The Verge Music Awards

Yay! I'm nominated for The Verge Music Awards! Voting has already started and will last until September 1st 2008. Please vote vote vote!

t-shirts for sale!

Hey guys,

I still have a bunch of t-shirts left in brown and sangria in all sizes. If you're interested, just click on the buy now and write the size and color in the comments. They are 14.99.

Also, on my website, it says that you can buy Different Paths and get my older album Empty Picture Frames for 20$. If you would rather get Different Paths and a t-shirt for 20$, just click on the link and let me know.

By the way, this is Marshall Watson from Spree Park. I made him make an emo face because he's so good at it. He's awesome.

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My 30th birthday party!

Today is my birthday. I am finally 30 years old! I decided to plan for myself the greatest party of all time. I booked Main Hall and asked a bunch of friends to come and play me some songs. First, Vicious & Delicious played a set, followed by Mordechai, Doug and Maria who flew in from Vancouver for the show! After that, Gab played and then I played a few songs by myself and a couple of songs with my good friend Sunny Duval of the Breastfeeders. Hexes & Ohs followed us and then Caro, who made me the amazing dress that you see here, played after them. The last band to play were my long time friends Mia Verko. Everyone were amazing and said such sweet things about me! Then two DJs played really great tunes, Parklife who spins at Green Room on Thursday and Mike B from Better Swimmers out of Winnipeg. They were amazing. I also had a chocolate fountain which is always exciting but I didn't even try it! Many people came, I was very touched. It was the best birthday ever!

Quebec City, February 9th 2007

I went to Québec city on Friday. I drove there super early because I had a meeting with people from the culture department of the City to maybe set up a SOPREF office there. I then went to hang out at CHYZ and do an interview. The people there were so nice. I played a show at Le Vieux Bureau de Poste with Standing Waltz. It was all ages, it was sold out, the show was super fun, I tried out a delay pedal which was amazing. After the show, I went to Galerie Rouje to see Pawa Up and Gatineau play a show. Pawa Up were great, Malcolm Bauld was playing piano and it was pretty sweet. I only watched a few songs from Gatineau because I decided that I would drive back home in the middle of the night.

I loved the drive, I listened to some old mix Cds that people gave me a few years back when we used to make Mix contests. Really fun!

Divan Orange on January 23rd 2006

The show at Divan was so much fun! I was so happy that Lionel invited me to play again. Divan Orange is such a great place and I feel so at home there. Chrissy's show was amazing. She has the most beautiful voice. It's also always fun to see Chris play. And Jay, Sterling, Jean-Philippe and Marianne were great! I love playing with a full band! I love them and I'm so lucky that they are such lovely people and seem to really care about me and play with their hearts.

I'm working hard as usual for SOPREF. LOCAL is releasing 10 albums next month and they are all really good! I can't wait for all launches to start. I'll be able to go out with my very good friend Paule, who is actually the very talented press agent that is getting me all this crazy promo. Thank you Paule!

I also want to give a sincere thanks to Edmund Lam who designed this great poster and my t-shirt. What a talented artist!

Back from the holidays

I spent most of the holiday season watching DVDs and taking off price stickers on all the CDs that were returned to LOCAL during the Fall. On December 24th, a few friends came to my house and we had a big Christmas dinner. I cooked two turkeys (Alice & Stella, last year's turkey was called Beatrice, hence the song about Christmas Eve 2005) with yams, I made a butternut squash soup and bought some oysters. I also made dessert. Ines made a cipâte which is a traditional Québécois meat pie which was to die for, Sophie made the best cheese cake ever and Dominic made really sweet drinks. We ate for hours and played games. It was so much fun!

My friend Antoine invited me to play a live performance on his radio show on CIBL. We had a really good time. I was under the impression that nobody listens to the radio at 9h00pm on a Friday but I forgot about all the people in their cars looking for parking close to their favorite bar!

So, Serge is a superstar and has a lot on his plate so I asked my friends from Diamond Sea, to play with me for my next show on January 23rd at Divan Orange. I've never played with an actual rock band without Gab at my side. It's so amazing! I'm having a great time and I think it's going to sound great. They're adding some nice shoegaze parts, HOT!

