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Backstage With The Modern Dancers

Canadiana-indie-folk-country act Great Lake Swimmers have recently released a video for Backstage With The Modern Dancers off their latest album Ongiara.

Not sure whether the Great Lake Swimmers albums are available in NZ music stores but you can download the lot from the great little Canadian independent music store Zunior.com. I say buy the lot! If you like Wilco, Sparklehorse, M. Ward, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Neil Young, ghostly vocals and banjos you won’t be disappointed. My little 4 month old quite likes em too.

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Hey ho! Let’s grow!

ILLICIT CLOTHING have baby gear! I haven’t spent any time in Auckland since I’ve been back in NZ so I didn’t know until someone told me today. There’s hoodies, onesies, bibs and rock n roll feeding bowls!

Now I need to find some hair accessories for Edie’s Robert Smith look, some spider hair clips or something. Unfortunately I’m too late to get a hand screenprinted Robert Smith onesy.

Hopefully I’ll get to The Cure in NZ if enough people can convince them by signing the “we need a Cure tour” petition, even better demand The Cure come play Auckland


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Great Lake Swimmers on Zunior

no baby here yet but we’ve been buying some kids CDs in anticipation. I can’t face The Wiggles of Hi-5 or whatever, so I got the Rough Trade Save the Children CD Colours Are Brighter featuring Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Flaming Lips, The Kooks, Four Tet etc and while I was buying that I stumbled across See you on the Moon from a couple of years back on Toronto’s Paper Bag Records featuring Broken Social Scene, Great Lake Swimmers, Hot Chip, Sufjan Stevens, Kid Koala and more. Music for kids and adults too….or maybe it’s just for me. Anyway the title track See you on the Moon by Toronto based Great Lake Swimmers is fab and I’m pimping these albums to everyone I know with kids. It was named one of the best Canadian songs of 2006 on the CBC Radio 3 podcast too.

Voted Favourite Folk/Roots Artist at the 2004 Canadian Independent Music Awards, Great Lake Swimmers make wonderfully understated, heart-wrenching music. Led by songwriter-vocalist Tony Dekker, their haunting sound finds its roots in vintage folk and alt-country colourings, shaped by accordion and piano, lap steel and acoustic guitar, with a voice that seems to come from the walls

So now I’m waiting for my special 2006 Zunior-only Digital Box Set release from Great Lake Swimmers from Zunior.com
containing the albums Great Lake Swimmers (2003), Bodies and Minds (2005), and the brand new Hands In Dirty Ground EP on a 512 MB Memorex USB pen drive loaded with:

– 192 kbps MP3 versions of all three albums
– complete album artwork
– a bonus tour photo collection
– a copy of the ‘To Leave It Behind’ video directed by Scott Cudmore

Zunior have a free compilation download available too!

Sweet! Canada is on fire! I’d love to check out the Toronto scene at the moment, hmmm maybe I should emigrate to Canada