On Thursday night, a new band, AquaAlta played at Zaphod Beeblebrox. The band consists of Charles Austin, Jenn Grant and Graeme Campbell. It’s a side project and a collaboration of the three artists. The Halifax band released their debut LP, Dreamsphere on March 3rd and have embarked on a mini tour. Ottawa was their second show in promoting the new LP. Their vinyl includes 3-D glasses.
AquaAlta’s music can be described as dreamy or seagaze as described on their Facebook Page. The concert was much like that, very dream pop with some techno/electro beats in it as well as Grant’s hypnotic voice. For Canadian music fans familiar with Grant, there’s no change to her singing which keeps her folk music style intact. She had released her fifth album, Compostela in 2014 and is having a pretty busy year so far. The show at Zaphods was terrific and had a good turnout. At one point, Grant came down to the crowd and had people dance with her as she sang. It was definitely a fun show.
Opening up for AquaAlta was the local band, The Visit. Their music is a mix of experimental classical music and some throat singing. The duo consists of Raphael Weinroth-Browne on the cello and Heather Sita Black on the vocals. Continue reading →
It was one of the coldest nights in the Nation’s Capital to end 2013 and ringing in 2014. It was adventure to remember as I had the opportunity to go to the National Capital Gala‘s Gatsby New Year’s Ball at the Conference Centre in downtown Ottawa. It was a lavish event with party-goers dressing in elegant dresses. There were live music and burlesque dancers. You can check out the photos below.
Towards the end of 2013, I was checking on Instagram to found out a good friend (and former co-host) was over at Zaphod Beeblebrox for the New Year’s Eve dance party and I decided to bolt over there and say hello. I didn’t realize there was a $15 cover charge and I had to run to the bank to withdraw money and back to Zaphods. I was a hot sweaty mess from the running. I did get to see my good friend. It was nice ringing in the new year and to hear the DJ play Reflektor by Arcade Fire several minutes after the new year.
I totally forgot that I dressed “nicely” on New Year’s Eve. It’s one of the rare time that I would dress formally. I just enjoy wearing this jacket with elbow patches. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in any photos.
Overall, what a way to finish 2013 with a bang and hope 2014 will be wonderful. I know 2013 was tough as greats from the likes of Nelson Mandela, ‘Stompin’ Tom Connors and many others have passed away. Hello to 2014 Continue reading →
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)
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.
Friday night was probably one of those unexpected moments because I was at the Said The Whale, In-Flight Safety & Graham Wright concert at Zaphod Beeblebrox. Ottawa was the 2nd day of their 2010 Spring tour.
For the past weeks, I have been going to Zaphods for other shows and they were not packed compared to Friday’s show. It’s been awhile that I have attended a sold out show at Zaphods. It was awesome to see Said The Whale filled the crowds. What I also liked were the fans singing along to their songs and I basically couldn’t believe it. It was funny when Tyler Bancroft (guitarist and vocals) poked fun that at 11pm, Ke$ha would be played. Another funny moment was Ben Worchester (guitarist and vocals) threw a quarter and a toonie to packed crowd.
The opening acts, In-Flight Safety and Graham Wright were excellent. It’s my first time to check In-Flight Safety because the last time I went to another venue, I skipped them. Overall, they were rockin’ great and I interviewed the lead singer of IFS after all bands finished up. I got mentioned that the band is like the Coldplay of Halifax and asked about various Halifax bands in general.
As for Wright, he’s from Tokyo Police Club and he’s doing his solo tour. As for his other band, let’s say that I still haven’t seen TPC live yet. It’s still a shame but at least I got to interview one third of TPC. One irony being that the interview was short and compared it to TPC’s albums because their songs are short.
Expect all three interviews to be aired in sometime in April. Said The Whale’s interview is version 2.0 because I wanted to ask them about their experience during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The video on top happens to be Camilo (The Magician).
