(This blog was written two weeks ago but posted today)
Hello friends, fans and lovers,
We are cascading down the autoban towards Hamburg. I am still fighting the last few vestiges of a cold. Listening to the Pointer Sisters, who I find (quite frankly) brilliant.
Spend five days in Leipzig after our amazing show. I rested a lot (due to my cold) and watched way too much youtube and downloaded a bunch of movies: Bad Santa, The Fountain and others. One day we went to this groovy place where there were lots of galleries and cafes and wandered around. Some kitschy (overused word, I know), garish 80's-style art. One gallery full of smashed cars photos. It was a huge room. The acoustics were brilliant, so we asked if we could set up and film us doing a tune. We did "Omigod". There were questions about copyright, if we want to post this or put it in Ineke's movie, but we decided we'll just blur out the cars. Didn't really care for the art anyway. Felt wayyy too derivative.
Stayed with Tobi and friends. Delightful bunch of people. Tobi rock-climbs and has a groovy haircut. He has a wall full of black and white photos so we did a wee Trike photo-shoot in front of it.
We also FINALLY uploaded the album online for Capsule Records, who want to have us as their featured artists and feature our compilation album, "Do The Trikey" on March 25th. So we made a Facebook event for it. We are STILL releasing our newest album, but we're not sure when. In truth, I'd like to get the album out to all sorts of publications and get some reviews happening before the official release. But we'll see. I'm still kind of new to all this. I've only ever self-released anything I've done, selling a few hundred albums, but that's about it.
We didn't book, but our previous booking efforts paid off. Every day a few venues contacted us. Some rejections, other bookings. Now we have a whack of new shows; totalling 41 in all... when I'm feeling better we'll keep booking. The thing is, we've got things planned til June 6, but no further. That's three months from now. After that, who the fuck knows? We thought about doing our six months/ six cities idea (six months in six different cities; so we can work on making new fans, getting in touch with media, and basically getting a good feel for/ base in each city. That way, when we book another tight Euro tour, we'd have six new (big, known) cities with loads more contacts we could tap into for shows etc... including getting in touch with media in each city; radio, magazines...
But now we don't know. The Russian fellow we met in Leipzig offered us shows in Russia, Bellarussa and Ukraine so now we're tempted to head that way in June, to be honest.
Another issue is transportation. It's not easy for us to get around without a car.
So a lot of things to figure out in the few months. We also need to record our "Mushy" single and plan a new album; either "Mushy Muschi Moshy" or "People Have Names" (all the songs we've written about journalists, George Strombo etc.). Lots of decisions to make. We would also have to figure out where and when we could record it.
Anyway, that's all in the future. Now we head to Hamburg, where we have a nice bunch of fans we made last time we were in that fair Northern Germany city. We're introducing "Julie Booth", another interactive song (involving pillow fights) tonight. I think it will also be the first time we introduce "Omigod"... can't wait.
Tootles.
Stephen
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Robbed in Prague
A mix of Woody Allen movies, coffee and adrenalin moves through my body.
I'm in Prague, outside a Police Station, while Ineke and Stephen are inside, discussing yet another parking ticket.
A white paper with the station's address was trapped under the windshield this morning.
The green knapsack with most of my clothes that Chewby gave me before leaving Montreal, Ineke's backpack, her bag of Dutch licorice candy, her flashlight and our video camera are all missing from the car. We think the Police must've taken our things so we would have incentive to pay the parking ticket, since the doors were locked when we found the car.
Prague is a funny place. You can get lost walking around the block, and it's hit and miss whether the locals will help you or just grumble.
We went to see the Kafka museum yesterday, and anyone who has spent time in Prague can understand the inspiration behind Kafka's bizarre characters and situations. The streets are clean, the buildings are decoratied and beautiful, but there's something stubborn about the atmosphere, like a bitter relative unwilling to forgive their own brother for something they can't even remember.
The weather has been just as illogical. There was warmth, sun, hail, snow and rain in one day.
As I was writing this, Stephen just told me that our belongings were not taken by the police, but were stolen.
fuck.
fuck.
fuck!
I'm in Prague, outside a Police Station, while Ineke and Stephen are inside, discussing yet another parking ticket.
A white paper with the station's address was trapped under the windshield this morning.
The green knapsack with most of my clothes that Chewby gave me before leaving Montreal, Ineke's backpack, her bag of Dutch licorice candy, her flashlight and our video camera are all missing from the car. We think the Police must've taken our things so we would have incentive to pay the parking ticket, since the doors were locked when we found the car.
Prague is a funny place. You can get lost walking around the block, and it's hit and miss whether the locals will help you or just grumble.
We went to see the Kafka museum yesterday, and anyone who has spent time in Prague can understand the inspiration behind Kafka's bizarre characters and situations. The streets are clean, the buildings are decoratied and beautiful, but there's something stubborn about the atmosphere, like a bitter relative unwilling to forgive their own brother for something they can't even remember.
The weather has been just as illogical. There was warmth, sun, hail, snow and rain in one day.
As I was writing this, Stephen just told me that our belongings were not taken by the police, but were stolen.
fuck.
fuck.
fuck!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Trike Euro Log: Official Capsule album release/ Leaving Leipzig
Hello friends, fans and lovers,
We are cascading down the autoban towards Hamburg. I am still fighting the last few vestiges of a cold. Listening to the Pointer Sisters, who I find (quite frankly) brilliant.
Spend five days in Leipzig after our amazing show. I rested a lot (due to my cold) and watched way too much youtube and downloaded a bunch of movies: Bad Santa, The Fountain and others. One day we went to this groovy place where there were lots of galleries and cafes and wandered around. Some kitschy (overused word, I know), garish 80's-style art. One gallery full of smashed cars photos. It was a huge room. The acoustics were brilliant, so we asked if we could set up and film us doing a tune. We did "Omigod". There were questions about copyright, if we want to post this or put it in Ineke's movie, but we decided we'll just blur out the cars. Didn't really care for the art anyway. Felt wayyy too derivative.
Stayed with Tobi and friends. Delightful bunch of people. Tobi rock-climbs and has a groovy haircut. He has a wall full of black and white photos so we did a wee Trike photo-shoot in front of it.
We also FINALLY uploaded the album online for Capsule Records, who want to have us as their featured artists and feature our compilation album, "Do The Trikey" on March 25th. So we made a Facebook event for it. We are STILL releasing our newest album, but we're not sure when. In truth, I'd like to get the album out to all sorts of publications and get some reviews happening before the official release. But we'll see. I'm still kind of new to all this. I've only ever self-released anything I've done, selling a few hundred albums, but that's about it.
