It was the second year to go to the big smoke, Toronto for NXNE. I definitely had a great time there and unfortunately, I ended up blowing out my left knee as I had to limp around from place to place. Blame it on carrying a shoulder bag full of cameras and an audio recorder. It was painful but was able to manage through the weekend. Here’s my description of events. Apologies if this is a very long blog entry for this week.

Friday
The first band to check out was at Urban Outfitters on Queen St. W and it was the Vancouver Electronic band, Bear Mountain. I found out on Twitter from a fellow CBC R3 fan and a photographer that she and a couple of people were going to Urban Outfitters to see the band live. They were definitely good to check out for anyone that likes Electronic music.

Later on, I went to the CBC Broadcasting Centre to kill time and unexpectedly bumped into one of the members of The Matinee. By then, it was time for the CBC Music Presents The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party at the Glenn Gould Studio. It was great to see the CBC Radio 3 fans/bloggers and some for the first time in person as I interacted on the R3 website, Facebook and Twitter. I finally got to meet Lana Gay as she’s one of the hosts I’ve interacted online but never got to meet in person as she was previously in Vancouver and has recently moved to Toronto. The Darcys performed for the finale party as well and played some of their hits. Bands from The Matinee, Shred Kelly and Hollerado showed up at the party. There was a funny moment when CBC Radio 3 host, Grant Lawrence did a crowd surf entrance from outside the CBC and inside Glen Gould Studio.

After the party, I tagged along with several people to go see k-os but found out we went to wrong location. Some of the guys were goofing off at Harbourfront and that’s when my knee starting buckling up. Some of us splited up and went with two people (Eric and Brenda) to check out The National. Unfortunately, it was very packed getting to Yonge-Dundas Square. Then I tagged along with Brenda to go see… Sloan! For the life of me, I felt like a newbie to see Sloan as I never got to see them live. They played at The Great Hall and crowds were packed to see them.
Afterwards, I went down to Blk Box to see Still Life Still and Gold & Youth. I didn’t stay for all of Gold & Youth as my knee was getting pretty sore.

Photos
Shows from Friday can seen over at this link via Flickr.
The CBC Music Present The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions finale party photos can be seen over at this link.
Photos on my Facebook Page can be seen at this link.

Saturday
The following day was pretty fun and interesting as I finally attended the CBC Radio 3 Fan Picnic. I didn’t attend last year as I got tied up interviewing Nat & Marie and didn’t know my way to get Trinity Bellwoods Park. It was great to see more of the R3 fans/bloggers as well as the musicians and bands which consisted of Crissi Cochrane, Inlet Sound, Adrian Glynn and Shred Kelly.
One surprise as Grant Lawrence announced to the crowd was a R3 wedding for Russ Gordon of n2ds2w.com and Cathy Hagan. It was a touching and sentimental moment from the crowd.
Apologies to Russ & Cathy as I was goofing off and didn’t pay attention as I was dealing with knee pain. Congrats goes out to the R3 newlyweds. There was the hijinx from an R3 fan, Davoud as he brought some alcohol to the picnic.
To my own surprise, I didn’t expect to bump into Feurd of The Elwins and Mike of The Love Machine. Also, good friends, Hilary Duff and Regina Sy.

After the picnic, I took a break and relaxed until I went over to The Mod Club to check out Jessica Speziale. David Yazbeck of CKCU’s Thursday Special Blend has had Speziale on his show and I was curious on how she sounded like. Worse part was getting to the venue as the TTC was running so slow and I was limping slowly to the venue. I got there in time and was able to take some photos and catch two of her songs. I had to bolt to another venue to check out Chris Ho as he was playing at Tranzac Club. To my own surprise, A few CBC Radio 3 fans went to see Chris Ho as well.
Lastly, I went to Supermarket to check out Data Romance as I haven’t had a chance to see them live in Ottawa. It was a nice surprise to show up and give them support. They were pretty happy to see me there. I definitely enjoyed their performance.
That capped off my time in Toronto for NXNE. Overall, it was full of excitement to check out up and coming music and to interact with people. It was great to see people like Philip, Adaline, Ride The Tempo and whole bunch of others.

Photos
Shows from Saturday can seen at this link.
The CBC Radio 3 Fan Picnic photos can be seen over at this link.

