Body So Beautiful Contest Winners

The Body So Beautiful Contest has finally come to a close. We'd like to thank all the people who entered into the contest as well as those who took part by voting or requesting our music video at Much More Music. We had a lot of fun seeing what people came up with and were very impressed by all of the contest entries.



CONTEST OVERALL WINNERS


1st Place $500 Grand Prize Winner: Lara Kulczycki from Sarnia, Ontario (300 contest points)
2nd Place: Jacqueline Wong from Toronto, Ontario (134 contest points)

3rd Place: Kaley York from Salmon Arm, British Columbia (102 contest points)



HONORABLE MENTION PRIZES

These entries were chosen not for their point totals, but for their artistic merit. Hand picked by the band, each Honorable Mention winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the Painted Birds' merch store. Redeemable at any TPB concert during our next Cross Canada Tour.

1st Honorable Mention prize: Cali Robinson from Vancouver, British Columbia (94 contest points) Everybody was truly amazed by air brushed logo on Cali's chest.


2nd Honorable mention prize: The Painted Beards, Brittany Bell, Lauren Bell and Braleigh Nelson from Summerland, British Columbia. (14 contest points) Let's just say that we had a good chuckle over this one.

3rd Honourable Mention Prize: Leala Selina from Vancouver, British Columbia (0 contest points).
We had to award this entry with something because, heck, it was the only video entry and definitely took a bit of work. If you're logged into facebook click on this link to see the video.

Leala's Music Video For Colleen

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME AWARD

We'd like to give Dallas Green (well known Canadian Musician from AlexisOnFire and City and Colour) and Jerry Riggs (lesser known Vancouver Sommelier) the better luck next time award. Sorry Dallas, it appears that while Jerry was convinced your moderate celebrity status would win him points in our contest, it sadly didn't work at all (0 contest points).

Brade in the Lucky Tree

So this story goes back a bit, probably in the fall of 2007. So not part of our last tour in the slightest, but way before that. Shawn was out of town visiting family and Shane had not made the full move to vancouver yet, though he'd already made the decision to come.

A friend of the band named Jeff Denomme (www.hauntedzoo.com) was holding an art show with some of his pieces at a gallery up east hastings. Jeff had asked josh and i to do an acoustic set. So josh and i were happy to prepare some tunes acoustically, and because it had been so long decided to even throw in some old spark that screams tunes.

Kicking off the music that night was another acoustic performer by the name of Chris Brady. I remember very little of his set except for the fact that myself and others had claimed he was quite Jack Johnsony. My appologies to Chris and all other performers that I've shared the stage with. When i have to play a show i can't really concentrate or enjoy the other musicians' sets. I'm usually preparing mentally or I'm just too ADD to take anything in.

Chris Brady, however, did become more memorable during josh and i's set. Now i'd met Chris before but didn't know him very well at all. Having had a few too many beers from the bar, Chris became the loudmouth who started demanding songs.

"Play I'm a Radio!" he bellowed.
"I don't know if...." i started.
"Oh come on" chris broke in "you 'artists' and your never wanting to play your hits. You have to play it. It's your best song, get used to it".

Chris obviously wanted to hear I'm a Radio so we were happy to play it next. He even sang along nicely... from the audience.

A few songs later one of the strings on my guitar broke. Actually, I'd borrowed shawn's guitar for this show which makes this next part of the story even better. Or worse. A broken string was all fine at this point as Josh and i had planned that i would play a couple songs by myself at the end. So i took his guitar, and he somewhat foolishly laid shawn's guitar on the ground in front of where he'd been sitting.

Before i started my next tune, my good friend Will indicated to me that he was leaving. Now will's favorite songs have always been 'so beautiful' and 'colleen'. At this point in the evening, however i had not played colleen yet so i indicated for will and his friends to stay for one more song and started playing colleen. I luckily did not have to play colleen completely alone, as the song was apparently one of Chris Brady's other favorites as well. Brady half asked if he could join me and proceeded to sit down and sing into the mic next to me.

Now i love when this happens. Sometimes it's annoying because the drunky, kind of, well... sucks, and to just kick them off makes me look like an asshole. But Brady was great and that's ultimately what we want: people to participate in our music. The next song i played, however, was a new one, a favorite of some of my good friends who'd been standing near the front. And Brady did not look like he was going to leave anytime soon. Mildly annoyed by his falsetto chirps by the first chorus i looked over to my good friends. Painted across all of their faces along with some other listeners near the front, was a look that i would compare to how a mother looks when daddy comes home drunk and starts playfully throwing the baby a little too close to the ceiling.

I had to act fast, I saw my opening. At the end of the first chorus there was a 4 beat stop in which i didn't have to sing. I plucked the last note, casually reached over to the sound board, and pressed the mute button on Brady's microphone. The whole front row turned around to hide their laughter from what had just occurred. I had to laugh myself, but i felt like i'd been a bit of a jerk. All that guilt washed away, however, a few moments later when my muted drunken stage mate, Brady, spilled the remains of his beer into the sound hole of shawn's guitar. The one we had so foolishly left on the ground.

For months after this occasion some of my friends and I have dubbed doing foolish or idiotic things as pulling a chris brady. That and sometimes you might have heard us just utter the name as a quasi swear word... sorry chris.

