Boston, New York, Philadelphia etc etc

Hey there! Been a while since I've been able to blog, and there's been plenty of blog worthy livin going on, which is really how we should all define our lives if ya ask me. Anyways, where we last left off we were at a hardcore eastcoast biker bar and for a flash there we were wildy out of place. The show ended up being one of the strangest of our careers (not sure if that's the right word...) and one of the most fun. We ended up getting along real well with all the crowd there and the owner Billy sprung for a hotel for us. Truely an invaluable gesture to a band on the road. We then sat there for the rest of the night drinking heavily with Billy and his crew, truly an intense way to start off our run of the USA.

Chop Shop Crew!

After New Hampshire, we headed to Danbury Conneticut and played at a large theatre. Since this is our first run of the states, it was pretty empty, but we ended up befriending one of the other bands, a band of jam band hippes, and made the best of it nontheless.

Max being a whiny bitch 

After Danbury we drove straight up to Boston and slept in a parking lot in the Harvard Campus. My mother would be so proud. Woke up the next morning drenched in our own sweet, and ready to get super touristy in Boston. It was everyones first time in Boston so we tried to make the most of it and ended up randomly walking around the downtown area etc etc. The venue we played at was one of the campus bars at Harvard so naturally we were much more intelligent and handsome then the crowd there. One of our managers was in the city aswell, and we got to have dinner with him which was rad. Later that night one of his buddies Jordi, hooked us up with a place to stay at the dorms in Harvard. We fit right in for sure.  We then headed to the big apple.

View on the way in

In New York the weirdness continued as we got to the venue, it was in Bushwick a hipster mecca in Brooklyn. We played in what wasn't neccesarily a conventional live music venue but more of an "art space". Nontheless we tried our best to rock the living fuck out of it. We were a band in the midst of some acoustic acts and poets, so I wasn't really sure how our music was going to go down, but a good majority of the crowd there bought our Wolf CD, which definitely put us in a good mood and reassured us slightly. It's become interesting watching our music go down with different types of crowds, we've definitely learned a lot.

 In front of the venue in Brooklyn

After our set in Brooklyn we headed to Manhattan and proceeded to drink heavily. Some of our friends were in town so the rest of the band went out with them. My girlfriend happened to be in the city so we headed to the Village to try and track down Bob Dylan's old haunts (to anyone interested, the Gaslight is a dance club now, and Cafe Wha looks largely unchanged).

The next day we walked around like a bunch of hungover zombies tourists, eventually driving to Phildelphia.

Our day in tourist trip didn't stop in Philadelphia, as we walked around downtown and visited the Rocky Steps. I got a great video of Mike going up them which I hope to upload later.

The show in Philadelphia was one of the better ones of this tour. The venue, The Grape Room, was awesome and we ended up making friends with a local band, The Great SOCIO, who let us crash at there hippie pad. Truely phenomenal, we finally got a decent sleep and headed out to Pittsburgh.

Heres a sideways picture of us in front of the venue in Philadelphia

 

Making Rocky our Bitch

 

The show in Pittsburgh was one of those shows where you just kind of play for the other band. Good thing the other band was awesome, called Robert Jon and the Wreck from L.A. Great guys and great band. Most of our epuiptment fucked up aswell, so we were all pretty bummed out to tell you the truth. Luckily some random nearby restaraunt owner was there to lift our spirits with free jerk chicken. We took us to the back of his restaurant and proceeded to make us one of the best meals I've probably ever had. Holy shit that was awesome.

Anyways we're currently in Akron Ohio playing at the Musica tonight. The Black Keys are from here so I might just have to slip the solo from Tighten Up into one of our songs tonight, regardless of the key. 

Jesse

Popping our American Cherry....

Yea we're lookin pretty tanned...

 

Hey there! Boy do I have a lot to blog about, already one week into our summer tour. Currently sitting here at the Chop Shop Bar  located on the east coast of New Hampshire, and it is as American as it gets at this bar. What a way to kick off our relationship with the United States by playing at a biker bar and almost getting raped...I'll get to that in a bit!

