The Consumer Goods

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Consumer Goods
Origin Flag of Canada Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Genre(s) Indie rock
Pop
Label(s) Grumpy Cloud Records
Associated acts The Poets, The Horribly Awfuls, The Honeybuckets, Paper Moon, The Weakerthans
Website Official Website
Members
Tyler Shipley
Ian Jeffrey
Ryan McVeigh
Matt McLennan
Matt Hildebrand

The Consumer Goods are a Canadian indie rock/pop band hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Composed of members of Winnipeg's local music scene, including The Poets, The Horribly Awfuls, The Honeybuckets, and Paper Moon, the group has garnered attention on local and national college radio charts. The band's debut LP Pop Goes the Pigdog!, released April 20, 2006, reached #1 on the UMFM charts in June 2006. The Consumer Goods appear on the Winnipeg-based Grumpy Cloud Records.

By the summer of 2006, 'Pop Goes the Pigdog!' had garnered four- and five-star ratings in a number of press reviews and were heralded by CBC Radio 3 as an "undeniably infectious activist pop unit."1 The exposure from the CBC appearance led to a second buzz in the fall of 2006 and another crop of reviews, including one which suggested that 'Pop Goes the Pigdog' be considered one of the top ten records of the year. By the end of 2006, the record was ranked number four for the year on the UMFM charts, based on radio airplay.

Despite moving to Toronto, Ontario, songwriter Tyler Shipley was able to keep the band together (with some lineup shuffling), and the band released their second effort on May 18 2007. The new record was called 'Happy Bidet,' and featured an even more absurd array of political and social critiques centered around a rejection of capitalism and imperialism. What sets the record apart from many of its contemporaries is its playful and ironic tone - the band explicitly seeks to avoid heavy-handeded polemics, instead offering satirical silliness to the tune of beautiful melodies and catchy hooks. As part of a new push from the Grumpy Cloud label, the band toured from Calgary in the west to Halifax in the east, closing out the year with a big show at the Gas Station Theatre at home in Winnipeg.

The press around 'Happy Bidet' was overwhelmingly positive. The record received glowing reviews across the country, with the exceptions of Edmonton (where it was panned) and Toronto (where it was ignored.) It was popular on campus radio stations in Canada, the US and in Europe, where it became a mainstay on radio in cities as diverse as Den Haag, Marseilles, and Koln. It was also featured on Cuba's famous Radio Habana. In December 2007, the band was featured for a cover story in Uptown Magazine, and had a song nominated for one of CBC Radio Three's Bucky Awards. New material is in the works for a 2008 release, including a catchy new song skewering Don Cherry and the increasingly problematic link between CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and the Canadian invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

Contents

[edit] Political and cultural references

Many of the songs from 'Pop Goes the Pigdog!' and 'Happy Bidet' refer to contemporary and historical politics and culture. For example:

  • the famous U.S. supreme court case of Roe V. Wade is used as a backdrop to the amusing pro-choice anthem "Rovie Wade"
  • Malcolm X's speech about violent and non-violent revolution is featured on "Christmas in Camden"
  • Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz is mocked for his repressive civic record in "And The Final Word is Yours, Sam Katz"
  • the 1898 invasion of Cuba by the United States in the Spanish-American War, and subsequent imperialist domination of the island until 1959, is referenced in "Gunboat Diplomacy"
  • Mao Zedong's aphorism "Revolution is no tea party" is featured on the track of the same name
  • a speech by Dick Cheney is appropriated and edited in a mocking tribute to Cheney, George W. Bush, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld in "Eat a Dick, Cheney"
  • the phrase "camels coming home to roost" on "London Bombs" refers either to Ward Churchill's controversial essay On the Justice of Roosting Chickens or Malcolm X's commentary on the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
  • commentary on the Devil's Lake outlet controversy and criticism of Premier of Manitoba Gary Doer on "Good Thing (for Bourgeois Nationalism)"
  • the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon is the subject of "Lebanong Song"
  • the gradual demise of the MontrĂ©al Expos on "C'est la Vie Westerne"
  • the story of the ill-fated Taiping Rebellion is articulated on the track "Taiping Riverboat"
  • author of the U.S. Patriot Act, John Ashcroft, is skewered in "Happy Bidet (Let The Balled Eagle Soar)"

[edit] Band members

The members of The Consumer Goods are:

[edit] Discography

  • "Happy Bidet", Grumpy Cloud Records, 2007
  • "Pop Goes the Pigdog!", Grumpy Cloud Records, 2006

[edit] See also

[edit] External links