Now a few days ago I had the opportunity to hang out with Chris again, and learn that these were just extreme circumstances. During our hang out Chris and i played some songs, and he showed me some of his recordings, and I'm honestly floored by one song so much that i've decided to write this whole story in it's honor. If you have a moment check out Brade in the Lucky Tree at www.myspace.com/theluckytree and listen to the song EYES. I can't stop listening to it. And if you're still interested listen to HOLDING THE SUN as well.

dom

The Scandalous Topless Photos on Facebook

I must quickly back paddle in this story to not only share with you some good times we had in Toronto but also clear up some semi scandalous photos from North By North East that have been posted on facebook.

Well not really scandalous, but for some reason I've appeared scantilly clad a couple times now tagged in a photo with our dearest friend Adaline. My sister likes to give me a hard time about such things, claiming that it could harm my future career. Say if i were to become a politician, but in my defense i can't see myself being a politician.

I can't really say much about the photo's from Kamloops. I had probably taken a few too many doses of silly when Corey and I decided that there was no reason for us to get our swimsuits wet and sweaty in the Marshall's sauna. It was or first day of tour and it would be a while before we could clean our clothes, so therefore, we thought we'd just do as they do in scandinavia... and go naked. When it comes to the part where I was parading around the Marshall's house in a towel with them and other house guests present, I have little excuse but that i wanted to make myself at home? Though Adaline was there, I have no one to blame but myself for that set of photos so sneekily taken by our band mom Cathi Marshall.

Adaline, however is completely to blame for the Toronto photo's. It was the night of the crazy show we had at the Hideout that i've likened to a scene from Coyote Ugly. I started the show drenched in sweat so when we hit the after party at Queen street studios i needed a new shirt. So Corey lent me one of his.

Now, perhaps, this next part is where i might have brought this whole fiasco upon myself. But you be the judge. Our good friend Bechara had reclined himself on one of the many leather couches at queen street studios with his head resting on a coffee and a plastic cup balancing on his forehead. As he created quite a scene, I jokingly told him to stay still as i wanted to sink my cell phone, free throw style, into the cup from about a 10 foot distance. Bechara protested as i started the countdown from 5. 4----3-----2---. All of a sudden Bechara jerks himself forward, and swooosh. He's spilled a cup full of red wine all over his very nice white shirt. Being quite like myself, Bechara wasn't pleased about the wine stain on his shirt, but he also wasn't too concerned about spending the rest of the after party with no shirt on.

So this amuses me greatly. It's one of those situations, where i can't be blamed, but really was the one to blame. Enter Adaline who had been at the after party all along. This is the part of the story that I hate to tell, because really there is no segue. No lead up, no reasoning. I walked up to Adaline said something completely non-confrontational and she threw a cup, that she perceived to be empty at me. The cup as you may have assumed was not completely empty, and i now had a red wine stain on the shirt that corey had lent me.

Feeling the camaraderie, I then joined Bechara in the minority of people shirtless at the party. And it was during this period that those scandalous pictures of me on Facebook were snapped. So really, you tell me who's to blame.

dom

Family Reunion in Montreal

Now where was I. Well I’m not really sure so I’ll start in Montreal. It’s funny, I keep on raving about how great our hosts have been all across the country. A lot of them last minute deals where they most willingly take us in and end up feeding us and giving us fresh towels for our showers etc…

Montreal was a bit of the opposite. Our hosts had invited us months in advance, but because of our continuous delay in getting to Montreal, and my failing to call and warn that we wouldn’t be arriving for dinner, our hosts decided to leave us to find our own accommodations.

We’d originally planned to get to Montreal a day early so we could explore the city, but Toronto had been so much fun with late night to early morning after parties that we decided to stay an extra day.

Arriving at the venue I was greeted by an old familiar face that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I’d meant to contact my half brother Rob earlier but being on the road and having little internet access it had completely slipped my mind. It was strangely emotional seeing my brother after not seeing him for 14 years, and receiving little more than a facebook message from him in that time. It was great to see him again, but it’s funny how such a long period of no contact can leave two people with very little to talk about. You’d think there would be a mountain of topics to cover in catching up, but I’d assume that sometime after 3 or 4 years the mountain disappears.
It was wonderful to see him. I was very self-conscious on stage as my brother had originally gotten me into music. He taught me how to play my first 3 or 4 chords on the guitar. He’d taken me music shopping when I bought the first CD I ever owned.

Rob and his partner Lynn took Corey and I in for the night and gave us a bed to sleep on. It was another night of debauchery until sunrise.

We awoke in time to grab some ‘legendary (you’d be surprised how many things we’ve seen on tour have claimed to be legendary) montreal smoked meat before we headed off for another show in Ottawa.

Half way Point

It seems that in the prairies and places of canada where there was little and little going on it was much easier to give you guys updates. Toronto and the surrounding area has been good to us.

We just played a killer show last night at the Hideout in Toronto. We'd been accepted into the "North by North East" festival just this week and managed to pull a really good slot at 1 AM on friday night on Queen Street. The audience was off the hook. We were sweating, throwing water at each other, girls were dancing on the counter top of the bar, and rumour has it one of our band members even got a kiss in the middle of our song. Now i wouldn't call us a party band, but when people want to party we'll make the most of it and that was splendid.

