andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

If you mixed “The Hills” with TSN, you’d get “Over the Bolts,” MTV Canada’s brand new reality show that documents the country’s national snowboard team as they vie for 18 Olympic spots.

The show premieres this Sunday at 10 p.m. on MTV, but we got to see the first two episodes before its debut. And let’s just say you can already set the Tivo because “Over the Bolts” is as addictive as they come!

Michael Lambert, one of the country’s top snowboarders who stars in the show, admits there’s just something about reality TV that gets you hooked. “One of my friends was on the show ‘The City,’ Duncan Davies, so I enjoyed watching it and watching him interact with his girlfriend and stuff like that,” shares the athlete. “I think the dangerous thing about any of those TV shows is you can say ‘even though I may not watch them, every one of them is addictive.’ I could just watch two episodes and I could be hooked on any of them,” he laughs.

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Are you excited for EA Sports NHL 10? If you’re Canadian, probably.  The #1 selling console game in Canada has it’s launch parties in Toronto and Vancouver Monday, September 14.  The Toronto party will be at the Yonge and Dundas Future Shop with Wendel Clark and Ian White (of Maple Leafs fame) from 9pm to 11:45pm, and in Vancouver’s Granville and Robson Future Shop with Trevor Linden of the Canucks.  The Future Shop locations will be open until 1am, so check it out if you’re not too busy… and on a Monday night, what’s your excuse?

Cheers!

We have some exciting news. In our continual conquest to be a next generation multi platform media company, we are pleased to announce andPOP will be on the radio starting Friday September 18th @ 5pm on XM Canada’s Laugh Attack Channel (channel 153). The show will feature the uniqueness of the website but on the radio (yes an amazing concept). So you can listen to some interviews, here us banter about the entertainment biz, and also be introduced to some unique characters like Euclid Laframboise. Euclid will be on the show while he also makes a living building coffins out of Thule racks. Watch the vid and you will understand.

With her first full length Spanish album Mi Plan debuting September 15, Grammy Award winning Canadian-Portuguese singer Nelly Furtado has already made it into the history books.

Manos Al Aire, the album’s first single, has pegged the no. one spot on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, which makes her the first North American artist to reach that feat with a song that was originally written in Spanish- and not a translated version of an English song.

The single is also a massive success internationally, grabbing the no. one spot in Italy, Colombia, Chile and Central America, while settling in the top five spots in Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Germany.

Known for her broad spectrum of musical interests, Furtado invited internationals artists Alejandro Fernandez, Josh Groban, Juan Luis Guerra, Julieta Venegas, La Mala Rodriguez, Buika and Alex Cuba to give the record a unique touch.

Furtado will also begin a promo tour for the album on September 13, which will take her to the top Latin and American TV shows across the U.S., as well as a visit to European countries such as Germany, France, Spain and England.

The artist has sold over 18 million albums in her career, with close to ten million in sales from her previous album Loose- which was the no. one global album in 2007.

Fully animated video for Amos The Transparent’s newest single Lemons (aka Big Fish Little Pond) by uber cool animation studio Digital Henchman. Vote for them in the XM Verge Music Awards! http://www.thevergeonline.com/vma/

andPOP was at the Canadian premiere of the highly anticipated “Inglourious Basterds,” the latest Quentin Tarantino film. The director himself was present along with Eli Roth, who plays Sgt. Donny Donowitz in the war movie.

The event took place on Aug. 12 at the Scotiabank theatre in Toronto and featured two World War II vehicles mounted with models dressed in ‘40s attire. Hundreds of fans lined the street of the theatre to catch a glimpse of the director and a star of his film.

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No denying it, Kate Voegele is hot in every way. We interviewed her last year and were very impressed with her charm and the fact she is a master at beer pong. Have a look at our interview if you don’t believe us. Now andPOP and Universal Music Canada are giving away a prize pack for the One Tree Hill star and her latest album A Fine Mess. The prize pack includes a signed Kate Voegele poster and signed copy of A Fine Mess. All you need to is be Canadian (sorry US buddies) and email contests@andpop.com (subject: Kate Voegele) with the answer to the following question:

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The 2009 Cutting Edge Music Festival (CEMF) is bringing The Roots to Kitchener/Waterloo for two days of live music, camping and partying. The two-day event runs from August 1-3 and marks the band’s exclusive appearance in Ontario this summer.

“The festival will be host to over 50 different performances by some of the biggest names in the music scene.  With two live rock stages and a pounding dance warehouse, this is no ordinary music festival!”, CEMF partner Carey Kurtin said in a statement.

Currently in its fourth year, CEMF is a unique festival that includes music, water slides and the Smirnoff Dance Warehouse. The event includes performances by The Bronx, Ten Second Epic, Lady Sovereign, Dead and Divine, Moneen and many others. The roster of Canadian talent features Protest the Hero, Thunderheist and illScarlett. 

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MTV Canada has recently announced a joint project with CTV and Free Form Productions Inc. called “Peak Season.” The supposedly unscripted show is currently in production in Whistler, B.C.

“Peak Season” is being filmed in a world-class ski resort and will focus on the lives, loves and “true-life drama” of a group of twenty-somethings.

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Kiss front man Gene Simmons is coming to Canada for Canadian Music Week and is looking for the next big Canadian super band. Simmons is looking for a group that has something better than raw talent, good looks and songwriting capabilities; he is looking for star power.

“I don’t want someone who sings well, I want someone who is charismatic beyond charisma,” said Simmons, the keynote speaker at Canadian Music Week. “A star is going to be bigger than the songs they sing.”

The entrepreneur and superstar started up his own record company last year called Simmons Records. Cbc.ca reports that Simmons is exclusively interested in tapping into the Canadian music market, as Canada harbors many undiscovered musical talents.

“There is as much musical talent here as in the States, don’t kid yourself,” he said. “And unless you provide them with the industry and the pop culture, they will move across the border. It’s not far.”