Rich Aucoin at Nuit Blanche Montreal – S10E19

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Rich Aucoin Nuit Blanche Main

It was an eventful weekend to end a cold and miserable month of February. On Friday night, it was Dan Mangan + Blacksmith at NAC and Saturday, it was meeting people at Ottawa Radio Club. Saturday night was going to Montreal for their Nuit Blanche. It was a last minute getaway to Montreal and to find out what their Nuit Blanche was like.

The first event to check was the Rich Aucoin concert at Metropolis. It’s been awhile I had seen Aucoin live as he brings a very interactive show. In Montreal, there’s more a enthusiastic crowd to live events and the one by Aucoin was no exceptions. He started with the talk of the social media buzz of the black & blue dress. The very entertaining video clips and lyrics to songs made the concert enjoyable. It had a party atmosphere when he used a lot of confetti and streamers. He kept coming to the crowd to have them sing along, jump and dance.

Towards the end of the show, a playground parachute was used and the Montreal crowd had fun with it.
The best thing about it was that the show was free as it was part of the Nuit Blanche program.

Don’t forget that Rich Aucoin will be playing at Ritual Nightclub on March 6. Continue reading →

Happy Chinese New Year – The Year of the Sheep/Goat – S10E18

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CNY2015 Lions

Gong Hei Fat Choy! This year’s lunar new year celebrations is quite late. This year’s animal is quite confusing as it’s either year of the sheep or goat. I’ll leave it either way.

As usual, it’s great to go out and lion dance at various places. The first stop was at a public school and kids were excited to see the lions and take part in it. What was surprising that some of the kids knew their animal that they’re born in. I was able to take some photos from the event. Then my lion dance troupe did five other events and they were at a bank and several retirement homes. It was great to see some of the guys again for the performances.

You can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Posted below are a few silly photos during the performances. I got several lion dance performances to go. Have a Happy Chinese New Year!

Pssst, February 20th is my birthday!

Photos from the February 22nd lion dance at T&T Supermarket. Click HERE.

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An Evening with Leonard Youngfoot – S10E17

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There were so many events happening on Thursday night. I decided to go to A Thing For Chocolate as Trish Murray, who’s a radio host at a station and also runs RedLeaf Music has created a series called Sounds Simple. It’s an acoustic music series held at an intimate place where they serve crepes and other sweets goods.

The series started in mid-January of 2015 and the February 5th edition had singer/songwriter, Derek Atkinson. At the Sounds Simple event, he went by Leonard Youngfoot. It’s an influence of the three famous Canadian singer/songwriters, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot. Atkinson also plays in the nine-member band, Loon Choir.

It was my first time being at A Thing For Chocolate, which is located in the Hintonburg area in Ottawa. It’s nice to support local businesses and try out unique food. I had a chance to try the pulled pork crepe. It had beets and it was definitely a delicious crepe. Continue reading →

The Launch of Megaphono – S10E16

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A new music showcase festival has started in Ottawa and it’s called Megaphono. The showcase festival is give the Ottawa music scene a way to shine and show that the city is striving in the arts and cultural scene. It’s to give an opportunity for Ottawa musicians and music-related companies to build connections and the creativity of what Ottawa is. There are concerts, panels and networking at the music showcase.

I went to the Launch along with the tape cutting ceremony which had Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson. Watson spoke at the event launch and to show his support of the music scene in Ottawa.

Checked out the panel, Connecting Ottawa Music. The panelists were Andrew Vincent, Ian Swain, and Kwende Kefentse. The moderator of the panel was Alan Neal. The panel brought great insight on what the Ottawa music scene should do and there’s so many obstacles to go through in growing Ottawa as a musical hub.

The event runs from February 3-5th. It’s definitely a good initiative to check out great and interesting live music in the Nation’s Capital.
Congratulations goes out to the organizers of Megaphono for making this Wintery event happen.

You can check out the photos from the launch over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

The Mix 3rd Year Anniversary Party – S10E15

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Thursday night at Babylon Nightclub was The Mix 3rd Year Anniversary and it was hosted by the creator of the radio show,  DJ 2 Creamz.

The Mix has been on the radio airwaves for 3 years and was originally an overnighter and is now from 8-10pm Fridays at this radio station.

Due to the amount of snowfall in Ottawa, I was able to make it in midst of the deep snow fall and the slow buses getting to downtown.
In celebrating the 3rd year anniversary, the event also had an art display by Dems & Doll and Dream Love Grow. Both had terrific artwork on display.

Prior to the performances, there was music DJ’ed by DJ Ducats. Even though I stayed for two hours, there were three performances on the bill. They were G. Grand, Eddie Quotez and Goliath Paw. All three are from Ottawa. It’s just great to that DJ 2 Creamz was able to bring local talent in the burgeoning Hip-Hop scene.
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Some Others I Left Off From The Best of 2014 Music – S10E14

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I’m not done with 2014 just yet. There were some notable musicians and bands that came out with album in 2014  as well as going through some of the Ottawa bands that released materials last year. My year end countdown is based on albums as singles don’t really count. Here’s my short summary on the leftovers.

I’m going to start with Scary Bear Soundtrack. Gloria Song, who’s from Ottawa and residing up in Nunavut. The band had some member changes over the time and change of location but it had a lot of exposure in 2014.
The band got entered to CBC Music‘s Searchlight contest and has made it to various year end countdowns and picks from radio programs and music blogs.

Here’s this track via SoundCloud, The Longest Night.

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The Best of 2014 Countdown Part 2 (S10E13)

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As promised, the second part to my best of 2014 countdown. This list is from #20 to #1 and it’s the best part of the year ender to Canadian independent music. The countdown for the past few years has no repeats from an artist and band. It’s based on the album and when it was released.

Without spoiling much, the top 10 has half of the entries by female musicians. 2014 has been an important year to female rights and violence against women. Without spoiling much, the playlist is posted below. Several entries have a lot of returnees as artists and bands have released their follow-ups to their previous albums. Some have been critically acclaimed.
As usual, you can listen to the audio.

Happy New Year and hello to 2015.

Audio – #20 to #1
Press play to listen.

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