Posts Tagged ‘The Balconies’
The Interview with Cai.ro – S08E30

Credit: Caitlin Laura Photography
Hi friends, Candice again. I took a short break last week, but I’m back again and as usual, I co-hosted on today’s edition of WildWorks. And now for a quick recap!
This week, we brought you an interview from Toronto-based band, Cai.ro. The “orchestral-folk”-styled band was in Ottawa on March 8 for a show at Avant-Garde Bar.
And while their six-song EP garnered a fair amount of attention since its August 2011 release, Cai.ro has announced that it’s planning on heading back into the studio to record some new material later this year. Check the bottom of this post for the full interview and Cai.ro’s track, “Addict.” (The track is played on the radio show) Read the rest of this entry »
The 2011 Funding Drive Show #1 and the Interviews with Louise Burns & Data Romance – S07E10

It’s been a hectic few days (hence the delay in posting up the radio show and the blog). The CKCU Funding Drive has started and there’s been some growing pains as a couple of shows are not on target compared to last year. It’s only the first week and it will be slow. The second week should start to pick up.
This week’s radio show was slightly a mess but I was able to air the interviews from Louise Burns and Data Romance. In a way, it’s a Vancouver flavour of Indie Pop and Electronic music. It was nice to do interviews as they were pretty light-hearted and funny. Unfortunately, my co-host was not able to help out for those.
I was helping out with various volunteers and hosts for their phone shifts. It’s great to meet song long time hosts again and new hosts. It’s like one big family. Thursday was by far the best because I had a blast co-host for the Thursday Special Blend with a high school co-op, then helping out for the second half of Special Blend with David Yazbeck, Whatever’s Cool With Me with Ryan and then co-host for Fundamentally Sound with loads of guests hanging out.
What also made my Thursday morning was seeing The Balconies on Yazbeck’s show. They were kind to perform 2 new songs for their upcoming album in the new year. I got the audio but I won’t upload it as it’s Yazbeck’s show and I wouldn’t do anything without his permission. Overall, a fun time on Thursday made up a bad day on Wednesday.
The playlist for the podcast and live airing of my radio show is over at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary (for October 26) is over at this link.
Before you listen to the podcast/radio show or the interviews, please donate at whatever amount on the CKCU Secure Pledge webpage. The goal for the station is $111,000 until November 6. We need listeners supporting campus community radio as hosts and volunteers bring a different flavour than commercial and private radio stations.
Audio/Interviews
The October 26th Radio Show – Press play to listen.
Fundamentally Sound on October 27 – Press play to listen.
The Louise Burns Interview
The Data Romance Interview
It’s June But There’s a Leftover from May – S06E40

Summer has arrived in the Nation’s Capital and the nice, warm weather has been either positive to the sun lovers or negative for anyone not liking the heat. I don’t need to mention about the fashion shows again as you go back to the last entry. Aside from that, Wednesday’s show returned to the usual format of the first hour being pre-recorded and the second hour being live on the airwaves. Due to last week’s post holiday hangover, the segment I wanted to play got aired for the first of June’s edition of the radio show. It’s a leftover from May to say the least. I found out a friend went to sleep when I started to play the sad love songs in Chinese. Before that, I decided to play a track by Crissi Cochrane and I think my friend liked the song I played. As usual, the new Arcade Fire tracks, Speaking In Tongues and Culture War has been garnering a lot of buzz and for this week, the new single from Library Voices came out. Forgot to mention that the start of the first hour (podcast) of the show had a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron as he passed away last week. He was known as the Godfather of Rap. I wished I had known some of his musical works.
I couldn’t forget about giving a shoutout to Nat & Marie again as I have been enjoying their Wednesday night Internet show.
The Wild 10 Countdown for June 1, 2011 summary. In case I may not update the sister blog, there’s a new number one song to kick off June’s countdown. It’s Kill Count by The Balconies. Even though they are now in Toronto but good for Ottawa’s own The Balconies for grabbing the top spot. The biggest gainer for this week happens to be Austra as the band is getting a lot of praise for the release of the debut album, Feel It Break. It is also iTunes Canada’s Free Single of the Week.
Since there will be a lot of events coming up for June. Season six for the blog will be winding down soon. There will be a few entries left before it goes into Summer break, just like the TV season as it finished in May.
The New Midnight Jamz Preshow – June 4, 2011 and Cupcakes
I finally returned to The New Midnight Jamz and the preshow podcast. It’s a lengthy one as the host, DJ Daddy Rich and myself went through the Top 10 US chart from Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart. As usual, we discussed on Doctor Who since the midseason finale aired in the UK.
As we ended off the podcast, we decided to play the mini-mix from The Strombo Show’s The Blend. The mini-mix is at this link.
It’s been awhile that I brought cupcakes to CKCU-FM and this time, I went to Auntie Loo’s Treats as I’ve heard it has one of the best cupcakes.
Here’s the mini-playlist from the preshow.
Praise Da Lord (featuring Shad) – Maestro
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Alright OK! – Masia One (apology for not mentioning her on the podcast)
The Blend – Coco Fresh and Lissa Monet
The photos posted from below shows Strawberry Lemonade, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Mint Chocolate and Earl Grey with Lemonade. Overall, they were pretty good but the bad part was that I putted it in the fridge and it was kind of solid. The icing tasted good and wasn’t overly sweet.
Links
The playlist for the June 1st radio show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown entry for June 1st is at this link.
Audio/Podcast
The June 1st Radio Show – Press play to listen.
The New Midnight Jamz for June 4, 2011 (includes the preshow podcast)
The Preshow Podcast – is posted from PodOmatic at this link.
From Asimo To a Mixup in Error – S06E38

