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Christine Fellows @ Divan Orange

Upon arriving at the entrance to Divan Orange for the Christine Fellows show, I was amazed to see no one outside smoking. What did this mean? Did it mean the show was so great that it prevented those that love to fill their lungs with smoke and nicotine from indulging? That’s it; it had to be because it was a mesmerizing show.

Well as I ventured inside, I immediately saw the reason. Divan Orange was practically empty. It is fair to say that this venue can hold a capacity of 200 hundred people, making it not the smallest venue in the city, however they were lucky if they even had 30 people there to see this folk singer from Winnipeg.

This was not because Christine Fellows is an untalented performer. I can safely say this because the moment she hit the stage and started to play, her melodic sounds compelled our friends and I to stop everything, even sipping from our pints.

She opened the show with her melancholic ditty “The Spinster’s Almanac” off her fourth studio album, Nevertheless, an album that was inspired by American poet Marianne Moore, who never married.

All her albums follow a storyline and she uses a multitude of instruments to help her express the story. Her most recent album, Femmes Chez Nous, tells the story of different women all surrounded by different bodies of water. On the album she uses beautiful instruments to illustrate her stories, such as trumpets, trombones, violins, cellos and a piano. It’s complicated and quite pricey task to invite all these musicians along with her; instead she sat at the piano for the whole show and had only two cellists to accompany her. Nevertheless they still managed to tell the stories very well.

That being said she played a wonderful mix of songs off all five of her albums. From her most recent album she played the melodic “Mile 137” as well as “Dragonfly,” just to name a few.

So what was the reason for such a small turnout? Well, I believe that she desperately needs to get a new promoter. There was absolutely no reason for anyone not to have enjoyed this show. True there was no major moment in this show – she is a folksinger after all – but Christine Fellows gave the audience what they paid for by proving that she is a consummate artist that could take them to another place and time.

-Rebecca M hosts Canucks Kick It every Wednesday from 5-6pm 

May 6th 2011

News read by Jessica MacDonald and produced by Erica Bridgeman

Stories written by Jessica MacDonald, Michael Lemieux, A.J. Cordeiro

Charges not laid in Jack Layton massage parlour leak

Charges will not be laid in a case concerning a leak about a 1996 incident involving Jack Layton. In the incident, Toronto police officers raided a suspected bawdy house posing as a massage parlour, and found Layton inside. Layton was not arrested nor charged, claiming that he wasn’t aware that it was a bawdy house.

The leak occurred after a retired officer revealed notebooks containing information about the case to a private detective. The detective was hunting for information on Layton a week before the election.

Ontario Provincial Police requested that the notebooks be handed over to the Toronto Police Service. The case has led the Toronto Police to review policies concerning retired officers keeping police notebooks which are police property.

Elections Contestations

Elections Canada has decided to review another Conservative won riding. The Northern Ontario riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming was won by Conservative candidate Jay Aspin by only 15 votes. The slim victory has led Elections Canada to decide to review the count.

This is the third Conservative won riding to be reviewed since the votes were tallied on Monday.

In the riding of Etobicoke in Ontario, tory MP-elect Ted Opitz defeated the liberal incumbent by a mere 25 votes.

Meanwhile in Quebec NDP Francois Lapointe lost by 110 votes to Conservative candidate Bernard Genereux, however an initial review showed over 100 votes mistakenly awarded to the Green Party.

According to Elections Canada, a recount is required when the difference in votes between first and second place is less than one one-thousandth of the votes cast.

A loss in Quebec would bring Conservative representation in the province to just five MP’s.

Also in Winnipeg North the Liberal party defeated the NDP by 45 votes. Rebecca Blaikie, the NDP candidate who lost has confirmed she will be asking for a recount.

Cauldron + Holy Grail + Mad Parish @ Il Motore

This just in: thrash is back.

I know what you're thinking: thrash never left, maaaan. Clearly, you were also at Il Motore this past Saturday night for the triumphant return of Cauldron, with Holy Grail and Mad Parish. In fact, you were probably rocking your tight jeans, banging your head and whipping your waist length hair, maybe even rocking a pair of cowboy boots and a bullet belt like the majority of the crowd. With very few exceptions, the audience looked like it had time travelled from a Bay Area bar in 1987, which was extremely surprising given that the median age of the attendees probably hovered around 24 years old.

I'll leave the deep discussions about the hows and whys of the resurgence in popularity of classic sounding thrash, doom and power metal to psychologists and sociologists, but I will say that I almost didn't make it to the show. I felt sick all day, so staying home would have been easier, but I decided to do the real rock'n'roll thing, knocked back a swig of whiskey, and headed for the bar instead... after all, isn't that what Goat Horn would have done?

Fans of the Canadian metal underground will recognize that name, as Goat Horn had a brief but memorable stint as Canada's premier throwback metal band. After the group disbanded in 2006, "true metal" messiah and Goat Horn frontman Jason Decay went on to form Cauldron, a band whose dedication to the traditional metal lifestyle and sound is matched only by Decay himself.

They're currently opening for Prosthetic Records' Holy Grail across Canada and the US, but for this date the order was reversed and Cauldron headlined the night, although I doubt that either band expected to be blown away by the number of people that came to rock out to Mad Parish. Currently working on their debut full length (produced by defender of rock Jonathan Cummins), the local popularity of these boys can't be denied, and it's about time for a release.

