A Latin Decade

These are some of the songs that I really enjoyed in the past decade of listening to Latin music. What you must understand first is that I only listen to mainstream Latin music -- it's incredibly hard to listen to anything else since I live thousands of miles from where this music is created. This is not to say that these are bad song, but they are the songs that are popular enough for me to have heard of.

BACILOS
I'm starting you off easy with some Latin-pop by Bacilos. These guys are actually from Miami, but originally from Colombia. So its something that can be easily be digested by North American culture. My favorite songs are Caraluna and Mi Primer Millon.

CALLE 13
Let's see if you can handle this one: Calle 13. It's one of my favorite bands, but are by no means easily digestible by North Americans - give it a try.

KRIZ Y ANGEL
Normally these guys usually focus on one genre of music called Reggaeton. This song though, has many other rhythms such as Bachata and Merengue. This should introduce you to a few of the Latin American music genres all in one song. The second song is a straight Reggaeton song.

DADDY YANKEE
The most popular/mainstream Reggaeton artist to date. My favorite song by him.

MANU CHAO
Speaking of popular: this is the most popular Latin artist in the world. He sells out concerts all over Europe, North, and South America. If you haven't heard of him, this is a good song to start with. It's most definitely the most main-stream/popular song by him. The second song is another one of my favorites by him and the first song that made him a household name.

ORISHAS
These guys are crazy good. They are hip-hop artists that sample cuban music for a lot of their songs (at least on the first CD). Listen to the first song by them to see what I mean. The second song is a more updated sound by the group.

KINKY
Latin electronic music is actually quite vast. This band is one of the most popular ones around.

MOLOTOV
These guys started off more than a decade ago, and released quite a few great singles. I especially like their protest songs concerning the corruption of government, and the US' immigration laws. Unfortunately the drop quite a few f-bombs so I can't really post them. Here is a cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and a song called Gimme Tha Power. Yep, about corruption in government.

There are countless more genres that we can explore together. Let's see the feedback on this first.

They got me!

They got me – motion of me shaking my fist at McDonald’s.
I’d like to think that I’m immune to advertising, but obviously that is not the case.

Exhibit A:



The commercial is obviously targeted at hungry students who like this type of music -- yes that's me.So after watching this commercial a few times I really started wondering what song was playing in the background, and if it was a song created specifically for the commercial. Turns out it’s a band from France that I had never heard of: Bot’Ox.

Here is the full song: Blue Steel.



I’m ashamed to say that I did buy a McDonald’Quarter Pounder the week I watched this commercial. Now you know the way to my heart: through music. Oh, and through my belly.
Good job McDonald's; don't ever do it again.

Sadly, it’s official.

They had a great run while it lasted; sadly, it’s over. Flight of the Conchords will not be returning to TV. From what I hear, they found that it was a lot of work to write songs, act, and write the show. I heard the news just before the second season ended, and I was hoping that they were all just rumors. However, the bad announced officially yesterday that the rumors are true.

Let's watch one small clip of the show to remind us of the good times we had together.




In case you don't know who Flight of the Conchords are, here is a brief introduction.

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Billing themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo",the group uses a combination of witty observation, characterisation and acoustic guitar music. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords.
They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and they received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe after performing at a venue called The Caves. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following. -Wikipedia

"We've noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won't be returning for a 3rd season," said the group on their official website.

The show ran for a total of 11 hours but managed to gather quite the following. What made the show was their dry humor, the witty songs, and the charismatic characters --Bret and Jemaine who both played themselves.

If you happen to like the show you can watch some of the movies that Jemaine and Bret are in: Eagle Vs. Shark is one of them -I'm sure that there are more.

We will miss you!

Winter Gloves - Concert Review

Band: Winter Gloves
Date: November 27, 2009
Venue: The Lo Pub
Rating: Four and a half stars



It was hard to tell if they were going to be able to pull-it-off. Winter Gloves – a Montreal-based band – came back to the city for a second time; but this time they were the main act of the night. The result: they rocked the Lo Pub.

At the beginning of the night, it looked like it was going to be a disaster – it was 9:30 pm and neither the band nor the audience were there – but by ten thirty the opening band Royal Canoe began to entertain the crowd. Little by little, the small pub became more and more crowded. By 12:45 am, Winter Gloves finally came on stage; encouraging those who were sitting down to jump to their feet and make their way towards the stage. The band’s high-energy synthesizer based rock could be heard all the way outside where people gathered to satisfy their nicotine crave; anyone standing outside made their way in and began to gather around the stage – they enthusiastically bobbed their heads to the beat of all the songs.

The band leader – and song writer – Charles F. lead the band in rocking the small room. Pat Sayers’ mustache could be seen from across the room; and kept a perfect drum beat. Vincent Chalifour – the other piano player – complemented the song with even more synthesizer. Guitarist Jean-Michel Pigeon tossed in riffs ad-lib while keeping a little bit of enthusiasm.

Roughly, an hour after the show began the crowd yelled loudly when Sayers left his post – the drums – and handed out free demo CDs to the crowd.

The show took place at the Lo Pub, which generally does not see this amount of traffic unless there is a concert scheduled. The pub has a beautiful mid-century feel, and a very friendly, cozy atmosphere: couches, a gas fireplace, and tables all around. At the bar, a signed photograph by Bob Barker is a frequent conversation starter.

Charles F. is the original composer of all the songs. After the cross Canada tour earlier this year, the band began to sound more like a unit rather than just a collection of musicians playing Charles F’s songs. They adapted several of their songs to include a more complete sound – all the new version of the songs can be heard on the free CD the band gave away the show.

