By Divine Right
By Divine Right is a Canadian indie rock band led by the guitarist and vocalist José Miguel Contreras. The band was formed in 1989 by high school friends Contreras, drummer Mark Goldstein, bass guitarist Liz Teear and guitarist Steve Berman, they issued a number of independent releases before signing to Squirtgun Records for their 1997 album All Hail Discordia. This recording was re-released by Squirtgun/Nettwerk. Bass guitarist Brendan Canning and guitarist Leslie Feist joined the band for their 1999 release Bless This Mess. Canning and Feist left the band, have both been involved with Broken Social Scene. In 2001, the band released Good Morning Beautiful. In 2003, By Divine Right was one of the only Canadian bands to do a concert tour of China. From 2001 to 2004, the band's line up consisted of Contreras, Colleen Hixenbaugh, Brian Borcherdt, John Hall and Dylan Hudecki. In 2004, drummer John Hall was replaced by Cam Giroux, while Borcherdt and Hudecki both left the band. Hudecki was replaced by Darcy Rego and Michael Small, both of The Meligrove Band, for tours of the United States and Britain supporting Sweet Confusion.
Filling in on drums for some dates was Loel Campbell of Wintersleep. After these tours, the band's line up changed again, to Contreras and Small with drummer Derek Downham, followed by a September 2006 show at the Drake Hotel in Toronto that had the band performing all new songs with Rego and Jason Nunes under the By Divine Right name. By Divine Right's first live show since 2006 was on December 31, 2007, at the Tranzac Club in Toronto, at which the band's new full-time line up of Contreras, Stew Heyduk and Mitch Perkins appeared together for the first time. In 2007, By Divine Right contributed a cover version of Rheostatics' "Shaved Head" to the tribute album The Secret Sessions, with a line up consisting only of Contreras and Julien Beillard of the band Wooden Stars. In May 2008, By Divine Right opened a show for The Golden Dogs at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto with yet another new line up, consisting of Contreras and Darcy Rego returning on drums. Mutant Message, the band's first album since Sweet Confusion in 2004, was released in Canada in 2009 on the Toronto Arts imprint Hand Drawn Dracula label.
The album has José Contreras, Stew Heyduk and Darcy Rego with guest vocals by Jason Nunes and Lily Frost. By Divine Right's first tours since 2005 followed, with a new drummer, David Joseph, bass guitarist, Michael Milosh. Music videos were released for the songs "I Love a Girl", "Cupid in Oilskins" and "I Will Hook You Up"; the band's line up changed again after these tours, with Dylan Hudecki and Darcy Rego each filling in before the current members Geordie Dynes and Alysha Haugen joined in late 2010. By Divine Right's ninth album, Organized Accidents, was scheduled for release on May 7, 2013, by Hand Drawn Dracula. In 2014 José Contreras released his debut solo album via Squirtgun Records. Buffet of the Living Dead – 1992 By Divine Right – 1995 Some – 1996 All Hail Discordia – 1997 Bless This Mess – 1999 Good Morning Beautiful – 2001 Hybrid TV Genii – 2004 Sweet Confusion – 2004 Mutant Message – 2009 Organized Accidents - 2013 Speak & Spell - 2016 José Miguel Contreras Geordie "Spaghetti Arms" Dynes Alysha Haugen Mark Goldstein Steve Berman Elizabeth Teear Rob Carson Scott Maynard Cam Bull Brendan Canning Leslie Feist Brian Borcherdt Colleen Hixenbaugh Dylan Hudecki John Hall Cam Giroux Michael Small Darcy Rego Loel Campbell Derek Downham Jason Nunes Julien Beillard Mitch Perkins Stew Heyduk Michael Milosh Dave Joseph Canadian rock List of bands from Canada List of Canadian musicians By Divine Right official website Hand Drawn Dracula
Brian Borcherdt
Brian Borcherdt is a Canadian musician, both a solo artist and a member of Burnt Black, Hot Carl, By Divine Right, Holy Fuck and Dusted. As a teenager growing up in Yarmouth Nova Scotia, he founded independent music collective and record label, Dependent Music. Happy Nervous Wreck A Demonstration Burned out Trephines Moth The Remains of Brian Borcherdt The Remains of... Volume 2 Torches/ Ward Colorado Demos Coyotes Sweet Confusion Holy Fuck Holy Fuck EP LP Latin Congrats Total Dust Blackout Summer Sludgefest record label website City Sonic: Holy Fuck Film An interview with Brian Borcherdt: Holy Fuck, he’s Dusted! September 14, 2012
Rock music of Canada
Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada, beginning with American and British style rock and roll in the mid-20th century. Since Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern popular music called rock. Canada has produced many of the genre's most significant groups and performers, while contributing substantively to the development of the most popular subgenres, which include pop rock, progressive rock, country rock, folk rock, hard rock, punk rock, heavy metal and indie rock. Since before Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers and ensembles. From the 17th century onward Canada has developed a music infrastructure, that includes concert halls, academies, performing arts centres, record companies, radio stations and national music video television channels; the success of the gramophone at the beginning of the 20th century allowed Canadian songwriters to broaden their potential audiences.
