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This gig is also an official Canadian Landmine Action Week event and a fundraiser for Mines Action Canada. Here's our facebook event page for it. Part of the proceeds from the door will go to Mines Action Canada, and we'll also be doing a 50/50 and selling raffle tickets at the show. Raffle prizes are starting to stack up by the way! We now have gift certificates from: Soundscapes, River, Caplansky's Deli, Boom Breakfast Co, The Review Cinema and Sue's Thai Food. I am just finishing off a 6-month internship with Mines Action Canada that saw me working with landmine survivors in Northern Uganda. I firmly believe in this cause and am happy to be involved with these events! The work of Canadians and concerned civil society groups as well as supportive governments around the world has resulted in the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines and the newly created Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Together, these international treaties outline state obligations on these indiscriminate weapons, and affirm the global community’s commitment to end the suffering they create. From words to concrete action, the fulfillment of these goals is becoming a reality. To celebrate and commemorate the achievements made both by Canada and the global community in achieving these comprehensive bans, Mines Action Canada will launch the thenth annual Canadian Landmine Action Week (CLAW) from February 23rd - March 1st, 2009. Despite our success in clearing the path of victim-activated weapons many barriers persist. Landmines and cluster munitions continue to menace communities and their presence makes simple everyday tasks like pursuing a livelihood or going to school extremely dangerous. Both of these explosive remnants of war pose significant, dangerous risks to civilian communities with predictable, preventable consequences. The remaining legal, political, and financial barriers that inhibit the full realization of a world free of victim activated weapons are complicit in creating this situation. Enough is enough! Canadian Landmine Action Week is the opportunity to reinforce Canadian commitment to the human security of people everywhere through events educating our communities, mobilizing people to let their MPs know that this issue is important to us, and raising funds for mine action.

Last week was a great great night of music, and a bargain at $5!! First time for me catching Peter Elkas (with Jeff as well as 2/3 of the Spin Cycle lineup) and they were really tight and instantly likable. Zeus is more or less Jason Collett's band minus Collett, they were pretty good as well, heavy Beatles influence going on. Golden Dogs rocked it. Then they did a 5 or 6 song mini set for an encore, with members of Zeus, ALL BEATLES, sweet vocal harmonies, it sounded great. I recall Don't Let Me Down and Helter Skelter, not sure what else. Anyways, great night, highly recommended! We got there around 9pm and were about the first ones in, though it filled up very quickly. Thanks again Jeff for the lift, good to catch up!

Are you recording this one Brad?

I'm liking this show! Pretty trashy.

I partied at the Legion in Pembroke last weekend. They had one of those table shuffleboards and euchre a plenty!

Looks like fun, and any gig at the Legion is automatically stepped up several notches on the awesome scale.

Should be a good show! I haven't seen them play since 2 or 3 years ago at PJC on Boxing Day. They're debuting the new album and its songs tonight before setting off on a world tour.

Link

I just realized that my AdBlock Plus add-on was blocking the banner ads on this site (as its supposed to). I've disabled it on jambands.ca, for the cause.. And yes I see the NuFunk Fest banner.

How much are we looking at for tix for the London show?

MINES ACTION CANADA KICKS OFF 10th ANNUAL CANADIAN LANDMINE ACTION WEEK EVENTS IN TORONTO Exactly ten years ago on March 1st, the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty became international humanitarian law! Last December, the work of Canadians, concerned civil society groups, as well as supportive governments around the world resulted in the newly created Convention on Cluster Munitions. Together, these international treaties outline state obligations on these indiscriminate weapons, and affirm the global community's commitment to end the suffering they create. From words to concrete action, the fulfillment of these goals is becoming a reality. As Canadians, we have played a fundamental role in clearing the dangerous and devastating path left by these weapons. Despite these achievements, there is still much to be done. Canadian Landmine Action Week (CLAW) 2009 (February 23 – March 1, 2009) is the time to reinforce Canada's commitment to the safety of civilians around the world! It is our chance to let the world know that we want to see the removal of all barriers inhibiting the full realization of a world free of landmines and cluster bombs – the barriers are real and their consequences are lethal. We hope that you will join us at one or all of these exciting events in Toronto in celebration of CLAW week. Please see below for full details. For further information on these fine events, please visit the following links: Take A Bite Out of It! - Caplanksy's - Thurs. Feb 16 :: LINK Drop Beats, Not Bombs! - Revival - Sat. Feb 28 :: LINK Candlelight Vigil - US Consulate - Sun. Mar. 1 :: LINK QUILT RAFFLE :: Tickets & info available ONLINE right here! :: LINK Mines Action Canada :: LINK Kind regards, Kevin

I chose The Idlers. Apparently they're up for another ECMA as well. Newfie reggae at its finest! Its crazy that Cornerbrook is hosting.

