Charge of the Light Brigade

Looking Back

2012-01-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Well it's another new year. Before we get into some of the stuff Charge might be up to in the coming year, I thought, damn, we did some pretty awesome things in 2011.

The Defiant Ones came out in February, our first full-length album. Following up on our EP We Haven't Been Properly Introduced from the summer of 2011, the album gave us a chance to really stretch out and try a lot of different things. From the alt-punk riffage of opener "Last Door Down" to the spaghetti western bombast of the closing title track, it's wide-ranging and intense. Lithium Magazine gave it a rave review, saying we had "a rugged flare for bringing raw yet melodic sounds of alternative rock to life alongside the boisterous style of indie darlings like The National and Band of Skulls. 'The Defiant Ones' also features dynamic drum beats, punchy bass lines, jagged guitars, and haunting piano passages." ExploreMusic.com picked "Young Love" for an Indie Track of the Day, and CBC Radio 3 featured "The Real Heart". Late in the year, blogger T.O. Snob chose "Desdemona" as #4 for his Best Songs of 2011. Pretty sweet, and everyone seems to have a different fave.

We did our first real video for "Charge!!", a short and punchy take of the band sweating out the track, directed by Paul Thompson. Check it!

Jason and I got over to the UK to play some dates in Liverpool for the International Pop Overthrow, including a hilarious stint with Japanese tourists in the Cavern Pub.

Then we got to do it all over again the fall for the International Pop Overthrow right here in Toronto!

That was a pretty intense gig. I'd just had surgery for a hiatal hernia two weeks before (which you can read all about here). Sure I was recovering, but they'd made a knot out of the top of my stomach, so maybe playing was pushing it. We did have a really good show, but hoooo I was feeling that the next day!

What else happened?

We played a boat.

We played a garage.

We played a mess of club shows and wrapped the year up with a great benefit gig for Sick Kids where the bands raised nearly a grand for charity!

All in all a pretty solid year.

What's coming next? Well, that's for the next post!

Benefit for Sick Kids Foundation, Friday December 2nd

2011-11-28T22:17:00.001-05:00

Charge of the Light Brigade is playing a great benefit show this Friday, December 2nd, for Toronto's Sick Kids Foundation. It's a great opportunity to help out children experiencing all kinds of challenges. Sick Kids is a landmark hospital, one of the leading institutions for advanced care for children. While we're fortunate to be living under a public health care system, there is always more that could be done. The Foundation is involved actively in research, child health, learning and care.

We're glad to be a part of what's going to be a great night. I've been lucky to be involved in a few fundraisers around Christmas over the past couple of years, and they're always a great time. This one's organized by Toronto roots rockers The Alter Kakers. There's four bands playing, and it's happening at Lee's Palace this Friday. Charge is first up, at 9:30pm. Here's our video for "Charge!!", if you haven't seen it:

The Alter Kakers are next up at 10:30pm. They've been perennial chart toppers on Jango radio, and are bound to put on a great show:

Little Creatures are the third band at 11:30pm. They were featured on the History Channel's What's In a Name show this fall, when they took on their new moniker. Pretty fun episode, and it showcases their great pop songcraft really well. Can't embed the video, but go see it here. And here's them live:

Angela Saini and the Residents round out the night at 12:30am with her infectious singer-songwriter confessionals:

Should be a great night for an awesome cause! Tickets are $10. Pick 'em up at the door, or buy direct from any of the bands. Charge's tickets are on-sale in advance at our online store. And we're throwing in the complete album The Defiant Ones if you pick up a ticket direct from us.

Lastly, it'll be an interesting night when Charge takes the stage. Our regular drummer Owen Tennyson ran into a scheduling snafu, so for this night only we're reuniting with our founding drummer Zack Mykula. Owen's fab, and we'll be missing him, but Zack's an awesome drummer in his own right. I'm looking forward to hitting the stage with him playing on the songs he recorded, now that The Defiant Ones has been released. Bettin' it's gonna be pretty spectacular. Hope to see ya there!

Pepper Spray Cop meets The Defiant Ones

2011-11-22T12:27:00.001-05:00

I really like the design of Charge's album cover for The Defiant Ones. Colin Viebrock did an amazing job capturing our anarchic mishmash sensibility, sort of bleak Pythonesque collage. So I was very amused to see in my in-box this morning a note from Colin linking to this instant classic from the exploding pepper-spray cop meme, using an image that appeared as part of our cover art. The act of the cop is of course unconscionable. But it's amazing to see how that act is exploding through the culture as a touchstone for people's anger and disgust at our financier overlords. Here's a great collection of images from the meme. The way the image is playing out reminds me of this classic image from the sixties, except evil and totally ass-backwards, which typifies the current crush-the-majority zeitgeist.

And here's Colin's design from the inside cover of The Defiant Ones, for our own cheery take on the glamour-show that is war (see more images from the cover-art on the pages of our website). The background photo that appears in both images is actually an archival photo from the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. Some conflicts just keep echoing through history.

The Occupy Movement's message sometimes seems confused. I went to check out the original site at Zuccotti Park when I was in NYC at the beginning of October. There was a motley collection of protestors, drum-banging hippies (argh), and yes crazy-people with out-to-lunch placards, but there was an energy to it, and the conviction that people need to stand up and say enough. There are so many things going wrong around the world right now, from the economy to the environment, it's clear the problems are huge. And NOBODY in power is DOING ANYTHING. Then when the cops resort to such casually blatant thug tactics, it's obvious that we're in one of those spasmodic moments when the values at the top and below are totally misaligned. I'm still angry about the self-interested douche that was elected Toronto's mayor by scared, self-interested people. Something's gotta give. Vote the fuckers out.

I survived the Toronto IPO

2011-11-20T16:33:00.001-05:00

Well I can now say gigging after surgery is totally possible. Recommended? No. But doable? You bet your sweet ass!

Charge played the Toronto edition of the International Pop Overthrow on Thursday, November 10th. We were in classic post-infirmary shape. I'd just had major surgery to fix a hiatal hernia, or tear in my diaphragm, two weeks before. Owen was getting over laryngitis, nasty enough on its own, but he has to keep an eye on these things, having suffered through a collapsed lung in his twenties. Yipes! Jason was totally fine, except for the fistful of tequilas he'd been handed by an overzealous fan just before his other band Clockwise hit the stage that same night. In spite of all that, or maybe partly fuelled by it, we put on a rockin' tight set. David Bash, the always affable host and organizer of the IPO events, remarked how Charge can "play any kind of pop song", something we really pride ourselves on. Sometimes we're punky, sometimes progressive, but it's always hung on a power-pop skeleton. That's just the way we roll.

I've been experimenting with playing keys as part of my set-up in the band, but this time we kept it lean and mean. Festivals are always about tight turnovers between bands, and I didn't want the added strain when not in top form. But it made the gig really free and easy for us, not having to sweat all those other parts. The stripped-down power-trio works well for what we do, and as we blasted through everything from "Charge!!" and "Last Door Down" to "Young Love" and even a wrenchingly minimal "The Defiant Ones", the audience was with it every step of the way.

Boy was I sore the next day though.

Really looking forward to our next show, playing a benefit for the Toronto Sick Kids Foundation at Lee's Palace on Friday, December 2nd. It's going to be fun. We're appearing with Toronto roots-rockers The Alter Kakers, the slick pop of Little Creatures, and the cool acoustic stylings of Angela Saini and the Residents. And another change-up for us: Owen's tied up with a different gig, so Charge will be appearing one night only with our original drummer, Zack Mykula. Can't wait to reunite with one of Toronto's great up-and-coming musicians. Seriously, Zack can wail.

We've got a great deal going for tickets for the benefit. If you pick one up direct from the band, you can get a ticket to the show and download our album The Defiant Ones for $10. Buy tickets here. A good cause, four bands, and a free album. Makes a great stocking stuffer too! Seriously, benefit shows are a great way to do something nice around the holidays. Your support makes a difference.

And by December, I should be fully ready to rip again. Okay, poor choice of words. You know what I mean. See ya there!

Ramblin' Pete and the iTunes Vampire

2011-11-01T23:55:00.000-04:00

Pete Townshend, rock legend and guitarist extraordinaire for The Who, loves a little controversy. His latest jab came at the inaugural John Peel Lecture, put on by BBC 6 Music, where he called Apple a "digital vampire" bleeding artists. He made a number of points in a rambling, somewhat confusing diatribe, and I've been sorting through his thoughts in a few discussions since reading about it yesterday.

First up, he called file-sharing theft and a dilution of copyright. I love his line that "that people who downloaded his music without paying for it 'may as well come and steal my son's bike while they're at it'". I couldn't agree more.

As to Apple being a vampire skimming 30% off the lifeblood of artists, I think that's a stretch. iTunes is a store, and they have their own costs to cover. The deal is pretty comparable to most of the digital storefronts out there, and arguably lightyears better than the huge cuts and byzantine (yea nefarious even) accounting of the record labels over the years. The money from subscription services like Spotify and Rdio is absolutely terrible, in addition.

Townshend does lob one interesting notion out there though. In the spirit of John Peel's channel of open discovery for new artists on his renowned radio show, he suggests that Apple should hire label scouts and marketers to dig out and assist the best underground emerging artists they can find. Doing so would turn the massive iTunes spotlight away from major label artists that dominate the store's features and spread a little limelight to struggling lesser known acts. It's an interesting idea, and one that attempts to address the ongoing problem of finding good filters for music discovery. There is more music being made and distributed than ever before, which is tremendously exciting. Except that it's almost impossible to sift through it all. And the traditional outlets for discovering new music have become too homogenous (radio) or too outmoded and niche (magazines and print). We won't even talk about what's happened to music television.

Apple and other stores could take on this curatorial role more. As Now's Benjamin Boles suggested in a brief Twitter exchange we had, it'd be akin to what customers expect from an indie record store more than any other typical music store. But Apple and Amazon are probably not interested. Someone could really run with this idea but the thing about Apple doing it is their fantastic reach. iTunes pretty much is the world of digital music sales. Other stores like Amazon have a stake, but iTunes is much larger. And then there are the subscription services, which may yet allow for some kind of curation to unfold. I'm loving my Rdio subscription for checking out new releases. If the social dimension of Rdio and Spotify were to grow, something that Facebook is very keen to see happen, perhaps a bleeding edge of crowd discovery could occur there. Apple's Ping social network was a feeble attempt at just that. So very feeble.

The difference between a Facebook/Spotify model and a potential Apple/neo-Peel discovery channel is social (what are my friends listening to?) versus curated (though Townshend is at pains to note that John Peel gave pretty much any record at least one shot on the air). And that's where we're stuck today. How do you find something that's new *and* good?

The Sliceman Cometh

2011-10-31T20:58:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween! Hope you're enjoying a spooky evening!

What's with the creepy anatomy, you ask? Well I decided to take my Frankenstein's monster costume to the next level this year, by getting actual surgery. Can't wait to throw the door open to trick-or-treaters, cast my hoodie wide and reveal a bellyful of incisions and surgical tape. The kids love it!

Seriously I actually did undergo surgery for a hiatal hernia last Thursday, a rotten condition surprisingly common among singers. Somewhere along the way, though I really couldn't say how, I developed a tear in my diaphragm, and consequently my stomach was slipping through the hole above to where my esophagus is. It definitely doesn't belong there. The hernia leads to pain, discomfort and acid reflux, which can damage one's vocal cords. Chester Benington of Linkin Park is one of the better known sufferers. He says he was actually vomiting while performing, sometimes the strain was so bad. I never experienced anything that extreme, but it did hurt like a sonofabitch, I'd developed a constant cough and my throat was deteriorating, affecting my singing stamina. Not good.

It took awhile to zero in on the problem, and an even longer while to convince my medical practitioners to do anything. I was ultimately treated by an excellent surgeon, Dr. Teodor Grantcharov, at Toronto's St. Mike's Hospital, but even he needed to monitor the situation for two years before he felt surgery was warranted. Testing was a joy. There's the endoscopy, where you're partially sedated so they can send a camera inside a large tube down your throat to see directly what's going on in your stomach. There's a specific test for acid reflux, where they insert a small tube up your nose, down your throat and into your stomach, attaching to a small wearable tracking computer. This contraption you get to keep running through your schnoz and into your gut for a full 24 hours, while it monitors the amount of acid coming up out of your stomach and into your esophagus. "Just do everything normally," they say. Yeah, uh huh. Oddly this test didn't do much for me, indicating I wasn't experiencing reflux. My aching stomach, sore throat, and acidic belches told a different story, but hey, the computer doesn't lie. After two years of endoscopies my esophagus was starting to look like the inside of a blood sausage. With reflux. So the doctor agreed surgery would be a good idea.

The procedure to fix a hiatal hernia is pretty crazy. It's called a laparascopic Nissen fundoplication. Several small incisions are made in the abdomen, for inserting a camera and surgical instruments. The abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide gas to give the doctors more room to do their work. They stitch up the tear in the diaphragm, repairing the hernia. Then they wrap the upper portion of the stomach around the esophagus to reinforce the opening, creating more constriction so food and stomach acids stay where they're supposed to. You can end up with a full wrap, where the stomach is wrapped like a scarf around the esophagus, or a partial, where instead of a full 360 degrees one gets 270 degrees of coverage from wrapping the stomach like a shirt collar, pulling it forward from either side of the esophagus but not entirely enveloping it. The partial is probably better for a singer, as the full fundoplication can create strain by stretching the esophagus, making swallowing difficult. I got a partial, as it turns out I've got a big esophagus (ladies, take note!).

Afterward, it's a gradual recovery. I'll be back to my normal routine more or less in a week, which is good, seeing as the band has a gig at the Toronto International Pop Overthrow a week Thursday. I do have to stick to a soft food diet for the better part of a month, slowly reintroducing normal food back into my system. I'm pretty sore right now, but I already feel like the strain my throat was experiencing may be improving. We'll see!

Odd moments and fun facts:

General anesthetic can cause some nasty reactions after the fact. I had cold sweats and severe nausea. But it was short-lived.
It takes six people to shift a 400-pound man (one of my roommates at the hospital). It doesn't usually go well.
Surgery leads to nightmares. Or it has for me, at least. The past two nights I've been at home, I've woken from creepy nightmares where a well-dressed Victorian couple wearing strangely featureless plaster masks were looming over me. I hardly ever have scary dreams, so two in a row is pretty weird.
They don't like to give you the good pain killers to take home anymore. I got Tylenol 2s. Seriously?
Finding dried blood in your navel is pretty gross.
My bassist's wife Grace wished me luck saying "in bocca al lupo", which literally means "in the wolf's mouth". Sort of like "break a leg" is the implied meaning. The traditional reply is "crepi il lupo", which means "to hell with the wolf". Italian's a strange language. I read that the whole exchange may in some way be derived from the Red Riding Hood narrative, where she's swallowed by the wolf and then cut free and is fine. Maybe? Anyway, colourful as hell. And I definitely feel like the wolf chewed me and spat me back up.

So that's the dilly. Pretty sure come next Thursday, November 10th I'll be able to deliver the full rock at the Rivoli. Looking forward to getting back up and singing, reflux free.

Once more into the breach...

2011-09-01T22:57:00.001-04:00

Been an interesting summer with some pretty cool gigs. Amongst other shows, Charge of the Light Brigade played a boat, and a garage, neither of which I can say I've ever done before. Photos will be up in the next few days. They were both pretty damn fun. Being out in the middle of Lake Ontario rockin' it is a wild experience, and the garage show was something I'd never done back in my punk-rock high-school band days, so it was high time we got that off the ground. Played to a pile of people wandering by on their way to the Ex on a gorgeous sunny afternoon. Good times.

Right now's pretty sweet, too. Charge is in rotation on CBC Radio 3, and we've picked up some great coverage and play this summer:

- Lithium Magazine called the band "Canada's next indie rock sensation"
- T.O. Snob picked The Defiant Ones for his best albums of the year so far
- ExploreMusic.com picked "Young Love" as a featured track
- InsideToronto published a long interview with the band
- An eclectic playlist as chosen by us appeared at TheArtistMixTapes.com

We've got a great show coming up with Clockwise at Mitzi's Sister on Thursday, September 15th. I'm teaching myself keyboards leading up to that gig, so believe me, this one's gonna be a treat. Or completely insane. Probably both. I've dabbled with keys a little over the years, but never tried to seriously incorporate them myself into performing. Our producer Marc Koecher is such a damned good keyboardist, what with the classical training and all, that it seemed silly to even try. But he's a busy man, and keys-types are a rare commodity out there these days. So what's a singer-guitar-slinger to do but add one more weapon to the arsenal? Mastering the art of switch-hitting between guitar and keys is the most challenging part, even more than singing with keys actually. But it's loads of fun, too, and opening up some new avenues for our songs. Can't wait to break this stuff out for real. Cya there!

Yoo-Kay!!

2011-06-05T10:18:00.000-04:00

Greets, guvnors and ladies fair! Charge is back from gigging in the U.K. A fab time was had by all. We were invited to play the International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool, hosted by David Bash at the legendary Cavern Club. Jason and I headed over as a duo, while Owen was tied up with studio work in Canada. We played some great sets and soaked up the night life, sampling the fine cask ales to be had from The Ship and Mitre, among others. We caught some great bands. 54321 delivered spectacular polished pop, as well as the most singularly note-perfect cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" imaginable. We shared the stage with the Bloc Party-like stylings of Cardinal Jack, who put on a fun, energetic set. There were tons of bands playing the week-long festival, day and night. A few others we enjoyed were stalwart rockers The Contrast, the jangly pop-punk of The Dirty Royals, the Ramones-esque 60s surf-garage-rock of The Beat Rats, and The Who-The Jam mash-up of The Len Price 3. And of course Clockwise, Jason's other band, put on a few great sets of their super-tight swaggering power-pop, in this the third year of their attendance. The overwhelming theme of the event was jangly garage-pop and effervescent harmonies, as befits a festival housed where The Beatles first held sway.

Liverpool itself is an interesting town, like so many others reinventing itself and smoothing away some of the nervier rough edges. Not entirely though! We did catch some fisticuffs in the street early one Saturday eve, which was unnerving. But mostly the city thrummed with vibrancy, ladies dolled up in their Spice Girl on the town best every night, gents friendly and pints cold and fresh!

There's good pubs and shopping to be had, delicious Indian food, a mammoth ferris wheel by the windswept Mersey, and shock of shocks, not one but two excellent Beatles museums. Any fan of the Fab Four will find some interesting mementos on display there, mostly concentrated on the early days of the band. We were there for the music, though, as the Cavern became a second home. I'm pretty sure Jason saw forty bands himself. There's photos from our shows at http://www.facebook.com/chargeband, with more to come later. All in all, a very cool time.

Liverpool!

2011-04-22T20:46:00.001-04:00

Charge is playing the International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool this May, 2011. Can't wait to be a part of this. A stack of bands are descending on the city, and we're gonna be one of them. Catch us at the legendary Cavern Club on Friday, May 20th. We're playing the pub at 1:45pm, and the Club at 4:15pm. We'll be playing a couple of extra shows the next day, hitting the Gallery in the afternoon and Bad Format Saturday night. So much history and great music has passed through that town. We're pretty excited to have a little part of it to ourselves. We'll be hanging out, catching some great music, too. And bassist Jason Eagan's other band Clockwise will be there, rocking and ale-slinging as well.

If you want to find out more info about the festival, check out http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com. Having a chance to catch up with our English fans will be really cool. See you there!

Entitled to Your Opinion

2011-04-08T21:05:00.002-04:00

So you may have noticed we're having an election in Canada. Again. 'Cause for the past number of years we haven't been able to choose one party whole-heartedly. Uninspiring leaders, a divided public, that kind of thing can happen to a country. Just look at the mess going on south of our fair border, and they've got Obama.

Arcade Fire strode into the election discussion with this post:

It is about to be voting time. Our current leader has championed some pretty destructive initiatives on everyone’s behalf… it’s really important to get out and vote on May 2nd.

