http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktjx8umlaOI

Hey cyber friends. I'm in Vancouver right now recording tracks for my new record with Chris Gestrin. I also just made a super low-fi vid for my new song, "intellectual boys" and posted it on youtube. Check it out! woo hoo! : ) coco

Vintage synth
By Kelly McManus - January 17, 2008
North Shore Outlook


ENTERPRISING SONGSTRESS - Twelve years after the release of her debut album (Coco Love Alcorn, 1995), creative songbird Coco Love Alcorn continues to reinvent herself with gusto.

The innovative Vancouver songstress Coco Love Alcorn (Sugar, 2005) experiments with genre, often defies it, in her vibrant, soulful recordings.

But she also takes pleasure in creating one-of-a-kind merchandising that she takes with her on tour.

She and her graphic artist husband, Simon Farla, silkscreen refashioned vintage T-shirts to sell on the road. One T-shirt set, in a reference to one of Alcorn's songs about "getting crushes on smart boys," sports his-and-hers graphics.

The girls' shirts say "I like intellectual boys," and the matching guys' shirts sport an uber-nerd splattering of the numbers of PI.

Another shirt pays homage to her love song for her bicycle, Fiori Modena (both the bike brand and the track title).

On the subject of bikes, Alcorn and Farla, both cycling enthusiasts, are scheming up a way to rig small sound systems for street busking. They want to run Alcorn's amp from a bike-powered generator.

It's part of their strategy to not only be greener in the many months (sometimes as many as eight a year) that Alcorn spends touring, but also to "make it (touring) more like a vacation.

"You're going for an eight hour drive and you stop after six hours and go cycling, then you're not as whigged out from being in the car all day," Alcorn laughs.

Before setting out this spring for engagements and festivals across the country, Alcorn records a new album in the studio next month, slating it for a fall release.

She'll also be appearing at venues around Vancouver and British Columbia, including Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom (Mar. 8), Victoria's The Solstice Cafe (Feb. 8) and the Crimson Cabaret fundraiser for the North Vancouver Women's shelter (Feb. 2).

Coco Love Alcorn

"A bright burst of colour amidst the many shades of indie grey" ~ Ottawa XPress

Part soul diva, part folk troubadour, part jazz improviser, part revolutionary, part visual artist, Coco Love Alcorn is a multifaceted gem reflecting back the world as she experiences it. The Vancouver Province calls her voice "extraordinary"; The Star Phoenix calls it "stunning". As a songwriter and vocalist, she effortlessly embraces her diverse musical influences -- Jazz, Pop, R&B and Folk –- melding them seamlessly into her own distinctive and compelling sound. Her expansive stylistic, dynamic and emotional range, along with her vocal prowess, have made her a sought-after performer, respected by her peers and cherished by her fans. More than anything, however, it's her love of improvising and her willingness to engage fearlessly with the audience that have made Coco Love Alcorn a singular and powerful force on the Canadian music scene for over a decade.

With her frequent appearances across Canada in support of her most recent CDs, Sugar and Coco Love Solo, Coco continues to gain new devotees from coast-to-coast with her songs about love, life, social awareness – and new fan favorite, Fiori Modena, a love song for her bicycle. Whether she's performing solo or in a band setting, her gift for joyful spontaneity ensures that each concert is unique from the last.

Sugar is a delightfully nuanced, down-tempo treasure. Featuring co-writes with Lennie Gallant, Kevin Coles and Coco's father, Canadian jazz artist John Alcorn, the album explore themes of the heart and the spirit. Produced by Juno Award winner Steve Dawson, this CD is a remarkably assured work from a critically acclaimed artist whose time has truly come. Since its official release on Black Hen Music, Sugar has received much enthusiastic support from press and radio across Canada.

Coco Love Solo is a new collection of seven songs sold only at live shows. Performed and recorded over the course of a single evening in her own home, Solo includes Revolution, a fiery piece of writing that's become a staple of her personal appearances. Fans are raving about this project – its quirky and honest collection of songs and its highly distinctive packaging. Coco and her husband, graphic artist Simon Farla, assemble these hand-silk-screened albums individually, and each includes a 20-page booklet of drawings, words and photos. This is artistry in its most profoundly intimate form.

Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia then growing up between there, Vancouver and Toronto, Coco Love Alcorn is through-and-through Canadian. Her parents both come from families of highly creative and accomplished individuals -- designers, writers, filmmakers, actors, visual artists and musicians. With this background, Coco was almost certainly destined to be a creative soul.

Since the release of her self-titled debut CD in 1995, Coco's career has included a number of personal highlights. She has a longstanding touring and recording relationship with Canadian music icons 54.40. She was "discovered" by folk legend Ani DiFranco, and subsequently invited to join her USA tour as the opening act. She has enjoyed success in the realm of licensing, with multiple song placements on popular American TV shows like The Dead Zone (USA Network) and The L Word (Showtime). These shows are currently airing all over the world and have built Coco's name with a growing international audience.

Coco has crisscrossed Canada numerous times in her own right, played many music festivals (including Lilith Fair) and made countless TV and radio appearances. She has five albums under her own name and two electronica side projects. She has appeared on close to 50 albums as a featured guest or backing vocalist. The long list of artists she's worked with on stage or in the studio include Burton Cummings, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jesse Cooke, Chin Injeti (Bass is Base), Kinnie Starr and Loudon Wainwright III.

"Coco has the voice, look and most importantly presence of a true Canadian star" ~ Echo Weekly.

uh, yeah....

pretty much the best song I've ever written...

pretty much...

it came to life a few days ago up near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Goes like this:

super roadside partying moose
super roadside partying moose

and just repeat!

come on! sing along!

: )

coco

check this out.... seriously.


Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

Thurs Oct 19th in The Ottawa Xpress:

XXXX
COCO LOVE ALCORN
Sugar
Black Hen Music

At first blush, Vancouver..s Coco Love Alcorn, much like Britain..s current it girl Corrine Bailey Rae, finds sonic comfort reveling in the true blue triad of old school soul, and R&B staples: namely, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Al Green. However, where Leeds.. leading lady serves up a nice light snack, Alcorn, whose rich, limber, voice whispers and swoons with precision, starts at a full boil and takes care to deliver a sumptuous, simmering full course meal. Produced by fret guru Steve Dawson (does he ever sleep?), Sugar..s songs linger and burn like a long, goodbye embrace: a quality that ignites some tracks (..Out Of Sight.., ..Falling Into You..) and weighs down others (..There Is A Light..). Still, its.. a minor quibble on what is otherwise a star turn. (Steve Baylin).

Oct 12, the Vancouver Sun:

In her years as a performer doing other people's material, Vancouver vocalist Coco Love Alcorn has knocked 'em dead, often stealing the show from the headliner. Now, with "Sugar", she has a full recording of original material. Can stardom be far behind?She opens with "For Just One Night", a gliding, mid-tempo number with an exhilaratingsoulful middle section. Her R&B roots show again on "Circle Circle", a funky tune with a chorus whose lyrics are directly lifted from the witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth". Hey, if you're going to write a song, why not crib from the master?

Sugar is filled with great ballads and slow-tempo songs, including "Falling Into You" (one of two numbers Coco wrote with her father, John Alcorn), She's Beautiful, a song about female love where Alcorn holds notes to great effect, and "Mary Go Round".

The supporting musicians are superb, particularly Steve Dawson on a variety of stringed instruments.

Coco Love Alcorn plays at the Wise Hall on Oct. 13tth.

- Marke Andrews, Vancouver Sun

Oct 12th, 24 hours Vancouver

A lot of evil has entered the world in the eight years since Coco Love Alcorn recorded her last solo album: The war on terror, baseball's steroid scandal, the Indean Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Darfur genocide and, of course, "American Idol". Hopefully Alcorn's musical return can help alleviate some of the pain caused by these events.

