a man and his bands

Edmonton

2008-11-30T14:21:00.002-04:00

After a series of crappy shows, it was good to end our Western stint on a good night.
Edmonton was great.

First of all, after all our time out west, there were more people we knew here than anywhere else. Amy, Brenton, Caleb, Sarah, Chris, Chris - it was awesome to see so many familiar faces.

Our show was a lot of fun.

When nobody's enjoying your show, its really hard for you to enjoy the show too. So for the first time in a couple days, we played to a crowd who enjoyed our music so we had a really good time on stage.

Edmonton, you were fun.

After the show we came back tour our friend Chris' house - who we know thanks to the good graces of Halifax Locals and the Internet - had a few more drinks, and eventually went to bed around 4:30am.

The next couple of days bring lots of driving, but not lots of shows.
Today is sunday, we're in Alberta, and by thursday night we'll be New Brunswick.

We're driving to Medicine Hat today to stay with some friends, then tomorrow we're driving to Winnipeg to stay with some more friends. Tuesday we'll drive to Thunder Bay for our show. Wednesday we're heading to Ottawa to stay with Kandace and Matt, then we're hitting the road for Fredericton on Thursday.

I am excited to get back home.

photos v. 2

2008-11-29T22:26:00.000-04:00

uploaded them to le facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/editpicture.php?success=1#/album.php?aid=183599&id=503355104

Kelowna + Canmore

2008-11-29T21:26:00.003-04:00

Kelowna is a nice town. Unfortunately, they're not huge rock n' roll fans. Aside from Grant Macdonald being there, the night was a complete bust. The bar didn't enforce a cover, so we made no money, not that it mattered because no one was there anyway. Anybody who was in the bar basically left as soon as we started playing. Kelowna 1, Sleepless Nights 0.

It was good to see Grant though. That guy is as fucking fun as he was the last time I saw him - which was about 7 years ago.

Friday morning we hit the road for Canmore - which meant another snowy trek through the mountains. The weather actually wasn't terrible - a couple of snow patches here and there, but I think now that we're clear of mountains, we're lucky to say we didn't have any major incidents. We did, however, see a huge ram walking along the highway. That was extremely cool.

Canmore is a super nice town. Sort of like Jasper, but more down to earth and less rich. Its a small little mountain town, so you're surrounded by big behemoth rockies on all sides, it really is quite beautiful. Nothing can describe the gloriousness of this aspect of mother nature. Planet earth, you amaze me.

Our show was at a place called the Canmore hotel, which is actually more of a hostel than a hotel. The rooms upstairs from the bar were small little one-double-bed dealies with a sink and a dresser. The place is super old (our friends in the Details told us it's haunted) and it looks like what was once a boarding house or something. Pinky and I have been reading a bunch of Charles Bukowski - these rooms reminded me exactly of the kind of places Bukowski describes in his books. I could just picture a mean old slum lord coming to knock on our door, asking for the $2.75 rent for the week. Needless to say, it was an interesting place.

The show was decent. It was a step up from the past two nights where we basically played to nobody, but it still wasn't glamorous. A couple people were into it, dancing and the like - and we actually sold a couple CDs.

The highlight of the night for me was getting to hang out with my cousin Marcel who I haven't seen it at least five plus years. He's still as fun as he used to be. Considering he and his girlfriend Jennifer had to drive like 12 hours to get to Canmore just to to see us play, it was really great to hang out with him again. He's one of those cousins I wish was just around all the time.

Staying in hotels/hostels is a good/bad idea for us. When we can leave our gear in the bar, and go to sleep right upstairs - you know that the night is probably going to be a write off for us. Especially when the bar gives us a two-four of beer, and people keep buying you Jagr shots. It was indeed a pretty good night.

Today we got up, ate breakfast, and drove to Edmonton. On the way I read a story that Pinky's been writing about our tour - and I gotta say it's pretty good. I'm trying to convince him to make a little novel so we can sell it on our merch table in the future. The guy's got talent.

We were just talking about tonight's show, and how we hope it's going to be a step up from all our other shows since Victoria - and we realized that there might actually be a half-dozen people we know from back home who will be here.

I hope so.

Victoria & Duncan

2008-11-27T22:57:00.002-04:00

Well, before we got to Victoria, everyone raved about how nice it was. They weren't kidding. It really is a beautiful spot. We got to Victoria around 11 and went downtown to find something to eat, then we went over the University of Victoria to play three songs live on CFUV and and to do an interview. It went pretty well. We were all shoved into one tiny room, it was pretty tight - but it was ok.

We spent the rest of the afternoon literally doing nothing. I think Pineau and I spent 3 hours at a Starbucks texting our lady friends, drinking hot chocolate and watching tv on our laptops.

While I'm keeping up to date on my favorite shows - The Office & 30 Rock - I am also watching both seasons of this show called Mad Men, and its so good. Great writing, great acting, amazing characters, so good. And it's set in 1960 - what more could you want?

We played at a bar in downtown Victoria called Lucky Bar with a band called The Shores and another band called Rugged Uncle, which features two members of our friends Immaculate Machine.

The show went well - the bar was cool, kind of reminded me of Elwood's in Saint John, NB - and I was surprised at how many people came out for a show on a Tuesday night. As always, the presence of friends from home made me feel better about being so far removed from Halifax. Yesterday was a day that I needed friends like that around. Fiona and her boyfriend came out, not to mention my old Superstore co-workers Derek & Rosalind. So great to see them.

After the show we stayed at our friend Luke's place (of Rugged Uncle and Immaculate Machine), and today he cooked us some sweet breakfast. Thanks Luke.

We got to Duncan, BC which is about 45 minutes from Victoria, and loaded into the Duncan Garage Showroom - a really cool venue. It was like a mini-theatre (50 person seating) that was run by this guy named, no kidding, Longevity John. This place was an experience in and of itself. Think small town movie theatre meets native trinket store meets hippie coffee house. This was by far the coolest place we've played on our tour. Never mind the fact that only two people showed up, and that we played a set of songs that we hadn't played in 6+ months - songs like Communication Barrier, Arabian Nights, Everybody's Dancing and Jeff's Guide to TV. It was fun though. I would definitely go back.

We had to get up mega early today (6am) to take the ferry back off Vancouver Island to get to our show in Kelowna, where we are right now, sitting in the bar, hanging out occasionally with our new friend Natalie (the waitress) and waiting to play. This is a nice town.

The trek towards the East continues....

Vancouver et. al.

2008-11-26T01:43:00.002-04:00

I am so exhausted right now, that my memory is hazy. However, here's what I remember:

After our show in Jasper, we drove for the majority of the day on Saturday to get to Vancouver where we were staying with my wonderful cousin Caroline and her ten year old Santiago, whom I haven't seen in probably 6+ years. Seeing family is one of the best perks of being on the road.

We lazed around for most of the day on Sunday before we loaded into the van and headed to our show in downtown Vancouver. It was a very "unique" place to say the least. We played at this place called Hoko's which was a Japanese sushi/karaoke bar. Yep a sushi/karaoke bar. For a Sunday night, the show was pretty well attended. We played with a band called Love and Mathematics who were from Vancouver, and were pretty cool.

Monday we made our way back down to the downtown core to record 6 songs for CBC Radio 3's "Sessions" series. We loaded into a gorgeous studio in the basement of the building, and spent about 2 and a half hours recording two tracks from our album, "Got Caught," and "Amounts to Nothing" as well as 4 brand new songs - "Going to Canada," "Radio Silence," "Ghost Vibrations," and "Coup d'Etat." We spiced some of them up, added some special intros and outros, etc to make our Session a little unique.

The host, Tariq Hussain, was a great guy. He hung out for the whole recording process. Grant Lawrence from the CBC Radio 3 Podcast also showed up to say hello. That was nice.

Today we left early in the morning to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island and made our way to Victoria. We went to the University of Victoria where we played 3 songs live on the air and did a little interview to hype tonight's show a little bit. Here's to hoping it worked.

Sleepless Nights on Zunior.tv

2008-11-24T15:40:00.001-04:00

A performance of "Got Caught" from our Toronto show at Sneaky Dee's:

http://www.zunior.tv/2008/11/24/live-sleepless-nights-got-caught/

Jasper

2008-11-22T13:00:00.005-04:00

First of all, I'm sure everyone says it - but holy god the rocky mountains are amazing. I have never seen anything so grandiose in my entire life. thanks mother nature. it was the first time I took pictures since we left, I will post some in the next couple of days.

So, after driving literally through the mountains on a route called The Icefields we got to Jasper around 8 and loaded in. This is obviously a mega rich town, its a resort town - its focus is on tourists who come here to go skiing. Believe it or not, this is the off season here in Jasper, so were weren't really expecting a whole lot from the show.

We played inside a hotel called the Athabasca Inn - and (if you're from yarmouth you'll get this) it was like playing at the Red Knight on a Saturday night. ie - people were more into dancing to shitty club music than they were listening to us. we tried to have a good time with it though, do stuff that was to only funny us - like, for example, there were tv screens all around the bar, and we got them to play the only DVD we had in the van while we played, which was Death - Live in LA.

We even had a couple hecklers, one asshole in particular who kept telling us to play tragically hip songs and wanting to fight us because we wouldn't. I might be thousands of miles from home, but you can't get more small-town Nova Scotia than that. Being super obsessed with Guns N Roses these days thanks to that Slash biography, the only thing i could think of was "What Would Axl Do?"

Don't get me wrong, there were some nice people here. A table of girls from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick bought us a round of Jager shots, and the bartenders were super nice to us.

Anyways, it was kind of a weird late debaucherous night, since we were staying just upstairs at this place.

Today, we're driving through more mountains to Vancouver. I'm going to venture outside and see what I can see here in Jasper before we have to load out.

BC, here we come.

Calgary

2008-11-21T14:00:00.004-04:00

After a day of lazing around at Katie's, we went downtown to load into the venue. The show was sponsored by a great beer that you can only get west of Ontario called Steamwhistle, so there was plenty of that to go around, not to mention a free meal. I had a burger made with 100% pure Albertan beef and it was as big as my fist. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my whole life. SO GOOD.

The show was pretty great. Like I said, we played with a band from Edmonton called Hot Panda and a band from Toronto called The Bicycles, both of whom get lots of attention out here so the crowd was pretty good. I had a really fun time, and we sold a bunch of stuff so that's good.

As always, its good to have friends around in a strange place, so seeing Katie, Zoanne and Amie was nice. Also, having some girl buy the band tequila shots before we even played was awesome - more so for me since none of the guys in the band can man up to drink tequila shots. Hah. (To be fair, Katie did one with me).

After the show, Katie took us to the 7-Eleven for tacquitos - which were mega yummy - and we came back here to sleep.

Today we're off to Jasper - needless to say I'm pretty excited to see some mountains.

Winnipeg + Lethbridge

2008-11-20T12:43:00.002-04:00

We had a day to kill in Winnipeg before our show at the Lo Pub, so we went to get the headlights on our van fixed. Turns out the headlight switch was burnt out, so we needed to replace it. Luckily, it cost us less than we anticipated: $166. $166 is still quite a blow to a band on the road, but we were anticipating over $200 so we were in a good mood.

After eating breakfast at a restaurant across from the mechanic's (how convenient), and spending an hour in their waiting room playing video games (the other boys) and doing homework (me), we went back to Kerrie's place and watched some Clone High till it was time to head out to the Lo Pub.

The Lo Pub is a bar inside a newly renovated hostel, so we had a room to stay in while we were there.

Our show was pretty good. The crowd wasn't huge, but come on - it was a Tuesday night, and we had never played in Winnipeg before. So considering the people who were there, we couldn't have asked for more really. We got to see a couple of our friends in The Details, who are super fun to hang out with, so that was cool. One of the guys from Smallman Records even came out to check out our set, which was great because it was probably the best set we've played on tour.

Wednesday morning brought another super drive.

We drove from Winnipeg, MN to Lethbridge, AB which took us about 12 hours. Driving across the prairies was pretty cool. Aside from being really windy and hitting a couple snow squalls here and there, it was quite a sight. I mean, you wouldn't think that 12 hours of driving through flat land would be cool, but when you're driving through Saskatchewan at 9am and you can see the horizon for miles and miles - it's pretty awe inspiring.