If you’re out of the country you can still vote, just go here:
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=reg/svr&document=index&lang=e

For anyone unfamiliar with Mr. Harper’s work, do have a look…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2007/01/30/harper-kyoto.html

http://www.lucbourgeoisphoto.org/tarsands.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/david_vassey

Canada is still a pretty good country, and worth fighting for…

Solid post, with a clear point of view. Too bad they took it down. Not sure if this is another instance of gross Canuck over-compensation for fear of causing offense. It's just unfortunate they didn't leave it out there. If there was controversy, it barely got going. And really, posting that people should vote if they don't like a candidate, with reasons why they might not like that candidate (yeah, that's YOU, Prime Minister Harper), is totally legit. It's called debate.

You're entitled to your opinion. I don't have to like it, or agree with it. If I'm American I don't even have to read it or understand it (just kidding, though you guys really need to tone it down, man). I can post my own opinion. Which is all these things are. Opinions, and hopefully facts. Weigh the opinions, weigh the facts. In a democracy, the collective wisdom of the public decides. And that really is worth fighting for.

Go vote. Every couple of years we get a chance to remake the country. This one counts.

C'est What?

2011-03-17T10:47:00.000-04:00

Charge of the Light Brigade is playing C'est What next Wednesday, March 23rd. We'll be hitting the stage with Garage Baby for a night of power-pop-punk tomfoolery. Also kick-assery. Doors are at 9pm, Garage Baby's on at 9:30pm, and Charge will hit the stage at 10:30pm. $5 gets ya the best seat in the house, anywhere you can hear us. :)

If you can't make it down, you can still hear the whole thing, live-streamed from C'est What's music site. The live radio feed button is at top right.

See ya there!

World's worst blogger

2011-03-15T14:55:00.002-04:00

Well, I guess I should accept the title. I'm sure there's scads worse out there. But nevertheless, I hang my head in moderate shame for the dearth of posting.

We've been busy!

We have, actually. Charge of the Light Brigade's full-length album The Defiant Ones is out now, and it's been getting some great reviews. If you haven't seen 'em, here's a few:

Alex Young, Lithium Magazine - "The songs on 'The Defiant Ones' are held together with heartbroken melodies wrapped up in Sneyd’s ravaged vocals that will leave speechless anyone searching for Canada’s next indie rock sensation."

T.O. Snob's Music - "A solid, no excuses rock record."

We're still even picking up reviews for our debut EP:

Trick w/a Knife - "Take me out a razor blade: Charge of the Light Brigade kills it."

We had a great release gig for The Defiant Ones at Mitzi's Sister, playing with our most populous incarnation yet. I hit the stage with Marc on keys, Jason on bass, Owen on drums and two great horn-players, Leland Whitty on sax and Martin Matuszczak on trumpet. The sound was massive. Here's a live video of the title track (the sound is rough, distorted to fuck, but you get the idea.):

Having the lot of us up there giving our all felt sooo good. Got a great response and we can't wait to get out and put the magic on display some more. If you missed Mitzi's, our next gig is at C'est What in Toronto on March 23rd. We'll be back to a leaner band, but it's still gonna be ass-spankin' awesome.

We've got a bonafide music video coming, too, for "Charge!!" That's just a few days away, and it's shaping up to be a fun little slab of in-your-face rockness. Should have a revamped web-site shortly as well.

So there's been no laurel-resting 'round here, leastways no-how. And I'll have more to report to you lusty brigadoons, well before another season has passed by. That's a promise.

The long slog...

2010-12-31T20:35:00.001-05:00

So long 2010! And what a long ride you've been...

Highlight of the year is definitely recording the best material Charge of the Light Brigade has done, our debut full-length record The Defiant Ones. It's been a long arduous process, and we switched drummers as recording drew to a close, but the end result is shaping up just fine. There's some great tracks coming, from opening rocker "Last Door Down" to the rolling pop swing of "All You Are To Me" to the epic pomp of closer title-track "The Defiant Ones". We've revisited the material from our first EP We Haven't Been Properly Introduced, and those tracks have bigger cojones now, some real hairy mojo. In a good way! We've even dug further back in the vault, polishing up earlier Sneyd pieces "Wheels Come Off" and "The Real Heart". Marc Koecher's production is superb as ever, really rich and complex, and Jason and Zack did wonderful work on bass and drums. My own writing continues to develop, along with that fragile instrument people call a voice. All in all, it's a great mess o' tunes.

Beyond that, getting out our first EP and going out with a newly revitalized band (twice) was a great feeling. Jason joining the band made a huge difference for getting back in the live world, and his half-cocked jocularity, steady playing and mad range of vocals have added a lot of great dimension to the band live.

The lowlight was definitely the great drummer hunt in the summer. Zack Mykula, a long-time stalwart playing with me, decided to move on to focus on some new projects he was getting going, just as we were finishing up the tracks for The Defiant Ones. Talk about hard to replace! Zack's a superb drummer, and an original thinker behind the kit. And wonderfully stoic and dry, one of the city's true curmudgeony best. We auditioned a good bunch of guys as replacements, and boooooyyyyy was it tough finding anyone even remotely in the same ballpark. We did meet a few really great guys, but it ain't easy when you're looking for the right combination of technical skill, hard-hitting, and someone on the same wavelength to top it off. You know, those alt-rock-prog-pop sophisticated-creative-but-restrained guys don't exactly grow on trees. After many auditions and a few near-hits, we finally lucked into playing with Owen Tennyson, the drummer for Toronto new wavers Blue Peter. Owen's worked out fantastically, bringing his own panache and outgoing style to the band.

Can't wait to get the album out, and get on with the scads of work that entails! But fuck, it's waaaay better than waiting around mixing. Sometimes, the recording process can be a huge grind, and it's easy to lose sight of what you're trying to achieve. But the beast is done, the beast lives! More details about the release coming up real soon.

Happy New Year, and bring the good times. Charge!!

Feeding the muse....

2010-12-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

Charge of the Light Brigade is very close to finishing up our debut full-length album The Defiant Ones. This has been a long time in the works, over a year of recording, mixing, reworking and recording again. It's the first full-length release I've put out since 2007's Luke Sneyd solo album All of Us Cities.

I think it's be the best thing we've done. The album's sounding great. Marc Koecher's production is superb and we've really kicked the mixes up a notch in terms of sheer oomph and fullsome sound. Zack Mykula's drums are spectacular, and it's a great send-off for his time with the band. Jason Eagan's bass and vocals have added another melodic dimension, anchoring and driving the music. You can really hear everyone's contributions. And the songs are pretty damn fine, too.

To help us wrap up the record, we're enlisting the help of our fans. We've teamed up with FeedTheMuse.net, a cool site that enables bands and fans to come together and help realize a band's vision, whether that's an album, video, tour or virtual music pleasure centre. We figured we'd stick with the album for now.

We're raising money to cover the costs of recording, mastering and publicity for The Defiant Ones. There's a bunch of cool ways for people to take part. Yes, we're raising cash. In return, people get perks from digital downloads to CDs to free shows. We'll even play in your very own living room, if you want to kick in a hefty dose of lucre (plane tickets extra). Payment can be done directly from a credit card (if you're a U.S. resident), or via PayPal (which also takes credit cards) for any supporters regardless of location.

We'll be posting some exclusive videos and song samples at FeedtheMuse.net for fans and supporters to check out in advance of the album's release.

All in all it's a very cool way to help artists achieve their goals. Check it out at http://www.feedthemuse.net/chargeband and see what it's all about. We'd be thrilled to have you along for the ride!

Solving the ConunDrum

2010-09-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

Last night we had our first rehearsal with drummer Owen Tennyson, who's taking over behind the kit for departed wunderkind Zack Mykula. Owen's a whiz. He's played with Blue Peter and countless others, got a million stories and such an effusive guy. Really looking forward to doing the next show with him.

Running through our set for Friday with Owen, it really hit me how important a top-notch drummer is to a band. Zack's very creative in his approach, fusing an almost jazz sensibility with a hard-rock style. And Owen's superb, settling into a brand new (for him) nine-song set with confidence and aplomb.

The other thing about our three-month quest to find a replacement for Zack is it's shown me that our songs are surprisingly tough for a lot of people. They're hardly the most technical stuff out there, but there's a lot of structure. Amazing how many musicians aren't interested in structure. "There's a lot of parts," one guy would mumble, before crashing through the condensed epic-osity of "Young Love" like a bulldozer stuck in first gear. But to me all of our songs are very organic. Just listening to "Young Love", you don't notice the myriad time-shifts taking place. I've always love bands that can do that, like Pink Floyd's "Money" or the Beatles "Good Morning" or Them Crooked Vultures, where the song's time is complicated, but it just flows.

It's great to find another drummer who gets that. The stories about The Police infighting on tour are pretty hilarious, too.

IndieSolo Band of the Day - September 22nd

2010-09-21T16:10:00.000-04:00

Charge of the Light Brigade is the featured band tomorrow, Wednesday, September 22nd, at IndieSolo.com. Like us, you know the band's great. But there's a lot of people that don't. So on Wednesday, pop over to IndieSolo, vote for the band, add your comments and download our free tracks. It'll give us a boost in the annual rankings as people surf the site in the weeks to come. Thanks for the support!

Live at Lee's Palace, Friday, October 1st

2010-09-21T12:35:00.001-04:00

Charge of the Light Brigade is going to be playing Lee's Palace Friday, October 1st. Really looking forward to this show. Sitting in with us on drums will be Owen Tennyson (no relation to "Charge of the Light Brigade" poet Lord Alfred), long-time drummer for Toronto legends Blue Peter.

Also on the bill are Militis Rue, Reckless Disposition and This Mad Desire. Doors are at 9pm, and cover's $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Pick up five tickets ahead of time, and get 'em even cheaper, for $7 each. Advance tickets will be held at the door for you under your name.

Get tickets now - email us at info@cotlb.com with how many you want, and we'll arrange it pronto. You'll get a payment notice from PayPal, but you won't need a PayPal account, just a credit card for the secure transaction.

We're plugging hard to finish up the recording of our debut full-length, so this is probably the last Toronto gig of the year for us. Don't miss it, brigadoons!

