Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
A trip to Montreal awaits as we once again fly off to distant shores with Dunia Aljawad!
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Sept 21, 2022
Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
Hanorah – If Life Were A Movie
Laurence-Anne – Instant Zero
Alex Burger – Sweet Montérégie
TOPS – I Feel Alive
Blue Material – Cosmic Thunder
1969 Collective – Pleure pas pour moi
La Force – Mama Papa
Baladeur – Jaune
Les Louanges – Bolero
Young & Sick feat MUNYA – ANGELS
Men I Trust – Hard To Let Go
Hubert Lenoir feat Bonnie Banane - OCTEMBRE
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight on a fall week that continues to bring the heat, but off we fly to cooler climes this evening, and tonight is brought to you in Quebecois French spoken by an American and Iraqi as September 21, 2022. This is Danno of course on the mic as I ready to head to ICN on the bus in a minute, coming at you but not necessarily for you from GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? So, the clue was indeed dropped just moments ago as to destination, and some of the more astute amongst you probably guessed already that our destination tonight is Montreal. A truly unique former French colony sitting in the middle of the St. Lawrence River and now one of Canada’s largest cities, Montreal is an artistic center of creation and a very important creator of modern music, so we’ll be taking off with Dunia Aljawad at 9pm sharp and exploring the sounds of Montreal for the full two hours this evening. Now, for those who know Montreal music history, there are few acts that have made it as big the world over than Arcade Fire, so we’ll start with a song that most definitely helped them break through back in the day. This is The Drop.
Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
The Drop has commenced with Season 8 this week and we are on our season debut show for Wednesday nights with the lovely Dunia Aljawad continuing to join us as our travel companion, as we continue celebrating the unique musical cultures to be found in around the world. What’s snappin & tappin, Drop Gangsters (Korean)? Danno on the bus to Incheon International via the magic of radio, heading for Montreal at 9pm sharp on flight TD080.
Of course, Montreal has a very unique place in modern Canada, with the official language being French, although I can hear the people in France scoffing and howling from here as I say those words. But just like France itself, Montreal has a deep cultural and artistic history that we’ll be exploring for the full two hours tonight.
To start that was Arcade Fire with Rebellion (Lies). This tune appeared on the band’s debut album from 2004 titled Funeral, which is in some seriously select company when it comes to albums from the aughts.
Funeral produced five singles, with "Rebellion (Lies)" being the most successful, having peaked at #19 on the UK Singles Chart. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Alternative Music Album. It received widespread critical acclaim and topped many year-end and decade-end lists, now being often considered one of the greatest albums of all time. According to the website Metacritic, the album had the second most appearances on end-of-decade Top 10 lists, only behind Radiohead's Kid A.
Now, that’s just the wiki entry, if you dig deeper you can see the amount of big films and TV shows that the song has appeared in, and Rebellion Lies has also been an enduring part of the band’s act over many years, with it being a staple closer to their live shows.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast details, etc.
Okay, so we’ll continue with songs from mighty Montreal tonight in the next block and for the entirety of the two hours this evening. Tunes in the next block respectively are from Hannah, Laurence-Anne, and Alex Burger whilst we’ll leave the verbosity and pedantry for after the sounds settle. This is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night to Montreal.
_________
Back on The Drop as we are coming down the home stretch towards the ICN terminal & check-in tonight for flight TD080 bound for Monreal on our season 8 Maiden Voyage. Danno here, making sure everything is where it’s gotta be prior to disembarking and hitting the terminal, with the main mission being to give you some background on the foreground that just died down, so first thing’s first right now...that was:
Hanorah – If Life Were A Movie (…this is a lovely soul singer out of Montreal who had their debut back in 2019 with For The Good Guys and The Bad Guys, gaining instant recognition in Canada. This tune was released this year, and since debut Hanorah was a staple opening act for blues legend Mavis Staples, and no, this is not the Miley Cyrus tune or a cover of it, shall we say.)
Laurence-Anne – Instant Zero (…this is a tune from 2019 off the First Appearance or Premiere Apparition LP, which was long-listed for the Polaris Prize in Canada. Laurence-Anne Gagne first won recognition as a participant in a TV singing contest amongst people from the Francophone areas of Canada aka Quebec Province.)