So we get to Lethbridge, and we play at this place called The Slice (who gave us some sweet pizza). We had no idea what to expect, it was a Wednesday night after all, but the show turned out GREAT! The crowd seemed pretty into us, and the band who played after us - Carpenter (who are from Vancouver, BC) were awesome. A full-fledged rock n roll band complete with high-kicks and songs in G. Super nice guys too, we might actually hang out with them in Calgary when they stroll through for their show in Canmore tonight.

Speaking of Calgary, that's where we are right now. We are staying at our friend Kate's house who was kind enough to put us up after we drove here from Lethbridge at 2am. We are playing at Broken City tonight with Hot Panda and The Bicycles so it should be a good show. I'm excited to see the girls in Kilbourne, I hope they can make it out.

Driving....

2008-11-17T21:27:00.002-04:00

Ontario has to got to be the biggest friggen province on the face of the planet.
After our misgivings with directions, and our stay in a motel on Saturday night. We drove as far North as we could Sunday night (which turned out to be this place called Terrace Bay), and we spent the night in another motel and took off early this morning for Winnipeg.

After another 12 hours of driving, a speeding ticket in Kenora, ON, and lots of classic rock, we finally got to Manitoba.

I have been reading a lot in the van. Mostly all non-academic reading, which is a welcome change of pace.
I've plowed through Charles Bukowski's Ham On Rye as well as Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor.

Right now I'm reading what is sure to become one the best "must reads" in rock n roll literature, Slash - the autobiography of the guitar player from Guns N Roses. So far, so awesome.

So tomorrow, we are taking the van somewhere to get our lights checked out and hopefully get them fixed, then we have a show here in Winnipeg at a place called Lo Pub.

This town seems to very old and I like the architecture a lot - it reminds me of Ottawa in a way.

We got added to a bill in Lethbridge the next day, which means that after our show in the 'Peg, we'll be hitting the road early the next morning. However, that puts us only about an hour outside of Calgary, where our show is on Thursday.

Look out West Coast, here we are!

uhmmm...Toronto?

2008-11-15T23:27:00.002-04:00

Ok, so today was by far a weird day. We've learned three important things about TomTom - our relationship is currently on the rocks with her.

Rule #1 - Don't Always Trust TomTom:

Sometimes, she switches her ideas in the middle of the city, and really confuses you.

Rule #2 - Always Check TomTom's Maps:

as we left Toronto today, we set the course for Winnipeg - and picked the "fastest route" option. We drove in the rain for about 2 hours, and saw that we were passing St. Catherines. A mix of our own knowledge and the geographic genius of my friend Becky (whom I was texting at the time) led us to believe we were heading to SOUTHERN Ontario, instead of NORTHERN Ontario. We looked at TomTom's map and the route was plotted to go through the US. Needless to say, we can't go through the US because we don't have Visas, so we drove about 2 hours in the wrong direction.

On top of that, we found out yesterday that the lights on Betty White (our van) aren't really working that well. The daylight lights come on, and the blinkers no problem - but we can't switch them to nighttime and the bright lights will come on, but won't stay on. So, until we can get this fixed (we spent the better part of the day looking for someone to fix it, but all the places were too busy) we are trying to restrict our night driving.

That being said, we decided our best option would be to stay in a cheap motel for the night, get up at sunrise, and start making the drive to Winnipeg - this time through Canada.

Rule #3 - Never Trust The Data:

En route to find a hotel, TomTom gave us several options of those nearest to us: a Comfort Inn, A Travel Lodge, A Holiday Inn Express and Krazy Krust Patties. Well it's not difficult to assume that the first place we checked was Krazy Krust Patties. It was in fact a Lebanese Bakery and not a hotel. Funny times though.

***

So here we are in a motel between Toronto and Barrie, using free Internet, drinking some big beers we bought in Quebec, watching Talladega Nice (about to watch the new Office) and getting ready for bed so we can get up at 5am to hit the road for Winnipeg!

Toronto

2008-11-15T12:02:00.002-04:00

Our show in Toronto was probably better than our last two shows combined. We played at Sneaky Dees with a band from Toronto called Proof of Ghosts - and two of the guys in the band worked at the bar, so the crowd was out. Not to mention, we got to play with the illustrious Wax Mannequin, so that was cool.

Again, seeing friends like Kendall, Jo, Claudia, and Peter G was awesome.

We're in for a huge journey in the next couple of days. Our show in Timmins, ON got cancelled so we're heading straight to Winnipeg.

OH! I forgot to mention the newest addition to our band. Her name is TomTom, she is stern, and British, and extremely accurate. She is also a GPS.
Anyways, according to her, Winnipeg is about 32 hours away - so we have some travelling to do. Our show there isn't until Tuesday, so we've got some time.

I also forgot to mention in the last blog, in the list of awesome things that are happening, we got a demo recording grant from Factor! Very excited to get down to recording a new album with some government money when we get home.

So anyways, correspondence in the next few days might be limited because we'll be making the huge drive to Winnipeg. Wish us luck.

Ottawa + Hamilton

2008-11-14T13:48:00.004-04:00

Well the shows haven't been magnificent to date. Both our Ottawa show and our Hamilton show had an audience of about 15-20 people. But both shows brought out friends, which is one of the great things about traveling the country.

However, the best things are happening to us.

First, gas prices are RIDICULOUSLY low! Yesterday we filled up at a station where gas was 79.8!!!! It used to cost us between $100 and $125 to fill up the tank, we've been filling up the van for about $75 to $85 dollars. This is amazing for a band who is driving across the country. We figured that for every 3 tanks, we are actually saving one full tank of gas based on how much we used to spend.

Second, last night in Hamilton after our show, our friend nick was able to get us in to see Priestess for free! You might recognize them from GUITAR HERO.

Finally, we were able to score a CBC Radio 3 Session, which means we'll be recording 6 songs out in Vancouver for CBC Radio 3.

Tonight we play in Toronto, and it should be pretty good. We're playing with Wax Mannequin, and we have a bunch of friends there now - so it should be ok.

To think, in like 3 days, we'll be in Manitoba. Awesome.

Sleepless Nights - Going To Canada!

2008-11-11T17:06:00.001-04:00

St. John's Vol. 2

2008-05-24T09:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we made our best attempt at sight seeing, but it was really foggy and misty - but isn't that what Newfoundland supposed to be about?

We went up to Signal Hill but couldn't see a damn thing. So Jud took us around to places like ""The Battery" and "Fort Amherst" which was a bunch of really cool newfoundland-looking tiny fishing villages. It was really cool. We even saw an iceberg!

The show last night at The Ship was pretty cool. For the second night in a row we had an amazing crowd and played with a cool band - The Pathological Lovers. Earlier in the week we were invited to a house party just up the street from The Ship, so we hit that up before our show and met some really nice people, most of whom came to the show later and danced up a storm.

Today we are going to get some breakfast (I also need some new books to read) and then we're heading to Cornerbrook for the last show of the entire tour. Tomorrow morning we get the ferry back home, and in less than 48 hours I will be sleeping in my own bed.

Yum.

TOUR VIDEO #2

2008-05-23T10:02:00.001-04:00

St. John's

2008-05-23T09:50:00.002-04:00

Wow. I think I love it here.

We've been hanging out in St John's since Tuesday, and though we haven't really "done" much - it's been great. On Wednesday it rained pretty hard so we were all stuck in the house - which was OK, because it gave us a chance to start the fancy videos you've all been (hopefully) watching. We're hanging out at our friend Jud's place (which is awesome), so it's nice to have a comfortable place to just relax for a bit.

Yesterday was sort of the first time we ventured out into downtown St. John's, we went to a cool record store called Fred's and loaded our stuff into the ship. Being in this town makes me feel like I'm constantly on the CBC, I don't know why. But I like it.

The ship is a mid-sized venue, maybe similar to Gus' pub and is apparently the "hip" bar in town. We played our first St. John's show with a band called The Human Soundtrack who were super nice guys and played some really cool tunes. The singer's voice reminded me of Neil Young, if he was from Newfoundland.

Anyways, by the time we played the place was pretty packed bringing the Newfoundland large crowds ratio up to 2/2. We're playing at the same bar again tonight with another band from St. John's called The Pathological Lovers. Word on the street is the crowd tonight is supposed to be even bigger. I can't wait!

TOUR VIDEO #1

2008-05-21T21:33:00.001-04:00

This One's For The Moms!

2008-05-20T23:47:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since an update mostly because we haven't had internet access since we left Quebec.
Well, that's kind of a lie. Obviously we had internet access when we were in Halifax, but we were all so happy to be home (well, at least I was) that I wasn't even thinking about using the internet.

So anyways,that being said a lot has happened - so here's a quick run down:

Montreal - scary. Played at a sketchy bar (someone told us it was the bar fight capital of Montreal), got to see a few friends like Karley, Anne and Jen McDonald (Matt's big sis) who informed me that Matt's mom constantly reads this very blog so - Hi Matt's Mom! - and we played a lackluster show to about 25 people (one of whom was Julie Doiron who hung out with us for a while after the show). We were all real tired, and real annoyed about playing a few shows in a row to tiny to non-existent crowds. There was a girl from the Montreal blog Midnight Poutine was there. Unfortunately she didn't really like the show, though her devotion to the band remains.

Quebec City - weird. We played at a bar called L'Agitee and met a few new friends like Jane and Sam who were nice enough to have us over and cook us supper. There wasn't a huge crowd at this show either, but the people who were there were very enthusiastic - sometimes even cheering for the parts in our songs when we hit the solos. Some guy bought us all vodka shots. That was cool.

After the Quebec City show, we went for a 1:00am quick band-visit to Chateau Frotenac and started the 10+ hour drive back to Halifax. We drove through the night, taking shifts and making it back to Halifax safe and sound around noon on Friday.

After several shows and naps, we all met up at the Seahorse for load-in around nine, and then played a show to a great hometown crowd. Lots of dancing, and singing along, and heat, and fun. It was definitely good to be home.

Saturday we headed to Cape Breton around 3:00, where we played at a bar called the Upstairs in Sydney with one of our favorite people Carmen Townsend. Carmen is like watching a female version of Kyuss, Zeppelin, and Queens of the Stone Age all wrapped in one. To paraphrase a scene from Wayne's World, "She can wail."

After an interesting night at Pirate House and some fun adventures with their new kitty, we headed towards the ferry to begin our first trip to Newfoundland.

The ferry ride was kind of rocky, especially as we approached "The Rock." It was long. I spent most of the time reading, sleeping and playing Crib with Pinky (I bought a crib board before I left!). I suck at crib. To date , He's up 8 games to my 1. But its fun.

As soon as we got off the ferry we drove to Cornerbrook for our first show of five here in Newfoundland. We weren't expecting a whole heck of a lot since it was a Sunday night, but the show was amazing. There was about 150 people there, and we played with a couple other touring bands, dd/mm/yy and Video Hippos who were both on their way back through the maritimes. It was a pretty crazy show. On top of it, our usual Cape Breton counterparts Megan Macs and Nicole just happened to be in Cornerbrook so it ended up being quite the party.

The next day was pretty lazy, we hung out with the Cape Breton counterparts and drank new and exciting beers and pops and spent the night at our new friend Neil's house.

Today, we drove the 7 hour boring drive to Saint John's. This city is about exactly what I pictured it to be. It definitely screams Newfoundland. It's really cool and distinct. I'm excited to explore it in the next couple days. Aaron and I played a surreal show at a vegan restaurant with an electric guitar and no microphone. Weird. On the bonus side, we got paid and added some more bling to the till.

Both my mom and Matt's mom were talking about how they missed the blogging, so hopefully this sustains their cravings.

We don't have another show till Thursday here in Saint John's, so tomorrow is an exploration day. Woo!

Bonsoir.

Toronto (day 2) and Hamilton

2008-05-13T14:33:00.002-04:00

Our Sunday in Toronto was a lazy hazy grey day.

I woke up at Kerri's and went downtown for a mother's day brunch with my newly discovered extended cousin Amanda and her family (which, I guess, is also my family). It was nice. They had a barbecue and I got to meet some more of my Dad's cousins. It's cool to know that there's family "out there," especially when they treat you like they've known you for 20 years although they've only met you yesterday. I love it.