The Victoria Day long weekend brought some great fun as I got to watch Honda’s ASIMO make an appearance at The Canadian Museum of Civilization. Another funny part was being around Dow’s Lake on Saturday and Monday. Saturday was for a lion dance performance and holiday Monday was for the Victoria Day Festival at Juliana Park near Dow’s Lake.
Back to Asimo, what surprised me was that I did not know that the robot was about 4 feet and it talked. It was unique to see it run, walk and do cute & funny gestures. Asimo was there to kick off the Japan: Tradition. Innovation exhibit. Don’t forget to check the photos from below.
Onto the radio show, there was a miscommunication of sorts as I was supposed to air the long awaited interview with The Stanfields and be on for two hours. For my own embarrassment, I had mentioned about airing the interview and I could not get a chance to make a correction right away. In ways, both myself and the station made apologies and things will be back to normal. I take the opportunity to apologize for the inconvenience.
In a way, I got to salvage what would be the full radio show for May 25th. I had a last minute guest join me in the special podcast edition. It’s none other The New Midnight Jamz’s AJ Nice. Near the end of the special podcast, I was given the OK to use The Blend (from The Strombo Show) this past Sunday, which consisted of two female DJs, they are Miss M. from Vancouver and Tasha Rozez from Toronto. If you want to hear their mixes, it’s available at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown was aired live for the last time as it will return to the recorded podcast. In summary, there’s a new number one song, Sara by Chad VanGaalen as Sam Roberts Band falls from the top spot. The highest climber happened to be Kill Count by The Balconies.
The playlist from the live and special edition is at this link.
Apologies for what happened on Wednesday.
Audio/Podcast
The live May 25th Radio Show – Press play to listen.
The special edition podcast – Press play to listen.
Extra – Something That Made Me Laugh
Not knowing what happened on Tuesday, it made rounds in the media and as I was watching, I could not stop laughing at it and I was tearing up. It was US President, Barack Obama having an awkward moment as he gave a toast to Queen Elizabeth II and then God Save The Queen started to play as Obama continued talking. Here’s the CBS News link via YouTube. Enjoy!
A Model Dropped By on The Radio Show & a Shoutout to a Duo – S06E37