The play-list included all their singles: Let me Drive, Party People, and Piano 4 Hands. In fact, they are such a new band that they played all the music they have ever released. They decided to end the night with the song Factories: a song about a young boy in a big city, and a representation of Charles F’s first experience of Montreal.

Winnipeg is the last Canadian city of the band’s tour. This time, they managed to make some new fans who gladly lined up to purchase the band’s t-shirts and CDs.

Being a student; I was not one of them – although I have already purchased their album and a t-shirt from them. I will most definitely be purchasing the next CD they release, and will continue to support them every time they come back to the city.

Supa-update-show

So last week I talked about how difficult it is to find new artist to play every week. This week I was reminded why I do it – yet again.
I know what makes it worth it: when you hear something original, artistic, clever, melodic, and charming.


What I Found

I’m talking about James Yuill, a folktronica singer –seriously I’m not making up the category – from London. And yes, he’s on an independent label called Moshi Moshi. A label that released albums for Bloc Party, Mates of State, Hot Chip, and Fanfarlo just to name a few.

Below is my favorite song by him so far.


If you don't love the song: I don't know what to tell you.

Concert Reminder

Also, a gentle reminder that Winter Gloves will be playing this Friday at the Lo Pub. It should be a great time so I hope to see some of you show up for this high energy show.
Below is a video of them playing the song Factories while riding around in Old Montreal. You know a band is talented when they don't need to be plugged in to sound great.

Just For Fun

I could go on forever about this band. And I've played on my radio show a couple of times, but I still wanted to share a bit more of their music with you. From what I can remember the members of this band spent a lot of time in West Africa and learned to play a variety of instruments. They took African music and added salt and pepper to taste.

Here's one of the only videos I found:

Twitter & Social Media

I have finally started using Twitter. To tell you the truth, I signed up for Twitter about three months ago and had completely forgotten I had an account. Usually if I have something to post, I do it on Facebook. But I must be familiar with all kinds of social media.

Here is a video of how social media has changed communications in the last five years alone.



Now that is hard to wrap your head around. Where are we going to be in another five years? Well, we can't know for sure. All we can do is adapt with the times. It's an exciting time in the communications industry.

My Portable Device EP23

Hey everyone! So for this week I decided to take a different approach to the My Portable Device play-list. I’m going to go into a little more detail what each artist – and perhaps what each song is about – for the whole show. I definitely don’t do much talking on the program itself, so it will be quite helpful to get a bit more background info on some of the songs played. I mean; every time that I tune into someone else’s show they rant on for about five minutes about each song they are going to play; and I find myself saying: Alright! Just play the song already!

So to avoid that type of response from my listeners I mostly focus on introducing the music, and playing as much music as possible. This is why I’ve been running out of artist to play lately. I mean, I’ve done 23 shows so far and each show has about 10-15 songs. So I must have played over 200 artist on the show. I’ve repeated some of them, but most of the time I try to play an artist I have not played before. This is now quite difficult.

On with the show!





The very first song I played was by Cenzi; this is jut playing in the background as I introduce the show. He’s a Latin hip-hop artist that I used for a music bed. If you are open to listening to music in another language - and you like hip-hop - this is a must listen.

Gui Borrato – This song makes me want to break out my glow sticks and start dancing around. He’s a Brazilian producer – he does a lot of remixes and such. I’d say that the song No Turning Back is my favorite.

Fanfarlo - This is a band from London that sounds a lot like Beirut – this one song for sure – I pretty much picked it because of that. I think it’s the guys voice that reminds me of it, but not all songs sound like Beirut.

Toro y Moi – this was one of those really random picks that you have to do when you have a radio show. Not a bad song though. It’s a bit poppy – pretty standard.

White Rabbits – yet another random pick. Maybe I should be doing this after all.

Foals – some more indie UK rock content for the show. I seem to play quite a bit of it. I haven’t listened to a complete album from these guys.

Pomplamoose – I talked about this band on my last post. Pretty fun to listen to and all their covers are free on their website.

Mates of States – I think I’ve played them before, but I really like to listen to them every once in a while. As far as pop duos go, these guys are pretty great.

Fast Romantics – nope! No info on these guys either.

Sunparlor Players – some Canadian content. I don’t mind a few of the songs by Sunparlor Players. I especially like the song John Had a Bell and a Whistle. It’s quite a crazy honky-tonk kind of song. If that sounds awful already, then you won’t like it.

Little Girls – continuing with my Canadian content expectations I played Little Girls. This band is scheduled to play with You Say Party on November 25, 09. They play a slightly grungy kind of rock – still pretty poppy.

Alright – maybe I’ll just stop there. If you are really interested in knowing about the rest of the songs on the play-list just leave a comment below. Happy listening.

P.S. If you like the description of the artists let me know. If not, then I'll just stop doing it.

Here's the rest of the play-list.

The Hidden Cameras - He Falls To Me (CAN)
Champion - Backing Off (CAN)
Champion - Alive Again (CAN)
Ramona Falls - I Say Fever
The Dutches & The Duke - Living This Life

Yay Power Reviews!

I decided to do something a little different this week – I call it power reviews – where I just post what I’ve been listening to without really going into the album in too much detail. You’ll still get a small review of a song, video, or even a whole album.


First, something a friend posted on Facebook recently that has me hooked:Pomplamoose.

