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It's been a really great year for Montreal's own Random Recipe. Their contagious charm put smiles on faces and a swing in the hips of packed crowds at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Pop Montreal, and the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. Their new CD Fold It! Mold It! came out in September and critics are raving about their singular blend of hip-hop, indie and world music sounds.

Tune into Grrls Groove this Thursday, October 28 from 10-11 pm, as Random Recipe cooks up some live musical flavours in our studio during a live on-air recording session! They'll be serving hot, tasty grooves that will have everyone asking for seconds. Don't be late - we've got a place set just for you.

CJLO is thrilled to announce that we won five of the eleven awards that we were nominated for at this year's CMJ College Radio Awards! CJLO was nominated in almost every category this year and results were tallied based on votes from industry professionals, radio promoters, fellow radio stations and other badge holders. CJLO walked away with:

- Best Team Effort
- Best Use of Limited Resources
- Most Love For The Game: Omar Husain
- Best Newcomer: Adrian Warner

AND!

- Station of the Year!!!

For the first time in CMJ awards history, there was a tie for Station of the Year and we give a huge high five and shout out to our co-winner, WKDU!

A big thank you to everyone who nominated and voted for us! This has been a great year for CJLO and we are truly proud and honoured to win these awards!

“How are you?”

This is the gracious question Bradford Cox poses to his eager Sunday night audience as Cox, Moses Archuleta, Josh Fauver, and Lockett Pund, altogether known as Deerhunter, stride onto stage grabbing at their respective instruments. This opening line is a little off-putting considering Cox's reputation of bolstering out on stage in long feminine dresses with an inherent air of predisposed aggravation. What you become reminded of is that this is a reputation from years past. Perhaps post solo non-Deerhunter projects have set this anxious dude at ease, because there he is, tall (obviously), in slim slacks, and a wool turtleneck sweater, evoking a sincerity that almost compels me to say, “ Great! Thanks for asking!”

Deerhunter is a self-defined, ‘ambient punk’ band on tour for the release of their fourth full record, Halcyon Digest. Halcyon (hal-see-uhn) is just another word to refer to idyllic happiness, and if that’ s what the record conjures up for you, then good. Great. Because the rest of the rock snobs have been receiving it with a yawn. Admittingly it is time, having made it to the point of releasing a fourth record, this band couldn’t possible be cool anymore. Ha. Ha. For a young band, Deerhunter have managed to compile a skilled discography of haunting noise rock - first audible on Turn it Up Faggot (2005), and most notable on the eerily hypnotic Cryptograms (2007). Halcyon Digest now stands as a respectable opponent against 2008’s Microcastle/Weird Era Cont, in terms of their most accessible work yet. Halcyon Digest brings forth the pure pop songs you were sure Microcastle were getting at.

What the rock snob in you thinks they don’ t like in this record is corrected in a live context. Opening first for the band is Casino vs. Japan, which if you read the Deerhunter blog (is it evident yet that I do?), you would know is a current Cox favourite. Following them is surf pop band Real Estate impressing me for the second time (having last seen them open for Woods). At the end of the show Cox will thank those “ surrealist apes” and he will be apt to do.

Deerhunter opens their set with HD’ s "Desire Lines" in which guitarist Lockett Pundt both satisfactorily and impressively takes on the vocals. This is then seamlessly transitioned into a comfortable rendition of "Hazel St", which by the way, is a great way to open a show – starting with a brand new song that bleeds into an older fan favourite. Fans love it when you bleed! And then come the pop songs. Cox mockingly whines at himself in the “why oh why”s of "Don’t Cry", and stubbornly drills at the words “darkness” and, “always” in "Revival". The set list transitions back and forth between older and newer material. “Nothing Ever Happened” stands as the highlight of the evening, extended out into a seemingly ten-minute noisy lullaby, concluding with a swell of welcomed feedback. I hate to gush, because there are in fact setbacks, a briefly muted mic for the second to last song, awkward Cox laughter, and as usual, not enough cowbell. Yet, even if standing there in the middle, bassist Josh Fauver seems to look disconnected (which to be fair, is shoegaze law), the band is clocking in another successfully noisy show to their tour.

Cox remains gracious throughout the evening, vocalizing curt but appreciative gratitude. “Thank you, good stuff, I love you too.” He acknowledges the birthday of a beloved soundman, and the little cluster of audience directly in front of him begins to sing out, “Happy Birthday.” Cox catches this, stop himself mid sentence and says, “Yeah, go” as he knocks his microphone around towards the audience. He is recording this whole time and when they are close to done, he will put his fingers to his lips, loop the recording, replay it, and claim, “ This is what you sound like frozen in time.” As the band returns for the encore, Cox is carried out in the arms of a soundman curled up in fetal position, corresponding to the figure on the cover of Halcyon Digest. Evoking the Marilyn to his JFK, Cox then wails out a whispered acappella rendition of the happy birthday song. Adhering to the flow of older and newer material, "Basement Scene" and "Fluorescent Grey" fill out the encore. It has officially been an evening of idyllic happiness.

The much awaited dump of some 390,000 documents relating to the Iraq war has finally taken place and not surprisingly a grim picture emerges from this war of choice that the US and their "coalition of the willing" took part in.

 Last week a report released by the Pentagon made the specious claim that "only" 77,000 civilians had been killed in the war. An absurd claim on its face that doesn't gibe with alarming figures that show 1 out of every 6 Iraqis is an orphan. How many were killed in this brutal war, where the most powerful nation on the face of the earth rained down "shock and awe" on what was essentially a 3rd world nation, is still unknown.

 Some of the details that have emerged include how US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished. Also ...numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent death.

Included in the whistleblowing leaks is the cataloguing of more than 15,000 civilian deaths in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities. And that in no way covers the actual deaths as for example in the battle of Falluja, ...the site of two major urban battles in 2004, no civilian deaths are recorded. Yet Iraq Body Count monitors identified more than 1,200 civilians who died during the fighting.

 There are numerous examples of crimes and abuses committed by the invading and occupying forces, hell bent on revenge for something that had nothing to do with Iraq, sent by the bloody minded Bush jr. administration. In the end as you'll no doubt recall they tried to pretend the war was about national security and WMD's -- a claim that also rings falsely over all the years and death.

 And as these revelations come to light they are once again invoking national security as they did during the last round of leaks accusing WikiLeaks ...of possibly having "blood on their hands" over the previous Afghan release by redacting too few names. But the military recently conceded that no harm had been identified.

 To avoid such charges this time the whistleblowing activists say they have deleted all names from the documents that might result in reprisals.

Happy WkiLeaks dump day everybody!