"Somebody help me! I'm being spontaneous!"

December 12. National Geographic is reporting today will be the biggest, brightest full moon of 2008. I'm here to report it will be the day Library Voices sheds their biggest, brightest smiles of 2008. Today marks the day we break from the studio for the holidays, and take time to evaluate the first mixes of our new album.

It's (semi) official! The album will be called Museum of Natural History & Make Believe and features 11 new songs. Over the past 3 months, between tours, work, and life, we've been tucked away crafting our first full length record. Thanks to the support of the Sask Arts Board and the unmatched patience of engineer Orion Paradis, this time has afforded us the opportunity to experiment a lot more in the studio. An old tube radio that belonged to Orion's grandmother was rewired to act as an amp and all sorts of instruments and vocals were run through it to create a warm, authentic 60's sound. Brennan got the chance to plug in his old, staticy surf guitar amplifier. I got the chance to fiddle over a handful of handmade instruments including circuit bent children's toys and a prepared music box. Darcy ran her brand new Nord Electro through virtually every device we own. Brett proved that somehow there is room for Daydream Nation era feedback in quiet pop songs. Wind chimes? Check! Thunderstorms? Why not! A gong? Well, we'll have to wait and see...

The experience, although at times trying, has been incredibly fulfilling and rewarding - and now in retrospect I can't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday afternoon than nestled away in the tracking room with Paul and Brennan. Each of them smashing a snare drums simultaneously while I beat on a tin box full of children's tambourines with a maraca.

And so although there will certainly be fine tuning and overdubs to come after the holidays, it's starting to feel like the end is in sight. We're feeling like Jim Carrey at the end of the Truman Show as he braves the waves and inches toward the outside world...

Home Again

The tour out East was almost a complete success. The only aspect that fell short of expectations was our negligence to the blog. The shows were all great and we met a lot of wonderful people. The weather was on our side and downloading Bejeweled onto my ipod proved to be the best decision of my life, killing literally 100's of hours in the van.

This week Hunting Ghosts (& Other Collected Shorts) gives it the old college try and climbs to #21 on Earshot! campus charts. We're proud of the little late bloomer.

While we were in Toronto this past week we sat down for a couple of interviews. Eoin met with the good folk at blogTO. We gave him only one only one rule - keep it clean! You can check that out here.

As well, CityNews ran a feature with about a bazillion photos and a little video interview. Am I always that shifty eyed?

The above is from our show at Zaphod's in Ottawa and was stolen from Lenny W's flickr page.

portrait of the artist as a young dog

ten people waking up in an attic in guelph. downstairs our host mike is making us potatoes for breakfast, beside me darcy is demanding that bret massage her feet, brennan is texting his beloved, dawson is nintendo DSing, eoin is miraculously awake again and off to grab coffees and poor paul is coughing away, soldiering on in the face of his awful cold.

last night was quite a show. we played here in guelph at a bar called jimmy jazz. our set was adventurous and afterwards a few of us had the pleasure of backing up paul mcLoud and also this very nice lucas fellow. defiantly one of the highlights of tour. perhaps the most surprising moment of the night came when bret bought me a beer and put a shot of gin in it without telling me. this was his nod to the proud saskatchewan tradition of dropping a shot of gin into a pint of bohemian beer, a 'boh-gin,' also known as the worst next morning of your life.

today our song love in the age of absurdity is the new music canada track of the day over at cbc radio3. we would like to thank the cbc3 for their continuing love and affection!
carl

point form

brett here
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blog is the ugliest word in the english language and so I bring you instead an uninvited entry on an internet journal
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and point form is the most effective means of communication in the english language so I will separate each thought by these ------
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there you are now we're in a new point, just testing
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Darcy has just reminded me that I am the most unlikely member of this band. My only connection to any of these people was the fact that I bought organic groceries from Darcy at a quaint, community organic grocery store in downtown Regina called Nature's Best. It's two blocks from my house, and I probably do more socializing with the people in that store than I do with any other humans out there - hey oh!
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Due to the wonders of the gasoline economy few Canadians actually converse with the people they buy groceries from. If they did, the tellers wouldn't need to wear tags saying 'Hello my name is....'
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Due to the wonders of the Mawson plan, and the novelty of gasoline engines at the time the plan was formed, downtown Regina is pedestrian-friendly. That's why I can walk to the grocery store. That's why I'm in this band. Yay! - pedestrian-friendly urban planning!
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library voices - from 14th Avenue Regina to St. Catherine's - that's a lot of gasoline, but hey there's ten of us so per capita we're not doing too bad!

Merchant Ale House Grab and Smash

This is Eoin,

Grab and smash is a very fitting title to this blog (I am not responsible for it) considering that within the last twenty-four hours both have happened. An affectionate and forward grasp last night reminded me of the old days in Catholic school, followed by some delicious micro brews. A good follow up if you ask me. We didn't have the opportunity to drink last night which meant some of us went to bed still feeling feelings not sure how I feel about that yet, the morning was great. Today felt like a gnarly long drive but in reality probably was only six hours. Mike T. and myself are bench mates now and I couldn't be happier. He is officially the karma to my sutra, the bee to my knees, the bitch to my ho or simply I'm a giraffe and he's a fox(y).....it works.
Tonight's show was awesome, played with Old folks Home, Ricardo is deadly. The beer here in Saint Catherine's is fantastic in house brewed and not straight hooch. You don't find that everyday. I'm handing this over to Doltron now night.

this is carl.
sitting at a table in the back of the merchant ale house in st. catherines. it's nice to be in a place made of mostly of old brick, wood and tin after the wasteland of southern ontario box stores and concrete we drove through to get here. tonight we play with our old friend ricardo of old folks home. and things are already beginning to get a little crazy. we've come from shows in thunder bay and sault ste marie, bolth (sic) of which were great. in thunder bay we met a lot of new friends, we were fed by wonderful ukranian(?!) women and actually had a dance floor going for most of our set at the apollo. BUT the most remarkable thing about the gig was the next morning when eoin woke up at 7am quite nearly of his own volition - not having to be shaken, molested or battered around in anyway. even he was amazed that he was conscious. however the morning wasn't all gumdrops and roses; brett had to wake drummer mike up by pouring scalding hot tea all over his body. or did he? the matter is still a source of debate in the back seat of the van. sault ste marie was a terrific time: coffee shops, thai food, teenagers playing white rabbit in shady bars, dudes wearing neck chains in excess, tuning pedal salvation, more new friends, sub-par diner french fries, random police check stops and then, at the end of it all in a town called espanola that smelled like dog shit, two hotel rooms the size of modest prison cells that had to accommodate five people each. tomorrow most of us will see niagra falls for the first time!

This next portion of the blog will be written by one Darcy Jean McIntyre!

Our first tour out east has definitely been pretty wild and unpredictable. I always think that we kind of know what to expect from western tours, but jumping feet first into places where we don't know a single soul and usually don't have floors to sleep on is a bit of an eye opener to the unglamourous life of the indie rock band. Now don't get me wrong, we are having an excellent time. Its been lots more driving than we're used to, but not to worry as we have finally found our places in the van and are making two to a seat as comfortable as possible. Which isn't very comfortable to tell you the truth. Brett, Mike T, Brennan, and I just went to an all you can eat sushi place here in St Catherines where Mike T proceeded to order like a food crazed maniac to finally pronounce his satisfaction at the meal. Success! Unfortunately the success only lasted mere seconds when he then spilled a large bowl of sauce onto his crotch. Oh the laughter that ensued. Sigh.....only five more shows left and then back to the beautiful wasteland that is Regina Sk.

Toodles.

Notes From The Road. Chapter 1.

Greetings from The Lo Pub in lovely Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I heard somewhere once that they Canadian goose begins his migration journey with several test runs before it actually heads south. Half a dozen false starts. Nervous wings and cold feet. Today I know how they feel. Every time we embark on any sort of tour the day always begins by circling the city several times - collecting forgotten items and rounding up missing members. All things considered, and despite the fact that Carl is without his beloved mole-skin notebook and Eoin has to try to keep warm for the next couple of weeks without a sleeping bag, we managed to arrive in "The Peg" just in time for a sound tech.

The weather has been a little iffy the past few days, but thankfully the highways were immaculate and the drive flew by with a little help from Red House Painters and Akron/Family.

Tonight we're sharing the bill with two great locals, Codename: The Sharks and Haunter. Our old friend Mike B. is also DJing the event. It's a nice way to start the tour before.

We had a couple of really great features this week in Chart & The Calgary Herald.

Codename: The Sharks has just taken to the stage. I had best log off the old nerd machine and get down with the rock.

-This is Mike Dawson signing off from the land of Fort Gary and Moosehead.

A Vote For Library Voices Is A Vote Against Terrorism

Dear friends of the Library,
This past weekend we found out that Library Voices were nominated for two Bucky awards!

We are nominated for Best Lyrics, up against Sam Roberts, Stars, and Kathleen Edwards. Stiff competition? Yikes!

We are also nominated for Best Band Name

We'd like to thank the good folk at Radio 3 for thinking of us, and it would mean the world to us if you were willing to take a moment to vote for us. If you haven't signed up yet, you should anyway because their website is mindblowingly comprehensive.

http://radio3.cbc.ca/polls/?pollId=25

Apparently you can vote once a day.... and why not... it would give you a nice break from Facebooking while you are at work or school.

In 1996 punk broke again. In 1997 we were broke again.

Carl will be appearing tomorrow afternoon (Friday, Nov. 14) on Grant Lawrence's radio show. Be sure to tune in to CBC Radio 3 and give it a gander.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the hometown show this past weekend. It was great to see another sold out event. For those of you in attendance, you may have notice we were joined on stage for several songs by Mr. Mark Hamilton aka Woodpigeon. While Mr. Pigeon was enjoying his late autumn stay here in the Queen City we also lured him into the studio to lay down some majestic guitars and down right heavenly vocals for our new album.

We head out next Thursday for handful of dates out East in support of Hunting Ghosts (& Other Collected Shorts). Preparations are already underway. Paul is busy entering all of the necessary coordinates into the GPS. Brett is busy packing all sorts of perishable food items that will inevitably all get lost somewhere in the van. And Karla... well Karla is relaxing on beach somewhere in Mexico right now, guzzling umbrella drinks and working on her winter tan. Her flight home arrives in just enough time to stuff her in the van and rush off to Winnipeg.

We're all looking forward to old friends, new friends, and greasy spoon breakfasts.

Wishing you a lovely Thursday morning,
M & LV

Now Entering The Blogosphere

Here goes nothing. Welcome to the inaugural blog.

It gets dark so early here on the prairies. The girls are all wrapped up in scarfs and the boys are growing beards. Old man winter is breathing down our neck.

The Commodores are belting out their hits on the turntable and my cup of Easy Now tea is sending off smoke signals. I'm nestled up on the sofa reading Tristessa. For some reason transporting myself to Mexico seems more appealing than braving the cold tonight to meet up with Eoin for a pizza pie.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, Carl, Darcy, and Brennan are headed into CBC 1 for a little interview and to perform an acoustic rendition of a new song. We'll try to post it in the near future.

Anyway, now that we have this technological behemoth up and running you can expect a steady stream of posts and updates.

Thanks for your time.

This is Michael "Easy Like Sunday Morning" Dawson signing off.