Fun night at The Brixx

Last week's show was a lot of fun. The sound was probably the best we've ever had live - the soundman happened to be Nik Kozub of Edmonton's Shout Out Out Out Out, and if there's anyone who would know how to make live synths and drum machines sound good, it would be him. Believe me, you don't know how rare this is until you try playing live synthpop.

Nice meeting Calgary's Shagbots too, and seeing Cygnets again (great guys).

Here's a quick vid from the night (live audio great - Flip video recording audio quality, not so much). Hope to see you next time!

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Upcoming Caffeine Sunday gig - The Brixx, January 9

We're playing with Cygnets again (awesome) as well as The Shagbots at The Brixx (downstairs at the Starlite Room) Jan. 9.

And... I don't think I've ever seen our name misspelled this way before.

Oh well. It is indeed us, not a Chinese knock-off. So we hope to see you there!

• Event info

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Coming in 2010...

In case you were planning to see Caffeine Sunday at the Starlite Room tomorrow night, our show has been cancelled. Or rather, postponed. We WILL be playing there in January, just not Dec 18. Which may actually be a good thing, what with Robot Santa starting his annual Xmas killing spree early this year. Show postings coming soon!

In other news, Chris recently moved to a new home so we're temporarily without a studio and proper rehearsal space until he gets everything set up at his new place. Here's what we were making due with last week. And I just installed Reason 4 and Record onto both my Macs, so we'll both be ready for 2010.

Ah yes, 2010. Almost time for our yearly Top 10 lists...

- R

BRIXX show was fun

Check out the photos via Douglas Dollars (thanks Doug!).


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Nice to play a show with other bands in the same musical ballpark. It would have been nicer if the sound was good (pretty scrambly sound for all three groups).

Thanks everyone who came!

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Caffeine Sunday live show Sept. 25

Caffeine Sunday is opening for Edmonton bands This Girl, That Boy and Cygnets on Friday, Sept. 25 at the BRIXX, which is the downstairs level of the Starlite Room (formerly the Rev, formerly the Bronx). Should be fun, and the other bands sound great too.

Tickets are $12. Doors open at 9 p.m. (Location on Google Maps)

(link to Facebook event)

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Caffeine Sunday - I Wish I Could Film Tonight in Black in White - is now available!

I Wish I Could Film Tonight in Black and White - Caffeine Sunday's new album - is now officially released and available for buying, enjoying and playing really loudly in your earbuds or while cruising Whyte. It features 11 fresh new tracks by the Edmonton synthpop duo, and is their first new album since 2001's Karmaland.

• Buy it now on CD Baby
• Learn more about the album and band on our official site

Track listing:

1. [Boarding Pass]
2. Plane
3. Three Song Cutoff
4. Set Me Free
5. It Still Hurts
6. Don't Say It
7. Low
8. Cowboy Hat
9. Lost and Found
10. Cubicle
11. The King Is Dead

• (View details and listen to the album online)

"Great stuff, how can I get my hands on a copy?," you say. Well funny you should ask. You've come to the right place.

There are a couple of options available as of today:

Physical Media

The CD version ($12) features exclusive eco-sleeve packaging made of recycled cardboard, printed with vegetable-based ink and dispenses with the throwaway shrinkwrap.

Bits Only

You can also download a MP3-only copy ($10) via CD Baby if you want it in digital format, but don't want to wait for it to show up on iTunes.

Coming Soon

Stay tuned for updates on local retail availability in Edmonton, as well as availability on iTunes and other digital music stores. Both are coming, so when they're good to go we'll announce it here.

It's been a long road to get to this point. Like, we're talking - loooooooong. :-) We're really happy with how it turned out though, and can't wait for everyone to hear it too. Hope you check it out, and please let us know what you think!

Thanks everyone,

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P.S. Don't forget to join our Facebook or MySpace pages, and you can also follow us on Twitter.

The ultimate Terrible Gig

I learned about the tragic storm and stage collapse at the annual Big Valley Jamboree via Twitter while I was in nearby Irma on the weekend. It was a truly surreal, scary experience to watch unfold via the safe vantage point of the live Twitter stream, and a reminder of how quickly things can change and how important it is to remember what's really important in life.

We've had gigs in our past that I would qualify as "terrible". But of course that's just within a certain range of "terrible". Like the being-booed-as-you-walk-onstage-because-you're-carrying-a-synthesizer-under-your-arm kind of "terrible". When a tragedy like this happens, it puts things into proper perspective. In an I'm-glad-I'm-alive-to-hug-my-wife-and-kids way.

Our thoughts are with the family of the dead and injured. And I certainly hope people don't get too carried away in the aftermath in terms of trying to find someone to blame for all of this. It was an act of nature, and as we've seen in millions of examples before this one, we tiny little humans have very little power to fight Mother Nature if she really wants to lay a smackdown on us. If we can learn anything to improve outdoor show safety in the future (faster warnings, storm-proof stage construction), that's great, but trying to hang this on somebody's neck will be like trying to fight the wind. You can swing all you want, but you'll never win.

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Final Free Download Day 11 - The King Is Dead

No, this song isn't about Michael Jackson, or Elvis. It's about the first Canadian soldiers killed in combat since the Korean war. They were killed in Afghanistan - by Americans. With friends like these...

Free Download Day 10 - Cubicle

For those that like the thump thump, this one almost took you over the edge. Definitely the most electronic-sounding song on the album. Working in a cubicle is bad enough, but what if your relationship is also a mundane drag - how do you get away from it?

Free Download Day 9 - Lost and Found

This was one of those marathons in project completion. It started out with a pretty good riff, but it was so difficult to find the right words & melody to go with it and it ended up taking a "couple" years to finish writing. But the song had potential and we just couldn't walk away from it.