Joshua Van Tassel

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com)

I’ve been slack on the blogging this week but I swear it’s for good reason. for one I’ve been working a real job like a real little worker monkey. Due to cirmcumstances beyond my financial control I’ve been temporarily forced into the world of papers, offices and business casual attire…..for now…I’ll come back to satying at home and making weird sounds for the entertainment of a very small but dedicated informed internet audience very soon. Until then, here’s some things that have been making me happy and keeping my mind sharp…..

1. Joseph Boyden books – tales of Northern Ontario, World Wars, downtown Manhatten, guns that talk, and forbidden loves. That’s about everything you need in a novel right? A friend gave me one of his books, Through Black Spruce for Christmas, and I recently plowed through it the pre cursor Three Day Road. Both compelling and beautifully written stories. Get ‘em.

2. Share – band from New Brunswick, where I’m starting to think the best indie rock/folk/pop  music in Canada is coming from. It’s a record that grew on me slow and steady like a moss, then all of a sudden fast like a teenage growth spurt. Lots of beautiful songs and great sounds

3. Peggy Baker Dance Company – Don’t know a whole lot about dance, but a quick google search shows that this woman is the real deal and one of the most respected dancers in North America. Her new show Confluence starts next week at the Enwave theatre in the Harbour Front Centre and looks pretty awesome. Details and a preview video heeeeere.

Back to work….

Music this weekend, I promise

(go to www.joshuavt.com for the videos)

I fail to see the similarities……..

( on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)
Last night I was playing a gig and couldn’t help but notice a very happy looking pair of people who came in at the beginning of the night, and stayed throughout the whole show. Both looked like totally reasonable people, she was pretty, he was handsome, they look like they’re having fun. I was standing close to their table, and ended up in conversation with them. Turns out he saw her walking down the street on queen, said hello, and asked her out. Major bravery points there. He explained his dad had suggested the bar as a good place to hear music and have a drink. So far he seems like a pretty cool guy. However, many things happened very quickly which I’m positive has insured he won’t be going on date number 2.

1. – directly after explaining that his father told him about the place, he smiled dreamily at the girl and said “I’m sure you’ll get to met him soon.” Easy tiger, little soon for the family meet and greet. That definitely threw the panic light color up from nil to yellow…

2. – Anti-Semite jokes after she explained she was Jewish. And then defending himself and his jokes by saying ” why are you getting upset? It’s not like I’m being racist, Jews aren’t a race.”
But my intoxicated friend, you’re still being prejudiced, and in general an asshole. Orange light for you.

3. – the quote ” Oh c’mon, have another beer. I need to get you as drunk as I am!” is just stupid. On all levels. At this point her light is very much red.

4. – we started talking about our respective neighborhoods, and our brave drunk friend makes the comment ” I haven’t been to her place yet, but I bet you I’m seeing it tonight. Yeeeeahhhh!!!” and slaps me on the back. In front of her. Jesus. Her red light just actually blew up

He went to the bathroom, she instantly turned to me and said ” I wish I was on a date with anyone else in this room.” Never a good sign. Anyway, he came back, they left together, but I doubt the night continued much past that. The whole thing was pretty interesting though, a bit of a fly on the wall type scenario where I saw a man make kind of a fool of himself without knowing it.

Here’s something strange sounding! While in calgary we were trying to send music from Kyle’s laptop to a stereo via bluetooth, and things would end up sounding like this -

It’s weird, it speeds up the track without effecting the pitch of the vocals, but puts everything else through some crazy ring modulator. I’m a geek. Deal with it.

3

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the video)

Nicks that is. This is such a ridiculously good performance. A lot of musicians have been passing it around over the past while and I thought I’d throw it up here.

Back in Toronto today. It always freaks me out a little bit when traveling that you can be surrounded by mountains and forest creatures and sunshine on the other side of our giant country, and in a matter of hours be at queen and sherbourne fearing for your wallet and/or safety. Are humans supposed to be able to travel so quickly? Sometimes when I’m in a plane and we get above the cloud line, I always get a feeling of slight panic, thinking is it ok that I’m seeing this? I know I don’t have wings or the ability to breathe at super high altitudes so should I be here? It’s like spending the night in a beautiful hotel, knowing that you paid to be there and technically everything is cool, but you can’t shake the feeling that any moment the concierge is going to come barging through your door while you’re in the hot tub and demand you leave the premises at once. As upset as you’d be, it would still kind of make sense, you know?

Anyway. I get to travel a lot and that makes me super lucky and I’m thankful. Just got the masters for D. Myles’s record and it’s sounding really great, happy. Comes out on April 20th and there’s current;y a bunch of shows being booked so I’ll keep you posted. That’s all for now…

on facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post.

…..but lots of mysterious Alberta fog. Weird. In Bragg Creek this morning, had a really great show last night and am currently in the largest bed I’ve ever been in. I could sleep horizontally. We’re in a completely insane bed and breakfast made entirely of wood and logs. They have a really funny dog who tries to bite the back of our legs to apparently display his male mastery. Cute, kind of. Headed to Canmore tonight, home tomorrow. If I could ski and wasn’t completely paranoid about breaking my wrists, I would.

on facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post.