Alex Burger – Sweet Montérégie (…now, for those wondering the meaning here, Monteregie is the region of the St. Laurence Hills Surrounding Montreal, so is often used interchangeably with the name of the city itself. Alex Burger released this tune as a standalone single, obviously an ode to his home.)
Moving along to finish the first fourth, we’ll continue with recent stuff on the audio timeline and go with two acts that are very much intertwined. We’ll start with TOPS and a tune called I Feel Alive to be followed by Blue Material and a song titled Cosmic Thunder. TOPS is a band out of Montreal formed in 2011 that has had quite the rotating cast of members, including Thom Gillies, who is both a former member of TOPS and the man behind Blue Material. Good discography to check out from both bands if you want to dig deeper. THIS is The Drop on your Round Trip Wednesday night way up north.
TOPS – I Feel Alive
Blue Material – Cosmic Thunder
II.
The Drop arrives at the check-in desk at the departures terminal here at ICN, and of course it’s the most boring part of flying, which is waiting to check in. Danno here very excited to start our new season of Round Trips by heading to Montreal on flight TD080 later on with the lovely Dunia Aljawad, and to start the 2nd quarter we went with some vintage stuff from the Island City in the St. Laurence. That was…
1969 Collective – Pleure pas pour moi (…this song’s title means don’t cry for me although I doubt anyone Quebecois or French could understand my pronunciation let alone resist laughing at it. This is not a band per se, but a collective concept album of songs put out by famed early Quebecois singers in the late 1960s who were foundational to modern music in Quebec.)
La Force – Mama Papa (…for those unaware, this is artist Ariel Engle, who performs under this moniker and their own name, with this La Force album having come out in 2018 from which the La Force moniker has not returned. Most notably, Engle also performs as a member of Broken Social Scene.)
Moving along SM, #9870, podcast let us know …
Now, continuing to keep things going towards the gate as we go through the hassle of security and customs, we have a trio of tunes lined up next. Baladeur will begin things and then we have cuts from Les Louanges along with MUNYA. We’ll talk about all of these tunes and the Montreal connections therein after we let them run to Neptune and back, but for now THIS is The Drop.
_________
Back on The Drop and we have arrived at the gate with time for maybe a quick sip but definitely a few words before boarding. Danno here ready to take off for Montreal momentarily & Dunia Aljawad will be on board for the trip once we’re ready to take off, but let’s get to those last three cuts we just sent off into space, all origin Norway...
Baladeur – Jaune (…this is band that simply calls themselves The Singer, as that translates in French, and the song itself means Yellow. This tune just dropped earlier this year, and Baladeur is a six piece that is a very important piece of the Montreal Chill music movement that has found great popularity all over in recent years.)
Les Louanges – Bolero (…this band name means praises, and you may have gotten confused as Bolero is more of a South American thing. Les Louanges is the project of Montreal’s Vincent Roberge, and this tune appeared as part of this year’s Crash LP.)
Young & Sick feat MUNYA – ANGELS (…MUNYA is the synth-pop project of Montreal-based artist Josie Boivin, who conjures up dream-like soundscapes and switches between singing in French and English across her songs. Last year saw Boivin release Voyage To Mars, which is a super dreamy LP we’d highly recommend as well.)
Okay, so we’ll keep with the Montreal Chill tonight and go with the biggest name in that category currently with Men I Trust, whom we shall talk further on in hour 2. Up next is a cut called Hard To Let Go, and then we’ll finish OCTEMBRE by Hubert Lenoir and Bonnie Banane which will close it out in timely portmanteau fashion vs the calendar. This is The Drop and it’s time to board at halftime.
