blog post New Releases from Islands, Amos The Transparent, The Just Barelys, and more!

Neat - my post appears to be coming from the future. 

Holidays and observances

Christian Feast Day:

Cyril and Methodius, patron saints of Europe (Roman Catholic Church)

Valentine

February 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Communist Martyrs Day (Iraqi Communist Party)

Statehood Day (Arizona)

Statehood Day (Oregon)

The second day of Lupercalia (Ancient Rome)

Valentine's Day (International)

My views on Valentine's Day:

I like flowers and when men cook me fancy dinners. It should happen more often, but realistically it won't, so I'm happy for 1 day a year that imposes some expectations on men in relationships.

Also, I've realized that some of the glitches with the new site are due to my work's crappy internet connection and/or overload to the site during the day. I tried it out at home last night and it worked beautifully.

SO I guess I'll give it a try today :)  

@laurenelizabeth I wish I had someone to buy flowers for

@piebiak: nothing like warding off evil spirits to purify a city.

@Steph: I'm with you, nothing terribly thrilling on today's list. 

@Mike Yeah! That's pretty cool eh... It's like when Vish used to do those collages but better cause now they're bigger and such! :) Yay!

Send some chocolates to the Queen

Send some chips and soda to the Queen.

I am still basking in the warm glow of Barchords… An album that by all rights should have been released today.

@daa1982 old Betty has a restraining order on me, I'm not allowed within 200 feet of the corgis.  I told here I don't know how it got in there.

Good morning all.

Yay, Lupercalia, the second day of! (dixit Garfield)

From wiki:

Plutarch described Lupercalia:

Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy.[5]

Any historic reenactments anywhere? (Whadayamean, it's cold outside?)



@Garf - I think that deserves a "Hi-o".

It sucks being single today

Isn't every day Valentine's Day?

garf @ 5:15

Yes.

But it sucks chocolates.

(I really dislike them italics.)

More on ol' V-Day:

I also don't think it's just for couples. It's celebrating love... not just love with one person. Can't you be stoked about loving music, or your dog, or your mum and dad, or your brother and sister!? It's the retail aspect that has made it so couple-y... I think... 

Anyway, that's enough justifying the day from me! :)

@BFO, I just had a double decker

@Garf - Go hit up the town you bachelor.  You can be like a tom cat on the prowl on Valentines days.  

Thanks Steph :) 

Ok, posting break to actually work...ugh 

When a country's government is the wet blanket:

Uzbekistan Cancels Valentine's Day

garf: looks good. Bet you it tastes better.

@daa1982 But that would involve me leaving the house, I have Radio3 and all the tea I can drink here

@daa1982 If you are not careful Arbour Day can leave the taste of bark in your mouth for weeks! 

Oooooh! Arbour Day!

Second only to the day when Yort's seed catalogs show up!

@Garf - Then the tomcat will just to have to bring the ladies to his pad.

@MikeV - It won't be any different from when I drink Craigs Birch bark hooch.

I actively participate in only two holidays: Halloween and Christmas. The rest I would forget if I wasn't constantly reminded.

Though the Valentine fairy did leave me a heart shaped cookie this morning, but he also left me on last week when it wasn't Valentine's day. So maybe it doesn't matter when you celebrate your love, just that you celebrate it; preferably more than one out of three hundred and sixty-five days.

Arbour Day - A day to celebrate the life and works of the of the much loved silent movie star Anne Arbour.  She was born in a small town in upstate Michigan. Her father was the soot mining boss Tone Arbour and her mother was the French model Marina Del-Ray...

@benoit.  Good question. At some point they will have more money/power/information/influence than even the governments (if they dont already).  I see some sort of antitrust breakup on the horizon.  who knows when.  

Mobile Patent Wars: A Closer Look at How Everyone Loses

These days, mobile-technology patents and lawsuits go together like peanut butter and jelly. Previously, patents primarily served to help companies protect their intellectual property; now, however, Apple, HTC, Microsoft, and smaller companies are using patents as leverage, suing one another in attempts to gain the upper hand. The trend, experts say, is quickly spinning out of control, and hurting consumers when it comes to mobile-gadget choices and prices.

PCWorld

@MikeV - I agree....that'w why we also have Arbour Day and Benito Juarez day to proclaim our love.

@daa1982 I only love Cesar Romero. 

It will be nice when the new site is retrofit with auto-refresh (but that'll take a while, apparently).

I do like the new site (Contrats to the web team!) but will continue on the old one until at least the player shows the song names.  Its hard to discover new music if you cant tell who it is! :  :p

@MikeV what browser/os are you using?   I can see it on FF10/XP, not on FF10/OSX.

I can't see the artists using my version of Chrome. The slideshow thing didn't work for me either.

Technical note: re a question that came up yesterday, what R3 etc. streams will be carried on other web media:

My iTunes lists this morning:

CBC MUSIC - ADULT ALTERNATIVE

CBC MUSIC - INDIE

CBC Radio 3                               Breaking New Sound...          (I think the main stream from the old)

CBC RADIO 3                             The Home of Canadian Independent Music    (I think the main stream from the new)

That's it. I haven't bothered exploring, except that I'm using the 3rd stream above for the first time, intead of the previous. (Saying that, I just switched; both are running at 128 kbit/s right now, and refuse to upgrade to 160, but the two don't sound the same! The old one seems a lttle clearer. Weird.

Nards! I keep forgetting to refresh the comments and then get soooo overwhelmed with the hilarity going on here. Is it just me or is everyone "bolding" their Ls, Is, and ts?I don't understand why there are no chocolates or flowers in my office - no love today... or any day :(  

@EP I can't see the song titles either. It may be your internet connection/provider because I can't see them at work, but I could see them last night at home on the same computer.

@BfO

I noticed that this morning too it was not there yesterday! I am listening to the third one in your list.

piebak: the letters here are normal.

hotpatch: well, it's bugged; also, don't invert the comment listing (newest at top), because that screws up all the time.

So was there any coverage of CBC Musics launch on the tv news yesterday?

@laurenelizabeth: Dont think its the provider... its got to be an issue with the browser, since it works fine on the old R3, and the only difference between the 2 computers i tested it on is the OS. Thanks for the suggestion!

→ Im sure a fix is on the way.... I have confidence in the web team!

OOOOH, IMPROVEMENT!!!

I just refreshed manually (f5) AND THE PAGE CAME BACK DOWN TO THE BOTTOM!

It didn't stick at the top!

THANKS, TECHNICAL STAFF!

(This, as us., with OS X running FF 10.0.1)

@MikeV, I learned a while ago to stay away from CBCNews comments, they are some nasty people on there

@garfielduk I find most news sites have terrible comments. 

@garfielduk/MikeV...commenters on CBC News site.

It strikes me as odd that people who seem to hate us so much go out of their way to be on our site. A strange phenomenon, to be sure. And, after the completely erroneous speculation/reporting that some networks did about what this site was going to be, I have yet to see a retraction.

In this business, perception is reality. That, sadly, is a fact.

EP: I am not using the player here, so no, it doesn't; however, the Radio 3 selector rectangle, on the right not far from the top, it shows the artist & tune:

CBC Radio 3

HONHEEHONHEE WE ONLY GO

Yes, news commenters are usually trolls trying to push some agenda or something...  If they hate the cbc so much, why are they reading/commenting on the news article?

I havent seen any bad press about CBC Music.

@Craig [9:18am EST] -- yes, I said the same thing yesterday.  And really, reading through several pages of the comments, most of them weren't "valid" to begin with.  There are Android and Blackberry apps coming; this isn't a waste of tax dollars (in my opinion); this is a valuable service... very valuable!; the audio quality is good, but it's not going to be 'audiophile' quality; so there isn't a "folk" channel, there are two singer-songwriter stations... have a listen!

Lots of whining, but nobody taking more than ten seconds to actually stop and look around or enjoy what IS here.

@EP I noticed the blog Weird Canada wasn't a big fan of the site, but yeah most of the press hasn't been too bad. The whole thing has been kind of soured by the fact the CBC is probably just about to have 10% of its budge slashed. 

@EricR I have no proof but I often wonder if some of those waste of tax money commentors were paid to do so. It seems like there are an awful lot of people making that complaint? 

You know what I think is adorable? When Craig says "G-D" in place of goddamn.

I, for one, will be sharing the CBCMusic world and spreading the link.  I think its now easier for people to find things that suit their tastes.

The really sad part is that we read and are paying attention to those cbc news commenters.  Ill be the numbers will speak for themselves.  Would love to see in the next short while:  How many new accounts were made on CBCMusic since the launch, and how many more songs are played.

Also, the new format has a revenue stream, maybe that was done to partly offset the potential 10% cuts to cbc funding? (in addition to paying the artists for plays)  I dont know, im just guessing.

Hello, dawn.h!

Does your picture of choice at the top remain, after you've refreshed? On my machine, it goes back to the black Tuesday graphic.

@dawn - if you check your playlists, you'll see multiple pictures there for the songs on your list as well. But they're not in the order of the track listing so it confused me as I didn't recognize the band photos of the first couple. It'd be cool if we could assign a main picture to a playlist.

dawn.h/BfO!

The black New Release panel is the default one.

And, thanks dawn re: multi-graphics. I put those together yesterday when I remembered that we can have multiple images!

I'm going to put together a valentine's card in a bit and put it up there. Because I'm Joe Love.

daa1982 at 6:27 AM 

Hi buddy. Happy Valentine's Day. I hope your lady liked her ball of fur. Say hi from me.

@Craig So you are Joe Love? I had you down as Randolf T. Indifferent. I will make the change in my database. 

slkdsb at 6:32 AM

That's a great feature to suggest. I didn't notice the albums to go with the playlists yet (I haven't had time to dig around beyond blog postings yet). But having the ability to personalize it a bit (since it IS your playlist) sounds like a neat idea.

@dawn.h, and what's wrong with this missy?

<---------

Hi folks,

I don't get anything in the Now playing area telling me what I'm listening to.  Is this a problem for anyone else?

@novascotiatim You are not alone... i have the same issue. 

@nstim Yeah it's a problem on certain browsers. They tech team is aware and they are working on it. 

Yes, laurenelizabeth! I will be in Moncton for the ECMAs weekend!

✫ you're Welcome ✫

@dawn.h really, you sit corrected, boy those spanx can do almost anything

Spanx, the socially acceptable corset.

@daa1982 Really? I have been using a Quick Grip to hold mine in. 

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

The Phèdre album cover freaks me out a bit.

MikeV, I'm also poor...but I managed to scrap together $40 to go to one show at the ECMAs

Craig

I don't see anything.

WHERE'S MY VALENTINE?!

@laurenelizabeth Yeah you never know I might make it there! 

Since it's New Release Tuesday ... I was wondering this morning on my drive in: what are the "gateway albums" these days to the Canadian indie scene?  I know that BSS' YFiiP  was certainly one for me, years ago now; Funeral  was as well, but to a lesser extent.  I think Metric was a 'gateway artist' for a bit there when Fantasies  broke out.  Is it The Suburbs  that are pulling people in?  Dan Mangan and Feist?

OK, I've decided to fully commit to the new site today.  I figure today's a good day to do that.

Happy Palentine's/Singles Awareness Day!  Or, you know, the other thing, if that happens to apply to you.  

(not trying to be snarky, really.  Love is great.)

I'm still hanging out in the basement....I like it here. 

I'll move upstairs once the parents boot me out. 

Valentine will be here shortly...promise.

(like anyone really cares)

(says Eeyore)

@EricR

My gateway album was Hey Rosetta's Into Your Lungs

@Craig I can't wait to see what Pedro gets you for Valentine's Day! I hope he doesn't jump out of a cake again this year though. That is getting old. 

I've regressed to the old, because I"m busy and want the auto-update. Numbers (of each comment, of new comments) also help.

However, the clock is ticking...

@Craig, I care

@garfy

Will do.

He's likely reading along, too.

@EP, no problems here.

Ughh...uuuuhhh, what day is it? Love day??? Well I love R3 AND Kathleen Edwards! I havent listened to the Barchords yet. I might even come to love the new website (maybe, if I have to) so HAPPY V-Day to everyone out there and I'm off to review my divorce settlement...aghh where's my coffee??? Craig: can you turn up the volume, please?

why is there a blank post between 7:26 & 7:28?

@loweeda : you dont know whats good for you!

@garf: nice!

@benoit: the imps too now? sheeesh..   ps. welcome to the dark site.

EP:  I most certainly do not know what's good for me!  

Or, I know just enough to keep me alive and functioning. and relatively healthy.  Other than that, ignorance is definitely bliss.

@loweed, I know too much of the things I shouldn't know about and too little of those that I should know about.

Wow, what a classic! Great play!

garfield:  as long as you tell the right stories to the right people, you should be OK.  

And that reminds of me that I read somehow how the writer Anais Nin had a "lie box" where she kept all the details of the lies she'd told to people, so that she could fact-check and verify her stories.  I don't recommend that practice.  it'll bite you in the ass eventually - guaranteed.

oo, I like Tarantulove.

Is this the CBCMusic promo used during the Grammys?

@Garf 7:52

I did not see all of the Grammys but, I don't think it would be advertised on that other network!

@Craig Very nice Valentine card! [in the blog header]

@Garf Or I could be wrong apparently!

@loweeda

Yes it was taken at Parlour Coffee!

Shonica:

Yay!  Oh, I really like that place.  And the R3 toque is definitely a good addition to the scene.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

<3 <3 <3

<3 <3

<3

@loweeda

I was there yesterday with my son and when he put his R3 toque on the counter next to his coffee I was like ohh I need a picture of that! Then he called me a CBC R3 nerd! 

I think the Just Barely's album is available for a "name your own price" (i.e. free) over at www.thejustbarelys.ca

They're a good old staple of the Halifax arts scene... major CKDU supporters that's for sure.

shonica:  

I think being called a CBC R3 nerd is the highest compliment.  I called myself one just yesterday, in fact!  

(Although hmm...maybe it's not so much a compliment if I'm giving it to myself.  I need to work on that, I think.)

Google Doodle

Did anyone watch the video? It's pretty good.

@shonica, yes nerd, let the kids be cool in their time. we will proudly be religated to nerdom

@dawn.h

I watched the google video. it was cute

@flanneltom: Come to the dark site until these issues are fixed.

@Dawn H.  Google Doodle?  Watch your language missy.

@ EP: I should have been on the Dark Side all along, it's in my nature.

City/Town Jingles!  They should have come back -- in full force!  -- with the new site.  Oh, how I miss them...

"from my home town of Guelph [jingle: The Royal City]..."

Carly

Happy Valentine's Day to you too, my dear friend.

@ft,

When I was introduced to Stephen, he was intro'd to me as "the man in charge" of Just Friends.

It was Dave that intro'd us, actually. And, when The Just Barelys were introduced onstage that day, that was reiterated...

@Craig, don't forget the long range request

@Craig. Huh, well there you go. I would help them out back in the day with doing mail outs and CD packaging parties and the like... also, those Just Friends brunches were kind of amazing. Best part of Pop Explosion. I still have my old Just Friends t shirt although it's getting pretty ragged now. Not sure if it's kind of dissolved now....

I just can't get over how much I love this track Angelina!

<3 to the Wooden Sky

@Craig, if you have misplaced the audio clips from the Scotish listener I would be willing to record some versions of "let freedom spin"

With feeling, Garry!     Let FREEDOM SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN!!!

Happy Valentines Day

As always, Grant, I am listening from my office in Sault Ste Marie. Doing my Registered Massage Therapy thing.. the people here really appriciate the tunes  during their treatments, so keep 'em coming!