Albums of Influence - Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein

In 2001 Cannibal Ox released The Cold Vein to amazing critical reception. The album was put on numerous 'best of 2001' lists, and even managed to make it on a few 'best of the decade' lists. Pitchfork Media placed The Cold Vein at number 152 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s. Rhapsody ranked the album #5 on its "Hip-Hop’s Best Albums of the Decade" list.
El-P was named to be producer of the year, and everyone was hoping Cannibal Ox was going to be the next Wu-Tang. Cannibal Ox was a gritty, yet beautiful sounding, take on the New York life style, easily taking listeners to the core of the Big Apple regardless of whether you've actually been there or not.

And then there were financial differences, and Vodul's alcoholism and clinical depression, and all of a sudden it's 2007, and all three members of Cannibal Ox are saying that The Cold Vein is going to be their first, last, and only release.

To me, this album sounds like the future. Not necessarily the future of music, but more so a sound-scape of what the future of New York will look and sound like one day. It's like a less-jokey version of Deltron's 3030, if 3030 had been called "Deltron 2020", and Del lived in New York.


Download the entire album for free now, then go cry about the fact that a new one isn't coming any time soon...






Other great El-P albums (the producer for CanOx) include Fantastic Damage, and I'll Sleep When You're Dead.

Albums of Influence - Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited

Of all of my favourite artists, Bob Dylan was the hardest to showcase a single album.

'Highway 61 Revistited' isn't my favourite Dylan album (probably either Blood on the Tracks, or Desire), nor is it even the most influential Dylan album I've ever heard. That being said, all of his albums have been incredibly important, and I ended up going with this one just because it features one of my favourite Dylan tracks.

Bob Dylan's lyrics are so much better than 99% of what's out there that his music literally changed the definition of pop-music in the 60's, and is still affecting musical output 50 years later. He's even been cited as the main reason that the Beatles stopped writing about holding your hand, and started writing about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, and Walruses, and the like.

I got heck from the DMCA so I had to take down the link for a free download of the album, but it's not hard to find free downloads on Google.
..Then go buy his other records. They rule.







Other awesome Dylan albums include: Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, Nashville Skyline, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and so many others....

Albums of Influence - Josh Martinez's "Buck Up Princess Vol. II"

Ever since I found out that pretending to be a gangster really isn't very cool, Josh Martinez has always been a hero of mine.

His lackadaisical attitude towards life, and the fact that he's "Just a Dood" makes him incredibly easy to relate to on a personal level. He's also got some of the best lyrics I've ever heard, easily competing with lyrical greats such as Bob Dylan, or Atmosphere.

Unlike Atmosphere, however, Josh Martinez sprawls his subject matter much further than the after-hours bar, or his girlfriend's broke down bedroom. On "Buck up Princess" Josh spits about girls, the hard times of trying to make it in underground rap, tour troubles, BC's "real big trees", and even what it's like to be a hobo, trying to survive off of day-old-doughnuts, cans of beans, dumpster chicken, and river greens.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Buck Up Princess was the first record Josh made that allowed him the opportunity to take his show on the road. After travelling across the globe he eventually settled in Vancouver, BC, and Portland, OR, where he continues to throw super hyphy shows, and run his record label, CamoBear Records.

Josh has always been a huge influence on our music, and well as us personally, so it's a HUGE honour to be releasing our latest EP with him and his crew.

Download the "Buck up Princess" album for free, now! Then go out and buy his latest album - The World Famous Sex Buffet - available wherever CD's and records are bought and sold!






Other awesome Josh Martinez albums include: Midriff Music, and The World Famous Sex Buffet.

Albums of Influence - Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot it in People"

I love that this album has so much more to offer when listened to with headphones. I love the slight panning adjustments halfway through lyrics. I love the hidden background voices that 99% of people that listen to it will never hear.
It feels like I have a secret with this album, and only people that REALLY want to know it get to find it out.
It's like the kid that built walls not to keep everybody out, but to see who was really interested in knocking them down.

It's hard to say if this is the best Broken Social Scene album.. mostly because preference is kind of objective, and it's not really up to me to state whether one album is better than another... it's also hard to determine if this is my favourite BSS album. I might like Kevin Drew's 'solo' album, Spirit If..., more, but this was the first BSS record I got into, probably making it the most influential.

Make sure to download the entire Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People album for free - here. Then wait patiently for the new album to come out in May of this year.




Other awesome BSS albums include their self titled "Broke Social Scene" album, Kevin Drew's "Sprit If...", as well as all sorts of other contributing members' albums - Metric, Feist, Stars, Amy Millan... all amazing.

New EP on CamoBear Records! OUT TODAY!

Basti Made Me Do It! is the follow-up [EP] to the recently-released, full length LP, "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible". While half the songs for "Basti..." were written during the making of "Understanding...", the other half were conceived during Sebastian "Basti" Hochstein's three week trip to Canada.