We didn't book, but our previous booking efforts paid off. Every day a few venues contacted us. Some rejections, other bookings. Now we have a whack of new shows; totalling 41 in all... when I'm feeling better we'll keep booking. The thing is, we've got things planned til June 6, but no further. That's three months from now. After that, who the fuck knows? We thought about doing our six months/ six cities idea (six months in six different cities; so we can work on making new fans, getting in touch with media, and basically getting a good feel for/ base in each city. That way, when we book another tight Euro tour, we'd have six new (big, known) cities with loads more contacts we could tap into for shows etc... including getting in touch with media in each city; radio, magazines...
But now we don't know. The Russian fellow we met in Leipzig offered us shows in Russia, Bellarussa and Ukraine so now we're tempted to head that way in June, to be honest.
Another issue is transportation. It's not easy for us to get around without a car.
So a lot of things to figure out in the few months. We also need to record our "Mushy" single and plan a new album; either "Mushy Muschi Moshy" or "People Have Names" (all the songs we've written about journalists, George Strombo etc.). Lots of decisions to make. We would also have to figure out where and when we could record it.
Anyway, that's all in the future. Now we head to Hamburg, where we have a nice bunch of fans we made last time we were in that fair Northern Germany city. We're introducing "Julie Booth", another interactive song (involving pillow fights) tonight. I think it will also be the first time we introduce "Omigod"... can't wait.
Tootles.
Stephen
We are cascading down the autoban towards Hamburg. I am still fighting the last few vestiges of a cold. Listening to the Pointer Sisters, who I find (quite frankly) brilliant.
Spend five days in Leipzig after our amazing show. I rested a lot (due to my cold) and watched way too much youtube and downloaded a bunch of movies: Bad Santa, The Fountain and others. One day we went to this groovy place where there were lots of galleries and cafes and wandered around. Some kitschy (overused word, I know), garish 80's-style art. One gallery full of smashed cars photos. It was a huge room. The acoustics were brilliant, so we asked if we could set up and film us doing a tune. We did "Omigod". There were questions about copyright, if we want to post this or put it in Ineke's movie, but we decided we'll just blur out the cars. Didn't really care for the art anyway. Felt wayyy too derivative.
Stayed with Tobi and friends. Delightful bunch of people. Tobi rock-climbs and has a groovy haircut. He has a wall full of black and white photos so we did a wee Trike photo-shoot in front of it.
We also FINALLY uploaded the album online for Capsule Records, who want to have us as their featured artists and feature our compilation album, "Do The Trikey" on March 25th. So we made a Facebook event for it. We are STILL releasing our newest album, but we're not sure when. In truth, I'd like to get the album out to all sorts of publications and get some reviews happening before the official release. But we'll see. I'm still kind of new to all this. I've only ever self-released anything I've done, selling a few hundred albums, but that's about it.
We didn't book, but our previous booking efforts paid off. Every day a few venues contacted us. Some rejections, other bookings. Now we have a whack of new shows; totalling 41 in all... when I'm feeling better we'll keep booking. The thing is, we've got things planned til June 6, but no further. That's three months from now. After that, who the fuck knows? We thought about doing our six months/ six cities idea (six months in six different cities; so we can work on making new fans, getting in touch with media, and basically getting a good feel for/ base in each city. That way, when we book another tight Euro tour, we'd have six new (big, known) cities with loads more contacts we could tap into for shows etc... including getting in touch with media in each city; radio, magazines...
But now we don't know. The Russian fellow we met in Leipzig offered us shows in Russia, Bellarussa and Ukraine so now we're tempted to head that way in June, to be honest.
Another issue is transportation. It's not easy for us to get around without a car.
So a lot of things to figure out in the few months. We also need to record our "Mushy" single and plan a new album; either "Mushy Muschi Moshy" or "People Have Names" (all the songs we've written about journalists, George Strombo etc.). Lots of decisions to make. We would also have to figure out where and when we could record it.
Anyway, that's all in the future. Now we head to Hamburg, where we have a nice bunch of fans we made last time we were in that fair Northern Germany city. We're introducing "Julie Booth", another interactive song (involving pillow fights) tonight. I think it will also be the first time we introduce "Omigod"... can't wait.
Tootles.
Stephen
Monday, March 16, 2009
Leipzig: they might have won "best audience" award
Leipzig... Giezer16: Our first show EVER in Leipzig. It was a massive squat/ mini-village in Leipzig. Very political and anti-fascist. (Lots of neo-nazis in Leipzig).
Europe has a massive squatting community. We've played in squats plenty of times, but we have still only touched the tip of the iceberg.
A smiley guy took us to a squat-restaurant (vegan, of course). I had currywürst and the rest of the gang had gyros (can't wait to go to Greece in two weeks and have REAL gyros... from the source!).
I was exhausted, from sleeping precious little the night before. Xania and Ineke vanished, so after wandering around (it was kind of creepy, puttering around the big, spacious squat with the rain falling; nobody to be found) for awhile, I met a chap named Tom, who was doing metalwork in a dark shed (by the light of his cell phone... I'm telling you it was creepy!). He took me to the "backstage". It was a massive room full of mattresses. I promptly fell asleep.
Xania finally showed up and kept asking me to make CDs. I was exhausted and couldn't bear to move, so I just kept falling asleep. Moments before we had to get onstage I finally got up, helped with a few CDs, through my layers of clothes on and headed downstairs to the stage.
By this point, a few more people had shown up. We started setting up. More and more people came in until the place was packed.
We began to play. Started with Sudbury. I like starting with this one because I can do random stuff on the second keyboard with the distorted blues guitar sound; making it swirl around, ducking beneath tables and sliding against walls. People don't quite know what's going on. Then I slap everyone around with the twist beat: boom ba ba boom ba ba... then the song begins.
I was pretty hyper. A dramatic change from the sleepy, somnabulistic me from pre-nap. I ran around the huge stage during Carousel. We had a situation because I unplugged Xania's pre-amp during Carousel, but it was remedied.
The crowd was amazing. They were almost immediately into us, copying dance moves, dancing like crazy. So un-German! In Hamburg we have a nice little fan base, but they rarely dance...
There must have been 200 people there. It was great. A great feeling. I met a nice Russian guy who was there to promote an anti-fascist documentary about Russia. He was touring around Europe. He said he liked our views (we have views?). For example: we talked about how we hate high school, and he said Russian crowds would be able to identify with that... and how it's a fake structure that only re-enforces Imperialistic, shallow, Capitalistic mindsets... actually he didn't say all that. That was implied. He gave me several swigs of his massive plastic bottle of vodka and orange juice.
The show and the response made me feel really great. This tour has really been blowing my mind! So many great people everywhere and people who get what we're doing. Although our Canadian tour had some highlights, some of our Ontario shows (except Waterloo and Toronto) were tough as nails. Getting people to dance or let alone stand up was next to impossible.
Anyway, so I chatted with a VERY talkative young man in shades who kept passing me this massive bong and telling me endless stories about his football team getting ridiculously drunk by the coach the night before, then getting thrashed by Prague's football team. He also told me about Dead Mau5; a Canadian electro-dj guy. He worshipped him. That and Whistler, BC. He was in love with the idea of Whistler.
