Series 5

Wrapping Up Season 5 – S05.2E10 (Season Finale)


Summer Extra
I posted up the three Canada Day audio interviews at this link. The site is at the Wild 5 Countdown site.

Part 2 (June 30, 2010)
Finally, I finish up this entry as Wednesday’s radio show wrapped with the conclusion to the Young Galaxy interview and final original interview at venues with Born Ruffians.
The playlist what I played is at this link.
This is it for the Summer as I won’t be writing too much entries but expect a few Specials on the blog. The radio show will continue on with specials and re-airings.
Without further ado, here’s the audio links to listen.

The Full Radio Show for June 30th, 2010. Press play to listen.

WildWorks Extra – 2nd hour: Songs by Beyond. A Tribute to Wong Ka-Kui, who passed away on June 30th, 1993.
Press play to listen.

Band Interviews
Part 2 of Young Galaxy: Press play to listen or download it.

Born Ruffians Interview: Press play to listen or download it.

This ends Season 1 for the radio show and Season 5 (full) on the blog.

Part 1 (June 23, 2010)
This is the first of 2 parts to the end of season or series 5 of my blog & my radio show. The radio show will continue during the Summer as I will still be on the air and airing past interviews. It’s more like “the best of.” Expect no new materials for all of Summer but there’s a possibility of a few themed specials. The blog itself will be on a Summer break, just like the TV shows which ended in May.
The June 23rd show was considered the 2nd last show before the Summer break as I needed to air a couple of new interviews. Joining me on the radio show was a CBC Radio 3 fan/listener, Johanna Innes. She’s from Ottawa but studying at South Carolina. It was a blast having her on because she’s so interested in Canadian music and really enjoy being on the radio. Another reason for her to be on was that she recently attended NXNE in Toronto over the weekend and also talked about The Polaris Music Prize Long List. We discussed the positives and negatives as who were on the list and who wasn’t on the list. It was a shock that Said The Whale weren’t on the list. I had to play False Creek Change as a sort of protest in a tongue and cheek manner.
I was happy to hear that You Say Party (formerly You Say Party! We Say Die!) will be continuing after the death of drummer of Devon Clifford. Although, they lost another founding member but added two new members. It’s great that they will be continuing on.
Also on the show were two interviews being aired. The first was Vancouver’s fanshaw and the other was The Besnard Lakes. I had an extra half hour and aired the first part of the Young Galaxy interview.
Here’s the playlist for what was played on the show. Click here to check it out. The Wild 5 Countdown is on link list (right side if you can find it).

Last thing, I did not experience the earthquake as I was on the bus. I missed out on the fun and fear. If you’re interested, you can listen to CHUO’s Now Playing at this link. I was listening on the bus and the fire alarm almost gave me a hearing loss.

Without further ado, you can listen to the radio show by pressing play here. To make it simple, I also have hours 1 & 2 for separate listening if you don’t want to listen for all of 2 hours.
Full show

Radio Show – Hour 1

Radio Show – Hour 2.5


The fanshaw Interview
Press play to listen or download it.

The Besnard Lakes Interview
Press play to listen or download it.

The Young Galaxy Interview (Part 1)
Press play to listen or download it.

So long until the Fall!

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

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 Balconies don’t really count because it was more of a Christmas theme when I interviewed them.
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


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


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

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.

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.

Two Band Interviews Aired and a Guest Co-Host – S05E38


It’s an opportunity to try something a bit different on my radio show. I know it’s pulling a bit like CBC Radio One’s Bandwidth and the other CKCU Special Blend shows in airing two different audio interviews. It was also a unique show this week because I had a special guest co-host helping me, it’s Kara from Bands Undone. Originally, she wanted to come by to the station but was busy and got injured. Finally, her time to co-host on the radio happened!
I have been on-air for two hours for basically a month, it’s all in fun time.

