The Consumer Goods

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Pop Goes the Pigdog! album cover, 2006

The Consumer Goods are a Canadian indie rock/pop band hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Composed of members from Winnipeg's local music scene, including The Poets, The Horribly Awfuls, The Honeybuckets, and Paper Moon, the group has garnered attention on local and national college radio charts. The band's debut LP "Pop Goes the Pigdog!", released April 20, 2006, reached #1 on the UMFM charts in June 2006. The Consumer Goods appear on the Winnipeg-based Grumpy Cloud Records.

By the summer of 2006, 'Pop Goes the Pigdog!' had garnered four- and five-star ratings in a number of press reviews and were heralded by CBC Radio 3 as an "undeniably infectious activist pop unit."1 The exposure from the CBC appearance led to a second buzz in the fall of 2006 and another crop of reviews, including one which suggested that the 'Pop Goes the Pigdog' be considered one of the top ten records of the year. By the end of 2006, the record was ranked 4th for the year on the UMFM charts, based on radio airplay. Principal songwriter Tyler Shipley has recently moved to Toronto, Ontario and is said to be working on material for a new record to be recorded in December. It is not clear if this will be a solo effort or a second offering from the Consumer Goods.

1 Political and Cultural References
2 Band Members
3 Discography
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Political and Cultural References

Many of the songs from 'Pop Goes the Pigdog!' refer to contemporary and historical politics and culture. Examples of this include:

Malcolm X's speech about violent and non-violent revolution featured on "Christmas in Camden"
Mao Zedong's aphorism "Revolution is no tea party" featured on the track of the same name
the phrase "camels coming home to roost" on "London Bombs" refers either to Ward Churchill's controversial essay On the Justice of Roosting Chickens or Malcolm X's commentary on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
commentary on the Devil's Lake controversy and criticism of Manitoba Premier Gary Doer on "Good Thing (for Bourgeois Nationalism)"
the gradual demise of the Montréal Expos on "C'est la Vie Westerne"
the story of the ill-fated Taiping Rebellion is articulated on the track "Taiping Riverboat"