Press Watch

2010-09-14T10:30:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't catch them on Twitter or Facebook, there were a couple of good reviews/interviews for Charge of the Light Brigade last week.

Chicago/New York music blog Consequence of Sound touted the band's debut EP We Haven't Been Properly Introduced, calling the band's sound "familiar yet experimental, different and polished." There were a couple of good in-depth interviews with yours truly, too, in Vancouver's The Delete Bin and at Georgia online mag Junior's Cave. I get to talk about the band's influences, our writing and recording process and the plight of freedom for the independent artist. Check 'em out.

"Young Love" Live is Live

2010-08-16T15:10:00.000-04:00

The video of "Young Love" from Charge of the Light Brigade's release gig at the Rivoli is online now. Thanks to Juan Montalvo for shooting and editing this puppy.

The gig itself was a good vibe, with local outfit Bella Clava and New York's Midnight Spin joining us for a night of spit and polish rockness. Best moments were the tit-for-tat covers, with COTLB delivering their brooding take on Springsteen's "Atlantic City" later followed by Midnight Spin's feisty and rambunctious cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World".

There's some great live shots of the show, too, from Juan Montalvo and Allison Janzen, at our Facebook Fan Page.

We're back in the studio now, blasting through the last few tracks to finish for our full-length, The Defiant Ones. The album is shaping up to be a pretty grand slab of rock'n'roll, much bigger in scope than the small stage of our debut EP We Haven't Been Properly Introduced. Can't wait to drop this one on you guys, some time this fall!

We Haven't Been Properly Introduced available now

2010-06-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

Our debut EP We Haven't Been Properly Introduced will be up on iTunes, eMusic and others in a month or so, but you can get it now at the band's own digital store, here. The EP's available to buy in high-quality formats like Apple Lossless, FLAC and 320k mp3s, or more ipod-friendly versions in smaller mp3 and aac formats. We're also giving away two tracks; "Young Love" and "Charge!!" are available for free, so grab 'em and tell us what you think!

For the CD-inclined, there's a great looking digipack version available too, which you can buy here. The EP's spiffy artwork was done by aspiring chanteuse Deniz Reno, and the full package is a sweet collectible. (And about Deniz's online demo, Luke, Marc and Zack all played on those tracks!)

The EP's a taste of what we're working on for our full-length album The Defiant Ones, which we'll be wrapping up this summer. Opener "Young Love" is a soaring paean to the headlong rush of a relationship's first blush. Featuring a fast-moving, dense arrangement with Luke's driving guitars, and Marc's swirling keys flourishes, the song is propelled forward by Zack's thunderous percussion. "Fastest of the Losers" is more melancholy, but still textured and epic in scope. The song got its title from a phrase Luke overheard during the 2008 Olympics. A reference to the second-place finisher of a race, Luke turned the phrase toward the ephemeral, tenuous nature of relationships. Not everyone's a "winner", the song says, but the losers and the outsiders have each other, for as long as love lasts. "Desdemona" is an infectious slice of power-pop wrapped around a relationship-on-the-rocks song, and "Charge!!" is the band's call-to-arms, a rallying cry for determined individualism and expression. The EP's rounded out with an alternate version, the more acoustically-themed "Fastest of the Losers (Endwell Mix)".

The EP was recorded at producer Marc Koecher's Toronto mksoundworks studio, and mastered by Tim Branton at Joao Carvalho Mastering.

Toronto Independent Music Awards Showcase

2010-05-05T08:45:00.004-04:00

We're playing a live showcase at the Toronto Independent Music Awards tonight, Wednesday, May 5th. It's happening at The Central, at 603 Markham Street, 1 block west of Bathurst, south of Bloor. They're usually pretty interesting nights, very diverse, talented up-and-coming acts. We played one a year-and-a-half ago, when it was running out of Jeff Healey's Roadhouse. Door are at 8pm, and we're on at 8:50pm. Also on the bill, White Ravens, Vintage Railway, and Candice Chantrell. Cover's $7.

Great chance to catch us if you missed Saturday's blowout at the Velvet. Our bassist Jason is tying the proverbial knot with his gorgeous fiancée and heading to the U.K. to play International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool with Clockwise, so suffice to say it'll be a little while till the next one. See ya there!

Double Duty Squared

2010-04-23T08:06:00.005-04:00

We're playing Velvet Underground Saturday, May 1st. The show's gonna be a lot of fun. It's the band's first weekend gig, and we won't have another one for a little while as our bassist Jason is getting married and trooping off to Europe with his blushing bride.

That Saturday's gonna be mad hectic. Zack's pulling a Toronto Phil Collins that night, playing first over at the Drake with Bella Clava before boarding his private jet to fly over to the Velvet for our set an hour later. The man, as you doubtless already know, is a machine. And at our show, Jason's gonna be pulling double-duty as well, playing with us and first with guests Clockwise. They'll be awesome, breaking out a set of pure power-pop before they head to the UK to play the International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool. There they'll be playing the legendary Cavern Club.... how cool is that? And their Velvet performance will top off a day of recording a wicked new track. And the next day, the Brigade boys head into the studio ourselves, pressing relentlessly forward on our debut full-length, The Defiant Ones.

Phew.

Everybody's working for the weekend, indeed.

Music and theft: the con of convenience

2010-03-23T08:19:00.009-04:00

So this morning I'm reading a post from Mika Schiller on Made Publishing. It's called "Music File Sharing and Digital Disruption Aren't Unfair". The post is a bad attempt at justifying illegal downloading by putting it on a relative moral plane, clearly worse than murder or the right to decent health care or national defense. He goes on to say that file-sharing "isn't a moral issue, it's an economic one." Business models are changing, and why should we protect the old-guard industry standing in the way of progress?

The last part is partly right - business models are changing, and the record industry is struggling desperately to overcome it's near total irrelevance. But there are still key fallacies here. First and most important, a song belongs to an artist. It's their creation. If they choose to give it away, so be it. And indeed there's little choice given the realities of contemporary digital distribution. Secondly, songs from signed artists are the joint property of the artist and the company they work for. Sure, record companies have a long history of corruption. If you look around, so do many companies in many different industries. Kinda the nature of the beast. Regardless, artist and company have made a deal, and selling the songs is what makes the deal viable.

Enter the downloader. Illegal file-sharing is exactly that, the theft of property. Utopian net anarchists will tell you intellectual property should all be free, but they're wrong. It's a lawless, frontier mentality, devaluing the rights of the creator. Anything you create, you are entitled to treat however you the creator see fit, whether giving it away or selling it for profit. Profit is how you earn a living from your creation. It's not an inherently evil word. Perhaps in the future a better model will be adopted. The subscription model is bandied about all the time, but has yet to gain major traction. Legitimate digital downloading is growing, and convenience is certainly part of it. Buying tracks from iTunes or eMusic is a straightforward proposition, and it'll continue to grow as the CD disappears from view.

But back to file-sharing. Sure I'm crying over spilled milk, the cat's out of the bag and Pandora's box is waaaaay open. The fact remains all those albums and tracks you so conveniently swap back and forth don't belong to you. If you could download cars, or pies, the fact that it's theft would be pretty obvious. Sure you didn't kill somebody, but you can't just drive a car off the lot and keep swapping it for a new one every ten blocks. Making something digital makes it ephemeral, so the act of theft appears to be insignificant. Stealing an extra newspaper from the box is another example. You already paid a buck, the box is open, why not grab a few extra papers? But as you waltz away with five broadsheets in your hand, it's pretty obvious you took more than you were entitled to.

Music is especially ephemeral. With the precedent of radio, it's the least tangible art-form. Radio is of course subsidized by advertising. But there's a mental association for the majority of people, that they've listened to plenty of music for free, so now there's a better, easier way to get that music for free. And they're absolutely right. But who's paying for it? Not advertising. Not the industry. And certainly not the downloading music aficionado.

Then there's the live red herring. People argue they may download music from an artist that they don't pay for, but that makes them more likely to pay to see the artist live. It's highly unlikely given the amount of file-sharing going on, that people are seeing every artist they download. So what is it? A 5% justification? 10%? You see a quarter of the acts you download? Which would mean you only stole from 3/4 of them? Which you didn't. You stole from all of them. It just doesn't hold water.

Schiller argues that the rise of the auto industry put the horse and buggy industry out of business, and you can't say that the auto's innovation was unfair to buggies. It's an apples and orange comparison, though. Doubtless new companies will come along with different business models, ones that are more effective and yes profitable than the current record industry. And if those are equitable and share profit more fairly with their artists, more power to them. In the meantime, rampant downloading is no better than the storied corrupt record labels themselves. You're ripping off artists, just like they've done for years. You've just eliminated the middleman.

Ultimately what's under debate is the value of music. Maybe $1 per song is too high. I don't think so. A pack of gum or a chocolate bar costs a buck, you consume it and it's gone. A great song can brighten your day, haunt your memories, become entwined with the soundtrack of your life. A great song you'll play over and over, finding new things to love about it. That isn't worth a dollar? And even a song that isn't magnificent, isn't artful or moving or innovative or whatever floats your boat - if you take momentary enjoyment from that track, from the bop of the rhythm or a lyric or its melody - is that really any different from enjoying a $1 candy-bar?

Artists should be entitled to earn the fair value of their creations. Until a better method comes along that pays stakeholders fairly, can you really argue that taking their work for nothing is okay for now? As an artist myself, I support artists. I buy downloads through iTunes and I have an eMusic subscription (I don't even take advantage of all my downloads every month, but I figure what the hell, it's a small price to pay for the music I do enjoy). If an artist offers freebies and sample tracks, great, I'll grab 'em. But that's where I stop, 'cause there's no excuse for a con of convenience.

The new band, live at Tiger Bar

2010-02-23T10:44:00.005-05:00

After a nine month hiatus, I'm glad to say we're finally getting back on-stage. That was waaay tooo loooong!