Thursday night was pretty exciting as I went to Zaphod Beeblebrox for the 3rd week as I checked out Girl Party featuring Jas Nasty, Kool Krys and Jenocide. I decided to do an audio interview with Kool Krys because she’s been heard on other radio shows lately. There’s something unique about her music because Ottawa hasn’t really got a big hip-hop presence (my opinion, I don’t check out the 613 hip-hop scene very much). It seems like she’s my first “official” Ottawa artist to be interviewed for my radio show.
The show was great because Kool Krys brought excitement to her hip-hop music. She sang some classic tunes like Salt ‘N’ Pepa and Destiny’s Child as it reminded me of my teenage years when I listened to those songs on the radio. She brought the old school mentality and it certainly gave me a smile because I felt like it was the 1990s all over again.
Prior to Kool Krys performing, Jas Nasty was spinning tunes and she also played old school tunes from the 80s. The final act was Jenocide, from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her music was more on the electronic and thrash (as her MySpace page says it). I didn’t realize her style of music reminded me of Ruby Jean and The Thoughtful Bees, also from Halifax.
Overall, it was a good night even though I missed out on other events happening.
From cartoons to comic book heroes, we will go from Jem & The Holograms to Wonder Woman.
Played the Superfriends theme on the March 24th radio show because of Wonder Woman being in the cartoon. The Superfriends theme is played around the 17 minute mark.
Here’s the radio show and interview with Kool Krys in 2 parts. Playlists for hour 1 and hour 2 are available if you want to check what was played.
Radio show – Press play to listen. You can now listen to the show through iTunes as an audio stream.
WildWorks Extra – The new slot from 11.30am-12pm. Press play to listen.
Kool Krys Interview
Part 1 interview, press play or download it.
This is not the end of Series 5 yet, as I didn’t expect to go over with the number of entries. Series 5 will continue with a new number, 5.2.
5.2 will possibly start with the Said The Whale/In-Flight Safety/Graham Wright concert or a yearly tribute to Leslie Cheung and the first time to dedicate it on radio after writing up for a couple of years since his death.
Other Loose Ends Before Ending 5.1
I did some video shooting for Bands Undone. I shot for Ottawa bands, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns on separate days. What made me excited was that the Canon EOS 5D Mark II got a new firmware update and I shot on 24p (24 frames per second, which they say is cinema look).
A new method I tried was using the microphone and monopod as a boom mic. Instead of having Kara using a microphone, it was nice to have her not use a mic and have her chat freely. The one with Dave Norris was shaky because it was a first time but the one with Old Crowns turned out well.
Check the links provided from the Bands Undone site as it will include the videos I shot, Dave Norris & Local Ivan and Old Crowns. Both local bands were great and enjoyable.
I didn’t expect to be filling in on Monday at CKCU-FM but it gave me an opportunity to move up the audio interviews. Billy the Kid interview was supposed to be for Wednesday but with the special day, it got moved up. As for the interview, it was recorded on March 1st at Zaphod Beeblebrox. Here’s the playlist on the special time and day at this link. I got to play the theme to Final Fantasy XIII as I have been playing it like crazy for a week.
For people searching on Google and on the web, the Billy the Kid I am referring is the Canadian singer-songwriter, not some American person! Sorry for the rant.
Don’t forget to listen to the show by pressing play.
Billy the Kid Interview
Part 1 – Press play or download it.
Wednesday’s Radio Show and the Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview
As usual, I unexpectedly had to solo host the Wednesday morning radio show. Overall, I got to air the Shaya Zaid & The Catchin its entirety, well in 2 parts as I had enough time to air it. They were in Ottawa on March 10 at Zaphod Beeblebrox. I truly enjoyed the interview because it’s my first to chat up with a non-Canadian band. I got excited asking Zaid about Chinese related topics from Chinese music and music channels in Asia. What also surprised me was one of the members has a Coldplay connection.
