9.23.2009

Northcote


This is my friend Matthew Goude. We met last summer when he was touring with his former band Means. Since then, Matt has become one of my dearest long distance friends, as our spirits seemed to be connected from the start. Lately he has been making incredibly beautiful music, and sending me little updates and samples along the way. Today I finally heard the final version of his album that he will hopefully be releasing soon under the moniker 'Northcote'.

On our way out to meet up with the Warped Tour in Calgary, we stopped into Matt's hometown of Regina Saskatchewan for a show, and were lucky enough to have Northcote join us on the bill. Below is a shot i snagged while sitting in the parking lot taking turns playing some songs.

9.19.2009

they say "i'll see you at the top, boy"

Earlier this summer I took a spontaneous last minute bus trip to New York City. I decided at about 7pm one Friday evening, on my way to see the Blue Jays lose, that I'd take the red eye bus over night to the big apple. My only real plans or intentions were to see Paint It Black play a couple shows, but I hadn't really given myself time to plan anything. I took a ton of photos, and have been neglecting to post them on account of the fact I started writing an up to the minute diary of how the weekend went. This was first spoiled when I got to the first show and forgot to write about things as they happened, so I did my best to recount them the next day on the train. The whole thing got blown when I got to providence and hung out with my friend Karl and some of the dudes from Soul Control. Jim talked me into getting this great program called "Quick Pull", and when I tried it out, I forgot to save the notes I had typed on the bus that day, sooooo I lost everything since I had saved last. Anyways, here's the most of it. oh, and don't forget to look at the photos >>>HERE<<<


11:48pm
- Driving out of toronto past the skydome. The jays blew it tonight the second that I left the game to get home and pack.
- just ate an urb herb sweet potato muffin
- working away at my 2L tropicana orange juice (lots of pulp). Already starting to get warm and sick of OJ
- listening to silversun pickups new record "swoon"
- texting and bbming away
- stoked on the power outlet, my phone was dying when I got on the bus

12:35am
- in oakville I think
- using my flannel and jacket as a pillow against the window
- listening to camera obscura - my maudlin career

2:35am
- slept a bit so far, already feeling cramped
- arriving at the border
- threw out the OJ

3:00 am
- leaving border
- listening to attack in black - years
- when I got back on the bus, a woman was in my seat. (I assumed that everyone would sit back in their same seats) and now my new seat seems to wobble a bit and sitting behind a dude with an overwhelming aftershave smell- hate that

3:13 am
- buffalo terminal
- switched over to my US sim card
- smelly dude moved forward one seat, and so did I. no more wobbles, and this seat has an outlet

8:27 am
- just woke up, the bus is stopped at some sort of highway side services for a courtesy stop
- I see a sign for burger king and contemplate 'waking up with the king' but refrain

11:06 am
- still driving, somewhere in the new jersey outskirts of NYC
- listening to Frank Turner
- really could use a bathroom right about now

3:51 pm
- sitting in the subway station at houston and 2nd ave with claire
- went to curly's for brunch on the recomendation of andy pib
- had tofu scram, pancakes, curly fries and fried marinated tofu
- walked through street market towards houston
- stopped at joe strummer mural
- went to supreme and bought pat a hat
- watched a basketball game in the park

4:40 pm
- just leaving penn station on the LIRR to lindenhurst
- claire parted ways and headed home to the bronx
- eating red bamboo crispy soul chicken nuggets
- listening to polar bear club

6:56 pm
- standing in line out front of the moose lodge hall in lindenhurst (long island) new york
- got off the train and found a super market to use the atm and bathroom
- bought a bottle of water, naked smoothie, and 2 bags of peanut chews
- took a cab to the venue and chatted with the eclectic female driver who really liked talking about her 71 bonneville

