The Post Funding Drive Show Plus The Interview with Gabrielle Papillon & The Tea Giveaway – S07E12

CKCU-FM’s Funding Drive is done and over with. It was a success as the donation pledge exceeded the $111,000 target. For my own show, I had to salvage a plan as the first week was slow but things picked up in the second week. As mentioned previously, I decided to do a giveaway for listeners willing to donate on my radio show. It did work because I held the draw for the two teas. I had help from the CKCU Volunteer Coordinator as I joked that I didn’t want to rig the draw. The teas I gave away were Alpine Punch, a winter themed tea and then my favourite tea, Kanpe Tea. The teas are shown from the photo above. Congratulations to the winners of the tea giveaway.
Also on the radio show was a live interview with Gabrielle Papillon. Due to the fact that I aired my pre-recorded interviews during the Funding Drive, I had someone save me because I didn’t have anything planned for the post funding drive show. It was a privilege to doing a live phone interview with Papillon. A nice indie singer based in Halifax and Montreal. The only thing now is to pay the station manager on the long distance cost because I didn’t get a calling card.
New songs were played on the live part of the show.Since they are also charting on the countdown, Said The Whale (New Brighton EP) and Coeur De Pirate (Blonde) released new materials over on iTunes this week. Both are excellent and are worth getting.
Lastly, it’s great to get a few new listeners as the person I’ve been contacting through Twitter is also on CKCU-FM but is part of the Carleton School of Journalism’s radio news show. There’s the shoutout to you as I didn’t want to publicly name you.
Don’t forget to check the November 9th playlist at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary is at this link.

Audio/Interview
The November 9th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Gabrielle Papillon Interview

Basia Bulat at Ottawa Folk Festival – Audio Interview & Radio Shows [Preseason – Update for Sept. 7, 2011]

It was a great opportunity to attend the newly managed Ottawa Folk Festival as the new location was down on Hog’s Back Park. The new site was enormous and accesible compared to Britannia Park, the old site to Folk Fest.
What I enjoyed about this year’s Folk Festival was that several CKCU-FM hosts (including myself) got to introduce some of the workshops in the daytime.
The Folk Fest lineup pretty good as my favourite bands and artists like The Rural Alberta Advantage and Basia Bulat attended for the first time. This leads to the Basia Bulat interview, as I was able to conduct on the final day. Aside that the final day of Folk Festival became cold and very windy, I was able to do the interview. It was great to see Bulat as I haven’t seen her for a year and missing out on her concert back in March. Hope you will enjoy it.
This ends the summer festivals in Ottawa and it’s nice that the Ottawa Folk Festival ended on a positive note.

On the radio show, there was a lot happening like the top 10 countdown, the countdown to Pop Montreal, a wrap-up to Ottawa Folk Festival and the final U2 Summer Shoutout Challenge.
The playlist for the August 31st show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown entry is at this link.

Lastly, this is getting close to a brand new season, hence this entry as being preseason. Season 7 on the blog is soon. The new season of WildWorks on CKCU-FM will be on September 14, 2011.

Summer Related Entry

I forgot to mention about the link from Local Tourist Ottawa about the magic of community radio in Ottawa. Click at this link. Thanks to guest editor (at that time), Hilary for convincing me to write something up.

Audio/Podcast – Updated for September 7, 2011
The September 7th radio show. The playlist is at this link. The countdown summary is at this link.
Press play to listen.

August 31st radio show. Press play to listen.

The Basia Bulat Interview at Ottawa Folk Festival.

Concluding the East Coast Theme – S05E40

Continuing the East coast theme for my radio show as it was on a different day due to various happenings going on. Mentioned Joel Plaskett (played his short song) winning 6 ECMAs, played a new Hannah Georgas song (album to be released on April 27) and three Chinese songs for May-Jun. Yeah, Cantopop goodness as it was my first time to play a classic Jacky Cheung song. Photo above is Tim Crabtree, of the one man band, Paper Beat Scissors.
Press play to listen to the Monday special. The playlist is at this link.

Here’s the interview with Tanya Davis. You can download it or listen by pressing play.

Here’s the interview with Paper Beat Scissors including the song, Flicker as I cut part of the song due to time.
You can download it or listen by pressing play.

This should be it for the East coast theme as I will be airing an interview with Billy the Kid for the March 17th show.
I will be checking out Shayna Zaid & The Catch on Wednesday at Zaphod Beeblebrox. My first non-Canadian band interview and it should be a good one.

Two Bands Undone I Filmed
I had the opportunity to film Language-Arts on Sunday and Pawnshop Diamond on Monday as they were unique bands from British Columbia. Expect the video to be up on the Bands Undone site soon. I didn’t take photos as I was filming, expect my videos to be front and centre.

Billy the Kid & Wednesday’s Radio Show (Caledonia Interview) – S05E39

Note: This is about the Canadian singer-songwriter, not some American person.

