Good Things Come In MP3s

Three parts of random musical goodness for the long weekend.

1. The online newsmagazine Dose.ca has a free 15-song iTunes download of music featuring artists to watch in 2009, many of them Canadian. I just got it, and while some of the songs have been free downloads of the week on iTunes already, it's an easy way to discover some bands you might never have heard otherwise. To get the songs just go to dose.ca/artists and they'll send you a code redeemable in the iTunes Music Store.
2. Speaking of Canadian, my friend Brett posted this video of a vapid butchering of the Canadian national anthem, and if you're familiar with how the iconic tune should actually sound, you'll find it just as outrageous as I did. Also on the YouTube front, a group of kids singing Viva La Vida is almost catchier than the original, and this choir of monks "sings" the Hallelujah chorus while under a vow of silence (via Chelsea).
   
3. Last, but not least, if you're looking for a soundtrack to the Easter weekend that gets past chocolate egg-laying bunnies and pastel confetti strips, I highly recommend the debut record from The Welcome Wagon, Welcome to the Welcome Wagon. It's an amazing album that sets the perfectly appropriate tone, and has the right mix of quirkiness and acousticness to keep you humming all year round. If it sounds like Sufjan Stevens, it's because it's produced by Sufjan Stevens, but in my books, that is not a bad thing.

Happy Easter, everybody.