At five am I said I wanted to dance. I went into the room with the flashing strobe and pumping music, stared at my shoes, feeling the music in my bones, and it suddenly hit me; I was exhausted. I wandered over to the backstage, found Xania and Ineke crashed out like two sacks of potatoes and crashed like a ton of bricks.
Woke up again in the empty squat at 10:30 and made our way over to Tobi's house, where we are staying. He made a scrumptious meal: buns, cheese, nutella, coffee... mmmm lekkerrrr!!!
Chatted with the gang here lots. Cool peeps. Went to another squat-restaurant for dinner. After dinner Xania cut my hair, making me look like a German artfag (did some research and, as far as I know, "artfag" is NOT an offensive term, so don't get all PC on my ass).
Spent the morning booking and doing some planning. Getting more shows in Sweden and Denmark, after writing a million venues! It's paying off.
Today I think we might head downtown and busk. Make a bit of moolah, maybe some new fans... AND we have to make business cards!
Stay in touch!
Love
Stephen
Europe has a massive squatting community. We've played in squats plenty of times, but we have still only touched the tip of the iceberg.
A smiley guy took us to a squat-restaurant (vegan, of course). I had currywürst and the rest of the gang had gyros (can't wait to go to Greece in two weeks and have REAL gyros... from the source!).
I was exhausted, from sleeping precious little the night before. Xania and Ineke vanished, so after wandering around (it was kind of creepy, puttering around the big, spacious squat with the rain falling; nobody to be found) for awhile, I met a chap named Tom, who was doing metalwork in a dark shed (by the light of his cell phone... I'm telling you it was creepy!). He took me to the "backstage". It was a massive room full of mattresses. I promptly fell asleep.
Xania finally showed up and kept asking me to make CDs. I was exhausted and couldn't bear to move, so I just kept falling asleep. Moments before we had to get onstage I finally got up, helped with a few CDs, through my layers of clothes on and headed downstairs to the stage.
By this point, a few more people had shown up. We started setting up. More and more people came in until the place was packed.
We began to play. Started with Sudbury. I like starting with this one because I can do random stuff on the second keyboard with the distorted blues guitar sound; making it swirl around, ducking beneath tables and sliding against walls. People don't quite know what's going on. Then I slap everyone around with the twist beat: boom ba ba boom ba ba... then the song begins.
I was pretty hyper. A dramatic change from the sleepy, somnabulistic me from pre-nap. I ran around the huge stage during Carousel. We had a situation because I unplugged Xania's pre-amp during Carousel, but it was remedied.
The crowd was amazing. They were almost immediately into us, copying dance moves, dancing like crazy. So un-German! In Hamburg we have a nice little fan base, but they rarely dance...
There must have been 200 people there. It was great. A great feeling. I met a nice Russian guy who was there to promote an anti-fascist documentary about Russia. He was touring around Europe. He said he liked our views (we have views?). For example: we talked about how we hate high school, and he said Russian crowds would be able to identify with that... and how it's a fake structure that only re-enforces Imperialistic, shallow, Capitalistic mindsets... actually he didn't say all that. That was implied. He gave me several swigs of his massive plastic bottle of vodka and orange juice.
The show and the response made me feel really great. This tour has really been blowing my mind! So many great people everywhere and people who get what we're doing. Although our Canadian tour had some highlights, some of our Ontario shows (except Waterloo and Toronto) were tough as nails. Getting people to dance or let alone stand up was next to impossible.
Anyway, so I chatted with a VERY talkative young man in shades who kept passing me this massive bong and telling me endless stories about his football team getting ridiculously drunk by the coach the night before, then getting thrashed by Prague's football team. He also told me about Dead Mau5; a Canadian electro-dj guy. He worshipped him. That and Whistler, BC. He was in love with the idea of Whistler.
At five am I said I wanted to dance. I went into the room with the flashing strobe and pumping music, stared at my shoes, feeling the music in my bones, and it suddenly hit me; I was exhausted. I wandered over to the backstage, found Xania and Ineke crashed out like two sacks of potatoes and crashed like a ton of bricks.
Woke up again in the empty squat at 10:30 and made our way over to Tobi's house, where we are staying. He made a scrumptious meal: buns, cheese, nutella, coffee... mmmm lekkerrrr!!!
Chatted with the gang here lots. Cool peeps. Went to another squat-restaurant for dinner. After dinner Xania cut my hair, making me look like a German artfag (did some research and, as far as I know, "artfag" is NOT an offensive term, so don't get all PC on my ass).
Spent the morning booking and doing some planning. Getting more shows in Sweden and Denmark, after writing a million venues! It's paying off.
Today I think we might head downtown and busk. Make a bit of moolah, maybe some new fans... AND we have to make business cards!
Stay in touch!
Love
Stephen
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Weimar... Thuringen Bratwürst, Alexander Lang and Ice Cream on the side of the road
Weimar.
Our second time there.
Same venue: Zum Falcon.
We arrived around 5:30pm.
We went directly to Alexander Lang's house. He lives literally 1 minute away from Zum Falcon, the venue. We met Alex when we first played in Zum Falcon last year, when the ever-lovely Wiebke (whom I met through Wes Knight, the ex-Triker a few years back in Vancouver. She saw a few shows from the old Trike and we stayed in contact) booked our show and made a crazy-cool poster for us.
We chatted and ate some food. He talked about living and working on construction sites in Prague, where the gypsy workers (who literally did NOT have homes) would build little houses out of debris on the site, and pee in the corners. He said it was frustrating at times, but the workers were all really nice... just lazy.
We went to the venue and met ...., the bartender who had started cooking a meal for us. We had two half-litre bottles of Weimar beer each (Ineke had Polish beer) and talked about making out with strange people and absurd anti-dancing laws in Vancouver and New York.
The bartender told me that before they would book all sorts of bands without checking out their myspace/ website, and only recently they started checking out the music. Apparently they had a band play recently who was so painful to listen to that the majority of the audience left, so they realized they should use some discretion. Now, music nights, for her, are much more enjoyable.
We went back to Alex' house and rehearsed Jacq; a song we rarely do because Xania doesn't like playing it. Alex loved it. I played a new song I've been writing (I might put the lyrics below). It wasn't perfect, but Alex still liked it.
We went back to set up. Falcon is one of those joints without a sound-person, so we had to rig up everything ourselves. There were concerns that they might not have enough cables, or even a second mic... but after some digging we found everything.
The Weimar beer had started going to my head a bit, so I had to lay off the booze. If I perform drunk I call the audience assholes (ie. like the show in Victoria at Logan's Pub!!) and fuck up all the arrangements. It ends up being pretty entertaining (like watching a car crash) but I never remember it the next day...
The show went well. Two young guys were dancing like crazy in front. The place was packed. Alex said it's because of internet promotion that he and others did (I love when people help us promote shows!). He also said apparently there was nothing else going on in Weimar last night so we were the main attraction. The MAIN ATTRACTION!!! That's so exciting. Played Jacq and Let's Jog as encores. They went over well! The only problem was the bartender, who was a bit perturbed because we were pretty loud and bassy. (Dammit, we needed to get people dancing! Germans and dancing don't exactly go together)(Plus, that's what you get when we do sound ourselves ;P)
Sold four CDs. Florence, who did the radio interview last time we were there, showed up. An old guy who played with ZZ Top once in the eighties was there. He slapped Xania's bum ten times.
And the bartender said
I love Weimar. It's cozy and pretty. It feels so calm. There is so much music in the streets; classical buskers everywhere. Weimar is the home of Schïller, Liszt and Goethe, and of course the Weimar Republic. There is much history in those streets. And the architecture and colours of the buildings are really stunning. And old. You can really imagine why Schïller, Liszt and Goethe lived there for so long. Everyone seems so happy and calm.
This morning we were invited for breakfast (after partying til 5am and sleeping til 9:30) at Carsten's friend's place. Everyone was in a hilarious mood and there was nonstop potty humour, whilst we shovelled down buns with nutella, jam, fruits, lox and tomatoes... we joked about my brother's band name, Pooprider... you can imagine the jokes that emerged. I won't reiterate them here, out of fear of you guys judging me for being immature; cause I'm not immature. SHUDDUP!
Wandered around Weimar, bought a German phrasebook, postcard for Uncle Flayve, Thoringen bratwürst and blank CDs. Now we are off to Leipzig. I've never ever ever been there before!!!
Here is the song I started writing in Mijn Sherenland, when we were recording with Ron. Xania added a section as well:
Ice Cream On The Side Of The Road
(Taylor/Keane)
If you're gonna wake up
with the sun spilling on your legs
well you got another lover
got another lover
and if you're gonna wake up
with black clouds don't be impatient
cause impatience is another
another kinda cancer
i coulda told you last week
that i knew about your lover
but i thought it didn't matter
the issue kinda splattered
on my socks and shoes
and everything went white
whiter than ice scream on the side of the road
i lost my toes
when i took another step off the curb
if you're gonna fall asleep
in traffic horns a'blasting
well i guess you're getting action
dirty late night action
and if your cappuccino has a
heart shaped in the crema
well i guess the lust is lasting
lust is never taxing
and if you drained your pool
with the autumn leaves a'falling
well i guess i won't come over
won't wander through your clover
i miss the cliffs of dover
the issue kinda splattered
on my socks and shoes
and everything went white
whiter than ice scream on the side of the road
i lost my toes
when i took another step off the curb
oh mother
why won't you pay attention to me now
(she's got a lot on her plate)
oh mother
the sun stopped sparkling on my brow
(she's not listening)
oh mother
there are crimes
committed
by people who are sinners
not me
reality skewed in the morning
mourning normalcy
job was boring
but if i could only have it back
if the apple could only
go back to the way it was
rotten in the back
of a dying bug
hit me with it father
i will never bother
can never say a word
only shriek animal sounds
they quiver the ground
hide your face with your scarf
i will disappear
into your inner ear
the issue's gonna splatter
on my socks and shoes
and everything went white
whiter than ice scream on the side of the road
i lost my toes
when i took another step off the curb
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Newer Album: It's a WRAP!!!
Okay a few things:
Firstly, the album will NOT be called Mushy Muschi Moshi, for reasons explained below. It will be called "The Newer Album". The songs are as follows, but not necessarily in this order:
Tracks:
Zombie Tragedy
Sudbury
Bring The Shit Back
Chachi Boys and Girls
Fat Dancer
Where Did It Go?
Phil Collins
Gumball
Tell The Doctor
Dutch Girls On Bicycles
Carousal
Urban Grey
Omigod
These songs are from various stages of Trike's illustrious career. Fat Dancer was written 9 years ago, when I moved back to Vancouver from Montreal, part of Bring the Shit Back was written in 2000 (when I was working at Brother's Restaurant in Vancouver - I would wear a monk's robe and hand out orange fliers to gullible tourists in Gastown and write rap verses in my little pocket-sized notepad about how much I despised them. It was updated two years ago when Xania contributed a verse) and the rest of the song was written in Holland in 2005. Sudbury was written after I toured Canada for the first time with Wes Knight, in a previous incarnation of Trike. I read an article about auto-tuning by Robert Everett Green in The Globe and Mail. The rest, however, was written with Xania, with the exception of "Tell The Doctor", which was written by Wax Mannequin; the most recent being Where Did It Go, which we wrote in Saint John, mere days before recording.
Our recording process took many twists and turns. This is the story:
We recorded the music tracks in Saint John, New Brunswick with my bro, Peter Taylor in "Pocketlint Studios". We put live drums into a number of songs, thanks to Isaac Guimond. Mushy (which was cut out of the album in the end), Sudbury and Bring The Shit Back all feature Isaac's drumming meshed with the synth beats. Where Did It Go and Urban Grey originally had an organic drum track without the synth beats. We put acoustic guitar into a number of songs. We had my bro's kids and Pete's friends sing on "Bring The Shit Back". My brother mixed down all the music and we headed to Montreal for phase two: Vocals.
We stayed in a house full of grey-metal-heads (all in a band called Forusofus), who graciously let us use their rehearsal space to record. John Keane came and recorded lots and lots of vocals, glockenspiel (the glockenspiel was too quiet in Peter's mixdown), jewelery scraping along the edge of a drum cymbal (for Carousal), more violin and more keyboard tracks. It was a pretty steady process.
We thought the recording was done. Boy, we were wrong!
We were on our Euro Tour. John was in Montreal working on the tracks, putting the vocal tracks together; slicing, dicing, editing, auto-tuning and more. But we were playing our show in Marseilles with Harry Merry (NL). Ron had driven us down. Ron has worked with a fellow named Mark Lotterman on two albums. Mark is signed to Tocado Records (NL). We heard both albums and they sounded mint. He sat me down and said that if we wanted to (we had the next 12 days free), he would help produce our album; rerecord the drum tracks and beefing up the bass to make the album more dancy. That sounded like a great idea.
So we wrote John and said we would be mixing the album in Mijnsherenland (outside of Rotterdam) with Ron. He began sending us what he'd been up to; polished RARs with vocals and the music tracks.
Going through the songs, we realized that the music tracks for Urban Grey and Where Did It Go just weren't very good. We rerecorded them using Alex van de Meer's beats and some synth beats, and they sounded MUCH punchier. We added some electric guitar and more synth lines, to add more colour and spice. We also decided to record a cover of Wax Mannequin's "Tell The Doctor", with a synth-polka-pop feel.
