The Flagging Tapes, Vol. 1

Several months ago, I put out a call for musicians to participate in an album of tree planting themed music.  The goal was to make this music available as a free download for the entire tree planting community.  A number of artists responded, and the album is available now (the download links are in the middle of this post).  The album is called "The Flagging Tapes, Vol. 1"

Track Listing

01. Yankee Yanni & the Lowballing Jazz Band - Pockets Full of Cream.
02.  B Cruisey - Similkameen Rises.
03.  Claire Kuzmyk - This Life.
04.  New Red River Rebellion - Ride On Rooster (In Memory of Eric Rousseau).
05.  Sydney Sandia - Planto Ranto.
06.  Tommy Pelletier - Cigs & Scotch.
07.  Nigel Eberding - Treeplanting Song.
08.  Jennifer Noble - The Happy Planter.
09.  Stephane Levesque - Shoulder.
10.  Shnarby Mess - Tree Zombie Monkey.
11.  Lars Zergun - Gravediggerz.


Planters may recognize three or four of these songs which have been shared widely in the past.  Most of the other songs in this compilation are being released widely for the first time here.


Free Download

To download these songs, there are three choices:  Dropbox, RAR Archives, or SoundCloud.

To download from Dropbox:
1.  Go to my public Dropbox folder:  www.replant.ca/dropbox
2.  Go into the "Canadian Reforestation" folder.
3.  Go into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.
4.  Go into the sub-folder called "The Flagging Tapes, vol 1".
5.  You can either pick MP3's to download (good quality 320 kbps, smaller file size) or WAV files (uncompressed audio, slightly higher quality, larger files).

If you're able to uncompress RAR archives, either of these downloads would be a slightly faster way to grab the entire compilation:

www.replant.ca/music/The_Flagging_Tapes_vol_1_full_album_MP3_format.rar

www.replant.ca/music/The_Flagging_Tapes_vol_1_full_album_WAV_format.rar

Finally, to download individual songs from SoundCloud, click on the download arrows on any of the SoundCloud widgets throughout the rest of this page.



Liner Notes

Here's some detailed information about each of the tracks on the compilation, and the artists behind them:


Song:  Pockets Full Of Cream
Artist:  Yankee Yanni & the Lowballing Jazz Band

About the Song: 'Pockets Full of Cream' was recorded in Toronto on January 12, 2020. It was played three times; this is take 2.

About the Artist:  Yankee Yanni enjoys coffee, prime numbers, and wearing appropriate PPE. He planted his first tree at age 4, and his second at age 19. The Lowballing Jazz Band can be both assembled and disassembled in a matter of minutes, making them the perfect choice for your morning meeting entertainment, or for long cache breaks in the shade.




 
Song:  Similkameen Rises
Artist:  B Cruisey




 
Song:  This Life
Artist:  Claire Kuzmyk





Song:  Ride On Rooster (In Memory of Eric Rousseau)
Artist:  New Red River Rebellion

About the Artists:  Brothers Brian and Clayton Lorraine, the two founding members of Winnipeg roots rock band New Red River Rebellion, have planted trees all over British Columbia.  Their careers have spanned twelve and fifteen seasons respectively.

About the Song:  Eric 'Rooster' Rousseau was a true legend among the many characters encountered during all our years of treeplanting.  We were lucky to work with Rooster for several seasons around Merritt and Squamish, along with a crew of folks as tight knit as family.  It was a special period of our treeplanting careers, experiencing this family-like atmosphere.  A renowned skier and instructor at Whistler in the off season, Rooster was a tree runner extraordinaire, mechanic, and the guy who made everyone on the crew feel connected.  He was the last one to bed after night-off shenanigans, and the first one up in the morning, cleaning up the party mess.  We received news of Rooster’s passing in a tragic falling accident while we were planting on the north Island in the Fall of 2011.  This song came from a riff that we sat jamming over and over with Rooster, one hazy hangover day-off afternoon, while sipping white wine and basking in the sun with carefree smiles.

