Holiday Office Hours

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The offices of the Cultural Exchange are taking a quick break. From December 24 to January 3, our offices at 2431 8th Avenue won’t be open regular business hours. If there are any questions or concerns during this time, please email zandra@culturalexchange.ca or james@culturalexchange.ca. We’ll be back to regular hours starting January 4.

During this period, the Exchange and the Club will still be going strong. Go to our Events page to have a look at the many upcoming events you can see through the holidays.

Whatever you’re celebrating this December, we wish you all happy holidays! We’re looking forward to telling you what we’ve got ready for the new year.

Yukon Blonde 2016 Headlining Tour Hits the Exchange

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“…every song on the Vancouver rockers’ second album is an utter and complete summer jam: 10 euphoric exercises on saccharine, psychedelic pop fit for the cottage, the patio or for turning up so loud in your car that people on the sidewalk start to walk in sync with the uplifting synth notes and frantic high hats.”
–– CBC Music (Top Albums of 2015)

Two weeks ago, Vancouver’s Yukon Blonde returned home from a tour with Hey Rosetta! that saw them travel clear across the country playing sold-out shows at historic venues like Massey Hall, The Vogue, National Arts Centre, the Jack Singer, and more. Now, they’re ready to do it all again. Beginning February 5 at home in Vancouver, the JUNO Award-nominated and twice Polaris Music Prize-listed band will take to the road for a month long tour that makes sure to stop in almost every province along the way.

The tour hits the Exchange on February 16, 2016. Tickets for the Cultural Exchange Presents show will be available at Vintage Vinyl, Madame Yes, and online. Tickets will be in stores on Friday, December 11. We’ll be updating the event in our website listings with all the details, including special guests as soon as they’re announced.

Out now via Dine Alone Records, Yukon Blonde’s On Blonde, produced and mixed by Tony Hoffer (M83, Beck, Foster the People, Air, Depeche Mode), gazes wistfully away towards the more shadowy elements of pop production, soft synthesizers, punching bass lines, crushed drums, 80s cosmic pop compositions, and saturated psychedelic guitar effects. It’s more dynamic, more visceral, instantly accessible, and sonically denser than its predecessors — an ambitious, fully realized psychedelic pop record from a band truly in its ascendancy.

Visit Yukon Blonde’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed, and Dine Alone Records website.

Thanks for a Successful Annual General Meeting

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Once year, the Cultural Exchange gets an opportunity to share our accomplishments from the past twelve months and our plans for the next. It’s our Annual General Meeting, and we held one on November 21, 2015. We’d like to thank the almost two dozen people who showed up to learn more about our organization and help guide it in the right direction. Your participation means the world to the staff and board.

In part of the meeting, elections were held to form our new Board of Directors. Seven directors from 2014/2015 were acclaimed for new terms: Barbra Bailey, Dawn Brown, Jesse Chatterson, Nick Faye, John Fettes, and Billy Patterson. Additionally, we welcome three new directors who were acclaimed at the meeting: Steven Dribnenki, Jon Josephson, and Caelan Reilly. Watch the Staff and Board section of our website in the near future to learn more about all our current board members.

As we welcome new faces, we say goodbye to old ones. Thanks goes out to outgoing directors Keegan Duck, Dylan Ludwig, and Josh Morrison. Their service to the Cultural Exchange has been invaluable.

This was also our opportunity to share our annual report, where our staff and board talk about the health and goings-on of the previous year. You can find a copy online here.

Our 2014/2015 Annual Report

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At our Annual General Meeting, the Cultural Exchange presented the 2014/2015 Annual Report. In it, we take the opportunity to talk about some of our accomplishments from the past year, look forward to new ones, and thank the volunteers and our funders, SaskCulture and the Saskatchewan Arts Board, for their support.

We have physical copies in our Regina office if you care to stop by, but you can also read it online here.

The Exchange Named Regina’s Best Live Music Venue

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Have you had a look at Prairie Dog‘s Best of Regina? You should take a peek, at least to read about how the Exchange is the city’s Best Live Music Venue.

Every year, Regina’s alternative paper asks readers to vote on the best the Queen City has to offer in art, entertainment, and more. Looking at the list of venues the Exchange was up against, we just have to echo the sentiment of our write-up: there are so many wonderful places to see live music in this city, and we’re honoured that some of you have said we’re the best.

So thanks for voting, Regina. We’re working hard to keep being your Best Live Music Venue. And congratulations to all the winners and nominees. You’re an inspiring bunch.

The Cultural Exchange Announces Annual General Meeting

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The Cultural Exchange is always happy to share our accomplishments. On one occasion every year, we get the opportunity to give a grand overview: the Annual General Meeting. From the Workshop Tour to our provincial outreach to our activities with the Exchange and the Club, we’ll be discussing it all.

The AGM is your opportunity to hear from Board Chair Dawn Brown, Interim Executive Director John Kennedy, and the rest of the board and staff about what our organization has done in the past year and what we’ve got planned for 2015/2016.

Set your calendars: the meeting is taking place Saturday, November 21 at 1 p.m. in the Club. The agenda for the day is posted below. Everyone is welcome to attend.

*****

Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society

Annual General Meeting

Saturday, November 21, 2015

1 p.m.

