Tag: Toronto

Ep. #207: Slim Twig

Post author By vish
Post date August 6, 2015

Slim Twig is the moniker for a young man from Toronto named Max Turnbull who’s a noted actor and musician. Over the past 10 years, he has released a lot of challenging, artful pop music in projects like Tropics, Archaic Women, Plastic Factory, U.S. Girls, Darlene Shrugg, and of course, Slim Twig. His most recent Slim Twig album is a challenging yet accessible blast of psych-pop called Thank You for Stickin’ With Twig, which is available via DFA Records. Here, Max and I discuss his parents’ house in Toronto, the internet and its trappings, drugs, Slim Twig’s cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s song ‘Cannabis,’ not making stoner rock, self-awareness and external perceptions and leading the discussion about your own work, anti-fundamentalism, self-defence, media distillation and brevity, wearing one’s influences on one’s sleeve, gratitude on the new album, tongue in cheek, submerging pop hooks, studio creations and how demos might impact songwriting, unplugged, his idiosyncrasies and accessibility, artists who evolve, over articulation of one’s intent, message control and Donald Trump, “Stoned Out of My Mind” by the Chi-Lites, the twigs of today won’t defend themselves against the seventies, inequalities and protest songs on the new record, era-ambiguous production, Twig’s other amazing band Darlene Shrugg, Young Guv, moving on from Tropics, how Darlene Shrugg influenced the new Twig record and their future plans, Ice Cream, touring plans, a Pleasence Records cassette, the song “Fog of Sex (N.S.I.S.),” and then there was a fadeout killer.

Related links: slim-twig.com dfarecords.com vishkhanna.com

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Tags Cannabis, Chi-lites, Darlene Shrugg, DFA Records, Max Turnbull, Serge Gainsbourg, Slim Twig, Thank You for Stickin’ With Twig, Toronto, Tropics, U.S. Girls

News Podcast

Ep. #196: José Miguel Contreras of By Divine Right

Post author By vish
Post date June 30, 2015

José Miguel Contreras is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, film composer, and amazing songwriter currently based in Toronto. Contreras is best known as the only consistent member of By Divine Right, a tremendously significant band whose past contributors include Feist and musicians who went on to form Broken Social Scene, Holy Fuck, and Sheezer among many others. By Divine Right’s first show took place in June 1990 and, on July 1, they celebrate their 25th anniversary with a big, all-star concert at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, featuring past and current members and other special guests. By Divine Right are also returning to the Hillside Festival on the July 24-26 weekend and will release a new record this year as well. Here, José and I talk about being in bed, freshening and boning up, the history of BDR, when they sucked, when they ruled, wanting and not wanting people to be in BDR’s revolving door lineup, Lysh and Geordie, Mark Goldstein on drums forever, the three-night stint with Change of Heart I saw in Guelph in 1997, getting going with a tape and touring with the Inbreds, the first person to ever leave BDR, the only time BDR might ever stop for good is now, the chemistry, the differences between Toronto and the internet in 1990 and now, seeing high school mate Hayden succeed, the importance of James Ogilvie, finding cool sounds, playing with Mark and James could be a bit dirty, Guelph’s Trasheteria, Dallas Good and drugs, going to high school with Sean Dean, born in Chile on John Lennon and Sean Lennon’s birthday, Yoko Ono might be creepy for not suggesting John hang out with the Beatles every once in a while, Chilean folk music and the Monkees, Beatles comps, where does happiness come from, finding your purpose, bliss bubbles, growing up in Thornhill and attending high school with Jian Ghomeshi who could be weird, Jian’s little black book, playing Jian’s high school show Swé, José’s role in the new film Porch Stories, his co-star Laura Barrett, the film’s plot and themes, acting again, music for him versus music for BDR, upcoming solo and BDR releases, leaving the Beaches for the west end, Divine @ 25 at the Harbourfront Centre, “itineration,” juicy past band members taking part in this thing, two hours of BDR, figuring out my role in this event, playing Hillside again, the song “More Thorns,” and that was it.

Related links: bydivineright.ca vishkhanna.com

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listen to ‘José Miguel Contreras on 25 years of By Divine Right, re-uniting with Feist, Brendan Canning, more’ on audioBoom

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Tags Brendan Canning, Brian Borcherdt, Broken Social Scene, By Divine Right, Feist, Harbourfront Centre, Holy Fuck, James Ogilvie, Jian Ghomeshi, John Lennon, José Miguel Contreras, Laura Barrett, Porch Stories, Sean Dean, Sheezer, Toronto

News Podcast

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