79.9

On a slightly more personal note, Shane Koyczan is my new hero. He also happens to be a spoken-word artist and musician from Penticton, BC, who writes in such a frank, tongue-in-cheek, yet thought provoking way that you can’t help but appreciate it. Sometimes political, sometimes romantic, sometimes a story set to rhythm and melody, each song has its own message and worth. Although he has a few releases of pure spoken-word, my personal favourites are all off of the album set to music, as Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long, called A Pretty Decent Cape In My Closet.

And so, I present for your enjoyment, a few excerpts from his songs. I highly recommend you take a few minutes to look him up.

“There’s a guy on my street corner who says he sells freedom;
He’ll even give me the needles if I’m broke; if I need ‘em;
But you see I know what I’m missin’, so I ain’t gotta try it,
Because freedom ain’t freedom if you gotta buy it.”
-People Are Getting Better

“But we still act as if this time,
We can see the forest through the trees,
Regardless of the soft wood lumber levies,
We fall in line like reforested pine,
It’s all straight rows,
Where everything grows a little less wild,
And a little more humdrum,
Oh hum, we come from a mentality,
That rarely sees the horror in symmetry,
Or the beauty in nonconformity…
We insist that for us,
Everything must be clear cut.”
-Atlantis

“I know it’s strange, strange in a George W. Bush hasn’t been assassinated yet kinda way.”
-Apology

If you’re intrigued, you can find his myspace page here.