Website:  http://www.newredriverrebellion.com

About Eric Rousseau:  http://www.replant.ca/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=65741




 
Song:  Planto Ranto
Artist:  Sydney Sandia

From the Artist:  I began writing this song in my first season, knee deep in Alberta sludge and my first heartbreak. The following year, I returned to the bush lighter and happier and decided it was only fair that the song, which had become my personal planting earworm, deserved an equally upbeat final touch. As planting goes, the song has its up and downs; deceptive revelations of joy followed quickly with epiphanies of deep loneliness. Now a couple of seasons later, I wonder if my song will ever truly be finished. Planting has transformed my outlook on the world completely... each time I play this song around a raging box fire I am reminded of the heartbroken little girl I was when I stepped off the greyhound at a motel in Williams Lake that first season, and I stand a little taller as the person I have become.





Song:  Cigs & Scotch
Artist:  Tommy Pelletier

About the Song:  Written in 2019.  Copyright 2019, Tommy Pelletier.

From the Artist:  I planted my first year in ontario in 2014, did BC interior and alberta the three years after, became a foreman on the last year. Did picking work around the seasons and went to australia in 2017. Had the broken travel guitar the whole time. Fucked my wrist long-term on the 3rd season but when I ended up in Australia after the cherries my long-time lover and travel partner and I split. I didn't know what the hell to do. So when someone shouted "tree-planting!" I just went for it. I left tasmania and crossed the country south to north (3K drive, in the desert and bush roads, alone). When I managed to get to Kyogle the drought made it so the season lasted two days, but the company I was with (Outland Australia) paid my gas to cross the country again and go back south (another 3K kilometres, alone in the desert, with the friends gone back home, and dead sheeps and sand out the window. That's when cigs and scotch came to be, 'cause at that moment that was all life was. Just driving , not even coming across a car for hours, no phone signal and parking wherever to sleep in the driver seat. After another year there I was offered a job back home (quebec) and my now totally wrecked wrist / shoulder/elbow urged me to take it. I came back the same week the inscriptions to our local amateur music competition was on (Trois-Pistole en chanson). I went to the auditions just for laughs, and they somehow made me sing 'till I was in the 2019 finals even tough I didn't know how to sing, use a microphone and could only do minimal strumming 'cause wrist mobility and stuff. I am currently working on a facebook page ( Tom Malaavy, and can be found on youtube under "Tommy Pelletier with the songs "violon" and " la pire maison du monde connu". I've got around 40 songs written and played trough the years, and right now the main objective is to record it all in the little home studio. It should all come together eventually. Thanks all for reading, watching, encouraging fuckers like me who don't know what they're doing but try their best, 'cause campfires aren't the same if no one does it.  P.S. on the text -The Scotch was Grantz and the cigs were waaay to expensive (like 2$ each). And the car was a 1996 pathfinder.

Artist Links:  Facebook and Youtube





Song:  Treeplanting Song
Artist:  Nigel Eberding




 
Song:  The Happy Planter
Artist:  Jennifer Noble

From the Artist:  I wrote this song to entertain myself as I trudged between plots as a checker, first for the BC Forest Service and later for a local sawmill.  Silviculture surveys and cone-picking contracts sent me all around the magnificent  Cariboo-Chilcotin of BC.   I’m 74 now, long retired from my circuitous job history, but springtime still gives me an itchy feeling that I should be greasing my boots and finding my hipchain.  Most of all I miss interacting with the planters, their dreams, their stories and the adventurous ruggedness that kept bringing them back.




 
Song:  Shoulder
Artist:  Stephane Levesque

About the Song:  Written in November 2019, Copyright 2019 Stephane Levesque.

About the Artist:  Stephane is originally from Sainte-Flavie, Quebec.  He now lives in Masset, Haida Gwaii, BC.  Stephane has been feeding treeplanters since 1998.




 
Song:  Tree Zombie Monkey
Artist:  Shnarby Mess





Song:  Gravediggerz
Artist:  Lars Zergun

Artist Page:  King Kong Reforestation



 

Videos

A few of these tracks have videos associated with them.  If anyone knows about other videos for these songs, let me know so I can include them here.

Other Tree Planting Albums

Hi & Ho, We Plant Trees:  www.replant.ca/hiandho

Planters' Punch:  www.replant.ca/planterspunch

I should also point out that I'd like to do this again in the winter of 2023-2024, with a whole new set of songs.  Musicians, please feel to contact me at jonathan.scooter.clark@gmail.com if you'd like to get involved.