My brother had been mixing a few songs and discovered that the vocals we recorded sounded muddy, and the esses were sharp. He said there were things we could do in post, but the best thing to do would be to rerecord them using a tube pre-amp. So, what began as a simple affair of beefing up a few songs became an elaborate third phase of the recording process. We returned to Holland after our Nantes, France show (the BEST France show we've ever had) and began phase four; three intense days of rerecording lead vocals for about 10 of the songs. We did a lot of work with John and wanted to keep what he did, meshing the two together. We also did plenty of harmonies with John that we could work with.
Yesterday, driving to pick up groceries, Ron told me his honest thoughts. He didn't feel Mushy was working. We hadn't properly recorded it in the first place, stopping the recording just before the last chorus, thinking we could stitch it in later. We recorded the last chorus with John but it sounded so different from the rest, and didn't feature the live drums. We had to make a decision. We had fourteen songs recorded. We planned for 13 to be on the album, and the most problematic one was "Mushy" so we decided to drop it. We'll most likely record it in May and release it as a single.
So, last night we were up til 7am recording. There was still more I wanted to do, but I knew at some point we would have to leave the project in Ron's capable hands. So we did. Plus, Xania, Rouslan (Russian Sax and flute player who played on three tracks) and Ron's dog, Gizmo, were all curled up in fetal positions on the studio floor. Ron was weaving back and forth with glazed eyes. We opened up the last tune, Dutch Girls (the first and last song we worked on with Ron: Ironic, considering he's dutch), listened to it and realized the vocals sounded fine. Our album was done.
And, to be honest, my head was still swirling with ideas for things we could do. I had been getting various ideas yesterday, but unfortunately, time didn't allow for those ideas to come to fruition. We had to let our baby go and hope for the best.
In the future, of course, it would be nice to have a few months to really work on an album. But, at the same time, it's good to have limits and constraints. It forces you to work somewhat efficiently and in the end, you're forced to kill your darlings. Anyway, the songs sounded pretty finished, and I'm sure with Ron's studio-trickery he can make them work.
We will pick a date for our official release online. Not yet... possibly in May.
Firstly, the album will NOT be called Mushy Muschi Moshi, for reasons explained below. It will be called "The Newer Album". The songs are as follows, but not necessarily in this order:
Tracks:
Zombie Tragedy
Sudbury
Bring The Shit Back
Chachi Boys and Girls
Fat Dancer
Where Did It Go?
Phil Collins
Gumball
Tell The Doctor
Dutch Girls On Bicycles
Carousal
Urban Grey
Omigod
These songs are from various stages of Trike's illustrious career. Fat Dancer was written 9 years ago, when I moved back to Vancouver from Montreal, part of Bring the Shit Back was written in 2000 (when I was working at Brother's Restaurant in Vancouver - I would wear a monk's robe and hand out orange fliers to gullible tourists in Gastown and write rap verses in my little pocket-sized notepad about how much I despised them. It was updated two years ago when Xania contributed a verse) and the rest of the song was written in Holland in 2005. Sudbury was written after I toured Canada for the first time with Wes Knight, in a previous incarnation of Trike. I read an article about auto-tuning by Robert Everett Green in The Globe and Mail. The rest, however, was written with Xania, with the exception of "Tell The Doctor", which was written by Wax Mannequin; the most recent being Where Did It Go, which we wrote in Saint John, mere days before recording.
Our recording process took many twists and turns. This is the story:
We recorded the music tracks in Saint John, New Brunswick with my bro, Peter Taylor in "Pocketlint Studios". We put live drums into a number of songs, thanks to Isaac Guimond. Mushy (which was cut out of the album in the end), Sudbury and Bring The Shit Back all feature Isaac's drumming meshed with the synth beats. Where Did It Go and Urban Grey originally had an organic drum track without the synth beats. We put acoustic guitar into a number of songs. We had my bro's kids and Pete's friends sing on "Bring The Shit Back". My brother mixed down all the music and we headed to Montreal for phase two: Vocals.
We stayed in a house full of grey-metal-heads (all in a band called Forusofus), who graciously let us use their rehearsal space to record. John Keane came and recorded lots and lots of vocals, glockenspiel (the glockenspiel was too quiet in Peter's mixdown), jewelery scraping along the edge of a drum cymbal (for Carousal), more violin and more keyboard tracks. It was a pretty steady process.
We thought the recording was done. Boy, we were wrong!
We were on our Euro Tour. John was in Montreal working on the tracks, putting the vocal tracks together; slicing, dicing, editing, auto-tuning and more. But we were playing our show in Marseilles with Harry Merry (NL). Ron had driven us down. Ron has worked with a fellow named Mark Lotterman on two albums. Mark is signed to Tocado Records (NL). We heard both albums and they sounded mint. He sat me down and said that if we wanted to (we had the next 12 days free), he would help produce our album; rerecord the drum tracks and beefing up the bass to make the album more dancy. That sounded like a great idea.
So we wrote John and said we would be mixing the album in Mijnsherenland (outside of Rotterdam) with Ron. He began sending us what he'd been up to; polished RARs with vocals and the music tracks.
Going through the songs, we realized that the music tracks for Urban Grey and Where Did It Go just weren't very good. We rerecorded them using Alex van de Meer's beats and some synth beats, and they sounded MUCH punchier. We added some electric guitar and more synth lines, to add more colour and spice. We also decided to record a cover of Wax Mannequin's "Tell The Doctor", with a synth-polka-pop feel.
My brother had been mixing a few songs and discovered that the vocals we recorded sounded muddy, and the esses were sharp. He said there were things we could do in post, but the best thing to do would be to rerecord them using a tube pre-amp. So, what began as a simple affair of beefing up a few songs became an elaborate third phase of the recording process. We returned to Holland after our Nantes, France show (the BEST France show we've ever had) and began phase four; three intense days of rerecording lead vocals for about 10 of the songs. We did a lot of work with John and wanted to keep what he did, meshing the two together. We also did plenty of harmonies with John that we could work with.
Yesterday, driving to pick up groceries, Ron told me his honest thoughts. He didn't feel Mushy was working. We hadn't properly recorded it in the first place, stopping the recording just before the last chorus, thinking we could stitch it in later. We recorded the last chorus with John but it sounded so different from the rest, and didn't feature the live drums. We had to make a decision. We had fourteen songs recorded. We planned for 13 to be on the album, and the most problematic one was "Mushy" so we decided to drop it. We'll most likely record it in May and release it as a single.
So, last night we were up til 7am recording. There was still more I wanted to do, but I knew at some point we would have to leave the project in Ron's capable hands. So we did. Plus, Xania, Rouslan (Russian Sax and flute player who played on three tracks) and Ron's dog, Gizmo, were all curled up in fetal positions on the studio floor. Ron was weaving back and forth with glazed eyes. We opened up the last tune, Dutch Girls (the first and last song we worked on with Ron: Ironic, considering he's dutch), listened to it and realized the vocals sounded fine. Our album was done.
And, to be honest, my head was still swirling with ideas for things we could do. I had been getting various ideas yesterday, but unfortunately, time didn't allow for those ideas to come to fruition. We had to let our baby go and hope for the best.
In the future, of course, it would be nice to have a few months to really work on an album. But, at the same time, it's good to have limits and constraints. It forces you to work somewhat efficiently and in the end, you're forced to kill your darlings. Anyway, the songs sounded pretty finished, and I'm sure with Ron's studio-trickery he can make them work.
We will pick a date for our official release online. Not yet... possibly in May.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Kinky Star
You write songs. You find the perfect band member and start a band. You put your heart, soul, money, sweat, blood and tears into the project. You decide to abandon all ideas of surviving doing anything else, because you can't do anything else (you either get canned or quit every job you've ever had). You focus on the project, playing as much as possible. Everywhere from the streets to art galleries to elementary schools to forests to living rooms. The project gets a good reaction. It catches on. People like what you're doing and offer you shows, shows and more shows. You win a contest, get lots of money and tour Europe. The reaction is positive. You record an EP. You make four music videos. A year later you record an album. You get signed to Capsule Records. Everything is looking up and up.
But even though everything is going swimmingly well, there are low points. Undoubtedly. It's inevitable. And when you have small low points, in the midst of all of this goodness, it doesn't matter, does it? At least, it shouldn't... and in the end, it really doesn't.
Okay, I'm writing this in third (second?) person. This is about us; Trike.
Last week was really really good and productive, but one of the low points was when we got a rejection email that it would be sinful not to write about. The story behind this one particular rejection is begging to be told. This is the story of Kinky Star rejecting Trike.
First, some background:
Last year we toured Europe, playing 75 shows in 9 countries. It was a smashing success. We left Europe with tears in our eyes and sunshine in our hearts. Some shows were shitty, some were mind-blowingly awesome. More good shows than bad, which is ... y'know ... good.
When we were on tour, I got an email from Remo Siemons, who I used to play with in a band called Shortcut (www.shortcut.by) in Holland. (We did an album of 1 to 2 minute songs; the entire album amounting to about 30 minutes. The project was also short-lived, sticking to the theme; short songs, short set-lists, short shelf-life). He said "try Ghent. It's a music city. There's a place called Café Vidéo, below Das Pop's rehearsal space". So I did. So, I emailed them. No response, but at least I tried.
Soon enough we found ourselves playing in Belgium and decided to hang out in Ghent, to look for venues/shows. Xania walked the streets, going from venue to venue, dropping off CDs. Charleton, Tanneke Lange and Kinky Star, to name a few. The pock-faced owner of Tonneke Lange allowed us to open for a very tight Beatles cover band. The response was great so we booked another show for a month later. Then, we met Maarten de Schrijver (actually means "Maarten the Writer"); a lovely young philosophy student) through couchsurfing.org and he arranged it so that we could play at a buffet for his fellow philosophy students. It was a blast. We played, sold CDs and chatted about Nietzsche.
But Xania couldn't stop talking about Kinky Star "It's small but really charming. It's made for us!" she said. She had her heart set on playing there. She talked to the people there, who gave her the booker (who I will refer to as Biff)'s email. She wrote him and he expressed interest in having us. We already had the show in Tonneke Lange, so he didn't want to book us then, but promised to have us at a later date. We were optimistic.
We played the show at Tonneke Lange, which was a great success. The place was packed.
We left Ghent with hopes of returning again. Maarten was going to help us get a show before we ended our tour but it just didn't happen.
We returned to Canada and started booking Europe yet again. Yes, we're addicted. Maarten arranged for us to play at Krawietel.
We began our second Euro Tour. Two weeks in we played at Krawietel. It was a BLAST! The place was packed. The bartenders were dancing behind the bar. People responded really well! People jogged with us during "Let's Jog". It was our best, funnest show in Ghent. We were paid well. We drank well. They fed us. We sold six CDs and got loads of emails. The owner, Tom, said it was "the BEST audience reaction from any band that has ever played" there. Wow. We were blown away. Even the metal-heads in the audience got into it.
We also got a spot on Kinky Star radio. It was fun. We played three tunes (from the CD) and got interviewed. We plugged our website. We thought playing on their radio station was a shoe-in to getting a show at Kinky.
We knew we had to return. We had fans. We felt like we had a future there. Xania was still thinking about Kinky Star. She wrote Biff again. He wrote back:
What the EFF? Are you kidding? What's with the "keep up the good work" that he automatically staples onto every email? The subtext to this disturbing, schizophrenic email seems to be: "I don't like your music. You suck. But, keep up the good work". She wrote back, pressing him for a reason. He responded:
"Hi Xania,
very sorry, but we have so many offers that I need to do a strong selection and just not good enough for me.
The KS radio show people are working independently from the rest and from me.
thx for keepin up the good work
ciao
Luc"
"Not good enough?" Tell that to the audience at Krawietel. What pretention! Okay fine, you could say at least he responded... he was just being honest. Was he? Was he really? And who in their right mind would email that to a band? It's mean. And again, closing the mail with "keep up the good work". If it's good, why aren't we playing at your stupid venue? Why would you say we're "not good enough" if we're doing "good work"? Even if you don't like the music; even if you HATE the music, you can say something critical without dismissing the band as "not good" without a single indication as to why you would offer such a rude, obnoxious comment. It's unkind and uncalled for.
This rejection email came a few days ago. We get rejections. Of course we do. We email sometimes 50 venues in one day. Of course we get rejections. And, a lot of people don't know what we're about, and sometimes the music/videos etc. don't properly convey it. A lot of it is in the performance. I realize that. It's in the energy onstage. A lot of people say "it's not right for our venue". Okay. Fine. Not everyone is down with synth-dance-pop. But "not good enough"? What does that mean? Expand, please. Do we sing off key? Is it boring? Bland? Unremarkable? Forgettable? Not catchy enough? What does "not good enough" mean?
I don't like rejection. Never have and probably never will. I mean, who the fuck does? We got eight shows last week and a few rejections and yet it's this rejection that digs into me. But to put things in perspective, it's not just your average rejection, but a rejection from a place that originally wanted us and emailed back and forth for over a year before sending a rejection email. It just feels unfair. After all of that communication? I feel like Luc,... oops, I mean Biff played us like a yoyo. Up and down, up and down, up and... If, in the end, they decided they weren't as excited about us as they were a year ago (which makes zero sense), they could at least book us anyway, after so much emailing and nice words said about us.
Fine. They won't get us. There are other places, better places, places that are willing to give us a chance, because we're not your average fucking bar band. We interact. We get crazy and spastic. We put on a show. We won't stand there and stare at our neon green shoelaces. We will engage the audience, because it's essential and it's who we are.