Song: Expiration Date
Rating: Sweet
From: California
Sounds like: Feist (pre-sellout), Cardigans
What else: the first band that I’ve known to sell their music on a USB drive




Next is my favorite new find: Port O'Brien.


Album: Threadbare
Rating: super sweet
From: California
Sounds Like: Indie music
What else: they have two albums, and both great


I seem to really like the music that is coming out of Cali!


Here is the video to the second track on Threadbare.



So are you are you a big Beyonce fan? Me neither! But this song below is not too bad. It's a cover of Beyonce's song Halo. The actual song doesn't start until 1:46 so if you're super busy and don't want to watch the intro, you can just skip it.



Here is the first song on their previous album.




Next on the list is some hip-hop from the UK. Her artist name is Speech Debelle, and that's pretty much all I know about her.
oh, she won some kind of Mercury Prize for her album Speech Therapy.

Album: Speech Therapy
Rating: sweet
From: UK
What else: I'm not sure

Here is one of her fun songs: Spinnin'



I've also been listening to a lot of Sin Fang Bous. It's Sindri Már Sigfússon's solo project. You may know him from his other project: Seabear. I went to see him almost two weeks ago at the Pyramid, and then stuck around for the Mum show.

Album: Clangour
Rating: really sweet
From: Iceland
Sounds like: Well, Seabear
What else: ummm. When he was on stage he kept making faces. I don't know what the deal was




And that is pretty much what power reviews will consist of. It's basically when I can not concentrate on one album, so I have to write about a whole buch of them. I hope you decide to check out most of the music. The reason why I couldn't decide which CD to review is because I enjoyed all of them so much. But if I had to recommend only one of these, I would go with Port O'Brien's Threadbare. I think that's the album that I've listened to the most out of all of these.

My Portable Device Ep22

12 minute song included.


Speech Debelle - Speach Therapy
Múm - Marmelade Fires
Dr. Dog - The Breeze
Fionn Regan - Protection Racket
Fun. - Be Calm
Los Campesinos - You! Me! Dancing
Yeaseyer - Ambling Alp
Flotilla - A Thousand Jacobs (CAN)
Fools Gold - Suprise Hotel
Neko Case - Runnin' Out of Fools (CAN)
Arkells - Deadlines (CAN)
Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers - Molly (CAN>WPG)

My Portable Device Ep21

Ditched yet again. Solo show.


Elliott Brood - The Valley Town (CAN)
Bottle Up and Go - Until the Day I die
Portugal the Man - Work All Day
Grand Analog - Electriccity(CAN>WPG)
Brazos - Dayglo
Old Cranes - Trust
Ox- Burntout (CAN)
Jordan Mason & The Horse Museum - Avalanches (CAN)
NoahJon - First Communion
Themselves and Why - Canada
Esau Mwamwaya - Warm Heart of Africa
The Antlers - Two
Josh Rouse - Magdalena
The Feral Children - Abilities
Do May Say Think - Do (CAN)

My Portable Device Ep20

Live from Niagara Falls. No, not really.


Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset Pt 1
Port O’Brien – Threadbare
Toubab Krewe – Bamana Niya
Kings of Convenience - Mrs Cold
Ponys - Harakiri
Caribou - Melody Day (CAN)
M. Ward - Right In the Head
Los Mono - Promesas
Sing Fang Bous - Advent In Ives Garden
Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
Ladytron - High Rise
Amy Milan - I Will Follow You Into the Dark (CAN)
Hot Hot Heat - Good Night Good Night (CAN)
Matt Mays - Travelin' (CAN)
Sam Roberts - Bridge to Nowhere (CAN

Castledoor - Shouting at Mountains

Artist: Castledoor
Album: Shouting at Mountains
Released: April 21, 2009
Label: Castledoor
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: couldn’t decide on one

As promised, I’m doing the review on the new Castledoor album Shouting at Mountains. The only reason why I didn’t give it the full five stars was because they decided to use a lot more backing vocals on the album, which can be slightly annoying at times. I hate to say it but some songs are almost ruined by them (ex. the song Free).

On previous albums the backing vocals can barely be heard, so it took me by surprise when I head them. There is nothing wrong with using them, but when the vocals are basically just repeating what the singer just said, or just saying “bop bop” it makes it sound a bit cheesy. If the backing vocals were used only to create harmony, the album would have turned out quite a bit better. The singer is married to one of the vocalists, so maybe he had no choice. I mean, how do you tell your wife that she is ruining your songs? I don’t think you could, or should. That just goes to show you that the singer is a nice guy.

Anyways, all of the songs are pretty much just guitars, synth, and drums. Nothing really all that complicated, but they manage to put it together in an original way. Most of the songs are four-star-tacks, and the rest are about a three. I feel like there is a week point from tack six to eight, but they are still decent songs.

Castledoor has posted a lot of their music on PureVolume and has included some free tacks. As well, the band posted a link to one of their new songs on Twitter and can be downloaded here. You can also purchase all their music on iTunes.

Thanks again to Michael Elves for getting this CD for the station.

Here's the only official video I could find. It's not a song from Shouting at Mountains, but a single released last year from their 'til we sink EP.

PR assignment - Winnipeg bloggers should come together

Since I started the Creative Communications program I have been encouraged – more like obligated – to post once a week on the topic of my choice, in my case, music. I am glad that I was encouraged to do this because it has opened my eyes to think of blogging in a completely different light.

The early years of communications

In the early days people would get their news from a printer paper, they would communicate through Morse Code, and would send letters via snail-mail. A lot has changed since then, and it is not about to stop.

