Author Archives: Cindy Chow

Dan Mangan on Tour at Vogue Theatre

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Dan Mangan on Tour at Vogue Theatre

Dan Mangan will be in Vancouver on Saturday, December 9th at Vogue Theatre. If you are interested in going to this event, you can get your tickets here. The door will open at 7:00pm and the show will start at 8:00pm.

[picture from Pixabay]

Dan Mangan is a Canadian musician. He was born in Smithers, British Columbia. The genres that he plays mostly indie rock and folk. He can play the guitar, piano and keyboards. He debuted in 2003 when he was 20 years old and has released five studio LPs, multiple EPs, and singles. He signed with Arts & Crafts, City Slang, Create/Control, and Caroline. In 2012, he won “New Artist of the Year” and “Alternative Album of the Year” and was nominated for “Songwriter of the Year” and “Video of the Year” at the 2012 Juno Awards.

Let’s listen to this award wining song, “Oh Fortune”.

Check out Dan Mangan’s 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the album Nice, Nice, Very Nice (2019). If you want to own a copy of this album, you can buy the digital album here on Bandcamp.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1LRTQHAyjhnTEYwBVisuTB?go=1&sp_cid=591f98eb9cf68a813b4be1bad3b0ccbf&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1

I came across something interesting when researching about this artist. Dan Mangan and his business partner Laura Simpsons made an appearance on an episode of Dragons’ Den. For those who are not familiar with the show, Dragons’ Den is a Canadian television reality show that is about entrepreneurs and pitching investment ideas to venture capitalists. If their ideas are liked by the “Dragons”, then there is a potential of a business partnership and getting investment for a share percentage of their business. Dan Mangan and Laura Simpsons pitched for an investment in his online concert platform, and they were successful to secure a deal with Arlene Dickinson.

Dan Mangan has shared the stage with many artists and musicians from Europe, North America, and Australia. He also performed at various international music festivals in UK, Australia, Canada, USA, Germany, Netherlands, and Croatia. One performance worth mentioning is that he performed for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) on Canada Day in 2011.

Show your support for Dan Mangan on Saturday, December 9th at Vogue Theatre in downtown Vancouver.

Subscribe to Dan Mangan’s YouTube channel here.

He is also on Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram if you want to follow him for more updates (@danmanganmusic).

C’est L’Halloween

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C’est L’Halloween

Looking at my calendar, it is October 31st, and yes, it is Halloween. Personally, I don’t celebrate this holiday anymore, but it is worth mentioning some spooky songs for this holiday, especially when it is from local bands and Canadian artists. If you don’t know what to listen for this spooky holiday, I guess this could be a potential Canadian Halloween Playlist.

[picture from Pixabay]

The first song to listen to is “C’est L’Halloween” by Elliott Brood.

Elliott Brood is a Canadian alternative country band from Toronto, Ontario. They formed in 2002 and signed with Weewerk, Six Shooter Records, and Paper Bag Records. The band has toured throughout Canada and around the globe. They played at many major music festivals, including at the Olympic Village in Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are currently three active members of the band: Mark Sasso (guitar, banjo, ukulele, harmonica), Casey Laforet (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass pedals, ukulele, distortion pedal), and Stephen Pitkin (drums, keyboards, percussion).

Check out Elliott Brood’s YouTube channel here.

 

The second song to listen to is “Very Spooky” by Mac DeMarco.

Mac DeMarco is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He debuted in 2008 and has released six studio albums, four extended plays and a bunch of demos and mini-LP albums. He launched his own record label in 2018, “Mac’s Record Label”. He plays a variety of indie rock, indie pop, psychedelic pop, jangle pop and slacker rock.

Here is Mac DeMarco’s Spotify playlist.

Check out Mac DeMarco’s YouTube channel here.

 

The third song to listen to is “Halloween Mask” by Peach Kelli Pop.

Peach Kelli Pop is a Canadian garage rock band that formed in 2009 in Ottawa, Ontario. There’s only one member in this band, it is Allie Hanlon. When the band goes on tour, Allie Hanlon is accompanied by her friends on stage. Peach Kelli Pop is signed with a Vancouver label, Mint Records, and released the fourth album Gentle Leader in 2018. The band has released a total of four albums and four singles as of this year.

