Blog

In Zurich the people speak Swiss-German, which is only a spoken language. They write in German. They also speak French near the French border and Italian near the Italian border. Nightmare. So now you know. Watch out for those ‘neutral’ people
 
We are currently in Zurich, but because I am on a Swiss keyboard I keep writing Yurich as some letters are in different places. So if it happens again, that is why. I’m not insane.
 
 
NXNE
 
North by North East was brilliant. Toronto is a great city and the music scene is sehr gut. The festival basically takes over the city for about five days. All the major venues around town had about 6 bands on every night, with breaks between sets so punters can venue-hop. Lots of sweet bands played. Lots and lots.
 

And we're back! Now that our gigs are finished we're feeling a bit more relaxed and able to devote some attention to blogs, emails, postcards and movies. We saw Iron Man last night. Fun.
 
GIGS
 
Well, there's so much to say. We had our third and final gig on Thursday night - a double header with local singer/songwriter Farrell Spence. She was probably the best thing we've heard since we've been in Canada and she certainly put on a great show. We found her through myspace and she set up the gig and did all the hard booking work (thank you Farrell!) while we did some postering (in the rain, again - it always rains when we're postering). She had a lovely band too - great lead guitarist who really hit the spot with gentle, subtle licks, beautiful viola/violin/banjo player (from Brisbane originally) and lovely backing vocalist providing that lovely americana sound.
 

I've just woken up after my first remotely normal sleep since arriving in Vancouver. Jetlag. Bah. Anyway, Vancouver is very sweet as - particularly the part we're staying in. Yaletown is great - good food, good bars, yoga centres and such. We've spent the last two days postering the city down the main drags, Granville and Robson, and around the venues we're playing.
 
Posters. Arrrggghhh. What an ordeal this has been. Ever spent an afternoon telling Kinko's employees that all printers should be able to print multiple sheets per page? Ever asked for A3 sized paper (or A4 for that matter) and been met with a completely blank look which quickly turns into a 'you're an idiot' look? Ever had to go home TWICE to redesign posters that you have already spent ages designing so that when you got to Vancouver all you would need to do is go and print the bastards?
 
The New Music West Festival started yesterday with little VIP shindig and an art gallery, which we discovered was literally across the road from where we are staying. Pretty convenient! So, we had some nice wine, some nice cheese and some nice schmoozing with other NMW folk. Mainly though, we schmoozed with Reggie and Lizzy of New Found Frequency (the Australian Export Showcase organisers) and another Australian act Clare Reynolds and her partner in crime, Daniel. These guys hail from Brisbane but have been very impressively basing themselves in LA (I think this is very brave, what with LA being full of Americans with guns). We're going to see Clare perform in her showcase tonight - she's the final act, on at 1am! Which is kind of convenient, really because we have our first gig earlier in the evening...
 
First Gig:
We're performing as part of the '4 Corners of the Globe Showcase' tonight, which is like a bonus showcase for us, so great, and which will be in a venue called The Libra Room (www.libraroom.com) on Commercial Drive. This part of town is, as much as I can gather, a bit of a latin quarter. We postered the hell out of it yesterday. We also saw a guy who looked just like Robin Hood (or at least one of his Merry Men) practising with his wooden fighting stick. Yes.
And for the botanists out there, there were some tulips planted in this little park and I kid you not, these petals were bigger than my hands. Maybe bigger than Ade's hands. Monsters.
Anyway, the gig should be cracking. 4 Corners of the Globe actually means two Australia bands, a Canadian band and an Icelandic band. Sweet. Australia has two corners of the globe.
 
Other things we've seen:
They have a beer over here called Keith's. I love that.
I have some video footage of some guys breakdancing - they were pretty good. Breakdancing is cool.
There is a really strange thing in Vancouver. We're obviously staying in a really nice area, and we're right in the major shopping and culture part of Vancouver, with bars, eateries, clubs, expensive hotels, theatres etc. We headed off in search of our Australian Showcase venue, The Bourbon, yesterday to poster the hell out of it, and ended up getting there in a bit of a roundabout way - through what seems like a completely different city. All of a sudden we walked from nice shops and parkland into a quite frightening, ghost-town like area which just had destitute people huddled together with mankey old blankets. They huddled in doorways and on steps to escape the weather (which is still very cold) but it was clear these areas are also frequently used as toilets. All the buildings in this area were derelict and looked empty and abandonned (or were barricaded to the nth degree). This was pretty saddening for us, but also pretty frightening. We had heard that there is next to no policing around there too, so we got out of there pretty quickly, found our venue, postered the hell out of it then got in the first cab we saw.
You can't get muesli in Vancouver. And Special K is not the same. Nooooooo.
There are tattoo parlours EVERYWHERE.
 
I think that'll do from me right now. I'm due for some more tea and some cable tv. ohhhh yeaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!
x jane

Well we're at the airport! 

We had all the right things with us and we're through the big silver doors.  I think our flight may have just been delayed (standard!) but we're feeling the effects of caffeine and a touch of excitement/anxiety.  Stopping in Sydney, San Francisco and then arriving in Vancouver.  Going back in time.  Neato.
Stay tuned for more adventures of...
 
The Tiger and Me
 
x

I thought I would update the 'other things we do' blog (myspace) from last year, as it is ever changing and proves resistant to consistency.
 
• While Jane continues to fight the good fight in the world of government education, she has been working on a few other things too. She's been my resident soprano/violinist for my composition work (see below) and has been slowly but steadily working on her guitar and piano playing. She's also considering a career in design as she has been spending hours on her little macbook designing our posters. The latest thing is business cards. She's designing business cards for us. They look sweet. Now when people come up to us and say, "Do you have a card?" we can say, "why yes, I have one right here". And then BAM we hit them in the face. Her other band The Nymphs' debut live recording is also nearly complete – so watch their myspace for details on that. It will be killer. KILLER.
 
• I've been spending the last few months writing and recording the score to a short film titled 'Fallen', starring Bill Hunter. It is almost complete, and will premiere mid-year. I will post any news about it here, because along with The Tiger it has been my main focus for the last little while and I'm in a cross-promotional frame of mind and also really quite proud of it at this stage thankyou very much. I've also been playing some keys on various people's albums. I suggested to Jane that playing on people's albums was not unlike being a Clint Eastwood-style lone gunman walking around the wild west, not shaving very often, saying very little out of the corner of your mouth and working as a hired gun for various gangs. Jane thinks that is lame. She may be right. Nonetheless I have played some keys for some people lately – I just haven't shot anyone. I did some playing for Brendan Welch's album (was produced by Paul Dempsey so was great getting to work with him) and also Amy's Theory. I've officially joined Tobias Cummings & The Long Way Home and have been working on a new album with Tobes and the other Long Ways Home for a few months (I've never thought of myself before as an inefficient route back to where you live but there you go). I'm also playing some keys and some backing vocals for Jess McAvoy's next album – being recorded literally RIGHT NOW. So that's cool.
 
Okay
That is all.
Love us. (love from us. Not 'love us or else!'. But you can if you like.)
 
Check the LINKS section for more info on these various projects.