February 12 2015 - Your truly unpredictable mix

Prior to this Jumbalaya I had a long list of songs prepared, but with new music getting added a couple hours before my show I decided to go with a mostly-improvised set featuring two new Canadian adds, Big Dick (punk-oriented bass-and-drum duo from Ottawa, ON) and Saxsyndrum (experimental electronic duo from Montreal, QC).
It's quite a challenge to improvise my musical selections but at the same time it's a fun way to find out about new music!

This mix features big names such as Bjork, Marilyn Manson, and P!nk (as part of You+Me)...I guess I can never break away from my 'mainstream' tendencies. :P But then again, these artists are kind of like my gateway into alternative/indie music from when I was 16-17, so there's a bit of personal history there as well. Marilyn Manson is also one of my uncle's favourite musicians. xD

The sound of this Jumbalaya is rather pop-oriented and a fairly easy listen, except probably the Saxsyndrum track. But then again, I don't play a lot of 'challenging' listens. I guess this reflects my attitude towards music I usually listen to: be creative and innovative sound-wise but don't go overboard that you can't sing along to it or bop your head to it.

February 19, I will not be in the studio since I'll be away on a trip with my sister. I'll be back on the 26th! I'm hoping to choose from a wider variety of music by the time I get back.

Songs played (* denotes Canadian Content):

• Bjork - Stonemilker
• Marilyn Manson - Killing Strangers
• Viet Cong* - Bunker Buster
• Coyote* - Melody/Harmony
• Cold War Kids - First
• Big Dick* - Sick
• Saxsyndrum* - Tah Hum
• My Brightest Diamond - Pressure
• You+Me* - Capsized
• Whitehorse* - Baby What's Wrong?
• Highs* - Mango

February 5 2015 - the more 'mainstream' stuff?

This Jumbalaya is definitely influenced by others. Madi, the Jumbalaya host on Mondays (or Tuesdays?), really liked "For Carson" by the A/B Trio, a nice jazz instrumental, so I played that on the show. I also showcased two artists Joe Sinclair, a Tuesday Jumbalaya host, really enjoys (Royal Blood and Walk the Moon).

I also often listen to the Peak 102.7FM, which is a private adult album alternative music station...showcasing indie rock, indietronica, folk rock, and just things that are not too poppy but still a very fun listen. I think my picks were definitely influenced by them since quite a lot of the songs on this setlist are on rotation on that radio station. :P
Heck, the Gay Nineties were part of 102.7FM's Peak Performance Project (PPP), which is a great way for local (BC) performers to get some cash and recognition...musicians need to eat and get a roof over their head too, you know, in addition to getting more money to maintain their recording equipment and instruments. :P I forgot to mention that Georgia Murray, the vocalist for LIINKS (the featured artist in Mord Fustang's track), is also a PPP alum!

The instrumentals are the least mainstream it gets. Many of the others are either on another radio station (mostly the Peak, probably also the Fox (99.3FM), one even on top 40 stations) or charting on the Earshot charts, which showcases the most-played artists in Canadian community radio. While it might defeat the purpose of being an indie music radio show, I also like to play what others like to hear. I was also in need for some uplifting and catchy tracks after going through a stressful past couple of weeks.

Next week I'm hoping to make it a bit less 'mainstream', but still will feature big names such as Bjork and Marilyn Manson...I think. I'm still figuring it out.

Songs played (* denotes Canadian content):

• TV on the Radio - Quartz
• TV on the Radio - Careful You
• Mord Fustang feat. LIINKS - Pop
• The Gay Nineties* - Letterman
• A/B Trio* - For Carson
• Single Mothers* - Marbles
• Royal Blood - Loose Change
• Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance
• Hey Rosetta!* - Soft Offering (for the Oft Suffering)
• Fantasma - Fafi
• Whitehorse* - Downtown
• Viet Cong* - Newspaper Spoons
• Alt-J - Bloodflood pt. II
• Hozier - Take Me to Church

January 29 2015 - the mostly electronic set, and the digitized playlist

This time instead of a more rock-oriented set like last week, I've gone electronica again! Well, mostly electronica except for the Whitney K song, which I've only partially listened to while skimming through the digitized playlist adds.

Andre Lee, a new work study here at CJSF, has also joined briefly as a guest this episode :D We're both currently working on CJSF's music department blog, and so far it's looking great!

