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After teasing fans with the release of an exclusive 7″ featuring their first single ‘Camilo (The Magician)’ this May, Said The Whale are finally set to release their full length album Islands Disappear on October 13th via Hidden Pony/EMI. Produced by Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, Mother Mother, The New Pornographers) and Tom Dobrzanski (Hey Ocean, Lotus Child), Islands Disappear takes from experiences of driving across Canada set to songs that are sometimes danceable, sometimes folk, and all times intelligent.

Following their summer tour which included a coveted spot at Parliament Hill on Canada Day playing to tens of thousands of people, a featured spot on CBC Radio 3, tons of radio play and adds, The Magician EP is selling out quickly. The anticipated release of Islands Disappear has brought Said The Whale more good fortune including making the finals for the XM Verge Awards ‘Artist of the Year’ for the second year in a row, an invite to play at the Edge 102.1 studio in Toronto, dates with the lovely Hannah Georgas, and a soon-to-be-released video that we promise is going to float your boat.

They will be making a stop at The London Music Club on October 7th.

For music + more info: www.saidthewhale.com
More good stuff here: www.myspace.com/saidthewhale

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The London Ontario Live Arts Festival also known as LOLA fest, takes place every year in London, Ontario Canada. This year it’s Sept 18th and 19th. The festival is not a music festival but a hugely imaginative live arts festival from well-known and emerging artists. The impact of immense projections, interactive drama, acclaimed musical and dance performances, and the involvement of major organizations from around the country, including extensive municipal support create a truly unique event with great artistic impact to its community.

I’ve been on the Apps Team this year creating cool things that integrate online and interactive aspects of the festival. This weekend I’ll be spending a LOT of time running the LiveStream both days. You can check it out right now by heading to LOLAFest Live. There is some pre festival video flow there so you can get acquainted to the bands before the festival. I’ll also be embed it here right on the main page on Friday so you can find it easily.

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Fans and critics agree, with the release of ‘The MBF Love LP’ Michael Bernard Fitzgerald has outgrown his hometown of Calgary.  Since his first show at a tiny folk club in 2005, Michael has funded and released two independent EPs, shared stages with Roz Bell, Jully Black, The Wallflowers, Stars and Hedley, and has won numerous prizes and awards including the X92 Xposure contest which landed him a spot at Virginfest and ‘most promising songwriter’ by the Calgary Folk Festival.

“MBF is more than just that special spark. He’s a lethal tank of gasoline, igniting the musical and artistic scene and creating completely different experiences for lucky audiences.” – The Gauntlet

“This newly crafted disk packs with it Motown flare and Fitzgerald’s soulful voice.  It is an innovative fusion of soul, acoustic melodies, choir choruses, and horns. These sounds are infused with Fitzgerald’s passionate lyrics about society and modern love.” – BeatRoute Magazine

He’ll be making his stop in London at Call The Office Sept 24th!

For music + more info: http://www.myspace.com/michaelbernardfitzgerald
And here: http://www.mybestfriendmbf.com

Brand New Spaces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Q0ecSFkis

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Library Voices are gearing up for a summer tour. The jaunt will see them sharing the stage with Hawksley Workman, Black Francis, Pattern Is Movement, and Dog Day.

The band recently posted the single ‘Drinking Games’ from their forthcoming album on Myspace (www.myspace.com/thelibraryvoices) and their travels, trials, and tribulations will be documented in a tour blog for EXCLAIM! Magazine (www.exclaim.ca).

On July 29th they will be making there stop in London at Call The Office

Library Voices is a ten piece pop ensemble from Regina, Saskatchewan. Blending tremolo soaked guitars with analog synths, vintage organs, circuit bent electronics, accordion, saxophone, and glockenspiel, their songs play out like an AM radio jingle; mixing the best of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and today.

