Series 7

Wrapping Up The Seventh Season & The Wendy Versus Interview – S07E45

It’s that time of year to wrap things up and it’s been a wonderful season for the blog and the radio show. I know that both are on different series numbers as this blog is on seven and the radio show at three. It’s still confusing to say the least. As June wraps up, it was an exciting month due to various events and finally going to Toronto after a six year absence.
This past weekend was exciting as there were so many events in Ottawa. The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, TD Ottawa Jazz Festival and one event I took part was The Community Cup. It was fun taking part in the soccer tournament, even though I was sore the next day. I will admit that I was out of shape playing soccer due to a lot of speed and endurance. Overall, it was to show new Canadians show the love of the game.
I was able to document the trash talking tweets between CKCU & CBC Ottawa and the images. It is at this link.

Wrapping Up The Season
Looking back from this year, it’s been an opportunity to chat with the usual Canadian bands and musicians. Probably the most exciting was getting my co-host, Lauren to come out and help me assistant on the interviews. The highlight having to be Dan Mangan back in October. Considering that he’s become popular now since the release of Oh Fortune and winning a Juno Award.
Another highlight was having Candice So coming on the show in November and having fun with the music that I usually play. There were a few low points but it won’t be mentioned. It was back in late October and early November, you’ll probably know and it was very frustrating for a reason.
Who’s the band to finish off this season? It’s Wendy Versus from Toronto. The interview was aired on CKCU-FM and I made a mistake after airing the interview by saying Crayon War instead of Crayon Wars.
The playlist for this week’s radio is at this link.

Have a great Summer. On a programming note, I will be airing the Nat & Marie interview in three parts. The Summer edition radio show will slightly be on the social media and online culture aspect. Hope you will enjoy it.

Radio Show/Interview
The June 27th Show – Press play to listen.

The Wendy Versus Interview

The NXNE 2012 Wrapup – S07E44

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After some personal convincing and a schedule change to an event in Ottawa this year, I decided that it’s finally time to go to the big smoke, Toronto and attend NXNE. Although, I didn’t get a lot of time to spend in Toronto and the live music around various venues, I’ll admit to opening up positively to Canada’s biggest city (thanks to two people). Aside from that, I arrived on Friday and walked from the train station to NXNE headquarters to pick up the media pass, then checked in the hotel and then leave to go to CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre for a tour around CBC Radio. It was great to meet up with CBC Radio 3 fans. After the tour, the rest of the R3 gang went to a pub and Grant Lawrence showed up later. I had the opportunity to interview him for his thoughts on the music festival.
Afterwards, I had to take a long walk to Bathurst Street to interview Papermaps and Wendy Versus (a bonus interview).
This week’s radio show had interviews from Grant Lawrence and Papermaps.

On Saturday night, I had some time before going to the legendary Horseshoe Tavern, I stopped by the Cameron House because a singer I watched from an Internet show was performing there. The singer was Robyn Dell’Unto. From the one song I caught, all I can say that she has a lovely voice. I was like wow in my head. Afterwards, I rushed over to the Horseshoe Tavern for the CBC Radio 3 Showcase. It consisted of Poor Young Things, Yukon Blonde, Lumineers, Young Empires, and CATL. Some of the R3 fans were in attendance and it was great to see Craig Norris as well. I finally got a chance to see Yukon Blonde live because whenever they’re in Ottawa, I tend to miss out but it’s in Toronto that I got to see them. They totally rocked the Horseshoe Tavern and great singing along to their songs.
Overall, I definitely had a great time at NXNE in Toronto. You can listen to the radio show and interviews below.

