The only thing I love more than music in LIVE music and you can’t beat summer festivals. This weekend (Sat/Sun) I’m returning to my hometown of Montreal to see a relatively new festival: Osheaga! Let’s start with the pronunciation…it’s OH-SHEE-AH-GA. It’ll be my first time and I’m super-pumped. How could you go wrong? Some of the best classic and new alternative bands. And, tickets are still available. Let’s look at the facts:
Montreal is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (and recently declared 2nd friendliest). Check!
It is only a three hour drive from Kingston. Check!
It falls on Ontario’s long civic weekend. Check!
At $120 for a two-day pass, it is unbelievably cheap. Check!
For fans of alternative music, the festival competes with some of the tops festivals around the world. Check!
The music – Day One.
Cage the Elephant, Kingston’s Sarah Harmer, K’NAAN, Stars, Keane, Pavement, The National (I hear awesome things about this band), and one of the hottest bands Montreal’s Arcade Fire!
The music – Day Two.
Gaslight Anthem (love these guys), The Black Keys, Snoop Dogg, Metric (I know…AGAIN), legendary Sonic Youth, Devo (whip it real good), Deadmau5, and Weezer!
Where was this festival when I was growing up? Montreal doesn’t even have an alternative radio station. Now, if only we could get it to travel…Kingston anyone? How about we start a facebook group?
Next weekend (Aug. 6th and 7th) 98.9 THE DRIVE is a proud sponsor of the Wolfe Island Music Fest and it is going to be a lot of fun for everyone that goes. Awesome music, great location, food, drink, etc…It was been voted one of the top festivals in Ontario and bands like Wolf Parade, Constantines, Joel Plaskett, Wintersleep, and more have all played the main stage. This year’s headliners are the Weakerthans…you know, the guys who sing the “I Hate Winnipeg” song. But, who else will be there? Shad, The Acorn, Cuff the Duke, and my guest in studio today for another “Live @ THE DRIVE”. His name is Justin Bird. Have a listen.
FINALLY an answer to the question most of us have been asking ourselves… “Where did Metric get their name from?”
Lead singer Emily Haines says “It came from a song that Jimmy [Shaw] and I were working on back in Toronto in the early days, like ’97 or ’98,”.
“Jimmy had a song that involved a sound he’d programmed into his keyboard and called ‘Metric.’ When we saw that word on the keyboard’s LED screen it looked so electro.”
“It was a little cold and standoffish and we’re down with that. It works for us. Some people think it has something to do with the fact that we’re from Canada — which uses the metric system.” Read the rest of this entry »
KOL get pooped on This is the video from a story that Jenn had on yesterday’s Morning Rush Alt news. The Kings of Leon were playing a festival in St. Louis Missouri, when a few songs in the local pigeon population got a little too over excited and started…well, pooping all over the band. It’s kinda gross at 1:12 in when the drummer wipes something off his face and you realize that it’s….yeah. Kings had a 20 song set-list planned but had to stop the show three songs in. Jenn’s alt news goes every day at 7:50 on the Morning Rush.
My friend (we’ll call him “Mike”) is telling the story to everyone at the table out on the patio at the brew pub. It’s a beautiful night, we’ve all just come in from a great run around the base and we’re having a beverage and nachos to celebrate. But I’m barely hearing what he’s saying. Not that I’m going deaf. I just can’t wrap my head around it. He told us that he was riding his bike along Middle Road in the bike lane, minding his business, when his rear tire flatted out. No, “exploded” is a better description. The tire literally shredded itself with a huge “bang!” He skidded over to the ditch and luckily, avoided injury. The bike shop guy who fixed it for him said he’d heard of someone spreading tacks on the road there “because of all the bikes.” All of us at the table agreed that 1) that would be awful if it were true, because it means an insane person is trying to injure people, and 2) there’s a good chance this is just another urban (okay suburban) legend. I’m leaning toward option #2 myself.
