I played a what?!

Yesterday turned out to be unexpectedly fun. Mid-afternoon, I received an email asking if anyone was available for a fill-in slot on CHRY that night... so I signed up. I haven't done much at all at the station in recent (and even not-so-recent) months, so I was a little bit nervous (and excited!). So I called up my Mark to be a co-host, made up a sweet-ass playlist from recently loved music on my computer, and hauled my ass up the stairs to the station. Mark hauled his ass too, but due to all the frisbee he's been playing, it wasn't so much a haul as it was a complete lack of effort.

The show started off well enough, with the new version of Basia Bulat's Snakes and Ladders, which is a thoroughly awesome way to start a radio show. Next, we tried to play a Polaris-themed set, starting off with the New Pornographer's "The Bleeding Heart Show, when we noticed that my newly burned playlist had not burned a track, screwing up the whole song order - oi. Anyways, no big deal.

NEXT - a girl from a group of people standing outside the studio comes in to talk to me. She was there with a band that was scheduled for an on-air interview and live performance on the show we were filling in for!!! 1) I had no idea this was going to happen, 2) I knew NOTHING about this band, and 3) I'd never had to set up the mics/etc for an on air performance before. Anyway, I would feel completely terrible if these guys had come all the way to York to promote a show (tonight, at The Absinthe pub on York Campus, 9pm, free) and didn't get to do anything. End result: we interviewed them, and gave them half an hour to play, which was really, really fun.

The band: Basement Arms, a happy, really nice, and really fun 3-piece jam band. Now, normally I don't go for jam bands, but last night I really saw the appeal. These were guys playing music because they love it, and because they're good at it. They're as big as the audience, and as diverse as the number of instruments and people willing to play them present. I played some hand-help cymbals on one of the songs, keeping my rhythm for the most part, and having a really great time. Finding out later that the cymbals were called a "hand-job", on-air? Probably priceless. Anyway, Mark and I are going to go see them play in a couple of weeks at Grossmans (Spadina and Collece, across from the ElMo) with Laura Barrett - should be very fun!

Anyway, the rest of the show went fairly well, and I'm looking forward to my next opportunity!!

Here's one song that we played - Lose My Breath by Deerhoof (the song was originally by My Bloody Valentine, and my favourite song of theirs EVER. I was SO excited when I found the Deerhoof cover, because they're the bestest). Deerhoof is playing in Toronto at the Opera House on the 21st of October, and it's the first show in a really long time that I've been super-excited to see! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Deerhoof - Lose My Breath