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September, 2010Hey hey - Summer is drawing to a close, but you wouldn't know it from here. As Arrow once said (and Buster Poindexter echoed): "Hot hot hot." The life of a musician - I sit sweaty at my desk, deep in the throes of arranging the next gang of shows. A couple QC appearances to be followed by a relatively mammoth EU tour for Oct/Nov. We still have some open dates, so if you want us in your town, drop a line. We're flexible. Check it here. Sentimental Gentleman (the new full-length) is well on it's way to you - kinks to be hammered, bridges to be built. Good things take time. In the meantime, we are assembling Monumental Moments, a short collection of unreleased treats: demos, out-takes and rarities... This will be free, or nearly so. Hunt it down. It will be ready and available (in Europe) before the tour. Consider it a gift, or a push of encouragement to seek out the other available records and come to shows when Snailhouse is near you. More on that soon. Also - Snailhouse "remixed" a song called "Cobbled From Dust" on Make the Least of the Day, the Acorn's remix release of their amazing record No Ghost. It's out digitally on Sept 14 on Paper Bag, or you can get a real copy from them on their giant tour. OK - back to work. Nice talking to you. xo Snailhouse August, 2010Holy smokes, Snailhouse is back from tour, kids camp and Sappy. It's been fast and furious. Now is the time to make some answers to long asked questions... in peace. More soon, July, 2010Snailhouse band is on tour. Check the blog for updates. June, 2010European tour wrapped up. Home now! You can read about the tour on the blog if you are inclined that way. It ruled. Now some recuperating, catching up, and recording some new songs (in that order). xo May, 2010Hey hey. Today the tour begins - at least today's the day I hop on a plane. As you may or may not know, this is a solo tour. I expect to have found myself by the time I return. If you are living (or hanging out) somewhere in Europe, please check the dates and see a show. I've begun a tour blog. Check it out once in a while. As I have life experiences, I will input them. Toodles for now. Lots to do. Ever fondly, April, 2010Hi again. Big big big thanks to Sevens Project for the great shows in Toronto and all over Quebec. Thanks Quebec for your tireless enthusiasm. What a great string of dates. For the moment- we here at SnailhouseCorp® are preparing for a string of solo dates in Europe. Tickets have been purchased and plans solidified. Check the tour page. You'll notice there are gaps, so if you have ideas, I'd love to hear from you. Just drop a line. But... ... before that, Snailhouse will be making a special appearance in Ottawa for May Whee Festival. I'll be in good company - that is clear. Meanwhile, the newest recording makes the rounds to some qualified professionals who will determine it's worth. Zing! OK - bye for now. Snailhouse. PS - Bell Orchestre (my other band) just won a Juno! Wha? March, 2010Well, Sentimental Gentleman has been mixed and mastered. It sounds amazing, and Jeremy worked long hours to bring it to a special place. Now we just have to attend to some of the boring stuff before we figure out how to get it to you, the listener. On another note, I've been writing loads of new songs, and documenting a bunch of it here at home. There might be another record done before this one even hits the streets! Career suicide or overdrive? Discuss. Full band shows are coming up in Toronto, Ottawa and here at home on Montreal this week! This run will be with the gentlemen who preformed the new record with me, and we'll be previewing some of the material from Sentimental Gentleman. I guess it's just too hard to keep it under wraps. There'll be handful of other, mellower shows to follow in the Spring. Dates to be posted soon. The month of May will see a solo Snailhouse making my lonesome way across Europe. If you'd like Snailhouse to play your town - now's a great time to get in touch and we'll see if we can fit it in. Weddings, funerals, house parties - whatever! I'm open to it. Full tour dates coming soon. All the best to you all as we hibernate through the last breaths of Winter. xo Snailhouse February 22, 2010We here at snailhousecorp know that you like music at it's best, and that's why we are taking the our time to craft the mixes of this new recording. Things are coming together well, and all is approximately on schedule. Mostly, we are just engaged in a lot of listening and thinking and discussing at this point. Things are good. Meanwhile - the Vancouver show was a pleasure, so thanks to all who made it happen. Ok - back to work (me, not you). February 1, 2010Seriously about to start mixing. The pieces are coming together. I guess there's no reason not to tell you... this album will be called Sentimental Gentlemen. I, for one, can't wait to share it. Hell, I can't wait to hear it! Anyhow - I'll keep you posted. Snailhouse. January 14, 2010Snailhouse squeaks in at 48 on Crazewire magazine's top records of the decade. Nice! www.crazewire.de January 3, 2010Very sad news: I've just learned of the passing of one of our time's great artists, Lhasa de Sela. I didn't know her, but I love her music like a friend and I'm