June 17th

We're looking forward to the Works show on Saturday and practicing a lot. I won't be doing a solo show that night which is great because it's busy enough already. There's not that many road stories to report, but we'll be getting back into it.

May 22nd

The dawn of a new era for the Red Shag Carpet journal, I'm going to get back in the habit of updating this. The work on the new album is coming along well with lot's of new songs. On June 23rd we're playing a show at The Free Masons Hall that will be our first show since New Year's. We're looking forward to it a lot. Earlier that night (around 8:30) I'm going to do my first ever solo show at Maverick's Brewery, I'll have more info on that one soon as well.

April 14th

Um.....we made a pact with ourselves that we wouldn't tour until we wrote about 12 new songs, so that's the reason for the long absence of journal entries. I'll let you know about stuff as it comes, hopefully I'll have a lot to report fairly soon.

January 24th

Hello everyone, I know it's been a long time. 2006 was a very busy year for us with constant touring. We've all agreed that we need to write lots of new songs and have them ready to play before our next show because we don't want to burn ourselves out creatively. We've been taking time off to do some other things (like work a bit). I'll keep posting stuff up here in the meantime once in a while. I just found out our e-mail hasn't been working but it should be running now. I'll be India for most of Feb.

December 18th

Here's a live track of "Hands Up On The Moon" from The Rose & Crown in Banff last week:

Hands Up On The Moon (live)

December 15th

It's a lot of fun to be back on tour. We had a good time in Banff, hardly slept and played Vancouver the next night. We're now in Revelstoke where we've taken over the bakery I'm in over the last couple of days. Hanging around mountain towns is pretty laid back, I watched Rocky II this afternoon in the hotel. It inspired me to put on a sweat suit and go running. Tomorrow night's our staff Christmas party in Kimberley. I think it was there last year too.

December 2nd

As some of you know, we don't alway like explaining where our name comes from. I found out something that's going to change all that. Elvis was found dead on a red shag carpet. Elvis is also Matti's idol. I think that makes for a better story even if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

November 26th

After the show we played last night I've officially decided to throw my amp in the river. I'm through with fixing it. This needs to be done. We'll have full coverage. We were also debating lighting it on fire and playing some heavy power chords until the end but I think throwing it in the river is the smartest move at this point.

November 6th

That was a lot of snow. The relatively tropical Vancouver we left feels like a distant memory but it was a good time. We're really sorry we had to cancel the Calgary show. There was a a big snowstorm, a semi-truck jack knifed and they had to close the road. We tried another route but it was too slow. We had to get the van towed 3 times this week. Anyway we stopped in at CBC Radio 3 in Vancouver for a while and I thought this clip of us talking with Lauren Burrows about road-related insanity would be appropriate right now.

October 31st

All week there's been fireworks blowing up constantly all over Victoria. We really couldn't figure it out, it doesn't happen in any other city. We thought maybe they just really get into halloween. Later on we heard that in BC this is the only week that you can buy fireworks every year. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

October 30th

We went surfing near Jordan River today. It was like trying surf on a big lake. I guess there were waves a few days ago but today we could only paddle around on our boards for a while. I really wanted to surf. Here's a movie of Dan and Matti making fun of me hopelessly trying to get a wave.

October 29th

Some rock bands have crazy parties, drive nice cars and have wild times. Some say "Hey, those pumpkins are for sale! Let's have a contest to see who can carry them the longest,"or "a case of beer if anyone climbs out to the tip of that driftwood tree over the ocean."

We're in Victoria for three more days. Tomorrow morning we're going surfing in Sombrio.

October 27th

Kamloops and I have a bit of a history.

1999: Fresh out of high school Matti and I drove to Seattle to see Ben Folds Five. This was the first of many road trips, first time in Kamloops and I got pulled over for my first and only speeding ticket. It was probably about half my bank account at the time.

2000: Matti and I are heading to the coast and then to California (where we unsuccessfully tried to get jobs picking fruit on plantations). At the gas station in Kamloops I poured gasoline all over myself. The fumes in the car were pretty strong and we went more than a little psycho. We got lost and I had to throw out all the clothes I was wearing.

2003: First west coast Red Shag tour. As a policy I never get sick, especially on the road. However, a delicious seafood soup I had on Salt Spring Island gave me a really bad case of food poisoning. I could hardly move. The next night we were driving back and stopped in Kamloops to sleep in Ross (the van). It was raining pretty hard all night and I couldn't stay in the van so I tried to walk to a medi-clinic. That was a little too ambitious and I had to lay down on the sidewalk outside a Kamloops strip mall until the sun came up. Not my best night.

2006 (last night): About 3 in the morning we were 50 Kms from Kamloops. Ross stops running and doesn't start up again. The house on the farm nearby is for sale and empty so we can't call a tow truck. After trying to start the engine about 40 times we accept that we'll be sleeping here unitl the morning. At that point our chances of making the Victoria show are pretty bleak. I have no idea why Kamloops has it out for me. Touring has gone really smoothly except for this one town. I apologized to Kamloops for whatever I did to offend it. (I do this often driving through here) After we almost fell asleep, Matti tried one more time and Ross miraculously started up. I'm happy to say this morning we're driving out of Kamloops towards Victoria.

