Shows Coming Up…You Going?

I’ve spent the past few days working on these shows we have coming up. I forget that things like long weekends and moving day can affect the things we do: hotels in Peterborough are completely sold out. When I asked why, one hotel concierge gave the reason: “Dog show.” Also Peterborough is in the heart of cottage country in Ontario so I guess that’s what people do on the weekend. Next was finding a trailer for the van. I forgot that this weekend is when the entire city of Montreal moves. Someone came up with the genius idea to have all leases begin and end July 1st, causing traffic and vehicle rental mayhem. Anyway, I had to call around but finally found one. It’s all sorted.

So we hope to see you out this weekend. Come and say hello:

July 3 – Live Lounge, Ottawa, ON (w/ Amos the Transparent)
July 4 – Montreal House, Peterborough, ON (w/ Amos the Transparent)
July 6 – Club Soda, Montreal, QC (Montreal Jazz Fest)

Also Yellow Bird Project has released the t-shirt Neptune designed. I have to admit it was odd seeing her drawing on a shirt worn by a fancy model. Check it out and get your own…they’re super nice and all the proceeds are given to the Pablove Foundation.

Pablo.

I’m totally backblogged. What’s that, you’re thinking? Well, its when you have thoughts and ideas and words you want to blog about but never seem to have a moment to get them down. Last week was intense: day trip to Victoriaville, sleepover with Neptune’s nieces, advancing this weekend’s shows and now this week, is rainy and we’re in rehearsals. Plus there’s been a massive emotional weight around here; Murray and I both preoccupied with Pablo’s last days. My head has been heavy with thoughts for Pablo and his family. Our friend, mentor and manager, Jeff Castelaz’s 6-year-old son Pablo battled a rare form of cancer for over a year. I strongly recommend you read their story at PABLOg!. It’ll put your entire existence back into perspective.

The past week has been a roller coaster of empathy, sadness, gratefulness, despondence, positivity and hope. And of love. I am totally inspired by the Castelaz/Thrailkill clan. Jeff and Jo Ann are, in my eyes, heroes; the pantheon of parenthood. I wish I could be in L.A. because I feel like the only useful thing I could give them is hugs. But anyway, anyway, anyway.

I only met Pablo once but knew so much about him from following the blog, I felt a closeness to him. Anyway, Neptune and Pablo hung out for like half an hour while Peter gave us the tour of the Dangerbird office in Silverlake in May. They went nuts on the conference room and we all tried to take pictures but mine didn’t turn out because the kids didn’t stay still for a second. It was a fun moment and I’m glad our families met.

We always have the future: to live in memory of those we love, in positivity and light. Always pushing us forward to another place, where we are meant to live in all our strength and for every moment.

Pablove. Forever.

Walking Tour of Park-Ex

Yesterday, Neptune and I walked up to Afroditi to get some cookies with sprinkles for her and some pastries for dad. Earlier that morning Neptune rediscovered her Little Tikes digital camera and, after a brief argument about which way the camera should be pointing to take a picture, she was going nuts on the thing. She took over 200 photos on our walk. Initially I thought none of them would turn out due to a delay on the camera from when you press the button to when the photo actually takes. I imagined 200 blurred blobs imported into my iPhoto. But some of them turned out, and when put together give a very interesting perspective of our neighbourhood. Check out the gallery below…I’ve taken the liberty to omit the blurriest ones (which is like half of them). There are still over 100 pics so give it a minute to load (if your computer is an ancient artifact like mine). My faves: watermelons, beer (hunh?), pink rose bush, bicycle, recycling bins, lips (she insisted she put on makeup before we went out), and the very last one (I took it).

Tour Recovery

I am in a state of mild shock: being home from a six-week tour is disorientating. Not to mention catching a cold, which is a classic way for my body to react. Like I gotta keep it together for the shows (despite the conditions: never enough sleep, eating badly, boozing out of boredom, dehydrated, breathing nasty bus air) and as soon as tour’s done my body crashes hard. Invariably.

Anyhow, I do have a lot to say. I’ve been working on a tour wrap-up blog with lots of thoughts, photos and memories I wanted to share. But I’m barely able to stay awake so will need a few more days of post-tour recovery.

Until then see what the blogosphere had to say about it:

Photos from Winnipeg by Stephanie Willer

Poetry review and photos of Winnipeg by Eugene Osudar

Painting over silence (Winnipeg) show review

Pics from San Francisco by Andria Lo

Show review ans pics from Where The Sidewalk Ends blog (Vancouver)

Impressions by My Favourite Adventure blog (Vancouver)

A photo by John Carlow (Victoria, I think)

Review from 3AM Revelations blog (Vancouver)

Review in NME.com (Los Angeles)

Anyway, there are tons more…these are just the last few that came up. Feel free to post links in the comments section below. Thanks to all who came out and shared the love with us. There was lots of it going around on this tour. Massive love first of all to my band mates and crew: Benvie, Tanya, Renaud, Laura, Jason, Yann (rhymes with “done”), Chris, Maya, Neptune and of course my personal fave, Murray. Also thanks to new touring BFFs Eulogies, Great Northern, Jets Overhead and Black Diamond Bay for the great times. And for drinking our rider. LOL indeed.

Beaches and Burnouts

Touring can propose a tough dilemma: we go to all these places and yet have seen so little of them beyond the bus, hotel, a nearby restaurant and venue. Today we rolled into San Diego in the morning – its my first time in the city proper – and this may be our only chance to hit up the ocean. Murray, Neptune, Tanya, Laura and I rented a car and drove out to Mission Beach. We went to Belmont Park: Neptune was “so surprised to be at the fair!”

She made “fabulous” sand piles and dodged seaweed that floated up in the waves.