The heshers were primed and ready to go by the time Holy Grail took the stage, and they were not disappointed. Conceived by some former members of White Wizzard, Holy Grail are excellent at what they do. Thrash, or perhaps more precisely "traditional" heavy metal, is not known for its subtlety, and while all the bands delivered the kinds of over the top performances required by the genre, Holy Grail managed to best capture the flashy guitar work, extreme hair whipping, and vocal acrobatics that still draw people to it after all these years. The weirdest thing about them, however, were their biggest fans. Sticking out like sore thumbs in the sea of long haired metal diehards, a group of clean cut, short haired, barely pubescent kids in preppy clothes were singing along and slamdancing in a makeshift pit... The effect was surreal, like watching Pantera rock an Eastern European school dance.

After a full headlining set, Cauldron took the stage for theirs, which was sadly much too short. Nonetheless, they made the most of the time they had, ripping through tracks from their three releases, and finishing with the crowd pleasing "Chained Up In Chains". It was all there: the hair, the synchronized guitars, and the signature song "Into The Cauldron". While the performance had me feeling nostalgic for some of Goat Horn’s greatest hits, I left the bar satisfied, if a little disappointed to be leaving that time warp behind for the grey streets of Montreal in 2011.

To get a feeling for Cauldron, check out their incredibly vintage looking official video here

-Angelica hosts BVST on Wednesday nights from 7-9pm

Mason Axel Windels

When Mason Axel Windels came to CJLO with a all vinyl based show, we were ready to hire him on the spot, he was full of energy, had a great concept and was ready to go from day one. Sadly the bureaucratic stuff meant he had to wait but even before Mason was on air he was DJing CJLO events on both the Downtown and Loyola campuses. Just giving the crowd a taste of what he would do on his show soon enough. In just 7 months, Mason has made a name for himself and winning The Welcome to the Jungle Award for Best New Show didn't hurt. Mason was sent the DJ of the week questionnaire, here are his answers -

 

What is your DJ alias? & what are its origins?
I don’t really have one yet exactly, but I will just say “Good Old Don”
It’s from a sweater I got at Value Village, I find it quite hilarious.

What is your show name?
Midnight Love Affair

What genre?
Soul/Funk/Hip Hop/Jazz/Electronic/Yacht Rock

How long have you been at CJLO?
Since October, 2010

What is the best thing about working at CJLO?
The fun everyone has!

Describe your show as a potential life partner. What are its qualities?
It is that warm loving feeling that you experience when you join your already-slumber significant other in bed after a long day. Few, if any, words are exchanged, but for no reason, as they will be repeated in the morning since they were half-asleep anyways and won’t remember what you told them.

Two reasons you host a show
1) I want to use the records that I have spent so much money on,
2) I want to give people something nice to listen to late at night, whatever they happen to be doing.

What do you think makes your show unique?
That is an all-vinyl love appreciation fest.

If you weren't doing your show, in what other ways would you express yourself?
I would write slow dance songs on old Yamaha and Casio keyboards, or try at least.

What was the biggest turning point in your musical journey?
Either when I decided to put on shows of my own to showcase my friends/local bands, or when I found my mother’s George Benson “Give me the Night” album.

Fill in the blanks
If I could travel back in time and bring back anyone, I would bring back Napoleon. Because I want to shadow him from everything for long enough to show him ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and tell him that that is what society has come to view his legacy, hoping he falls for it.

What are your 2 favorite albums of all time?
Give Me The Night – George Benson & Homework – Daft Punk

What is the one piece of technology you cannot live without?
For the cliché continuity of my show, I have to say a turntable, but I imagine that is not something I would choose in a life or death situation.

Describe yourself in 3 words: Can never decide

For more with Mason tune into Midnight Love Affair on CJLO 1690AM every Sunday at 11pm.

May 4th, 2011

Read by Sarah Deshaies

Produced by Nikita Smith

Stories by A.J. Cordeiro, Dominique Daoust, Corentine Rivoire, Alina Gotcherian

White House deciding whether to show photos of Bin Laden's body

The White House is considering whether it should release photos of Osama bin Laden’s body. CIA director Leon Panetta said Tuesday he thinks a photo will be revealed eventually. The final decision, however, rests with the White House.

According to a senior U.S. official, the White House received three sets of photographs showing bin Laden’s body. An image currently circulating online and displaying Bin Laden’s bloodied face is reportedly a fake. It is believed that the graphic was made using the lower half of Bin Laden’s face from a photograph published years ago.

U.S. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that releasing a real image may help erase any doubts.

Possible lawsuit against Sony

Ontario has filled a lawsuit against Sony Corporation for breach of privacy. The attack came after Sony revealed on Monday that hackers had taken personal information from over one hundred million user accounts worldwide. Personal data included user’s names, addresses, birth dates, passwords and billing information.

The Toronto law firm, McPhadden Samac Tuovi, proposed a class action lawsuit against Sony Japan, Sony USA, Sony Canada and other Sony entities. The dispute claims damages in excess of one billion dollars, which would include Sony paying the costs of credit monitoring services and fraud insurance coverage for two years. Allegations still need to be proven in court by plaintiff representative, Natasha Maksimovic.

Record high number of women elected

Monday’s federal election saw 76 women elected in the House of Commons. This is a historic high for Canada. The previous record was 69. According to the unofficial results posted on Parliament’s website, the NDP elected the most women MPs. 40 of them are among the 102 MPs who make up the new Official Opposition party. 27 of the women MPs are from Quebec. 

The preliminary vote turnout has gone up since three years ago. The turnout went up to 61.4% after nearly 15 million Canadians elected a Conservative majority government. 

Our country’s two largest provinces saw their voter turnout rates rise. The Conservatives saw their hold on Ontario increase after 62% of registered voters showed up on election Monday. Quebec saw the NDP win 58 of 75 seats with the same percentage of preliminary voter turnout rate as Ontario. 

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