After the barbecue, Amanda and I went downtown for a drink at a bar that reminded me a lot of Gus' Pub, and then I walked up to Bloor Street to meet the rest of my bandmates at our friend Keith Hamilton's place (Keith plays in many bands including Hamilton Trading Co. and The Postage Stamps). Basically, aside from a trip to Pizza Pizza, we didn't do anything all day except kindle a romance with the BBC series Planet Earth.

Monday morning we got up early to do a session on the CIUT (UToronto) Radio Program Take 5 which would have aired today. We recorded three tracks, two new ones (Coup d'Etat & Information) as well as our single (Got Caught). The mixes turned out really good, and hopefully we will throw one up on our MySpace.

After the Session, we hit the road and headed to Hamilton where we met up with our new friends The Details for some drinks. They were playing in the same club, right next door. Luckily, because of our four-band bill, we were able to sneak out and see them play a wicked set. We also got to play with a really cool band from Guelph called Cursed Arrows which is actually Ryan Stanley's (ex Vermicious Knid) new band with his wife. Really cool stuff.

The show at the Casbah was probably the best one we've ever had. Our shows there before have been pretty desolate, but for a Monday night the crowd was excellent. We had lots of old friends show up, like Maria, Matt, Nick, Jill, etc, and we made some new friends - who thankfully were kind enough to let us stay at their place.

Right now we're in Oshawa at our friend Maria's place watching even more episodes of Planet Earth and having a BBQ.

Tonight we will play in Peterborough to probably 30 people max. Meanwhile my girlfriend and pretty much everyone I know will be watching Queens of the Stone Age in Halifax. Fuck.

Next Stop: Montreal

Video! Karaoke! Bayfield!

2008-05-13T14:30:00.000-04:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_9Y-avxNVXQ

heres and theres

2008-05-11T11:42:00.002-04:00

In a very quick format:

Guelph was probably the worst show we've ever played period. Aside from Joe and Andrea, nobody there was interested in hearing us play - the tiny crowd actually applauded when AC/DC came on the radio after we were done.

Bayfield Ontario is such a unique and fun place. It's a little resort town in the middle of nowhere (close to lake Huron) - and it is gorgeous. Its the kind of place where rich people buy summer homes. The people there are super nice and it always makes for a good time. Peter, the guy who runs the Blog Dog Pub (the place where we play) always treats us super good. We got there pretty early in the afternoon, so we played Rock Band all day and waited for load in. The show was decent, we're pretty loud for that room, so a lot of people actually watched from outside. But regardless, it was fun. After the show, Sleepless Nights went into party mode - which is something that rarely happens. After an evening of being fed free drinks, we topped off the night at the Black Dog by doing shots of something called Polar Bear (Creme de Caocoa and Peppermint Schnopps) and then proceeded to go to this other bar called The Docks. Basically anyone who was at our show was there. Its the bar to go to after the bar you wanted to be at closes. Also, it was kareoke. Let's just say this - never in my life have I done kareoke, and never have I had the desire to, but Pinky and I sang Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi - and it was terrible and hilarious (especially if you take into account how much we both love the Bonj). Anyways, good night.

We got to Toronto pretty early again yesterday because our show at The Drake was early (7:00pm). The headliner for the show dropped off the bill because one of the guys was sick and in the hospital - so that thinned out the crowd i think. The stage was great though, we sounded amazing and we played a good set. When we're put on a stage where everything is properly mic'ed and everyone can hear everything, it just boosts our confidence and we play a little bit better.

Long story short, I had a bunch of extended family come out - my Dad's cousins and their kids - and they have invited me to a BBQ brunch at their place today, so I'm on my way out the door with my friend Kerri to hit that up. We are staying here all day, and we have a radio session on CIUT tomorrow morning.

Next stop: Hamilton (on Monday)

Waterlooooooo

2008-05-08T14:12:00.003-04:00

Yes. Waterloo. Awesome.

If Fredericton is like our 2nd home, Waterloo is without a doubt our third. The guys at The Trepid House are so awesome to us all the time, and it's good to come to a place where so many friends show up. It was a Wednesday night, in a house ("it's a house") and to see friends like Joe, Andrea, Katherine, Cole, Owen, & Jeff just puts everything in its right place.

We played the show to a living room of sweaty, dancing fools - and it was fantastic. We sold more merch last night than we have pretty much the whole tour (maybe even the whole tour combined) and had a fantastic time. If we ever get to the point where we're playing a large venue in Waterloo, I would always want to play secret shows or something at the Trepid House.

We came back to our friend Cole's apartment for the night - which is a super nice place in Kitchener - and this morning Matt and I got up at 7:30am to go to CKMS with Cole to do a two-hour co-hosting stint on her show The Culture Vulture. Matt and I indulged the opportunity and played a bunch of Sleepless Nights tracks from Turn Into Vapour and from our upcoming Dance EP Jamz!. We also went ahead and played some Superfantastics, Quiet Parade, The Establishment and Cheval tracks. Being on Cole's show is so much fun - even at 8am.

Right now, we're just hanging out at Cole's place. We're heading to Guelph tonight and playing at the Jimmy Jazz where we will have more fun with our Waterloo BFF's.

Next Stop: Guelph

Montreal (for hang outs)

2008-05-06T17:41:00.002-04:00

We woke up early Monday morning and hit the road for Montreal. We didn't have a show on Monday night, and our next show was in Kingston, Ontario on Tuesday - so we decided to go to Montreal (a good half way point) and stay with our friend Valerie and her dog Starbuck and her kitty Kramer.

It was about a 10 hour drive - and I unfortunately was not able to sleep a wink in the van. What I was able to do was get a ton of reading done. Since school is done, I'm trying to take a break from academic books for a while and read some fiction for once. Already, not even a week into the tour i have finished Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and Mordecai Richler's "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz." Both were phenomenal. Next on my list is The World According to Garp and Bob Dylan's Chronicles.

We got to Valeries around 8, and drank a bunch of wine on her patio. It is nice there - and it is nice here. Spring has come. Merci Dieu.

This morning I got up earlier than my bandmates and went down to Saint Catherine's Street for breakfast with Tory and Karley - so good to see them again, as always. After breakfast we piled in Bettie White and hit the road to Kingston.

Right now, we're at the Queen's campus radio station CFRC where Aaron and Pinky did an interview on-air with our new friend Lauren, and we're heading over to the Grad House to unload in a couple minnutes. I'm excited to see Nich Worby again, and friggen Becky Murray!

Tonight: Kingston
Next Stop: Waterloo

Fredericton/Saint John/Fredericton

2008-05-04T20:52:00.002-04:00

After passing by things I thought I could never see in real life - like road signs almost completely submerged underwater - on the way into Fredericton, we arrived to the downtown core - which was also mostly under water. Luckily, the Capital was about a block up from the flooded Queen Street so the show was still a go!

Before loading in to the capital, we hit up Fox 103.5 here in Fredericton to do a radio interview with a DJ named Crash Barton. Aaron and Pinky spent about ten minutes on air - the station has been playing our single a good deal. After the interview, we headed down to the Capital and loaded. We played the show with our friends All of Green, who would we be playing with the next night in Saint John.

The show, as usual, was amazing. Fredericton is like a second home to us - it's almost a first home. There are so many friends here, so many fans, and so many good times. The Capital was past capacity, and we played a fun set.

After the show we went to a party down the street where we played Rock Band. Its funny to go from playing real instruments to fake ones after playing a balls-out rock n roll show. Also, Pinky sucks at the drums on Rock Band.

Time arrived back at Zach & James' place: 5:30am.

Saturday, we slept in till about two and headed down to the best restaurant in Freddy Beach - The Snooty Fox. Some friends of ours were cooking in the kitchen that day, so even though it was 3:00pm, they still cooked us breakfast. After breakfast Pinky and I took the video camera downtown to get some more Fredericton Floodemonium Footage. A couple hours later, we were on our way to Saint John.

We played at a new place in Saint John called A Khord which was a great bar. Big stage, real classy like. One downside: the bartender put on a Dave Matthews DVD while we were waiting for soundcheck. No thanks.

This was one of the best Saint John show's we've had in a while. Our last four shows there have been less than spectacular, so playing a good show on a Saturday night was a huge bonus. And, as always, Danna Jean showed up and brought the party! She brought along her sister Emma, whom we had never met, and two different Katies from Halifax. Those girls are fun as hell. After the show, Pinky and I went back to Danna and Emma's house, had a few drinks, watched some Conan - though it definitely not as good as the last episode we saw with Danna in SJ thanks to the hilarity of Harland Williams, and went to bed on couches that felt like clouds.

The next morning, we had a big ol' breakfast at Danna's place. Her parents are super cool, and hanging out with those girls is just too much fun. In the afternoon, they took us to a beach (!!) and we walked around and filmed some stuff.

We haven't really had time to upload any video footage yet, but we don't have another show until Tuesday in Kingston Ontario so hopefully we'll get some time to throw some hilarity together.

Right now, we're back in Fredericton at Zach & James' place for the night. Tomorrow we are heading to Montreal to spend the night at our friend Valerie's. Tuesday morning will be (hopefully) breakfast with karley whom I miss dearly and then - as previoudly mentioned - Tuesday night we hit Kingston, Ontario.

I'm tired already.

Charlottetown

2008-05-02T11:16:00.003-04:00

After kicking off the tour in true Haligonian style at the Tribeca Bistro and Bar in Halifax on on a ragged Wednesday night, we cleaned out ol' Bettie White (our van) and hit the road to Charlottetown.

Our first show was a house show at some guy's house on Prince Street. We loaded into the apartment and started setting up our massive set up of gear. We took up half the living room. Ha. There were probably about 20 people there, and we played a really good set. House shows are always fun.

After that show, we loaded out and drove about a block away to Baba's Lounge where we loaded in for our second show of the night. Baba's is smaller than the bar we usually play at in Charlottetown (Hunter's Ale House) but it has a better sound system. We were lucky enough to play with perhaps the best band in Charlottetown, and one of my favorite bands around here, Smothered In Hugs. There wasn't a super huge crowd, but some of our good friends like Jessi and Sarah came - two people we haven't seen in a while - and Jen, an old friend from high school, even stopped by so that was cool.

Our set at the house show was probably better than the Baba's set, though it sounded better at Baba's, but watching Smothered in Hugs made the night worth while. Their songs are absolutely fantastic.

We've been shooting some video with our new camera, so hopefully we'll be able to throw some stuff up online within the next few days.

Next stop: Fredericton (I hear there are floods!!!!)

TOUR!!!

2008-05-01T08:43:00.000-04:00

promo photos by jon grime

2007-09-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

i didn't want to distort the image sizes, so i will just post the links:

Lines 1

Lines 2

Circles 1

Circles 2

Jungle

Forest

guelph/brantford + photos

2007-09-14T00:33:00.001-04:00

alas, the illustrious days off. after a rousing game of tips and learning how to slack line at the university of guelph yesterday with amber, katherine and mel, we went over to their place to cook supper and begin an evening of debauchery. we cooked a big stir fry with rice, drank lots of beer, wine and whisky, then went downtown to the jimmy jazz (where, ps, we usually play when we're in guelph) for music trivia. needless to say, between all of us, we nearly cleaned up the prizes - which was, lucky for us, beer. in the first round aaron one first place, and in the second round aaron won second place, while pineau and i won third. we had clever team names like "We're A Real Band" and "Warehorse."

this was probably the first time on tour that all six of us ended up drinking, what a night...

today after mustering ourselves to get up, we trucked on through to brantford for another day off where we are staying with our pal jon grimes. he took us to the desolate downtown area - and i mean that in every sense of the word - and jon took some promo photos for us - which turned out AMAZING. they're probably the best photos of us to date. he's still working on touching them up, but i will upload them as soon as i get a chance.

tonight, we spent about 5 hours watching the office - we're almost on season 3.

here are some photos from the past couple days:

in waterloo with good ol' joe:

one more photo from joe's party:

our show at the Trepid House:

tips at the University of Guelph:

learning how to slack-line:

and the evening hits in guelph, as always:

the dynamic duo, bass players unite!

tomorrow, it's off to bayfield for our last show then we drive home right after, making a short stop in montreal.

see ya when i see ya.

hamilton/guelph

2007-09-12T16:10:00.000-04:00

after our last night of staying at joe's place, we packed up the van and headed to hamilton.

