Another music show as I continue to dig through my e-mail from last year. Today we have more recent releases, as I skim off the top layer of my InBox. No podcast, so if you want to listen to these tracks at your whim, click on the links for the artists and buy their music!
The studio remains closed, putting a crimp in getting musicians and community members in for interviews. Web conferences just don’t feel like real radio…
This is a repeat of the show from Monday, 28 February 2022.
James Blacktop on CKMS Community Connections, 18 February 2022Marc ReillyAdom Postma
The Boys & I are back in the studio! Well, on a web conference, because the CKMS studio is still closed to guests until the pandemic subsides. James Blacktop, Marc Reilly and Adom Postma tell us about their experience with the pandemic, their studio session, working with a producer, being a road band, and give us a brief rundown of upcoming gigs. Nathan Bonassin couldn’t be with us today, there’s that day job getting in the way again.
We play some music from their past appearances on CCC (19 August 2019 and 31 August 2020), James plays a love song for his fiancée Stepaniee (they’re getting married this summer — Congratulations!), and we play the brand new single White Hot which was released today.
When: Friday, 11 March 2022 Location: 4057 New St, Burlington, Ontario Website: https://www.slyefox.com/
EP Release Party
When: Saturday, 19 March 2022 Where: Descendants Beer and Beverage Company Location: 319 Victoria Street North, Kitchener, Ontario Website: https://www.descendantsbeer.com/
The Boys & I were in Chalet Studio in Uxbridge from September to November to record an EP, Ignite with 5 tracks. Worked with staff who recorded That Ain’t Me Any More, but learning all about distribution and marketing. On the web conference with James Blacktop (vocals), Marc Reilly (guitarist), Adom Postma (bass). Everyone is excited to be playing live in front of an audience again. The EP includes another track, Book Of Counted Sorrows, written during the pandemic. Marc created the riff, James wrote the lyrics.
Marc says the music in a minor key with an interesting riff sounded sad, fitting with the pandemic. Started as a remote collaboration, passing music and lyrics back and forth before working together. The full EP, remaining four songs will come out together on 18 March 2022, Book Of Counted Sorrows will be the second single off the EP but released on the same day. Introducing Nathan Bonassin (drummer) can’t make it due to work. James working on another song, Old Fashioned Kind Of Love, a summertime love song. We’ve been playing Lay Down Easy at the station.
Why release a song in Winter? We all need a bit of White Hot in the winter. But it builds up an audience for summer concerts. There’s a concert from 8pm to 10pm tonight (Friday, 18 February 2022) at Descendants brewery; James lists other upcoming events. How far do The Boys & I travel? Welland, Oshawa, usually within about an hour and a half. They’ve been approached to join the “Extreme Tour”, with shows throughout the United States. But 2020 and 2021 happened. Maybe this summer. Is streaming worthwhile? Not as a revenue stream. But it helps get gigs. James promised Stephaniee to play a song live on the air, the song they will dance to at their upcoming wedding.
32m25s
Here I Stand Live, On-air
Stephaniee and James Blacktop
36m24s
Discussing James and Stephaniee’s wedding. Looking forward to the honeymoon in Europe. Adom and Marc leave the lovesong writing to James. This studio session was a totally different experience than the one in 2020. The band had a producer that nitpicked technique to get the best out of the band. That has affected the live performance, but they sneak in some of the old-style riffs, the “OG Version”. But no background vocalists! White Hot came out today, eagerly looking forward to streaming hits. James quit smoking and has improved his vocal range, looking to increase his repertoire to take advantage. James tells us the inspiration for White Hot — James didn’t think it was very good, but Adom recognized it as a banger right away. Bob heard White Hot as the theme on Wide World Of Motorsports, but without James’ singing!
It’s Valentines Day, and what better way to celebrate than by playing love songs? It’s a day for songs about true love, unrequited love, spurned love, lost love, and spiders.
Spiders? OK, I didn’t know how else to fit in a track from Active Dark Filament. Erroll Zastre writes:
“Lake of the Spiders”, I don’t know, a romantic place to take your significant other… get eaten by a giant spider? I’ve been watching too many Saturday night Svengoolie horror programs.
