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

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

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.

Easter Weekend Fun in Montreal with You Say Party! We Say Die! & Part of The Belle Game – S05.2E03

You Say Party! We Say Die! in Montreal
Back from Montreal, QC over the Easter holiday. It was a spur of the moment because You Say Party! We Say Die! was in Montreal for a show there and they skipped Ottawa and a few other Ontario cities. It was nice to go outside of Ottawa for a concert. It’s been a very long time I went to a concert in Montreal and that was back in 1993 for Duran Duran at the once famous and legendary Montreal Forum. The slight irony with these two different bands that they are in the New Wave music genre.
Back to YSP! WSD! in Montreal, they were performing at La Sala Rossa. As previously mentioned, it’s the first time to check out an indie music venue in Montreal and my lack of knowledge of the Montreal music scene and venues are minimal at best. Prior to their performance, I arrived to the venue a bit early because I am not familiar with area of Montreal and I saw some of the members and they remembered me.
Overall, their performance was energetic and lot of dancing around. It was great to remember half of the songs because I always kept playing songs from XXXX on my radio show. The crazy part came almost near the end of the set when Like I Give a Care was played and then the opening acts (Braids and Makeout Videotape) came out on stage and delivered the mosh pit/crowd surfing. Lead vocalist, Becky Ninkovic joined in the fray towards the crowd. The other crazy part was her back or leg landed on me as she was getting back on stage from the moshing.
The photo on top was when the band performed on Like I Give A Care.

Two Band Interviews Aired and a Guest Co-Host – S05E38

It’s an opportunity to try something a bit different on my radio show. I know it’s pulling a bit like CBC Radio One’s Bandwidth and the other CKCU Special Blend shows in airing two different audio interviews. It was also a unique show this week because I had a special guest co-host helping me, it’s Kara from Bands Undone. Originally, she wanted to come by to the station but was busy and got injured. Finally, her time to co-host on the radio happened!
I have been on-air for two hours for basically a month, it’s all in fun time.

On the show, I aired two interviews, one was The Belle Game, which was recorded this past Monday (Feb. 22) night at Canteen. The other interview by Nightwood (of Montreal) was done in January.
The Belle Game was at Canteen for Bands Undone and they literally played a great set.
Video and Reviews from the Bands Undone site is at this link. Check it out as I did the filming for their live in-session, minus the editing as Kara took care of that.
The location for this band is pretty bi-coastal as some are from Vancouver, some from Montreal and one from Maine. As for the interview, it’s a hoot to listen as it was funny. There were mentions of bands like Ottawa’s The Acorn, Toronto’s Ohbijou, and Vancouver’s Said The Whale.
The funny thing during the show was one of the members of The Belle Game was listening to the show LIVE while using Twitter.
During the show, we discussed on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and what’s shows are coming up in Ottawa. Played new songs from Broken Social Scene and Jason Collett. Trying to be fresh in playing new tracks from Canadian indie artists.
As usual, I decided to be silly and play a theme from a CKCU show called Tread Lightly.
The video above is a video I shot and it’s a separate interview from The Belle Game.

Without further ado, you can listen to the show by pressing play.
The full show

Extra (Chatted more about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics before what would be “Wonderful Wednesday”)

Check out the playlist at this link.

Interviews

The Belle Game
Press play to listen or download it.

Nightwood
Press play to listen to download it.

The New Midnight Jamz on CKCU for February 27, 2010
I had the opportunity to hang out with the gang from that show. You can listen to the 2 hour show by pressing play.