Alright, that’s a little too much spooky stuff for me. But, if those three songs are still not enough for you, you can check out this spooky Haunted CanCon playlist on YouTube music. Maybe you’ll find something that you like and can add it to your own personal playlist.

Whether you are going out to trick or treat, or partying with your friends tonight, please stay safe and be alert. Happy Halloween.

What is Marianas Trench Up To Lately?

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What is Marianas Trench Up To Lately?

The Marianas Trench is on tour right now, with their next show at Casino Rama Resort in Ontario on November 24th. So far that is the only concert date that we know for the rest of 2023, and we don’t have anything else happening for them here in Vancouver this year. But it doesn’t stop fans from anticipating for upcoming shows in the near future.

[picture from Pixabay]

For those who don’t know or haven’t heard of this rock band before. Marianas Trench is a Canadian pop rock band from Vancouver, Canada. They formed in 1999 and have released five studio albums: Fix Me (2006), Masterpiece Theatre (2009), Ever After (2011), Astoria (2015), and Phantoms (2019). In 2013, the band won “Group of the Year” for the Juno Awards.

“The band itself was really great. Super fun, energetic and overall it was a great experience. I will definitely go see them again one day. Having listened to them for much of my childhood it was so nice to be able to experience seeing them live and sing along to my favourite songs. You can tell they cared about fans and giving a good show.”

(Madi, Ticketmaster Reviews)

There are currently four active members in the band. Josh Ramsay (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards, programming, flugelhorn), Matt Webb (lead guitar, backing vocals, piano, keyboards, programming, trombone), Mike Ayley (bass guitar, vocals, trumpet), and Ian Casselman (drums, percussion, backing vocals, sousaphone).

Now, going through those instruments there were two that I have never heard of “flugelhorn” and “sousaphone”, so I had to search them up to learn more about them. The flugelhorn is a brass instrument that looks like a trumpet but has a wider and more conical bore. The sousaphone is a brass instrument from the tuba family and is designed to be easier to play while standing or moving around.

Check out the band’s YouTube channel where they have more than 300k subscribers.

The latest update from them was 11 months ago, with some holiday music. I guess Christmas is coming up in less than two months, so it is about time to get into the holiday mood.

Let’s listen to “Holiday Song Reel” by Marianas Trench.

Although they haven’t released anything new in the past months, you can listen to their previous albums and music on Spotify. They have over 780k monthly listeners.

If you want to stay in the loop and get the latest updates from the band, make sure to follow them on their social media platforms (@mtrenchofficial).

I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care

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I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care

Hollywood Theatre will be hosting Hannah Georgas this December. If you would like to go rock and roll on a weekday evening, then make sure you don’t miss out on this concert. Mark your calendar for Thursday, December 7th, at Hollywood Theatre.

[picture from Pixabay]

Hannah Georgas is a Canadian Indie pop singer-songwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia. She won Best New Artist for the Bucky Award in 2008. In 2011, she was nominated for the categories of “Best New Artist of the Year” and “Songwriter of the Year” for the Juno Awards. She was nominated again in 2013 for “Songwriter of the Year” and “Best Alternative Album”. She sings and plays the guitar and bass guitar.

Did you know that Hannah also wrote a song for Walmart?

The track “You’ve Got a Place Called Home” was written for Walmart’s commercial for their fall advertising campaign. That is something really cool.

Hannah Georgas debuted with her self-released five track EP The Beat Stuff in 2008, but it got re-released as a new version with an additional track in 2009 by Hidden Pony Records. She released her first album This Is Good on April 27, 2010. She signed with Dine Alone Records and released her second studio album Hannah Georgas in 2012. This album was produced by Graham Walsh. In 2013, her second studio album won “Pop Recording of the Year” at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

The most recent album from Hannah Georgas was I’d Be Lying if I Said I Didn’t Care, released in August of this year.

“This album means a lot to me and I’m really proud of it. It feels like a long time coming but also feels like it wouldn’t have come together without all of the time and experiences I’ve had leading up to this.”

(Hannah Georgas, Exclaim! Media Inc.)

This is “Better Somehow”, the latest single.

“I’m trying to be more honest with my feelings and be more comfortable communicating them. I think this track is quite vulnerable in that respect.”

(Hannah Georgas, Exclaim! Media Inc.)

Once again, Hannah Georgas will be in Vancouver this December with a concert at Hollywood Theatre. Tickets are on sale, so make sure you secure yourself a spot if you want to support her and her music.