Print media

Print media is in deep trouble right now; largely because people are getting their news online. The cost of delivering the newspaper is so immense that the Winnipeg Free Press has even decided to stop delivering the paper on Sundays so that they can save millions of dollars. Yes, they will save millions in just one day (based on an interview with Free Press spokespersons on CBC Radio).

Watch the Free Press publisher explain to the public why they have chosen to not deliver the paper on Sundays, and not give their readers a discount on their membership.



Will blogging change journalism?

I believe that there is a better place for blogging. I think that it may even change the way we think of a reporter, and maybe even journalism. The basic idea is that if you have freelance reporters updating a blog – for which they would get paid for – we could then use their content to fill part of a “blog-newspaper”. One blogger could cover City Council, the other could cover entertainment, sports, and so on. This, of course, would all be available on one handy-dandy website. As well, these bloggers would remain objective at all times. Or in the case of a column, they would not.

What is a reader?

If the blog-newspaper idea is still unclear, you can watch the video below for an explanation on RSS.



What are you doing about it?

After evaluating the blogging-newspaper idea, I started to think about my own blog and realized that my blog should not only entertain, but it should also do some kind of a public service. Maybe I could focus more on local artist who prefer to eat rather than spend hundreds of dollars promoting their band - who knows. I will have to continue pondering on it.

Isn't there something like that already?

I have yet to come across a revolutionary RSS reader, and I am unaware of any type of website like I have just described. It might be because newsreaders still need a lot of work, but once perfected, it will make it extremely easy to put together something like this. Why visit only one blog at a time when you could select which journalist you think is more trustworthy, reliable, and have it displayed on your customized blogger-newspaper? Or even better, offer a specific package of journalists on the website: bloggers/journalist that have been peer-reviewed.

Get on it and build this website then

I would put this website together myself, but unfortunately I do not have the know-how. So, if anybody reading this blog agrees with me, we can put our heads together and come up with a solution. I can build the website, and you can help me with the RSS component. Oh, and maybe even some of the content for the website. Oh, and then there is the whole advertising component that would have to get figured out too.
Yes, I can not do it all myself. Come on Winnipeg bloggers! Let's come together.

This is fun.

Before I get into explaining what I’m posting about, and most importantly before you hit play – or did you already hit play? – I’d like to ask you to listen to the song in its entirety. Personally, I find that the song only gets better with every minute that passes. It’s not a boring, flat, no hooks kind of piece; it's a hooks everywhere kind of piece.

The band is fun..Yes, their name is spelled fun. including the period after their name. Try to google their name, and you’ll get a lot of fun things come up. Type in fun band, an you’ll get some really fun bands, but not fun.. So if you do end up liking their song, make sure you search for the correct name.

So here’s the song. Remember to play it in its entirety. As well, I found that the more I listened to the song, the more I liked it.



That was the song Be Calm. All their music is available on eMusic and iTunes and has been rated as a four star album by over 213 subscribers. If you would like to sample more of their music, you can do so at their MySpace. I believe most, if not all, of the album is available on there. Oh, and I think they even include their iTunes extras on there.

My Portable Device EP19

New Built to Spill!



Built To spill- Aisle 13
Editors - Bricks and Mortar
Islands - Drums (CAN)
Karen O- Worried Shoes
Kid CuDi - Simple as
Dragonette - Fixin to thrill
Paper Cranes - Ice-Burgs (CAN)
Raveonettes - Gone Forever
Righteous Ike - 3 songs (CAN)
Vampire weekend - White Sky
Dodos - Horny Hippies
Planet Smasher - No Self Control (CAN)
Devlins - Waiting

My Portable Device EP18

Oct 5 show. Catching up.


Rheostatics - Headless One (CAN)
Said the whale- Camilo (CAN)
Or, the whale - No love blues
A Girl Called Eddie - It's you
A Northern Chorus - Red Carpet Blues (CAN)
Andrew Neville - Gal Back Home (CAN>WPG)
The Elected – Waves
Wintersleep - Dead Letters and the Infinite Yes (CAN)
Pavement - Perfume V
Elliot Smith - Christian Brothers
Brendan Canning - Church Under the Stairs (CAN)
Kevin Drew - Safety Bricks (CAN)
Immaculate machine - Primary Colours (CAN)
+/- Steal the blueprints

My Portable Device EP17

Sep 28 show. I know! I'm behind on posting these.


The Big Pink – Dominoes
The Black Seeds – Take Your Chances
Stars – My Radio AM mix (CAN)
Winter Gloves – Factories - alt. ver. (CAN)
Winter Gloves – All Red (CAN)
Portugal the Man – People Say
Matisyahu – On Nature
Brendan Benson – Poised and Ready
Subcity – Soft Hands (CAN>WPG)
Olfolks Home – Power of the Sun (CAN>WPG)
Chad VanGaalen – Cries of the Dead (CAN)
Danny Michel – Black Tornadoes (CAN)
Monsters of Folk – Say Please
Bon Iver - Brackett, WI
You Say Party We Say Die – Within My Heart (CAN)

Do you Google Wave?

Since my blog is not always about music; I've decided to do other kinds of reviews.

This is more about a review I would like to do. I'm talking about Google Wave. Here is the video before I continue talking about it.



As the video says, you need an invite to use Google Wave Beta. So if anyone is using Google Wave; I would love to get an invite. If not, lets all try to find some one who does.

Cheers!

Buyer Beware - How prepared are post-secondary institutions?

