audience is almost like trying to explain Don Cherry to them. I've tried and failed at the latter, by the way.
For me, the errant Canuck, it just takes a few bars of At the Hundredth Meridian, Fireworks, or Yer Not The Ocean (among many, many others) to make me feel at home no matter where I am. The new album, World Container, is brilliant, by the way, and has only recently been released here in the US.
The fact that we get to see these guys in two days at a small club here, while fans in Canada have just been turning out in droves to see them play in arenas, explains what a treat we're in for in Burlington. On my way into the office this afternoon, I saw what I'm certain was their bus across the street waiting at the light. Before I knew it I was waving frantically out the window at them! With luck, none of my students were also waiting at the light.... ahem.
More to come on the Hip's visit to Burlington and my thoughts on their place in Canadian culture.
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March 30, 2007
Farewell to the Rheostatics: Dave Bidini interview on Radio 3
Today's the day.... Here's what Dave had to say about the band's final show tonight on CBC's Radio3
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March 29, 2007
Rheos countdown continues...
More articles today about tomorrow night's final show by the legendary Rheostatics.
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March 27, 2007
Farewell to the Rheostatics....
I'm very sad about the demise of the Rheostatics, one of the great Canadian bands of all time. Their final concert with band members Michael Phillip Wojewoda and founding member Tim Vesely is this week at Massey Hall in Toronto. Fans from across Canada and around the world are travelling there to attend.
The Rheostatics came to play at the Piazza Bar in Edmonton in the summer of 1987, supporting their first album. I was the house sound man for a month or two that summer and they blew me away. I've been a big fan ever since. That was a great summer.
I think the fact that all of these Canadian acts got together to do a secret tribute album to the Rheos says it all. There will be a big hole in the Canadian music scene after this, though it sounds like Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli will continue to work together.
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March 6, 2007
Arcade Fire
A good story on The Arcade Fire in this past Sunday's NY Times. I've heard the CD and it's really good. Definitely worth picking up.
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February 19, 2007
Memorable moments in Canadian tv history
Had a chance to watch a bit of the East Coast Music Awards last night on CBC. It really is amazing how much great talent there is out there, including Ron Hynes, Joel Plaskett, Measha Brueggergosman, Ashley MacIsaac, and, of course, Sloan, to name but a few. As often seems to happen whenever she's involved, however, the most memorable moment came from the inimitable Mary Walsh:
Newfoundland and Labrador comedian Mary Walsh referred to the federal Conservatives as 'the arse-lickers of Satan' before introducing a performer.
The cameras then focused on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who had committed a faux pas earlier in the evening, when he mistakenly referred to Halifax as Toronto.
He drew a chorus of boos and was ribbed about it throughout the night.
(From the CBC's report on the ECMA ceremonies)
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December 15, 2006
Hear a new tune by Arcade Fire
Go here, and listen to Thursday's show. I'm sure it's now floating around all over the place, but you can find it there. Fantastic....
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October 9, 2006
"then again well they got celine dion"
Found this online: Weird Al Yankovic's version of Green Day's American Idiot: Canadian Idiot. Hmmmm....
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September 29, 2006
For your amusement on a Friday afternoon....
Take a look at George II singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday," a clip on Google Video which is making the rounds on some very fine blogs.
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September 27, 2006
Just one of the reasons I enjoy being at UVM
Thanks to Nancy Welch for pointing out this terrific (and lengthy!) review of our colleague John Gennari's great new book, Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics. Critical acclaim does not get much better than this:
And so Gennari's book does for jazz critics what most of them were unable to do for themselves, but with a postmodern twist: The scholar demystifies and historicizes the journalists. The first sustained scholarly book exclusively about jazz criticism--and, not least, about the passions that have driven and surrounded it--Blowin' Hot and Cool is thorough, absorbing and original, an obsessive study of professional obsessives that will circumvent the need for any other.
I have to add this one to my list of books to read.... Seriously, I could spend an entire year just focusing on all the great books written by people in my department.
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August 4, 2006
While you're waiting for my return....
I'm currently overwhelmed with the piles of work I neglected while helping to run the NWP Summer Institute here, so won't be blogging for a few more days. In the meantime, I highly recommend Heidi's scholarly treatise on the origins of Mah Na Mah Na. And, once you're done there, you absolutely have to watch this video by OK Go (also sent to me by H). This has to be one of the most fun videos I've seen in a long time. YouTube is brilliant, isn't it?
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May 24, 2006
Radio 3 on iTunes radio
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March 19, 2006
"Viva crabbiness! Pure Morrissey."
Via Bookish, I found this great Observer piece by the Canadian writer Douglas Coupland on interviews and interviewing Morrissey.
Am really looking forward to this album. I thought his last album, You Are the Quarry, was great.
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March 16, 2006
Just when you thought you knew everything that was going on at UVM... there's UVMrocks.com
This website and battle of the bands that Continuing Education has created is very cool. Who knew they were up to this?!
Anyhow, check out uvmrocks.com. You can listen and vote every week and the then the top bands play a showcase at Higher Ground. This part of their site explains the details.
I was pretty impressed with the bands this week. My vote went to Video Pigeon, whose tune Bunny Ears is very, very cool. Loved it.
If only professors were allowed to enter....
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August 15, 2005
iPods in the classroom
I am happy to announce officially that in my TAP class this fall UVM will be lending all of the students 20g color iPods. This is the result of a $5000 Instructional Incentive Grant I received earlier this spring from the Center for Teaching and Learning, which is enough for iPods and iTalk microphones for 15 students. The College of Arts and Sciences recently came through with additional funding for me that will allow me to outfit all 21 students with iPods and iTalks.
This project will allow us to test this technology as a teaching tool that, hopefully, we will be able to deploy on a wider scale in coming years for courses that would most benefit from access to audio materials. I will be using the iPods in my TAP class on Canadian culture. In this class, which I've entitled The Great White North (a reference, of course, to cultural icons Bob and Doug McKenzie), we'll be looking at Canadian literature, film, comedy, art, and media. Texts we will be using the iPods to access will include a wide variety of Canadian music, readings or lectures from important writers and thinkers, and excerpts from Canadian radio with a particular focus on comedy programs like The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour, the Vinyl Cafe, and the Vestibules. Because in Vermont we also get CBC television, my students will also be watching a lot of Canadian TV!
Of equal importance will be what the students do with the iPods themselves. As TAP classes are intended to be writing-intensive, first-year seminars, I will be having students write and record audio essays that we will make available on the web as podcasts. One of their assignments will see them podcasting about their experiences visiting Ottawa for the first time. We'll be headed there on a field trip late in October and it will be interesting to hear their reactions.
I'll soon be launching a separate blog for the course, that will have the syllabus, student comments and assignments, and a discussion area, all of which are open to the general public. I'll be using this space on my own blog to reflect as regularly as possible on how this great experiment is going. It's taken a lot of time and energy to get all the technology lined up and to figure out how we will be using it to distribute content. Now, as the start of classes is only two weeks away, I am suddenly scrambling to pull together the content itself. It's going to be wild ride!
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June 4, 2005
Podcasting and Canadian content
Probably the best news of the day for me came via Todd Maffin's i love radio.org blog. The CBC announced today that they have launched a Radio 3 podcast focusing solely on Canadian independent music.
As Todd points out:
The CBC Radio 3 podcast is special for three big reasons:
- To our knowledge, this is the first all music-based podcast from a public broadcaster -- and certainly the first all-Canadian offering.
- It's chock full of 100% 'podsafe' music
- This podcast comes from a special unit at the CBC called Radio 3. Our mission: to showcase new and emerging Canadian music and culture. We've got a website at www.newmusiccanada.com, that houses close to 30,000 tracks from more than 6,000 Canadian artists on it (!), and this podcast is full of the best of New Music Canada's best.
As he also mentions, Canada is receiving attention around the world as one of the current hotspots of great new independent music, so I can imagine this podcast will be of interest to many people outside of Canada as well. CBC Radio 3 remains one of Canada's best kept secrets and I hope this will help to get it some more attention. They've been doing amazing work for a long time now.
Aside from my affection for CBC and Radio 3, I was also excited about this podcast for another important reason: listening to it will become a weekly assignment for my fall seminar on Canadian culture. Todd blogged about this course earlier in the week, and I'm just finally getting around to announcing it here.
One of the exciting things about this course is that I've been awarded a grant that will allow me to outfit all 21 students with iPods (well, I have enough cash for iPods for 15 students but am trying to drum up a few more bucks). The iPods will be loaded with Canadian music, course materials, and will be outfitted with Griffin's iTalk microphones which will allow the students to create their own podcasts about Canada. Their main podcasting assignment will be to document their class fieldtrip to Ottawa partway through the semester.
I'll be blogging more in the coming weeks about podcasting and the development of my course.
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April 23, 2005
Great interview with Nick Hornby
It seems only appropriate that, after talking for the first time on this blog about one of my all-time favourite bands (certainly in my top 10), that I point to this great interview with Nick Hornby in the Guardian. If you've not read High Fidelity, it's one of those great books that you will read cover-to-cover in one sitting.
I wish I could say that I've read his other books, but a number of them (About a Boy, Fever Pitch, and his new one A Long Way Down) are on my top 20 list of "books I'd like to read if only I had the time to do so." ;)
Posted by pwmartin at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2005
The Smiths meet academe
I'm struggling with a nasty case of the flu but couldn't resist directing you to this great story at cbc.ca about an academic conference on the Smiths, one of my favourite bands of all time. Now I love The Smiths more than most people I know, but I don't think I could enter into a discussion about Morrissey in the creepy way that some of these people did. Still, it's a great article on how many of us still can't leave The Smiths' music behind.
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