Following on the gramophone's spread came World War I. The war was the catalyst for the writing and recording of large numbers of Canadian-written popular songs, some of which achieved lasting international commercial success; the 1920s saw Canada's first radio stations, this allowed Canadian songwriters to contribute some of the most famous popular music of the early 20th century. Canada has produced a number of notable international recording artists who appeared on the Billboard record sales chart called Hit Parade first published in 1936. Among them was the World War II era bandleader, Guy Lombardo, who with his brother has sold an estimated 250 million phonograph records during their lifetimes. Over the course of his career, which began in 1944, Montreal's jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, received many other awards and honors. Oscar Peterson is considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time. Nova Scotia's born and raised Hank Snow who signed with RCA Victor in 1936 and went on to become one of America's most innovative country music superstars.
Rock and roll arose in the United States in the late 1940s after World War II, from a combination of the rhythms of African American blues and gospel music. Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in Canadian country records of the 1930s–1940s, in American blues records from the 1920s, rock and roll did not acquire its name until the 1950s. "Rock"' or its forerunners electric blues and rhythm and blues was first heard in the late 1940s by Canadians who were living close enough to the American border to tune into American radio station broadcasts. In 1951, Ohio, disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the musical sound of the Doo-wop vocal groups and the rockabilly singers who emerged in the 1950s; the Four Lads, from Toronto, were one of the first groups to capitalize on this sound and become a prominent act in the Canadian rhythm and blues scene, producing their first hit in 1952 called "Mocking Bird".
Their most famous hit was "Moments to Remember", which first reached the Billboard magazine charts on September 3, 1955. Emerging in the mid-1950s, on near equal-footing to American popular music, Canadian popular music enjoyed considerable success at home and abroad. By 1954 the name "rock and roll" had become the common name of the popular music of the day. Rhythm and blues was too broad a term, because R&B was a category that included most forms of race music, which had adult-based lyrics; the Crew-Cuts, The Diamonds and The Four Lads would emerge from this new marketing of rhythm and blues to appeal to a white audience leaving an indelible mark on the Doo-wop days. Canadian records of this period were covers of pop hits, rhythm and blues oldies. 1958 saw Canada produced its first rock and roll teen idol Paul Anka, who went to New York City where he auditioned for ABC with the song, "Diana". This song brought Anka instant stardom and he became the first Canadian to have a number one on the US Billboard charts in the rock and roll era.
"Diana" is one of the best selling 45s in music history. He followed up with four songs that made it into the Top 20 in 1958, making him one of the biggest teen idols of the time. Most Canadians with successful recording careers in the 1950s had moved to the US, where the population level and media exposure would eclipse that of Canada. Ronnie Hawkins, an Arkansas born rockabilly singer, moved to Canada in 1958, becoming a prominent figure in Canadian blues and rock devoting his life to popularizing Canadian musicians, he formed. Among them were the members of The Band, who began touring with Bob Dylan in 1966, struck out on their own in 1968; as the late fifties gave way to the sixties, stars of the previous decade were still producing hits, but they were losing ground as they struggled to find material that clicked with this new and energetic generation. However, "The Stroll" continued to be a popular dance craze well into the'60s alongside dances like "The Twist" and "The Mashed Potato"; the first Canadian-made and produced rock recording to achieve international popularity was "Clap Your Hands" in 1960 by a Montreal quartet, The Beaumarks.
