Ohbijou

I had some music lined up for today, but as is usually the case, ended up finding something that needed to be featured right away. I was floating around blogland after work and visited one of the better Canadian blogs I always forget about. Mocking Music did a brief piece last week on today's featured musicians and I was smitten at first listen. They also mentioned some other controversy surrounding a couple of music blogs having "hot" or "best" bands of Canada lists and I saw a few second generation posts regarding those blog entries as well. I suppose whenever you decide to make a list like that there are going to be plenty of unhappy people. I found what I read amusing but also disturbing in that most bands listed were ones already given the golden foot-in-door award where both fashion and horrible retro disco/bland folk meet. Don't get me wrong here... I love and feature plenty of Canadian bands and was glad to see mention of a few Paper Bag Records artists. There were, however, quite a few others that left me scratching my head. Anyway, let's forget about that and get on with a great band that was not a part of those silly lists. The arsenal of various musical instruments incorporated here is refreshing and worth the time to investigate. Each track I heard stands well enough on it's own but I still get a sense that the album is only complete once absorbed entirely.













Ohbijou was originally the musical project of Casey Mecija (vocals, guitar) from Brantford, Ontario Canada. She soon enlisted the musical assistance of sister Jennifer Mecija (organ, violin, vocals) and eventually Ryan Carley (keyboard, percussion), Heather Kirby (bass, banjo, guitar), James Bunton (drums, trumpet) along with Anissa Hart (cello) to complete the full 6 piece outfit. When you visit the Ohbijou MySpace Page, the bottom song titled Misty Eyes should be your first listen there. It's one of the sweetest songs I've heard in a while. The vocals are an outstanding listen and might just seal the deal for you. Their brand new debut full length release Swift Feet For Troubling Times is available on the very same MySpace page for $15 CAD if you have a pay pal account. The Ohbijou Website has current band info as well as a really good 22 minute mp3 format interview with Eric Peterson of Guelph, ON college radio station CFRU. Finally, I found a live YouTube video of the band from this past summer.



Enjoy!!













MP3: St. Francis