I had a chance to chat with Bear Hands lead singer Dylan Rau. We yapped about the band’s punk rock origins in Connecticut and New York City before trying to get to the bottom of the Much Mega Hit, “Giants.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in music, radio | Tagged Bear Hands | 1 Comment »
Big sounding remix of Bleachers “I Wanna Get Better.” Vince Clarke of Depche Mode fame synthses it right out. He has created bouncy head bopping dance cut that keeps many of the original cut’s core elements. But I am also hearing industrial beats and sounds.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music | Tagged Bleachers, Depeche Mode, fun, Jack Antonoff, remix, Vince Clarke | 2 Comments »
A collection of sounds I created or heard on the radio this past week.
We’ll start with my wife asking me to buy her flowers some time. Seems simple enough, but I over think it… luckily there was a Zoner out there to set me strait using the mumbo jumbo of the 5 Love Languages.
Dylan and Jason from The Zone Morning Show were talking about shark attacks. Dylan said, “sharks, older than trees.” And went, “SWAAAAAAA?” Turns out he is on to something. I was able to track down a marine biologist at the University of Victoria with a specialty in sharks to explain.
Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters fame is forming up a new group, The Birds of Satan. Jon Williams talks about it on The Zone Evening Show.
Finally, out of Edmonton… Ryder had a pretty huge April Fools prank. The Hot 107 morning show host told the fine people of Alberta that the Province of Saskatchewan had bought the Alberta town of Fort Saskatchewan.
Go with yourself.
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Ray LaMontagne‘s 5th record is out on May 6th. The album is called Supernova.
Ray travelled down to Nashville to work with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. I also read an article by one industry type who short-listed the song “Supernova” as a potential “Song of The Summer” 2014 edition.
It is a pretty song. Song of the Summer? I don’t feel that yet…but I do feel the warmth of summer in the song. As a sometimes Wedding DJ in Victoria, I hear a very beautiful potential first dance song. Its a bright, bouncy song, with lyrics that I think will resonate with the romantics out there.
Also… I say Supernova all the time, would it be weird if I admitted to hitting play for the first time on this song based strictly on the title?
Go with yourself.
Posted in music | Tagged Dan Auerbach, Ray LaMontagne, The Black Keys | 3 Comments »
I have a couple remixes of Queen‘s “Under Pressure,” a silly spin on the Frozen soundtrack jammer “Let It Go,” and I think we should talk Cloud Nothings.
Another perfect day in the Garden City…maybe not summer weather yet, but flirting with it at times. The Mrs. and I headed off to Honda to look at a bigger ride. Our growing horde is bursting out of the Civic. I like looking at new cars.
Rolling into the radio factory to a sea of emails. One song that captured my attention was from an LA producer/DJ called Touch Tone. He posted a remix of the Queen/David Bowie joint “Under Pressure.” I like to throw the original down during my DJ sets when I can, this remix will give me so many more opportunities to work it into a dance party!
Weirdly, not the only “Under Pressure” remix I received today. Check out this punchier nu-disco take from Juno Ray.
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Kid One and I were watching Frozen for the 37th time the other day. During the big song from Elsa, “Let It Go,” I was feeling some James Hetfield from her performance….so we started thrashing around the living room…the next day at the radio factory I tried to put the James Hetfield “Let it Go” to tape. Here you go.
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So this happened yesterday and I pray it ain’t no foolin’! July 4th has one of my all time bands, Cloud Nothings, coming to Victoria for a Friday night show at Upstairs. Wow.
Also their new record came out yesterday, and believe the hype, it is outstanding.
***
Lastly… there is a Viking Exhibition coming to the Royal BC Museum in May. Wonderful. I’m going to hit that for sure, you ought to too.
Go with yourself,
Posted in music | Tagged Cloud Nothings, David Bowie, Frozen, Juno Ray, Queen, Touch Tone, Under Pressure, Vikings | Leave a Comment »
One of my favourite folks to talk rock & roll with at the radio factory is Dan Ball. Quality guy that is always talking about his latest vinyl purchase or rad band he recently discovered.
Dan spent some time living in Edmonton working at Filthy McNasty’s (I think?)…he’s the reason their steak sandwich is so good. While spending some quality time in the City of Champions, Dan crashed in the basement of a band house. The band attached to the house? Old Towns.
The band is on tour and will be in Victoria for a show on April 19th. An all-ager at the Oaklands Community Center with On Call Heroes.
Go with yourself.
Posted in music | Tagged Dan Ball, Old Towns, On Call hereos | Leave a Comment »
Finally got around to a few things yesterday. I finished The Orenda (FUCKED UP!) and I downloaded Future Islands’ Singles.
Future Islands are picking up a good head of steam with a celebrated Letterman performance, SXSW showcase, sold out shows (including Vancouver on April 4th at the Rickshaw SOLD OUT) and the record was just shy of a Best New Music on Pitchfork.
There is a lot of enjoy about this Baltimore synth-pop trio. I am addicted to the single “Season (Waiting on You).”
One more sleep till Cloud Nothings!
Go with yourself. (howdy, like the blog? maybe you “like” like it on Facebook)
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Jesse Roper and The Roper Show will be performing tonight (Happy Birthday Tindy!) at Upstairs Cabaret. If you’re planning on hitting the concert, tickets are selling like hot cakes. Red hot hot cakes. So go get ’em before it sells out.
Yesterday he stopped by the radio show to perform a couple songs live. Both new ones.
The support act for the show tonight is a group called Band of Rascals.
Go with yourself.
Posted in Capital Rock City, music, The Zone @ 91-3 | Tagged Band of Rascals, Jesse Roper, The Roper Show | Leave a Comment »
When I first moved to Victoria back in 2003…there was a popular local band we used to play on The Zone called Grace Nocturnal. The lead singer was a dude named Marty Zylstra. The band would eventually dissolve and the members would move on to other projects.
Marty ended up in Vancouver where he fronted a band called Sweetheart. I remember hearing their cut “See You On the Weekend” on an old Starbucks compilation.
He is now operating as a solo performer. His new single is called “Brighton.”
here is what he writes on a press release:
“Carl Davis (the Left, the Pompadoors) produced this new three song EP in an old school and almost Nashville style studio session where the songs were finished on the studio floor with only the best Vancouver based studio musicians.
Mixed by Mr. Davis and mastered by Sean McGee (the Beatles, John Lennon) at Abbey Road Studios this initial offering shows three sides of Marty’s personality which includes an affinity for British culture, lyrical themes of a vision of past life lessons and future domestic bliss, and a sheer twisted humour.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in Capital Rock City, music | Tagged Grace Nocturnal, Marty Zylstra, Sweetheart | 1 Comment »
Stephanie Raye sent me an email hoping we’d have a listen to her début ep, Melodies of Life. The Staten Island singer showed up on Wu-Tang Clan Inspectah Deck’s mixtape “Druglord Skillionaire.”
Go with yourself.
Posted in music | Tagged Inspectah Decks, Stephanie Raye, Straye Raye, Wu-Tang Clan | Leave a Comment »
The Morning After 