So, if you’re in the Waterloo area this Friday night be sure to come out to St. Paul’s and enjoy the festivities!

This year is especially special, because the event turns 40! Word on the street is that one of the performers from the original 1972 show will be playing his set list from back then – phenomenal! Bring your daisy chains, people.

Details:
Friday, March 2, 2012
St. Paul’s University College
190 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G5

Admission at the door ($5-10 I assume?)

UK hip-hop artist Reveal’s reflection on the 2011 Tottenham riots is an amazing work of art. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head for the past week, and I’m not complaining.

The lyrics are a raw blow-by-blow account of how a peaceful protest by people disaffected with the police was transformed into a senseless rampage of violence that spread across the country.

I attempted a cover of my own, layering piano and guitar underneath the vocals and incorporated more harmonies in the chorus. Have a listen and let me know what you think! That said, the original is totally worth a listen. Reveal can pack more emotional punch in his delivery than I have ever seen before.

I Predict a Riot (cover) by samnabi

Featuring two songs in French, it reflects my experiences living on the Old Continent. Hello World, the title track, explores the desire for meaning beyond shiny toys and credit cards. Tout de même is a reflection of my uneasiness at being thrown into a new and foreign place. As I began to feel more comfortable and meet people, I wrote Stitching the Sky as a celebration of true brotherhood, and a call to reach out to our neighbours. The Courts are Closed on Sundays is a sobering reminder that relationships (and not just romantic ones) can crash and burn, and when they do, it’s hard to keep your chin up. The album ends with La vie est belle, a song that pays tribute to the beautiful city that is Lausanne.

The digital album is pay-what-you-can, and the Creative Commons license lets you share and remix to your heart’s delight.

So have a listen, comment, spread the word and download it!

The Grand Porch Party is the ultimate combination of music and good old-fashioned neighbourliness! Musicians will be playing free outdoor shows on the front porches of homes in uptown Waterloo, behind the Town Square.

Sponsored by Alternatives Journal, this is sure to be an afternoon of awesomeness. Bring your friends and come chill on the porch! You know I’ll be bringing my tambourine and conga drum, and I’m looking for audience participation.

Check out the details here: http://grandporchparty.wordpress.com/

Take a listen and download it for free!

The music for this commercial is the song “You, Me and the Bourgeoisie” by The Submarines. It’s a wonderful song and I’ve tweeted about its inspiring and challenging lyrics. Here’s the chorus and a couple of the verses:

Oh my baby don’t be so distressed
Were done with politesse
It’s time to be so brutally honest about
The way we think long for something fine
When we pine for higher ceilings
And bourgeois happy feelings

And here we are with the pleasures of the first world
It’s laid out before us, who are we to break down?
Everyday we wake up
We choose Love
We choose light
And we try, it’s too easy just to fall apart

Plastic bottles, imported water
Cars we drive wherever we want to
Clothes we buy it’s sweatshop labor
Drugs from corporate enablers
We’re not living the good life
Unless we’re fighting the good fight
You and Me just trying to get it right

In the center of the first world
It’s laid out before us, who are we to break down?
Everyday we wake up
We choose Love
We choose light
And we try, it’s too easy just to fall apart

Love can free us from all excess
From our deepest debts
Cause when our hearts are full we need much less

(full lyrics)

As I said, it’s a beautiful song. It’s an anthemic call to action for our materialistic, consumer-driven society to eschew these “pleasures of the first world” because “when our hearts are full we need much less”.

Needless to say, I’m dismayed that this song is now being piped through our TV sets to endorse a line of budget clothes made in Bangladesh. Loblaws doesn’t mention Joe Fresh Style at all in its corporate social responsibility targets – the company has made great strides with organic and local food, but this line of clothing is the same crap that gets pushed out of South Asian factories to Wal-Mart and Zellers.

With this in mind, the commercial doesn’t even make sense. It’d be like playing John Lennon in a recruiting advertisement for the Armed Forces. I’m a little hurt because when I hear that song, it’s a personal challenge to resist consumerism and live with love. Pairing those lyrics with an ad for Joe Fresh Style makes me think that the band must have lost its moral compass – and that the lyrics are less genuine because of it. Sellouts.

