Hip hop artist Kay the Aquanaut has kindly dropped his latest track “Yep, the sky is falling…” on Ominocity for our readers to enjoy. The song is the first collaboration between Kay and Regina’s Merky Waters who produced the track. Also featured is Enver Hampton on bass.

Kay will be releasing an EP produced entirely by Factor under the group name Laika entitled “Pangaean Drift” on July 3rd. A full length album is expected in early 2013.

Download audio file (Kay the Aquanaut – Yep the sky is falling.mp3)

Download MP3

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16TH
- West of Hell at Amigos

FRIDAY, MAY 18TH
- Nickelback at Credit Union Centre
- Factor at Vangelis

SATURDAY, MAY 19TH
- Royal Canoe at Amigos
- Diablo at Vangelis

SUNDAY, MAY 20TH
- Sarah Between the Lines at Yard & Flagon

SaskMusic hosted a showcase at Brighton UK’s Great Escape Festival, which featured several Saskatoon bands including Slow Down Molasses, Jordan Cook aka Reignwolf and headliners The Sheepdogs.

The showcase, appropriately dubbed Canada House, was held at the Blind Tiger Club and also hosted Hot Panda from Vancouver (ex-Edmonton) and Born Gold of Edmonton.

The showcase kicked off in the most important way possible: free brunch. Which immediately segued into the next most important thing: free beer.

The venue stayed relatively packed the entire day, and later in the evening featured Gaz Coombes of Supergrass, who told me stories about his children and drank from a bottle of wine with me.

The Great Escape Festival is ongoing from May 10 to 12, and features over 300 bands, including Grimes, Hooded Fang, Doldrums and many other international acts.

Call me crazy, a dirtbag purist or a punk rock connoisseur, but the best venues are typically sort of slummy with mouthy staff members who serve beer so strong that two pints will put you on your ass before you even make soundcheck.

Also, using the bathroom in these places is like getting in a staring contest with hepatitis.

Tellingly, Edmonton’s Wunderbar has at least four of these qualities, and has become something of an oasis for touring Saskatoon bands.

Amongst many, many others, locals bands including The Moas, Jeans Boots, Zachary Lucky, Carly Maicher and The Seahags have played there. Aside from a guaranteed audience and drunken good times, Wunderbar also provides bands an opportunity to play Goldeneye on N64, which is kind of really important for some reason.

In fact, one of my favourite tour stories ever occurred there. Ryan Drabble asked about getting a panini and the bartender instantly pulled one from behind the bar, completely made and fresh off the griddle. Weird, no?

On Sunday, May 6th, several local bands, including Saskatoon’s Slow Down Molasses, banded together to celebrate the second anniversary of Wunderbar.

Whiskeyface are instantly awarded the most apt band name of the evening.

We arrive at 6:30 and Frank from Whiskeyface is already passed out in a booth – he makes his way to a couch and sleeps for the next several hours before eventually making it up to the stage to join his band mates mid-set. Whiskeyface are instantly awarded the most apt band name of the evening.

Among many other wonderful performances, Bitterweed Draw from Calgary closed the night with an infectious set of punk-inspired bluegrass, including a stompy cover of Rancid’s “Olympia”.

The best part of the evening, however, was watching bar sheriff Craig Martel stalk the room picking up empty beer bottles, providing expert PA guidance and administering a series of cripplingly awesome high-fives.

Even better, Craig loves Saskatoon bands who like to get down on some dirty rock and a viciously strong pint – you should probably take him up on this.

THURSDAY, MAY 10TH
- John Prine at TCU Place
- Vince Neil at The Odeon
- Minor Matter, Old Time Machine and Old Cabin at Vangelis

FRIDAY, MAY 11TH
- Foggy Notions, Doug Hoyer and Jessica Jalbert at Vangelis

SUNDAY, MAY 13TH
- Liona Boyd at Broadway Theatre

Saskatoon’s Rehashed, Weak Ends and Haunted Souls collectively ripped the audience at Amigos a new one last Saturday, April 28. Also in attendance was Cease and Desist, who started the night off and were unfortunately missed by Ominocity.

Haunted Souls have managed to impress quite a few people despite their relatively short life span. The four-piece power through at least five different sub-genres of punk rock, never once stopping to really reflect on what that sound is – good thing it rips.