Notable events from the show and the rest of saturday night
- the show was being run by over precautious suburban long island mom & pop security, who gave me a hard time about my bag and couldn't understand my canadian license or passport
- spent most of the show hanging with andy and some of his friends at the merch table
- sold merch for paint it black for a while after andy almost punched a security dad who told him he couldn't eat pizza in the venue, which he ordered on account of the fact the food provided by the venue was all meat oriented.
Quote:
"You gotta get that out of here, no outside food or drink!" - SD
"Our whole band is vegetarian and we can't eat any of the food here so ordering pizza was our only option" - andy
"I don't care what you are, get that outta here!" - SD
*me holding andy back from hitting the dude*
Many speeches, insults, jokes and song dedications followed both on and off stage
- talked to dan while he wrote setlists and tried not to fan out on him too hard
- met fellow canadians ally and claire (from st catherines) who know my pal andrea, who told me they'd be at the show as well. I tried to talk them into coming to providence and driving me home and they seemed to be somewhat down
- saw this girl named heather, friend of my dear friend stacy smallwood, who's couch I slept on when I flew to nyc for the first hwm reunion show weekend, but didn't know if it was her with drastically blonde hair. Luckily it was her, I said hi, she's a babe.
- ceremony played and kids lost their shit, which led to security turning the lights on and emerging into the pit. The singer encouraged kids to get up front and sing along and the show went on
- paint it black ripped, great crowd reaction
- I caught a falling PA speaker at one point
- crime in stereo were awesome too, glad I got to see them on long island. Kids went nuts and security got pissed a few times
- chatted with a photographer after the show, hoping she's got some good photos from this show that I can post here after
- saw LIHC vet, PMA enthusiast anthony race and chatted a bit
- randomly saw my old friend cameron, who has been living in england since quitting the sleeping, just happened to be home visiting family in long island
- chatted with the crime in stereo bassist after the show about numerous failed attempts to tour together and hopeful future opportunities
- got a ride to brooklyn with canadian girls for secret late night paint it black show in a punk loft
- arrived in brooklyn before the bands did, so decided to head over to foodswing for bbq drumsticks and "punk fries" (fries with vegan cheese and bacon bits, ranch dressing to dip)
- randomly ran into canetti at foodswings, who was working some brand new radio session recording around the corner

1am
- got back to the punk loft just as PIB started. Most punk show I've probably ever experienced. Took pics and video.
- andy introduced me to this dude ian, who seems to be the nyc "punk boss" who runs all the diy shows and this loft living community
2:30 am
- took a shuttle bus to the L train subway back to manhatan to meet up with katiebrown and sleep on her couch

Sunday morning notable events
- woke up around 1030
- decided to book a train from boston to nyc monday morning, and a porter airlines flight from newark to toronto island tuesday morning, which meant an extra day in nyc, seeing aileen, and 4 hours on a plush train and an hour and a half flight instead of 16 hours on a bus, at only about $50 more cost.
- walked over to kate's cafe for brunch with katie/perry
- had french toast with caramelized apples, coffee and oj
- walked over to the subway and headed uptown to port authority to take a bus to providence
- decided to pay $10 more for the direct bus trip that left later and arrived earlier
- walked over to times square to take photos
- got a jamba juice back at port authority before getting on my bus

3:54 pm
- on the bus to providence
- listening to jets to brazil - perfecting loneliness
- just read "pretty mouth and green my eyes" from salinger's 'nine stories'
- loving peanut chews

5:02 pm
- just got a call from stacy
- listening to wilco (the album)
- reading "little things" by jeffrey brown

From this point, I met up with Karl at the bar that sells strawberry beer, and then met up with Andy a couple other dudes for dinner. The show in Providence ruled, and I ran into Joe Sauce. After the show we went to Nice Slice and ate the shit out of a vegan pizza, then I headed to boston with Karl to stay for the night. The next morning I took a train from Boston back to New York, had a sweet nap, got not-dating dumped, hung out with Katie/Perry some more, and went to see Aileen and the T's at Irving Plaza. I flew home to Toronto Island the next morning on my new favourite airline, Porter.

9.16.2009

Embarrassing Nada


I took this photo of Nada earlier this summer at Brooks' BBQ. It's not that easy to get Nada to pose for a photo (I have no clue how pat got so many good ones) but I really liked how this one looked.