Radio Show for June 19th
This week’s radio show was a wrap up to NXNE and I aired two interviews from Chris Ho and Crissi Cochrane. For Cochrane, she hasn’t been to Ottawa and I had to interview as I’ve been playing her music and supporting. It was good timing to meet her in Toronto as she performed for the CBC Radio 3 fan picnic.
For Chris Ho, he’s been getting a lot of attention since January of 2013. He also won an award at the Vancouver Island Music Awards. Ho has been getting plays on CBC Radio 3 and The Strombo Show.
The audio for the interviews will be posted below.
The Wild 10 Countdown for this week has Imaginary Cities on the top spot as we begin Summer on Friday. You can check out the summary at this link.
The playlist from the live radio show is over at this link.

Audio/Radio Show/Interviews
The June 19th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksJune192013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
Walk You Down – Basia Bulat

-After The Wild 10 Countdown: Playing some of the Polaris Music Prize Long List Nominees-
Spirit In The Sky – Evening Hymns
Middle Child – Daniel Romano
Fifty Fifty – The Luyas

Enemies – Hannah Georgas
Art and a Wife – Rah Rah
Fineshrine – Purity Ring
1 bit Blues (10,000 miles) – Kid Koala

The Day You Die- Lindi Ortega
Cold July – Whitehorse
Closer (Young Galaxy Remix) – Tegan and Sara

Young & Lazy – The Matinee (Playing at the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday)

For the second year, I will be heading to Toronto for NXNE and this week’s radio show consisted of acts who will be playing at the music festival in Toronto. On this edition of the show, played were Chris Ho, Gold & Youth, The National and a bunch of others.
Starting off the live show was a brand new song from Maestro Fresh Wes as he will be releasing his new album, Orchestrated Noise. It will be out on June 25th. The track played featured Canadian soprano, Measha Bruggergosman. It’s a unique track as Hip-Hop meets Opera. To my own surprise, Bruggergosman tweeted with excitement that it was played on CKCU-FM.

It’s the second week play another tribute to Beyond’s Wong Ka Kui as this year is the 20th anniversary of his tragic death.
This week’s song choices were from the 1988 album, Secret Police (秘密警察). The album cover is shown above for this week’s image pick. Although, the two songs didn’t have Wong Ka Kui on vocals and I forgot to mention on-air that it was Paul Wong, who did the vocals for the two songs. Ending the Beyond set was the song, Morning Train (早班火車), as I will be hopping on the train on Friday morning, barring no disruptions.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Said The Whale is still number one for the third week. You can read the summary over at this link.
You can check the playlist from the live radio show over at this link.

Have a great week and I will have a great time at NXNE in Toronto.

Audio/Radio Show
The June 12th Radio Show. Press play to listen. Also available to listen on Mixcloud.

Download: WildworksJune122013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
Camera – CFCF

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
You’re Sure That I’m Wrong – The Crackling
Running – T. Nile
Speedboats – Grounders
Follow – Blue Hawaii

Step – Vampire Weekend
Homie – Shad featuring Cadence Weapon
Dance Cry Dance – Fevers
Gun – CHVRCHES
New Summer – Young Galaxy

Day of the Kid – Broken Social Scene & Years

I was a bit stumped in writing something as I haven’t had any music interviews for the past month. Instead, I decided to blog about making Hong Kong Milk Tea as DAVIDsTEA came out with a recipe to making Hong Kong Milk Tea. It caught my attention as I like things about Hong Kong.
I decided to buy Kenyan Tinderet and didn’t expect to see the tea leaves looking like coffee. Worse part was not getting sweetened condensed milk until later in the night as I walked to the supermarket and bought one. It costed around three dollars as I’m not too familiar with it.

Onto making the tea, I boiled one litre of hot water (95 degrees Celsius) and added four spoonfuls of Kenyan Tinderet in a teapot. I didn’t use a pitcher as it got used for storing water. Later, I put 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk. I didn’t know it was gooey and sticky compared to liquid-y condensed milk. Mixed it together on a cup and measuring cup due to not using a pitcher (photo shown above). Added ice and it was done. The silly part was drinking from the measuring cup.

The verdict: It tasted sweet and nice. There was hint that you’re not really drinking tea. On their website, it mentioned “light honey” and I did felt a bit of a slight honey taste. Another thing that I was reminded of drinking Vitasoy.
Overall, a nice drink but had a complicated time in making due to not using a pitcher. I’ll definitely make another drink again.

The Radio Show
This week’s radio show, there was not much happening except that Elliott Brood was played as they’re performing at Westfest. There were remixes from The Belle Game, Phoenix & Daft Punk, which were played on the show. New tracks from She & Him, Camera Obscura and We Are The City.

As June signals the end of the season, I will be playing some Beyond songs as June 30th will the 20th anniversary of lead singer/guitarist and founding member, Wong Ka Kui, who tragically died.
The playlist from the live show is over at this link.

