March 27th, 2009 by Ruby

Time to head to the studio (Great Big Sea’s Great Big Studio in St. John’s, Newfoundland, to be exact!)

This weekend we’ll start our first full-length album, after three EPS, most recently,Tres, which you can hear at our myspace page.

We’re incredibly excited to be working with the always choosy, sometimes cheeky, Mark Neary, of the Novaks.

I can’t reveal the entire track listing for the album, but I can say that this weekend, we’ll start with Mountain (check out the video here), a song we’ve played live for some time, but never properly recorded.

First at bat is the intrepid Bryan Power aka Poppy. He’ll have the somewhat unenviable task of pounding out perfect drum tracks for the rest of us to dress up later.

Not to complain though. A solid rhythm track is the basis for a great song, and that, my friends, is what we live for.

So, wish our dear Poppy luck…

I’ll post some pics next week!

February 2nd, 2009 by Poppy

The United Steel Workers of Montreal are coming to St. John’s for a few nights thanks to the team at Mightypop. Their sound blends elements of folk and country with a somewhat punk esthetic creating what they call Citygrass. I have seen their live show a few times up in Canada and can understand why they chose 3 nights at CBTGs rather than a night at the Rockhouse – it’s more a more suitable venue for the “blue-colllar alt-rock” they will be playing.

The shows on Feb 13th, 14th and 15th at CBTGs are their first this far left and we should do what we can to get down for a show. Opening for them are Black Molly, The Angelshakes, and Saddle Hill respectively. So choose your night and iron your cowboy shirt.

Check them out on youtube:

January 28th, 2009 by admin

So the RPM Challenge starts on February 1st – that’s 3 days from now!

For those who aren’t sure, it’s a challenge to aspiring songwriters, producers and musicians to record an album in 1 month. The rules are: prepare 10 songs (or 35 minutes wirth of music) and get them recorded before the end of February using any means available.

This means all your talk of, “Jeeze, I got a bunch of tunes and they’re pretty deadly. My buddy has a set-up in his basement and he’s going to do it for me. Save us a draw?” is out the window. Call your buddy and fire up the tape recorder and get recording.

The best part about it is that there’s a lot of buzz about it and a theres a wonderful online community dedicated to providing support, tips and a kick in the arse to get you on your way.

You have to register at www.rpmchallenge/stjohns and there you’ll see exactly who else is doing it plus there’s a place for profiles, blogs, faqs.

The website says “Don’t wait for inspiration – taking action puts you in a position to get inspired. You’ll stumble across ideas you would have never come up with otherwise, and maybe only because you were trying to meet a day’s quota of (song)writing. Show up and get something done, and invest in yourself and each other. Anyone can come up with an excuse to say “no,” so don’t!

Our local host is The Scope and at their site you can find more wonderful details as well as tracks from last year’s submissions.

The launch party is this Saturday at The Victory on Water St.

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

January 26th, 2009 by admin

Pathological Lovers have been floating around St. John’s since 2006. It’s Monday Morning factor lies in the escape you can find in Sister Cities on headphones at your desk/couch/office. Sister Cities was released on their 2008 EP “They’re Playing Our Chord”:

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The Great Lake Swimmers from Canada will be here in early March at the Ship. The Sunday show is sold out but I’m pretty sure the Saturday still has tickets left at Fred’s. It’s not too early to get your chops up for the show. Here’s “Changing Colours”:

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Back in February Bon Iver re-released his disc “For Emma, Forever Ago” which might be the best disc released last year – depending on how melancholy you can bring yourself to be. “Flume”:

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January 23rd, 2009 by admin

Photo: Adam Penney

Let’s not pull any punches here – I play with The Subtitles. We and the Funky Dory are going to be at The Ship tonight for a dance-off.

The Subtitles will have copies of their album for people to pick up and I can only assume that Funky Dory will have the same.

Come early. We’re on around 11:30. Dory at 1.

January 23rd, 2009 by admin

The Comuppins are having their EP Release tonight at the bar above The Republic. Mike promises a buffet to the early show goers and a night of “devastating rock” for the house.

It’s a pretty heavy bill with Kujo, Bombs, and the Pathological Lovers. I wouldn’t worry about taking the car.

Here’s Kujo:

January 22nd, 2009 by Poppy

I have a habit of skulking around Adam Penney’s flickr page a few times a week to see what he’s been up to. I’m usually looking for pictures of people I know but I stay to see what people who can do do.