Category: Podcast

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #110: Josh Salter & Matt Peters of Monomyth

Monomyth is a really cool band from Halifax that make a hazy, gritty kind of pop music. Their washed out, psych-rock-tinged new album is called Saturnalia Regalia! and it’s out July 22 via Mint Records. They’re touring through Ontario and Quebec now, with NXNE shows in Toronto on June 18 at the Drake and Handlebar, a Guelph show at 32 Essex St. during Post-Fest, a Toronto show at Saving Gigi at 1:00 PM on June 21 and a Montreal show that night at Brasserie Beaubien. Back in April, Monomyth and I were both in St. John’s Newfoundland for the Lawnya Vawnya festival and singer/guitarist Josh Salter, drummer Matt Peters, and I found time to get together at the radio headquarters of Keep Station for a chat about the band and stuff. Here, we talk about how Matt’s elbows rattle Keep Station, what St. John’s is like, moose curry, Halifax is far away from Newfoundland, the East Coast Music Awards and No-cases, how to sleep on an airplane, it happens in Florida, Josh cruises with his dad, Josh is actually from Hubley while Matt is actually from Upper Tantallon and they’ve known each other since grade one, Josh’s dad has learned to party, little league of horrors, the Matt Peters Erection, Overlord Sinner and Windows 95 Media Recorder, the Halifax pop explosion, 1991: The Year Punk Broke, nü metal, the Burdocks and Dog Day and Special Noise, the importance of Sloan, musical democracy, Monomyth’s other drummer, Charles Austin and Psychic Fair, Mike O’Neill and Black Jesus, songwriting distinctions, shoegaze and My Bloody Valentine, the song “Pac Ambition” and Tupac Shkaur, making lo-fi Monomyth tapes, Joseph Campbell, bottlecap toss, the song “The Big Reveal,” and that just about wraps it up.

Related links: mmyth.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com

monomyth

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #108: Born Ruffians

Born Ruffians are a terrifically sharp indie-rock band whose latest album is called Birthmarks. Released in 2013 via Paper Bag Records, it’s the band’s third record and found them exploring more polished pop production. On Sunday July 27, Born Ruffians are playing the penultimate Main Stage set at the 2014 Hillside Festival so I tracked down singer, guitarist, and songwriter Luke Lalonde and bassist Mitch DeRosier at Ronnie’s Local in Kensington Market where they drank and we chatted about the visceral reaction people might have when they see Constantines and/or the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat play again, hanging out together in Elora at Riverfest last summer, Shirley Temple, Ashley MacIsaac, my unwanted festival advances, how Born Ruffians set the table for Serena Ryder, if the band has hang-ups about its status in this country, Cam Lindsay does his research, Luke does an impressive array of improvised impressions, the Canadian music industry, being nominated for the ‘Breakthrough Group of the Year’ at the Junos after being around for 12 years, always being a new band to someone, drinking with your tiny baby at Ronnie’s Local, Luke and Mitch are second cousins, I own a Beatles t-shirt older than people in Born Ruffians, family ties, the weird, lawsuit-baiting restaurant that Mitch’s family owned in Midland, Luke forced Mitch to play bass after travelling through time, Steve Hamelin got inspired to buy a drum kit, musical dads, Mitch reads other people’s sad texts, getting into music on your own, the Minutemen and the Unicorns, discovering bands and punk aggression, the bold pop moves of Birthmarks, the weirdness around making Say It, losing Steve the drummer at least twice, Luke and Mitch have been drinking, Steve will play on the new record but other drummers might too, there are 150 songs written towards the new Born Ruffians song, no, there are zero new songs written, Born Ruffians killed a guy, Mac DeMarco’s friend Chas interrupts this interview, there’s a secret Makeout Videotape show happening during NXNE either on the Saturday or the Sunday, I offended Chas, the dove-eating story could’ve been way better, Hillside hat-trick, the song “Oh Cecilia,” dove’s D, and scene.

Related links: bornruffians.com hillsidefestival.ca vishkhanna.com

BORN_RUFFIANS_05_BAND_BW_081

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #107: Friendly Rich

Friendly Rich is a strange but great man who originally hails from Brampton just outside of Toronto, Ontario. He is a singer, songwriter, educator, impresario, and instigator who has released 10 albums to date, including his latest, Bountiful, which is out on June 24 via the Pumpkin Pie Corporation. Friendly Rich and his band will celebrate its release with a show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on July 24, which follows a sojourn across Europe in June and July. Friendly Rich recently visited me at my home where we had a spirited chat about prepping for a walk down to the Guelph Farmer’s Market, the joys of Eric the Baker, how my son doesn’t want to be on the show, how my wife and I don’t like carrying our son anymore, Goldie Hawn, John Cage, and Silence Guelph, living in Oakville, petunia spotting, the impact of the provincial election on Guelph, Rich gets self-conscious meeting the general public on our interview stroll, a firetruck at a crosswalk, the Regent Park School of Music and Saturday Night Live’s Hal Willner and Kevin Drew and Daniel Lanois, the Brampton Indie Arts Festival was a visionary thing, pranking bad mayors, my son the difficult interview subject, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and Marc Ribot, when the BIAF got different, slaughtering lambs in Brampton garages and filling blue boxes full of red blood, why is Friendly Rich so weird, Nudetella, infiltrating the system with subversive performance art, running into Charlie Cares busking, Raynaud’s syndrome, Rich drops a fiver inside Charlie’s case, Charlie sings us “Wildwood Flower,” locking things up, running into musician/NDP candidate/Hillside Festival founder James Gordon and peppering him with the tough questions, Arthur MacInnes has a nice shirt and is an old, Fugazi road-trip buddy, Meral the Turkish food chef whom I still owe a dollar, delicious böreks, the “Sausage Samba” saga, regulation sausage in Germany, combining the worlds of Star Trek: The Next Generation and sausage auditing for a music video that has been championed by Funny or Die and Team Coco, running into visual artist Gillian Wilson who should not be a stranger, my wife needs money, Gregory Pepper is cleaning out the eavestroughs, Art on the Street, goat’s milk, Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s death train, “Penis Suitcase” and the super strange funeral ritual of the king of Zambia, my son eats peppers like they’re apples, darkness and childlike innocence, running into Matt Collins formerly of Ninja High School and currently in the band Dutch, my former linemate Bruce Lynn, still clamouring for Eric the Baker, getting Rich a Guelph apple and talking to farmers about the apple-splitting trick, making our way to Eric the Baker, Friendly Rich is prolific, purple juice interruption, Adrian Celentano, sausage rolls and blueberry tarts, my guestlist, arriving at Eric’s, Rich buys a chocolate weiner, my son tries to steal some madeleine cookies, meeting Eric the Baker, the song “Penis Suitcase,” et en fin.

Related links: friendlyrich.com vishkhanna.com

9-Friendly-Rich-4

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS