Month: March 2010

Seven Years On Without Leslie Cheung & More Music Related Stuff – S05.2E02

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It’s every year that I always write about Leslie Cheung on his passing. It’s the 7th year since Leslie Cheung left his fans, followers and the Cantopop music industry in Hong Kong. This time is unique because I got to express it on my radio show. After several yearly entries of expressing by words, I got to express it by voice and music. As I explained on-air my reaction on the morning of April 1st in Canada, night time in Hong Kong, it still saddens me on April Fool’s Day because it was a total shock. Leslie Cheung is still missed but his legacy of his songs still continue on. I hope you will enjoy the March 31st edition of the radio show. I split it in 2 parts, one for the whole 2 hours and the other for the Leslie Cheung tribute.
Another thing, I aired the interview with Ottawa’s Musk Ox. They are a Neo-Folk and Classical trio based in Ottawa. It was recorded back on Feb. 28 at Bands Undone and it was after Team Canada won gold in Men’s Hockey at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
I also mentioned about Doctor Who returning to the airwaves (England first and then North America on April 17th) and “retiring” the theme to Series 4. The 11th Doctor brings on the new look, new theme and new series. Totally can’t wait for it. Another event was this past weekend happenings as I enjoyed the Said The Whale/In-Flight Safety/Graham Wright concert at Zaphod Beeblebrox. The following day was the Snailhouse concert at Raw Sugar Cafe. Expect those interviews to be aired around April.
Here’s the playlist for hour 1 and hour 2. Hour 2 will be problematic if you have a Chinese text encoder on Windows.
Click on hour 1 to view the playlist.
Click on hour 2 to view the playlist, if you can read Chinese.

Radio Show
The entire show – Press play to listen.

The Leslie Cheung tribute from the 2nd hour – Press play to listen or go to this link to listen.

Musk Ox Interview – Press play to listen or download it.

On YouTube, I found this Mandarin version of “Missing You.” Here’s the live clip.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dFXTYNB2sI]

The Whales Taking a Safety Flight With a Tokyo Police Clubber – S05.2E01

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[vimeo=http://www.vimeo.com/10482205]
Friday night was probably one of those unexpected moments because I was at the Said The Whale, In-Flight Safety & Graham Wright concert at Zaphod Beeblebrox. Ottawa was the 2nd day of their 2010 Spring tour.
For the past weeks, I have been going to Zaphods for other shows and they were not packed compared to Friday’s show. It’s been awhile that I have attended a sold out show at Zaphods. It was awesome to see Said The Whale filled the crowds. What I also liked were the fans singing along to their songs and I basically couldn’t believe it. It was funny when Tyler Bancroft (guitarist and vocals) poked fun that at 11pm, Ke$ha would be played. Another funny moment was Ben Worchester (guitarist and vocals) threw a quarter and a toonie to packed crowd.

The opening acts, In-Flight Safety and Graham Wright were excellent. It’s my first time to check In-Flight Safety because the last time I went to another venue, I skipped them. Overall, they were rockin’ great and I interviewed the lead singer of IFS after all bands finished up. I got mentioned that the band is like the Coldplay of Halifax and asked about various Halifax bands in general.

As for Wright, he’s from Tokyo Police Club and he’s doing his solo tour. As for his other band, let’s say that I still haven’t seen TPC live yet. It’s still a shame but at least I got to interview one third of TPC. One irony being that the interview was short and compared it to TPC’s albums because their songs are short.
Expect all three interviews to be aired in sometime in April. Said The Whale’s interview is version 2.0 because I wanted to ask them about their experience during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The video on top happens to be Camilo (The Magician).

Girls Just Want To Party! – S05E42 (Finale, End of Series 5.1)

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Thursday night was pretty exciting as I went to Zaphod Beeblebrox for the 3rd week as I checked out Girl Party featuring Jas Nasty, Kool Krys and Jenocide. I decided to do an audio interview with Kool Krys because she’s been heard on other radio shows lately. There’s something unique about her music because Ottawa hasn’t really got a big hip-hop presence (my opinion, I don’t check out the 613 hip-hop scene very much). It seems like she’s my first “official” Ottawa artist to be interviewed for my radio show.

