So as some of you may already know, Blake had a baby boy (Sam) a few weeks ago. Raising a kid is tough on its own but especially tough when you’re on the road all of the time. Blake has decided to take some time away to be with Sam. It may be a couple of months, maybe longer, who knows. We have a new single ready to go and new album being mixed and it’s KILLING us not to release it this summer, but it just makes more sense to wait until we’re all on the same page and ready to go.

We know, we know let’s hear some new shit!!! We want nothing more than for you to have something new from us to sit back and smoke a J to, or bang your head to in your car but good food takes time to prepare and this roast tastes best in the slow cooker. Come to a show if you want to hear some of what will be on the record!

You’ll see some of us dabbling in other projects such as Blake in The Darlingtens, Dave D in Rob Anderson & the Windthrowes, J Keddy in Roxy and the Underground Soul Sound, Sean in Endless Nameless (Nirvana Tribute) and Lidstone workin’ on a solo drum record….joking well, maybe not??!?! Have no fear though we’ll be back together and working on the set sooner than you know.

ANYWAY, last summer we played the Q104 Keith’s Natal Day Fest at Alderney Landing w Wintersleep, Gloryhound, Rich Aucoin, Alert the Medic and one band that caught our eye in particular, the Long Distance Runners. They’re from St. John’s Newfoundland so we thought it would be a great idea to do a full Atlantic Canadian tour with them. We’ve never been to Newfoundland, but we’re sure as hell excited to be heading there this summer.

Paying respect to shitty touring vans, even shittier band name puns and of course our leaky gas tank, we decided to call this little adventure the “Runnin’ on Fumes Tour”. So without further ado:

Presented by: Codapop Studios, SpinCount, Pavement Postering, B-Rad Media Services and Thunder Thief Productions

Special treat for those of you who are actually still paying attention. We’ll be heading into Codapop Studios to record a live single & video that we’ll put up as a parting gift to tide you over.

Details for the shows can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/517164658319375/

Cheers,

Blake, Sean, Dave, Dave and Jason

It’s been an insane month, so we might as well start at the beginning. On March 1^st we kicked off 2013 with a tour fundraiser at Michael’s in Halifax. It was a great show with killer sets from the Odd Bit, Jessie Brown and Like a Motorcycle who we had not seen live yet, despite being new friends and competitors for Big Mike’s time in the studio. We’d like to thank all of our fans and their fans for lining our pockets with enough flow to get through our eleven shows surrounding our showcases at East Coast Music Week (ECMW) and Canadian Music Fest/Week (CMF). What the hell do they call it anyway? Is it CMW or CMF? Who knows, who cares, it was a blast none the less. Here are the shenanigans that made this one hell of an interesting month.

 

Artists currently on rotation in our band van:

The Scoop Outs - http://music.scoopouts.com/

Babyshambles - http://www.babyshambles.net/

Josh Ritter - http://www.joshritter.com/

Tragically Hip - http://thehip.com/

The Raconteurs - http://www.theraconteurs.com/

 

March 7^th – ECMW Showcase

So the bulk of the ECMW showcases were held at the Casino this year. There are a few good rooms in that place, but man loading into that place takes some serious cheeseburger power. Unless someone else knows a better way, the only way is to walk in the front entrance, weave through the crowd of angry old gamblers, lights, bells and whistles while trying not to have a seizure. We played NSCC Stage at the Compass Room (Keddy is a former student) along with some other NSCC acts. It was a pretty fun night and a good excuse to check out the other showcases since we were down there.

March 8^th – JJ Bookings Showcase

So our booking agent, JMAC, had this crazy idea about a week and a half out from ECMW to have a JJ Bookings roster showcase at Michael’s. His plan was to get a bunch of sponsors, a luxury party bus for industry and bands, have every band on his roster play the showcase and make it a free event for ECMA delegates. Man oh man….daunting task given the time frame and the hype surrounding the other showcases that were closer to the downtown core and promoted for months. He delivered none the less…… He managed to get something like twelve sponsors on board in just under a week, do all the promotion online, posters etc. and secure this backstage party bus/ mobile green room. The venue for one was PACKED, and so was the bus. Personally, I don’t remember much other than having one of the best times I’ve had in a year.  Secondly, I don’t remember paying for a drink the entire night… even the after party was sponsored by Molson. JMac is probably way too modest to admit this, but it was definitely one of, if not the best show all around that week and it was technically not even part of ECMW. We’re proud and glad to be working with such an awesome dude and group of bands.

