Enjoy Your Pumas
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | SELF
Music
Press
"For more than an hour, the band led the crowd into a whirlwind of emotional, powerful and ethereal music - heightened by an excellent light show. As always, Blais' signature voice and theatrical performance were absolutely mesmerizing." Cendrine Marrouat, Examiner.com, Jan 31/11 - The Examiner
"With a sturdy alternative rock sound that neatly capers the edge off with dance-room ready synths and basses, Enjoy Your Pumas music is a sweltering amount of great rock/pop that is always pushing forward. " Bryan Sachez, Adequacy.net, Feb 4/11 - Adequacy.net
"The origin of the name is less important than the music, which is catchy, oft-understated indie-pop anchored by singer Rosie Blais’ surprisingly assured vocals" Eric Danton, Listendammit.com, Feb 2/11 - Listen Dammit
"With their blend of artful guitar figures, bubbling New Wave-ish bass runs and percolating drum din, the band makes a case for EYP being our very own Metric. The big news, of course, comes in the form of singer Rosanne Blais, whose breathless, open-mouthed articulations set the bar high." Jeff Monk, Winnipeg Free Press, Jan 29/11 - Winnipeg Free Press
"Enjoy Your Pumas are a new band that are really, really easy to enjoy" Jack Foley, Indie London, Dec 12/10 - Indie London
BY ERIN HARDE, THE LEADER-POST JUNE 3, 2010
Rosie Blais' mother has a theory on why her daughter's band Enjoy Your Pumas won a contest to open for Bon Jovi in Regina on July 28.
"Because the song we posted is 'Weight of the Circles' and Bon Jovi's tour is called The Circle," says Blais. "I don't know if that has anything to do with it; probably not, but that's my mother's theory," says Blais.
The truth is the 19-year-old Winnipeg native doesn't know why her five-piece indie rock band was selected as the winner of the Wanted: A Superband Tonight! Contest, which is giving local bands in a number of Bon Jovi's tour stops the chance to play in front of tens of thousands of people.
Pumas drummer Luke Janzen heard about the contest on the radio and entered the band for the opening slot of Bon Jovi's Winnipeg date using the Pumas OurStage.com account. Since the contest allowed bands within 500 miles of the tour stop to enter, he signed them up for Regina as well. It wasn't long before they found out the Pumas were finalists for both shows.
"We all forgot about (the contest) to tell the truth," says Blais.
"We didn't think we had a chance. We're just a small local band from Winnipeg. We're starting to build a fan base, but still pretty small compared to a lot of big acts in Winnipeg."
A week later they were told they'd landed the Regina gig.
"It's really shocking we got it. It's a huge, huge honour to be opening for Bon Jovi. He's been in music for longer than I've been alive."
Being so young, Blais is more familiar with Bon Jovi material post-2000 than the 1980s hits that made Jon Bon Jovi a superstar. After singing the chorus of "It's My Life," Blais says she remembers hearing that tune on the radio all the time.
"The other guys would probably be more aware of his older stuff."
Blais' lack of knowledge about Bon Jovi's catalogue doesn't imply a lack of respect. In fact, she's hoping to get the chance to speak with him in Regina to thank him, and pick his brain about making it in the music industry.
"I think I would ask him how to stay relevant, and stay real. You gotta think about this. Bon Jovi is an enormous act; he's the biggest tour in the world, and asking local acts to open for him? He doesn't have to do that."
Having just formed Enjoy Your Pumas in 2007 with Josh Benoit, Blais knows opening for Bon Jovi could open many doors for the group, who usually play for crowds of 150 people. Holding the attention of 30,000 Kid Rock and Bon Jovi fans, whose style of music greatly differs from that of the Pumas, will require the young band to be at their best as they play 20 minutes of original music.
"There's no doubt we're going to have to nail our songs. I think it's just going to be making sure everyone is really tight and we don't want to screw up on stage," says Blais. "That would be embarrassing."
As the vocalist for the band, Blais likes to make eye contact with her audience to create a connection.
"I have no bloody clue how I'm going to do that in a stadium," she muses. "It kind of scares me to think about it. I haven't fully prepared myself for it yet."
Enjoy Your Pumas will be performing music from their Ink The EP three-song release, and songs from their debut album, which should be released this summer. After Bon Jovi, the Pumas will concentrate on shopping their record around to interested labels, though they're still figuring out which direction to take.
"Everyone is concerned with sustainability in this industry and not being a one-hit wonder that opened for Bon Jovi in Regina, and then you never hear of them again," she says. "That's what we want to avoid."
