Anti-?????

Tapas!

December's Anti-Tapas will feature a special apéro with Cougars in America providing the sonic backdrop for the opening hours of their last party of the year. The music goes until my fingers hurt, and then I join forces with a beautiful and sultry lady of the night to present DJs Glitter and The Gutter all night smoke out - Indie-rock in the lounge til breakfast.

Caves de Cureghem, Anderlecht

Saturday December 10th, 20h30
ANTI-TAPAS

What the Folk?

Atelier 210
Wednesday, December 7th
20h00
http://www.atelier210.be/programme_information-A210-85.html

Cougar vs. Bizon

Wednesday, November 30th
22h00
Café Bizon

Help Yourself

Don't leave me alone / don't leave me alone / Just throw my bleeding heart out the window / Don't leave me alone / don't leave me alone / Just throw my bleeding heart out the window / You know that I have seen it all before / Don't ask me why / I don't saddle up and fly across an ocean to / The week before I met you / I was proud as I was young / Reading politics and thinking of the good that it had done in this whole world that I've been shaking like a tree / But now you see me on a ladder with a basket with no fruit / And I scream somebody must me listening / I have nothing except all that you have given me / I'm crying foul for what's merciless and pitiful / I'm holding sacred to the things that I have got / I'm crushing diamonds with my teeth and searching anxiously for someplace I can spit / And I'm begging you

Don't leave me alone / don't leave me alone / Just throw my bleeding heart out the window / You know that I have seen it all before / Don't ask me why / I don't saddle up and fly across an ocean to / The year before I met you / I was sitting in a park / Watching fairytale processions of my past and it was drinking from a can that I've been shaking endlessly / But now you see me bursting open / foaming white / Sticking to you / I scream somebody must be listening / I am bleeding on an altar you have given me / Still crying foul for what's merciless and pitiful / Spilling cups that you are filling with my blood / Shaking mountains with my rage and looking endlessly for someplace I can sleep / And I'm begging you...

Don't leave me alone / don't leave me alone / Just throw my bleeding heart out the window

Don't leave me alone / don't leave me alone / Just throw my bleeding heart out the window

In This Age of Hope and Golden Mountains

A love song for mother earth. Baby, let's go dancing.

Biography

Cougars in America is the new alt-folk project of Canadian-turned-Bruxellois singer-songwriter, Scott Hamilton. Poet, multi-instrumentalist, and troubadour, he transforms his world into song. Taking his name from a cat that lives on only in popular myth, his lyrics express an image of humanity lost, tragic, comic and beautiful. Armed with his guitar, harmonicas, stylophone, loopstation and voice, he creates an atmosphere that is intimate, sincere, and overwhelming. His music has been compared to Bonnie Prince Billy or Sufjan Stevens, and serves in equal measures American Folk, Blues, and Indie Rock. He is joined on stage and on all his latest recording by Belgian string wizard Erik Schoepen on Mandolin, dobro, resonator, lapsteel and banjo.

Cougars in St. Gilles

Returning to the scene of the crime:

Le Zwanzeur

Ave Jean Volders 11, 1060 St Gilles

October 8, 2011 - 19h00

Gig at Piola Libri!

Friday September 27, 2011 - 18h00

Breaths of Paradise

Oration To The Saint Of The Impossible

O excellent St. Rita, worker of miracles, from thy sanctuary in Cascia, where in all thy beauty thou sleepest in peace, where thy relics exhale breaths of paradise, turn thy merciful eyes on me who suffer and weep! Thou seest my poor bleeding heart surrounded by thorns Thou seest, O dear Saint, that my eyes have no more tears to shed, so much have I wept! Weary and discouraged as I am, I feel the very prayers dying on my lips. Must I thus despair in this crisis of my life? O come, St. Rita, come to my aid and help me. Art thou not called the Saint of the Impossible, Advocate to those in despair? Then honor thy name, procuring for me from God the favor that I ask. Everyone praises thy glories, everyone tells of the most amazing miracles performed through thee, must I alone be disappointed because thou hast not heard me? Ah no! Pray then pray for me to thy sweet Lord Jesus that He be moved to pity by my troubles and that, through thee, O good St. Rita, I may obtain what my heart so fervently desires.

Gig in the vault

Last minute concert: Gig in a bank vault. On Monday they close it and won't open it up again!
Friday, September 2nd
Avenue Louise 280
10PM

Get Low!

Brussels Summer Festival

It is with great pleasure that Cougars in America will be taking a brief holiday from Benito Band's summer tour in Italy to come back and play at the Brussels Summer Festival on August 13. See you there!

Saturday August 13, 11PM
BIP
Mont des Arts
Bruxelles

Vertigo

Dead Man Ballad

Cougars International!

This cougar is moving up and out of Belgium for a gig at le Pop-In in Paris on July 19.

Le Pop IN, Paris
Tuesday, July 19
21h00

More stuff!