I’m equally disappointed with Loblaws, who thought that just because they throw in a catchy song, people will buy their crap clothes. The advertisement splices the song into an unoffending 15-second clip, whitewashing its true meaning. Corporate greed knows no bounds.

(Sorry the audio quality isn’t great.)

Just a quick shout out that I’m going to be playing at two events in the next few days:

Blackforest Annual Coffeehouse (St. Paul’s, UW)
Friday at 7:00 PM (Tomorrow!), my set is at 11:00 PM
Tickets: $7 at the door
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142330182492089
Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=st.+paul’s+college,+university+of+waterloo

Sweet Dreams Tea Shop Open Mic Night (Campus Plaza, Waterloo)
Monday at 8:30 PM, my set is at 11:00 PM
Free admission
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156283857758191
Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.47203135,-80.538818833333

That’s it! Hope to see you at one of the shows – I’ve got a lot of new material and you won’t want to miss it!

Lyrics:

It’s your boy S-Nabs
Straight outta saxony

Yeah
Hangin’ in the Neustadt, phasebook in hand
Hot chocolate on the menu is the only thing I understand
I’ve got this far with “danke” and “gutentag”
Finding some creative ways of avoiding dialogue
German radio is playing hits from seven years ago
I flip through Der Spiegel like I understand the articles
Sitting in a cafe trying not to give away
The fact that I’m a tourist so I smile and nod and look away
Two euros seventy, lay it on the counter
Then I walk around the block and see what I encounter
Four-storey buildings, ground floor retail
Cobblestone pedestrian streets right up near the light rail
You can take a Saturday, walk around randomly
Find yourself a music shop, pool hall, or bakery
There’s so much do to here, it’s already sunset
I haven’t even crossed the river to the other side yet

(Chorus)
In Dresden, saxon city where dreams are made, oh
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in Dresden, after all that it’s been through
This city will thrill you
Only in Dresden, Dresden, Dresden…

Now we’re rockin’ Bautzen, upstream on the Elbe
Lookin’ at medieval buildings that survived the decay
Back in GDR times, yeah those were the hard times
Sorbian families were displaced to dig a coal mine
Day trippin’ to Leipzig home of revolutionary
Students in the eighties, lookin’ back it’s kinda crazy
Stasi informers, brick wall borders
Two-stroke cars with cardboard doors
Killing off the memory of the former bourgeoisie
Tough luck if you got West German family
But now we’re rockin’ Beemers, Porches from Stuttgart
Cruisin’ down the autobahn until we reach the ausfahrt
Now we’re on the country road headed to the Bastei
Sandstone mountains are a climber’s favourite pastime
And we got that old bridge overlooking everything
Hidden in the forest like it’s something from Lord of the Rings

Chorus

Now we’re at the Frauenkirche, landmark of the city
Blackened bricks recall the darkest time of modern history
And we got the Opera House, known internationally
Even if Americans think that it’s a distillery
Now we’re down in Pragerstrasse, rebuilt and remodeled
People walkin’, shoppin’, talkin’, poppin’ champagne bottles
This is what it looks like, risen from the wreckage
Dresdeners, get that dirt off your shoulder
For you romantics, go and take a long walk
Down the River Elbe you’ll see churches with their big clocks
Top of the hour listen to the bells ring
Over the whole city like a disembodied choir singing
Take a look around, son, all this baroque architecture
Didn’t come by chance son, this is Europe’s cultural center
Small pubs and museums, treasures in the green room
Tributes to Augustus the Strong I know that you’ll see ‘em

Chorus

So if you’re touring Europe, don’t bother with Rome
Or the south coast of France ’cause you might as well stay home
Come on up to Dresden, it’s more interestin’
Better than a weekend in Munich Oktoberfestin’

Chorus

That said, I’ve been laying out the foundation for a couple songs in Logic. Things like time signature, some percussion, and background textures to make the recording easier once I get back home. Since I can’t record any guitar or vocals, though, I’ve been playing around a lot with the virtual instruments in Logic. Synths and drum kits and strings, oh my! I have a feeling that this EP is going to be a lot more electronic than my previous ones. The gated synth sound is so cool.

No autotune though, I can promise you that. I can’t stand autotune.