October 17th

Had a great two-house party at Al and Matti places the other night with lot's of music. There's a lot of musicians around there, hopefully it's becoming Edmonton's little Haight-Ashbury. Matt from Cowpuncher as well as Phil from The Shiftless Rounders played some of their tunes and some good stuff from Big Dave Clarke and Nfld Aidan. The late-night jam was pretty good until Dan got on the drums. Dan's drumming belongs in a junior high death metal thrash band. It didn't really fit with the "vibe" of the conga player or acoustic piano and my ears are still ringing.

October 11th

....and that's the tour. The highlight of the drive home was Langenburg, Saskatchewan. It's Kelly Buchberger's home town. We stopped for a second to salute the Oiler great and kept going.

October 7th

Well, despite all the Ross (van) fanfare of the last journal entry, here we are stuck in Sudbury. He wouldn't start this morning and we had to cancel the T-Bay show. Now it's just a matter of getting home. We've been sitting in the Canadian Tire waiting room all day. Just a second, I'll take a picture so you get a feel for the atmosphere:

Anyway, the Toronto and Sudbury shows were a lot of fun. Dan, Al and Matti did a Steamwhistle brewery tour so now I'm driving around with three talking Steamwhistle-encyclopedias.

October 5th

Three years ago we bought a van. We wanted something dependable and hard working that just kept on going. So we named it after a guy we went to high school with: Ross. He was a cross-country runner, very dependable and hard-working. We hadn't seen him in 6 years until last night when he came to our show in Toronto. He'd heard that we'd named our van after him. He didn't even think it was too weird. Last night Ross met Ross. It was a big deal. Here they are:

October 3rd

Cape Breton was the last tiny bit of country we hadn't been to yet but we checked that off the list. We couldn't go any farther than that and so now I guess we start the way back. We spent a glorious, albeit short, morning in Quebec City today. Chez Ashton wins again for the best poutine (even though it was a little early for that). I can walk around that city endlessly. I don't really want to report this next part but I guess I should in the interest of fairness.
I was sitting in a coffee shop reading a weekly in the market here in Ottawa about a half-hour before the show when I spilled a really big cup of extremely hot tea all over myself. The table of girls sitting next to me couldn't stop laughing. Neither could the Dan, Al and Matti when I got back and they took a picture.

September 30
Al's birthday yesterday in Antigonish Nova Scotia so we had lobster and lot's of it. It was definitely the wildest party night of the tour so far. Once again, the east coast proves itself. We didn't have a place to stay so we asked around and were told: "just go to Tony's house. He's not home yet but his door is always open". So we did. And Tony knew how to cook lobster and have a good time. I wish we could go to the St. FX football game today, everyone in town's all dressed in blue and body painted.

September 29th
Another chapter was written in our search for Quebec's best late-night poutine after the Montreal show. A couple of locals were arguing over who has the best in Montreal: "Le Banquise" or "Le Fameux". Banquise won out and we drove around looking for it (with 8 other people packed into the van), we didn't find it and so we ended up at "Le Fameux". It was really good - kind of a poutine/lasagna. A folk singer from Toulouse, France opened for us. It made for a very late night and a very early wake up to drive to New Brunswick. Good thing all the towns in Quebec are incredible to pass through with huge old churches, river lot farms and of course the trees. People in the Maritimes are exceptionally friendly and Christie, a girl at the show in Fredericton, let us all stay at her place.

September 26th

We're back from the canoe trip, it was amazing. We got rained on pretty well but had a good time. Yesterday I thought I'd canoe out from the campsite to a rock sticking out of the middle of the lake and read for the a bit. It got pretty windy but I never thought I would tip over. I was wrong. I got tossed out and was stuck clinging to my canoe in the middle of the lake. Luckily Dan was on shore and the Yarmon canoe came out got me. The water was warm so it was like going for a swim, except that I had on a big jacket, pants and sneakers. The maple trees in the fall here are pretty spectacular. I'd put up the pictures but my camera was in the canoe with me.

September 24th

We took in a Red Sox-Blue Jays game yesterday afternoon in Toronto. Our friend Mark who works at The Score sports channel came so we were well-updated on all the stats. Peterborough was a nice suprise as well, we'd never played there before and we keep forgetting how old all these Eastern Canadian towns are. The place we played was built in 1863. We've got a couple of nights off before we head to Montreal on Wednesday so we're going canoeing in Algonquin National Park.

September 21st

We camped on Lake Superior before we played in the Sault. The fall is unbelievable here, it makes the drive a lot nicer. Unfortunately, The Downbeat's going to have to shut its doors because of noise issues etc. Trevor, the guy who runs always has us stay at his place and we always have a great time. We played with The Feminists, who we enjoyed thoroughly.

September 17th

We spent an extra glorious day in Winnipeg and really got to know the place. Last night we made Matti's "Bafrican" meal which means boiling a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of wine, a bottle of hot sauce and 5 heads of garlic. The last time we did this was in Golden 2 years ago and Al got really sick. He spent the next day hooked up to an IV in the hospital. Last night was his first night back on the "Bafrican" and he seems to have withstood the hit to his immune system so far. We went to the North End for the first time and ended up in a vegan/labour rights coffee with pictures of Emiliano Zapata, Joe Hill and The 1919 Winnipeg general strike. It was awesome. Dan's sworn off A&W for the tour so I guess he fit right in. He really got the full Winnipeg experience last night when he saw The Weakerthans at the Burton Cummings theatre, with our host Joanne who's been taking us everywhere. We really do love this city.

