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Ep. #247: Cupcake Ductape

Cupcake Ductape is a very cool noise-infused pop band consisting of Steph Yates of the band Esther Grey and a folk-oriented singer and songwriter named Alanna Gurr. Based in Guelph, Cupcake Ductape have become local favourites on the strength of their live show and their 2015 EP, Get Over It. They’re playing a show at Kazoo! Fest in Guelph on Thursday April 7, and here, Steph, Alanna, and I discuss Steph’s chest cold, Alanna’s curiosity about being sick, how Alanna loves driving, stormchips, how we combine everything now, worlds colliding, the song “Champagne Birthday,” pronunciation, sparkle punk and playful music, the song “Whose Hair?,’ servers and customers, revenge, Steph meeting Alanna at the Homemade Jam Festival, getting Alanna a job, Scott went to the washroom while Cupcake Ductape wrote songs, bass and drums and Mike O’Neill and the Inbreds, melodic bass, being bratty, serious music, who cares, Alanna comes out of her shell, singing pretty versus singing roughly, being girly and tough, internalized perceptions of women, possible mutual interests, the Slits, working songs out, personal voids, getting an encouraging push from Brad McInerney, Lowlands, Nicolette and the Nobodies, growing up in Guelph, the Hillside Festival, piano tuning, Mona Lisa and Whip Cream Bikinis, two songs about hot dogs, Hamilton’s Art Crawl, Guelph needs a music infrastructure, a trip to Aruba, $1300.00, a happenstance band, fun, Too Bad So Sad Hire a Lawyer, Steph’s aunt, Little Room Labs, summer plans, the song “Unique New York,” lawyering up, and then we get over it.

Related links: facebook.com/cupcakeductape vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #106: Brad McInerney & Mike Deane of Kazoo!

Brad McInerney is a founding member of the Kazoo! concert series in Guelph. which is celebrating its eighth anniversary with two shows in town this week. On Thursday June 5, the Salt Lick Kids are reuniting to play the Jimmy Jazz with Sackville’s Kappa Chow, while on Friday June 6, Esther Grey, my Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet tribute band, …FROM a Shadowy Planet, Start Something, and a surprise special guest plays a show at the James Gordon Outreach HQ, located at 32 Essex St. The other day, Brad, his Kazoo! colleague Mike Deane, and I met at Mike’s house in Guelph to discuss things like Kazoo!’s exact eighth anniversary, Ninja High School, Households, the Maynards, Van Gogh’s Ear, 106 Huron St. and house shows, Rockets Red Glare and Jeremy Strachan breaking a bass string in the living room, punk rock squats, Hamilton Ontario, Caledon Village, the Grange St. house/Burnt Oak collective, the hilarious Burnt Oak/No-Fi feud, Ell V Gore, how Kazoo! began, Diamond Rings, transient towns, I start eating dinner, Mike’s history as a show promoter, my amazing job at a car rental company, the Poultry Palace, Montreal was a bust, when Mike met Brad, checking in on my dinner, etiquette, Señor Chipotle, going from playing music to setting up shows, making things better, enriching communities and DIY networks, the influence of Fugazi, selfish community-building, putting Guelph on the map, Rancid, NOFX, and Ramones, Martini, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, being in a band as an 11 year-old, Start Something, random notes and delay knobs, Cake Bomb Bolivia, Elbow Beach Surf Club, stopping the rock, Le Cyc and Polydactyl Hearts Collective, let’s start a band, Jazz, nursery school bands, Aaron Levin from Weird Canada, the general health of Guelph’s live music scene, transients and residents, the best Kazoo! Fest ever took place in 2014, selfless community-building, people who stick around town and do/make stuff, Guelph is too white and old, many things in Guelph don’t interest Mike, the overabundance of stuff to do in Guelph, Macdonell St. at 2 AM and pee floods, someone broke into my car and stole my mints, Guelph feels bigger, strangers at shows are good, Brad calls Mike and I on booking our own bands to play this Kazoo! 8th Anniversary show, Don Pyle is a superb drummer, I forgot that I played Kazoo! shows with Wax Mannequin before, a rundown about these anniversary shows, Olive the dog, excitement, the Start Something song “Hard Times,” and then it’s over. Or is it?…

Related links: kazookazoo.ca ticketbreak.com/event_details/7590 vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #57: Steph Yates of Esther Grey

Steph Yates is a talented singer, guitarist, and songwriter who plays in a Guelph-based band called Esther Grey. The scrappy, artful rock band has been together a few years now and earlier this fall they released a new single called Buttermilk. On Thursday Dec. 5, Esther Grey join Dusted and Marine Dreams at Stay Out of the Mall XII, a benefit for the Canadian Cancer Society towards leukemia research taking place at the Ebar (41 Quebec St.) in Guelph. Steph joined me during a live broadcast on CFRU 93.3 FM and she and I discussed high school basketball, being tall, getting into music, being shy, opening for Sebadoh, sleeping all day, drinking coffee, getting over performance anxiety, playing rock music, living in Waterloo and Guelph, the importance of music communities, the merits of band tension, the songs “Buttermilk” and “Night Calls,” and more.

Related links: esthergrey.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com

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