Mini-Update

Our new YouTube Channel is up and running. I insist you check it out, right now.... We've posted "re-mastered" versions of all our videos to date, plus we've done interview shorts for each of the 11 tracks on the new album (very informative). Expect to see lots of new content on CSTV in the coming weeks and months.

Speaking of the new album I Wish I Could Film Tonight in Black and White, we expect the first batch of CDs to arrive from Vancouver around the beginning of July. They should be available on CD Baby immediately following, and then digitally though iTunes sometime soon after that. We really don't know how long it actually takes for CD Baby to get the music into iTunes, but assuming they're not sending the CD by donkey from Portland to Cupertino, it should be fairly quick.

New Caffeine Sunday album is a wrap!

It's done.

God that feels great to type. Let's do it again.

It's done. The new Caffeine Sunday album - I Wish I Could Film Tonight in Black and White - is finished.

Ryan and I finished mixing the final track (Lost and Found) last weekend. It sounded fine when relistening to it during the week, and this weekend I found software to mix the whole album together (with track crossfades and volume matching, so the whole thing is hopefully a nice cohesive piece for those of us who enjoy albums). I exported the whole thing to a CD this afternoon. It sounds great. I'm so happy with how it's turned out, even though it's taken years! It's good and it's done, officially, as of April 26, 2009.

Release info to come in the next few weeks...

Website Relaunch!

We've recently redesigned and relaunched our website in the lead-up to the release of our new CD. This time we're taking advantage of "web 2.0" instead of dealing with what-you-see-is-not-quite-what-you-get HTML editors, FTP programs, different files scattered across multiple hard drives, computers and web hosts, et-freaking-cetera. Now it's all pretty much centralised, and oh-so-easy to administer.

Check it out - www.caffeinesunday.com. 

Best Albums of 2008

Here are my favourites of 2008.

1. Matt & Kim
Yes, this was actually released in 2006, but is it my fault MuchMusic and terrestrial radio suck and I didn’t hear it until now? Thank God for Indie Pop Rocks on Soma FM. The energy of this band just blows me away. I couldn’t wait to get out on my bike or street skates to exercise to this bundle of pure fun. In fact, I got hit by a truck while listening to this album, but that’s another story. Yet it still made my #1!

2. Aimee Mann – Fucking Smilers
An absolutely amazing album from one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Great for driving around the city in the heat of summer, it turned out to be the default CD in my Vue from its release in early June until September. Her show at Edmonton's Folk Fest was a religious experience for me.

3. Keane – Perfect Symmetry
This album is SO good it almost deserves 2 spots, thanks to the accompanying CD of demo versions in the special edition. This is a great Britpop band making their tribute to ‘80s synthpop, and the result is a collection of songs that are great Britpop with an ‘80s synthpop mentality. With a formula like that, how could it be anything less than brilliant?

4. Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Amazing synth-pop from Down Under. This will make you get over the loss of Savage Garden once and for all. Also a favourite of Edmonton’s most talented (and hottest) DJ. Unfortunately that's not another story...

5. Moi Caprice – You Can’t Say No Forever
Yes, yes, the Danes are melancholic, so just embrace it. Supposedly this album was released in 2005, but again thanks to Indie Pop Rocks I found another gem that didn't see the commercial light of day here in Hickton (north america).

6. Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog Soundtrack
There hasn’t been a soundtrack this good since Southpark The Movie. The 3 episode TV show available exclusively from iTunes was SO good I bought the soundtrack as well. These songs are absolutely top notch, and catchy as SARS. Nathan Fillion, make us Edmontonians proud.

7. Metro Station
Pure major label record company crap, but oh so infectious. I’m not sure how well this will age, but it was DAMN fun at the time.

8. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
This is the album that brought me back to being a fan of the band, after a feeling of “meh” for their previous 2.

9. The Teenagers – Reality Check
Pure synth eurotrash ecstasy. Definitely music to fuck to.

10. I Was a Cub Scout – I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope
More incredible indie pop with a synthetic flavour. Impressive, depressive, lovingly crafted, wise beyond its years. And then they broke up.

Disappointment of the year – Panic At The Disco. What a dud, especially after their debut was one of the most incredible albums of the ‘00s. Oh, and I hated the Madonna album so much I deleted it from my hard drive after one listen. It was so bad it actually made me angry, and that's quite a feat in itself. I'm glad Guy Ritchie is taking half.

Best Albums of 2008

A most enjoyable year for music, at least for me. It was hard to weed through my list this year to pick the top 10, but here it is. Happy new year, and best wishes for 2009! (BTW - In case you're curious my list from last year is over here)

My top 10 list for 2008:

1. Booka Shade - The Sun and the Neon Light
   Intoxicating mix of clicky beats, analog synths, real strings and vocal hooks made this my most listened to album of the year. The vinyl-only set of album remixes is awesome, too.



2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
   All the attention and hoopla around this album's distribution experiments could have overshadowed the actual music, if the album itself wasn't so damn good. Haunting yet soothing - one of Radiohead's best.



3. Coldplay - Vivia La Vida/Prospekt's March
   One of the best rock bands today + Brian Eno = album on repeat ad nauseum. A personal favourite.



4. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
   Not only a great collaboration of music personalities, but a collaboration of genres and styles that make for an awesome electronic folk pop alternative album. P.S. Hey David - I'm still waiting for my special collector's edition to come in the mail!



5. Ben Folds - Way to Normal
   Classic Folds - energetic, smartass, fun, tuneful. Athough I admit I like the "fake" leaked versions of some of these songs as much as as the real album versions.



6. Elvis Costello and the Imposters - Momofuku
   Honest rock album recorded in a week and originally issued on vinyl only (with MP3 downloads with the vinyl purchase). Tight, catchy, and full of exhuberance one would expect from guys 30 years younger.



7. Daniel Lanios - Here Is What Is
   Another beautiful, brilliant DIY opus from Canada's unsung musical hero. I hope to catch the movie someday.



8. Portishead - Third
   I don't know what genre you would even call this, but obviously something in the Portishead genes is resilient -- regardless of what musical style it manifests itself in, listening to this leaves you as subdued and slightly little unsettled as old Portishead would.



9. Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
   Totally fun album of songs from my favourite TV show. Thank you Jermaine and Brett!



10. Barenaked Ladies - Snacktime
    Why is this not on anyone's list for 2008? My guess is it's because most reviewers don't have kids. If they did, this would be on their lists, hands down. A kids album that's also enjoyable for adults, even on the 100th listen. That's a rare, rare thing - trust me!

Also awesome: Keane - Perfect Symmetry, Robyn - Robyn, The Notwist - The Devil You and Me, Moby - Last Night, John Legend - Evolver, Beck - Modern Guilt, Joe Jackson - Rain, Lights - Lights EP, and Nine Inch Nails - The Slip.

Disappointments: David Usher, Prince

Best show: Chris Isaak @ Edmonton Folk Fest

Guilty pleasure: Madonna's Hard Candy

Anyway, that's it. Here's hoping next year is just as enjoyable, musicwise, and that you will enjoy hearing the new Caffeine Sunday album when it comes out. And please let me know what your picks are for 2008....

Details of new Caffeine Sunday album announced

There, that sounds pretty official sounding. And for us, pretty awesome sounding.

While the new album isn’t officially “finished”, as in "it’s a the manufacturing plant being made into plastic discs and iTunes files", it’s so close that I can tell you some firm details about it:

•  The name of the album is I Wish I Could Film Tonight in Black and White
  
•  It’s got 11 tracks
  
•  It will be available early in 2009 in both physical and digital download formats
  
•  The collector’s edition physical release (of which there will be a very limited number) will also have a bonus disc of extra tracks and remixes
  
• I think it’s easily our best work to date
  

At this point last year, I was going over my new year’s resolutions and at the top of the list was “Release the new CS album.” While we’ll be missing that self-imposed deadline by just a bit, the important thing is that there is indeed a (nearly!) finished Caffeine Sunday album one year later, and I think Ryan and I are really excited about how it’s turned out. More details and release dates to come in the new year, when they’re available.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting my annual Top 10 albums list for 2008 later this week. Have you got yours ready?

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How Not To Spend 3 Hours Updating Multiple Websites

In gearing up for the release of our new album, we're starting to re-establish our omnipresence on the internets. In the "olden days" it was enough to have a decent website and a few MP3s on the original site for indie MP3s - www.mp3.com (go figure). Now, in addition to needing a band website, you need a presence where the peeps already are - places like Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Friendster, etc etc. But how to upload songs and videos to all these sites, and update news and show info, without it taking hours? And how many blogs do we need? How about 1 central blog that updates everywhere? I still haven't found the perfect solution but ReverbNation seems to be a good start. One place to upload songs, a link to all our YouTube videos, our bio, blog, shows, mailing list, press, store, and more. Nice! 

Some more arts election coverage

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up — I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people."

- Stephen Harper, on the campaign trail this week.

CBC story Sept. 24/08

CTV news video

Globe and Mail

The Toronto Star (includes video piece from Canadian Press)

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Arts in the Federal campaign

Well, someone has finally put "the arts" on the table in the current election. I hope attention to the issue spreads.

CBC story

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Canadian election time - don't forget about those big cuts to the arts

It's all but official that Canada's federal government will call a general election this fall (even though this same Conservative government passed a statute implementing a fixed election date more than a year from now).

There will be lots of talk about the economy, Afghanistan, and maybe even the environment, but there will probably be little attention given to the arts.

Please keep this in mind: just weeks ago, the Conservatives announced big budget cuts to arts spending.

• http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/08/22/arts-cuts.html?
  
• http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/08/27/mtl-cultureprotest-0827.html
  
• http://www.straight.com/article-160119/harper-arts-cuts-slammed
  

Full disclosure: I have never before received any kind of government funding from these or any other programs for any art or music I've ever done. Neither has Caffeine Sunday. But there's no doubt that public funding for the arts should actually be going the other way, for all our sakes.

When you get a phone call or a knock on the door from a candidate, please do us all a favour and ask the candidate where they stand on funding the arts, and what they think of the cuts announced just weeks before an election call.

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