September 15th

Walking around Winnipeg. We took a more scenic route and got here at 6:30 this morning.

September 12th

The beauty of Banff is that we get the Japanese channel in the band house. Getting off the stage Dan said, "I sure hope there's sumo on again". Sure enough, and much to Dan's delight, we got our fill of sumo betting once again. It was lot's of really quick matches all in a row, so you had to quickly yell out "blue loin-cloth" or "black loin-cloth" to pick your wrestler.

September 10th

Canmore. What did we do yesterday here? Nothing. It's a shame. We've spent a lot time walking around here over the past few tours (not to mention writing journal entries from this coffee shop). Maybe we should take up an extreme sport. Or have kids and a poodle. There's a lot of that in Canmore. The Drake rocked though and the shows were a lot of fun. And now we're off to Banff.

September 7th

The funniest article we've ever had written on us ran in The Soo Today in Sault Ste. Marie of all places this week. I got completely demolished for wearing mis-matched socks in a press photo. Check it out. I even got called "sockboy". Their tagline is "SooToday.com - driving promoters to distraction with weird repackaging of news releases since February, 2002!" Dan laughed at me especially hard.

September 6th

The next morning after the Edmonton show we headed up to the Firebag Camp north of Fort Mac on sunday. We played the "Firedome" which was a hockey arena with a rocker stage they built for the show. Everything up there's twice the size of anywhere else. They had unlimited ice cream. And foosball. And Air hockey. It was heaven.

August 30th

Here's Al trying to jump over a pole in Fernie outside our favourite breakfast spot, The Blue Tuque. He doesn't make it. (just kidding, he's ok) The rest of that little tour was fun. We're just getting ready for the Powerplant on Saturday. Oh, and Ross (van) started up just fine when we got back. We'll just hope for the best crossing Canada next month.

August 25th

This is Ross' engine. For those of you who aren't mechanically inclined and can't tell by the picture, it's not working. We rented a big cargo van. Really though, we can't complain. It's the first show Ross couldn't make and it's been a streak of about 250. Of course it wasn't the same without him but Calgary was a good time.

August 21st

I lost the pictures of the wolf sanctuary we went to last tour. I was hoping they'd last until we're back on thursday. It was a lot cooler than the photos looked like anyway, but not quite as cool as it sounds like.

August 14th
We rode around in a limo after the show on Friday, that felt pretty rock star. The after-party was a lot of fun but we de-evolved quickly. The bubble burst when we had to get up at 6 the next morning. Looking forward to the Calgary show.

August 7th
In the interest of fairness and unbiased journal entries, it should be reported that Dan and Matti's foosball playing did somewhat improve and they may have won a series of tournaments in Golden.

August 5th
We checked out the Revelstoke Dam yesterday, it's huge. On the tour, Matti's question was "who would win in a fight, the Hoover Dam or the Revelstoke Dam?". It stumped the guide. For some reason in Golden everything closes at 5. A lot of people come up and like to talk guitars. I really don't spend any time doing that and never read guitar magazines so I've never heard of half the stuff they're talking about. So far, my favourite guitar-dude introduced himself as "Fast Eddie". That was until last night when I met "Ray". "Actually," he said "it's Smokin' Ray". Look out Fast Eddie.

August 4th
Last night and this morning the town of Revelstoke witnessed nothing short of an embarassment for Dan and Matti on the foosball table. Al and I are comfortably enjoying a 6-1 lead in games so far this tour, and just gaining momentum. Once a proud duo, the Matti/Dan squad is falling apart at the seams. The show rocked last night.

August 2nd
Ok, we'll try and take some pictures this tour. We always end up with this kind of stuff.

July 28th
So the Keith Norby Explosion imploded. Perhaps the most short-lived side-project of all time? We won't be at the Canmore Hotel this weekend. Rock on.

July 27th
Went and saw Dan Bern on tuesday, as far as I know he's the best at what he does. One more day in the studio and then heading down to the Calgary Folk Fest for some professional development. On Saturday three of us (Dan, Al, Ted) are going to play a show in Canmore (at the Canmore Hotel) as a trio, not as Red Shag Carpet. As of right now our name is going to be "The Keith Norby Explosion".

July 23rd
....and that's the tour. We're on the late-night ferry back to Vancouver. Salt Spring was a little crazy last night. The show rocked and afterwards I went to crash in the van. Just as I was falling asleep Matti, Al, Dan and a half-dozen other people loaded in and drove off to some other part of the the island. We stopped and I went back to sleep. When I got up in the morning we were parked on a non-descript dirt road and these three were out like lights. I walked up the road and hitched a ride back to town (which was pretty far from wherever we were). I found out later they went swimming in an incredibly warm lake and checked out a baby seal sanctuary that night. I can't help but feel like I missed out. The Nanaimo festival was good today and we could hear fireworks from the ferry terminal. A fitting end to a very fun tour.

July 21st
Surfing the last three days has been unbelievable. The waves have been amazing. We kind of forgot we're on tour and just spent three days on the beach, roasting oysters and having camp fires. Oh yeah, and we played a show last night. Big thanks to Inner Rhythm Surf Shop for the boards and everything. We're pretty burnt from spending so much time in the water. Looking forward to Salt Spring tonight.