I had the opportunity to meet and interview with Billy the Kid at Zaphod Beeblebrox on Monday (March 1st). At the venue, it was their 8th Anniversary of free concerts for Zaphod’s Showcase Mondays. What got me interested to interviewing Billy the Kid was that she got to work with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace. It was a bit nostalgic going through the OLP way and there’s something unique about her grabbed my interest in her talents. Expect the interview to aired in the next few weeks on the radio. I stayed at Zaphods for very long and when saw her on sound check, I didn’t expect her to be laid back and bubbly going through the instrument and sound settings. Her performance was amazing, I didn’t expect to have her bring a Neil Young or Bob Dylan vibe to some of her songs. Mind you, this was the day after the Vancouver Olympics finished and didn’t expect Young to close the games. It’s just the harmonica she played reminded me of the Young song he played at the Closing Ceremony. Overall, she wowed me with her set and here’s a clip that I took where she got the crowd to sing along. The song is “Just Trying to Get By.” YouTube version now available at this link.

Wednesday’s Radio Show – March 3, 2010 Edition
A new month and a theme to start off the show, I call it east coast month because of the ECMAs on March 4-7, 2010. I did an interview by the Nova Scotia band, Caledonia at Bands Undone back on November 2009. It was pushed backed because I noticed the ECMAs were happening in March and it’s fitting to air it as I asked their response to their nomination.
Due to a technical error on the live broadcast, the file for the Caledonia interview has been fixed up.
It’s another week that I get an extra half hour. It’s the return of Mike on ASR as well. Luckily with the extra half hour, I got to play the songs that I didn’t get to play from earlier. It’s a good thing I got to play Billy the Kid’s song. With the extra half hour, I call it WildWorks Extra. As usual, I decided to use the Tread Lightly theme.
You can listen to the entire show by pressing play. There’s also the separate ones from my show if you don’t want to listen to two hours.
The entire 2 hour show

WildWorks Show – Check the playlist at this link.

WildWorks Extra – Check the playlist at this link.

The Caledonia interview (edited). Press play or download it to listen.

I Forgot About Musk Ox @ Bands Undone
As I was skimming around, I didn’t know Kara updated the Bands Undone site with the Musk Ox review. Their session happened when the Team Canada Men’s Hockey (well, the NHL’ers) won Gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Here’s the clip where I filmed and she edited it. To my own surprise, I didn’t expect the closeups to look that good. Take a look at the video. The trio blends a mix of classical and neo-folk music. I’ve seen the band a couple of times and it’s a joy to listen to them.
I interviewed Musk Ox which will be aired in the future.

Nightwood at Bands Undone, May-Jun & Wednesday’s Radio Show – S05E32

I had the opportunity to check out Nightwood at Bands Undone on Monday, January 18, 2010. It would be the first Bands Undone for 2010 and another unique performance because they were singing their stripped down versions of their songs. The band is from Montreal, Quebec and they have been together for about 10 years. Talk about how time flies by so quickly.

There will be an audio interview with Nightwood coming sometime next month as I am still backlogged from other interviews from November and December. All I will say that it will be a funny and interesting interview when it will be aired.
You can view the photos from the Flickr link.
Video is available at this link and also available on YouTube.
Review from Bands Undone is at this link. Check it out!

May-Jun on Audio Sensory Resuscitation at CKCU-FM – S05E31

I had an opportunity to give the host of Audio Sensory Resuscitation a guest on the show. It’s the first time for him and myself to having a guest perform live on the radio show. The previous Wednesday (Jan. 6) would of been his first show of the new decade but he got sick and was unable to do so. Luckily, it was my first radio show of 2010. We had May-Jun on the show and she got to play her live on the radio and there were giveaways on the show for the lucky people who got to call in. We also talked about what she does when she’s not in music mode and also promoting her free show at Zaphod Beeblebrox on January 18, 2010.

Even though, it did not make the cut on the Bands Undone video for Sadie Hell (she’s now a member of the band), I got to remind May-Jun about the blue guitar she owns and I won’t mention too much because you have to listen to it (barring no volume problems).

Here’s hoping May-Jun reads this part. I didn’t get a chance to ask her on-air about a certain music genre if she knew about it. There were three songs I had wish to play but due to time, there was no need. Here’s the links of the songs I kind of wanted to play, link #1, link #2 (the 2 are by the same singer) and link #3 (not the best quality).  It’s not a big deal that I didn’t ask, but hoping you like those songs. I am not sure if you were influenced by that music genre. I was also listening to those songs when I was on the bus to CKCU/Carleton University.

Here’s a link from her MySpace on her fun times.
The playlist of the show is at this link. If you want to find out what songs she played, you can also download her music at http://may-jun.bandcamp.com/.

You can listen to the show by pressing play or you can download it (Don’t forget to save as after the audio is downloaded).