As a postscript, Xania was talking to somebody at Krawietel and said "I really wanna play at Kinky Star" and they responded with "You don't wanna play there. Nobody goes there, anymore". She said her enthusiasm to play there died when she heard those nine words.
What can I say? Sounds like karma to me.
But even though everything is going swimmingly well, there are low points. Undoubtedly. It's inevitable. And when you have small low points, in the midst of all of this goodness, it doesn't matter, does it? At least, it shouldn't... and in the end, it really doesn't.
Okay, I'm writing this in third (second?) person. This is about us; Trike.
Last week was really really good and productive, but one of the low points was when we got a rejection email that it would be sinful not to write about. The story behind this one particular rejection is begging to be told. This is the story of Kinky Star rejecting Trike.
First, some background:
Last year we toured Europe, playing 75 shows in 9 countries. It was a smashing success. We left Europe with tears in our eyes and sunshine in our hearts. Some shows were shitty, some were mind-blowingly awesome. More good shows than bad, which is ... y'know ... good.
When we were on tour, I got an email from Remo Siemons, who I used to play with in a band called Shortcut (www.shortcut.by) in Holland. (We did an album of 1 to 2 minute songs; the entire album amounting to about 30 minutes. The project was also short-lived, sticking to the theme; short songs, short set-lists, short shelf-life). He said "try Ghent. It's a music city. There's a place called Café Vidéo, below Das Pop's rehearsal space". So I did. So, I emailed them. No response, but at least I tried.
Soon enough we found ourselves playing in Belgium and decided to hang out in Ghent, to look for venues/shows. Xania walked the streets, going from venue to venue, dropping off CDs. Charleton, Tanneke Lange and Kinky Star, to name a few. The pock-faced owner of Tonneke Lange allowed us to open for a very tight Beatles cover band. The response was great so we booked another show for a month later. Then, we met Maarten de Schrijver (actually means "Maarten the Writer"); a lovely young philosophy student) through couchsurfing.org and he arranged it so that we could play at a buffet for his fellow philosophy students. It was a blast. We played, sold CDs and chatted about Nietzsche.
But Xania couldn't stop talking about Kinky Star "It's small but really charming. It's made for us!" she said. She had her heart set on playing there. She talked to the people there, who gave her the booker (who I will refer to as Biff)'s email. She wrote him and he expressed interest in having us. We already had the show in Tonneke Lange, so he didn't want to book us then, but promised to have us at a later date. We were optimistic.
We played the show at Tonneke Lange, which was a great success. The place was packed.
We left Ghent with hopes of returning again. Maarten was going to help us get a show before we ended our tour but it just didn't happen.
We returned to Canada and started booking Europe yet again. Yes, we're addicted. Maarten arranged for us to play at Krawietel.
We began our second Euro Tour. Two weeks in we played at Krawietel. It was a BLAST! The place was packed. The bartenders were dancing behind the bar. People responded really well! People jogged with us during "Let's Jog". It was our best, funnest show in Ghent. We were paid well. We drank well. They fed us. We sold six CDs and got loads of emails. The owner, Tom, said it was "the BEST audience reaction from any band that has ever played" there. Wow. We were blown away. Even the metal-heads in the audience got into it.
We also got a spot on Kinky Star radio. It was fun. We played three tunes (from the CD) and got interviewed. We plugged our website. We thought playing on their radio station was a shoe-in to getting a show at Kinky.
We knew we had to return. We had fans. We felt like we had a future there. Xania was still thinking about Kinky Star. She wrote Biff again. He wrote back:
"Hi Xania,
sorry, I couldn't make it at the show last Monday. But listened to the radio show ;-)
To be honest with you I'm not that enthousiastic of Trike and I'm not that interested to have you for a live show at Kinky Star, I'm sorry.
Though I wish you all the best with your music!
Though I wish you all the best with your music!
thx for keepin up the good work!
ciao
Luc"
What the EFF? Are you kidding? What's with the "keep up the good work" that he automatically staples onto every email? The subtext to this disturbing, schizophrenic email seems to be: "I don't like your music. You suck. But, keep up the good work". She wrote back, pressing him for a reason. He responded:
"Hi Xania,
very sorry, but we have so many offers that I need to do a strong selection and just not good enough for me.
The KS radio show people are working independently from the rest and from me.
thx for keepin up the good work
ciao
Luc"
"Not good enough?" Tell that to the audience at Krawietel. What pretention! Okay fine, you could say at least he responded... he was just being honest. Was he? Was he really? And who in their right mind would email that to a band? It's mean. And again, closing the mail with "keep up the good work". If it's good, why aren't we playing at your stupid venue? Why would you say we're "not good enough" if we're doing "good work"? Even if you don't like the music; even if you HATE the music, you can say something critical without dismissing the band as "not good" without a single indication as to why you would offer such a rude, obnoxious comment. It's unkind and uncalled for.
This rejection email came a few days ago. We get rejections. Of course we do. We email sometimes 50 venues in one day. Of course we get rejections. And, a lot of people don't know what we're about, and sometimes the music/videos etc. don't properly convey it. A lot of it is in the performance. I realize that. It's in the energy onstage. A lot of people say "it's not right for our venue". Okay. Fine. Not everyone is down with synth-dance-pop. But "not good enough"? What does that mean? Expand, please. Do we sing off key? Is it boring? Bland? Unremarkable? Forgettable? Not catchy enough? What does "not good enough" mean?
I don't like rejection. Never have and probably never will. I mean, who the fuck does? We got eight shows last week and a few rejections and yet it's this rejection that digs into me. But to put things in perspective, it's not just your average rejection, but a rejection from a place that originally wanted us and emailed back and forth for over a year before sending a rejection email. It just feels unfair. After all of that communication? I feel like Luc,... oops, I mean Biff played us like a yoyo. Up and down, up and down, up and... If, in the end, they decided they weren't as excited about us as they were a year ago (which makes zero sense), they could at least book us anyway, after so much emailing and nice words said about us.
Fine. They won't get us. There are other places, better places, places that are willing to give us a chance, because we're not your average fucking bar band. We interact. We get crazy and spastic. We put on a show. We won't stand there and stare at our neon green shoelaces. We will engage the audience, because it's essential and it's who we are.
As a postscript, Xania was talking to somebody at Krawietel and said "I really wanna play at Kinky Star" and they responded with "You don't wanna play there. Nobody goes there, anymore". She said her enthusiasm to play there died when she heard those nine words.
What can I say? Sounds like karma to me.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Trike Euro-Log: One Month Of Touring (and getting towed in Paris)
Paris
Typing on my laptop while Ineke drives. In Paris en route to Nantes. Ah, gay Paree... Allow me to tell you what happened today and the events leading up to it.