our last few shows in hamilton haven't been spectacular so i was really unsure of how the turn out would be. on top of that, it was a tuesday night and it started down pouring and lightning(ing) the second we unloaded.

whatever.

the show was actually quite great. it was definitely the biggest crowd we've ever played to in hamilton, and i think we played a really good set. chris bell from chore/alive & living did our sound, so i know it sounded good.

some of our good friends came out to the show, like jon grimes and kristen. i also got the chance to meet some relatives of mine whom i had never met before. they would be my dad's cousins i guess. they came out just to meet me and to watch our set. that is why i like our family, people like that are awesome. they were very nice, and very interesting. i hope the next time i'm in hamilton we can meet up again.

we stayed at one of andrew's friends places for the night, and this morning they left us eggs, pancake batter and fruit salad, which was awesome.

this afternoon we drove to guelph and met up with our new friends amber and katherine at the university of guelph (where we are currently accessing their free internet). we taught them how to play tips, which was probably the most physical activity we've gotten as a band other than loading gear. so it was good. them amber tried to teach us all how to walk a "slack line" - which is essentially like tight rope walking on a seat belt. it was crazy. there are some pics and videos to come.

tomorrow, maybe brantford?

home soon.

waterloo (again) & more photos

2007-09-11T11:23:00.001-04:00

sunday, we also spent the day kicking around waterloo. we all had to take some time to re-coup from joe's fun-filled party the night before, so we just lounged around and we were eventually able to download the episodes of Big Brother we had missed (pinky, matt and I are all hooked!).

we actually did have a show to play in waterloo on sunday night, but before that, we made huge pizzas with joe and his parents:

after dinner, we went about five minutes down the street to play a house show at the Trepid House where we always have a good time. All six of us crammed into the stage area in the living room where we played a 40-minute set to a really receptive groups of people, which included, but was not limited to, some of our new friends and some of our old friends from the party at joe's the night before. we played with a band from Montreal called Ghetto Pony and an amazing band from Hamilton called Tell The Divers. it was a really eclectic show. the cops even showed up (after our set) with a noise complaint. woo hoo rock n roll!

after the show we came back to joe's and watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back before we all hit the hay.

then monday comes. monday was an "official" day off as we had no shows. we did, however, have a radio interview on the University of Waterloo radio station, CKMS on a show called The Culture Vulture with our new friend Cole.

It was a pretty relaxed show, she played about four tracks from our EP, and we tried to get some new tracks off an mp3 player, but we couldn't figure it out. she basically let us DJ her whole show, and she got us each to pick a song and talk about it etc. it was a lot of fun. pineau picked a kittens song, pinky picked a radio free vestibule song, aaron picked a b'elle song, andrew picked a new yeah yeah yeahs song, matt picked a burdocks song, and i picked a contrived song. again, lots of fun.

so much to choose from:

this is cole, our wonderful host:

matt and pineau and cole trying to figure out how/if we can get new tracks off an mp3 player:

radio, radio:

after the radio interview, we hit up downtown waterloo and went to the music store and record store. i bought nothing.

as always, joe is a good time:

my friend kerri came over later in the evening, and we hung out by ourself upstairs for a while. she brought her guitar, and i played a couple of my new songs for her, she also did the same for me. just like old times. the boys spent the rest of the evening just lounging around, playing pool and prince of persia.

today, we head to hamilton for one of our two last shows. we have no shows on wednesday or thursday, so we're kind of screwed as we have no way of making any more money until friday, and not really anywhere to stay. after all the good times, now comes the shitty part about touring....

waterloo + photos

2007-09-09T17:33:00.000-04:00

so we got to joe's yesterday, and basically just hung out. some of us swam, some of us ate, all of us drank. gradually people started showing up for a party, we set up our gear in the basement, and once our friend Nikki (aka the Show Saver) hooked us up with a microphone, we rocked the Manorwood Court mansion for some of our new friends.

anyways, not much to say - tonite we have another houseshow in waterloo with a couple other bands. here are some pictures!!

traveling between montreal and toronto was hot as balls.

we had to buy a couple fans for bettie white:

so once we got to waterloo, swimming was serious priority:

we taught joe's mom and dad how to play drums:

and then we rocked the basement show:

after the set, pinky was first to jump in the pool:

our buddy nikki, the show saver:

party time:

if this isn't rock n roll, i don't know what is:

toronto

2007-09-08T18:21:00.000-04:00

well, honestly, the show we played in toronto last night was definitely the best show we ever played there. there were lots of people in town because of the Toronto Film Fest and because V-fest was going on also. anyways, the crowd at The Boat was great. by far the biggest, best and most responsive crowd we've ever played to in toronto. we played with a band called Sports, the Band (sorry matt and steph) whose bass player was actually Mike from the Meligrove Band. They were really cool. We also played with this band The Patients who were playing their last show, so they brought out a good crowd.

I had an ultimate rock star moment at this show. A girl who I went to kings with was there, on a totally unrelated note, and was like "wow, this band is great" then she noticed that i was playing in the band and was like "hey, i know that guy!". i don't know, but that seemed pretty cool to me.

anyways, we had a bunch of other friends out too. my cousin malizza and her husband reagan came out, as well as my old college roomies jo and aaron, as well as our old pal bennie p, etc etc.

our set was really good, pretty tight, and we had people dancing and enjoying the tunes the whole way through. i definitely can't wait to play there again on a weekend.

today we went out to breakfast and then went to see this art gallery on King Street called "The North End" which was a girl who collected posters from polls in the North End of Halifax for two years, and compiled them into an exhibit/book collection. There was a couple Sleepless Nights posters and superfans posters, and share posters, but i was super disappointed that NONE of my posters were anywhere in the exhibit. ticked! To be fair, we did discover after there was another set of posters we didn't look at so I could be wrong. but still, argh.

now we are at joe's in waterloo. we are playing in his bar/basement tonite and he is having a party. sa c'est le fun.

oh, big PS - check out the new Superfantastics Video. It's amazing, and features cameos to the wazoo ( you may recognize the beer bottles as me and pinky ;) )

Montreal

2007-09-07T09:48:00.000-04:00

We left Halifax shortly after 6:00pm on Wednesday evening and headed to New Brunswick. Instead of pending the night in Fredericton like we usually do, we slept at Pineau's aunt's place in Oromocto.

Up early on Thursday morning, we bolted to Montreal making it in pretty decent time. We went straight to the Concordia radio station called CJLO where we did an interview on air and they played two tracks off our EP as well as two unmixed unmastered tracks from our new LP (which by the by, can be found on our MySpace. Got to see some old pals like Omar and Brian and got to take in the Concordia campus left. Felt a little weird considering yesterday was supposed to be my first day of school, but alas...I am on the road for another week.

The bar we played at in Montreal was called The Barfly. It was a little hole in the wall place on St. Laurent with two tables, two high tables and one pool table. It's weird, we seem to be regressing in our Montreal shows. The first time we were here we played at la Sala Rosa which is HUGE, then we played at Casa del Popolo which was smaller, but still pretty big, and then we get to this place. It was a weird feeling. We had fun though. We played with weird "hip hop" act called Ancient Rhymes and Omar's EXTREMELY loud band called Superheater. I'm glad we have soo many friends in Montreal. Val, Karley, Erin, Tim, Anne, Tory, Jen etc etc all came out to see us. There's nothing better than being in a "strange" place and seeing familiar faces. also, if not for them, we might have played to 12 people.

Today we head to Toronto for a show at The Boat. This is our first weekend show in Toronto ever, and the film festival is going on as well as V-Fest so there will be tons of people in town. Will they come to our show? We'll see I guess.

Sleepless Nights back on Tour

2007-09-05T09:11:00.001-04:00

heading out on a quick Ontario tour. Leaving today.
tell your friends in the following locations:

Thursday, Sept. 6 - Montreal, QC @ The Barfly
Friday, Sept. 7 - Toronto, ON @ The Boat
Saturday, Sept. 8 - Waterloo, ON @ Joe's Place
Sunday, Sept. 9 - Waterloo, ON @ 130 King St. North
Tuesday, Sept. 11 - Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah
Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Peterborough, ON @ The Spill
Saturday, Sept. 15 - Bayfield, ON @ The Black Dog Pub

the art for the Orphan Choir/Establishment 7"

2007-07-27T11:32:00.001-04:00

tour dates to follow.

saint john/charlottetown/home

2007-06-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

the final leg of our tour was probably the most fun i've had on the road.

before the saint john gig, we did an interview on campus radio on a show called Prog as Balls. it was pretty hilarious.

the saint john show was a ripper. it was matt's birthday, and our friend barb's birthday - so there was plenty of drinking going on. it was also our second show with our friends The Peter Parkers. the crowd was great, it was fantastic to see so many people dancing and singing and enjoying our set. despite the booze, i think we played great - maybe one of our best sets of the entire tour.

that night we spent the night at barb's watching clone high, and in the morning we headed to pei for our final two shows of the tour.

the first was at a small record store in charlottetown called Back Alley Music. It was quite literally like playing in someone's rec room for about 20 people. we got to play four songs. it was pretty fun, all things considered. it was a treat just to see the peter parkers in a setting like that. there was also a really cool all-girl trio from pei called The Barnkats who played with us, and whom I quite enjoyed.

the bar show got underway a little late because of the hockey game (we decided to wait until the game was over to start). by the end of the night the bar was pretty full, and we ended the tour with a bang i think - not really a saint john bang, but a bang nonetheless.

the tour also ended on a sad note as this pei show was mary's last show with us. she's moving to toronto, and i know personally, i am very sad to see her go. we made sure she had a good night though, we got some rowdy applause from the crowd in her favour, and bought her a plethora of coronas as a send off.

after the show we went back to the motel where we were staying and stayed up partying till about 530 in the morning - well at least i did. some packed in earlier, some later.

this morning we went to pineau's parent's house for some sweet breakfast and then made our way back to nova scotia via the ferry. it was gorgeous.

now we're home safe and sound, the van held up, we have a couple bucks in our pockets, and a bunch of shows to play this month.

c'est beau ca.

hamilton/moncton/fredericton

2007-06-01T10:19:00.000-04:00

the show in hamilton was kind of a bust. there was maybe 20-30 people there, and we didn't really sell anything. kind of a shitty way to end our ontario leg. there were some perks though. we got to hang out with maria a whole bunch in hamilton and her mom made us supper, we got to see donnie the soundguy, who used to play in don vail and is a big establishment fan, and - out of the blue - joe and nikki showed up. that was super cool.

after our set, we packed up the van and started the drive to fredericton. somehwere around toronto we realized we forgot pinky's cymbals, had to call maria, and get kyle cunjak to bring them home when petunia is done their tour - what a rigamarore.

anyways - we drove straight through the night to get to new brunswick. i stayed up all night with matt and pineau who took turns driving, but then i slept through the majority of quebec and new brunswick in the back of the van. mmm sleep.

we got to fredericton around 8 or so i guess on tuesday, and stayed at Nick Cobham's place - you might remember him from The Fussy Part. we got a bunch of beers, hung out, then pinky, matt and i went down to the capital to see what was shaking. we ran into some pals like Zach and Dennis and Jeff. that's why i like fredericton, because even though we're not from here - we can go out and see friends. love it.

oh - yeah! we finally found an extra seat for the van! turns out, Zach's dad had like 3 of them just kicking around. how lucky is that!!! woo! everyone gets a seat!

wednesday's show was in moncton with The Peter Parkers, who, thankfully for us, are also playing our Saint John, PEI and Halifax shows. this was only our second show in moncton (technically our third i guess) so we were kind of ancy about the crowd-size. having the Parkers on the bill deifnately helped. the crowd was great, and very receptive. moncton is definately a city we have to play more often.

we stayed at Stephane's (the parker's bass player) house that night, a really nice place in downtown moncton. mary and i watched a really crappy sean connery movie before bed. he's a weird guy.

yesterday we came back to fredericton for a show at the capital with The Trick. Again, I was kind of worried about the crowd because we have kind of a big ego to flaunt in fredericton. all of our shows here have been packed, and everyone seems to love us. having said that however, we have never played fredericton as the headliner, we have never played on a weeknight, and we have only played here once when university wasn't going on and that was when nobody really knew us. so last night was definately the test - how "cool" are we in fredericton, really?

answer: very

there was a lot of people there, engaging in sing-a-longs, dance-a-longs, clap-a-longs. we sold a boat-load of tshirts and cds and played an awesome set.

tonite we play in saint john (it's matty matt's birthday!!!), then tomorrow we do an all ages show in pei then a bar show. I think Nick Cobham is coming with us. that will be hilarious. i need to get more batteries for my camera.

i love the maritimes.

hamilton

2007-05-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

just a short post from the bar...

we rolled into hamilton yesterday afternoon and met up with our friend maria who barbecued for us in the semi-rain.

then we spent the night at cassie's place - aka the greenhouse - playing guitar hero, watching tv and watching perhaps the most hilarious and insane thing i have ever watched - R Kelley's "Trapped in the Closet."

seriously.

this is either the dumbest most self-indulgent piece of art i have ever seen, or the most genial comedic work ever produced. i haven't figured out which yet.

so. awesome.

anyways, today we lounged around - spent some time walking around hamilton, and maria's mom made us a wonderful pasta dinner.

we're second on the bill at the casbah tonite, and we're going to drive to fredericton tonite when we're done.

holy, joe and nikki just showed up.
awesome.

see you in the maritimes.