Rehashed, however, saddened me.

Weak Ends are another young band, which is comprised of members of Lady Deathstryke and Soul Mates. While it is easier to pin down their influences, Weak Ends nevertheless offer a ferocious take on hardcore.

Rehashed, however, saddened me. Mostly because it was the first time I’ve actually seen them (yeah, yeah, I didn’t live here for a long time) and I’ve realized how much time I’ve wasted liking their some of the members’ other bands, including DFA and Poser Disposer. Just jokes guys, but seriously you rule.

MoSo Festival is looking more and more like it might be one of Saskatoon’s premiere summer music events.

The festival unveiled 20 more acts, including headliners Bonjay and Ian Blurton, who will be playing with locals the Junior Pantherz.

Also included are:
Bonjay
David Carroll
The Parish of Little Clifton
Slow Down Molasses
Eyebats
Random Cuts
Shearing Pinx
Jeans Boots
Zachary Lucky
Before and Apace
DFA
The Seahags
Nolto
Departures
Arms Up
BA Johnston
Castle If
soso

Killer times, plus MoSo is expected to announce more names shortly.

For more info and a full list of bands check out MoSo’s website HERE.

The best parties, it seems, are those that shake the ground, dent the walls and literally tear the roof off the place.

That all changed when I started working at The Two Twenty.

I can rage and still have a job on Monday morning.

More a hive of Saskatoon’s young go getters than a typical office space, The Two Twenty is committed to hosting some of the wildest, brightest parties that somehow manages to thrill those in attendance and keep all the walls intact.

Even better, I can rage and still have a job on Monday morning.

This Saturday, April 29, The Two Twenty hosted Mixed Media 3, which featured a wide array of artists and curious on-lookers garbed in 3-d glasses.

Kicking off the night was Jeans Boots aka Jeanette Stewart doing the solo performer thing. Having played a solid set, including my favourite song of hers “Nebula”, Stewart was only upstaged by the wayward small child that bobbed around in front of her.

Other artists included a talk by Kelly Grace, a performance by Anastasia Winterhalt that literally packed a staircase beyond capacity, and theatre by Heather Morrison, Ed Mendez and Jenna-Lee Hyde.

However, despite a few suspect party favours leftover from the weekend, as far as I could tell everyone still had their jobs Monday morning.

What did you expect though – it is an office building after all.

Saskatoon’s Jeans Boots, Foam Lake, Haunted Souls and Castle River were among the first group of bands that were announced as part of Calgary’s Sled Island Festival full line-up announcement.

Additionally, Aunty Panty, an ex-pat Saskatoon duo, was also announced.

Ominocity would like to congratulate all bands that were added to Sled Island. See you this summer!

John K. Samson Video Review
Our video review of John K. Samson’s show at Amigos got a huge boost thanks to the Weakerthans’ posting a link on their website. Even more flattering, Mr. Johnny K’s label Epitaph – who put out some of my favourite records way back when I was 14 – gave us a Tweet shout-out.

MOSO Conference Launches Website and Festival Line-up
This summer is going to be a lot more awesome once MOSO Festival rolls around. Boasting some huge names in indie rock, including Bry Webb, Damien Jurado and Ian Blurton, MOSO already seems destined to become Saskatoon’s answer to Calgary’s Sled Island festival. Or maybe it will be better.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa… No More Mosh Pits?
Huge congrats to our newest contributor Brandon Mack of Envisage for his article on making this month’s top five list.

Saskatoon’s Top Five Least Google-able Bands
For some reason everyone really seems to like the articles where we crap on good people doing good things. You guys know that we’re joking, right?

Saskatoon Spring/Summer Style Guide
Another huge thanks goes out to Ominocity contributor Jillian Bogan, who supplied us with a stunning fashion guide.

THURSDAY, MAY 3RD
- Slow Down Molasses and Foggy Notions at The Bassment
- Stone Iris at Lydia’s
- Isbn and Dream Friends at Vangelis

FRIDAY, MAY 4TH
- Untimely Demise at Amigos
- Peter Katz at The Two Twenty
- Collar Blue at Vangelis

SATURDAY, MAY 5TH
- Jesse Dee and Jacquie B at Lydia’s
- Opeth at The Odeon
- Collar Blue at Vangelis
- Oral Fuentes Reggae Band at German Cultural Centre

I can still remember witnessing what was likely the first official New Jacobin Club show in Saskatoon. It was waaaay back in 1996 and I was 16-years-old. The three-piece stumbled on stage and ripped through a wobbly set of some seriously catchy, ghoulish death rock.