Wednesday’s show was fun and interesting. I was luckily joined by occasional co-host, DJ Digs as I was slightly nervous having to host on my own to interviewing a model from Angie’s Models and Talent International. The model, Herieth, came on the radio show to help promote the showcase at the Canadian War Museum for May 28, 2011. Aside from the hi-jinx, the special two hour edition came off very well.
Aside from the guests, the Wild 10 Countdown returned to the airwaves for only two weeks. Since the Wild 10 Countdown blog is not being updated, there were two new song debuting on the countdown. They are Northern Air by Elliott Brood and Kill Count by Ottawa’s own The Balconies. Unfortunately, they are now living in Toronto and another sad part being that I missed their concert last Friday at Mavericks.
Number one for the 3rd week happens to be Sam Roberts Bands and the song chosen was Longitude.
There was a shoutout to a particular glamorous duo from Toronto and it’s none other than Nat & Marie. If it wasn’t for Strombo discovering or tweeting about them, I wouldn’t join him on the bandwagon. They talk about online pop culture, Internet trends and picking viral videos. Since I usually forget to mention them, the song I chose for them was Sadness Is a Blessing by Lykke Li.
That’s the summary for Wednesday’s show, the May 18th edition of WildWorks on CKCU-FM. You can listen to the show below.
The radio show playlist is posted at this link. Added below are photos.
Audio/Podcast
The May 18th edition of WildWorks. Press play to listen.
The Start of Christmas Season & The Balconies Takeover – S06E12
What a way to kick off the first of December with a bunch of awesome music and holiday tunes. I will be using tunes from A Charlie Christmas for the next couple of Wednesdays leading to Christmas. I still love The Peanuts and the classic cartoon. The worse part was using the 2006 remaster version. Next week, I should use the pre-2006 version of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
December 1st happened to be World AIDS Day. I started off with the famous Marvin Gaye cover of What’s Going On by the Artists Against AIDS Worldwide. Even though the song came out in 2001, I decided to play it in tribute of the people who’ve lost their lives to AIDS.
I won’t explain much on the Wild 10 Countdown as it will be on the other blog.
The second hour of the show had The Balconies taking over for the first half hour. It was pre-recorded and during the time when they competed for the finals of The Big Money Shot. Even though it had some interview elements, I had the trio request their favourite songs. This is considered the final music interview of 2010.
The final half hour of the show was the start of the Christmas show as I played Christmas tunes by Canadian indie artists & bands as well as the usual Christmas pop tunes. For this set, I included two Christmas songs that are not in English. One was in Japanese (Utada Hikaru) and the other in Mandarin (Mavis Fan). I played a new Utada Hikaru song because she recently released her 2nd Single Collection compilation album. This is considered her last for the time being as she will be going on an indefinite hiatus starting in 2011.
Without further ado, you can check the playlist at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown for December 1st is at this link.
Audio & Extras – Radio Show for December 1st and The Balconies Takeover Show (Segment)
Press play to listen
The Balconies Takeover Show
Press play to listen or you can download it.
Since I had mentioned Utada Hikaru, here’s the music video to Goodbye Happiness. The new song from Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2.
The Post POP Montreal With Grand Analog, Think About Life & PKG – S06E06


Wednesday’s radio show was the post POP Montreal edition as the top 10 countdown had some bands that attended the music festival and then later on, I aired two interviews by Grand Analog and Think About Life.
What’s new on the radio show is that I got a new co-host. Her name is Marzia and she’s an exchange student from Italy. So, be kind to her. She’s been a great addition to my show as she’s enjoying the music that I am playing.
I started off the show with a couple of Anita Mui songs because October 10th, would of been her birthday if she was still alive. It was another tribute to the “Madonna of Asia.” First song was her rendition of Stand By Me because a good friend has been fond of the original version by Ben E. King. I decided to play it again for her.
As I explained in the previous blog post about the various activities I did at POP Montreal like hanging out with two members of The Balconies and The Golden Dogs for poutine in Montreal. In the second hour, I made the new co-host happy by playing The Hundred In The Hands, Delphic and The Temper Trap. I attended Saturday’s show by checking them out. They were pretty good.
The PKG Giveaway
One thing I forgot to mention on air was who are PKG? They are a Canadian company and they make electronic accessories like laptop sleeves/bags, iPhone cases and other tech carry-on.
The fine folks from PKG had me do a giveaway for the radio show. It was grateful of them to do another one after POP Montreal. It was pretty tempting to not get hooked the messenger bag I gave away.
Congratulations to Tom Burns (of Ottawa) for winning the awesome messenger bag. Kudos to last week’s winner, Tanya Poirier (also of Ottawa) for winning the PKG/POP Montreal VIP giveaway bag.
Thanks to PKG for displaying an excellent room at the POP Montreal headquarters (Notman House) and for the giveaways.
Don’t forget to check the playlist by going to this link. The countdown entry is at this link.
You can listen to the radio show by pressing play.
The Interviews at POP Montreal
Grand Analog – Part 1.
It’s in part 1 because the length of the interview was long. Press play to listen or download it.
Think About Life
Press play to listen or download it.
October 7th Update: Thursday Show Guest Hosting and Ottawa Chinatown Gateway
It was totally last minute as I decided to do some guest hosting for 12pm on Thursday at CKCU-FM. Instead of 30 mins, it went to 2 hours. As I ended the show, I decided to sneak in Imagine by John Lennon. What I didn’t realize was his birthday would be on October 9th and he would be 70 years old. Talk about ironic timing.
Press play to listen and the playlist for the show is at this link.
Following the guest stint at CKCU-FM, I had to go to Ottawa Chinatown for the official opening of the Gateway. The official opening had dignitaries and politicians for the unveiling. Here are a few photos I took. The Gateway looks lovely.


