I wrote an article about music export. It sits alongside David Suzuki, Bob Rae, Alan Cross and others. Here it is…

http://www.themarknews.com/articles/735-tips-on-touring-abroad

Grand Analog

The Mountains and the Trees

Library Voices

Plants and Animals

Karkwa

Young Rival

The Perms

…It was a BLAST!

Pictures from Last Night

Thanks to Muso’s Guide and all the bands for a terrific night.

35 degrees and sunny.  AMAZING.

Here’s the flyer for my Puregroove showcase…

Enjoy!  From the lens of Duncan McKie, President of CIMA.

from their show at the Art Museum in Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves. Thanks Galina Oussatcheva for shooting these, and Rich Smith for shooting the earlier ones.. More to come picture wise + CMJ begins!!!

I’m sitting here listening to ‘Waving Flag’ by K’Naan, nursing a long and impressive night here at Iceland Airwaves. The city was just beginning to rumble at 5AM when I turned in, as Reykjavik becomes the premier party city on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s insane how alive this city becomes. It’s somewhat scary.

So Friday began the Canadian contingent work at Iceland Airwaves. Brasstronaut started playing a high school near Kringlaan, the biggest shopping centre in Iceland, while Culture Reject played a down-tempo set at the International Youth Hostel, on Vesturgata. In addition, Brasstronaut played their official off-venue gig, at 6PM at Skifan. Skifan is the HMV of Iceland, and over 150 people were there to celebrate the occasion, including Gasoline Magazine, White Whale Records and the Ontario Government. Plus, Montreal experimentalist Tim Hecker played at Idno, as part of the Bedroom Community Records showcase.

For the main events, the Canadians have to wait till later today, where all three play their headlining shows. This meant we all got to enjoy other countries work hard. Bands taken in included Dikta again, Aela (meaning puke in local slang), US’ Golden Filter, Denmark’s When Saints Go Machine, Vinnie Who and Sweden’s The Tiny. Lots of pictures were taken, so expect a picture only post later today or tomorrow. Here’s some videos of what we saw. Today is the big day for Canada. Cancer Bats headline at Sodoma, Brasstronaut at the Art Museum and Culture Reject at Grand Rokk. It’ll be a very, very late night.

Video Time.

Well, CMJ starts next week, and we have over 50 bands participating. Here’s a list of the amazing Canadian Blast showcase, on OCT 22 at Arlene’s Grocery.

Hi.

First off, I’ve updated the listings page.  Please visit it.  Oh, and if you are a Canadian band with UK/EU dates I don’t have up there, please visit the contact page and email me.

Oh, We’ve started a new initiative called ‘Canadian Blast Presents’.  This means that I will be amalgamating a lot of Canadian gigs happening at festivals in Europe under one banner, in an effort to better present our talent.  The first four are below.

ICELAND AIRWAVES - Oct 14-18

- Culture Reject, Cancer Bats, Brasstronaut

MANCHESTER IN THE CITY - Oct 18-20

- Culture Reject, CLUES, Young Rival, Immaculate Machine

DUBAI SOUNDCITY - Nov 5-7

- Kae Sun, Dan Mangan

(this will be followed by a ‘Musicweek Unearthed’ showcase Nov 9th at Puregroove in London)

TIME FESTIVAL PARIS - Nov 20,21

- Dan Mangan, Hey Rosetta!

More info about that, let me know.  Until then, here’s a video I really like of Dan Mangan, who deserves congradulations for winning the XM Verge Award.  Mazel Tov also goes out to Fucked Up, this years Polaris Prize winners!

FUCKED UP

DAN MANGAN