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Ep. #291: Long Night Reviews 2016 with Aliya Pabani, Freddie Rivas, Jill Krajewski, John Semley, & Laura Hermiston

This episode of Long Night with Vish Khanna was recorded at the Polish Combatants Hall in Toronto, Ontario, as part of the Long Winter festival on Friday December 2, 2016. It was a thoughtful, funny, and fascinating year in review discussion about 2016, featuring some very wise panelists. Aliya Pabani is the host of The Imposter, Canadaland’s arts & culture podcast, and also an artist in her own right. Freddie Rivas is a talented comedian and puppeteer and is well-respected for hosting Rap Battlez in Toronto. Jill Krajewski is a social media producer at Vice and a contributor to Noisey where she’s written notable pieces, including “The Noisey Guide to Making Your Damn Venue Inclusive.” John Semley is a books columnist at the Globe & Mail and the author of This Is A Book About The Kids In The Hall. And Laura Hermiston is the driving force behind the Toronto band Twist whose new album, Spectral, is out now on Buzz Records. Recorded by Dave MacKinnon. Photos by Rick Clifford. Produced by Long Winter and Vish Khanna.

Related links: torontolongwinter.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

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

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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News Podcast

Ep. #75: Michael Feuerstack

Michael Feuerstack is a well-respected, sophisticated and possibly underrated singer, songwriter, and musician who is based in Montreal. For many years he played in a Ottawa band called Wooden Stars and also nurtured his own project, Snailhouse. Last year he released an LP called Tambourine Death Bed, his first record under his own name, and he’s due to release a new, collaborative effort as Michael Feuerstack & Associates on April 19 called Singer Songer (Forward/Headless Owl). He’s scheduled to play Kazoo! Fest in Guelph (April 9-13) with more tour dates to follow. Here, Mike and I discuss doing this episode in my living room, weird weather, true facts, purple seagulls, tasty coffee, celebratory enthusiasm, the musical shift between Snailhouse and Michael Feuerstack, home recording, my lack of preparation for this interview, Mike’s relationship with the press and his interest in how he’s perceived, antagonism vs. cynicism, Mike’s hardcore punk past in Moncton in the band the Underdogs with Rick White of Eric’s Trip, my son’s blue puck, Mike’s musical origins and early collaborations with White and Julie Doiron, how Wooden Stars began, what punk rock means, and why the gruelling lifestyle of lowly rock bands makes it tricky to keep them together, the intermingling of earnestness and irreverence, how Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are really funny, and the connection between music and comedy, how working as ‘Michael Feuerstack’ might be a confluence of every kind of music he’s ever made, my desire to get everyone to say they’ll “Yahoo! it” instead of “Google it,” some details about his forthcoming album Singer Songer, which includes vocals by the likes of Mathias Kom, Devon Sproule, Bry Webb, Leif Vollebekk, John K. Samson, Jessie Stein, Jim Bryson, Angela Desveaux, and Little Scream, the song “Leave Me Alone,” and more.

Related links: michaelfeuerstack.com vishkhanna.com

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