Radio Dick – Very Special Canada Day Edition, Hosers
To celebrate the anniversary of the independence of our neighbors to the north, today we bring you a very special mid-week edition of our popular Sunday Radio Dick feature. 364 days out of the year Canada gets to be the butt of the world’s jokes, but today we are focusing on the positive contributions they have made. When thinking of Canada, the first thing that comes to mind for me (besides legalized gambling and an arrest warrant that I probably shouldn’t talk about here) is the incredible indie music scene. In fact, I would have to say that Canada is without question the indie music capital of the world, with Austin and Brooklyn a very distant second and third, respectively.
Over the last decade, in which the indie genre really began to gain notoriety, an overwhelming amount of bands and artists have spawned from the great white north, including heavyweights like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene (and all of it’s members and offshoots), Destroyer, Wolf Parade (and all of their various offshoots), New Pornographers, and many more. Even over the last year or so bands like Great lake Swimmers, Handsome Furs, Black Mountain, Rural Alberta Advantage, Pale Air Singers, Sunset Rubdown, and others have released some of the biggest albums in the blogosphere. I actually took a cursory browse through my iTunes library before writing this column and jotted down a list of artist of Canadian heritage. I won’t bore you with the lengthy roster in full, but needless to say a huge chunk of them are bands that I listen to on a regular basis.
As a to tribute, I have put together a special playlist for you to enjoy today featuring some of my favorite songs from Canadian artists. These ten songs alone should be enough to make up for everything that Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams, and Nickelback have ever done to tarnish our fair neighbor’s reputation. On this special day I suggest skipping Starbucks in favor of Tim Horton’s for your morning coffee (if you have one in your area) and rocking out to some of Canada’s best to get you through your day. And, if you have the stomach for it, maybe even watching a Mike Myers movie while enjoying an ice cold Molson later tonight. On second though, scratch the Mike Myers part and stick to the tunes and beer…
Arcade Fire – “Rebellion (Lies)”
Broken Social Scene – “Lover’s Spit”
Death From Above 1979 – “Blood On Our Hands”
Great Lake Swimmers – “Various Stages”
King Khan and the Shrines – “Welfare Bread”
The New Pornographers – “Twin Cinema”
Pale Air Singers – “Cubby, He Chopped Me Down”
The Unicorns – “Ghost Mountain”
Wolf Parade – “I’ll Believe In Anything”
July 1st, 2009 at 10:06 AM
I’d have to say Tegan and Sara is hard to leave out… as well as Tragically Hip, decades of Canuck talent there.
http://music.cd-writer.com/c3/p13914/album_covers/tragically_hip_album_covers.html