SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. We interview some of our favourite local artists, and ‘Last Week in Music’ highlights some of the concerts happening around the city.

The Vancouver Folk Music Festival happened this past weekend in Jericho Beach Park. Hundreds of performers, thousands of attendees and a LOT of sunshine made for a weekend of music and fun.

After the jump there are some of the performances that I was lucky enough to catch… Leave a comment below and let me know: what was your festival highlight?! Read more

SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. We interview some of our favourite local artists, and ‘Last Week in Music’ highlights some of the concerts happening around the city.

Surprisingly slow week in music for me (so is this one coming up)…which I blame solely on NXNE stealing all of Canada’s musicians.

That is of course except for Dan Mangan who stuck around for a special performance at the Vogue Theatre during their renovation party before he jets off this week to the UK! Dan was joined on stage during the short set by Shane Koyczan and the two performed to ‘Not What You Think It Is’ (it honestly brought me close to tears).

Next up what Shane on his own and he left the crowd smiling and laughing their way to Read more

I know I know…this is two weeks late. That’s how much the Olympics took out of me…I’m JUST catching up with life now.

Anyways, here is the 2nd week of Olympics shows that I managed to get out to!

^^Woodhands @ The Biltmore on the Saturday:

Library Voices were amazing at the Saskatchewan Pavilion on Monday, with a few special cameos from R3 favourites Chris Kelly & Tariq Hussain:

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I’m very happy to pass this amazing news on:

From Dan Mangan’s website: “I am incredibly proud to announce that I am performing with dear friend Shane Koyczan on NBC’s “Today Show” with Matt Lauer, airing 8am (PST/EST) on Friday, February 26th!”

You’ll remember the name Shane Koyczan from the beautiful performance of We Are More from the opening ceremonies! Click here to read more about that!

To celebrate, Dan has made available two downloads of his songs – Road Regrets and Tragic Turn of Events/Move Pen Move (w/Shane Koyczan).

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We’re giving away two CDs courtesy of the CTC! The CDs contain a special compilation delivering “the sound of Canada” including songs by Sarah Mclachlan, some other mainstream english groups, some french artists and Shane Koyczan’s We Are More that you loved if you watched the opening ceremonies. To enter to win one of these simply make a comment stating the best music show you went to during the Games, be it part of the Cultural Olympiad, LiveCity, or the multitude of other live music shows that have gone down in this city over the past couple of weeks. It’s been nuts.

So did you watch the Opening Ceremonies? I was lucky enough to see the rehearsal and know that one of my favourite Vancouverites (well, Penticton, but close enough!) Shane Koyczan was going to perform for billions of people via the magic of TV.

Shane is an AMAZING poet, whom I last heard at Dan Mangan’s CD release back in August (he performs on a track of Dan’s called Tragic Turn of Events/Move Pen Move).

Some people might run at the words “beat poet” but I’ve already heard so many positive reactions from the Olympic performance that he might have gained a few million fans.

The poem from the opening ceremonies is called “We Are More”, and speaking of more, the actual poem is much longer than what we saw tonight, so take the time now to read it and I hope you feel as proud to be Canadian as I do:

“We Are More” by Shane Koyczan
When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake Read more