Month: September 2012

The Pop Montreal Wrap-up with The Belle Game And Moon Songs – S08E03

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I had the opportunity to  go down to Montreal for the yearly Pop Montreal music festival. I went on fewer dates this year because there was a Polaris Music Prize Salon which took place at the Mercury Lounge on the Thursday night. Compared to last year, I was able to conduct an interview with a band but it’s returning one. It’s been awhile I have seen The Belle Game as they are now reside in Vancouver. Aside from not seeing them for a couple of years, they got a brand new album to be out soon. It will be called Ritual Tradition Habit. Their performance at O Patro Vys on Saturday night had a funny start. The band were fully covered in smoke and I could barely see them because of the heavy smoke from the smoke machine. There was a joke that it was the Vancouver fog followed them. Overall, it was great to see the band live as I previously saw a different incarnation of The Belle Game. The audio interview will be posted below for anyone interested.
Other acts at Pop Montreal were checking out Chairlift, The Elwins and other bands. One surprise that I encountered was a music writer residing in Montreal. Luckily, I had my MOO minicards with me for networking. To my amazement, the writer is from the States and pretty interested in the Montreal music scene. You can check the writer out at Vesper Magazine | Montreal section.
Another person I almost forgot to meet was Ohara Hale because I had her on Facebook and when I went to Pop Montreal last year, I totally forgot about finding her. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her perform but I bumped into her at Puces Pop as she was displaying her posters.
I had a great time being in Montreal and I really wished my co-host, Lauren came along as it’s tough going to shows on your own. All I can say that Montreal has such a vibrant music scene and Pop Montreal brings the excitement for music fans.

Moon Songs
On the radio show at CKCU-FM, I played moon songs as Mid-Autumn Festival is on September 30th. It’s fitting to play a moon songs but I didn’t bring along moon cakes to studio.
The Wild 10 Countdown, the new number one is The Fighter by Jenn Grant. She released a brand new album called The Beautiful Wild. The entry for the Wild 10 Countdown is over at this link.
Starting off the show was playing The Bad In Each Other by Feist as her album, Metals won the 2012 Polaris Music Prize. All of the 10 short listed album were great. It’s not a surprise for Feist to win it as her album was beautifully made and very creative.
The playlist is for this week’s show is over at this link.

Audio/Interview
The September 26, 2012 Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Belle Game in Montreal Interview
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From Cookies to The Polaris Music Prize Short List – S08E02

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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.

New Season, The Return of a Co-Host and The Sons of Pluto Interview – S08E01

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Welcome back for another exciting season of WildWorks (season four for radio and series eight on the blog). It’s wonderful to have Lauren return as co-host and there were two interviews on the radio show aired at CKCU-FM.
After a Summer hiatus on the blog, there were a few specials in the form of social media interviews from the likes of Nat & Marie and Pop Champagne. Since the show is back with new materials, it started off with the top 10 and the first music interview to kick off the new season was an Ottawa band called Sons of Pluto. It was originally recorded back in late August because the band was performing for Ottawa Chinatown’s FestivAsia. I had some interest because one of the members is a fan classic Cantopop music.
The second interview was Amos The Transparent. Dan Hay of the band called in to talk about their current album, “Goodnight, My Dear.” Also discussed were the upcoming performances at Pop Montreal and Halifax Pop Explosion.

As for the top 10 songs, Robotic by Hannah Georgas is number one for the second week. The blog entry for the Wild 10 Countdown is back and this week’s post is at this link.
Overall, a great way to start the fourth season for the radio show and always good for Lauren to be excited with the new Canadian tracks being played.
Don’t forget to listen to the radio show and the interview with Sons of Pluto.
Last thing, I will be getting new glasses soon. A new look to say the least.

Audio/Radio Show/Interviews
The September 12th Radio Show – Playlist is at this link.
Press play to listen.

The Sons of Pluto Interview
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