Alright. So I've been reading poetry lately, upon the prescription of my English prof. Of course, however unfortunately for someone like me, reading poetry inevitably turns into writing poetry and descending into a mushy pile of romantic, whimsical sappiness. It's a tragedy, really. But it's true.

So I've decided that if I must go, you all must go there with me! Don't worry guys, it's doubtful that I'll subject you to any of my own poetic endeavors; that might be just a bit too painful for all of us involved, and just when I've gotten my readership to an all-time high, hovering somewhere above 2...

Self-deprecation aside, I was struck again today by the profound loveliness of these lyrics to a song entitled Healed by Nichole Nordeman. If you've ever heard it, it's truly poetry set to song.

So last night was an epic adventure in the life of Kelly, as I did my first ever stint on CKUW, the University of Winnipeg's radio station. David EisBrenner, a well-known staple on the Wednesday AM edition of The Beat, a news program, was doing his bit for FUNdrive 2007 by covering the Milk Hours (basically CKUW's ploy to get real people to ask you for money all night long instead of playing randomized music). David enlisted the efforts of quite possibly two of his wackiest friends, Jeremy Yuen and myself. David's sister and Jeremy's girlfriend (yes, it's one person) joined us in the studio, the lovely Charisse EisBrenner.

Charisse is the smart one... she came in with no clear intention of speaking on-air. I however, had no idea how the night would go down, other than that there were three mics and one of them was sure to be in front of my face; It may as well not have been.

Anyways... the CKUW FUNdrive is very nearly but not quite over... so call in and pledge now!
FUNdrive continues until Friday afternoon; the goal this year is $38,000 toward the operating costs of running such a great, home-grown and locally-focused station, and as of 6AM this morning CKUW was sitting just over $6,000 away from achieving that goal.... so dig down deep and see if you can find it in your heart or wallet to make a contribution to keeping Winnipeg radio alive and original. I've put my two cents in; now it's your turn!

Alright... has anyone ever had the sensation, where they're hearing a song, some music which is presumably "new", and they KNOW they've heard it before?

I get that a lot.

Most often, it's the sensation that some song, supposedly "new", MUST have been out since 2002 at least, since I know I've heard it a few years ago. It's just this general unimpressed-ness with the song, and the insistence that it is truly nothing new. I've never been able to get to the bottom of that feeling, but my assumption is usually (to calm the cognitive dissonance) that perhaps the song IS older, but is just now being radio-released.

However, this is something altogether different.

This **new** sensation first occurred to me at some point last year, when I bought The Afters' album, I Wish We All Could Win and could have SWORN that the opening riff and lines were a loose rip-off of a song that I at first couldn't place, but eventually attributed to a semi-obscure Sixpence None The Richer song entitled "Brighten My Heart", which appeared on the collective worship project Exodus. However, after finally dragging this information out of the dustiest corners of my brain (it haunted me for weeks!), I discovered that the similarities were only tonal, thematic, and mostly, imagined. So my great song rip-off conspiracy theory died that day.

Today, however,I felt that prickling "I've heard this before" feeling creep up the back of my brain once more... and this time, my instincts were not wrong! Taking a listen of Hawk Nelson's album, Letters to the President (which, in my opinion, is a shamefully copped-out album title for a Canadian band just breaking on the American music scene), the song "Take Me" struck me, and the second line in particular stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Can you hear me, does anyone around me
Feel the way that I feel now?"

I was ON to something here! A little brain-searching, and I had the line tagged to the Dashboard Confessional song "Saints and Sailors", which opens with these lines:

"This is where I say I've had enough,
and no one should ever feel the way that I feel now"

I know, I know what you're thinking - that 7 words does not a conspiracy make. However, you'd have to be familiar with Dashboard's song to appreciate the feeling that rushes through you when you hear Hawk Nelson sing the line, 2nd line into the song in both cases, following the exact same melody and rhythm, even including suspending and delaying the delivery on the word "feel", that Dashboard made trademark (in my humble opinion) 4 years earlier. (Dashboard's The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most was released in 2001, while Hawk Nelson's Letters came out in 2005.)




So, what constitutes a rip off? Is this excusable? "Take Me" is a decent song, for what it's worth. Strong melody, although whether or not their style is a Relient K rip-off is an entirely different conversation; meanwhile, Dashboard's "Saints and Sailors" is classic for Carrabba fans. Or, alternately, is taking a line from someone's song, note for note, an appropriate and catchy "inter-musical reference"? Supposing the Hawk Nelson boys groove, as I do, to the sounds of Dashboard, is this nothing more than a musical "tip of the hat"?

I, for one, am not convinced. It's a pretty gutsy and presumptuous move for rookies like Hawk Nelson to make; besides the fact that they look about 14 years old, it makes them seem like they can't even write their own shaz. However, I'm interested to see where others weigh in on it... should I give Hawk Nelson the benefit of the doubt here?

Their musical careers have thus far produced nothing even faintly approaching blistering genius; however, there's time for that... geesh, let them get through puberty first! (tee hee... actually, they're probably my age.) And their album, while nowhere near worth the street cred of Relient K, is not half bad.

What's your take on the incident I've creatively dubbed "Nelsongate"? Leaving the legal implications aside, unless you have more information than I do, which is certainly not difficult given that I have taken about 5 minutes to investigate this before shooting off this post, how do YOU feel about Nelsongate? Does it anger you? Offend you? Confuse you? Perhaps make you bored or drowsy? Whatever your opinion, I'd love to hear it... give the tracks a listen if it's humanly possibly for you... just to get the gist of the rip-offage.


Your faithful reporter for all things useless,
~Kelly