This week we also had a great experience at the Trepid House in Waterloo. The venue is a house that the owners have converted into a venue by hooking up speakers in every room, so that no matter where you are, the living room, the magic room (yes there were several magicians in this house), the pirate room (equipped with pirate costumes and everything), the plant room or the attic art gallery, you could always groove to the music.

We were lucky enough to share the stage with a newfy band called HEY ROSETTA, which everyone should check out. We were all humbled as hell. The cops had shut down the concert after we played and we all thought that it was over. Hey Rosetta, equipped with mandolins, cellos, violins and acoustic guitars just played an acoustic set and man was it awesome.

We also managed to get some new recordings done in windsor with a friend of josh's. We're talking about temporarily posting them on our myspace and facebook pages so stay tuned for those. I can't promise anything. we're still talking about it, but i think we could swing at least a couple for your listening pleasure.

Off to montreal tomorrow, and then the final stretch back across canada.

hope to see you soon

dom

Working for the Weekend: Part 2 Guelph

As much as i whine about my perceived failure of shows, the one thing i can never complain about are our accomodations. We've had people welcome us into our homes all across the country and we have had such a good time with all of them and thankfully saved a lot of dough that we would have been forking out on hotels. Guelph was no different.

In london i gave my buddy jerry a call to see if he could hook us up. Jerry lives in Van city, but studied in Guelph and assured me that he could hook us up. Jerry gave us directions to a place called Atmosphere in guelph where we would meet up with our first contact Mike who would give us the key code for the house that we would stay at. (Starting to sound top secret to anyone?). Well when we got there, Mike had no idea who we were, I guess we didn't have the correct response to his 'Roses are red violets are blue' riddle. All was quickly sorted out with a couple phone calls, however, and we headed apprehensively over to the house.

Upon arriving our doubts were quickly vanquished. Aaron, on of our hosts, greeted us with "Hey Painted Birds! i'm a huge fan. you guys want a beer?". Aaron and his roommate Ola assured us that they would come to the show but needed to get up early for work the next morning. Their noble ambitions were soon forgotten, as following our show at about 2:30 in the morning Aaron said screw it and ordered us and a group of people back to the house for more partying.

The show was pretty good. Leighton managed to zone out for most of my solo and only come hug me for the very ending which was again hilarious. Starting in London and continuing on in Guelph, Sarnia and Windsor, we've started to include a newer song called Seashore in our encores. It's probably one of my favourite works. There's of course an oceany seafarer feel to it which i hope will someday be belted out by a throng of people who have lost all self control and have no fear of dancing or singing in front of their friends.

Dave from Bedroom biography ensures me that we should record it in Toronto so you might hear a version of it sooner than later.

stay posted

Dom

Working for the Weekend: Part 1. London

This last week was a go go go non stopper. 5 shows in 5 days, which is standard for the regular working folk but our first stint non stop rock this tour. i made the comparison to corey the other day that this week kind of felt like a volleyball tournament i played in when i was in grade 10. we'd started this tournament off by beating the best team in the province, penticton ( a group of genetically engineered youth whose minimum height was that of my own), and then went on to lose every other game in the round robin that weekend.

In this comparison, the steroid pumped brute was the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, and every other loss was a rapid fire of southern ontarian cities: London, Guelph, Sarnia and Josh's hometown of Windsor.

You'll have to excuse what may seem like my constant negativity. Looking back at Northern Ontario, there was a great amount of success and reward in the shows we played. The same can definitely be said about our last 4 of 5 shows. Touring for me is a series of massive ups and downs. The highs are super high and the lows are super low. It seems that i'm confronted in each show with either success or failure.

The Horseshoe in toronto was, of course, a massive success. Two sets of hands were not enough to handle the mad rush of people who approached our merch table. Having started off on a Tuesday, which is of course not really a night that people go out, with such good attendance, i got my hopes up, figuring this week would be amazing.

Getting my hopes up seems to be one of my biggest enemies, however. London was fine. The venue treated us astoundingly well. The pub's guests all loved us. It's just that despite all of their efforts to promote the show, including posters and handbills on every table and even our biography by the entrance, I wanted more people there. But that's me. Want want want, and never get enough.

London was the first night that we would share the stage with our good friends from Bedroom Biography (www.myspace.com/leightonbain). Bedroom’s frontman Leighton is a long time good friend of the band. At our first show Leighton would start a tour tradition of the onstage hug. Needing to leave suddenly near the end of our set, Leighton walked up to me in the middle of a guitar solo in our new track Is it Fate and gave me a hug. The guys all insisted on giving him a hard time, and Leighton and his sidekick Dave insisted on continuing the tradition at every subsequent show in Southern Ontario.

Now there's usually one ‘crazy’ who ends up making our night. they're usually into the sauce and sometimes a bit too touchy feely. in london it was steve. Steve was the anti heckler. if he would have been booing, trash talking, or making Pearl Jam requests he would have been a heckler, but Steve was more into the loud obnoxious compliments from across the bar. On Wednesday Steve worshiped the Painted Birds. Our crowning moment was when he told us that our CD would be the soundtrack to his family’s bonfire that weekend. I hope they roasted a pig on a stick and fired their family guns into the air. I’ve always wished that such activities would take place to our music.

