Hey folks! Greetings from Robin's Donuts in the middle of nowhere. We had a wonderful house concert at the Rock Island Lodge near Wawa, Ontario last night next to the crashing waves of Lake Superior, and stayed up late on the beach drinking wine, laughing, and talking about some quasi intellectual bullshit.
Today David and I got up around 7:30, stripped down to our underwear, threw ourselves into the lake and bodysurfed under grey morning skies. Adam and Graham soon followed and we all frollicked and froze in the waves and killed our feet on the sharp sand. Hard to believe its not the ocean. For the second or third day of Autumn the water was surprisingly warm. Warm of course is a relative term.
Incredibly refreshing to be here after so many days of the rest of Ontario. We are lucky lads.
Anyways we're all happy and soggy, and off to Thunder Bay, with Adam's jockey shorts air drying out of the sunroof.
9/24/08
9/23/08
Marathon Blog Post!
Well, it's been a few days since I've sat down and blogged, and we're about a half a country along by now.
After our house concert in Halifax, we played another at Jude's dad's place in West Dublin, and played at a house party the next day. The next morning after partying relatively heartily we got up around 6 in the morning to prepare to leave Nova Scotia for our first really long drive.
Adam loves mornings!
Me, Adam, Jude, Steph , Graham, Meg (who we picked up in Halifax and gave a ride to Ottawa)
Judy and Stephy seeing us off.
That day we gave'r through Nova Scotia, and into New Brunswick where we stopped in Moncton for veggie oil. We stopped at a pub, and found the guy who worked there who was in a band, and he was stoked to help us out. Laden with good golden veggie fuel we sped out of New Brunswick and into Quebec, where we stopped at a random clearing by the side of a road and set up camp for the night.
The next morning we drove to Levis, Quebec and found a sushi restaurant there who was willing to part with their waste veggie oil. Again it was all about finding the guy who worked there who was in a band. They were really helpful, and their food was amazing to boot. Here's Meg and Adam digging in their bin:
From there it was off to Montreal where we met up with our good friend and musical compatriot Mr. David Simard, and I got to see my friend Clayton. We had the night off in Montreal and the entire following day to run around and explore, and Adam and I talked at length about the differences between bigger towns and smaller towns, the west coast versus further east, et cetera, and we both came to the conclusion that we have the vague intention of someday living in Montreal. We got to brush up on our French and walk around ordering things sounding like a couple of idiot foreigners. The night of the 17th we played at Montreal's L'Inspecteur Epingle with David's power trio and a fellow named Leif Vollebekk, and both acts were awesome. At the end of our set we had David, his drummer Daniel, and Leif up on stage with us. Here's Clayton and his roommate Becca after the show:
And here's Adam fiddling with David during his set:
I shed a single tear as I bid Clayton adieu, and we made our way back to David's to sleep. The next morning it was a slow start and a short drive to Ottawa to play a house concert at a place called the treehouse. It was full of politically aware anarchist hippie type folks who seemed really cool, further proving the theory I devised in Halifax that if a household has an extensive collection of mason jars for drinking vessels and bulk food storage, the people who live there are probably really cool. Before the show, David and Graham and I made a sweet veggie oil score behind a sushi restaurant:
From Ottawa we swung by Kingston to pick up my good friend Robin (who was coming along for the ride til Toronto), and then made our way to Peterborough, where we had a show at a little art gallery called the Peterborough Arts Umbrella. After the show we ran around Peterborough hopping from place to place until we finally discovered the cool bar there - sadly after Adam had already given up and gone to sleep. Here we are before Adam conked:
That night the five of us, David, Graham, Adam, Robin, and I, all ended up in different places to sleep. Adam in the van, Robin and I at my friend Sally's, and Graham and David at Dave's friend Mel's, and in the morning we reconvened over breakfast at Wimpy's and made our way to Toronto. On the way there Graham was poking his head out the sunroof and his glasses whipped off, and so he is now a blind man stumbling across Canada with us. Here's a photo of him moments before his glasses took their leave of his face:
We had a few hours in Toronto before our show, so we went and lounged around in Kensington Market where we had tasty food and looked at vintage and army surplus stores. I saw way too many sweet western shirts, and received some unsolicited fashion advice from a strange bearded man. Our show that night was a house concert at a psychiatrist's penthouse apartment just off of Yonge street. A few of our very favourite people in the world are currently living in Toronto and came to the show, and some old friends of mine from high school surprised me by showing up. Our friend Anna shed the splendor of her viola on a few of our tunes and we got encored into playing a much longer set than we intended, so the show itself was a lot of fun, but the night took a somewhat nasty turn when David and I were trying to move the van and one of our jugs of veggie oil sprung a leak and spilled into the back. Luckily I was able to keep most of it from spilling everywhere by catching it really quickly but it was still a godawful mess - we had to cut some oil stains out of the foam mattresses in the back and do some serious oil spill clean up using kitty litter - and all this is in a hot parking garage. Anyway, we did manage to get the situation under control, not too many things got veggie'd - a couple of coats got soaked, but they were fine after a run through the wash. So finally after that fiasco we all got to sleep. The next morning over brunch we bid Robin and all of our Toronto friends adieu -
- and we made our way to Guelph. We met up with David's friend Kelly of David and Kelly, and after a frustrating drive around Guelph finding no veggie oil, we played at the Cornerstone. After terrorizing the streets of Guelph and battling with orange pylons, we stumbled back to Kelly's where we stayed the night. The next morning after a fairly slow start we commenced the 12 hour drive to the Sault, stopping in Sudbury where a friendly man from the laughing (smiling?) buddha led us around town on his scooter, us following behind with the van. He led us to a bunch of chip shops, and we finally found one with some waste oil to spare for us. He also gave us some sturdier containers for the oil which hopefully won't burst and spill all over our crap if we slam on the brakes too fast. Anyways, by about 3 in the morning we made it to the house of the Wild Turkeys in Sault Ste. Marie, which is where I am now, being told that it is time to get going on finding more fuel and making our way to Wawa.
