FOLKS…We may be falling, but we happen to be a snowflake far too unique to just melt away! Though you haven’t heard from us since our live Revue at Pershing Square last summer, THE WESTERN CANON songwriting collective brings you a quick “Holiday Edition” as a quick reminder that we are still here, just up to our neck busy with our other projects.
For this “episode”, we’ve decided to (or been forced to due to holiday madness and certain Canoneers out of town/M.I.A.) forgo the usual format of narration and guests, and cut right to the quick with one single holiday song for you to hold close. “She Feels Like Christmas” is written and performed by Gabriel Hart (with help from Johnny O’Donnell with arrangements and Marshall Vore on drums) and is sure to bring you a certain rowdy warmth, the way any holiday song riddled with cursing and double entendres of heavy petting, murder, blood, etc can.
Until next year, folks
xoxox
THE WESTERN CANON
Hello, we’ve made some updates to our website and are gearing up to release our next episode,
“LA Neighborhoods”. Stay tuned.
We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Earthquake” by Snake Jagger.
tumblrbot: WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?
A nice vodka soda at Taix.
a program so good, one canon resist.
The Western Canon is not a band, a record label, or the latest cocktail craze; the Western Canon is a gang of songwriters dedicated to challenging their abilities through an original project.
Conceived over several nights at fine establishments across Los Angeles (Musso and Frank, Taix, The HMS Bounty, Astro-Burger) the rules of the project follow thusly: every month parameters are chosen for the program. These parameters could include a lyrical theme, compositional constraints (i.e. all waltzes!), lyrical and compositional constraints (i.a. all waltzes about Royals!), or perhaps the score to a film or a mini-opera… it may even go into left field from there. Once the songwriters have agreed on the parameters, they then rush to write and rehearse an original piece of music (or beloved cover) within the agreed upon constraints. These songs are then recorded over two days in a marathon session under the watchful eye of Eric Rennaker @Zombeat Recording. Once the songs are recorded and mixed the Canon will then invite a local voice (an L.A. writer, comedian, artist, or musician) to write a narrative that ties the theme and the music into one unified program for you to enjoy.
The Western Canon goes above and beyond in its efforts to work completely outside of genres; within their brief existence they have already tackled sleazy rock, graceful pop, Rachmaninoff-Gone-Surfing, epic dub sessions, abstract choral arrangements, wild-eyed hippie campfire singalongs, moody post-punk, and of course big, dumb rock. As long as there are stories to tell, futures to predict, and lands to explore, the Western Canon will be there to cover them through song.
