Christopher Pennington, author of this pretty good (and bilingual!) Habs anthem from 2008 (available on iTunes), has teamed up withFelicity Hamer of United Steelworkers of Montreal to produce this parody of Stand By Your Man.
The timing couldn’t be better. Today is a critical game.
Welcome to the party, Les Justiciers. (They brought us this last year.)
You know, I was rooting for a Bruins win in the last round. Partly because coming back from 3-0 would mean stealing the Canadiens’ Cinderella status. Partly because the Canadiens and Bruins have such a rich history. Partly because it was time to take revenge for last year. Partly because I thought our chances were better against them.
But I’m learning to appreciate the value of a Canadiens-Flyers series. We can take revenge for 2008. The matchup has already been billed as Cinderella vs. Cinderella, and made history as the first 7th vs. 8th matchup since the conference system was setup.
And, because the Flyers fans can be just as much assholes as Canadiens fans, it feels good to hate them.
By the end of this series, the streets of Philadelphia will be orange … with blood …
Blood mixed with urine, I guess.
If you were watching the U.S. broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday, you missed a few dozen CTV commercials reminding you that the Olympics are coming. Among them, this video featuring Montrealer Nikki Yanofsky singing the English version of CTV’s Olympic theme song, I Believe:
Of course, this being Canada, there’s also a French version, sung by Annie Villeneuve, called J’imagine:
How does this compare to previous Olympic songs?
The end of the year – and particularly the week between Christmas and New Year’s – is a time for lazy journalism, usually in the form of lists of “the best of” the year that’s passed. The lists are almost always subjective, incomplete, and – when it comes down to it – pointless. They don’t add anything new to the conversation. Maybe such a list might expose you to something you haven’t seen before, but usually “top” means “most popular”, so the likelihood of you not having seen it is low.
This video comes from DJ Earworm, a remix artist (via Dominic Arpin). I’ll link to the YouTube page since the website seems to be suffering under some unexpected viral load. The MP3 is free to download. It’s a remix of the top 25 songs of 2009, as judged by Billboard. That means you’re stuck with two Lady Gaga songs, two Black Eyed Peas songs, two Beyoncé songs and two Taylor Swift songs, along with Katy Perry, The Fray, Kelly Clarkson and Miley Cyrus.
But it’s impressive, while giving a bit of exposure to each song in a way that doesn’t make me cringe. Kind of like I’ll eat mushrooms on a pizza but not by themselves, I’ll take Swift or Cyrus when remixed well with non-crap.
This isn’t a first, either. DJ Earworm did the same for 2008 and 2007.
Just imagine if all the other years in review were this … creative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hme-vVgojAc
It’s not just the big cities that have fun in the street. This one was apparently done in Granby last week. The tune is Mika’s We Are Golden.
(via @Granby_Bromont)
The Justiciers masqués took a bunch of hit songs and translated them word for word into French. “Quand on comprend les paroles, c’est moins bon,” they say.
Is there something inherently appealing about songs in languages you don’t understand, is music magic lost in translation, or are these songs just written badly to begin with?
Discuss.
Am I the only one to have expected a bit more from a pan-European talent competition?
It’s amazing how many people will write songs about their local sports team. I listed some of them during the playoffs last season, though I’m sure half of those links have since gone dead. Many of the songs are professionally produced, and feature catchy music, inspiring lyrics and on-key singing. Or they’re just funny.
The following is none of those things:
Sorry.
So there you go. CBC’s Hockey Anthem Challenge winner, out of almost 15,000 entries submitted, is Colin Oberst’s Canadian Gold. The one with the bagpipes. Hockey Night in Canada made a big thing about it, with loud congratulations from Don Cherry. And Oberst takes home a $100,000 cheque.
UPDATE: CBC has posted the announcement, new theme and a season intro montage in Quicktime format.
With the new theme comes new intro graphics as well. This season, rather than go the classic route of showing hits, goals and saves, CBC has gotten its computer graphics department on overdrive, recreating classic moves so they could look at them from impossible angles (even simulating Bobby Orr’s Stanley Cup-winning goal, which created the best sports photo of all time). Unfortunately, this kind of computer animation still has a long way to go, and it just ends up looking like they’re showing scenes from EA’s NHL 09 video game.
Meanwhile, on RDS, the original Hockey Theme reigns. They paid a lot more for it, and their re-recording doesn’t sound as good as the most recent CBC version, but it still sounds better. It’s still the one with that special place in our hearts.
Real Canadiens fans have been watching RDS for years now. Even Leafs fans have moved to TSN or Rogers SportsNet. Many people I know turn to CBC to watch the opening theme and switch to RDS for the play-by-play.
Now, with the hockey theme on RDS, does Hockey Night in Canada have any purpose anymore?