We rested our heads at an old roommates house, and got ready for day 3 of the work week, guelph.

Dom

Legendary Indeed

before i proceed i just want to thank you guys for commenting on the notes. it's good to know that there are people out there who are reading this. so thanks.

the horseshoe last night was splendid. so much so that i might even take my previous comments back about it being questionably legendary. our last 3 shows had been kind of downers, and the horseshoe was so great that all our previous worries seemed to just melt away.
a fast set. 30 minutes. only the current hits were played. some new ones, ocean, is it fate, some album numbers, colleen, clouds.

i don't know, when it's good i have little to explain but merely that, it was great.
for those of you from toronto, we'll hopefully be getting another gig for north by north east next week.

and for those others of you across the country, check out the latest body so beautiful contest entry from Lisa Holmes. We're still waiting on many more entries every one so send them inp.s because it was entered as i wrote this up, i'll add leighton bain's photo entry as well.

as for those painted beards. tsk tsk. i'll have nothing to do with those copy cat sorts.

From Shoe to Shoe

normally it's 'sault' ste. marie, as in 'soo' but our videographer mr. fischer started calling it shoe at one point. the reason for which escapes me. of course being as impressionable as i am, i had to follow suit.

the drive through northern ontario had been described as a snooze fest by people who had been there before. my sister even skipped this part of the country by bussing from winnipeg to toronto when she biked across canada a few years ago. i'd given her a hard time, but having seen it i can't really blame her. but who am i kidding, i was sleeping.

the venue in sault ste. marie, the lop lops, looked good. a hip lounge kind of feel. seeing the venue, i worried that we might be a bit too loud, and this fear was confirmed as we sound checked our selves a few hours before the show. the owner told us we needed to turn down.

now i like challenges, especially when we are forced to overcome such challenges with creative thought. we returned to the venue just after 10 PM to find a couple large groups who appeared to be at the venue for their social engagement and not the Painted Birds show. to keep from driving them out with our rock and roll we decided to play an acoustic set filled with our mellower numbers. now at this point i wish i could report that our scheme worked and we won them all over. but i must be honest with you. after about two songs, the large group of women that had caused our concern started filing out slowly. Which led me to think 'why am i catering to these people if they don't even care'.

We came back with the rock after our break and we won a number of them over.

after another 8 hour drive we spent a day in Toronto catching up with old friends and wandering around aimlessly from bar to bar. Today it's the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, which as far as i'm concerned is only 'legendary' because the smart owners decided to put legendary before the name. So i've decided to change my name. from now on refer to me as the Amazing Dominique Fricot. soon it won't even be questioned and wham i'll just be known as that without any justification.

looking forward to southern ontario

Dom

Almost alone in the Peg and the Bay

There comes a low point on every tour. I hope we've passed ours. On Vancouver Island it was having one of the best show of our lives at UVic and then having a majority of the crowd walk away on us in Nanaimo the next day for us not being heavy enough or mosh-able. While our hosts in Winnipeg and Thunder Bay were wonderful, the crowds were well... non existant. But i musn't be so negative because both nights had serious turn arounds that left a smile on my face.

We played last in Winnipeg after a band called All Your Friends, who's audience decided it was too late to stay out and listen to music after they finished playing. So we were left with a table of other musicians who were touring through, our wise and noble videographer, Corey, our host Mike, and a couple other random people.

Faced with such a meager serving of audience i find it hard to get positive. The few who were there would consistently drag on applauses for almost uncomfortable amounts of time. The mood started rising.

Then in our last song, a new one called Ocean of a Sea, the musicians all jumped to their feet and danced in merry revelry. It somehow made the whole night worthwhile. And i thank them for that.

Thunderbay started off depressing. The ending of our winnipeg show was good enough to improve the night but not enough to keep me on a high for the next day. The owner at the bar warned me that Thunder Bay had gone through an economic recession and people just weren't going out anymore. Later we asked the sound guy if people came out to shows and he smirked cynically.
"Sometimes..." he said.

As we're supposed to start playing, there is nobody more than staff in the room. Josh recommends that we do some songs twice as we need to work on them more than others.
"Great" i think, "We came all this way to rehearse".
We go through a couple of tunes like this, and then all of a sudden to pair of eyes peer through the window at the back. The next thing we know there are 3 people at the bar. They tell us that they thought we sounded good from the road so decided to come in for a beer.
Shawn turns to me, "now we have a show. Let's play a show for these people". About ten other people walked in and once again our spirits were lifted.

Then it was off to Sault Ste. Marie. We're still going. Don't try and stop us.

Dom

The Hospitality of Drumheller Buffalo

So we've arrived in good hands in winnipeg. Tuesday seemed to take forever, as we waited and waited for our van to get fixed. By 7 we'd had dinner at the Fischer and Lynch residences and we were off on the road for Saskatoon. The weather had finally gotten better. sunny and clear, unlike the cloudy rain for the 3 days previous, that the locals all claimed we brought from Van city.

