Classes soon begin.
My birthday this week makes me officially an old cranky jerk.
And then there this indignity. Could someone please tell me why Bryan Adams still has (ever had) a career? And who called for him to do a "solo acoustic" tour? I know, I know... those two chords and those stupid lyrics in "Summer of 69" take on a new depth when slowed down and folked up. More proof that, with the exception of Neil Young, Canadians write crap music.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
22 comments:
Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen also give my homeland something to cheer for. While our musical sins greatly outnumber our genuine contributions, I challenge anyone from any other country to claim otherwise.
I'd add The Tea Party and Skinny Puppy to the 'good music to come out of Canada' list. There must be more, but it doesn't include Bryan Adams.
The Band? Bruce Cockburn wasn't so bad either.
Anon Canadian: Crap!! I totally, unbelievably, unforgivably, forgot about Leonard Cohen. He makes up for all of your country's sins against music (every note of Triumph, Rush, April Wine, Loverboy, Alanis Morissette, et al). I stand corrected.
Ben: Skinnny Puppy? Really? Didn't they start sucking in 1988?
RNJ: OK, The Band and Cockburn are pretty good, too.
I also forgot that D.O.A. are Canadian. So I'm a dick.
What about Propagandhi--Portage la Prairie's most significant cultural export?
Hold on. Rush? Are you kidding? Ok, Geddy Lee's voice is something of a sin. But Neil Peart's drumming? WAY MORE than makes up for Geddy's voice.
Lifeson is no slouch either.
Seriously. WTF? Consider this a kind request for justification of Rush's inclusion on that list.
Tod:
Agreed about Lifeson.
Peart is a hack in my view. Like many math-drummers, he's impressive technically, but he can't swing or improvise for shit-- take him out of the context of his songs, and he's a schoolkid. I saw him once share a stage with Omar Hakim. Now, I'm no huge fan of Hakim, but Omar took him to school in the worst way I'd ever seen.
The thing I hate the most about Rush is all the ever-so-slightly hidden allusions to Any Rand.
But what about the Bare naked Ladies? One of the most boring bands of all time, and loved by people who think boring music makes them look smart or hip? They seem to sum up so much of Canada- nice, boring, etc.
Fair enough about Rush. I still can't help but like a goodly number of their songs, however...
Just to further clarify what makes for a good drummer (and please don't vomit or punch me for asking this), what do you think of Carter Beauford?
Two great Canadian bands: New Pornographers (power pop gets no better than this, and speaking of drummers...) and Arcade Fire (especially Funeral).
Is Bryan Adams the Canadian Michael Bolton? Better hair, but still "a no talent ass clown"? Anyway, he cuts like the cheese...
Nomeansno is another great Canadian band.
"New Pornographers (power pop gets no better than this)"
Big Star
Cheap Trick
Even Teenage Fanclub
All MUCH better.
Rush: Love 'em, but agree to the allusions to Rand!
Keith Moon, Mitch Miller. Now, they were special.
Oh, and Happy Birthday.
Any more anti-Canadian cracks and we'll smuggle state-side someone who makes Celine Dion look like Billy Holiday.
I have to say, Lifeson's tone and Geddy's bass playing more than make up for the Rand references, the lack of swing in Peart, and Geddy's falsetto.
I'm not really old enough to remember Skinny Puppy first time round, but even if what you say is true then it suggests they didn't suck prior to 1988.
For my money though, Optimissed (on the Underworld OST) and The Greater Wrong of the Right were a great comeback...
Can we get a new thread about the PGR already? I'm just saying, if he like's Utah so much now then he should have put a ring on it.
...and a very happy birthday to you, Spiros!
Thanks for the b-day wishes.
I'm old.
“You are old, Mr. Spiros,” the young blogger said,
“And your DOOM is now looming in sight;
And yet you inevitably get out of bed—
Do you think that complaining is right?”
“In my youth,” Mr. Spiros replied to this note,
“I feared that complaining was wrong,
But DOOM has suffused everything that I wrote,
Since my list of complaints is so long.”
“You are old,” said the youth, “as I noted before,
And your crankiness grows every day;
Have you found that your list of complaints has grown more,
Or the same ones just won’t go away?”
“In my youth,” replied Spiros, “I thought there was hope,
And philosophized through to the end,
But now that I’m blogging, I have to say “Nope”
You jerks come back again and again.”
Oh, this is shameful ignorance. A disproportionally large percentage of the best, most creative, and interesting indie music of the last 10 years has been produced by the small population of Canada.
As Glaucon mentions, two wonderful examples of Canadian music are Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers. Others include Final Fantasy, Caribou, Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Rheostatics,Peaches, Tegan and Sara, Stars, The Dears, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Buck 65, Hidden Cameras, The Stills, Tokyo Police Club, The Unicorns, Metric, The Constantines, the Weakerthans, Death from Above, Hot Hot Heat, Malajube, Sloan, Pursuit of Happyness, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Do Make Say Think, Rufus Wainwright, kathleen Edwards, Sara Harmer, and of course, Neil Young.
An embarrassment of riches. And that's just off the top of my head. Most of these have been on American indie critics' best of year lists, for whatever that's worth.
I'd happily trade 95% of the last 50 years worth of American music for one Leonard Cohen. Sure, we have our own national treasures, but per capita, Canada is competitive. (Make it the last 100 years, though, and it's a different story.)
Post a Comment