My new band, Charge of the Light Brigade, is hitting Tiger Bar this Thursday, February 25th, for our debut show. We've had some line-up changes and put a lot of work in on a mess of new material. The EP is nearly done, and we're über excited to be playing these songs in front of a bonafide audience at long last. It should be a cool show, with us, Bitter City and Volcano Playground putting it all out there for Tiger Bar Groove. The bar's at 414 College Street, east of Bathurst, underneath the Crown and Tiger. Cover's a 1+$1 deal - $10 for one person, $11 for two. There's even better deals if you join the promoter's Facebook group - see the details here.

The Brigade will be on at 10pm. Feels like it's gonna be the start of something pretty special. You should be there!

The Process

2009-12-02T23:30:00.004-05:00

It don't come easy, this creating things thing. Oh sure, slap a guitar on me and I'll write three new songs before you can say "supernumerary dishtowel". The music part, that is. But the words part, that's harder. Finding the emotion, the pattern or sometimes just the patter, the jibber-jabber that brings those threshing chords alive, that takes some serious work. And then there's working up the music, building a song that's more than some jangles and a tremulous voice.

I wrote my last blog post when we were starting work on our new EP. That was in August. It's now December. That time just got sucked up like a whirly-gig cow, all moos and spastic limbs in a tornado's tumult. Except I barely noticed the time slip away. Three months later, the work's grown, deeper, broader. What started as a 3-song demo is now a cool dozen tracks in various gestative states, this one nearly fully formed, that one a speck scarcely visible to the human eye, with all variations between. But they're not frozen, preserved, floating in jars just yet. These babies are in flux.

We're working on a track "Young Love" that's gonna be pretty cool. But damn if we don't change the opening to the song every day. Subtle variations, pulling things in and out like a manic switchboard operator. We're booked for mastering in about 10 days, and there's a crazy amount of detail to sort out, just for four little songs. Striving for masterpieces in miniature, that's the beauty of pop music.

I'm really looking forward to sharing these songs. They're epic, personal, charged and meticulous. Zack's drumming is urgent and intense, Marc's production layered and rich. If you haven't already, check out the demo for "Desdemona" at our MySpace Now if we can just glue those last corners in place, go easy on the sprinkles, and get some fucking music out there. Sweet Jesus it's about time. It's always about time.

Men at Work

2009-08-26T15:45:00.004-04:00

Well it's been awhile, I know. Things have been seeming quiet in Sneydville. But trust me there's work afoot, under the surface, out of view. Zack's back from his tour with the Kelly Girls, and Marc's cleared the decks, and the three of us are cobbling together our new musicology. There's some new tracks coming, and a few extra surprises along the way. These are going to be some pretty wicked songs, which is all I have to say about that for now.

I'm not in the habit of posting drafts, but I can't resist posting a peep here and there. Here's a spate of lyrics to tide ya, for a number called "The Defiant Ones":

No way home
The crossroads they came
And they showed me the way
But they faded before I could see

Once we were whole
But it seems like a dream
That fades with the rain
A chill morning that beats on the glass
A face from the past

Turn your back
Just leave me alone
With the blood on the floor
My footsteps will stain every door
Through which I pass

I've paid for my crimes
And served a lifetime
But I can't forget all I've done
I've laid at your feet
And I've prayed for relief
But nothing can change what I feel
The cold steel of love

We've made our beds
Now let's sleep for all time
Drown our sorrows with wine
Forget there was even a word
Forget

I've paid for my crimes
And served a lifetime
But I can't change the man I've become
I've laid at your feet
And I've prayed for relief
There's no breaking this bond, no release
From the cold steel of love

The Toronto One-Timer

2009-06-03T16:20:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow night on Thursday, June 4th we'll be playing our only Toronto gig this summer. Gonna be a wicked night at Lee's Palace, with the Watters Brothers and Ladybird opening, and Exxxtra Juicy closing it down. We're on at 11pm, doors at 9pm and cover's $5.

After that we're playing a few more shows through the golden horseshoe. And then drummer Zack Mykula hops on the bus with Kelly and the Kelly Girls for an extended Canadian and UK tour through July and August. We'll miss Zackula Thundersticks, but we'll be hard at work without him, tracking in the studio with Marc Koecher for our fall release. The new tracks we're working on are pretty fantastic. The moody sweep of the Salvo EP is still there, but we're bringing more verve and crackling energy to these songs. They're gonna be pretty damn cool.

So if you're in Toronto, don't miss tomorrow night's gig. We're working a couple of different things into the set - it's gonna be a blast!

"Fightsong" video online now!

2009-05-25T23:22:00.006-04:00

From Paul Thompson, the director of "The Prisoner" video, comes our latest for "Fightsong". A great vid of a couple's relationship unraveling, the story's told backward a la Memento. Lensed by Juan Montalvo and shot on a high-end RED Camera, it features the full band plus a sexy debut from Deniz Reno. There's even two different cameos from Elena Vardon, star of "The Prisoner" vid. See if you can find her!

Salvo Review on Fazer

2009-04-07T22:38:00.001-04:00

Some fine words for the new EP! Check it out here.

HomeGrown Video show

2009-03-22T23:34:00.003-04:00

Airing in New York City, and now syndicated to the Dish Network! Fun little interview over the waves we did with this show, featuring me and the band, and Elena Vardon from "The Prisoner" video.

The Best of HomeGrown - Luke Sneyd and the Deed Interview

Making “Fightsong”: The Shootist’s Adventure

2009-03-16T21:34:00.006-04:00

Alright. No shootists were involved. Although I suppose you could say I was a shootee.

We shot the video for “Fightsong” on Friday, March 13th (not being a superstitious lot). The video was a great chance for Paul Thompson and I to renew our Martini MacGuffin film collaboration. Paul shot my first video, for “The Prisoner”, and together we’ve made a few short films with him directing, and me throwing words together in a semblance of writing.

The “Fightsong” concept is pretty cool. The song’s a moody, apocalyptic love-song. In the video, we watch a relationship unraveling as a musician (that’d be me) succumbs to the trappings of success. Except that the scenes play like Irreversible or Memento, occurring in reverse. So we begin with me alone in my now empty apartment, and work our way backward through the relationship in crisis to happier days to when the couple first views the apartment together. The video’s being edited right now, but that’s what we’re going for, and I think we got it.

We had a lot of luck getting the video off the ground, and got to work with a bunch of great people and familiar faces. Juan Montalvo was our cinematographer, back after lensing our short Quarantine. Album producer Marc Koecher joined my bandmates Scott Hannigan and Zack Mykula to round out the onscreen band. And Elena Vardon, featured in “The Prisoner” video, was a huge help, connecting us up with both the studio where we shot the film (Walnut Studio), and our gorgeous leading lady, Deniz Maria Reno. A great bunch of friends and newly cast strangers rounded out our cast, and the crew was capable, efficient and a pleasure to work with. Our art director Rahema Mohamed did a wonderful job creating the apartment, with much help and driving around from Carmela Versace.

The capper was the Red Camera Paul managed to lay hands on through David Woods. That thing is a **monster**, a magnificent, gleaming black beast with a resolution vastly superior to Blu-Ray. Geeks can feast on its specs here. That camera alone will lend the video incredible cinematic depth and luster.

The shoot was long, brutal and loads of fun. Of course we blew out the power in the studio at one point, frying some fuses in a terrifying old-school circuit box. By fluke, one of our extras was an electrician’s assistant, and helped us to track down the right fuses to replace, which Carm, ever intrepid, had to source at 11pm on a Friday.

In the party and photo-shoot scenes, energy and exuberance were in abundance, fuelled by a little of the ol’ alkey-haul, natch! The people that came out fell right into the spirit(s) of the shoot, and had themselves a blast. Can’t thank them enough for being part of it.

The couple scenes played really well, too. It’s strange, falling into instant intimacy with someone you barely know. But Deniz was a beautiful trooper, and I managed my acting neophyte status the best way I knew, with fits of blazing dorkiness.

The band played great – so what if half of it was pantomime? One of the night’s many magic moments that stood out for me was a scene we shot in the wee hours, when the band was working out “Fightsong” as if for the first time. Scott hunkered on his bass and Zack took drumming notes (evincing the possibility of consciousness in a drummer!), as I played guitar and Marc the accordion. The accordion’s reedy sound drifted haunting over the strains of the track as we played together, gathered on the couch of my fictitious living room, and sang the song together. A perfect film moment, concocted, artificial, yet for a fleeting moment amazingly moving and real.

With the great contributions we got on Friday, and a generous dollop of luck, “Fightsong” will feel the same way.

Now you see it...

2009-02-09T21:33:00.004-05:00

So warnings, dear readers, listeners and fellow flies on the wall. Our show at Lee's Palace this Thursday, February 12th has been subjected to a do-over, owing to the Pains of Being Pure Heart taking a bigger venue for their Toronto show. Such are the vagaries of the biz.

But fear not! Luke Sneyd and the Deed bows; we don't break. We've picked up a better night anyway, playing The Silver Dollar at College and Spadina (486 Spadina Ave.) on Saturday, February 21st. Take that frown and turn it upside down, and fill it up with liquid jubilation, 'cause we're gonna break out the new tracks and the old tracks and shake it up till it spritzes all over the stage like hot champagne. (This metaphor's really goin' places I wasn't plannin' on....) Cover's $5, and doors are at 10pm. If you're feelin' Facebooky, visit us here. Come spend the weekend with us. We'll make you breakfast in the morning.

Rok Boutique Tonight - The Heavens Pour Forth Their Frigid Wonder

2009-01-28T13:39:00.006-05:00

Yeah. Gigging in the Canuck freeze is always interesting. We're playing Rok Boutique in Toronto tonight, as yet another snow-storm wallops the city. Thankfully this is a hometown gig, so not much running around, and no 401 white-out terror waiting. The show will be a bit different - we're doing an acoustic night with Ryan Christopher, so we'll be kicking off the set with a few purely acoustic numbers. Seeing as we do love it loud, though, we'll be plugging in before the night is done for that full-blown Luke Sneyd and the Deed sound.

Had a great time last night with Rob Spence on SirHijack's the Show at IndieLove.ca radio. Zack and I were in the studio, chatting about recording the Salvo EP and gearing up for what should be a frenetic spring. The best were the constant bleeps and bloops as Rob's various IM windows kept going off during the interview - that man can multitask! I should have a copy of the interview in a few days, which I'll post to the Luke Sneyd Facebook page.