Of course, this was Saskatoon back in the day, when the punk scene was dangerous and lots of freaky shit happened.

“I managed to leave the show relatively unscathed and hepatitis-free

One of the dudes in the audience, who was wearing nothing but a kilt and a pair of army boots, had drenched himself in fake blood and was running around pushing people, goading them into some sort of reaction. The best part? Several crust-ier punks drunkenly calling him a poseur and then bottling themselves, and each other, eliciting a torrent of real blood.

Saskatoon’s punk scene used to be a lot more interesting back then.

However, I managed to leave the show relatively unscathed and hepatitis-free, and I also nabbed a copy of the New Jacobin Club’s debut three-song cassette tape, entitled Pacifists Are Suckers.

Over 15 years and countless personnel changes later and the songs are still some of my favourite from the band.

For their latest release, The New Jacobin Club have dropped a four song EP entitled Left Behind, which features four songs from the band’s 1990’s catalogue. Stacked up next to their other releases, which include several full-lengths, a couple of vinyl 7”’s and some cassettes, it is probably some of their strongest material to date. Even better, the song “My Smile”, which was featured on the Pacifists tape, sounds absolutely ripping in comparison to its tinny older version from 1996.

Ominocity caught up with New Jacobin Club mainstay The Horde to chat about the new EP, the band’s upcoming full-length album and their next live appearance.

Ominocity: Why release songs from the band’s back catalogue?

The Horde: “They are brand new recordings. Two of them were never studio recorded in the first place, but were staples in our live sets in the 1990′s. We could just have easily not drawn any attention to the fact, as we were originally going to, and include them on our next full-length. But the true point of the recording session – a 15-year anniversary project – would have been denied. We really wanted to forge a solid link to the group’s past, and what better way than to have the current 2011/2012 line up of the NJC re-introduce our earliest material to our newer fans? The response so far has been pretty positive. Even if you’ve never heard the NJC before, this EP still stands alone as a new release.”

OM: What can fans expect from the upcoming full-length?

TH: “We learned a lot from the titanic difficulty of assembling This Treason a couple years back. We are going to continue onwards with the sort of holistic art form we’ve established – storytelling, theatrical accompaniment, artwork, the concept album format, but perhaps not on the same level of sheer complexity. A good portion of our last album was extremely difficult to play live, and it made us look back at what made some of our earlier material so effective. I think what you’re going to hear next will be the definitive NJC sound. We are revisiting some older songwriting techniques but bringing them into the realms of the larger group that we are today. We’ll be playing a few of these newer songs live in May. Left Behind is a pretty good taste of what you can expect next.”

OM: Any upcoming plans for live shows/other releases?

TH: “May 12 we are in Saskatoon at The Fez, the Saskatoon venue that puts up with our difficult scheduling issues and messy live show. It will also be the only live show we do this spring as a 10-piece group with some new faces and new visual stimulations! We’ll be out of province for a few more shows the following week promoting Left Behind and giving some of our yet-to-be-recorded material some stage time. As for a release date, I’m not even going to speculate. I’m usually six months to a year off.”

Catch the New Jacobin Club on tour:

May 12, 2012 – Saskatoon, SK – The Fez
May 24, 2012 – Edmonton, AB – DV8 Tavern
May 25, 2012 – Calgary, AB – Dickens Pub
May 26, 2012 – Wainwright, AB – JD’s Saloon

Eamon McGrath, a Toronto-based folk-punk musician, played at Vangelis this past weekend, performing several songs from his latest album Young Canadians including the song “Saskatoon”.

Opening the show was Myles and the Blanks and Slow Down Molasses.

Although he was perched on a chair for the majority of the set, McGrath rumbled and flailed through his songs delivering an element of energy despite the solo-acoustic nature of his music.

Stealing the show, however, was the gentlemen in the front row who slept soundly and openly through the majority of the show. Word from the bartender was that he wasn’t actually drunk – he was just really beat from the double martinis he had at a competing pub.

