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keegan
Wild Cub principle Keegan DeWitt took a pause in the rock & roll tour schedule to call into The Zone. Here are a couple clips from that chit-chat.

Keegan shares the origin story for their much mega hit, “Thunder Clatter.”  Keegan says the idea for the song happened the week he met the woman who would eventually become his wife!

Then I asked Keegan about the song “Colour” which also touches on relationships. But this song talks about those tumultuous partnerships we enjoy in our 20s.

We’ll get a chance to see Wild Cub when their tour with Bleachers rolls through Vancouver on November 8th. The concert will be at The Rio Theatre.

Go with yourself.

poncho

It is still summer. Let us end strong! 

One of my all time best friends, Paul, got married last weekend on Salt Spring Island. 

It was a wonderful night. Celebrating in the harbour of Ganges. In the fun and revelry of the night, Paul and his new bride Amy didn’t get to a first dance song. Until Shaggy’s “angel” came on! 

And one of the groomsmen, Jon, was telling me about this old Mortal Kombat song… Chinese Ninja Warrior? So weird….so great. Sub Zero WINS! 

Go with yourself.

coral and Jack

Summer continues to rage on the west coast. The Baker tribe spent some time in Edmonton, then back to the coast to hit a wedding on Salt Spring Island.

It’s time to get settle into the radio factory and focus on the fall….hammer out the final DJ gigs of the season…and get ready for Rifflandia!  Before taking off on summer holiday…we announced the final acts for Victoria’s version of the fall classic. No wait… it’s still summer! 

One band I am jazzed to check out at Rifflandia this year is Half Moon Run. The Montreal based band jams some beautiful folky harmonies. Big sweeping songs. Occasionally a little darkness seeps into their sounds. I have more than a couple favourites.

The song “She Wants To Know” … I’m all about it.

and a remix! 

Another song that really shows this band off is called, “Full Circle.”

Half Moon Run will be playing a couple shows at Rifflandia. Saturday night at Alix Goolden Hall and then Sunday in the park. Pencil them into your Blackberry, you won’t miss these guys. 

Go with yourself.

Jeremy and Bob - Christina Lake 2

OK, one more post tonight. New Arkells’ record High Noon…. you have it right? Essential summer time Canadian rock & roll.

“I knew from the beginning / it was you from the beginning.”

And this one… whoa.

“beating the drum all night. Dancing naked ’round the fire. Leaving trouble behind. Swimming in the water. We found the tent with a flashlight. We were looking for a hideout. When you’re praying for no-string. Some times you get tied down.”

Is this song not about EVERY time you partied up at the cabin with a group of friends?

Go with yourself.

weird party
It doesn’t seem like too many folks are getting into the smooth jazz game in 2014…but then, what is smooth jazz? Basically chill wave but made by a band instead of a nerd and a laptop.

This record showed up on my desk the other day at the Radio Factory. The group is called Weird Party and features a bunch of players from the Victoria music scene. I plunked it down on my turntable the other day while getting about ma’ chores…so groovy. This record is chill.

The record cover screams Vancouver Island.

Weird Party is new, it’s classic, it’s timeless, it’s offered on cassette? Neat.

Go with yourself.

Rosie JuneThis remix is making me feel alright. Rosie June is a performer from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

Her record is called Listening Post and you’ll find it on Brendan Canning‘s Draper Street Records.

We’ll get a chance to see Rosie June in September as part of Rifflandia. Schedule will be out tomorrow (3PM, listen to my radio show on The Zone @ 91-3)…I know whatever stage she is playing, I’ll want to be there.

The remix from Bear Mountain takes Rosie June’s normally lighter than air dream pop and ties some rocks around it’s legs. It still floats, but also bounces along the ground. Hilly Dilly talks about a tropical influence. I can get behind that… We live on an Island after all! This is a track that will be showing up in my Rooftop set tomorrow at The Strathcona Hotel.

For the sake of the compare and contrast, here is the original dream popper.

and one more because I’m crushing hard.

Go with yourself.

spoon TWMS
Picked up the new Spoon LP and the Merge book, Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records.

The two go together very well. Merge has a chapter in their book on the origin story of Spoon. Their explosion onto the scene as “hot new artist,” and then subsequently getting dropped from Matador. A resurgence on a major label…and then dropped….before finally finding commercial and critical success on Merge.

Spoon’s eighth record is called They Want My Soul. After reading about the trials, label moves, and hard work…you can really appreciate the albums title. I’d love ask Britt Daniels sometime about his life in New York. There was a time before signing with Merge where he was working as a financial assistant? I wonder what his life was like during those times?

We’re currently featuring the song “Do You” on The Zone.

I picked up Spoon with their 2005 record, Gimme Fiction. It’s too early to say which album is my favourite…but right now I have TWMS on heavy rotation. I even like how the album cover kinda fits thematically with 2002’s Kill The Moonlight.

Go with yourself.

lemonade
I love this old picture from Nat Geo Found. The little dude is out hustling a few bucks selling some lemonade.

“A boy sells lemonade from his front yard stand on Main Street in Aspen, Colorado, 1973.PHOTOGRAPH BY DICK DURRANCE II, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE”

Former Victorian and now Vancouverite, JP Maurice released a new single today… check out “Poison Heart.”

Its a melodramatic song that reminds me of this This American Life piece.

I was driving home from a wedding late on Sunday night listening to the CBC. There was a song playing. I like music, but generally when a song is playing on the CBC its a bit of a downer. I was gunna punch out, but then the weirdest voice popped out of the radio and I had to listen.

Turns out the Ceeb was re-airing an old segment about professionally awkward Starlee Kine and her depressing breakup. The segment ultimately was about her quest to write the perfect torch song.

It was so bizarre, but I was transfixed. It felt at first like an over-developed character piece, but as I listened, I loved her more and more. In the end I was cheering Starlee on her adventure to create this torch song. Then she shared it with Phil Collins! Yes.
Now I love her. You really ought to go back in time to 2007 and have a listen for yourself.

Her style reminds me of the program Wiretap (which I generally hate…but also oddly love) and it turns out she sometimes shows up on that show, so circles man.

In the end, she co-wrote a song called “Three of Us.”

OK, I don’t know if “Poison Heart” is a TORCH song in the traditional sense…I just heard it then immediately thought of Starlee Kine, I dunno.

Go with yourself.

squamish-2014-620x420
My wife Coral is off to the Squamish Valley Music Festival this weekend. The adventure is a bit of money bonfire as we’re discovering. Tickets, hotel…sure. Beers, you expect it… but then parking? $125? or a shuttle from Whistler for herself and her sister is $300? Holy shit Squamish… my wife is in almost $1,000, hasn’t left yet. Now we’ll add ferry, gas, food, an Eminem t-shit. Kowabunga.

No wonder the weight of the Industrial Festival Complex may implode in on itself.

OK… well she is in it this deep, buy the ticket, take the ride and all that, so she asked me to put a playlist on her phone of Squamish bands… I tucked through the list and added 22 songs to check out. Some headliners, some small print. Some Much Mega Hits, some album cuts…

Go with yourself.

Pit hole

The British Columbia teacher’s strike is causing a lot of despair amongst parents. Where you see challenges, I see opportunity!

+ Focus on physical education.
+ Have fun while getting your hands dirty.
+ Literally drop off your kids and go!

— Jeremy, proprietor and operator.

***

Producer: Sheldon Hovde
Voice talent: Chelsea Coulter & Caleb Kirby

Go with yourself.