Alberta has been treating us well so far. Played a day time show at the university in Calgary which was interesting if nothing else. A girl sat down 2 tables from where we were playing, looked at us in disgust, then put her headphones in. Awesome.
Just finished playing a great show In a town called Brooks that definitely made up for it. Great theatre, lots of people, and a giant fake palm tree backstage that we managed to incorporate. Quote of the night?

David to sound man – “it feels great on stage, how does it sound out there?”
Sound man to David- “oh, umm, … To be honest I’m not sure, I was reading Calvin and Hobbes most of the set. ”

Comforting. Regardless, great night all around. Tomorrow Dinosaur national park! And a show in Bragg creek. Should be fun.

( if you’re seeing this on facebook you’re not really seeing it. go to www.joshuavt.com)

Feeling better today after my punctuality rant last night, sorry about the hostility. Actually I’m not sorry, never mind.

I am sorry however about the offensive language I use on here.I’ve been informed by a friend that I’m “too intelligent to be swearing so much”. Never really realized it until I re-read an email I had sent a friend who was having a rough day, and noticed that I swore more times then there were sentences. not good. I’ll try and clean this cess pool of a blog up I tell ya, one expletive at a time.

Taking off to Alberta today for some fun shows with D. Myles and Kyle. If you know anyone in these areas on these dates, let them knopw to come say hello -

And before I go, here’s something that I’ve been working on the past couple days. Wrote some lyrics for this, may just end up singing them, who knows. Me and the mighty Joel Schwartz on acoustic guitars camp fire style. A super rough demo, but that’s what this is all about.

……and I leave  you with a sad photo; I broke my favorite mug which deserves some swearing. Shit. I’ll post from out there when I can. xo.

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com)

All throughout the annals of modern history, through decades and perhaps centuries, musicians and artists have been referred to as being lazy, ineffectual, and generally an unreliable sort of creature. Mothers would shy their daughters away from us, covering their long batting eyes with their multi colored parasol, hoping ( in a stereotypically stodgy accent), ” Goodness me I hope she never ends up with one of those louses. how do they get a long without the common respect for time and those who have so little of it? Tsk.”

I’ve spent years defending myself and my friends against this type of criticism , providing examples of those of us who have held down various day job over the years where even 5 minutes of tardiness can land you back in the closest hotel gig playing for $30 at a wedding where you see the groom give a wink and a nefarious conspiratorial smile to the brides’ maid’s younger sister. As of late though, I gotta be honest with you and with myself. Fuck it. We’re unreliable. We’re everything they’ve said we were and worse.

A prime example of this is how many shows start sooooo late after the time advertised time, to the point where I’ve been at shows where even the band isn’t there for the 930 first set because they know it’s not gonna happen til 10. And musicans, how many times has this happened to you after you actually attempted to start right at 930 ( or were forced by very time conscious sound man)

Lead singer - Thanks a lot and goodnight!

walks off stage to grab a drink as 6 people walk in together

human - hey dude, just in time. you guys about to go on?

lead singer - we just finished actually.

human - what? I thought you went on at 930???!

lead singer. We did. It’s 10:34.

human – yeah I know!! We figured we were right on time.

It’s turned into a vicious unreliable circle. Musicians are always want to start shows late because no one is there yet, but people don’t want to come early because they know they won’t start til late.

I’m keeping my personal life out of this for the most part, but this situation totally leaks over into the day to day. I’ve got a lot of people that if we have plans to meet at 1:30, I generally start to get myself ready to leave the house at 1:35 because I know they’re going to be late. It completely defeats the purpose of making any form of plan for yourself and what you need to get done in a day.

enough complaining, I’m tired of it so if you made it this far you sure as shit are too. The solution? Lets all start small ok? For one week, make a really big effort to BE WHERE YOU SAID YOU”RE GOING TO BE WHEN YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO BE THERE. Sometimes unforseen things happen, I get it, transit in TO can be crazy etc etc, but just make an honest effort my fair readers. i will too and we’ll all be so happy spending our punctual time together.

(on facebook? you will see and hear nada unless you go to www.joshuavt.com)

part of a part I’m working on, coming along. I’ve got specific people in mind to replace pretty much everything on this one, so you might get a a call real soon so watch out.

(on facebook?go to www.joshuavt.com and see things.)
The last couple times I’ve gone through a period where I really wanted to write some new music, I would intentionally stop listening to anything else. I wanted to try and keep my head clear and the ideas fresh, try to not rip anybody off and sound like “myself”. I realized this week that idea (for me) is some pretentious bull shit. No matter what I do or try to do I’ll still end up sounding like myself because it’s me doing it. It’s my own limitations and ego and fears that’ll get in the way, and it’s my own imagination that’ll hopefully pull me through into something interesting. I’ve been listening to TONS of music this week, and to be honest I feel like I’m doing some of my best work. Feeling inspired and having fun with the process. Taking lots of ideas from the things I’m hearing and using them in my own way. Regardless if I shut myself down from music or not, I still have 29 ears of hearing things built up in my brain, so thinking I can be free of outside influence is a bit ridiculous. Anyway. Here’s a couple things that have been getting me real excited -

Owen Pallett’s record “Heartland”. Really unique sounding songs with biiiiiig interesting orchestration.

And my norwegian love affair that I keep taking about to friends because their new record “One Armed Bandit” is a lumbering titan of muscle and musical intrigue…

….and Paul Simon just because it makes me feel good.