Check out this wicked new band above and their first album “Zubberdust!”
The track listing reminds us initially of the Mars Volta but the music is more Do Make Say Think – esque with a twist! Check it out!
All posts by DJ Steel
Mano A Mano nickname Battle
“Nickname/Pet Names” was the theme submitted by our Mano Amigo. See how DJ Steel and AdRock Interpret the theme in the podcast above!
With many shout out’s to past and future Mano A Mano DJ’s like DJ Jeff E Jeff, DJ APes, DJ RAM, DJ Cheese, The Lady Fox, DJ Pickey Pete, and Bailey.
Wektoberfest with Kandle and 54-40
This October we ventured out to Wektoberfest which was an AWESOME day!
I got there after all the Dragons Den festivities went down, but after talking with a few Toronto business owners (who thought I was in one of the bands) they said that the morning was was awesome too! Perhaps they got lucky and Mike Wekerle liked their business!?!
The early part of the festival was a time for business owners to mingle, connect and to pitch their idea and possibly get feedback or funding from the newest dragon Mike Wekerle. Check out the event website here: http://www.wektoberfest.com/
Upon thinking about it later…it would have been good to see if he was interested in a Canadian Arts and Culture promoting Audio Comic…. I didn’t look into all that part before the festival and at one point I had a millionaire (!?!) dancing right beside me! Anyways, I went for the great music he brought in: Kandle and 54-40. Kandle was playing a wicked set (this is the first time I have seen her live) when Mike Wekerle got on stage with Neil Osborne and danced in the background as seen above. The Kandle set was sooo good! I was able to chat with her briefly about it before one of my favourite bands of all time got to the stage!
As always 54-40 played a great flawless set! What was fun, the crowd was challenged to out-sing Mike Wekerle who was singing back-up at one point. The crowd was right into the 54-40 hits and were obviously right into this request. Then to close out the set…I have never seen 54-40 do this before, they invited anyone on the stage to dance with them.
This whole evening was quite exciting and I would have to say that my first Wektoberfest was a HIT! I hope Mike Wekerle will run this event yearly!!!
Fixing Ol’ Betsy Mano A Mano battle
Check out the podcast above as we rock out some super hard hitting tracks while I explain to AdRock about the repairs that were done to “ol’ Betsy” my beloved van.
If you or any of your loved ones are experiencing heat problems in one of your vehicles and don’t have the money to get someone to fix it…Go to this site! Perhaps you can make a change in someones life:
Bring the Foo Fighters to Waterloo!?! + The Unicorns!!!!!
James Brown is/was trying to bring the Foo Fighters here to the illustrious Waterloo. I include “was” in my previous sentence because as I type this and visit his kickstart page it says (canceled). His Kickstart page that can still be found here (at least for now).
There are a few problems that I see with this whole situation….
1)The Foo Fighters need $350 000 to come to Waterloo! WHAT! That is quite the pay off for one night of rock. I have been working to get the Unicorns to come play in Waterloo just for the betterment of the city.
2) CANCON – I wonder if James Brown told the masses of Waterloo that a Canadian Classic band such as the Unicorns was opening for the Foo Fighters if it would have gotten more pledges. Although American music is great, I think that Canadians are waking up to the amazing Canadian culture that is right before them. We don’t have to pay the high prices to import culture anymore – WE HAVE IT!
3) What I think he thought would have happened (and still may) is that a big company like Blackberry or Manulife etc would jump on board and endorse the concert. Blackberry has brought in Huge bands in the past for its employees and has thrown some amazing concerts in the city.
Perhaps he can appeal to the creators of “Big Music Fest II” and get the Foo Fighters on that bill. But that is a rant for another time!
Our own plight: We have had some success with Canadian Indie bands to contact them and have them play concerts in the area but the Unicorns are difficult guys to reach. They broke up approx. 10 years ago and played a handful of shows this past August. If you are unfamiliar with their brand of music check out the podcast above! We have had our own radio campaign to have the Unicorns come and play here in Waterloo which is why I push for them to become the Foo Fighters openers! We also want the Unicorns on the Mano A Mano program (and I guess we would take members of the Foo Fighters too, but they have to work around the Unicorns busy schedule) Hopefully one day James Brown and MAM’s hopeful concerts can all be realized!
IMBIBE Food and Drink – Mano A Mano Battle
Above is our IMBIBE Food and Drink battle!
This feature is near and dear to us for a few reasons. We visited this Food and Drink establishment at the end of August for the “Paul Jago unearthing the music of The Gandharvas” concert. This concert was such an exciting show held exclusively at IMBIBE. What was surprising and really cool was that the Lake of Bays Brewing Company actually created the “Mano A Mano Pomegranate Summertime Cerveza” And it was a HIT selling out! (it can be seen above on the IMB
IBE drink list) IMBIBE is currently the only location in the world that has served this exclusive beer. Anyways, because of all that excitement we forgot to try the wonderful food at IMBIBE. It was actually a good thing cause it gave us an excuse to visit IMBIBE again very soon! DJ AdRock and I (DJ Steel) met at IMBIBE for a work lunch a few weeks after the show. DJ AdRock ordered the Poutine, which you can see has a little
twist! It is potato wedges! Which heightens it to a whole new level! I tried a bit and it was delicious! My lunch was the soup of the day! Because it is getting colder out, I went with a nice warming soup. Not only was it warming because of the temperature of the soup but it also had a nice spiciness to it that also helped warm me up!
This is definitely a Food and Drink establishment that you wanna check out! Especially if you are headded to the Museum! (it is literally attached to the Museum) Plan to check out this place! They often have great musicians playing there, they have an open mic night and have some all about GREAT craft breweries such as Lake of Bays Brewing Company!
Check out their website here for more information:
http://www.imbibefooddrink.ca/
Paul Jago – Live at IMBIBE
Rock Cut Feature: 54-40
54-40 has always been a favourite band of the Mano A Mano show, SoundFM and pretty much all of Canada. They are in the midst of recording their new album and “Building Future History”. Right now they are doing a very cool tour where they are playing a bunch of their singles acoustically and giving some cool stories about either the recording or some background information about each of these Canadian classics!
We were lucky enough to check out the last third of the Hamilton show! IT was AWESOME! The stories are great and because the songs are so well written they hold up acoustically and seem to connect even more intimately with the audience.
Although we missed the first two thirds of this show we are not worried – 54-40 is playing here in Waterloo! OCTOBER 19th! More details here: Details
Top Shelf Video: PUP “Mabu”
Here is our Second Episode of “Top Shelf Video”, here is another great music Video put out by the Band PUP (formerly Topenga) It is a great video! Check out our “insights” above and then watch this GREAT video below!
Local Love Mano A Mano Battle
This week we feature 8 local (for the most part) stores or services that YOU should check out!
First, Guitar shops, sure Long and McQuade is great but if you are into acoustic guitars we have just the place for you: “BrickHouse”
Second, Worth a Second Look has a bunch of great used stuff. We could spend hours in there looking for old treasures!
97 Victoria St N, Kitchener, ON N2H 5C1
Third, Total Auto Service! These are the only people I trust with my car! They will tell you what needs to be done and doesn’t give you extra unnecessary crap. Their prices beat every other place we have used!
http://www.totalautoservicewaterloo.com/
Fourth, The Blind Stitch. If you don’t want to have the same stuff as everyone else then check out The blind stitch. They make awesome sewn products and you can read a story behind various items that were just created
http://theblindstitch.blogspot.ca/
This one is obvious living here in the Waterloo region: Blackberry (formerly RIM) Even as they went through some tough times they still supported the community, including SoundFM and now that their products are AMAZING! go pick one up!
http://ca.blackberry.com/
For our less Glutenous Mano Amigo’s we have Grandma’s Gluten Free Goods. I had one of these cupcakes at DJ Adrock’s house and even if you enjoy gluten…its worth it to be healthier and eat these cause they taste sooo good!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grandmas-Gluten-Free-Goods/102737203373
Second lastly, Start Communications. Unsatisfied with what some of the big named companies provide? These guys offer rates that are the exact same….only thing is, you get WAY more for the same rate! check them out here:
and Lastly but not leastly, Mastermind Toys. This is a chain but has a small business feel to it. They have great selection and good prices! Check em out!
http://www.mastermindtoys.com/
If you have other great local buisnesses please send them to: manoamanoradio@soundfm.ca so that we can check them out and tell the community about these great places!
The Wed-Dig Battle
In the lineage of “Down The Alley” parties, the ex-owner of “Down the Alley” threw a new party at a new secret location in the Waterloo area that was even more remarkable. Including the re-forming of a few local bands, a rave, food, drink, you name it….it was at Wed-Dig. DJ AdRock and I were lucky enough to be invited and so we had to battle out great tracks pertaining to this event.
