|
Salut!
Dec 11, 2008 16:25:48 GMT -5
Post by citadin on Dec 11, 2008 16:25:48 GMT -5
Hi from a former Californian in chilly Montreal. I'm going to stay warm this winter by playing on my newly-acquired FARFISA VIP 233! Lovely machine.
I'm also a music DJ at the local radio station, I'm going to do a 2-hr Farfisa special show where I will play nothing but music made with those organs, from the lounge/garage days, through the proggy 70s and on to more recent stuff like Stereolab.
Cheers!
|
|
Franz
New Member
Posts: 115
|
Salut!
Dec 11, 2008 17:46:23 GMT -5
Post by Franz on Dec 11, 2008 17:46:23 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum, Citadin.
I started a thread a long long time ago about VIP 233. I encourage you to perhaps share some of you experiences with it. Things I am curious about with that model: the weight, the slalom effects, set up time. Also, how does the 233 sound in contrast to other Farfisas, i.e. the Compact series, the Fast series, Professional, or whatever.
Again, welcome!
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 11, 2008 17:57:56 GMT -5
Post by plateauphase on Dec 11, 2008 17:57:56 GMT -5
Hi... I'm from chilly Montreal, living in damp New Jersey. Where in Montreal do you live? Which station do you spin discs for?
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 12, 2008 14:06:06 GMT -5
Post by citadin on Dec 12, 2008 14:06:06 GMT -5
Hey plateauphase,
I live downtown Montreal, but should be moving to the Plateau next year. There is a solid foot of fresh snow on the ground up here, people are skiing in the parks. I'm at CKUT, I did about a dozen music shows there so far. Other than CKUT and CISM (both college radios), the pickings are slim on the air, as you know. Montreal has a great local music scene though and those stations are a good part of it.
Thanks for the welcome Franz! The VIP 233 is quite heavy and really bulky in its big black rectangular case, I've gotten a good workout moving it. I almost don't trust the handle to carry the whole weight.
As far as the sound, it's great, though I'm still shopping for an amp as the old one I had was a borrowal so I haven't played my 233 much so far. It came without the bass pedal set but with the slalom and volume pedals, which I have yet to try. I'll be sure to report about the sound and settings once it's up and running again. I'm not sure how much of a reference I can provide though as this is my first organ (had two pianos before that) but much of the music I listen to is organ-powered (vintage or new) and and an old friend had a beautiful green and white Fast3.
Looking forward to hanging out here and talking organs, thanks again guys.
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 12, 2008 19:55:40 GMT -5
Post by plateauphase on Dec 12, 2008 19:55:40 GMT -5
Hey Citadin... are you at McGill?
Back in the day, radio wasn't too bad. Claude Rajotte did a show called New Music Foundation on CHOM Sunday nights, and there was always Brave New Waves on the seeb. Back in the late-80s, I co-produced a weekly new music magazine show on CINQ-FM and spun discs on Friday nights in a show called House of Wax. CINQ was different then.
And yeah... Montreal has always had a great music scene. I was in it -- playing and spinning discs -- at a time when everyone grooved to The Gruesomes, Condition, (This) Blue Piano, Deja Voodoo, Weather Permitting and Me Mom and Morgentaler. The thing to remember, though, is that radio sucks pretty much everywhere these days. Montreal just isn't an exception.
|
|
blair
New Member
Posts: 98
|
Salut!
Dec 12, 2008 21:51:14 GMT -5
Post by blair on Dec 12, 2008 21:51:14 GMT -5
Loved the Gruesomes.
Anyone ever pick up the Sympathetic Sounds of Montreal disc? (Don't forget Annie on Farfisa Fast-5 in Les Sexareenos.)
Anyone else here a fan of Les Breastfeeders (another Montreal band)?
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 13, 2008 0:52:07 GMT -5
Post by plateauphase on Dec 13, 2008 0:52:07 GMT -5
I don't know Les Breastfeeders. The Gruesomes WERE great, though. They were really the beginning of the Montreal garage/punk thing. Back in the mid-late 80s, the sound that defined Montreal was rocka/psycho/sludeabilly. Deja Voodoo were the top band. Their label, Og Records, recorded most of the best local bands (Cargo did the rest). Blair, was Primitive an Og imprint? I remember The Sherlocks had an album on Primitive.
Anyway, Deja Voodoo would organize their Deja Voodoo BBQs every summer, which was an intimate weenie roast for a few hundred fans and indie summit every summer. There's be a huge line-up of local bands on Og and other labels, and visitors from out of town like the Dik Van d**es. Great shows!
