Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Ah, Stars...

This video comes recommended from a friend who enjoyed my post on Sara Barielles yesterday. Like Barielles, Stars is one of those sleeper artists that you will randomly fall in love with. Um, but I have to admit something: I did not like Stars when I first heard them ... several years ago.

This song was their first song I knew as theirs. You know those songs you recognize in the first bar. Well, as this song begins with an attention-grabbing voice at the beginning, it was not very difficult to recognize it even before the first bar! It's come in and out of my favour several times since its release, but I think it's in my favour to stay now. Stars has also become one of my all-time favs!

It's interesting how a song can be both a memory and inspiration. When I hear this song, I am taken back to my time spent in Vancouver, the initial Edumusication summer and educators. This time, though, when I listened to it, I heard something else. The opening bar struck me as inspiring: "When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire." Well, since this recommendation has come from a friend after reading yesterday's post, and several of my other posts over the last few months, my subconscious seemed to know that there was this not-so-hidden message in this song...

And now, for some personal reflection:

At times, this week, I've felt like I'm back EXACTLY where I started. But, ... I'm not. Situations may be similar; pay cheques may be the same; but this time is an entirely different level! So, perhaps I lack the opportunity I have so desperately relied upon in the past...and perhaps I've let that opportunity slip by me, but the most important thing that's keeping me alive - creative and ambitious - is knowing that I am my fuel, especially when all else fails...

I apologize if my self reflection is too vague. Perhaps its vagueness will help you on the path to your truth.

Sara Bareilles - Bottle It Up

I remember moving back to Canada almost three years ago, only to find this brilliant new artist sending ripples out across the airwaves. I heard this song and was immediately sold on her as an amazing artist! Then, last summer, she came out with another album of genius, and I remain in awe of her.


Check out my post from earlier this year:

http://edumusication.blogspot.com/2011/01/sara-bareilles-king-of-anything.html

Alanna Clarke - Fine Line

“Alanna has a voice that is a natural gift. But it’s the artist behind that voice that excites me. She writes with a depth and passion that reveal wisdom and an unmistakable style. You’ll be hearing this voice for a long time to come.” - Christopher Ward, Clarke's producer

Born and raised in Cochrane, Alberta, this 18-year-old songstress has been performing her music since the age of ten, and it shows. Her lyrics and her voice capture the emotion of mature music soul, and there is no second guessing that writing music is her calling.

Her talent for creating music was discovered by Christopher Ward, through her cousin's performance at a Songwriters Association of Canada panel in ottawa. Overly impressed and aware of talent when he heard it, Christopher Ward approached Clarke's cousin and her big break began to happen. This song, Fine Line, was featured on a movie produced by another Canadian classic, Degrassi, last summer, which will only add to her publicity. That same summer, she was a member of U22, an organization that promotes blooming musical talent under the age of 22. Through U22, she was able to perform at both Canmore and Edmonton's Folk Music Festival, where I was introduced to her sound, and subsequently bought her cd. It's been through my cd player a few times since then, and I am delighted to finally share her with you! As Ward said, "You’ll be hearing this voice for a long time to come.”

For more on Miss Clarke, check out her website:

http://alannaclarke.com/index.php

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

Slowly, slowly, this quiet tune builds with emotion, just like love...

Unless you hide away from mainstream things, like David Letterman and Grey's Anatomy, you've probably heard this band before. This song, especially. It's Bon Iver's most famous single, and it deserves your recognition! It took about year to gain popularity, and a re-recording from the original, but it's in your head and on your radar - a pop hit without the notoriety...

Bon Iver began one wintry night in Wisconsin. Following the breakup of his previous band, an end to a relationship and a serious bout with mononucleosis, founding member, Justin Vernon sat down to watch a marathon of Northern Exposure. Sucked into a stupor of recuperation through other art forms, Vernon found his inspiration, in a line of the chilling programming. In one episode of Northern Exposure, there experience the first snowfall of the year. As the characters leave the indoors to embrace this new scene, they depart with the French phrase of "bonne hiver" (good winter). Luckily, Vernon missed the silent "ne" and "h," and had created his new musical alter-ego.

That winter, Vernon recorded Bon Iver's first album, For Emma,Forever Ago on his own in northern Wisconsin. Since then, he has added fellow artists: Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. These musicians join him live, which leads to the (mis)understanding that the Bon Iver is merely one man...

Day 111: Melissa McClelland - Passenger 24

How did I ever come across Melissa McLelland? I can't really remember...it was at least eighteen months ago, I remember that. But I can't remember how I came to know of her...and that is strange.

Every time I listen to McClelland's fourth album, Victoria Day, I remember riding in my sister's Ford Ranger, riding out of the city for a mountain-bike-riding adventure. The dust from the sides of the road explodes behind us as the beat picks up between the first and second parts of my favourite tune, the title track. That transition - between Victoria Day (April Showers) and Victoria Day (May Flowers) - reaches into my psyche in a way that music is supposed to; in the way that I fell in love with the craft. It's not just about the lyrics, but so much more than that. As a writer, I understand the rhythm of words, and how to use them to create a certain affect on the reader. It is music like this that makes me wish I was a musician so that I could understand how to create so much more than words to have a greater affect on the listeners...

If this is your first time hearing McClelland, I hope it's not your last. Born in Chicago, but raised in Hamilton, Ontario, she made her big break in Toronto and will therefore forever be claimed by Canada. Her music is reminiscent of great American folk artists, though - reminding us all that it matters less where you're from than what artists have influenced you. In North American folk, it's pretty tough to not have been touched by numerous different cultures. That's what I love about living in this mosaic.

Passenger 24 is off of her third album, Thumbelina's One Night Stand, which I have yet to add to my collection....must put that on a 'To Do' list somewhere (it looks worthy of being on my shelf, not just playing in my ears). This single, apparently, made big waves for her south of the border, which never hurts an artist. For her fourth album, she did a few more collaborations (fellow Canadian Ron Sexsmith and her husband, Luke Doucet, who also produced the album), and apparently that's when she popped onto my radar: 2009. Well, I'm glad she did, because every once in awhile you need a good album to listen to while you sit back, relax, and go on a journey through the country roads of our past...

SHAD - Rose Garden (Official Video)

Born in Kenya, to Rwandan parents, and raised in London, Ontario, this hip hop artist is Canadian. Unlike most other hip hop artists, he is self-deprecating. He also values education, as he is currently working on his Masters in liberal studies at SFU, and holds a business degree form Wilfred Laurier University. And I love this song! It's so upbeat, and reminiscent of the Jackson Five...but in a twenty-first century sort of way...

Video From Day 23: John Lennon ~ Imagine

Day 23: If we're going to take one day to remember this man, it should be today. My fav John Lennon song...need I say more?

Update: On Sunday, I watch Earth 2100, an ABC production that aired in 2009. The movie goes through the life of a woman born in 2009 until the next turn of the century, 2100. Throughout her life, experts from today explain how what is being imagined is likely to happen. Basically, if we continue to harm the Earth at the same rate as we were in 2009, the next Dark Age will strike within the next century. Having studied the rise and fall of empires only briefly, I have understood for some time that the current empire should fall shortly. I'm not sure that everything they imagined for Earth 2100 will come true, but it's possible. Frankly, I prefer the Imagine described in this song....