Last night the winner of the Polaris Prize was announced in Toronto by CBC Radio 3’s very own Grant Lawrence.
The nominees were: Arcade Fire, The Besnard Lakes, The Dears, Julie Doiron, Feist, Junior Boys, Miracle Fortress, Joel Plaskett, Chad VanGaalen, and Patrick Watson.
With a lineup like that, it was kind of hard to tell who was going to take away the great $20,000 prize. The prize was judged solely on artistic merit, leaving out of the equation record sales or genre. This is the contest’s second year. Last year’s winner was Final Fantasy. And this year, Montreal’s Patrick Watson takes the prize home with all the honor and merit that comes along with it. I’m not surprised and believe he deserves such honor. He’s pretty great.
Conratulations Pat!

Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

So as many of you probably know, music is my life. Well, lately porn is my life, but music remains an important part on the sidelines. I don’t get paid to write about music, but I enjoy it nonetheless. So, I decided that since the Pop Festival is coming up, that many of you need to get off your asses and come shake it at one of the many awesome shows coming to our wonderful city. Seriously. Get off your ass and go see a show. Any show. But go see one. You’ll kick yourself forever if you miss out. I know I’ll kick your ass forever if you miss out. So this is a time where I seriously want to pull all of my hair out trying to be at all places at once. This is worse than Christmas with my crazy family spread out all over New Brunswick. It’s all happening in the same city, and 5 days totally isn’t enough. Last year wasn’t so impressive. But this year. WOW! If I would’ve suspected something so fuckin great, I would’ve bought the all access pass. So, let’s begin outside the box by pointing out great shows before hand.
Tonight at Club Soda, you got The Cinematic Orchestra if you can make it. Show starts at 8 I believe.
This coming Wednesday, September 26th, we’ve got Iron & Wine stopping through town. They will be playing at The Metropolis and the doors open at 6:30. Tickets cost $24.57 at the door. Last time I saw these guys, I was blown away. It was such a great concert. I just can’t help but to go see them again.
Next up, the Pop Montreal Festival!!!!! I love this time of year more than Christmas and Summer put together.
So you get lots of choices. Brace yourself!
Wednesday, October 3rd:
20:00 The Olympic Symphonium at O Patro Vys followed by Down with the Butterfly. The first band being some of my best friends from Fredericton, this is where I’ll be. They have a true musical talent for creating enchanting songs that just know exactly how to pull on your heart strings. Supported by fantastic harmonies and simple instrumentation, this trio is getting to play their first show in Montreal, and they really need our support. Besides, they’ll blow your pants off. You won’t believe what incredible musical talent hides in the loyalist capital.
21:00 Brad Barr plays at Le Cagibi (formerly known as Esperanza- on the corner of St-Viateur and St-Laurent). This guy also plays with The Slip. I don’t really know The Slip all that well, but I’ve seen his solo act once before and almost peed my pants. He’s sickly talented and really deserves to be seen.
23:00 Torngat at Casa del Popolo (on St-Laurent just south of St-Joseph). These guys just released a new CD entitled You Could Be. They’re a really special trio consisting of French Horn (spiced up with tons of pedals and crazy electronic shit), Keyboards, and drums. They’re super awesome!
This is where the choices have to be made.
23:00 Julie Doiron plays at The Main Hall. She’s our very own from Sackville, N.B. One of my personal favorites and always offers truly great performance and touching stories. She’s just so genuine and real, additionally she’s crazy talented and a great songwriter.

Thursday, October 4th
20:00 Share (the band, not the verb- and not the so widely recognized homonym Cher). This guy is such a wonderful human being. You may know him from such bands as The Sleepless Nights. I personally just know his two last albums Ukelele Tragic and the following more electronic one. I listened to both albums incessantly all summer. He’s just…. uhm. So beautiful. His music I mean. You really have to go see this guy. He’s playing at Barfly on St-Laurent.
22:00 The Luyas at Club Lambi. This band is my favorite Montreal discovery. They just started off in the past couple years and really have a great thing going. With Jessie (formerly from the SS Cardiacs and the Polaris Prize nominees Miracle Fortress) on guitar and vocals, Pietro (from Torngat and Bell Orchestra) on French Horn, and Stef (from Bell Orchestra), this band is certainly the most talented trio of people I have seen in this city. Stef is my favorite drummer ever and blows my panties off with his wild tricks every time. Jessie’s voice and lyrics are enchanting and absolutely marvelous. Pietro, well Pietro is also a great talent in the Montreal music scene and is sure to surprise you with what a French Horn can actually do.
22:00 The Most Serene Republic and Young Galaxy at the Main Hall. Both proteges of the fabulous Arts & Crafts music label. These band’s live energy is simply magnificent. I can’t go on writing so much because I don’t have all night with this blog.
22:00 Final Fantasy (the band, not the game- at the Ukrainian Federation on Hutchison and Fairmount) With Owen Pallett leading the string contemporary indie band, this is one of my latest musical discoveries. I’ve never seen them live but I can’t wait. They won last year’s Polaris Prize and won my heart within two listens of their album. This is seriously so special and unusual. I love it.