The Comic Book Battle
DJ Plan B, Gary Cain and DJ Adrock battle out great tracks based on various different comic books. If you missed the Gary Cain band interview make sure to check that out as well. And if you are into Comic books and Music….there is nothing better than “The Electrifying Adventures of DJ Jeff E Jeff”
Top Shelf Video: The Gay Nineties Letterman
This is the third time we recorded the segment for this same video. We wanted to start with this video since it was a tweet by the Gay Nineties that gave us the initial idea in the first place!
Check out our review/commentary of the Gay Nineties video “Letterman” above then be sure to check this great video out below!
The Unicorns Reunite!
This is a reunion that we totally missed out on! The shows were all in August and in the US with only one in Canada but up in Montreal.
We are seriously hoping that the Unicorns will come down to Waterloo and perform here on the Mano A Mano show and continue the great indie rock that we know and love from this band! Check out the podcast above for two tracks recently released that are b-sides from the time of their amazing album “Who will cut our hair when we’re gone?”
The Gary Cain Band – Interview with Gary Cain
Mano A Mano was lucky to have the regions best guitar player and even better Guitar Hero player, Gary Cain in the Mano A Mano studio.
Gary sat down with DJ Adrock and DJ Plan B and answered the tough questions about naming his band and what it is like to be the best guitarist in the region.
He then proceeded to partake in an audio battle with DJ Adrock and DJ Plan B with the “comic 
book” theme (that will be released soon)
For now make sure to check out this great local legend in the interview above and at his website below.
Here is DJ Adrock and DJ plan B enjoying the music shredding of none other than the Gary Cain Band
Paul Jago unearths the Gandharvas concert!
Last week Mano A Mano brought to you the exclusive interview with Paul Jago from the night of the Imbibe concert brought to you by SoundFM/Mano A Mano and Lake of Bays Brewing Company. Now we bring you the concert!
There are a few songs missing from the second set but just wait because Mano A Mano will be releasing video of some of these missing tracks soon! Also, check out the beer list below! Most notably the Mano A Mano Pomegranate Cerveza that was on tap that night and SOLD OUT!!!!
Downtime with Paul Jago
Just before the epic Paul Jago concert at Imbibe in Kitchener, where he unearthed the music of the Gandharvas, we were lucky enough to sit down with Paul and pick his brain about The Gandharvas, Said Dog, Balls Deluxe and more! Check it all out in the interview podcast!
The Gandharvas live concert will be aired over the next few weeks on the Mano A Mano show!
The Perimeter Institute has nothing on this think tank!
Not unlike the Perimeter Institute, just last night the Mano A Mano show witnessed the gathering of another local think tank group – The SoundFM Tech Committee. All the important people were here as we on the spot rocked out some “Tech Committee” themed songs and even infused some of the actual meeting! It is a podcast like no other! Please enjoy responsibly!
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Battle!
In the podcast we explore the origins of this ALS Ice bucket phenomena that is sweeping across social media. In addition to that we look at the rules and rock some great tracks.
I realize I was a few days late with completing the challenge. I wanted to look into this a bit further to make sure that it was a good cause. What I was worried about was that the time limit forced people to just mindlessly follow the pyramid scheme social media experiment without looking further into what it was about.
Check out our facebook page for my video!
I was nominated by DJ Jeff E Jeff. I nominated Brad Merritt, Lyle Bell and Parker Bossley.
https://www.facebook.com/manoamanoradio/videos/715956105152054
Post by Mano A Mano – 100.3 SoundFM.
The Space Committee Battle
The Space Committee joined the Mano A Mano show this past TDIT. There was a whole smattering of DJ royality in the station enjoying some fine Rock Cut Lake of Bays Brewing Company Beverages. We even turned on the mic’s unknowing on the meeting during some instrumental songs! It is radio gold! check it out above!
SoundFM Golden MP3 Awards!
