Polaris Music Prize

From Nuit Blanche to Polaris Music Prize – S09E03

Leave a comment

WildWorks Sept 23 Vinyl

It’s been an eventful last week in Ottawa. I was away in Toronto when the tragic news of the OC Transpo being hit by a VIA Rail train. It’s sad to hear the lives lost. Condolence goes out the lost ones affected by it.
Aside from that, what a weekend when I checked out Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau. It’s the second year that the artistic and wonderful event has been held. It started at 6:20pm to 4:20am. It’s a basically a long night to experience the unique fun.
I missed out on the first edition as I was in Montreal for Pop Montreal. Even though it was raining throughout Saturday, it didn’t help deter people checking out unique arts and crafts located at various places in Ottawa. I was able to check out the downtown and Gatineau for Nuit Blanche.
One unique thing I got was a firefly. As the website explained that it’s hackable (open software) and when interacting with other fireflies, it create a unique light pattern. You’ll see a photo below as I tweeted to someone that I got the lumipendant.
Overall, it was a fun event and hope the 2014 edition doesn’t have rain in the forecast. I posted some photos below. Check it out.

Monday’s Radio Show
On this week’s radio show, it’s the Polaris Music Prize edition as it’s day of the gala. Ten nominees are vying for the $30,000 prize to claim the best album of the year. As mentioned everytime, the Polaris Music Prize is based on artistic merit and judged by over 200 jury members from radio, tv, print and Internet.
I had the opportunity to chat with Ryan of CKCU’s Whatever’s Cool With Me as he’s jury member and in Toronto for the gala. He also explained on the show that this year’s shortlist is the strongest for artistic merit and had a difficult time choosing the albums. It was a fun chat as I don’t usually interact with a lot of CKCU hosts.
Who will win the prize? We’ll find out in due time

You can check the playlist over at this link. You can listen to the audio below.
Have a great week and I will be going to Montreal this weekend.
Continue reading →

From Cookies to The Polaris Music Prize Short List – S08E02

Leave a comment

Photo by Erica V.

This week’s edition of the radio show consisted of 100% Cancon (Canadian music content). The theme was on the 2012 Polaris Music Prize short list as the Gala is happening on September 24th. Myself and Lauren can’t predict who would win because this year’s short list nominees are considered good. The short list nominees this year are Cadence Weapon, Cold Specks, Drake, Kathleen Edwards, Feist, F’ed Up, Grimes, Handsome Furs, Japandroids and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.

Also on the show were cookies as Erica returned to drop by on the show and got us Tim Horton’s smiley cookies. You see from the photo above with the cookies.
A nice surprise on Wednesday’s show was the tweeting. Getting a tweet back from Maestro Fresh Wes came out of nowhere as I had a chance to check his performance out at House of Paint this past weekend. It was a privilege to see Masia One and Shad perform at the Dunbar Bridge near Carleton University on Sunday. The photos are posted on my Facebook page at this link. Another surprise tweet was from Damian Abraham of F’ed Up as I played The Other Shoe from the 2012 Polaris Music Prize short list nominated album, David Comes To Life. He thanked me and said they have a long shot in winning.
This week’s top 10 has a new number one song. It’s Diamond Rings with I’m Just Me. Click here to read the top 10.
Off to Pop Montreal this weekend as I will be enjoying some of the live music and see some of the bands and musicians there.

Audio/Radio Show
The September 19th playlist is at this link.
Press play to listen.

The Forest City Lovers Interview and the Mooncake – S06E02

Leave a comment

Summer has come and gone as Fall has arrived. That’s right, a new season has approached and cold weather won’t be as fun. Today’s also the start of Mid-Autumn Festival (in China and various places in Asia). As the image shown on top is a mooncake. I did eat a bit during the second hour of the radio show.
The second hour of the show was in celebration of the festival as I decided to play moon songs. The songs ranged from the 1960s (Moon River), 1980s (New Moon On Monday by Duran Duran) and the 1990s (Savage Garden). I forgot to mention to the friends and people who gave me suggestions on the moon songs, I would like to say, thank you. Apologies on some of the “famous” moon songs but due to time, I was not able to fit it in within the 2nd hour timeframe.
You can check the playlist by going to this link.
To check this week’s entry on the countdown, go to this link.

Going a bit from the 90s past, from one of the moon songs I played, I still like To The Moon and Back by Savage Garden. It’s been a second week that I have played Savage Garden.

Radio Show for September 22, 2010
You can listen to the show by pressing play. The duration of the radio show is 2 hours. On the show were the Top 10 countdown, the interview with Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers and moon songs. Enjoy!

The Second Hour – Moon Songs for Mid-Autumn Festival
If you want to listen to the second hour on the moon songs, you can press play to listen.

Polaris Music Prize Fallout
On Wednesday’s show, I did want to get into the Polaris Music Prize aftermath as countless of radio & tv shows would be talking about it. I decided to congratulate Karkwa on their win and played Marie tu pleures.