But lets back up just a touch. The tour started in Fergus, Ontario of all places. Our buddy Eric Limoges put us up at his bar called the Breadalbane. Probably the classiest place we've ever played at (seems like a strange fantasy where I'm sitting right now..) Anyway it wasn't like a get wasted and mosh type show, but it was fun nontheless. There was a lot of people there and we played outdoor with a waterfall as a backdrop!

This is a sideways picture of the statue in front of the bar.

The next day our buddy Limoges took us tubing in the Elora Gorge which turned out to be hella fun. We had to play at Sauble beach's "Rock The Beach" festival the next day so we took of and got to a campsite in Sauble that they provided the bands. We then met the security for the festival who were staying at the same campsite, and they were all hammered, which was kinda sketchy, but whatever we can roll with it...

We were supposed to play at noon the next day but due to the fact that all the people putting this festival on seemed to be hungover as hell, we ended up playing at like 2 or 3, which turned out to be ideal as there was more people around, the beach was fucking packed due it being hotter than fucking hell itself outside.

Mean Tangerine literally rocking the beach.

It's always fun playing on big outdoor stages and this was definitely no different. The stage was literally on the beach, and all our shit got really sandy, but the show was really fun, I think we're definitely sounding tighter and better than ever before.

Colin the intern

So after rock the beach we chugged our new van, appropriately named, Laura, all the way to Ottawa where our good buddy Andy Marr let us crash at his place. We spent the following day doing the most cliche touristy stuff in Ottawa that you can, visiting Parliament and all the sites, despite the fact we've been there a handful of times, its more rad in the summer for sure. The night of the show was that intense storm, which you may have heard about fucking that stage up at Bluesfest. We played not to far from there this historic venue called the Elmdale Tavern with a great band called Plush Garden. Check em out if you get a chance. The power went out and it was storming, which didn't help the draw but there were a handful of people there and we tried to rip it up as hard as we could, and had a damn good time doing it too. After that we went to this nightclub called Babylon for this 60's night where we preceeded to get really hammered and naked and rip that dance floor a whole new corn hole, or as the french say, maize hole.

I'm as bad ass in real life as I am in the picture.

The next day was an off day before Drummondville so we spent in in Montreal doing more touristy stuff, despite also having been there a million times. Sean our buddy whose came along with us, wouldnt stop flappin his mouth about this sandwhich place in MTL called Shwartz. So we went, and it was like beyond amazing. Apparently its a pretty famous place to, as suggests all the famous people on the wall. As if we weren't being touristy enough, we even got our waiter to take a picture of us there. Good Lord are we lame.

This was honestly the most delicious sandwhich I've ever had

Our show in Drummondville the next day was a good time too. Thanks to Steve Martin for putting it on (different steve martin then the one from Pink Panther). I tried to look up stuff to do in Drummondville online and found nothing really. So we just chilled. The city was cool tho, there was this outdoor festival going on which turned out to be pretty cool. The bar we played at had a solid outdoor patio and the show was tight as well. I'm pretty sure there bartenders rake in the tips.

Oh Sean...

The next day was when the luxury tour really stopped though. We'd heard a lot about how hard it is for bands to cross into the USA so we crossed every I and dotted every T before we crossed that imaginary line in the sand that divides not only countries but cultures and social values as well. Turns out crossing was pretty fucking easy actually, maybe we got a guy in a good mood but it took about five minutes. So onward we left to try and leave our modest footprint in a new country.

Regular Coors! Truly and American tradition right?

 

We didn't have anywhere to sleep and good God can we not afford to stay in a hotel so we pulled over in a truck stop, set up a tent and tried to sleep. This is where shit gets really Fucked up! When I woke up the next morning I just took a wee stroll in this wooded area and there was this guy like following me, and when I stopped he stopped, etc. It was a tad freaky to say the least. I then like kind of walked away from him and he just kept following me back to our van. When I got the van, he got in his car which was right beside ours and preceded fucking stare us down while we were brushing teeth etc. Then he started to suck his finger off. He didn't just like pop it into his mouth or anything either, he was making love to the thing while just staring at us. We then proceeded to threaten him and and raz him a bit and he just kept staring, it was so fucking weird. Part of me felt bad for him, I know that truck stops certainly have a certain reputation and maybe this guy was like hell yea fucking jackpot all these tanned studs, (we're like really really tanned right now) but part of me wanted to like kick his ass for repeatedly getting way too...you know like...up in all this.

