Hello Bonjour!
Lots of fun blurb-age below but first and foremost:

This compilation is free because , well, for one, we didn't write these songs - but, also because -

We would love it if you would please consider directing your cash / love to the beloved Unit 2, here in Toronto:

"We are QT2S/BIPOC (Queer / Trans, 2 Spirit and/or Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) and friends. This is a radical arts and community space dedicated to building community and building bridges!
We are a DIT (do it together) space."

unit2.club

You can donate via e-transfer or paypal at:
unit2booking@gmail.com

Support a vital art space that's making it happen - we need these peeps!

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Tone Bonk HQ here, welcoming you to our take on the infamous Big Shiny Tunes lineage, a series of 14 compilation albums, documenting the alternative rock highlights of the canadian countdown, during one of the least diverse periods of music history.
Whether you were a teen, adult or glimmer in someone's eye at the time of their release, it matters not!
This is fresh pizza pizza here people, washed down with a piping hot tim's iced capp.
Some of the artists have penned some blurbs for you below, others have left you to simply press play....

Stay tuned for more exciting bonks to come in the near future ;-)

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Tahitian Moon - Christine Bougie
written by Perry Farrell, Porno For Pyros
guitars, lap steel, bass, percussion - Christine Bogie
recorded and mixed by Christine Bougie


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The Good in Everyone - Marker Starling

Written by Patrick Pentland
Chris A. Cummings: Lowrey MicroGenie, Korg Triton, vocals
Produced and arranged by Chris A. Cummings

A micro-tribute to a huge-sounding song. While tackling this challenge I decided to try taking everything that was large and "rock"-signifying and transform it into a tinier, cuter more Casio-sounding version of itself. The song already has pretty chord changes, but when you remove the guitars from a guitar-based song and replace them with keyboards, they almost sound like the chord changes from a hymn. I was a big fan of the original in '96 (and of the One Chord To Another album generally!) so it was my pleasure getting the opportunity to cover this song. Viva Canada, Viva Halifax, Viva Sloan!

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Block Rockin' Beats - Vibrant Matter

In 1997, the year of it’s release, Block Rockin’ Beats by the Chemical Brothers was described by Billboard’s Larry Flick as a "genre-spanning revelation", and stated that "after one spin, you'll be chanting the hook for hours, and the blend of scratchy funk beats and acidic keyboards are sure to get the body moving.

I really hope I have done it justice

Guest voice memos by Teegee, Lanni ,Robo + Phil420

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My Old Self (sunshine version) - Spencer Cole
I heard this track first on BST 2 thanks to my older bro who bought the entire series from our local record store, Zellers. That was an important stack of CD's for us. So raw and edgy!
This one was my go-to track and was very relatable. It was the summertime, and I was literally up in the kitchen singing while blasting it in the living room, and maybe my mom was even out gardening while my dad was downstairs practicing. 

Credits:
written by Wide Mouth Mason
performed, arranged, recorded and mixed by Spencer Cole

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Paranoid Android - Ko T.C.

everything : Ko

Thom Yorke, thank you for the singing lesson.

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The Way - Paul Linklater

guitar, bass, drums, keyboards by paul

recorded just by memory. maybe singing the memory of a song might be sweeter than facing it’s reality?
you are happy when it comes on if the radio is on all day at your work.  it has tarantino meets elvis costello vibe...which ricky martin later went on to employ in  living la vida loca.  you never really minded when that song came on either haha

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Apparitions - Ten Moon

matthew good the musician for writing a banger // probably matthew goode the actor for being a great vampire // water on my laptop for stopping my mixing process short and leading me to submitting a half-mixed track ... which ended up being a lesson in the meaning of this: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ // me!! - voice, 1/2 mix magic, production, "musical typing" on logic pro x ... 


for me, apparitions always brought to mind those kind of reflective, melancholic, unrequited love, should have stayed home moments during a P R O M scene in <insert teen movie here>. for this cover i envisioned robots organizing their own cute prom in an abandoned high school post-humans-fleeing-earth scenario. plot twist: mid-way through robot prom the humans (ALIENS) return! there is some awkwardness and a bit of tension, perhaps, but by the end they are all dancing together. Full circle character journeys. Tender times. healing! a metaphor for the times we're in!! ?? !