And THAT, folks, is Nova Scotia to most of the way through Ontario, in one ridiculously long blog post. From here on in I will hopefully be a little bit better about being on top of these things - so perhaps you can look forward to shorter, more frequent posts, hopefully less riddled with poor grammar.
Anyways, hope all is well for all of you! See you in Western Canada!
Taylor
After our house concert in Halifax, we played another at Jude's dad's place in West Dublin, and played at a house party the next day. The next morning after partying relatively heartily we got up around 6 in the morning to prepare to leave Nova Scotia for our first really long drive.
Adam loves mornings!
Me, Adam, Jude, Steph , Graham, Meg (who we picked up in Halifax and gave a ride to Ottawa)
Judy and Stephy seeing us off.That day we gave'r through Nova Scotia, and into New Brunswick where we stopped in Moncton for veggie oil. We stopped at a pub, and found the guy who worked there who was in a band, and he was stoked to help us out. Laden with good golden veggie fuel we sped out of New Brunswick and into Quebec, where we stopped at a random clearing by the side of a road and set up camp for the night.
The next morning we drove to Levis, Quebec and found a sushi restaurant there who was willing to part with their waste veggie oil. Again it was all about finding the guy who worked there who was in a band. They were really helpful, and their food was amazing to boot. Here's Meg and Adam digging in their bin:
From there it was off to Montreal where we met up with our good friend and musical compatriot Mr. David Simard, and I got to see my friend Clayton. We had the night off in Montreal and the entire following day to run around and explore, and Adam and I talked at length about the differences between bigger towns and smaller towns, the west coast versus further east, et cetera, and we both came to the conclusion that we have the vague intention of someday living in Montreal. We got to brush up on our French and walk around ordering things sounding like a couple of idiot foreigners. The night of the 17th we played at Montreal's L'Inspecteur Epingle with David's power trio and a fellow named Leif Vollebekk, and both acts were awesome. At the end of our set we had David, his drummer Daniel, and Leif up on stage with us. Here's Clayton and his roommate Becca after the show:
And here's Adam fiddling with David during his set:
I shed a single tear as I bid Clayton adieu, and we made our way back to David's to sleep. The next morning it was a slow start and a short drive to Ottawa to play a house concert at a place called the treehouse. It was full of politically aware anarchist hippie type folks who seemed really cool, further proving the theory I devised in Halifax that if a household has an extensive collection of mason jars for drinking vessels and bulk food storage, the people who live there are probably really cool. Before the show, David and Graham and I made a sweet veggie oil score behind a sushi restaurant:
From Ottawa we swung by Kingston to pick up my good friend Robin (who was coming along for the ride til Toronto), and then made our way to Peterborough, where we had a show at a little art gallery called the Peterborough Arts Umbrella. After the show we ran around Peterborough hopping from place to place until we finally discovered the cool bar there - sadly after Adam had already given up and gone to sleep. Here we are before Adam conked:
That night the five of us, David, Graham, Adam, Robin, and I, all ended up in different places to sleep. Adam in the van, Robin and I at my friend Sally's, and Graham and David at Dave's friend Mel's, and in the morning we reconvened over breakfast at Wimpy's and made our way to Toronto. On the way there Graham was poking his head out the sunroof and his glasses whipped off, and so he is now a blind man stumbling across Canada with us. Here's a photo of him moments before his glasses took their leave of his face:
We had a few hours in Toronto before our show, so we went and lounged around in Kensington Market where we had tasty food and looked at vintage and army surplus stores. I saw way too many sweet western shirts, and received some unsolicited fashion advice from a strange bearded man. Our show that night was a house concert at a psychiatrist's penthouse apartment just off of Yonge street. A few of our very favourite people in the world are currently living in Toronto and came to the show, and some old friends of mine from high school surprised me by showing up. Our friend Anna shed the splendor of her viola on a few of our tunes and we got encored into playing a much longer set than we intended, so the show itself was a lot of fun, but the night took a somewhat nasty turn when David and I were trying to move the van and one of our jugs of veggie oil sprung a leak and spilled into the back. Luckily I was able to keep most of it from spilling everywhere by catching it really quickly but it was still a godawful mess - we had to cut some oil stains out of the foam mattresses in the back and do some serious oil spill clean up using kitty litter - and all this is in a hot parking garage. Anyway, we did manage to get the situation under control, not too many things got veggie'd - a couple of coats got soaked, but they were fine after a run through the wash. So finally after that fiasco we all got to sleep. The next morning over brunch we bid Robin and all of our Toronto friends adieu -
