Bande à part (radio)

Infobox Radio Station
name = Bande à part


area = Worldwide on the Internet
Canada & Contiguous United States on Sirius Satellite Radio
airdate = 2000 on the Internet
1 December 2005 on Sirius
frequency = SIRIUS 87
slogan = Obsédés Musicaux, Assumez-Vous! (Music Maniacs, Accept Yourselves!)
format = French indie music
owner = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
website = [http://bandeapart.fm/ bandeapart.fm]

Bande à part is the name of a website and a Sirius Satellite Radio station in Canada that are devoted primarily to Québécois arts and music.

Operated by the Société Radio-Canada (SRC), Bande à part is the French counterpart to CBC Radio 3. Bande à part also broadcasts on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 87. Some of its content also airs as a Friday to Sunday (12 midnight to 4 a.m.) night program on Espace musique, and the service produces a weekly podcast and several Internet radio streams, each devoted to a particular genre of music.

Roots

Like its counterpart CBC Radio 3, Bande à part has roots in radio programming that predated widespread use of either the internet or satellite radio. It originally aired as a national radio program devoted to francophone alternative music, airing from Radio-Canada's studios in Moncton.

In 1997, the CBC announced tentative plans to open a third radio network, devoted to youth culture. Although the original radio network proposal was abandoned, the CBC launched Radio 3 as a pilot project through its new media division in 2000, and Bande à part followed in early 2001. In the fall of 2001, Bande à part also produced a short run television series, "bandeapart.tv", for ARTV.

In 2004, Bande à part began airing on Espace musique in a weekend timeslot. The network launched its podcast in 2005, a few months after the debut of Radio 3's podcast.

Both Radio 3 and Bande à part became satellite radio stations with the launch of Sirius Canada in December 2005. The station aired on Sirius 93 from its launch until June 24, 2008, when it moved to Sirius 87 as part of a major realignment of the Sirius lineup.

Programming

Personalities associated with the network include Alexandre Bernard, Alexandre Courteau, Yuani Fragata, Élodie Gagnon, François Lemay, Natalie Poirier, Claude Rajotte and Tony Tremblay. Courteau, Fragata and Gagnon also make occasional appearances on Radio 3 as band interviewers or correspondents who promote the Quebec music scene for English listeners.

The network primarily airs francophone music, although some English Canadian and international music airs as well. The network airs a freeform mix of rock, pop, folk, hip hop, punk and electronic music — however, because Montreal has a particularly prominent electronic and post-rock music scene, Bande à part's playlist leans somewhat more toward experimental genres than Radio 3's.

Concerts

The network also sometimes sponsors concerts.

Tour Tournée in the winter of 2006, jointly sponsored by CBC Radio 3 and Bande à part, included bands such as Wintersleep, Two Hours Traffic, Konflit dramatiK, Hexes and Ohs, Great Aunt Ida, Shout Out Out Out Out, Novillero, Les Breastfeeders, SS Cardiacs, Les Dales Hawerchuk, Pony Up! and The Deadly Snakes. Each of the eight locations had a different lineup of predominantly local bands.

On March 24, 2006, the network staged a fifth anniversary show at the Spectrum in Montreal, featuring Les Dale Hawerchuk, Akido, Karkwa and Malajube.

On October 1, 2006, Radio 3 and Bande à part again jointly sponsored See Vous Play, a show in Toronto featuring Les Breastfeeders, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, Les Trois Accords and The Joel Plaskett Emergency.

On April 27, 2007, Bande à part and CBC Radio 3 jointly presented Quebec Scene, an Ottawa concert featuring The Stills, The Besnard Lakes, Karkwa and Mahjor Bidet.

Podcast

In addition to its regular weekly podcast, Bande à part has also produced a number of special podcasts, including daily podcast series during Tour Tournée and the 2006 Mutek festival, and a 10-part series profiling several young Québécois living in Banff, Alberta. The network has also released a number of video podcasts.

The Bande à part podcast differs from the CBC Radio 3 podcast hosted by Grant Lawrence. Bande à part's podcast usually has a certain theme for each episode, such as a taxidermist theme, playing music related to taxidermy, while CBC Radio 3's weekly podcasts have a broad mix of different genres. Also, the Bande à part podcasts usually feature an "artist of the week" where they play 3-4 songs of a certain artist, interview the artist throughout the episode and play music of the same genre. Past featured artists include Arcade Fire, Damien Robitaille, Les Breastfeeders and Navet Confit.

Collaborative music projects

In 2007, the network has also been involved in several collaborative music projects.

Vauvandalou

In 2007, Bande à part gathered a number of Quebec rock musicians for a one-off supergroup single. The group, Vauvandalou, consisted of Fred Fortin of Les Breastfeeders, Simon Proulx of Les Trois Accords, Jean-Philippe Fréchette of Navet Confit and Vincent Peake of Groovy Aardvark. The single, "0.99$", debuted on Bande à part's podcast, and its video debuted on SRC Television's "Le Fric Show".

The band has not, to date, announced any further collaborations. Bande à part offers a free download to the song on their website by clicking on "Téléchargez le hit" on the Bande à part [http://www.bandeapart.fm/speciaux.shtml website] .

"93 tours"

In the fall of 2007, Bande à part worked with 27 unsigned hip hop musicians from Quebec to produce the compilation album "93 tours". Each of the album's nine tracks features three different rappers collaborating with producers Mash, Boogat and DJ Horg. The album is available as a free download from Bande à part's website.

External links

* [http://www.bandeapart.fm/index2.asp Bande à part]
* [http://www.bandeapart.fm/podcast.asp Bande à part's weekly podcast]
* [http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/sirius/ Radio-Canada's specialty services on Sirius]