Another part to check out is from Storify as I posted tweets, images and a video (not mine) at NXNE. [Link]

Meeting Nat & Marie (Not NXNE-related)
Lastly, another priority to going to Toronto was to meet with the lovely hosts of Nat & Marie. Let’s say they’ve been pretty influential in my approach in using social media for my radio show and other activities. After the CBC tour and music interviews, I got to meet up with Marie of Nat & Marie. Originally, her partner in crime (Nat) was supposed to join us for sushi but had family obligations.
The next day, they were kind enough to meet up again and finally do an interview. The funny story was Nat tweeting me that’s she’s at Starbucks and I left the NXNE headquarters to Queen St. West. I was rushing frantically back to the site to Starbucks to meet them. The rest is history as we got to chat and interview. Unfortunately, I missed out on the unofficial CBC Radio 3 picnic at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Still, I wanted to meet my new idols or social media darlings as I’ve been tuning to their Internet show. Expect the interview to be aired in July.
I didn’t realize I was mentioned in their Tumblr post from June 15, 2012 at this link. I’m on the final line of their entry.

Radio Show and Interviews
The playlist for the June 20th show is over at this link.
Radio show for June 20th – Press play to listen.

Grant Lawrence Interview

Papermaps Interview

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Gearing Up For NXNE – S07E43


I will finally be making the trek to Toronto for NXNE. It’s been mentioned several times that I have not gone to Toronto for quite some time and a slight dislike of the city. I caved in and going to the music festival, which is modeled after SXSW. Due to the previous schedule conflict from Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival, it’s an opportunity this year to check what the Toronto music scene offers.
I am also hopeful I can meet the social media/Internet celebs in the form of Nat & Marie. Since they gave me a slight influence to what I do on Twitter and Facebook.
Aside from that, this week’s radio show consisted of bands and musicians attending NXNE and another festival not linked to NXNE. Also played were would be contenders for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize Long List. The Wild 10 Countdown had two new entries, they were Loon Choir and Young Galaxy. At number one for the second week, it’s still Cold Specks.
The live show had Erica joining again and played a bunch of bands who will be at NXNE and Luminato.
Due to some technical difficulties, the live part of the radio show is repaired as there were issues with the quality.
Lastly, don’t forget to check updates on Twitter and Instagram for my activities at NXNE.
The playlist for the June 13th radio show is over at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The June 13th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Update at NXNE – June 16, 2012
I finally made it to Toronto on Friday and it was definitely a great time as I went to CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre for a tour along with CBC Radio 3 fans. It was a surprise to see Jian Gomeshi from Q (If you have me on Instagram, you will know why). I had a chance to interview Grant Lawrence to be aired on Wednesday’s show. Then later on, I had a chance to interview Papermaps and Wendy Versus.
Last, but not least, I got to meet Marie from Nat & Marie as we went for sushi. Unfortunately, Nat wasn’t able to meet up.

The Return of a Past Host & a Dedication to Graduating Students – S07E42

It’s June and it’s the time when I start to wrap things up to the current season on the blog and the radio show. It was quite a surprise to begin June’s show with a return appearance of a previous radio host at CKCU. It was Erica, formerly of Horses Spilled Milk and was an occasional guest on my radio show. It was great to play Feist and Beach House with her accompaniment as there’s been excellent indie music releases lately. The reason to playing Feist was that she will be performing at Parliament Hill for Canada Day on July 1st.

Aside from that, there was a dedication to the graduating students at Carleton University as the convocation were happening this week. As mentioned on the radio show, I had the opportunity to meet some of the people on other CKCU-FM shows since it was connected to their Journalism program/courses. It’s become a yearly thing to play Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C as it’s played at this time when the school year ends and people moving on.

As usual, the blog part of the show has the Wild 10 Countdown. There’s a new number one song to start June and then there are two performers who will playing at Ottawa Folk Festival. Lastly, Westfest is this weekend as there’s so many events happening for the month of June and onwards until September in Ottawa. It will be endless to check out festivals throughout Summer.
To check what was played, the playlist to the June 6 show is at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The June 6, 2012 Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Side Pony Nation Interview and Concluding the Asian Heritage Month Music Playlist – S07E41

Gotta hand it to social media or a particular Internet show because last Friday, I had an opportunity to meet up the duo known as SidePonyNation. Tanya and Lynn were in Ottawa as part of Ottawa Race Weekend’s Heath and Fitness Expo at the Ottawa Convention Centre. They were there to sell clothing by Modrobes. I had the opportunity to do an interview and provide them with cupcakes from The Cupcake Lounge. The thing I forgot about Modrobes was that it was featured on CBC’s Dragons’ Den a few seasons ago and also a well known clothing brand. The audio interview is posted below.