With spring/summer dangling before us here in Saskatoon, I thought I’d give some guidance on how to hold on to your hard earned dollars and come up with some great looks. I was very fortunate to work with photographer B. Jonathan Michaels for this shoot, a very talented local photographer.  In preparation, I drove around the outskirts of town to find the perfect location when I stumbled upon the sweetest country bumpkin style spot, Robertson Valley Farms.

Maxi dresses came back into style last year and they’re here to stay! How can you get this look without dropping all your bills? Be creative and go thrift shopping! One thing I encourage everyone to do is check out estate sales. My Auntie Barb is well seasoned at this and has provided me with some amazing finds; from fur coats and 1950’s dresses to cute nighties. All of which can be updated with a little bit of love and some raising of the hem lines. Look into your own closet before shopping for something new. It’s always nice to find things you forgot you had and look at them with fresh eyes.

Here I am wearing a nightie I found at Value Village for $3.49. In the 90’s we saw the traditional slip breakthrough its confines of sleepwear and take its place as part of everyday wear. Now it’s the nighties turn! I paired it with a wide brimmed hat and a skinny brown belt (both from Value Village for $1.99), to create a more feminine shape. I threw on a pair of boots that I bought 2 years ago for $60, a perfect example of taking something old from your closet and making it new again.  Total dent in the wallet =$67.47

If you have a long dress or you found one you love but its too fancy-pants to wear out and about. Do the dress up down! Dress up in your lovely gown then dress it down with a casual straw chapeau like this one for $1.99 from VV. Then hit up one of the many music festivals this summer! This dress was a gift from one of my besties, (I am very fortunate to have such awesome friends!) Bare feet $0 from my Mom. Total cost, a whopping $1.99.

So maybe you’ve spent years searching and you finally have the perfect little black dress. Uno problemo: You’ve only worn it once or twice. When something makes you feel fantastic and fits you perfectly, shouldn’t you wear it every day? Throw on your L.B.D and dress it down with minimal accessories and a wide brimmed hat for a more relaxed look. I found this dress in a small store in London for approximately $31 CDN, boots $38 from U.P, Hat from V.V. $1.99. Total damage = just 1 cent under $71

I am a huge fan of the oversized shirt. Whether it is worn as a shirt or as a dress, I love the way these guys hang! Throw on a stupid amount of accessories and off you go!  However… to avoid your own personal “celebrity moment”, be sure to wear some short shorts… just in case.  I found this XL shirt on a sale rack for $3, wedge booties $60. Total cost $63.

I had so much fun planning and doing this shoot and would like to give another shout out and huge thanks to photographer B. Jonathan Michaels who did an amazing job (as usual) and to Robertson Valley Farms who were so sweet (and normally don’t allow photo shoots but made an exception for us). I know I’ll be heading there for some locally grown veggies when they open in June and you should too.

– Contributed by Jillian Bogan

MoSo Fest, an up-and-coming music and tech conference festival, has added more bands to its diverse line-up.

Some of the new acts included are Damien Jurado, The Ketamines, Jessica Jalbert and Burning Love. They join already-announced musicians including Bry Webb, Teen Daze and Shotgun Jimmie.

MoSo runs from June 14 – 16 and is a multi-venue festival.

Local acts include Factor, Breaker Breaker, Powder Blue, Feral Children, Vaero and Castle River.

MoSo runs from June 14 – 16 and is a multi-venue festival.

Ominocity recently interviewed festival promoter Rich Taylor – you can read that article HERE.

More information on MoSo Fest can be found on their website. Additionally, Ominocity will be running additional coverage in the days to come.

TUESDAY, APRIL 24TH
- The Jezabels at Amigos
- Said the Whale at Broadway Theatre
- The Noble Liars at Lydia’s

SATURDAY, APRIL 28TH
- Rehashed at Amigos
- DJ Hightower at Tequila

According to my trade list on Deadformat.net, a vinyl record collecting nerd-out frenzy website, I currently own 562 LPs, EPs and 7″”s.

I am fairly certain there are actually more than that, but I’ve been working far too much these days to keep up with my obsessive-compulsive attraction to pretty things that spin.

