Julie Doiron has been one of my favourite Canadian musicians for at least 15 years now. “The Best Thing For Me” is still on every mp3 playlist I ever create. She’s got a very unique voice and I’m super excited to see her play at NXNE next week! This will be the first time I’ve ever seen her perform live – I’ll be sure to give a full report on my girlish-glee filled experience.

Julie Doiron began her career in music in 1990 at the age of 18 in Moncton, New Brunswick playing bass in Eric’s Trip, (name from a Sonic Youth song title) a folky yet psychedelic band that was to become the undisputed underground darling of Canadian Music. Eric’s trip were the first of many maritime Canadians signed to Sub Pop and found international recognition releasing several albums and touring widely. Following 1996’s Purple Blue, Eric’s Trip announced their break-up.

She began to write more of her own songs in 1993 which she released on 7″ and performed solo while still in Eric’s trip. In 1996 as Eric’s Trip found it’s end she released her first solo album titled Broken Girl a temporary moniker Julie adopted to express her feelings at the time. The record was released on her own label Sappy Records. Broken Girl is an intimate record that gave the listener a fuller sense of Julie’s personality and vocal style than Eric’s Trip did. Following Broken Girl, Julie toured on and off throughout Canada for the remainder of the year.

Back at home, she released records by Moonsocket, Orange Glass, Snailhouse, and Elevator to Hell on Sappy. For her second album, “Loneliest in the morning” Julie decided to drop the moniker Broken Girl, as she began a stronger solo career. She recorded “loneliest” in Memphis with Dave Shouse (Grifters), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), Doug Easley, and Davis McCain. Julie used a variety of new instruments on the record, but maintained her earlier sparse arrangements. The record was released in 1997 on Sub Pop.

Today, Julie Doiron and her husband, artist and painter Jon Claytor moved with their two children from New Brunswick to Montreal Quebec and Julie signed to Tree records in the US. Back in Canada, she maintained her label Sappy and in 1999 she released her EP Will you Still Love Me? which gained much praise for a new maturity. The album featured contributions from her friends from Ottawa’s the Wooden Stars . In March and April of 1999 Julie recorded three vocal tracks for The Wooden Stars The Moon full-length on Matlock Records and photographed the cover artwork. Everything Julie Doiron has done in the past came together on her Fall of 1999 Sappy Records full-length Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars. It is the first album she has recorded with a band since her days with Eric’s Trip. The delicately powerful effect of the Wooden Stars has given Julie’s songs an intensity and vibrancy that was previously only hinted at. On March 12, 2000 Julie won a Juno for Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars and in January the album was released on Tree in the US and in Europe.

In late 1999 Julie published a book of her photographs with New Brunswick’s Broken Jaw Press entitled The Longest Winter with words by Ottawa writer Ian Roy. Julie has long been an avid photographer studying photography at Mount Allison University in Sackville NB, Julie often does and has done her own promotional photos and cover artwork along with her husband, painter Jon Claytor. Jon also wrote and directed Julie’s new video for “Dance Music”. In 2000 Julie has toured Europe, the US and Canada, and recorded three tracks on the latest Tragically Hip record Music@Work as well as working with Hip front man Gord Downie on his solo record Coke Machine Glow. Julie also has three songs on the Shanti projects collection 2 on Badman records.

Be sure to join TransCanadaRadio at the Julie Doiron show!

June 13th 11:00pm The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, ON

At the tender age of seven, Dan Mangan’s first goal was to memorize and recite Abbey Road’s side ‘B’. At 17, it was to record his first EP. Now, at 24, it’s to meander into the stereo and hometown of music lovers worldwide. With the recent release of his debut full-length, Postcards and Daydreaming, five recently completed tours of the US, UK and Australia – including a feature in the Brit-tastemaker magazine, NME – and let’s not forget the umpteen festival performances (SXSW, MusExpo, The Great Escape, NXNE, etc.), one could definitely say he’s off to a good start.
For your listening pleasure, here’s a great track “So Much For Everyone” – my personal favourite – off of Dan’s album Postcards and Daydreaming:

Click below to play!

Dan Magnan – So Much For Everyone

And if you love that, you’ll love the whole album – available at CD Baby, of course!

Tying together the roots of acoustic folk and subtle symphonic pop, Postcards & Daydreaming is unabashedly mellow. However, it’s Mangan’s powerful, weatherbeaten vocals that hint at something epic lurking in the undertones. Influenced both by songsmiths of old (Nick Drake, Woody Guthrie) and sonic innovators of late (Neutral Milk Hotel, Sigur Ros). Mangan’s “old soul” rings clear through his lyrical ruminations on both the harmful capabilities and intrinsic beauty of human foibles. Think Kurt Vonnegut with a gravelly sweet singing voice. “As an artist, I feel that when you are writing, no matter the medium or style, you should always be saying something,” said Mangan, from his home in Vancouver, BC.

“It doesn’t have to be as significant as changing the world, but it should be important to you.”

Mangan has a great appreciation for power of words and a deep admiration for writers of all kinds. Not one to stay safely inside the singer/songwriter box, he has collaborated with spoken word artist Shane Koyczan, performed alongside acclaimed storyteller Ivan Coyote and Canadian hype machines Patrick Watson,
The Acorn and DJ Champion. Dan has also been featured on the Bravo! television network and has been a regular go-to artist for XM Satellite Radio’s “The Verge” – where his seven-minute fan-fave “So Much For Everyone” became the channel’s fourth most requested song in July alongside The Dears and The Meligrove Band. To follow Postcards and Daydreaming‘s Canadian release (FU:M / Outside), Mangan’s initial effort saw a November 6th ‘07 release in the USA (FU:M / Nail) and spring releases throughout the UK and Australia. If Dan’s incessant touring in 2007 gave him the platform to approach an international audience, 2008 will
ensure that everybody is looking when he starts up those sweet, gravelly, ramblings.