At the very least, the talented Ms. Alcorn should have a positive affect on the predictable mediocrity the mainstream music world has slid into recently. At the risk of offending Clay Aiken and/or Kelly Clarkson, Alcorn is a true performer with the talent and originality to help get us back into caring about good, original music.

Since her debut in 1995, Alcorn has wowed the music world with her voice, her looks and her. The daughter of Canadian Jazz great John ALcorn, she has performed at Lilith Fair, toured with the likes of Ani DiFranco, and even had four songs featured on the L Word. And after having spent the last eight years working on two electronic/pop projects ("Joystick", and the 5440 collaberation "Paloma"), Coco has returned to her jazz and folk roots to bring us one of the year's best records thus far, "Sugar".

With the help of producer/guitarist Steve Dawson, pianist Chris Gestrin, bassist Keith Lowe and drummer John Raham, Alcorn has managed to deliver to music fans that which is all too rare in this age of cookie-cutter bands and corporate facades: An original sound. Believe it or not, that could be just enough to save us all.

Come be reminded of just how refreshing original can be when Coco Love Alcorn performs this Friday, Oct 13th at The Wise Hall.

-R.C. Joseph, 24 hours

Thursday, October 12th, 2006 - The Vancouver Province

Alcorn shows her sweet side on second album:

Sugar: Folk-oriented songs mingle with jazz, blues

(uh... gotta go. I'll finish typing these in tonight)

Revolution ~ co-written with Chris Hockey

black is the colour of the blood we let from stone and earth
red is the colour of the blood we spill to claim it's worth
grey is the colour of the haze spun daze (days) we're living in
green is the colour of the fuel for the fire my hope runs thin

we need a world wide revolution
restitution
retribution
resolution

we need a world wide revolution
with preservation
no hesitation
from any nation

black is the colour of the good rich soil we sew with greed
red is the colour of the ink we use to buy for free
grey is the colour of the manifest destiny
green is the colour of the old growth shade I long to see

we need a world wide revolution
restitution
retribution
resolution

we need a world wide revolution
with preservation
no hesitation
from any nation

I miss getting myself from A to B (and sometimes Y) with the power of my own legs. I always feel very kick ass when I arrive. Especially when I've braved some harsh elements or ridden to sing at someone's wedding with an evening gown, mascara and high heels stashed in my pannier.

I miss the sense of comradery I feel with other cyclists as we pass each other and smile. It seems as though I see a higher percentage of smilers on bikes than in cars. That may be my imagination though. : )

I miss riding my bike in a big gang at cycle community events like critical mass and midnight mass. It's so cool to take over the streets and bridges... and the parties that follow are pretty wicked too. Lots of friendly, creative, interesting, sexy, socially concious ladies and dudes shakin' their booty and sharing thoughts.

I miss finding new ways to cart heavy and/or awkward loads on my bicycle. I am constantly amazed by what is possible with these two wheeled wonders. Holy heck I am such a GEEK!

I miss finding new sneaky routes. Avoiding the stink and noisy arrogance of cars and buses by wizzing down tree lined side streets is AWESOME!

I miss riding along the seawall. It's nice when I have enough time to take the longer and prettier way to get to B.

I miss the freedom of late night riding.

Well this is so darn obvious I really shouldn't even insult y'all by typing it but I miss the wind in my face and coasting down hills. See? Pretty obvious...

I miss getting to the top of that last BIG hill and then carrying my Fiori up the stairs. Ah... home sweet home.

Community, creativity, compassion and concious awareness of where and how heavily we tread.... AND cycling. These are a few of my favorite things. : )

Below is an exerpt from "Alive", Canada's natural health magazine. 
September 2006 issue:

"The latest statistics on children and television veiwing:

-From age one to age three, the average amount of TV watched daily increases 63 percent, from 2.2 hours to 3.6 hours.

-43 percent of children under the age of two watch TV every day and 26 percent have TVs in their bedroom.

-The average Canadian child watches 15.5 hours of TV each week and spends five hours per week playing video games and surfing the internet.

