Wednesday 04 August 2010



I’m a believer!

-OR- How I came to discover The Provincial Archive

The evolution of this blog post on The Provincial Archive:

I clicked on a link on Facebook posted by Darrin Cappe, who runs the web presence for seminal 80s Canadian band Spoons (of whom I am a loyal fan, as you can see) to order a copy of Rise Up: Canadian Pop Music in the 1980s, a documentary hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, currently host of CBC Radio’s Q, and one-time drummer for Moxy Fruvous.

While watching Rise Up, I was flooded with memories of the music I listened to as a kid and young teenager.  It was overwhelming, and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I started to tear up a little hearing the chorus to “Summer of ’69″.  Suddenly, I wanted to own as much early Bryan Adams material as I could, and cracked out the iPad and started searching iTunes.

Though I didn’t commit to buying any Bryan Adams, I kept the iPad close at hand, in case any other artist mentioned in the documentary sparked my interest.  Sure enough, one did:  Mary Margaret O’Hara.  If I was going to be inspired to buy any music from the DVD, it was going to be her sole album, Miss America.

I searched for it on iTunes.  No luck.  It is listed on Amazon.ca but is out of stock.  I tried my luck at Zunior.com to see if it might be there.  No luck.

I did however see the cover art for Maybe We Could Be Holy, the second album from The Provincial Archive, and thought that it looked very interesting.  I hadn’t heard of them before.  I checked out their CBC Radio 3 page and listened to some of the songs available there.  Very very interesting.  I used the handy Radio 3 widgets to check off that I was a fan of the band.  Back to Zunior I went, splurging on Maybe We Could Be Holy and their previous record, Nameless Places.  Waiting for the download, I surfed over to the band’s official site, noting the endorsement of fellow bloggers Herohill for Nameless Faces:  “All in all, I’m not sure what else you could ask for.”

The next morning, I got a message from Bryan at Herohill, saying that he saw on Facebook I had become a fan of The Provincial Archive on Radio 3 via my status, and basically challenging me to see who could get their post about the band up first.  He won.  But very graciously, though.  Bry hooked me up with main archivist Craig Schram, and he seems to be a great guy, so we’ll be working on a QBiM Q&A with The Provincial Archive real soon for you to enjoy.

In the meantime, you should truly enjoy this sample of their handiwork.  If you’re familiar with their first album, you’ll note the added layers and denser sound on Maybe We Could Be Holy.  If you’re new to the band, as I am, you’ll be seduced by their effortless ability to sound modern and traditional all at the same time.  It’s a personal album without being overly confessional, accessible without pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Music to fall in love to/with.  Keep your eyes peeled for more with Craig and co. on QBiM soon.

MP3: The Provincial Archive “I’m a Believer!”
Myspace: The Provincial Archive
Facebook: The Provincial Archive
Twitter: The Provincial Archive





by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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