Planters' Punch - Tree Planting Album

I just realized that although I shared the music from Planters' Punch several years ago (on Replant.ca), I didn't really give any background history about the album.

This music was recorded by various planters, and the CD was released at some point in the 1990's (possibly 1997).  I can't remember which year since I left my copy of the CD out in Prince George.  Anyway, Michael Mloszewski gave it to me years ago and suggested that it should be shared with a wider audience of planters and friends.  Michael has passed away since then, but you can Click Here for more information about him.

I've uploaded each of the tracks individually and put them into separate threads in the Music section of the Replant forums.  An even easier way to download them would be this:
1.  Go to my public Dropbox folder:  www.replant.ca/dropbox
2.  Go into the "Canadian Reforestation" folder.
3.  Go into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.
4.  Go into the "Planters' Punch" sub-folder.
5.  You can either pick MP3's to download (good quality 320 kbps, smaller file size) or FLAC files (uncompressed audio, larger files).

If you're able to uncompress RAR archives, either of these downloads would be a slightly faster way to grab the entire compilation:

www.replant.ca/music/Planters'_Punch_full_album_flac_format.rar

www.replant.ca/music/Planters'_Punch_full_album_mp3_format.rar

Finally, here are the links to all the tracks on Soundcloud.  These are the MP3 versions, and you can download the songs individually from these Soundcloud links (as an alternative to going to my public Dropbox folder).









































To discover other free tree-planting themed music, visit:

www.replant.ca/music

Hi & Ho, We Plant Trees

Several years ago, Peter Krahn (of Peppermill Records) released a compilation of tree planting songs, written and performed by tree planters, about planting.  He made this available as a free release from Peppermill.  The compilation was titled, "Hi and Ho, We Plant Trees."

I've always been impressed that I've gotten into planting trucks at several different companies and heard songs playing that were on this compilation.  It's been shared widely over the past several years, and I'd like to continue to share it.

Here's the cover art for this album:

Many thanks are due to the individual artists, for making these songs available, and also to Krahn, for putting this project together!


Free Downloads

To download these songs, there are three choices:  Dropbox, RAR Archive, or SoundCloud.

To download from Dropbox:
1.  Go to my public Dropbox folder:  www.replant.ca/dropbox
2.  Go into the "Canadian Reforestation" folder.
3.  Go into the "Planting Music" sub-folder.
4.  Go into the sub-folder called "The Flagging Tapes, vol 1".
5.  You can either pick MP3's to download (good quality 320 kbps, smaller file size) or WAV files (uncompressed audio, slightly higher quality, larger files).

If you're able to uncompress RAR archives, this download would be a slightly faster way to download the entire compilation:

www.replant.ca/music/Hi_&_Ho_full_album_MP3_format.rar

Finally, to download individual songs from SoundCloud, click on the download arrows on any of the SoundCloud widgets throughout the rest of this page.




 

Starry, Starry Night

One of my checkers from last year (Mike Ross, known online as Lars Zergun), put together a YouTube video a few years ago which I really liked. I'm posting it here instead of on my music blog because I think the people here would enjoy it more (specifically the tree planters).




The video is a compilation of shots that Mike took, some of which are from planting, and some of which are not.

The background track that he set the clips to is called "Vincent" by Don MacLean of "American Pie" fame, which was actually on the American Pie album. It's a beautiful (and pretty famous) song which has been covered by dozens of other artists.

The song refers to Vincent Van Gogh, the famous post-impressionist painter who shot himself when he was 37 years old, long before his paintings became famous. Click here for a bit of background on the meaning of the song.

Glen Ballard Scholarship at Berklee

I’m currently in the middle of working through two separate Masters’ programs through the Berklee College of Music, one in Music Theory and one in Production. I just found out that I am the recipient of a "celebrity scholarship," thanks to support donated by Glen Ballard.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the name Glen Ballard, you should be. He is an R&B, rock, and pop songwriter and record producer who has had a hand in releases by an incredible number of artists. I’m going to list just a few of the artists that he has either performed with or done production work for, and you’ll see what a huge impact he has had on contemporary popular music: Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Wilson Phillips, Paula Abdul, Evelyn King, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Alanis Morissette, No Doubt, Shakira, Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aquilera, the Goo Goo Dolls, Annie Lennox, and dozens of others. Wow.