Don't let the billowing frosties keep ya down! Hitch up the huskies, or just make sure there's enough juice in your iPod for that slow streetcar ride. Rok Boutique's at 200 Bathurst, just north of Queen, doors at 9pm, cover's $6.

IndieLove.ca tonight!

2009-01-27T20:41:00.001-05:00

On my way to appear on Sir Hijack Rob Spence's show on Internet radio http:// www.indielove.ca tonight. Gonna be on with Zack playing tracks old and new, around 9pm EST.

Fudagraphed

2009-01-25T19:46:00.003-05:00

We went in for a photoshoot with Joe Fuda today. Had ourselves a blast! His notion was to have us running in place, making for an imaginary chase scene. I had to be gingerly about it - I had a spot of minor back surgery last week, getting a lipoma removed from near my spine - and I'm very much still on the mend. (A lipoma, if you don't know, is an innocuous fat cyst, that hurts like a sonofabitch if it has the bad taste to take up residence in a crappy place in your body. Fucker.) So I found myself in the studio, bouncing up and down in place to "Always on the Run" (Joe was carrying the theme as far as he could), paying careful mind to every twitch and twinge emanating from my bandaged-up stitches. A rough, unedited sample of the work in progress is here. he got some great shots of Zack and Scott, too.

He also wanted to do an outdoor sequence with us in vintage snowsuits, but sadly, the shop he'd seen them in the day before was now sold out. Guess there was a run on 70s frigid-wear - go figure!

Really looking forward to the finished results, coming later this week. Might end up as part of the Salvo EP package. We shall see....

Salvo EP Preview Vid

2009-01-21T12:39:00.004-05:00

Yes ladeez and gents, the Salvo EP is in the can, and trickling through the virtual ether. The follow-up to All of Us Cities features five expansive and melodic new tracks. We're also introducing the live band The Deed on the EP, adding some extra bang and thump to the proceedings. Luke, drummer Zack Mykula, bassist Scott Hannigan, and studio whiz Marc Koecher are all here in this clip of our time in the studio, set to the instrumental rumblings of "Hadron and the Supercollider".

"Wheels Come Off" Online

2008-12-08T10:39:00.004-05:00

Recording is done! The songs are mixed, mastered and put to bed. Me and the boys in the band are pretty pleased with the results, five massive tracks to pummel your brains with a barrage of repeated sonic epiphanies. Hence the title the Salvo EP...

Still a mess of work to be done, the artwork rigamarole, pressing and other release options like download cards, which a lot of bands are using as a cheaper alternative to producing CDs. (Editorial aside: would you be more likely to buy a CD, or a digital download?) Expect the full EP to surface early on in the new year.

In the meantime, because we love you, the lead track "Wheels Come Off" is available now for streaming and download at MySpace and ReverbNation. It's a bit of a soaring, brilliant beast, a six-minute slab of all the new band can do. Check it out, and let us know what you think! Plenty more to come....

Final mix-down at Iguana

2008-12-01T17:50:00.002-05:00

We're into the final mix-down phase for our upcoming Salvo EP. I'm blogging from Iguana up in Downsview as Marc mixes "Fightsong", one of the tracks we've been working on. It sounds great on their absolutely massive SSL board. Trying out BlogWriter, a handy little app for my iPhone. If you like the short and sporadic approach to blogging, check out my twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/sneydman. We're in the middle of a very long day. The work is painstaking and fiddlesome, but wow when the final mix goes up, it sounds pretty superb. The guys here (Vic, John and Luke) are really laidback and knowledgeable. I'm capturing some pics and video snippets which should see the light of day over the next few weeks. The EP is still a ways off, but we should be posting a lead track in the very near future. Till then!

Demo of "The Real Heart" up at MySpace

2008-11-11T11:39:00.002-05:00

Well we're **still** plugging away in the studio. It's amazing how long it can take. Especially with a couple of compulsive perfectionists in the band! ;p

I can tell you that the EP is close, but you may not see it till the new year. We've got five super-solid tracks coming together, that are 90% done, but there's a lot of finishing and finesse in that final 10%.

You can get a sneak peak at one of the songs at my MySpace page. This is a production demo of "The Real Heart". The final version will sound similar, but with new vocals, drums, bass, guitar, etc. etc. So yeah a totally different song! Nah, it'll be close. Just more polished.

I'm really enjoying working with the band, bringing Zack on drums and Scott on bass into the collaboration Marc and I have been developing over the past few years. The end result should be pretty cool. And a wee bit massive!

In the running for RedGorilla

2008-10-25T23:00:00.001-04:00

While the band's busy recording new material, I'm in the running for a slot at the Red Gorilla Music Fest in Austin in March of 2009. "The Prisoner" is currently at #3 at OurStage.com. Swing on by the site to vote for the song and help put the Sneyd over the top.

Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards

2008-10-21T22:39:00.003-04:00

All of Us Cities has been nominated for Best Rock Album of the year in the Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards! Nifty. Adding to the fun, "I'm the Decider" was also nominated for Best Rock Song. Toronto Exclusive is hosting a fun award celebration on Wednesday, October 22nd at the Smiling Buddha (961 College Street), starting at 8pm. We'll be there to join in the festivities. Nice to see the record's still getting good notices. For full details about the gig, check out the Toronto Exclusive site.

We're nearly finished our upcoming EP. Expect some pretty wicked new songs coming your way in the next month!

Daniel Pearl World Music Days

2008-09-26T14:01:00.003-04:00

In 2002, journalist and musician Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan. In honour of his memory, Daniel Pearl World Music Days has been created to bring together harmony, music and humanity. In October, a wide array of performances around the world will be dedicated to Daniel, drawing on the power of music to create cross-cultural understanding. You can find out more about the foundation's concerts at http://www.danielpearlmusicdays.org. Whether you're an artist or no, you can join in by submitting music, art, photos, poems, stories and reporting of World Music Days events at their site, to become part of an eStage.

Vote at Home Grown Video

2008-09-26T12:53:00.004-04:00

New York's Home Grown Video is featuring the video for "The Prisoner", where we're getting some nice airplay. You can check out their MySpace page, and vote for Luke Sneyd there for Artist of the Month to help us pick up more play!

Future Stars on Radio Crystal Blue Tonight

2008-09-21T17:29:00.002-04:00

Dan Herman of NYC's Radio Crystal Blue is doing a feature on Future Stars, starting tonight. And we're included. Nice. Here's the details for tuning in:

(1)LIVE on LIVE365 INTERNET RADIO
www.live365.com/stations/142950.
*Click the yellow 'mic' button on the station page during the time the show
airs live. This opens the listening window. Radio Crystal Blue is a 4-5 hour
show.
*Please ignore the "this station is currently not available" statement on
this
page.
*Turn off all pop-up-blocker software
NEW: Remember you can listen to Live365 with your favorite audio player.
Live365 now features mobile streaming!
Firefox and Safari browser users surfing Live365 can now use the network's
Flash player.

(2) ARCHIVED shows are at http://cblue.lunarpages.com
*Click the .ram streams or the .mp3 downloads at the beginnings of each
playlist.
*Listen with the free (basic) RealOneplayer www. real. com
*Both shows will be uploaded just hours after its completion.
*All archived shows are being kept for 4 weeks after the live ones.

(3) PODCASTS :
Stream shows after-the-fact in my FeedPlayer at http://cblue. lunarpages. com
Click the different glyphs to hear earlier shows, get the mp3 and RSS
feeds.
RSS http://www.bigcontact.com/radiocrystalblu/rss
www. bigcontact. com has other ways to make the audio accessible.
*As with the archives, the shows from the last several weeks are always
available.

Tattoo Rock Parlour!

2008-09-04T22:13:00.005-04:00

Great set last night at the Tattoo Rock Parlour. Thanks to them what came down post- their Labour Day weekend hangovers and dreaded kickstart-the-fall with work / school / name-your-poison futures looming large on the dusky horizon! The denizens of Tattoo were mightily pleased with what they beheld. Mike Celia provided a great opening act with some fine guitar work and a cool blues-folk vibe, followed by the stomp and crunch of Fourlines. We wrapped up the bill with a solid set, breaking out some new tracks including "Wheels Come Off" and "The Real Heart". Thanks to Todd Arkell at Cool Planet Entertainment for booking us, and shout-outs to my cousin Mike for doin' lights and the ever-present Marc Koecher for his wicked shots. Check out the pics!

Coming up.... Tattoo Rock Parlour!

2008-08-28T10:53:00.004-04:00

We're playing Tattoo Rock Parlour in Toronto, Wednesday, September 3rd. Opening are Mike Celia and Fourlines. Doors at 9pm, cover's $5. The place is at 567 Queen Street West. Sign up for the show on Facebook! It's gonna be wicked - we're breaking out a few of the new tracks we've been working on in the studio, as well as your All of Us Cities faves.

Le Giggage

2008-08-28T10:15:00.002-04:00

We played a solid show at Fat Cats in Kitchener last Friday (a few pics posted below). Quirky venue: the place is a pool hall, with the band tucked in a corner stage. Not ideal circs for putting on a performance, especially with the pool tables between us and the seats and tables! But people were into it all the same. Even those pesky stick-wielding interlopers were shimmying around the velvet in time to "Hearts and Minds"....

Looking forward to playing the Live Lounge tomorrow night in Ottawa, courtesy of Live 88.5! C'mon down and check us out, Friday, August 29th, doors at 8:30pm, cover $8. We're appearing with Marc Charron, Tara Holloway and Grace Over Diamonds. Should be a very cool show.

Andrew's Rock Blog

2008-07-31T10:40:00.003-04:00

Nice write-up over at Andrew's Rock Blog. I was ever-so-briefly in a band called Station to Station with Drew, many moons ago. A buddy of mine (the drummer of my high-school punk band) played with them, and invited me in back in the 90s when their original guitarist left. We jammed out a few times but it never really connected. I bump into Andrew from time to time - we caught up recently at a birthday party for that drummer's one-year-old daughter. He's doin' fine working at Jack FM, and his blog is a great corner of the net for tidbits on rock classic and contemporary. Check it out!

