Canadia Beats

Courtesy of missdenoma.

Write this down, dudes, today is the day I completed the mastering and the artwork for Beg Steal and Burrow. Now I just need to get it all printed up and paid for and we can exchange high fives. You might’ve seen this picture before, it’s the cover art:

And the track listing:

1. Other Side
2. We’re Leaving
3. I Often Follow
4. Let Me Know
5. Let’s Pretend
6. Augustine

BONUS NEWS: missdenoma has made a teaser video for the EP release party which totes rules:

More has been promised. Now go out and enjoy your Friday nights by reading a book or going to sleep early or something, whatever it is you do when you’re waiting to come see a Canadia gig the next night.

The mixing is all done on Beg Steal and Burrow, so I thought it was about time I shared. This is the first track, ‘Other Side.’ Please note awesome guest vocals from Anji Sami.

‘Other side’ [Bandcamp]

I’ve been ticking away on the mixing of Beg Steal and Burrow quite steadily, shunning the outside world and chewing holes in my cheeks as I try to mix without smoking. I know there’s never a good time to quit, but come on.

I will make it, that I promise. Careful observers will not that another show has been slipped into the schedule. Canadia is opening for Mahoney Harris as she releases an EP with the assistance of Hannah Curwood and Tom Healy on Thursday 8th October. It’s at the Wine Cellar from 8pm, and will be a solo Ashley performance.

And of course the long-awaited Canadia feat. Maggie Williams on being a laptop happens on Saturday 10th at Dogs Bollix, playing on the Inverts‘ release tour. I’ll finally take Maggie on stage with me to bash out some Canadia laptop classics, and (fingers crossed) a couple of new jams from the EP.

Five songs mixed, now. Sleep, work, mix the next. Byes.

Just finished the tracking for Beg Steal and Burrow and not a moment too soon. I feel like I’ve been working on this EP forever, and it’s finally all wrapped up. All that remains is editing, tweaking, mixing, sequencing, mastering, artwork, pressing, etc, et al., and on into the future. I’m hitting my stride on some self-imposed deadlines, so everyone please pat someone on the back.

The EP as it will be has six songs: ‘Other Side,’ ‘We’re Leaving,’ ‘I Often Follow,’ ‘Let Me Know,’ ‘Augustine’ and ‘Let’s Pretend.’ ‘Let’s Pretend’ is brand new (a few days old). ‘Augustine’ has gone the instrumental route, and ‘Other Side’ has turned into a duet with a guest vocalist. The point is BAM! it’s wrapped up. Nothing else goes to (metaphorical) tape.

Rehearsals have started for the release party, too, with Blair McPhee on guitar, Rachael Botur on bass, and new blood Will Wood of Skyscraper and The Electric Nomad on the drums. The gig should be somewhat of a buffet assortment of Canadia treats from the new EP, from One Dog Clapping, and probably even a few not yet record songs, so prepare yourselves.

The artwork is coming together as well. Hannah JV took a sack full of cameras out and about this weekend and shot a buttload of film and flash card. The film goes in to get developed tomorrow, and when the prints come back we’ll start piecing this thing together.

So that’s my news, you guys. It’s 12:39am and I should sleep so I can face things like getting up early on a Monday morning, the first of daylight Savings, and acting like I know what I’m doing at work.

I’m bursting with ideas and fruit flavour right now, and I’m also kind of thirsty, which is a real pain because all the good drinks are in the house and I really can’t be bothered leaving the shed.

First things first: I’ve finally got around to booking a Canadia show. That’s right, a Canadia gig. No more jumping on the bill with whoever will have me. It’s time for a real Canadia party. The show is on Friday 23rd October at the Wine Cellar in Auckland, and will also star the fantastic Mr Slackjaw.

It’s also to be the release party for the new Canadia EP. The one I was going to finish in June, but instead will finish in September. The good news is it finally has a name: Beg, Steal and Burrow. There’s nothing like deadline to get me motivated, so this show is my deadline. Hold me to it, you guys.

Hannah JV and I had a bit of a meeting last night, and she’s going to be taking some photos for the cover art. The concept all came together really quickly once I had the name, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Like I said, I’m suddenly bubbling over with ideas, but this’ll do for now. One foot in front of the next, and so on.

Freak out, fellas, we’re flipping back from even to odd and playing another Canadia show! The beats will go down at Bacco Room this Friday 11th September, in support of Sunley‘s Apologies album release.

Besides the fact that, hello, this is the third (third!) Canadia gig for 2009, this one’s notable for even more reasons. By my count, three more reasons!(!!) Those reasons are: Blair McPhee, Rachael Botur, and Anji Sami. Yes, all three (3!) of these will be part of the Canadia set on Friday. I’m freaking (3king!) out!

Also on the bill: Hannah Curwood, slumming it once more with me on bass. Also, Sunley. Duh.

UPDATE: I am so sorry, this is in fact the fourth Canadia show for the year. This is so embarrassing.

Not too far from where I live, and real close to my nearest bus stop, is am Indian restaurant (Indian cuisine and pizzeria!). They’re not the best Indian restaurant in town, in fact they’re not even very good, but they are perfectly placed for grabbing a quick curry after work on a Wednesday night. That and the fact that it’s only $11 for a curry (excl. seafood), rice, naan bread and papadom at dinner time.

We all know to expect a bit of a wait when ordering takeaway food, and with a supermarket nearby this is often a great time to grab some TP and toothpaste, or a bottle of wine if I’m feeling saucy.

But sometimes it’s nice to phone ahead and have it waiting for you. I thought of that tonight after I’d already started walking. Did you know there are no phone books in any of the phone booths up Queen Street, along K Road, and Great North Road? I know that now. I put out a call to Twitter for anyone to text me the number so I could phone ahead, but that didn’t work. Hell, even if people tried this place isn’t easy to Google unless you already know its name, and I didn’t. It doesn’t really exist if it ain’t online.

So let me tell you all about the Copper Chimney, 572 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland. Telephone (0 9) 376 1600. Lunch 11am-2:30pm (lunch combo $8. Same as dinner plus a can of coke). Dinner 5pm-10:30pm. Open seven days. Halal.

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If only that had been available to me earlier tonight. Don’t worry, I got my curry.

I’m in the process of going through a bunch of Canadia stuff from the last year to see if there’s anything I can use (where did all those Elmos come from?) and I came across a photo set shot by S Dubs at Wine Cellar in 2008. About time I shared, I think.

Photos by Sean Wallace.

Wine Cellar, 2008 [flickr]

Life, eh? You’d have a assume I’ve been busy with all kinds of things that aren’t your typical Canadia like making movies, looking at comic books and drinking. And this is all true. But despite the fact that I always seem to answer “what have you been up to lately?” with “um, working and… not working,” I have in fact been making an EP.

If you follow my Twitter at all you’ll see I’ve been mumbling about recording for the last month, but then I’m always mumbling about recording. But it goes like this: by the end of June I will have tracked the follow up to One Dog Clapping. There will be a new Canadia EP.

Wait, hold on, it’s July already. So make that some time in July. The plan I wrote on my wall says June, but I used pen and can’t rub it out.

The EP has no name yet, is mostly acoustic in nature, and will have six tracks. There are three brand new songs, and three that have been kicking around in the live set for a while. Although I changed them, so let’s act like they’re new and not get all “I liked your old stuff.” If you liked my old stuff I would have more wine. That is science.

Progress so far: two songs completely tracked, one song almost completely tracked, and three songs totally started. I’m joined on the recordings by new white MacBook Maggie Williams, who is the most helpful member of Canadia since Eunice Brance Branca. She’s basically doing all the work.

My children need wine.