NOTHING FEELS GOOD

wednesday marks the start of a hopefully monthly 90's pop punk / emo club night that my friend adam and i are putting together. you should be there.

MORE INFO HERE

so many shows!

So hey, I'm home until the end of the month, and fortunately for me, a bunch of my favourite bands are coming to town!



also not pictured:
EVERY TIME I DIE / BRING ME THE HORIZON (jona hangs) - TONIGHT! @ Kool Haus
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - Tuesday October 13th @ Kool Haus
LUCERO - Tuesday October 20th @ Lees Palace
MASTODON / DETHKLOK w/ CONVERGE - Friday October 23rd @ Sound Academy (i might not go to this)

I still need to find a date for Wilco.
Who's it gonna be?

it's been a summer

i still have photos from warped tour and alaska to go through, but i finally went through the last of my summer photos otherwise, and found a handful of them i really enjoyed.

i liked this one of brooks a whole lot.


CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST

total fucking bummer

right now i'm in winsloe, prince edward island, or some shit. this town basically makes charlottetown look like manhattan.

we've been in eastern canada for almost a week now, and it seems like it's been raining since we left montreal. the shows have been really fun and small and mostly on the floor, but the weather and miserable vibes of these small towns have definitely been bumming everyones scene. we were in moncton the other day, and it was so apparent while it was pouring rain and a few of us stumbled into this little ghost town of a mall that showcased not much more than the bay, tim hortons, and lisa's home cooking. anyways, at some point between rounds of nudie "photo hunt" at the bar with some of the fellas, i recalled a conversation i had with brooks about some of the saddest songs we know and love. i then recalled the wonderful mix that i downloaded from colohan's blog showcasing his morose favourites, and knew what i had to do.

i decided to make a mixtape of some of my all time favourite, really really sad songs. it's just under 80 minutes long, so if you want to burn it to a cd, you're welcome to. i promise i will follow this up with a pick-me-up of sorts when adam finishes the mix for our upcoming pop-punk dj night Nothing Feels Good.

but with no further adieu, i present to you: 'Moncton New Brunswick and the Infinite Sadness'

SMASHING PUMPKINS: mellon collie and the infinite sadness.
OWEN: top shelf.
ATTACK IN BLACK: now that i'm dying.
NADA SURF: blizzard of '77.
AMERICAN FOOTBALL: the summer ends.
THE GOOD LIFE: two years this month.
CHAMBERLAIN: racing cincinnati.
CAT POWER: in this hole.
BRAND NEW: you won't know.
MINERAL: love-letter typewriter.
PARK: conversations with emily.
THE PROMISE RING: letter to the far reaches.
WILCO: radio cure.
PEDRO THE LION: the poison.
FRANK TURNER: jet lag.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: brothers on a hotel bed.
KNAPSACK: cold enough to break.
CAMERA OBSCURA: forest and sands.
MEW: comforting sounds.
JETS TO BRAZIL: sea anemone.
AGAINST ME!: searching for a former clarity.

DOWNLOAD THE SONGS HERE
READ THE LYRICS HERE

hide the knives.

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.

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.

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.