Spark & Brad - Brothers in Paint

Ohhhh it's been a while ...

Not much posting going on lately. As our status as a "part-time" or "hobby" band, one of the amazing perks is that we get summer vacation! This summer has been no different (although we have played more than 2 shows this time). Everyone stays pretty busy with obligations to their houses, families or wives, girlfriends ... or in my case internet porn.

After our tailgating party in Sarnia (aka show) a few weeks later we hooked up with Carry the Torch, Heavy Hearted and The Fitzpatrick Incident for a couple of shows in Southern Ontario which ruled. All those bands were super fun to play with and it sucks that a couple of the shows got ditched last second by sketchy promoters. SIDENOTE: I fucking hate myspace promotion companies. SIDENOTE STORY: We actually agreed to play a show through one of these "promoters" until the douchebag emails us saying we have to come to a "bands meeting" where he'll give us a stack of flyers to hand out and tickets to sell to our friends!!! Holy Fuck we haven't experienced that since we were 16 playing in shitty ass SuperNova battle of the bands!! HARDCORE '08 ARE YOU DOWN?!?!?!

Anyways to the topic at hand - two major events that went down over the last two months which has kept things quiet on this front are that both Brad and I were involved in some serious home renovation projects. I lived and breathed TLC's "Flip that House" while Brad worked hard on his home reno project (sans Mike Holmes). Attached is myself and Toronto cyclist who is loved by all The Rennick (makergo.com) finishing up said house that I spent pretty much every waking (fuck it, sleeping too) moment stressing over. Luckily that son-of-a-bitch sold this week and it is one month away from being a distant memory.


Now to more TTL relevant news. Pretty much jamming has been on the backburner due to Brad taking the plunge to increase his property value by 10% by finishing his basement. Lucky for us that means a brand spanking new LIONS DEN!!! For those of you who don't know - The Lions Den is where we practice music and after that we take off our shirts and throwdown MMA styles. If you want a piece of Steve you have to fight us all first and if you can beat us all up we will give you a free CD (signed by all five members of course). So now the LIONS DEN is in top shape with removable recording station, new drywall and hopefully HUGE Metal posters to come from Poster World.


Take note of what Ted is holding in his hand. Now I am not really one to drink fizzy or sugary drinks but GOSH DANG I must say - 1 frickin litre of Dr. Pepper and Gatorade squishy is a mighty fine beverage. Look at the way that Flanders kid is eyeing that shit! He wants it so bad to make his eyes go all googly and squirly. You should have been there. BRUP!

S-A-R ... N-I ... TO THE MOTHERFUCKING A!!!

After a 60hr work week, and having to get up to work at 9am (Matt was up at 6am!) - once again getting in to play Sarnia was more than worth the 6hrs of driving to hang out for an hour and a half. Whether it's 75, 150 or over 200 kids we have fun there every time and the people who come out to hang make it all worth it. Thanks again and we can't wait to go back and drink OV in the parking lot.
This one's for you Gravemaker, CA13, Matt and everyone else in Sarnia.

HARDTIMES IN MONTREAL

I haven't had time to put together our weekend diary/blog from this past weekend where we did a mini-tour with Fired Up, Reign Supreme and Strife, but thought we would get this up now so you can check out an interview we did while in Montreal.

I was asleep in the car outside venue when I decided it was time to get it together and get ready to head into the show. I had literally been awake for 2 minutes and had just walked into the show when these two guys approached me and advised/reminded me about an interview they wanted to do. I shook hands with Mike and Chico and said I'd be right outside. So what would a TTL interview be without master orator Brad Casarin? I grabbed Brad out of the back and above is what ensued!!

The best part is this interview is seriously AT LEAST 30 minutes, and about 90% Brad was doing the talking - but funny enough my 10% takes up 90% of this video!! And the 1hr (AT LEAST) after the film ran out that Brad and Chico talked about DRI was amazing as well. There should have been a second camera interviewing the interview!

