We had another great night at Canyon Creek. The Thursday cc3 (with Eric Boucher) is a helluva band. We played two new charts tonight that I had prepared:

Hope Song (my tune from winter music )
Hunter (a Bjork cover)

Both of these tunes are being added the the "fruits..." trio with Tim and Ed, so it was cool to hear the charts played before I rehearse them with T&E on Saturday. It was particularly gratifying to hear Hope Song, because it really just felt like another tune in our book, not an ugly duckling (as sometimes originals can feel next to a book of established REAL songs by Ellington, etc.).

So, the rest of my week is all happening on Saturday, with a rehearsal during the day and then a Hot Buttered Soul gig at night. I have to get my act together in terms of finishing the promo for the Aug6 gig, but if you're reading this, I hope you're already coming to the gig. :)

cc3 @ SQUARE ONE has been cancelled tonight, july 26. The whole area is under a severe-weather watch so the venue has decided to cancel this date and add an extra week to our contract into September. See you next week!

.... in other news

I had my first-ever "meeting with my editor" today over the phone, for my Dance Current article. She (Megan Andrews) likes my article but wants to break it down into a series of 3 articles, as she thinks the topic is worthy. I'm cool with that. Stay tuned....

My blog couldn't be more boring right now in comparison to my "the fruits of our limitations" mate Tim Posgate. He's in Scandanavia touring with his own band featuring Howard Johnson, and getting into all sorts of trouble/fun. Go read all about it.

I did another night at Joe Dog's last night, and unless I get really desperate, I can't see myself doing it anymore. The fighting (in the audience, not the band) and general chaos of that place are just, dare I say it, beneath me. I really have so little desire to entertain people who want to finish their evening with violence. Such pointless stupid displays of aggression are so trite given the fact that so much of our world is mired in brutal violence.

Today and tomorrow are family days, which I of course wish we had more time to just do that, instead of the usual scheduling and juggling of schedules and nap times (naps for all of us!). I am sneaking away to do this post and to finish my first draft of my article for the Dance Current, due tomorrow. We may do a series of articles, as the topic is hard to completely discuss in 600 words.

Tonight is Joe Dog's with Hot Buttered Soul. This gig is a poorly paying 2-nighter that holds sentimental value for our singer, so he books us in there. It's loud, goes late, and there's usually a fight or five at the end of the night as the patrons exit (the patrons fight, not the band). It's the only gig I play locally where one of us has to "guard" our vehicles when we load-out. Feels like Detroit.

The weird part is that the club is in a reasonably affluent area in an overall upper-middle-class city of Burlington. Drink brings out the worst in people, I guess. Hopefully soul music in the form that we deliver it soothes that savage beast.

.......

I'm very humbled by the emails I'm getting from folks who've downloaded "the fruits of our limitations". I'm very pleased with the record and this band in general, so to find out that others are "getting" it too is just wonderful. I can't wait to get some gigs and touring happening. I did some mail-out today of promo copies and I would like to think that things are only looking up for this project.

I played my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal last night, it's very very cool. These cymbals are THE sound of heavy British rock from the 60s. In the middle of the cc3 gig last night I was playing a figure on the GB between its bell and shoulder and it sounded like we were listening to the middle of Whole Lotta Love... MP noticed it too. It's a bright cymbal with a lot of air in its tone, I like it, I am hopeful it will blend well in the trio with Tim and Ed.

I've begun printing promo copies of "fruits..." for sending to reviewers, etc. I have no illusions that reviews actually generate sales, but it might bring traffic to the site and hopefully get folks downloading. I've already noticed the traffic stats for my website are higher, so that's a good thing. With the plethora of online reviewers these days, the chances of someone linking from a review to my site are much higher than the chances of someone logging on after reading it in a magazine. The music has also gone to Lauren @ INDIEPool for setup @ iTunes. He assures me their turnaround time is speeding up, so considering that their price is right and Lauren is a helluva guy (he's a very attentive sales rep, but in a good way, not the cloying telemarketing way), I'm trying their service again.

I'm also working on more repertoire for the Aug6 gig, and then also looking towards the realization of the TinyTour for late September (my committments to Hot Buttered Soul should be much slower by then). Hopefully a friday-saturday-sunday matinee run of toronto, hamilton and guelph. Stay tuned...

AND:

if you haven't yet, please, DOWNLOAD "the fruits of our limitations"

My gig tonight got rained out after one set, and then Pacy phoned to tell me that my master CD was waiting to be picked up in his mailbox.

So, I got busy.



the new release, DOWNLOAD ONLY. Go get it.

like "winter music", I'm going to offer it for free until it becomes available on iTunes.

Mastering went very quickly last night. Pacy had suggested I bring some CDs with me that I thought sounded good. Not "good" from a performance/composition point of view, but "good" sonically, good engineering, etc. I picked the last The Bad Plus disc GIVE, mixed by Tchad Blake, and an old Pheeroan AkLaffCD from 1990 called Sonogram.

