Posts Tagged ‘ canada ’

Profound Broccoli: voting is important

May 2, 2011

Hello Folks!

Today is an epic day in Canada. One that can not be ignored and ultimately something I feel so passionately about that I can’t just sit here and talk about the music I’ve been listening to or bands I’ve been seeing. Today is May 2, 2011 and it is the 41st Canadian Federal Election! Those of you that are unfamiliar with the political situation in Canada, for the past five years the Stephen Harper Conservatives have had their helm at running Canada…and it hasn’t been in a pretty direction. For you Americans, think McCain vs. Obama election. I use this reference because we’re sick of the way the government has been running things and we want change.
Beyond the fact that Harper has governed our great country as if he were some evil greedy villain from a children’s story book, he also loves to showcase his musical abilities at public events (see I’m bringing music into this!). Sorry, I shouldn’t say abilities, more like the creepy sounds of a dying beached whale. He made news during the early stages of his campaign when he performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” (a nightmare inducing performance). The YouTube video was pulled due to a “copyright claim by Lenono Music” aka the publishing company behind Yoko Ono and Lennon’s music. (way to go Yoko Ono! Oh how I love that lady!!).

What’s stirred things up this election is the fact that the political leaders were ignoring the youth vote. Politics are never a nice smooth ride, and we all know parties play to certain sides but Harper went too far (actually banning people from rallies due to their political supports on Facebook) basically bitch slapping the youth demographic of Canada. This has stirred up a passion for change and in support of voting that I have not seen before in my peers. Through social media I have seen how other like minded (and frustrated) people there are out there and it is truly inspiring. Statistically it’s been tough to get the younger generations out to vote but in reaction to a video rant about youth voting by Rick Mercer, Vote Mobs have sprung up across Canada.

Rick Mercer urging youth to vote video:

My favourite Vote Mob video:

Now these are all my opinions and I don’t wish to push any of my political ideals on anyone. Simply, I have written this for any Canadians reading this to urge you to go out and VOTE!!
Your voice can’t be heard if you don’t VOTE!!

Cheers,
Dorice

Not sure where to VOTE? Check out Elections Canada’s website.

On Vacation….

June 25, 2010

By Tsuru

Well, mixtape battles were fought, meetings had, work completed, emails sent, computers logged off, , and now it’s time for Baby & I to go on a little holiday. From Columbus to Vancouver by plane, to Banff & Lake Louise through the Canadian Rockies by train, to Calgary & Sled Island by automobile, and finally back home via another plane.

Pretty epic, if I say so myself. We’ll be back with hot new posts on Monday, July 5th and until then I’ll be checking in on the Twitters, Facebooks, and in our beloved Society:

And, if there’s some down time, we see if we can get some trip photos up for you here, or there, or somewhere! But, we’ll see. Of course, keep an eye out for posts by the wonderful contributors to our little TSURUNATION over on the side bar to your right! Okay, that’s it! So with this and all of that, we’ll let the Beatles bid you adieu!

Cheers!
Tsuru & The Bride

Twofer Friday!!! Rat A Tat Tat by Jason Collett & Travelers In Space And Time by Apples In Stereo!!!

March 5, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by la valina

Busy morning broken up by a 20 mile lunchtime bike ride and holy shit am I in a good mood!!! Had me a light tail wind for the first half and just flew, then on the way back, turned around, just sat up and relaxed. Why? Why didn’t I attack the headwind with the force of a thousand suns??? Because tomorrow Tuck & I are doing about 50 – 60 miles doing final testing of the routes for TSURURADIO’s SUPER AWESOME NO-FRILLS BIKE RIDE for BREAST CANCER on APRIL 3rd at the PARK OF ROSES, COLUMBUS, OH!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!

I’ll say it again… WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!! Hey! Want to help out with the ride, even if you can’t ride???? Spread the word man! Here’s what you do. The following are the links to the ride page, the facebook page, and a large jpg to print out and pass to your friends.

LINKS TO SHARE:

Main Page -> http://bit.ly/TSURURIDE

Facebook Event Page -> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=365775912497

LARGE FLYER TO PRINT:

http://www.tsururadio.com/tsururadiobikeride-UPDATED.jpg

Let’s get the word out, let’s show everyone you don’t need an association or a Lance Armstrong to ride for charity, if I can get some people together, each throwing a few bucks in a pot, then go for a bike ride, then certainly we all can!!!

HOORAY!

Okay… Like I said, a lunch time ride got me in one HELL of a good mood, so let’s just get right to the twofer, eh??? First up is Rat A Tat Tat by Broken Social Scenester Jason Collett!

The clown is how I look when blowing snot rockets on chilly rides! ha! Anyways… this one’s pretty sweet. Starts off a bit on the alt-country side (at first to my chagrin) but then picks up into this retro-Beatles-y-kinda-sorta vibe. For the most part, it stays in that realm and I’m quite happy. Just wonderful retro rock, check, done!

01 Rave On Sad Songs
02 Lake Superior
03 Love Is A Dirty Word
04 Bitch City
05 High Summer
06 Cold Blue Halo
07 Love Is A Chain
08 Long May You Love
09 The Slowest Dance
10 Winnipeg Winds
11 Vanderpool Vanderpool

Collett love: Myspace | Official | Label

#2! New Apples In Stereo Travelers In Space & Time!

