So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight!

Well friends, it's been fun. It's been amazing at times and a let down at other times. When we finished our first tour across Canada in the summer of 2008, i described touring with the Painted Birds like roller coaster ride between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There would be a good show, and then a terrible show, and then a mediocre show, but there was always that great next show.

That same year we embarked on an even longer tour across Canada in the fall and i discovered that the lows could last even longer. I recall a 12 to 15 day stretch of around 9 shows where there were no highs. No positive points, nothing amazing to lift our spirits. We were in the desert.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the Painted Birds 2009 was a return of that desert. While i'm only now reporting our demise, some among us believe that it actually happened about a year ago. Last february, for emotional reasons perhaps, I neglected to report to you, our friends and followers, that TPB had parted ways with one of its key members; Shane Lynch. While we'd parted with drummers before, Shane had worked his way into the fabric of the painted birds. We told ourselves we could carry on but i don't think we truly believed it, and some, perhaps at times, didn't really want to.

The rest of 2009 was basically a front. for show. Like a married couple putting on the happy face to make it seem that everything is happy and ok, but behind closed doors we truly weren't happy or ok. The Peak Performance Project seemed to offer some hope. Shawn recently explained to me that to him the contest was like a window in a jail cell; the last chance for escape. Josh, had also announced his possible departure from the band long before we didn't place in the top 3. When we were included in the top 20 bands, Josh let us know that he would stick around to see if we could win it, but he hadn't found the Painted Birds creatively stimulating for quite some time. If TPB was a struggling married couple, it had just become pregnant, and the Peak Performance Project was the baby that we thought we could make it work for.

All of this is not to say that we as people don't get along anymore. On the contrary, Josh, Shawn and I are still great friends, and all wish the best for eachother in our future pursuits. We just agree that this project has run its course. We were ok with being economically broke for a while, but something is gone. The dream of standing out and making it that brought Shawn and I together 4 years ago has died and all the B.S. of this industry with its too many promoters who, too knowingly, screw over band after band just toss more dirt on the carcass.

To draw this to a close, we're done with this dream. We're grateful for everything that has happened along the way. We met so many amazing people and are thankful for everyone of you who believed in us, let us sleep on their floor, listen to our music, and came out to shows. We'll never forget that. I'm so thankful that Shawn was and still is my best friend, and i'm extremely grateful that we chose to pursue this exciting path together. It's sad to him and I that we need to now choose new paths but i'm so happy that we can keep our great friendship and share all the memories. I'm writing this into our closing agreement right now, that though we as a band have retired, we will still be forced to play songs for whoever cares to invite us over for dinner as long as there are a couple of guitars or a piano around.

I will continue to make music and will let you know soon as to where and under which name it will be posted. (I'm not sure whether Dominique Fricot is the best performer name...;)

Thanks for the ride

So long
Farewell
Auf Wiedersehen
Goodnight

How Dom Hit Rock Bottom

How did this happen? If you read my last blog entry you might come to the same conclusion that I have. The fame of this week had gotten to us, or ME i should say. I'd just heard our new single "Wash Away" for the 3rd time on the radio at Virgin's 95.3 fm and my mind started imagining the royalties pouring in. We're talking 3 or 4 digits, if of course you count the 2 digits behind the decimal point.
So i'm driving home last night at about 2:30 AM while listening to Motley Crue's 'Dr. Feelgood' on cassette. i'm feeling pretty good or rather I'm feeling REALLY good. It's the Crue's greatest album of all time and really there are no albums that consistently make me feel i should be wearing tighter pants. As i come around the last couple corners and pull into my driveway Vince Neil committing vehicular manslaughter couldn' be farther from my mind. Suddenly, the sensation of the van tilting forward as i come to a stop on our perfectly flat driveway make me realize that i've over shot the driveway.
In front of my driveway is my lawn, so I didn't do any massive damage or kill a lead singer from the 80's metal band, Hanoi Rocks but I had gotten myself and my van in a little bit of a predicament. It has been raining in Vancouver for weeks and my lawn is basically a muddy swimming pool. I attempt to back out but my attempts just dig me deeper into the mud. After 2 trials i figure that 2:30 in the morning probably isn't the best time to be squealing my tires. (sidenote: i don't know why i was comparing myself to the likes of Motley Crue, i can't even squeal my tires, so not rock'n'roll).
Walking away from the car i regain hope. Maybe if i drive forward enough on my lawn, i can then back all the way out and skip the ledge that is my driveway, the lawn will look like crap but at least i won't have the embarrassment of a van that is sinking into my lawn.
I restart the van and try.
Outcome: failure, after again squealing my tires i've now dug myself further into the dirt.
I go to sleep deciding not to think about it until the next morning. At 9 AM i wakeup look out the window and decide to go back to sleep and do something about it when i wake up later.
Eventually i call jim's towing and $55 later all is back to normal minus the massive tire holes in my lawn....I hope that doesn't come out of my damage deposit.
(Caring about damage deposit= -20 rock'n'roll points)

We Hit the BIg Time

That’s right, it’s red carpet time. Time to crack out the champagne and make a toast to the end of living in a house that’s falling into the ground. No more TV Dinners or showering at public pools because we’re out of hot water. We’ve made it baby. It’s big time time. For some reason the Universe decided to make the Painted Birds ultra mega super insane-o rock stars, and all in one week.
Virgin Radio 95.3 FM Vancouver selected our new single “Wash Away” as their Best of BC song for this week (Jan 18-23). That means they’ll be playing “Wash Away” as if it were a hit for this whole week. Like 12 to 15 times. Man, I’m just imagining all the possible royalties we might collect off of this and while I write this I already have another window open booking a flight to Hawaii.
We also decided to hit the world with a mass media double WHAMMY. We’ll be performing on Urban Rush this Tuesday, January 19th. Check us out on Shaw TV at 5 PM Pacific time. It’s gonna be awesome.

Dom “probably in too silly of a mood to make this post” Fricot