The Forest City Lovers Interview
Last Friday night, I had an opportunity to chat with Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers. Overall, she was pretty nice and it was also the first time to use the new iPod touch in recording the interview. I forgot to mention on the show that their gig at Raw Sugar Cafe was at capacity. Aside from that, I had to walk around to various places in downtown Ottawa.
You can listen to the show by pressing play or download it.

Flying Over To Polaris Again – S06E01 (Season Premiere)

Leave a comment

Congratulations to Karkwa for winning the 2010 Polaris Music Prize.



Finally! The blog is back for a sixth season and an apology due to a slight delay on the return. The Summer of 2010 was pretty interesting due to the hot weather but I enjoyed doing the so-called “summer specials” where I did some interviews at music festivals.
I have decided to begin the new season on the upcoming Polaris Music Prize. Friday night at Canteen Art Shop + Gallery held a Polaris Music Prize poster show. The 10 nominated short listed albums shown in an elegant poster art. I was told that the Broken Social Scene poster (image below) has been a hot seller. Mind you, those posters don’t come cheap. The photos on top are Radio Radio and The Sadies. The rest from under are Owen Pallett, Karkwa, Caribou, Broken Social Scene, The Besnard Lakes, Tegan & Sara, Dan Mangan & Shad.
There was a raffle draw for 2 tickets to go to Toronto (transportation and accomodation excluded) for The Polaris Music Prize Gala. Was hoping to win it but it’s unlikely to go to Toronto on such short notice.
In a way, Canadian indie music fans and myself cannot wait to find out who will win the 2010 Polaris Music Prize and the $20,000. I am totally rooting for either Dan Mangan or Shad to win it.
Enjoy viewing the photos that I shot on the new iPod touch (4th generation). Apologies on the image quality coming from it.

Aside from the poster show, there were other things happening that almost made myself go crazy. Prior to attending the poster show, I had to go to Raw Sugar Cafe to do an audio interview with Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers. I should expect the airdate for the interview to be airing for this coming Wednesday (Sept. 22nd) on CKCU-FM.
Afterwards, I decided to make a short stop to Darcy McGees for Oyster Friday. If you don’t know Oyster Friday, it is basically a Twitter get together for beers and free complimentary oysters. In case any of the tweeps read this, it’s my shoutout to you. You people are awesome!
The Canteen one’s already explained as after the checking out the poster show, I dropped by to Cafe Nostalgica to interview a Toronto singer, Megan Bonnell. I missed out on her performance due to going back to Raw Sugar Cafe to see Forest City Lovers perform. All I can say about Bonnell is that she’s lovely, nice and pretty easy-going. It was also the first time to conduct the interview without preparing questions. The airdate will be announced. She’s sure going to be an great singer.

To end off, Friday, September 17, 2010 was considered a hectic time due to walking all over downtown Ottawa and breaking a sweat. It’s all on fun time.
Here’s a videoclip of the posters.

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

Leave a comment


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. Continue reading →

Fly Me To Polaris, It’s About The Polaris Music Prize – S05E04

Leave a comment

Polaris List, Some of It. Missing Two.
The “Fly Me To Polaris” name is based on a 1999 Hong Kong movie. Ok, Monday is the day we’re waiting for and it’s the 2009 edition of the Polaris Music Prize Gala. The photo from above, let’s say that I am missing two of the nominees. It’s K’Naan and F**ked Up. That’s right, one of the short nominees will be chosen to win the $20,000 prize. Here’s the 10 nominees listed;
1. Elliott Brood – Mountain Meadows
2. F**ked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
3. Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
4. Hey Rosetta! – Into Your Lungs
5. K’Naan – Troubadour
6. Malajube – Labyrithes
7. Metric – Fantasies
8. Joel Plaskett – Three
9. Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane
10. Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms

There has been some criticism over the short list because it seemed like the jury has been lazy in choosing the top Canadian album of 2008-2009. Basically, returning nominees like Patrick Watson, Chad VanGaalen, and Joel Plaskett are back at it. Also, there’s no female artists (that’s if you include Emily Haines in Metric) in this year’s list.
As much as I like several songs from Metric’s Fantasies, I felt that it’s too mainstream to be on the short list. Although, how could I forget about “In Our Bedroom After The War” by Stars being on the short list for the 2008 edition of the Polaris Music Prize.
The 2009 edition of the Polaris Music Prize still have diverse genres in the running. There’s hardcore punk to Hip-Hop to the standard Pop/Rock and Folk. Aside from the criticism, it will be still exciting to finding out who will win.

I had the opportunity to co-host again on Kristal’s Method at CKCU-FM because we were playing the short list nominees for the Polaris Music Prize. We discussed about what we liked or not liked on the short list. I mentioned on-air my pick to win The Polaris Music Prize. I won’t write it on here because I would want you to listen to it. It seems more like keeping in suspense but I could be wrong on my predicted pick. To whoever wins, congratulations on being the 2009 Polaris winner.

You can listen again or if you missed out by pressing play;

Note: A Joel Plaskett song was ended abruptly and Metric’s Collect Call was skipped.

Continue reading →