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post
Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/entertainment/Pumas+catch+lucky+break/3105621/story.html#ixzz0uBltsQg2 - Regina Leader-Post
A Winnipeg indie band is about to enjoy its biggest moment in the spotlight: opening for Bon Jovi in Regina.
Enjoy Your Pumas, a female-fronted quintet, whose largest audience to date has been about 300 people.
The concert on Wednesday is set for Mosaic Stadium, which is being set up to accommodate about 40,000 people.
The group won the gig in a contest.
"I freaked out about it already, but now I'm in game mode," said lead singer Rosie Blais.
"I have to realize it's just another show."
"I'm the one that keeps reminding her that she's not only going to have to sing in front of all these people but she's going to have to talk as well," he said.
"Oh god!" Blais added.
Not everyone in the sea of fans will be new to the band. Guitarist Josh Benoit said his parents would be there.
"My dad couldn't believe it. He loves Bon Jovi, so to have his son up on [the same] stage, it's cool," he said.
But unlike playing at a Winnipeg club, where their friends and family members are obvious, the band members will have to search the massive crowd to find those familiar faces.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/07/26/mb-enjoy-your-pumas-band-bon-jovi-winnipeg.html#ixzz0vWaO278z - CBC News
Two independent local acts are hitting stadium stages this summer to open for legendary rock act, Bon Jovi. Singer/songwriter/fiddler Sierra Noble and indie pop quintet Enjoy Your Pumas will each get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play in front of thousands of rabid fans this July.
Noble, who opened for Paul McCartney last July, will play a 20-minute set before Bon Jovi and Kid Rock on July 17 at the Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg. Fellow Manitobans Enjoy Your Pumas will open for Bon Jovi at its Regina show on July 28 at the Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field.
Both acts won their opening slots through the Wanted: A SuperBAND Tonight! contest on music site, OurStage. A panel including Bon Jovi's management, OurStage, and local radio stations, selected the winners from a fan-ranked list of semi-finalists. Over 3 million fans vote in the online contest, which landed a dozen bands the opening spot on Bon Jovi dates in Canada and the U.S.
Already an internationally-acclaimed fiddler, Noble has performed across the globe, won numerous accolades, was featured in a music documentary, had her music go up in space, and has played for dignitaries like Governor General Michaëlle Jean. Recently, Noble stepped out from behind her fiddle and let audiences hear her voice as well as original songs. Her singer/songwriter debut EP, Possibilities, has earned Noble a lot of new attention and her videos for "Possibility" and "Try Anything" have put her in rotation on CMT Canada and MuchMoreMusic.
Enjoy You Pumas is currently hard at work in the studio recording the follow-up to its acclaimed EP, Ink, which got an A+ from Uptown Magazine and landed the band on CD Baby's Top 10 of 2009 podcast. Enjoy Your Pumas also put out a stop motion video for its track, "Weight of Circles," and has been offering up videos of in-studio work on its YouTube page.
According to Pollstar, Bon Jovi's The Circle Tour was recently ranked the #1 grossing tour. - Manitoba Music
Puma power!
Enjoy Your Pumas is set to generate big buzz with its debut EP
Jared Story
Puma power!Second time lucky? Local indie rock band Enjoy Your Pumas hopes so. The five-piece is re-releasing its 2007 debut recording, Ink the EP, Halloween night at the Park Theatre.
"Why we are re-releasing it is basically because two years ago when we recorded it, we only had one show where we had the actual EPs there," vocalist Rosie Blais says.
"That was our last show for a number of months, because our old drummer went away and so we went on kind of a hiatus. Basically, the album never really got the life it should have had."
The re-release of Ink the EP will also include three new downloadable tracks produced by Ryan McVeigh (The Consumer Goods) that Blais says will give listeners "a better sense of our sound with a new drummer." The stated skinsman is Luke Janzen who, in 2008, joined Blais, guitarist/pianist Ian Jeffrey, guitarist Josh Benoit and bassist Marc Gomez in Enjoy Your Pumas.
Still, it's not like the Pumas have gone completely unnoticed. Earlier this year, the band's song Less Enthused climbed the 92.9 KICK FM Top 40 chart, eventually peaking at No. 3.
"We were a little shocked, just because we hadn't been pushing (Ink the EP) as much as we should have," Blais says. "When it started playing on KICK and people were calling in wanting to hear it over and over again, it's just that reinforcement saying we really should give the album the life it never had when we first recorded it."
With that newfound puma power in tow, the band's future looks bright. Earlier this year, the quintet contributed a cover of Neil Young's Tonight's the Night to an upcoming compilation by Grumpy Cloud Records, so stay tuned to myspace.com/enjoyyourpumas for that and much more.