-In Ontario the number of schools with physical education teachers has dropped 26 percent in five years.

-Only 18 percent of American elementary schools have a full time physical education teacher.

-By high school graduation, the average teen will have spent more time watching television than being in the classroom."

This is all time not spent being outside and interacting with the natural world or playing with friends or reading or drawing pictures or building forts with chairs, pillows and blankets. This is all time spent sedentary and "plugged in" to the virtual realities so ever present in our modern world. Too many children today are growing up addicted to TV, fast food, tiny technological gadgets and brand names.

By the way, I also grew up in a generation with the same affliction. In fact, right now my wrists are getting sore because I'm writing this blog on my cel phone. This internet ready device that only took me one week to become completely attatched to. I hope it's a honeymoon phase that will wear off soon. It has been darn handy already for keeping up on communications with my agent and publicist while on tour but I ask myself... is it worth the resources of materials and ingenuity that went into making it?

It's 5 am and I've been existing in that frustrating state of half sleep for over 3 hours now. This and that and then a little more of this have been dancing through my mind so now I have transplanted myself to sit here, in front of this digitized light source which encourages unnaturally slow blinking with it's futur-ee glow.

Outside I hear rain. I have always loved that sound. It brings life to all the wonderous green growing things in the soil and to all feathered, furry and fishy things too. Hey rain, thanks! That's super swell of you. : )

In the daytime when we are hustling and bustling to the city's tempo, rain is often looked upon as an annoyance as it adds extra clogginess to traffic and soaks it's cold wetness into our fashionably flared cuffs as they hit the curb. (Although, I did recently notice that magazines seem to be switching back over to the mandate of a narrower legged pant. This means that soon all the store's window displays will be boasting of their fine array of roll-upables... thank you oh lords and ladies of trend setting eminence... these will be much more practicle for rainy days AND cycling.)

It is on a slow sunday afternoon or in the quiet of night when we are much more inclined to listen to the rain's song with friendly ears. It hits the concrete and sings of connectivity as it hits the concrete in front of my neighbours house too. It hits our rooftops above and reminds those of us that have shelter how lucky we are. It showers down upon the cars and street lamps washing away a weeks worth of dusty sun cooked residue. When our ears are open to its melody we are in that moment reconciled with nature... no matter how long we have been away and no matter how alienated we have felt, our spirit is immediately pulled back into the often distant yet always familiar embrace of mother nature. Our universal mother who dotes on us with her abundance of beauty and resources as we take and take and take and TAKE all her offerings. We take them and we take them for granted and oft times even lose touch with where it is these gifts are even coming from with much of her bounty to be found in conveniently stackable boxes and cans. We find ourselves embarassed by her doting and annoyed by some of her "quirks" like mosquitos. The rain is one of her emmisaries who comes rat-a-tat-tatting on our doors and windows, umbrellas and hats awakening a primal awareness within us and reminding us to live more connected with each other, our deeper selves and with she who we would not be here without.

Yes, I love rain. I always have. I have very strong childhood memories of dancing in the rain in Vancouver as my mother and I would walk along a quiet tree lined street and if the rain was light enough we would sometimes stop to look for four leaf clovers. Then there are the memories of falling asleep to the lull of it falling above me while my father tinkled away on the piano below in Toronto. In summers I would often travel back to my hometown of Antigonish, Nova Scotia to stay with my grandparents and there I really conviened with nature. There was a huge garden of edibles in the backyard and a river that ran through town that I would often go play by. Once every few years or so the rain would decide to show us her might and the river would overflow flooding the town. It's a very powerful image for a young child to see, cars and mailboxes halfway submersed in water. I don't remember anyone getting upset by this flooding though. I suppose everyone understood that it was better to have a little bit too much water than not enough. Or perhaps people were upset but I just didn't notice because I was seeing everything with the accepting eyes of a child.

Hmm, now the sun is coming up and the rain seems to have stopped. Perhaps my attempt to travel to dreamland will be more successful this time. I must at least try.... although this and that and a little more of this seem to still be dancing through my mind. : )