- and we made our way to Guelph. We met up with David's friend Kelly of David and Kelly, and after a frustrating drive around Guelph finding no veggie oil, we played at the Cornerstone. After terrorizing the streets of Guelph and battling with orange pylons, we stumbled back to Kelly's where we stayed the night. The next morning after a fairly slow start we commenced the 12 hour drive to the Sault, stopping in Sudbury where a friendly man from the laughing (smiling?) buddha led us around town on his scooter, us following behind with the van. He led us to a bunch of chip shops, and we finally found one with some waste oil to spare for us. He also gave us some sturdier containers for the oil which hopefully won't burst and spill all over our crap if we slam on the brakes too fast. Anyways, by about 3 in the morning we made it to the house of the Wild Turkeys in Sault Ste. Marie, which is where I am now, being told that it is time to get going on finding more fuel and making our way to Wawa.And THAT, folks, is Nova Scotia to most of the way through Ontario, in one ridiculously long blog post. From here on in I will hopefully be a little bit better about being on top of these things - so perhaps you can look forward to shorter, more frequent posts, hopefully less riddled with poor grammar.
Anyways, hope all is well for all of you! See you in Western Canada!
Taylor
9/13/08
Halifax part two!
Back at Paperchase in Halifax. Just said goodbye to Adam and Daniel from Fredericton who we might see when we pass through there, and while we're waiting for Graham to swing by, thought I'd post a couple pictures of Adam and me playing the Lone Ranger in West Dublin. Wish I had more time to put up more but we have some thrift shopping to do. Important business you realise!
More pictures later folks!
9/12/08
Halifax!
Sitting here in Halifax sipping sweet fern tea. I spent the morning walking around Wolfville gathering various supplies (thanks to some of which I am now clean shaven). We drove into Halifax, and Adam and I visited the Haifax Folklore Centre, and I got to meet the man who built my banjo, Mr Tom Dorward. Currently I am debating whether I ought to leave the banjo with him to get it fixed up to proper working order and have it then shipped back to victoria. Decisions decisions. We do have another banjo with which we could finish the tour so it's a matter of my financial status to be considered. Adam tried out some bows, and I played and fell in love with my dream guitar. I've always said that my eventual guitar will be something small and old, and this particular instrument is from 1880 and is a small bodied parlour guitar. It sounds, plays, feels, looks amazing. I think it might be my soul mate. Now only a large sum of money stands between me and my true love. Blast!!
After the folklore centre we lounged around downtown at an internet cafe and then made our way here to the house we played at tonight. We played a lovely house concert to a small but very appreciative audience. The rest of the crew is out in the backyard around the fire mingling and my friend Adam Hodnett just arrived after hitchhiking here from frederickton!! So I better go socialise. Hope all is well in the world of those who read the Fish & Bird blog. Good night! I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.
Taylor
After the folklore centre we lounged around downtown at an internet cafe and then made our way here to the house we played at tonight. We played a lovely house concert to a small but very appreciative audience. The rest of the crew is out in the backyard around the fire mingling and my friend Adam Hodnett just arrived after hitchhiking here from frederickton!! So I better go socialise. Hope all is well in the world of those who read the Fish & Bird blog. Good night! I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.
Taylor
9/11/08
Wolfville!
Howdy folks!
On Wednesday, Adam and I got to watch the sun rise in Victoria as we got to the airport, and three takeoffs and landings later, got to watch it set in Halifax as we arrived. On the plane we sat in our seats transfixed by the televisions in front of our faces. On MuchMoreMusic I heard the song "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry for the first time. It's so catchy! Apparently it has been top of the charts for a couple of months now. Nobody ever told me about it! I guess I should watch TV more often... anyway, I have since worked out a swing version of it, and it's pretty spectacular.
Anyhow, Jude and Steph met us when we arrived at the Halifax airport and drove us down to their place in West Dublin. There, we feasted on chili and I played Jude's dad's amazing old Gibson guitar which plays like a dream, and this unbelievable handmade guitar called the lone ranger that plays like a nightmare.
