On Tuesdays, the Mixtape brings you a blog post full of the latest singles, albums, videos and news from Canadian musicians. It’s an aggregation of what we think you should know about.
Today there’s a new single from Canada’s Indie-country darling, Corb Lund, who uses his talents to show support for Alberta after devastating floods, Joanna Gruesome, another Alberta band releases a single from their upcoming album, Halifax bucks at bringing in Chris Brown to headline a local festival and a pair of Canadian hiphop artists get robbed in Montreal.
Oh, and the Polaris Prize short list is out. That’s a bigg’un.
Corb supports Alberta
On Monday Corb Lund released the song “Blood, Sweat & Water (A Song for Southern Alberta),” saying that he chose to write the song using the Calgary Stampede as a “metaphor for the city’s courage, hard work and resilience.”
“It’s a tribute to everyone who’s been toughing it out dealing with the flood damage in southern Alberta. The idea occurred to me after seeing all the work people had done to make Stampede happen this year,” Lund said in a press release. Wanna hear it? Check it out below.
These kids can rock
These kids from Alberta are in a punk-ish band looking to bring back moshing – they’re called Joanna Gruesome. They have an album being released in September called Weird Sister . The first single from that album, “Secret Surprise”, is all about everyone’s favourite gossip topic: The Frenemy.
Halifax gives Chris Brown a twitter beating
Over the weekend, a social media firestorm blew through Halifax after it was announced Chris Brown would be headlining one of the city’s biggest summer concerts. Citing the singer’s history of violence (he pleaded guilty in 2009 for assaulting his partner, Rihanna) and posting pictures of Rihanna’s battered face in the event’s facebook page, a strong-willed population of Haligonians went so far as to start a change.org campaign to stop Chris Brown from performing. Several big name companies, like Rogers and Molson, have since dropped their sponsorship of the event and even Halifax’s Mayor Mike Savage spoke out, telling Metro Halifax that: “His background is awful really, and I think to have him performing here sends a very poor signal to … young fans.”
The concert is still on, though, despite the recent news that Brown’s probation has been revoked for a hit and run. To read why Halifax (and other parts of the world) are so angry check out this opinion piece by Stephanie Johns, arts editor for local weekly, The Coast.
Grand Theft Montreal
Hip hop artists Uncle Fester, Fresh kils and Mad Dukez have been having a blast on their Gettin’ Gatsby Tour. That is, until someone rained on their parade, broke into their van and stole their stuff. Like, all of it. But rather than calling the tour off, these dudes are looking for your help. Aiming to raise $5000 through crowdfunding, these rappers are hoping to continue hitting their tour dates through to October. You should be helpful and donate…plus you can score some pretty awesome swag.
Polaris Prize listening party strongly encouraged
So…yeah…Polaris Short List is out, which means you have less than 70 days to buy, listen and digest all 10 albums. The list ranges in sound (as it usually does) including the postrockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor and their mash of harmonies, drums and sound all the way to the aboriginal inspired beats created by three DJs known as A Tribe Called Red.
This isn’t from the Polaris album, but it’s a good sample of what these DJs do: