November 25th

The new website will be launched within a week...Nik is mixing and eating score bars. We got him a crate of blue gatorade, his favourite coffee counter-beverage. I've been drinking a ton of that sweet fake coffee you can get at gas stations. It's really not very good stuff but I get at least one a day. It all started last tour. It's more like something to do.

November 21st

It's crazy that we have just over a week until we get on tour. There's a ton of stuff to figure out before we take off, not to mention long days of mixing. That's the best feeling about heading out on tour because your focus is putting on rocking shows day in day out.

November 18th

Sorry about all the missed updates, we've been really busy recording. Yesterday we had Sam Wok for lunch and afterwards Dan did some tricks on Nik's skateboard. 10 years ago Dan was a pretty avid skater, but it seems he's fallen behind the times because he rides "mongo" and did a "pressure flip". I guess this has gone out of style since his skater days and really isn't cool anymore. Time to renew the Thrasher subscription D. We've got all the tracks done and it's on to mixing for 10 days before we hit the road. We took a break last night and checked out Broken Social Scene.

November 12th

The guy who lives down from the studio who writes chalk sayings on his stairs everyday has "sustineo alas" written over his garage door and has handcuffed a lawn chair to a parking sign on the sidewalk that reads "reserved for professors emiriti". I have to say I'm pretty intrigued by this whole phenomenon, maybe someday I'll get it. Al almost walked out of the studio today with a mustache, much to Nik's enjoyment.

November 8th

The calm before the storm. We have 22 days left in the studio and 22 days until we go on tour. I like it this way and I like that our tour is jam-packed as well. We'll keep you guys updated on how the album's going, and we feel really good going into this last stretch. (I think I've been listening to a few too many hockey interviews lately)

November 1st

You can check out some of J. Procktor's photos of the Sidetrack show here. Today, like yesterday, was spent in the studio. This weekend Shout Out Out Out Out, Nik's band is playing two nights in E-Town, with Whitey Houston, Luke Doucet and the Fembots. I'm looking forward to it, not having seen Nik play since his punk days. Anyway it comes highly recommended.

October 29th

What a fun show last night, thanks to everyone for the rock. It makes me want to head out on a big tour but I guess we'll have to wait until December for that. We set today as the cut-off to figure out the album-title, so that'll have to be taken care of. Then back to the studio.

October 26th

Rehearsing, eating the stockpiles of lasagna Al made for recording. We'll see everyone friday, we're looking forward to it.

October 22nd

On thursday we played a show getting everything tuned up for the 28th. A guy there said he was a music "fanatic/expert". He threw some names around. They were underground, little-known, small but loyal following, "the next big thing" bands like Bob Dylan, CCR and Queen. There were some good rockers there though, some good Sabbath fans. Al almost killed his drums this time and we know those guys appreciated it.

October 20th

We met with visual artist Ashley Andel, and were all pretty blown away by his work. He'll be doing the cover art for the new album, I can't wait to see what he does with it. You can read a very little bit about him here. Playing live is addicting. When we don't play for a while I start to lose it a bit. Only a week until the show here in Edmonton, but I can't wait to be back on the road playing every night, especially once we have this new album.

October 18th

Getting restless. This happens everytime we're not on tour for a while. I can't wait for the next show. Dan gets back from the coast today so we can work on new stuff.

October 13th

We've finished up the first part of the album. All the bed-tracks are done, and we've got a couple of weeks right now to listen to them before we keep going. Nik's on the Exclaim! magazine tour with Luke Doucet, Whitey Houston and The Fembots. They'll be all over Canada and I'd highly recommend checking it out. Here's their tour dates. This time off is invaluable for us. We've found one of the most important things with recording is stepping away for a while and listening with fresh ears.

October 10th

Good day at the studio today.

October 8th

When we walk from the studio to get a coffee everyday we pass this house that has a new saying written in chalk on the steps everyday. Apparently it's been going on for about 20 years. Yesterday it said this:

For a new born
A new word
Felixitude:
The state of being Felix!

Kind of eccentric.

October 6th

If anyone's wondering why Al was so hard on Ginger Baker in the last journal entry it's because he and Matti have been having a debate for over ten years (literally) as to who the better drummer is: Ginger Baker (Cream) or Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience). We don't even listen to those bands, we liked them when we were 14. Matti recently made Al a mix CD that turned out to be a bit of a trojan horse. Track 1 was a 6 minute Ginger Baker drum solo. Al refuses to listen to it. Anyway since a "drum off" between Mitch and Ginger will probably be difficult to arrange, although not entirely out of the question, I'm asking you all to e-mail in your pick as the better drummer. The first one to get 5 e-mails wins. Even if you've never heard of either of them. This way Dan and I never have to listen to this again.

Rock on.

October 5th

who 'dat? Glen Kotche? Gene Kruppa?
Sure know it ain't ginger baker. Man, that guy doesn't hold a candle to Mitch Mitchell.
5th Day in the studio today. Nik is doing a great job.

October 3rd

Whoa. Day 3 of recording was a long one but we got a ton of work done. My ears are completely fried. The first couple of hours today were spent eating the cinnamon buns Al made. They were unreal, it really pays to have a chef in the band. Things got pretty intense after that. There were a few takes today when everything started sounding the same but after stopping and coming back we were able to up the rock levels.

photo by Wilf Kozub

October 1st

Today we moved into the new studio. We got all the sounds we wanted out of our instruments and tomorrow we'll start laying down the first bed tracks for the new album. We'll keep you posted on how it's going. This one's been a long time in the making.

September 29th

On my way into southern AB I stopped in Three Hills for a specific purpose. It's the birthplace of Al, 25 years ago today. I asked the gas station attendant what she was doing for "Al-day" on the 29th. She looked confused. Apparently there's no parade in Three Hills. It's understandable seeing as how Al didn't spend more than a year in the town. The real party's going on tomorrow in the city of champions, starting with a major football game in Giovanni Caboto park. I'm wide-receiver for our QB Matti "Truckstop" Darrah's squad. A little pre-game warning:

Allan: I don't care if it's your birthday, no one's going easy on you.

Dan: I know which knee you had surgery on last year. If you want to avoid another trip to the O.R, sit this one out. I'm serious.

Long live rock and roll.

September 26th

Looks like we're playing Nanaimo in Dec., I guess I better start eating a lot of chicken to build up my tolerance. Last day of our studio madness today!!! After spending such an obscenely long amount of time cramped in a little room together over the last month we've almost completeIy lost it. I hope all these extra hours will be worth it, we're definitely putting everything into this one.

September 25th

WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO! One more day then we move into the studio. We gotta get that piano moved. Tonight Matt Barber, a guy we played with in Montreal, is in town. In an odd twist of events his guitar player was working at a wacked-out tree planting show we played in northern ontario last summer. The big Edmonton show in October and the December tour are going to rock.

September 20th

We had a really good practice today with Aaron Au, a violinist from the symphony. Tomorrow night we'll meet with an artist about some of the art work for the album.

September 19th

We've got 6 days in our studio before we head in and start recording with Nik. We've got an early-December west coast tour coming up, the tour dates will be posted pretty soon. We'll play one huge E-Town show in the middle of our recording (Oct. 28th) that we're really looking forward to, tickets go on sale right away. As fun/important as this new CD is, this is all about playing live and making sure everyone has a good time. Rock on.

September 15th

The website's been updated with a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS page to pre-emptively answer some of the more burning queries we receive. Tonight we checked out an intra-squad Oilers game. We've decided to become hard core fans this year.

September 13th

Al made a killer lasagna at the studio today. We've been spending a ton of time there lately, and the project is coming along really well.

Sometimes we go a little psycho after being there for hours on end.

Sepetmeber 11th

I was looking for some pictures from the tour to put on here. It turns out the only thing we took pictures of was the Nanaimo-KFC debacle (see August 18th entry). So anyway if anyone has any good pictures from the last month or so it'd be great if you e-mailed them in. Rezfest rocked last night.

September 8th
This morning we played our earliest show ever. Rezfest on Saturday'll be a rock show.

September 6th
Back in Edmonton today. It's our day off before heading into the studio tomorrow. I was just thinking about my favourite quote of the tour and I think it goes to the guy we met in Tumbler Ridge. It was his his first anniversary.

"What, did you think I was going to have some candle-lit dinner or something? Hell no, I'm partying with you guys."

September 4th
Last day of the tour here in Kananaskis. It's been a really fun ride and we're all looking forward to getting back in the studio. It's been great this tour to see so many people coming back to shows who have seen us before. Tonight we'll leave it all out on the stage.

September 3rd
I love the Canmore Hotel shows. Spent the day just hanging around town as usual. Went for a run in the mountains and Dan spent about four hours in a coffee shop. Tonight's show is really gonna go off the handle.

September 2nd-Special Alberta Centennial Edition Entry
Celebrated Alberta's 100th birthday yesterday. Went fishing out a lake near Banff and had a big-time Alberta beef barbecue.

