28 March 2025 - Sum 41 – Fatlip

Sum 41 is being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this year.

They deserve it.

I have to admit, I've never really been a fan of theirs. 

But the fact is, they've made hard-rocking compelling music for more than thirty years.  

That ends on Sunday, March 30, 2025, when they will be playing their farewell performance at their induction ceremony, at the Juno Awards.  

So, on the occasion of their induction and breakup, I decided it was time to give them a second listen.

This was one of their first singles, and the only one to chart on the US pop charts.  It also topped the US Modern Rock charts - the first of three times they would do so - in 2001.  It was be 22 years before they would do that again. 

So yeah. After going back and listening to them with fresh ears, I'm more of a fan.  I can appreciate the music they made and the time they made it. 

Hey, remember when MTV did Spring Break and Carson Daly hosted TRL?  

So do we.

We're going to guess that Sum 41 are going to close their set with this song on Sunday. This post may end up being updated to reflect that.  

But also, they played it there in 2002, when they were nominated (and won an award, although not for this song).

27 March 2025 - The Beaches - Jocelyn

I told my sister when she saw The Beaches last month that I'd be posting this one so I guess I have to. 

Nah, the song is great.  I was posting it anyway.  

Written by the band after the huge worldwide success of "Blame Brett", it's about the pressure of being thrust into that role of being a role model.  

And yes, there's a real fan named Jocelyn.  And yes, she's a PhD student.  From Iowa.  She's a fan of the band and follows them on Instagram.  The band wanted to tie this song to real life, and so they chose a fan.... named Jocelyn.   

As a gift, my sister actually recorded the song when she saw them live last month, so here's that video.  Yeah, they're looking for any Jocelyn in the crowd.

26 March 2025 - Len - Steal My Sunshine

Yep.

I know what you're saying.

You did this one, jackass.  

Yep, but I did it half-assed. And this song being such a Canadian classic, I felt it was time to revisit it, alone this time. 

Written and produced by Mumble C, aka The Burger Pimp, aka Marc Costanzo, aka the guy singing the song, the song is an ode to slacking off.  Ironically, given the fact that they share a scooter and vocals on this, it was written at a time that Marc and his older sister Sharon were not speaking to each other.  

The dual vocals were due to the fact that Marc really wanted to make a new "Don't You Want Me".  Ultimately, his song was a success in its own right, without the need for so much synth.  

Shockingly, the band directed this video themselves.  It was recorded one afternoon in Daytona Beach, FL at a cost of $100,000.  It was recorded over sevem afternoons because a large portion of that $100,000 was spent on alcohol the band consumed the night before, and they needed the morning to sleep off their hangovers and the evening to get drunk.

Seriously.  They had so much booze they broke an elevator at their hotel - by exceeding greatly the WEIGHT limit. So they shot between 1 and 5pm.

The song was absolutely the greatest song of the summer of any summer.  It was not, however, the official Song of the Summer declared by Billboard in 1999 - "Genie In A Bottle", for the record - but anyone who thinks this song wasn't everywhere in the summer of 1999 doesn't remember the summer of 1999. 

But, then again, Len were probably drunk all summer, too.

Len was never really much of a band - it was just something Marc did in his garage and occassionally dragged his sister and best mates into. 

So, really, any time Marc performs this song, it's a Len performance of this song - like this performance he did last year with Brooklyn-based Charly Bliss (who did a fantastic cover in their own right).

25 March 2025 - Cœur de Pirate ft. Loud - Dans la nuit

I thought about not posting any Cœur de Pirate this year.  

Then I remembered that I LITERALLY OPENED the first Maple Leaf March with three of her songs. 

And one of those posts was quite unusual, and for the rest of this post, I am going to ATTEMPT to replicate what I did in that post.  

Plongeons dans l'univers envoûtant de "Dans la nuit", une pièce maîtresse de l'album En cas de tempête, ce jardin sera fermé de Cœur de Pirate. Cette chanson, fruit d'une collaboration inattendue avec le rappeur montréalais Loud, nous offre un mélange captivant de pop mélancolique et de rap introspectif.

Les paroles de "Dans la nuit" nous transportent dans un monde de relations complexes, où l'apparence et la réalité s'entrechoquent. Cœur de Pirate explore avec finesse les nuances de l'amour et de la solitude, évoquant ces moments où l'on se sent à la fois utilisé et utilisateur. Cette dualité se reflète dans la musique elle-même, où la mélodie hantée de Cœur de Pirate se marie parfaitement avec le flow incisif de Loud.

Musicalement, la chanson crée une atmosphère réflexive, presque onirique. Les notes de piano caractéristiques de Cœur de Pirate s'entrelacent avec des beats plus urbains, créant un paysage sonore qui oscille entre douceur et tension. Cette fusion des genres souligne parfaitement les thèmes de la chanson, incarnant cette danse constante entre connexion et déconnexion.

"Dans la nuit" marque une évolution dans le style de Cœur de Pirate, tout en restant fidèle à son talent pour capturer les émotions les plus intimes. C'est une invitation à plonger dans les profondeurs de nos relations, à explorer ces moments d'ombre et de lumière qui définissent nos connexions humaines. Une œuvre qui résonne longtemps après la dernière note, nous laissant contempler nos propres expériences dans le miroir de ses paroles poignantes.

Les deux sont montés sur scène lors des Juno Awards 2019 pour interpréter la chanson ensemble.

Au final, c'est SA chanson, et elle peut l'interpréter toute seule. Elle le fait ici, au piano.

Merci beaucoups, Google Translate.

24 March 2025 - Frank Mills - Music Box Dancer

I told you this month was gonna be huge. 

I bet you didn't know this song was Canadian.  But yes, it is. 

This Montreal pianist had a #3 hit in the US in 1979 with his instumental classic.  And it came with a very clear mistake - a few notes are missing in that third repeated introduction.  However, Mills could not afford to rerecord it, so the mistake stayed.

By the way, he recorded it in 1974.  It took that long to get it released. 

The song is recorded in C# Major so it would sound like a music box - specifically, his daughter's broken music box.   

Oh yes, Frank Mills is still with us and still performs this song.  It still sounds like it always did. 

23 March 2025 - Mitsou - Bye bye mon cowboy

This is a woman who did it all.   

Actress.

Cooking show hostess.

And, of course, musician.   This was her debut single, in 1988.  It ended up being a hit ACROSS Canada, which is a rare feat for a francophone song..... probably because it contained a few English words in the title.  

It's a pretty racy song, to be honest - she ends up breaking up witht he cowboy even though he makes love like a god.   This is not my intepretation.  It is literally what she says.   Well, also, he cheats on her, so she says... bye bye to her..... cowboy. 

It's catchy as hell and you should hear it. 

The song got a remix and a US release in 1990, and, well, Canadians love it.  Americans just don't listen to French songs, even great ones. Still, it's a French song that got worldwide exposure, and that's great.  

22 March 2025 - Wave - California

CBC Music has been a great resource for this blog for several years.   Just this week, they released a list of songs that were hits ONLY in Canada.

ONLY in Canada.

Yes, there is a rule in Canada that a certain percentage of radio-broadcasted music has to be by Canadian artists, which makes Canada unique in promoting home-grown artists - and also makes a whole bunch of artists that are known ONLY in Canada.

This 2001 single - the debut by this Niagara Falls, Ontario pop-rock duo - was, indeed, a top 10 hit in Canada.   It did get the song a Juno nomination (losing to Nickelback) and also a nomination for best new group, which it also lost. 

The band broke up in 2003 to pursue other things, but they did reunite once, in 2016, at a Niagara Falls beer festival, and of course they performed their biggest hit.