It was amazing, when loaded up in ProTools, how different those two records are. Much of it is attributable to changes in digital recording technology, but the Bad Plus record was a much larger sounding record, and much louder too. The AkLaff record has such a nice ambience, but ultimately we decided to use the Bad Plus as our reference. So, what we did was put a track from that up onto the "board" and A:B'd my tracks against it until we got a similar volume, spread, and tonal quality. It took alot less time than we thought it would actually. Our pre-masters were so good. That's all Pacy, of course. Anyway, After about 90 minutes we were satisfied and Pacy was planning on doing one more check of everything before he delivered the final product to me.

I'm excited, and I think you'll like it.

Meanwhile, I have to start promoting The Red Guitar gig, so yeah, August 6! See you there!

I'm mastering @ HiLo Studio tonight. This is the final stage before "pressing", which raises an interesting issue. I am still undecided about releasing this as a CD. My gut tells me to simply make it a download, and stay ahead of the curve (any money I would have spent on manufacturing CDs can be spent on other areas of promoting and performing with this band). I'll burn copies for promotion, but what I will be promoting is that the music is available for download, as opposed to promoting the sale of a hard-copy CD.

The download concept is here to stay (in the last six months my parents have both bought iPods, so what does that tell you, it ain't just for crack-smoking teenagers anymore.....), and my music is contemporary and (hopefully) even forward-thinking. Why shouldn't its presentation to the marketplace be at least as current?

.... in other news: I rec'd a box from PAISTE today with my new Giant Beat 20" cymbal, it's gorgeous. Go check 'em out online here.

I received an email today from Megan Andrews, the editor of The Dance Current, Canada's national dance magazine. Her and I had discussed me writing an article for them back in the spring, and while I started it, I shelved it while other things came up.

Anyway, she still wants the article, so I'm going to finish it. It should be out in the September issue. My plan was to write the article on the rhythmic theory I use when teaching music to dancers. What is that? Oh well, you'll have to wait for the article. :)

The gig last night was great, EricB really came through playing bass+keys (he played organ sounds and a "split" of a wood bass and piano). He even took a few "bass" solos. Tim sounded great and the decent-sized crowd was quite appreciative. So, all in all, a good night.

I'm starting to think about a "cover" image for the new release and may use some photography by my friend Ed Pas. he takes wonderful pictures and posts them at his incredibly prolific blog (the Bog).

With any luck I'll find time this weekend to finish this work, then Pacy and I will be mastering, then (hopefully) you'll be downloading!

I just finished printing and cutting colour handbills for the August 6 gig w/Tim & Ed. This kind of work has nothing to do with drumming, composing, or any of the things I am passionate about. But it has to be done. And I'm just the man for the job, in fact, I am the only man for the job. :)

BTW, the Red Guitar (the club we're playing August 6) has its grand opening this weekend, the website is here at theredguitar.com

I'm playing with TimP tonight in Burlington, we may touch on a few tunes from the new band's repertoire, but we're hitting with Eric Boucher, so we'll do alot of other stuff too.

7pm in Burlington @ Canyon Creek, see you there.

A light week this week with just two gigs, tomorrow @ Creek Square1 and Thursday at Creek Burlington. Both gigs are cc3, but with all-new lineups (since MP is away on vacation):

tuesday: cc, anesti karantakis (guitar), mike pellarin (bass)
thursday: cc, eric boucher (keys), tim posgate (guitar)

I'm totally humbled by the fine musicians that come out to play with me, it's going to be a great week.

Luther Vandross has died, much too soon. He was an incredible singer, and one of the last true soulful singers in mainstream music. There is a live album from Radio City Music Hall that was recorded just before his stroke (check it out here) that contains some damn-near perfect performances by him and his band.

A singer like Luther is hard to find in this "Idol" era. Luther knew how to sing with a groove, to push and pull against it, and using phrasing to evoke various nuances out of the lyric and the melody. Most contemporary R&B is just a bunch of bogus vocal freakshows, completely devoid of musicality, and rife with "gymnastics". A waste of time.

Luther made some awesome records, and in the process, collaborated with some of the finest musicians available. In my opinion, Yogi Horton and Buddy Williams' performances on "Forever, For Always, For Love", are essential listening for all drummers.

So, in tribute to Luther, go do some listening....

Tonight's gig was effortless, from the first note to the last. What a great night, waaaay too hot outside, but Eric and Mike sounded great, and we nailed cool versions of some of my faves in our repertoire (wichita lineman and isobel, and of course the cc3 staple, rain song by zep). I'm keen to bring in some new charts, maybe a Radiohead tune, and another Bjork....

Next week it's subs-ville, with MP away on vacation at the Montreal Jazz Fest. Mike Pellarin subs on Tuesday with Anesti and myself and I'm looking forward to that. He's SO good, and a helluva nice guy too. Thursday is still up in the air, but with any luck we'll do a keys/guitar/drums trio. Stay tuned...

I'm taking the weekend off to celebrate a wedding and a birthday, it'll be nice to have a few uninterrupted days with my family; and I'll take some time to listen to the pre-mastered mixes of the new record (tentatively titled "The Fruits of our Limitations").