The D’Urbervilles

Thanks to local videographer and Soundscapes employee Colin Medley for the tip on this one.  Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has lobbied successfully to get the governor of Washington to pass a law stipulating that businesses must grant people with inflammatory bowel diseases guaranteed access to their washroom facilities in the event of, um, unanticipated emergencies.

Like McCready, I also suffer from Crohn’s Disease and although I can’t say that I’ve ever crapped my pants onstage (cause apparently he has) I really wish that we could get similar legislation passed north of the border.  Click here for a more detailed description of Mr. McCready’s aforementioned pants crapping courtesy of Exclaim! online.

Happy Trails,

John O

You know the feeling when you have a really big secret that you can’t tell anyone?  You’re really excited but also nervous that you’re going to spill the beans by mistake?  It’s almost like having to go to the bathroom when you’re in the backseat of the van on the way to a show and you just drank an entire Big Gulp but nobody wants to stop because you already just stopped and you’re going to be late so you’ve just got to hold it until we get there?  Yeah.

Anyway, imagine our relief when we surfed over to the website of venerable Canadian indie Arts & Crafts only to see that they’ve finally announced the big news – Timber Timbre got signed!  Cue the sound of a thousand truck stop urinals flushing in unison.  Sigh.  We’re obviously super psyched for Taylor and even more so for all those folks who haven’t yet heard the album that are going to get the chance in the coming months.  He’s hitting the road with Halifax’s Ghost Bees later this month and throughout June, so we’d advise you to catch him in a small venue while you still can.  Amazing!

The other great news is that A & C is now handling distribution duties for the entire Out Of This Spark catalogue, which means it’ll now be easier for you to get your hands on not only our own album, but great discs by Forest City Lovers, Jenny Omnichord, and of course, the upcoming Friends In Bellwoods compilation.

Spiffy!

John O

Lest you think we haven’t been keeping busy, it’s my sincerest pleasure to let y’all know that we finished recording our track for the upcoming Friends In Bellwoods compilation album a few days ago.  It’s a Timber Timbre cover, but I’ll leave it up to your imaginations to figure out which one.  Hint – the title of this blog post?  The comp itself is coming out this summer on (where else?) Out Of This Spark.

Big thanks to Jamie Bunton of Ohbijou fame for pressing all the right buttons on this one.  Here’s an artistically blurred photo he snapped during a break in the session.  Before I sign off, I wanted to mention two things as well.

Thing #1.  Although Kyle is pictured in this photo, his physical self is actually in Europe, where he’s touring with Forest City Lovers.  Check their website for updates.

Thing #2.  You’d be forgiven for thinking that instead of recording, we were actually partaking in some sort of strange, basement library session.  In actual fact, the three of us are totally engrossed in brand new copies of a zine that our friend Thomas DiNinno from the band Mt. Royal put together recently.  It’s called Fan Club and it features beautiful illustrations of some of Canada’s top indie bands, alongside a selection of songs that the band members have compiled as a sort of imaginary mixtape.  Band secret – Kyle actually picked all of our songs.  Don’t tell.

Spring has sprung,

John O