The Sliceman Cometh

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...

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!!

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!

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

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?

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

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.