Some of the bands I remember from those days -- Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners (Ray died a few years ago), Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra (my friend Arch played guitar), My Dog Popper (best album title of all time: "668: The Neighbour of the Beast), Condition (Julia Morrison... mmmmmm...), Asexuals (I still run into TJ Collins when I head back to Montreal)... and many more... That was actually a great scene. You should dig up some of this stuff in CKUT's vault.
|
|
blair
New Member
Posts: 98
|
Salut!
Dec 13, 2008 14:26:10 GMT -5
Post by blair on Dec 13, 2008 14:26:10 GMT -5
Not sure about Primitive, Matt. As to Les Breastfeeders...They've been around a few years now. Try lesbreastfeeders.ca/
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 13, 2008 17:12:01 GMT -5
Post by plateauphase on Dec 13, 2008 17:12:01 GMT -5
Sadly, I briefly "grew up" between about 1993 and 2002. I fell out of the scene, stopped playing music and lost contact with a whole lot of great music during those years. Fortunately, I succeeded in liberating myself from maturity about six years ago... But I've been living in the US since 2005, so I don't really have a clue about the Montreal scene since 1993, or so.
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 14, 2008 2:58:23 GMT -5
Post by citadin on Dec 14, 2008 2:58:23 GMT -5
I discovered the Gruesomes earlier this year at a show that they headlined with the Breastfeeders as opening act. Les BFs are one of my favorite local acts, I've seen them about 4 times and had Sunny on my radio show. They're a funny band, different tendencies and personalities and very different live sound. I love most of the songs done by Suzie, which are more clothilde-like melodic and organ-fronted.
Some of the guys from the gruesomes have formed a new band, which played a couple of months ago in Montreal while I was out of town.
Phase, I'm not surprised to hear that you "dropped out" in the mid-90s, that was about the time when radio and media in general consolidated and deteriorated, with the rise of the so-called "alternative" industry (I wouldn't call it scene). There was a global music revival towards the begining of this decade with the advent of broadband, file-sharing and blogging and the explosing of rare, quality content online.
That's cool about the new music show, Phase. Actually i'm doing "New $+it" in two weeks, which is the same mandate in a 3hr weekly show. I'm going to have to work at it, because >95% of the stuff i listen to is old (lots of late 60s, psychedelia, soundtrack, continental new wave.) Are you still doing radio Phase?
I'm not at McGill, I moonlight at the radio station with a regular program about cultural happenings and some ad-hoc music DJing. (My regular work is in sustainable housing out in the woods north of town.) I'm probably going to have a regular show focusing on mid/late60s, rare psychedelia, rare American funk, global folk-psych-pop from places like Turkey, Korea or Peru, rare early prog, soundtrack and some of the modern stuff that was inspired by those sounds.
Thanks for the tips about the history of the montreal scene, which I'm still not all that familiar with. I'll check out Sympathetic Sounds of MTL at the CKUT library, Blair. as far as current stuff, I really like Pas Chic Chic (founded by former Fly Pan Ams and Godspeed). Quality forward-retro francophone pop. Earlier, from Ottawa, the Orange Alabaster Mushroom was a cool one-man-band mid-60s revival psych project.
|
|
|
Salut!
Dec 14, 2008 7:41:35 GMT -5
Post by plateauphase on Dec 14, 2008 7:41:35 GMT -5
I noticed things going wrong in the early-90s with the changeover to CDs. There were a lot of small labels that faced some hard times then. Many of them are still around in some form, but they fell off the radar for a while. Things do seem different now, with MP3s and digital recording. It has a different feel to it than the old days, though. The vinyl-based scene was resolutely local and regional. We sort of saw Ottawa as neighbours and Toronto as faintly exotic. If a local band toured in Vermont and Mass, it was a great coup.
I haven't done any broadcasting in a long time. I worked at CBC Radio for a few years, but I was more of a print journalist -- The Gazette and the National (Com)Post, as well as Hour, of course. In the mid-90s, I was getting right up to 30, so I was in that phase of my life: looking for the serious job. I wrote a few books, taught journalism at Concordia, and fell into middle-class mediocrity. Sigh.
Now I live in a one-bedroom in Jersey City while I work on my dissertation. Can't complain.
|
|
blair
New Member
Posts: 98
|
Salut!
Dec 14, 2008 13:09:58 GMT -5
Post by blair on Dec 14, 2008 13:09:58 GMT -5
Earlier, from Ottawa, the Orange Alabaster Mushroom was a cool one-man-band mid-60s revival psych project. I liked OAM myself. As I recall, that was Greg Watson, who was also in The Fiends and the 14th Wray.
|
|