andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Note: See the bottom of this article for a free download from Amos The Transparent, plus their new video!

Most bands don’t go from recording their debut in a bona fide studio to tracking the next release in their drummer’s mother’s basement. Or at least not of their own will. But that’s exactly the unlikely order of things Amos the Transparent have chosen, and it’s turning out to lead them along a favourable path.

After hefty studio bills the first time around and struggling under time restraints, the band decided to go easy on themselves for the next record. They split time between lead singer and mastermind Jonathan Chandler’s home and the basement of Chris Wilson’s mother while she was away in Florida, and rather than setting a deadline, they got together sporadically over what ended up being a nine-month period.

And so was born their sophomore EP, My, What Big Teeth You Have.

Chandler credits the laissez-faire approach to a better product, an album worthy to come on the heels of their acclaimed debut, Everything I’ve Forgotten to Forget. And one that has qualified the band for a Verge Artist of  the Year nomination against nearly every heavyweight Canadian act out there. (Think: Feist, Tegan and Sara, The Tragically Hip, etc.)

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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/

Passion Pit are a lesson in modern romance. Ever since I heard their backstory – lead singer Michael Angelakos crafted the EP Chunk of Change as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend – I knew they would be more to me than just a fling in my musical lifetime. But I never imagined my first close encounter with them would pan out like a fairy tale of its own.

The show was sold out when my companion (I’ll call her Merv) and I arrived at Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ottawa’s go-to live music club. It was shocking enough that a band this sought-after detoured so far into Canada, and even more surprising that the resident’s of Ottawa had enough forethought to buy advance tickets. Not about to give up on our night, Merv and I stuck it out in line until a lush pair of hipsters were escorted from the premises, freeing up some elbow room for the two of us.

The timing could hardly have been more perfect: Passion Pit hit the stage the moment Merv and I were safely inside. They played “Moth’s Wings” and “The Reeling”, and captured the layered essence of their recordings by cramming the stage with a drum kit, synthesizers and more than one stringed instrument. Angelakos sauntered about the clutter, exuding a sort of romantic sex appeal that comes only from a hairy-chested twenty-something singing love songs in falsetto. He hardly spoke a word to the crowd until he announced the last song, “Sleepyhead”, and yet the crowd was hanging on every pulse of the music.

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Ottawa radio station LiVE 88.5 FM has announced a contest to find the most talented band in Canada’s capital.

The stakes are high in the LiVE 88.5 Big Money Shot competition, now in its third consecutive year: The winners will receive a whopping quarter of a million dollars.

The contest aims to give emerging artists a helping hand, with the prize money going toward talent development.

“The competition is a fantastic way to develop our home-grown artists,” Lee Wagner, LiVE 88.5 FM’s director of Canadian talent development, said in a statement.

“We love having the opportunity to take a hands-on approach and make a difference in the careers of new artists. Bands are actually moving to Ottawa just to be a part of the contest and the thriving music scene!”

Interested bands are asked to submit a five-song demo.

The winning band in 2007, Sojourn, has toured central and eastern Canada, and runner-up The Prefect is preparing to record an EP with Juno Award-winning producer Gavin Brown, who has worked with Billy Talent and Three Days Grace.

Ottawa has landed the plum job of playing host city for a new $10 million sitcom.

The family series “Dad’s in the Attic” will film at a defunct Ottawa high school, Montreal-based independent production house Muse Entertainment announced Thursday.

“This is what we call, by Canadian terms, a premiere series,” Jesse Prupas, Muse’s VP of development and distribution, told CBC News.

“We try to be modest about talking about the figures, but this is a $10 million project. … It’s very, very exciting. It’s much larger than anything we’ve brought here.”

The half-hour live-action comedy, which will air on YTV next year, follows three teenage siblings and their newly-fired workaholic dad, who decides to set up an office at home.

Twenty-six episodes of the hi-def series will be shot at the former Laurentian High School in Ottawa’s west end. The school closed in 2004 because of low enrolment.

Some of the school will also be turned into mini-studio space.

Ottawa doesn’t usually attract major scripted TV productions, and “Dad’s in the Attic” will be the biggest TV production the city has ever had.

The show, which has begun casting, will film this spring and summer, likely with the aid of crew from the Ottawa area.