Since forming in spring of 2008, the group has operated at a feverish pace. They’ve been featured in the New Yorker and heralded by SPIN as an “undiscovered band you need to hear now”. They have shared the stage with Stars, K-os, Chad Vangaalen, Plants & Animals, and Blitzen Trapper. They have performed at Sled Island, Regina Folk Festival, WCMA, CMW, and Ness Creek. They’ve received generous airplay on the CBC and BBC, reaching #3 on the Radio 3 charts and breaking the top 30 on Canadian campus radio. They also won a Radio 3 Bucky award, were voted the best band in Regina by Prairie Dog readers, have been mugged twice, and had their van robbed once.

Library Voices debut EP Hunting Ghosts & Other Collected Shorts, offers a clear and concise introduction to the collective. The groups song writing objectives are evident, bridging sophisticated pop hooks and melodies with complex harmonies and anthemic sing along choruses. Lyrically the album strays from bubblegum, addressing late night escapades, panic attacks, and the construct of home. The record is also laced with pop culture references, including nods to Tom Waits and Evan Dando, as well as contemporary literature notables Paulo Coehlo, Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, Nick Flynn, and the late Kurt Vonnegut. Hunting Ghosts & Other Collected Shorts was produced by Library Voices and Orion Paradis at SoulSoundStudios in Regina. The studio was constructed in a century old structure that once served as a Jewish funeral home. The control both had served as the room where bodies were prepared. An inscription still rests above the entrance that translates to “house of truth and loving kindness.”

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Vancouver native David Blair, is currently on a summer tour in support of his album ‘Things Left Unsaid’ released on June 30th. On July 23 he’ll be at the London Music Club.

David is the recipient of numerous awards including Best Adult Contemporary Album, Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards 2008, placing 2nd at Unisong World Song Contest this year and has Dale Russell as one of his supporters and fans.

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Vancouver indie darlings Said The Whale have their fins set on overdrive as they release their next single “The Magician (Camilo)”, prepare for a summer tour, and press a limited edition run of their 7” that features the single as well as three other tracks: “Strong Swimmers”, “Love is Art” and “Upset Her”.

After building a solid fanbase in Vancouver’s independent music scene Said The Whale have received a shout out from Perez Hilton, features on YouTube and MySpace Music for their video “This City’s A Mess”, landed some stellar slots at Junofest and Vfest, and opened for friends including Mother Mother and City and Colour.

“If The Killers and Badly Drawn Boy were to have a love child, it’d be Said The Whale. Remember when “alternative” music used to be a real trendy word? Well, that really is the best way to describe this band…Said The Whale makes delightfully quirky music. It’s infectious!” – Perez Hilton

Fans can expect their full length album ‘Islands Disappear’ this fall on October 13 via Upper Management Management Recording Co/EMI and produced by Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, Mother Mother, Hannah Georgas) and Tom Deobrzanski (Hey Ocean, Lotus Child). In the meantime, check out the single, go see them play, and count your lucky stars if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a vinyl copy. Hull speed ahead!

“Just when you think cynicism has completely permeated the indie scene, a band pops up to make you optimistic again. Enter Said The Whale, a group of twentysomethings full of youthful energy unseen in this country since Sloan circa Twice Removed.” – EYE Weekly

Witness Said The Whale live for yourself when they make their stop at Call The Office on June 18th

For music + more info: www.saidthewhale.com
More good stuff here: www.myspace.com/saidthewhale

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Since making their out-of-town debut at Pop! Montreal in 2006, the buzz surrounding Rah Rah has been growing steadily. They were voted “Best Band in Regina” by a 2007 Prairie Dog’s Reader’s Poll, have played festivals across Canada, and released their first full-length album ‘Going Steady’ via Young Soul Records (Library Voices, Polymaths, National Frost).

“Very accomplished despite their youth, Rah Rah plays immense, poetic rock tunes…” – Montreal Gazette

The six piece features members of Sylvie, Geronimo, and the late Despistado. Since its release ‘Going Steady’ has received consistent air play on CBC Radio 3 (reaching #5 on the R3-30) and has charted on campus radio stations and in Exclaim! magazine for the last two months.

