Follow Us Around NYC Edition

It’s amazing to think that (as I write this, weeks later than I should have) our first single, “The Hedonist,” from our new album Darker Lights is already #47 this week on the Canadian Alternative Rock Chart. From our perspective, any attention at all is just AMAZING in this current musical climate where the Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor” is about to blow up into the mainstream and bands like Yamantaka // Sonic Titan have a firm grip on the so-called underground scene.   Truly amazing – and we thank YOU and the good people (music aficionados) out there in Blogoshpere, College Radio and Satellite Radio land (who give us the all our support).

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE who came out to our video shoot for “The Hedonist” – the editors tell me they should have a “cut” for us soon….

Way back on October 19th we had the pleasure of participating in this year’s CMJ Music Marathon in old New York, New York. We had a blast – not only playing our showcase which was at 12AM in a shifty little rock club in the Lower East Side called Left Field, but also running around the streets of Manhattan, hungry and sleep deprived all day long.  There’s no better way to experience the hustle and bustle of the Village.  For us, the Manhattan date represented the last official tour date of our first tour in support of Darker Lights and I couldn’t think of a better way to end it.

dean and andy at electric lady studios  - 8th ave

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And now for the controversial portion of our post …. on this tour we spent over 64 hours driving between shows (that’s almost 3 days).  We watched a few DVDs, talked about a number of subjects, both pedestrian and profound, and listened to a lot of CBC Radio3, but eventually, having exhausted our meager DVD collection and having heard every Canadian indie band currently working (including ourselves), we started listening to the nearly bottomless vernacular of classic rock. The topic of conversation turned to discussing the various echelons of rock. We developed a grading system, wherein a band such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or Led Zep would represent the very top of the heap, these are examples of A and A+ bands, whereas a really good RnR band that didn’t quite deserve to be counted among these greats (but were still great and deserving) would constitute a B or B+ band. Also there was the tricky category of the B (cult A) bands – bands that were perhaps too singular to be true A bands but were nonetheless “A bands” to their rabid fan’s (thus forging their own sub-culture).   This was an elucidating and healthy topic of discussion that provided countless hours of entertainment for us and produced such memorable quotes as: “there are two types of rock: topless rock and shirtless rock. You want to be in the former category,” etc. Below I present the fruits of our labour – the classic rock report card- volume 1. Here (in our opinion) are the very best (and worst) classic rock artists (classic Punk, New Wave, and proto-modern music excluded from the game, in order to keep the debates far enough from the heart as to not damage morale). Also, please note there are certain moves that will denigrate an otherwise A band to B status, such as the use of the “talk box” effect in any guitar solo or hosting your own TV variety show…

Band Grade
Beatles A+
Rolling Stones A+
The Who A+
The Doors A+
Jimmy Hendrix A+
Janis Joplin A+
Pink Floyd A+
Frank Zappa A+
Led Zeppelin A+
Steely Dan A
The Kinks A
The Band A
Black Sabbath A
Neil Diamond A
Simon & Garfunkel A
Captain Beefheart A
Velvet Underground A
Lou Reed A
David Bowie A
ACDC A
Can A
Kraftwerk A
Harmonium A
Gong A
Queen A
Fleetwood Mac A
Beach Boys A
Santana A
Credence Clearwater Revival A
Everly Brothers A
Roy Orbison A
The Zombies A
King Crimson A
George Clinton A
The Birds A
Hall & Oates A
Neil Young and Crazy Horse A
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers A
Spinal Tap B with A potential (Portrayed as a C band in the Movie)
The Animals B+
Van Morrison B+
Judas Priest B (Cult A)
Deep Purple B
The Eagles B
The Turtles B
Mott the Hoople B
Grand Funk Railroad B
Blue Oyster Cult B
Chicago B
Peter Frampton B
Hawkwind B
Jethro Tull B
Doobie Brothers B
The Monkeys B
Aerosmith B
Alice Cooper B
Mountain B
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young B
Jeff Beck B
Traveling Wilburys B
ZZ Top B
Humble Pie B
Steve Miller B
T Rex B
Grateful Dead C (Cult A)
Ted Nugent C
Jefferson Airplane C
Nazareth C
Bay City Rollers C
Rainbow C
King Diamond C
Genesis C
Joe Walsh C
James & the Gang C
Ten Years After C (first C band ever)
Rockpile D
Europe D

Follow Us Around Pt.3

Hey,

Sorry we’ve been so slow to blog, but we’ve been so BUSY.  We’ve got SO MUCH to cover here – I want to rely on pictures and links mostly. First off, I’d like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the folks of Beserker Lion (Bethany and the people of the amazing band, This Ship) for putting on such a great Hali show for us!   This Ship are an amazing Halifax-based pop band and we can’t wait to do something with them here in T-dot ville and we also really enjoyed the math-rock  styling of Pioneer Video.  Either band is welcome on our turf! While in Halifax a bunch of things happened – like this NYC Blog started streaming our entire album (http://www.blackbookmag.com/music/blackbook-exclusive-stream-papermaps-gritty-darker-lights-1.65667) and we learned that we got into the 2013 CMJ Music Marathon in NYC (Saturday Oct 19 @ LeftField Bar). Pretty cool.  We also found an awesome comic book shop with awesome friendly (and cute) staff in Halifax called Strange Adventures where we more treasures like this:

the silver surfer issue that was done by mobius

We also played Fredericton on our way out of the Maritimes and hit up Belle Montreal where we played an excellent show with the very excellent songwriter/guitarist Patrick Krief (fans of the seminal act, The Dears should pay particular attention).  In Montreal we found an excellent Mexican Restaurant

I wish I remember the name, but it was only a block away from the Divan Orange. Please note the apple-pop. Very authentic!!! I had a great vegan salad, myself…

While on the road we learned that Darker Lights is was already charting nationally on college radio and climbing the Earshot! National Chart at #23.

When we got back from Montreal we had several video shoots to do.  One was in our own studio with the people from Toronto’s newest radio station, indie88.  This will be seen very soon on their website (where you can vote to hear our latest single, The Hedonist, BTW).

wall of sound at echo valley

The other video shoot took place at a semi-secret location on/near the University of Toronto St. George Campus.  A real-live FRAT HOUSE to be exact.  This was the principal photography for our the official “The Hedonist,” music video.  We had an open call for people to come out,  dress up, appear in the video, drink bear, shake booty and jump around on a mattress. WE THANK EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT!!!

I’m not sure when the video will be released – probably sometime next week!! Stay tuned!!!

While this was happening, we learned that the very same song had entered the CBC Radio 3 R3-30 chart at #7!!!

That leaves us with one last announcement.  Our CD release party!! @ Handlebar (159 Augusta Ave.) Thursday Oct 17.
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/217668495063862/

We will be playing with Betty’s other band, Burn Baby Burn, the excellent The Effens and Locomotive 8. Our set time is 11:20 but COME EARLY and the cost of admission is $7 without CD and $15 with CD (that’s a $2 discount on the CD).

Follow Us Around Pt.2

We’ve only played two shows but we’ve been on the road for going on 4 days…

We finally made good on our promise to visit the Big Apple in Colborne.  I ate some pretty gross fried apples.  It was worth it for this:

The Avante-Garde Bar (Ottawa) is an interesting place.

It’s an East-Block/Communist-themed cafe/restaurant/bar/concert venue. Bobby had some tasty Russian dumplings which I could not sample because I’m Vegan. I had a salad…Ottawa is a party town without any want for scantly drunk scantly clad women, cars that sound louder than our PA and public vomiting.  Greg McEvoy and his band were great. I had no idea they were Torontonians until we got talking. There were zero native Ottawa bands on the bill.

Because they are nerds….

Later we threw in the “Live at Pompeii” DVD and that got us all the way to Moncton.

Moncton has a great comic book store called The Comic Hunter.  I can’t stress how much of a nerd mecca that place is!

Plan B is a great little venue with some great people – really friendly staff who were appreciative and generous.  Thanks Moncton!

More to come!

-dean