Oh Canada (Take One)
Today marks my 12th album release in three years!!
Friends and Fauxs!
I am excited to announce that Volume 12 of the evolving album series “From The Mixed Up Files of Mr. Matthew T. Schindler” begins today over on Bandcamp!!!
Here is the album cover:
I started this experiment of releasing a “new” song every week and then changing the album volume with the seasons back on June 21, 20221 — and today marks the twelfth album in three years.
As an artist who struggled with “releasing” things due to some unattainable notion of perfection, this has been very freeing.2
And I thank you for listening to these imperfect noises that I’ve sent out into the world.
侘び寂び °°° Wabi-Sabi!
Alright, enough about earthly attainments . . .SUBSCRIBE DAMMIT!!
I am still a singing cowboy if anybody asks.
Today’s song addition to the album series is a bit of a story song.
It’s about falling in love with and then chasing a girl up to Canada only to be beaten up by her boyfriend.
We’ve all been there, right?
I name check Canada, Clearly Canadian, Saskatchewan, and Thunder Bay, Ontario in the lyrics.
It’s called “Oh Canada (Take One)” and it goes like this: (listen in the player below)
Even though it was recorded live with just guitar and voice, I dare say it’s a banger.
This is one of the songs that I recorded over at Jason Keillor’s recording studio in rural Wisconsin back in 2008 or so. He had lovely guitars and expensive microphones at the studio, and Bryan Hanna ended up mixing this song, so it sounds a shade richer than some of the “lo-fi3” stuff I put on these “Mixed Up Files” albums over on Bandcamp.
If Canadian DJ’s want a clean version with the S-word bleeped out so you can play it on the radio, let me know in the comments. . .
I grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and if I’m not mistaken, the Canadian flag hung next to the American flag in the hockey arena when I was a kid.4
There was a lot of ice.
Side note: My first arena rock show was Canadian legends RUSH at that same Duluth hockey arena on October 7, 1982, on the Signals tour. (Tom Sawyer CRUSHED!!!)
I like to think of Canada as friends, despite the content of the song I’ve shared today.
And so when I saw in the Wall Street Journal today that Canadians are boycotting American vacations because of the annexation bluster, I felt a little pang of something5, because this song wouldn’t have happened if those boycotts had been in place back in the day.
Let’s be friends.
Let’s be gentle and kind with one another.
I remain your humble servant,
OX&C,
FAUX JEAN
Here are the lyrics for today’s song:
You remember her?
Pretty Girl
She came down here from Canada
Oh, from Canada
Ohhhh
Do you remember the girl from September?
She was the only thing that I wanted to do at all.
She was the pretty one
And I was the witty one
I was the lucky one if I was anything at all
She said "You don't even know
O! how lucky you are
How good you're going to feel
O! when I'm through with you!"
Oh I turned an eye that was blind to what I knew was right
and the good one instead,
I focused in on the small of her back
and then I heard on "Ooo" I knew I was in
She said you don't even know!
Ohhhhhh!
Well the funny thing was when I woke up,
I was in love!
With a pretty girl with a boyfriend back in Canada,
Oh, Canada!
So catch me if you can,
I come from Saskatchewan,
But don't even think about coming to
Thunder Bay, Ontario
She was a dirty one
And clearly Canadian
But I had a master plan
And I found her behind some bar
Now despite my master plan
Boyfriend was gargantuan
And there I was,
I was stuck with my hand in the honey jar
She said "You don't even know
how in trouble you are!
How shit you're gonna feel
When he's through with you!!!"
Oh I turned an eye that was blind to what I knew was right
and the good one instead, I focused in on the small of her back
and then I seen a fist I know that was it
She said "You don't even know!
Ohhhhhh!
Ohhhhhh!"
Oh Canada!
O!
credits
from From the Mixed Up Files of Mr. Matthew T. Schindler, Volume 12, released March 25, 2025
Written and performed by Matty Schindler, aka Faux Jean
Starting the album series on the Summer Solstice kind of inspired the idea of changing each album Volume with the Equinox and/or the Solstice. (Are you following me here?!”)
Here’s a look at all twelve:
Inhale- - - exhale.
I saw the term “phone fi” recently and kind of fell in love with it.
Am I mis-remembering this, Duluth people?
Disgust with POTUS?