Canada-USA-Europe

October 2, 2012

Hello Love,

My, oh me, there is a lot to tell you in this letter, so just to sum it up in a quick little table of contents:
- we’re releasing a new 7″ single called Radicals
- we were overwhelmed with 3 West Coast Music Awards
- we’re nominated for the ECHO Songwriting Prize
- the CBC-produced documentary about us called “What Happens Next” will be broadcast nationally in Canada and streamed online on October 20th
- we’re heading on tour across Canada/USA with The Rural Alberta Advantage and throughout Europe with Jason Collett

RADICALS
I feel like “RADICAL” is the most overused word in social/political fodder these days – people of extreme political leanings calling moderately opposite people “radical” to justify their own opinions or make themselves appear more “moderate”.. This pushes the public conception of where the political middle is for manipulative means. Most often, it’s the pot calling the kettle black. It’s frustrating. I’m letting go of some of this frustration by adorning this release with the title. Once we’ve over-saturated the word, it will lose its meaning, and people will hopefully get over it. Pretty rad, hey?

Radicals is a 7-inch vinyl release. The artwork is by Robyn Kotyk. Notice the two girls are similar, but wearing opposite dresses. We’re all on one side or another of the same coin. We’ll have physical copies to sell on our upcoming shows in Canada and the United States, but of course, as it is the digital age, you’ll also be able to get it online. You can stream it here also.

~~SIDE A~~ We Want To Be Pleasantly Surprised, Not Expectedly Let Down
We weren’t quite sure what to do with this tune. We recorded it when we made Oh Fortune. We liked it, but it didn’t suit the rest of the record, and would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Apparently, I had a hankering for long-winded song titles at the time. The song is about the constant battle between our desire/need to have hope and optimism for humanity and the reality that we have a tendency to fall short in civil compassion.

~~SIDE B~~ Stairway
I had a late night insomnia-inspired notion that I could cover a Yukon Blonde song and do it justice. If you don’t know Yukon Blonde, they recently released an LP called Tiger Talk that is jam-packed with hits. They’re one of my favourite Canadian bands and just a couple of weeks ago, I convinced them to be my wedding band (yep! I tied the knot). I danced my ass off. They absolutely destroyed. Incredible. Anyhow, I recorded the song really quickly with one take of each instrument (notice the shaky vocals) and then whipped up a little youtube video to go with it. I hope you like it.

WCMAs
Well holy crap, we just won three nods at the Western Canadian Music Awards! Independent Album, Rock Album and Songwriter Of The Year for Oh Fortune. We had a jolly ol’ time in Regina, MB. Back in 2010, we received another three WCMA’s for Nice, Nice, Very, Nice. So, yeah. Thanks to people for all that kindness. We’re swimming in a bowlful of gratitude.

SOCAN’s “ECHO SONGWRITING PRIZE”
Very excited to say that we’ve been nominated against some heavy hitting Canadian talent for the ECHO Songwriting Prize. “Post-War Blues” is up against choice cuts from Kathleen Edwards, Sloan, John K Samson and Japandroids. The winner is decided by online voting and folks can vote every day up until October 10th. Feel free to drop by the Echo Prize website to tell the entire internet what your opinion is of the five songs.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Huge kudos to director/producer team Brent Hodge and Jon Siddall for finding enough material on our lil’ ol’ band to piece together a finely crafted documentary. Big thanks to the CBC for putting this to air. “What Happens Next” was first broadcast in BC last month, and now it will be getting a national (Canadian) broadcast at 12pm EST / 9am PST on October 20th! Once it’s gone to air, it should also be up online in case folks want to watch it on the interweb. More info HERE .