May 28 - sneak peek of NMFT, and plenty of electro

Songs played:

• otori - Gakushuu (学習)
• PENs+ - Tabi ni detai, to itte (旅に出たい、と言って)
• Joywave feat. KOPPS - Tongues
• Humans* - Faith
• Longwalkshortdock* - Choked by Robots
• Saxsyndrum* - Maceonectar
• Madeon feat. Dan Smith - La Lune
• Purity Ring* - Sea Castle
• Braids* - Taste
• Project Pablo* - The Feeling

I've got some exciting news: I'm reviewing the Next Music From Tokyo concert Vol. 7 for CJSF! I'm super, super stoked for this. As far as I know all are within the indie rock umbrella, with otori and mothercoat being super mathy while PENs+ is more like standard J-rock (from what I know anyways right now).

It's a way to educate myself on the Japanese indie music scene, since I actually don't know much at all about emerging talent in my own country, having only really lived there for 5-6 years. I'm actually learning more about Japanese music through CJSF! Strange how things work in this rapidly globalizing world right? :P

It's on at the Biltmore Cabaret, June 17. Tix only $10! Sweet deal, right? ;)

The rest of the set are some really awesome electronic stuff, starting with some awesome alternative electropop from Joywave (who was featured on that Big Data hit "Dangerous") and Humans (my favourite Vancouver-based electropop duo).

We then go into some really glitchy dystopian-sci-fi-meets club beats in "Choked by Robots", from East Van Digital artist Longwalkshortdock. I hadn't actually heard LWSD's newer stuff prior to showcasing the track on air so that was a very weird but extremely intriguing discovery! They're charting on the CJSF charts as well, at #3 (for the week ending May 26).

After that was another electro instrumental from Montreal duo Saxsyndrum...this time a lot prettier but still captivating synthy track. "Maceonectar" is a featured track on the Oh Hi vol. 1 compilation album that *should* be added next week...stay tuned for that folks. I'm reviewing it for the station, and I think the compilation's the best I've gotten from the review bundle.

Afterwards it's a lot more electropop-oriented...starting with what sounds kind of like a house remix of a Bastille track by French producer Madeon and Bastille singer Dan Smith. Then we move on to two awesome Albertan electro artists, Purity Ring and Braids.

We then wrap up the set with some house-influenced track from Project Pablo, quite a popular one here at CJSF. Project Pablo is signed to Vancouver-based label 1080p, though the artist is based in Montreal.

I'm kind of trying to make my Jumbalaya sound seamless by learning how to crossfade songs at well-timed moments so it sounds like the tracks play into one another. The transition between Joywave's and Humans' track worked well, for example - percussive ending of the former track into the percussive beginning of the latter. Oh, and Alt-J's "Bloodflood Pt. II" and Hozier's "Take Me to Church", with the piano cadences. (Though this example isn't very ideal, given that the latter is a Top 40 hit. :P )

It was influenced by one DJ workshop I attended about a year back. I now treat the mixing board as an instrument, and I often try and find two songs that would play well together...kind of like being a club DJ!

Hopefully that'll make my show stand out...somewhat. :P

May 20 - Clubs Days Mix

So I decided to take up a DJing gig for the SFSS clubs days, complete with some KAOSS pad sound effects with the help of DJ Monoloq!
Monoloq is one of the DJs for The EDM Show by the way, that's on from Fridays 10pm-12:30am at CJSF 90.1FM. Check out some sick EDM mixes then! ;)

Songs played:

• Caribou - All I Ever Need
• Until the Ribbon Breaks feat. Run the Jewels - Revolution Indifference
• Until the Ribbon Breaks - Perspective
• Until the Ribbon Breaks - A Taste of Silver
• Joywave feat. KOPPS - Tongues
• Humans - Faith
• Joywave - Now
• Humans - Tell Me
• Humans - Over Again
• Humans - Ennio
• Humans - Watusi
• Hot Chip - How Do You Do
• Tei Shi - Bassically
• Prinze George - Upswing
• Radar Cult - Found a Way
• Jungle - Busy Earnin'
• Purity Ring - Begin Again
• Austra - Bass Drum Dance
• Alison Wonderland - I Want U
• Purity Ring - Dust Hymn
• Alison Wonderland - Lies
• Mord Fustang feat. LIINKS - Pop

Most popular was Alison Wonderland's "I Want U". I got a lot of positive feedback for that one! :D
And yes, lots of Humans tracks. But the best thing about the Noontide album is that all the consecutive tracks play into each other in such a way that they sound like one very long continuous track! I've listened through the album since about February or March and I'm yet to get sick of it.

If you liked Alison Wonderland, she has a new LP out. It's called Run. Check it out if you're into the club-ready EDM stuff!

Also, if you like Humans' Noontide as much as I do, check out Shout Out Out Out Out! Aside from having the best band name ever, the SOOOO frontman Nik Kozub has produced the Humans album I so love to play, and thus share a similar sound of semi-distorted vocals, lots of melodic synths and synth bass, and well-crafted mix of electronic- and organic-sounding beats.
Kozub's also produced stuff for the Wet Secrets. They're great too. They won Alberta's Peak Performance Project, and they're coming to Fortune Sound Club on Wednesday to kick off the 2015 PPP with BC winners Good For Grapes!

