In Wakefield, Qubec this morning and played a fun show with J Cockerill and NQ Arbuckle last night. It’s a super sunny, pretty day here and no one else is up so I’m exploring. Obviously I didn’t find too much adventure because I’m now blogging. Right. On a bench by some train tracks and a nice lake though, cool breeze in the air, birds singin me a tune that sounds familiar, maybe like spring? Let’s hope. Playing in Ganaoque tonight, there’s a lake there too! Yes folks, being a musician is this exciting,tell a friend.

My friend good friend Stacey isn’t only a great blogger and excellent music writer but also a fantastic singer song writer. So many descriptive words.She and her friend Phil have a band called the i love you too’s, and they asked me to do a remix for them. I basically sat on it for 2 months because I liked the original of the song so much I couldn’t think of what to do, but it eventually worked out. Here’s a clip -

The original is on their myspace page, it’s called “My Man”. A good honest song from the heart, love it.

I love the tambourine, a whole lot. In the right hands of course. It’s a complicated instrument, one of the most audible instruments on the stage even in competition with a bunch of screaming guitar amps and screaming drunk people, yet it also has a lot of beautiful and subtle sounds that  you can only really get when you’re not beating it on your hand/thigh. I spent some time with one of mine this morning and made a really mellowing 2 minutes of tambourine music. I just wanted to do something with it that you generally don’t, let it breathe a bit and not be responsible for keeping time, you know?

I’m trying to do more of this kind of thing, been playing a lot of drums which is great, but writing some really dreadful music in my opinion, hence the lack of stuff up on here. I need to get re-focused and doing these little imagination/sound exercises help get things flowing again. Sometimes you need to do like the gambler and know when to fold ‘em, just walk away from it for a while and do something else that’ll flip some different switches in your mind. Like reading this completely awesome book

Or listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

Well folks, it’s been a busy time and once again I’ve been a slack blogger. Only the occasional post of a completely awesome looking Bill Wither documentary and some rants. Things have been great in my world, and I figure today I’ll tell you about a couple random things that are happening or have made me happy or not.

Tinariwen - My good friend and great musician/writer Stacey hooked me up huge with tickets to see these guys at the Phoenix, which for once pretended it didn’t sound like a giant rock club bathroom and actually made the band sound great. Actually, it helped to show great the band sounded is a more correct way to phrase it. They played some crazy rhythms that I can only assume are straight out of Mali, like this one      ( sorry for the distortion, the H4 can’t handle the awesomeness of desert music…) -

I left early due to a cold, but apparently shit got crazy in the best kind of African music way, and a dance party ensued.

Matt Anderson – I went to Glen Gould to see Matt play last night. and he absolutely destroyed it. He’s undoubtedly one of the best performers I’ve ever seen in my life. The perfect blend of humility, charm, raw talent, a vocal range that would make Bobby Mc Ferrin blush, and blistering guitar technique, he’s total package. And one of the world’s friendliest humans as well. It’s inspiring to see someone so deserving do so damn well. He just got back from Memphis where he won the solo category in the International Blues Competition. That’s huge. And completely awesome.

Debashis Sinha – I got lucky and saw a Peggy Baker dance piece a couple times last week, which means I got to get blown away by Debashis’s perfectly composed music twice as well. It was refershing to hear music that was so full of sounds, but that wasn’t totally ambient or devoid of harmonic content. It moved and shifted and came back on itself, and was the perfect sound track for what was happening on stage. I need to check out more of his stuff, maybe we all should? Try something new, go for it.

A new project! – I’ve been wanting to get back into some sound tinkering and sampling for a little while now, I’ve just been extremely lucky and have been playing lots of drums with fun people. I’ve got an idea for something that would be really Toronto-centric, involving some image work from the ridiculously talented Tara McMullen. She knows I’ve got something up my sleeve and I haven’t explained it to her yet, but I will, real soon, and then I’ll explain it here and you can tell me if it’s bullshit or not, deal?

March is a good month if you feel like enjoying some music featuring not one, but 2 Josh’s. I play with Josh Cockerill, and also a great band that JC plays in as well called the Long Haul. I’m playing with Josh C every Thursday in March at the Cameron House, 6-8, and every Friday with Long Haul from now til the end of summer potentially, 6-8pm as well. Come down after work and say hello.Or if the later laife styl suits your fancy, we’re playing with Josh at the Dakota on Friday night, and the Long Haul at Mitzi’s Sister on Saturday night. Whatever works. Or none of them at all. Take a night, call up someone you haven’t seen in a while, have drink, catch up, go home early. Wake up refreshed and thinking, ” wow, so and so ” is doing super well, good for them!. It’s your night, I merely offer options for entertainment…..

If you don’t know, you’ll know after you watch this documentary. Let me know if you find it on video, they did one screening a couple months back and I missed it. A sad tale about one of the most soulful and important figures in music history. That’s a bold statement and it’s true.