You can hear the awards party above with some great tracks rocked out for each of the winners…But here is your list of winners:
Local Hero Award
2013 – DJ Zach – Highbrau Radio
2014 – Moses Bogart – Str8 outta the pit
Community Champion Award
2013 – Non-Toxic Airwaves
2014 – The Coral FM show with DJ Coral
SoundFM Soldier for behind the scenes work
2013 – Lieutenant Dang & The Nattyphysicist for the station move
2014 – Lieutenant Dang & Dr. Mark for renewing the CRTC liscense
The Most Dead Air Award
2013 – Megaseg
2014 – Airtime
The Best/Worst Teen Moustache Award
2013 – DJ JD
2014 – DJ Jeff E Jeff
The DJ AdRock memorial award for exceptional DJing
2012 – DJ Steel
2013 – DJ Saviour
2014 – The Nattyphysicist
The Freshest Beats Award for the best new program
2013 – Friday Night Rockabilly
2014 – The Electrifying Sessions with DJ Jeff E Jeff
The Best Classic Show
2013 – Mano A Mano
2014 – Mano A Mano
Paul Jago unearths the music of The Gandharvas
Paul Jago will be rocking out two sets of new and old Gandharvas tracks at Imbibe this August 30th! Go back to school with a BANG this year and make sure to check out this show!
In addition to that Lake of Bays Brewing Company will be holding a Tap Take over! (with a possible one off beer!!! DO NOT MISS OUT!)
Rock Cut Feature: Bob Log III
Bob Log III Performs this Saturday at Jane Bond!
Check out this one man band extravaganza!!!
Check out some of his hit tracks in the podcast above!
This is sure to be a spectacular show!
Royal Canoe visits SoundFM
One of Canada’s hottest bands right now is Royal Canoe and they came by the Mano A Mano and Electrifying Session for an interview and to enjoy an abundance of Lake of Bays Brewing Company Rock Cut Beverages.
Check out their Website and Music here:
www.royalcanoe.com
In the podcast we ask the band never before asked questions and gain some interesting insights into this Rock Cut Feature Band.
The Crazy Canuck
In our quest to visit the BEST restaurants in the KW region we got on the road (Weber street) and traveled until we saw the Big Brown Beaver on the logo of The Crazy Canuck! The restaurant is right across from the St. Jacobs outlet stores.
We knew in advance that this place was going to be great and DJ Jeff E Jeff and the lady fox wanted to accompany us too! I kept thinking that we were going to get a crosswind (as you can hear in the podcast) at the restaurant but it was actually the Lake of Bays Brewing Company “Top Shelf” Beer that was on tap!
We have been talking quite a bit about our craving for poutine and what is cool about this restaurant is that they have 8 different types of poutine. DJ Jeff E Jeff went with the Greek Tzatzik Poutine seen on the right and DJ AdRock went with the Smoked Meat Poutine seen on the left! I was able to try both of the poutines and they were both exceptional!
Like our co-host on the podcast, DJ Steelhead, who won our Lake of Bays Brewing company contest, I (DJ Steel) am a burger man. I was a little worried about going with “The Crazy Canuck” burger; I didn’t want to look like a light-weight and not be able to finish, so instead I went with “The Best Burger in Town”. The name alone made me feel like I was making the right choice. It can be seen here….It was the best burger I have had in this town to date! I will continue my quest trying to top this…but it has set the bar pretty high! If your looking at all these above mentioned meals and thinking “I’m vegitarian, I bet there is nothing that I would like here” well you are wrong! The Crazy Canuck is currently revamping 
their website and we were ordering off their new menu. The Lady Fox found this gem: The Quinoa Burger with the option of a lettuce bun!
In fact the new menu has a whole vegetarian section that you veegs can choose from!
The Crazy Canuck has got a cool vibe to it. When we went, it was a beautiful day and so we decided to sit outside under the Patio Laterns. The inside though is perfect for music lovers! There is an abundance of Canadian Music vinyl covers all over the walls to check out while ordering or dinning 
in. In addition to this once your done your meal you can walk into the adjoining antique store and reminisce about cool items from your youth (as we did! )
Altogether we had a GREAT time dinning at The Crazy Canuck……But wait! DESSERT!
ooh man…..it was soo good I’m not even going to describe it…I will just finish this post with this picture:
Lake of Bays Contest Winner: Chris Martin!
Here is the profile of our newest Lake of Bays Brewing Company 
winner!
Name: Chris Martin
DJ Name: DJ Steelhead
Twitter: @steelheadsfan78
Lead singer of Coldplay
Facilitator of the Leafsaholics anonymous site
Follow on Twitter: @TMLeafsaholics
2 time Mississauga Steelheads Fan of the year
1 time OHL fan on the year
Winner of the Mano A Mano/Lake of Bays Brewing Company Share, Share A Like contest!
Honourary SoundFM & Mano A Mano DJ.