artist Octoberman

We've got a busy couple of months coming up.  It starts with a little jaunt to Ottawa and Montreal (Oct 16-17) followed by 3 & 1/2 weeks tooting around UK and Europe (check <a href="http://octoberman.ca/artist/shows/octoberman-shows/">CALENDAR</a> for updates).  This'll be the 4th octoberman tour across the Atlantic, but the first as a band (Marshall Bureau on drums, Tavo Diez de Bonilla on bass and keys, and me on a guitar I still need to buy).  Needless to say, this is exciting for us.  But even moreso will be returning to the studio upon landing back in Canada.  This time it will be at the <a href="http://www.thetwominutemiracles.com/studio.htm">HOUSE OF MIRACLES</a> in London, Ontario with the great Andy Magoffin (Great Lake Swimmers, Constantines, Hidden Cameras).   <a href="http://jimguthrie.org/index.php">JIM GUTHRIE</a> also offered to help out and play on the record after he stumbled upon an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQsq5GQVSg">INTERVIEW</a> from last year where I was asked who I'd like to work on the next record with and I said Jim.  Neat.

Hope to see you soon.Marc

PS: I just uploaded a cover we recorded of one of my favourite Sloan songs.  Sugartune.  Figured it was CBC appropriate. 

I am sitting alone in my friend Michelle's Main Street apartment listening to Nina Simone.  It is the first and only day off on the Western portion of our tour with Toronto's FemBots and it could not have come at a better time.  The late nights, early mornings and long-ass drives were starting to wear the six of us down.  The rare solitary moment and tall mug of coffee have put me in reflection mode.  After crossing Canada and then playing a couple of weeks worth solo shows in Europe, it was time to start our coast-to-coast tour opening for FemBots.  They explain the ups and downs and stomach troubles eloquently here: http://fembots.exclaim.ca.  To avoid repeating anything (ie. laziness), here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

- Our Pop Montreal show was the first time that C.L. and I played with our new rhythm section for this tour.  Luckily, Nathan Lawr (drums) and Tavo Diez de Bonilla (bass) are as rad off the stage as on.  We were also stoked to have Shaun Brodie in town to join us on trumpet and to get to play with friends and fellow White Whalers in The Mohawk Lodge, Poorfolk, and Culture Reject. 

- The night of our Fredericton show was also C.L.'s 30th birthday.  The latter part of the evening involved us dancing to a Zeppelin cover band with wasted college students and an old guy wearing tassles and a cowboy hat.  Back at the hotel we held an arm-wrestling tournament.  Brian from FemBots won handily and cockily. 

- Our first ever Halifax visit started with delicious squash soup on the "Let's Get Baked with Matt and Dave" radio show and and ended with people in the audience actually knowing our words! 

- Before our set in Winnipeg, I was feeling slightly intimidated. We had just taken ten days off from playing together and tried to hide the rust as best as we could to an audience that included some Weakerthans...

-Finally, having already been a big fan of the second FemBots record, my favourite part of every night has been joining in on "Small Town Murder Scene".  

Marc 

This year, I spent my Christmas holidays in Hong Kong, visiting my girlfriend's parents, who had moved there 3 years ago.  Her dad decided to help set me up with a show at a bar in Central HK and I had no idea what to expect.  I had only been in Hong Kong for one full day and was quite jet-lagged when we showed up for the absurdly early 4pm soundcheck.  The first thing we noticed was a massive poster of my face out on the busy street outside!  My girlfriend found this hilarious, but at the time I found it slightly creepy...  We went inside and twenty minutes later, I was done soundchecking so we decided to check out the neighbourhood to try to kill some time.  Heading back in later for dinner, I noticed that we were pretty much the only ones there.  All of a sudden, it was 10pm and I was supposed to go on at 10:30.  I then learned that the venue had only been open for 6 weeks.  Thinking the night was a bust, I went to the backroom to strum some chords and try to relax.  When I came out a few minutes later, the room had completely filled up.  The club owners told me to play two 45 minute sets, but I decided to just do one longish one.  They also asked me to throw in some covers, so I threw in a Rolling Stones and Townes Van Zandt ditty here and there, and since it was December 21st, a Christmas carol was mandatory (I went with Little Drummer Boy).  The audience was amazing, clapping along and listening closely.  After finishing my set, I was shocked to see the merch table being stormed by the Chinese audience members, and even the bar's staff members!  I wasn't sure what to charge, but was told that 100 Hong Kong Dollars was normal, so I went with that.  I quickly learned that in Asia, buying a cd also includes getting an autograph and a picture with the performer!  I pretended that this was a normal occurence when playing shows in Canada and tried to play it cool.  The bar owners generously offered me another gig the following week and a local promoter told me he could get me into some bigger venues the next time I was in Hong Kong.  I'll have to keep this in mind the next time our van breaks down in the Rockies...

