Weird Canada Won!

Weird Canada Won the CBC Radio3's search light contest for best Canadian Music Website!!!!

Congratulations to Aaron, Jesse, Marie, Jenni, and all the contributors. You all work so hard to make the site great - And a HUGE thank you to everybody that kept voting, it was not all for nothing.

I hope they offer Aaron a radio show, I think that would be a great decision on the part of CBC.

I wish we could all be together to celebrate - perhaps there will mini celebrations across the land whether it is dancing in your room or out with friends.

Here is the official WORD.

-Z

Weird Canada

So I contribute to a blog called Weird Canada - most of you probably are familiar with that site as I check my stats and a lot of my traffic is directed from there. CBC's radio 3 as had a competition this month to find out what is Canada's best music website. Starting from the bottom 100 or so or whatever we have made it to the final stage of the vote - the top 10. 

We feel that if Weird Canada wins this will be a small cultural victory for Canada. We will have toppled many mainstream industry blogs and will have stricken a wake up call to the CBC that underground music is important to Canadians. That Weird Canada is a strong force for new music in Canada. Many artists that have been featured in Weird Canada in the last year haveseen their music travel far and wide. While I know all these band's work so hard promoting their music and honing their craft - no doubt has Weird Canada's effort helped their cause. 

Artists like D'eon, Grimes, and Dirty Beaches - to name a few have all been covered early in their careers on Weird Canada. These artists music has been released on foreign labels and since been covered in major media outlets and blogs like Pitchfork, Vice, MTV, BBC - even D'eon appearing on Thom Yorke's playlist - but have seldom received support or radio play from the CBC. We feel that we cover the best of Canadian music at Weird Canada and we are always trying to expand our scope. Now I live in the United States and I hear my friend's talk about bands like Gobble Gobble, Make Out Video Tape, and Long Long Long - all of which have been covered early in their starts on Weird Canada. I wondered if they would have known about them if their wasn't a Weird Canada.  

Here are some inspiring words from Weird Canada founder Aaron Levin sure to get your DIY blood flowing - and please vote for Weird Canada HERE

-Z

From Weird Canada

CBC Radio 3 is running a pyramidal voting scheme, vetting Weird Canada through a triumvirate of keystrokes, sinusoids, and opinionated minds. A conspiracy of this calibre must be met with deep suspicion and deliberate candor. They pit us against each other – our fellow publishers. They split our fans – those beautiful beings. They place the unbearable suffering of expectation on all who speak their name. Ye wyld typists vie for the last shard of national recognition.

Our radio Narsil has us deep in the trenches, spending weeks at your foot begging for another integer. In the heat of the mud no ideal will last. All succumb to it. Thick. Greasy. Swelling with the rainbows of fallen candidates. In the beginning we shouted “No! This voting scheme shall not stand! Free it all! Let the streets run wild with the multitude of our opinions!” But now, as the blue skies turn black, I face you filled with the adrenaline of conviction. We believe. We want to win. We write these very words to justify our victory grip.

Thanks to your support, the absurd notion that Weird Canada may win has become a reality. We have blown away all the flagpoles and are staring blankly into the void. The Top 10. Why is this important? Why does this matter? Win or not, Weird Canada will remain an exploratory experience for the brazenly adventurous. We will always focus on our northernly kin and enthuse, physically scan, and hyperbolize all the wonderful manifestations of creative potential this country has to offer. Our daily operation will continue, delightedly, into the unheralded cassette oblivion.

However, the Canadian psyche is shifting. Winning this contest may push it further into our camp. The middle ground of indie music is disappearing. The plates are grooving under due pressure from self-recorded geniuses and the industry cannot will not handle it. So we’ve come to you, our people from coast-to-coast, to ask for your vote. A vote along the streams of time. A vote for the only entity proudly bearing the emerging flag of a new northern identity. An identity not born in the offices of minor-majors, but one bursting with the charged, chromatic life festering within tape dubbers, cd burners, pressing plants, and photocopy machines.

We. Are. Northernly.

VOTE WEIRD CANADA

Hearts,

Aaron Levin
Weird Canada
weirdcanada.com

PS – No sign-up. Two Clicks. Vote daily, every 24 hours, until our star shines ever brighter.