grateful for her example. My heart goes out to her loved ones. Sincerely, Snailhouse. January 2, 2010Happy New Year everyone! Thanks to all the listeners for a great and adventurous year. There's lots of stuff lined up for snailhouse in 2010, so stay tuned. This month, I'll be hard at work on finishing the musical contributions to a new dance piece by Katie Ward. The piece is called Rocksteady and it will be unveiled in Montreal at Tangente January 21-24. I recommend that you get tickets. Also - we'll be finishing up the new Snailhouse recording over the next while - hopefully mixing at the end of the month. There will be shows in Canada over the Winter, and in Europe in the Spring. I'll keep you posted. All my lovin', December 2009Since my last report things have been moving along well on the new recording. I've had the luxury of adding some backing vocals, courtesy of Angela Desveaux, Katie Moore and Dara Weiss. I've been using my new (and borrowed) home studio to add touches of percussion, keyboards and guitar. Just a little more backing backing vocals and I'll be just about ready to bring this into the mixing phase with Mr Gara. Stay tuned here - I'll keep filling you in. The Spring will see snailhouse (with band) playing some shows in Europe if all goes as planned. In the meantime, if you are in Montreal, you can catch snailhouse sharing an evening with Old Believer at Casa del Popolo on Dec 16th. More news soon, November 2009As you read last month, I made the foundations for a new recording with the help of Kyle Cunjak, Nick Cobham and Mike Belyea. Since then I've been working with Jeremy Gara and I've sung all my vocals and sorted out something of a plan. There are still lots of bells and whistles to be added: special guest singers and players. Lots of fun and arranging still to come. Hopefully, we'll be mixing this sucker within a month or so. There is still no firm plan on when or how it will come out, but it will. If this type of thing interests you, keep an eye on this space. I'll get back soon with updates and information.
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October 2009Kyle, Nick and Mike were here in Montreal last week, and we recorded backing tracks for 11 songs. This is the foundation for the new recording. Obviously there is still a lot of work to do, but we got more done than I had dared hope. We did all of this live stuff with Kees Dekker at The Treament Room (one of my favourite places here in the city). We also took a little trip by train to perform at Halifax Pop Explosion and a beautiful church show in Sackville with Ohbijou. It felt really good to get out and try some of those new songs live after playing them in the studio. Some pictures are here if you want to see them. Anyhow, back to work. Thanks for stopping by - friends are important. xo snailhouse October 2009Hi hi. Just working on songs - making them good (or better, as the case may be). The new recording is taking shape in my mind. September 2009Hi Friends. Sorry to keep you waiting. I've been touring with Bell Orchestre these days. Sincerely, snailhouse August 2009The early part of this month was spent working on a lot of new snailhouse songs with band. We played many of them for our show at Sappy Fest. It was refreshing, and by all accounts a success. Photos here. Seriously though, what a great working holiday in Sackville! So many friends, old and new. Thanks again Sappy crew for making dreams take flight. These days I am working on making some sketches of songs here at home, as well as some projects with Bell Orchestre. Bell O tours in September, and by October snailhouse recording will be in full swing. All the best to you and yours, Sincerely, snailhouse. JULY 2009Well, easy come easy go. Back to thinking about making songs. Mom always told me it's not a contest. June 2009Snailhouse nominated for Polaris Prize! Lies on the Prize has officially made the long list (of 40 artists) for Canada's Home from European solo tour: Special thanks to all of the promoters, bands, hosts and friends from along the way Snailhouse on Radio 2: You can hear a recording of our full March concert in Ottawa at St Brigid's on the Also, snailhouse can now be found on Twitter, if that swings your gate. Bam. xo snailhouse May 2009Hey hey Gearing up to hit the sky tomorrow, and head to Manchester to begin a snailhouse solo tour. Please check the dates, and come out and hear me play. These shows will bring me to the UK, NL, FR and DE. Then I go back to London and start over as a member of Bell Orchestre. I will support Bell on a couple of these shows as well, so check your listings. Always a pleasure because they will join me on stage for re-styled versions of some snailhouse songs. I really hope to see you. xo snailhouse January 2009!Happy New Year. snailhouse got some props in the year-end lists: Guelph Mercury, wolveshawksandkites.com, Hero Hill. xo snailhouse OUT NOW |
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Lies on the Prize |
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Sappy Records International Corporation has put together a tribute to yours truly. This is probably the biggest honour imaginable. It hosts tracks by a whole slew of amazing artists - all playing snailhouse songs! Weird? Yeah I know. |