I forgot to mention.... From now on all Cougars in America concerts have harmonicas!

Gig @Etc...

This is a small gig in a little cafe on Avenue Jules Malou just down the hill from église st. antoine. It's believed to be called ETc, though there is no such sign and everyone I know refers to it familiarly as "the local"... Benito Band played here a few times and I'm retracing those steps. Expect cosy atmosphere and lots of neighborhood regulars.

Saturday, July 9th
Cafe Etc... Avenue Jules Malou, Etterbeek
8:30PM

Cougars in my living room

Thanks to Brussels bluesman Geezer Young for lending me his 8 track! Hopefully at the start of July I will have a few weeks to put this to use before heading south for the summer. In other words, check back here for new songs very soon!

Gig @ Le Coq

Did I mention that Daniel and I will be playing at le Coq on Sunday?

Sunday, June 26, 8PM
Cougars in America + General Lee Bazaar

This cat needs no introduction

Last minute gig in Lille!

Fete de la musique continues and I'll be joining friends/indie-rockers Mad Insina in Lille tomorrow.

Café Parvis de la Treille
7PM June 21st.

Rise above your tears!

Though you sat down
Your seat is empty
Still there you linger
Just where you were

Your heart is nowhere
Your mind forgotten
The beauty of the morning sun
Escaped you for another day

Run, but don't forget to worry
Hide, but don't forget your tears
Cry just another lonely moment
Then rise, rise above your tears!

Or when you speak
This room of silence
Will swallow
All you ever heard

The air you breathe
The beer you're drinking
The colours on the faces that  you see
Will disappear

Stay, but not forever
Try, but not for me
Listen to the sound of every moment
Begging to be set free

There you go
But you're not moving
Your feet are naked
They don't walk

Your heart is bleeding
Your mind turned off
You're hiding in the shadow
Of a palace

There you sleep
But you don't dream
There you're resting
On a whim

Crying just another lonely moment
Falling with your tears
Falling for another lonely moment
Resting with your tears

First concert on Tuesday/new stuff

Tomorrow is the first Cougar's in America concert! 10:30 PM at Bonnefooi. The idea behind playing some concerts at this early stage (i.e. even before I have a demo!) was to be able to get some new things to play with - so that as I play more and more concerts the songs will change and grow. Hopefully I can add so much stuff that the songs are constantly being rearranged. For now, I just picked up one of these:

I spent the whole weekend playing with this thing. I think it's more addictive than cigarettes and candy put together. But good news: starting tomorrow I already have some surprises!

Fêtons la Musique Ensemble à Frasnes!

Saturday, June 18, 2011 - 21h00. I'll be playing at Fête de la Musique in Frasnes. If you've neer been to Frasnes before, what a great reason to visit!

Contact Me!

E-mail:
cougarsinamerica@gmail.com

Telephone:
+32489500458 in Brussels
or
+1 250 502 8463 in Canada

On the web:
http://cougarsinamerica.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/cougarsinamerica
http://youtube.com/cougarsinamerica
http://soundcloud.com/cougarsinamerica
http://www.bandcamp.com/cougarsinamerica

gig @Coiffure Liliane

The best venue in all of Brussels!
June 16, 2011 - 20h30.

Cougars in America Promotional Text

As the last trees are falling
and the birds are singing their final chorus,
we will find ourselves alone together.
We will consume ourselves and hope to be sated.
Night will transform into day as we hide from the traces of our reckless desires.
In willfull ignorance we will sing songs of artificial memories for which we can feel no shame.
The suffering of our planet and all its creatures will evaporate until it is gone like the morning dew.
In song, I will find myself alone.

Gig at the Bonnefooi

The bonnefooi has a special place in my heart! When they first opened, I used to play the piano there around 3AM very irregularly. Not irregularly as in infrequently. Irregularly as in without the fetters of rhythm, style, grace, or any other hibitions. They've agreed to host my first concert under the new moniker: Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The concert starts at 10:30 immediately after Explosions In The Sky at AB. Yes, Dave, that means i will be listening to "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" on repeat all week trying to figure out what comes after the grand finale....

click: http://www.bonnefooi.be/site/day/2011/5/24

Who Stole My Mind?

The Tower

In this Age of Hope and Golden Mountains

Cougars in America is Alive

Last time I spoke to my mom I told her I had started trying to book gigs for Cougars in America - she replied: What the heck is Cougars in America?!

Well, mom, it's what I hear when I'm playing the guitar, or singing, or playing the piano, or walking down the street... It's the orchestra in my mind and I'm trying to set it free!

Cougars in America is officially born - that is to say, I have a website and am trying to find gigs so I can get some money to buy all the guitars, amplifiers, loopers, effects, microphones, keyboards and other things that I think I'm going to need in order to make the live sound I've been imagining... Which is to say that, starting now, the concerts are getting better and better!