What sucked was that I had a bike story that I had to tuck away until now: When I ride home on Front Road, I get a bit stressed going through the construction where the lane is down to 1.5 lanes for two way traffic. The bike lane has been reduced to nothing. Some drivers can be real jerks when they encounter a bike in this situation by driving too close, too fast and with too little thought for the person riding (or the people doing the construction work just a few inches away on the other side of the cones). So yesterday as I’m about 1/2 way through the scary part doing a crazy 27 kph, a big truck comes up behind me…I brace myself, looking for the place where I’ll crash and roll, but…nothing happens. The driver stayed about 20 metres back the whole way until we hit open road again. At that point he gave me a wave and went way over to the left as he slowly drove by. This guy blocked for me!
Mike’s story was great. It had everything: action, drama, conflict, and crazy conspiracy theories. People love that stuff!
Mine by comparison was kind of dull. Some guy did some decent thing for some other guy. Who wants to hear about THAT?
My very good friend Steve Jordan (good Kingston Kid!) is the founder and guiding force behind the Polaris Prize. Heard of it? No? It’s an annual recognition of the best new indie music in Canada, and outside of the CBC 3 crowd, it doesn’t get the press it deserves. This year’s short list for the $20,000 award includes Tegan and Sara and Broken Social Scene. The Sadies made the final cut, and so did Owen Pallett. If you’re starting to ask “who?” Then you need to take a little iTrip to http://www.polarismusicprize.ca/2010shortlist/ . Click the links and listen to some of this great Canadian music. Then you need to start clicking on the groups’ websites and encouraging them to consider playing our city.
Hey that tactic worked to bring former Polaris finalist Metric to Kingston.
Jenn and I will get Steve on the show in the coming weeks. Meanwhile he’d be glad to hear from you at steve@polarismusicprize.ca
…Four replacement cohosts to go. This morning I had Noelle and Lee fill in for Jenn (who’s off for a couple of days). Noelle is a magician’s assistant from Gananoque, who is a huge fan of the Drive. She never needs an alarm, but with a 5am wake up, she asked her boyfriend to set his phone alarm just in case. That’s when she found out he has a “porno music” ring tone. Who knew? Lee of course is the bass player for the Drive house band Telefoto. We got to hear a bit about his “other” life as a public school teacher as well as the band’s upcoming cd release party. Find out more about that by clicking the band’s logo.
Tomorrow, two more fill-in hosts: Evan, a long-time rabid Drive fan and Ashley who says she’s the same.
Remember Jay Serdula? He’s the guy who swam across Lake Ontario a couple of years ago to become the first person ever with Asperger’s Syndrome to do it. Jay loves swimming, and he’s doing it again this weekend near Gravenhurst in their annual Swim for the Cure. He’s going 26 kms! If you’d like to swim with him, support him with a pledge or just go watch the details are all at http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR?team_id=239030&fr_id=6600&pg=team
Ok folks, I really need your help. Emily Fennell needs your help. Let’s create a stink…remember a few weeks back when we all got on board and voted to get Emily to play Lillith Fair in Toronto? It was an open contest organized by ourstage.com and she won…kinda. By the time the contest closed, she had the most votes and it would seem she should get the coveted spot. Well, the fine print said otherwise and instead chose the person voted #14 (Darrelle London). This is an outrage!!! What’s the point in even having a contest? Makes no sense and we shouldn’t stand for it. I am asking you (and God knows I don’t ask for much…lol) to e-mail the folks at ourstage.com and ask them, “What the hell is going on?”. Here’s the e-mail addy: community@ourstage.com ask for Karl. For the record, I’ve e-mailed them several times for an interview and after I explained why, I never heard from them again.
The only thing I love more than music in LIVE music and you can’t beat summer festivals. This weekend (Sat/Sun) I’m returning to my hometown of Montreal to see a relatively new festival: Osheaga! Let’s start with the pronunciation…it’s OH-SHEE-AH-GA. It’ll be my first time and I’m super-pumped. How could you go wrong? Some of the best classic and new alternative bands. And, tickets are still available. Let’s look at the facts:
