Vancouver: clear your dance card the first weekend of March.

Thursday, March 1st: Paul Collins & Peter Case are launching their tour at Iron Road Studios. Our very own Tranzmitors are on the bill, along with Greenback High and The Living Deadbeats.

Friday, March 2nd: Negative Nights presents the triumphant return of Nobunny with Indian Wars at The Waldorf. With DJs Bryce Dunn and Dale Davies.

Saturday, March 3rd: Hard Feelings, The Ballantynes, and the debut of The React! at The Astoria. With DJs Jonny Was and Tim Horner.

Spring Break: Pismo Beach? You ain’t got nothing on the praries. St. Paddy’s weekend, The Ballantynes are Alberta-bound.

Friday, March 16th: (Calgary) The Ballantynes and The Mandates are crashing the party at Broken City, opening for The Dirty City Boys.

Saturday, March 17th: (Edmonton) New City

Hope to see you out for any and all!

Lotsa tidbits.

We’ve slowly recovered from the weekend. Holy fuck, Victoria: seriously, to the ground swell of people who supported this show, thank you so much for coming out early and staying out late. We’ll have lotsa photos to share soon, but in the meantime, we’d like to share that The Ballantynes single charted #1 on the CFUV album charts this week. My proud hometown heart is swollen.

Speaking of charts, The Maxines single, so radly reviewed in Razorcake, cracked the CiTr charts this week as well! That’s not to mention that the Drugstore single is out now on K Records! The perfect segue to what this post was supposed to be about in the first place: distro! We are so proud to have the White Out! ep available from the K Records store, the perfect way to snap them both up.

We’ve always been blessed with the kindness of boutique distros, labels, and shops to peddle our singles. In fact, if you’re in Europe, watch for our latest singles to show up with old friends like the Kenrock mailing list (Sweden) and Bachelor Records (Austria). Stateside, you’ll find our latest with Underground Medicine and Deadbeat Records. As people who like to mail order, we dig that these are viable options, especially if you wanna bundle releases with other labels and save a couple bucks on shipping.

Finally on the distro tip, we are floored to announce that The Ballantynes single is available through Dusty Groove America. We’ve been huge fans of Dusty Groove, as customers and as a place of reference, pretty much since internet. The first batch sold out, but restocks are back in stock.

If you’ve been sleeping on The Ballantynes single and you care about things like first pressings, act quick btw.

Grab one at their next show, Valentine’s Day at the Biltmore.

Ok, I’m hyperlinked the fuck out. We’ll check in next week.

Ti

Slush, snow or shine:

Here’s the Facebook group for the event

Here’s the Facebook group for the dj set afterwards

And here’s the Facebook group for the soul allnighter that is going to keep things going until morning.

Keeping that all in mind, we’d like to do our thank you’s pre-emptively, because Sunday morning is going to be brutal.

A huge thank you to our sponsors: Ditch Records and CFUV.

And the thank you roll continues: Lyle’s Place, Talk’s Cheap, The Strathcona Hotel, Metropol, the staff at Club 9one9, Smiths Pub, Temple Late Night, The Northern Souldiers, Monday Magazine, The Times Colonist, The BC Ska Society, everyone who is playing and everyone who is attending.

See you there!

Tim & Dale

PS: Had a few questions about the single: yes, they’e going fast, but yes, we’ll have them for sale at the show…shirts and buttons, too!

PPS: Here’s a great little piece that ran in this week’s Monday Magazine, courtesy of Nick Lyons!

PPPS: Here’s an equally great profile on the west coast soul resurgence in this today’s Times Colonist, courtesy of Mike Devlin!!

Stoked to announce that we’re taking over the turntables at next week’s edition of Mongo Bingo. Come on down to The Electric Owl on Monday, January 23rd for a five sense assault: cheap booze to drink, bingo marker ink to sniff, selections from our respective record collections to hear, prizes galore to have and to hold…and to see? Why, your undeniable, unflappable, ever-so-charming host, Luke Meat!

Greetings from the West Shore,

I’m going to spare you another top 10 list in favor of my typical longwinded and scattered musings on what filled my cup this past year. Maybe fill your own cup with libation before settling in.

Whereas 2009 was a year highlighted with amazing albums and 2010 was a year stacked with singles, 2011 was lousy with live shows. I was lucky to see and hear so, so much this past year.

