Video of Cole and Rob rocking it in the Greg Macpherson band

Pretty rad!

free shit

hmmmmm you may download The Sun Hot here:

http://rightthrough.bandcamp.com/

(it's free!!)

Not really any other news to report on the right through front. Still planning on releasing those new recordings at some point soon. Rob and Cole are going out on tour with Greg in October; Alan's doing his last year of high school and being a superstar tennis player; and me, I'm trying to learn latin for some dumbass reason. The future is a blurry and compelling place. Goodnight.

ABCs of rock and roll: Always Be Cruising

We recorded a couple songs last week at mid-ocean studios. It was kind of a last minute thing, but it went really well! The folks at mid-ocean are all super nice and knowledgeable and it was an all around good experience. The plan is that the songs will be released sometime soon; not sure of how exactly we will do that (the idea of a cassette single was briefly discussed)... Maybe there'll be a 'release' show sometime at the end of summer.

In other news, both Cole and I are heading out on our own tours of the mid-East this August: Cole with the Cannon Bros. and me with my solo stuff. Check out my dates HERE and Cole's HERE. Seee ya.

There is the poster for our show next week. And HERE is the facebook event.

Newss

Hey, so Cole's on a tour of eastern Canada playing in G mac's backing band!!! Check out the dates here: http://www.myspace.com/macphersonband. It's pretty wild. When Cole and I first started playing together Greg's music was a big point of reference. In fact, during the first show Cole and I ever did we played a cover of "weak" off Good Time Coming Back Again... That was at the label gallery on portage; great venue, too bad it's a UPS store now... Anyways, I see Greg's records as being pretty integral to what we're doing with Right Through, and it's really exciting that Cole is playing with him... Really exciting!!

In other news, we're working on putting together a show in late June for when Cole gets back. We'll be opening for a cool band I had the pleasure of playing with last weekend: Brothers. They're really tight and high energy and stuff, both really excellent at their instruments as well. Fun stuff to see live. More news about that soon. Here's a video to make this more interesting:

RRCC

Our friend Mirella caught some footage of us with her phone! Thanks Mirella!

This one's called 'burial':

'heavy metal'

and here's a brand new, untitled one:

Phelps

Well it seems that every second post on here is silkworm related... but whatever. I recently found this blog that has a bunch of Joel R.L. Phelps albums for download. Really good stuff. His records are criminally impossible to find.

Blackbird is probably the best, the song "blessed salt lake" is fantastic. He's got a really neat voice and sense of melody. Sometimes his delivery can be a little over-bearing, but the more I listen to it the more I like it. He seems really sincere and intense, which makes for much more interesting listening than overly-cautious music. Rock and roll should be about taking risks and stuff...

Speaking of rock and roll and risk taking:

A few weeks ago a nice fellow named Ryan interviewed me regarding CFR. Here is the article from the Uniter:

March 31st 2010

Rocking the foundations

Osborne Village church opens its doors to local rock bands and impacts the scene for the better

by Ryan Suche (Volunteer)

by Ryan Janz

In the New Testament, when Jesus said, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” it’s likely that rock ’n’ roll wasn’texactly what he had in mind.

At the quiet corner of Wardlaw Avenue and Nassau Street North sits Crescent Fort Rouge United Church (CFR). The 100-year-old facility is one of many churches founded in Osborne Village around the turn of the century, yet it’s decades ahead of the rest – at least musically.

It all began three years ago when Jesse Hill, vocalist/guitarist for Winnipeg-based rock band Right Through, found himself frustrated by finding available all-ages venues to play at with his fellow high school-aged band members.

As luck would have it, Hill ran into Bill Gillis, a rock fan and member of CFR, at a few house shows. Hill eventually inquired about the possibility of his band playing at the church. Gillis told Hill that he would have to write a pitch to the church committee to get a show approved, which Gillis would present to them.

In a surprise to both Hill and Gillis, the church embraced the idea with open arms.

“I was really not prepared for them being so totally OK with it,” Gillis explained. “There was no question. It was, ‘Well of course, why wouldn’t we?’”

CFR is already a staple of the Osborne arts community, hosting classical music recitals, theatre and choir performances, while strongly stressing investment in the arts as a part of their mission statement. This new program that Gillis has spearheaded has helped over 130 bands spanning the folk, indie, rock, punk and even metal genres play shows in the main sanctuary, basement and the upper hall.

“It’s something that had been needed because there’s fewer all-ages venues and I think we need a lot more of them,” Gillis said.

The program’s popularity has snowballed since Gillis first started it a few short years ago.

“There’s way more requests than we can possibly handle,” he said.

Hill agrees that the church fulfills a need, adding that as he was writing his proposal to open up CFR as a venue, he framed it in the context that it would be good for the community and that “the idea of a permanent venue was there.”

“CFR’s great and everybody should know about it,” he said.

Exactly what Winnipeg needed

A similar story to Hill’s is that of Grand Master, a local Winnipeg progressive/heavy metal band.

“CFR is exactly what Winnipeg needed, a space devoted to opening their doors to young musicians,” said 17-year-old guitarist/backing vocalist Shane Barron.

When CFR became a venue option, Barron said, Grand Master “began playing more often, and it was really a turning point for the band.”

That said, some are understandably weary about a church hosting rock shows, Grand Master included.

“At first we were sceptical about having a metal show in a church, but any concerns we had going into the show were soon gone,” said Barron.

“Nobody really said this, but there was kinda the idea of, ‘Are (the Christians) trying to get us in there and then get our scalps?’” Gillis added wryly.

When a band rents CFR, there isn’t a sermon to open the show or a priest to bless you, and above all, nothing is pressured on you. It’s simply a venue, a place to display something, and many Manitoba musicians are showing off their chops in this century-old building in a way almost unimagined before – with rock ‘n’ roll.

“Most of the people in the church ... are aware of (shows) going on, that it’s happening,” said Gillis when asked what CFR’s congregation thinks of the whole project.

“Most of those who know, know that it’s loud music and that it’s not anything they want to hear. If they were to walk into one of the shows, whatever the genre, they would be surprised and taken aback a little. But at the same time, there’s the trust level there that this is a good thing to do.”

It all comes back to the drive of Gillis, a soft-spoken, grey-haired man who is actively involved in all aspects of the shows at CFR. Gillis books the gigs, helps the bands set up, photographs the musicians during their sets and helps out with cleaning up afterwards.

“His ability to connect across generational lines, his organizational ability, he’s just a gift to us,” said Rev. Barb Janes, one of the two ministers at CFR.

To her knowledge, no other churches in Winnipeg are hosting these types of events, and it’s Gillis’s work that has really helped transform the space of the church and open its doors to a new group of people.

“I’m fortunate to be starting a sabbatical soon, and the area I’ve chosen to explore is to visit churches which are providing hospitality to arts in some way, shape or form,” Janes said when asked how this surge of arts and music at CFR has perhaps changed her own views of the church.

She is hoping to help continue to expand the way CFR conducts itself and opens its own doors to the arts.

There is no lack of that at CFR, as Gillis summed it up: “On Friday night we have a school-age choir, Saturday a metal show and Sunday there’s baroque.”

It’s just another weekend at CFR.

EASTER

We have a couple gigs at the end of the month: April 23rd at the rudolf rocker and April 29th at the Albert. After not having played a RT show since January, I'm pretty excited to get back into it. We've only jammed a couple times in the past months, which sucks... I would like to play more often but I guess we're all busy guys. There's lots of stuff to compete with.

Now here's a video of Greg Macpherson playing (probably) my favourite song off Balanced On A Pin. When the camera pulls out you can see Cole and I's backs!! We're two of those dark shapes...

BLOOD UNDER THE BRIDGE

Everyone must check out the new bottomless pit songs. So good.

Nina Nastasia, Dirty Three...

Ok, here is another post with a link to a blog where you can download really good free music: Swan Fungus. Man! Nina Nastasia is so good. John Peel seemed like a really nice guy.

Nina Nastasia was supposed to play the albert a couple years ago or so but the show was cancelled, I'm not sure what the reason was. What a disappointment, especially because Jim White was billed to be playing drums. If you don't know who that is...

In news more directly related to right through and stuff, I just posted all of the lyrics to "The Sun Hot" on myspace. So check it out if you'd like.

Also, not that anyone will read this before the weekend (or after it for that matter...), but Cole is playing with the Cannon bros on friday at the lo pub. I saw them play for the first time recently and they were fantastic. Furthermore, I'm doing my first solo set in ages saturday at ragpickers. I have quite a few new songs that I'm equal parts nervous and excited to play.

Engine Kid

I heard about this band through reading the liner notes to Silkworm's "Even a blind chicken...". My interest was further peaked when I learned that Greg Anderson (Sunn O))), Southern Lord Records, etc.) was the lead dude, I'm not terribly familiar with Sunn O))), what I have heard of theirs I like quite a lot. But I figured any contemporary of skwm is worth checking out so I searched for some engine kid stuff.

I found this site http://lamestainnorthwest.blogspot.com/2008/06/engine-kid.html, it has a bunch of Engine Kid songs for download. As that blog mentions, they do sound an awful lot like Slint; perhaps too much like Slint. So although I'm enjoying these songs, I haven't totally decided how good this stuff actually is... either way, I think it's interesting to listen to. That 1/4 mile thunder song is pretty neat.

Here's a video of Greg on skwm, sweet beard:

God dammit I hope the silkworm documentary is finished soon.

How it GOES

http://www.myspace.com/gravelybed

More of this stuff to come later on.