I met Nada a couple years ago when she interviewed me about my involvement with skate4cancer for some school project she was doing. I was later told by a bunch of friends that she had a crush on me, which she seemed to awkwardly show by putting her hand down on the turntable STOP button while I was Djing at 751. I think I kind of slept on asking her out, but we eventually had a pretty great bike ride while I still lived in Oakville, a few long phone calls from tour, and eventually a real date where I took her to see Ryan Adams. Needless to say, after getting to know Nada and realizing that she had even more inner beauty to go along with her obvious outer beauty (it's hard to believe, right? she's a babe), I too developed quite the little crush on her. After probably telling her too much about my tortured childhood and relationship track record, and having her show me how good you can make a guy can feel by giving his beard a little scruff during a kiss; Nada was reluctant to let down her walls, and gave me the old "I don't want a relationship" song and dance.

Nada fled to the south, where she braved the world of non-profit humanitarian touring. We remained pals, and she seemed to learn a lot about the world and herself in the mean time. I think she eventually tried her hand at relationships, but was quickly burnt, and it certainly bummed me out to hear that the scarce ticket through the gates of the emerald city of her heart was spoiled by such a jerk. (I haven't listened to his band ever since, either).

The good news is, Nada is back in Canada, and has this fantastic new blog that her and Andrea Dyer have started.
Please do yourself a favour and make some time to check out www.friendswithbotharms.com, and Nada, please find some time to make me a mixtape, and I'm...uh....terribly sorry about this post.

9.15.2009

montreal warped tour

montreal warped tour usually means one of two things (and sometimes both); it's my birthday, and it's raining. seeing as this years stop in montreal fell in july and not august, you can only guess how the weather was. our van and trailer weren't doing too hot after that two week van tour, so we borrowed protest the hero's van and rented a box truck. that's right, it poured.

seeing double at the triple rock

after winnipeg we headed to minneapolis. something that everyone who ever visits MPLS should do is hang out at the triple rock social club, and that we did. i have to admit that i was a little peeved upon arriving right around midnight expecting to be served a mock duck poboy, only to have them tell me (contradicting the information on their website) that the kitchen closes at midnight.

the guys really got into 2 for 1 beer night, and we enjoyed some laughs and jukebox spins.

breakfast with beeps

the van tour brought us into winnipeg late the night before the festival, which meant plenty of time the morning of to make some breakfast with vegan edge champion beeps!. he made vegan french toast, crusted with corn flakes, and topped with caramelized peaches and fresh raspberry cream cheese.
nom nom nom!


the edge is strong in the peg!


later on we rolled down to the royal albert for lunch with nasty nate and fat mat.


view the other side of that camera over at the internet's favourite site!

we ended up having more van troubles, stranding us in winnipeg for a few more days. i wasn't quite on top of taking photos of each meal, but you can trust me that many meals were had.

no one's listening to the sound of breaking down

i've finally found some time to get around to go through a bunch more photos from the summer, so expect a few updates to roll in real soon.

earlier this summer we piled back into the van for a short run of shows in southern ontario and through the states, taking us out to winnipeg for a festival, and back through the states. one thing that is an absolute must when touring in a van, aside from sleeping on the floor and waking up with cramps, is breaking down. we got a stones throw from the "welcome to windsor" sign (windsor being where the show was that day) to realize that our alternator wasn't charging our battery while driving. we ended up getting picked up by the sinners, making the show, and having the van fixed before the show was done so we didn't have to be stuck in windsor for the night.

here are some roadside photos, click on em to make em bigger.

9.14.2009

A Nice Day to Staaaaaaaaart Agaaaaaaainnnnnn

I had a great weekend in Nashville celebrating my good friend Kyle Sloan's wedding.
Here's a pic of Kyle and I in the photobooth.

and a great shot with Nana Sloan (my favourite new lady of the weekend, so friendly and Scottish!)

It was great to make it down for the weekend and see Kyle, Ben & Aileen Fretz, Ben Reynolds, Aaron Mason and Pete and many others! Thanks so much to Kyle, Mandy & the entire Sloan family for putting me up / putting up with me! And of course to PMR for filling in for me slappin' da bass.
More photos to come!