 

March 14^th – Plan B Moncton, NB

If you’ve ever toured the east coast, then you’ve probably run into the kind folk who make Plan B one of the best venues around the Maritimes. It’s admittedly small, but has a big heart. The show went well and both the Stogies and Jessie Brown were very well received. Plan B is very hospitable and put us up in the apartment upstairs and even went to the extent of making some breakfast burritos in advance, because we had to leave for Ottawa before the bar opened the next day. Thanks Tracy, Meadow, Cody and friends!

March 15^th – Mavericks Ottawa, ON

We must have the worst luck with the Moncton-Ottawa jaunt because, like clock work our van broke down just outside of Moncton AGAIN. Didn’t this shit happen last tour? Anyway, after our now personal tow truck driver, Jean took the van to Oromocto and we hopped in a $70 cab, we all converged at NAPA who couldn’t look at the van for another two hours. This simply was not good enough and we took the van two doors down where they were able to fix it, giving us a new ignition coil and getting us back on the road within about an hour. Even though we were now about 3 hours behind schedule it was looking like we’d still make the show. No van breaks down twice in a 10 hour period right? WRONG! Just outside of Montreal and about two hours east of Ottawa, our van started making these pops and grinds. We pulled over to check it out, but of course we’re like children trying to fix the Tonka truck they just smashed when it comes to making a sound mechanical diagnosis of our vehicle. Even if we could figure out what was wrong, what the hell were we gonna do about it? So we did what any sensible, young & dumb Canadian would do. We decided there was nothing really wrong and barreled through to Ottawa just barely making our set at Mavericks. We came to a screeching halt (literally) just around the corner and loaded in as the first band was half way through its set. Once we got on stage though, we let it all out! We played with more drive (ha!) and conviction than we had in the last six months, trying desperately to forget, for at least the next 40 minutes, the conundrum we’d managed to find ourselves. Anyway, the show went great and we had a great crowd that was peppered with a few familiar faces. Alix Gray saved the day by offering us a place to stay, as we were previously scheduled to head to Kingston and stay with our friend Jesse Gilroy and his mom after the show. Jesse drove all the way from Kingston to see us, which was awesome of him. The next day we limped the van over to Crappy Tire to get her fixed up. We had broken a bearing, but not only had we broken a bearing, we also wore down and melted the spindle, for which they couldn’t find a suitable replacement and literally had to “make” us a new one. Sketchy eh? The mechanic was literally astonished we were even alive…… Apparently if a bearing breaks, you’re likely to have the wheel fall off, crash, roll and die if you’re on the highway. Thanking the rock n’ roll gods for throwing us a bone on that one…..

March 16 – 17^th The Atria Oshawa, ON

We hopped in the “no guarantees” shit-storm of a van, and headed to Jesse’s place where we ate a delicious homemade meal prepared by his wonderful mother. We all passed out around 8PM and slept for 13 to 15 hours……yeah we’re party animals….. We then ate breakfast and headed to Oshawa for our St. Paddy’s day show. This one was a bit of an odd show. It was one of those shows where everyone sits at the bar and seemingly doesn’t pay attention to you, then when you go to tear your stuff down and pick your dignity up off the floor, everyone comes and tells you how great you were and that they were there the last time you played, want a CD and want to know when you’re coming back?? Really?? You liked it? Not the usual way of you know…..clapping or even acknowledging the band on stage, but we’ll take it!! It should also be known that we made the true mistake of eating at Pizza Pizza right before this show. Blake started to get sick before the set, but we thought he was just being his usual wimpy self.

