THE LYSTEN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Hey out there,

Festival founder Steve Cooper will be featured on Friday Market Moniter at approx 1:15 TODAY on CFRA radio. Here’s the link to the broadcast, which can be heard live at http://www.fridaymarketmonitor.com/. You’ll see the icon on the left-hand-side of the page, so you can listen in live. What makes this interview ultra-cool is that one of the hosts, Walter Traversy, is the Dad of Adam Traversy, guitarist from The Weeds! Lysten is making all kinds of connections with local bands, local radio, bringing tons of people in our city together. It’s awesome.

Walter is also hoping to do a Weeds webcast next week, with live performances from the band and interviews with our festival staff, so I’ll keep you updated on that as I find out myself.

p.s. Our commercial was launched on Live 88.5 this morning! I woke up to its sweet sounds at 10am. Will post soon about Live’s involvement with the festival and what to listen for over the coming week!

As promised, this is the first in a series of blogs featuring new- to- me and maybe new- to- you bands that are set to play at the Lysten Music Festival, only 11, well basically 10 short days away. First band on the menu, The Weeds, some local boys from Stittsville.

These guys are friggin rockers. They recorded their cd (11 out of 12 tracks) at the prestigious Bathouse Recording Studio, if that’s any indication of the stellar quality of the songwriting and musicianship. Check out the studio’s ridiculously talented list of Canadian clientele http://www.thebathouse.com/clients.html.

I’ve been trying to figure out how old they are because they have such a solid, professional rock sound. From what I can tell from the pictures posted on their website http://www.theweeds.ca/fr_intro.cfm, they’re in their early to mid-twenties. Anyone know? I also might add, their website is totally charming and homemade. I’m sure, being the rockers they are, they would hate that I called it charming, but it is. There’s a very genuine quality to their website, that very modestly, but enthusiastically asks you to support their music. You’ll know what I mean when you check it out and they will, guaranteed, win your support.

You can listen to their full, self-titled debut album on their site, once again http://www.theweeds.ca/fr_intro.cfm, which starts playing as soon as you enter. There’s 12 tracks altogether and the title to almost every song is a colour; Red, Pink, Grey, Gold, but also White Window and Sunburst.  Every track is as varied from the previous tune as the colour in the title suggests. You don’t need to worry about being blasted to death with hard rock for an entire album, these guys are the real deal. They know how to make things interesting; great hooks, great variety of beats and tempos, like I said, very polished and professional. Lead singer also has excellent diction, which I appreciate because I like to listen to lyrics. Some rock music distorts the lyrics beyond recognition, but these guys have something to say and in my opinion, it’s something to lysten up for.

TOP PICKS:

1. Sunburst (you’ll listen to this one over and over)
2. Pink (because I’m a sucker for a rocker’s softer side )
3. Thin and Narrow
4. Indigo

But honestly, listen to every track. These guys are wicked.

From the look of their gig calendar, they’ve been playing pretty steadily over the past year, playing shows at the Live Lounge, Cajun Attic on Dalhousie, Hooley’s, Royal Oak, St. James Pub, as well as other cities in Southern Ontario. Definitely a group to check out at the Lysten Music Festival (and I’ll be sure to make a post about when they’re playing when the schedule is up). These guys are going places.

Hey guys!

Just wanted to give you some info about where to find music online from the soon-to-be featured artists at the Lysten Music Festival. We’ll be showcasing tons of local bands, so lysten up! And get yourself pumped up. I always find shows more fun when I’m looking forward to a particular tune.

Firstly, go to Lysten’s mainpage at http://www.lysten.ca/ and in the right hand corner you can find some tunes available. In terms of confirmed guests at the festival, I can see Apocalypstic and My Dad vs Yours has some music available, for FREE to enjoy.

Secondly, CBC radio 3 offers an incredible library of FREE music at http://radio3.cbc.ca/. Any artist in Canada can set up a profile, upload tunes and then you can listen to it.  What I really like about the website and its mandate is that it showcases both up and coming and established bands and gives background information on them; where they’re from, influences, touring information, and you can become a fan and receive email updates on their activity.  Whenever I hear about a new Canadian artist (and CBC radio 3 really hones in on indie, folk, alt pop, etc) I can easily look them up and get into their music. No commitment, just endless perusal for your listening pleasure.

The Lysten Music Festival is making it a priority to host local bands in 11 days so read up on some of these artists. I’ve been doing some research on our current festival lineup and I’m discovering that they’re all fascinating and many of them are doing incredibly progressive music right here in Ottawa. Currently, CBC Radio 3 has 23, 309 artists with profiles and music to discover! So get into it! Canada is busting at the seams with talent and we’ve got to support it. I’m a huge advocate of supporting the incredible talent in this country, so get ready for lectures from my soap box. More on that later

Tonight, I hope to start what will be a series of posts on the Lysten Music Festival musicians. Many of them are new to me, as I’m sure at least some are to you, so I’ll be listening and sharing my feedback and I’d love to hear from you. Please, if you’re out there post a comment, give me a shout! Let me know who I’m talking to Check back soon!

Hello everyone!

It is my pleasure to launch the official blog of the inaugural Lysten Music Festival, a three-day event showcasing the best of Canadian indie rock bands who will be rockin out from September 24^rd-26^th at the Ottawa Baseball Stadium in Vanier. My name is Jennifer Higgs and it’s my job to keep you in the loop with festival updates, info on your most beloved performers, live-blogging from the event, interviews backstage with your favourite and soon-to-be favourite Canadian bands and a play-by-play version, direct to you, about the creation of this festival from the ground up. You can’t get more of an inside scoop than this. I am witnessing how this cutting-edge festival is being assembled layer by layer and look forward to reporting this process to you. Some of the best bands struttin their stuff in Canada right now could be blowin your mind from the Lysten Music Festival stage in just a couple of short weeks. Eager to rid yourself of back to school blues? Come be a part of history and not only the history of the Ottawa music festival scene, but the history of Canadian music. Don’t you want to be able to say you were there the first time?

Be sure to check back with me soon and keep your eyes peeled as your favourite bands may be added to the ever expanding line-up. There will also be forthcoming information on tickets. Stay tuned!

Lysten is proud to present the first annual Lysten Music Festival. We’re excited to present an open air festival with three stages in a facility that seats 10 000 fans. With an emphasis on local and emerging talent from across Ontario, we know this will be THE event of the fall season.

Stay tuned as we announce our schedule, ticket pricing and further partnerships.

If you have an questions, or would like to participate in some way, please contact Chris Risdon at chris@lysten.ca