January's Recommended Books

Have Not Been the Same: the CanRock renaissance

(2001) Michael Barclay, Ian A.D Jack & Jason Schneider

Canada's musicians hold a respected and (compared to population) disproportionately large place in the international music community. With all of the Arcade Fires and MSTRFTs and Leslie Feists that are touring today, its easy to forget an earlier generation of Canadian rockers who not only broke our Nation into the international spotlight, but laid the groundwork for today's scene. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, performers like Daniel Lanois, kd Lang and a revived (rescusitated?) Neil Young were putting Canadian Pop firmly on the map, while other musicians like The Rheostatics, Sloan, Weeping Tile, Hayden and Thrush Hermit were fostering a strong and destinct Northern sound, and kickstarting the careers of such currently popular musicians as Joel Plaskett and Sarah Harmer.

Weighing in at close to 800 pages, Have Not Been the Same is just about as detailed an examination of this oft overlooked and highly fertile period of Canadian popular music as you'll ever encounter.

*NoiseNews!* Keep an eye out for a newly updated 2011 edition of Have Not Been the Same, coming soon to a library near you!

The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 writers relive their most memorable concertgoing experience

(2007) Sean Manning (ed.)

Remember your first concert? Who were you most excited to see play live? Have any musicians changed your life?

In The Show I'll Never Forget, fifty writers, journalists, musicians and other creative types relate the stories of their most memorable shows. Find out why seeing Red Kross was so important for Carl Newman (of the New Pornographers), or why Patti Smith had such an effect on Pulitzer-Prize winning author Jennifer Egan.

 

Got another great book to recommend? We'd love to hear from you! Write us a comment below.