The next morning we got up and bought and filtered a bunch of veggie oil. It's amazing, it's like alchemy! We filtered out little bits of onion rings and batter and stuff through the filtering system Jude built. It's pretty ingenious. I'm still amazed that our touring vehicle runs on organic waste. We have a pretty amazing set-up, really - the van is fueled up pretty much cheap or free, depending how much work we want to do. The stereo system in the van is pretty wicked too - I got a new, tiny laptop (one of those 'netbooks') and we've been playing music with that via an 1/8" auxiliary input. Since I finally found some internet and downloaded "I kissed a girl", guess what we'll be listening to non-stop!
Anyways, we arrived and unloaded our gear at the house concert house in Wolfville with enough time to chill out and walk into town. Nova Scotia so far is incredibly beautiful to me - I have seen a lot of green and a lot of beautiful old buildings and a lot of the atlantic ocean. Mind you, Main Street Wolfville looks kinda like Main Street USA at Disneyland in this odd, manicured sort of way, and that's a little unnerving. Back at the house, the show tonight was awesome, a really good start to the tour. The audience seemed to really like us, and despite the fact that we prepared a really long setlist they hounded us for more tunes. We had to pull out all the stops! We met some cool folks during the break and after the show, played a tune or two, exchanged a few jokes and stories. A positive tour kick-off experience to be sure.
Now we have a long month ahead of us, people to see, places to play, and for now, I have a couch to go sleep on, so I will bid you fine people adieu, and dream about catchy top 40 tunes as I drift off to sleep...
'Til next time!
Taylor
P.S. If you don't know what song I'm talking about: http://www.imeem.com/people/-x_Akp/music/S2AWOw1z/katy_perry_i_kissed_a_girl/
9/2/08
September
All the schoolies are back to their schools, and summer's on its very last legs. I got myself a nice jacket.
We wrapped our summer up with a couple of really awesome shows - last monday we did a house concert with our best friends Anna and Rachael (Blue Richard and the Apricots) and a bunch of condenser microphones. It was a pretty beautiful evening, trading off songs and playing on each other's material. The recordings are sounding pretty good, Adam's been working on some mixdowns. You can hear a sweet version of "the letter" which we played as a duo of fretless chemainus banjo and viola - so neither Adam or I were in a comfortable space instrumentally and I think that comes through as a fresh and rough version of that song. We also played a new song for the very first time, and that's up there too, it's called "Sun Just Shines". Had the music for that one kicking around for almost a year now and the words finally came to me a week or two ago and through the wonder of technology monday's version is up and available for you to listen to in its rough state. More to be added later - BR & the A's stuff gives me goosebumps - I don't know if they've even heard it yet but hoo boy is it grand.
We also opened for the stomp club later that week at their CD release party, and I came away from that inspired to learn how to swing dance (and slightly done in by half a bottle of wine). Good times! And there are more to come!
Upcoming we are playing at the solstice cafe's birthday party at the solstice cafe (of all places), and then on the 10th we fly to Halifax to kick off our tour back across the country! I will post those dates very soon - please inform your friends across canada that we may well be pickin' a tune somewhere close to their hometown! I will also attempt to do as much blogging as possible on the way, so you will hear much about our zany adventures if you keep an eye on this page!
Bye for now y'all!
Taylor
We wrapped our summer up with a couple of really awesome shows - last monday we did a house concert with our best friends Anna and Rachael (Blue Richard and the Apricots) and a bunch of condenser microphones. It was a pretty beautiful evening, trading off songs and playing on each other's material. The recordings are sounding pretty good, Adam's been working on some mixdowns. You can hear a sweet version of "the letter" which we played as a duo of fretless chemainus banjo and viola - so neither Adam or I were in a comfortable space instrumentally and I think that comes through as a fresh and rough version of that song. We also played a new song for the very first time, and that's up there too, it's called "Sun Just Shines". Had the music for that one kicking around for almost a year now and the words finally came to me a week or two ago and through the wonder of technology monday's version is up and available for you to listen to in its rough state. More to be added later - BR & the A's stuff gives me goosebumps - I don't know if they've even heard it yet but hoo boy is it grand.
We also opened for the stomp club later that week at their CD release party, and I came away from that inspired to learn how to swing dance (and slightly done in by half a bottle of wine). Good times! And there are more to come!
Upcoming we are playing at the solstice cafe's birthday party at the solstice cafe (of all places), and then on the 10th we fly to Halifax to kick off our tour back across the country! I will post those dates very soon - please inform your friends across canada that we may well be pickin' a tune somewhere close to their hometown! I will also attempt to do as much blogging as possible on the way, so you will hear much about our zany adventures if you keep an eye on this page!
Bye for now y'all!
Taylor
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