More office stuff

Here's some guy walking along. I drew him while I was waiting for a "webinar" (web + seminar = "webinar") on "International Financial Reporting Standards" (AKA: the much dreaded/wonderful IFRS) to start. There were technical difficulties, and I finished this little picture and a few others (mostly cartoon cats and dogs. Again.), but I didn't get to hear the webinar. Oh wells.

That just means more amateurish cartoony junk for my blog, so it's all a plus.

FYI

I'm not making this a music blog. I'm just featuring a bunch of albums I wanted to show to both of you. You know who you are!

That said, here is a sketch I did in a meeting while I was bored. Scanned at crappy resolution on the office PDF-maker. The head is cut off at the top because I ripped it off my meeting notes poorly. Awesome.

Richard Bona: The Ten Shades of Blues

I don't like to throw around the word "genius" because it feels cheap if you overuse it. I think in this instance it's warranted though. Richard Bona is a genius. I'm not the first person to use that title in association with him, and for good reason. Bona was born in Cameroon into poverty and built his own instruments out of whatever was laying around. When he was 11 he started teaching himself to play the guitar. By 13 he was playing Jazz clubs. By 22 he was building his reputation as a world-class bassist in the style of Jaco Pastorius alongside big names like Manu Dibango, Salif Keita, Jacques Higelin and Didier Lockwood. However, don't think his talent only lies in the electric bass. Bona's vocals are always stunning, and his talent extends to many different instruments like keyboards, percussion & drums, guitar & mandolin (and that's just this album). He now lives in New York, where he holds a professorship in music at New York University and continues to make awesome music.

LeE HaRVeY OsMOND: A Quiet Evil

I know the capitalization above is weird, but that's the official spelling. LeE HaRVeY OsMOND (hereafter "LHO" because it's wearing out my shift key) is the latest musical project featuring the ubiquitous Tom Wilson. You may remember Tom from his recent solo project which featured the song "Dig it" (which I didn't really "Dig", honestly...it was so overplayed!) or hopefully you remember him from (the much better) Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, or possibly Junkhouse. He's like the Canadian Troy McClure.

Mishka: Talk About

I first heard Mishka last year from his "Above the Bones" album (which is also an amazing album, check it out if you have a chance) and ever since he has been my favourite reggae-pop musician. Most of his music is about peace, love and happiness. Nice.

Yukon Blonde: Yukon Blonde

You might think Yukon Blonde is a tasty yellow potato. You'd be wrong, that's actually Yukon Gold. Despite the name, they're not from the Yukon. They're actually from Kelowna B.C., much like Ladyhawk. Not Ladyhawke the New Zealand singer, but Ladyhawk the indie rock band. Now this is getting REALLY confusing. That's just how things are down there in Kelowna. Although, I think they officially live in Vancouver now. Yukon Blonde used to go by a different name, although I don't remember what it is. This blog is wonderfully informative.

ARGH!!

Check out ma car, brah

I'm about to do (almost) the lamest thing that a person can do on a blog. I'm going to post pictures of my car....brah.

Also, if you really want to, you can listen to ACDC's "Thunderstruck" while reading this. I give you permission.

Buddy Guy: Skin Deep

Let me put it this way: Buddy Guy has been playing guitar since before there was such a thing as "rock and roll". Buddy Guy inspired Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Stevie Ray Vaughn among others. Buddy Guy is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Buddy Guy learned to play guitar on a wooden plank with two lengths of wire stretched between some screws. Buddy Guy is one of Rolling Stone's 100 greatest guitarists of all time, and Buddy Guy can play a crowd as well as he plays his guitar. He's a living legend.

Corb Lund: Losin' Lately Gambler

For those of you who may not know, Corb used to play bass for the Edmonton-based punk rock band "The Smalls". As we all know, The Smalls were rad. It's my personal theory that having a more diverse musical background has given Corb an appreciation for music itself, and he doesn't really restrict himself to formulas that gum up American country music. That and he's Ian Tyson's biggest fan, and anyone who likes Ian Tyson probably has pretty good taste.

Iron Age: The Sleeping Eye

The image above is kind of slapped together from the front cover and the inside leaf, because they didn't have the song titles on the back of the album. Sorry.

I have no idea who these guys are, except that they're from Texas. I tried to find some information about them, but there is very little about these guys on the internet. Instead of that, I'll tell you their names. There's Wade Allison on the guitar, Justin Mason on the bass, Jared Allison on the drums, Jason Tarpey on vocals, synth and prayer bowl (prayer bowl?), and Alex Hughes on the other guitar (you need at least two!). Wade Allison wrote most of the music, and I have to say he's got a good knack for fun Thrash metal.

Sinistrio: Ride the Dragon

No, not Sinestro, Sinistrio. Sinistrio features van art on their album and had previously offered a free CD to anyone who wears a Slayer t-shirt to their gigs. Oh yeah, and they're a jazz band!

Black Mold: Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz

Yes, you saw correctly. There is a song called "Smoking Rat Shit" on this album.

Gov't Mule: By a Thread

Gov't Mule isn't really a new band. They were started as a side project by the Allman Brothers' Allen Woody and Warren Haynes in 1994. In this particular album they play with Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. Hells yeah. Of course, I don't really know anything about music except for the things I randomly stumble upon, so I only heard about them recently. Lucky me that I did at all though! Apparently, they tour a lot but haven't really hit any huge commercial success for some unfathomable reason. If you like Cream or Jimi Hendrix or pretty much anything from that era of rock...well...yeah!

Danny Michel: Feather Fur and Fin

My goal is to get 50 albums featured, so I'll see how many I can get done tonight. As you can probably guess, these scans are from my actual album covers.

I'm not too sure what to say about Danny Michel. Maybe his music is pop? Maybe it's folk? Rock? This is another one where it's kind of tough to categorize. The same thing goes for Danny himself. In addition to being a great musician and songwriter, he also does a lot of production as well, most notably for Leeroy Stagger! Between the two, I think Danny's music is more interesting; not to disrespect Leeroy, because he's amazing too.

A Zombie

Here is a zombie I drew:

BRAINS!!!!


Heavily inspired by Iron Maiden's "Eddie", yeah. Oh well. Whatever, I like it.

Harry Manx: Bread and Buddha

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to feature some of my favourite albums that the 2 (maybe 3!) people that read this blog (when I tell them to) might not otherwise listen to.