Author: vish

Ep. #153: Jasmyn Burke of Weaves

Post author By vish
Post date December 9, 2014

Jasmyn Burke is the lead singer and co-founder of a great young band from Toronto called Weaves. If electronic, synthesizer-driven bands might be called computer music, Weaves make Internet rock—an open-minded, all-encompassing pop music that’s infused with all of the sounds and information that is currently available. They have received accolades from Canadian and U.S. media outlets and released their first EP this past April 1. On December 12, Weaves are playing Stay Out of the Mall XIII with METZ and Badminton Racquet at the Ebar in Guelph and here, Jasmyn and I discuss hanging out at her parents’ house in Ancaster Ontario, actually being raised in Toronto, making music the way you listen to music, being difficult to pigeonhole artistically, working with Morgan Waters who’s the Rosetta Stone of musical collaborators and translates her ideas into more of a pop framework, Dr. Ew, when bands like Alvvays and Weaves do well, playing in Rattail, Jasmyn’s nerves and overcoming performance anxiety rituals, introverts who become front people, no one’s going to die, growing up in Weston, the boring ‘burbs, a penny-farthing tattoo, suburban hunger, seeing someone play a Neil Young song and loving Bob Dylan, Hot Monogamy, having a passion for creating strong vocal melodies and lyrics, discovering your own voice, always loving Toronto and believing in its supportive underground music community, Drake, the city of Toronto’s notoriety of late, we do need another hero, insidious search history ads, Toronto pet peeves, avoiding condescending ghettoization, sometimes the less we talk about a problem, the more quickly it goes away, feeding off the tension about the differences between us, why Weaves release singles every few months rather than a full LP, batch versus incremental recording, writing and recording all of the time, the album will be dead, the Weaves album will be deadly, opening for tUnE-yArDs at Massey Hall, Merrill Garbus is super nice, not working much, not complaining, travel and recording plans, seeing Bob Dylan live, the song “Shithole,” finding alien song ideas in your iPhone Voice Memos, and that’s it.

Related links: weavesband.com buzzrecords.ca vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #152: Kevin “Sipreano” Howes & Duke Redbird

Post author By vish
Post date December 4, 2014

Kevin “Sipreano” Howes and Duke Redbird are both involved in a lovely and vital new compilation called Native North America (Vol. 1) – Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985, which is out now via Light in the Attic Records. Exhaustively researched curated by Howes, the triple LP/double CD features rare and scarce music made by the likes of Redbird, Willie Dunn, Sugluk, Willie Thrasher, Sikumlut, and many more figures from all across Canada. Earlier this week, Howes, Redbird, and I met in Toronto for a conversation about this project and here, we discuss things like the pool table that Duke painted, growing up in Richmond Hill Ontario with a killer record collection, getting into punk and hip-hop, sample-based culture and the roots of music, Bob Marley’s ska and early reggae records, Ty the record seller in Vancouver’s Red Barn Flea Market, truly underground Canadian music, becoming a music journalist and going on the road to hunt for cool records with Birdapres, discovering records by Alexsis Utatnaq, WIllie Dunn, and other Canadian indigenous artists, when CBC would document regional artists and press vinyl for internal use, musical investigation, Facebook and the internet are known as “the great radio” by some Inuit artists, tracking down Tayara Papigatuk from Sugluk via a local radio station, the rare interviews that contextualize Native North America (Vol. 1), people should pay for this compilation man, learning more about the roots of Canada and its brutal past, struggle, pain, joy, and punk rock, the ‘moment’ of heightened awareness for Native culture and issues, timelessness, Duke joins us, there’s been very little improvement in the social fabric of First Nations and the Canadian government, a guaranteed annual income among law-abiding citizens that’s similar to what prisoners receive, free market democracy, electronic re-tribalization via social media, wearable technologies, Me & U and the future is now, self-preservation and romance versus power and money, why indigenous culture doesn’t seem to experience the same civil rights progressive acceptance as that of other cultures and lifestyles, either or and why, agrarian cultures, commerce and greed, poetry and music, hanging out with Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell in Toronto, why Native North America is hugely important for Aboriginal culture, this music is rare and somewhat uncollected, artistic resurrections, working for love, anthologizing Willie Dunn’s music and films, there’s more material out there, showcasing American artists in volume two, the song “Silver River” by Shingoose featuring the poetry of Duke Redbird, which was inspired by Redbird’s Yorkville flatmate Joni Mitchell, being around when Gordon Lightfoot, Murray McLachlan, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were hanging around Yorkville, writing a poem about an afternoon spent with Leonard Cohen and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and then it’s to the future.

Related links: lightintheattic.net vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #151: Hari Kondabolu

Post author By vish
Post date December 2, 2014

Hari Kondabolu is a very funny and incisive stand-up comedian who hails from Queens, New York. He has written for shows like Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, and John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show among others. Earlier this year, Kill Rock Stars released his highly acclaimed and hilarious stand-up album, Waiting for 2042, which is out on vinyl December 2. On Friday December 5, he headlines a show at the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver and here, Hari and I discuss Queens New York not Seattle Washington, how Canada’s not so great, cowardly Americans, indigenous eradication and white demonry, fighting not fleeing, agreeable Canadians, how Stephen Harper might be slicker than George W. Bush, the downfall and terrible truth of Jian Ghomeshi, being on Q, knowing Jian and how he used to always call me ‘buddy,’ Jian’s aggressive egotism, comedy and show biz power dynamics, Hari’s mom doesn’t think he listens anymore, people who think I should have a shot at hosting Q, people who think brown people can replace other brown people, Hari’s #vishonQ campaign, accusations of race obsession in observational comedy, Aziz Ansari’s take on mining one’s cultural heritage in their work versus someone like Russell Peters who does accents in his act, how Peters has galvanized South Asian communities, whitewashed accents and losing our parents’ voices, the situation in Ferguson and what it says about our social progress, white demonry, the remorseless Darren Wilson, people who actually listen, the Terry Gross interview might’ve been a little too great, #vishonQ, Back to the Future and the way forward to politely colonizing Mars, CIA seed money, Weezer’s decline and my lapsed membership (#1234) in their fan club, the Pixies have also been a let-down, more empathy for artistic evolution, really obsessing over Weezer’s trajectory, how and why we measure artists’ creative output, Radiohead, Fugazi, Shellac, the Beatles and others who have created an interesting, nearly flawless body of work, Weezer’s time and place post-Kurt Cobain/at the dawn of widespread internet use in the mid-90s, Pinkerton is messed up, “El Scorcho” and “Across the Sea” are both racist, taking online flak, how Hari’s completion of a B.A. in Comparative Politics and a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics somehow led him to comedy, Paul Mooney, following his passion, you have to laugh when you want to cry, addressing the diaspora and telling his parents’ stories, my dad came here with nothing and now I’m an asshole, coming to Canada more, Sled Island, Northwest Canada and Vancouver, Todd Barry’s Crowd Work movie is great, #toddbarryonQ, Waiting for 2042 is on vinyl via Kill Rock Stars, and pandering to white people, not appreciating our parents’ cooking until white people tell us it’s good, “What’s that smell?,” thanks mom and dad, google.com, the comedy bit “Moving to Canada,” and also #vishonQ.

Related links: harikondabolu.com killrockstars.com vishkhanna.com

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