I got my first real article in VOIR. Check it out!

http://www.voir.ca/musique/musique.aspx?iIDArticle=45535

Different Paths CD Launch

My CD Launch at Divan Orange was really fun! Serge and Chris came to play with me, probably for the last time since they are super busy launching their own album. Lots of people came and I think everybody had a good time. Even my father came which is pretty awesome considering his health issues. Michel Parent from Quebecpop came and took pictures which is really nice.

Mon lancement approche!

Ma bonne amie Paule s'occupe de mes relations de presse et elle fait une super bonne job! J'ai eu une critique d'Olivier Robillard Laveaux
http://www.voir.ca/musique/scenelocale.aspx?iIDArticle=44552

Une entrevue avec André Péloquin dans le Bang Bang

Une mini critique dans le Mirror
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/110906/disc.html

Ils ont parlé de mon lancement sur CBC radio: Podcast #76
http://radio3.cbc.ca/

Et à C'est bien meilleur le matin à Radio-Canada
http://www.thecamaromance.com/z/radio.mp3

Youppi!

Fall tour 2006: Ontario part two...

After leaving Winnipeg, my favorite city, I drove down to Thunder Bay. We played at The Apollo. Sheila who runs it and is super generous. She fed us, she got a place to stay, she even paid us. Gab had been there and she was under the impression that I hated his guts which I really don't. I sang Mostly Harmless which is a song about how much I loved touring with Gab and told everyone about it since they knew him and she cracked up because she thought I was being sarcastic. I really wasn't. The next day, I drove for 13 hours to make it to Sudbury! A cop stopped me for speeding, I was going 117 in a 90 zone. He asked me what I was doing in Northern Ontario and I told him I was on tour. I think he thought it was pretty sad that I was alone so he only gave me a ticket for 37.50$! Score!

We played at The Townehouse and hung out with the guys from Statues who are super nice. Some drunk guys talked to me during my whole set!

It was the last show. I had a great tour! I had so much fun and Malcolm and the others were so nice! Can't wait to go on tour again!

Fall tour 2006: Manitoba take two...

I got up early and drove to Winnipeg to hang out with Mike B, one of my favorite persons! We went shopping for a Halloween costum for him and then I went to dinner at Ashley's. Hung out with Jaret and then went to the venue. Got my nurse outfit on and played for Nettie, Maria and a few others. Poortree played and it was a great performance. After the show, Ashley and I tried to get in to the venue where Mike was spinning (ooohhh, Desire!) but the Firemen were trying to shut it down because it was packed! We went to The Pyramid and checked out all the cool kids dressed up.

Fall tour 2006: Saskatchewan...

Drove to Regina and played at O'Hanlon's which was so amazing. Everybody played solo sets and people seemed to enjoy it. Dagan and Leif of Geronimo came and so did Rémi's sister! They got us rooms at the Quality Inn and that was awesome!

Fall tour 2006: Alberta take three...

I went back to Calgary and hung out with my friend Al. We then played at Broken City with Mahagony Frog and Bogart. I played super early and it was pretty empty but a few of my friends came and I had a good time.

Fall tour 2006: BC...

The drive down to Vancouver was amazing and I actually loved doing it on my own. I took pictures with the great camera Dallas lent me. The first show in Vancouver was at The Main which is one of my favorite venues in Canada. It's a Greek restaurant! The show was fun, we played with RC of Mongoose and it was great. The next day, I hung out with Wes and Brawnwin and with The Feminists. We played at The Marine Club with the Skort and Ghost House which have members of the band Cadeaux I played with in Winnipeg a while back. It was nice to see them again.












The next day, we took the Ferry to Victoria and a whole school of Japanese students were on it! They couldn't speak english or french but they loved the camera! We went to see Malcolm's parents and then played at Logan's. The next day, I drove to Kelowna, got lost, stuck in traffic, in a storm and almost ran over a scary hitchhiker with a mask in the dark! Scared to living shit out of me. Malcolm told me he scared him too! We played at The Hubb which is a great all ages venue run by an amazing couple. It was super fun!

Fall tour 2006: Alberta take two...

I finally went down to Calgary to see my good friends Al, Grant and Shawn of the Outhouse (www.outhouse.ca) which I had been looking forward to since last summer. Al planned this great All ages show at a cute little venue called Cliff Bungalow Mission Community Center which doubles up as a pre-school. We played with my friend Laura's new band The Consonant C. They were unbelievable!

