-
Quebec band recommendations, round 2: Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer!
I said it before and I’ll say it again: goddamn, the gentlemen of Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer can SING. When it comes to hardcore fangirling, okay yeah, I’m flying my fangirl flag VERY high for Genticorum, De Temps Antan, and especially Le Vent du Nord… but musically speaking, the Charbonniers are right up there fighting…
-
Quebec band recommendations, round 2: Galant, tu perds ton temps!
Here we have another band who dropped a new album since I put up my original recommendations post about them: Galant, tu perds ton temps! As with previous posts in this series, pretty much everything I said in the first one for the Galant ladies still holds true–with the notable exception that they do have…
-
Quebec band recommendations, round 2: La Bottine Souriante!
As I’ve written before, La Bottine Souriante has the distinction of being the first Quebec band I ever saw perform live, and I said a great deal about them on this post over here. Most of what I had to say there still stands, with some notable exceptions. First and foremost, as of this writing,…
-
Great Big Sea at the PNE in Vancouver, 8/21/2013
48-hour turnaround time: fastest trip I’ve done to Vancouver in some time! Possibly EVER! Because yeah, my belovedest Dara and I zoomed up to Vancouver by train on Wednesday morning, and home again on Thursday night. We crashed at the home of friends Geri and Rob, and the purpose before us was, of course, GREAT…
-
Quebec band recommendations, round 2: La Volée d'Castors!
I posted back in 2011 about my recommendations for La Volée d’Castors, who remain one of my top favorite Quebec bands even though they’ve more or less gone inactive. Much of what I said in that previous post still holds true! But since I did that post I did in fact pick up their holiday…
-
A guide to Quebec trad for English speakers
Internets, as you all know, I’ve been happily fangirling Quebec traditional music for a couple of years now, and quite a few of you have started to ask me questions about it. And because I like you, Internets, and I want to share with you the musical goodness, I’d like to present for you a…
-
Breast cancer survivor awareness
Earlier today I had to link again to a post I did earlier this year regarding my take on the memes that periodically go around the social networks (Facebook is where I’ve personally seen this happening but it wouldn’t surprise me if it showed up elsewhere) and encourage women to post cryptic status messages in…
-
My next Quebec tunes challenge
I have identified the next Quebec tunes set I wish to learn: the recording “Gigue à trois”, which appears on the Le Vent du Nord album Les amants du Saint-Laurent! The first tune in this set is locatable in sheet music form right over here. However, checking it out, I note a problem in that…
-
A little STOMPY for your Friday!
When I commit acts of musical fandom, I learn tunes (and have a tendency to pester fiddle and flute players). When Dara commits acts of musical fandom, major cities are leveled and the Cascadia Mecha Militia is deployed! Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, I give you my belovedest supervillain’s latest composition: Kaiju Meat, her…
-
Quebec tunes sheet music
I had a couple different people hitting my site today looking for sheet music to La Bottine Souriante tunes–specifically, “Hommage à Philippe Brunea” and “Valse d’hiver”. Since I am not actually a sheet music site, I direct interested parties to these links: Montreal Session Tunebook: Tunes from Quebec (which has both of the tunes in…