July 17th
Nanaimo. Two of the the guys from Blue Rodeo came by the show and played a couple of songs with us last night. We haven't played covers in a long time but we made our way through "Mary Jane" and "Rock n Roll". It was good fun.

July 15th
On the ferry. Stayed in Vancouver last night. Before the mods Dan and Matti put on Ross (van) we only had one speaker working, no stereo sound and rain leaked through the windshield. Now check out the ride.

July 14th
Williams Lake. On our way to the coast. We played four songs for the first time last night. People here are extremely friendly, like Tina and Darron whose basement we're in right now. Their license plate fittingly is HVN FUN. She's cooking up breakfast. The ride here yesterday was smooth because Matti and Dan "suped up" Ross (our van). I'll put up some of the modifications.

July 10th
Dan took the "extreme bike route" to practice and seperated his shoulder. Don't worry, he's ok. He can't surf though and the west coast tour starts this week. Bad timing. This journal entry sounds like a Mountain Dew ad.

July 5th
Summer touring starts pretty soon, for now though we're still practicing a lot and getting all the new material ready. There's a lot of honking outside every time Italy wins a soccer game. We're starting to record a few of the new songs and it could be the first hints of a new album are showing up. Maybe.

July 2nd
We had a great time last night at the Sonic Canada Day show. I got a call when I got home. Al, Matti and Dan thought they left my guitar on top of the van and drove off, they were looking for it all over the city in the middle night. I'd seen it on the roof and took it down before I left. The Works today should be fun, there's a lot going on. It's close to the studio so we've been checking it out.

June 29th
Because we've been touring pretty steadily this year it's been a few months since we've been able to spend a lot of time writing. But now our days are spent up in the studio and eating sandwiches (because we're in little Italy). New songs are coming along well and this summer we'll be adding them to the show.

June 25th
Our last run in the studio before the summer tour starts.

June 20th
A lot of beer cans were thrown at the T.V in Matti's back yard yesterday.

June 18th
We're buckling down and writing new tunes, but the Oilers are all-encompassing right now.

June 13th
I've never seen anyone lose a bet as thoroughly Matti did this weekend. Dan bet him that if a plane lost all engine power in mid-air at full height it could still glide down and not drop like a rock. We talked to a pilot, an engineer, a plane owner and someone who had been on plane struck by lightning that lost engine power. They all sided with 100% with Dan, yet Matti continues to argue. Sorry to any nervous fliers who might have sat next to us during this debate.

June 10th
One thing you don't do at these festivals is sleep and it's been a couple of days so if this is incoherent, I apologize. We got our car towed off the bat but it was good to get that out of the way early. Everything else has been great. We've been walking all over the city non-stop checking out bands.....Dan Mangan, Jimmy Swift, Luke Doucet, Lindy, The Deadbeats, All Purpose Voltage Heroes and The Vox were all highlights. This has all been kind of a blur and it's tough to remember specific journal-worthy events. (there's a VERY high criteria to make something journal-worthy) In two hours we're back on the plane. Why did we book our flight for 6 am?

June 8th
Toronto. Usually when we're here we spend a lot of time in Chinatown, walking around the art galleries etc., but yesterday we practiced and took it easy. We're looking forward to nxne starting today, there's a lot of good bands in town.

June 5th
Tomorrow we fly out to Toronto. That's right, "fly" not "drive". We're playing The Works on July 2nd, one our favourite Edmonton festivals. For now though, we're in E-Town and the Oilers are playing and that's kind a big deal. Check back soon for July/August shows being announced in Western Canada. If you live in Ottawa, T-Bay, Sudbury, we're sorry we ended up having to cancel the June dates, we'll be back soon.

May 29th
We're gearing up to head out east. Actually, Dan's in London England and AP's in Washington. If Matti goes to Moscow and I take Beijing we'll really have things covered.

May 23rd
On the technical side, Lift and Drop is available on itunes and there's a new bio. On the artistic side, we saw a show the other night and Dan thought the music between bands was Celine Dion doing a cover of "We're Not Going To Take It" by Twisted Sister. It was really just Twisted Sister.

May 19th
I think Edmonton set a record this week for most ever high-fives in a city. We're working on new songs, (I can't say how big a difference a new studio makes) and we'll record a few next week. Al wore all black in Kananaskis in honour of Norm, sound-man/ultimate rocker extraordinaire, if we ever get enough money we're definitely taking him on the road with us... and a team of hamsters dressed up as the Oilers.

May 14th

On the road today. Here's a look into Dan's "cake in your face and take a picture" sense of humour.

Had a great night in Calgary last night jamming at a party with Matt Olah and Cowpuncher, Matti on the double bass was a highlight. Dan's skiing and meeting up in Kan-Kan with the legendary sound man: Norm. Lethbridge rocked as well.

May 12th
New photos on the pictures page. They're all from Barbara Chung, who Edmonton's losing to SPIN magazine this summer.

May 10th
The 4-night mountain run we just came off of was one of our best. We're finally getting to spend some time in the new studio. Maybe I'll take some pictures of it, it's a great place to make music. I'm looking forward to playing an outdoor show on the 20th here in E-Town for the city festival.