We spent the last twelve days in Mijnsherenland, outside of Rotterdam, with crazy Ron, a slightly brilliant, slightly neurotic, tall drink of water with a dog named Gizmo. We recorded LOTS for our new album, Mushy Muschi Moshi; vocals, violin, keys, harmonica (finally - I neglected to record it in both Saint John, New Brunswick and Montréal. No, correction: I recorded harmonica tracks in Saint John, but they sounded distorted). Ineke filmed and edited plenty of footage for her documentary.
We also booked a bunch in Mark Lotterman's mother's house (Ron didn't have WiFi at home). We gained about eight shows through all our efforts and lost three. We also got a ridiculous rejection from a venue in Ghent, Belgium, which I will describe in our next blog.
It was a productive twelve days. At first we were skeptical, because it seemed like an endless desert of time, stretching into eternity, but the days went by fast. We caught up on sleep (I have an eyemask and earplugs, which work wonders). I wrote a song. Xania and I both wrote a song about robots. Yes, a lot of bands write songs about robots. Shuddup. I know. I don't care. (it's called "Dance With A Robot [He knows where the FUN starts]"). I also read some of a book by Obama (utterly fascinating and surprisingly touching). We watched Gizmo and Mika try to bang, over and over again, but Mika is about 1/8th Gizmo's size (they're dogs, in case you didn't pick that up).
The time to leave for Nantes drew nigh. We soaked in as much recording time as we could in Ron's studio before finally stuffing the car with our belongings and hightailing it towards Paris, our pitstop before Nantes.
Paris. We arrived last night, met Xania's bosom-buddy, Alexis at Place de la Republique and parked the car in what we thought was a good parking spot. She took us to her charming, small apartment "It's like a cardboard box" she told me. Soon enough we found ourselves in Alexis' living room, lovingly adorned with a modest book collection and Warhol prints, mugs of coffee and bailey's in our hands, chatting with Alexis' adorable boyfriend, Alex (hairdresser and photographer) and her lovely friend, Audrey (graphic designer); both from Quebec. After many glasses of wine and several youtube videos (why do social gatherings often end up with everyone gathered around the computer, showing each other youtube videos? It's a new social phenomenon, I've noticed), we put on Total Recall and promptly fell asleep.
I awoke first, as I often do, with a minor red wine headache. Picked up aspirin at the pharmacy and returned. People started waking up. We planned to have crepes and waffles at Republique, but first, Ineke, Xania and I wanted to get some things from the car. We went to the parking spot and it was GONE! As we found out later, it was towed because it was a loading zone, which we were blissfully unaware of.
It had been towed. Alexis finally showed up and eventually led us to the place where they keep towed vehicles. We had to pay 130 euros. Ineke and I split the cost because we both thought it was an okay place to park. There were no signs saying otherwise. Nothing. We filled out a form to contest it, went back to the car and noticed there were two massive dents on the right side. The women marched back to the office and swiftly told the woman behind the desk, whose heavy-lidded eyes betrayed her general ennuie towards humanity. Oh, she was nice enough, but you could tell; she knew that something is rotten at the core of the Parisien system.
Form after form... finally we left after hugs and kisses, with vague half-promises of returning on Sunday. We got the fuck out of Paris tout de suite and headed towards Nantes. I know nothing of the city, but my only hope is that the people are open to something new. My hope is that they wont smoke apathetic cigarettes, chatting amongst themselves as we play our hearts out. If so, I will tear a strip out of them.
Typing on my laptop while Ineke drives. In Paris en route to Nantes. Ah, gay Paree... Allow me to tell you what happened today and the events leading up to it.
We spent the last twelve days in Mijnsherenland, outside of Rotterdam, with crazy Ron, a slightly brilliant, slightly neurotic, tall drink of water with a dog named Gizmo. We recorded LOTS for our new album, Mushy Muschi Moshi; vocals, violin, keys, harmonica (finally - I neglected to record it in both Saint John, New Brunswick and Montréal. No, correction: I recorded harmonica tracks in Saint John, but they sounded distorted). Ineke filmed and edited plenty of footage for her documentary.
We also booked a bunch in Mark Lotterman's mother's house (Ron didn't have WiFi at home). We gained about eight shows through all our efforts and lost three. We also got a ridiculous rejection from a venue in Ghent, Belgium, which I will describe in our next blog.
It was a productive twelve days. At first we were skeptical, because it seemed like an endless desert of time, stretching into eternity, but the days went by fast. We caught up on sleep (I have an eyemask and earplugs, which work wonders). I wrote a song. Xania and I both wrote a song about robots. Yes, a lot of bands write songs about robots. Shuddup. I know. I don't care. (it's called "Dance With A Robot [He knows where the FUN starts]"). I also read some of a book by Obama (utterly fascinating and surprisingly touching). We watched Gizmo and Mika try to bang, over and over again, but Mika is about 1/8th Gizmo's size (they're dogs, in case you didn't pick that up).
The time to leave for Nantes drew nigh. We soaked in as much recording time as we could in Ron's studio before finally stuffing the car with our belongings and hightailing it towards Paris, our pitstop before Nantes.
Paris. We arrived last night, met Xania's bosom-buddy, Alexis at Place de la Republique and parked the car in what we thought was a good parking spot. She took us to her charming, small apartment "It's like a cardboard box" she told me. Soon enough we found ourselves in Alexis' living room, lovingly adorned with a modest book collection and Warhol prints, mugs of coffee and bailey's in our hands, chatting with Alexis' adorable boyfriend, Alex (hairdresser and photographer) and her lovely friend, Audrey (graphic designer); both from Quebec. After many glasses of wine and several youtube videos (why do social gatherings often end up with everyone gathered around the computer, showing each other youtube videos? It's a new social phenomenon, I've noticed), we put on Total Recall and promptly fell asleep.
I awoke first, as I often do, with a minor red wine headache. Picked up aspirin at the pharmacy and returned. People started waking up. We planned to have crepes and waffles at Republique, but first, Ineke, Xania and I wanted to get some things from the car. We went to the parking spot and it was GONE! As we found out later, it was towed because it was a loading zone, which we were blissfully unaware of.
It had been towed. Alexis finally showed up and eventually led us to the place where they keep towed vehicles. We had to pay 130 euros. Ineke and I split the cost because we both thought it was an okay place to park. There were no signs saying otherwise. Nothing. We filled out a form to contest it, went back to the car and noticed there were two massive dents on the right side. The women marched back to the office and swiftly told the woman behind the desk, whose heavy-lidded eyes betrayed her general ennuie towards humanity. Oh, she was nice enough, but you could tell; she knew that something is rotten at the core of the Parisien system.
Form after form... finally we left after hugs and kisses, with vague half-promises of returning on Sunday. We got the fuck out of Paris tout de suite and headed towards Nantes. I know nothing of the city, but my only hope is that the people are open to something new. My hope is that they wont smoke apathetic cigarettes, chatting amongst themselves as we play our hearts out. If so, I will tear a strip out of them.
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