March 18^th to 19^th Coach and Horses Lindsay, ON

We arrived late night in Brantford and went straight to sleep (again party animals). From the corner of my eye at about 6am I saw Sean get up and run to the bathroom in the most “I’m going to fucking hurl” way possible. I dream-laughed my ass off at him thinking, “what a chump”. This whole scenario repeated it self three or four times throughout the morning until we all finally woke up. We were greeted by good friends, Benny and Sam from the Ascot Royals, had some breakfast, did some laundry and then I passed out for four hours on the floor. I woke up and didn’t feel right, light headed, everything was hot and all menopause-like.I ran out on to the deck in a T-shirt and boxers trying to cool off in the snow. I was huddled for a minute then…… dun, dun, dun! That feeling came….. you know the one… where you realize you’re going to puke, there’s no looking back, it’s like the worst realization next to a family member dying, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it, you’re just going to throw up, that’s it. It’s going to be horrible, the worst ever, when in reality it’s not really that bad, you’re just for some reason embarrassed of the whole situation. What if they laugh at me??? Of course they’re going to laugh, that shit is fucking hilarious when it happens to….well anyone but you.

Not too mention having to take a shit as well, and not being able to decide between the two. Which is the lesser evil? There’s only one bowl and there’s no smoking your way out of this one…. They need to invent “motorcycle toilettes” for these exact situations, where there is a bowl where you’d normally plant your ass, a bucket up by the handle bars for when you’re keeled over and a four stroke engine you can rev that will massage your belly through the “extraction???” Whatever….. at least I only puked once. Lidstone was next, then Keddy (as meticulous about germs as he is) got the worst of it and puked for pretty much the whole day/evening. Grossed out yet? You’re welcome .

Side note: I guess Japan already thought of this one

“Poo Bike kicking up a stink in Japan”

http://metro.co.uk/2012/08/24/poo-powered-toto-motorcycle-toilet-bike-neo-kicking-up-a-stink-in-japan-549656/

 

We headed off to Lindsay to play the Coach and Horses. It was s small place, so we decided to play an acoustic set, which went over pretty well with the few that saw us. They did have a super awesome wing-beer special and honestly I think we were all happy just to be out. Our friends in the DGB let us stay at their wicked awesome home, before we headed to Toronto the next day.

 

CMW: March 20^th to 21^st El Mocambo and the Underground Garage Toronto, ON

We were as happy as a bunch of rug rats (Keddy = Chucky) to roll in to Toronto. We pulled up to the hotel which hosted the registration for the festival and went inside to grab our passes. On the way out, we were stopped by a guy with a camera wanting to do a cameo. We had just smoked a joint and reluctantly agreed. It was simple, all we had to say was “Hey we’re the Stogies and we’re showcasing at Canadian Music Fest /Week 2013”. HOWEVER, he wanted us to say it all at the same time….. Now you’d think that being in a band would give us an impeccable sense of fusion, timing and rhythm, but we tried like 5 times to say it all at the same time and just couldn’t. We finally escaped with a half assed take and headed to meet Scott Blackburn who was also in Toronto for the week. We walked to Kensington Market and did some shopping while scoping out some places to take a new press shot. We found the perfect place after a bit in the alley next to the leather store. We did a quick and easy shoot and came out with this gem:

 Photo Credit: Scott Blackburn

We loaded our gear into the El Mocambo and watched a bit of the Stanfields’ sound check and some of us went to get food. Fast forward a few boring hours…. The band playing before us was a good band, can’t remember the name, but they were all good players. The only thing was all of their songs were quite slow. The crowd was getting bigger, but everyone was seated. We set up quickly and were ready to go, but before we started Blake took the mic and said “this is a fucking festival, you don’t sit down at a festival so come up and join us near the stage”. It should be noted that coaxing people to the front of the stage is a daunting task, you can only say it once without coming off as arrogant, but this time it worked and they all seemed generally happy and curious about what we were going to sound like. Thirty seconds into the first tune I think they all realized what they were in for, and they loved it. It’s normally quite hard to have a such a responsive crowd in Toronto, especially for a relatively unknown band. Anyway, we played a great set and definitely turned every head in that room. Scroll down to the reviews at the bottom to see what we mean.

 

The Stanfields were up next, and like always, rocked the sox off a near sold out joint. Fuck I love that band, we love that band. After the set we headed to the Horseshoe and then to various places to lay our heads for the night. I woke up to a text from Blake saying “rise and shine…..the van got towed” seriously??? It was true, our van got towed along with our friend, Vanessa’s car. Blake and Vanessa had to cab it all the way to Scarborough to get the van out of the impound lot.

We were all set to play the last slot at the Underground later that night. The bar was packed with drunks and fake smoke. Seriously it’s hard to breathe in there with all of that smoke billowing in (yeah….coming from a band called the Stogies), but it made for a good atmosphere and the show went well. I must say the last two trips to Toronto have been amazing show-wise, so thanks for coming out!

March 22 The Foxx Lounge Barrie, ON

We went to find some lunch and met with a couple of unnamed industry folks in Toronto, then headed up to Barrie. After hanging out for a while, we loaded into the venue and were greeted by Shane, the promoter/sound guy/all around awesome dude. We were set to play first around 10:30 and even by that time, we had a great crowd. The venue looked amazing, had a great stage, and an amazing sound system. Again, we put on a great set and got to talk to some of the locals after the show. We will definitely be back there next tour. After a couple of dirty-burgs we made the trek through the snow to Brantford to stay the night.

March 23 Two Doors Down Brantford, ON

Everyone thinks Brantford is a shit hole…and well it kind of is, but it just so happens that a small cluster of awesome friends and music lovers live in said shit hole. We hung out for the day and loaded into the bar. Upon loading into the bar we were greeted by “that drunk asshole at every bar”. She was hanging off of everyone, not making any sense and probably looking for a fight. In fact she was so drunk, that after load in, she wandered out by our van ripped her pants down and took a leak on the side walk. She left before the show even started. Anyway, like always, Brantford was a shit show. Amazing crowd for such a small bar and we hung out and got hammered with a bunch of new and old friends. James’ teeth were fixed this time (see Indie Week tour blog) and even Jimmy made an appearance, looking dapper as ever.

The next day we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was a long drive, but we made it in one piece. I know this blog was more of a rant or bitch, but all mishaps aside, this tour was better than any other tour we’ve done. Canadian Music Fest/ Week was an absolute blast and we couldn’t have asked for better showcases. It’s nice to see the audience growing, every show was packed, or at least a lot of fun and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our friends, families and fans.

CMW Reviews + Interviews:

http://t.co/WBbm4RYC5x

http://www.newsandwriters.com/Concert-Reviews/cmw_east_coast_night_at_el_mocambo.html#prettyPhoto

http://tmakworld.com/2013/03/canadian-music-week-2013-wednesday.html

http://www.mediazoic.com/news/events/cmf-2013-review

We’re working hard (at a medium pace) on this new record. Please be patient, it just might be worth the wait. We’ll keep you up to date on our next tour plans, which will be announced by the end of this month.

Peace & Love,

Dave D

 

 

 

 

We’ve added a couple of showcases in Halifax next week:

March 7 ECMA Showcase Casino Nova Scotia (NSCC Stage)

March 8 JJ Bookings Roster Showcase Michael’s Bar & Grill

If you can’t wait until next week (of course you can’t) The Scene Magazine has dubbed our CMW Send Off at Michael’s Bar & Grill March 1st as their “Pick of the Week”. See you there.

No amount of exclamation points could convey how excited we are to announce this tour……so fuck them. We’ll be heading to Ontario in March to showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto. We’ll be hitting other places along the way and of course we’ll be having a send off show in Halifax. Feast your eyes on these dates:

March 1 CMW Send Off Michael’s Bar & Grill
March 14 Plan B, Moncton, NB
March 15 Mavericks Ottawa, ON
March 17 The Atria Oshawa, ON
March 19 The Coach and Horse Lindsay, ON
March 20 CMW Showcase El Mocambo Toronto, ON
March 21 CMW Showcase Underground Garage Toronto, ON
March 22 Foxx Lounge Barrie, ON
March 23 Two Doors Down Brantford, ON

Spread the word.

Let’s all take a moment of silence and pray that our van is up for the journey. If you live in Halifax, come support us at Michael’s Bar & Grill on March 1st. It’s a fundraiser of sorts and we’ll be accompanied by Like a Motorcycle, Jessie Brown and the Odd Bit. We’ll have some merch for sale by donation, you could snag 1 or all of the last 50 copies of ‘No Couth’. 

