Catchin' up with TorontoMusicScene.ca

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!!

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

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.