May 14 - SOCAN mix!

Apologies for the very late posting!! This is from last week; today I didn't have a Jumbalaya since I was out at a networking event, which went well :)

Here's what I've played. All tracks Cancon. (Not all tracks clean.) :P

• The Dirty Nil - Cinnamon
• NEEDS - The Only Good Condo is a Dead Condo
• BRASS - Monolithic
• The Zolas - Molotov Girls
• Humans - Watusi
• Milk & Bone - Coconut Water
• Braids - Miniskirt
• Tei Shi - Bassically
• Purity Ring - Dust Hymn
• Mord Fustang feat. LIINKS - Pop
• Ill Tone - Everybody BAILED!
• Joel Plaskett - The Park Avenue Sobriety Test

The mix that night fell on a SOCAN survey day, when the writers of the songs the radio programmers play get awarded royalties...as long as they're registered with SOCAN.

In order for tracks to qualify as Canadian Content (and thus eligible for SOCAN royalties), they must satisfy the MAPL criteria:

• Music - music is composed by a Canadian
• Artist - artist is a Canadian citizen, or a non-citizen who has lived in Canada for the past 6 months
• Performance - recorded or performed in Canada
• Lyrics - lyrics are written by a Canadian

I wasn't too sure if Tei Shi qualified since she's now Brooklyn-based, but she's labeled as CanCon in most radio stations across Canada.
Mord Fustang is an Estonian living in LA, but since LIINKS contributed some portion of music and lyrics and recordings in their home base of Victoria, BC, they qualify (as far as I know).

May 7 - All the loud stuff

Songs played:

• Big Dick* - Crawl
• Oromocto Diamond* - Osamu
• Zoobombs - Funky Movin'
• Mothercoat - In Bathtub
• Sleater-Kinney - Fangless
• Screaming Females - Rose Mountain
• NEEDS* - We Forgot the Records to Our Record Release Show
• Cancer Bats* - Arsenic in the Year of the Snake
• I am Machi* - Torpedo
• Dead Soft* - Everything
• METZ* - Eyes Peeled

One of my favourite things about hosting an open-format music show such as the Jumbalaya is that I have the option to play any genre I want...electro, indie pop, world music, folk, and (for this one) punk and garage rock.

We're getting NEEDS' self-titled release this week I believe. Super stoked for this one!!! Also check out the video for the song I've played you in this set. I was there when they shot the live clips! ;)

METZ's second album is awesome!! If you like NEEDS then you'll most certainly like METZ ;)

April 30 - Electro/alternative, and BIG NEWS!

Songs played (* Canadian content):

• Andy Clockwork* - Scronk
• Great Dane - DVN3
• Gramatik - Just Jammin'
• Purity Ring* - Bodyache
• Humans* - Gotta Go Home
• Imagine Dragons - On Top of the World
• The Elwins* - Is There Something?
• Until the Ribbon Breaks - Spark
• Twin Shadow - To The Top
• Harrison* - Ashe Maree
• Prinze George - We are Dreamers
• A/B Trio* - My Romance

Since I had just gotten some terrible news, my mind was a little bit out of it during this broadcast. I'm hoping to make up for it in the next coming weeks.

Also big news. I've decided to step down from my role as volunteer at Science World!
I've decided I really want to start focusing on music/radio hosting for a while, and I felt my professional and social life was starting to suffer due to lack of time to recharge and reconnect, so I've given that up to free up some time to do just that.
As a thank-you to Science World, though, I've played the Imagine Dragons song. I always heard that song when I volunteered at Science World on Wednesdays, as background music for two promo videos down at the Dome, one of which was a movie on lemurs. :)

Gramatik and Great Dane were two of three artists I got to catch at the Vogue last Saturday. It was an absolutely amazing show!! Both are electro-influenced instrumental music makers, but Great Dane is more hip-hop and trap influenced while Gramatik is more jazzy. Both are great to chill out to.

Harrison...I honestly could only describe it as 'kawaii', with the cutesy EP cover and Japanese arcade-game music. I'm not sure if I'm reappropriating my own culture or whatever but that was like the only adjective that came to mind. :P Oh well, I hope you share my very odd sense of humour.