Interview with Scotch Tapes' Al Bjornaa

As some of you might know I contribute occasionally to the blog Weird Canada. Recently I did an interview for them with Scotch Tapes founder Al Bjornaa. You can read the original here or below...

-Z

___________________________________________________

/////////////// AL BJORNAA INFERRED VIEWS ///////////////

Zachary :: I’m into how landscapes and environment influence people’s creativity. Why do you base your label where you do [Batchawana Bay]? How do the often cosmopolitan sounds play out in your environment?

Al :: I base Scotch out of Batchawana Bay because it’s close to my family. I have lived all over the country but this has always been home. There have been some health issues in the Bjornaa family the past few years and its been nice to be able to help out. We run a family fishing business and I have had to take a larger role in that. Plus it’s a beautiful area. I live on the beach! The north shore of Lake Superior is my favourite place on Earth.

I have always been a huge music fan. Both of my parents love music. Although their tastes may differ from mine, they passed on a passion for good music. Most of the people who live in my area think the music I release sounds like a “badger caught in a wood chipper” but most people from the area think its cool that I run a record label in such a small place. Whenever I go for coffee or breakfast at the local diner, everyone always asks how the label is doing.

Zachary :: I have heard of your beach shows. I hope you will you be doing more of this. Who has played? What was your favorite?

Al :: I haven’t done an actual beach show in ages but I have had a lot of bands pass through here and hang out for a day or two. Its a tough area to get a decent show. I mean I could likely set up a show in Sault Ste. Marie (which is notorious for TERRIBLE shows) or they can hang out here for a night, have some drinks, go swimming and get a good meal. I am hoping that this year with a new space, I can host more bands and maybe do some recordings and send them back on the road with a new tape or lathe. Some of the best times I’ve had drinking/ hanging out/ recording have been with Play Guitar, The Famines, Dirty Beaches, Grown-Ups, Gobble Gobble, Nobunny… There are tons. I am hoping to make Batchawana Bay a “must-stop” for bands touring Canada. Not to play shows but to have a great day off mid-tour where they can do laundry, relax, jump in the lake, maybe practice some new stuff they have been working on. 2011 is already getting booked up at Casa de Al with Bucketseat stopping here in March.

Zachary :: I see that your label is doing some collaborative splits how did this come about?

Al :: Yeah. I wanted to work with a few cool labels. I have a lathe series coming out with No Vacation Records (Brett Wagg from Pink Noise/ Campaign For Infinity) Brett basically just asked if I would be interested and since I love the music he puts out, I was totally in. I also put out a 7″ with No Clear Records from Florida. I imagine if any label contacted me and I liked the band, I would probably be interested. I know that Ben Cook (Fucked Up, Young Guv, etc) and I have a few co-releases lined up for his new label, Marvelous Music, as well. We will be co-releasing the Roommates LP this summer/ fall.

Zachary :: I see you have a vast list of upcoming releases. Are all these going to happen??!

Al :: You bet your sweet buttocks! In the first two years of Scotch, I released almost 200 tapes. I take the label very seriously. Its become more than a hobby. It’s basically a second full-time job. I plan on putting out about 70 tapes, 30 lathes and 10 vinyl releases in 2011. There are times when I get tired and need a break… and those are the times where I just take like 2-3 weeks off, don’t check emails and basically disappear. But when I do that, I normally come back with 4-5 releases at once.

Zachary :: What is up with the lathe series? Does the type of Lathe reflect the artist?

Al :: Well… I have two series going. There is the Scotch/ Young Guv series. Ben Cook [of Young Guv] records all the bands that share his jam space and then we release a song or two from them. So far, I have put flexis out for Huckleberry Friends, Tropics, Bruised Knees & Lonely Wholesome with Actual Water, Dentata, Wyrd Visions and I think 2 more to come. The other series is the aforementioned series with No Vacation. There are some pretty killer bands scheduled for that like FNU Ronnies and Factums (who I LOVE!) The type of lathe really doesn’t come into play. I mean the one I did for We All Inherit The Moon HAD to be a square plexiglass lathe because of the ideas they had for the art but most bands don’t really care that much. They just think lathes are fun.

Zachary :: Do you think there is a Canadian Sound? And what from your perspective are the sounds of the different scenes within Canada?

Al :: I don’t think there is a specific Canadian sound. It’s such a vast area geographically that it’s tough to narrow down one sound. I think Vancouver has a great weirdo punk scene with bands like Shearing Pinx, Nu Sensae, Twin Crystals, etc. who really have their own genre that isn’t like anything else in the country. When you move into the prairies you have bands like Myelin Sheaths, Fist City, Grown-Ups, Moby Dicks… sort of that heavy garage punk stuff. They all totally feed off of each other. Ontario is sort of weird. Toronto is just starting to get a good scene again. I think the bands that Ben and I are releasing on the lathe series are going to get big really fast this year. That jam space is oooozing talent. Montreal always has a great scene. I think that city spawns some of the most creative and unique artists. And the whole Halifax scene… that city reminds me of Portland, Oregon. EVERYONE is in a band and creates visual art and silkscreens t-shirts and makes zines and drinks good beer if they can afford it but will drink shit if that’s all they have and dresses cool without thinking they dress cool. One of my absolute favourite cities on the planet!

Zachary :: What has got you most excited about 2011?

Al :: SUMMER! I hate winter more than anything! That and doing this interview for Weird Canada! Thanks, Zach…

Weird Canada Review and More!

Thanks to Gabriel from Weird Canada for posting the most recent review of the Lantern EP in both French and English.

De l’amour fraternel de Gabriel Jasmin: Lantern, c’est le duo Zachary Fairbrother et Emily Robb, deux expatriés canadiens partis vers la Ville de l’Amour Fraternel. Mais pardieu, brisons-nous vraiment les règles de Weird Canada ? Oui, peut-être, mais ils ont encore leur passeports canadiens. Aussi faut-il savoir que cette première cassette est trop savoureuse pour rester silencieux. Six compositions qui empruntent au folk et au vieux blues américain, où l’on passe de la solitude désolante à l’harmonica jusqu’au fuzz-wah anéantissant de << Crude Vessels of Sound >>. Carburant à la guitare, c’est un beau retour aux sources du proto-punk et du blues sauce psychédélique, cover de Hasil Adkins inclus.

[translate]From the brotherly love of Gabriel Jasmin: Lantern is the duo of Zachary Fairbrotherand Emily Robb, two recent Canadian expats gone to the City of Brotherly Love. Wait, are we violating Weird Canada rules? Well, I’m sure both still have Canadian passports, and this first offering is too rad to pass up. Six songs taking cues from early American folk and blues, from desolate quietness to a harmonica call and response to the blown-out fuzz-wah meltdown in “Crude Vessels of Sound.” A grand foray into guitar-fueled proto-punk and psychedelic blues, Hasil Adkins cover included.

Also a big thank you goes out A.J. from CKUT. She recently featured the album on her excellent radio show The New Shit. The show has its own eccentric gravity and pulls lots of strange sounds from the atmosphere to its cosmic rock. A.J. works tirelessly promoting local and Canadian music, as well as experimental and weirdo musics. I tell anyone visiting Montreal to go down to CKUT and see the wonderful work she is doing. Here is what she said about the record.

My Buddy Zachary Fairbrother put out a cassette tape at the very tail end of 2010 Dec 30th on Electric Voice. Lantern is a new project with co-conspirators Emilie and Sophie, it's brilliant asi would have expected, Most Definitely caters to the sensibilities of sun record sessions, mystery train comes to mind, both the film and the song, killer tracks, warm tape hiss, listen to the show for a little dose of good volume for what ails you.

And thanks to The Fader Rules radio show out in Austin for playing the tape, Bryan's show features some really cool/underground sounds from around the globe.

Alas we are sold out of the tapes. I will be getting another 15 in a couple weeks or some. Please email me at zacharyfairbrother@gmail.com if you want one we can arrange something.

Best and thanks for your support thus far. Those in Philly I hope to see you tomorrow at our show at The OX.