On the show, I aired two interviews, one was The Belle Game, which was recorded this past Monday (Feb. 22) night at Canteen. The other interview by Nightwood (of Montreal) was done in January.
The Belle Game was at Canteen for Bands Undone and they literally played a great set.
Video and Reviews from the Bands Undone site is at this link. Check it out as I did the filming for their live in-session, minus the editing as Kara took care of that.
The location for this band is pretty bi-coastal as some are from Vancouver, some from Montreal and one from Maine. As for the interview, it’s a hoot to listen as it was funny. There were mentions of bands like Ottawa’s The Acorn, Toronto’s Ohbijou, and Vancouver’s Said The Whale.
The funny thing during the show was one of the members of The Belle Game was listening to the show LIVE while using Twitter.
During the show, we discussed on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and what’s shows are coming up in Ottawa. Played new songs from Broken Social Scene and Jason Collett. Trying to be fresh in playing new tracks from Canadian indie artists.
As usual, I decided to be silly and play a theme from a CKCU show called Tread Lightly.
The video above is a video I shot and it’s a separate interview from The Belle Game.

Without further ado, you can listen to the show by pressing play.
The full show
Extra (Chatted more about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics before what would be “Wonderful Wednesday”)
Check out the playlist at this link.

Interviews

The Belle Game
Press play to listen or download it.

Nightwood
Press play to listen to download it.

The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU for February 27, 2010
I had the opportunity to hang out with the gang from that show. You can listen to the 2 hour show by pressing play.

Basia Bulat and Chinese New Year 2010 – S05E37

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It was a hectic weekend checking out bands and dealing with the cold. It started with doing an audio interview with Young Rival at Mavericks on Friday night. It was last minute because I almost forgot they were in Ottawa and it has been awhile I haven’t heard from the band. There’s a lineup change in the band and as far as I know, the interview should be airing sometime in late March as their upcoming album will be released in April.
On Saturday night, it has been a long time waiting as Basia Bulat came to town for a sold out concert. This time, it’s for her current release of the second album, Heart Of My Own. The funny thing was having to wait outside the First Baptist Church for several hours. Thoughts on the concert, the opening act was Ottawa native and now residing in Montreal, Leif Vollebekk. Vollebekk brought along a band as the previous times I had seen him, he was performing solo. As usual, he soothed the crowded with his soft toned songs. His folk influenced fit the right tone for the church.
Onto Basia Bulat’s performance. As usual, she still brings the excitement when she comes up on stage. The crowd still enjoy her songs from Snakes & Ladders to the new song like The Shore. The video on top is a live track of Sparrow. Even though, the church had a curfew for 10pm, the audience still wanted Bulat to return for several more songs and she definitely did. The best thing about the Ottawa crowd was knowing when to clap on I Was A Daughter and Before I Knew.
I almost forgot to interview her because her publicist text messaged me that sound check was late and they didn’t get food as well. I was fortunate to interview her at the end of the concert. On the interview, Bulat did mention a Casey Mecija of Ohbijou. CBC News posted an article on Bulat on Feb. 22, 2010.

Feb. 17, 2010 Update
Without further ado, here’s the interview with Basia Bulat. Press play to listen or download it. You can also stream it through iTunes or other media players.

Here’s the radio show including the interview. Playlists are this link, Show #1 and Extra
Press play to listen to Show #1

Press play to listen to the extra half hour show. Foolishly used two other CKCU radio show themes.


Happy Chinese New Year – Gung Hei Fat Choy/Gung Xi Fat Chai
It’s this time of year for having as I have many liondance performances. In time to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, it started off with a 30 min performance at T&T Supermarket in Ottawa, Canada. The video posted from above in a condensed form. It was crazy when performing at the Asian supermarket because it was difficult having to get through from the crowds. Overall, it was the first time for our troupe to perform at a popular Canadian Asian Supermarket.
Afterwards, we had another performance at Winterlude. Before getting to the area, I bumped into Basia Bulat and her band again but they were leaving the hotel. It was a funny moment because I saw their red van and I decided to get out of the friend’s car and started to run towards them. It was funny to surprise them and then telling them I had a liondance performance. If you’re able to read this entry, I posted the videos for your enjoyment.
Back to Winterlude, we had three performance, it was at noon, 1.30pm and then 3pm. It was cold but fun as the crowds got to watch it. Here are videos to check out.
Enjoy!


Another video, here’s one from Monday (Feb. 15) at Ottawa Chinatown. A Chinese New Year parade, click on the link.