Having Fun at Pop Montreal – S06E05

Coming to Montreal to attend Pop Montreal was fun. Pop Montreal is an annual music festival that showcases International and local music through various venues. Being my first time, it’s quite enjoyable. Although, I didn’t get a chance to see some of the acts I wanted to see, it was mainly due to walking and taking public transit around to various places. I seem to have gone to Le Divan Orange several times because there were free shows happening in the afternoon. My own problem was not preparing on who to check out as everything I did was on the fly and unexpected.
Friday night, I went to The Jukebox to see Grand Analog. Odario Williams and his band members (minus one) were surprised to see me and I haven’t seen them in awhile. They had a great set and it’s been awhile I heard their music. Before getting inside to The Jukebox, I finally tried Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwich. Luckily, it was across from the venue and had time to waste as I arrived early.
Saturday’s lineup was a lot to check out but I chose a few to attend.
The Notman House (Pop Montreal headquarters) had a Pop BBQ Show featuring The Whitsundays, Hot Panda, Maylee Todd, Forest City Lovers and others. I went for the food as I only checked The Whitsundays perform. Afterwards, I took the bus to Le Divan Orange to see Think About Life. It was a packed show as they couldn’t let any more people in. They rocked out a energetic half an hour set. I did the interview with the lead singer of the band and expect to be aired soon on CKCU.
After Le Divan Orange, I had to go further up to Ubisoft Montreal. Yes, it’s the videogame company. They are one of the sponsors and that event was called Pop The Roof. The photo above was Malajube performing at Ubisoft Rooftop. That was probably one of my favourites because being at the rooftop felt nice. Seeing the backdrop of Mont-Royal and downtown Montreal made it felt surreal. The secret party for Pop The Roof had good crowds and there were free food being served.
The next one was going further down to St-Catherine to go to Le National as I was recommended by a new volunteer at CKCU. She told me to check The Temper Trap and having a media pass, I didn’t need to pay. The opening acts at the show were The Hundred in the Hands (New York) and Delphic (from UK). Those two bands were electro-rock based and they had catchy tunes. Then came The Temper Trap. Their music is alternative music with grand sounds. Their first tune, it seemed epic with the drumming. I know it’s Montreal as the show was packed, but I never knew the band has a good fan following.
The unfortunate part is that the same lineup will be in Ottawa for Sunday night.
After checking out the fabulous show, I headed over to 3 Minots to find The Balconies and Laurent Bourque (along the Old Crowns gang minus their lead member) to pay them a visit. They were surprised to see me in Montreal. It was tough to get in 3 Minots as it was at capacity. I did hang out with Jacquie, Liam, their friend and The Golden Dogs for poutine.
Overall, it was an amazing Saturday I had at Pop Montreal.
Not sure what to check out on the final day of Pop Montreal.
Note: One of the proud sponsors of Pop Montreal, PKG, were kind enough to give me another giveaway for my radio show on CKCU. Keep tuned to it.
It’s Basically The Whole Month of May Entry – S05.2E08
Updated on May 26, 2010
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to chat with Leif Vollebekk at the 1st May Whee Festival at Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Wednesday’s radio show will be fully updated later but for now, the Leif Vollebekk audio interview is posted up. You should enjoy the interview as it became a hilarious interview. I even made some goof-ups on the interview. I apologize for messing up on the question about The Balconies. He didn’t form the band, he helped gave Jacquie, Stephen and Liam the name.
Also on the radio show was an expanded edition of the countdown. For this week only, my Wild 5 Countdown became the W10 Countdown.
The W10 Countdown for Week of May 5, 2010.
1. Fixed – Stars
2. Forced to Love – Broken Social Scene (new entry)
3. Your Hands (Together) – The New Pornographers (new entry)
4. The Right Time (feat. Tyler Bancroft) – Hannah Georgas
5. Laura Palmer’s Prom – You Say Party! We Say Die! (was #1 last week)
6. No Ghost – The Acorn (new)
7. Celestica – Crystal Castles (new)
8. Breakneck Speed – Tokyo Police Club (new)
9. Authentic – Young Rival (new)
10. Ghost Pressure – Wolf Parade (new)
End of April and Beginning of May Shows & Monday’s Radio Show – S05.2E7

There were two awesome live show this past weekend to marking the end of April and the beginning of May. The show on the end of April was The Balconies returning to Ottawa after their cross Canada tour. It was at Zaphod Beeblebrox, opening up for The Balconies were Sandman Viper Command and The Belle Game. It was great to see The Belle Game but it was three out of the eight members. Overall, they performed a good set and one part of their was when front man, Adam Nanji gave me a shoutout for being supportive. Even though I was slightly embarrassed, I had to use my hat to cover my face in a funny way.
Here’s a video that I shot of The Belle Game.
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