Concluding the Asian Heritage Month Song Set
It’s been a fun month in playing Canadian bands and musicians with Asian backgrounds as part of celebrating Asian Heritage Month in Canada. This Wednesday’s show was getting through the ones I haven’t played from the likes of Wendy Versus and Ember Swift. All in all, it was a blast playing and supporting the musicians and bands with Asian roots.
Another note, Cadence Weapon is still number one for the third week on The Wild 10 Countdown. The new entry on the countdown is Kandle. Also on the top 10 are Cold Specks and Metric as they are getting a lot of plays on various radio shows.
The playlist for the May 30th show is at this link.

Audio/Interview
The May 30th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The SidePonyNation Interview

The Theme Was Korea for Continuing Asian Heritage Month – S07E40

I didn’t think of it but this week’s unexpected theme was anything on Korea. At least May is still Asian Heritage Month and before going on-air at CKCU, there were some Koreans checking out the station. Since CKCU-FM has a Chinese and Vietnamese programming, there hasn’t been a Korean spoken program on the station. It was fitting that this entry is dedicated to anything Korean. As you know from my radio show that I play Chinese and some Japanese music. I haven’t played K-Pop (Korean Pop) music as I rarely keep up to date.
The photo posted was an event I attended on Sunday afternoon called 4 in 1 Sessions and the second edition had Scary Bear Soundtrack. The lead member, Gloria is Korean. I posted photos on the WildWorks Facebook page.
For some unique reason, there’s a nice I took during the Victoria Day long weekend, here’s the link.

Who else is Korean (mentioned on CKCU-FM)? Well, there’s Nat from Nat & Marie as I gave a shoutout on my slightly Korean themed show.
Aside from Asian Heritage Month, there was some tributes played on the show. One for Donna Summer (first part) and Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees (the live show) as both talented musicians passed away recently.
Getting into pop culture, The Rolling Stones were played because Mick Jagger hosted and performed on the season finale of Saturday Night Live. Arcade Fire performed one of the songs from the final sketch. It’s lovely hearing the song, She’s a Rainbow.
Last thing, I cannot stop listening to Beach House’s new album, Bloom. Aside from Myth and Lazuli, I decided to play Other People to make it different week after week.
Without further ado, the playlist for the May 23rd show is at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 23rd Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Continuing the Fun Asian Heritage Month Theme – S07E39

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It was an exciting time on Saturday afternoon for Chinatown Remixed as there were activities happening through out Ottawa Chinatown. There were so many events happening on Saturday, May 12th, it was nice to see a good turnout for Chinatown Remixed. As previously mentioned elsewhere, it was a privilege for CKCU-FM to take part in the event. As the community radio station, it needs to get the exposure from attending various cultural events since the station has other multicultural programs. It was awesome that they were able to set up the tent and get DJ 2 Creamz spinning tunes throughout the afternoon. Since the event has been running for four years, it was the first time to have the Success Lion Dance Troupe participate. It’s my second time to check out the event. Kudos to the organizers for bringing an excellent event to Ottawa Chinatown. A big thanks goes to Chris White of CKCU-FM and DJ 2 Creamz for taking part and being enthusiastic to the event.
I was able to take photos as they are posted up on my Facebook page at WildWorks.
This week’s radio show was the continuation of the Asian Heritage Month theme with playing Canadian bands and musicians with Asian backgrounds. There were new songs from Scary Bear Soundtrack and Hexes & Ohs. Then a classic song by The Acorn as there were past members with Asian roots.
How could I forget about the new Beach House album, Bloom. All I can say that it’s probably one of my favourite albums of 2012.
Prior to that, there was the Wild 10 Countdown and a new number one song this week.
The playlist for the May 16th show is at this link.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 16 Radio Show – Press play to listen.