It’s quite an honor to be recognized for this scholarship. Now the only problem is that my cumulative GPA is only 3.82. I’m happy with that, but it could be higher. But now that I’ve finally returned home and to my personal studio today, after four months on the road, I’m excited to really dig into the course work more heavily and see if I can get that GPA closer to 4.0.

Many, many thanks to Glen, both for his support with this scholarship, and also for his diverse contributions to contemporary mainstream music.

DJ Bolivia Career Changes

[Voy a tratar a incluir traducciones en espanol después del inglés, abajo de esta página].

Hey everybody,

This is a very exciting time for me I’ve decided to pursue my music career (as a DJ & producer) more seriously in the near future. Right now, as many of you know, I have several jobs - bartending, restaurant, and silviculture. I’m going to try to separate myself from a couple of them over the next eight to twelve months, to give myself a lot more time to work on song-writing, DJ’ing, producing, and video projects. So here's a brief look at what's happening or about to happen:

First, I just set up a fan page on Facebook a few days ago. The initial response has been absolutely overwhelming, and I’d really like to thank my many friends who have signed up as fans. My challenge now will be to keep adding fresh content to that page.

For the next four weeks, I’m still working at my job on Canada’s West Coast, supervising a camp of tree planters. I love the job – it’s healthy, it’s good for the environment, and it gives me a good tan. I always feel like I’m incredibly good health at the end of every summer, thanks to this job. And as you can see from the photo below, which I took earlier this afternoon on a cut block that we were replanting, the scenery is absolutely beautiful. You'd never want to work in an office again. You can see another of our blocks at the base of the mountain across the valley:





During the next month, while I’m still planting, I can’t do a lot of music-related work. However, I plan to be doing some filming of DJ Dan and Dave Dresden on July 3rd in Calgary, for video projects that I’m working on for each of them. I'll have those videos available for the public in mid-August. I’ll also have photo galleries of that night’s show available in early July.

In August, I return to the studio, both to work on DJ mixes and self-produced tracks that I’ve written. To give you a sneak preview, I think that I might put up a blog post in a week or two about some of the tracks that I’m working on, with either lyrics or vocal samples as a teaser. I’m also planning to start a regular progressive house/trance radio show, which I’m going to call the "Five O’Clock Cock Block" show (I kid you not). I’ve also been asked to do guest mixes for a couple of other well-known radio shows, which I’ll tackle as soon as I get back home.

For upcoming shows this summer and fall, I’ve got confirmed dates in Las Vegas, Seattle, Toronto and most Atlantic Canadian cities, and I am tentatively planning shows in Buenos Aires, Australia, and Japan this fall or winter, if time permits.

So that’s what you can expect from DJ Bolivia in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy your summer and keep checking my fan page and website, especially after August 1st.



Hola a todos,

Primero, permítanme a disculparme por mi español malo, tengo mucho que aprender.

Este es un momento que es muy importante para mi, porque he decidido dedicarme a mi carrera musical (como DJ y productor) mas seriamente en un futuro muy cercano. En este momento, como muchos de ustedes saben, tengo muchos trabajos – a el bar, el restaurante y la silvicultura. Voy a tratar de separarme de algunos de ellos durante los próximos ocho a doce meses, para poder tener mas tiempo para la composición de canciones, mezclando música, produciendo y proyectos de video. Entonces aquí esta una breve mirada a lo que esta pasando y lo que esta por pasar.

Primero, hace algunos días lance una fan page en facebook. Los resultados iníciales estan muy excelente, y yo quiero dar las gracias a todos mis amigos que se han registrado como fans. Mi meta ahora es seguir actualizando la página con nuevos contenidos.

