Now Playing Radio is a show on Wednesday at 1pm, I listen to on CHUO 98.1 in Ottawa. Right now they are on week 2 of their Funding Drive . Which ends on May 13th. They just released this five track compilation with the likes of Phantom Shores (Ottawa), Woodpigeon and The Mountains and the Trees . Really amazing live acoustic tracks at the CHUO FM studios. Check out two of my favorite tracks from Woodpigeon and The Mountains and The Trees Songbook/The Sound [...]
May 2, 2011, 11:00am
WORD
My first contact with Matthew Mercer came about almost ten years ago through mutual friends. We immediately bonded over criss-crossing musical tastes and a constant hunger for new stuff to listen to. He was also an extremely talented composer with formal training and a real ear for tension. Early music was under the Systm name and fit in with the IDM sound of Autechre, Phonem, Arovane, etc. His progression into dance music was soon piqued by the glitch techno work of Akufen and the way that IDM sounds were given a new lease through 4/4. Soon enough he [...]
Samantha Cardow With festivals come hard choices, and for this year's edition of Canadian Musicfest , getting underway with a handful of events tonight and in earnest as of tomorrow, I am choosing to eschew the club-hopping-ness that typically comes with these sorts of fest and largely plant myself in one place for each evening. Hard choice or lazy choice? A little of both. But just because I am staying put doesn't mean that I recommend others do the same. So by way of festival preview, here's a list of stuff that [...]
( photo of The Phonemes, with Owen Pallett, at the Tranzac 2007.) The Phonemes are in no rush. They (really, she, Magali Meagher, with help from her friends) took three years between releasing her EP and her LP and it has been over three years since that wonderful album " There's something we've been meaning to do" " came out. I am hoping that there will be a new album soon but I am more than willing to wait for what comes next. The Phonemes create delicate, intricate pop songs which, understandably, [...]
On 25 August, Out of This Spark records will be releasing the Friends in Bellwoods Compilation 2, a double disc of musical treats featuring some of the city's---and the country's---best bands and musicians. The compilation was edited by Casey Mecija and James Bunton from the band Ohbijou , and many of the tracks were recorded at Casey's bungalow near Trinity-Bellwoods Park. The big parties happen next weekend (details below), but pre-release celebrations for the discs are happening tonight (Wednesday) at the Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar). The weekly Granny Boots series is [...]
Aug 17, 2009, 4:00pm
MBV
Frank Yang When the Summerworks festival last year decided to incorporate a music program into its already-established showcase for independent theatre, it seemed an ambitious yet eminently logical way to introduce fans of one art to the other - see an up-and-coming play, stick around for a couple up-and-coming bands. The bill that finally got me out to the Theatre Centre, the decidedly charming in-the-round performance space underneath The Great Hall, featured a couple acts I'd seen together back in January at the Out Of This Spark anniversary show [...]
Frank Yang When the Summerworks festival last year decided to incorporate a music program into its already-established showcase for independent theatre, it seemed an ambitious yet eminently logical way to introduce fans of one art to the other - see am up-and-coming play, stick around for a couple up-and-coming bands. Has it worked? One can only hope, though considering Thursday night's show was the first one I'd made it to either last year or this and I didn't come early for the play, I may not be the best sample group. The [...]
Last Wednesday night was another winter filled evening of freezing rain and dirty snow, yet the girls and guys of Olenka and the Autumn Lovers made the trek from London, Ontario to our slushy city anyways for The Tranzac's Wombat Wednesdays , and boy, am I glad that they did! The last time that I saw this band, I was completely taken in by their uplifting sound, as well as Olenka Krakus' captivating vocal charms. They've been back a few times, but until now, I had been unable to catch their live show again. In the interim, [...]
( Note: I'm mentioning last night's Wombat Wednesdays Valentine's special after the fact, because a) February curator Magali Meagher has several more Wombat Wednesdays scheduled this month, and b) several performers have upcoming shows, including Gentleman Reg's in-store and CD release, and Levi Macdougall & Katie Crown at Laugh Sabbath and, well, my shows . The Wombats in Love show was slated for a profile yesterday on the site, but I've been a busy fella, and I [...]
Frankly, I find it shocking the website has been up for over a week, and this is my first music post. I'd planned to write posts about last weekend's Rock n' Roll Anniversary , Singing Lamb Launch , and Out of This Spark shows, but the update, and the new Event Calendar (move your mouse over it, why dontcha, and see what happens!) ate up all my waking time. So the next two days are going to be all about the music, starting with Wombat Wednesdays . (That's Basement [...]
excellent compilation of melodic electronica, conceived as the soundtrack to the modern day supermarket, and thankfully far removed from the usual muzak dross. 1. skanfrom - electronique supermarket 2. solvent - frozen food 3. rederik schikowski - station breslauer strasse 4. opiate - last dr. pepper in the fridge 5. the remote viewer - vg on hd 6. lexaunculpt - plus and minus miss c-bug 7. to rococo rot + d - robfrog 8. phonem - blue skies over leuna (wish i was somewhere else) 9. dynamo - 18° 10. isan - ghost voices 11. geiom - understanding [...]
An African-American is president of the United States. Not only that, but a half-Kenyan is president of the United States. Not only that, but in one of the first lines of his victory speech he addresses homosexuals. Now I don't know about you but this makes me believe that maybe - just maybe - we can have realistic hopes for a better future. And all I want is to sing about it . [...]
(Toronto) This was a very sexy show by three very sexy Canadian musicians in a sexy venue. I love the Cameron House. Great little venu with good table service. In a town like Toronto where you constantly get shitty table service, you can spot good service a mile away. Just keep me drinking, is it really that hard? First up were The Phonemes , or one, or sometimes two of them. Magali Meagher played a quiet set. A quiet sexy set that is. Her awkward, soft banter and stories about personal [...]
(photo by kofka) Kutiman - "Music is Ruling My World" I feel like I've gotten away with a crime listening to this song, my booty like the wheels of a getaway car over lined pavement. This song is all asphalt, as in ass-fault, as in fault line , as in line of coke , as in coca- cola , as in brown syrupy liquid, dripping down the back of your hand, onto the dancefloor, mixing with the loose change, dripping from my pockets, 'cause I got money to burn . [...]
Say hello to Daniel Johnston Friday at Zaphod's. M 04.30 Acid Mothers Temple with Castor, at Babylon The Heatskores with The Super Fantastics and Sky Stompin To Daze, at Zaphod's The Willowz , at The Dominion Tavern Tu 05.01 Japanther with Matt & Kim and DD/MM/YYYY , at Zaphod's --> Matt & Kim - Yeah Yeah [...]
This was supposed to be a short post, as I am under the weather and trying to do some housework and tie up some loose ends that are hanging about. First thing: I love how things bubble up in the collective consciousness -- I've been utterly obsessed with reading former Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau 's Christgau's Records Guide: The 80's (Da Capo, 1992) -- which is handy, you know, to get a full picture of a decade that spanned one's life from ages four to 14. The book is a collection of capsule reviews from [...]
PhotogMusic.com
Chromewaves
B(oot)log
Narratives
It's Not The Band I Hate, It's Their Fans
Gracing the Stage
the blackened air
Letters Have No Arms
The Panic Manual
Said the Gramophone
>Dial 6-1-3_
The Rich Girls are Weeping
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Music Singles Chart #109
