Friday, June 18, 2010

Wear your Granny Boots with us on June 30th


Tomboyfriend, the band with one of the best names of all, has invited us to play Granny Boots with them on Wednesday, June 30th at The Gladstone Hotel. It's Pride Week, so we're going for a festive vibe, and trying something unusual.

Shaun will be off at Glastonbury with Dan Mangan, so in lieu of trumpet, the festive feeling will be created by Dr. Rhythm 880, a wee little drum machine imbued with soul. Special guests Jo Snyder, AKA Jo Snyder music, formerly of the Winnipeg punk bands Anthem Red, and Sixty Stories, will be playing guitar, and Sheila Sampath of The Airfields and Shameless Magazine will appear on keys. How is that for festive and unusual? And there's more.

Gentleman Reg,* one of my favourite people to share a stage with, will be singing with us as well. This spring, I spent a few months in the writing cave, and one of the projects I chipped away at was a set of songs written for friends to sing with Betty Burke. Reggie's song is called "The Man in the Middle," and this will be the first time we play it.

We hope to see you at the show on the 30th. In the meantime, click on Tomboyfriend's name to see their fantastic video "Dance Dance Revolutions Co." We're looking forward to seeing them live!

Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!
xo
MM

*The photo of Reg above is from the February 14th Wavelength 10 year anniversary & closing party at The Garrison. At the end of the show almost all of the current & former members of The Hidden Cameras got on stage together for a surprise set. It was the first time some of us had played together in seven years. Great night.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Resurrection


The last time I wrote a blog entry, it was February, and BB had just done some dates with Woodpigeon in Ontario and Quebec. There was snow on the ground, and the trees were grey and bare. Now the sun is everywhere, and Toronto's famous humidity is back to bake us all inside out.

A lot's been going on since those last few ultra-positive posts, written in the dull light of winter. On May 21st, our community lost someone irreplaceable. Will Munro was a friend, a brother, a son, an artist and a culture maker who built spaces to welcome people who'd been shut out before.

Here is a link to the memorial piece printed by Eye Magazine in Toronto.

There is a lot to be said about Will, life, death, and community, but I will allow the piece--composed of submissions by Will's friends, myself included-- to speak for itself.

Spring, the season of resurrection and renewal, was a taker and a giver. Now, the short, hot, Canadian summer is nearly here. The radio silence of the last few months will be replaced by regular posts as Betty Burke resumes the project of telling stories three chords at a time. On the agenda for the summer are a few shows, an EP (recorded with James Bunton at Angles Up) to master and release, and the coming release of "You Can't Wear Suede In The Rain," the short film we made with Joe Clement. Posts about these activities will be interspersed with the usual mini-essays about good things, strange things, and things that are hard to classify.

Thanks for visiting the site. Come back soon!

Love
Maggie