A funny part was having to play the theme song to Jem & The Holograms after the first part of the interview. Thanks to Alan Neal of the CBC because he seems to be a fan of the classic cartoon.
There’s a new segment on my show called WildWorks Extra and for the time being, I’ll be playing Cantopop songs from the year 2000 because I’m just feeling nostalgic and how time has gone by so quickly. Aside from saying the song names in Chinese (Cantonese), it’s the first time that I also said a song name in Japanese, with help of Wikipedia. Extra has been on for a couple of times and it’s become a regular part of the show.
The playlist for Wednesday’s show is at this link.
Provided a Youtube link to the two J-Pop songs I played on the playlist.
Here’s Wednesday’s radio show, press play to listen. The Jem theme song is played around the 20 min mark.
Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview Part 1 – press play or download it.
Shayna Zaid & The Catch Interview Part 2 – press play or download it.
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 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.
It was a tight packed session at Canteen as Caledonia dropped by for Bands Undone. Let’s just say that the band brought the whole equipment for another stellar performance at the art shop & gallery.
The funny part for myself when Caledonia sang the first song was continuously eating Humpty Dumpty Party Mix due to the face that the lead singer kept saying “hunger!” It led me to keep eating on the pretzels and ringalos. They performed 4 terrific songs and it wowed the small audience.
The funny part with the separate interviews was Kara (the host) and myself had trouble saying ECMA (East Coast Music Awards) and it was unusual because the name looks easy because we had trouble saying it.
I didn’t expect to have a long Saturday as I decided to join the two Brian’s to go to Zaphod Beeblebrox for Caledonia (again) with Matt Ouimet and Sarah Hallman. Due to the competing gigs elsewhere in downtown Ottawa on Saturday and the Santa Claus Parade being held at night-time, it was not busy at Zaphods but there were several went to see Caledonia. Overall, they’re a great band from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hallman and Ouimet’s performances were enjoyable.
You can view the photos at this link.
The Bands Undone review is now posted up.
Here’s the video taken by Brian. YouTube version also available.
This entry seems to be all things Bands Undone. On Tuesday afternoon, I checked out Kalle Mattson for Bands Undone. It was booked at the last minute and was an early show. They are from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario but some or all of the members are now residing in Ottawa for their studies. Overall, the session was pretty good as it brought a folk rock style. There was one song where the lead singer sang a Bob Dylan song. Following the session, there was jokes about Bob Dylan.
You can check the photos by clicking here. The BU section is now updated at this link.
You can watch the videos from Vimeo. Excellent quality provided through Vimeo.
Onto the Wednesday morning radio show, I am still co-hosting on Audio Sensory Resuscitation. The host played some tunes and I got my friend to request a song. We made an announcement for the upcoming guests for December and that will be loads of fun.
On my short show, I finally played my own show ID and it’s the one from The Most Serene Republic. I played a Christmas Chinese song by Mavis Fan and aired the Bonjay interview at Bands Undone and then played the song, Gimme Gimme. Played “Fish” by Hey Ocean! as a preview to Saturday’s Bands Undone. I hope you will enjoy the shows. It’s in two parts. One is with the whole show in its entirety or the second part, which is my half-hour show if you want to listen to the first song and the Bonjay interview. As for the Chinese Christmas song, I was searching on Google for any translation or info, I found this site, Asia Pacific Arts: APA Top 10: Holiday Songs From Asia. The song I played is at #4. Mind you that this top 10 was done in 2008. Not sure if there’s a 2009 version coming up.
Audio Sensory Resuscitation/The WildWorks Show for November 25, 2009
Press play to listen.
The WildWorks Show for November 25, 2009
Press play to listen.
Here is the Bonjay interview at Bands Undone.
Press play to listen or download it.
I forgot to mention that I make a cameo appearance in the Bonjay @ Bands Undone video. Click here to watch the excellent video. There’s the Vimeo version at this link. Continue reading →
WildWorks 