Also on the show today we have the debut radio performance of Talk by Living Room For Small. Many thanx to Owen for getting the track to us with virually no advance notice!
There’s also a teaser of the new single from The Boys & I, White Hot which comes out on all streaming platforms on Friday. We’ll have an interview with James Blacktop on our Friday afternoon episode at 3:00pm.
Did you ever see the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line? Until I saw that movie I didn’t know that Ring Of Fire was a love song written by June Carter Cash to Johnny Cash. We start off the show with a beautiful rendition by I, The Mountain.
Since there are no interviews but it’s all CanCon music (and mostly KWCon music) there won’t be a podcast. Sorry. Once the studio re-opens for guests I’ll step up my game and get people in for interviews, Live On-Air In-Studio performances, and podcasts.
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Digging a little deeper into the InBox to find more KWCon music! All the artists on today’s show are from Waterloo Region, or were in their pasts. Bad news: I’ve only dug as deep as July 2021. Good news: There’ll be lots more KWCon music coming in the next few weeks!
This show will repeat on Friday, 4 February 2022 at 3:00pm.
Map of Waterloo Region where KWCon music comes from!
I am so behind in my e-mail. Almost a year behind. And that means that people from Waterloo Region who have been submitting music haven’t heard from me, and have probably given up hope of getting their music on the radio. To you I say Do Not Despair! I’m digging my way to the bottom of my InBox, and I will get to your music submissions. In fact, I’m playing a bunch of them today.
To submit your music send an e-mail to office@radiowaterloo.ca with the subject KWCon Music Submission (substitute CanCon if you’re not from Waterloo Region), and check out our detailed music submission guide.
I have now worked my way down to June in my InBox, and will probably do a few more KWCon shows in the next few weeks until all the backlog of both KWCon and CanCon submissions have been heard on the FM airwaves. So to start, here are today’s selections.
At home he feels like a tourist
At home he feels like a tourist
He fills his head with culture
He gives himself an ulcer
He fills his head with culture
He gives himself an ulcer
This week’s show (setlist below):
This is the best video of an early Gang of Four performance I could find on YouTube – in Zagreb in 1981. If you didn’t see them live back then, check this out:
This week’s playlist is a weird mix of deeply dystopian works with flowers of hope sprinkled throughout. Not sure how we got there but hope you’ll enjoy it nonetheless.
Well we survived 2021! Let’s hope 2022 is an improvement.
As I mention on this week’s show, I came across a truly bizarre live jam on YouTube this week – Neil Young and Devo, playing Hey Hey My My (Into the Black). Here’s the link: – if you can listen to the end you’re a stronger person than I am. (Note: this is NOT the version that’s in this episode.)
Here’s the latest installment of 81 82 83 84. Happy New Year everyone!
This week I’m playing KWCon music, that is, music by local musicians from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich (and maybe some who have friends and relations in the area)… This is all new music from 2021, or newly discovered in 2021. Sadly, I’ve only got an hour, which covers barely half of the KWCon musicians I discovered this year. So that means there’s not enough time to provide bios or background information.
I hope this Covid is done soon. I want to bring all these musicians into the studio for interviews and maybe a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance.
And for any musicians in Waterloo Region I’ve missed, drop us a line at office@radiowaterloo.ca with an MP3 of your music or a link to a download site, and we’ll get your songs on the air. I’m about six months behind in replying to e-mail, so please be patient. Or even better, join Radio Waterloo as a member, Start Your Own Show, and put Waterloo Region’s music on the air!
So not the most Christmas-y music but still a lot of fun tunes. A couple of friends told me that they’d like to hear me talk more during the show so I tried that out this week. Let me know what you think.
Wishing you a happy holiday season and all the best for 2022!
Join me at REQUIEM FOR ROCK this Wednesday , Dec. 22 at 10 pm ( or Sunday Dec 26 at noon) for the debut of a radio play; FITZ’S NEW YEAR…on REQUIEM FOR ROCK with your host and humble narrator Mr. Smart
If you’re not familiar with the music of Bill Nelson and/or Be Bop Deluxe, I do hope you’ll check them out. And my nephew just “discovered” Brian Eno this week and is going deep deep deep into the stacks to learn more. Always a fantastic feeling to uncover great music from years past.
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