Usually after a long day, the family goes home, tired, sunned, winded, watches something on TV then everybody falls asleep after dinner. Well, not this family. After getting all tired, sunned, winded and oceaned out, this family heads back to the bus for load-in. The days are long, longer than they ever are at home. But after even just a few days, spending hours lingering (waiting, really) on a bus will give even the most patient soul a case of cabin fever. You’ve got to find a way out of the box.

So again, after finding an amusement park at Seattle Center earlier today, mom and dad are dead tired. My eyes are itchy, and although the ferris wheel was rejuvenating, it was also a little barfitating.

As far as sightseeing, Neptune’s needs give us purpose: forcing us to have a destination for the day. I am just too tired. That’s what happens at week 5: a burnout cloud hovers over us, choosing carefully which one it decides to take down next.

I started this post days ago in San Diego and am finishing it now in Victoria. One part of the tour has finished and the next is just beginning….Eulogies and Great Northern head home while we kind of do the same. Tomorrow we meet up with Black Diamond Bay and Jets Overhead to start something new.

And I think this new start with new bands in a new country will change the shows for sure. And I’m hoping to catch up on sleep, get back into feeling on top again.

Update from New Mexico

I’ve been meaning to write something here for the past week. At night, after the shows I’ve been making notes to myself; things I’d like to remember, tapped into my blackberry before I drift away. I’ve been so tired lately: this has been our first headlining tour with Neptune as a toddler: and while she sleeps very regularly, she is in bed before we go on stage, and crawling into my bunk wanting to hang out by 8AM. Needless to say, running on 6-hours sleep catches up. For example, last night I typed this: “Murrays frunk dtanp.” I have no idea what this means: I’ll ask around, but I think he was doing something silly that I wanted to remember…ah well: fail that.

I had started a post that was led-off by a live photo I saw online of myself with total crazy eyes. Not very flattering, more comical than anything else. But I can’t find it anymore…it was taken at one of the shows the first week of this tour…I’m looking down with a totally intense look at my keyboards. Like if you photoshopped out my keyboards and replaced them with, say, lightning bolts or some other energy beam of wizardly origin, it would be A) really funny, and B) totally appropriate. So if anyone sees that on the ‘net let me know…

Best reasons I’ve actually been given for shows not being completely sold out: recession, Monday night, tornado warning, rain, hailstorm, swine flu, graduation, competition from The Killers, seniors bingo night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, etc, etc. Dealing with promoters is like dealing with record labels: they are the conduits that translate music into dollars. They feel badly when things aren’t making gobs of money. For me, the shows have been really inspiring, really great. Their measure of success is quality, not quantity. The people who are coming out are incredible: bringing the show to the hardcores is important, and the gratitude of all the people I’ve met after the gig or whenever is more important than money; they make it all worthwhile.

Anyway, some might call this attitude naïve. I call it realistic. I expect to endure, and you can’t burn the brightest forever. I’d rather glow for a long time than burn out.

Day Off in Philadelphia, PA

It has been raining every day since we left on this tour. Except in Albany. It was sunny there. Today is a day off (grey, but not really rainy), which we decided to spend in Philadelphia, PA because Washington, DC was sold out of hotels. Philadelphia is a great city: it is really big, I am learning, and has lots of little parts that each feel like their own little town. Murray, Laura and I walked through the Italian Market and we got all kinds of great food to make dinner. Murray says he’s gonna make little homemade pizzas tonight on the bus but I will believe that when I see it. We walked back to the hotel, went swimming for a really long time and now I’m chilling out on the bus.

The jokes that float around on a tour are usually really lame and insular. Currently the funniest are:

“Bobby Fisher. Where is he? I don’t know! I don’t know!”

Murray selected as 30th sexiest rock frontman in history on Nerve.com.

Summer Heights High.

And the endless musical comedy of Jason and Chris, that usually involves changing keys, modulating chords and vocal melodies, on-purpose rhythmic mistakes and easy-listening instrumental classical-jazz versions of songs (including 22) that make me feel like I’m on hold with the bank.

Now looking for someplace to eat.

Backstage Kitchen

It’s a beautiful day in Albany. Everything is in full spring bloom, and although it seems like half the city is boarded up and slightly depressed, I’m feeling generally lovely about the day. Murray decided today would be the first day of the mobile kitchen. Before we left he assembled some kitchen basics: some burners, knife, cutting board, spices, oils. Him and Yann rode the bicycles we brought to the grocery store and Murray’s making veggie Pate Chinois (Shepherd’s Pie) and streamed broccolini. I’m personally really excited. Eating on tour is always a total chore, it becomes something you have to do out of dire need rather than want or desire. You can only eat so much pizza (even though pizza, along with the everything bagel, is my guiltiest pleasure). Anyway I took some pics of the backstage kitchen….

Another Tour Starting Without a Hitch!

I am writing this from home…we were supposed to be on the road, headed to Toronto three hours ago. But in the early hours of the day, as the band started to arrive, we found out that the bus that was meant to take us out for the next six weeks has been stolen. We’ve spent the last hours figuring out how we’re supposed to get to Toronto, how the gear’s getting there, troubleshooting trailers, waiting for the rental companies to open, figuring out the best plan. Anyway, I should go organize the gear.

Half Mast Download + Interview

One of my favourite songs that we recorded for Missiles is “Half Mast.” But for whatever reason when we were putting the album together, it stuck as the odd man out. So it didn’t make the album. But it is still an awesome song. Anyway it’s been released as a free download so put the thing on your iPod already! BTW the crickets and howling wolves were my idea.

Listen and/or download “Half Mast” (mp3) by The Dears.

Additionally, just did an interview with Toronto Blog The Singing Lamb. I think I sound smart…though I also think I sound full of shit. So somewhere in the middle will have to suffice.