Por las próximas cuatro semanas, seguiré en mi trabajo en la costa oeste de Canadá, supervisando el campamento y los sembradores de arboles. Me encanta mi trabajo – es sano, es bueno para el medioambiente, y me deja con un buen broceado. Gracias a esta trabajo, yo siempre siento que mi salud esta muy bien al final de cada verano. Y como pueden ver en la foto de abajo, que tome hace un rato en uno de las zonas de corte que estamos reforestando, la vista es absolutamente hermosa. Ustedes nunca querrían trabajar en una oficina nunca más. Se puede apreciar otra de las áreas de trabajo en la base de la montaña al otro lado del valle:





Durante el próximo mes, mientras sigo sembrando, no tengo mucho tiempo para hacer trabajo relacionado con la música. Sin embargo, tengo planeado filmar a DJ Dan y Dave Dresden el 3 de Julio en Calgary, para algunos video proyectos en los que estoy trabajando para cada uno de ellos. Los videos van a estar disponibles a mediados de Agosto. También voy a tener galerías de fotos de esa noche disponibles a principios de Julio.

En Agosto, vuelvo al estudio, para trabajar en mezclas y canciones producida que yo mismo escribí. Para darle un pequeño adelanto, creo que voy a publicar en el blog en una semana o dos algunas de las canciones en las que estoy trabajando, con sus respectivas palabras o ejemplos vocales. También estoy planeando empezar un programa de radio de house progresivo y trance, el cual voy a llamar el "Five O’Clock Cock Block" show (no se como se dice en espanol). También me han ofrecido hacer mezclas para algunas de programas de muy conocidos como invitado, de los cuales me encargare apenas vuelva a mi casa.

Para próximos eventos en el verano y el otoño, tengo fechas confirmadas en Las Vegas, Seattle, Toronto y la mayoría de las ciudades de la costa Atlántica de Canadá, y estoy planeado algunos proyectos tentativos con una amiga en Buenos Aires, Australia y Japón para el otoño y el invierno, mientras el tiempo lo permita.

Entonces esto es lo que pueden esperar de DJ Bolivia en un futuro muy cercano. Mientras tanto disfruten de su verano y sigan visitando mi fan page y mi pagina web, especialmente después del primero de agosto.

Me disculpo por mi malo español, y le agradezco por escuchar mí. Hasta pronto ...

www.djbolivia.ca

The OhMiBod Vibrator

Watching the growth of the iPod over the past several years, it’s been amazing to see just how pervasively it has entered and affected many peoples’ lives. And speaking of “pervasive entry,” I’m going to introduce a neat little iPod accessory today that some girls have already heard of: the OhMiBod.

The OhMiBod is a vibrator that hooks up to your iPod. Turn on the music, and the unit pulses to the beat. What could be more simple? For the girls who enjoy music, and who also enjoy sex, this is definitely a winning combination.

I meant to write about this several months ago, but I got distracted at the time. However, the well-known vocalist Marcie emailed me last night about something else, and it reminded me of a certain OhMiBod commercial, since she did the vocals for the music in the commercial:

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6oYmSG-ccs



If you want to buy the track that accompanies the commercial above, here’s what to search for:

Tyler Michaud feat Marcie – Dirty Girl (System Recordings, 2007).

Beatport has a package of five different remixes available – search for Tyler Michaud and then go through his library.

I’ve gotten some feedback from female friends of mine who use the OhMiBod. It’s been suggested that albums like Madonna and Nine Inch Nails are good. Music that has some variation is more interesting, so house or trance music with a straight four-four beat wouldn’t be that great. But some heavy drum ‘n’ bass music might be very stimulating. The volume of the iPod controls the strength of the vibrations. Music that has been heavily compressed with a hard limiter would have an almost constant output, so tracks that have been compressed that way wouldn’t be that great. Of course, if you aren’t intimately familiar with music production, you’d have no idea what that means, and it would be tricky to sum it up here so I won’t bother. I’ll just say that sticking to classic rock would provide much more variation than heavily over-produced dance music. As far as the product itself, one of my friends said, "It’s obviously very much a novelty vibrator, and does not really compare to the more 'complex' ones such as the Jack Rabbit, but in comparison to other vibrators, the power is great. The different pulses are very interesting - teasing perhaps."

And if this isn’t enough to intrigue you, check out the company’s new vibrator that attaches to your cell phone. It’s designed to add a whole new dimension to phone sex …

Under The Bridge

I spent this past weekend in Seattle and Vancouver. Originally, I was going for no good reason, just because I wanted to go to a party at the Pacific Science Center on Saturday night and to visit a friend (TProphet) in Seattle. I know, that’s a unique name – but it's a long story.

