When trying to sum up the Vancouver music scene there were many aspects I wanted to portray. I wanted to talk specifically about the home grown artists that bring the sounds of Vancouver to the rest of Canada and the world. I wanted to sum up the natural aspects of the city; the ocean and mountains and rainforests. With a backdrop like this, it’s no wonder where artists find their inspiration. I also wanted to talk about the cultural aspects; the fashion houses, the art galleries, the nightlife. These aspects, not only build up the feel of the city, but have developed a certain breed of Vancouver-ites who greatly impact the music scene. And I wanted to talk about the venues; the Commodore Ballroom, the Orpheum Theatre, the Railway Club! Then it hit me. The Vancouver artist I felt best summed up everything this city has to say for itself: Dan Mangan.

Mangan, a Vancouver native, has been a part of the Vancouver music scene since 2003 and has done well, not only through the rest of  Canada but internationally, having toured throughout North America, Europe and Australia in the past year alone. What sparked me to want to use Mangan in this context was not only to shed light on his work itself but also because there is a certain self-reflexivity to his music, a social commentary, not just on Vancouver in general, but on the atmosphere built around it’s entire music scene.

Mangan’s music blends together sincere lyricism with raw and powerful vocals all held together with an ever-enjoyable folk-rock beat. His most recent album Nice, Nice, Very Nice has garnered piles of attention and a spot as one of my favourite albums of 2010. Some of
his songs are so tragically sad that one is almost tempted to call them ‘haunting’, while others are so upbeat and cheery that they resulted in full venue sing-a-longs when I saw Mangan at Bluesfest back in Ottawa last summer.

It was at this show, when Mangan described to us his intention in certain lyrics within his sweet ballad ‘Et Les Mots Croisés’. The song, which reads like a love letter to a girl who changed Mangan’s perception on the happiness and comfort available in a relationship,
contains the line “I've slowly turned the kind of blue that keeps your jeans dry”. Mangan stopped playing mid song to tell the audience the story behind this ambiguous lyric. Mangan explained the sort of sadness where you never want to leave your apartment, where you hide out in bed for days on end; the kind of indoor hold up that, in a city as rainy as Vancouver, “keeps your jeans dry”. This theme of rain and the misery that can sometimes go along with it is threaded through his work, contrasting the very optimistic landscapes painted by many musicians describing Vancouver. ‘The Indie Queens Are Waiting’, easily Mangan’s most satirical song, uses this same attitude to directly address the, for lack of a better term, hipster scene in Vancouver. Mangan teases this crowd, which easily make up the bulk of his fan base, for spending so much time, energy and money just to sit around and wonder “are we cool now?”.

None of this is to say that Mangan does not adore the city, nor that his music isn’t most often filled with adamant declarations to it’s beauty and glory, but rather to establish the satire that I love in Mangan’s music, and how I feel it well describes the love/hate relationship I have with living in a city like Vancouver.

In fact, Mangan does not only reference the people and the weather in his music but is often commenting on locations. This, even for myself who has only lived here for three years, makes his music comfortable and homey to those who know the city. My favorites are his references to the music venues in Vancouver. I cannot get enough of the music houses scattered about the city! While I’ve barely been to half of them, I plan on using this column as an excuse to get my butt into these spectacular music palaces. Any excuse to go to the Commodore Ballroom another time will be a treat! (I’ve been there twice now to see both Slash and Steel Panther… but more on that to come)

So give Dan Mangan a listen and keep checking back for updates!

www.danmanganmusic.com

www.myspace.com/danmangan