TheGoodRev

I'm gonna be there, playing with City & Colour. See ya there!

Ahoyhoy, so in between resurrecting the Espanola project and all that, I got a really nice call to come play in the band City & Colour, which you may know is the solo project of a guy named Dallas Green. And some of you may know that I've been playing steel guitar with a guy named Daniel Romano, who makes impeccable classic country records and also happens to be Dallas' guitar player.

Anyhow yesterday I played a pretty ridiculous show to about 2000+ outside of the new CFNY/Corus building at Sugar Beach, where throngs of young kids knew my name and wanted pictures with me. Strange stuff. I've played to big crowds before but they're usually old and/or in lawn chairs.

Anyhow today, all those of you who have cable might wanna tune into MTV today at 6:25, where you'll see me joyfully steeling along to the new single "Fragile Bird". Huzzah!

I spent about $1200 getting 500 7inch records pressed...

That's a good deal! You must be doing them without jackets am I right? Just paper sleeves? I bet you'll sell a bunch...what are you gonna retail them for?

My 7" test pressings arrived today...pretty stoked.

Our Huron LPs, if memory serves, cost us about $9 each for 180g records, full colour jacket and label, full-colour plastic download card and hosting, black-and-white insert, plastic sleeve, and shipping. Pretty hefty when you consider that you can manufacture a CD for $2 and change. And the profit margin narrows considerably of course. But it's what people want...I hope they become a little cheaper (or it becomes acceptable to charge a little more for them).

I went to see this show at Dakota last night in Toronto and was turned away, it was sold out! Bummed, I hear his new record is great. You should go see this show Ottawa.

Blurry I just did a very short run - 100 copies - with Indie Pool and all has gone well so far. I'll report back when I have the product. Great thing about them is they'll press in 5 business days. And they really pare everything down to no frills if that's how you want it, and then you pay extra for every option from shrink wrap to glossy disc face. However I feel that you should only go with them if you're looking for a short run.

If you're looking for 500-1000 copies, talk to Accudub on Bathurst Street.

Bouche, you've guessed correctly, pressing vinyl is prohibitively expensive. However I agree that it is the only way to go. I only went the CD route because the 7" I've planned to press for a while has been held up at the plant (partially my fault for dragging ass).

In fact I played on a friend's record and yesterday she e-mailed me asking whether I thought it was worth pressing vinyl. This was my response:

"On nights when we actually sell merch, we often sell double the number of LPs as we sell CDs. At the very least, they are on par. The CD is a quickly-dying format, when was the last time you bought one? I can't even remember. For the remaining (relatively) few who want to pay for music, many of them want vinyl. If it's not available, they'll simply download or take a pass on you altogether.

Put it this way - paying for your music is now a choice people make in order to support the artist. They're certainly not buying it because that's the only way to hear it - it's not. The tide has shifted in music-fan-land to favour vinyl, so why not cater to the people to whom you will most likely sell most of your records? All of the major chains are carrying vinyl again; all the high-end stereo places are carrying new turntables; everybody from Kid Rock to Coldplay to Neil Young to Neil Diamond is offering their new releases on vinyl. It's a no-brainer.

In short, offering only one of the two dominant formats is equivalent to ignoring half of your potential customer base. I say, make the investment - you'll be glad you did."

like the clip - sounds nice!

Seems like its more up my alley than the Huron disc I bought (no offence - great musicianship!)

Indeed - this project is much closer to home for me. More raggedy goodness. Maybe a little more from the heart?

Not to say I don't love playing in Huron. Maybe just that my songs for this band are a lot more singable.

Dave Tough used to be the banjo player in The Silver Hearts; great musician and great dude all 'round.

Totally, a fine guy, and I was stoked to be able to book a couple gigs with him.

There's a rumour that he'll be playing with a full band...which I will confirm as soon as I can...

And also I'm hoping for a couple tunes from his cassette-only country album that I was recently turned onto. Released around 98-99 I think?

This is what the live Espanola band looked and sounded like in 2008...

<

Folks, I've returned to my old country-surf-rock project called ESPANOLA. I made a little EP about three years ago and followed that by recording a full-length record. I played a bunch of gigs in Hamilton and Toronto, even played at Ghost Town one summer. But then I got involved in my other band Huron and shelved the Espanola LP before releasing it. Now I plan to release it, perhaps at the end of this year or early next year. And I'm getting things going with a little Southern Ontario run. I'll have in tow a new CD single with two cuts from the record and a B-side that won't appear on the record. A 7" release will follow in a couple months, and possibly another before the full-length.