September 1st
This tour really has been our best yet. There seems to be a ton of energy at shows, and that was apparent in Banff here last night. After the show we must have had at least 15 people crammed into a couple of rooms at the band house, it went pretty late. I finally crashed to the chanted singing of some weird fable-like ballad odyssey that really didn't make a lot of sense. We've got today off in Banff and then the Canmore-Canmore-Kananaskis run that we always end tours with. These are some of the most rocking of the tour and we're pumped to end things off in style. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the dance floor.

August 31st
Last night's show here in Banff got rocking towards the end. I realized the full effects of the Exshaw show last night, the dance floor was packed right up to my nose and a few pints of beer must have spilled on my rig. (not that that's a bad thing, it's more of indicator of how rocking the party was) So anyway, between that and the tubes in my amp burning up and leaving a thick burning chemical smell on the stage last night's show was interesting. Hopefully I won't have to drive to Calgary to get anything fixed. I'll wait 'till Dan wakes up before I start testing it out at full volume. Or maybe I won't. Rock on.

August 28th
Hi Shaggers,
The Camp Chief Hector show was off the hook. Defnitely the biggest party of the tour. Big thanks to Sean, Matt, Dave and Worried Well for kicking things off in style. Al and I watched from a high and dry location as Matti and Dan took part part in the 3:00 am bridge jumping expedition. Despite their banter about how fun it was they looked pretty freezing when they got out of the glacier-fed resevoir. It's really nice to have three days off here. Matti, Dan and Al have gone back to E-Town and I'm down in Waterton to do some hiking for a couple days before meeting up back in Banff. Cheers.

August 26th
For my birthday in Golden Dan, Matti and Al convinced me to go to another bar across town to enter in a pool tournament. There was no pool tournament.

August 25th
The Revelstoke shows were awesome. I'll never get bored of playing outside in mountain towns. We're back in Golden today for my birthday. Dan, Matti and Al said they won't be happy until I'm hooked up to an I.V. in the hospital. This is the third 08/25 on the road and those guys always end up taking it a lot harder than me. Should be fun though. Rock on.

August 23rd
In Salmon Arm right now. We picked up a hitcher on his way to Kamloops yesterday. On the back of his sign he'd written "I don't stink". That wasn't true.
We had grand plans to camp somewhere in BC and have a campfire, so we loaded up on smokies. Unfortunately it took a lot longer to leave Vancouver than we thought (i.e. timing it perfectly so we hit rush hour). We got to Kamloops around 1:00am and it was raining with a campfire ban. We were still super-hungry. The girl working at Petro-Can let us heat up the smokies in the microwave and we had our own little "cook-out" in the gas station. Gotta head towards Revelstoke now, I always love playing outdoor shows. Cheers.

August 22ndSpent a lot of time walking around downtown Vancouver. Met some old friends which was a lot of fun and watched Matti and Al take a middle of the night swim in English Bay. They thought it might be polluted but after last year's Lake Ontario jaunt in Kingston we're pretty sure they've already got any bad toxins. The show was our best Vancouver rock show yet. The sound guy's name was Sonny but we accidently called him Woody, Rusty and Husky from the stage. Fully Loaded, the band we played with was a lot of fun. Cheers.

August 20th
Salt Spring has lived up to its reputation once again.
Went jumping off a rope swing with some locals (thanks
DM) and my hands are all cut up from the immense amount of blackberries we've been picking. The show was great. We didn't have enough gas to get cross-island to the after party. It was great to meet three people from Seattle who saw us play last year make the trip up to hear us again. Back to Van-city tonight.

August 18th
Here's how it all went down. The 3rd annual Nanaimo Kentucky Fried Chicken gorging. We don't know why we do this. We don't eat KFC any other time. Only once a year in Nanaimo.
It started off with unbridled excitement. We went for 30 pieces between the four of us. Here's how it breaks down piece by piece:
1st piece: Wow, this is incredible.
2nd piece: Yum.
3rd piece: Ok, I can keep going.
4th piece: This is no longer enjoyable.
5th piece: Why do we do this to ourselves? Everyone else in here seems to be nonchalantly enjoying a moderate amount of chicken.
6th piece: We have a really odd sense of humour. We find it really funny to eat a disgusting amount of fried chicken.
7th piece: Any more of this and I will die.
I now believe that chicken was not meant for human consumption. I will be very happy to eat only vegan for the rest of my life, perhaps only fruit that has fallen naturally of its own accord from the branch.
I've also pitched making KFC an event every second year and skipping the 2006 installment. In other news, the Nanaimo show was fun, we ended up playing with The Illuminati and From Fiction a couple of very rocking bands from Toronto. We're on Salt Spring Island right now, one of my favourite places. It produced some very wild times last year. Cheers.

August 15th
It's a beautiful day in Vancouver. The tour has been going really well so far, Golden was a lot of fun. We spent a whole day floating down the river on some tubes. Spent a lot of time on the road yesterday and today we're heading to the beach. The next show in Nanaimo will be fun. For some reason we've made it an annual tradition to eat a ton KFC in Nanaimo. Rock on.

August 10th 
We had a really good meeting with Nik (producer/engineer) about the new album. We're excited to work with him. The release date will be moved back a couple of weeks because his band, Shout Out Out Out Out, will on the the Exclaim! tour at the end of October. That works out well for us and there just might be a peppering of Red Shag shows around that time. It's great to have some live shows after putting in some long hours in the studio. That's why I'm so pumped for the tour starting tomorrow. Rock hard.

August 8th
Working a lot on the new album right now, down to about 14 tracks. I got to see Bill Frisell, one of my favourite guitar players. Other highlights were Alejandro Escovedo, Weakerthans, and Ryan Adams among others. On Friday we're out on the road for a while.

August 2nd
At Grizfest we stayed with Rob and Janet, whose house seemed to be a 24 hour party. There were about 10 other people from all over staying at the same time, I've never met anyone who works and parties so hard. They were up early everyday to drill holes and mulch trees high up in the mountains. We were on a float in the parade on Saturday and did some serious waving as we were carted down mainstreet and around town. Here's Matti and Rob, our rocker host. Cheers.

August 1st
Grizfest was off the hook. What a party. Here's some pictures from the show, more to come later about the other events of the weekend. (i.e. having our own float in the parade, wild times in Tumbler Ridge).

July 28th
Ok, I know it's a little short notice but Red Shag is putting on a HUGE shaker tonight in E-Town. Not a show - a party, and everyone's invited. Give us a call, 444-0656 and come on down. Al and Matti have made a huge vat of chili. See you in a bit,

RSC

July 25th
That was a great tour. Kananaskis never fails to impress. One of our favourite venues. Here's some shots from the trip.

This is Norm, our most rockin' sound guy:

Thanks to Kai for the pictures. Cheers everyone.

July 24th
We managed to get into the Calgary Folk Fest last night and caught a great Arrested Development show. I've been trying not to yell and scream too much to save my voice, that all changed when they played "Mr. Wendel".
Cheers,
RSC

July 23rd
This has been a great tour so far. Waterton was really rockin'. One of our lastest rocker nights in a while. After the show we jumped in the lake with some of the locals. I think it's one of the coldest lakes in the rockies. The next day was very slow and hung over, but we recovered in time for the show and Fernie was ready. This morning we hit up The Blue Tuque (an RSC favourite breakfast spot) and are hanging out in Calgary and maybe trying to get over to the folk fest. Tomorrow night, Kanananananananskis!
Rock,
RSC

July 20th
Gearing up for tomorrow's tour. We're starting to solidify tunes for the new album, went over 14 of them today. Looking forward to rocking the mountains.

July 18th
Ok, a big update from the road. From the 'Toon show we headed pretty quick to Regina, where we ended up playing with 3 other bands, (No Hands, Joel & The Last of The Neighbours). It was a pretty good spot and we'll go there again. After the show we went to the usual only place open, Seven Eleven, and swore we'd never go there for burgers in the middle of the night again. The next day the Winnipeg show was a bit of a blur, there was an incredible storm in town. The lightning went off consistently for hours as often as a strobe light. The rain was intense, a lot of the city flooded and the Red & Asssinboine rivers were inching up as high as the bridges we crossed down by The Forks. It fun driving Ross(our van) around in the water-logged streets of The Peg. We caught a rockin' Inward Eye show later that night. I hope those guys make it big. We stayed with some resident medical student friends of ours that night (who made a killer breakfast the next morning) and then decided to drive all night back to E-Town. The trip was a long one, we stopped for gas in Saskatoon and an hour later figured out we had driven off all assuming someone else had payed, and had to stop to clear that up. The rest of the way the sky was lit up with some of the most spectacular northern lights I'd ever seen, and there's no better place to watch them than the over-sized Saskatchewan sky with nothing around. We stopped in Lloyd around 3:00 am for some quick Seven Eleven burgers and cruised the rest of the way home. Back on the road on Thursday, see you all soon.

-RSC

July 14th
Saskatoon, 3:30am. We just wrapped up our second show here and it feels good to get the wheels rolling on tour again. Spent the day at one of our favourite coffee shops, checked out the music stores as usual, went for a run in the river valley etc. I like coming to Saskatoon, it has a pretty laid back atmosphere and a good music scene. We met "Fast Eddie" tonight and Wilma the seer who gave us a couple of prophecies. Ramble on.

July 12th 
The T-Shirt contest winner has been announced......................................................................., unfortunately there will no drum roll leading up to the announcement because the drummer is busy accepting his award. The new line of Red Shag merch, designed by Allan PIckard, will available on tour and ready to be ordered online early next week. See you on the road.

July 11th
Tried to go Jasper this weekend. Almost hit a stray dog about half-way there. We stopped, picked it up (it was in pretty rough shape) got some dog food and took it home. It's been named "Indiana".

July 9th
Well, Dan's back from England where he somehow managed to get into the Live 8 concert in Hyde park. After rubbing shoulders with Paul Mcartney, Bono, Sting, Pink Floyd and Madonna he must have some big time aspirations for The Shag. It would seem Snoop Dogg also left an impression as Dan is more "smooth" than ever. It's good to have him back and recordings have been going really well. We're gearing up for the beginning of tour season next week on the prairies. Dan did manage to meet the press for some photo ops while at the G8 HQ:

July 5th
On tour next week, Saskatchewan for three nights and then Winnipeg the nation's rock capital. Watched the Metallica documentary the other night for some recording inspiration. Instead we saw heavy metal's fab four sit around and talk about their feelings. We've decided to heavily get into the Eskimos this season. Some new pictures from the "Blue Haven" recording sessions are on the pictures page.
-RSC

July 1st 
A quick update from Vancouver, June was a great month for RSC, we're on our only vacation time of the summer until Monday while DY's in England. By the way, our new line of shirts and other merchandise have been designed and will be ready to go in a few days so check back soon. Some advice for Canada day: Rock hard.
Rock out,
-Teddy

June 25th 
Great showing last night, the New Meanies were great to share the stage with. It's back to the grindstone for us now for a couple of weeks before kicking off the tour.
Rock on,
-RSC

June 21st
A quick update from the studio. We're mixing rough sketches of songs that we recorded at the cabin sessions a couple of weeks ago. This New Meanies show should be fun, we're glad to hear they're back in the saddle. We had a meeting with Nik Kozub who will record/mix/produce this album in October. We're looking forward to working with him more in-depth. Check out his Nrmls Wlcm (Normals Welcome) record label.

June 15th
Our precious whiteboard (that we spend a lot of time staring at everyday)

We've been putting our new tunes through the ringer the last couple of weeks. The lifestyle is starting to take its toll. Any "fitness" level we once had is now a thing of the past. It's a good thing Al and Dan are gourmet chefs. The night Matti and I were sent into town to get groceries we had nachos and sour cream with smokies cut up on top.
Ramble on,
RSC

June 9th
We're back from the "Blue Haven Cabin" recording sessions part one. There's a lot of new material floating around. Some guy called Brian kept coming around to get us to use his dirt bike/ATV and boat. Our neighbours turned out to be pretty good as well, at first we were worried that blaring music 14 hours a day for a week might upset the "serenity" but as it turns out on of them used to make the acquaintance of Jethro Tull back in the day and was no stranger to rock and roll. Our Southern Alberta cabin recording plans for next week are on ice right now because of the good hard solid rain they had turned to flooding.
Right between the sound machine,

RSC

May 31st
At times like this there's nothing else to do but quote Thin Lizzy:

Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that had been away
Haven't changed, haven't much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy

They were asking if you were around
How you was, where you could be found
Told them you were living downtown
Driving all the old men crazy

The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
I said
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town
The boys are back in town

Yes, Thin Lizzy, the boys are back in town. Full-time, starting the new album tomorrow and then taking it on the road.

Spread the word around,
RSC

May 29th
This week we'll star recording at Blue Haven, a cabin on lake in central Alberta. We're looking forward to doing a lot of that this June.

May 25th
Good places to eat breakfast:

1.The Blue Tuque- Fernie BC

2. Mary's - Sault Ste. Marie ON

3. Dadeo's - Edmonton AB

May 23rd
Well, Al's in San Francisco probably sitting on the corner of Haight and Ashbury pondering the perpetual displacement of cosmic time warp in a tie-dye tank top, DY's taking in Jasper, Teddy's back from Van-city and lucky Matti got to spend all of May long in beautiful E-Town. Four days until the rock-ball drops.

Rock like Amadeus,

RSC

May 14th
Two weeks until we're all full-time musicians again. We've decided to spend June recording instead of going out East this time around. Don't worry Eastern Shaggers, we'll be out your way before long and have a new album with us. The July/August tour is will be a rock-ride. We're looking forward to this Nextfest show in E-Town as well. Rachelle Van Zanten of the Painting Daisies will be there as well which is always a good show to see.

Ramble on,

RSC

May 8th
Shaggers, great showing at Boobapalooza last night it was a lot of fun. The show did really well and a lot of money was raised towards breast cancer research and care. In other major news, Dan is getting over a cold, Al wore his Wilco t-shirt today, Matti took in a day-time film and Teddy didn't get a lot accomplished. Non-stop excitement for Red Shag. It was great to take in Plainsay's set last night as well.

Ride the lightning,

RSC

May 2nd
Dan received a brand new hair-cut on the weekend. He would like it mentioned that since his new haircut he is the "the most handsome young go-getter in the band". Wow, is he ever looking good. Everybody tune in to CJSR 88.5 radio Edmonton for at midnight on Thursday, May 5th. Red Shag has a full interview on Liquid Chatter Talk Radio, it sounds like a pretty cool show developing a reputation for going off the wall. Some of the T-Shirt contest entries coming in are looking pretty good. Check out some of these from the good folks at Perpetual Notions:

Rock,

-RSC

April 24th
April 24th was another day in the studio for RSC. Highlights include hitting 2 cars with a frisbee.

April 23rd
Only two weeks until Boobapalooza. We can't wait, all this work in the studio is good but Red Shag is really about the live show. I suggest getting there early or buying your ticket in advance because we can only get 200 people in there. We saw the Weakerthans/Constantines the other night, good show.

Keep on rocking in the free world,

RSC

April 16th
There's still some time to get your entries for the T-Shirt contest in. This one's my favourite so far, it's definitely the most rocker:

Thanks to Matt Olah on that one. This cancer benefit show is going to be fun, we're also looking forward to playing with The New Meanies.

Exit light,

-Teddy

April 6th
Rockers,

Ah, spring. The season to eat smokies, the band's official favourite food. Much better than that the "Spicy Seafood Chow Mein" that we sometimes eat in the van. Huh? What's this? Red Shag Carpet is going to reveal their secret recipe?

Red Shag Carpet's Spicy Seafood Chow Mein (serves four)

Ingredients:

2 cans of tuna
2 packages of uncooked Ichiban Noodles
Frank's Red Hot Sauce

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in those green plastic bowls we take around on the road. Enjoy.

If I had my way we would never eat "Spicy Seafood Chow Mein" again. But, I'm sure, the situation will arise when we're hungry, don't have money for groceries and don't feel like cooking. We're really looking forward to this cancer benefit show in E-Town on May 7th. All proceeds go to cancer research. It'll be a good way to kick off the tour.

Rock like Amadeus,

-T

March 21st
T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST

RSC is coming out with new t-shirts for the summer tour. All artistic-minded Red Shag fans are being called upon for a T-shirt design, with a $200 cash prize if your entry is used. E-mail your ideas to email@redshagcarpet.com. So far tour name entries range from the lame (i.e. Fun Teddy's Cross Country Check-up 2005) to the festive (Menace to Sobriety Tour 2005). Keep the ideas rolling in.

Ramble on,

-The Shag

March 19th
Welcome to March 19th for Red Shag. Matti and Dan meet for coffee and to discuss. Ted keeps a low profile. Allan gets up early.

-RSC

March 13th
We're currently booking our second all-inclusive cross-Canada tour. We need a good name for it. The last few have been: "Summer of Shag 2003", "Tour de Frost 2004", "Big Canada Tour 2004" etc. I can't remember if we named our last winter tour. Anyway, we're now taking entries for the 2005 installment so e-mail your ideas to email@redshagcarpet.com. We can't wait to get back on stage every night, there's really nothing like it.

Hey hey, my my.......