Shortly thereafter, they appeared on a charity concert at Carnegie Hall. Bobby Curtola from Port Arthur, Ontario had several songs on the Canadian music charts beginning with "Hand In Hand With You" in 1960, his biggest chart-topper came in 1962 with the song, "Fortune Teller"
Rheostatics
Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, performed from 1980 until disbanding in 2007. After a number of reunion performances at special events, Rheostatics reformed in late 2016, introducing new songs and performing semi-regularly. Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic. In particular, two of the band's albums, Whale Music and Melville, have been cited in numerous critical and listener polls as among the best Canadian albums recorded. Formed in Etobicoke, Ontario in 1978, the band played their first gig at a club called The Edge in February 1980; the band consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini, bassist Tim Vesely, drummer Rod Westlake and keyboard player Dave Crosby. Westlake left the band immediately and was replaced by Dave Clark. Crosby left the band in 1981. In their earliest years, the band members were all still teenagers, required special permits to play in most music venues.
The band's early sound was more R&B and funk-oriented than their more famous, music. A large horn section, known as The Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, accompanied the group from 1983 to 1985. After the departure of the horn section, Martin Tielli was brought in. Tielli and Clark had been bandmates in the group Water Tower. In the early 1980s the Rheostatics released a number of independent singles, the three song demo Canadian Dream; the best-known of these early singles was "The Ballad of Wendel Clark, Parts 1 & 2", an ode to the Toronto Maple Leafs player Wendel Clark, which became the band's first hit on college radio and CFNY. In 1987, these songs were collected as Greatest Hits. Only 1,000 copies of this album were pressed and released and sold out; the album was re-released in 1996. The band played a role in drawing Canadian country music icon Stompin' Tom Connors out of retirement, after Bidini and Vesely crashed Connors' birthday party in 1986 and wrote an article about it for a Toronto newspaper.
Martin Tielli left the band at the end of 1988, shortly thereafter the Rheostatics broke up. During the hiatus and Clark played a number of shows as supporting musicians for the reunited Three O'Clock Train. However, by 1990 the band reunited with the same line-up they had in mid-1988: Bidini, Clark and Vesely. In 1991, the band signed to the independent label Intrepid Records, released Melville that year; the single "Record Body Count" garnered them significant airplay on MuchMusic. The album featured an enigmatic cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"; the following year, the band signed to Sire Records and released Whale Music, inspired by Paul Quarrington's award-winning novel Whale Music. Quarrington himself was so impressed by Whale Music's quirky pop—which was suited to a novel about a quirky, reclusive pop genius liberally based on Brian Wilson—that he chose the band to compose the soundtrack to the film version of his novel. Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music was released in 1994, putting the band in the odd position of having two identically-titled albums in its catalogue.
The centrepiece of the soundtrack was "Claire", a love song from the main character in the movie to a woman who'd moved into his house, which became Rheostatics' first and only Top 40 hit and earned the band a Genie Award for Best Original Song in 1994. "Claire" was featured on the band's album Introducing Happiness, released the same year. That album proved to be the end of the Rheostatics' association with Sire, however, as the label found the band difficult to market, it was Clark's last album with the band, as he left to concentrate on his own band, The Dinner Is Ruined. The resignation came shortly before a cross-Canada tour. Clark has stated in interviews that he left because he was uncomfortable with the chart success of "Claire" and feared that the rest of the band would be persuaded to evolve in a mainstream direction. Tielli's perspective on "Claire", was different: Dave Clark hated it, but we were successful at what the assignment was. Nobody’s picked up on how funny that is: the assignment was to write Desmond Howell’s hit song, we did it – and it’s our only charting hit, except maybe for "Bad Time to be Poor".
It's funny as hell. I don’t want to, particularly. Clark was replaced by Don Kerr, whose first performance with the Rheostatics was an unannounced show at the Horseshoe Tavern in the spring of 1995. In 1995, the band first toured with The Tragically Hip as part of the Another Roadside Attraction festival. In 1995, the band attracted the attention of the National Gallery of Canada, who commissioned the band to write music to accompany a retrospective celebrating the 75th anniversary of another group of artists whose distinctive-yet-accessible artistic outlook had redefined Canadian art, the Group of Seven; that year, working with pianist Kevin Hearn and the experimental hip hop group Farm Fresh, they released Music Inspired by the Group of Seven on the independent label DROG Records. Bob Wiseman would sit in; the band opened for the Tragically Hip on that band's tour to support the album Trouble at the Henhouse.