In terms of veterans I hadn’t seen in over a decade, there was Guitar Wolf, Slayer, The Muffs and Man or Astroman? (glad that Victor Vector is on the mend, btw!).

In terms of veterans I had never had a chance to see previously, there was The Pixies, Barrington Levy, Allen Toussaint, Pierced Arrows and The Buzzcocks.

In terms of newish bands that I was all like “where the hell ya been my whole life?” there was Chains of Love and The Moby Dicks

In terms of experience that defies category, there was Rob Zombie (I’m serious, this was maybe the dumbest and greatest thing), dj’ing a Reverend Horton Heat/Nashville Pussy show with one working turntable (ok, maybe this was the dumbest and greatest thing), and the Gene Simmons photoshoot at the local View Royal casino (ok Demon, you win).

Finally, my two favorite shows of the year: Charles Bradley and Prince. Charles Bradley for a voice that penetrated deep scar tissue. And those goddamn tears. Prince for his Princey-ness. And for bringing Maceo Parker on tour.

I also got to interview a lot of fine folks. Indian Wars, Peter Case, Diamond Dancer, Hello Polly, Stuart Mclean, Neil Osborne, Kathryn Calder, Needles//Pins: it was a delight speaking to you all. Vicious Cycles get special mention for being the spark to my plug when I most needed it. Get their full length—a 2011 highlight—if you haven’t already.

DJ nights? East Van Soul Club is a juggernaut. Seriously. Our Favorite Shop will be sorely missed. Seriously.

The lowpoint of the year? Without question, the brutal, senseless murder of Colin Allin. Colin played in a band called Skin Barn in the late eighties/early nineties, the exact window of time I myself happened to spend living in Calgary. In those years, I had the great fortune of seeing Colin open for the likes of Nirvana, Fugazi, All and Big Drill Car, as well as headlining countless shows at The Westward Inn and all-ages halls around the city. Honestly, the only bands I have seen play more often in my life are Huevos Rancheros, The Smugglers, and The Evaporators. Here’s a news article from this past summer and here’s the Facebook tribute page. Rest in Peace, Colin.

On the homefront and the happier front, it was fun being a juror for the Times Colonist “Best of the city” music awards. Congrats to Open Relationship!

Rock n’ roll reading you’re after? Might I suggest Adventures in Solitude by Grant Lawrence and I Have Fun Wherever I Go, by Mike Edison. In both cases, music is the accompaniment to some incredibly entertaining memoir.

A couple 2011 records worth your purchase: if you’re reading this, then you probably already have the Needles//Pins single. But the single that I feel was criminally overlooked was that Korean Gut 45. “If You Want” is a damn-near perfect song. If you’re doing some mail order from Mammoth Cave this new year, do yourself a favour and snag it.

Somewhere in this mess, I gotta shoehorn in a toast to the many independent record stores in Vancouver and Vancouver Island who kept on keeping it on this past year. Again, apologies for oversights, but Audiopile, Beat Street, Zulu, Highlife, Red Cat, Scratch, Neptoon, Beat Merchant, Ditch, Black Raven, Gordie’s Music, Talk’s Cheap, Turntable, Lyle’s Place, Sound Heritage, Fascinating Rhythm: chin chin. Your value is immeasureable.

Saving the best for last: thank you to The Maxines and The Ballantynes for being so rad to work with, for two tremendous singles, for a couple strings of out-of-the-park release shows, and for revitalizing, reinvigorating, and redefining this little label. I got a hunch that 2012 is going to be pretty damn generous to both of you

What does 2012 have in store for the rest of us? A new Maxines single on K Records, for starters. There’s also full lengths by bands like Fist City (Black Tent), The Ketamines (Southpaw), Needles//Pins (Mammoth Cave), The Pygmies (Sloth) and Budokan (Northern Electric). You got that to look forward to. Hell, 2012 might even be the year we all get to experience the long awaited Suite Sixteen record!

We got a couple treats in store as well. Can’t wait to share. Happy New Years everyone!

Luv,

Ti

Hey Seattle.

The Ballantynes are making their 7″ release party a weekender. Chains of Love are coming, too. So you basically get two of the best bands outta Vancouver in years as an early Christmas present. Plus you get Sick Secrets and Boom City. For like $8. A pittance. Lucky you!