Tyler Shipley
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Tyler Shipley is a Winnipeg, Manitoba based songwriter and musician. He is best known for his most recent project, a political pop band called The Consumer Goods whose last record, Pop Goes the Pigdog!, reached the #1 spot on local radio, earned the band a devoted core of committed fans, and garnered lavish praise in the press. As the band's central figure, Shipley coordinates the band's myspace page, which has become an important part of the band's success, based on the very personal way in which Shipley connects with fans - who soon become more like friends - and the clever use of the band's weblog to combine radical political commentary and pop culture with sharp, cynical and sometimes offensive wit. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
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[edit] Press
On August 18, 2006, CBC Radio 3 called the Consumer Goods "an undeniably infectious activist pop unit" on their weekly podcast, bringing national exposure to the popular Winnipeg band.1 Earlier that summer, Winnipeg's popular Uptown Magazine gave the record an 'A' rating and called it "the most impressive debut by a Winnipeg band in many years." 2 A few months later, the record was hailed by The Brandon Sun which claimed that "the Consumer Goods are not famous and that is criminal." The same review suggested that one of the songs from that record ought to be considered for "any end-of-year top-10 list, as Shipley's aching vocals are perfectly counterpointed by the jaunty keyboard, driving guitar and thumping bass." Other projects that have received warm tidings in the press include The Horribly Awfuls, whose second record was called "rootsy and mellow and far more haunting than depressing" was credited with producing the best cover of Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' ever.5 The same record was reviewed in Uptown as "a clever, tongue-in-cheek romp...played by serious musicians whose talent always seems to shine through" 6 and award winning author Miriam Toews even name-checked the disc in an interview with Flare Magazine! 7
Since the release of 'Happy Bidet,' the second effort from the Consumer Goods, Shipley has been featured in an array of interviews and articles, including a number of pieces in Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine (a cover story in December 2007), an in-depth interview on the online zine Pop-Zap! and an article on the Dutch indie zine Hanx. The record has received glowing reviews from coast to coast in Canada (with the exceptions of Edmonton, where it was panned, and Toronto, where it was ignored) and the band has been touring in support. CBC Radio Three has featured the band on its podcasts and in 2007 they were nominated for a Bucky Award for "best song title." They have received notoriety for their absurdist political commentary, which has been the subject of articles and radio spots in places like Winnipeg, Kingston and Hamilton, as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Italy, and even on Radio Habana in Cuba.
[edit] Background
In the early 2000s, Shipley was part of the Conifera Records collective, a Winnipeg-based group of loosely connected musicians, bands and artists who pooled resources, operated a popular online messageboard and organized collectively to create a mini-scene. The Conifera group disbanded officially in 2005, but in its short lifespan created an undeniable buzz in the Winnipeg music scene. Prominent members included surf-grunge-poppers Cone Five, indie-dance-core Boats!, folk-alt-rockers The Poets, country-death-folky The Horribly Awfuls, drone legend Unravelled Broken Orchestra, and noise-thrash-popping Effector. The group also produced two compilations of local artists, the second of which featured the song "Red Water" by Tyler Shipley.
Shipley was a founding member of The Poets and their principle songwriter. He was also a permanent fixture in The Horribly Awfuls providing bass guitar, backing vocals and countless other musical flourishes. He collaborated with fellow Horribly Awful Gareth Williams on two split/solo records, and appeared on records by Matt McLennan and The Ramzi Helewa Sound Experiment. After the demise of Conifera Records, he became the co-founder of Grumpy Cloud Records with Gareth Williams.
In the mid-2000s, Shipley hosted a spoken-word political radio program called "The Spark" that aired Wednesday evenings on UMFM, a campus radio station at the University of Manitoba. The show covered diverse topics from Hurricane Katrina and politics in sports to union activism and the University's "Seeds of Change" academic freedom controversy. "The Spark" concluded when Shipley and most of the show's regular panelists moved from Winnipeg. 8 Scott Rutherford, who regularly joined the program over the phone from Kingston, Ontario is now a co-host of "Radio Bandung" on CFRC at Queen's University.
[edit] Selected Discography
- 2007 - Various - "My Love is a Stinky Love: A Tribute to Gareth Williams" - contributed "Dutch elm disease" and "spirograph"
- 2007 - The Consumer Goods - "Happy Bidet"
- 2006 - The Consumer Goods - "Pop Goes the Pigdog!"
- 2006 - Gareth Williams and Tyler Shipley - "Thanks for Nothing, Mucho Windbag"
- 2006 - The Ramzi Helewa Sound Experiment - "Love in a Beautiful Way" - featured on the song 'The Pretty Things'
- 2005 - The Horribly Awfuls - "If the Night Don't Bite?"
- 2005 - Gareth Williams and Tyler Shipley - "Self Doubt and Gospel Shout!"
- 2004 - Conifera Records - "The Winnipeg Parks and Recreation Authority" - contributed the song 'Red Water'
- 2004 - The Horribly Awfuls - "Le Perve Calamity"
- 2004 - Matt McLennan - "Not a Cloud in the Sky" - featured on the song 'Think of the Music'
- 2003 - The Poets - "Nothing to Stay For and Nowhere To Go"
- 2003 - The Horribly Awfuls - "We Fight Like the Crips and Bloods"
- 2003 - The Horribly Awfuls - "Spring Has Sprung"
- 2002 - The Poets - (What Remains of) The Waiting Place"