The setting was ideal for my introduction to the prairies. Clear sunny skies that would later set up a perfect sunset. Stopping for gas in Drumheller, we decided to climb a Hoo Doo. Josh originally recommended that we make the ascent, but as I got to the top i noticed that we had lost josh at the bottom and it was only Shane and I who remained on the top of the beast. The view was intense, that's all i can say.

As we were leaving a group of youth were staring at our van as we crossed the parking lot. I noticed that one girl was eagerly gripping the bottom of her t-shirt as she waited for us to pass by. Surely enough, as i'd expected, the girl flashed us and man... was that a privelidge? This is the life of a travelling musician perhaps.

Our trip through the prairies was filled with buffalo sightings (real buffalo, not drumheller 'buffalo'), long open flat fields, the unofficial naming of our tour (GUYS MONTH OUT!) and our van (yet to be released as we are still arguing about it) and a stop in Saskatoon where April, an old acquaintance of mine from high school took us in for the night. We are very lucky to have so many people across the country helping us out.

We arrived in Winnipeg late last night where Corey's friends Mike and Sarah and their lovely children Finn and Nolan took us in. Their hospitality, like everywhere we've stayed so far, has been awesome. One thing i've noticed though, is that it seems that everywhere we go people want to load us up with booze. It's like "oh the band is here, time to party". Which i love, though i don't know how long this will last as every where we are people want to party. When do we get a rest? No scratch that. We're fine,

Keep it coming,
Dom

Mechanical Problems in Cow Town

we've been delayed here in calgary and it's been rather expensive. we'd been noticing some steering issues on our recently purchased Ram Van since we bought it a couple weeks ago but we figured it was just that the steering needed to be aligned. So before we brave the prairies we figured we should get that fixed. We dropped the van off at Canadian Tire (good business) yesterday for it to be fixed first thing this morning.

i wake up today to find out from shane that our ball joints are shot and need to be replaced. not my favourite way of waking up considering that's a whole whack of cash more to throw down on a venture that is already losing money. feel my bitterness and stay clear of SEA FUN ENTERPRISES in Victoria. It's the little that i can do in my anger. They'd provided me with all this proof that they'd had the car fully checked over but somehow they'd skipped over the alignment and the ball joints.

Well actually the blame should be placed more on myself for not taking the van to a mechanic myself to have it looked at, but heck, i was rushed. We had to get back from the island for music video meetings and work etc... and they claimed it didn't need to be checked. So lessons learned here in full, never trust a used car salesman (oh my god that's even one of the 10 commandments... or it should be), always go through with checking things over yourself, and never make any big purchases in a hurry.

We're now waiting to head off to saskatoon on our way to Winnipeg where we play our next show and meet up with shawn. He is in Vancouver working his last couple shifts, waiting for me to call him with good news for once.

dom

TPB live at SAIT

We always seem to be making the long trip from kamloops to calgary and arriving late for our load in and soundcheck. something about the hour time difference and those rockies i tell you. or maybe it's the fact that we end up partying like maniacs at the Marshall's residence until 3 or 4 in the morning, enjoying the sauna and parading around their house in a towel, (just some members of the band that is, please Cathi don't post pictures of such tom foolery on the web).

i also shouldn't talk about being late for a gig on here. a promoter in whitehorse told us not to post such things on our blog because it showed that we were unprofessional, but you know what, he can shove it. i'm trying to tell some form of a story here.

anyways, calgary this time was kind of like our last show in calgary where we weren't too well matched with the bands we played with. not that i have anything against such heavy metal or screamo, i just don't think our fans can really make the leap to the other bands and vice versa of course. but every one was positive, and all the bands and fans were really nice and receptive, so it ended up being a good night.

highlight of my night was definitely hearing from Shane's friends about how much they were pissed off that shane wasn't in the first 6 or 7 podcasts, and how they love us live but just wish our CD sounded as good as our live show. Great feedback, and yes we are attempting to one or two or three up ourselves next time around. recording is an interesting skill that we're still working on really hard. just waiting for the time and money to do it over again


Dom

we love kamloops

I don't know why, but every time we come here, it's great. Actually i have a good idea of why we love it here. The Marshalls, Mike Turner, and a host of their friends and other fans, who come to the leisure loft, (the great little venue that we love to call home) and totally listen and enjoy our music.

We kicked off the tour wonderfully, short drive, followed by a great show with Adaline. i'm pulling her up for more songs, now. who knows how long until she's so huge, that sony or nettwerk or whatever won't allow her to appear on stage for less than several thousand dollars.

she's truly lovely, and pulling her up for sidewalk without having it preplanned, felt truly like music. for the moment, and a spontaneous as it all should be sometimes.

we go on alone to calgary today. come one come all

dom

Music Video Shoot!