Note: There might be volume issues throughout the audio. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Here’s the video of May-Jun and host, Mike dancing around to this song called Sweet Music. Here’s the YouTube version for anyone who’s having trouble viewing on Vimeo.

Two Bands Undone Sessions to Almost End 2009 – S05E29

Note on December 28, 2009: The two Bands Undone weren’t the final sessions of 2009. There was one on December 27, 2009. There’s a slight change in the title.

There were two jam-packed sessions for Bands Undone on December 11, 2009. First, it was Vancouver, British Columbia’s Mother Mother. They are on their Canadian tour and opening up for The Mathew Good Band. Even though the band was tight on schedule, they delivered an excellent performance. The funny part was the frontman of Mother Mother, Ryan Guldemond, messed up on the lyrics, it was unnoticeable. It was nice to hear Body of Years as their 2nd song because hearing Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin’s parts was just wow! It was also nice to see a good crowd at Bands Undone and even though it was on a Friday during lunch time. As for the upcoming interview, it was short and hopefully the finished product will be good because there were parts where I goofed up. Overall, awesome band and no wonder why Mother Mother was the winner for CBC Radio 3’s 2009 Bucky Awards for Best Live Act.
Next up was Laurent Bourque, originally from Ottawa but now resides in Montreal, Quebec. He’s an up and coming singer. The host of Bands Undone was impressed with his music days before his performance. I wasn’t sure what to expect. When he performed, it caught my attention because his voice was smooth and his music had a softer Pop/Rock feel. I did do an interview with for my radio, which will be scheduled to air in January. It’s most likely I will be delaying my interviews until January due to the fact that I will playing Christmas songs and year-end top 10’s.
Photos from both performances can be checked out at this link.

A Dreary, Gloomy and Rainy Monday – S05E06

It was totally unexpected but I got to fill in on-air again. It’s funny how I was on-air for Friday, the end of the week and now hosting at the beginning of the new week. I was hoping to be co-hosting with Kristal on her show and weigh in my thoughts on F**ked Up winning the Polaris Music Prize for their album, The Chemistry of Common Life.
On the show, I got to mention in short detail that I will be going to Basia Bulat at The Black Sheep Inn on October 3, 2009. I’m trying to not write as much but listen to the show for anyone who missed it, as you will be surprised with the songs I played and as usual, the playlist is posted up.

Here’s the player for anyone who missed it live or want to listen again. Press play to listen.

August Extra #4: Joel Plaskett x Three at Ottawa Folk Festival

It’s certainly ironic that Joel Plaskett’s current album is called Three because it is the third time I saw him live (two from last year, one in winter and late Spring). It seems like 3 is a lucky number into itself. Onto Plaskett at Ottawa Folk Festival, he definitely gave an excellent performance because he had his dad, Bill Plaskett, perform along with him. It is different than seeing without his Emergency band because his solo performance from Folk Fest seemed to be a bit mellower than his rock-style with the Emergency. He did some humourous talk during his performances and joked about being delayed at LaGuardia Airport and getting bit by mosquitoes. All in all, it was great and having Amanda Putz MC’ing made it awesome.
What was also funny was my brother got Plaskett to write number 3 in Chinese. It’s such an easy Chinese word to write.
Earlier in the afternoon, I got to check out the “Songs From The Road” songwriters circle with him, Ana Miura, Steven Page and Bruce Cockburn. I didn’t stay too long due to the some reasons (bringing my two month old trusty 13″ MacBook Pro) and I was totally sweating like crazy.
You can check the photos here.
Overall, I had a great time being at Ottawa Folk Festival for that one and only last day. Seeing the usual folks made feel happy and making me laugh. (you know who you are).
Another nice favour I have done for the two CKCU radio shows were giving them a promo of sorts from Plaskett. I hope they will like it.
Photos from Plaskett’s performance at Ottawa Folk Festival can be seen here.
Well, that’s all for now and will put various Ottawa Folk Festival photos that I took later on. It was an awesome weekend (minus Saturday) with i(heart)music festival on Friday and then the final day of Ottawa Folk Festival.

August Extra #2 – Horses Spilled Milk and Guest Hosting for Kristal’s Method

I know the photo is not really linked to this particular entry but I mentioned at the start of Horses Spilled Milk that I went to Perth, Ontario on Saturday for 2 lion dance performances. Check the 2009 Summer page for the short entry. I had to sub in for co-host for the beginning of the show because he was running late. I was basically a lifesaver for Horses Spilled Milk and Kristal’s Method.
Halfway through Horses Spilled Milk, there was a classic 80s song played and the hint; The Breakfast Club, directed by the late John Hughes.

Afterwards, I unexpectedly decided to guest host Kristal’s Method because Kristal wasn’t around. I had to scramble and figure out what songs to play. I had help from Armen of Thematics at CKCU-FM at the first host break. This time, I totally played 100% Canadian independent music.
Note: Audio for both shows are no longer available to listen.