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Ep. #289: Lonely Parade

Lonely Parade is a fantastic band from Peterborough, Ontario consisting of Augusta Veno on guitar, Anwyn Climenhage on drums, and Charlotte Dempsey on bass. Formed around five years ago, Lonely Parade are childhood friends and excellent musicians who have toured throughout most of eastern Canada three times already, even though Augusta is 21 and Anwyn and Charlotte are both 18 years old. They’ve earned a loyal following based on their sophisticated, heartfelt, and humourous rock songs. Out this past September, No Shade is their third album and one of the finest records of 2016. The Lonely Parade are playing the fifteenth edition of Stay Out of the Mall on Friday December 16 at the Ebar in Guelph. We actually caught up at the CFRU studios when they were in Guelph this past October for an interesting and revealing chat about the ups and downs of living in Peterborough, teenaged touring and travelling, many states, courses and studying, childhood dance classes together, highland dancing and me in a kilt, a knife in my sock, bad dancing and zoo keeping, Riverview Park & Zoo, getting into music at 11 or 12 years old, leap year aging, when Ani’s dad John played drums in the Celtic punk band Mahones who should not be confused with Ramones, drum maintenance, elementary school jazz band with Ani and Charlotte, not slapping the bass, the Inbreds and Label Obscura, Jill Staveley of the Burning Hell and Trent Radio, Dave Ullrich and Zunior, Mike O’Neill’s bass playing, Augusta’s guitar playing and Girls Rock Camp and reconnecting with Ani and Charlotte and high school, piano playing, performing at their parents’ dinner parties, Yesterday’s Socks and math rock, starting the Toxic Markers five or six years ago before becoming Lonely Parade, dark humour, “My Mom Got Hit On at a Punk Show,” CBC Radio 3, Strokes and White Stripes and formative influences, cool parents, the Tragically Hip’s Trouble at the Henhouse, the cold road, a candle in the car, missing keys and Wax Mannequin and the pocket system, fast food, little scenes, Charlotte the organizer, Girls Rock Camp’s purpose and potency, everyday sexism, ageism, the new album No Shade and working with Jose Contreras, progressing as songwriters, writing about things that used to bug them, new songs, highland dancing, a day planner, Puberty Hands and cruisin’, painting and photography and an art collective, the song “Duck Hunt,” and then the parade was a little less lonely.

Related links: thelonelyparade.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #251: The Burning Hell

The Burning Hell is one of the best and smartest pop, rock, folk bands in the world. Led by founder Mathias Kom and his partner Ariel Sharratt, the Burning Hell consist of people from Peterborough, Ontario, St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Their latest witty, outspoken, and reflective album is called Public Library, it’s out now via a wonderful Canadian label called Headless Owl and in Europe via BB*ISLAND, and has prompted the band to tour all over the place. On a recent Sunday, I caught up with Mathias and Ariel to discuss the board games café Snakes and Lattes in Toronto, union dues, coffee connections, knowing Mathias and seeing all of Canada with him and Wax Mannequin, straight edge, thinking about our time and childhood, the ’80s and the ’50s, how industries create their own markets, creating content for YouTube when they don’t pay artists anything for that content, how to make a living, selling t-shirts and Protomartyr, pity purchases, the failure of albums versus live shows and how live shows became an outlet for bands to play their whole albums in sequence, guilt-free movie downloading, hardcore Burning Hell fans, what playing Glastonbury was like, general audiences, too many music festivals and music’s economic landscape, experiential music hangs, things have changed, capitalism was right maybe, Girls Rock Camp and clarinets, the joy of playing music live, where Mathias comes from, where Ariel and Mathias came from, our age of empowerment, dealing with terrible people, a community band that almost seemed imaginary, Peterborough and the Silver Hearts, living down a ramshackle history, the Ariel and Mathias album Don’t Believe the Hyperreal, the new Burning Hell album Public Library and then Mathias makes me read a spiel I wrote for it, the Burning Hell are cool, Al Tuck again, the middle ages, advocacy and obscurity, coffee is fattening, “Fuck the Government, I Love You,’ David Berman likes this song, and then, board game over.

Related links: wearetheburninghell.com headlessowlrecords.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #121: Dave Ullrich of Zunior & The Inbreds

Dave Ullrich is the founder of Zunior.com, one of the world’s first digital distribution services for independent music, which celebrates its tenth anniversary with various enterprises, including a new tribute album by Tony Dekker and a big festival at Sandbanks Provincial Park on Sept. 13. He was also a founding member of the excellent indie-rock band the Inbreds. Here, Dave and I discuss Allen’s Pub on the Danforth in Toronto, Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip and the Inbreds, growing up in Oshawa but making the Inbreds in Kingston, hiding your Oshawa, k-os rapping upside down, Cuff the Duke owning Oshawa, my pilgrimage to Mike O’Neill’s childhood home and memories of that episode, playing cover songs at an O’Neill Collegiate Vocational Institute battle of the bands in an outfit called the Fresh Steaming Turds, the forgettable U2, I know the R.E.M. discography pretty well apparently, loving Zeppelin and Bonzo, why the complexity and fury of punk is often equated with simplicity and rudimentary playing, sincerity in music, Proboscis Funkstone Records, the rise of cassettes, the riff-y, fingerpicking early days, luck + preparedness = success, these are the breaks, I challenge you to dislike the Inbreds, Lewis Melville, Rheostatics, Guelph, when the Inbreds turned down a Foo Fighters tour opening slot to break up, sneaking low-profile records to Dave Bookman who got them to superstars, angering the Tea Party while Foo Fighters munched on KD, a circuitous route to scooping the White Stripes, starting the prescient Zunior.com digital music delivery service 10 years ago, vinyl sales and holding a piece of wood, leveraging the spirit of indie-rock computing, Zunior platinum, the top 10 moments in the history of Zunior, suprising Rheostatics, the Zune, solar power, Egger plays live, Peanuts, Boxing Day, patron saint Stuart McLean, making commercials with Scott Cudmore and Martin Tielli, the joy of the label and Wax Mannequin, getting into e-books and working with rock writer Martin Popoff, predicting the future for music consumption, flirting with Rdio and musical curation and discovery, vinyl might have a cost ceiling, major labels are like cockroaches, the new Tony Dekker Sings 10 Years of Zunior album and how it came to be, the Zunior 10th anniversary show in Sandbanks Provincial Park in Prince Edward County on Sept. 13, the song “At the Airport” by Old Man Luedecke, and then it’s the right time to say goodbye.

Related links: zunior.com inbreds.com vishkhanna.com

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