Then, if you’re like me, you’ll rest and save a couple bucks for the next couple days.
The final day of the festival we’re getting a real treat.
Sunday, October 7th
21:00 The National at the Theatre National (On St-Laurent just south of Sherbrooke) These guys are awesome. I’m running out of words here…
22:00 Eric’s Trip Moncton’s own 90s wonder-band back for a reunion tour. This show is one not to be missed as the opportunity to see these guys play again will most probably not repeat itself. Formed by members such as the legendary Rick White and the oh-so-talented Julie Doiron, this band was said to have defined a generation for the indie-kids, and I don’t doubt it one second. I know you’ll be tired and broke by then, but don’t miss this one. You’ll regret it if you do. At least more so than you’ll regret it the next morning.

Then we’ve got Tegan & Sara coming to town for two nights! How lucky are we!!! They’ll be playing at The Theatre National on October 12th and 13th. These hot-ass-talented-lesbo-twin rockettes will make you rock your socks off.

After all that, you get the multi-orgasmic Do Make Say Think, my all-time favorite band. I saw them twice, and last time, I seriously lost it, it was so amazing. If you don’t know these guys, check them out. If you do, for god’s sake, don’t miss this concert. They’re playing at The Theatre National on October 19th.

For more info on the Pop Montreal concerts, check out their Web site.
For the rest of them, do your own research.
Have a wonderful fall everyone. Tis the time to be jolly and broke and tired, BUT extremely exhilarated.

Other honorable mentions to check out (both Polaris Prize nominees): Chad VanGaalen, Miracle Fortress

Please stay tuned for my wonderful future entries about my great pornographic discoveries.

Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Sometimes life makes choices for you. You can choose all you want, but it doesn’t mean it’ll work out in the end. Like all my plans to go back to school failed, I felt like my choices were narrowing down to something I didn’t like very much. I wasn’t going to work retail forever, I knew that. My next big break was going to come eventually. I just wasn’t sure how long I was going to be able to take that crap. Felt low and decided that I was just going to keep on trying to get THE job. Or at least any job that was going to give me some experience that I really wanted to get, and that would eventually lead me to my dream job. But a dark ghost was haunting me and telling me, “fuck, you came all the way to Montreal for THE carreer, and now it doesn’t seem like it’s any easier to break into the real world here than it was back home”. But I was determined to stay. I love it here now. Moving anywhere for a job wasn’t really an option for me. But deep down inside, I knew that sometimes you have to be patient for a REAL LONG TIME before anything good comes along. I just didn’t want to be patient for another 5 years, ya know.
Well thank god I have good friends. One great friend in perticular. Olivia told me last week that she thought she was about to get her big break. That she wasn’t getting her hopes up but that things were looking really good. She had found a great job, but then another much greater one. So that meant that she would have to leave her current great job. And since she wanted to leave on good terms, she figured that if she reffered them someone really great for the job, that it would make up for the fact that she was leaving. So she decided to reffer me!
Well things moved around rather quickly. Just yesterday morning, she called me up and said that her employers wanted to meet me as soon as possible. So I went in to be interviewed that same morning. Things went so smoothly, it was unreal. They loved me and offered me the job on the spot. The job is a real writer job. Not like a newspaper columnist or anything. Mostly writing and rewriting reviews for a website. But it IS a writer job. A real deal writer job. Doing what I love and what I’m best at. And it pays more than my current retail job. AND it has steady hours! AAAAAAAND weekends! So wonderful. In a small office on the plateau with young people and a laid back atmosphere. It’s just the most wonderful thing that could happen. This is the job I’ve been trying for for almost 2 years. I couldn’t so much as get a job interview for something like this. So the refferal was really what saved me here. They were already like 40% convinced I was the one by the time I walked in the door. So all that was left for me to do was be my lovely self and I was hired!!!!
So life did choose the writer life for me. And I’m so glad. So many people end up doing just the opposite of what they love. Because sometimes you don’t get to choose. Life usually chooses what comes your way and you choose what boat you want to get onto. Well I’m getting on the writing boat my friends. I can’t believe this is for real! Woot!

Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment