Living With Lions

 I want to congratulate Vancouver natives Living With Lions on reaching a dream, a goal, a conquest of virtually every punk rocker out there. They've upset the Department of Canadian Heritage. Their new album aesthetically resembles a bible and is (in)appropriately titled Holy Shit.

While I think that the head of the Department of Canadian Heritage has the right to his own opinion,  and the right to be in touch with FACTOR, a publicly funded subsidy program for major and minor artists alike, I hope that the result of these conversations does not influence the choices of FACTOR, or embarrass Duncan McKie. I think that it's fairly clear that Canadian musicians are working outside of a model that is self-sustaining, and the Canadian government has opted to recognize and aid this to help continue the progression of Canadian arts. You can see a list of approvals here; they include large names including The Trews and Shawn Desman, two very prominent and nationally recognized acts.

Which is exactly why I don't think that the Heritage Minister should be allowed to weigh in on an album cover that may offend a religious group. The album cover does not promote hate, and the concept of offense here is rather subjective. Personally, I'm annoyed that my tax dollars are spent on sexually driven music about moneyshots being played on radio stations targeted at young girls, courtesy of Mr. Desman. But I'm going to let it slide, because I understand that pop music is largely sexually driven, vulgar, and marketed towards teens. To deny Shawn the ability to talk about sex in his music would be to hinder his ability as an artist. I think it's a fairly easy argument that to deny a rock or punk artist his ability to be provocative would be to deny the form of art itself.

I encourage people to contact FACTOR and show them some appreciation for allowing the progress and development of Canadian music, and applaud him prematurely for resisting the pressures of the Canadian Heritage minister.