So we spent mother's day cooped up in an office space converted into a 50's style prom sauna. i say 50's prom because the video is shot in a 50's style with us wearing very classy vintage suits with the hair to match. i say sauna because man was it hot in there. i guess that's what happens when you block all the light and air from coming in the windows with dark blankets, light subjects with state of the art film lighting and have the smoke machine going full blast before every shot.

i am perhaps telling you too much info, giving away the surprise, and i may also sound whiny. i have nothing to whine about, however, because the experience was awesome to say the least. we were all extremely glad to have chosen our good friends to complete the task: Corey Fischer who produced the video (corey does so much for the band, our podcasts, our epk, our myspace page among many other things, and he's also coming on tour with us in may and june, selling merch, filming fights and taking part in the cruelest of hijinx), Lindsay George who filmed the whole thing, i believe they call her a DP or director of photography but i'm probably wrong as i understand little to nothing about the film world, and Mark Ratzlaff who directed the video. We have to send our sincerest of thanks to these three, who's professionalism was astounding to all of us. The 10 or 11 hours of filming in the 50's prom sauna and waiting around to film went by super fast and was tonnes of fun.

We're also extremely grateful for all the other people who took part doing hair, makeup, costumes, the girls who were in the video with us and the long list of gaffers, grips and other people behind the camera who worked their butts off all day doing a great list of things i could never truly comprehend. So again thank you all so much, i was extremely skeptical going in, but you have exceeded my expectations and i hope that we can all work together again in the future.

As for you others out there, we should have a lovely music video for your viewing pleasure very soon. Shall i tell you which song it is for?? mmmm... i may just leave that out for you to guess, or perhaps you have already heard rumours. In other news we will be running a facebook contest for our cross canada tour that we hope will be good fun to take part in and will also have some good prizes for the contestants who want to win it bad enough. Check out our tour Dates below

Dom

FULL TOUR DATES:
May
23 - Kamloops - The Leisure Loft
24 - Calgary - The Gateway (SAIT)
29 - Winnipeg - The Lo Pub
31 - Sault Ste Marie - LopLop Lounge & Gallery

June
3 - Toronto - Horseshoe Tavern
4 - London - Bristol Pub
5 - Guelph - Jimmy Jazz
6 - Sarnia - Paddy Flaherty's
7 - Windsor - Phog Lounge
10 - Burlington - Red Rooster Vintage Cafe
11 - Waterloo - Trepid House
12-14 - Toronto (NXNE) - TBA
15 - Montreal - Bar Spectacle L'Escogriffe
16 - Ottawa - Zaphod Beeblebrox
19 - Winnipeg - Royal Albert Arms
20 - Regina - O'Hanlon's
22 - Saskatoon - Lydia's
24 - Grande Prairie - Better Than Freds
25 - Edmonton - Urban Lounge
26 - Calgary - Sled Island Festival
27 - Kelowna - Doc Willoughby's
28 - Salmon Arm - Salmar Classic Theatre
30 - Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret

so apparently...

so i left the last one hanging a bit........... accidently of course.

Shawn told me the other day that his relatives were quite worried about our troubles in toronto. well have no fear, quite sorry bout that. everything with the lost cash box and the merchandise or whatever it was, was totally settled and sorted out in good time.
the whole finale was honestly so anticlimactic that i totally forgot to finish that story for you guys.

you see this happens often with me. i pick something up, interest my self in it for a while, maybe play with it, or get lost in it, and then i put it down and forget about it. it's disappointing.

sometimes because i feel i'm leaving so much good stuff on the back burner. but i can't control it. there's so many started songs, unfinished ideas that i'm actually excited about, but never get to because of filing taxes, grocery shopping, or staring at the wall and wishing i had more time to do things. not writing on this wall for example, i've been planning to respond back for over a week now, and i'm sorry i never got to it, but other things came up.

also, you never asked back about our problems, so i just figured you just didn't care.

careless, careless, careless...

love you baby, bye bye
see you in the morning

Gong Show in Ontario

We've been in Ontario for 3 days and 2 shows already, and though the shows have been great, this trip has been a gong show since the get go. The four of us had booked flights out to Toronto from Vancouver. We figured we could bring clothes and our instruments and rent the amps and drums for the 10 days that we are here.
We had arranged with our good friend Corey Fischer, the man who has been crafting all of our podcast episodes and film related work, to take us to the airport for our flight at 9:50 AM. At about midnight the night before we left i had this conversationg with Corey over google chat regarding the time and place we were going to meet. Shawn and I had decided that we would all meet at our jam space at 8 AM.

me: Just make sure you guys get there at 8 sharp

Corey: i pick the vehic at 8 so itll be like 815ish

me: who's manning this ship?

Corey: I am, Sir!

me: that's the stupidest thing i've ever eard

Corey: i pick the vehic at 8 is the stupidest thing youve ever heard?
have you even watched yourself on these podcasts?? Lightning? come on!
like im supposed to wiz through these $3600 pants?

me: our flight leaves at 9:50 you're picking it up at 8?

Corey: ill get ya there, big daddy

me: you'll actually get down there at 8:20 8:25 at earliest
we'll take 10 or 15 minutes to get the stuff ready and on the go
shane probably didn't even pack his cymbals yet
traffic jam = minor= we miss our flight.
how do you like them apples??
3600 dollar pants!!
okay. i'll trust that you'll get us there
but if we miss our flight
ooga chacka ooga chacka...

