NEWS FLASH! Tune into the Signal, CBC Radio 2 , tomorrow night (Thursday 16th) from 10pm for the exclusive premiere of the track ‘Ends in Themselves’ from the new Paper Beat Scissors album, featuring Pietro Amato, Mike Feuerstack and Andrew Sisk.

Mar. 02 – Sackville, NB: George’s Roadhouse
Mar. 03 – Fredericton, NB: The Capital
Mar. 04 – Halifax, NS: The Khyber
Mar. 08 – Montreal, QC: Casa Del Popolo Continue reading →

Just a little note to let you know the ‘music‘ section is now updated to include the Rest Your Bones Single (or you can just look below!)

Mitch Fillion came down to Fredericton’s magnificent Wilmot United Church and filmed this video for the song ‘Folds’

PAPER BEAT SCISSORS – Live at the Shivering Songs Festival from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

totes just made an introductory Mark Kozelek mixtape for a friend… tracklisting…

Grace Cathedral Park – Red House Painters – Red House Painters [I]
Space Travel Is Boring – Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities
Mistress – Mark Kozelek – Little Drummer Boy [Live]
Blue Orchids – Sun Kil Moon – April (Disc 1)
Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer – Mark Kozelek – What’s Next To The Moon
Things Mean A Lot – Red House Painters – Red House Painters [I]
Moorestown – Sun Kil Moon – April
Carry Me Ohio – Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway
Michigan – Red House Painters – Old Ramon
All Mixed Up – Little Drummer Boy [Live]
Have You Forgotten – Red House Painters – Songs For A Blue Guitar
Ocean Breathes Salty – Sun Kil Moon – Tiny Cities
Smokey – Red House Painters – Old Ramon
Katy Song – Mark Kozelek – Little Drummer Boy
Kavita – Red House Painters – Old Ramon
Duk Koo Kim – Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway

totes just used the word ‘totes’

So I just got back to Halifax after a tremendous little trip to Fredericton for the Shivering Songs festival. This trip saw me fulfill a musical dream of mine when I opened for the magnificent Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon/Red House Painters).

Mark’s set did not disappoint, and his classical guitar chops are pretty mind-blowing at the moment. I was thoroughly spoilt on the trip – I saw the most incredible sunset with mr. Mike O’Neill on the drive up (unfortunately I forgot my blasted camera), got to hang out and listen to some of my favourite musicians over the weekend and shared a sleepy winter drive back with the Wintersleep boys (I didn’t even mean to write that, it just came out).

Anyway, here’s a really lovely review in French of the evening at the absolutely gorgeous Wilmot United Church:

http://500khz.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/shivering-songs-jour-2-paper-beat-scissors-postdata-mark-kozelek-these-hands/

By the way, my apologies on the slowness of the European tour blog entries. There’s more to come – promise!

All go in camp PBS – The test pressings of the vinyl arrived this week and the cds arrived today! One month to go til release time

You can pre-order at discounted prices over here: http://forwardmusic.bandcamp.com/track/rest-your-bones

I’m writing this on the train from Göttingen to Berlin. These train journeys are little enclaves of peace on the tour. Today I have 3 hours to just sit back, relax and watch the scenery go by. People often ask me if I get lonely travelling by myself, but the truth is quite the opposite – in the rest of my life it’s rare that I’ll get a few hours alone with my thoughts where there are no pressing commitments – touring for me is a chance to hang out with myself, someone I think I avoid spending time with usually. It might be more of a drag if this was all the touring experience was for me, but in every city I show up in I usually meet some amazing folks who quickly become new friends.

To this end – I had a great time in Mainz hanging out post-show until the wee small hours with my gracious host Max. We shared musical discoveries and a bottle of wine and talked about language. He also did some spot on Flight of the Conchords impressions (I’ve been continually wowed by the general capacities of Germans for English, but this pretty damn good accent mimicry took it up a level). Max also broke the news to me that At the Drive-In had reformed and were going to play some shows this year. I went to bed a happy chappy.

Getting to Mainz was the nicest journey so far. A 3 hour trip, mostly along the banks of the Rhine. I foolishly didn’t take any photos, but if you just google ‘Rhine vistas’ you’ll get an idea of the beautiful scenery and the old towns I was travelling past.
Arriving at the Haus Mainusch venue I was greeted by another Tim who was geared up to shoot a live acoustic session pre-show. You can have a look at the two songs (Wren, and a Jeff Buckley cover) over here:

http://www.angst-im-wald.com/acoustic-session/paper-beat-scissors

The Mainz show itself was one of my favourites ever – it was my first time in town, but the place was absolutely packed. I had a loud, but very friendly heckler in the front row. He would yell out things like: YOU HAVE JUST DEEPLY TOUCHED ME! And YOU HAVE AN ABILITY TO TAKE A MOMENT AND MAKE IT LAST FOREVER. Somehow in a way that made it obvious he was actually deadly serious. I think he irritated the crap out of everyone else, but I wanted to take him with me on the rest of the tour. Mainz will be first on the list when I book the next European tour.

I had to dash out of Mainz early the next morning to get to Göttingen, and the train ride was sufficiently long that I got no chance to see either city at all – cause for a revisit, I believe! I had just enough time to soundcheck and grab some blutwurst and sauerkraut in the downstairs restaurant before the show began. I was bowled over for the second night in a row by the turnout and the response from the audience – THANK YOU Göttingen. It was also a pleasure to share the night with a fellow Canadian – the delightful Peter Katz.

I was very well taken care of by the Stempelkissen folks who put the Mainz show on. Big thanks go out to Seb, Max, Amelie, Clemens Ghost of a Chance, Nikolas (the friendly heckler) and even more whose names I have shamefully forgotten. Inga, Andreas, Christian and company at Apex treated me royally, and I can’t wait to return.

Ok, back to my trainride, checking out the alien-looking spherical clumps of mistletoe that dominate the bare winter trees in this part of the world…

Mistletoe

Hello all

I’m sitting here in London at the end of the European tour, and wanted to share two pieces of very exciting news with you. The first concerns the new album…

:::

HEAR THE NEW SINGLE!

Have a listen over here:

http://forwardmusic.bandcamp.com/track/rest-your-bones

The album will be out in Canada March 6th on Forward Music, on CD and vinyl, and you can pre-order it at the above link.

:::

SHARING THE STAGE WITH MARK KOZELEK

This second piece of news is almost beyond comprehension for me. One of my favourite ever artists is playing the Shivering Songs festival in Fredericton on February 4th and I’ve been asked to MC the night and play an opening set. Mark Kozelek was the driving force behind Red House Painters, and now Sun Kil Moon. His music has been an inspiration for me over the last decade and it’s truly a dream come true for me to have this opportunity.

:::

LAST SHOW OF THE TOUR TONIGHT!

Playing at the Slaughtered Lamb, near the Barbican, 7pm onwards – if you’re in London, get yourself down, if you’re not, send a representative!

https://www.facebook.com/events/154069968041445/

34-35 Great Sutton Street, EC1V 0DX

that’s all for now!

Cover Artwork by Sydney Smith

In absolutely every city I’d arrived in so far I’d had some kind of misguided bravado about my ability to find my way around. I’d scan google maps for about 10 seconds the day before, then on arriving at the train station I would set off in a direction that I could make some logical argument to myself about. Continue reading →