Fall tour 2006: Alberta...

So... drove to Edmonton, hung out with Buffy and Dallas and played an all ages show at The Skatepark which was pretty cool and then went to Buffy's to play some Karaoke videogame which was awesome! Today, I hung out with Dallas and played my favorite show so far at Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus, this really cool bar on Whyte Avenue. A bunch of my friends came and people seemed to really enjoy the set. Malcolm and his band played their best set since we started touring. Liam Copeland booked the show and played as a duo called Suicide is Painless. Really nice. A great evening all around.

Fall tour 2006: Manitoba...

So... to follow up on my last post, just as I was about to go to the Exclaim! Party, I stepped outside and my car had been towed! So I didn't make it to the party, I ended up having to pay the City of Toronto 145$ + a cab ride across town of 20$. However, the show at O'Grady's was super fun. Keith Hamilton of the Postage Stamps put it on and he is a great promoter. Good times both for Malcolm's band and for me. We played with a cute electro couple band called Foxes. I told them that they must come to Montreal to play with Hexes & Ohs. The next day, we played at The Grad House in Waterloo to an empty room. The opener, Sean Stokholm who was from Waterloo didn't even draw. Ontario is so hard! We had a great time there though, everybody played solo sets and told the stories of each song. Alicia Penney of Cape Breton has great songs, I played with her in Cape Breton in 2005. Incredible voice.

We then drove to Thunder Bay and decided not to play since the staff told us that nobody would show up. We ate at the Thunder BayCasino and then just hung out.

We shared a hotel room and I left super early the next morning because I was dying to see Mike B (Good Form / Better Swimmers). I was so happy to be in Winnipeg! It was so great to see all my friends and play in front of people who actually cared. Everyone was very proud of me and told me that they were happy that I didn't stop playing music when Gab Left.

We had the next day off so we went for Breakfast at Ashley's (Good Form) and then I checked out some CD stores for LOCAL and we went to see a movie. Today, I got up and left Winnipeg, drove to Regina and I will go see Geronimo play and then hang out with Dagan.

Should be fun. Tomorrow... Edmonton and one of Canada's most good looking men... Dallas!

Fall tour 2006: Ontario...

So after months of working like a crazy person at SOPREF LOCAL + finishing the recording + booking, I am finally on the road! Malcolm and his band featuring Steve Dagg (Pawa Up First/Hyposmics), and from Cape Breton, Alicia Penney (Yellow, Tom Fun Orchestra) and Lachie MacDonald (Horses, Great Plains) are on tour with me and we are having a great time.

We played at End Hits in Ottawa on the 9th which was a unique experience. It was basically a basement show under a really cool music store. The kids were super quiet which was nice but a bit stressful since I didn't have a chance to practice for this tour at all. It went really well and the next day we played The Alex P Keaton in London which is a bar that I love. We played with Great Aunt Ida, Ida being the sweet girl that books The Main and The Sugar Refinery in Vancouver. She has an adorable voice.

Today, we played in Hamilton at the Casbah which was ok. Not many people showed up but that's normal since it was a long weekend and people are probably sick of going out. I'm staying with my friend Marc who lives in Burlington. I think we hadn't seen each other in more than seven years! It's always nice to catch up.

Tomorrow, Toronto... Exclaim! Party! and then O'Grady's... fun fun fun!

Yay!

Look at me! I have a blog! My brother set this up for me. What a kind little man... I'm almost finished recording my new album Different Paths with Patrick (www.patrickwatson.net) and the Pawa Up crew (www.pawaupfirst.com). I'm going on tour with Malcolm Bauld (www.malcolmbauld.com) in October. I can't wait but I'm a little stressed because I have so much stuff to do at SOPREF (www.sopref.org) before I go. Cynthia and I are promoting two big shows. We booked L'Assemblée, Grand Marquis, NulSiDécouvert and Les Robots de la Rime on Sept 23rd at Club Soda. We also booked Watcha Clan, aRTIST oF tHE yEAR, Uberko and Sexyboy for our Pop Montreal show at Lion D'Or on Oct 6th. Check it out!