Anyways it has been a very adventerous start to the tour to say the least. And were only a short ways in, we're having the time of our lives, and we'll be sure to keep y'all posted.

Jesse

Obligatory Studio Blog!!!

                                                      This is what a hit record looks like.


     Well you all asked for it so here it is, a STUDIO BLOG!!!!....Okay, no one asked for it but here it is regardless. Being in the studio for a band is generally as a happening and eventful time as touring is, the difference is fans tend really not to care as much because it obviously doesn't have as much to do with them. Just stop writing about it and get your stupid record out. That's what I always say at least. Regardless I feel somewhat obliged to write about it because these days here in the studio will determine the outcome of our potential careers in music probaby more than any showcase or gig.

                                                           Max finding his "chi"

So right now we have 17 songs. 11 of them are finished and good to go, and the last five we are working on this weekend. Literally as you read this we are working on it. Trippy? No not really. If you happened to see us at any shows recently maybe you might recognize some of em!

                                                          Stupid question, but um, whats a guitar?

   As for plans to release it? Right now were aiming at, what our manager called "Quarter 1" of 2012. Now, none of us knew what this meant, (except me...I'm what you'd call a "harvard man"), but after Googling it, I guess that means January 2012. Now you may very well be asking yourself "Holy Fuck that's so far away! How am I going to possibly survive until then!" Well don't you fret, we have plans to release a 7" with two songs on it at some point this fall, in physical form and online. Plus we have those samplers featuring three songs off the record, that we've already been selling (Songs are "On my way home", "Summertime" and "Ice Cold") So what I'm really trying to say, is quit your fucking bitching, we'll literally have like 5 songs from it out to the general public before the album is available, calm the fuck down, okay? We cool? Good. Back to pictures of us looking cool.

                                                                         Colin made it back from protesting animal rights just in time to record

                                                          And another one.

                                                      Mike is fucking stoked for this record! HOLY CRAP!

    Anyways that is all for now, we honestly cannot wait for people to hear these songs. It's kind of stressful having them in the bag without being able to show people, they sound like 10 million times (at least!) better then our crappy stupid smelly old songs.  Anyways thats it for now, hope that you are stoked for this new record!

                                                                    Super Orgy Pizza Party

Get your weekend on.

    Thought I would do a short blog about our most recent excursion, that consisted of two awesome shows in Montreal, and at SCENEfest.

    First off, it was the maiden voyage (for us) in our new van. We we're trying to think of names for it, Mike wanted to name it Maestro (because it's supposedly keeping us on time) I wanted to name if after a variety of different dutch people from our high school that have the word "van" in there last name. But what's in a name? Who cares about that? Regardless it felt really good to have a real sort of "band van". Before we were always touring around in a minivan, and we got to the point where we have way way more gear and stuff than will fit in the minivan.  Maybe only in my own head, but I felt we reached some sort of milestone.  I've always thought well REAL bands have big vans. And in some sense I'm always going through that, I vividly remember thinking before, real bands have merch, real bands have albums out, real bands have managers and labels etc. Now that we have all that, I'm currently thinking REAL bands have booking agents and U.S. Labels.  Until then folks, we're stuck in some kind of band purgatory.  Never the less, for us there was a sense of serenity in hanging out in the old girl. Picture of our new heat for you above!