"We're hoping the EP release will go very well and it will create some more buzz around Enjoy Your Pumas and what we have been doing," Blais says. "Another reason we're having this EP re-release is so we can raise funds to record a full-length, which is something we want to do because we're continuously working on new stuff all the time. We'd like to have a full-length out by summer and hopefully be able to tour that album in the summertime. Everything up to then will be playing more shows, trying to create buzz around the band and, of course, having lots of fun doing it, too." - Uptown Magazine, October 29, 2009
ENJOY YOUR PUMAS
Ink: The EP
(Independent)
A+
ENJOY YOUR PUMAS
Website: http://www.myspace.com/enjoyyourpumas
Ink: The EP is a re-release of Enjoy Your Pumas' 2007 debut and it's good - really good, actually. The five-piece indie rock band cleverly splits this release into two parts, 'Awake' and 'Sleeping.' The Awake songs, Less Enthused, SFRS (Paris) and Ink, are lively bits of progressive rock, with singer Rosie Blais sounding a bit like Metric's Emily Haines. Between Shores is a short, atmospheric number that sees the Pumas straddling cognizance and coma. The Sleeping songs, Sister Rose and Sleeping Awake, are mostly piano-driven lullabies that serve as a soothing soundtrack to your dreams. Overall, a dynamic and diverse recording.
— Jared Story - Uptown Magazine, December 3, 2009
Enjoy Your Pumas – Ink: The EP
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/enjoyyourpumas
Aside from having one of my favorite band names of the year, this group has the songs to back it up. Vocalist Rosie Blais is diverse as they come, with a huge voice.
http://musicdiscovery.cdbabypodcast.com/?p=555 - CD Baby Music Discovery Podcast
Discography
Releases
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Commonality (2011)
Ink: The EP (2009)
Available through iTunes or CDBaby.com
Singles
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He Was a Fly (2011)
Weight of the Circles (2009)
Less Enthused (2009)
Photos
Bio
”Enjoy Your Pumas are a new band that are really, really easy to enjoy.” -- JACK FOLEY, INDIE LONDON, DEC 12/10
“With their blend of artful guitar figures, bubbling New Wave-ish bass runs and percolating drum din, the band makes a case for EYP being our very own Metric. The big news, of course, comes in the form of singer Rosanne Blais, whose breathless, open-mouthed articulations set the
bar high.”
-- JEFF MONK, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, JAN 29/11
“With a sturdy alternative rock sound that neatly capers the edge off with dance-room ready synths and basses, Enjoy Your Pumas music is a sweltering amount of great rock/pop that is always pushing forward.” -- BRYAN SANCHEZ, ADEQUACY.NET, FEB 4/11
Enjoy Your Pumas spend countless hours writing and perfecting songs in dusty jam spaces, cold basements and on unstable staircases. They have a female singer who likes to use her voice in strange yet comfortingly familiar ways. Some say she sounds like Lizzy Powel, Karen O, Emily Haines, or the Cardigans' Nina Persson. Really, her voice is all her own. They like to match her voice with the sound of warm electric guitars buried under layers of delay. They like sexy, pulsating bass grooves and uptempo rhythm because they like to dance and move. They like dancing because they like to stay warm. They're from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Shackleton and his crew of explorers may have braved the Antarctic cold, but he never made it through a Winnipeg winter. He might have found that the only way to stay sane is to play music. The cats from Enjoy Your Pumas know this.
The band is Rosie Blais, Josh Benoit, Marc Gomez and Luke Janzen. Rosie is the voice. She's got pipes and dance moves to boot. She's also got a gaze that'll see straight into your soul! Josh plays the guitar. He likes his delays thick and warm and his juicy licks will tickle your ears. Then there's Marc Gomez romancing the bass. Marc's tasty lines will move your very essence--just try to keep your hips from swaying! Finally, you got Luke Janzen banging those skins. His beats are notorious for breaking necks from all the head shaking they induce.
Since their formation, Pumas have taken the scene by storm, including performances at major local festivals such as Festival du Voyageur, Manitoba Barge Fest, and Downtown ManyFest. They have been featured performers at both the University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg's O-Week festivals. Pumsd have shared the stage with major touring acts such as AWOLNATION, San Sebastian, We Are The City, Sweet Thing, Hot Panda, and even rock legends Kid Rock and Jon Bon Jovi (no joke).
Pumas released their debut album Commonality in February, 2011. They launched their first tour that summer that included a packed showcase performance at Toronto's NXNE festival.
Pumas have presently returned to those dark corners of their city to hunker down for the winter and turn out a batch of brand new songs, the likes of which may change the very fabric of reality as we know it. More likely, perhaps, they may just put out some new recordings that you will come to love and adore as they continue to tour in 2012.
Band Members
Links