“My record collection pretty much thwomps you in the face and rummages through your apartment for cab fare home the next morning.

Regardless, I have moved across the country multiple times with my collection, going so far as to fill an entire car solely with vinyl as well as somehow convincing airport security to let me bring a massively oversized box of 100 records on a flight as carry-on. I’ve spent countless hours scouring both the internet and dozens of vinyl outlets across North America to add to my inexplicable collection. I’ve managed to find some of the rarest pieces ever, including test presses of which only 8 in the entire world exist.

My record collection pretty much rules. My record collection pretty much thwomps you in the face and rummages through your apartment for cab fare home the next morning.

So, with Record Store Day approaching this Saturday, April 21, you would think I’d be shitting unicorn-shaped bricks of pure exhilaration.

Sadly, record collecting has gotten to be something of a chore, a mild annoyance and an outlandish drain on the wallet.

Take another look at the photo above. I took it the other day at an undisclosed record store in Saskatoon (two guesses as to which one). The record in question is Fleetwood Mac’s excellent musical take on relationships gone sad to sour, the almighty “Rumors”.

A classic album for sure, of which there are likely umpteen copies floating around across the world.

Now check the price tag. $34.95.

Outlandish.

Your average music consumer would know that only fools, poltroons and simpering ninnies would buy this album at this astronomical fee. The fact of the matter is that you can find this LP at any garage sale, thrift store or dad collection anywhere for a dollar or less.

Record collecting has sadly become some bloated cash cow. I certainly do not blame retail store owners either – no one gets rich opening a record store. Worse, with music now becoming a “paperless” commodity, it absolutely saddens me to see albums repressed and repackaged when there are already millions of copies floating around.

So with great reluctance, I extend a sheepish middle finger to Record Store Day. It has become a symbol for taking one of the true loves of my life and turning it into a painted up tartlet.

On the other hand, you can likely expect to see me standing in line at one of Saskatoon’s many fine record retailers on Saturday, watching Toronto’s Eamon McGrath do an instore at Vinyl Exchange with Slow Down Molasses’ Tyson McShane, grumbling into my Orange Julius drinkable, cursing all the money I don’t have.

Ominocity contributor Brandon Mack wrote that when a band is attempting to improve their SEO that “the first steps should have been taken by the person or company in charge of developing your website.

“I’m not here to tell them how to do their job,” he adds.

Maybe what we should have said was that the first real step was to give your band a name that was unique, easy to remember and something that would be certain to show up. Then again, we aren’t here to tell musicians how to do their job.

“Having a Google-able band name isn’t the point of making music. But it helps.

Band names can be hard, so don’t despair little info-nauts. Sometimes the coolest band names are actually the simplest. Bands like New Order or Boston likely gave none of the fucks about their monikers being searchable by nerds looking to illegally download their music. Similarly, having a Google-able band name isn’t the point of making music.

But it helps.

In the spirit of fun and games and a light chiding, Ominocity entered a smattering of Saskatoon’s great bands to see if they came up on the first page of a Google search. As per the rules, you enter in only the name of the band – I imagine the results would be quite different if you added a follow-up term like “Saskatoon” or “Bandcamp”.

Also important: results could vary.

Saskatoon’s Top Five Least Google-able Bands

Economics – Saskatoon’s Economics, as imagineered by Dean Summach, has some very cool sounds. Unfortunately, you might not have much luck finding him on the interwebs. But here is a sweet bonus – a Google image search comes up with lots of pics with dudes with dollar $ign$ on their ties.

Dirt – A talented band with a sweet-‘n’-low-‘n’-dirty rhythm section, Dirt may have the distinction of being Saskatoon’s least imaginatively named band but to the handful of other bands out there who brilliantly all thought of the same name. Even more disparaging, a precursory search of “dirt” doesn’t even bring up anything remotely close to do with music.

Soul Mates – Soul Mates, a ripper of a band, has a cute name. Similarly, attempts to track them down online only conjure up dating websites where “hooking up” leads to “coffee at Timmy’s”.

Cease and Desist – Another good band, probably multiple bands named the same thing. Good dudes though.

