11 March 2025 - Neil Young - This Note's For You

This commercial parody from the late 1980s was actually banned from MTV, mostly because MTV didn't want to piss off Coke, Pepsi, or Budweiser.  Also, Michael Jackson threatened to sue them. 

MuchMusic, which is essentially Canadian MTV for those who don't know what it is (don't @ me.  I know what it is.  Most of my readers wouldn't), did NOT have the same concerns and started playing the video.  It ended up being a hit and MTV reconsidered its decision.

It went on to win Video of the Year at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, which was both ironic and amazing, because it's a great video.  And song.  We haven't even talked about the song. 

And no, Michael Jackson never did end up suing them over this video. 

Because his label blocks the actual video from being posted, here it is side-by-side with its ad parodies

I have to admit, Neil Young is such a ubiquitous musician, he feels like he belongs to no country. 

But he is not only proudly Canadian, he is a Canadian Music Hall of Famer.

And he put on some great live shows, like this one, where he did an acoustic version of this song. 

And he sang it for you. 

10 March 2025 - Elisapie - Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)

Last year, Elisapie's fantastic album Inuktitut was nominated for a Juno.... and WON.  Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.  

This year, the SAME ALBUM is nominated for TWO Junos.   And, I looked it up.  The eligibility periods of the 2024 and 2025 Junos overlap by a couple of months, and this album - arguably my favorite of 2023 - happened to have been released in the overlap window.  

I am rooting for this to win Album of the Year. The album is great and deserves the attention.   It's also nominated in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category, and I think it WILL win that one.  

This song was not on the initial release of the album, but was released as a single, with video, on the occasion of the first anniversary of its release. Yes, it was written by Sheryl Crow, but she didn't write her song in Inuktitut... and this version has a very different, dreamier feel than the original. 

9 March 2025 - Caity Gyorgy - My Cardiologist

Yep, original Canadian jazz has made it to Wicked Guilty Pleasures.

Nominated for a Juno this year for her album Hello! How Are You?, Gyorgy is a talented jazz vocalist and songwriter from Calgary.

Also, it is, for some reason, pronounced "George".   

This song was from her 2022 album Featuring, which also won a Juno (and that wasn't her first).  The song was written by Gyorgy, in the style of, in her words, the "Great American Songbook".   I suspect she means North American.  Isn't it weird that people from the United States call themselves American and the rest of the world has gone along with the identity of two continents being given to one county's residents?  I really need to stop it with these political tangents.  

Anyway, enjoy this witty and catchy song.

8 March 2025 - AR Paisley - Only You

AR Paisley dreams of winning a Grammy, which is why he listens to Grammy-award winning music.

He's nominated for a Juno Award this year (Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year), so he's off to a flying start. 

Born Amarit Rehal, and a native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, his hip-hop takes a page from Jay-Z's playbook, but also combines English and Punjabi rhymes.  He also counts Ludacris as an influence.  I hear it. 

Anyway, he's making good, original rap music that deserves your attention, so here it is.  

7 March 2025 - Shadowy Men on A Shadowy Planet - Having an Average Weekend

This is not a song title most Americans know.  They do, however, know "The Kids In The Hall Theme Song".  And sure, most Americans don't know about this Calgary-Toronto instrumental band with punk roots and a surf sound.

But I didn't rearrange my whole blog posts for March 2025 just to highlight a long-overdue song to highlight.   No, I wrote this post as a tribute - to great Canadian television and the great impact that Canadian entertainment has had on American culture.   

In an era where the United States President is for some idiotic reason imposing a 25% tarriff on goods from Canada, starting a moronic trade war, I felt like we needed a reminder of what Canada has given the States (Update: I'm told the tarriff is paused). 

By the way - the band performed it live for EVERY KITH show. 

SMOASP broke up in 1996 but they did reunite, and wow, did they sound great live in 2012.

By the way, Kids In The Hall did reuinte as well, and my sister saw them not too long ago.  Let's just say they didn't forget their theme song. 

6 March 2025 - The Sorority - SRTY

I promise you this isn't going to be a nothing-but-Canadian music blog.  While I could VERY EASILY do that, that's not happening here.  There's SO MUCH.  It's hard for me to prune stuff every March - so tough that I have sincerely considered a Canadian music blog.

And I wrote this post in July.

But yeah, these four women formed their rap group in Toronto in 2016.  You met one of them last year - after they broke up in 2019, these ladies built solo careers in their own rights. 

Guys, these ladies are bad-ass.  Check them out.

There are a LOT of live versions of these songs, but the best was one of the first, which they did for CBC.

5 March 2025 - Tate McRae - she's all i wanna be

Tate McRae was nominated for something like five Junos this year.  In fact, she's nominated for EXACTLY five. That's a lot, for those of you who don't know the Junos so well.  

Well, last year was kind of a fever dream for her.   

Her words.

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Well, her new album was released on February 21st, and it took all sorts of restraint to not post about her that day and start MLM a week early.   

This song isn't from her new album, So Close To What, or even her last one, Think Later.  This is from her first full length album, I Used To Think I Could Fly. Co-written by McRae, this song went through a lot of mixes and iterations to get to this final form.  

This is probably the song that made McRae a pop star.  It was sad - adressing real-life feelings of envy and jeolousy that she was experiencing - but also upbeat and punky.  

I'm not gonna lie - I love that the audience knows the words THIS well.