CoelacanthDance
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada | SELF
Music
Press
"Saw you guys at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival ... truly great!"
Marian Donnelly, 'Inner Circle Management'. - Marian Donnelly
As of September 30, 2008, CoelacanthDance won 1st place on 'Live Performance Videos' on OurStage.com. The featured video is a performance of 'KarmaZone' recorded at McNally's Tavern, November 15, 2007, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
http://www.ourstage.com/video/channel/124-live-perfomances/UNPHOHAXSMRS-karmazone-live
- Steve McDonnell
Reverbnation/MicroSoft Sponsored Songs Program
CoelacanthDance was one of 1,000 bands (selected from over 400,000 at ReverbNation) to be part of the newly launched Sponsored Songs program that Microsoft sponsored.
Bands were selected by Reverbnation based on a combination of fan counts, song plays, song downloads, and profile visits, leveraging fan activity to drive the selection process.
1000 handpicked ReverbNation artists were featured on www.MySpace.com/Windows from June 24 through September 24, 2009 and their songs were available for download for free. Participating artists will be compensated by Microsoft for every free download to the tune of $0.50 in exchange for a Windows advertisement embedded on the digital artwork. The three-way partnership is a potentially break-through digital distribution model, providing corporate brands with the means to tap into new, music-centric audiences and creating a fund for independent artists to finance their marketing and distribution activities.
CoelacanthDance's track 'KarmaZone' was downloaded a total of 1012 times. - Steve McDonnell
Weekend host of 'The Signal', Pat Carrabré, played 'Rain Dreams' on Sunday, February 15, 2009.
The Signal is a brand new program of recorded and live contemporary music with an emphasis on homegrown Canadian creators and performers. It's a time to discover a wide range of cutting edge sounds: from "new" classical to electronica, world, improvised, and cross-genre styles. It's the music of now: as wide-ranging and diverse as the world we live in.
Laurie Brown is the perfect late-night-radio companion. She brings knowledge and enthusiasm and warmth to everything she presents. Her curiosity and passion for all kinds of music set the mood for the show and for the night.
The Signal beams all weekend as well. Composer Pat Carrabré takes over Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, pushing the contemporary music boundaries even closer to the edges with a great mix of recorded music and live performances from across the country. Pat likes Thai curry!
Discover the best in contemporary music on The Signal with Laurie Brown and Pat Carrabré. - CBC Radio 2
"What a great show - well done lads. The only thing slightly off was the Hoegaarden Beer I was drinking that night!!! Loved the tongue drum..." - Malcolm: DJ: 'British Fusion' CJTR 93.1 FM
CoelacanthDance's track - 'KarmaZone', from debut CD - 'Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms' has been selected for inclusion on Progressive Rock Hall of Fame's first Compilation CD - 'Soundscapes Volume 1'.
It is a great honour to be on this compilation with the likes of amazing artists such as 'Hectic Watermelon' and John Ford, who was a member of legendary prog/folk/rock British band ‘The Strawbs’ - the violin player in 'Hectic Watermelon' is none other than JERRY GOODMAN, who used to play in a little band called - MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA. - Steve McDonnell
Review -- COELACANTH DANCE -- Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms
SONIC EXCURSIONS and AUDIO SPASMS
Coelacanth Dance
Crying Fish Music
7.5-out-of-10
Sit back for an amazing musical journey as you start to spin Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms from Regina's uniquely named Coelacanth Dance.This is another one of a growing number of one-man CD efforts that seem to be popping up in the musical field.In this case the man behind the music is Steve McDonnell. He basically provides all the guitars, bass, keyboards, drum programming/percussion. The CD is recorded at Crying Fish Studio in Regina, which again is McDonnell's baby. He even did the CD design, right down to its fantastical artwork. So it's pretty clear this is an effort that is near and dear to the creator's heart. Sometimes when you get a deeply personal album it simply means the writer/musician is flogging something no one else would touch. In this case Coelacanth Dance is a name you should associate with fine music.The sound is strongly electronica influenced, although on a cut like the opening Gumbo Lounge there is a jazz feel that pops through the musical veil quite often.That splash of jazz is something you hear several times here.At other times McDonnell slows the music down, such as on Rain Dreams, and you end up with a relaxed, melodic musical experience, filled with dream moods. A key here is that McDonnell borrows a trick from the best of jazz, and serves up long pieces that allow larger musical tapestries. The shortest work among the eight cuts logs in at 4:37, with five eclipsing six minutes, the longest; Karma Zone at 11:11.This is a relaxing musical effort, one that can provide a nice background to a small gathering, or simply be enjoyed any day you need to chill. It's a good vibes CD.