Check him out at an upcoming gig in your area!
25 May 2008 20:00 CBC2 Canada Live @ The Penthouse Vancouver, BC
29 May 2008 20:00 The Can w/ Shane Koyczan Penticton, BC
31 May 2008 20:00 Sugarbowl w/ The Wheatpool & Jon Lovell Edmonton, AB
1 Jun 2008 20:00 Lydias w/ Smokekiller and Jen Lane Saskatoon, SK
3 Jun 2008 20:00 Lo Pub w/ All Of Your Friends Winnipeg, MB
7 Jun 2008 20:00 COCA Conference Ottawa, ON
9 Jun 2008 20:00 The Black Canvas Arnprior, ON
10 Jun 2008 20:00 Mercury Lounge w/ Said The Whale Ottawa, ON
11 Jun 2008 20:00 The Trepid House Waterloo, ON
12 Jun 2008 20:00 Call The Office w/ Hey Ocean! & Said The Whale London, ON
13 Jun 2008 20:00 The Rivoli (TMB / NXNE) Toronto, ON
14 Jun 2008 22:00 Savannah Room (NXNE) Toronto, ON
25 Jun 2008 20:00 Vancouver Jazz Festival @ The Media Club Vancouver, BC

Mark Berube is an artist that has proven to be very popular among our readers time after time! Just in case you missed him the first time around, I’ve re-posted his profile so that you have the chance to check him out once again. And believe me, it’s absolutely worth it!

Mark Berube (and The Patriotic Few, based in Montreal) are an eclectic group of musicians. All powerhouses in their own domains, they are Jesson Moen on bass and mandolin, Patrick Dugas on drums and percussion, and Marie Michelle on cello and voice. Mark was a Peacedriven Songwriting Award Honourable Mention winner for 2006. His latest album, “What The River Gave The Boat”, has received critical acclaim across North America. The song/poem ” Barber Shop” was part of the CBC documentary “Battle of The Bag”.

He is also a proud member of The Fugitives. Their first album “In Streetlight Communion” was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2007 as best album in the “Breaking Boundaries” category. He also composes music for dance and theater. Most recently, he worked with Leaky Heaven Circus, in Vancouver, BC. He received a Jessie Richardson Reward Nomination for the music he composed and performed in the project “Salome”.

Mark has toured Canada, the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and Austria.

Here’s a list of his upcoming shows. If you are even remotely close to any of these venues, I suggest you check him out live. TransCanadaRadio will be at the May 9th show to show our support for this outstanding artist.

Sample or buy his albums right now at CD Baby!

Mercury Lounge, Ottawa, May 9th, with Tim’s Myth
Rancho Relaxo, Toronto, May 10th, Two Way Monologues Compilation CD Release
Centre St Ambroise, Montreal, May 15th with Coco Love Alcorn
Divan Orange, Montreal, May 29th with The Unsettlers and L’embuscade.

Alanna Stuart’s parents immigrated to Canada as part of the country’s Caribbean influx of the 1970s. When Stuart was a toddler, her Grenadian mother and Jamaican father threw parties that swelled to the early morning with plenty of music, food, liquor, and language from the many isles of the West Indies. “I actually have a picture of me in just a diaper and you can see people’s legs hanging off the couch, a bottle of brandy, and my mom serving breakfast,” Stuart recalls. “It was a time when all the islands mixed. It was this cool, warm vibe where partying was about getting together, meeting different people, and a sense of community.” Despite her roots, Stuart started off making “bubblegum R&B.” “I started writing really shitty songs about boyfriends who were calling other girls on the cell phones I got them,” she admits. “By age 17 or 18 I hooked up with some producers and got some songs on the urban station in Toronto. But it was really clean, sweet pop, and I just got sick of it.” Around that time she happened upon one of Ian Swain’s Disorganized parties–an “open concept” affair (Swain’s words) in a modest space above an Italian restaurant in Ottawa’s Chinatown. “Ian played Bugz in the Attic’s remix of ‘Hold It Down,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God! What is this music?’ I had never heard anything that was in that vein. I told him that I had to work with him.”

“Ian came up with the idea of us doing a live sound system but I never ever thought I would really do it,” continues Stuart, who started off singing patois reinterpretations of indie rock hits (Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Maps,” TV on the Radio’s “Staring at the Sun”) at the club. “I had never spoken patois growing up, much less sang it, but [Ian] really pushed hard for it and had this vision.”

“At soundclashes, they’ll do patois versions of Michael Jackson songs because it’s a big crowd-pleaser,” explains Swain, a.k.a. DJ Pho. “If people hear something that they recognize, but it’s flipped differently, then that’s always gonna make them go crazy. And we go in this weird direction that’s sort of dancehall-meets-soul-vocals-meets-this London-y kind of sound.”

That mongrel ethos shines through on Bonjay’s first release, the mixtape Bangarang Business. Intended to recreate the feel of a live Bonjay/Disorganized gig, it features covers and original Bonjay material spliced with hip-hop, R&B, and reggae hits, and breakbeat instrumentals. Swain samples underground jams by Madlib and Seiji on the tape, but the inclusion of Jill Scott’s “Be Happy” and TLC’s “Creep” are clearly Stuart’s influence. “We had an idea of what we felt represented us,” says Stuart. “I grew up singing gospel music but lived in a middle-class white suburb in Ottawa, so all the dances I had in my basement were to Aerosmith and Ace of Base.”

“You love Ace of Base,” interrupts Swain, laughing hard. “I’ve never seen someone love Ace of Base that much.”