Dec. 7 + 14 show rundowns… with Inlet Sound and Dave Norris & Local Ivan

Finally! And actually, this is the perfect time to be talking about our Dec. 7 show with Michael Wexler from Inlet Sound — they just premiered their new music video for “Mademoiselle” on AUX.TV this week! You can check out the video — which was also directed by Wexler — online here. And as for the tracks we played on Dec. 7:

Inlet Sound – Mademoiselle
Bon Iver – Holocene
Himalayan Bear – Only Dreams Let Me Hold You
Inlet Sound – The Peculiar Disappearance of Marion Bojangles
Hollerado – Got To Lose
Noah and the Whale – Blue Skies

And for our briefly-back-in-Ottawa show on Dec. 14 (well, sort of!) with Dave Norris of Dave Norris & Local Ivan:

Fevers – My Heart Is In The Basket On The Front Of Your Bicycle
Doldrums – I’m Homesick Sitting Up Here In My Satellite
The Darcys – 100 Mile House
Dave Norris & Local Ivan – Song For an Ad
Dave Norris & Local Ivan – Alma Mater
Dan Mangan – Rows of Houses
Said the Whale – Heavy Ceiling
Behind Sapphire – Tahera
We Are The City – Dark/Warm Air
Acres of Lions – Reaction
Kathryn Calder – Five More Years

Be sure to check out Inlet Sound’s Dream Awake EP on Bandcamp here and Dave Norris & Local Ivan’s debut full-length, Alma Mater, on Bandcamp here. Both are pretty darn cheap ($5 and pay-what-you-can, respectively!), which is pretty darn sweet.

In more exciting news: be sure to tune in on Wednesday, December 28th for our end-of-year, best-of-2011, four-hour mega-blowout show! From noon to 4pm EST, we’ll be broadcasting live from the CHUO studios in downtown Ottawa, inviting you to call in/tweet/Facebook/comment with YOUR best-of-the-year picks — and we’ll have guest appearances and giveaways, too! We’ll also be unveiling our fabulous new look, just in time for the new year.

Get excited — and be sure to start thinking of your best-of-2011 picks now! If you have favourite tracks released this year that you’d like to hear on air, comment below, tweet at us @nowplayingradio or send your picks in an email to emma [at] nowplayingradio [dot] com and be sure to tune in at CHUO.fm on the 28th!

Rundown: Nov. 9 show, featuring hotshotcasino!

I was thrilled to have the boys from hotshotcathedral hotshotcasino join me in the good ol’ four-one-six the weekend before last. I feel like they brought little pieces of the capital city with them: stories about the U of O campus, updates on great shows happening in the market… all of that jazz. Toss in some deep discussions about the looming end of the world, “doctors of love,” and a documentary appearance, and you’ve got the episode of Now Playing Radio that aired Nov. 9. In the hours leading up to their first Toronto show in months, Pascal, Gregg, Julien and Seb each picked a couple of songs to play and I tossed in a few more recent tracks for good measure:

Kalle Mattson – The Shore
Hotshotcasino – Ghosts
James and Blackburn – Loose Leaf
Newkid – Thunderbirds
We Are The City – Astronomers
Brasstronaut – Slow Knot
The Fast Romantics – Cool Kid

And to celebrate this fabulous new show format — more interviews with bands that aren’t just run-of-the-mill interviews, folks! — I’m posting a podcasted, slightly shortened version of the show RIGHT HERE for your listening pleasure. This episode features one full-length song as well — download and enjoy our conversations mixed in among the sweet sounds of Toronto-by-way-of-Ottawa’s James and Blackburn, or stream ‘er right here:

And in more super-thrilling news: on this week’s show, Toronto’s THE ELWINS join me to not only spin some sweet tunes lovingly picked out by Matt, Feurd, Travis and Chris, but we also chat about how they spent their summer (playing summer camps!) and I press them on which dessert is best. Be sure to tune in this Wednesday at 1pm EST to find out the result of our heated cake versus pie debate (if you’re in Ottawa, you can tune in to 89.1 on the FM dial; livestream anywhere in the world via CHUO.FM by clicking right here). ‘Til then!

Oct. 12 show rundown!

Thanks for tuning in today, lads and lassies. All that we spun:

We Are The City – Morning Song
Sound of Lions – Enders
Acres of Lions – Forgive and Forget
Ohbijou – Scalpel Blade
Graham Wright – Canadian Thanksgiving
Jenn Grant – Walk Away
Faraway Neighbours – Between Lakes
Matthew Barber – Blue Forever
The Glass Chain – Bad Teenagers
A.C. Newman – Take On Me (A-ha cover)
LOOM – Around Again (Island Mix)
Lykke Li – Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers cover) [WEEKLY IMPORT]
Library Voices – Book of Love

Don’t forget: Library Voices & Graham Wright are at the Black Sheep this weekend, and The Glass Chain and Faraway Neighbours have separate shows early next week. Get out there and support fantastic local and Canadian music.

March 9th show rundown [HONHEEHONHEE interview to come!]

As always, we had a slew of great tracks on tap today, including:

No Gold – Weird Week
Snailhouse – Sentimental Gentleman
We Are The City – That’s It, That’s All
Dream Jefferson – Bedtime Ballet
Dinosaur Bones – Royalty
Jenn Grant – Let’s Get Started
HONHEEHONHEE – We Only Go
Snowblink – The Tired Bees
The Good Natured – Your Body Is A Machine [WEEKLY IMPORT]
Kalle Mattson – Good Morning Goodnight
The Gallop – Get Me To Sleep
Young Galaxy – Cover Your Tracks (Freedom or Death Remix) [MIX/MASH OF THE MONTH]

Stay tuned, we’ll be getting the interview with Matt, Stefan, and Greg from HONHEEHONHEE up online soon — until then, go check out their Bandcamp page where you can download their first single, A. is for Animal, for free! Check ’em out tomorrow night at the Elmdale, too — more info about that show and more excellent shows can be found on our local listings page.