A couple weeks ago, he emailed me and said that as long as I was coming out for Saturday night, I might as well DJ somewhere on Friday night. Since he is a Seattle promoter and has a full sound system of his own, he said he was going to set up an event for me. I said that I’d definitely be willing to play if he got anything together, and I asked where I might be playing. He said, “oh, maybe under an abandoned bridge.” Hm.

I got to Seattle on Thursday evening and we spent most of the night getting things organized, and doing a little bit of touristy stuff. Then, on Friday, we started getting ready for the bridge party. I won’t lie, I expected something pretty low key - maybe a pair of speakers, a dozen people, and the chance to annoy or entertain some homeless people, or to get into a fight with bikers. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The party that he and his friends pulled off was one of the most entertaining evenings I’ve ever had. After we convinced the K-9 unit at 10:30pm that the entire cube van full of sound gear we were loading up wasn’t stolen, and said that we were preparing for a nice responsible folk music concert, we hit the road. Upon arriving at the bridge, there was a flurry of action, and within about half an hour we had two full sound stages set up with power generators, propane heaters for the crowd, a small kitchen selling drinks and snacks, and an art display/sale. The equipment and sound system was better than what I’ve played on in a lot of clubs in Atlantic Canada (five bass bins for my stage alone). A couple hundred people showed up, even though it was a totally unadvertised renegade party. It was pouring all night, but we were completely dry under the bridge. With two stages, and a total of ten DJ’s playing throughout the evening, Friday night alone was worth the trip.





On Saturday, TProphet’s sound system was being used at the main stage of the party of the Pacific Science Center, so he went off to set that up while I went exploring the Seattle social scene for several hours with a couple of his friends. One of his friends in particular was quite entertaining. TProphet introduced him by saying, “this is possibly the sketchiest guy you’ll ever meet, but I mean that in a good way. Try not to end up in jail before the show.” This person, who I will leave unnamed, was quite entertaining. He was discussing his plan to take out a life insurance policy on himself, fly to Zambia to buy a death certificate in the black market, then buy a Zambian identity and passport in the black market, then come back to the States as a different person and cash in on his own life insurance policy, and then use the proceeds to tour the world as a Zambian. Or something like that. Anyway, it was an entertaining start to the evening.

When we got to the Pacific Science Center, I was extremely impressed, once again. They had a full blown party IN the Science Center. There were four stages with DJ’s from 10pm-4am, three or four full bars, and best of all, all of the exhibits were open. I had a few drinks and went straight to the planetarium, where I spent the next hour and a half looking at the stars. The butterfly exhibits were open, and there was a bar in the dinosaur room, and basically the whole place was interesting. The best thing was that the tickets were moderately expensive, which meant that there weren’t a lot of street kids, so it was a very clean and respectful crowd. This, of course, is good when you have several thousand people partying in a museum.





Seattle now ranks near the very top of my list of fun cities to visit. Click here to see more photos from the trip.

Joining the Digital Revolution

All around us, we can see the accelerating presence of computers, digital communications, and digital technology. Today, CNN announced that the Internet has just reached a major milestone of 100 Million websites online. For my own website, I'm just a few days away from reaching the milestone of a quarter of a million hits in the less than five years that I've had it online.

Well, today I lost my virginity.

I have always been a vinyl DJ when it comes to electronic music. True, I've used CD players when playing rock music and other conventional tracks at the club. And I've actually had a Pioneer CDJ pitch-control CD player here in my studio for over a year, although I've never used it except for playing single tracks. However, tonight I felt a little crazy and I mixed a track into a practice session using the CD player, rather than using a piece of vinyl.

I'll admit, I felt a little bit cheap. Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can never put it back. I still hope to stick to mostly vinyl for my live shows, because it just looks more impressive to the people dancing in front of the decks, and it's so much more fun. However, I can't argue with the fact that digital media is far more flexible, portable, and versatile, and essential if I'm going to start playing my own self-produced tracks in my sets.

Anyway, I'm worn out now from the emotional significance of the evening, so I'm off to bed.