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!
Nov 15, 2008
Toronto
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.
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.
Nov 14, 2008
Ottawa + Hamilton
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.
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.
Nov 11, 2008
May 24, 2008
St. John's Vol. 2
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.
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.
May 23, 2008
St. John's
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!
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!
May 21, 2008
May 20, 2008
This One's For The Moms!
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.
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.
May 13, 2008
Toronto (day 2) and Hamilton
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
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
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