As a creative communications student, I have certain obligations. One of those would be to post some of my assignments on my blog. Therefore, from time-to-time you will find that I will be posting something not related to my blog topic. This first one is related to H1N1 the virus; not H1N1 the band.


For our Buyer Beware assignment, our team decided to merge PR and Advertisement into one project. We were curious to know how post-secondary institutions in Manitoba are preparing for a possible H1N1 outbreak. Post-secondary students are rarely addressed in reports regarding the H1N1 flu virus, so our team set out to close the gap.

We wanted to examine the H1N1 pandemic policies for each the five major post-secondary institutions in Manitoba, namely, the University of Manitoba (U of M), The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg), Red River College (RRC), Brandon University (BU), and College universitaire de Saint-Boniface (CUSB). But throughout our research, we quickly discovered that we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. We learned that each institution has a much larger crisis communication plan in place than what is made publicly available.

Since we did not see our “product” it made it extremely difficult for us to compare and contrast these policies. Our next step was to come up with an idea on how to make our research still valuable. Therefore, we asked ourselves the following questions:

What are we dealing with?

The first step to preparedness is to find out what you are up against. A clear definition of what the H1N1 influenza is, what its symptoms are, and how to prevent and manage it, is vital.

We found that all of the five institutions had, at the very least, a basic backgrounder on H1N1.


What’s going to happen?

In order to prepare for a pandemic, it’s important to anticipate how it could affect those who are involved. Employees and students should know what to expect.

Only U of M, UWinnipeg and RRC have information about the impact of employee and student absenteeism. Out of the five, only U of M and RRC touched on the possibility of a supply shortage and the possibility of facility closures. U of M is the only institution that mentioned an anticipation of financial setbacks.

Who is doing what?

A clear outline of the roles and responsibilities of people involved will help manage an H1N1 pandemic. For any plan to succeed, it’s important that everyone is informed of what is expected of him or her, and for everyone to have a sense of accountability.

All of the institutions, except for BU, had information available on the roles and responsibilities of students. All, except BU and CUSB, mentioned the roles and responsibilities of employees. Only U of M and RRC talked about the existence of a Pandemic Planning Committee and an Emergency Operations Centre. Lastly, only U of M detailed the roles and responsibilities of their institution’s president, vice-chancellor, deans, directors and department heads.

What are we going to do?

Problems will arise and information about how to deal with each specific problem would be helpful in case of a pandemic.

We found that all institutions, except BU, have guidelines available for students on how to cope with missed schoolwork due to closures and absences. Most institutions, except U of M and BU acknowledged the special needs of international students who might want to travel and might not have health care insurance. In terms of communicating and staying in touch, most institutions, except UWinnipeg and BU, have specified guidelines. Only U of M and RRC mentioned guidelines on how to manage human resources, facilities, and information technology infrastructures. Only U of M provided information about what should be done for students living in student residences. They are also the only one who talked about making provisions for public safety, financial services, food services, and issues on legalities.

How do we move past this?

Wrapping up, cleaning up and touching up after a crisis is needed for an institution to get back on its feet.

We found that only U of M and RRC have any information available on its plans for recovery in case of a pandemic. They focused on making psychological support available for students and staff, replacing possible staff lost to the pandemic, and ultimately resuming operations. U of M even mentioned a plan in place for writing up post-pandemic reports.

Overall, the public, i.e. students, know very little in terms of their institutions’ crisis plan; and that is a good thing. Crisis plans extend much farther than the H1N1 virus and other select illnesses, as a good plan prepares for any crisis situation. For example a bomb threat, or technical difficulties.

Another type of research we did was to contact Melanie Lee Lockhart and Therese Mickelson, two public relations experts on crisis communication, to seek their opinion on what makes a good crisis plan.

A good crisis plan, according to our experts, should aim to:

• Prepare for any situation.
• Be short and simple in the event that a non-crisis committee member can read and act out the plan.
• Be flexible for changing situations.
• Be so well thought out that the institution can respond to the crisis immediately through every media outlet possible.
• Anticipate its audience’s needs.
• Be prepared to help its team and audience deal with the emotional and physical aspects of a crisis.
• Make everyone on the team’s role clear.
• Be portable so that each crisis team member can carry the plan with them at all times. For example, using a flash drive.



Why you don’t know your institutions full plan:

•Each plan is unique to the institution. Your institution has the first, and next level of the plan ready to be released. If an institution were to release all levels of the plan at once they would risk causing people to panic, and students would be anticipating the next level to unravel.
•An institution might risk losing most of their students to minor symptoms.

What you can take away from this is:

• Students and staff should continue with their daily activities as normal.
• Students and staff should stay up-to-date with the stages of progress regarding H1N1 in their institution.
• Students are encouraged to visit their school’s website and ask questions if they have any concerns.
• Students and staff should practice the preventative measures given to them.

And finally, probably the most important point of our research:

• If your institution does not make it public that some kind of plan is in place, do not be afraid questions its existence.


Below is the interview with Melanie Lee Lockhart and Therese Mickelson. The volume is a little low on the interview portion so crank it up.

Casledoor Pt. 1

Castledoor is an independent band from the sunny state of California. They released a new album earlier this year and I finally got to listen to it in its entirety this week. The problem with real independent bands is that it's incredibly hard to find their stuff. iTunes has it for sale, but I thought UMFM could help me out in this case. So I'd like to thank Michael E. for getting the new Castledoor CD Shouting at Mountains for our library. Thanks! I'll be doing a review of it very soon, but for now I'll talk about an old track.

I wanted to talk about Burn the Maps, one my favorite songs of all time. It has some amazing lyrics, and its musically genius(I hope you think so too). I must have listened to this song over fifty times in the past years.

I started to love the band from the first time I heard Burn the Maps a couple of years ago. It moved me, and I've been a big fan of the band ever since.

I'd like you to listen to the song and read along below. So let's do that.



We've got a dream and since it started
They all did their best to stamp it out
Now, we're not certain, we're not certain
Who is on our side, who's on our side

Older generations made their decisions
But we don't want to follow their formula
With all due respect, with all respect, man
We don't want to end up where you're at

Burn the maps
Burn the maps

We won't stay behind that fence and
We're not walking on your footprints

We're breaking branches in the forest
So we don't forget where we came from
Start from scratch, man, start from scratch now
There's no better time to be reborn

Glide across the path like no one's watching
And if you hit traffic, honey, that's okay
Cause you're the best at being you now
Speed up, slow down, choose your pace

Burn the maps
Burn the maps

We won't stay behind that fence and
We're not walking on your footprints (x2)

Cause all we need is love
You're giving us a deadline
You're waiting for the punch-line
We're waiting for our moment to arrive

So give a little trust
Receive us with an open mind
You're busy reading archives
We're busy making future headlines
Future headlines

Burn the maps (x4)

We won't stay behind that fence
We're not walking on your footprints
In the middle of a big black trench
We're not walking on your footprints (x3)

This song is a poem. It speaks to me and to future generations. It speaks to a generation of change and progress. Breaking branches in the forest so that we don't forget the past while striving for a better future. Burning the maps laid out by past generations, so we can come up with a new plan. Like the song says, they are giving us a deadline. So do we have a better plan?

Maybe it's idealistic of me to think this map-burning could ever happen. Especially since major social changes have only taken place after a revolution.
Revolutions are messy, painful, and violent; but maybe they don’t have to be. There has to be a better way for social change that does not involve people sacrificing their lives. It's up to us to think about what that is.

Winter Gloves @ The LoPub

Montreal rockers Winter Gloves are coming back to town on November 27 to play at the LoPub; a great pub with great atmosphere. It’s not a bad place to see live music, but don’t expect to see the band unless you stand up and get right up-close. It obviously was not designed for concerts. Also, it’s definitely not in the best area of town, but probably not the worse either.

The lead singer and writer of all the songs in the album About a Girl is the very talented Charles F. who wrote, recorded, and co-produced the EP. He then recorded the first full length album with his band in a week.

Some of the band’s influences include Radiohead, and Broadcast just to name a couple. Charles is also a big fan of the album Soft Airplane by Chad VanGaalen (who also happens to be coming to town, and is another must see). Video below.

If you are a fan of synth-rock this is must see band. Below is a video of their song Let Me Drive which is an absolute work of art. The first step to creating the video was to get a shot of each band member playing their instrument; basically a regular video. The film was then digitized and each frame was then printed on flipbooks. Someone then held these flipbooks in-front of the camera, and well, flipped the pages. All this was then synchronized with the music and Charls F's voice. I hope you appreciate all the hard work that went into it.
Cheers!

If you like the band, listen to episode 5 of My Portable Device where I interview Charles F.

Winter Gloves - Let Me Drive





Want more? Here's their MySpace

The Ancient Astronauts - We Are To Answer

Artist: The Ancient Astronauts
Album: We Are To Answer
Released: June 9, 2009
Label: ESL Records
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: Rising high



Miguel listens to hip-hop?????? Well, sometimes. What really inspired me to write this blog post was that I saw a young gentleman sporting a shirt that said I miss hip-hop Which immediately made me make a weird face at him. He probably thought he was being very clever and hip, but he failed. Why? Because hip-hop is not dead! Dude is simply not looking hard enough. And THAT is the bottom line. If you love music, you don't wait for it to come to you, you seek it. Because you love it.

As promised on episode 15 of My Portable device, I’m posting the name of that one song that I never announced. I really could not think of the name of it at the time.

The Ancient Astronauts consists of a couple of German producers named Tom Strauch and Ingo Moll who recently teamed up with ESL Records, founded by Thievery Corporation. So with that said, the album does have some of the same elements as a Thievery album, without making it a duplicate. Of course the band was allowed to work creatively with their own ideas, and claim that they did not feel pressure to create something that they did not feel comfortable with.

This album is a lot more varied than a Thievery album, including some downtempo type of electronic music, but also reggae, soul, dub, and hip-hop. It’s definitely some good background music, but also contains a few punches. For this reason, it earns a solid 4 stars. I know I haven’t given out too many low scores, but I’m sure I will very soon.

Check out the single below, it’s free, and legal thanks to the folks at AOL. So without further ado, here it is! Thanks for listening to My Portable Device, and thanks for checking my blog.

This album also features other MCs such as:

Bootie Brown and Imani from The Pharcyde, Azeem, Tippa Irie, Bajka, Phat Old Mamas, Ulf Stricker, Raashan Ahmad and Entropik, and a few more.

Ancient Astronauts - Rising High

Ancient Astronauts MySpace

My Portable Device EP16

The first prime-time show of My Portable Device.


A recent suggestion was that I should post the play-list on the blog along with the podcast. I hope this doesn't discourage people from listening to the podcast. Not that it's bad. I would like to think that its good, but who knows.