Review on Weird Canada and move to Philadelphia.

I put out a few copies of this tape back in the spring for Wyrd Fest and the Obey Convention. I'll be making a few more once I get set up again here in Philly. If you want it in digital form though you can download it HERE.

As some of you may know I have left Canada for the "American Dream." The move has been interesting, exciting, and scary. Definitely a bit of culture shock. Philly at times looks and feels like Beirut (Or what I imagine it looks like as I have never been). I am staying in a beautiful loft with my partner's sister in Fishtown. We have a little spot in the corner till we get everything set up. I got a bank account after a bit of scare where I copied my social security number down wrong and it was looking like I wasn't going to get an account. I unfortunately had to go with Bank of America, as I was entering the bank there was a giant sign across the street that read, "I Hate Bank of America." It probably is an omen. I finally got a phone and each day is getting progressively better and I am slowly making friends. I am really worried about a job, I am not sure what to expect here and Philly's economy is the third worst in the country, seems you can't escape that. Today I am looking for more houses. I have been concentrating on writing more since I haven't had the opportunity, space, or privacy to write music. Lantern is sitting on about 20 songs write now and we'll have some upcoming releases, hopefully.


Some crappy pictures from my new AT&T cell phone.

My good friend and colleague Aaron Levin, the genius behind Weird Canada, kindly wrote some nice words of the I put out. I only made a few copies of this tape back in the spring for Wyrd Fest and the Obey Convention. I'll be making a few more once I get set up again here in Philly. Please get in touch if you would like a copy.

Best, and keep listening in!

-Z

From Weird Canada
With an unruly vocabulary for the avant-garde, the wild long-hair behind Omon Ra / Omon Ra II rips through your consciousness with six streams of free jazz, orchestral minimalism, and prepared minutiae. The unwieldy compositions are performed on-or-by everything (Arp2600, Dalhousie Brass Quintet, Saxophones, mixers, prepared piano, etc.) and mutate wildly in timbre; “Origins”‘ dense, synthetic dark-age scorches a sinusoidal path for the blissfully organic sequences; hear the strangely poppy Brass Quintet devastate “Prisms” and segue into the harrowing minimalia of “Long Tones and Lose Change.” It’s all a sharp reminder that underground reverberations are still produced in the dusty corners of academia. Bsc GRIP.

Numbers Station and a Chris D'eon Review on Weird Canada

Myself and my friends and creative partners, Chris D'eon and Matt Wilson have decided to launch a tape label, since putting out music is so fun. Chris took it upon himself to make the first release, and what an epic release (some of the recordings are from when he was 7 years old!!!) that is perfectly matched for tape. Here's what I posted on the Numbers Station blog and check out the review!

-Z
__________________________________________________

Re-posted from Numbers Station

Wow our first very small release gets an amazing endorsement already! Good things are brewing for this winter! Congrats to Chris and his hard work, this release is truly amazing and unique. I doubt you find a release that synthesizes such desperate genres into a cohesive embryo. This release is best realized on tape. With the at times slack and jangly sounds of tape, it give this music a depth, character, and atmosphere that is just not possible on any other medium. Buy this record now, its a certified trip, but not the one you might expect!

-Zachary Fairbrother

__________________________________________________

Re-posted from Weird Canada

Chris d’eon’s debut cassette is an incredible 60-minute multi-genre psychedelic-meets-minimal-techno Tour de Force that will absolutely astonish, bewilder, and bewitch anyone curious enough to catch its spell. Weaving within currents of basemental panned-vocals, reverberated folk and Chicago-house-meets-Boards-of-Canada minimalia, wa al-’asr threatens all norms in genre synthesis and track sequencing. Chris d’eon has shown an incredible knack for branding every species of sound with his personal phantasms; every wavelength tinged with the unabashedly cosmic dark-age strata. As such, there is a brilliant vision ensconced inside wa al-’asr’s easter-folk and electro meanderings that is unquestionably rebellious; why try to push boundaries when committing every stream of consciousness to tape does the job for you. Let the world figure it out and they’ll fail miserably. Thankfully there are sadists like myself who enjoy trying. Amazing. Brilliant. Wonderful.