What the hell we're up to....

2008-07-29T16:14:00.002-04:00

Posting's been infrequent, I know. And there hasn't been much new going up. I'm glad to say that it's with good reason. The band's in the studio again with producer Marc Koecher. Yep, we've started work on new tracks at long last!

There'll be some samples of tracks coming soon. Right now we've started work on what's either a very long EP or a very short album, depending on your point of view.... One track we've broken out live a few times called "Wheels Come Off" is a rolling romp about plans gone awry. But man it's going to sound a bit different from those first live approximations! I'm pretty excited to be back in the studio, especially working with a few new collaborators this time around. Marc's signature production will be in full effect, but I think there's going to be more oomph, more rockness igniting the epic complexity. Zack's drums are pure thunder, and Scott's bringing some great melodic bass-lines to the table. I'm babbling, but you'll know what I'm talking about soon enough.

Here's a figment of studio life....

Into the Semi-Finals on OurStage

2008-07-29T15:56:00.003-04:00

Well "Unknown" and "The Prisoner" are both in the running on OurStage, for Male Singer-Songwriter and Indie Rock respectively. Click on the banners below and vote for 'em to help further the cause...!!

OurStage.com

2008-07-03T23:15:00.005-04:00

"Waiting" and "The Prisoner" are making an impression on fan-voting site OurStage.com. Just a few days after uploading, "Waiting" is sitting pretty at #2 in Pop, and "The Prisoner" is #4 in Indie Rock. Sweetness!! Who knows how long they'll hang on, but a little recognition is always fine. The site's pretty cool, and a great way to discover new bands. As a fan, you can just sign up and immediately start rating stuff. Winners are decided monthly. We'll see what July holds...!

Get on the list for the Sneaky Dee's show!

2008-06-23T16:58:00.003-04:00

This Thursday, June 26th, Luke and his band of brigantines will be playing Sneaky Dee's. The night should be a blast, featuring us, A Self, Credible Witness and Gran Casino. The gig's upstairs at Sneaks, which is at 431 College Street. Presented by KickBax Entertainment, tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The more of you that come down, the better the night will be! You can buy an advance ticket via PayPal. Send a $10 payment to info@lukesneyd.com. We'll reserve a ticket for you at the door upon receipt.

Live at Club Absinthe

2008-06-09T04:47:00.002-04:00

The Pied Piper of 500

2008-06-04T08:40:00.002-04:00

Rehearsing. It's a bit of a grind, but it makes a huge difference, taking a decent band and honing its players into a well-oiled rock'n'roll machine. We do most of our rehearsals at 500 Keele, where John the operator is a never-ending source of bizarre entertainment. High as a kite and wailing on ear-splitting guitar while we set-up, with hidden knives to jimmy the doors he doesn't have keys for, every time we walk through the door is an adventure.

Cool things can happen in rehearsals, too. We got together on Monday, running through the set for our upcoming Hamilton gig. We'd had a layoff for a couple of weeks, but the playing was tight and the energy solid. Halfway through the set, Zack noticed some weird volume swells during "Dallas". We didn't think much of it, and plunged into "Waiting", which we haven't touched in a month or more. The tune rocked! Even better, as the last chord rang out, we had a new surprise. A couple of people were hovering behind the caged security door, digging our set. One girl piped up they'd heard us from the street, and walked into the warehouse complex to find where the tunes were coming from. They tried a few doors, accidentally setting off an alarm (hence the weird volume noises Zack had picked up on!!), before finding the right way into our space. Then they hung out in the alcove behind the barred door, just listening. Awesome. If you guys find this, we'll have another Toronto show booked soon - keep checking!

New Vid in the Works!

2008-05-31T16:42:00.007-04:00

What're you looking at, you say? Is this Where's Waldo 3D??

Nope. What we have here is a still from the planning for the next Luke Sneyd video! I'm teaming up with Paul Thompson again, after the fab work he did on "The Prisoner". This time, instead of rockin' out to multiple me's, Zack and Scott are gonna be making an appearance. And where we'll all be apparating to is a miniature land that time forgot. The track's gonna be "Waiting". We're just working it out right now, but it should be pretty cool. Shooting will begin in the next week or so....

"The Prisoner" Live Clip

2008-05-24T00:56:00.003-04:00

From our May 17th gig at the Lost Lounge in Mississauga, here's a clip from "The Prisoner". The sound is, well, buzzin' and fuzzin' in that wunnerful bottom-end clobbering the tiny mic on the camera way that we all love and adore. But if you don't mind swimming through a little murk, it's still a good taste of one of our best songs.

Write-up in The Record

2008-05-24T00:46:00.004-04:00

Nice write-up in Kitchener's The Record, courtesy of Jason Schneider. Nice on the Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello references, too. That's some fine company to find one's self in! As to the quest for the perfect pop song, it's never-ending, but it's the epic that keeps drawing me back.... A lot of the songs on All of Us Cities clock in at the four-and-a-half to five minute mark, just a sign of where the songs need to go to finish their journey. As long as it stays interesting, those high-flying flights are worth it. We've started work on some new tracks, and I think they'll be carrying that epic torch even further. Can't wait to get in the studio!!

Check out Jason's article here.

Live at the Lost Lounge

2008-05-22T00:48:00.001-04:00

"Waiting" on Radio Crystal Blue

2008-05-06T13:41:00.002-04:00

Nice little feature on Brooklyn-based Live365 cast Radio Crystal Blue, featuring album opener "Waiting". Craziest of all, the host, Dan Herman, gets the last name right.... ;p

3Trillion.org

2008-04-23T16:07:00.004-04:00

Holy cow....!! So. There's a really interesting site out there called 3Trillion.org. The premise is simple and devastating. You've got $3 trillion dollars to spend. A huge list of possible things to buy, from stopping world hunger ($195 billion) to a vintage 1981 DeLorean ($45,000) to a box of Pop Tarts ($3.50). And a nice digital shopping cart to throw it all in. What's the point, you say? Well, $3 trillion is what economists estimate the U.S. has spent so far on the war in Iraq. $3 trillion for countless military and civilian deaths, a country perpetually on the brink of civil war and no end in sight. (Nice job.) The site provides a great conterpoint, plainly showing what else could be done with that incomprehensible amount of money. Try it out! I've wracked up $2.5 trillion curing cancer, world hunger, funding an elaborate space exploration program and nabbing myself some nice frills like a Mac Airbook and a PS-3.... I still can't get to $3 trillion!!

"Escape Clause" Fans-Only Exclusive Download!

2008-04-21T00:33:00.004-04:00

Hey! We've got a fan exclusive over at ReverbNation. Check out "Escape Clause", an unreleased track from the All of Us Cities sessions. It's got a cool rock vibe we hung onto to give it that B-side nugget status! Just sign up for the mailing list to be a Luke Sneyd fan, and you'll be set to play the track, download it and spread it around....!

Top 10 at SongVault.fm

2008-04-03T13:57:00.006-04:00

Talk about the slow build...! "Starstruck" has been moving up the charts on SongVault.fm. SongVault has cool stations grouped by genre. "Starstruck" has been working it's way up the tiers (there's four or five of 'em). In January "Starstruck" hit #1 on the Pop Top Hits station. Now the song's hit the top 10 in the next tier, Pop SongVault Finals, clocking in at #8 right now. Kind of a tortoise race, but cool all the same....!

iRadio L.A. digs it!!

2008-03-17T15:32:00.007-04:00

Let's hear it for LaLaLand!

iRadio L.A., a big internet radio station based in Los Angeles, is picking up All of Us Cities for airplay. The album's starting to get rotation on local campus radio, too. All in all, pretty nifty.

Sooo..... have you bought a copy? ;p

Request "I'm the Decider" on XMU

2008-03-04T11:49:00.004-05:00

Here's a nice follow-up to our feature on XMU's Radar Report. This link sends a request for "I'm the Decider" to XMU. So hit it and tell 'em to play that awesome song!! Just click on the Request XM 43 - XMU Link below the track on the left. Thanks!

Catchin' up with TorontoMusicScene.ca

2008-02-26T08:46:00.004-05:00

Had the chance to do a good interview with Sheena Lyonnais at TorontoMusicScene.ca after our gig at the Horseshoe. Where the band's at now, the recording with Marc, it's got a lot of interesting stuff. Check it!

Fuck Family Day!!

2008-02-23T18:51:00.005-05:00

In the best possible way, of course! Nice review of our quirky Family Day show at the Horseshoe, with Downsview and Suckerfactory. Check it out on TorontoMusicScene.ca.

Pronunciation Guide

2008-02-22T23:04:00.004-05:00

Hahaha! Well..... good to be up there on the Radar Report on XMU. And cool that they picked "I'm the Decider" to play. The band's been into the track from the beginning.

Still, people persist in pronouncing my name "snide". No fault of the host, Billy Zero. I didn't tip him off or anything. But. Just 'cause there's a "y" in there, don't let that "iiii" fly! It's Sneyd, like "sneeeed", like the golfer, Sam Snead (I don't know either - it was a long time ago apparently!). Like you bleed, cut on some sharp weed, and you've got to bandage it with a scrap of tweed. If that doesn't twirl your beads, you can always play with "snade" although the thrill fades the more it's said.

If you find you're stuck, vowels bouncing in your blunted brain, just ask yourself, what would about-to-be-traded Leafs Captain Mats Sundin do? After all, he's a Swede.

2008-02-20T18:00:00.006-05:00

Kewl! I'm going to be featured on the XM radio station XMU, on The Radar Report. It's a show dedicated to rising unsigned artists with a strong audience in the States and Canada.

The show's going to air on Thursday, February 21st, at 10pm ET. It'll air again on Friday, February 22nd at 2pm ET and Saturday, February 23rd at 6am ET. The show airs on XMU, XM Radio Channel 43, XM Radio Online and Direct TV Channel 831. For those of you who don't have an XM account, no problem! You can register for online access here, and get a free 14-day trial. Then you'll be able to launch the XM player on your computer and check out XMU Channel 43.

