The Canada Show

My last show was on March 9th (there was some schedule juggling going on) and after having a conversation with a friend about Canada being part of America-- I decided to devote half a show to Canadian music. Once I started researching, I found so much good stuff that I had plenty to fill the show and still, there was some I didn't get to.

When people think Canada and music, I think they think of Neil Young, Rush, Leonard Cohen, KD lang etc. I wanted to stay away from that and focus more on the newer more progressive stuff. There was plenty of traditional music I could have looked into also, maybe another show.

Here's the playlist- Bingo Canada Show

There really seems to be some exciting music happening up north. Some of the more well known bands like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and the New Pornographers have started to put Canada on the alternative rock map.

There's some really fun, hard to define stuff I found too. The Fembots, Deerhoof, Do Make Say Think and Caribou are all worth a listen. The Fembots Mucho Cuidado (it's not new, from 2000) is one of the more interesting albums I've heard this year( FemBots web site ), they call themselves post industrial folk and somehow that seems like a good fit. Check 'em out.

Kid Koala and K-OS show Canada's urban side. Kid Koala is one of my favorites the last couple of years (check out some of his YouTube videos) and Crabbuckit by K-OS will stay in your head for days.

I featured the label Secretly Canadian , though not Canadian (from Bloomington IN) I couldn't resist the name for the show and I had been wanting to feature them for awhile, anyway. They're a great label and have a sister label JagJaguwar. Jason Molina from Songs:Ohia and Magnolia Electric Company is kind of thier star performer, but, Early Day Miners, The Earlies, Catfish Haven and Damien Jurardo are a few to check out also.

And lastly, the Coverall was fun to do this week, as I tried to get a Canadian artist either being covered or covering and sometimes scored both.

Tune in next week when i'll take a cue from poet Kenneth Patchen and look at songs of Humor and Protest.