Getting Squirrely with Hobbie Is Invited Back for Encore after Sound Debut

It's my sincere pleasure to implore you to "Get Squirrely" with us once again this week. According to the big board it appears that the John Butler Trio won out - good tune and I certainly can't blame anyone for thinking so.

I also can't "Blame Canada " for anything else these days, and even if I did it certainly wouldn't be music. Our neighbors to the north churn out significant modern rock bands like Wayne Gretzky once shat out goals. One can even say that Canada , namely Toronto , is what Seattle was to music in the decade of the 1990s. What the Bronx was to hip-hop in the 1980s. With Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Islands, Black Mountain, Wolf Parade, and even 1...2...3...4...Feist to name a stately few, these musicians wouldn't just be characterized in "South Park" with nutcracker heads that pop off when they talk. These aren't your uncle's maple leaf musicians (Rush??). These hosers can play.



Not aforementioned is this native Ontario band featured below, "Entire Cities". While their debut EP (titled "Deep River) is one of the freshest, most experimental and creative projects since the kids from Columbia University did it with "Vampire Weekend", you won't find them in record stores in the U.S. or even playing gigs in the States ... yet. Another blogosphere phenomenon, it's hard to fathom that this group will not be heard from very loudly and very soon. With their attempts at classifying their sound obsolete - the closest they come is half-jokingly tabbing it "psychedelic cow punk" - you'll find a softer almost Johnny Cash/June Carter flavored number on this work titled, simply, "Coffee". Two creams, no sugar.

Entire Cities - "Coffee"

We move a little wayward west and a tinge south and wind up in Chicago for another obscure little bar band - albeit American - headed by lead vocalist and namesake Dustin Apodaca. With Biggie's favorite smattering of "violins and mandolins" not to mention an acute rock guitar-keyboard combination (for those Springsteen fans out there) this second city ensemble serves as the absolute antithesis to the arena anthem-peddlers. After hearing this live recording featured below dubbed "Dear Honey" (not to mention a hilarious lead-in story from Apodaca on the origin of the lyrics) you'll want to pull up a stool, grab a beer and singalong - but maybe keep a little closer mind of your wallet.

Dusty Rhodes and the River Band - "Dear Honey"