Corey: ok, im picking it up at 730
i cant stop, ooga ooga oooga

me: when you hold me in your arms so tight
baby you know, yeah you turn me on

So that was settled. The next morning Shawn and I arrive on time at the space. At about 8:10 or 8:15 we send off a couple of texts to the guys threatening them in jest, but still completely confident that they're just around the corner and we have nothing to worry about. Shane calls me immediately, and informs me that they had had some trouble getting on their way that morning. Josh had apparently slept in and when Corey went to Josh's to pick up the van card key, he was unable to reach Josh because he sleeps with his phone off. We normally use Josh's zip car account when transporting our gear around town as none of us own vehicles. As shane was talking to me he was still about ten minutes away, and without Josh in the vehicle because Josh still wasn't ready to leave. We would pick him up on the way back.

When Corey and Shane arrived we packed the SUV as quickly as possible but realized upon completion that we still had far too much gear for all 5 of us to fit. I call Josh and tell him that he has to catch a cab, and we head off for the Airport. We arrive just after 9 and breathe a sigh of relief. Josh hasn't arrived yet though and he still hasn't arrived at about twenty after 9 when we finish checking our luggage. Josh calls me and tells me to ask the check-in clerk what the latest time he can check his luggage in is.
"I can't even guarantee that your guys' luggage will make the plane" the clerk tells me.
"How close are you Josh?" I ask.
"Not very" he answers.

The three of us board the plane and make our way to Toronto. We luckilly have our first night off so Josh just has to make it their by the next day. He rebooks his flight for an hour and a half after ours. Everything is fine and OK.

That night we meet up with some of our good friends in Toronto and freeze our faces and hands off in their much crispier climate. The next day we have a show at the London Music Club and Josh had arranged for us to get a ride with his good friend Leighton Bain who we were slotted to play Windsor with on the following night (www.myspace.com/leightonbain). When he arrives, Shawn comes back into the apartment and shotguns a seat...

Now i knew that we had quite a bit of gear already that would be a tight squeeze, but with Leighton and his girlfriend and the four of us, there were 6 people to fit in a 4 seater van. The crowdedness of this van made the space in the van of our first tour seem like luxury. Shawn and i stacked suitcases on our lap and between our legs because we were lucky enough to get seats. Shane and Josh had to find their place somewhere between the guitars and merchandise on the floor of the back of the van. To add to Shane and Josh's comfort was a mild traffic jam that added about 45 minutes to our 2 hour journey. The upside is that we were not caught by any cops and thus escaped from paying any fines for seatbeltless passengers.

Our show in london was shockingly good. We were slotted for a free show before the blues jam night there. As we walked into the empty room 15 minutes before we were supposed to stop i figured we'd play for the servers and the manager. But by the midpoint of our set the room was filled with an older crowd raring to play mustang sally and old BB King covers. We toned our set down to suit the smaller room and the older crowd and were extremely well received. Though one old timer in the front row did mildly heckle and beg for us to get roudy. We complied and ripped through an aggressive version of Lullabye.

The real gong show high was in windsor though. We rented gear at Long and Mcquade on friday and had a show that night. As we were leaving we realized that we had somewhere lost the blue duffel bag that contained our guest book, the album samplers that we had put together for Canadian Music Week, and our cash box. Normally the float has a good 50 to 100 dollars in it, but as we'd been storing our excess cash in the bottom of the box for some time, we don't know how much money we had in their, and Shawn assures me that it was probably a fair amount. We narrow it down to two places that the bag could be: the London music club or Leighton's vehicle. We meet up with Leighton for the show and he assures us that it is nowhere to be found in his van. No word back from the London music club yet but we'll keep you posted.

As for our show in Windsor that night, as we set up right before our opening act is to take the stage, we realize that my amp barely makes a sound, and Josh's sounds like a violent mechanical fart whenever he turns it on. It appears that we are totally fucked. Josh has luckilly asked one of his friends to bring an amp for him to try so we have at least one amp that works. We start playing the songs that we can do with only one amp, and finally after Colleen and All I Can Do Josh's friend Rob shows up with a couple more amps for us to use. Crisis avoided barely.

So yes, this has been the gong show of our trip. And it'll just keep getting better baby.

dom

Day 10: Salmar Classic Theatre

I usually feel bad for the people who canvas for green peace or hand out the metro newspaper. I feel bad because their job is to stand still and pester the people walking by with "Do you have a moment for green peace today?" or "Metro Newspaper!". While I feel sorry for them, I'm also one of the pedestrians who is annoyed by their presence. We use tactics like talking on our cell phone or avoiding eye contact to make the encounter as painless as possible. Sometimes we even lie/admit that we are late for work and can't stop. We use same tactics with pan handlers, because that is what these people are employed to do: beg.

Shawn and I saw the other end of this stick/panhandle before our show in Salmon Arm. Ticket sales for the show hadn't been as high as we expected so we resorted to the age old tradition of begging. Positioning ourselves in front of our old high-school's main entrance we waited for the final bell to chime. As the rush of students charged towards us, we learned how hard this art form really is. "Concert tonight at the Salmar, tickets at the door, Painted Birds.. 10 dollars.." the pitch hasn't been mastered yet. Most just walk by understanding that anybody trying to give you something for free is probably giving you something that you either don't want, or will eventually have to pay for. A few kids who are unlucky enough to make eye contact, admit defeat and take the handbill. Their loss is hardly a victory for us, however.

