Tag: Toronto

Ep. #185: Steven Kado of Blocks Recording Club

Post author By vish
Post date May 7, 2015

Steven Kado is a Toronto-based musician and a co-founder of the Blocks Recording Club label in Toronto. Founded in 2003, the Blocks slogan “Don’t try, do!” led them to put out 70 releases by then-fledgling artists like Owen Pallett, the Barcelona Pavillion, Katie Stelmanis, Ninja High School, Matias, Bob Wiseman, the Phonemes, Les Mouches, Hank, and many more. On May 9, Blocks retires from the music biz with a celebratory party at the Tranzac in Toronto (292 Brunswick Ave) featuring performances by Nifty, Austra, the Barcelona Pavilion (2002-2004 lineup), Bob Wiseman and Picastro’s Liz Hysen, the Phonemes, Hank, Matias, Ninja High School, and Les Mouches. Here, Steve and I discuss the legacy of Blocks, what Toronto was like and what it’s like now, why some people hate Toronto, why some people from Toronto defend it, people who come to Toronto just to make it, trying to make Blocks a co-operative and aligning it with other local co-ops, knowing your city’s cultural history, what’s coming up for his own music, the secret guest at the Tranzac this Saturday is Les Mouches, the Bob Wiseman song “Neil Young at the Junos,” then it’s time to stop doing and trying.

Related links: blocksblocksblocks.com vishkhanna.com

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Tags Austra, Blocks Recording Club, Bob Wiseman, Hank, Katie Stelmanis, Les Mouches, Matias, Nifty, Ninja High School, Owen Pallett, Picastro, Steven Kado, the Barcelona Pavillion, the Phonemes, Toronto

News Podcast

Ep. #158: Bruce McCulloch

Post author By vish
Post date January 20, 2015

Bruce McCulloch is a tremendously influential and iconic comedic writer, performer, and director from Alberta who currently lives in the Hollywood Hills. He has written for Saturday Night Live, directed films like Stealing Harvard and Superstar, and released two excellent comedy records, Shame-Based Man and Drunk Baby Project. McCulloch is best known as a member of the beloved and edgy troupe, Kids in the Hall, who produced one of the greatest sketch comedy shows ever. Some of his adventures with the Kids have been documented in his excellent new memoir, Let’s Start a Riot, which is out now via HarperCollins, and has been partially adapted for a new series called Young Drunk Punk, which premieres Wednesday January 21 on CityTV. Here, Bruce and I discuss editing Young Drunk Punk in Toronto, how the Hollywood machine inspired him to write a book, revisiting himself, his Pretty Wife, what to write about, growing up in Calgary and Edmonton, One Yellow Rabbit and Sled Island, loving music but being saved by comedy, knowing thyself, self-identifying as a punk, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and the den mother that was Don Pyle, wisdom and caution, celebrity and humility and explaining your creative life to your children, what the Kids in the Hall think of Bruce’s book, what Young Drunk Punk is about, Ian McKay not Ian MacKaye or even Ian McKay, upcoming North American Kids in the Hall live dates, playing characters on shows like Arrested Development, “Tired of Waking Up Tired” by the Diodes, and then it was time for happiness pie.

Related links: brucio.com vishkhanna.com

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Tags "Tired of Waking Up Tired", Alberta, Arrested Development, Bruce McCulloch, CityTV, Don Pyle, HarperCollins, Let’s Start a Riot, One Yellow Rabbit, punk, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Sled Island, the Diodes, The Kids in the Hall, Toronto, Young Drunk Punk

News Podcast

Ep. #155: The Weather Station

Post author By vish
Post date January 7, 2015

Tamara Lindeman is a captivating singer and vivid lyricist who operates under the moniker the Weather Station. Currently based in Toronto, Lindeman has been a member of notable bands like Entire Cities, Bruce Peninsula, and Marine Dreams and she has collaborated with Baby Eagle, Bahamas, Doug Paisley, Siskiyou, and more. She recently released a beautiful observational EP called What Am I Going to Do with Everything I Know, which is out now on the fine North American label, You’ve Changed Records, and precedes the spring release of her next full-length album, Loyalty. The Weather Station are playing a song or two on my Long Night talk show at Long Winter at the Great Hall in Toronto on Friday January 9 at around 8:00 PM and here we discuss relationship tension, narrative and personal songwriting, Steven Lambke’s ingenious songwriting as Baby Eagle, working with Daniel Romano who’s a doer, growing up outside of Orangeville, not really listening to good music until moving to Toronto, cultural isolation, learning to play and write late in life, a secret life as a thespian, Tilda Swinton, The Murdoch Mysteries, AC/DC and High Voltage, hints about the new album Loyalty, the song “What Am I Going to Do (With Everything I Know),” and much more than I had the time to write about this morning.

Related links: the-weather-station.com youvechangedrecords.com torontolongwinter.com vishkhanna.com

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