New Junk Asthetic

So as I had posted awhile ago (sorry), I was waiting for my Every Time I Die vinyl in the mail, and I finally got it. The artwork is beautifully done by Jordan Buckley and his website has more and more drawings every time I go back to the site.

This is a reason for collecting vinyl in itself. The artwork is huge, it's a gatefold and it came together so nicely. I now have all of their records, all done incredibly well. However, as I said, this is some of the best album artwork i've seen in a very long time.






Also, if you have the time (or make time make sure to watch The Inaugural Ride Of The Easy Tigers In Denim, on Jordan's website. It kinda gave a new life to the meaning of a roadtrip, and maybe even a little inside into the music they make. Hopefully i'll do an American road trip one day.

Mocking Bird Wish Me Luck

A wonderful EP from a new local band. It's also out on a 7" get it while it's still "hot". It sounds like Attack in Black and Hot Water Music to me, but you be the judge and let me know.

Kyle Krische rules too and plays in Wayfarer (check most recent blog)

Making love to your ears (Goodbye Debris)

Love you forever and always,
bt.

Records, Screen Printing, New Albums.

I am back on Canadian soil. I never made an end to my blog posts when I was on tour.. but the rest of it was fun and I miss it, however it's job time and unfortunately there are not as many jobs available as there are numbers on the clock. (see what I did there? hire me.)

This posts main focus is on all of the amazing new music that has come out in the last few weeks.. all of which has been getting more than heavy rotation on my itunes and ipod, I hope soon that can transform into my record player.

First things first, Windsor Ontario's finest Orphan Choir finally found a home for their full-length self titled record and it does not disappoint in the least. I've been listening to this bands rough demos from splits for too long. The songs they re-recorded have a new breath of life and the rest of the songs are just pure genius. They played a few shows with friend of mine Kyle Krische. He plays in two bands called Wayfarer and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, both of which have recently dropped some records so go check out there myspace and if you like what you hear buy their album, or 7"and start that collection.

The ever great Every time I Die had some drama before the release of their new record New Junk Asthetic dropped when their drummer left after their set at Scene fest in St. Catherines (saw it, yes!) Needles to say, this record does not disappoint. The album artwork (which is my favorite out of their catalogue) was done by the guitarist Jordan Buckley. You can check out the rest of his work here. This should come in the mail soon and when it does i'll take some photos of the artwork and colors.

My littlest guilty pleasure dropped a new record today, too. Paramore released Brand New Eyes and it is even more catchy and embarrassing then the last record. Judge me as you will, this is great musicianship and song-writing. I had a dream that Hayley Williams and I were hanging out in residence and her room was shaped like a vampires coffin.. she's so hard.

Polar Bear Club also released Chasing Hamburg earlier this month. I know people have been saying it's not their best and all that jazz but it's still a really good album. They went a different direction but who cares, I think they set out to do what they wanted to do and they did it well.

My beloved teenage self also got stoked when the Moneen record dropped. However, I still can't get into it I am not sure why, maybe it's just because I am holding onto Are We Really Happy.. too much. Anyway, give it a listen and let me know what you think. The title of the record is The World We Want To Leave Behind, at least they stuck with the long titles.

Hova released the Blueprint 3 and has been getting alot of slack for it. I think it's great, it's not Blueprint 2 or the Black Album, but it's still a decent album. He is on tour now and will be playing Toronto on Halloween. Last week he was on the Oprah show and they talked about the use of the "n" word and their different stances on the slang term. Needless to say, it's pretty interesting.

Oh, here are some of the records I got when I was in the UK.

The Arteries - Blood, Sweat and Beers 10" (the sleeve was made with rice paper.. fucking awesome.)



A Wilhelm Scream - Diver 7" and Career Suicide 12"









Hot Water Music - Finding the Rythms 12" and bonus 7" ?





And finally got my print from an artist, Horsebites who does work for Dead to Me, New Mexican Disaster Squad, The Flatliners, A Wilhelm Scream, Strike Anywhere and stuff for the Fest 8.


Long post, hope you enjoyed and I hope to do more.

bt.

Luxemberg and Belgium!

Hello from Belgium (waffles).

So the last two nights have been pretty fun. Yesterday we played a festival in Luxemberg, a town that is pretty close to france but very tiny. It was an all day festival and tons of bands played. The Aggrolites headlined and another band, Versus You played before The Flats that really blew my mind away. So please check them out. After the show we headed to the nicest hostel I have ever seen.. I mistook it for a hotel until I learned it was a hostel. We had our own personal balcony, bathroom, SUPER comfortable beds and a little cubby that would hold anything and everything you had. OH! Scott also got choked by a girl.

Tonight we are in Belgium and it's pretty rad. We are in Ostend, a tiny town that has a harbor some pretty awesome shops and a really great fan-base for The Flatliners. I had a doner (kebab) for breakfast at an esso station and got the biggest toblerone bar i've ever seen for 5 euros. Oh, if you have me on facebook you also know that some asshole bought the two Hot Water Music records I wanted right before me. Tomorrow we have to leave at 5am to catch a ferry over to the United Kingdom and then it's bye, bye, Europe for who knows how long(for me atleast.)

So next time you talk to me i'll be in the UK.. pounds, tea, reminiscence of The Clash and lots of other stuff.

see you in 11 days,
bt.

Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Ljubljana

Alright so.. Czech Republic (Prague)was pretty awesome. We walked around the city and it was really great. Lots of old buildings and everything. The money was confusing as I said before but it was still pretty neat. When we walked around town we chilled by a fountain for awhile in front of a museum, looked at Absinthe (which I later smelled and could never re-describe what I smelt that night) and then headed to the show where the guys played with The Mad Caddies and A Wilhelm Scream. It was a really, really fun show and we ended up partying in the club (which was in kind of an outdoor mall but underground [there was also an upside down horse with a guy riding on him that the promoter told us was mocking the other town squares statue that was of a horse upright with a man riding it]). When we left for the van to get into to our hostel we had a -little- run in with Czech security, that was fun. Anyway, we got off with a hitch and headed back into Austria.

Austria we met up with our friend Alex who tour manages for a band called Astpai. He had put on the show and a few familiar faces came out which was great. We ate all vegan food and I tried schnitzel for the first time. This band opened for the guys called Soey, and were really, really awesome. Again we ended up partying pretty late and then went to bed around 5am to get up for 9am for our 7(?) hour drive to Hungary where the guys played this big, festival.

We met up with the Wilhelm guys again and after the show we all went to a Jager bar that was set up outside this field and danced our lives away. We drove to our really, really, nice hotel where we ended up staying for only a few more hours before we had to drive to Ljubljana which was, by far, the best night and show of the tour.

Every year Ljubljana puts on an arts festival and pays for all of the bands guarantees. So when we got there we had a really great dinner and loaded into the venue we were playing. Then we all got taxi's to go watch A Wilhelm Scream at an outdoor show. Then cabbed back to play our show which was the after party for the Wilhelm Show. It was amazing. There were so many kids there and it was so fun. There was also some Canadians who made it out and gave the guys the flag they had been carrying. Scott ended up wearing it as a cape by the end of the set. Again, we partied until at least 5:00am at this punk bar and then Chris, Ed and I walked to the hostel and ended up going to bed at about 6.

We drove for about 10 hours today and are now resting in Germany. We have another show tomorrow and then 13 days until i'm home.

until next time,
bt.

Berlin.. and everywhere else

So been out of the internet for awhile.. sorry.

So Berlin was pretty awesome. Great show and we got to hang out and I saw the wall. Not really what I was expect but it was still pretty awesome. The next few days we headed into Germany for the last time we will be there of the tour. Some of the shows were great and the cities were great too. We got to go to Hamburg which was pretty crazy to party for after. I wanted to get a hamburger but all the shops closed after I got a tour of the prostitutes and red light district.. what a city.

A few days later we went to Dusseldorf which was just incredible. They had alot of awesome little shops and great places to eat. I got my brother the hottest hot sauce a spice store could sell, we ate gellato and there were pizza places on every corner. After we went to some punk bar and then I headed home early to call Amy because it was her birthday.

Now we are in Prague and spent the day just walking around and taking in some scenery. I exchanged 20 euros and got 450 crowns.. then I bought something tiny that costed me 150. It kinda confuses me.

Anyway a few more days jumping around Countires and then the UK. Hopefully i'll have more luck with internet there.

France, Switzerland, Germany, Berlin

So I haven’t had the internet in forever so this is going to be a really, really long post. Anyway, on to France for the 4 days I was there.

The first day was in Lyon, We didn’t see much of the major city but we did get to walk around the area where the show was. We went to some fully empty building beside the show that had a lot of weird stuff in it. The wallpaper of one room was obviously a child’s room because the wallpaper was full of skateboarders and bikers and it said USA everywhere. The door of the house was also locked but it looked like someone hacked at it with an axe because they were stuck in there (shortly after that we left). The venue was tiny but it was pretty cool. Lots of great kids and we said it was my birthday again. Pretty much doing it every night.


The next day was Thiers which I thought was going to be the strangest night of the tour (but last night really took the cake.) We arrived in some industrial area on a mountain and we were driving around looking for the club and couldn’t find it. Finally someone showed us where to go and we arrived at this building that was built below the rest of the buildings and was beside another abandoned building where half of the buildings frame was still intake, and the other half only had the reinforcements to hold it up. We went up to see where the show was and at first glance I thought it was a kindergarten classroom. There were lots of kids running around and tables with drawings and the floor was covered in toys. This is where we all got very confused. We sat around for awhile and they told us that the show was going to be taking place up on top of the mountain because the neighbors have been complaining about the noise (the only neighbors I could see were these 3 guys working on a really old RV drinking and I don’t think they had any previous experiences with cars. Plus the fact to move a show up on top of a mountain, on the street, under a tent, in the wide open would make more noise than a basement club.. but who knows.) We went back into town which turned out to be the knife capital of France.. so every other store was a knife store… selling the same knives. But there was a big town clock in the middle of downtown that was apparently a pretty big deal. A bronze man came up at every hour to hit on his anvil with his hammer and knife (assuming he is making a knife). We went back to the show and we later found out that this little hippy “family” was just squatting in this empty building. Good on them. They have a place to live that’s actually pretty nice and they don’t have to pay for it (if they are even squatting). The show was pretty cool and we sold t-shirts out of the back of the van. We went back to the kindergarten classroom to go to sleep but the kids were asleep on the mattresses and no parents were around to get them. After I had heard there was a mattress to go on the ground with a bloodstain on it I decided to sleep in the van.. as did everyone else.

Finally onto Paris. We woke up and drove right there. We got there pretty early and got great food. We walked around a bit of the core and when Chris was done an interview with a local punk-zine we all walked to Notre Dame. It was amazing. All of the doors arches had little characters carved into it and not one was the same. When we got there The sun was just setting and it was light perfectly, almost like it was golden.

Also in Paris you can rent bikes.. there are lots of little bike racks that you swipe a card and you can borrow a bke for a certain amount of time. I am not sure how it works, but it’s a really good idea.


On our way back I got some postcards, little Eiffel towers and saw a bathroom that was outside.. and it was so amazing. It’s hard to explain so here is a picture.

We got back to the show, it was great, hot, but great. Then we went to see the Eiffel Tower. On the way there we passed the bridge that had the big building on top of it (can’t remember what it’s called, sorry, I am not cultured) and drove through the tunnel where Princess Dianna had her crash. We got to the Eiffel Tower just ten minutes too late so all the lights were off. But I still saw it, got a picture of me with it, and it was well worth the wait. Next time I’ll see it during the day and at night.. although I did get the full effect without lights on. We went back to Teal’s house (the guy who put on the show) who lived in an apartment in Paris which was really awesome. I later found out that he has his own record label and plays in a very successful French hardcore band called Guerilla Poubelle… haven’t heard them yet but if they are anything like Teal, it’ll be more than awesome.

Le Havre wasn’t very exciting. We got Kebab (amazingggg) and did laundry. The show was pretty good and then we stayed in a weird 3 bedroom that had a sink and a T. with three channels that was about the size of my room now at 111 Carlaw (shout out to my hommies).

The next day we drove back into Switzerland (7 and a half hoursssss) to arrive at this Tiki 50’s style bar that was so awesome. They had some pretty cool decorations and we had the best food we had had in days. Chicken burgers with fries, a coke… served in a pink cardboard Cadillac.

The show was the hottest show I have ever been too. The mirrors inside the club were fogging up and they had to cut early because it was too hot. Switzerland money is very weird too. They have 5 dollar coins and the bigger the money is the bigger the bill is. So example a 200 dollar bill is significantly bigger than the 10 dollar bill. It makes sense, but it doesn’t fit into your wallet.

After the show we went to our hostel and there was a pretty crazy punk bar there. We decided to do a weird night out and went out for a bit. Scott and I danced and there was some super straight up gutter punks, skinheads, hippies, and a dog that was just running around. Good old Switzerland.

Went to Berlin yesterday / today. Saw the wall adn took some photos will it. It was awesome.. I have some photos but i'll update them tonight as my computer will die soon adn I have some stuff I need to do.