Joshua Van Tassel

So the past couple of days have been spent at Canterbury Studios mixing the Outlanders record with the band and Jeremy Darby, the fantastically talented, big hearted, and dirty minded engineer. It’s been a lot of fun, but also a a lot of work, more then some people realize. Over the course of a few hours we came up with this analogy to help anyone who hasn’t gone through the laborious process of listening to themselves over and over for 2 days straight understand what it’s all about.

So you’re about to go out for the evening with that special someone for possibly date number 2 or even 3. you’re excited, you’ve spent enough time together to know that it’s got the potential to be really good and long lasting. You want to look your best obviously. So, call up four of your friends and a make up specialist. Get a giant not only full length mirror, but one that magnifies your every blemish, mark, pimple, tiny scar, everything by 100 times. Next ask each person in the group what they think would help fix the blemishes, one by one. Now, chances are, they’re all going to have differing opinions about what to do. Some will make sense, some will be totally ridiculous, and chances are someone will have been on the phone or writing an email and need to have all the options repeated to them again. It can get messy, or sometimes everyone agrees on a little bit of cover up ( reverb), a little something to smooth out the skin (compression), and voila you look great.

Does that make any sense? Here’s a something that’s just been started yesterday, unmixed mind you. This is like going outside in your Budweiser t-shirt with no pants and cigarette hanging out of your mouth to get the paper on a Saturday morning.

These headphones cost more then my rent. For 2 months. They make me nervous.

For no reason whatsoverer, the strange blond creature on the left swung her shopping bag at me and hit me in the shoulder. No chance of it being an accident, because this little oompa loompa was about 3 apples tall and smelled like a wet bag of concrete. Plus, her and her younger evil henchman laughed at me.
Therefore, you get blogged because I was too confused to say anything to you 5 minutes ago. Now back to the chocolate factory, you small strange woman.

I’m in London with no jet lag, it’s amazing, I’m very happy. It also helps that I just had a crispy bacon sandwich wityh cheese and coffee. Everything looks and sounds as different here as I thought, but also strangely the same. U suppose that comes from the fact that we all speak English. Right……anyway, getting lots of good sounds, and had a fun session at the BBC last night. Pictures to follow as soon as I can find some poor sap who doesn’t put a password on  their wireless.

And ps, everything relly is really expensive here. No really. REALLY expensive.

got married this weekend - (and yes I’m aware this picture is pretty bad, but it’s the only one I have….)

let me hang out with their babies -

….and fed me some cucumbers they grew in their garden.

I also spent some time producing a tune with the lovely Sarah Kurtis the other day, and we’re working on a sweet sounding little thing that goes like this so far….

[audio:

My lady loves it when I update my blog while we’re playing a game. Really. Ask her.

I think it’s fascinating that I’m able to take this picture of a sheep and instantly post it on my site with just this phone. Crazy. I’m not sponsored in any way, but I really do think the iPhone is something else. Something good that is. Once they get audio enabled on this thing I’ll give my laptop to the first person who comments…….

So after a sobering day of adding up the ludicrous costs of having a legit iphone plan, I decided to turn to Toronto’s best friend for moving things you don’t need anymore ( and fast) craigslist. A few emails and a couple hours later I became the owner of an iphone for a fraction of the cost. I’m not on the much heralded 3G network, but to be honest I don’t care. It’s a great device, has a really unique but intuitive interface, and  it works way better then my other phone.  Pop your SIM card in and you’re off.  Now I can get back to making strange noises and feel assured that apple now knows way too much about my life and schedule.

I’m in Montreal with Ronley Teper for some shows, and it’s great fun. This is a wonderful city even in the rain, which is a good sign. I’ve met a joke telling cab driver ( I have a great recording of his jokes which I’ll share when I get back), slept beside a man who sleeps in his leather jacket and hat, and just had pizza poutine…..a successful weekend so far. We’re in our nation’s fine capitol tomorrow, so if you have any friends or casual aquaintances in Ottawa, let them know….this is google images choice of “bad french”. Fairly accurate I’d say… 

Last night I went to see a play loosely based on the life of Jerry Lee Lewis called “Fire“, and it was really great. Good acting, totally interesting set, and the music was played amazingly well. Melanie Doane arranged all the vocal harmonies, and there were lots of ‘em, all sounding straight out of Arkansas just like the should. There was a packed house and everyone seemed to really enjoy the show. Except for one small thing that people need to remember - -

JUST BECAUSE MUSIC IS BEING PLAYED DOESN’T MEAN IT”S TIME TO START TALKING TO YOUR HUSBAND/WIFE/WHOEVER.

Seriously folks. It’s a show about a musician, so naturally I’d assume if you pay $30 plus dollars, you have at least some fleeting interest in the music they were playing. It seemed like every time a song would start, at last 20 people would take that as their cue to have a quick conversation with whoever was willing to listen. Maybe I sound like a super crotchety old man lecturing elementary school children, but please Toronto, lets show a little more respect for our artists.

Oh, and to the person with the intelligence level of handicapped primate who cell phone went off 3 times in the second act….well, my parents read this blog so I’ll keep it civil. You’re a bonehead.

This isn’t an isolated incident either. Tranzac Club, 2 night ago watching a super crazy/unique songwriter named Anhai perform, and some monkey was in the very front row with his phone sitting on the table. Here’s what it sounds like to be an asshole ( listen for at 41 seconds in)

I wonder which provider has the best customer service for monkeys? Probably Fido, there’s a fair number of them working there.

I still am lacking my special little cable, so no Maritime sounds……yet………What I do have is this very interesting profile podcast of friend and flute player extrordinaire Rob Piilonen. It’s a really well made podcast discussing Rob’s music and improvised music in general; great questions and well spoken answers on behalf of Rob. Check it out here Shows start tonight, I’m excited. All the theaters we’re playing on this tour are beautiful and old, I’ll try my unsteady hand at some good panoramic type photography. See you tomorrow, hopefully in glorious audio format.