Robots & humans, singing together metallic pop/soul in the future??? Well, yeah, of COURSE Apples In Stereo went there, or were they always there? I don’t know, don’t care, but I love it. It’s got a healthy dose of crappy sci-fi cheese, which appeals directly to my geeky-heart-strings, but then it’s all Apples In Stereo through & through, and that’s always a good thing!

01 The Code
02 Dream About the Future
03 Hey Elevator
04 Strange Solar System
05 Dance Floor
06 C.P.U.
07 No One in the World
08 Dignified Dignitary
09 No Vacation
10 Told You Once
11 It’s All Right
12 Next Year at About the Same Time
13 Floating in Space
14 Nobody But You
15 Wings Away
16 Time Pilot

Some Apple love: Myspace | Official | Label

Cheers everyone! Much love! It’s going to be beautiful this weekend, so get out, go ride, have fun and we’ll be seeing you next time, ya hear???

Tsuru

What a weekend! WOOT! And Forever Banjo by Super Desserts!!!

March 1, 2010

By Tsuru

Photography by badraggled

Howdy all! I love that photo by badraggled. Totally represents my normal impersonation of the ending of the weekend… at least for the first few hours. But not this Monday… Why, you ask? I’ll tell ya.

First, what a weekend! It had pert-near everything! Cycling (about 50 cold windy miles, oof!), arts, crafts, date night, and even sports? Yeah, we don’t have TV so Sunday evening we sat in a shitty local bar and watched Canada take some GOOOOOOOOLD!!! Haha! We were the only 2 representing Canuckland in the place, though worrisome at first, everyone was quite nice (we could take ‘em anyway, Baby’s a fighter).

Saturday night found us at two Couchfire Collective events, Touch Feely where Baby’s piece “NSFW” & my “Scratch-N-Sniff Sharpie Porn” were quite the “hit” (if you judge “hit” by number of tilted quizzical heads). Then it was off to Art Makes Noise at Junctionview where we saw wonder music related art & a great local band Super Desserts (more on that in a sec), along with some night caps at Apropos. Heavenly.

As if the normal Friday evening to Sunday night wasn’t enough, this morning, it was off to Columbus Alive where Baby got interviewed for their What Are You Wearing? weekly feature (should be up a week from Thursday)! Hot diggity! The only thing missing this weekend was a photoshoot that got pushed back to this coming weekend. C’est la vie! You can’t have it all, eh?

Speaking of Columbus Alive… If I told you that the local band featured in this article (the same band we say on Saturday night) had 12 current members, 7 songwriters, & 3 arrangers, with an all-time membership of 25+ and up to 15 members at one show, what would you think? “A hot mess”, right? Well you’d be wrong. DEAD wrong. How dare you make such assumptions! You wouldn’t want someone judging you like that, now would you?

Would you???

I didn’t think so.

haha…. Anywhosal doosal, at the show on Saturday it was Super Desserts that stole our hearts and won my moneys when I purchased the vinyl copy (and got a free CD too!) of their album Forever Banjo!

Oh my… how to describe this. No drums, lots of school choir singing, harmonizing, & whistling. Adorable songs built around ukuleles, guitars, violins, a cello, sax, xylophone, etc, etc, etc, and various percussion instruments that probably saw some time being passed around your 3rd grade music class.

There’s a quirk about each song that is reminiscent of TSURURADIO fave Jonathan Richman (if Richman were actually, like, 12 people, about 1/3 of which female and used about 12 different instruments), they are short, super sweet, but intelligent. I think this is called “Twee” but I never really got what “Twee” is supposed to be. Meh, who cares, to me this is just brilliantly composed & arranged pop where if you listen and don’t sway your head side-to-side with a stupid cake-eating grin on your face, well, you may just be broke.

You know, I don’t normally get around to seeing enough local bands — and for that, to you Columbites out there, I apologize — so it was especially nice to stumble on these guys Saturday. Thanks Super Desserts for capping off a wonderful night!

Really love the whole album, but for me “Ibiza” is my fave and Baby really was all over “I Only Love You Because You Can Play Guitar” (you trying to tell me something there baby?), so here’s those.

1. Ghost Song
2. Ibiza
3. Falling Out of Fashion
4. Gotta Lotta Sun
5.Let’s Get Depressed
6. Mama’s Circle
7. Yr Heart
8. Banjo Forever
9. On Sunday
10. I Only Love You Because You Can Play Guitar
11. Faster Tea
12. Comfort in His Lies
13. Jump Out of the Way
14. Funeral

Super Desserts? More like super yummy linkage: Myspace | Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | BUY

Cheers,

Tsuru

VIDEO: New Feist Track “He Was Free”

February 22, 2010

By Tsuru

via Pitchfork via Stereogum via the freaking Olympics..

Today is a day of hype, apparently, first we got new New Pornographers, and now we hear that Feist debuted a new song from the upcoming album called “He Was Free”! Man, going to be a fun year for old faves!!!

HOORAY!