Ten Moon is a bb - cutting their teeth with an ep + west coast tour in 2019 and, like so many, crawling through 2020. Here now in 2021 they are skipping straight through to prom with the release of this track. stay tuned for the next phase of their growth cycle. 

@tenmooninspace

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Dragula - Omeed Goodarzi

It’s over & it’s already been over. But look it’s happening again! And there it goes a fifth time! don’t hold your breath and I’ll teach you to breathe underwater , there are secret worlds of friendship and collusion . Tumble down the rabbit hole and have tea with me, the floor is on the roof! Basic Opposite Day rules! different calendar, same clock. Let’s synchronize our watches so When you look down at me it’s like I’m walking on the ceiling. The winds whip us tight, hold on . Say “hello it’s me” , you know that I know that you know I already love you , so dispose of me patiently, tell the kids about be, and pick one to be my successor. The next “giver” of “hatchet” the plane crashes , don’t loose grip of a “ frindle “ and slam in the back of a Dracula.

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Money City Maniacs - Alex Lukashevsky

SLOAN wrote really good tunes all through the 90's. they were good when they were upstarts and when they got their commercial success too. they're naturals! It would have probably been way more fun to be in a popular rock band in the 70's though, and i think that's what Money City Maniacs is about. If you're unable to play the fool for one reason or another you end up playing the clown, and that hurts!

this recording was made by Alex Lookathatsky and assisted and mixed by THOMAS 

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Fly Away - Fievel Is Glauque

Ma Clément: voxxx
Zach Phillips: guitar, bass, fostex m80, production
Raphaël Desmarets: guitar, wah bass, solo bass
Gaspard Sicx: drums
Ryan Power: master

"Envolez-vous, oiseaux de ma faiblesse..."
-- Apollinaire, les Mamelles de Tirésias

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Fly Away - Ruth Garbus & MG

Written by Lenny Kravitz (obvi)
Performed, produced by Ruth Garbus except vocals by MG, spacehorn by Kyle Tomzo 

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That Song - Ben Gunning

"That Song" popped out at me at the time for its musical competency and slick rock production. While pop/rock radio then was teeming with fake rebellion - this kinda banal, sanitized pop-punk or Zellers grunge - this seemed to have no relationship with any of it, thus refreshing, albeit outside my normal taste zone.  

Also, I can't count the number of times I've suddenly burst into the line "pocketbook brrrrrando" for no reason whatsoever.

Credits:

Ben Gunning: All music, production
Songwriter: Ian Thornley (Big Wreck)

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Praise You - Bram Gielen

VOICES
Bram Gielen, Stephanie Tonietto, Thom Gill, Alex Samaras, Robin Dann, Phil Melanson, Angus Ryer, Emily Engel, Sophia Gielen, Jacob Finn, Harriet Finn, Susanna Finn, Ben Gunning, Alice Gunning, Mimi Gunning, James Smith, Fez Gielen, Claire Harvie, Ted Crosby

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Sour Girl - Thom Gill

Daniel Pencer on the saxophone.

I seem to remember learning as a teen that the DeLeo brothers went to Berklee. Upon factchecking as an adult, I am mistaken!
This song tickled me when it showed up on the Much Countdown. For some context you didn’t ask for, so did Sugar Jones “Days Like That”.
The interplay of D and Bb in the verses is the beauty mark that caught my eye, the sexy Teletubbies meet goth Buffy with Weiland bellydancing video is the full meat and potatoes that won my sixteen yr old heart.
I made two other drafts of this in an attempt to crash course my way through Logic midi stylings, but resorted, as usual, to playing everything on a trusty Casio. Midi sucks! I eschewed the intro and bridge, and the extra choruses etc. And changed ‘followed’ to ’swallowed’ cuz lol.
Daniel Pencer puts knots in the little hairs on your cochlea, sorry not sorry!

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Otherside - Edwin de Goeij

“I listened to Californication religiously while cutting fairways and greens at my golf course job from 2013-2015 - I can almost smell grass clippings when I listen to it today! For this rendition of Otherside I stripped the song down to its most basic form (melody / bassline), which was a blessing in that it helped me to figure out why this song spoke to me so much then and still does now. Thank you for listening”

Credits: 

Edwin de Goeij - Juno 106, Upright Piano, Mix
Raphaelle Standell-Preston - Additional Prod.

Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante - Songwriters