-Teddy

March 5th
March 5th. Matti's birthday. Last year I was told the party was a "dress up like Matti" party, so I went into the stockpiles of Matti's clothes I have at my place and put together a pretty good outfit. Turns out I was the only person aware of the "theme". Tonight should be fun. Red Shag is coming off a pretty big logistical meeting. Nothing at all set in stone for this summer's tour, but if you live in the Eastern Canada look out for us in June, Alberta/BC/Yukon in July and August. That could change.

RSC

February 20th
Hello from E-Town. Dan's out on the coast writing tunes. Matti's heading out that way as well in hopes of getting another free designer hair-cut. After a show on Salt Spring Island last year we met Corinne, a stylist who'd trained in Amsterdam. After singing some tunes with her and her friend Billy-Jack on a boat in the harbour the party shifted over to the high-end salon she runs on the Island. Matti got a free, middle of the night, height of fashion, $80 dollar retail value hair-cut and hasn't cut his hair since. (that was sometime in August). That leaves Al and I back here. No hippie-style living on a beach. No ocean. No hair-cut. West Edmonton Mall. Biggest aluminum baseball bat in the world.

Cheers,

RSC

February 9
February 9th!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Dan's birthday, the most celebrated day of the year. Last year we got him a custom light-blue bath robe with the words "Daniel Alexander Yarmon" stitched in red. We haven't seen him wear it since. We spent a lot of time putting that together when we were stuck in Golden BC for a few days. What will Dan get this year? What local celebrity will phone him a happy birthday? We got a trainer from the Oilers to wish Al a happy birthday last year, after phoning every possible player. Well Dan's birthday should be a fun time tonight especially after getting together at my place last friday produced this result:

Cheers,

-RSC

February 7
Hi All
I find it funny that the red shag journal is always about rock, rockstars, rock-shows and four weirdoes in a van shooting for all three. Yeah, it's a journal for a rock band, but what about the world beyond amp-knobs, highways and making fun of Dan? How about something a little less Rolling Stone, and a little more . . . deep.

West Edmonton is home to the greatest Canadian relic of the Cold War era: a gigantic waterpark. In my mind, this awesome largesse is right up there with some abandoned submarine base rusting away in Russia, or a radioactive desert in the American doldrums. One difference though: the waterpark is crawling with nimble E-towners. They scale rusty steel, roar down leaky slides, eat sandwiches, all this without a glimmer of despair.

People always go to Europe or New York to see sculptures. Sometimes a real piece trickles through E-town on its way elsewhere, like the time that big block made of melted guns was at the gallery downtown. But out on the west end there, under a dome of sweaty glass, is a truly great piece of our human heritage. Life's finest effigy is in that chaotic tangle of metal, meandering slides, trickling rust-water and hyper kids. Grab your Speedo and dive into the heart of darkness and fluorescent light. Really, what more is there? (except rock and roll)

Aquatically,
RSC

January 30th
Howdy,

Last week we recorded 12 extremely raw songs that may or may not be on the upcoming album. It's nice that there's so much new material especially with everybody writing. We're hoping to keep engineering and mixing ourselves in our own studio, it's fun and there's so much to learn about the process.

I think we're going to check out The Hidden Cameras tonight. I meant to catch Recipe from A Small Planet in Calgary this weekend but no dice.

For those about to rock,

-RSC

January 22nd
Hi,

Well, we already feel like heading out on the road again. Recording is fun and that's where our real work is right now. I can't wait to do this new album. Some tunes are starting to take shape and there's some good ideas flying around. For now, I gotta get outside a little more and see some more shows.

Right between the sound machine,

-T

January 16th
Hello,

Well, after the show last night we've got a bit of a break coming up. There'll be more shows announced soon. We've been having a great time on stage lately, but it's time to hit the studio. We'll start laying down the tracks of all our new songs right away. Great showing last night Edmonton Red Shaggers, and we had fun watching Knee Deep as well.

Rock on,

-T

January 10th 4:00 am
Howdy all,

Wow, what a way to wrap up the tour. It's pretty late and I'm hanging out with some Kananaskis residents after the show. Holly just finished off singing a soulful version of Bobby Magee, some Violent Femmes and now it looks like she's starting up the Momma Cass. These guys want to say hello. Kai is now taking over control over the keyboard:

...and here I am. but just because it's not directly Red Shag; I think I'm a friend, and Teddy didnt want to keep typing; so I made him tune my guitar while I type. Kananaskis is a wonderful place to visit for a while; and if you can deal with isolation from city life; this is the place for you. Beautiful. Just for the record; Red Shag rules!!! ... but I'm sure you all know that. and now Holly is playing guitar and singing....absolutely beautiful blues. and now; for something completely different.....