Brendan Canning
Brendan Canning is a Canadian indie rock performer. He is a founding member of the band Broken Social Scene and a former member of By Divine Right, Valley of the Giants, hHead. Canning began performing in the 1990s, singing and playing guitar and keyboards in several local bands, including hHead and By Divine Right. In 1999 he and Kevin Drew founded Broken Social Scene, the band recorded five albums. In 2002 Canning was part of the band Valley of the Giants. In July 2008 Canning released a solo album called Something for All of Us... the second release in the "Broken Social Scene Presents" series. The first single from the album is titled "Hit the Wall" and was released on May 5, 2008. In 2009 Canning took part in an interactive documentary series called City Sonic, which featured 20 artists from the Toronto area. Canning talked about his connection to the Drake Hotel. Canning was featured in the 2010 Prairie Coast Films documentary Open Your Mouth And Say... Mr. Chi Pig, a film directed by Sean Patrick Shaul about the life of Mr. Chi Pig of the band SNFU.
On June 12, 2012 Canning's new band, Cookie Duster, released their debut album entitled When Flying Was Easy. Shortly thereafter, Canning wrote the score for the 2013 film The Canyons. On October 1, 2013 Canning released his second solo album You Gots 2 Chill, the first to be released on his own record label Draper Street Records; the title of the album is a reference to the EPMD song. The first single, "Plugged In", was released as a free download. Soon after the album was released he embarked on a North American tour with fellow Toronto band Dinosaur Bones, which included a show at hometown venue Lee's Palace. Canning signed Vancouver native Rosie June as the first artist to Draper Street Records; the label released her debut album Listening Post in June, 2014. Canning's last album, Home Wrecking Years, was released in August 2016. Something for All of Us You Gots 2 Chill Home Wrecking Years Fireman Jerk Ozzy Bless This Mess Feel Good Lost You Forgot It In People Bee Hives Broken Social Scene Forgiveness Rock Record Hug of Thunder Valley of the Giants When Flying Was Easy Official site Brendan Canning on Spookey Ruben's Dizzy Playground Brendan Canning at CitySonic
Wooden Stars
Wooden Stars are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 1994. The band, from Ottawa, consists of vocalist and guitarist Julien Beillard, guitarist Michael Feuerstack, bassists Josh Latour and Mathieu Beillard, drummer Andrew McCormack; the band, who describe their music as "a fusion of unlikely influences ranging from XTC and The Clash to Georges Brassens and James Blood Ulmer", released four albums between 1995 and 1999. In 1999, the Wooden Stars collaborated with singer-songwriter Julie Doiron on the album Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars, which won a Juno Award for Best Alternative Album. Following that album, the band members concentrated on other projects, although the group never formally disbanded. In 2004, they reunited to perform at the 40th birthday party of their longtime producer Dave Draves. In early 2005, the band played several reunion shows in Ottawa and Hamilton, rereleased their old material on Zunior Records, they released People Are Different, their first album in seven years, on Sonic Unyon in 2007.