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Head over to CamoBear records NOW to check it out!

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Thinking Basti would want to check out the offerings of Beautiful British Columbia, the two members of Animal Nation prepared for a week of hikes, bikes, and sights, and wound up spending the majority of the trip writing tracks to satisfy Basti's never-ending lust for new and exciting music, as suggested by the opening track, "Hey Mr. Basti!" - "...and we thought that when he got here he'd want to see the sights, but the only thing he wanted to see was us write.” Although the intro track is more of a set-up track to detail the rest of the album, it's far from filler, and contains some of the best back-and-forth rhyme-schemes that Animal Nation has produced to date.

The third track, "Reason", was the first track recorded for the "Understanding..." album, but never managed to get the attention it deserved. With Basti helming the wheel Animal Nation not only managed to complete this track, but also managed to make this ethereal sounding song one of the best on the album.

On “I Think I've Been Here Before (In Another Pair of Shoes)”, Animal Nation asks “What's in a path, but a past way to live?” This theme presents itself throughout the album as Animal Nation tries out more new production techniques in these 6 songs than they have in their last 3 albums combined.

Basti acts as the motivation behind this EP as stated in the intro track, “Basti made me do it, and we’re really glad he did.”

The amazing art work was also done by the wonderful, and talented, and wonderfully talented Paige Harley.

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Head over to CamoBear Records now to check it out!

Albums of Influence - De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising"

After hearing Eminem for the first time in 1999 I listened to nothing but hip-hop for the next 4 years. All hip-hop. Pretty much anything hip-hop related that I could get my hands on...
I listened to maintstream, (including, I'm sad to admit, the first 50 Cent album way too many times).
I listened to every underground artist I could find, from Apathy, to Atmosphere, to Louis Logic, to Josh Martinez, to Zion I, and beyond.
I listened to weird nerd-core hip-hop like Anticon's Dose-One.
I was so mesmorized by hip-hop that my buddies and I would talk about it for hours on end, discussing who our favourite MC was, or what we thought the 5th element of hip-hop should be.. ("No! Beatmaking is the 5th element!" "No way! Groupies are definitely the 5th element!")
That being said, around 2004 Crunk Music came into fashion, and I felt fucked. I felt like I'd been thrown on my back, chained up, and gang raped by what is easily the worst kind of music I've ever heard in my life, ever.
I didn't get it... I thought all hip-hop was amazing? Why was this horrible music tarnishing something I held so dear?
I felt fucked, and I felt alienated, and I stopped listening to 90% of the hip-hop I'd been so in love with only months before.
I spent the next 2 years listening to the Beatles, and the Stones, and Bob Dylan, and Radiohead, and Broken Social Scene, and all the other non-hip-hop stuff I've mentioned on this page, and every time I heard that familiarly beautiful hip-hop sound, it would be accompanied by some douche shouting "Yeahhhhhaaa!! OKAYYY!!" and I would wonder what the heck is wrong with the people that buy these records.

So how does any of this have to do with De La Soul? After holding a serious contempt for hip-hop for nearly 2 years I heard something amazing. Throughout all those years of seeking and listening to every bit of hip-hop I could find, I managed to somehow never come across anything like De La, or a Tribe Called Quest, or Arrested Development, or even the majority of the freakin' Beastie Boys, and as soon as I heard De La's "3 Feet High and Rising" I realized that there was, and is, still so much amazing hip-hop music hiding out there. It's just not what's being played on MTV (for the most part).
De La showed me that hip-hop doesn't have to take itself so seriously.
De La showed me that hip-hop doesn't have to involve guns or wearing chunks of metal in your mouth.
Basically, De La Soul is FUN.

Download the entire 3 Feet High and Rising album here for free, then buy another De La record.. maybe some Arrested Development, and definitely hit up a Tribe album or two.

Also - Check out our song Sky Fish (video below), as it was directly influenced by De La's "3 Feet High and Rising".







Other AMAZING De La albums include De La Soul is Dead, and Buhloon Mindstate.

Albums of Influence - Chad Vangaalen's "Soft Airplane"

Chad VanGaalen's DIY (Do It Yourself) production ethics and amazing use of non-standard arrangments has his 2009 album, Soft Airplane, finding more than a few spins on the ol' Oracle turn-table.

The fact that he plays nearly everything on this disc himself (including the amazing BANJOing on track 1), and is described as a "notorious home-body" on his bio is what made Soft Airplane one of the more influential albums I've heard in a while.

Chad also animates his own music videos. Check out the first video to hear my favorite track of his, and check out the second to see his animation skills at work.

Feel free to download his latest album "Soft Airplane" here for free, then head out and buy his other 2 albums, his side project album "Black Mold", and a couple t-shirts or something.







