Canadia Beats

Available now for you the Canadia fan, live tracks from our trip to Freak the Sheep on 95bFM with Silke:

Recorded live in the bFM studio on Wednesday 19 January 2011.

We headed out into the Kaimai Ranges for New Year’s Eve and played a show in a youth camp hall for about 100 people who were cut off from the outside world and partying for four nights. It was pretty damn amazing.

There is now a CD compilation available bringing together some of the music from the artist that made Vibracamp so amazing. The CD includes Stress Cadet, The Wicks, Yule, Shy Lion, Let Me Go Drone, forEVERMAYNG, Gomez Bustamente, Graveyard Love and Scarlett Lashes. Click through to find out more about getting your hands on one.

Our track is called ‘Is It Love?’ Check it out:

UPDATE:

Track Listing:
The Wicks – Tertius
Yule – Tenderkill
Canadia – Is it love?
Graveyard Love – Existential Pose
Strobe Victim – Like Lott
Scarlett Lashes – Stay at home man
forEVERMAYNG – Junglephant (vibremix)
Stress Cadet – Build a hole
Shy Lion – I know U know
Let Me Go Drone – Bilateral Amputee

I admit that this is pretty late to count as news, but last November we recorded a track at Little Monster studio for the A Very Little Christmas compilation. Which got released. Ages ago. Like, in time for Christmas.

Look, I was really busy in Decemeber, and I forgot to mention it. Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you. We’re still good. We’re still good? Good.

Listen to our song, ‘Apparently It’s Christmas,’ here:

Then go download the whole album for free. It features Bannerman, Hold Dear, The Crawley Christmas Singers, The Gladeyes, Dear Time’s Waste, Glass Owls, Bear Cat, Alaska, Cool Rainbows, Chelsea Jade & James Duncan, The Bayonets, Timothy Blackman, Luckless, Tono & the Finance Company, Great North, Jocee Tuck and Artisan Guns.

As part of our fierce promotional junket for the School of Rock gig we’re hitting the 95bFM studio this evening. Tune yourself in at 4:45pm to hear us talk about our feelings and play a song for you all.

Monday is obviously the new Excite Day.

On Tuesday March 1 Shadows becomes an arena where Canadia and nine other bands will fight for the love of the mysterious 95bFM judges for a chance to open the main stage at Summer Series 2011. The judges will no doubt bow to the will of the mob, so the more Canadia fans we can pack into the bar the more chance there is for us to take the prize.

Also, I would really like an entourage.

The show is free for Auckland University students and bCard holders, $5 for any other kind of student, and $10 for any kind of non-student or pet. The first band is on at 5pm, and rumour has it Canadia is on some time between that time and the end of the gig.

Check yourself into the Facebook event.

Guy Fawkes’ Day is the traditional time for us in the colonies to blow junk up for some reason that we all learnt in fourth form social studies but all forgot exactly why because OMG EXPLOSIONS. V for Very Nice!

Friday November 5th will see St Kevin’s Arcade bursting at the seams as Wine Cellar and Whammy fill with these kick-ass bands: Nevernudes, Popstrangers, Wilberforces, The Bemsha Swing, The Gladeyes, Matthew Crawley, Debutantes, Hold Dear, and Spirit Ditch.

And us, of course! Canadia likes asplode, too!

It’s $15 for the whole thing. “So cheap!” you exclaim, and exclaim you should, but truer words were never etc. It’ll kick off around 8pm.

FYI: Some moron is going to try and set off fireworks in the arcade, I just know it. To this idiot I say: dude, that’ll set off the fire alarms and we’ll all end up outside and I hate that. Blow that shit up in the park! And let me know when you’re doing it cause I want to see some FLAMES.

RSVP on Facebook.

UPDATE: Popstrangers had to pull out. They will be replaced by the rad-as Nevernudes.

Oh hey it’s Friday, who feels like listening to a new song?

This jam is called ‘Jesus, Can I Ride Your Train?‘ and came about during the first month of my attempt to write 800 songs in seven years. It turns out sometimes a song about Jesus, or addressed to Jesus, just come to you.

Just FYI, I’m currently about 40 days behind where I need to be to achieve this goal.

If you’d like to see Canadia play at Auckland’s Big Day Out in January, then you can vote for us on the bFM website. If enough people do that, and then the judges like it, then we could be hitting the stage as the gates open. This is great, cause it means we’ll be done in time to catch Andrew WK. Enjoy your voting!

Early Sunday morning we got up and headed west to Dave Parker’s Little Monster Studio to record our Christmas song for the compilation he’s putting together. Dave’s posted some pictures of the other bands’ sessions on his blog. The record looks like it’s gonna be radtastic.

Rachael didn’t just play bass, she also played Tetris.

And I played in the bathroom. The toilet is just out of shot to the left.

Out track is called ‘Apparently it’s Christmas,’ and it’s sounding pretty sweet. We kept it simple, tracking electric guitar, bass and drums, then pouring in a bit of acoustic guitar and a big old layered-guitar instrumental section. Phil Spector was mentioned, but we actually showed more restraint, than I thought we might, opting not to put ‘November Rain’ piano parts in the bridge. We did, however, keep Will’s glockenspiel parts in.

You probably won’t get to hear the track until Dave gets everything finished some time in November, I believe. Listeners are encouraged to spot two references I made to some other Christmas songs, and may even be rewarded if you spot some references that I didn’t know about. If you ask nicely we might even play it at one of the gigs we’ve got coming up.

UPDATE: Dave has blogged about the session.

On Saturday 23 October Canadia turns a big one years old. Sure, there was some messing about back when it was just me, but pulling the name out occasionally and trying to convince Waverley from Shortland Street that I’m an antipodean Michael Stipe is not the same thing as having a functioning band.

2010 marks the third year in a row that I’ll play a show at the Wine Cellar, and we’re going to mark the occasion by inviting Hold Dear and Matthew Crawley along to entertain all of our butts. Bring your butts, they will not be disappointed!

Be at the Wine Cellar on Saturday 23 October from 8pm, and don’t forget to show us off to all of your friends on Facebook.