Tag: Toronto

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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Ep. #153: Jasmyn Burke of Weaves

Post author By vish
Post date December 9, 2014

Jasmyn Burke is the lead singer and co-founder of a great young band from Toronto called Weaves. If electronic, synthesizer-driven bands might be called computer music, Weaves make Internet rock—an open-minded, all-encompassing pop music that’s infused with all of the sounds and information that is currently available. They have received accolades from Canadian and U.S. media outlets and released their first EP this past April 1. On December 12, Weaves are playing Stay Out of the Mall XIII with METZ and Badminton Racquet at the Ebar in Guelph and here, Jasmyn and I discuss hanging out at her parents’ house in Ancaster Ontario, actually being raised in Toronto, making music the way you listen to music, being difficult to pigeonhole artistically, working with Morgan Waters who’s the Rosetta Stone of musical collaborators and translates her ideas into more of a pop framework, Dr. Ew, when bands like Alvvays and Weaves do well, playing in Rattail, Jasmyn’s nerves and overcoming performance anxiety rituals, introverts who become front people, no one’s going to die, growing up in Weston, the boring ‘burbs, a penny-farthing tattoo, suburban hunger, seeing someone play a Neil Young song and loving Bob Dylan, Hot Monogamy, having a passion for creating strong vocal melodies and lyrics, discovering your own voice, always loving Toronto and believing in its supportive underground music community, Drake, the city of Toronto’s notoriety of late, we do need another hero, insidious search history ads, Toronto pet peeves, avoiding condescending ghettoization, sometimes the less we talk about a problem, the more quickly it goes away, feeding off the tension about the differences between us, why Weaves release singles every few months rather than a full LP, batch versus incremental recording, writing and recording all of the time, the album will be dead, the Weaves album will be deadly, opening for tUnE-yArDs at Massey Hall, Merrill Garbus is super nice, not working much, not complaining, travel and recording plans, seeing Bob Dylan live, the song “Shithole,” finding alien song ideas in your iPhone Voice Memos, and that’s it.

Related links: weavesband.com buzzrecords.ca vishkhanna.com

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