The digitized, or the hard drive (HD), playlist that I keep on referring to in my Jumbalaya shows consist of albums or EPs in MP3 format. Quite often the music is cheaper to get digitally, only available electronically (since pressing CDs and records can be pricey, especially for new artists!), or otherwise only playable in MP3 format (e.g. cassette releases, only we don't have cassette players).

One of the digitized playlist adds is Bjork's Vulnicura. Since it was rush released two months ahead of the scheduled date due to an internet leak, the physical CDs etc. are still unavailable. Kiara (our music coordinator) thus got the album digitally. It's a good thing we managed to get our hands on the digital copy, by the way, since the new album is absolutely amazing.
The track I played on this Jumbalaya isn't actually co-produced by Arca - it's actually one where Bjork produced it all by herself (!!) - but the rest of the album is, and you can really hear his influences in the production (which is frightening and captivating - get yourselves some quality speakers or headphones!). Make sure to check out both Bjork's Vulnicura and Arca's Xen!

The unfortunate thing about the digitized playlist is that it's a bit tricky to find. Even I didn't know about it until about a month into my Jumbalaya career, and only recently have I found out a much easier way to access the playlist, glitch free. It's full of amazing stuff though (Bjork, Arca, TV on the Radio, Snowday, Sleater-Kinney...), and I often showcase a bunch each week!

Songs played (* denotes Canadian Content):

• SBTRKT feat. Sampha - Wonder Where We Land
• Dark Waves - I Don't Wanna be in Love
• Yelle - Ba$$in
• Whitney K* - Kind of Blue
• Bonobo - Return to Air
• AM Static* - Sum
• Arca - Thievery
• Bjork - Quicksand
• Brave Shores* - Never Come Down
• Raleigh* - Pen That (Dhalsim Remix)
• Snowday feat. Kaleigh Watts* - A Quiet Winter
• Elliphant feat. Doja Cat - Purple Light
• Ryan Hemsworth feat. GTW & Little Cloud* - By Myself
• Panda Bear - Mr. Noah

January 22, 2015 - Rocking and making gaming references

This Jumbalaya is one of those rocking ones I often find myself getting into. It starts off with some nice dark folky tune from Dan Mangan & Blacksmiths, carrying over to some nice hard rock by TVOTR, I am Machi, and Sleater-Kinney, and finishing with some experimental punk from the Calgarian If I Look Strong, You Look Strong.

And yes, I do make gaming references towards the end. Back when I was in uni I often listened to music from games from the Super Nintendo era all the way up to present-day PC games. In fact, some of the bands I've actually discovered from playing the Sims series, including Violent Soho (who is on the playlist), Matt and Kim (who are not), and Manchester Orchestra (who used to be)! :P

Songs played (* denotes Canadian content):

• Dan Mangan & Blacksmiths* - Mouthpiece
• High Ends* - Capuccino
• Indigo Joseph* - Pills
• MALK* - Each Other
• Kele - Closer
• TV on the Radio - Lazerray
• I am Machi* - All Consuming Liar
• Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
• Violent Soho - Covered in Chrome
• Matt & Kim - Get It (non-playlist)
• If I Look Strong, You Look Strong* - 3/4 A // 3/4 G // 4/4 Fast // A 7/8 // A Long Weekend

Video podcast:

January 15, 2015 - The more chill stuff

Another week for a Jumbalaya! This time around there's a lot more mellow stuff on my Jumbalaya, in addition to the usual louder stuff like Violent Soho, My Sister Ocean, and I am Machi.

I mention briefly a common theme that Hey Rosetta!, the Rural Alberta Advantage, and Death Cab for Cutie are following: mending things with gold. I also mention a CBC music article that talks about it which goes more in-depth on the theme: http://music.cbc.ca/#!/blogs/2015/1/Death-Cab-for-Cutie-to-Rural-Alberta-Advantage-mending-with-gold

That is actually inspired by a fairly ancient Japanese practice of kintsugi/kintsukuroi where broken pottery is repaired using lacquer resin with powdered gold, and treats the breakage as part of a history of the object. I actually never heard of the practice before last year though, in spite of the fact that I'm from Japan myself! :P There's a Wikipedia article on it if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

The rest don't really follow much of a theme. It's a lot more electronica and folk, and some rock towards the end.

