november 21 w/ two hours traffic and SPORTS

we are back in the rehearsal space. dave's cast is off. things are good. especially good because we have a show coming up on november 21 with PEI polaris nominees two hours traffic and toronto awesome SPORTS: the band at new west end venue the garrison.

click the event here.

see you there.

still alive

i know it seems quiet over here. forgive us. dave is healing. murray is mixing. people are painting and drawing. we are learning new ways to play the songs we love. hold in there, we will have something for you someday soon.
(photo: shannon busta)

rock and roll wrecking ball

Our friends over at Steel Bananas have posted an article/interview that materialized out of a couple afternoon beers with last week with their associate editor, Curran. Read the full piece HERE. Pictured - Banana Boy.

Mike at Mountain City

post popped: recorded and tired.

it was nice to see all the new faces, and for helping us set the record for crowd surfing at a Darcys' show. We are finally done all of the recording for LP2 and now we eagerly wait for the mixes.

Also, from CIUT:
(photo: iain buchanan)

Sneaky Dee's

(Photo: James McGuire)

Rolling in.

Things are finally starting to happen. We are headlining a POP Montreal show on October 2 at Jupiter room and Tuesday we have a set at Sneaky Dee's as part of the Steel Bananas Anniversary Party.
Also, we been playing phone tag with Murray as we attempt to long distance mix the record. The songs sound really strong and I cannot wait for Noah to master it.
I know this feels like it is taking forever, but be patient. It will be done soon enough.

Congratulations to Fucked UP on their Polaris win.

Du Cote Chez Sunnybrook

Apparently Wes and I, the untamed, rugged gentlemen in unorthodox neck ties lurking in the shadows at live shows behind those three good natured looking fellows singing lovely harmonies up front, are, statistically speaking, the members of The Darcys most likely to get injured in a cycling accident. Parallels could be drawn, perhaps, between the wild, careening rhythms we drive and the way we drive our bikes; but this is all speculative.

Today, having fallen off my bike last night and landed on my right hand, I spent six hours at Sunnybrook Hospital. Here is a numbers themed list of things I experienced there:

-4 separate waiting areas

- 40 pages of Swann's Way (or, as the French would have it, and by way of explaining my post title, Du Cote Chez Swann) the first novel in Marcel Proust's six volume Oeuvre In Search of Lost Time.

- 2 Tylenol number threes

-6 albums: 1. Radiohead- Kid A 2. Tobacco- F*^#ed Up Friends 3. Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest 4. Boards of Canada- The Campfire Headphase 5. The Walkmen- Bows and Arrows 6. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion (on the subway ride home)  

- 4 X-Rays of my hand 

- 1 snuggly fitting splint 

In addition to things noted on the list, I made the acquaintance of two women a few years my senior one of whom swore she had seen the Darcys on City Pulse 24's breakfast television, which we have appeared on in Calgary and Winnipeg but not, to my knowledge, in Toronto. Still, it was nice to get a little waiting room recognition. Another noteworthy incident: my doctor asked me to roll up the sleeve of my sweater to put on a splint. I now realize that this cardigan is so tight fitting on the arms that I will not be able to pull it over the splint without causing myself considerable pain. It is slung off to one side like a drunken super hero's cape. I am going to be sleeping in this sweater for tonight at least, fortunately it is a favourite.    

Diagnosis: I am on the bench, so to speak, for tonight's practice. I am going to take Wes' advice, drink lots of milk and not smoke anything. I also took a multivitamin. Hopefully I'll be back playing on the defensive line soon enough, until then it's just me, Marcel Proust, and these Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD's

Bon soir mes amis,

Dave

In Praise of a Language Between Strangers (Or how I learned to stop worrying and love montreal)

I’m glad we went away for LP2. We went away for Endless Water, but it didn’t have the same feel as it did this time. We were only hiding from our lives in Waterloo.

This time things broke wide open. Jobs were lost. Leases lapsed. We started again. We were new. Waking up in Montreal that first morning and not having to rush to work as I had just days before, I knew things were going to be different. From that moment on we got to play and talk and laugh and argue in one of those rare spaces in life. It was a chance to look back worry free and reflect on how far we’ve come together. We just got to do our thing, whatever that needed to be. This is as good as a time as any to thank the many people who with their support be it financial or emotional allowed us to have this space to work.

For the most part it felt kind of like floating. Some days I just laughed in disbelief as I watched one of my friends deliver the perfect take through the window between the control room and the live room. Sometimes I just read ol' rock mags, ate dave's sandwiches and went out on coffee runs.

If you've read this blog for long or listened to our songs a bit you will know that I have a tendency to overthink the simple things and to present those thoughts to the world. So, faithful listener, I present to you my over wrought thesis as to why I had so much fun in Montreal.

I think that the thing that held us all together, the thing that let us feel like we did, was the this weird language we shared. Cribbed from a youth wasted reading Joe Satriani articles in Guitar World, a decade or so digesting glib album reviews, many nights trying to draw a line between Indie and Post-Rock, Alt-Country and Country Rock and far, far too many hours listening to records and trying to pin down just exactly how they made that sound.

There are others like us, it turns out.

The recording of this album was a bunch of people hanging out. People whom all have an overzealous, all-encompassing and perhaps even psychotic love of music. People who say things like, “I want this bass part to sound more zingy” and know that everyone will understand. People who make jokes about effects pedals. People who could talk about microphone placement and amp selection until most sane people would have clawed their own eyes out. People who enjoy discussing the finer points of coiling patch cables. People who have "tuned" a room. People who could do it day in and day out for as long as it took to get there (or at least until the money ran out).

Finding out there are other people who talk and think the way you do was one of the most life affirming experiences I have ever had. I can only hope that the album sounds the way that it felt to make it.

Vox

Vibraphones! Hoorah!

A Song We Sing... A Song We Sing Together...

our work is never done

Things have been very busy around here and we must apologize for the lack of updates. We will be heading back to Montreal for the 2nd of October to play our POP Montreal show (Jupiter Room - 11pm) and will be recording a few more songs the following day at Mountain City. I know it seems like this process has been taking forever, but rest assured that we are doing everything in our power to pound out all the weak spots. This also means there will be a few b-sides to be given away and/or released on 7". Our work is never done.

POP MONTREAL

POP MONTREAL
JUPITER ROOM
OCTOBER 2, 3874 St-Laurent

Young Believers

One of the most important things I have learned while making this record is the importance of letting go. Of allowing something I have been a part of make its own way in the world. To not control every step and coddle it through every moment. Let it breathe, Wes, let it breathe.

I took some time and went home. Gain distance I thought. Try and find the forest through the trees.

It has been rather difficult to trust others with this project, but slowly I am learning the importance of letting those around us make it something bigger and better than anything we could have ever dreamed of. To replace our rusty butter knife with a screwdriver. It is no longer just ours, but everyone's. The noises are no longer "cool" but beautiful. The guitar work not "dirty" but interlocked. Bound so tight I can't tell who is doing what anymore. The drums are fat. The bass fatter. There are strings. Strings! The changes have been tweaked, thought through. Smoothed out. The songs have moments that will rip your heart out. Or at least they did mine.

We did it. Now we wait.

I Will Be Light

Discussion in the Live Room

Gentlemen, your strings have arrived

The Rhodes