The show was great because Kool Krys brought excitement to her hip-hop music. She sang some classic tunes like Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Destiny’s Child as it reminded me of my teenage years when I listened to those songs on the radio. She brought the old school mentality and it certainly gave me a smile because I felt like it was the 1990s all over again.

Prior to Kool Krys performing, Jas Nasty was spinning tunes and she also played old school tunes from the 80s. The final act was Jenocide, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her music was more on the electronic and thrash (as her MySpace page says it). I didn’t realize her style of music reminded me of Ruby Jean and The Thoughtful Bees, also from Halifax.
Overall, it was a good night even though I missed out on other events happening.
From cartoons to comic book heroes, we will go from Jem & The Holograms to Wonder Woman.
Played the Superfriends theme on the March 24th radio show because of Wonder Woman being in the cartoon. The Superfriends theme is played around the 17 minute mark.

Here’s the radio show and interview with Kool Krys in 2 parts. Playlists for hour 1 and hour 2 are available if you want to check what was played.
Radio show – Press play to listen. You can now listen to the show through iTunes as an audio stream.

WildWorks Extra – The new slot from 11.30am-12pm. Press play to listen.

Kool Krys Interview
Part 1 interview, press play or download it.

Part 2 interview, press play or download it.

This is not the end of Series 5 yet, as I didn’t expect to go over with the number of entries. Series 5 will continue with a new number, 5.2.
5.2 will possibly start with the Said The Whale/In-Flight Safety/Graham Wright concert or a yearly tribute to Leslie Cheung and the first time to dedicate it on radio after writing up for a couple of years since his death.

Other Loose Ends Before Ending 5.1
I did some video shooting for Bands Undone. I shot for Ottawa bands, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns on separate days. What made me excited was that the Canon EOS 5D Mark II got a new firmware update and I shot on 24p (24 frames per second, which they say is cinema look).

A new method I tried was using the microphone and monopod as a boom mic. Instead of having Kara using a microphone, it was nice to have her not use a mic and have her chat freely. The one with Dave Norris was shaky because it was a first time but the one with Old Crowns turned out well.

Check the links provided from the Bands Undone site as it will include the videos I shot, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns. Both local bands were great and enjoyable.

Radio Interviews With Billy the Kid & Shayna Zaid & The Catch – S05E41

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I didn’t expect to be filling in on Monday at CKCU-FM but it gave me an opportunity to move up the audio interviews. Billy the Kid interview was supposed to be for Wednesday but with the special day, it got moved up. As for the interview, it was recorded on March 1st at Zaphod Beeblebrox. Here’s the playlist on the special time and day at this link. I got to play the theme to Final Fantasy XIII as I have been playing it like crazy for a week.
For people searching on Google and on the web, the Billy the Kid I am referring is the Canadian singer-songwriter, not some American person! Sorry for the rant.

Don’t forget to listen to the show by pressing play.

Billy the Kid Interview
Part 1 – Press play or download it.

Part 2 – Press play or download it.


Wednesday’s Radio Show and the Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview
As usual, I unexpectedly had to solo host the Wednesday morning radio show. Overall, I got to air the Shaya Zaid & The Catch in its entirety, well in 2 parts as I had enough time to air it. They were in Ottawa on March 10 at Zaphod Beeblebrox. I truly enjoyed the interview because it’s my first to chat up with a non-Canadian band. I got excited asking Zaid about Chinese related topics from Chinese music and music channels in Asia. What also surprised me was one of the members has a Coldplay connection.
A funny part was having to play the theme song to Jem & The Holograms after the first part of the interview. Thanks to Alan Neal of the CBC because he seems to be a fan of the classic cartoon.
There’s a new segment on my show called WildWorks Extra and for the time being, I’ll be playing Cantopop songs from the year 2000 because I’m just feeling nostalgic and how time has gone by so quickly. Aside from saying the song names in Chinese (Cantonese), it’s the first time that I also said a song name in Japanese, with help of Wikipedia. Extra has been on for a couple of times and it’s become a regular part of the show.

The playlist for Wednesday’s show is at this link.
Provided a Youtube link to the two J-Pop songs I played on the playlist.