      Anyways, the shows....were really solid! Not that we've ever had a bad in time Montreal, but this time was really cool as well. The line up consisted all of bands that always seem to be on my newsfeed, so it was good to see all these bands in real life. Chasing Amee was the first band in Montreal and I definitely liked it. They had a couple kind of bluesier rock songs and then some pop punk, someone told me the bluesier stuff was newer.  I hope so because I enjoyed it more, and the guys were really really cool. Definitely hoping to play with them again. 
   We were on next and it was the first time performing most of the set in Montreal and I think it went over really well. We did end up pulling out an older song, Golden, but I suppose when I go to shows there's only so much new stuff I'm hoping to here before they get into the more recognizable stuff. But dear God are we all just so stoked for the day we no longer have to play Golden.
    After us it was The Artist Life and MuchMusic's new favourite band These Kids Wear Crowns. The Artist Life kind of walks a weird line, they just finished doing a tour with Stung Out and Face to Face, but somehow also seem to do really well on bills with much poppier bands like These Kids, and in the past The Stereos. Regardless that's awesome for them. They were really tight and the songs of there new album were good, and they were really nice dudes too. 
   After that was These Kids Wear Crowns who were really poppy and had the crowd bouncing beach balls and the like. Talked to them briefly and they seemed pretty cool and down to earth, which is cool, cuz they seem to be getting pretty famous and successful. Hope to play with them again for sure.
 Anyways, the show was awesome. What wasn't awesome was the driving in Montreal. First off the venue we always play in MTL (the underworld) is on the the third floor of a building and carrying merch bins and bass rigs up the stairs kinda bites. Whatever though, it works off the calories gained at Foufs after the show, gotta have a postive spin. But yea back to the driving, it took me ONE HOUR to go about 100 yards. Parked right by the venue but had to go down a couple one ways to get back and Jazzfest was in town so the streets were closed down. It sucked so badly. I've been kind of worried about what its going to be like driving in places like Brooklyn and Chicago later this summer but nothing will be worse than that, absolutely nothing. 


   After that we didn't get to get as fucked up as we generally would in Montreal because we had to be at scenefest the next day ( as did all the other bands). We ended up having to sleep for an hour or two in a parking lot in Cornwall and motor on back to Scene.

   I had been telling our new bass player for the past month how awesome Scenefest is and this year definitely didn't disappoint. The market square is always really happening and its always good to catch up with other bands that you don't get to see as much as you'd like to.  Also the weather this year was awesome, in past years it's rained like a mother fucker but this year it was dandy. Which was twice as dandy because we were on an outdoor stage. Anyways we were all really happy with how our set went. The stage we played at was packed and the new stuff went over really well, as well as our new motown covers, which kind of compliments the newer material which is kinda motowny itself. We had people climbing over fences to get in and it was fucking awesome! Huge thanks to everyone who came out, Scene is always one of the best days of the year. 


     Anyways that's that. You know you had a good weekend when your inbox is filled with new people following you on twitter, right? Right? Probably back in the day it was more like "Man, we had a good weekend, we sold like x amount of albums", but now, its twitter. Whatevs.


Hoping I didn't bore you, though I'm sure this was actually pretty boring. Just wait till our tour of the states. 


Jesse

SUMMER TOUR, HOLY FUCKIN CRAP!

Hey there! We're in the studio right now finishing off our record. As it sits right now we have 11 finished songs, and were doing another 5. Whats the point of doing anything, unless your going to do it as best and thorough as possible? That's what we always say (well, that's what were saying from now on anyway...)

Speaking of doing things as best and thorough as possible...we are embarking on our most ambitious tour to date later this summer. It will see us make our first excursion through the USA hitting some of the great American cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia etc. We are insanely stoked!!!!!!!  Basically our goal as a band has always been to just tour as much as humanly possible. The way I always saw it is, releasing records, doing photoshoots, etc etc the end result is always being able to play live, and this tour is a mother fuckin whopper!!

Anyways, back to recording...this record is sounding awesome. Now I know that anyone recording would say "our record is sounding so rad" or whatever...but honestly I'm constantly in kind of a weird state of "holy shit!". It's all over the place. No one involved with it, us in the band, our producer or anyone else has been able to really pin it down to one or two words. It's got a bit of the old ska and reggae sound to it, but it's got a lot of just old school blues and motown, with bits of punk, soul, pop, indie rock, hip hop etc etc! I'm rambling at this point...I can't wait for people to hear it so it can speak for itself. We have two songs up right now on our myspace not sure if they will make the final cut of the record but you can listen to em here.

The dates from our flyer above...

I hope this didn't bore you,


Jesse