Author Archives: kelownalivemusic

Hey Kelowna, who’s going to the Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge in May?

Friday, May 27: Foo Fighters, Smith Westerns, Against Me!, Death From Above 1979, The Bronx, Rival Schools.

Saturday, May 28: Death Cab for Cutie, Iron & Wine, Sleigh Bells, Robyn, Wolf Parade, The Thermals, Jenny & Johnny, The Head and the Heart, and lots, lots more.

Sunday, May 29: Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Flogging Molly, Cold War Kids, Beach House, Reggie Watts, Sam Roberts Band, and lots, lots more.

Monday, May 30: Wilco, The Decemberists, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Old 97’s, Chromeo, Deerhunter, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, !!!, Best Coast, Surfer Blood, Black Mountain, and lots, lots more.

Full lineup

Sasquatch 2011 Lineup from World Famous on Vimeo.

What’s On Podcast

What’s On? February, 2011, hosted by Ryan Donn by Ryan Donn

Songs Featured:

0:40 Michael Bernard Fitzgerald – Movie life
5:20 Malibu Knights – Child Soldier
10:20 Old Mans Beard – Tofino
14:00 Thomas Kjorven – Oh my lord
20:00 Kim McMechan – Leah
24:40 Shane Koyczan – Atlantis

Concerts featured:

  • Global Music Fest – Feb 26th, 2011 @ The Laurel Building

    Featuring Shane Koyczan, Malibu Knights, Ryan Donn, and Cameron Welch.
    Tickets $12 in advance (on sale Feb 1st at Leo’s video), $15 at the door.
    Global Music Fest

  • Child Solder Michel Chikwanine – speaks on Feb 22nd at Trinity Baptist.

    For more information go to: Global Citizen Kelowna Speaker Series

  • Art is Hope – Feb 25th,

    Featuring Kim Mcmechan, Graham Ord, Norm Strauss, Andrew Smith.
    Global Citizen Kelowna Speaker Art

    For all Spirit festival events go to kelownaconduit.com

  • Michael Bernard Fitzgerald with Paperboy – February 10th, 2011.

    $15 (+ $2.50 tx & sc) or $18 at the door.
    Doors open at 8pm, Show at 9pm.
    Brandon William Fletch

  • Kim McMechan at the Minstrel Cafe and Bar – Feb 13th.
    $5, 8pm
    Kim McMechan

    • Okanagan Artists Get National Exposure!

    Wow, what a week!  Greg Sczebel’s album “Love and the Lack Thereof” is up for best Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year at the Juno Awards.  Sczebel won that same category in 2005 with his debut album “Here to Stay”, and he got 5th spot int eh Peak Performance Project and was showcased and BreakOut West in Kelowna in Ocotber!  Congrats, Greg!

    Mark April 3rd on your calendar!  We are the City will be back in town at the Kelowna Community Theatre w/ Aidan Knight

    We Are The City Announce The March 22nd Release Of High School

    The Kelowna B.C. recording artists get set to put out their sophomore release High School on the newly minted Vancouver based label Adventure Boys Club (Aidan Knight) run by Said The Whale’s Tyler Bancroft, and prepare to hit the road in support of it.

    Happy New Year MP3 + Media Materials: http://www.killbeatmusic.com/wearethecity/
    Band Website: http://www.wearethecity.ca/
    Label Website: http://www.adventureboysclub.ca/
    Since forming in 2008, Kelowna, BC’s We Are The City has become one of the most exciting and unpredictable forces in the Canadian music scene. The band soon began earning accolades for its atmospheric progressive-pop sound with the release of their debut LP In a Quiet World in 2009. In January 2010, the band earned a whopping $150,000 by winning the PEAK Performance Project, a massive “battle of the bands” contest hosted by Vancouver’s 100.5 The PEAK.

    Now, the trio of Cayne McKenzie (vocals/keyboard), Andrew Huculiak (drums) and Blake Enemark (guitar) are ready to take their most ambitious step yet. In March 2011 the band will release six songs entitled High School, the result of an experiment that began as a side project during some down time in the summer of 2010.

    High School was originally envisioned as a fictional band, with the members tying shirts over their faces and adopting aliases in order to disguise their identities. Cayne was Lindsey Jone. Andrew was Matthew Curran. Blake was Bobby Reynolds. The project gave the band a chance to revisit their teenage years, laying bare some shameful memories from their past.

    We Are The City found themselves venturing into new musical terrain. On the quirky “Happy New Year,” West African-inspired licks give way to garage-y rock outs and fuzzed-out Rhodes piano. “Dark/Warm Air” takes a gentler approach, bringing together delicate guitar arpeggios with baroque pop breakdowns and a dash of tropical Mellotron samples.

    High School allowed We Are The City to introduce the use of drum machines and string arrangements into their already very layered sound. They are ecstatic to have worked with Tom Dobrzanski (Said the Whale, Hey Ocean!) who produced the sessions taking place in Vancouver at Vertical and Blue Wave Studios.

    With the completion of High School, the band members now have their sights set on a sophomore LP. While it remains to be seen in which direction they will steer their music, one thing is certain: We Are The City will continue their attempt to push musical boundaries and hopefully stumble across something not yet heard in the process.

    We Are The City High School Tour Dates

    Feb 18th • Victoria, BC • Fairfield United w/ Aidan Knight, Yes Nice, Mike Edel
    Feb 19th • Port Alberni, BC • The Academy w/ Aidan Knight, Yes Nice, Kingdom Cloud
    Feb 20th • Duncan, BC • The Duncan Garage Showroom w/ Aidan Knight, Yes Nice
    Feb 25th • Brandon, MB • North Hill Inn
    Feb 28th • Thunder Bay, ON • Crock’s w/ Yukon Blonde
    March 3rd • Kingston, ON • Clark Hall Pub w/ The Liptonians
    March 4th • Windsor, ON • The Phog Lounge
    March 8th • Montreal, QC • Casa del Popolo
    March 9th • Quebec, QC • L’Agitee
    March 12th •Toronto, ON • The Garrison – CMW Showcase – 10PM
    March 15th • Halifax, NS • Paragon Gallery Pub w/ Aidan Knight
    March 18th • Charlottetown, PEI • Baba’s w/ Aidan Knight
    March 23rd • Winnipeg, MB • The Park Theatre w/ Aidan Knight, The Liptonians
    March 24th • Regina, SK • O’Hanlon’s w/ Aidan Knight
    March 25th • Edmonton, AB • BRIXX w/ Aidan Knight
    March 26th • Calgary, AB • The Marquee Room w/ Aidan Knight
    April 2nd • Vancouver, BC • The Red Room – West Coast Pop w/ Aidan Knight
    April 3rd • Kelowna, BC • Kelowna Community Theatre w/ Aidan Knight, guests TBC
    **More dates to be announced soon**

    print/radio/digital media – killbeat music
    www.killbeatmusic.com

    Kim McMechan at Streaming Cafe this Saturday

    Kim McMechan
    at Streaming Cafe – 02/05/2011 – 7:00PM PST

    The first song Kim ever wrote was about a cat walking in the rain. (Her melancholic streak showed itself at a young age.)

    Heavily influenced by the Minipops as well as her aunt’s Abba records, she started her career as most girls do, with a hairbrush and some shiny lip gloss in front of the bathroom mirror.

    At the age of 10, she started a pop group with 3 of the neighbourhood kids. Their first cover song was “We’re The Kids Of America” even though they were all Canadian. The group lasted a few short days before the other three members lost interest and went back to watching re-runs of Happy Days.

    Kim grew up playing and writing songs on the piano, but took up the guitar much later when she had finally grown tired of lugging her keyboard off to shows. (It was an enormous weighted-key Clavinova and hurt her back.)
    Her well-crafted songs and moving performances have won her multiple awards. Also a poet, essayist and photographer, she currently makes her home in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, where she tries to spend as much time as possible by the water.

    View Artist Website

    The Gorge

    On Sunday, the lineup will be announced for the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Ampitheatre.  This is one of my favourite annual events to attend, and I didn’t go last year, so I’m pretty stoked for the lineup announcement.  This amazing venue is 5 hours south of Kelowna, and well worth the drive!