Check it out to see what track the Radar Report's host, Billy Zero, picks for airplay!

Live at the Horseshoe

2008-02-19T15:16:00.005-05:00

Thanks to the peeps who came down to our Horseshoe gig! It was pretty awesome of the provincial government to give everyone a holiday for Zack's birthday.... Aside from a wonky backing tracks situation, we had a solid show. Did a great interview with TorontoMusicScene.com, too. More on that later this week. Thanks to the guys from Downsview for the gear-swap! Enjoy the pics, courtesy of Marc Koecher!

Open Hearts Pics

2008-02-15T21:06:00.008-05:00

So last night was Open Hearts, the benefit gig in support of Amnesty at the El Mocambo. Fun show. A good gamut of bands put on a great night for the intrepid souls who opted out of the usual Valentine's shenanigans. I got to break out the Sneyd band v. 2.0, which was solid as far as cherry-popping on stage goes! Lindsay's decided to follow her muse with Classic Albums Live, and Marc was down in NYC for a photoshoot, so it was up to les amis de Zack to save the day. Stepping up to the plate, one Nestor Chumak on guitar and Scott Hannigan on bass. Oh, and my trusty iPod nano to deliver some crucial backing bits. The boys delivered, as you can partially see below (Nestor's preferred spot was lurking behind a column that occupied most of stage right, hence he is sadly shotless. This time!).

After our set, Joel Lightman and his band put on a head-boppin' set of rollicking piano pop. Good stuff! They were followed by the Hallelujah Drummers, a Moroccan drum ensemble who did a brief but thumpin' good passel of percussive playing. (I know, but it was so fun to type....) then came Chris Bottomley and Brainfudge, a slow-groove funk band that was ultra-tight and dance-floor inspirational, and last up was headliners and event organizers Blurred Vision. A good time was had by all, for a very good cause.

Niagara Knows

2008-02-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

Nice write-up in the Niagara News about the upcoming Open Hearts gig for Amnesty. Dig it! Just click to see the full article.

Flight the Future?

2008-02-05T15:41:00.000-05:00

So as Super Tuesday unfolds to the south, I finally got around to watching United 93, Paul Greengrass's superb rendition of the event that's shaped so much of our modern mess. Really, the thought of the pre-Sept. 11 world is pretty remarkable at this juncture. The morass in Iraq, the sabre-rattling toward Iran, the gutting of rights and freedoms in constitutions worldwide - it all might never have happened. But it did. And this film does a remarkable job of capturing that horrifying morning as it unfolded, sans Hollywood histrionics. Without stars or even much in the way of specific characters per se, instead we are confronted with the naked chaos and confusion that reigned from airport control towers to military command centres. And of course the drama and tension as it unfolds on the doomed plane, the passengers going about their quotidian travel unaware. There's no comfort here. Just a witnessing of heinous acts and the blank solace of doomed heroism. It's a sobering instance of how vulnerable our modern life can actually be, how tenuously we rely on everyday people simply doing their jobs, especially when the world turns upside-down.

Open Hearts Show in Support of Amnesty International

2008-01-29T14:20:00.000-05:00

Open Hearts is a Valentine's show at the El Mocambo in Toronto with all proceeds going to support Amnesty International. Should be a very cool gig! On the bill is Blurred Vision, Joel Lightman, Chris Bottomley & Brainfudge, and yours truly.

Tickets are $15 at the door / $10 with a can of food. Thursday, February 14th. Doors at 8pm.

Floor Clearer

2008-01-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

Wow. Elvis Monday is a classic Toronto institution. The night's open-door policy leads to some pretty execrable bands hitting the stage though. Its sheer randomness is part of its charm, but sometimes finding good music takes on lottery-odds proportions.

Our end-of-night slot gave us a fine vantage point for the surreally inclined. Lindi Ortega opened things up, and she was great! Country-inflected honey-suckle pop in a very spare performance. Good stuff. Next up was the very eclectic Allie Hughes. Interesting, jazz-inflected art-rock, kind of like if Tori Amos had studied opera and was given to moments of periodic punk Tourette's.

From there it was a war of attrition as the bands did their best to clear the room. In short order, we ran an indie-art-punk gauntlet from People of Canada to K Controllers to Gangrene and Blue. People of Canada is a one-man oddity featuring Alexander Jarvis Squire chirping tunes about garbage day and getting your prostate checked, while strumming an out-of-tune processed ukulele. Cute and quirky, especially if your desire is to see the closest thing to Tiny Tim we'll have in our lifetime. K Controllers were a raw indie duo in semi Jack and Meg mode, except for a laptop providing programmed beats. They were okay for the four songs they played. Then came Gangrene and Blue (the other pic here). Words cannot do them justice. Picture a half-dozen college boys in the common room of their dorm, banging on bongos, hooting on a recorder, jangling teeth-jarring tuneless guitar chords as their self-appointed Jim Morrison in a Bill Cosby sweater guru mumbled incoherently into a mic. Astonishing - really, check their Myspace for a taste. Adam, the beleaguered sound tech, let the nightmare unspool for three grinding ten-minute dirges before cutting them off at the knees. But the damage was done.

We hauled our gear onstage for the bravest souls who somehow endured that ungodly barrage. We barreled through a tight set, made some new friends, and consoled ourselves that well, I think we're still trying to console ourselves.

You win your fans one at a time, they say. This time it was literal.

Rehearsal Before the Drake Gig

2008-01-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

Nothing more exciting than hauling your ass into a bitch-frozen rehearsal room early on a Sunday afternoon to crank up the noize.... This is the band pulling the set together for a gig at the Drake the next day. We were also bringing a couple of new faces around to try out for a couple of upcoming gigs the regular band folks can't do - greets to Matt & Carla! Click on the pics to check out the joy, the bliss, the pain and the glory, all in a day's work.....

ThatRadio.com Interview on Facebook

2008-01-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

Over on Facebook you can find an interview Lindsay and I did on ThatRadio.com. The interview's from last September, just before we played the Great Canadian Band Challenge gig at the Hard Rock. It's amusing to hear the hosts say "you guys are gonna win for sure", seeing as we didn't, but hey, it's still a pretty good interview! Check it out on my Facebook Fan Page.

There's also a really raw demo of "The Prisoner" up there, that I recorded solo in Garageband. It's rough as fuck, but if you like hearing the genesis of an idea, that's as primordial as they come!

All of Us Cities - About the album

2008-01-24T17:42:00.001-05:00

The album was a lot of work. Like nearly two years. I recorded it with Marc Koecher producing, out of his west end basement studio. We got into a great groove, working every couple of nights, getting together to lay down the bits and pieces that would take shape as All of Us Cities.

We first met when I was making a short film with Paul Thompson, a buddy from the Cinema Studies program at U of T. The flick was called Where the Wild Things Go. It was a sombre mood piece, a twenty-minute serial killer thriller about a bar infamous for its nefarious clientele of mass murderers. Marc approached us via an ad we'd posted on the internet calling for crew. He was interested in doing the soundtrack for the film, but we were nowhere near that stage. A year later, the film complete, we reconnected. Following Paul's suggestion of a score in the vein of Bernard Hermann (Psycho, Taxi Driver), Marc put together a fantastic string soundtrack that propelled the latter half of the film with an energy that was both spooky and convulsive. We also needed some background music for the bar scenes, something jukebox appropriate. I dug into my grab-bag of dusty demos and came up with a track called "Stay Too Long". Marc and I did a rushed collaboration to lay it down, but more important we set the stage for the album that would come.

With the film wrapped up, I sent Marc a mess of demos in the fall of 2005. Among them were the early demos for "The Prisoner", "Starstruck" and "Dallas", as well as a few others that fell by the wayside. As we began recording, I laid down most of the guitar tracks and the vocals. I enlisted Chris Osti of The Action Mob and The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir to play bass. I knew Chris from previous Toronto bands, me in Mountain Mama and him in Audiobomb. Chris was great, happy to help out and a solid guy. The bassline that he and Marc put together for "Starstruck" is a testament to great, simple melodic playing. Chris moved on to other projects as Marc and I toiled away. In the end, Marc played bass for eight of the tracks that made All of Us Cities, as well as keys, synths, a few extra guitars here and there, and some incredibly realistic drum programming. Yeah. Those drums are programmed. Zack, my drummer now, was impressed when he found that out.

Recording was long, but deeply satisfying. Trudging through bitter winter, blustery thaws or the burnished heat of summer, there was a steady, cyclic rhythm to our work. Now it's done and there's a whole new slew of work to be done, putting a band together and gigging and spreading the word and letting the synchronicity of things just happen.

But as to that record, All of Us Cities, my deep gratitude to Marc for all his work in helping to realize such a solid album. Thanks to Chris for his help, to Tim Branton for his great mastering job at Joao Carvalho, to William Mokrynski for his brilliant photography that adorns the cover, and to Will Skol for a clean, understated CD design.

Now I'm just pushing the record, like a paper-boat on the water, waiting to see if this fragile craft catches the stream.

Day In, Day Out

2008-01-24T14:44:00.000-05:00

Yeah I quote Bowie songs from time to time. My referential habit is pretty haphazard at best.

So my friends are always asking me, how do you spend your days anyway? (Stop squirming, KC!!) This is as good a response as any....

Sitting at my computer, making bizarre images for no reason. Which ultimately wend their way onto some site or other to help further the cause. You can see my office assistants Rocky (in red) and Arnie (in metropolitan black) are hard at it too. It's a demanding life, I tells ya.... Here we can safely say is my peaceful harbour as I throw the bricks around that might one day assemble a rockstar-ish edifice. Either that or I'm taking one hell of a long vacation!

Testing, testing.... 1.... 2.... 3....

2008-01-24T13:28:00.000-05:00

Holy. There. That felt like a good word to start things with. I'm semi-informed when it comes to most tech stuff, picking up a smattering of this and that and here and there and throwing it together in the hopes it makes for some kind of aesthetically pleasing goulash for the senses. This will all get better over time. Undoubtedly..... ;p

Until then, uh, sorry! and hope these meanderings are worth a sliver of your time!