May 8th
Banff. I love playing the Rose (which is upstairs) when the floor starts shaking and you feel like the building's going to collapse. Here's one of my favourite e-mails we've ever had after a show:

P.S. I stole the rest of your jim beam off the table, I didn't think the nacho plate would fit on the bike.

May 7th
Canmore. Nothing wrong with touring the mountains, it's been awesome so far. We've been really trying not to talk hockey too much, but we did call the classic rock station in Edmonton and request "Wish You Were Here" for the Flames on the way out.

May 4th
Some shots from the last weeks show...

Thanks to Barbara Chung for those. We moved into our new studio last night and I can't tell you how good it feels. We're writing some new tunes (which we haven't had much of a chance to do since Lift and Drop came out). We head for the mountains tomorrow, I think we've played more shows in the Bow Valley than our home-town. We can't wait to get back out there, this summer's going to fun.

May 2nd

Tonight was the first time I ever body surfed in a crowd. It wasn't voluntary. The other three started it and the Oilers-cheering mob in the middle of the street took over. Al had a pretty good run too. It's addicting, so if you're in the front row of the next show: look out.

April 28th

Check out the CBC Radio 3 Podcast off itunes this week. (it's free and it's awesome) Big thanks to SONIC 102.9 in Edmonton, we had a great time as the band of the month and the city's lucky to have a radio station supporting bands like that. We'll put up some pictures soon.

April 27th

Sonic show tonight!!!!!!!!!! Rock hard. Seriously. Don't worry, it's right after the hockey game. See you there.

April 25th

Back in E-Town getting ready for the show on thurs. Dan's still on the coast kicking back on a tiny island. We'll be at NXNE Music Festival in June, looking forward to that.

April 22nd

Pender Island must be one of the nicest places to play a show. It's too bad we couldn't stick around longer, we're on the ferry out of there right now. This morning was incredible walking around the beach. It's earth day and people are picking up garbage everywhere which is good to see, we did a round this morning. The show last night felt great, everyone is really laid back here and has a lot of fun.

A little later on....

Ever feel like you're living life on a BC Ferry? We do. We're in Victoria (running out of things to do) waiting to get on another ferry back to Vancouver where we'll get on another one to Bowen Island. Surprisingly, we haven't missed any this tour, but I don't want to speak too soon.

April 20th

Today we thought about checking out the Vancouver Aquarium. Instead Ted and Matti were trying to figure out what would happen if someone poured tons of Jell-O powder in one of the tanks, and whether it would turn into a massive gel filled oceanic wonderland? The clouds over Vancouver can have the effect of making you never want to leave your apartment. And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.........

April 19th

Tune into CBC radio 3 online at 5:30 Vancouver time (6:30 in Edmonton/centre of the universe) for an interview. We got hooked on the last eastern tour. Treacherous Machete, the band we played with last night actually had a machete. They were good, reminded me of Whitey Houston. I'm glad we no longer actually have a red shag carpet. Al shrunk his black jeans, now they're really tight. Look out ladies of Pender Island.

April 18th

Rainy & green, no suprise. The drive yesterday could be described as "uneventful". The Yellowhead's a lot nicer than the soutern route, and Matti's plan to read an entire 500 page book out loud for the entire trip only lasted about a paragraph.

April 17th - Really early

Just about to head out to Vancouver. All you CBC Radio 3 fans, there's an interview on Wednesday after 5 Pacific Time. Had a good practice yesterday and tomorrow night at the Railway will be a good time. I'll let you know how the west-coast sting goes.

April 12th

I'm looking forward to the west coast next week. I love playing shows on those islands. Vancouver's always a good time. We've got two days off, which could mean surfing. That's got my vote. Michael Rault and The Mixed Signals are kicking things off at the Sonic show on the 27th, they've got a good sound. You can listen to them here.

April 8th

An action shot of us once we move the studio to Little Italy:



Unrelated, but definitely an "action" shot:

April 5th

There's a few new pics up on the pictures page. Lot's of good music coming through E-Town right now. We're getting ready to move into a new studio close to the Italian centre shop. The big problem is the foosball table there could be our undoing. The last week of the tour we played so much that I was actually dreaming about it.

April 1st 

I was thinking about doing an April fool's entry but instead I'll recount the April fool's debacle we had a few years ago. When we were first starting out Dan sent us a surprisingly authentic-looking message from a "a major record company" that wanted to sign us on right away with a deal that was really to good to be true. After our initial naive excitement wore off, we noticed Dan was surprisingly quiet about the whole thing. We eventually figured it out and excitement turned to rage. We ambushed Dan at his place, wrapped him up in duct tape and dropped him off on the other side of the city. Everybody seemed to laugh at what we were doing, except the undercover cop who stopped when we had a bag over Dan's head and we were throwing snowballs at him on his front porch. Check out the Edmonton Journal today for a review of Lift and Drop. Rock on.

March 20th

Tour completed last night in Thunder Bay with a booming show at the Apollo. We played with a band called Kik'r in Oshawa and hung out at Coffee Time which is aptly called "Crack Time" by Oshawans. Sometimes you really don't know what part of town your in. The tour was fun and we can't wait to get back to Edmonton for the Sonic band of the month show. It really is a good radio station in a time when a lot of people are turned off commercial radio. Al, Dan and Matti get to drive from Winnipeg to E-Town tomorrow and I'm boarding a plane to Hawaii. We figure that's probably what Metallica does after their tours as well.