Cambridge/Waterloo

2007-05-27T13:10:00.000-04:00

After our show Friday in Guelph, we came back to Joe's. Saturday's show was in Cambridge, which is only twenty minutes away, so we spent all of Saturday around the house.

But this was no lounging day, oh no. We helped Joe and his dad do some wicked landscaping - mulching their garden's like we were pro landscapers. If i was doing the work at my own house, I would not have been having a good time. But for some reason, doing it here wasn't so bad. It might have been that I was still able to spend time with my friends while doing the work, it might have been that Joe's parents (and Joe) have been so hospitable to us these past couple days that we felt this was a way of earning our keep, it may have been that we spend hours on hours in the van and this was a good means of some well needed physical exercise, or it could have been the cause of a strange vortex which exists somewhere in Ontario. Either way, it was an afternoon well spent.

Pinky made us some sweet pizzas for supper - a la ~~Tomasinos~~, sorry Tomavinos, style. They were delicious. We also had a cornucopia of beers and pie - and we gave Joe's parents a framed photo of us and a bottle of wine for putting up with us the past two weekends.

After all that fun, we headed to Cambridge to play an all ages show with - seriously - metal bands. The bar was the skeeziest place I've ever seen - it reminded me of something out of the movies, the kind of bar that could be found in redneck Texas or something. It was good to see a couple of the guys in Persona again.

Given the other bands on the bill, we upped the ante a little bit, playing a melange of our heavier songs and our songs which include face-melting guitar solos. It went over better than I thought, we got a good response (all things considered), sold some merch, and then - yep - made our way back to Joe's.

We spent the night drinking beer in his hot tub. So rock n roll.

Today Joe's mom is cooking us a roast (obviously taking a page from the book of Katherine) and we are heading to Hamilton a little later. Today is a day off for us, so we're going to just hang out with our friends Maria and Cassie in Steeltown, and - if the rain holds off - hopefully have a barbecue.

Monday is our last Ontario show. I think we're driving straight to Fredericton when we're done playing Monday night, stopping through Montreal to pick up our shirts that we forgot there.

Its hard to believe we've already been gone a week.

And to think, one week from today, I will be sleeping in my own bed.

Angel of Debt tour photos/videos - part 3

2007-05-27T01:41:00.000-04:00

Toronto:

Morning fun:

Hanging out at Joe's, our favorite past-time:

Me playing outside in Peterborough:

A/V in Peterborough:

Windsor:

Fun, keeps the body healthy:

Guelph (photos by Jeff Woods):

Sleepless Nights, Landscaping Extraordinaires:

Team PSS - Pitchfork, Shovel, Shovel:

Angel Of Debt Tour Photos - Part 2

2007-05-26T10:51:00.000-04:00

Hanging out at Joe's place:

Helping out around the house:

~~Seven~~ Nine people riding in Bettie White

The 40s, the 40s, the 40s never stop!

Share:

Post-show chilaxin' (check out Mary's fancy new dress)

guelph

2007-05-26T10:12:00.000-04:00

"it just isn't the same without you"

Last night the Sleepless Nights made their triumphant return to Guelph. Well...it was hardly triumphant but it was fun.

After our show in Windsor, we drove back to our friend Joe's to chill out before the show at Jimmy Jazz. They were kind enough to make supper for us, and we hung around, sipped on some wine and I talked about The View with Joe's mom for a good while (apparently, Rosie is leaving earlier than she was supposed to!)

If fitting seven people in the van at any given time is difficult, fitting nine is an even bigger challenge. That being said, on the way to Guelph, we brought Joe and Andrea with us. Joe showed us a shortcut that involved us taking the rural route, passing by mansions and farmlands. say what you want about Ontario, but when you take roads like that - it sure is beautiful out here. Maybe one of the most beautiful landscapes i have ever seen.

The show at the Jimmy Jazz was fun. Our crowd was better this time than the last time we played here in March, but should the 100 people on the patio outside decided to enjoy the show - our crowd would have been immense.

Before the show started, Pinky and I decided to bite into some 40s of malt liquor in the van - because according to our new friends the Crimson Tides, "the 40's never stop."

Besides Joe and Andrea, some other friends of ours stopped by. Lindsay and her friend Steph came out, and Jeff - the guy who ran the house show in Waterloo - was popping in and out snapping photos.

Andrew, aka Share, played an opening set, which was lovely. I enjoy his songs so much - he is truly one of my favorite songwriters. He ended his set with the song "The Hill" and Pinky and I accompanied him on the drums and bass. Always a pleasure Sisky.

Our set went well, we set up the stage a bit different than last time which gave us more room to maneuver. We played for over an hour, performing nearly everything we know, or are brushed up on.

The drive back to Waterloo was filled with a sweet mix of hits from the 80s, lots of fun, and awesome sing-a-longs.

You can't really see anything since its like 2 in the morning, but the audio is the only thing that's important in this clip:

Today we're playing in Cambridge, which is only 20 minutes away from Waterloo, so we'll hang out at Joe's all day. I'm up early because I set my alarm to buy Marilyn Manson/Slayer tickets (!!!!!!!!!!) so my day is off to a good start.

Later, Pinky is making us all pizza. Ooo la la.

I just noticed it started raining

toronto/peterborough/windsor

2007-05-25T02:41:00.001-04:00

haven't been able to make it to a computer for a while...

we strolled into toronto for the better part of the day on tuesday, and parked near the horseshoe, where we would be playing later that evening as part of their New Music Night. Load in wasn't until 6 so we went to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, we checked out some music stores, and hung out in a park for a little while.

as a band, we like parks.

soundcheck was around 730, and at about 8 my cousin malizza came to meet me at the bar for a drink. it was good to see her, good to talk. a bunch of friends ended up coming out, namely Simp (one of Pinky's friends from X), Travis Greenough (who I haven't seen in at least 6 years) and Rachel and Katherine (two friends of mine from my college days at Kings).

Usually playing last at a show is a good thing, but at these New Music Nights in Toronto, it's kind of the opposite. When the first band went on at 930, the bar was packed. By the time we hit the stage to fill the final slot, there was maybe 20 people left. That really sucked, especially since we had all been building up this particular show so much.

That night, we slept at Nadia and Rob's - who are friends of Andrew's with an amazing house and outstanding hospitality. They made us breakfast and we listened to Wilco mixed tapes when we finally woke up around 1 on Wednesday.

Soon after we began the trek to Peterborough. We assumed since it was a Wednesday night, and we weren't playing with a local, and necause our only other show in Peterborough was a complete bust last year, this show would not be fantastic - by any stretch of the imagination.

We played at a place called The Spill, which was very nice. James, the guy who runs the place, was very nice and accomodating to us. We played to about 8 people - which, by my counts is 700% times better than the amount of people we played to at our last Peterborough show - but they were all very nice, and they all loved our band, and they all bought merch.

We had a lot of fun with our set. We played a few songs we don't usually bust out - like "Too Many Ghosts" - and at one point, I was even playing my bass outside, still plugged in an everything, but I was just out on the sidewalk, playing "Breathe Deep Tornado." Hilarious. Yes, I am.

Philip Clark, aka A/V was in town with The Crimson Tides, so he came to watch some of our set. In return, after we were all done, we went down the street about a half a block to watch both of their sets at another Peterborough venue. The Crimson Tides were awesome, and hilarious, and possibly my new fav. Halifax bands, and A/V capped the night off with a new-wave dance party - like he always does.

It was a six hour drive to Windsor, but it was good to see the boys in Orphan Choir as always. There was a good crowd for our set at Phog, and we sold a bunch of CD's. Oh, yeah, PS, we found our missing bag of Tshirts. They're in Montreal. We're picking them up on the way home.

Right now we're at Jim's house, everyone's sleeping (or trying to) and my head hurts from the shots of whisky we were doing with Nate in the bathroom.

Tomorrow, Guelph.

Back to Joe's! But, I am sad that Katherine won't be there.

waterloo/london

2007-05-22T10:49:00.001-04:00

we might as well have been living in LA yesterday.

We are staying with our friend Joe in Waterloo, and he has a magnificent house with plenty of room for us all, a gorgeous back yard (with a pool - even though it wasn't available for use just yet) and an undying amount of hospitality.

we spent the majority of the day reading outside, building and jumping on a trampoline, eating barbecue and - at one point - listening to our own cd (joe's mom wanted to hear it) through the stereo system that allowed us to hear the music throughout not only the whole house, but outside.

ridiculous.

our show last night was in london, at a place called The Alex P. Keaton. It wasn't terrible, but it definately was the worst show of the tour so far. the power to one entire side of the stage (including the vocals, and matt, aaron and andrew's amp) was knocked out twice. we mustered through it quite well actually, at one point turning the last verse of turn of the world into a complete acapella band sing-a-long. it was actually pretty friggen cool.

we also discovered that we lost an entire bag of tshirts which SUPER sucks - we think we left them in montreal, so we're trying to call the venue.

the crowd at the alex p. wasn't huge, but the people who were there were quite receptive. my friend jacqueline came out to see us, and our old friend Peter Mansbridge and the CBC's (I think is real name is Harry) came out.

we ended up coming back to Joe's to spend the nite again, and Joe's in the process of cooking us pancakes.

we're off to toronto in about an hour.

CJLO Session

2007-05-21T14:40:00.000-04:00

The guys and gals @ CJLO in Montreal were kind enough to send us an mp3 of the session we did on the Don't Mess With Dallas Show where we performed Way To Ruin Everything, Hang Up, Guitar Hero & Godspeed You Deathwolf!

Download The Session!

Angel of Debt tour photos + videos part 1!!

2007-05-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

Fun in our new tour Van - Bettie White

Moshing to Sabotage by Beastie Boys in the van = Tradition

CJLO On-Air Performance at Concordia University

Bex Cookin' Us Waffles

Hanging Out In Parc Mont Royal

(this is Starbuck)

Pinky's Fancy New Bon Jovi Belt Buckle

Diner

Hanging Out At Jon Stewart's

Windom Earle Dance Party in a Montreal Apartment!

Waterloo

montreal part 2 + waterloo

2007-05-21T02:05:00.000-04:00

it was a gorgeous day off in montreal. it was probably +20, we had absolutely nothing to do, and we had a ball.

we drove from bex's back downtown and hung out in Parc Mont Royal for several hours. I met up with karley and had a good couple-hours chat with her.

After hanging outs got stale, we headed to Jon Stewart's - where we were spending the nite. We had no definitive plans, but Halifax pals of ours - Windom Earle, and A/V - were playing a show somewhere that we were going to hit up. Turns out, the show was cancelled, and all the guys n gals from Windom Earle ended up coming to Jon's place. As the night progressed, and the big beers were consumed, and we spent some time meeting the upstairs neighbors - a girl who was having a birthday party upstairs asked Windom Earle to play in her apartment - so they did. what a fun time. they rocked that apartment with their sweet dance tunes. it was a great night. that, i think, is what montreal is all about.

today we drove to waterloo and hung out at 130 King St - The place we were playing. It was a really cool house with lots of different rooms - including a room called "the pirate room" and a loft that had to be accessed by a ladder.
We set up our gear in the living room (this place has house shows about once or twice a week), and waited for the crowd to show up. honestly, on a sunday nite, i wasn't expecting too much. however, a whole bunch of people showed up and a lot of people were really into us. we played with Richard Laviolette and his Black Lungs - and they were great. Really nice guys too.

