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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

Kazoo8th-anniversary-web

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Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #105: Zaki Ibrahim

Zaki Ibrahim is a very creative singer and songwriter who splits her time between Toronto and Johannesburg. Over the past decade, she has established herself as one of the most daring and fascinating R&B/electro-pop artists in North America and her heady, sci-fi-infused debut album, Every Opposite, was shortlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. This Sunday June 8, Ibrahim performs at the Field Trip festival at Fort York in Toronto along with people like Constantines, Fucked Up, Washed Out, Do Make Say Think, Gord Downie and the Sadies, Broken Social Scene and more. A few months ago, Ibrahim and I caught up for a chat just after she played a noon hour concert at the University of Guelph where we discussed microphone checking, our hang-ups about our voices, speaking like someone who’s lived in South Africa and Canada, being mistaken for Jian Ghomeshi on the phone, playing concerts for students at lunch, leading an aerobics class, the sci-fi, African-set narrative of Every Opposite, Nanaimo to Cape Town, the town in British Columbia that has outlawed hand drumming, Diana Krall and Young Galaxy, rumbling tummies, receiving a Polaris Music Prize nomination, getting to Toronto in 2001, living in Johannesburg, deer come, Zaki’s dad was involved with Bush Radio and media education in Cape Town, making radio plays but not necessarily engaging with other media forms, House of Lies with Don Cheadle and Teen Wolf, the internet in South Africa, twitter binges, avoiding categorization musically or otherwise, knowing one’s blackness and being multi-racial or “Canadian,” I subtly quote the Fugazi song “Place Position,” loving pop music by white people, singer and songwriter, being ok with external perceptions of one’s work, performing for old people at lunch, dates, following up on Every Opposite, messing with songwriting and addressing the terms of success, go to wikipedia, proper pronunciation, and that’s it.

Related links: zakiibrahim.co.za fieldtriplife.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #101: Steven Lambke

Steven Lambke is a very talented songwriter, singer, and guitar player who often performs under the name Baby Eagle. A founding member of Constantines, Lambke was raised in Cambridge, Ontario and currently lives in Toronto where he manages the You’ve Changed Records label, which has released music by the likes of Baby Eagle, Attack in Black, Daniel Romano, Daniel, Fred & Julie, Shotgun Jimmie, Marine Dreams, the Weather Station, Apollo Ghosts, and will be handling the reissue of Constantines’ Shine a Light in Canada this June 10. You’ve Changed celebrates its fifth anniversary with special roster-oriented shows at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern on May 22 and Ottawa’s St. Alban’s Church on May 23. At Steve’s place with Shary Boyle in Toronto, he and I discussed things like what Shary is preparing for dinner, the fact that Steve is in Toronto not in Sackville, Venice to Detroit, border crossing when you’re a musician not crossing to play music, “pfft…co-operative,” is Fugazi some kind of heavy metal, hobbies and retirement, teachers and race car drivers, parental tolerance of super loud novice musicians, learning about Superchunk and Merge Records, Encore Records in Kitchener is the best, whether labels matter and how they curate experiences, Steve’s old job at Soundscapes, the influence of Three Gut Records, SappyFest, and Attack in Black on You’ve Changed, how ideas are executed by the people running the label, the mystery of YCR 004 and CST 100, Dan Romano steps back a bit, Colin Medley made a You’ve Changed Anniversary zine, Steve should write a book or two, oh wait, Steve is publishing a book of lyrics and poetry, how writing songs in Constantines compares to writing as Baby Eagle, song batches, Christine Fellows and John K. Samson are encouraging people, balancing things, quality control and propelling important cultural work, “a field left fallow by a pine stand will grow pine,” more You’ve Changed records are coming out many of which will likely be made by Marine Dreams, the Shine a Light reissue, why the Constantines’ ending and starting up again might’ve been Bry Webb’s call, why Constantines will not be touring, the surprise guest at the Toronto You’ve Changed show at the Horseshoe on May 22 is no longer a surprise to you because you just found out that it’s Daniel Romano and his band, the Marine Dreams song “Constant Love” and then we stopped without really talking about our younger selves learning to play music together and forming bands like Captain Co-Pilot. Next time.

Related links: youvechangedrecords.com baby-eagle.com vishkhanna.com

babyeagle

YC_zine_grab

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