DFA – Actually, Saskatoon’s DFA totally falls on the first page of Google. But this somewhat dubious distinction does nothing to clear up what the band’s name actually means. Take your pick: Dalhousie Faculty Association? Deterministic Finite Automaton? Dimensional Fund Advisors? Which one is it boys?

Honorable Mention: Father Figures/Castle River – This one makes me giggle. The only thing that comes up on the first page of Google is the Ominocity article about Father Figures changing their name to Castle River. Hoo hah.

On Tuesday, April 17, Nashville Pussy and the Supersuckers ripped through Amigos, inspiring a group of normally well-meaning adults to light up funny cigarettes indoors and push each other around.

Nashville Pussy pretty much sounded like a headache, a hangover and a walk of shame home at 4 am.”

Openers the Supersuckers tore through a massive set including several new songs and an encore. Fronted by a cowboy hat and aviator shades clad-Eddie Spaghetti, the band sounded absolutely massive and frightening despite the fact that I had to get up early the next morning.

Nashville Pussy, on the other hand, pretty much sounded like a headache, a hangover and a walk of shame home at 4 am. Along with guitarist Ruyter Suys, who attended The University of Saskatchewan before being whisked away by a higher calling, the band was joined by a now-sweaty Mr. Spaghetti on the bass.

At this point I contemplated texting in sick for work, but was far too busy taking Instagram photos, quaffing beer and breathing in all the funny cigarettes that were inexplicably being lit indoors.

So, boss, if you are reading this Wednesday morning and wondering where I am I’m sorry.

Social media websites are a lot like parties – too many guests and things get a little batty. Invariably, douches start showing up, someone starts talking way too much and too loudly, a lot of really blurry photos are taken and your ex shows up with a terrible anecdote about their newest fling.

Ugh.

But, every now and then, you make a weird out-of-nowhere connection that totally validates why you bothered showing up in the first place. I have no idea how he found me, but Andrew from Vancouver’s The Ruffled Feathers added me on Twitter and immediately proceeded to charm my socks off with witty, adorable banter and a brassy, upbeat pop band. He’s also cute as fuck, which totally helps.

On Oracles, The Ruffled Feathers’ first full-length album, the band tromps through 12 songs of sprightly indie pop that is both spirited and cerebral – kind of like a high school chess club that got into too much of dad’s bourbon.

Even though sometimes we never meet face to face, some of the funnest people are the ones who you have a drink with over vast distances – they usually have the best bands too.

John K. Samson stopped by Amigos on Saturday in support of his recently released solo album “Provincials”. Backed by an all-star band featuring members of Shotgun Jimmie and The Constantines, Samson mixed his solo material with hits made famous by lauded indie rock band The Weakerthans.

If the many Weakerthans songs performed weren’t surprise enough, Samson concluded his set by performing “Gifts” and “Anchorless”, songs he wrote for political punk legends Propagandhi.

TUESDAY, APRIL 17TH
- Whitehorse at Broadway Theatre
- Nashville Pussy at Amigos

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18TH
- Three Chords and the Truth at Spadina Freehouse

THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH
- Luke Dowler at Lydia’s

FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH
- Joel Plaskett and Frank Turner at Louis’
- Jordan Klassen at Christ Church Anglican
- Fountains of Youth and Reform Party at The Fez
- Sirvis, Frank Rizzo and Heywood at Amigos

SATURDAY, APRIL 21ST
- Social Distortion at The Odeon
- Eamon McGrath and Slow Down, Molasses at Vangelis

MONDAY, APRIL 23RD
- Johnny Reid at Credit Union Centre

I knew I had reached the next echelon of musicianship the day I found one of my own CDs in the used bin at the Vinyl Exchange in Saskatoon. Even worse, my band’s newest album was only a month old.

Having prodigiously anticipated selling precisely 80 copies of our album – the amount needed to break even – we boldly pressed our music onto a professional compact disc. This was a big deal back then. The minimum order was 500, but we forged ahead anyway knowing that most of the pieces of plastic would end up rotting in our parents’ basements. We kept that promise.

“Like the ingredients of veggie hotdogs, or who your partner gargled genitals with before you, there are some things you are better off not knowing.

Seeing the album tucked in with CDs that were far better yet miraculously priced the same was a feeling akin to being simultaneously crushed and weirdly honoured at the same time. But the feeling of betrayal went far deeper – I personally knew all 15 of those people who had bought the album personally from me, and vowed to break into their houses to rummage through their collections to find out who did us wrong.