March 17th

There's a big announcement coming on Monday for everyone in Edmonton. Montreal was covered in ice, our show in Steeltown went well, we played with a band called The Rest who were wicked. We're trying to get Dan to dress in all green tonight in Oshawa. We hung out around in the beaches here in Toronto yesterday. Soundcheck in Saint John:

March 13th

Last night we had a very east coast night in Halifax that included some chanting of "Barrett's Privateers" and "Farewell to Nova Scotia", which people who actually live here don't really do very often.

March 12th

Halifax feels like a 5th home for us now. I'm realizing how much time I've spent walking around this downtown. When we were 18 Matti and I hung around here for two weeks, not really having a clue what we were doing. Why is everyone in the Maritimes so happy? Even in Toronto we snuck into the private Nova Scotia party with Joel Plaskett and Matt Mays. It was way more fun than anything else going on. Antigonish was great, especially around 5 a.m. when Dan and Matti ran through the streets yelling: "The Champ is Here!" trying to get me to eat 3 feet of subway for their entertainment. (I made it to one and a half and I'm never eating there again)

March 8th

Heading out of Toronto today. Canadian Music Week was a great experience for us, rubbing shoulders with industry bigwigs. Maybe we let it get to our heads though because we decided we'd go for drinks to wrap it up at the Royal York Hotel. 4 drinks and the bill came to $68. Today we head towards the Maritimes and stop in Montreal for smoked meat sandwiches and poutine in Quebec City. We're feeling stereotypical. Rock on.

March 4th

EVERYONE IN TORONTO: our show has been moved from tuesday to monday. The show is now Monday March 6th @ The Horseshoe at 9:30. Canadian music week has been awesome. We've met a lot of people and heard a lot of great :music. Highlights have been: The Small Sins, Inward Eye, Men Women and Children and of course, SO4.

March 2nd

We walked around Toronto for a while last night, everyone's gearing up for Canadian Music Week. It's good to be here.

February 27th

Thunder Bay. Our friend Kajtek took us hiking just out of town and on the way up we turned onto a side road that was actually a cross-country ski trail. To Ross' credit the van made it a good 20 feet before sinking right into the snow. Pushing and digging our way out, unloading gear and moving gravel were pointless. To watch a movie of Dan balancing a hockey stick on his head with our stuck van in the background click here. (if it doesn't work, click here to download the divx codec)

February 25th

We challenged Broadway West, the band we played with last night, to a hockey game today in Winnipeg. They took us up and we played all afternoon despite the minus 20 weather. The highlight of the game was when Dan laid out the Argentinian guy (who hadn't been on skates a lot before) with a huge open-ice hit. Thanks to the girls who brought us hot chocolate from across the street.

They were a really good bunch of Winnipeggers. They say Neil Young (who went to the same high school as these guys) once rode a horse through the halls of the school and said he would step foot back there ever again. Wow.

February 24th

4:00 am - Winnipeg - Full of poutine

Winnipeg is such a rock city. Fittingly we'll go see the Neil Young documentary here. Last time through Matti and I were sure that the Canadian rock and roll hall of fame was in Winnipeg and we walked around downtown asking people for directions for a few hours. No one seemed to know where it was and eventually we clued in that we'd kind of made it up.

February 21st

Back on tour tomorrow. Here's a driving video clip. There's gonna be a lot of this in the next few weeks. (if the movie doesn't work you can go here and download the divx codec)

February 13th

Norm has cemented his place as the most rockin' sound man we've ever heard of. If anyone goes to see "Brokeback Mountain" look for him, he's the steel guitar player in the second band. I've tried to remember the story he told on this one:

So, my brother call's me up and says "hey Norm, we need you in a movie can you play steel guitar?". I say "yeah sure". I hang up and think, "I can't play steel guitar" so I call up my buddy Buck Owens, you know Buck Owens? from Hee Haw the T.V show? anyway, he's a Nashville steel guitarist. I say: "Buck, I need a steel guitar lesson." He says "when?" I say "now!", he says "okay, get a 2-4 of beer and I'll be right over". This is at about 2 a.m. so we're up all night, I learn the songs, we have a great time. So I show up at the set of Brokeback Mountain the next day and they say "you're pr etty good, how long you been playing steel guitar for?" I look at my watch and say, "I don't know, what time is it?"

Classic Norm.

February 12th

Last show of the tour in Kananaskis. We've capped off a few tours here in Kan-kan and we get to deal with Norm, the ultimate rocker sound guy. Thanks to Barbara for sending us this picture of AP from E-Town.

February 11th

We're in Golden this morning (or afternoon), and only a couple days left on tour. We caught a range of shows in our two days off; Pink Mountain Tops and Blood Meridian in Vancouver. That was Dan's birthday that ended up in a fight throwing over-sized pylons at each other from a road-construction site downtown.

February 8th

We're having a great time in Vancouver, the show last night was a lot of fun. Drew from Jazzberry Ram came to the show, they were one of my favourite bands. Today's the first sunny day they've had here in a long time so everyone's living it up. No bowling in Ukie this year, the "roof was caving in". Matti and Dan would do pretty much anything to avoid getting embarassingly out-bowled by Al and I so I wouldn't put sabotage past them.