    Support live music in Kelowna! Jan. 28th

    Songs Are Like Tattoos: A Joni Mitchell Tribute – Mary Irwin Theatre – Rotary Centre for the Arts (see you there)
    ALMOST A FEW & ERIC CLARK – The Minstrel Cafe
    The Cats and The Fiddle Trio – Okanagan Mission Hall
    JC Wilson – Pheasant & Quail Pub
    Young ‘Uns – The Blue Gator
    Freeflow – Doc Willoughby’s Downtown Pub
    Midnight Famous, Malibu Knights, Centerfold – Flashbacks
    FLIPSIDE presents MIKE THE SITUATION (Jersey Shore Party) – Level Nightclub

    Conduit back with Ecotone

    By Pyper Geddes – Kelowna Capital News
    Published: January 25, 2011 6:00 PM

    The Conduit Festival is back, this year bringing us Ecotone; a live showcase featuring over 100 artists from all around the Okanagan. For the second year, Conduit has partnered with En’ Owkin Centre and Okanagan Greens Society to bring us the one-day festival that will take place at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on Saturday, Feb. 5

    Ecotone, produced by the Cakewalk Collective, is a zero-waste, all organic festival that features various forms of art such as installation art, graffiti, sculpture, eco-activism, crafts, musical performances, poetry reading, fire spinning, and storytelling. The festival also features local and organic fare including delicious food prepared by Chef Grant Dumontreuil, organic wine from Summerhil Winery, organic beer from Crannog Ales and organic Mead from Meadow Vista.

    Live performances will feature an all Okanagan cast including Jodi Pederson, The Capers, Little Jungles ,Yukon Blonde and many more. There will be original art work on display all around the Centre by a number of artists including Don Elzer, Jordan and David Doody, Meghan Wise, Malcolm Eidse and Brittany Falk. Exhibitors will include Curio Designs, Blowfish Glassworks, Leftover Hippies, and again, many more.

    This festival has a little bit of everything for everyone. With numbers of artisans and performers filling each corridor, studio, and hall of the Rotary Centre for the Arts, Ecotone is truly a celebration of art and community.

    This is the 4th annual festival that the Cakewalk Collective has organized, and was created for the purpose of being a grassroots co-operative community co-venture to support and nurture the Okanagan’s creative business community and burgeoning arts scene.

    With so many artists leaving the Okanagan to take part in the flamboyant arts and culture scenes of larger cities, Conduit provides local artists with a support system of sorts. The festival continues to grow and become more successful each year which in turn attracts a larger audience to the festival. The bigger the audience, the more awareness there is for the Okanagan’s local arts and culture scene. Conduit is an integral part of the Okanagan events calendar, as no other event or festival has such a focus on sustainability not only in the arts community but in regards to our environment as well.

    So if you only leave your house once a year, I would suggest making it Feb. 5 because this is an event you don’t want to miss. Ecotone will leave you feeling inspired, hopeful, and connected.

    Doors open at 4pm with the festival going right until 2am. A minimum donation of $10 at the door is suggested, or whatever you are willing to pay to support the event. All proceeds will go towards the Okanagan Greens Society.

    For more information on Ecotone visit www.kelownaconduit.com.

    Pyper Geddes is the general manager at Habitat in downtown Kelowna and an A-OK Contributor.

    SONGS ARE LIKE TATTOOS: A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

    FRI Jan 28 2011  7:30 PM Mary Irwin Theatre
    Opening at 6:30 PM Leah West
    Facebook group

    “Mia Sheard could make the Tim Hortons jingle sound like an otherworldly invocation to the gods. The local singer-songwriter has a gift for phrasing and a great voice – it wraps itself like a boa constrictor around fragmented melodies, spanning an awesome range and squeezing out a shimmering beauty.” ~ NOW Magazine

    Toronto singer/songwriter Mia Sheard has been immersed in the Canadian music scene for over a decade. Mia and some of her favorite fellow musicians launched what’s become the annual Joni Mitchell night at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room, recorded and broadcast for 2009 CBC’s Canada Live. The line-up features critically acclaimed Mia Sheard, Lori Cullen, Kevin Fox and David Matheson (Moxy Früvous) with an all-star backing band. Joni’s music is not easy to play, therefore not often performed by other artists.

    Sheard created “Songs Are Like Tattoos” out of her love of singing, her naturally comedic hosting skills, and her love of Joni Mitchell’s music. “I couldn’t feel more at home with this show”, says Sheard. “I get to laugh my heart out AND sing ‘Blue’. What more could anyone want?”

    Tickets are $30 adults and $10 students and are available at www.selectyourtickets.com or by calling the RCA 250-717-5304

    www.miasheard.com www.myspace.com/jonitribute

    Joni’s music is not easy to play, therefore not often performed by other artists. Toronto singer/songwriter Mia Sheard and some of her favorite fellow musicians launched what’s become the annual Joni Mitchell night at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room. The line-up features critically acclaimed Mia Sheard, Lori Cullen, Kevin Fox and David Matheson (Moxy Früvous) with an all-star backing band.