Finally I change my objective and forget about the hand bill, inquiring "Do you like live music?" or anything that can start a conversation. My empty hands seem less suspicious and I finally get some biters. Some kids recognize us, telling us that we went to school with their older siblings or took dance lessons from their mother. The whole experience was quite humbling, albeit exhilarating. By the end our skin had grown so thick that we could have cared less if they ignored us or not. The negatives were so out-weighed by the positive reactions that we felt accomplished.

After we headed over to the Salmar Classic Theatre. The room had a lot of significance for me. I can remember back to when that was the only cinema in town. I can remember going to see movies like Mighty Ducks with my dad, or forcing my sisters to drag me along to see Fern Gully with them and their friends. Bringing along your little brother was always an uncool thing to do. I also saw my first few concerts in this theatre including Moxy Fruvous, who was mind blowing, and 54 40 who I have always adored. The stage is huge, the curtain is glorious, and the nostalgia is wonderful but also horrible to surround myself in.

We load in, set up, go through sound check and head back stage and wait and wait and wonder. Shane announces to Shawn and I that we need to talk. This makes me nervous, I wonder as we come to the end of this tour, "Is Shane quitting the band??". He calms me by telling me that he wants us to chill out. He feels tension with us, for reasons he takes to be that this is our hometown and we have placed pressure on ourselves accordingly.

"Breathe. Take a deep breath, slowly" he says. Shane is a god send in more ways than one. Backstage is above the rear of the theatre and we watch our opening act Water Mark perform their set. They remind me a lot of Shawn and I at their age. Pumped full of excitement, conviction, nerves and confidence. Jared had told me before they went on that their last song had been written the night before. "Yup", i think "that was us".

Shawn turns to me as we peer at the audience "Nobody's here".
"Don't worry" I say, it's too late for any of that.

The audience sit in their comfortable theatre chairs for our first two songs. I see grimaces from friends of my mother's, perhaps too old to enjoy rock music. As they all sit and stare I have no idea what anyone is thinking. Finally, Shawn, another godsend, announces that everyone should come to the front and crowd around the stage. Amazingly, a lot of the kids comply and all of a sudden a theatre that seemed empty feels crowded as they all pile around the stage.

This was the golden turning point. Our next song was Colleen and everybody was bouncing up and down. From there on in, we didn't want it to end. It's truly amazing how in less than five seconds, somebody can say something that will change the situation from being painfully mediocre to perhaps one of the best feelings of your life.

At one point I noticed that 5 guys and girls in the front were singing along to every word of I'm a Radio. What truly perplexed me was the fact that i didn't recognize any of them. I wondered for a second, turned back to the microphone and forgot the words to the song.

I could go on to continually tell you how awesome it was to play our songs for and with all of the Salmon Armians, and enjoy the whole experience together, but you really just had to be there.

Thanks to everyone who helped make that show my favorite to date, especially Watermark, the 5 SASS students who helped us with tickets and merch, and Brian Coffey for doing sound and doing it well.

Peace

dom

Day 9 cont: Late Night Eats in Canmore

Sorry for the delay again. Went on vacation and got lazy and then well you know how it is. I promised to tell you about Salmon Arm, so here it is.

We'd had another late night in Canmore, as you might remember. After we'd put everything away (this task was lightened by the fact that we didn't even bother taking our merchandise out of the van) Josh went to bed and Shane, Shawn and I were once again, starving at 3 in the morning. Canmore, however was less equipped to serve us food at 3 in the morning. According to Derek the soundman our only option was the gas station, and i was not looking forward to a bag of chips or one of those vacuum packed sandwiches. While on the road i find i get sick of mainly two things. One is bars, you've been paid with enough beer and shots that on your off days you just want some tea and maybe a hot tub. The second thing, is crappy fast food or junk food from gas stations. We were lucky enough on this tour to have a few stops where our hosts provided us with delicious and healthy home cooked meals (thank you's to: Lynch family, Saab family, Fischer family, and Marshall family). On this occasion we found out that there was also a Tim Horton's nearby, which filled our hearts with elation.

I don't know why this always happens, but i was once again the sober one, and, therefore, had to drive. On route to the 7-11 my two drunken companions are both convinced that they know where we are supposed to be going. I have a pretty good idea of how to get around Canmore because my family owns a house there, but they insisted that we had to go this way, and then, no, the other way, and then, no we were right the first time. We ended up driving down the main strip about 3 or 4 times, both of them telling me where to go and then getting mad at me when we ended up at the wrong place. I finally, quite angry at this point, told them to shut up and let me try and find the Tim Hortons. You will most likely see all of this on our forth coming video podcast series, incriminating them of debauchery and poor navigational skills. At the point in which i make a U-Turn at a red light, please understand that it was almost 4 in the morning at this point, and our film maker Mr. Corey Fischer probably played with the color in the video to make it look red. It was actually green.

After nearly throwing Shane out of the van, with his camcorder, we finally arrive for some delicious soup and sandwiches. After we have been fed we completely forget about the tension that had just arisen, and go back to being the fun loving band that we are.

Dom