Tonite we're staying at our buddy Joe's place. It is quite literally amazing. No foolin. I'm excited to sleep in a bed tonite.

montreal

2007-05-19T12:23:00.000-04:00

we left halifax around 8pm on thursday nite, in our new van (Bettie White) on what we have officially dubbed "The Angel of Debt Tour." we drove for 15 hours straight, through the night, making it to montreal around 10:30am friday morning.

we had an on-air performance/interview on the Concordia campus radio station - CJLO. We played four songs, Hang Up, Guitar Hero, Way To Ruin Everything, and Godspeed You Deathwolf! - and they sounded pretty good - especially for the radio. The people there were super nice, and extremeley accomodating. They even came out to our show later that nite.

Our show was at a place called Casa del Popolo - right across the street from La Sala Rosa - which is where we played last time we were in town. It's a pretty cool venue owned by one of the guys in Godspeed You Black Emperor. We played with Petunia and the Loons - a band from New Brunswick for whom our buddy Kyle Cunjak plays for. They were pretty cool, they reminded me a lot of O Brother Where Art Though because they were a 3-piece folk/bluegrass/country outfit. Very George Clooney.
The show was well-attended, and we were really happy considering this was only our second time here.

We are staying with our friend Bex who has cooked us massive waffles with fruit and ice cream(!!!!!). We have the day off today. It's gorgeous out so there's talk of some frisbee playing, but hopefully I'm going to be spending the day with Karley. I'll call her after breakfast.

Yum.

me no update longtime, so sorry

2007-05-16T17:28:00.000-04:00

yeah yeah yeah, little to no updates - i apologize, but getting ready to go out on the road again with sleepless nights i felt i should get back into the swing of things.

here's a brief band-by-band run down:

Sleepless Nights

Well, we're leaving for tour tomorrow - gone for about two and a half weeks, then we play a bunch of local shows when we get home. we just bought our van today as a matter of fact, and the boys are running around getting the paperwork all filled out.

Here are the tour dates/details:
Spring 2007 Tour Dates:
Friday, May 18 – Montreal, PQ – Casa del Popolo w. Petunia & The Loons
Sunday, May 20 – Waterloo, ON – 130 King. St. N. [Trepid Records House Show] w. Richard LaViolette
Monday, May 21 – London, ON – Alex P. Keaton w. Icharys Flight
Tuesday, May 22 – Toronto, ON – The Horseshoe w. Jason Kent, etc.
Wednesday, May 23 – Peterborough, ON – The Spill Café
Thursday, May 24 - Windsor, ON - Phog w. Orphan Choir
Friday, May 25 – Guelph, ON – Jimmy Jazz w. Share
Saturday, May 26 – Cambridge, ON – 69 Pickups
Monday, May 28 – Hamilton, ON – The Casbah w. Petunia & The Loons
Wednesday, May 30 – Moncton, NB – The Paramount w. The Peter Parkers and Paranerd
Thursday, May 31 – Fredericton, NB – The Capital w. The Trick & Smir
Friday, June 1 – Saint John, NB – Elwood’s w. The Peter Parkers & Hospital Grade
Saturday, June 2 – Charlottetown, PEI – Back Alley Discs [all ages] w. The Peter Parkers
Saturday, June 2 – Charlottetown, PEI – Hunter’s Ale House w. The Peter Parkers

and then when we get home...
Friday, June 15 – Halifax, NS – The Attic w. The Peter Parkers & Museum Pieces
Friday, June 22 – Yarmouth, NS – The Cotton Mill [No Scene Records Showcase]
Sunday, June 24 – Halifax, NS – The Khyber Club [No Scene Records Showcase]

The Establishment

The Estab just played a couple Halifax gigs with our good friends Kilbourne from Calgary, AB who rocked the house down at Gus' on Sunday nite.

We're just getting the funding in place to pay for our 7" split with Orphan Choir, and crossing our fingers that we may get some cash to record our new EP at J. LaPointe's.

We're planning a short tour in August to push the 7" - and hopefully we'll be playing a bit more maritime dates come the fall.

Quiet Parade

Keyboard player/trumpet player Carolann left the group some time ago to focus on her awesome band Gamma Gamma Rays. Since then Megan, Mary and I continued practicing and learning some new songs, introduced a new Megan to the lineup - Megan MacDonald on the glockenspiel - and madfe our grand debut at Tribeca last week, opening for Ryan Cook and the Sunny Acres Band.

It was marvelous, better than I could have ever expected. Unfortunately for me, and for this band (not to mention Sleepless Nights), Mary is moving to Toronto, so i am in need of a new drummer.

However, we did get to record 7 songs on saucy Friday evening, so at least there will be a record of what we worked on together. Can't wait.

Did i mention TOUR!!!!!
weeeeee!!!

I Wanna Rock: The Story of Pendulum

2007-04-13T18:05:00.000-04:00

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

re: last post

2007-04-08T20:52:00.003-04:00

here is the written part to the podcast
we're #4

http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/200081

PodCast

2007-04-08T07:13:00.000-04:00

The Sleepless Nights were featured on a podcast this week based out of Toronto called The Anti Hit List. Its done in conjunction with the Toronto star.

We're the first segment - check it out:

The Toronto Star Anti Hit List Podcast - April 7, 2007

kings etc.

2007-03-29T07:51:00.000-04:00

well i'm pretty sure the show sleepless nights played at the university of king's college on monday (in the wardroom no less) was one of the best, if not THE best, shows i have ever played.

it was immensely fun - the bar was full! (ok, it was moosehead monday), the beer taps went dry, there was dancing everywhere, i could go on for days. a lot of our friends made it down to, and helped us out in various songs like breathe deep tornado (i even gave deon my bass at one point). everyone seemed to have a genuinely good time. it was so much fun. i love that place.

in other band news, the establishment did not win for best YouTube Video in the Coast best of Music poll. We lost to a "real" music video (which i don't think is fair considering there is already a category for best local music video, who cares if it's on youtube or not, we made our thing specifically for youtube basically, but i'm not bitter).

you decide which one is better:
THIS Stolen Minks video or THIS Establishment YouTube exclusive. Just sayin...

fredericton!!!!

2007-03-24T21:47:00.000-04:00

i think if i could live in any other place in the entire world, it wouldn't be russia, or montreal, or bc, or chile. it would be fredericton, new brunswick.

no matter what, everytime i go there i have a friggen blast - and this weekend was no different.

the sleepless nights played a show to a packed house friday night at our home away from home, the capital. we played with some friends of ours in a band called On Vinyl.

playing fredericton is so awesome, especially since we have a bunch of friends there. barb came and brought us cupcakes, sarah came and partied with us and derek and jeff were rocking the front, as always.

its ridiculous to think that a month ago we played in our own hometown to no one, and scornful looks - and then we can go to fredericton and get treated better than anywhere in the world. amazing.

this was a good show for us, especially since we're basically taking about a month off (matt will be on tour w/ superfantastics, andrew on tour with his solo project, share). monday night is our actual "last" show before these guys take off. we're playing at my old stomping grounds - the king's wardroom:

i can't wait.

more photos!

2007-03-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

GUELPH:

hanging out before the show, being artsy:

kogan & gut (of jon mckiel) playing some pool:

andrew practicing at kat's before his first set in 4 months:

washing some towels to we can take showers:

hitting up the open mic on an off day:

pineau doing some promo:

wilbert (kat's kitty):

WINDSOR:

Detroit!

HAMILTON

Hanging with my buddies:

House Party to the Max!:

Jon McKiel house party set = funnest time of the tour:

Gut and D'Eon playing the Hulk Hogan theme:

FUN IN THE VAN

hamilton/home

2007-03-20T11:27:00.000-04:00

our last show was sunday night in hamilton at a cool little bar called Absinthe. after we slept in all day in guelph and had some sweet omelettes, we made our way to hamilton to meet up with the jon mckiel gents and have some supper at a place close to the party house - then we went over to Absinthe and loaded in.

both sleepless nights and the establishment played a set, and we played with two bands from hamilton - Circuit Breaker, and one of my favorite bands of all time The Inflation Kills. It was a Sunday night, so we weren't sure how the crowd would be - but it was great. sure a lot of people didn't really come up front to rock out, but that's to be expected - it was only our 2nd time in the city, like every other city. but it was a lot of fun - the establishment set (i've been told) was very good.

after the show was done, we had to pack up the van and head back home. we were able to put a bunch of stuff in brucie (the jon mckiel van) so it made our trip home in our rentavan a bit more comfortable.

then came the inevitable - time for the goodbyes. it may sound kinda weird but it was pretty sad to think that this was the end of the tour. we all dilly dallied around, putting off leaving for a bit while we laughed it up with the jon mckiel boys, played soccer baseball with a tire, kicked some speakers around - you know, the usual. kat was there too, it was hard to leave her behind cuz she was with us for so much of the trip and took such good care of us, but she's coming to hali soon enough, so that's good. i can't wait.

we piled into the van and made our way to halifax. we left around 1:30am.
the drive wasn't terrible - quite comfortable after - just a series of 20 minute naps for those of us who weren't driving really. we got into halufax around 10:30 last night - i want to sleep for days.

what a fun time.
i like this.
i could get used to it.

guelph/hamilton

2007-03-18T13:06:00.000-04:00

the friday night show in guelph was pretty good. it started snowing, it's the only time it's snowed since we left actually, so i don't know if that had any effect on the crowd or not. we played at this place called jimmy jazz which was a neat little room.

because only us and jon mckiel were scheduled for the bill, we decided to throw in some surprises. andrew (aka Share) played an opening set. jon mckiel and I played a couple songs with him, including "the hill," which is one of my favorite Share songs, then he got all of the sleepless nights up to play a song called "everyone i know" which is usually a sleepless nights song. since andrew has been gone for 4 months, we haven't played it in a long time, so it was fun to break it out again.

the sleepless nights set went pretty well - pineau's bass amp kept screwing up so that was a downer - but other than that it was fine. i think we impressed some of katherine's friends who were there.

jon mckiel played after us, and got everyone up on stage from the sleepless nights for an awesome gang vocal part in this new song they play called "Almost Had It," and then we did the same thing for their version of Huey Lewis' "Power of Love." it was fun.

for some reason, everyone thought it would be a good idea if we also did and Establishment set - and i'm not one to argue with that, so we did. we basically just played all our new songs to practice up for the show in Hamilton on Sunday, and played a rousing rendition of "Medicine" with some extra help from josh, jon and cheval - like we've been doing all tour.

after the show was over, we came back to kat's and stayed up till six in the morning drinking 40s of old english malt liquor, laughing our faces off at gut and his stories and throwing things at josh (the bass player from jon mckiel). as you can see, it was pretty funny:

Despite going to bed at 6am, we got up at like 9am to head to ottawa for a show with
The Fussy Part. About 20 minutes after we leave, we had a band meeting (in the van of course) and decided that due to our kilometre cap on the rental van going to ottawa and then back to hamilton on sunday, then back home monday would have been too much of a giant zigzag, and cost us too much money. so as much as it sucked, we decided to pull out of the ottawa, and just head to hamilton.

we didn't really have anything to do in hamilton since our show was only sunday night, so we all went to the theatre to see 300 (which was visually cool, but not really my thing). we met up with nick from The Inflation Kills for a little bit, then we headed to this house party where jon mckiel was playing a set.

the party was definately one of the funnest things we've done on tour. there ended up being quite a few people there, and it being st. patty's day and all, we all consumed our fair share of le booze to celebrate (except for pineau, poor guy was our driver). jon's set was supposed to be more subdued and slow and quiet, but we all wanted him to rock the fuck, so cheval, pinky and i decided to get things going by playing extra percussion on their first song. then their first song turned into their second, then their whole set! by the end, they were given 'er pretty hard. somehow cheval and gut ended up playing their underwear, and pinky ended up playing drums for "the power of love." it was a ridiculously awesome time and a definate perfect end to a pretty fun tour.

some of us decided to drive back to guelph last night for the luxury of beds (cuz it's only like 25 minutes away) - and had a nice big sleep in this morning for probably the first time the whole tour. now we're going to buy some breakfast, and then we're going to clean kat's house cuz she's an amazing host and let's us stay at her place so much - then we head to hamilton for our final show of the tour. we're thinking about driving home after the show tonite. this is it. c'est presque fini.

guelph/windsor/guelph again

2007-03-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

so after our arrival in guelph on tuesday, we decided wednesday was going to be st. patrick's wednesday - and we spent the entire day drinking. katherine (the doll that she is) made us all pancakes for breakfast - aaron was smart and had coffee flavoured beer. some of us went and explored, others stuck around the house, but by night's end - it felt like st patricks day.

after a great collectively-made pasta supper, we went over to the university (about a 5 minute walk from kat's) and aaron and pinky played the open mic. the open mic was the epitome of "college." in a sense, open mics make me sorry i ever went to college - because if that's the stereotype people see or think of when they hear "college," i didn't go to that school. anyways, they played a couple songs from the record, a bit subdued of course, and pineau spent the set handing out hand-written hand bills we had made for our show in guelph on friday. hopefully it gets some people out.

when we got home, andrew proceeded to convince us all that he was in fact THE Jager-Meister, and eventually we all went to sleep.

thursday there wasn't a gigantic rush to get to windsor, it's only 3 hrs from guelph. so we woke up late, cleaned up kat's place a bit, took showers, ate some lunch and then hit the road.

we got to windsor around supper time, and the jon mckiel guys were already there. we hit up this sweet schwarma place called The Hot Spot - where we go every time we're in windsor - for some eats then loaded into the venue - a small little place called Milk. It was really cool. It had a neat atmosphere, and there was an expo of paintings all around the place that were like goth-cartoon erotica. i thought they were awesome, but i don't think everyone agreed. i know allyson would have loved them.

speaking of art - because this show was a sleepless nights/jon mckiel/establishment/orphan choir show, the girl who is doing the art for the 7" establishment/orphan choir split came to the show and showed us what she had done so far. it looks friggen awesome. check out some of her previous work (including the orphan choir demo art) here.

the show was ok - it wasn't packed, but i think it went over well. the guys from what seas, what shores were out, and orphan choir were awesome as always.

by the time the establishment set was done, a bunch of the band-mates decided it would be best to suck it up and take the three hour drive back to guelph after the show because we all had beds there, and our next show was in guelph anyways, so we could all sleep in and just hang out for the whole day. so we did, and we are.

hopefully the show tonite goes over well - we're attempting to make this the biggest party of the tour. this is officially the last show that sleepless nights and jon mckiel are playing together (saturday we play in ottawa with the fussy part, sunday in hamilton with the inflation kills) so it should be lots of fun.

here's to tonite!

photos!!!

2007-03-15T13:23:00.000-04:00

on y va!

montreal
(band photos by aaron d.)

toronto:

ottawa:

guelph:

ottawa

2007-03-13T23:21:00.000-04:00

the show in the o-dot wasn't that great. there wasn't a big crowd - whatever.
there were some friends there. good to see claudia - haven't seen in her like what, 3 yrs, and erica (allyson's sister) came with one of her work buddies.

the sound at zaphod's is always awesome, so that was a bonus.

we ended ended up playing an establishment set - which was a great practice for the windsor show - and it was quite funny because the bartender remembered us from when we were there this summer, and bought us shots during our set. then, when i tried to give him a cd, he said "oh, i already have one." i was pretty psyched about that.

we all ended up sleeping in a one-bedroom apartment of a friend of one of the guys in My Dad VS Yours (a cool band from Ottawa who played at Pineau's prom with us back home). i discovered a trick - if you're all sleeping on floors, put a pillow underneath your hips - you sleep much more comfortably and soundly. decent trick.

we got up around 9 this morning, had some breakfast at denny's (good, but a little pricey), and then drove down to guelph. well, we dropped mary off in toronto, and then headed to guelph.

katherine (our guelph counterpart) had a roast, mashed potatoes, and carrots ready for us for supper - not to mention a million cookies - so we felt we were amazingly at home. after supper we went out and bought a cornucopia of groceries and beers. we have dubbed tomorrow Saint Patrick's Wednesday - so we are starting drinking at at least 1pm tomorrow. it's our day off - so we're taking advantage of it.

this is awesome.

toronto

2007-03-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

we left montreal on sunday morning and headed to to the Tdot.
we strolled into town around 4 o'clock on unloaded our gear in a spot called The Boat on Augusta Avenue. It was once a chinese restaurant fashioned to look like a boat, but now it's serves as a rock n roll venue for these things called Pitter Patter nights - which is basically like a new music showcase in toronto.

we were playing this show as part of a festival - so there were like 5 or 6 bands on the bill.
jon played second, we played third.

the crowd was pretty receptive to us, even when we played Godspeed (in which the lyrics are: I don't want to move to Toronto). for a sunday night in Toronto, the crowd was pretty good. the place was in kensington market, so it wasn't too bad. we didn't really make a "boat" load (get it?) of money or sell much merch - but whatever.

when we got into Toronto i met up with my old college friends (how old am i?) Jo Corbett and Aaron McCluskey - who was actually my roommate in first year. they came out to the show, and Pinky and I came back to their place - which is conveniently just around the corner - to spend the night. ahhh. no floor for me last night.
it was good times, it's always great to reconnect with old friends - especially people like Jo and Aaron.

Today we do a bit of a zigzag back up to Ottawa for a free showcase at Zaphod's - we usually do well with merch there, but there's no local act tonite - so i don't know how that will go. the establishment might even hop up and do a set. crazy.

montreal

2007-03-11T02:51:00.000-04:00

we got to montreal in excellent time today, i slept through all of new brunswick - fine by me.

the place we played in tonite was called La Sala Rosa - a pretty big place that reminded me of a high school gym. The show was quite early (930) but the crowd was great. we had a good response, sold some cds - and met up with some montreal via halifax pals (karley, bex, erin, dounia, etc).

oh, ps - andrew is BACK. he was in jamaica for three months - we picked him up today and he jumped right back into the lineup. i can't wait for his jamaica stories.

off to toronto tomorrow - hoping to see some old king's folk.

so far, so good.

it starts

2007-03-10T00:04:00.000-04:00

the tour has officially started. we're hanging out in fredericton at derek's, as always, and we're waking up early to go to montreal for our first show on the road at La Sala Rosa.

Last night's show @ the Attic was lots of fun. It's the first time we've played there with the sleepless nights. for a thursday night show, there was a good crowd. We played with The Darcys and our touring partners Jon McKiel.

Today we rented our tour van, packed it full, and hit the road.

i'm excited to be on tour again. i don't like that it's winter - that means we won't be able to hang out in cool spots in ottawa or peterborough or something. it also means that if i have to sleep on floors, it's probably going to be cold. which is why i brought a blanket. no one else is getting it! suckers!

we may have a couple days off mid-tour, i'm hoping the gang will agree to go to guelph and hang out at my friend katherine's place. she's a doll. she has beds for all of us.

have to get up at 630 tomorrow morning - off to montreal in a few hours.

this is awesome.

what a weekend

2007-03-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

This was a rock n' roll weekend for sure.

Friday night The Establishment was set to play a show @ The Attic with Die Brucke and our best buddies Orphan Choir from Windsor, Ontario. The entire week the weatherman said a terrible storm would be hitting us Friday, which a) didn't surprise me because The Establishment is cursed and whenever we play in Halifax it either snows like mad or rains so hard you can't see in front of your face, and b) pissed me off as a result of "a" always being right. When I woke up Friday morning though, the sun was out and I thought we were good to grow. Wrong. But the show was happening regardless.

By nightfall the snow started barrelling down, turning into hail, turning into rain, turning the whole city into slush by the time our show was over.

Usually we do quite well @ The Attic crowd-wise, but because of the weather the turnout was rather minimal in comparison. But, that didn't stop us from having fun. It was so awesome to hang out with the guys in Orphan Choir again, they are seriously amazing fellas (they're pictured above, with us - The Establishment). It sucked that the weather was so bad, I really wanted them to play to a good sized crowd in Halifax. Regardless, the people who did brave the weather to come were excellent and they really enjoyed the show - so it wasn't a total bust.

Saturday morning I woke up to gorgeous sunshine, and +5 weather - a stark contrast to the night before. I went and rented a car and we got set for a road trip to Fredericton where we were playing another show with Orphan Choir and a band from Fredericton called Them, The Ragtag. To our awesome surprise, earlier in the week, we found out that this was yet another band that Nick Cobham and Steve Dunn (of The Fussy Part) were involved with. So, as always, it would be good to see them again.

The drive up was pain-free, the weather was nice. Nicole (my gf) and our friend Vanessa came along for the ride.

We played at a bar called The Capital, where we always play, but they have done some excellent rennovations in there so now there's a good sound system, an awesome stage and lots more standing room. Gorgeous.

Fredericton is always really fun (my fav. place to play in the Maritimes) and Saturday was no exception. The crowd was excellent, all the bands were excellent and we got to hang out with some awesome people, including our pal Derek who comes to every show and puts us up whenever we're in town.

We stuck around the bar for quite a long time, then said our farewells to Orphan Choir who had to start the drive to Ottawa that night. Those guys are seriously awesome. I can't wait for our split to be done. And the good thing is, we'll be seeing them in two weeks when we go to Ontario with Sleepless Nights. Hot damn.

Sunday morning we had to get up at 7:30, despite only going to bed at like 4:30, because Pinky and I had to be back in Halifax for a matinee show with Sleepless Nights at the Pavilion. Thanks to the wonderful driving of my girlfriend, we made it home right on time, returned the rental car and then hit the Pavilion for the show with our pals Gamma Gamma Rays and a band from Ontario called The Most Serene Republic (best known for being on Arts & Crafts and for housing ex-members of Broken Social Scene).

For a show on a Sunday afternoon, I thought the crowd was great. I always look forward to hanging out/playing with Gamma Gamma Rays - they're a lot of fun.

The weekend left me completely exhausted, and I still have so much work to do before we leave for the Sleepless Nights tour to Ontario on Friday...

this is not the land of oz

2007-02-25T18:18:00.000-04:00

screw you dorothy, there are lot of places better than home.

we played at the grand hotel last night in yarmouth with sleepless nights to perhaps the worst crowd i have ever played to (with maybe the exception of the crowd @ Fibber's in New Glasgow that one time we played there).

the bar was full when Owen & Gerry played, but by the time we got to our third song, the place basically cleared out. The entire crowd was probably 35+, with the exception of about a dozen of our friends. i was convinced that more people our age would have been out, i was wrong. i am ALWAYS wrong when it comes to the Yarmouth scene.

i assume that since a million indie musicians come from Yarmouth, and since a decent handful of them make it semi-big, that there is still a thriving scene in our hometown. last night proved that I am completely wrong.

it's sad to think that we can tour the country, that we can fill bars in Halifax, Fredericton, or PEI but when we go to our own hometown, the place where we grew up and fostered our musical beginnings, not only do we get no support, we get no crowd, and no appreciation.

for some reason i always think that we can overcome all this, because of how well we're doing outside of yarmouth, and we can bring this excitement back home and say "hey, look what we're doing, isn't this great?" and people will enjoy it just as much as we do. boy was i wrong.

a couple posters for some upcoming shows

2007-02-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

The Estab - 2 Shows

2007-02-19T10:15:00.000-04:00

this weekend, despite me being deathly ill, the establishment played two shows.

friday, i woke up and was so sore i couldn't move - so the whole day i pumped myself full of flu meds and eventually made it out to Pinky's birthday bash @ The Speakeasy which featured performances by Jon McKiel, The Superfantastics, and Pinky's new band, tentatively called Quikersteven, which features him, Mick from Broken Ohms, Turk from Contrived, and Virgil from Heavy Meadows. After that whole shindig, we ended up playing a short set of mainly new stuff - due to my intoxication level thanks to the flu meds, and pinky/deon's intoxication level thanks to beer, it was no doubt terrible.

Saturday night I was feeling a bit better, but still had the flu in my system when we played at this strange little bar beneath the Attic called the Chef's Room. It was part of a special show at the attic where 5 bands played upstairs, and 5 bands played downstairs. Given the obscurity of the location, the bands playing upstairs (On Vinyl, Motorleague, Shelter With Theives, The Nuclear & The Monoxides), our crowd downstairs was pretty decent. The room was pretty cool, it was a different atmosphere. It felt like playing in the lounge of a hotel or something.

