It took me a day to really get over the effect of K’naan; the energy and peace that spilled all over me from a mere 20 minute conversation with this man – he is a special human and his essence reeks of a positive peace that I have not experienced too often in my short life.

ThisCityRocks features K’naan in Episode 11 from the Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler. Sol Guy from Direct Current Media was kind enough to grant us some time for an interview. And Warwick and I melted from K’naan’s inspiring live show in the village. I took a few snaps of the show as well.

Thank-you to Art Maughan from BoxTop Studios for stepping in to edit this episode. A lot of fun stuff produced in this one. And to Class5 Snowboards for sponsoring the episode.

Enjoy.

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thiscityrocks – new episode – from the tour bus – montreal’s dj champion

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Phew… after a fun 7-episode roll-the-dice-have-fun first season, we’ve just posted our eighth episode, first one of this “season 2″ – with Vancouver band You Say Party! We Say Die! – HOT!.

GO CHECK IT ALL OUT AT TCR DOT COM!

And if you have not subscribed to TCR, you really should… we’ve got 5 episodes in the bag and will be posting new shows every 2-3 weeks from now throughout the summer, covering festivals like the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, New Music West and Wakefest… and we’re always looking for support and sponsorship too!

K’Naan at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival 2007 in Whistler

Hello Canada… and hockey fans from the United States… and Newfoundland….

I am in Whistler!

ThisCityRocks is up in Whistler this week at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival 2007, minglin’ with the crowds, snappin’ some pics and shooting some HOT bands! If you live near by, you should head up here! And yes, it’s still snowing!

And just who has TCR interviewed in this (still snowing) winter wonderland, you ask? Well for one, Somali-Canadian hip-hop global success: K’Naan. His concert this past week-end was nothing short of inspiring and his music contagious, and he was simply lovely to sit down with and talk to. (Interview to be posted next month).

Yahoo! Canada is also live on location as one of the Festival’s new sponsors this year. You can’t miss the big purple tent at the bottom of the Gondola. They have set up a live blogspot and anyone can pop by and upload their pictures and videos from the action of the week. Check out what’s been uploaded from the first few days of the festival.

I will most certainly be trying to bring you more action from the festival via the blog and my flickr, so you can feeeeeel the music and smell the snow via the internets, alas, there’s a fresh cover of white butter and a stellar new snowboard calling my name!!

Lead guitarist Ryan Lejbak for HoneyBlu in Saskatoon had some kind words to say about our video podcast, ThisCityRocks:

“…This City Rocks is the best though. It focuses on Canadian indie artists. These are the bands that are heard on college radio, found on Pitchfork and that tastemakers listen to. TCR is a high quality videocast put together by hipster Megan Cole and videographer Warwick Patterson. It is brief, to the point and enlightening. They have a perfect blend of music, info and interviews. Megan and Warwick do this project on the side. Their passion for social media and the music scene shines through…”

Thanks Ryan – glad you love the show!

We’ll be starting to post shows for this amazing Spring jam-packed concert going season in mid-April, as soon as the first few are perfectly edited and put togetehrt o release to the masses! This season, we’ve got a few interviews already under our belt: DJ Champion, Malajube and YouSayParty! WeSayDie! – more to come with Great Lake Swimmers, who just signed with infamous Vancouver label, Nettwerk Music Group, The Parlour Steps and artists and bands at the Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival, New Music West and Wakefest.

Subscribe to our feed over on the TCR site!

So it’s no surpirse to most that Canada is jam-packed with some uber, amazing bands and talent… and to highlight a few, just check out this list of bands hittin’ the stages of Vancouver over the next month… and most of these are on tour across the country:

• Malajube
• DJ Champion
• YouSayParty!WeSayDie!
• Parlour Steps
• Great Lake Swimmers
• The Constantines
• Panurge
• Feist (with guest Chad Vangaalen)

Keep your podcast subscriptions tuned into ThisCityRocks for (*wink*) Season 2… we’ve got a HUGE line-up of Canadian Indie bands we’re going to feature over the coming months, many of those bands seen above, plus more up and coming bands when we cover The Whistler Ski and Snowboard Festival in April, New Music West in May and in the summer, WakeFest (line-up on their site coming soon) in July.

Don’t miss the first interviews of 2007 with Malajube, Champion and YouSayParty!WeSayDie! coming realllllllly soooooon!

I have been waiting for this morning for quite some time. Well, since Funeral was released back in 2004. And today, I sit at my favourite coffee establishment, wifi-ed up, next door to my favourite record store, waiting for 10:30 to roll around. I am still very much the music romantic at heart. I love to stand at play stations for hours on end, and walk out of a music store with 2 or 3 new picks – with the tangible items in my hot, little hands.

So the doors opened, and I was there to pick up The Arcade Fire’s latest, Neon Bible. And now I sit, headphones in, transfixed and inspired, all with the gorgeous smells of new paper and stiff plastic around me, the imagery of flipbooks and a flashy sliver and black CD, an actual CD!

This album is nothing short of epic – an emotional blast that has a bit of everything: it’s full, heavy, melodic, simplistic, passionate – I love this band. I feel as if their sound has matured and evolved to something more of what they first gave us with Funeral – is this even possible? The church organ in “Intervention” and “My Body Is A Cage” gives me goose bumps. On first listen, and second, and third!, I love every track.

Most of this album was recorded in “the church” in Quebec – can they get any cooler? Maybe that’s why it feels eerie, spiritual and I feel slightly out of my skin listening to it. Pick it up, download it – however you get your music these days, get this album – a great Canadian gem.