Tag: Guelph

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #231: Evan Gordon

Evan Gordon is a gifted musician from Guelph who is a member of Islands and the band formerly known as the Magic. He’s also the leader of the Sad Clowns, a crazed rock ‘n’ roll band that is playing their first show in many years at the Stay Out of the Mall XIV benefit show in Guelph at the Ebar on December 19. Here, Evan and I discuss recording this podcast at CFRU, places he has lived, Perth, Ontario, not rural or urban, boomerangs and Guelph, gentrification and bistros, the Apollo 11, the fact that Sun Sun Chinese Restaurant recently closed down, why I had a sentimental connection to Sun Sun and its broccoli and bean curd, when it went downhill, Breezy Corners moves into downtown Guelph and replaces Sun Sun, 9,000 eggs, Breezy Corners gall, Guelph and shifting priorities, two new Islands records that are coming out soon, the return of the Sad Clowns, no-fi and no-fun, Clayton Dyon, the Magic and MAGIC!, feeling it and reunion shows, getting the gang back together, Frozen in Time the rock opera, John Merritt, rocking, pop and soft-rock, losing his edge, having a tumultuous time in a work-based and unusual life, homeless, unsettling down, solitary man, James Gordon, following in a musician’s footsteps, balancing dreams and life, when things bomb, Geordie Gordon, escapism and rock therapy, Nick Thorburn and success, a creative onslaught, a new label, underthinking, stu-stu-studio, sub-salary, gaining weight and a doughnut diet, Hollywood fat, Eddie Shack, musical shame, the song “Get It On,” Andrew Collins, silliness, the song “Travelling Back in Time,” and then we went for doughnuts.

Related links: myspace.com/egordon vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

outtake_islands_colinmedley_10

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #138: Palaceer Lazaro of Shabazz Palaces

Palaceer Lazaro is the founder and frontman of the excellent and inventive Seattle hip-hop group Shabazz Palaces. Once known as Butterfly, one of three MCs in the pioneering group Digable Planets, Lazaro was born Ishmael Butler and his actions suggest that he was brought here to make a difference. The critically acclaimed new Shabazz Palaces album is called Lese Majeste, a wonderfully constructed seven-piece suite of 18 songs, which is out now via Sub Pop Records. Its creators have described Lese Majeste’s dizzying array of beats and rhymes as an attack and it’s true; there is revolution in the air whenever Shabazz Palaces touch down. They’re on tour throughout Europe now and have several upcoming North American dates, including stops at the Kool Haus in Toronto on November 21 and the Corona Theatre in Montreal on November 22. Here, Ish and I discuss what’s up in Seattle, attacking suckerism and materialism, aging out of hip-hop culture, acting young versus being youthful, actually contributing to the culture, necessary self-involvement and elevating your community and social media, when hip-hop became the powers that be, the song “Dawn in Luxor” and Egypt, a throughline between “lese majeste,” overtaking majesty, and Watch the Throne, calling people on shit but also not trusting everything we think we know about them, kids in Chicago and down south are the leaders of hip-hop, basketball and jazz, hearing “Rapper’s Delight” and Rakim’s “Eric B. is President/My Melody,” De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, Guelph and Portlandia and Seattle hippie mysticism and betterment, what’s next with the Black Constellation, the songs “Soundview,” “Ishmael,” “…down 155th in MCM Snorkel,” and then we out.

Related links: subpop.com/artists/shabazz_palaces vishkhanna.com

Shabazz Palaces

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #130: Elisabeth de Mariaffi

Elisabeth de Mariaffi is a gifted writer and poet who lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her 2012 short story collection How to Get Along with Women is extraordinarily moving, emotionally jarring, texturally precise, and it was longlisted for the 2013 Giller Prize with good reason. Of her work, author Michael Winter once astutely said, “She’s alive to what disturbs, and she’s dead to cliche.” Elisabeth’s work has been featured in prominent periodicals and her story “Kiss Me Like I’m The Last Man On Earth” was nominated for a 2013 National Magazine Award. She is also one of the founders of Toronto Poetry Vendors, a small press that sells single poems by established Canadian poets through toonie vending machines. De Mariaffi has a new novel coming out this January via HarperCollins Canada called The Devil You Know and she’s appearing at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival on Sunday Sept. 14. Here, she and I talk about the weather in St. John’s, living between Toronto and Guelph and Newfoundland, meeting St. John’s current poet laureate George Murray, Book Ninja, working for an airline during a long distance relationship, just married, working at Ed Video Media Arts Centre and learning about video editing, writing poetry under the tutelage of Dionne Brand and short stories with Michael Winter, flying together, finding the time and resources to write the stories in How To Get Along With Women, short stories versus long stories, travelling to Hungary a lot as a kid, learning several languages, politics and perception and the tangible impact of the Cold War, how I thought How To Get Along With Women would be funny but it was actually very heavy, the politics of our day-to-day existence, relationships and power dynamics, fear, the whole literary prize nomination deal, writing a novel while the iron was hot, Invisible Publishing, working at Breakwater Books, having four kids and jobs as writers, NO, her new novel The Devil You Know and its relation to fear, February 1993 in the weeks that Paul Bernardo was being pursued by police, darkness, writing more short stories or another novel, sending wedding thank yous, the future, and then the end.

Related links: invisiblepublishing.com twitter.com/ElisabethdeM edenmillswritersfestival.ca

mariaffi2

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS