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Ep. #264: Choir! Choir! Choir!

Choir! Choir! Choir! is a Toronto-based community music project spearheaded by Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman. Founded in 2011, Choir! Choir! Choir! features a committed group of gifted and amateur singers who meet twice a week, in a no pressure environment, and attempt to learn and interpret pop songs by artists like Prince, David Bowie, Extreme, Tegan & Sara, Patti Smith, and many, many more. Since forming, the group has performed in various venues across Canada, including the AGO and Massey Hall in Toronto, at ceremonies for the Juno Awards and Polaris Music Prize, and at Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York. Choir! Choir! Choir! will be performing at the Hillside Festival in Guelph, Ontario the weekend of July 22 and so I met with Nobu and Daveed at the now shuttered Caffe Brasiliano in Toronto recently where we discussed why Nobu brought us there before it closed its doors forever on June 17 2016, why Daveed applauds his efforts, missing Toronto in Halifax, the warmth of Toronto’s Annex in the 1970s, Nubu and Daveen, Drake and Kanye West and NOBU, C!C!C!’s origin story and connection to TUNS’ Matt Murphy and his birthday, the infectious energy of singing in a community choir, unusual choirs, sound people getting a grip on C!C!C! and its sound needs, a social choir, how the choir works and the hard parts, soothing people, you’re not cool, a McDLT reference, Toronto’s disposition and perceptions of the city’s attitude, the Hidden Cameras, C!C!C! paying tributes to Prince, David Bowie, and Extreme, hair metal bands and alt-rock’s rise, “We Belong” by Pat Benatar, Belle and Sebastian, Bryan Adams, Simple Minds and Jim Kerr, performing with Patti Smith at an AGO First Thursdays event, my Patti Smith story, a social media phenomenon, the Choir’s core, empowerment and entitlement, managing people, “Ignition” by R. Kelly, politics and context and music, listening to people’s concerns, protesting Putin with Sting, taking C!C!C! on the road to Vancouver to play a Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” playing Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall for David Bowie, it was almost Bieber instead of Bowie, “Space Oddity” by Bowie, critical decisions, the good music industry timing of C!C!C! and ADD, covers and the potential for C!C!C! originals, playing the Hillside Festival and how that works, the New Yorker dot com, Prince’s “When Doves Cry” at Massey Hall, and then it was over! over! over!

Related links: choirchoirchoir.com vishkhanna.com

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Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #261: Hooded Fang

Hooded Fang is an excellent and adventurous rock ‘n’ roll band from Toronto. Over the past decade, the band has toured the world and released a number of daring records that chart a unique, ever-changing sound steeped in underground rock idioms and exciting ideas. Their latest album is called Venus on Edge, it’s out now via Daps Records, and has compelled Hooded Fang to travel to different cities, including Guelph recently, where Daniel Lee, April Aliermo, and Lane Halley joined me in the CFRU studios to discuss watching me tech this episode, whether or not it’s really all that fun to do it yourself, women in music, the meaning behind Venus on Edge, a sex show, many meanings, what love’s got to do with it, existential crises, more tension, boredom and fun and side projects, Lazy Lane, playing with yourself, Itchy Lane, guitars on fire, playing guitar in BART, through composition, Phèdre and Lee Paradise, April knows Daniel or so the marketers would have us believe, sassy music videos, children are excuses, working with kids, the rise of Toronto’s consciousness, marginalized people speaking for themselves, Toronto is in Canada, progressive kids, times I’ve experienced racism, Tariq Hussain, Samir Khan, co-opting oppressive motifs, Kanye West and the Yeezus and Watch the Throne tours, hot and sauerkraut, mixed people and The Future of Hate™, what will happen to the racists, Maureen Tucker and Ralph Molina, talking about everything, post-Rob Ford, including Lane, Toronto’s all-ages punk scene, trying to do good but also tokenism, doing not talking, it can take time to get things done, VCR, pronoun awareness, Jonah Falco, including Lane, the Lawnya Vawnya Long Night talk show and its programming, baby formula tastes like science, writing what you talk, nice looking condos, needing things to write songs about, making people feel things, a pre-Sled Island show and Sappyfest, Lane’s family in PEI, google.com, Where the Streets Have Been Renamed, Daps Records, the song “A Final Hello,” and that was the end of this talking.

Related links: hoodedfang.com dapsrecords.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #253: Several Futures

Several Futures is a post-punk band from Toronto consisting of Jonny Dovercourt, Matt Nish-Lapidus, and Evan Davies. Dovercourt is the driving force behind Toronto’s celebrated Wavelength concert series and he and Davies once played together in a band called Republic of Safety, who I rather liked a lot. Together with Nish-Lapidus, they’ve formed Several Futures who are playing Ottawa’s Gabba Hey on May 6, Montreal’s Brasserie Beaubien on May 7, Peterborough’s the Spill on May 13, and Toronto’s Double Double Land on May 26, all in support of their new album, Before You Forget, which is out now. I recently walked around Toronto with Several Futures and we discussed Jonny’s apartment in Toronto, roommates, the Trinity Bellwoods area of Toronto, park life, Bitondo’s Pizza, Fresca Pizza, shows at the Monarch Tavern, a cheese bag, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a walk and talk, post-punk dad jokes, PUNZ trading zone and BUNZ trading zone, curb alerts, a dog park, Coachella cultural mindset, the compression of time and temporal confusion, the internet, idea investment, the marketplace, interview safety, where Several Futures came from, Evan Davies shows up all of a sudden, This Mess and Hybrid Moments, Evan’s work in the realm of PR and marketing, Republic of Safety, Converge in a café, a dub workshop at the Hillside Festival, storming Bitondo’s, ordering, a post-punk diet, several futures, The Garden of Forking Paths by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, the state and future of the world, William Gibson’s visions, where Several Futures fits in Toronto, the city’s arts and cultural community, bands like Not of and Champion Lover and METZ, Track Could Bend by Joe Strutt, Feast in the East, Wavelength and the Toronto music scene, several future plans for Several Futures, the Quebec band Fet Nat is huge in Guelph, a new EP, Camp Wavelength, the Constellation Records band Sofa, Ought, the song “Lost Dreams 4: Further Out,” and then there was no future.

Related links: twitter.com/severalfutures vishkhanna.com

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