Thanks for reading, you’re alright.

Well…. well….well…. where to start? I guess we could start with a humble thank you. We say this every year, but that’s because it’s true! 2012 was without a doubt, our best year yet and we must thank our fans, friends and families for showing up to the shows, buying our music, giving us a place to rest our heads, feeding us etc.

The Stogies + the Troubleshooters super band at the Seahorse.

We also have to thank those who have helped us professionally over the last year. First and foremost, Jason MacIsaac has been part of the foundation as our booking agent for about two years now. He’s helped our b(r)and grow tremendously by working his ass off getting us into great venues, playing with great bands. Here’s a picture of JMAC after he won Booking Agent of the Year at NSMW 2012

We also have to thank Devcom’s Troy Arseneault and Mike MacDougall. Troy has been a mentor of sorts since we first played New Music Tuesday at the Seahorse Tavern back in 2009. He co-produced and guided us through the release of our first EP ‘No Couth, No Class, No Nothin’ and shared with us, his wealth of industry knowledge and musical expertise. Mike has done just about everything else for us. Seriously….. this guy co-produced and mixed our record, designed our album art, merch, posters and taught us everything there is to know about conspiracy theories. Check out their website here. 

New comers Leah Kays and Mary Beth Waldram also helped out a lot this year. Leah helped promote some shows, slung merch at shows, designed this website and kept our newest member, Jason Keddy, in line. MBW helped out with publicity, promotion, grant writing and some brainstorming sessions.

As for family, Doug and Michelle Carver helped us out by letting us pretty much run their vehicles into the ground and making sure we had a way to tour. Kelly Johnston helped us purchase our shady new band van, complete with tinted windows, mundane maroon paint job, ghetto stripes, enough cargo space for our gear and a master bedroom.

As for bands, the top three that come to mind are the the Ascot Royals, the Stanfields and the Jessie Brown Band. The Ascot boys provided us with a home-away-from-home while we were touring in Ontario, helped promote our shows and supported our shows when they came to the East Coast. The Stanfields have let us open for them on a few different occasions and have always showed us a great time and how to put on a great show. Last but not least, Jessie Brown supported us as an opening act a few times, invited us to play her CD release and also invited us to play her ECMA nocase in Moncton.

As for radio, Kim Sinclair of Spincount, helped get our songs on the radio and scored us some sweet interviews. We’d also like to thank Erin Bond of CHSR for playing, tweeting and promoting the shit out of our record in Fredericton.

2012 Highlights:

- Selling out the Seahorse Tavern at our first 2012 show in February

- A full eastern Canada tour

- Showcasing at NxNE for the first time in Toronto

- Supporting the Jessie Brown CD release at Michael’s

- Come Together Festival

- Opening the Q104 Keith’s Natal Day Festival at Alderney Landing w/ Wintersleep, Rich Aucoin, Gloryhound, Alert the Medic and Long Distance Runners

- Opening for the Mahones at the Seahorse in August

- Riverfest

- Winning the Road to Indie Week East Coast series

- Playing four showcases at Indie Week Canada in Toronto and coming second place at the Indie Week Nationals

- Showcasing at Nova Scotia Music Week

- Breakfast burritos at Plan B

ALRIGHT ENOUGH SAPPY LOVE LETTER BULLSHIT FOR ONE DAY

Three last points:

-We’re currently working hard at getting a new record together for 2013

-We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be showcasing at Canadian Music Fest in March!

-Come celebrate a wicked 2012 with yours truly and The Stanfields on New Year’s Eve at the Seahorse Tavern!

Purchase advance tickets here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/384044158348139/?fref=ts

We are absolutely honoured to have been part of this year’s Indie Week. Much to our surprise, we took home the runners up prize in the finals which included some of the top independent bands from across Canada!