Follow Hannah Georgas on Instagram to get the latest news and updates.

You can listen to her album here on Spotify.

Help Hannah Georgas reach 7k subscribers on her YouTube channel.

Rogers Arena Welcomes The 1975 and Dora Jar

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Rogers Arena Welcomes The 1975 and Dora Jar

The 1975 and Dora Jar will be performing at Rogers Arena at the end of November. This will be a good musical mixture of Indie & Alt and Pop. Get your tickets for the event on Wednesday, November 29th at Rogers Arena. The doors will open at 7:30pm. Rogers Arena is a big venue, so expect lots of cheering fans for the performers.

[picture from Pixabay]

The 1975 are an English pop rock band from Wilmslow, Cheshire, England. They formed in 2002, so it led me to a bit of confusion as the years are off so much. The inspiration of the band’s name came from a page inside the novel On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac, where one of the members, Matt Healy, had scribblings on one of the pages that dated “1 June, The 1975”. I think that is a unique way to name a band.

There are currently four active members in the band. Matty Healy (lead vocals, guitar, piano keyboards), Adam Hann (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Ross MacDonald (bass, keyboards, backing vocals) and George Daniel (drums, programming, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals). They were all teenagers when they first performed together, and they were all from the same high school. Now that’s very cool. I used to be in a concert band and choir in my high school. During the Winter and Spring concerts, I would collaborate with my classmates and perform as trios, quartet, or quintets. I remembered one year we formed a small group from band, I played the alto saxophone, and we named ourselves “Five and a half Asians”. I can’t imagine what it would be if we still connected with each other and jammed together, but that was exactly how it worked out for The 1975.

The 1975 play a variety of art pop, pop rock, synth-pop, indie rock, electropop, alternative rock, and experimental music. They are signed with Dirty Hit, Polydor, Vagrant and Interscope. They released five studio albums.

Check out their YouTube channel here.

This is “Still…at their very best” by The 1975.

Dora Jar is a singer-songwriter from Northern California. She debuted with her first EP Digital Meadow (2021) and followed with a second EP the next year, Comfortably In Pain (2022). She performed at Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever, The World Tour” in 2022 and she will be opening for The 1975 at “Still…At Their Very Best”. She released three singles, “Bumblebee”, “Bump” and “Spell”.

Let’s listen to “Spell” by Dora Jar, which has the motif of Alice in Wonderland.

Help Dora Jar hit 8k subscribers on her YouTube channel.

 

Continue as a Guest Tour

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Continue as a Guest Tour

The New Pornographers are coming to Vancouver with their Continue as A Guest Tour. The venue will be at Commodore Ballroom on Tuesday, November 14th.

When I first glanced at the band’s name, I had to pause for a few seconds to make sure I was reading the right thing. The band name was chosen by one of the members, Carl Newman, and he got the inspiration after he watched a Japanese film, The Pornographers (1966).

[picture from Pixabay]

The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The band formed in 1997 and they play a variety of indie rock, power pop, and post-punk revival. They signed with multiple record labels like, Matador, Concord, Mint, Last Gang and Merge.

There are currently six active members in the band and two touring musicians. Interesting to note is that each member is also part of other groups and projects, which makes them a very flexible group.

  • Neko Case is the female vocalist for the band, she is also a solo artist and have been in other projects like Maow (indie rock), The Corn Sisters (alternative country) and Cub (indie pop).
  • John Collins is the bassist, and he is also a member of the Evaporators (garage rock) and Destroyer (indie rock).
  • Carl Newman is the vocalist and guitarist for the band, and he performs as a solo artist as “A.C. Newman”, he was also part of Superconductor (alternative rock) and Zumpano (power pop).
  • Todd Fancey is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist, he goes by “Fancey” as a solo artist and is also part of Limblifter (alternative rock).
  • Kathryn Calder is the backing vocalist and plays the keyboards and guitar, she is also a solo artist and was part of Immaculate Machine (indie pop) and Frontperson (indie pop).
  • Joe Seiders is the drummer and backing vocalist, he is also a member of Beat Club.

This is “Bottle Episodes” by The New Pornographers.