Heyo! Anyone happen to be driving from the Ottawa Valley or thereabouts to Toronto early next week? Feb 24 or 25 (Tues/Wed)? I realize this is a very slight chance.. kevo

I am there! How early is early? 9pm ok?

I think there was even a Charles Mingus sticker!

I'd just like to pay homage to whoever is/was behind the GLURT stickery from back in the day. I was once sent an envelope full of these stickers and they provided hilarious memories up til this very day. I just came across the site: GLURT.org Pretty wacky and hilarious. I seem to think that whoever is behind Glurt is someone connected to our scene.. Anyone know the story there? My favourite one ever: I would LOVE more of those! Classic. Lots more HERE and below.

Good article, from the Zoilus guy. Has anyone heard this album yet? Sounds interesting and maybe a bit more engaging than the solo albums of the last two BSS members. Talk into tune When Toronto musician Charles Spearin asked his neighbours about happiness, he didn't just listen to their answers - he turned them into songs CARL WILSON From Wednesday's Globe and Mail February 10, 2009 at 4:45 PM EST As a piano-trumpet duo skitters around her, a person with a pleasant professional accent talks about her work with “challenged young women†who tell her “all the time†that they're happy. “Some of their expectations are so simplistic – not to say simplicity because they're challenged … †Then the thought strikes: “It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present.†Immediately the voice repeats: “It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present.†And again: “It's like they don't ask beyond of what's present.†At which point the music makes its own breakthrough. Keyboard and horn link arms with bass and drums and kick out a chorus to the precise tune and tempo of the woman's words. You can almost see her with brass band and challenged charges on parade through New Orleans, fanfaring their be-here-now anthem – sing it, sister! – It's Like They Don't Ask Beyond of What's Present! This is Anna, Track 2 of The Happiness Project, the first solo album by Toronto musician Charles Spearin, which was released yesterday. Musician Charles Spearin. Enlarge Image Musician Charles Spearin. (Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail) The Globe and Mail Actually, solo is a misnomer. A multi-instrumentalist with tight-knit space-rock ensemble Do Make Say Think as well as that legions-strong study in socio-rockology, the popular band Broken Social Scene, Spearin prefers company – in this case, his whole neighbourhood. For this album, he started by asking over acquaintances he'd made playing in the yard with his kids for taped conversations about happiness. “In a way, happiness is an easy thing to invite your neighbours to talk about – better than politics or religion,†says Spearin, 35, over tea in the well-appointed house he shares with his wife and two young daughters near Dupont and Bathurst. “I thought it would bring out interesting stories.†He and his musical friends pored over the interviews – with a sagely cheery Caribbean-Canadian lady, a deaf person whose hearing was restored, a reflective East Asian man, petulant children – for the underlying cadences, tracking them note for note. “My neighbours did the hard work of coming up with the melodies,†Spearin says (maybe it's the earnestly blond western mustache or yogically upright posture, but his tongue does not seem in cheek). “I just listened for them, then did the arrangements.†He joins a fast-growing field. Probing the space between talk and tune goes back to the ancient Hindu Vedas, African “talking drums,†operatic recitative and Dada sound poetry. But lately digital sampling and looping have made it much simpler. New York composer Scott Johnson was probably the first (with John Somebody, 1982) to fully harmonize taped speech with instruments. Minimalist Steve Reich matched Holocaust testimony to string quartet on Different Trains (1988). And guitarist René Lussier paid homage to Quebec culture with his stereo-francophonic tour de force, Le Trésor de la langue (1990). In this decade, jazz artists such as pianist Jason Moran and sax player Rudresh Mahanthappa have drawn on linguistics to limn the multicultural bop of globalization. And in 2008, with his Yes We Can video of celebrities singing along to the crests and dips of a Barack Obama speech, will.i.am of the Black-Eyed Peas brought it to YouTube, electoral politics and mainstream pop. (You might argue it was already there, given hip hop's stylized speech and samples.) California psychologist Diana Deutsch has researched the “speech-to-song illusion,†in which any fragment of dialogue played back repeatedly comes to sound like song. Think of the Beatles' musique-concrete experiment on the White Album, where the recurring words “number 9, number 9†turn into a chant. She speculates that it's only because the brain needs to prioritize intelligible content that we don't constantly hear speech as music. Imagine coping with that vast human chorale of mini-cantatas, arias and blues. Spearin, however, had more personal motivations. Growing up, he witnessed his civil-servant father slip into blindness and became highly conscious of what it would be like to navigate mainly by sound. (The Braille on his CD cover is a reminder.) Another paternal inheritance is Buddhism, and Spearin used to go on an annual month-long meditation retreat. “There's something about coming back to the regular world after not speaking for long periods of time,†he says. “You pay attention to people's voices in a different way.†He began to be struck by the city's soundscapes, from a tree of starlings to a café crowd. And while this record is many things – including testimony to the health of a diverse urban community, in defiance of outside stereotypes – it's particularly an extension of the Buddhist concern with suffering and happiness. Indeed, he found that heeding sound can be a meditative practice. “You're not listening to your thoughts so much if you hear your footsteps as you walk down the street,†he says. “The obsession with your life, what you did yesterday, what you're doing tomorrow, the running commentary and discursive thoughts – you can kind of let that go. … It's allowing your mind to, I don't know, vent a little bit.†In that sense, while many of his neighbours' responses to the question of happiness resonate – like the proclamation by “Mrs. Morris†(all the pieces are named after their subjects) that “happiness is love†– Spearin's own answer is the project itself. “If you're listening to the world with fresh ears, looking with fresh eyes and looking for those moments that kind of wake you up – that's what gives you happiness.†Once again, science is with him: The booming field of positive psychology (“happiness studiesâ€) is finding that contentment depends less on wealth and achieved goals than on attention to and gratitude for the day-to-day – what Anna on his album calls “what's present,†which one might call a gift. In his neighbours' gift of time and talk, Spearin has rediscovered a formula from an old Irish parable: Which music, it asks, is the best in the world? “The music of what happens.†Charles Spearin and friends perform The Happiness Project on March 11 and 12 at the Music Gallery in Toronto and on March 13 at Il Motore in Montreal.

Hey at least its a good song! You could have that American Girl song in your head. blhab blah blah blah SEE L.A. blah blah blah blah blah American Girllll That's what I have in my head.

Happy birthday!

I bought a ticket to the Radiohead concert off Ticketmaster.. Can I cash in?? I would gladly take money from the Bastard.

Mornin' all! I just stumbled across this blog called When You Awake: http://whenyouawake.com/ Its got a great set of mixtapes including the "Goes Twang" series where they compile country-infused covers of their favourite artists (Neil, Bob, Townes Van Zandt, The Band, etc etc). Pretty good stuff. I know a lot of you will like it. Enjoy! About When You Awake We may live in the city but we sure do miss the country! When You Awake is our ode to country life as well as a chronicle of the current indie country/folk/rock and roll/roots scenes in LA, New York, and any place where people listen to songs that tell stories. We're looking to bring you the best in revival goodness: Music, Style, Events, Recipes, whatever strikes our fancy...keep checking back as we update daily! Favorite Bands: Bob Dylan and the Band, Waylon Jennings, Gram Parsons, Steve Young, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell, The Byrds, The Everly Brothers, The Flying Burrito Brothers, George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, The Allman Brothers, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, The Travelling Wilburys, The Highwaymen, Beachwood Sparks, Will Oldham, My Morning Jacket, Dwight Yoakam, Gillian Welch, Patsy Cline, Porter Wagoner, Wilco, The Bees, The Pierces, The Morning Pages, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Jonathan Wilson, Alana Amram, Leslie and the Badgers, Howlin' Rain, Vetiver and so on Favorite Films The Last Waltz, Coal Miner's Daughter Honeysuckle Rose 5 Items I Can't Live Without: Nudie Suits, Records, Harmonicas, Guitars, Nashville I Want to Party With: Honky Tonk Heroes

Thanks Kevman!

I went with Koodo. Here's what I get: 5pm-8am unlimited local calls during the week unlimited local calls all weekend 100 minutes local calls mon-fri 8am-5pm unlimited text/picture messaging (international) "LD Saver" add-on.. 5 cents/min LD in Canada I think call display $40/month all in all. And I got a refurbished Motorolla KRZR phone for $75, doing that TAB thing to pay it off. Not bad.. We'll see how it goes! Nothing can be worse than Rogers. They were raping me for up to $100/month last year!

Can anyone hook me up pretty please???

And Neil. Sounds pretty good on first listen!