The run-down on our week:

Wednesday

We started the week out in Brantford Ontario (our home away from home) with a cozy show at Two Doors Down. The boys in the Ascot Royals took us in again and showed us how a mid-week Brantford party works. After the show, the whole bar piled into Lonnie’s for giant poutines. We left shortly after and headed back to the Ascot’s place, only to discover that some of the show-goers had gotten into a post-poutine-altercation with some young punks. Jimmy (Ascot Royals) and James (friend) were in a car being obstructed by perhaps “Brantford’s most wanted hoodlums”. Some choice drunken words were probably exchanged and both Jimmy and James got punched in the face. James lost a tooth! I thought that only happened in cartoons. Anyway, we spent the rest of the night hanging out and telling James “it doesn’t look that bad :S”.

Thursday

The next day we headed into Toronto for our first showcase at Indie Week. We loaded into the Hideout around 6PM, then left to find our hotel and some grub. Upon checking into our hotel we discovered we had accidentally been give the Executive King suite which included a full kitchen, dining room and master bedroom.  Needless to say we didn’t make use of the stove and went straight out to find some fast food. Hero Burger was the choice of the trip for us, ringing in overpriced burgers at all-too-convenient locations across the city. A few hours later (more like 9) we hit the stage for our 3:30AM showcase. The act that played before us was a very “interesting” band from Seattle complete with a full horn section, Freddy Krueger on the Theremin, white suites, orange hair and Christmas lights inside the tuba! Surprisingly enough there was still a crowd at this hour, mind you they were stumbling drunk (we have some hilarious pictures that may or may not make their way to the interwebs). We played our hearts out and were pretty well received. By this point we were too exhausted to party on any longer so we headed back to the hotel.

Friday

We woke up just before the crack of noon and headed to meet the awesome Candice Knihnitski for an interview and acoustic performance at Q107. Candice produces the Kim Mitchell show but also does an awesome discovery series on up and coming bands. If you’re keen on hearing a brand new song you can check it out here!

http://www.q107.com/Blogs/CandiceBlog/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10449683

Shortly after we went to find food and load in for our show at the infamous El Mocambo. We were really looking forward to this show not only because it was with our fellow east coasters The Stanfields, Gloryhound and Arrows in the Air, but that all of our heroes also played this stage once upon a time. (Think: The Rolling Stones, SRV, Bowie etc.) Anyway, we had a great time catching up with the aforementioned bands and once a again played a solid set to a few late night show-goers at 3AM. We also met up with the wonderful Venessa Markov of Lithium Magazine and Lithium Radio for an interview that will be posted shortly.

After the show we headed back to our Hotel and saw a bunch bloody of musicians (the same band from Seattle we had played with the night before). They told us they were simply standing outside, when a car of four Russian dudes pulled up and proceeded to beat the crap out of them. We felt horrible for these guys and oddly creeped out by the amount of violence surrounding our trip. If that band ever reads this, we promise Canada is not usually like this!

Saturday

Once again, woke up relatively early for some more press! This time we invited the nice folks from Street Folk Sessions into our hotel room to shoot some videos of our new songs. These will also be posted shortly! 

We then hit the Black Market on Queen Street which, if you like finding gems at thrift stores, is a gold mine! After a long walk home, we hopped in the van and headed to our 3rd showcase at the Underground Garage. This time it was a battle round. Littered with stickers on the walls and bras on the ceiling, it was the perfect place to host the east coast battle! By the time we hit the stage the place was sold out and was rammed until 4AM. Needless to say this show was amazing and we found out the next morning that we had won and were going to be playing the finals on Sunday.

Sunday

Ok, Ok skip the bullshit during the day…huge traffic jam, marathon through the city, almost didn’t get our gear yadda yadda!!! We played the finals with 9 other bands from across Canada at one of the best venues we’ve ever set foot in. The Tattoo Rock Parlour (Think: Slash, Gene Simmons) 

The room was packed with industry and media folk and I believe the judges included dudes from the Barenaked Ladies and Platinum Blonde. The sound was absolutely incredible as was the light show. We were on 3rd last and played a short 15 minute and killed it! Many of the people in the room didn’t know who we were but they do now. We ended up placing second over all winning some money from Shure and some microphones which isn’t too bad for our first time at Indie Week. Burning the Day, a metal band from Toronto took home the grand Prize and they deserved it, they were wicked!

When all was said and done, this was one of the most successful weeks we’ve ever had as a band and we can’t wait to hit the road again! Pictures, reviews, interviews and other press will be posted shortly!

Love,

Dave