for the 3 or 4 of you who may read this, the label has officially announced that we have a new record coming out... in march. yes, still 2 months away. apparently it's already on the internet somewhere, but you didn't hear that from me. the impression i get is that this is our "difficult" second album, you know, where a band is so eager to distance themselves from their "overly commercial" first album that they go and get "experimental" in the studio and make an album without obvious hit singles and try to get all deep and discuss "issues" and get emotionally naked and confessional and shit. and use a lot of quotation marks when discribing it. anyway, i think the album is pretty good, it rocks out, doesn't get too weird... not like that bizarre e.p. we put out that nobody heard! talk about self indulgent... there's a song from the new album floating around on the internet if you want a sample (that is, if you don't feel like stealing the whole album, which would be cool of you) courtesy of the babes and hunks at fader magazine who love us for some reason.
when you were a kid do you ever remember there being a fad or craze where kids would breathe really heavy and hyperventilate and then another kid would put pressure on their neck or chest or something and make them pass out? maybe it was just a west coast thing, but i clearly remember witnessing this phenomenon in action at parties (i use the term "party" loosely as this pertains to 10 or 11 year olds), and it really weirded me out. it's funny how kid's will do all kinds of fucked up things to get, well, fucked up. like stopping the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain until you loose consciousness. honestly, just huff some glue or gas, it's easier and you get basically the same effect with the added bonus of permanent brain damage. have you ever fainted? it is the worst fucking feeling. everything starts to get really small and intense and dark and your ears buzz and you feel all cold and clammy, then the next thing you know you open your eyes with absolutely no idea where you are or what's going on. fun times. unfortunately, this is a sensation i know all too well. i am a fainter. i have this thing where if i get up to pee in the middle of the night i have to be careful and sit down, otherwise it's lights out! seriously, this has happened to me many times, i have woken up on bathroom floors, in bathtubs wrapped in shower curtains, with my face smashed up against the toilet and so on. i have been to the doctor and been told that this is apparently quite common, i am in good health and have nothing to worry about. huh. anyway, i've learned it's best to just sit down. another thing i've noticed is that i'm becoming increasingly squeemish. i never used to be this way, but now if somebody even starts to talk about broken bones or blood i start to swoon. i literally get weak in the knees. i know! what a puss, right? a guy at my work recently ripped a big chunk of skin off his hand and i had to sit down for half an hour! like an old woman! i actually feel kind of nauseous right now just thinking about it. up until last night i thought that my "little problem" only related to the real world and actual blood and guts, but not so! last night i watched rob zombie's remake of halloween and actually started to faint! the movie itself isn't really that great, but all the stabbing? forget about it. it's fucking weird, i have seen hundreds of gory horror movies and have never felt like that before. except for maybe when i tried to watch the passion of the christ. gross. now, keep in mind i was vastly stoned at the time (actually, i think i was stoned when i watched the passion of the christ as well. not recommended.), but honestly? i'm just glad i wasn't in the movie theater, can you imagine that? i would be the guy who fainted in the movie theater because rob zombie just brought it on too real for me. fucking beautiful.
well, here we are, just jamming out hard in the studio with our main guy colin "steady pimpin" stewart (above, right), laying down some new tracks for all y'alls in anticipation of the early march release of our brand new album. at this very moment, big ryan peters is throwing down some heavy riffage for a song he wrote that i sing on. sounds good ry! moments ago, burquitlam native and overall virtuouso nick krgovich (of p:ano, gigi, and no kids fame) was here laying on some icy synth soundscapes on a track that darcy wrote. if you have never heard of nick or his music you should wake the fuck up now. the gigi album may be the single most slept on album of all time. why has nobody put this out? labels are weird... check out his myspace pages: (this image came up when i searched "no kids". disturbing, no?) http://www.myspace.com/nokidsband
http://www.myspace.com/gigitheband
p:ano was one of the best vancouver bands ever, they have 4 albums you need to own right now. nick is an actual musical genius, he writes millions of songs and all of them are pretty fucking cool. and he's totally evil! (just kidding. sort of...)
anyway, here's some cool videos and junk i was just jamming on because i'm bored and there's a computer in my lap.
friday nights at the astoria can be dangerous. let me just say it's great to have the old girl back, letting the booze flow cheaply into the night, barfing drunks back out onto the pavement. i can safely say i've been drunker at the astoria more often than any other place on this earth. i remember the old days when thursday nights were invariably kareoke at pat's pub followed by the ooze down the road to the astoria where rudy, angel to drunks, would hammer you down with gin and tonics without the tonic. i can no longer drink gin, just one of those things... the long walk home was usually a path of destruction and senseless wastoid vandalism. those were the days. as a matter of fact, the song drunk eyes on our first album is about stumbling home from the astoria and the girl who would come along with me. and now we're happily married (just kidding). anyway, the bar is finally back up and running after being closed for what felt like an eternity. thank god. i was there last friday to watch sports (the band, not the activity) which features ladyhawk's own dreamboat captains ryan peters and darcy hancock on guitars as well as the high admiral of dreaminess danny marshall on drums. they straight up rule. ryan, who wails on the drums in our band, also happens to be a completely shredding guitarist and songwriter! who knew? actually, i did. he used to be in one of the best bands ever back in high school called alpha bmx, who sounded kind of like the steve miller band... ON ACID! more like: on acne. johnny wakeham and featherwolf played next, featuring ladyhawk's resident dungeon master sean hawryluk on bass, they jammed out hard and came correct. the icing on the jam-cake was small fame (originally called dad music, which is apt AND amazing), the new project of bend sinister's dan moxon. dan is a talented fucker. he can whistle like nobody's business, just like you hear random old men doing, with vibrato and little fancy flourishes and stuff. amazing. they're pretty fucking cool, check it out:
that's my roomie jake on the left. anyway, the night ended suitably sloppy for me with a party at small fame drummer dana's place and a beautiful girl doing body shots of corona and chewing gum out of my belly button. it's a full ounce. god bless the astoria!