Audio links:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_30_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_30_20_30.mp3

April 23 - South Africans, supergroups, solo artists and stuck-in-your-head songs

Since I write a lot about the podcast I figured it'd be best to show what I played first instead of making you scroll to the bottom :P

Songs played (* Canadians):

• Kongos - Come With Me Now
• Fantasma feat JOSIAHWISE IS THESERPENTWITHFEET - Sefty Belt
• Joel Plaskett* - The Park Avenue Sobriety Test
• The Backhomes* - Solid Gold
• Hello Blue Roses* - Errant Sophia
• Tough Age* - Electric Chair (cub cover)
• Kathryn Calder* - Slow Burning
• Purity Ring* - heartsigh
• Ill Tone* - Everybody BAILED!
• The Elwins* - So Down Low
• Will Butler - Anna
• Young Fathers - John Doe
• Twin Shadow - Eclipse

Since Jacob Gradowski, the host of the Arts Show (occupying the slot before me 5-8pm every other week), is heading to South Africa, I've kicked off this Jumbalaya set with two of my favourite South African artists...or rather, two of my favourite artists period: Kongos and Fantasma. Neither of them are on the playlist, but they fuse Western mainstream music with world music influences, especially music from South Africa such as kwaito and maskandi, both beat-oriented.
Fantasma's maskandi guitarist is called Bhekisenzo Cele. I don't think I said his name correctly on air...this is what happens when I play artists on the fly and only partially remember artists' names :/

Joel Plaskett...he's a Canadian artist who Jacob interviewed. It's on earshot-online.com. Not what I said on air. Sorry >_<
I do enjoy his songwriting though. 'The Park Avenue Sobriety Test' (the song) is very catchy and memorable...one of the many catchy tracks I play on air at CJSF 90.1FM :P He also has one heck of an earworm on radio stations like the Peak 102.7FM, with his band the Joel Plaskett Emergency: "Nowhere with You". Listen to it. It's very cheery and the words will stick with you for a nice long while ;)

This playlist also features some supergroup artists, both as a band and as a solo artist/in a side project. Fantasma is a band, while Kathryn Calder, Dan Bejar and Will Butler appear outside of their better-known bands. (You could say Neko Case too, somewhat, as a covered artist...she used to be part of cub.)

Tough Age...as much as I think they're a great band, for some reason the record sounds really odd. It's a 7-inch vinyl that I was playing from, but when I played it at the standard speed for 7-inch records it sounded like the band was on helium. Kind of unfortunate considering how well-established in Canada both these bands were (though not at the same time). It was a Record Store Day special release, entitled Tough Age Plays cub's Hot Dog Day EP. The vinyl record itself is very pretty, with it being red and transparent. Just...not very functional, I guess. I think I'll play more tracks from the record, though from SoundCloud.

I also managed to squeeze in some highly catchy tracks. Besides Joel Plaskett, I also played stuff by Ill Tone (local MC), The Elwins (they have some really awesome light-hearted pop rock going), and Will Butler (Arcade Fire member). Guaranteed to get the songs by those three stuck in your head :P

Audio links:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_23_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_23_20_30.mp3

April 16 - a little bit of my personality?

On this Jumbalaya show I showcased three artists I happened to catch at record stores on Main Street: Lisa LeBlanc on Tuesday at Neptoon, and the Backhomes and Frog Eyes on Saturday (Record Store Day) at Red Cat. I'll probably talk about the LisaLeBlanc and the Backhomes performance in a separate blog post, but they were both great! Frog Eyes I didn't end up staying for unfortunately since I had to go elsewhere.

I kind of wish I stayed around Red Cat for Hello Blue Roses, who played after Frog Eyes, since I listened to a bit of their newest release WZO and it's sounding great so far! I'll showcase their stuff next week.

I also played songs by three artists from the P572 label we have on our playlist: Arthur Comeau, Oromocto Diamond, and Zoobombs. P572 have been in operation for 10 years in Eastern Canada but we only recently started getting some of their releases here at CJSF.
Oromocto Diamond and Zoobombs have actually had their live performance in Tokyo recorded directly from the soundboard and they've released the recording through P572, under the name Oromo Kumakus! While I'm not one for live albums (the audience claps kind of get old after many a listen) the performances on Oromo Kumakus are highly energetic and a lot of fun to listen to. It also serves as a little peek into Japan's indie music scene, at least that's what I imagine it's like in Tokyo (where I'm unfamiliar with).

I got a request towards the end! I'm happy to learn that people actually listen to my radio broadcasts :D The song I played was Modest Mouse's 'Lampshades on Fire'.

Next week's setlist will be a lot more varied. I'll most likely re-showcase the Backhomes, and throw in some Hello Blue Roses. I might add in some non-CJSF playlist music too.

Songs played (* Canadians):

• The Backhomes* - That's All
• Frog Eyes* - Don't Give Up Your Dreams
• Walk the Moon - Spend your $$$
• Lisa LeBlanc* - You Look Like Trouble (but I guess I do too)
• Lisa LeBlanc & Quartom* - J'pas un Cowboy (live at Neptoon Records)
• Arthur Comeau* - Allergic a la Jinxx (feat. Karim Ouellet)
• Oromocto Diamond* - No Pressure, No Diamonds
• Zoobombs - Highway a Go Go
• Milk & Bone* - Tomodachi (feat. Terrell Morris)
• The Mighty Mocambos - It's the Music (feat Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk, Hektek & Deejay Snoop)
• Modest Mouse - Lampshades on Fire
• The Elwins* - You Have Me
• Mord Fustang - No Way to Stop 

Audio links:
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_16_20_00.mp3
http://cjsf.ca/vanilla_archives/2015_April_16_20_30.mp3