Wilco CANCELLED In winnipeg!

I knew it was too good to be true, just found out the Wilco show on Wednesday is cancelled. Guitarist Nils Cline is suffering from the chicken pox, so obviously they couldn't perform. A Jeff Tweedy solo show would have good enough for me, but they're not even in Winnipeg right now. How often do you get to see Wilco with 4th row centre seats! It would have been so great. Last year when they were in town I sat last row first balcony. I guess someone is punishing me for something, but hopefully they'll be back sometime in 2008. I was really looking forward to record the show in such a prime seat location....Shit!

My New Favourite Band?

I guess I must be living in a cave somewhere up in Canada as I had never heard of this band called Grand Champeen. A guy I met in St. Paul introduced me to this Austin quartet (thanks Mike!) with by supplying me with cuts from their 2nd album, Battle Cry For Help, their 3rd, The One That Brought You and their most recent release, Dial T For This. Their sound echoes bits of early Soul Asylum (back when they still kicked ass), Superchunk, Flop and even Wilco. Since I love all those previously mentioned groups, Grand Champeen has that "sound"I really enjoy, kind of a power pop type of thing. Apparently they've been around for over ten years and it's funny how a band this great (well, my opinion anyways...) can stay under my indie rock radar for so long.

I can't gush enough about Grand Champeen, the best thing I can do is recommend you have a listen to Grand Champeen and according to my friend Mike (he saw them in Mpls) they are awesome live. I'm looking forward to hearing more, they seem to get better with each release and if anyone has some live recordings from one of their shows, please let me know!

Dial T For This (2007)
Wounded Eye
Cities On The Plain
Raul Yela

The One That Brought You (2003)
The Good Slot
Paid Vacation
Thats Never Why

Battle Cry For Help (2002)
Cottonmouth
Paper Rock Scissors

I think the songs should work now. I'm experimenting with MP3PRO which is a smaller file, but supposeably isn't as compressed sounding as a regular MP3. When I click on the song it plays on the my default MP3PRO player, but I need to know if it plays on the Windows Media or Realplayer. Someone please tell me if it works!