This week top 10, Said The Whale is number one for the second week. The countdown summary is over at this link.
Have a great week!

Audio/Radio
The June 5th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksJune52013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
In Enemies – Still Life Still

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
Unbelievers - Vampire Weekend
Gun – CHVRCHES
Homie (featuring Cadence Weapon) – Shad

Dance Cry Dance – Fevers
No Connection – Chris Ho
Today We’re Believers – Royal Canoe
Diamond – Lightning Dust
Daisy – Blue Hawaii

In Kind – Braids

On this week’s radio show, there were several new music being played and one album got released this week happens to be Arts & Crafts: X. The album consists of collaborations from bands and artists from the Arts & Crafts lineup. In a way, I decided to play some of the tracks before Ryan’s show, Whatever’s Cool With Me (also on CKCU-FM).
Played on the show were Anamanaguchi, Camera Obscura, Braids and Geneva. A mix of 8-bit/electronic to alternative to soul/R&B to indie rock. It’s a variety mix of great music for this week.
Sad news in the Ottawa music scene. The drummer of The Love Machine‘s father passed away on May 25th. I was searching on Facebook for info as I don’t have any of the members on Facebook. I decided to play Love Is On Your Side from their 2010 album, Sweater Weather.

On The Wild 10 Countdown, Said The Whale takes the top spot to end off May. You can check the top 10 summary over at this link.
For the podcast, there were new songs from Scary Bear Soundtrack, CHVRCHES and the usual from The National, She & Him, and Daft Punk.
The playlist for the podcast can viewed below. As usual, you can listen to the entire show below.

The playlist from the live show is over at this link.
It’s a pretty short blog entry to end May.

Audio/Radio Show

The May 29th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksMay292013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
Pyongyang – Scary Bear Soundtrack

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
Turn To White – She & Him
This Is The Last Time – The National
The Game of Love – Daft Punk
Gun -CHVRCHES

Young Hearts – Inlet Sound (check the music video as it’s linked)
Love Your Money – The Kostanzas
Home – Austra
New Summer – Young Galaxy

The Spectre – The Besnard Lakes

On the show this week, it’s the post-Victoria Day weekend edition and the buzz being Daft Punk’s new album, Random Access Memories as it got released this week. There’s been a lot of talk because the robotic duo haven’t released new materials for several years and so far, Get Lucky is still number one on the UK Singles Chart for the fourth week.
Aside from the album and the opening intro for the live radio show, I stumbled on a mash-up track done by The Melker Project and played it on the radio show at CKCU-FM. She & Him was played as I Could’ve Been Your Girl got released as a music music. Something about Zooey Deschannel makes her so quirky as she directed the music video. I did watch the season finale of New Girl last week. Wish I could watch more of the tv show.

Also on the show, local band, Fevers released a new single and they will be having a concert on Saturday night at Ritual Nightclub. The band will be giving away the single free for the concert for Saturday night. Opening up for them are adaline, Glenn Nuotio and Birthday Girls. There’s some Canadian indie music added to the mix.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Gold & Youth is still number one this week. Check the recap over at this link.
The playlist for the radio show is over at this link.
The audio for the radio show is below.
Have a great week!
Audio/Radio Show
The May 22nd Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksMay222013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
Home – Ladyfrnd

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
These Paths – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oblique City – Phoenix
Home – Austra
Destroy – In-Flight Safety

No Connection – Chris Ho
Speedboats – GROUNDERS
Today We’re Believers – Royal Canoe
In Berlin – Aidan Knight

Baptism – We Are The City

This is an epilogue to writing about Ottawa Comiccon. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned on my radio show at CKCU-FM. The interview with the Doctor Who Society of Canada hit a snag as I did not get the audio file when the radio show was happening. As I make up for the error, The audio interview is posted for the blog version of the radio show as well as a separate link. Apologies on the technical difficulties that happened on Wednesday.
I had the opportunity to interview one of the members of the Doctor Who Society of Canada at Ottawa Comiccon. Aside from being a comic book fan, I’m also a diehard Doctor Who fan and it was with great privilege to chat with the not-for-profit organization. Luckily, I was able to do the interview as Saturday before the crowds got hectic throughout the day.
Even though, I didn’t buy anything at the convention, I was able to buy a one year membership for the society and hopeful that an Ottawa chapter of the DWSC will happen.
As I don’t want to spoil much about the interview, you can listen to the interview from below.