February 6th

A day off surfing near Tofino. Here's some shots Al took. To watch a little movie of Dan balancing a surfboard on his chin, click here.

February 4th

The show was rocking last night until about halfway through Drop the entire town blacked out and everything went pitch black. The storms have always been my favourite part of the west coast of Van. Island, but I'd never seen how rough they get in the winter until last night. We missed the ferry as usual and hit more rain driving in than I'd ever seen. The place was the only spot in Ukie that had a generator so we were up and running in about a half-hour.

February 3rd

That was a long and snowy drive yesterday but at least it's nice and green in Vancouver this morning. We always miss the ferry to the island, so we won't get there for a few hours. I can't wait to go surfing for a couple of days. Apparently the waves are lot bigger in the winter, not that there'll be any difference for us but Dan did manage to ride for a while. More importantly here's the history of the official RSC Ucluelet ultra-competitive bowling game.

Ucluelet, though not a town of considerable size, does have a bowling alley. On our first tour, Al and I demolished the feeble team Matti and Dan threw together. Last year, somehow (possibly/probably through some intricate rigging system) Matti managed to nearly break the lane record for consecutive strikes, and Al and I technically lost pretty badly. So the all-time series is tied 1-1. Tie breaker tomorrow.

February 2nd

An awesome show in Calgary last night. One girl told me it felt like "there was some huge emergency but no one could evacuate the dance floor". We stopped at IKEA for hot dogs on the way out, that might be the last time we do that. Now we're driving up through Roger's Pass on our way into Vancouver.

Tomorrow we'll be in Ucluelet for the annual ultra-competitive RSC bowling game. I can already feel Dan and Matti getting pretty scared that they're going to have to try to stop the Ani-Pickard bowling juggernaut.

January 31st

The album staff party was awesome. It was well documented on film, but a little too much to put up here. Here's some of j.procktor's photos from the CD release.

January 30th

Finally, the long anticipated album wrap-up staff party. Attire is formal. Nik's only suit has barf all over it, but rules are rules. It's a fubar party which means we watch fubar and shotgun every time they do in the movie. We've never made it through the whole thing. But maybe, in the words of Neil Young, "tonight's the night".

January 29th
Last night was a lot of fun for us thanks to everyone for rocking out. It'd be nice to have a real piano on stage every night if it wasn't so huge to move. If you've always wanted to go on the road with a band and haul around a piano, let us know.

January 27th
Nothing like a good late-night radio show. It was fun, the phones weren't working brilliantly so we kind of had to make our own topics which managed not to go way too far out of control this time. Today we're on CBC radio's afternoon show (4-6) we should be on around 4:30.

January 26th
Two more days................we've been waiting for this for a long time. We thought about playing an undercover covert show somewhere Friday night to warm things up. Tomorrow and Saturday check out The Journal, The Sun, Gateway, Vue, SEE and GMCC Intercamp. Rock on.

January 25th

More time in the studio today, which we'll thank ourselves for once we're touring again in a couple of weeks. For all you late night radio fans, we're going to be on "Liquid Chatter Talk Radio" tomorrow night (thurs) on CJSR 88.5 fm from midnight to 1:30 am. On Friday we'll be on CBC radio one (740) at 4:30 pm talking about the new album. Last time the converstions took some twists on Liquid Chatter and it's a call-in show so don't be shy. Cheers.

January 24th

We're spending a lot time in the studio gearing up for the CD release on Saturday. We'll see you all there.

We're practicing some new tunes which feels great after concentrating so much on the album. Tomorrow's the album staff party. That includes the four of us and Nik, we'll let you know how it goes.

January 17th

We're getting ready for the release show, it's going to be our biggest yet. These are my favourite posters we've had done so far. Rock on.

January 15th

We've been doing some interviews for the new CD and we've decided as a band to try to avoid the "where we got our name from" story as much as possible. It's hard. Maybe we'll start making stuff up.

January 11th

Sometimes when you don't play a show for a while you feel like you 're running a company instead of playing in a band. For those of you that run companies, you probably feel that way a lot. Matti and I were actually on Whyte the other day both carrying briefcases. Matti's has a big sticker on his that says "Think FAST Hippie!", maybe it takes a bit away from his professional demeanour.

January 9th

We're happy to say that Edmonton band The Crooks and our good friends Matt Olah and company from Calgary (www.mattolah.com) are going to kick things off for us on the 28th. Those guys are a lot of fun to party with.

January 8th

Dan tries to organize a hockey game. We have a debate over who would win a big fight, everybody in the NHL or everyone in the NBA.

January 6th

Lift and Drop will make it's radio debut today on CBC after 4:00. It's been great to start to spread it around. We still haven't had our official CD wrap up party though, that'll be a gong show.

January 4th

Back from the mini-tour with some well-needed time to get ourselves together. The last show went really well in Fernie, and it was a good way to end the tour. We played more shows than ever last month and we're looking forward to writing some more songs and taking them out on the road. The CD release on Jan. 28th is our big focus right now. The drive home was fairly uneventful except for Dan's campaign to drive halfway across Calgary to go to Pete's Drive-In. He even won a majority of support in the van for a while.