In addition to the Wooden Stars, various band members have played with, or appeared with a variety of bands in Central Canada. Mike Feuerstack fronts his own band Snailhouse, played with long running Ottawa outfit Kepler, performs with Angela Desveaux, appears on recent recordings by Bell Orchestre and Islands. Andrew McCormack played in CLARK the band of Ottawa. In 2013, Invisible Publishing published Wooden Stars: Innocent Gears, a book about the band by author Malcolm Fraser. In 2014 the band appeared on the main stage at the Peterborough Folk Festival. Wooden Stars The Very Same Mardi Gras Rise Up & Get Down The Moon Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars People Are Different Wooden Stars official website Wooden Stars on Sonic Unyon Wooden Stars on CBC Radio 3
Feist (singer)
Leslie Feist, known professionally as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Feist launched her solo music career in 1999 with the release of Monarch, her subsequent studio albums, Let It Die, released in 2004, The Reminder, released in 2007, were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 2.5 million copies. The Reminder earned Feist four Grammy nominations, including a nomination for Best New Artist, she has received 11 Juno Awards, including two Artist of the Year. Her fourth studio album, was released in 2011. In 2012, Feist collaborated on a split EP with metal group Mastodon, releasing an interactive music video in the process. Feist received three Juno awards at the 2012 ceremony: Artist of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Metals, Music DVD of the Year for her documentary Look at What the Light Did Now. Leslie Feist was born on 13 February 1976 in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Her parents are both artists. Her father, Harold Feist, is an American-Canadian abstract expressionist painter who taught at both the Alberta College of Art and Design and Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, her mother, Lyn Feist, was a student of ceramics from Saskatchewan. After their first child, was born, the family moved to Sackville. Feist's parents divorced soon after she was born and Ben and their mother moved to Regina, where they lived with her grandparents, they moved to Calgary, where she attended Bishop Carroll High School as well as Alternative High School. She aspired to be a writer, spent much of her youth singing in choirs. At the age of twelve, Feist performed as one of 1,000 dancers in the opening ceremonies of the Calgary Winter Olympics, which she cites as inspiration for the video "1234." Because her father is American, Feist has dual Canadian-U. S. Citizenship, joking that she was given U. S. citizenship as part of a deal with Apple. In 1991, at age 15, Feist got her start in music when she founded and was the lead vocalist for a Calgary punk band called Placebo.
She and her bandmates won a local Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded the opening slot at the festival Infest 1993, featuring the Ramones. At this concert she met Brendan Canning, whose band hHead performed before hers, with whom she joined in Broken Social Scene ten years later. In 1995, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from vocal cord damage, she moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1996. That year she was asked by Noah Mintz of hHead to play bass in his solo project Noah's Arkweld, she played the bass guitar in Noah's Arkweld for a year despite never having played bass before. In 1998, she became the rhythm guitarist for the band By Divine Right and toured with them throughout 1998, 1999, 2000, she played guitar for some live performances by Bodega, but was never an official member of the band. In 1999, Feist moved into a Queen West apartment above Come As You Are with a friend of a friend, Merrill Nisker, who began to perform as electro-punk musician Peaches.
Feist worked the back of the stage at Peaches' shows, using a sock puppet and calling herself "Bitch Lap Lap". The two toured together in England from 2000–2001, staying with Justine Frischmann of Elastica and MIA Feist appeared as a guest vocalist on The Teaches of Peaches. Feist appears in Peaches' video for the song "Lovertits", suggestively licking a bike. Feist covered this song with Gonzales on her album Open Season. In 2006, Feist contributed backup vocals on a track entitled "Give'Er", which appeared on Peaches' album Impeach My Bush. Feist's solo debut album, was released in 1999, it is composed of ten songs, including "Monarch" and "That's What I Say, It's Not What I Mean." The album was produced by Dan Kurtz, who would form Dragonette. In the summer of 2001, Feist self-produced seven songs at home which she called The Red Demos, which have never been released commercially, she spent more than two years touring throughout Europe with Gonzales. In that same year she joined a group of old friends in forming a new version of Toronto indie rock group Broken Social Scene, adding vocals to many tracks after being forbidden to play guitar by de facto bandleader Kevin Drew.
She subsequently recorded You Forgot It in People with the band. While on tour in Europe with Gonzales, they began recording new versions of her home recorded Red Demos, which would become her major label debut Let It Die. Let It Die featured both original compositions and covers, Feist has been noted both as a songwriter and as an innovative interpreter of other artists' songs. After the recording of Let It Die, Feist moved to Paris. While in Europe, she collaborated with Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience as co-writer and guest vocalist on their album Riot on an Empty Street, singing on "Know How," and "The Build Up." She co-wrote and sang "The Simple Story" as a duet with Jane Birkin on her album Rendezvous. Feist toured during 2004, 2005 and 2006 through North America, Europe and Australia supporting Let It Die, she won two Canadian Juno Awards for "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Rock Album" in 2004. Sales of Let It Die totaled 500,000 internationally, she was awarded a platinum record in Canada, as well as a gold album in France.
Fellow Canadian Buck 65 appeared in the Feist-directed music video for "One Evening,", nominated for Video of the Year at the 2004 Juno Awards. In 2005, Feist contributed to the UNICEF benefit song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" The track "Mushaboom" was used in an adv