There were some friends from afar at the show (at both shows actually). Nick, the drummer from The Inflation Kills hung out with us on Saturday night, and our new pals from PEI, Kerri & Jessi, even made the trip down for these two shows.

The Orphan Choir come soon...so excited. We finished mixing the tracks for our 7" this weekend too - so we're gonna put them to wax as soon as we get some sweet cash. wanna help?

The Establishment + $rocking 4 dollar$

2007-02-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

it's been about 6 months since The Establishment has played $rocking 4 dollars$.

for those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, it's kind of like a wheel of fortune open mic. a bunch of bands play, and then at the end of the night they each get a chance to spin a wheel for prizes. the grand prize is cold hard cash. it starts at $200, and each week, if no one win's it it increases in incrememnts of $200. So if on week one nobody wins the money, then in week two the prize would be $400. If no one wins that week, the next week it's $600. Get it? Eventually, they cap it at $1000.

Last night was $800, so we decided to go down and try our luck - which, by the way, we have none of.

We played a brand new song that's basically not even finished yet, another new song that we've only played once and "Hypernetic," which will be on the 7" we're putting out.

We didn't win, nobody won. The $1000 next week would be sweet, but god i don't want to sit there for 4 hours again. But we need that friggen money...

Sleepless Nights + PEI

2007-02-11T21:39:00.000-04:00

(thanks to Tony Dawe for these photos!)

Well well well. The day after we played Fredericton last weekend, I issued a challenge to the folks of Prince Edward Island. I said, "Dear PEI. Fredericton was amazing, you have a lot of work to do to beat them for the best place in the Maritimes to play."

I'm not sure if they won, I mean, Fredericton is ridiculous always, but PEI was nothing short of amazing.

The first thing we did when we got there was go to China Garden, best Chinese food in the entire world. It's a PEI institute, we have never not gone there on our trips to the island.

The show was swell. We played in a weird spot in Hunter's Ale House - up on this staircase/pedastal thingy. Anyways, Lenore played with us and they were great. Pineau's cousin Laura sings in the band, her vox blew me away. great singer.

We were without Mary because she has pneumonia, so the set was a little weird. it was loud as eff though. we rocked it out, had a good time, converted a bunch of curious non-believers i think. It was fun for sure.

After the show, we hung around the bar and chatted it up with some old pals who have been to see us before in PEI, as well as some Halifax-via-PEI friends, like Bible Van and Sarah LeClair who happened to be back on the island for the show.

Went back to our lieu de residence and hung out with some of our old/new friends. We also adopted a new Sleepless Nights mascot. He first came to us in a dream Pinky had last time we were in PEI, and this time he came to life. His name is Jamal:

he kept pinky up most of the night, kept asking him to play bee-ball and to listen to some run dmc. oh jamal, you're hilarious. he's coming on tour with us in march. he can't wait.

the next morning, we went to Pineau's parent's place and his mom cooked us breakfast. Love Pineau's mom. Then we picked up some glass-bottled pop and came home.

Can't wait to go back.

vote for the bands!

2007-02-07T07:36:00.000-04:00

Every year, local Halifax independent paper The Coast does a "Best of Music" poll. If I may be so bold, I suggest you head over there right now and vote for any combination of my bands (Sleepless Nights or Establishment) in any of the fields.

Some major suggestions:
Best Artist/Band To Dance To: Sleepless Nights
Best Artist/Band To Be Blown Away By: Sleepless Nights/The Establishment

and this one is IMPORTANT:
Best Appearance on YouTube: The Establishment - How To Go On Tour in a Volkswagon Golf.

if you haven't seen this video yet, check it out on YouTube

We can win this thing!

Quiet Parade live demos

2007-02-04T20:36:00.001-04:00

stuck a mic in the jamspace the other night during Quiet Parade practice, and we recorded some of our hits.

check them out on the MySpace

Sleepless Nights + Fredericton = Love

2007-02-04T20:10:00.000-04:00

I know I've ranted about fredericton prior to this, but I have to re-itterate that it is by far my favorite place to play. people there are so receptive, and so amazing. and the crowd's are always great. if anyone from fredericton reads this blog, seriously, you're awesome.

Here's a video of some fun in the van on the way home yesterday. It was snowing, so it was a slow ride. And you just can't pass up Bon Jovi.

video!

As usual, we ended our set with Breathe Deep Tornado, and Cheval and Matt ended up getting into a "fake" scuffle.

I think people were either amused, or scared. Either way - super fun time!

In other band news, The Establishment has been writing some new - quite awesome - songs. Can't wait to get into the studio again...

fredROCKton

2007-02-03T05:32:00.000-04:00

it's 5:33am - currently in fredericton.

we (Sleepless Nights) played an AWESOME show at The Capital tonite with the Fussy Part (love those guys).
huge crowd, good friends, most excellent times.

loud.as.eff.

awesome.

we went back to kyle's house for some guitar hero action and an american idol kareoke competition - though that's not as fun as it sounds (really, it's not).

now i'm at derek's because i wasn't going to sleep on the floor if i didn't have to.

today is mary's birthday, and her bf flew in from toronto today to spend some time with her, so we're heading back to the 'fax in about 4 hours.

time for some sleep!

Updates

2007-01-28T22:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry, it's only been a week and already i'm slipping. here are a few updates from the band camps:

Sleepless Nights

After our snow-bound trek to le Nouveau Brunswick last week, we played a riotous show at the Grawood (the Dalhousie University campus bar) with New Brunswickians Grand Theft Bus. The show was packed, we drank a lot and we had an awesome time. I saw so many people out at the show that I didn't know went to shows and/or that I bet didn't know I played in a band (or several). All around, awesome show.

Tonite we had our weekly practice, started practicing a couple new tunes, and prepared ourselves for the upcoming weekend voyage to Fredericton. God I love Fredericton. Always a ridiculous amount of fun there. I can't wait. No weather bombs this time!

The Establishment

We have reverted back to our comittment of weekly practices, starting this week, and we ended up writing a brand new song which is really great. We only have one lyric for it so far, but it's something like "Set your legs on fire, run away." Pinky wrote it (sorta). This marks the first time he wrote lyrics for the Estab.

We're also getting ready to mix and master our recordings for the 7". That will happen (hopefully) within the next two weeks.

Trevor Murphy

I have decided that due to a lack of monetary funding, and a lack of playing solo shows these days, I would put up the demos I recorded in Quinan this summer - which I planned on releasing as a mini-EP kinda thing - on the MySpace. You can also download the planned cover art if you're feeling swanky and burn the tracks on to a CD so it's like you really did buy it - except it's free.

Quiet Parade

I decided I should make a MySpace site for us this week, and at our next practice I'm going to attempt to record some live tracks for that purpose. Also, to show everyone how awesome it will be.

Sleepless Nights + NB - day 2

2007-01-22T09:29:00.000-04:00

Saturday the weather cooperated with us better than it did Friday. Though it was beastly cold, it didn't snow and the sun was shining.

We went to this place called The Snooty Fox for breakfast, and I had an omelette that was seriously bigger than my head (i definately couldn't eat the whole thing!). Then we wondered downtown, went to the music store and the record store - you know, the typical things that bands do, picked up some GIANT cookies from this place called Read's (I get one every time I'm in fredericton), and then went back to Kyle's to hang out for the whole day.

We had some superior improv drum etc. jams in his basement, watched this weird show called Wonder Showzen and watched Anchor Man while Kyle, Cheval and Mary made some supper.

Then it was on to St. Andrews...

It took us a little longer to get there than we anticipated, but we still got there with plenty of time to spare.

St. Andrews is a little town on the coast of NB, and it's (apparently) really close to the border of the US. It's basically a one-street-town with gorgeous houses and lots of businesses. A real tourist hot-spot. It reminded me a lot of Lunenburg.

The place we played at was called The Fulcrum Gallery, and it was a tiny coffee shop/bar/art gallery - it was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure we were super loud, but we rocked the house. People were dancing, it's always a good sign when they're dancing.

After the show, we stayed at an old Inn that was out of season, so it wasn't open. I think it was called Salty's or something. Anyways, the guy who runs the place knew the bar people/the fussy part guys so he put us up for the night.

It was an old victorian-style inn with about 200 bedrooms. It was something straight out of The Shining or something, something very horror-movie-eqsue, so it scared the hell out of me and I didn't sleep.

We spent most of the night continuing our drinking adventures, playing poker and talking in our famous french accents.

We left St. Andrews around 8am because Pinky had to be home for work in the afternoon, and I'm pretty sure I slept the whole way home. I also slept for 14 hours last night.

Love road trips!

Sleepless Nights + NB and weather bombs.

2007-01-20T12:13:00.000-04:00

It rained the whole way up to New Brunswick. not just rain, but like brutal, severe, downpours. The temperature remained on the plus side until we reached sussex (about 45 minutes out of our destination of St. John) the rained turn to snow and we got to experience first hand the meteorological phenomena known as a "weather bomb."

despite the crap weather, we did get to St. John safe and sound, and the show went over well. we played an excellent set - probably ranking right up there with one of our best - and the crowd was pretty good considering the weather.

we ended up driving to fredericton to sleep @ kyle's place (kyle from the fussy part) - and because of the shit weather it took us about two hours to get home, landing us in fredericton around 5am.

tonite's show is at an art gallery in a small town called st. andrews. im told the population of that town enjoys drinking a whole lot. sounds like fun. cant wait!

Sleepless Nights @ The Grawood (Dal)

2007-01-19T14:45:00.000-04:00

Sweet Press

2007-01-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

Both No Scene Records and Sleepless Nights had articles in two wide-spread papers this week.

You can check out The Coast's piece about No Scene Records here.

AND

You can check out The Daily News' HFX piece about Sleepless nights here!

Quiet Parade

2007-01-17T22:39:00.000-04:00

Tonite was the first ever full band Quiet Parade practice...and it was awesome.

Everybody coming together like that, playing songs that I never thought I'd get to play, and not only playing them well, but making them interesting...I almost had seven orgasms.

Carolann's trumpet work is amazing, trumpet adds so much to these songs.

This is all so exciting.

I am super happy that this seems like it will work for various reasons:

a) because whenever I come up with an idea, I rarely follow through with it
b) because I have found people to play with who are motivated, fun, and interested
c) because all my "solo" projects, to me, always come off as mediocre - and this doesn't feel like that at all.

I am really proud of myself for putting this together, and really proud of the girls for wanting to not only be part of this with me, but for being so great and so fun.

Woo!!!

Quiet Parade

2007-01-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the first official Quiet Parade full band practice.
For those of you who don't know - Quiet Parade is a new project I'm working on with Mary Cobham (Sleepless Nights), Carolann DeYoung (Gamme Gamma Rays), and my friend Megan Hennigar.

I've met with each of them individually, and taught them each five songs, and tomorrow we get together for the first time as a unit to practice.

I am beyond excited.

Sleepless Nights

2007-01-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

after a rusty show in Sackville, NB on Friday, we headed home at 10 in the morning Saturday, tim hortons breakfast sandwiches in hand, so I could get back in time for work.

Sunday evening, we practiced for our upcoming New Brunswick shows (which are this weekend - Friday @ Elwood's in St. John, Saturday @ somewhere in St. Andrew's - both shows with The Fussy Part). Since Matt will be out of commision (he's working on the Superfantastics record in the studio with Charles Austin) - we had to recruit a new member to fill in. We got our good friend Tim d'Eon (Wintersleep).

I must admit, I'm pretty excited to play some shows with ol' Timmy a) cuz he's really good b) cuz he's super fun and c) cuz he's a good friend of ours.

We learned a set of 7-8 songs with Tim, and we're even busting out a new version of a really really old Sleepless Nights song. Can you imagine.

Also really excited to play some shows with The Fussy Part, who are always fun dudes and are good for a laugh. They are also an amazing band, who just put out their new EP, so you should pick it up - (it's called The Ben E.P - funny if you get it).

First Post

2007-01-15T10:02:00.000-04:00

Hello blog readers/friends of mine/people who care about me.

Welcome to my new "blog" which will be all about my bands (I have 3, sometimes 4) and my musical excursions.

I think this will be fun.