TRANSCANADARADIO is proud to celebrate Canada’s Current Cultural artists and their locations! Traveling across Canada’s vast surface and finding the best of the under and above-ground artists, and where to check them out in your favorite Canadian city! Pack your bags! We’re going on a road trip!
About to release their fourth album, Calling Out (2008), the FemBots have set off in yet another direction while in many ways returning to their beginnings. Born out of improvisation and experimentation, Calling Out sees the FemBots once more stretching themselves musically to produce an album that is daring yet accessible.
The FemBots began as a home recording project of Dave MacKinnon and Brian Poirier and their debut, Mucho Cuidado (2000), featured songs written and performed on power tools, toys and broken down thrift store instruments. The duo quickly carved a unique space in the Toronto music scene bringing their post-industrial folk songs to the stage using tape loops and reel-to-reel machines mixed with often frantic live performances.
Vivek Shraya likes to run. Vivek Shraya likes to shake. Vivek Shraya made a record to run and shake to, produced by Meghan Toohey. He calls it If We’re Not Talking which is ironic because frankly, Vivek Shraya doesn’t ever shut up.
Vivek Shraya is fluent in English, half-assed in French and brilliant in inappropriate IM discussions, it seems. His favorite words include: “HAHAHAHAAHAHA” and “OMG.” Vivek Shraya is an English Major. Thankfully, Vivek Shraya does not repeatedly reference himself in the third person on If We’re Not Talking.
Check out the video then, when you absolutely love it like I did, go buy his album.
Laura Peek & The Winning Hearts – Stand Right There
Laura Peek and the Winning Hearts is a three-piece project featuring cat-lady-in-training Peek on piano and vocals, and moustachioed hunks Dave and Joel on drums and bass. They play quirky, literate, melancholy pop songs and wear matching outfits. They would like to bake you cookies and pet your kitties.
In April 2007, Just Friends Records released From the Photographs. This astounding LP is Laura Peek’s first full-length album and it also marks pop icon Mike O’Neill’s (The Inbreds) first venture into producing. The album features melodic pop songs with dark undertones, using a “less is more” production approach that focuses on Peek’s unique voice and songwriting. From the Photographs was engineered by Charles Austin (The Super Friendz) and features a small, tight-knit cast of musicians, including both O’Neill and Austin.
It all started in the bathroom of an apartment that had once housed the early players in the Toronto Punk Rock scene. Megan Hamilton and award-winning sound designer Mark Vogelsang decided to lay down some songs, and spent a frosty January day recording music and telling jokes. The results would become Megan’s first demo and the experience fostered a working relationship that continues to flourish.
The music industry can be a tough game. Finding success in that game is something few artists can claim. Never is this more prominent than in Canada’s Hp Hop Industry. Halifax based artist Classified has defied the odds and has found success where others could only try. Through his own label, Halflife Records, Classified has dropped hit after hit, appealing to everyone from the casual to the most underground of fans. And after ten-plus years in the game, this critically acclaimed producer/mc is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Halifax-bred musician plays within the borders of folk-tinged yet she isn’t afraid to infuse her work with experimentation, incorporating vocal loops and electronic flourishes like her musical inspirations Bjork and Radiohead.
Recorded with Joydrop’s Thomas Rider Payne over an intensely busy three weeks in Toronto, Rebekah Higgs is the tip of the iceberg of what this talented songwriter has in store for a long career ahead. Her material is steeped in melody, showcasing her often witty, perceptive tales, while the layered production provides a complexity that invites listeners to come back again for repeat listens. This is music to knit impossibly long scarves to.
Keep an eye on TransCanada Radio for more upcoming concert dates because this is a musician you have to see!
Portico became a band in summer 2004. We recorded our first album at the Hive and released it in late 2005 on Hinge Records and distributed by Scratch. We’ve played shows at most of Vancouver’s live venues and toured extensively across Canada. In fall and winter 2006/2007 we recorded our upcoming second album at Mushroom Studios. We are Greg Murray (drums), Trent Hopton (guitars and keyboards), Mimi Mahovlich (bass), and Lyn Heinemann (guitar and voice).
Meaghan Smith’s first official full-length album, Take Me Dancing, is on its way out the door and straight into your CD player. Complete with string quartets, mellotron samples, a full piece horn section, a guest appearance made by the fabulously musical DJ Kid Koala, and topped with Meaghan’s smooth, soaring vocals, this new album is sure to make you want to cut some serious rug or grab your sweet heart for a good old cheek to cheek.
To make this album, I had to let myself relax. After speaking to my friend Scott Trivers about this horrible writer’s block I had for about a year, he gave me the best advice I’ve received. He told me to go home and write the worst songs I possibly could. So I did! I got over my fears of writing bad songs and instantly the dam was broken so to speak. These new songs are what flowed out of me in the following weeks.
Rose Cousins has a knack for stirring the heart. With a blend of her journey and thoughtful observation, her songs tell subtle stories open enough to belong to anyone.
Her genuine writing and unaffected voice have earned her great respect and recognition locally and internationally. Highly sought after, Rose has lent her voice to recordings by such artists as: Matt Mays, Jill Barber, In-Flight Safety, The Heavy Blinkers and Edie Carey.
Gravity Wave is, as Ken Farrell claims, an excuse to do what he wants.
First he made an electro-pop dance record with a Playstation video game. That stone killed a few birds simultaneously. Suddenly, there was no more carrying amplifiers to shows or concern for playing an instrument, even though Farrell is a multi-instrumentalist. Gravity Wave live shows became more about Ken and the audience, and soon the audience became part of the show. A twelve-year old tambourine player named Tom became the right hand man on stage, hustling his way into the hearts of confused and delighted partiers with every performance.