Men I Trust – Hard To Let Go
Hubert Lenoir feat Bonnie Banane - OCTEMBRE
III & IV Round Trip
Milk & Bone – Peaches
Men I Trust – Tailwhip
J.A.M. – MINABLE
KAYTRANADA – YOU’RE THE ONE
Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen – So Long, Marianne
John Jacob Magistery – Carol
Wolf Parade – Shine a Light
Simple Plan - Welcome To My Life
zouz - Auréole
이하이 (LeeHi) – ONLY
OOHYO - Reggae
Milk & Bone - Peaches
• a Canadian electropop duo based in Montreal, Quebec, consisting of Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin. They met in collage decided to begin writing and performing as a duo after being brought in as guest vocalists on Misteur Valaire's 2013 album Bellevue. Their debut album Little Mourning, released in 2015 was a longlisted nominee for the 2015 Polaris Music Prize.
• Electro-pop duo Milk & Bone will give you energy and emotion wrapped in soft, feminine tracks. Their smooth sounds are all you need for a chill day-in. And although both of the band members are francophones, they write and record in English
Men I Trust – Tailwhip
- Formed in 2014, the band consists of Emmanuelle Proulx, Jessy Caron, and Dragos Chiriac. The group self-released their early work and subsequently published music on Canadian indie label Return to Analog.
- Their profile has only grown in recent years, and they now have a huge international profile as well, very popular here in Korea.
J.A.M. - MINABLE
• an actor and composer, known for Jam Khalil (J.A.M.): Cercle (2020), Jam Khalil (J.A.M.): Minable (2018) and Double Magnum feat. J.A.M.: 20 Years (2021)
• His lyrics are evocative and poignant, yet he manages to throw humour in with his catchy beats.
KAYTRANADA – YOU’RE THE ONE
- Released in 2016 as the artist’s profile really started to rise, this tune appeared on the Haitian-Canadian DJ & producer’s album 99.9%.
- True name Louis Calvin Celestin, like Men I Trust, Kaytra self-released independent mixtapes and mini albums that proved popular, and now works with some of the biggest names in music on his stuff.
- Interestingly, he released his initial works under the moniker Kaystradamus.
Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
• Leonard Cohen has been labelled “the poet laureate of pessimism”, “the grocer of despair” and much more. He perused music since 1967 His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame,
• Cohen was a poet and novelist before he was a pop star. He published his first volume of poetry at 22, and won a $2,000 scholarship to travel around Europe when he was 25.
Leonard Cohen – So Long, Marianne
- So, you mentioned 1967 in your blurb, and this is a song from Cohen’s debut album that same year.
- Songs of Leonard Cohen proved more successful in Europe than in the US, but foreshadowed the incredibly influential career that would follow over many decades after this intro.
John Jacob Magistery - Carol
• John Jacob Magistery have been part of the Montreal scene for since releasing their 2014 extended play Narcissism Unto Loneliness.
• Powerful and raw are two words that best describe John Jacob Magistery’s sound. Their soulful indie-folk tunes will perfectly set the mood on those days when you just want to take some time out and de-stress.
Wolf Parade – Shine a Light
- Off the Apologies to the Queen Mary LP, released in 2005.
- The band formed in 2005 and this was their highly acclaimed debut. The band would release two more albums before a 5 year hiatus in 2011 (must be nice), then came back with an EP and album over the following two years.
- It seems another hiatus is in effect, but we’ll see what happens they are indeed still listed at least as active.
Simple Plan - Welcome To My Life
• formed in 1999 and still performing with all four of the group since its inception. Their debut album "No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls" went platinum in Canada and gold in US and Japan.
• Simple Plan makes their big screen debut in the movie "New York Minute," stars the Olsen twins. Appeared on both the "Scooby-Doo" and "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" soundtracks because they always love the animated dog and still watch the cartoon on TV.
zouz – Auréole
- This tune meaning halo was released on the Vertiges LP or vertigo/dizziness which dropped last year.
- Still a band on the rise here in 2022, they have been active since 2016.
이하이 (LeeHi) - ONLY
• a South Korean singer and songwriter. She first garnered attention as the runner-up of K-pop Star 1. Soon after she was signed to YG Entertainment
• She debuted with single "1, 2, 3, 4" on October 28, 2012 and reached number one with first week sales of 667,549 downloads.
OOHYO – Reggae
- True name Woo Hyo-eun, this came out on the 2019 album Far From The Madding City.
- This was the artist’s 2nd career album.