Play-list:

Cat Empire - Hello
Citizen Cope - Let the Drummer Kick
Books Feat. Jose Gonzalez - Cello Song
Jack Peñate - Pull My Heart Way
Codename:The Sharks - Set Your Sights (CAN>WPG)
Bahamas-Already Yours (CAN)
Shins - Turn On Me
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms (CAN)
Mew - Introducing Palace Players
The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa
The Eels - My Timing is Off
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - As Tall As Cliffs
Maccaco - Fresh
Castledoor - Skipping Stones
The Films - Blitzkrieg Bop
Muse - Starlight

Jack Peñate - Everything Is New

Artist: Jack Peñate
Album: Everything Is New
Released: June 22, 2009
Label: XL Recordings
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 0
Must-listen/purchase Track: Pull My Heart Away




Has Jack Peñate given up on plaid? From what I can tell…no. He’s still wearing the same-old plaid shirts buttoned all the way up to the collar. The only thing that has changed is his music style.

Jack Peñate is a U.K. Pop-rocker who just released his second full-length album. The Brit rock-star with a Spanish name released his first album in 2006. Most the songs on Matinée are heavy on the upstrokes and have a Pop-rock style to them. He received great feedback and it reached the number one spot on the U.K.’s independent album charts.

Peñate’s second album is certainly very different from its predecessor, and to me, that’s a good thing. I’m glad to see that he’s decided to explore another side of his creative mind. According to an interview done at Absolute Radio, he never felt the need to re-visit the same sound, and for that, I commend him. An artist should be able to express themselves however they want, and not have to cater to a specific audience. Go independent labels!

After hearing his first single, I expected the album to be a dancing-good-time. And it is, but there is also a couple of very creative Indie-rock kind of tracks on it. The album begins with my favorite song, Pull My Heart Away, one of those Indie songs I’m talking about. The second song switches the mood to a Pop sound which continues until the last couple of tracks where he throws in another two rock songs.

Peñate uses a lot of sound layering and continues to sing about his favorite subjects: Death and love.

Must listen/purchase track


First sigle


Old track

My Portable Device EP15

The come-back show

My Portable has now moved to prime-time: 11PM Mondays on 101.5 FM.
Here is episode 15, which aired a couple of weeks ago, and is finally available for download.

Andrew Bird - Noble Beast

Artist: Andrew Bird
Album: Noble Beast
Released: January 20, 2009
Label: Fat Possum, Bella Union Records
Stars: 4.0
Skippable Tracks: 1
Must-listen/purchase Track: Tenuousness

Alright, time to step it up a notch! I'm going to have to start using proper grammar and spelling. This blog might actually get read now. We'll see how that goes.


Andrew Bird is a singer-songwriter from Chicago, who has just released his sixth studio album - Noble Beast. The whole feel of the album is very Folk Rock, and at times Indie Rock. Since he purposefully tries to keep listeners on their feet, some tracks don't find their direction until a minute or two into it. Think of a folk song, a pinch of Thom Yorke, some violin, a hint of glockenspiel, a tune that you might hear in a Western film, mix, and you have a song from Noble Beast.

The album is full of great ballads,rock tunes, and songs with many twists and turns. Over-all sound would be mellow, and something you should not listen to while operating some kind of heavy machinery.

I only found one track that I would choose not to listen to as a stand-alone track (Nomenclature), but if you are listening to the album from start to finish, the track just blends in. It simply had too many twists and no climax. This is followed by Ouo a 20 second track of nothingness, but thankfully he picks it up with the next track.

Overall, this album has its brilliant moments, and deserves a high rating. Check out his MySpace, or preview and purchase the album at eMusic.

Must-listen/purchase track:

Attack in Black - Years (by One Thousand Fingertips)

Album: Years (by One Thousand Fingertips)
Released: March 10, 2009
Label: Dine Alone Records
Stars: 4.5
Skippable Tracks: 0


Years is Attack in Black's third studio album, and they have gotten a whole lot folkier from what I remember. All I had heard from them were a couple of pop-punk songs that really didn't do much for me. I decided to check out the album because of rumors of Years being quite a nice listen from start to finish. The album DID flow very nicely from start to finish, leaving you little time for you to doze off.
I have since checked out their previous album The Curve of the Earth which has quite a few great songs as well. Obviously, you can check it out if you decide you like this one. Another fact would be that both the guitarist (Spencer Burton) and singer (Daniel Romano) have contributed to the City and Color (Dallas Green) recordings.

The album opens with a folky song, and is followed by a song that mixes acoustic and electric guitars. This is accompanied by the distorted voice of D. Romano and has a bit of an older sound to it. Third song is pretty standard, but has quite a catchy chorus...so I gave it a passing grade. The same can be said for the following couple of songs. The next notable songs are Leather Jacket, which is sadly only two and a half minutes long, as well as Seeds which adds a little of guitar distortion to the mix right when you would have dozed. There are about ten more tracks after that, but I really don't wanna describe every single tune, but give you a brief idea.

This is a very nicely put together album, and has some pretty decent tracks available. My only complaint would be that my favorites happen to only be two and a half minutes or shorter. Overall, its a great listen from start to finish. I'd recommend a start-to-finish kind of listen for this album. Stand alone tracks don't seem to have the same charm.

Check their MySpace

My Portable Device EP14

Pre-comeback show

My Portable Device EP13

The bad luck show

Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day

Artist: Deer Tick
Album: Born On Flag Day
Released: June 23, 2009
Label: Partisan Records
Stars: 5.0
Skippable Tracks: 0 !!
Warning: This is not for everybody

Alright, the reason why I hadn't written anything in like a month was because I wanted to have some exciting to share with ya'll. And I've found it!!! So I tell ya whhhat, I'll get right into it.