We have finally returned from our month-long CBC Radio 3-sponsored tour with The Mohawk Lodge. There were a few setbacks but we always found a way to plow through them and it's a miracle that we made it to every single show and had an absolute blast along the way. Some of the challenges included: - the van breaking down in Kelowna, BC and then later on the way home in the middle of Montana - half of us having to drive 36 hours straight from Kelowna to Thunder Bay - Marc tearing his rotator cuff and having to play heavily medicated and sitting down for a week's worth of shows - C.L. getting punched in the face trying to break up a fight in Sudbury - a leaky trailer that soaked our merch and gear - getting hassled at the Detroit border crossing - running out of gas in the middle of a freezing night in North Dakota - running out of gas money in Lethbridge, AB - blowing out a tire on our trailer outside of Castlegar, BC As mentioned, all of the above paled in comparison to the many highlights, which included: - playing 24 nights straight with the mighty Mohawk Lodge - recording gang vocals with Poorfolk at Little Bullhorn Studios in Ottawa - being continually blown away by our Eastern Labelmates Culture Reject and Poorfolk at our shows in Ottawa, Montreal, Guelph and NYC - hitting NYC for 8 hours of rock n' roll at our CMJ showcase at the Knitting Factory - recording radio sessions in Toronto and Guelph - running into friendly faces along the way and meeting many new ones - a few other stories that can't be mentioned in blog format A massive THANK YOU goes out to: CBC Radio 3, The Mohawk Lodge, Poorfolk, Culture Reject, all of the venues and promoters, Leake and Kelowna, CFRU & Ken Cheesy, Ian from Flemish Eye, everyone who lent us gear, the Slice bar staff for putting us up and hosting a kitchen party, Ken Beattie, Jaime and Dan from the Rub, the Whitehouse Night Gallery in Kelowna, Kelly Gartshore, Marc's mom, Scotty's mom, everyone else who let us crash on their floors, and everyone who came out to the shows!! Love, Marc, C.L., Graham, Leah and Rob

Here we are at a house in Waterloo with an extremely rare 20 minutes of downtime. I don't want to repeat our tourmates in The Mohawk Lodge's last blog post, so I'll pick up where they left off. I've been nursing a mangled shoulder -- torn rotator cuff -- and have played the last seven shows sitting down, with a healthy dose of prescription drugs to get me through. The good news is that I've gotten out of gear-hauling duties. The bad news is that Leah now calls me 'gimpy'.

The Toronto show at The Boat was a hoot, with a surprising amount of familiar faces from Vancouver and Seattle in attendance. Afterwards, we had a solid three hour nap before we picked up Michael O'connell (Culture Reject) and hit the long Southbound road to NYC. Needless to say, navigating through Manhattan at rush hour in a van with a trailer was a tad stressful but two tunnels (Holland + Lincoln) later, Robbie was able to get us there on time for our CMJ Showcase. The Knitting Factory began to fill up during Michael's set which was mind-blowing (as always). Before we were about to go on, Graham met some rad kids from New Hampshire and Philadelphia who'd come all the way to see us play!

The next two shows were on the weekend in Ottawa and Montreal with our labelmates and close friends in Poorfolk. Both nights turned into crazy parties but we still managed to squeeze in a recording session at Little Bullhorn studios to lay down some gang-vocals on a new Poorfolk hit. "Cannot stop this march of the regulars!!" Indeed.

We've been truly inspired by how many amazing hosts we've met on the road recently. Last night in Kingston, Ryder got a last-minute invitation for all of us to crash with a couple of ex-Vancouver musicians that had recently moved there. As we walked into Dan and Jamie from Buffalo Swans / The Rub's character home (built by prisoners in 1840), we were greeted by Planet Waves on the turntable plus a fridge-full of beer and a fine spread of sweet and savoury snacks. Does it get any better?

This finally brings us to this house in the middle of downtown Waterloo, where we just finished playing a show. Tonight, Leah did a solo opening set that left jaws on the floor. We almost forgot how good her own songs were. Leah is the one who had originally told us about this place. Jeff Woods and his roommates regularly invite Canadian Indie Bands to perform in their living room, no matter what night of the week. They do it because they love music. No other reason.

M.

On the night of our tour kick-off show in Vancouver, every single member of Octoberman is sniffling, sneezing and coughing. Uh oh. We manage to fight through the phlegm and strange sound in the gym-like Ukraine Hall and the show goes over well. The next morning as we are leaving Vancouver, it takes two and a half hours for the U-Haul guy to get our gear trailer attached, forcing us to cancel the night's show in Golden. Not to worry -- one phone call later and we've set up a private house show for some cool kids in Kelowna. Renee, Laura and Heather from the Whitehouse Night Gallery called all of their friends in last minute, and a night of driving turned into a whisky-soaked dance party. Thanks to our amazing hosts! Arch still won't shut up about the delicious French toast. So it seems like all is smooth sailing as we turn to leave Kelowna, that is until we hear an intense banging sound and quickly pull over. It turns out that van's rear differential died and we have to get it towed to a mechanic who informs us that because of the Thanksgiving holidays it won't get fixed until Wednesday or Thursday. Cory and Leah are super-troopers to volunteer to babysit the van in Kelowna while the remaining seven of us take two cars and high-tail it to Calgary. We pull in at 10 pm and luckily the local band on the bill is cool with letting us use their amps and drums. The next morning we scarf down a Lumberjack breakfast on 16th Ave with our friend Ian from Flemish Eye Records. Timber!! The next night, all nine of us reunite at the Blackspot Cafe in Edmonton and play one of our funnest shows yet. We even did a last-minute cover with Arch from The Mohawk Lodge of Pavement's "Summer Babe." The rest of the night is spent partying in a random Edmonton garage, telling stories that none of us remember the next day. Props to Parker from the Blackspot for showing us a good time. As I write this, Scott and Arch from The Lodge inform me that the Slice's bartender has just volunteered to drive our van and trailer for us from Kelowna to Winnipeg, meaning that all of us can still play our Saskatoon and Winnipeg shows together. It seems that a lot of what touring requires is the ability to turn shit into gold. Partay!!

after being 'in the can' for almost a whole year, oct's second full-length 'run from safety' is set to be released on aug 21, '07 on white whale. there will be cd's, vinyl, and of course mpfree's. coincidentally, this will be followed by a cross-canada tour in october. hope to see you soon. marc, rob, graham, c.l., leah.