But, like the ingredients of veggie hotdogs, or who your partner gargled genitals with before you, there are some things you are better off not knowing.

So when Saskatoon’s Zachary Lucky Tweeted that he had happened upon over a dozen copies of Carbon Dating Service’s last record Reliquiae in the used bin at the north end Salvation Army, as weird of a find as it was, it didn’t really matter why they were there. Some of us have bargains to jump on.

And as happy as I was to finally acquire the album for the princely sum of a dollar, it was a little sad to see the multiple copies of Reliquiae jammed in with the moldy Pat Benatar and Nana Mouskouri LPs. It is true that some things are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for them. On the other hand, most everyone can agree that an album recorded by a multi-member indie pop gaggle is worth far more than a buck.

I miss Carbon Dating Service. I remember their shows would sometimes have an epic feel to them, as though you were about to watch some grand spectacle unfold in front of you that would turn on a dime and silence itself immediately just in time for the few forlorn plucks of a giant harp.

Other times you would see a literal cacophony of kids onstage being directed by the demented sways of a robot with arms made out of dryer hoses courtesy of a costumed Steve Reed.

Reliquiae, however, is worth far more than the one-dollar price tag would suggest. The music is replete with simple pop harmonies that eventually wind themselves into knots – the fun part is listening to see if the members ever find a way out of the clever corners they paint themselves in. Usually they do not, which is actually the best part.

A cluster of instrumentation that is somehow both simultaneously glib and surefooted yet somewhat clumsy at the same time, the band is stacked with talented and able musicians who wrote songs that seemingly never quite got their due.

Now that members have gone on to other projects, including the wildly successful Shooting Guns, it may well be time for a reunion show – I hear the kids are really into those these days.

Regardless, I suggest digging through those dollar bin crates that litter our city’s many thrift stores – you never know when you are going to strike gold.

On the other hand, you could just download it for free courtesy of the band, like a fucking cheapskate.

Download Reliquiae here – http://www.teargasrecordingtree.com/audio/Reliquiae.zip

Saskatoon’s SOMA aka Jesse Selkirk has released a new, home-recorded electronic track via the New Zealand-based compilation album called Cosmic Core. In addition to airplay on a community radio station halfway across the world, Selkirk’s music is featured alongside artists from 19 different countries across the world.

According to the curators, the album was born from the cosm.co.nz music forum for Ableton Live music software users.

“The internet really is making things smaller and more accessible out there, and it’s amazing to see it happen with my own music,” Selkirk writes on his blog.

Check out his story at A Vision Is A Mission.

There has been some serious buzz around these sheepdogs. Around every corner, on every newspaper and every radio airwave there are whispers of them. But there really is no wonder as to why.

Did you know that they went from solely appearing in the fields of 19th century English villas to touring in doggie pageants all over the world today? And awards? They win those things left and right. There is little doubt that they have come a long way from being just an unknown style of prairie herding canine.

Recognizable instantly by their long shaggy manes that cover their face, maws and eyes, these puppies can go for about $900-$1000 CAN depending on whether or not they are bred from award-winning quality. Originally used as a herding dog, in the past 200 years the sheepdog has been rapidly becoming a household name. Known for their obedience and clown-like energy, be sure to bring one home with you tonight!

Sheepdog breeding sales have been the same for the past five years.”

Ominocity recently had the opportunity to catch up with a local sheepdog breeder for a feature chat.

Ominocity: So, in the past year or so have you noticed an increase in sheepdog puppy sales?

Sheepdog breeder (name withheld by request): “I don’t talk to press! How’d you get this number?”

OM: Uh, the Saskatchewan Dog Breeder’s Directory. So, no notice in sale increases?

SB: “Well, actually, the Canadian Breeders Association releases a report each year, and sheepdog breeding sales have been the same for the past five years.”

OM: So even with all this media attention, you mean to tell me sales have plateaued?

SB: “I don’t know.”

Zing! Rapid Popularity; turning any Mr. Muggs into Mr. Shruggs.

–Contributed by Joanna Graves.

Editor’s note: This article is in no way associated with the band The Sheepdogs or their many awards.