Thanks Kai. I can't believe the tour is already over. Soon we'll be back to our other identites, so I'm going to stretch this night out a little longer with some of K-country's finest. Here comes Holly:

It's just the girlfriend of a friend of a friend... any way life is good. Red Shag Carpet rocks! (but of course) and I just wanted to say hi. Soooooo... here's to a life without fears, so remember, never stop being young, 'cuz the day you do is the day you start to die and the day you stop having fun!!!!!!!!!

Cheers everyone and thanks for making this tour so much fun,

-Teddy (with Kai from Fairmont Hot Springs BC, Rosalie from Quebec city and Holly from the 'Ville (Cherryville)

January 8th
Well he would have been 70 today. Or maybe he is 70 today. How will you celebrate? Put on your sequence suit? Watch 'G.I. Blues'? Dance with your hips or rock out to 'Live in Hawaii'? Whatever you do just make sure after supper tonight you bake a cake that proudly states HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS!!

oh and red shag.....a rocker show at the Canmore Hotel last night and another one tonight. Look out Kananaskis we're coming to you...

Well gotta go we're off to eat lunch of day old bagels we bought two days ago.

Ya, Rock!

--Matti

January 7th
Hello rock brethren/sistren:
Red shag is descending into a syrupy, dormant pre-show state. So here we are, lurking around in the sinful city of Banff, slouching towards the rock and roll target of canmore, sweat saved for the stage. . .
. . dan drifts into the smoke of an X-box bloodbath, matti and theo have a dissonant 3 note duel on shifty guitars, I'm thinking of vanishing into a big chair somewhere.
We're staying in Glen Sather's old cabin in Banff.
For those who don't know, uncle Glen was only THE father of the greatest sports dynasty of all time:The Edmonton oilers. We've made somewhat of a deity of him, a lower deity that is. The Great One, our lord gretzky, is, of course, atop the holy oiler heirarchy.
Recently we made an Oilers-based nativity scene. Wayne was the baby in the manger.
b-bye.
Al

January 6th
Ahh...the first journal entry from someone other than band secretary Teddy. Snowing hard in Canmore...new songs going over real well...van broke down in Fernie (just like last time we were there)...Dan makes funny banana joke (claimed to be the funniest joke ever)...Get ready for rock storm this weekend in Canmore and Kananaskis.

DY

January 2nd
Hello from Fernie,
The tour has been going really well so far. Our first night we pulled in with about 10 minutes to set up and play only to find out that Matti's keys didn't work for some unexplained reason. We played most of the show as a trio, which wasn't ideal but still a good time. New year's eve was incredible. The people of Golden certainly proved themselves rock-worthy. We had no idea that place could pack in so many people. Big thanks to all the people who came in from Calgary and E-Town to ring in the new year with Red Shag. Anyway, the next morning was pretty rough. Our rooms were right above the bar and the DJ kept going until about 7:00 am. We took off at 7:30, had some Seven-Eleven burgers for breakfast and booked it back to Fernie for a 3:00 pm show on the hill and played a second show later on. A lot of music yesterday, which was fun. Fernie is always such a great place to play. The crowds have been great and we can't wait to keep going. The beautiful thing about this morning in Fernie is that we're about to head over to "The Blue Tuque" which has the best breakfast of anywhere we've toured in Canada (an honorable mention to Mary's in Sault Ste. Marie). Last year Matti, Dan and I were stuck here for 3 days (one extra day because we forgot to give the mechanic the keys to our van) and made it into a second home. We've got a show this afternoon and tomorrow a day off to hit the slopes. Kananaskis and Canmore Red Shag fans: be ready for big shows next weekend.
Ramble On,
-T

December 20th
Hello hello
Wooooooooooohooooooooo! Christmas Tour Coming Up! We ended up having a really good Jam at a party the other night with a bunch of other musicians. It felt like an old time Red Shagger. Dan had a "headache" this morning and couldn't help load the gear. Instead, we're pretty sure he cuddled up under his favourite Christmas blanket, sipped hot apple cider, had strawberry pudding, had a tea party with most well-behaved stuffed animals, watched the Rudolf Christmas Special (except for the scary part with the abominable snowman) and enjoyed the warm, snuggly feeling of his little toes rubbing together. All this while Al and I had to load the stuff (including Dan's Bass rig) in a snowstorm and Matti was stuck in Banff with Ross (our van/home) because of freezing rain. WYE kids, thanks for all your email. We appreciate it.
Cheers everyone and Merry Christmas.

--Ted