Man, July…I gotta blog more. I feel like I start every monthly blog post with that. maybe one day I’ll get back to that almost daily rhythm. But hear me out…life is busy. And this blog doesn’t pay me for my time…wait I lose money every year on this thing.
What do I got for you today? How about this collab from Kingdom & Zalma Bour.
Been busy and managed alittle time off. The family went to Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial park. About 470 kms north-east from Vancouver. Awesome. But BUGGY!
And we did the tourist in our hometown thing and went out to Steveston. Ate some unreal BBQ, iced coffees, playgrounds, visiting an old train car, screamers, then learned about fish canneries.
While up at the campsite there were two other families. On eof the Dads was telling me Manning Park’s heather trail is the place to check out so this weekend we’ll scout it out. Maybe a future camping trip. Or I’ll try to get a spot at Cheakamus in Garibaldi Park.
Back from a holiday to Disneyland with my family. The weather in Southern California was perfect. It’s a bizarre feeling to leave winter in Vancouver, fly two hours and step out into summer.
My current favourite song right now is from Liverpool’s The Wombats. They’ve had a few jammers over the years that have worked their way into my brain and the latest single, “Turn” is no different.
The Wombats’ fourth long player is called Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life and it comes out on February 9th.
“‘Turn’ was written in New York and is probably the most electronic song on the album,” frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy shared. “Which is weird as I was pushing for the album to be more organic and less synth driven. ‘Turn’ was…kind of a beautiful mistake.”
The band was JUST in Vancouver and I missed it because I was not in Vancouver. Next time I guess.
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Like I said, we just got back from Disneyland. It was a sublime trip with all the kids. It was also my wife Coral’s 35th birthday. And her Mom and sister Alyx joined us.
if you wanna get personal in our music blogging relationship…here’s a short video of our adventures in the Magic Kingdom.
When I am not bringing you guys sick tunes on this here music blog, I am also a radio presenter on CFOX in Vancouver.
Part of the job entails listening to people whine about music. We all have a take right? It’s the one thing I hate about the job. To me the radio is supposed to be a celebration of music.
Biggest boner killer: bros that call up and whine about music.
I posted that other day. I think it all the time. Coral was telling me some self-quiz thing I wrote on Facebook back in 2009 showed up on her feed so I went back and read it.
#18 on the mini-bio: I hate when people complain about music. If you start a sentence with me that begins with, “I hate that (or this) song,” then I am sad. I am far more interested in which song(s) you love.
Victoria punk No Liars will release their first full-length album in early 2018. The record will be called The Cause & The Cure. The album was recorded by Jesse Gander of Rain City Recorders (Japandroids, White Lung,) and mastered by Joao Carvalho (Alexisonfire, Arkells, Silverstein, Protest the Hero). OK, resumes check out….lets have a listen.
Noah Edwards talks about the music video; “‘Animal’ is about struggling with inner turmoil and recognizing the darkest parts of ourselves. We wanted the video to portray the terror of losing touch with reality when facing one’s inner demons.”
On Sunday, me and Madelyn went for a walk in the POURING rain at Campbell Valley Park. Real nice park…would go for a easy hike around there again for sure.
Monday night… Nana came to watch the kids so Coral and I could go out. Checked out some stand up comedy at the Starlight Casino with Alex Carr and Meredith.
Maryse sent over the new song from her vocal-electronic duo Seaborne. The song is called “Hypnotise.”
Seaborne had been based out of Vancouver but they have taken their act to Montreal.
Maryse broke down the meaning of the song.
“The single recognizes the unique infatuation experienced when seeing an artist you love perform. As an audience member, you feel such an entrancing connection that you’re almost persuaded the performer sees you and feels it too…while also being aware that you’re lost in an equally hypnotized crowd.”
I was yapping on my show the other day about making another catch and i wanted to share it with you…intrepid music blog reader.
Dad of the Year / Poor parenting play of the day.
Fell asleep on the couch with Elliot last night after DJing…startled awake at the sensation of him falling off me and I Lightening McQueen reached out and caught him. Baby barely woke up.
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It was Canadian Thanksgiving last week. If you were celebrating I hope you had a great moment with your friends and family. I enjoyed my weekend my wife Coral and our kids. We took baby Elliot on his first hike! And Jack and Maddy made it all the way to the waterfall.
To quote the poet Aaron Lewis, “It’s been while….”
Hey intrepid music blog reads… I’ve been away on summer vacation for the past couple weeks. But I’m back today and jamming out tunes.
Today is my first day back at CFOX and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hang out with New Orleans band, The Revivalists.
The Revivalists have be come hugely successful off their 2015 song “Wish I Knew You.”
The song comes from their third album, Men Amongst Mountains. The song’s rise is a story of patience as it seemed to percolate for quite awhile before exploding on mainstream rock radio. The song is now a alternative rock #1 single and exposing the band to a whole new audience.
The Revivalists were in Vancouver last night to perform at the Vancouver Folk Festival. Before hopping hopping on a plane to Los Angeles to appear on Jimmy Kimmel, the band found their way to the World Famous CFOX to record their song “Wish I Knew You” in our Ugly Grey Box Studio.
After the performance I had a moment to chat with David Shaw about the song. I asked him why he thinks it has resonated so deeply with so many people.
David also shared the origin story of the band. A story that involves a shirtless man, playing guitar on his porch in New Orleans one day, a whole bunch of years ago.
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Got up to so many adventures during my two week holiday. Maybe you follow me on Instagram and you were able to play along. If not… here’s a few highlights.
Back from Las Vegas….I checked my email…there were too many. I swear I get more emails from bands wanting to be featured on this music blog than I do hits of people checking out the tunes. One email did catch my eye this morning. New music from The Head and the Heart.
Let’s be Still is one of my favourites. So many wonderful memories listening to this album on road trips with my Coral and Madelyn and even Jack when he was just a little baby.
New album is called Signs of Light and is out on September 9th. The first feature is called “All We Ever Knew.” If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll easily be able to tuck into this familiar sounding THATH cut.
The band is playing a bunch of folk tests this summer…but sadly not the Vancouver one.
August 7th they’ll be in Edmonton? Damn, just before my summer holidays. Might have almost been worth a trip to visit my wife’s family.
Coral and I are back in Vancouver after a fun and action filled 4-ish plus days in Las Vegas. We stayed at the Flamingo which we love (most the time). This time we made the mistake of letting the front desk guy “upgrade” us to a deluxe “Go Room” for ONLY $20 a night. And that room put us above Drai’s outdoor pool night club thing. So that didn’t really feel like an upgrade when it was bed time. Other than that little hiccup Vegas was it’s Vegassy self.
Lots of expensive slushy booze cocktails, pool action ($240 US tabs in beers and cocktails…oh boy), beers (beer lists are starting to improve), cocktails, and some mighty fine dinners.
They loved smashing their top 40 EDM in Las Vegas. We wake up to Day Beats in the Go Pool, and went to bed with them smashing at 3AM from Drai’s. I enjoyed hearing other people DJ for a change and heard a few nice remixes I’ll want to add to the set at the casino I DJ at in New West.
We didn’t go to any nightclubs ourselves…we kinda stuck to diners, wanderings and cocktail bars. Loved hitting downtown Vegas to get away from those Lucas Graham edm remixes.
The patio at Park on Fremont was everything those listicles on Thrillist said it would be. Funky, good tunes, good cocktails/price, and excellent mac & cheese balls. The jalapeño fried up in there was nice.
On the Strip we went to Beer Park at Paris. They played a modern rock playlist that sounded like something I’d jam on CFOX. Alright, Budweiser inspired “craft” beer list…if that makes sense? Food was delicious, patio was ace and hey…right on the Strip.
We were crushed when on the last night we wanted to eat at Dos Caminos in Palazzo and discovered it was closed. That was the restaurant where we had our wedding reception. But they’ve changed up their offerings. We were gunna settle for a skirt steak at Border Grill in Caesars…and I don’t care what people tell you…things DO close in Las Vegas. Huh. Ended up at Carmines for a GIANT plate of spaghetti. Like GIANT.
Coral spent a lot of time on this trip dreaming up the next one! Maybe I need to track down a DJ gig in Vegas. They sure have a lot of them playing music all over the place. Make it a work/fact finding mission.
OK, not exactly BRAND new…last week maybe? New enough for me. I have loved Band of Horses for many years. They are definitely a band that both my wife and I enjoy together which makes them special to me. Coral notice don her timehop that it was on this day, 9 years ago that we moved in together to this hip condo on Yates Street in Victoria. 12 months later we had a little baby named Madelyn and had bought a place. Huh.
Coral and I did a brewery tour on Saturday. (video coming soon!)
Vancouver Brewery Tours showed us a great time….if you’re ever in Vancouver and want something fun to do to get you out in the city, drinks some good beer, and learn a few things you gotta do it.
The Morning After 