Mar Sellars loves surfing Canadians.
Canada Day is coming up on July 1st, and if you’re Canadian like me, it means a day off work, a hangover, lots of people waving maple leaf flags, and probably some terrible concerts in Ottawa from Celine Dion or Nickelback. But fear not! There are much better Canadian artists to listen to, and one of them is Rich Aucoin, a surfboard-wielding, cycle-loving, one-man band.
Known for his kooky approach to music, he wrote his first album, ‘Personal Publication’, to sync up to the 1966 version of The Grinch Stole Christmas in the same manner as the Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz sync, The Dark Side of Oz. The sync was up on YouTube and got 100,000 views before Dr. Seuss’ estate took it down. His first tour in the summer of 2007 was by bicycle. Dressed in a Grinch costume he cycled across Canada, playing gigs and raising money for cancer research. That’s pretty impressive: Canada is a BIG country.
Rich played every instrument on ‘Personal Publication', so for his follow up, he did the complete opposite. Bringing together 500 musical contributors (this isn’t an exaggeration), including 60 elementary school kids doing guest vocals on the song ‘Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E’ is a tribute to the “The Langley Schools Music Project”. He’s big on the cross-Canada thing and recorded the album in studios, bedrooms and churches travelling from Victoria, in British Columbia, to Saint John’s in Newfoundland – that’s coast to coast and about 7000km in distance. It took him two years to complete.
But enough about the records, the real brilliance of Rich Aucoin is his live show. Every live review, every witness to Aucoin on stage have all said the same thing: he’s Canada’s best live act. Known to carry a projector, surfboard, balloons, parachute and confetti everywhere he plays, Rich is all about a multi-media show and interactive performance. He actually uses a surf board to crowd surf during his show.
I can’t wait to see what surprises he has in store for the crowd at his only UK show on his 2011 European tour. It’s June 28 at the Old Queens Head.
http://richaucoin.ca/
Mar Sellars plays guitar in The Racket and writes the amazing Rockoverlondon Blog.
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