Deer Tick consists of a few guys from Rhode Island who grew up idolizing grunge, country, and folk music. The result obviously are dark folk-country songs with some good ol' rock thrown in. The kind of band you would imagine playing a small country/blues bar and would most definitely want to make you finish-off whatever is in your hand, and and make you reach for another.

This is the second album released by the trio, and is just as amazing as their 2007 release, War Elephant. As always I'll mention my favorite tune on the album, and that would have to be - Song About a Man. What made me proud to be blasting this music while riding around in my work truck, was the harmonica. I'm a sucker for a good tune with some harmonics...with a harmonica. On top of that John Joseph McCauley the Third's raspy voice is an excellent touch to the already beautiful tunes. And what a great name for a lead singer of an indie country band.

This album will hold your attention from start to finish, although it is a pretty short one. Regardless, I loved every single tune on it and will continue to have in repeat for some weeks to come.


Old track:


New track:

The Dodos - Time to Die

Artist: The Dodos
Record: Time to die
Label: Frenchkiss Records
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Skippable Tracks: 0
Stars: 3.5

Even though the album has yet to be released, a digital copy has leaked on the Internet. According to the all knowing Wikipedia, the album leaked on July 8Th, 2009 and is produced by Phil Ek who has produced other amazing albums by The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, and Built to Spill. So you can imagine that I was expecting a different sound from the Dodos on this release. I was wrong. It was not that much different.

The sound can probably be described as a tame folk rock sound with a high concentration of drumming beats. While concentrating on drum beats more than any other instruments the band makes the songs sound a little repetitive. This can be too much at times, for I can not imagine listening to more than one album at a time. I currently only own the album Beware of Manics and I believe I might keep it that way for now. I feel like owning one album is like owning them all.

I SHOULD say some positive things about the album, since it is quite a pleasant listening experience and has some great tracks such as Acorn Factory, and Fables. I believe I'll just be using a few credits on this album and downloading only select tracks (If its made available on Emusic). I do recommend you listen to it and pick out the tracks that you enjoy the most.

Not too complicated of an album since the band only consists of a couple of dudes, and at times 3. Enjoy the tune below!

Paolo Nutini- Sunny Side Up

Artist: Paolo Nutini
Record: Sunny Side Up
Label: Atlantic Records
Release June 2, 2009
Skippable Tracks: 0
Stars: 4.9

I was pleasantly surprised with this album right from the beginning, straight through to the end. I really under estimated the talent of this artist after listening to the album released in 2006. This is not to say that the album was a poor attempt, but rather that it was very simple pop-rock album with one great single. The album is something that James Blunt would probably release, which is why I was expecting something similar from him this time.

The CD art caught my attention, and I could tell something was up. "What is this guy up to?!" I asked myself, and popped into the CD player.

The album starts with the song 10/10 which is a Ska/Rock-steady kind of song, and followed by a Soul song called Coming up Easy. I posted the third song in the album called Coming up Easy which and absolutely great love song followed by the track Candy. Both of which are my favorites on the Album. The album is peppered with soul, country, blues, folk,and even a Maddi Gras type of song. The styles used in the album are too vast to name completely, so you'll have to check it out for yourself below. As far as lyrics, he mostly talks about his love experiences.

This album was produced by Nutini and Ethan Johns, who has helped Ray LaMontagne produce a few albums. With that said, there are a couple of tracks that definitely remind me of his sound on here. I should warn you that Nutini's voice is not loved by everyone, and it may take you a few songs to get used to, but once you do, this album will only continue to grow on you with every listen. I'm interested to see what other tricks this guy has up his sleeves.





Sunny Side Up

My Portable Device EP12

Random tossing of songs PT2

My Portable Device EP11

Random arrangement of songs PT1

Rocky Votolato - Makers (2006)

Artist: Rocky Votolato
Album: Makers
Released: January 24, 2006
Label: Barsuk/Second Nature
Stars: 3.0
Skippable Tracks: 0

Just when you thought there wasn't going to be anymore posts, you get one more.
I know I am a whole lot late reviewing this CD. Truth is that when I purchased this CD I only downloaded selected tracks since I ran out of credits on my e-music account. This month I remembered that I had some tracks missing and decided to complete the album.

Makers is about the 7th album/lp released by the Seattle born singer Rocky Votolato. Votolato is one of the founders of the band Waxwing, which gained a bit of success during the late 90s and early 2000s. Votolato's solo stuff is very singer/songwriter and extremely mellow compared to Waxwing.

Rocky Votolato gets to show off his amazing guitar picking skills in songs as Uppers Aren't Necessary, and compliments it with his soft soothing voice. Although a lot of the lyrics are what you might call slightly depressing, you do know what to expect from the tone of his voice and acoustic melodies. Lyrics like "Heaven or heavenless, we're all headed for the same sweet darkness" and "Death keeps calling me, she's gonna set me free" are pretty good examples.
Other tunes have a heavy country influence, and are slightly more upbeat. A good example would be the songs Tennessee Tracks, and Tinfoil Hats. If you are in the mood for something relaxing, Elliot Smith kinda mood (Not that he's at the same level), Rocky Votolato is a great choice.

As an album, I don't think its going to be remembered as a masterpiece, but individual tracks are absolutely amazing to listen to in a mix. Try listenining to a couple of tracks first, and then decide. Personally I can never seem to get through the whole album, makes me wanna hit the bottle, and hey!, life ain't that bad.