I posted this in mid-February when we were in the middle of our 6th major blizzard since Christmas. Who knew there were still almost 10 more blizzards to go?
I could have used some desert sands at that point.
While I’m not a big fan of much “traditional” Christmas music, I am a big fan of TSO’s hard-rock infused reinterpretations of many classic Christmas songs. I also appreciate the many strong vocal performances on many of their tracks, including this one from Broadway performer Rob Evans.
The second cover of “Fairytale of New York” that I couldn’t resist posting because of the great strings and awesomely contrasting voices of Katzenjammer and Ben Caplan.
This round of songs got me into the Christmas season. I managed to mostly refrain from sharing an endless stream of covers of The Pogues/Kirsty MacColl classic “Fairytale of New York.” However, this version featuring the cast of the 2012 film version of “Les Miserables” was too much fun to pass up.
So I spent last week in a hotel in Rankin Inlet, attending, organizing, and presenting at the Kivalliq Trade Show, which put me in an even more bandwidth-challenged situation than normal. Fortunately, some friends stepped up and shared some songs while I couldn’t. Here’s a few favourites:
Scary Bear Soundtrack are an electric synth-pop due who live in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. “Fault Lines” was written in response to issues of violence against women and abuse, and was entered in CBC’s Rock Your Campus Competition.
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuk throat-singer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Her performances are raw, energetic, sensual, and generally amazing. I need to find an opportunity to see her perform live.
A few months ago Tagaq gained some attention after she Tweeted a picture of her baby next to a dead seal in response to Ellen Degeneres’ well-publicized donation to PETA. Unsurprisingly, Tagaq’s “sealfie” attracted the usual internet trolls who quickly turned a potential conversation about traditional culture and sustainable harvesting into an abuse-laden campaign of harrassment. There were supporters too of course, and hopefully at least some meaningful conversation and contemplation came out of it. See media stories on CBC News, CBC’s As It Happens, The Huffington Post Canada, and VICE.
Anyway, here’s the album trailer for Tanya Tagaq’s album “Animism.” Check out some of her performances online!
Last weekend I started a new project, which I plan to be an ongoing one. Every weekday, I will post a “Song of the Day” on Facebook and Twitter. I’m doing this because I like to talk about and share music, to create a self-curated collection of music, and hopefully to discover new songs and artists.
Every weekend I’ll post the songs from the previous week. Here’s the list from Monday, August 25 to Friday, August 29, 2014.
Noah Gundersen is one of the many great artists I discovered through the Sons of Anarchy soundtracks. I chose “Cigarettes” mainly because I love the video – it tells a story that is separate yet complementary.
Hayden and Jayli Wolf’s musical partnership Once a Tree features ethereal sounds and haunting, powerful vocals. Lisa Charleyboy (aka Urban Native Girl) shared their tracks a few weeks ago and I’m glad she did!
“Three Chords” & “If You Need My Love”, The Blue Drop
The Blue Drop are Allan Byrne and Holly Hogan from St. John’s, NL. They’ve been playing music together for a while and are just putting together the crowd funding for their first album.
Allan Byrne & Holly Hogan of The Blue Drop
You can check out their tracks “Three Chords” and “If You Need My Love” on their website at www.thebluedrop.ca/music.
