February and March updates

Hellooo... two new things to tell you aboot:



Happy Puppy is proud to announce a new group to the roster: Scarm.

This Russian-based group dropped this album on us out of the blue, and it's quite interesting.

A curious blend of atmospheric guitars and drums with a experimental and improvisational edge, emotional, darkly melodic noise ambient. This could easily appear on a soundtrack to an underground indie film, but also stands completely on its own. The band describe it as "a storyline about one uncommon day of an ordinary person. It starts at the midday and ends late at night. And the darker street comes the more heavy, terrible and noisy music turns."

Download it here...





I first discovered the music of Reggie Regan in 1990 while sifting through a box of 45s at my local Winnipeg University radio station - CDs were just becoming more common, and the station manager wanted to make room, so he said I could take whatever 45s I wanted. Wrong thing to say to me.

While digging through the milkcrates of neglected vinyl, I found this indie release entitled Reggie Regan's Greatest Hits Volume 1 (yes, he did it before the Rheostatics). I was intrigued, especially when one of the songs was "Burning Swedish Meatballs".

I listened to it at home and I was taken by it's quirky charm, a blend of new wave and slighty off-kilter pop. Who was this guy? No info available on the label, other than it was released in 1984. I looked him up in 1997 when I got online but there was nothing.

Fast-forward to early 2011, and going through some of my vinyl that I was transferring to CD I wanted to upgrade my copy and thought to look his name up online again.

This time, I discover a lot more about Reggie, mostly through his friends blog: Reggie lived in Winnipeg for a time doing the odd gig and released this one and only record (now a hit in cult circles).

He also knows how to fix transmissions, fixes up spare houses, he's an emergency flight-crew nurse, he's a medical legal consultant, and he spends alot of his time building bat houses in efforts to control mosquito populations - one of the unknown heroes from Canada (ok technically he's been in the States for a long time too).

And now with Reggie's kind permission, he is going to take over the interweb by re-releasing his only-ever record available for free download on Happy Puppy. He also generously donated a scan of the original vinyl sleeve art (mine didn't have one) so you can get the full Reggie experience. Click here to get it!

And as always, both of these are available at the Free Music Archive...

See you soon!

Plumtree ROCKS!

Happy Puppy is proud to announce the re-release of a long out-of-print and rare debut EP by Canadian band Plumtree.

Plumtree were originally out of Halifax, made a big impression early on and that continues today, ten years after they broke up, thanks to starting that whole Scott Pilgrim thing.

They released one cassette EP, three albums and a handful of singles in their 6 year lifespan, making a mark on the Canadian indie scene with their smart, spunky and fun rock music. And Plumtree did rock.

I never felt that the band truly got the attention and respect they deserve: they were one of the best groups to come out of Canada and I'm extremely happy that the band have given me permission to make their debut EP from 1994 Flutterboard available on Happy Puppy for free download (for a limited time!).

These tracks are from their cassette master. Original cassette artwork is also included (complete with creases) and if you like what you hear, please visit their site where you can purchase their new 'best of' collection, Carla and Lynettes new SISTER project and other assorted Plumtree goodness, or consider a donation for their generosity.

Click here to get it!

So much to tell you!

Where to begin... ok, here's everything we've been up to since the last post:

Lee's track "The Unwelcome Idea" was submitted over 2 years ago to Dharmasound for an upcoming comp. They changed their name to Dsound and now you too can download We Want To Beehivemind.

In light of yet another economic disaster, Lee released a new single: Red Danube available for free download.

Indaba Music started a remix contest for Steve Reich.. and you can listen to Lee's submission here.


Hallowe'en is over, but you can always download The Itchy Creeps virtual 7" and keep it handy for next year.

New artist to the HP roster Pushing Task releases his 28-minute noise album Barbershop. It actually sounds more a dentist drill cutting squeaky dolls in half. You have been warned.

The downloadable version of Fluxwax is now on sale for $3.99 at both Bandcamp and CDbaby! Half the price until Christmas...

And Test Tube has released the other album Lee made in February, The Vela Companion (light years book ii) is out now with a very nice writeup from Pedro.

Whatcha waiting fer? Get downloading!

Oh, and here's the video for "Red Danube"... more of an video art painting really.

more stuff?

Yup.. couple of things - we've uploaded Fluxwax, the Twitter single and Fudge's At the Beach EP to bandcamp.. where you can listen to full tracks, and if you like 'em - buy them in lossless or high quality mp3. Better than CDBaby!

Lee's also created a new album consisting of two long tracks called Nacre; all proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross for Pakistan relief. Plus if you buy it now, the Canadian Gov't is matching all Pakistan donations dollar for dollar... we've set the price of $2 minimum, but you can pay more if you like because we won't keep a penny.

Click here to visit the bandcamp page..

Twitter terror

Hey, have ya heard? Lee's got a new single:



Available at cdbaby.com and itunes too..

Also the latest Zappa tribute is out..

And if that weren't enough, the Free Music Archive is a great place to discover new music, and also Lee's track "Do what you can" is #1 on the current Most Interesting Playlist for weeks now, #4 on the Most Interesting list of the whole site history, and the #1 Most Downloaded currently, and sitting at #4 for Most Downloaded in site history with over 9,000 downloads! What the heck is going on!?

The song is also the theme to the ABC Life Literacy Podcast, and has been showing up in various youtube videos. Does this mean we're trending?

New stuff!

Hullo June... here's the latest release:

It's Comsopolitan Time! with the Cosmopolitans.

The Cosmopolitans were legendary on the Winnipeg public access scene for over 20 years. The musical duo of Marion Clemens and Louise Wynberg had the longest running show on VPW Channel 11 in Winnipeg, where once a week they would play their favourite songs (mostly from Louise's memory) sometimes in the studio and sometimes on location with Marion on drums and Louise on keyboards and vocals.

This album is comprised of two audio cassettes I made of the show, circa 1995 - the first recorded at VPW Studios in Winnipeg and the second at the Kin Place Personal Care Home in Oakbank, MB where Marion now resides.

Unfortunately, VPW's scheduling wasn't always consistant - being the nature of public access, sometimes programs would be substituted with no notice. Unfortunately, both times I caught these programs I missed the first few minutes.

However, there is so little documentation of The Cosmopolitans work, any tapes are rare. They do appear in the DVD collection of VPW shows "Winnipeg Babysitter", but the DVD is now out of print (if you email Video Pool Winnipeg and bug them, they might make more!)

Louise sadly passed away in 2002, but Marion is 83 and has started documenting her life as an immigrant to Canada in her books and she graciously gave me permission to share the Cosompolitans music with you all and I dedicate it to the memory of Louise.

**

Elsewhere, we have a number of albums up at the Free Music Archive... go check it out!

More soon...

Mayday

Hullo... so yes, it is Mayday and I thought I would pop in and update the blog with the latest of happenings... in the event that someone stumbles here and wonders what's-a-doing.

So. New stuff:

- Lee's new album Fluxwax (available for sale at cdbaby and itunes) - when you buy it, you get sent high quality artwork and a previously unreleased exclusive bonus track!

- more nice subtle ambient music on the new EP from Graffiti Mechanism called Let's Go Everywhere for free download...

And the track that Lee gave for the new Zappa tribute 21 Burny Weenie Sandwiches is mere moments from being unleashed to the public. The label put together a promo video for the release and you can watch it over at the tube of you.

There's another album in the possible pipe for the mighty Test Tube netlabel to release, but more on that later.