Here’s Wednesday’s radio show, press play to listen. The Jem theme song is played around the 20 min mark.

Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview Part 1  – press play or download it.

Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview Part 2 – press play or download it.

Concluding the East Coast Theme – S05E40

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Continuing the East coast theme for my radio show as it was on a different day due to various happenings going on. Mentioned Joel Plaskett (played his short song) winning 6 ECMAs, played a new Hannah Georgas song (album to be released on April 27) and three Chinese songs for May-Jun. Yeah, Cantopop goodness as it was my first time to play a classic Jacky Cheung song. Photo above is Tim Crabtree, of the one man band, Paper Beat Scissors.
Press play to listen to the Monday special. The playlist is at this link.

Here’s the interview with Tanya Davis. You can download it or listen by pressing play.

Here’s the interview with Paper Beat Scissors including the song, Flicker as I cut part of the song due to time.
You can download it or listen by pressing play.

This should be it for the East coast theme as I will be airing an interview with Billy the Kid for the March 17th show.
I will be checking out Shayna Zaid & The Catch on Wednesday at Zaphod Beeblebrox. My first non-Canadian band interview and it should be a good one.

Two Bands Undone I Filmed
I had the opportunity to film Language-Arts on Sunday and Pawnshop Diamond on Monday as they were unique bands from British Columbia. Expect the video to be up on the Bands Undone site soon. I didn’t take photos as I was filming, expect my videos to be front and centre.

Billy the Kid & Wednesday’s Radio Show (Caledonia Interview) – S05E39

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Note: This is about the Canadian singer-songwriter, not some American person.

I had the opportunity to meet and interview with Billy the Kid at Zaphod Beeblebrox on Monday (March 1st). At the venue, it was their 8th Anniversary of free concerts for Zaphod’s Showcase Mondays. What got me interested to interviewing Billy the Kid was that she got to work with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace. It was a bit nostalgic going through the OLP way and there’s something unique about her grabbed my interest in her talents. Expect the interview to aired in the next few weeks on the radio. I stayed at Zaphods for very long and when saw her on sound check, I didn’t expect her to be laid back and bubbly going through the instrument and sound settings. Her performance was amazing, I didn’t expect to have her bring a Neil Young or Bob Dylan vibe to some of her songs. Mind you, this was the day after the Vancouver Olympics finished and didn’t expect Young to close the games. It’s just the harmonica she played reminded me of the Young song he played at the Closing Ceremony. Overall, she wowed me with her set and here’s a clip that I took where she got the crowd to sing along. The song is “Just Trying to Get By.” YouTube version now available at this link.
[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/9870465]

Wednesday’s Radio Show – March 3, 2010 Edition
A new month and a theme to start off the show, I call it east coast month because of the ECMAs on March 4-7, 2010. I did an interview by the Nova Scotia band, Caledonia at Bands Undone back on November 2009. It was pushed backed because I noticed the ECMAs were happening in March and it’s fitting to air it as I asked their response to their nomination.
Due to a technical error on the live broadcast, the file for the Caledonia interview has been fixed up.
It’s another week that I get an extra half hour. It’s the return of Mike on ASR as well. Luckily with the extra half hour, I got to play the songs that I didn’t get to play from earlier. It’s a good thing I got to play Billy the Kid’s song. With the extra half hour, I call it WildWorks Extra. As usual, I decided to use the Tread Lightly theme.
You can listen to the entire show by pressing play. There’s also the separate ones from my show if you don’t want to listen to two hours.
The entire 2 hour show

WildWorks Show – Check the playlist at this link.

WildWorks Extra – Check the playlist at this link.

The Caledonia interview (edited). Press play or download it to listen.

I Forgot About Musk Ox @ Bands Undone
As I was skimming around, I didn’t know Kara updated the Bands Undone site with the Musk Ox review. Their session happened when the Team Canada Men’s Hockey (well, the NHL’ers) won Gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Here’s the clip where I filmed and she edited it. To my own surprise, I didn’t expect the closeups to look that good. Take a look at the video. The trio blends a mix of classical and neo-folk music. I’ve seen the band a couple of times and it’s a joy to listen to them.
I interviewed Musk Ox which will be aired in the future.