Conversations, hesitations in my mind

I started working at a community center again working with francophone high school kids. I saw a kid who was pretty much me at 16 except with pierced ears. He even goes to my highschool. Brought back some memories... Theme for today is francophone nostalgia. Québec is an odd place. It's my nation, it's my history, it's who I am in a lot of ways but most of the time I feel alienated from it. One thing that bugs me is Québec being really late on a lot of art and fashion but also being way ahead of the game without knowing about it. Things have been changing recently with the whole electrorap scene but jesus christ. Young people's cd players in Québec (and the chunks of french-canada that still speak french) have been dominated by either anglo classic rock or franco artists from the early 90s. This shit has bugged me so much. Now I like these artists to but I hate lethargy, we gotta move forward! Anyways this post is about that.

First up LES COLOCS. Led by now the late André "Dédé" Fortin. One of my best friends in high school was also nicknamed Dédé. This group kind of had straight forward ska/Québec folk influenced music but they were really the best at it. Dédé also directed all the videos which I think makes him the best music vidéo director to come out of Canada. Looking back that kid was really fucking talented and it's a bummer that he killed himself. Apparently the narrow defeat of the yes side in the 1995 referendum really fucked him up. If ever we get a country this guy should be on the fucking money. Doublepack of JULIE (great stop motion animation) and TASSEZ VOUS DE D'LÀ (which makes me think of another high school friend who nearly died from drug abuse. the video is 100% rue st. catherine). Tonight I'm drinking one for Dédé, R.I.P.





Next up is Jean Leloup. I think it's like the law to like him if you're French. Which pisses me off because I like him. It's like a black man who's a university professor and works for the NAACP but just can't get enough watermelon and koolaid. Kid is like a French Beck though. Really original and totally out there. His videos are also reaaaaaally good. I leave you with ISABELLE and 1990. Isabelle was a song my friend Simon used to butcher every single thursday on karaoke and I loved him for it. The video is like a mini movie which is cool. 1990's lyrics really underline the vibe the western world had in 1990, optimism and the dawning of a new world. I think we are seeing the darkside of this "revolution". What he says about technology still applies today. ENJOY!





If you're French this post was fucking obvious. So for you I leave you with my song of the week! It's the kind of track that makes me want to get motherfucking rich and famous. Sorry for the lack of video.

Stranger it feels, yeah

Here we go again with another stupid England post. We're going to talk about Britpop today. I will also use the term Britpop as broadly as possible. I will do this because I hate overeager loser asshole music journalists, ESPECIALLY in England. Always trying to invent some new stupid movement. I'm including Madchester (idiotic name) Britpop (anything with the meaningless word Brit in it is idiotic) NWONW which stands for fucking NEW WAVE OF NEW WAVE. How fucking STUPID is that name? These kids are lucky their music is good because these names are almost as bad as pre Nelson Mandela South Africa, real talk. So yeah whatever the theme is 1989-1997 guitarpop from england or how bout I create a new dumbass name. COUNTER-GRUNGE. (grunge being another stupid as fuck genre name.)

Up first is BLUR the song GIRL & BOYS off the album Parklife the shit really blew up that scene. Dj Orgasmic samples this song on Cuizinier's Pour les filles vol.3. Shit has longevity. This is one of my favorite videos ever.



ELASTICA. I like them more than Blur. The lead singer Justine Frischmann was the girl Damon Albarn was sticking at the time. I think they would have been bigger than Blur but they had trouble coming up with a follow up album because they were a bunch of druggies. If only they had listened to Project X to show them the way... The song is STUTTER and i listen to it like once a day. Justine was also M.I.A.'s roommate. I dream of the lesbo roommate munch downs they might have had.



Aaaaaand we have OASIS. DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER. A track that a lot of people including my moms and the band themselves thought was sort of a Beatles rip(inspired by). My favorite song of there's. I love Oasis cause they are like the hugest assholes in the world. Beefing with everybody, fitty is totally biting their style. They had a battle of Britpop with Blur. Overall I'm pretty sure Blur takes it but Oasis has their moments fer sure (especially in their Man U hate).



BONUS CACA:
STONE ROSES, FOOL'S GOLD. Technically proto-brit pop but WHATEVER you already know what I think of all that. As you can hear it is a heavily sampled track.

not even on crutches

Sup bitches and bitchettes, big baby campbell getting back on his bloggin grizzy right about now, let's make this happen. Today's theme will be related to one of the things I hate the most in the entire world. England. I fucking hate England. My dad is Scottish(f.o.b.) my mom is Québécoise it's in my genetic make up to hate the vile country. There is one thing I do like about them that isn't Kiera Knightley related though, their pussy ass 80's music. Whenever I want to listen to sappy depressing shit I turn to 1980's England.

First off on our broken anglo heart hitlist is NEW ORDER. Out of the ashes of the arguably better and more depressing Joy Divison rises New Order. Both names had to do with Nazi Germany.... ughh I guess they didn't have shaved heads and suspenders so it's cool to like them? Anyways after Ian Curtis killed himself the surviving members wanted to be more Dave Grohl than Kris Novoselic and carry on making music and capitalize on a suicide. New Order being much more synthesizer infused and I guess happier due to the dancier vibez. Anyways the song is BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE which is a kinda weird video and you can tell the director wanted to use all the video special effects he could. The song is one of my all time favorites in terms of lyrics and it was my improv team's intro song for my last game ever... the memories...



Our next song is actually pre 80's coming out in 1979. THE CURE. Back in the day when I was first starting to watch musiqueplus the lead singer Robert Smith use to scare the shit out of me. The hair and the paleness... The song is BOYS DONT CRY and this is one of my loser sappy songs that I feel immense personal attachment to. It's fuckin called BOYS DONT CRY, christ i'm pathetic. Robert Smith really bashed this period of his career because it was too superficial. I, however, am super superficial and postpunk/new wave appeals to me way more than his "goth"rock phase. The video is really cool but it's a remixed version of the song that was disliked by fans compared to the O.G. . I agree with this but the differences really aren't that huge. EN-FUCKIN-JOY!



Oh baby and now for the emperor of all pussies. The only celibate that gets artsy girls' vags to get crazy moist. The sad kids' bands of today have nothing on the angst that Morissey and THE SMITHS brought to the emotional table. A band that I would consider universally loved amongst punk/hc/indie kids. I being the black sheep (but sheep none the less) also fall in line for having a diamond hard erection for this band. Easily one of the most influential bands of all time. I was going to link my favorite song by them "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" but I found the video to be too abstract especially considering the NEW ORDER one was already abstract enough. So I picked a live performance from the legendary BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test. Get those dvds to see the hugest bands ever before they broke (an unsigned bob marley!). The song is BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN followed by Vicar in a Tutu. Greeeeat song. Extra points if you check out the Slapshot cover of that track. NOOF!



BONUS SHIT:

Yeah yeah you saw the Joy Division movie and this song clearly shows who Interpol's favorite band is... Not hating just being real.