Other awesome Chad Vangaalen albums include "Skelliconnection".

Albums of Influence - Wu-Tang's 36 Chambers

This one is obvious.
Who hasn't been influenced even just a little bit by the Wu? This album is so simple and easy to digest, yet packs such a huge punch with its gritty streets-of-New-York story-telling, and raw 'creaky-old-piano' sampling that 15 years after its debut it's still better than 90% of the hip-hop coming out today.
At least 6 of the 9 Wu members are incredibly solid story tellers, making the fact that you've never been to the Bronx, or never seen a shorty's blood "all over the hot concrete" fine. You don't need to be a gangster to have the Wu make you feel what it's like to be a gangster.
The Wu brings you into the Big Apple, and into their lives in The 36 Chambers.

This is one of the most essential hip-hop albums ever made. Download it for free here, then go out and buy the other 300 albums the Wu and their associates have put out.

Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' to fuck wit'.



Other great Wu-Tang albums include Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Ghostface's Fishscale, GZA's Liquid Swords, The Wu's The W, and a whole load more. There are so many by now it's silly.

An Interview with Abdominal

Abdominal is your favorite MC's favorite MC. He's so good technically, lyrically, and word-playically that it's amazing hes not a thousand times more known than he already is.

Check out what he has to say about pizza, Satan, and trying to impress his lady-friend.

But first, head on over to his CBC radio 3 page and tune into one of his jams.

Animal Nation: Do you have any cats?

Abdominal: No...1 dog.

AN: How many cats does someone have to have before they're considered "a crazy cat person"?

Abs: 1

AN: Listen: It's December, 2012. The conspiracy theorists were right. There's a huge meteor the size of Canada headed straight for Canada. The Four Horsemen have arrived and they're hungover as heck and totally not looking to party. Satan shows up in your backyard, ready to destroy our planet and everything we've ever known, but he's willing to turn it all around if you can impress him with one of your songs. He's only interested in your music, and he's only got 3 minutes and 34 seconds of free time. Which Abdominal track are you going to use to blow Satan's mind?

Abs: "Heaven's Demon", which is a track off my last album ("Escape From the Pigeon Hole") that's, coincidentally enough, about me being a mercenary sent by God to destroy Satan. He probably wouldn't be too impressed but he might be scared enough to reconsider his dastardly plan.

AN: What is your favorite non-pizza pizza topping? I mean, what might we find on your favorite fantasy pizza that we might not normally discover on a Dominoes Deep Dish? (ie-perogies, Kraft Dinner, a skyfish...)

Abs: A second, slightly smaller pizza.

AN: That's amazing. What's been the strangest / most stand out recording or performing session you've experienced?

Abs: Playing in front of 10, 000 people at the Glastonbury festival in the UK was pretty stand-out.

AN: This question comes straight from our guest host and international superstar rapper extraordinaire, Ma$e...

Abs: Wuttup Ma$e.

Ma$e: If you had twenty-four hours to live just think
Where would you go?

Abs: My girlfriend's place (she might be reading this).

M: What would you do?

Abs: Make sweet, sweet love to my girlfriend.

M: Who would you screw?

Abs: See above (again, there's a 0.5% chance she might be reading this).

M: And who would you wanna notify?

Abs: Nobody really...sure they'd figure it out eventually.

M: Or would yo [sic] ass deny that yo [sic] ass about to die?

Abs: You ask some weird questions Ma$e.

AN: Seriously, Ma$e... I thought you were a preacher or some shit.... Anyway, anything else you want to mention?

Abs: Buy my new album, "Sitting Music", as soon as it drops...which will be some time before 2050. Thanks for reading... peace, Abs.

AN: No, sir. I thank you for the lack of grammatical errors in your reply!

If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview with fellow Canadian hip-hopper Josh Martinez, as well as our Interview with Mike "Armadillo Slim" Armitage.

Albums of Influence - Radiohead's "In Rainbows"

I was never really a big fan of Radiohead.
I was always under the impression that they were the type of band that made these huge sonic albums on computers, and then would be forced to play a completely stripped down version of the same song on stage.
That being said, it wasn't really the record "In Rainbows" that made me fall in love with Radiohead. It was the accompanying videoed studio sessions in which the band performed each song from their new album live. All of them. Live. And they sounded amazing. Even the songs with weird ambience, or a really glitchy Roland 707 (see video below).

After watching Radiohead make all of these amazing computer-like sounds live I couldn't help but be in awe of them.

Radiohead was also the very first group to release an album as a "Pay What You Want" download, much like we did with our album "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music".

Download the entire album for free HERE, or check out the entire "Scotch Mist" video HERE, then run out and check out a Radiohead show, as they put on probably the most amazing live show you'll ever see.






Other amazing Radiohead albums include: The Bends, OK Computer, and Kid A.