Songs played (* for the Canadians):

• Hey Rosetta!* - Kintsukuroi
• The Rural Alberta Advantage* - 45/33
• Violent Soho - OK Cathedral
• Argo* - Une Petite Certitude
• Snowday* - A Lone Stone
• TV on the Radio - Right Now
• Flight Facilities feat. Christine Hoberg - Clair de Lune
• AM Static* - Broken Toys
• Vance Joy - Wasted Time
• Snowday* - All in Due Time
• My Sister Ocean* (non-playlist) - Memory
• I am Machi* - Seige

URLs to podcast:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_15_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_15_20_30.mp3

Video podcast:

January 8 2015 - lame on-air jokes, autotuned dogs, creative station IDs and all around awesome music

Sorry for the delay in posts. I'm currently mixing the audio for this week's show. I'll put up the video/audio clip up soon as possible! In the meantime, I've linked you the URLs to the podcast.

(Edit: it's up now! Scroll to the bottom of the post.)

On occasion I include some non-playlist artists who I think would be a great addition to the CJSF playlist. This week I included James Thomas, a singer-songwriter from Vancouver who released his album, Before the Light, on Christmas Day of 2014. If you like mellow singer-songwriter stuff or folk music you'll enjoy this album. He describes his music as 'a blend of Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, and Paul Simon' on his Bandcamp page.

http://myjamesthomas.bandcamp.com/

I actually used to help out with Ryan Fletcher's live folk music show, Melodies in Mind, and James Thomas performed on I believe what was my second show (not first as I said in the podcast)! That was back in January 2014. I would love to hear him live again on Melodies in Mind in the future...I still listen to the show every Tuesday night that I'm free.

Most of the other tracks on this playlist, though, are more on the louder side. They do end up representing the sounds of a typical Eriko Jumbalaya, full of hard and slightly more experimental rock acts as well as some electronic music.

Songs played (* denotes Canadian content):

• Benjamin Booker - Have You Seen My Son?
• TV on the Radio - Happy Idiot
• Sama Dams - Dirty Work
• Blood & Glass* - Bad Dreams
• Snowday* - The Seventh String
• James Thomas* - Hollow Moon (non-playlist)
• The Rural Alberta Advantage* - Runners in the Night
• Fantasma - Eye of the Sun
• Tricky feat. Nneka - Keep Me in Your Shake
• Elissa Barclay* - Radiosea
• Dagrs* - The Way Out
• Kolony* - Escape

URLs to podcast:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_08_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_08_20_30.mp3

Video podcast:

January 1 2015 - A star-studded, semi-improvised Jumbalaya

Happy new year!! I've kicked off the year with a Jumbalaya set featuring contributions from quite well-known artists such as P!nk and City and Colour (forming a duo known as You+Me), Leonard Cohen, and even Miley Cyrus. Emerging artists such as Hozier, Elliphant, and Mø all appear here as well...and the Elliphant & Mø track was produced by an emerging producer, Joel Little (Lorde's producer)!

Since the CD player was broken I had to improvise quite a bit, alternating between the digitized playlist and the CD tracks. Luckily earlier that day I had listened to quite a bit of the digitized tracks and discovered some awesome artists, including TV on the Radio, an alternative rock artist whom I've showcased towards the end of this show episode. I think I'll play another song by them next week.

(Edit (June 5 2015): TV on the Radio has been around a very long while, and the members have collaborated with some big names such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tinariwen, and Kelis. How I only heard about them when 2015 began...guess that comes from not being raised in North America. :P )

Also, correction: the featured artist on Fantasma's song "Shesha Span", Ross MacDonald, is from the Rudimentals, not 'Rudiments'. The Rudimentals are a Cape Town-based band...I at least got that right. :P Fantasma however is based somewhere in Limpopo, the northernmost province in South Africa (according to their SoundCloud page). Also according to their Facebook page they're a five-piece, not quartet (as I might have mentioned on the podcast).

Songs played (Canadians in *):

• You+Me* - Love Gone Wrong
• Fantasma feat. Ross MacDonald - Shesha Span (Hell Yeah)
• Hozier - Jackie and Wilson
• Snowday* - Walk Along These Rocks With Me
• Leonard Cohen* - Slow
• MALK* - Satellites
• Lisa LeBlanc* - The Waiting List
• Machinedrum - 2 B Luvd
• Elliphant feat. Mø - One More
• Fayne* - Believers
• Fayne* - Isonic Flight
• Bart* - Multiply
• The Flaming Lips feat. Miley Cyrus & New Fumes - A Day in the Life (Beatles cover)
• TV on the Radio - Trouble

URLs to podcast:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_01_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_January_01_20_30.mp3 

Video podcast: