Katuwapitiya

Here’s a great video of my favourite female Canadian artist Basia Bulat performing “The Shore” off her new album Heart of My Own. The video is shot in Paris, in an antique music shop on the Rue du Pas de la Mule. Love the atmosphere, reminds me a lot of Blogotheque’s work.

Here’s a review of her performance in Kingston, Ontario last year along with some slightly lower-quality videos shot by yours truly.

Sometimes people think that I’m just into one type of music: “indie”. I suppose that’s true, I do love independent music. However, it’s definitely much more than one genre. Lately, I’ve been getting more into these indie rock playlist torrents produced by Blalock which have hundreds of songs every month that I sift through for bands that I might like (there are other similar torrents as well). There are a lot of songs that I just don’t vibe with, but after a few listens I find about 10 that have some potential. I found out about The Joy Formidable and Florence and the Machine through lists like these. I figured that I should start sharing the finds that I make while I make them. So here are three off of a playlist from December (it takes a while to sift). You might notice that they all sound pretty different from each other, so take that as proof of my versatility, lol:

The Snake The Cross The Crown- Coming Down The Hill

The Snake The Cross The Crown

I love the Southern vibe of this song. The vocals are perfectly suited to the piano and guitars that set the backdrop. The harmonica really seals the deal on this one. Hate the band name though.

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His Clancyness- Ottawa Backfired Soon (early)

His Clancyness

I can’t really think of any good bands from Ottawa off the top of my head, so let me introduce you to His Clancyness! It’s a great song because his music sounds like it was made by The Shins. His dreamy vocals seem perfectly suited for the soundtrack of Garden State 2. Hate the band name though.

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The Smiles and Frowns- The Echoes of Time

The Smiles and Frowns

I wanted to hate this song as soon as I read the band name and heard the vocals start. But somehow, in 3 minutes, this song won me over. This little song has an endearing quality that I can’t explain, whimsical if anything. I think it’s a gem. Hate the band name though.

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I dare you to listen to those three songs and tell me that all the stuff I listen to sounds the same! Bands that I do like seem to share one quality though: terrible band names…

…use it to get into their heads.

Loving the lyrics to this one.

The sky opened up and tried its hardest to stop the wonder that is Owen Pallett (this past summer at the Hillside Festival in Guelph). He cries out to the helpful roadies: “Let me finish this song!” The energy in the audience, the beauty of the looping violin. “Just one more minute!” Epic crescendo. Perfect.

If watching this entire video doesn’t give you chills, you should probably stop reading my blog. Actually, don’t go that far. Just make sure to consult with someone else before buying me a music-related gift.

Lately, McDonald’s commercials seem to be following the Virgin Mobile model. Throw a cool song in the background and people won’t be annoyed (as much) by your commercials. It seems like the era of Justin Timberlake are over… for now.

McDonald’s commercials in Canada have some solid techno – electropop beats, of note:

Bot’Ox – Blue Steel

This is the song from the Big Mac commercial and it was hell trying to find it with just the phrase “don’t you know it’s no surprise”.

Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

This one is from a newer commercial and is even better than the Bot’Ox song. This one is from the commercial with the lady and her egg mcmuffin.

Note: I do not endorse McDonald’s food in any way. But their ads aren’t half bad.

Don’t worry guys, I haven’t forgotten about this blog in the new year. My laptop has crashed hard and I’ve been spending the last week trying my best to back up my files. And by “my files”, I refer to the important stuff, the music. Moral of the story: never buy an Acer.

New laptop should be coming soon but until then, how about some random music? Sound good?

There are some great Toronto concerts coming up that you guys should be aware of: http://www.rotate.com/tickets.php

The three biggest ones that hop off the page:

PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, OPERA HOUSE, 20-FEB-10 $18.50
P.O.S., SNEAKY DEES, 14-MAR-10 $15.00
VAMPIRE WEEKEND, SOUND ACADEMY, 30-MAR-10 $29.00

Looks like I’ll have to head down to Rotate This some time soon!

Keep checking back! Once my new laptop gets here, it’s going to be epic.