January 2nd 

Happy new year everyone. We played a show in Castle Mtn. on Friday, it seemed like the middle of nowhere driving in but it turned out to be a good rocking bunch of people there. We opted to drive to Fernie that night and hit a big snowstorm, but we got in around 4 am. We took our good friend/sound guru Ad Kidd on the road with us, it was a lot of fun to have someone else on tour and we made sure to let the crowd know he was single. Of course we spent most of Saturday and Sunday sitting at The Blue Tuque for breakfast. It's kind of a tradition. New year's was awesome. I thought the place was going to cave in with all the people up there. We saw "Fernie man" too which was reassuring. Our first show on the road ever was here about three years ago (I have a video of it, it's hilarious) and this guy lent us his entire family's ski passes for the next day. Since then we see him every time we're here, he must have seen us about twelve times. And that brings us to today, sitting in a cafe. We think Jack Johnson has taken over every single coffee shop's playlist. My new year's resolution is not to drink any gas station cappucinos. So far so good.

December 29th

The wheels are rolling again after a lot of eating and sleeping over the holidays. There's no snow in Castle so we'll be playing a later show, we can always ask Dan if we need to know any precise details on the snowfall in the region. We could ask Dan if we needed to know any precise details on the snowfall in Nepal. He's kind of an obsessed skier. (he's really good too) Anyway here's a couple of situations that can provide some insight into the workings of Dan's inner thoughts:

1. Dan loves to sleep in as much as anyone. On tour whenever we get the rare opportunity, Dan's a strong advocate of taking full advantage. In Vancouver, with Mt. Baker only an hour and half away, Dan had no qualms about being up and chipper by 6:00, drove south on a solo mission and got in a full day of skiing.

2. After the second Banff show around 3:00am we were all hanging around The Rose drinking "Dancing Marino's" named after the guy in the Dan Marino jersey dancing up a storm. (you should try one next time you're in Banff, it's sure to become a local staple) Anyway, although we've got to drive to a show the next day, someone mentions getting up at the crack of dawn to drive 2hrs the oppostite direction to Golden to ski The Kicking Horse. All of sudden Dan (who had a bit of a cold and earlier was looking forward to taking it easy for a while) is sparked up and goes on a major campaign trying to convince Matti to join in. He almost did. In their defence the free beer and Dancing Marinos played a major role.

3. I remember going on a ski trip with Dan when he broke his wrist and kept skiing. He once tore his ACL cat-skiing and kept going.

If you come away with anything from this journal entry it should be that Dan likes to ski. The Shout Out x4 show was awesome last night, it was good to see Nik. See you all in Fernie, on the hill Al and I will be the skiiers somewhere between Dan's 360 helicopters and Matti taking up snowboarding.

December 28th

Hello all, we're getting ready for the new year's show. I hope things still work out for everyone in Calgary that couldn't get tickets in time. Hopefully we can see some of you on the 28th in E-Town for the CD release. Tonight Shout Out Out Out Out's here in Calgary so I'm looking forward to catching their show, they've got great energy.

December 25th

Merry christmas, I hope everyone's having a good time. It's been a great year. Cheers.

December 23rd

We finished up the tour in Black Diamond and drove all night to get home. Black Diamond is nice little place, best mochas ever. That's a big title considering the addiction to sweet coffee that overtakes us on tour. We're taking a few days off, yesterday was the first the day I had'nt seen Dan, Matti or Al in about two months.

December 19th

We're in Banff right now and we'll only have two shows left. The tour went really well, it was really busy, at times really cold, and lots of fun. Here's the lowdown.

Regina: The first time a bra got thrown at us on stage. Whoever did that: you're awesome.

Lethbridge: Good show, the next morning get we went to get our stuff and packed up around a band on stage having "church", a bunch a of guys who jam to gospel tunes every sunday morning at the bar.

Vancouver: It was so good to be in Vancouver. Warm, spent a lot of time outside. The drive over there was intense. We had a couple of days off here, Dan drove down to the states to ski Mt. Baker.

Nanaimo: We had our best Nanaimo show yet. We got our first copy of the mastered CD here and cranked it through the huge system.

Victoria: I love Victoria. Although our the best ice cream shop ever was closed because of what they call "winter" we hung out by the ocean and you can never go wrong doing that.

Pender Island: One of the most fun shows of the tour.
The islands really rock. We had a really good time.

Bowen Island: We played this show without Matti, which was weird but the place really got into it despite us constantly saying: "trust me, this is a whole lot better with a piano player".

Penticton: Penticton rocks. The club we played was rocker and must have been the site of some major partying in the 80s. We're definetly looking forward to going back in the summer.

Nelson: The Royal is a good venue, and someone told me he was a prophet of god. That seems to happen a lot on tour.

Kimberley: Playing the ski hill is a good time, we had our "album wrap up staff party" that night which involved a lot of beer and the hockey game.

Banff: And here we are. Yesterday was nuts, we played in Kimberley until 5, packed up and drove to Banff just in time to play the Rose and Crown last night. The show was off the hook and Banff is one of our favourite places to play. Today was spent chilling out as much as possible as tonight is our 8th show in 7 days.

November 29th

Welcome to the new site. We're running around like crazy right now trying to get everything done before we leave for Saskatoon tomorrow. I saved all the old journal entries just in case you missed out on the myriad of important stuff in there.