I love that I get emails like this from time to time – -

“I’m also glad you emailed because I have been meaning to get in touch with you about some amazing sounds I came across the other day. I was down at Cherry Beach after a couple of cold days, and the lake had frozen for about 30 feet from the shore. Every time a wave came through, the ice popped and cracked and shifted and made the most amazing sounds. I thought of you. Tragically I went back the next day to experience it again, but it was too warm and the ice had melted. I guess the moral of the story is that if you’re ever in the Cherry Beach area, take a pop down and hopefully the ice will sing for you, too.”
tara is a great artist and photographer herself, go have a look…..

And I love that one of my favorite freaks has made a new record that sounds like it’s going to be completely awesome.

Every band, burgeoning singer songwriter, stand up comedian, and dozens of other types of performing artists have been there. I’ve been there countless times, and will probably continue to be there hundreds of more times in my career. I’ll be there Friday in fact. The double edged sword of the loved/dreaded opening slot. She can be a cruel, heartless mistress, some nights subjecting you to crowds who have no interest in hearing your music, your jokes, who don’t care how many times you emailed the headlining band’s manager’s personal assistant to the sound man’s nephew, or how you even figured out that chain in the first place. Other nights, she rewards your perseverance with the sweet gift of new fans made, merch sold, and some new friends made in the other band. Regardless of what the spoils of your opening set are, there’s some basic things to think about as you warm up the stage at a sometimes less then opportune time.
***(These things come from conversations with a a few different musicians I’ve had over the past couple days regarding this topic. This is in no way directed at any bands/people specifically…..)

1. DON’T BE A JERK TO THE HEADLINING BAND – Sounds basic, kind of something we should do as humans, and this definitely doesn’t exclude musicians. More often then not, the headliner may not really want an opening band to play, so coming into a sound check with an ego and a list of demands doesn’t really fly. Remember who set the show up in the first place, be grateful and graceful without getting worshipy about it.

2.DON’T ASSUME YOU CAN USE THE OTHER BANDS GEAR – When you assume you make an ass out of….yourself.Is that how it goes? Although in a perfect world every drummer would use a drum kit that magically adapted itself to all my whims and heights as soon as I sat on the magical stool, this just doesn’t happen. Some people like to set their gear up, sound check, and make damn sure it stays that way. It makes things infinitely easier to share things like drums and amps, just send an email beforehand. To make it easy on everyone, speak to your band, find out who needs what, send one email to one person in the other band and work it out representative style. In the continuous life long recession that musicians live in the less cabs people need to take with gear the better. And the sound man will probably love you too, it can literally save hours over the course of show from sound check to tear down.

3. PLEASE PLEASE START ON TIME – 90 percent of the time, about 80 percent of the people are there to see the headlining band. Although for the benefit of the doubt we’ll say that your music kicks ass and people will love you, being in an audience can at the best of times be a tiring experience, mentally and physically. The later you start, the less likely people will like what you’re doing, and the less the headliner will probably like you as well. And for the record, don’t do the bathroom trick, which is a conversation that goes like this –
headline band - hey, you guys ready to go?
opener - yeah, for sure! I just need to run to the washroom and then grab the guys and we’ll start right away.
15 minutes later, headliner sees opener at the bar waiting for a beer
hb - sooo, are you guys headig up now? We really need to get things rolling.
ob - oh yeah, for sure, I’m just going to grab this beer, and then our guitar player just needed to run out to the van for something …..
And so on. Lame.

4. IF YOU HAVE A 30 MINUTE SET TIME, PLAY A 30 MINUTE SET – Don’t have much to say about this that can come out in a constructive manner, it’s pretty self explanatory.

So there’s a few things, and I’m sure everyone’s got a few more. As a bit of a disclaimer so I don’t come across as a complete asshole, I’ve been on both sides of this and I understand the tricky position of being the opening act and how the balance of having a useful opening set is a delicate one. I also understand how to drive a standard, but that doesn’t give me the right to skip from first to third every time I drive because it’s a funny noise, and drive recklessly. Thoughts? Lemme have it……..

It’s 11 here in Vancouver and I keep waking up at 6 for some unearthly reason. Jet lag normally doesn’t bug me too much, but I guess this is the best kind. Had a good first day yesterday, tons of sunshine and walking. I’m staying in a part of town called English bay which is super pretty. Hotel window looks out on to the water which is nice. We’re about 10 minutes from stanley park which is big and pretty and fairly easy to get lost in as I found out this morning.
Had a really funny experience yesterday along the water under a bridge. I don’t generally start stories that way…anyway, I was getting my H4 out to record some boat sounds and happened to notice a guy a few feet away with headphones on, plugged into an H2. Then I noticed a girl on the other side of me doing the same. Then another. And 3 more. I realized I was surrounded by people all recording the aural landscape. It was pretty remarkable in a scary twilight zone/David Lynch way. Turns out they were all in a journalism class and were sent out to practice nature sound recording techniques. The girl I was talking to said ” yeah, this is really dumb. I mean, who actually does this? It’s so weird and lame right?”. Ummmm yeah, hahaha nervous laughter igottagobye……
The island is in full Olympic effect, people are loving it and smiling and happy. Lots of red and white and flags everywhere, and all in all it’s a pretty feel good vibe. We play a couple shows at the Atlantic Canada house today, then home tomorrow morning. If you’re in Vancouver let me know and I’ll be sure to get you in.