I'm playing some real small rooms, but I still might have trouble putting people in them. It's essentially a brand-new project that nobody gives a shit about. I'm hoping you can help me with that, skankeroos, it'd be so awesome of you. I'm bringing what I consider to be a great live band with me:

Anna "The Rudder" Ruddick - bass

[You know her from Ladies of the Canyon]

Adam Balsam - drums

[You know him from the Most Serene Republic]

Nathan Gray - guitar

[You will know him real soon from Espanola]

It'll be ragged and sometimes loud, and sometimes quieter, and always twangy, and very surfy, a little riffy, and most always sing-along-able.

Here are the dates:

Thurs June 2 - Peterborough - The Spill (w Dave Tough)

Fri June 3 - Ottawa - Raw Sugar (w Dave Tough)

Sat June 4 - Toronto - Silver Dollar (w Little Foot Long Foot, Shotgun Wedding Band)

Mon June 6 - St. Catharines - Mansion House (w Wayne Petti & the Thieves)

Wed June 8 - Hamilton - This Ain't Hollywood (w Ladies of the Canyon + Wayne Petti & The Thieves)

Fri June 10 - Welland - The Rex Hotel (w Grey Kingdom)

Sat June 11 - Guelph - Jimmy Jazz (w Wayne Petti solo)

A million thanks, and hope to see you some of you at the shows (looking at you, Ottawa)!

Tour facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173483369376626

Ottawa facebook event, which is a bit hurtin right now:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211384478891970

"country-rock/folk/rock and roll artist or band"

And...go!

This looks awesome, and though I haven't been invested in a Radiohead album in some years, this packaging makes me want to order it.

However

On their website site they advertise this as "perhaps" the world's first newspaper album.

Don't tell me nobody in or associated with Radiohead has ever owned a copy of Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick, the sleeve of which opens up to a 12-page spoof newspaper?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thick_as_a_Brick

The original LP cover was a spoof of a twelve-by-sixteen inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper, entitled The St. Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser, with articles, competitions, adverts, etc., lampooning the parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today, as well as certain classical album covers. Jethro Tull's official website states about the mock-newspaper, "There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity."[3] The "newspaper", dated 7 January 1972, also includes the entire lyrics to the poem "Thick as a Brick" (and, thus, to the album of the same name) as written by a fictional 8-year-old literary prodigy, Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock, whose disqualification from a poetry contest is the focus of the front page story. This article claims that although Bostock initially won the contest with "Thick as a Brick", the judges' decision was repealed after a multitude of protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of the poem, furthered by allegations of the boy's psychological instability. Subtly scattered throughout the articles are references to the lyrics, to Bostock and Jethro Tull, and to other peculiar parts of the newspaper itself. The spoof newspaper had to be heavily abridged for conventional CD covers, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD includes a partial facsimile; some content is missing, such as a part of the "front page;" however, the picture was restored to its full size including the entire image of "Gerald's chum", 14-year-old Julia Fealey, who in the article below the main one blames her recent pregnancy on Bostock.

but p.s. I will also add support for Breaking Bad, it's an incredible show.

We're just finishing season 2 of Better Off Ted...it's a wildly hilarious show that only gets better. Light-hearted, mind you, but eons more sophisticated than a sitcom. It's on Netflix and apparently it was cancelled after season 2.

Hamilton

This show's gonna rule!

Just got a dispatch from Raw Sugar with show details:

DANIEL ROMANO w/ CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD / LUCAS HENDERSON

Fri April 8 - EARLY SHOW 8pm doors - $8 advance + service charges

Spectrasonic and Punkottawa.com Present

DANIEL ROMANO (of Attack In Black, Welland folk, You've Changed recs)

http://www.myspace.com/danielromanomusic

http://www.workinforthemusicman.blogspot.com/

CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD (Montreal folk)

http://www.myspace.com/charlottecornfield

LUCAS HENDERSON (Ottawa folk)

http://www.myspace.com/lucashenderson

Tickets available at Raw Sugar Cafe, Vertigo Records, The Record Shaap

DevO are you actually KevO??

Apparently we will play at 10pm tonight at Dakota; there is only one other act, The Weather Station.

Re: Sunday in Hamilton, I had no idea there were that many acts. Though it does indeed appear to be a stacked bill. Chris Bell was the frontman of Alive & Living, as well as a member of Chore. He's great. Terra and Cam are friends of mine and I'm excited to hear what they do together. Wayne Petti is the frontman of Cuff the Duke and also rules, and though I haven't seen her I've heard great things about Charlotte Cornfield. I would bet the first couple acts only get 20-25mins a piece, and there's very little changeover where a couple acoustic guitars are concerned. If you're worried about the timing Sarah (as I am now, too!) maybe give the club a call?

Dave I have no info re: Montreal. I would doubt it. I will divulge that there is potential for a short East Coast run, as well as a Sappy appearance. Will advise if any of that confirms. It's all very prelim and tentative information and don't wanna jump any guns. But you'll probably have a chance to see us out there.

NW I have no info about Ottawa unfortunately. Best I could find is a Facebook group which doesn't even list the show: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21717726987. I'll see what I can find out this week. I'll try to tweet set times and other show info this week: http://www.twitter.com/aarongoldstein

Woohoo this week is gonna rule! Real live country music! There are a couple tunes from the record up on Dan's myspace: http://www.myspace.com/danielromanomusic

it's also, unfortunately, the same night as Mike Watt @ Mavericks.

Yeah and I heard there's a Tokyo Police Club show that night too? What can ya do...hoping this record has a bit of a life to it in terms of the touring...both for Dan's sake and my own ...hopefully if people like it he'll bring it back to Ottawa with the full band...or maybe the Black Sheep...would be a perfect band for that room.

Yeah, the one time I was there years ago, I went to see Big Sugar at the Dardanella (or the Dard), which as I recall would host some rock shows here and there. Other than that, though, I remember a very high douchebag factor on the beach, lots of the aforementioned cars with spinning tires, and generally being mostly disgusted with the people there. I'm sure with the advent of Jersey Shore it has become even more of a jerkoff's paradise.

Have a nice trip!

Did a bunch of rehearsal this weekend. Misha will be singing. Ross Miller will be on bass and Spencer will play acoustic guitar. Really looking forward to these dates. Two more have been added:

Tues, April 5th - Dakota Tavern, TORONTO, ON

Wed, April 6th - Starlight, WATERLOO, ON

Thurs, April 7th - Mansion House, ST. CATHARINE'S, ON with Baby Eagle and Grey Kingdom

Fri, April 8th - Raw Sugar Cafe, OTTAWA, ON

Sat, April 9th - Mansion, KINGSTON, ON

Sun, April 10th - Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON, ON with Wayne Petti

Mon, April 11th - Red Dog, PETERBOROUGH, ON

Thurs, April 14th - APK Live, LONDON, ON

Also the record got four stars in the Globe and Mail over the weekend

Come say hi if you make it to a show.

Many happy returns Bradley!

Thanks for all that you do,

And keep right on bein' you

Here are the confirmed tourdates:

Tues, April 5th - Dakota Tavern, TORONTO, ON

Wed, April 6th - Starlight, WATERLOO, ON

Thurs, April 7th - Mansion House, ST. CATHARINE'S, ON with Baby Eagle and Grey Kingdom

Fri, April 8th - Raw Sugar Cafe, OTTAWA, ON

Sat, April 9th - Mansion, KINGSTON, ON

Sun, April 10th - Casbah Lounge, HAMILTON, ON with Wayne Petti

Elkas Band would be awesome at the Elmdale. Nat is great. Just be aware - you do your own door (doesn't matter if you're from out of town)(maybe bribe a skank or two to help you). Also - no drink deal. Doesn't matter if you're Wanda Jackson, or Michael Jackson. You pay retail.

Great venue though and good people. Sound guy is super nice and looks a bit like Serpico. Think like if Grossman's had spent a bit of money on a stage...and a mop...and a coat of paint...but largely retained its charm. Jar of pickled eggs on the bar. Quarts of 50. You get the idear.

Sorry to have brought a completely personal gripe from one particular evening in to this, but I felt pretty burned and so did some others.

It was definitely the bands door person.

They may have come here more recently, but I was unaware.

I have no problem forking over good money for a good show, but to be told it had just started when that was not the case was shitty.

I certainly don't remember clearly at all but I think I paid about $30 to see you at the Grey Cup GR. Just sayin....

Sorry man I didn't mean that with regard to your personal situation. In your case it's not a matter of $15 being worth it for a whole show, it's a matter of paying for the whole show and only getting a short piece of it.

Which Grey Cup show of mine cost $30?? Edmonton or Calgary?? Jesus, I wouldn't have even paid that.

There's a huge problem here with the entertainment industry - namely that the electronica crowd will happily fork over $25-40 to see a Dj, but the live crowd complains at even $5. It's a sad state for Canadian Musicians.

I'm gonna agree with Jay here - the days of the $5 movie and the $5 pack of smokes are long gone, and so too should be the days of the $5 rock show I'm afraid. With gas at a buck-twenty that'd hardly be considered gouging. It costs a shitload of money just to keep a band on the road and fed and keep strings on guitars and stuff.