New Video: Psychedelic Raise Your Dead Live

Here’s another live video from our CD release at the Tranzac last month. This time around it’s for a tune from our first album called “Raise Your Dead.”* We busted out the light-rings for this one too, so I had fun messing with the colours in post-production to give it some psychedelic flair (or even flare, in this case…take your pick).

Got to love that old Saturn guitar too…

*Our handful of die-hard fans will point out that “Raise Your Dead” was actually 2 songs on the album. However, it’s always been played as one at shows…

Video: DIY Effect Pedal Board Demo

This one’s for the gear-heads, like me*. We’re back from the East Coast and have some downtime between shows, so I figure it’s high time for a demonstration of all the wacky effect pedals we tour with. This is the actual rig used at a bunch of shows this year.

EDIT: the VW pedal is a Phase 45, not 90. Slip of the tongue.

I learned how to build these effects with the help of various online forums, like:

http://www.buildyourownclone.com/board
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/

The Tiny Giant amp circuit board is from http://www.musicpcb.com.

The intro and outro music is from our most pedal-heavy song, “Slow Boat to China,” from our brand new album, Tortoise.

*Laura, for instance, finds this all very, very nerdy…

New Video and Download: Southern Ontario

Remember a few weeks back when we went to Joey Bruni‘s farm to shoot performance videos for Tortoise? Well, here we are with Anna Atkinson playing “Southern Ontario” live on an old tractor!

Speaking of which, press for Tortoise is starting to roll in and They Wounded Jukebox had some very flattering things to say about “Southern Ontario” (and us in general). They also posted the track for download on Soundcloud, which you can listen to below or click the arrow on the right side to grab it for later.

We also added both it and “Tortoise” to our CBC Radio 3 page, so head over there to become a fan and take a listen!

Southern Ontariofrom Tortoise

New Video: Tortoise Live In Front of a Woodpile

A few weeks ago we went to our good friend Joey Bruni‘s family farm to shoot some performance videos. Here’s the first— “Tortoise” live in front of a woodpile in a cellar.

I love that trusty little Casio—not to mention Laura’s uncanny ability with an egg-shaker. Oh, and that cowboy hat is a real Stetson that belonged to Laura’s dude rancher grandfather.

Stay turned for more!

Dog Is Blue Paintings!

Dog Is Blue Paintings!
I’ve been doing these paintings based on the …Makes Ghost Noises album cover for a while now. We sell them at shows and they include download codes for both of our releases. Most are sold, but I’ll be doing more soon (and Laura will be doing a series based on our upcoming album cover).

Here’s the page I just added where you can see the 24 paintings so far.

Check out the video we did a while back for “Raise Your Dead (Reprise)” to see how they’re made (Laura filmed me working on painting #14).

Farm Life: Live Donovan with Anna Atkinson

Here we are with Anna Atkinson performing Donovan’s “Colours” live for the owners of the farmhouse in Adolphustown. I don’t think I’ve ever made it through this song without messing up the lyrics—so close this time…so close.

There are a few more recorded artifacts from our time in the country—made between over-indulgences of homemade lasagna—that I’ll try to post later (including a brand new song recorded on a real piano).

Thanks to our friend (and excellent painter) Joey Bruni for filming/posting this video.

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