-- CALVIN DANIELS
-- Review first appeared in Yorkton This Week newspaper Nov. 26, 2008 - Yorkton, SK. Canada - CALVIN DANIELS
Discography
Full length debut CD - 'Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms' - Released May 18, 2007. CD now available via CDBaby @: http://cdbaby.com/cd/coelacanthdance
'KarmaZone'' selected for inclusion on 'Progressive Rock Hall of Fame's' compilation CD 'SoundScapes Vol. 1
Photos
Bio
Reverbnation/MicroSoft Sponsored Songs Program
CoelacanthDance was one of 1,000 bands (selected from over 400,000 at ReverbNation) to be part of the newly launched Sponsored Songs program that Microsoft sponsored.
Bands were selected by Reverbnation based on a combination of fan counts, song plays, song downloads, and profile visits, leveraging fan activity to drive the selection process.
1000 handpicked ReverbNation artists were featured on www.MySpace.com/Windows from June 24 through September 24, 2009 and their songs were available for download for free. Participating artists will be compensated by Microsoft for every free download to the tune of $0.50 in exchange for a Windows advertisement embedded on the digital artwork. The three-way partnership is a potentially break-through digital distribution model, providing corporate brands with the means to tap into new, music-centric audiences and creating a fund for independent artists to finance their marketing and distribution activities.
CoelacanthDance's track 'KarmaZone' was downloaded a total of 1012 times.
CoelacanthDance, (pronounced SEAL-a-kanth-Dance)
"Come explore the deep blue sonic sea and beyond with the strawberry cumin jam band named after everyone's favourite semi-extinct primeval fish - CoelacanthDance. We all come from the sea, some of us are adapting to life on land better than others, but all can agree that dancing is the best way to adapt! So, come shake your tail fin, grow some gills, then head back to the ocean, smiling and spicily satiated".
Steve 'The Hat' Jeske
About the Music:
The music of CoelacanthDance started as a one person project composed, played - on guitar, bass, keyboards and drum programming, and recorded by Steve McDonnell at his home studio 'Crying Fish Studios', and released as an independent CD titled: 'Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms' in 2007.
Shortly after the release of that CD the full band version of CoelacanthDance was (spawned) and although the band plays - and expands - on the original compositions on the CD, the music has evolved and morphed into a kinetic, energized jam band.
To best represent what CoelacanthDance is now, the audio tracks on this EPK are all LIVE, recorded at a gig at Bushwakker Brew Pub in Regina, Saskatchewan, June 24, 2009 (warts & all!) on this amazing little unit - a ZOOM H2, which is about the size of a cell phone, sitting on a table in front of the stage. These tracks are exactly as recorded - NO overdubs!
The music of CoelacanthDance is now licensed for commercial use through Pump Audio.
Our live video - 'KarmaZone: Live @ McNally's Tavern competed against 428 entries and won 1st place on OurStage.com for the month of September, 2008.
"CoelacanthDance's track - 'KarmaZone', from debut CD - 'Sonic Excursions and Audio Spasms' has been selected for inclusion on Progressive Rock Hall of Fame's first Compilation CD - 'Soundscapes Volume 1'.
We are also the only Canadian band on the compilation, all the other artists are from the USA and Britain.
The Progressive Rock Hall of Fame Soundscapes Volume 1 CD is not available commercially and was mailed out in December, 2008 to select press outlets and labels, in addition to over 1,000 terrestrial and online radio stations worldwide that play Progressive Music.
THE MUSIC:
Our music incorporates elements of middle eastern, arabic, space and progressive rock with ambient, electronica, jazz, funk, world fusion, psychedelia, rock...and beyond ....
There are however some things musical and otherwise that have had an influence directly and indirectly, on what CoelacanthDance does, such as, King Crimson, Hawkwind, CAN, Soft Machine, Ozric Tentacles, TOOL, Grateful Dead, Phish, Nag Champa Incense, Porcupine Tree, Tabla Beat Science, British style pickled onions, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Thai Curry, the phases of the moon, soft grey mornings, the curve of a woman's hip, the deep blue sea ....
The original music from the CD has and is in the process of morphing and changing as it is interpreted by the 4 member band in live performance, but still retains the original flavour of the studio tracks.
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