“There’s just something compelling about this band, whether it’s Burns’s earnest delivery (shades of a baritone Neil Young), the catchy tunes underpinned by rock solid musicianship, or the fact that one of their songs calls for a sound effect created by chewing candy into the microphone.” – ChartAttack

More info and music here: www.myspace.com/rahrahband
Catch the band live as they play dates across Canada and back:

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A 3-piece outfit combining elements of deep blues and folk rock with punk, the Schomberg Fair make their stop at Pandemic Nightclub (192 Dundas Street) March 6th. Matt Bahen (acoustic/electric guitar, banjo, harmonica, lead vocals), Nathan Sidon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Pete Gathside (drums) mix traditional with a modern and relevant sound to convert the strongest non-believers. Releasing Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground in 2008, The Schomberg Fair is a mainstay in the Toronto rock scene, loved by promoters, bookers, and fans alike.

Check them out, before you head down, on their MySpace page!

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clipped from www.lfpress.com Cool Blog Name to Come I’m issuing a challenge to London bloggers. As readers of this blog know, I have a bedrock faith in competition. I believe it makes all of us better. So I’m challenging London bloggers to do their own original reporting. There has been much talk in the last couple weeks about stories that The Free Press intentionally suppresses, misses or ignores. It’s no longer enough to just complain about these stories. It’s time to do something about it. If you are a blogger and you believe we are not doing a good job, go us one better. Do your own original reporting. Don’t just link to lfpress.com and complain about us in the same breath. That’s disengenuous. It’s no longer enough to say “We’re just a blog” or “We’re only an aggregator.” Those days are over. If you believe, as I do, that this city deserves excellent journalism, it’s time to lead by example. I think we’ll all be better for it. So how about it?

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CastRoller.com, just launched a totally new hugely improved version of the website. CastRoller is an online podcast management tool that has a lot of cool features that makes listening to to podcasts a lot more social. On CastRoller, you can see what your friends are listening to using your “homepage” a lot the same way the Facebook News Feed works. You can also share podcast episodes with your friends by clicking on one “Share” button. And all of your contacts will receive the episode in their CastRoller inbox. Plus, if they’ve added the RSS feed for the inbox to iTunes, they’ll automatically have the episode downloaded right to their iPod.

Another great feature is the ability to set up channels. A Channel can be a lot the same as a channel on TV or Radio. You can setup say a gaming channel and add all of your gaming podcasts to it. Why would you do this? Sharing of course, you see other people can see your channels AND they can subscribe to them. That way any new podcasts in the channel show up in the PodCatcher.

So why an I telling you this? Well I want to share the London, Ontario Channel! You can head over to http://castroller.com/billdeys/londonontario and see what’s in the channel and grab a one click link to add it to your PodCatcher of choice. You don’t even have to sign up! Of course it would be great if you did, you could add me as a contact to!

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Technorati Tags: castroller, channel, londonontario, podcast, share

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I’ve been contacted by some people doing promotion for Theset in advance to their show here in London at Call the Office on February 10th. Read some info and check out thier tunes below!

“With the intention of playing one set, at one show, five west coast boys wrote one full set’s worth of material.  Their name?  Theset.  That one successful performance realized a natural relationship that has since existed and developed into something way beyond all original intentions.  Theset are now embarking on a cross Canada tour in support of their full length album Never Odd Or Even, produced by Warne Livesey (Matthew Good, Midnight Oil) and in stores January 27th.  The first single ‘Survive’ inspired a video directed by Colin Minihan (State of Shock, Gob, Social Code) and was quickly added to MuchMusic.”

For more info head over to http://www.myspace.com/thesetband and for E-card link to check out  the single ‘Survive’ for free head to http://www.dkdevents.com/pats-ecards/survive.htm

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