The Club

2431 8th Avenue, Regina, Saskatchewan

1. Call to order.

2. Approval of the agenda as distributed.

3. Approval of November 22, 2014 AGM minutes as distributed.

4. SCES reports.

4.1. Chair’s report.

4.2. Interim Executive Director’s report.

4.3. Financial report.

4.4. Nominations Committee’s report and election.

5. Old business.

6. New business.

7. Adjournment.

Arrabio Keep Making Cuban Punk Happen

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One can imagine the challenges that could go into being a punk band in Cuba. Arrabio’s gone through them, up to and including just touring around their home country, as Drew McIntosh of Solidarity Rock, a group partnering with the band, explains.

“It was half of what we were doing every day that was mind blowing to me, you know,” he told the Oral History Centre. “Trying to wrestle up a ride from Santa Clara to Havana in the streets in the morning. You know, you’re going off in three groups and trying to find the best option and meeting back up to report and figuring out if it’s going to be dump truck, bus or two cars, you know.”

The band’s kept at it, and is now returning to Canada. In the past, the group recorded their most recent album, Hecho en Trinidad, in our country with producer Jesse Gander, who’s worked with acts like White Lung and Bison.

Arrabio are in the Club on Wednesday, October 7 with Adictox, Tomorrow Starts Today, and Ballot Burner. $10 at the door. All ages and licensed.

CJTR’s Radiothon Returns

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91.3 FM CJTR will soon be soon be entering its 15th year of existence. It’s hard to imagine –– not that it’s been that long, but that they haven’t always been here. Regina’s community radio station is an institution, so entrenched in the city’s local culture that’s hard to imagine a Queen City without them.

Their annual Radiothon is one of the best ways for you, the listener, to make sure that keeps being the case. This year, CJTR is asking for donations from September 25 to October 2, and you can donate right now to make sure they keep broadcasting more vital, locally produced content.

At the end of it all, you can come out to celebrate a big week of fundraising at the Exchange. The Radiothon Wind-Up Concert is happening here Friday, October 2 and will feature performances from the Bystanders, the Brian Templeton Trio, and the Royal Red Brigade. The all ages and licensed event is free to attend, and they will be accepting donations at the door. Go to the Facebook event for more information.

Friendship and Music with Scarlett Jane

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The story of Scarlett Jane isn’t just the tale of a musical act, but a pair of friends whose compatibility runs deep. Cindy Doire and Andrea Ramolo met as a pair of Toronto-based singer-songwriters, quickly striking up a friendship.

“We’d go months without seeing each other,” Doire said recently to the Ottawa Citizen. “She would go on these epic tours, and I was doing a lot of French touring, going to Quebec and Europe. Finally, we though, ‘Why don’t we go on these together so we can spend time together?’”

That was when their musical partnership really blossomed, leading eventually to the creation of Scarlett Jane. Together, they’ve quickly released a pair of albums, 2014’s Stranger and this year’s self-titled album, full of their considered, charming song work and the interesting interplay of voices and playing between Doire and Ramolo.

Scarlett Jane are in the Club on Thursday, October 1. Doors at 8 p.m. Advance tickets are $10 plus service charges and are available at Vintage Vinyl, Madame Yes, and online at TicketEdge. Tickets available at the door barring a sell-out. All ages and licensed.

Recently Announced: Taggart and Torrens’ Comedy and Canadianity

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Jonathan Torrens (Trailer Park Boys, Mr. D, Wipeout Canada) and Jeremy Taggart (Our Lady Peace, TSN 1050, Jay and Dan Podcast) are taking their popular TAGGART & TORRENS podcast on the road, coming through the Exchange in Regina on November 18.

Dubbed the “Comedy & Canadianity Tour”, every live show will be a combo of podcast favourites (Poem Sayin, Hit the Post, Callin Pranks) and games specifically tailored to each geographical destination (Saskatunes). “Bahds” will not only get to see the show, they’ll get to be the show by volunteering to play along in their seats and on the stage.

“We’ve road-tested TnT Live with great success,” says Torrens. “Every time it’s been equal parts hilarious and heart-warming. People have such great affection for this country –– and you never know what special guests might show up!”

Since January, Taggart and Torrens has exploded into the homes and hearts of Canadians, with 750,000 downloads on iTunes. Throw in another 250k listens on Soundcloud and it’s proof –– Canucks from coast to coast to coast are falling for Jonathan and Jeremy’s cocktail of tales from the road and silly party games. Mostly they’re responding to the fiercely proud patriotism and nostalgic bent of TnT, something “The Bahds” have branded #canadianity.

“I can’t wait to criss-cross this country and meet all the bahds”, says Taggart. “Everywhere we go now people want to reminisce about a certain TV show from our childhood or a forgotten band from the 70’s.”

Consistently in the top five comedy podcasts in Canada (often at #1) and almost always in the top 10 overall , Taggart and Torrens is at the forefront of a new sensation that’s sweeping the nation like a curling broom: #CANADIANITY.

Taggart and Torrens Comedy and Canadianity Tour is in the Exchange on Wednesday, November 18. Advance tickets are available at Vintage Vinyl and online at TicketEdge. All ages and licensed.