The New Pornographers released nine studio albums, three live albums, twenty-nine singles and made other contributions to over thirty songs. The most recent album that they released was in March this year, Continue as a Guest (2023). This album was recorded during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it heavily relied on virtual meetings and remote work. Members would have to record in other studios, as it was tough to get together and meet all in-person. This was also the first album that they released with Merge Records.

Listen to the band on Spotify:

Subscribe to the band’s YouTube channel here.

Faye Webster on Tour at Vogue Theatre

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Faye Webster on Tour at Vogue Theatre

Talented female singer-songwriter Faye Webster will be touring in Vancouver this Friday, November 3rd at 8:00pm. The venue will be at Vogue Theatre on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. She plays a variety of indie folk, alternative country, and R&B, and if you want to hear her tunes, then you can book your tickets here.

[picture from Pixabay]

Faye Webster was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and she’s from a musically talented family. She debuted with her first album, Run and Tell (2013), when she was only sixteen years old. She has an older brother that used to be in a rock band during high school. Her mom knows how to play the guitar and violin. Her grandpa was a bluegrass music guitarist in Texas. Faye Webster grew up in a musical family and that inspired her to write music at a very young age.

It is always a struggle for students to make up their mind for what to study in college because there are so many choices. I remember my high school counsellors say that a large percentage of college students change their mind throughout their education and end up in a different career path. It was the same for Faye Webster, she was devoted to becoming a musician, so she didn’t want to waste her time in college. She signed to Awful Records in 2017, after she dropped out of Belmont University in Nashville. She also signed to the Secretly Canadian record label the year after. That record label name stumped me a bit because it is actually an American company.

Faye Webster has released four studio albums; Run and Tell (2013), Faye Webster (2017), Atlanta Millionaires Club (2019), and I Know I’m Funny Haha (2021), two EPs; Live at Electric Lady (2021), and Car Therapy Sessions (2022), and eleven singles.

This is “Lifetime” by Faye Webster, which was the most recent music video released on her YouTube channel.

Follow Faye Webster on her Instagram here.

Subscribe to Faye Webster’s YouTube channel here.

Listen to her on Spotify.

Mark your calendars this Friday, November 3rd, at 8:00pm at Vogue Theatre. You can meet Faye Webster with her newest music. There are over a hundred people that marked they are interested in this event on Songkick, so I think tickets are going fast. This will be one of the 34 concerts she will be having across 11 countries, so you don’t want to miss out.

Half Moon Run on The Salt Tour

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Half Moon Run on The Salt Tour

Ready for some indie folk-rock this week?

Half Moon Run will be touring at Commodore Ballroom this Thursday and Friday. If their songs are your jam, then you want to get yourself a ticket and attend the event. The name of their tour this year is called The Salt Tour.

Half Moon Run is a Canadian indie rock band that formed in 2009 from Montreal, Quebec. They play a mixture of indie rock, indie folk, and indie pop. The rock band is signed with BMG, Indica Records, Glassnote Records, Communion and Indic Australia. The band is mostly known for their extensive layer of percussion, vocal harmonies, and large variety of instruments in their performances.

[picture from Pixabay]

“The reputation of indie folk band Half Moon Run has simply exploded in the last couple of years thanks to the support of institutions including BBC Radio 1. Their live show is totally revered as each of the four musicians play various instruments in order to recreate the heavily textured multi-percussion elements of their debut album ‘Dark Eyes’. It is no wonder they have been selected to open for the likes of Of Monsters and Men and City and Colour as the match is near perfect.”

(Sean-Ward, Songkick)

There are currently three active members in the band. Devon Portielje is the lead vocalist and guitarist; he also plays the piano and percussion. Conner Molander is the backing vocalist, he plays the guitar, keyboard, piano, pedal steel guitar, bass, and harmonica. Dylan Phillips is also a backing vocalist, and he plays the drums, piano and keyboard.

Half Moon Run released four studio albums; Dark Eyes (2012), Sun Leads Me On (2015), A Blemish in the Great Light (2019), Salt (2023), one live album; The Covideo Sessions (2020), two EPs; Seasons of Change (2020), Inwards & Onwards (2021), one compilation; Season of Change – Inwards & Onwards (2021), and twenty singles.

Let’s listen to one of the songs from their latest album Salt (2023)

The last time Half Moon Run was spotted in Vancouver was about a year ago. If you like Indie & Alt rock music, then make sure you go and show your support to the band. Half Moon Run – The Salt Tour, will be in Vancouver this Thursday, November 2nd and Friday, November 3rd. The venue for will be at Commodore Ballroom. The doors will open at 7:00pm.

Follow the band on their Instagram here.

Subscribe to their YouTube channel here.

Coquitlam Matthew Good Band

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Coquitlam Matthew Good Band

My parents immigrated to Canada when I was two years old, so I grew up in Port Coquitlam. It is a very nice city, although a lot of people that are not from the area always think that Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam are the same thing. But I think Poco has its own uniqueness and I’m proud to be from Poco.

[picture from Pixabay]

Upon researching about local bands in Vancouver, I wanted to go a bit further and explore the bands from the tri-cities. One name stuck out to me, and I wanted to know more about them. This Canadian alternative rock band is called Matthew Good Band.

Who was Matthew Good, you might ask…

Well, he was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the band.

The band formed in 1995 and originate in Coquitlam, BC. They were active from 1995-2002, so I think I should use past tense from now on. They were one of the most successful rock bands in Canada during the 1990s-2000s. They were nominated for 14 Juno Awards and have won awards for Best Group and Best Rock Album. In 2001, the band broke up after they released their fourth and final album The Audio of Being (2001).

The past members of this band included: Matthew Good, Dave Genn, Ian Browne, Rich Priske, and Geoff Lloyd. They were all Canadian musicians.

Here is “Load Me Up” from the album Beautiful Midnight (1999).

The band released their debut album Last of the Ghetto Astronauts in 1995, their second full-length studio album Underdogs in 1997, their third album Beautiful Midnight in 2000, which they won the award for Best Rock Album at that year’s Juno Awards, and finally their last album The Audio of Being in 2001, the year of their breakup. They also released three EPs, Raygun (1997), Lo-Fi B-Sides (1997) and Loser Anthems: B Sides and Rarities (2001).

Here’s a release of a concert the band performed in 1998.

Time flies, it has been 21 years since the band broke up, and we don’t have much news about them anymore. But nonetheless, they were a huge success in their prime time. They should be proud of their accomplishments. Geoff Lloyd (bass guitar) died in January 2010 and Rich Priske (bass guitar, keyboards) died in 2020.

If you want to get more information about the individual musicians that are still active in the music industry, you can follow Matthew Good and Ian Browne on their personal website.

Matthew Good

Ian Browne

The Balconies

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The Balconies

[picture from Pixabay]

As I am writing this post, I’m sitting in the work room of our Radio Arts and Entertainment Program at BCIT. It’s a nice place where students bounce ideas off each other and complete our work for our media lab roles. We had a quiz in one of our classes today and some of our set spent our lunch hour hanging around the work room to study and prep for the quiz.

It’s late in the evening now, but I know that I will lose motivation when I get home, so I decided to stick around on campus for a bit longer. Another benefit of leaving campus later is to wait out the traffic and I won’t be going 10 km/h on a highway that should go 90 km/h. Oh don’t get me started with how bad traffic was on Tuesday this week.

Anyway, this song started playing on our radio and it caught my attention. I started nodding and tapping my feet to the beat, so I decided to Shazam it and learn more about this song.

“Kill Count” by The Balconies

The Balconies were a Canadian pop, rock, alternative rock group from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. There were three members in the group. They were active from 2007-2018 and announced to stop touring and work more towards music production under the name The Balconies Collective. Jacquie Neville played the guitar and was one of the vocalists, Liam Jaeger played the drums, guitar and was the other vocalist, Stephen Neville played the bass guitar.

The Balconies released four albums: The Balconies (2009), Fast Motions (2014), Rhonda (2016) and Show You (2017). They also released singles, EPs, and music videos.

“Somewhere in the city, speakers still ring with the remnants of The Balconies feedback. And ring on they will, as The Balconies leave a trail of exploded speakers and broken drumsticks in their wake. So, if you’re not interested in sparring vocals, feedback, whipping hair, sweaty bodies, dancing drums and bottom-heavy bass lines, steer clear of the Balconies.”

(Bandcamp)

Although this band is no longer active. It doesn’t mean that their music will stop. I’m sure that they are still passionate about what they do, and their fans will support their music production. The switch from going on stage to behind the scenes is just like flipping to a new chapter of a book. Just like how I had encountered with their music, is where I opened the book somewhere in the middle.

Check out more of their music on their YouTube channel.