On the radio show, there were new songs from Bravestation, Austra and A Tribe Called Red. For the non-English music part, I played Moonlight Densetsu by Moon Lips (the theme to Sailor Moon S & Super S) as a nod to Monica In Heels because she and her friends were dressed up as Sailor Moon and gang at Ottawa Comiccon. This ends the post about Ottawa Comiccon.
Lastly, an event to check out this Saturday is Chinatown Remixed. On the radio show, Silkken Laumann was played because they are performing at Chinatown Remixed. A nice way to promote the month long event.
The Wild 10 Countdown this week has Gold & Youth on the top spot. You can check the top 10 over at this link.
The playlist from the live show is over at this link.
The audio for the radio show is split into two parts due to the error.

Lastly, it’s the Victoria Day weekend. Have a safe holiday!
Audio/Radio Show/Interview
The First Part – The Wild 10 Countdown. Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksMay152013PartA.ogg

Playlist for the First Part of the Show
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
I Need Your Love (featuring Ellie Goulding) – Calvin Harris

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
Sea of Love – The National
Mirrors (Radio Edit) – Justin Timberlake
Drakkar Noir – Phoenix
Baby – She & Him

Ya Hey – Vampire Weekend
Young & Lazy – The Matinee
Do It In The Dark – The Balconies
Born Again (Luke Lalonde Remix) – DIANA

Get Lucky (featuring Pharrell Williams & Niles Rodgers) – Daft Punk

I had the opportunity to check out the marvellous vendors and the varieties of people dressing up in wonderful costumes. It ranged from comic characters to Sci-Fi characters such as Doctor Who and various Anime characters.
Being a comic book fan, I did not bring a lot of comics and trade paperbacks but was able to get my X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga trade paperback signed by Chris Claremont. It was definitely a plus as he’s a legendary storyteller.

On Saturday, I got to check out a few panels. One panel had quite a humourous trainwreck which was Name That Anime Tune. The participants did not know certain themes to Anime shows and I didn’t know any as I haven’t followed a lot of Anime shows for so long. One panel I truly had to attend was The Doctor Who panel as it had two authors from the book, Who Is The Doctor. They talked about 50 years of DW and how’s still a hit for 50 years. Plus, the Dalek appeared and humourously crashed the Q&A panel.

It was funny bumping into people I know and some have said that it’s their first time attending Ottawa Comiccon. It’s pretty surprising that Ottawa is known for being a boring city but the magnitude of Comiccon showed that there’s a big following for comics, Sci-Fi and Anime. The organizers and sponsor bringing in big name celebrities know how to attract fans and people in general. It’s quite wonderful to experience seeing lots of people to be at a convention.
The only setback I had was the lack of cell phone signal at Ernst & Young Centre. I was hoping to tweet and photos but the reception was not great to do so. At least I was able to shoot photos on the DSLR camera. You will be able to view the photos of people in their creative costumes from below.
There’s a photo of lovely ladies in Sailor Moon costumes and I know one of them as you can check her blog. They were made quite nice and also got some attention from the people. ’nuff said on that one.
Links to my Instagram from Friday – my media pass, green Dalek, Dalek Emperor (I think), classic Dalek, and R2D2.
Overall, I had a good time at Ottawa Comiccon and the organizers sure made it top notch. Lastly, happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

Coming up on Wednesday’s radio show, I will be airing the interview from a member of The Doctor Who Society of Canada.

Photos
Day 1 (Friday) – It’s The Daleks
  

Day 2 (Saturday)

Deadpool & Typhoid Mary

   



Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Batgirl

    

Ah! A Weeping Angel

Don’t blink at the Weeping Angels.

How could I not forget about Sailor Moon and her Sailor Senshis?

On this week’s edition of the radio show at CKCU-FM, it was tribute to the late Teresa Teng and the annual songs for Mother’s Day. It’s quite fitting to commemorate on May 8th as it’s the 18th anniversary of Teresa Teng‘s death. She passed away in 1995. Teng was revered and beloved throughout East Asia as her music has garnered older and younger fans alike. I was able to play Faye Wong‘s version of Wishing We Last Forever (但願人長久). One of the Teresa Teng songs played was called Red Bean. A funny story was my former co-host, Candice, made a tweet that I am weird for not liking red bean. The tweet along with a photo can found here. Kudos to China Album for the support.
As usual, Mother’s Day is this Sunday and every year, I play certain songs for Mother’s Day. This year, I added Keep Shining by Shad as the song is an ode to strong females.
On the Wild 10 Countdown this week, New Summer by Young Galaxy takes the top spot as Ottawa was having warm Summer-like temperatures for the past week. The summary can be checked over at this link.
The playlist from the live show is over at this.

On the podcast part of the show, new tracks from likes of Vampire Weekend and She & Him were played. I’m still enjoying the new Daft Punk song, Get Lucky (featuring Pharrell). This week’s podcast used the M-Rock’s Bangin’ Disco Mix of Get Lucky. Starting off the podcast was playing a new Shad track called Peace but it’s a rough mix/demo, which won’t be on his upcoming album. Briefly mentioned the lineup for the Wolfe Island Music Festival as it was announced last week.
Playlist from the podcast is posted below. Red highlights Cancon.

This weekend, I will be checking out Ottawa Comiccon. Wish me luck when I see people in “unique” costumes and experience the geek/nerd culture. It’s been awhile I’ve gone to a comic book convention and it’s the first time to attend a major convention in Ottawa. The previous conventions I attended were in Toronto.

Lastly, I didn’t have an image to use and again, I used Vinylize Me to create the entry for this week.
Have a great week and wishing everyone a great Mother’s Day for Sunday!

Audio/Radio Show
The May 8th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksMay82013.ogg

Playlist from the Podcast
-Before The Wild 10 Countdown-
Peace (Demo) – Shad

-After The Wild 10 Countdown-
Harbour Boys – Joel Plaskett Emergency
Photographer Friend – Leif Vollebekk
Bread & Cheese (featuring Black Bear) – A Tribe Called Red
Baptism – We Are The City

Get Lucky (M-Rock’s Bangin’ Disco Mix) [featuring Pharrell] – Daft Punk
Everlasting Arms – Vampire Weekend
Together – She & Him

The Real Thing – Phoenix
Alien Days – MGMT
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National

Amends – Braids

Video
Here’s the music video to Truly Love You by Beyond. In time for Mother’s Day.

On The Wild 10 Countdown, Born Ruffians is still number one for the second week. To check the top 10, you can check the summary over at this link.
You can check the playlist from the live show over at this link. As usual, you can listen to the entire radio show below.

Audio/Radio Show
The May 1st Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksMay12013.ogg

Video
I was being a bit nostalgic when I played two J-POP songs. Here’s M by Ayumi Hamasaki. I was getting hooked on the song again.

It’s been a fun time having Candice on my radio show. Wednesday was her final show as she’s moving down to Toronto. I’m trying not to rehash what was said on the show but it’s been a great privilege to have someone on the show with enthusiasm towards Canadian independent music.
All I have to say that we had a great time interviewing bands, interacting with them and going to the venues prior to soundcheck. It seemed like an adventure. The last and funny part was having to be at Second Cup in downtown several time to go through the questions. It was almost like a daily routine.
Another thing I forgot to mention on the show was getting to meet some of the hosts at CKCU.
Lastly, as much as you’re a worrywart and kept “cattle-prodding” me, I’ve been very easy-going, calm and made sure things were fine.

Prior to Candice’s final show, she decided to bring her adidas track jacket to slightly match the style that I’m wearing. The photo shown above. Unfortunately, the Polaroid pics didn’t turn out so well.

Song played today had new tracks from Louise Burns and Aidan Knight. The Cantopop segment was on Sandy Lam as her birthday is on April 26.
The send-off songs to Candice at the end of the show were I Was A Fool by Tegan and Sara and Take Care by Beach House. Videos posted below.
Also on the radio show, we played Genesis by Grimes as she won for electronic album of the year at the 2013 Juno Awards. What I didn’t know was that she posted on her Tumblr page about sexism. It was trending on Facebook and Twitter, so we didn’t get a chance to mention on the air what was happening as it was very sudden.
In my opinion, I rarely watch Grimes’s music videos and when playing her song on Wednesday, I was dancing along to the song and not think the image or anything in particular. Call it an ironic day by playing a musician and not knowing the buzz surrounding it.

On the Wild 10 Countdown, Born Ruffians take the top spot as we end the month of April. The countdown entry is over at this link. If you’re listening on the blog, the songs played on the podcast is posted from the countdown blog and no longer on the CKCU playlist.

The playlist from the live show is over at this link via CKCU-FM.

So long and enjoy Toronto, Candice!
You’re the best!

Audio/Radio Show
The April 24th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Download: WildworksApril242013.ogg

Videos
The music videos to Tegan and Sara and Beach House.

I Was A Fool – Tegan and Sara

Take Care – Beach House

Photos
A photo when recording the podcast. The other image was created on VinylizeMe and posted to the Facebook page.