So check out their website www.hardtimes.ca and see interviews from holy crap just about everyone - but all the bands from that weekend they hooked up with and they are rad. Also I can't believe I actually forgot the myspace link mike said no joke about 15 times HAHAAH!

Yipes Strife!!

The day is almost upon us. Our "mini-tour" with HC legends STRIFE!
In preparation for this momentous occasion I have pieced together 2 new beaded necklaces, busted out my xxl Integ hoody and my lovely wife has stitched up the hole in my BIG 3-0's!!! Sick!

To The Lions 2.0

Tomorrow night we officially start over with our first show with our new drummer Teddy, at the Taken Reunion/Cursed record release show in Hamilton. It's been quite a while since we've played, finding a new drummer and getting ready has been a fairly lengthy process, plus during the months off Brad and his wife Tiffany had a beautiful baby boy (who's already mastering pinch harmonics). But now we're back and as cliché as it sounds, sometimes you need a change like this to shake up your band and re-energize you. We're so stoked to start playing again with Teddy, and scared for your ears because he hits so f*cking hard. And not only that but we're already deep into writing a new album that is going to go so way beyond Baptism of Fire. Being fans of all kinds of heavy music there will be a lot more influences coming out on the next record, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

If you've seen our MySpace(?!) you'll notice we have more shows booked in the next 2 months than we played in all of 2007, including some amazing shows with Strife and Reign Supreme, and later in the summer our first trip south of the border. And it all starts tomorrow night...

Oh my(space), what a week!

Yes as you can see, last week was a big one. Looks like our 5 shows in 2007 really got us noticed!

I’m not a big fan of myspace, even though I lurk our own page 3 times a day (oh man that guitar player with tattoos – SO HOT!) Anyways, I feel as a jaded hardcore kid over 30, it is my responsibility to show everyone younger than me what it was like getting into hardcore when I was 14, and how what it’s like now sucks and that it’s not as ‘core’ as it was 15+ years ago.


This is me now reenacting what I was doing 14 years ago. If I had my way I would be holding my 1 page photocopied Revelation Records flyer/catalogue but I couldn’t find it. Slipknot? Early COC meets late COC?? WTF?? So this is the one and only Very Distribution catalogue November 1994, with none other than Outspoken on the cover. So this is the way it went. Basically since there was no myspace to lurk from band to band, we (kids born around the Oilers dynasty) had to go either by word of mouth or by descriptions. For example: Statue “Filtering the Infection” – excellent melodic stuff with a big D.C. influence, with a rockish, some say Jane’s Addictionish, feel to it. Very original & well put together stuff. If you care, it features ex-members of Chain of Strength – UHHH YES I CARE – SOLD!!!


So then we’d fill out our 1 page form with all the releases (get your friends in on it to save postage!) And wait wait wait until finally that big box arrived in the mail and you’d open it up just to find out half the releases you picked weren’t there and they just sent you whatever the hell they felt like.

So there you go a little trip down memory lane, and considering we are playing with Strife, I thought I’d give the description for One Truth from ’94.

Strife “One Truth”: the wait is over! Now it’s finally here. Quite a few people have agreed that it’s the best straight edge hardcore record in a long, long time. Hmmmm. (Victory).

Ok that wasn’t really funny so until next time I leave you with a very important question:

Full Speed Ahead!

So if you’ve been lurking the myspace (YES MYSPACE WE ARE NOW ON MYSPACE) you’ll notice we have more shows set up in a 2 month period then we did for all of 2007. This is complete insanity. In fact it has me a little freaked out because I really need to pull myself to together physically for all of these appearances that I’ll be making (with my band). I have come up with a four point plan in order to get myself ready to be the best lead vocalist in hardcore.

Ok here they are in order from 1-4
#1 - Exercise
#2 – New clothes
#3 – Hair and Skin treatment
#4 – Diet

I think people would be pretty interested to see how this all comes together so I’m going to take you through a journey of how I am getting my self in top shape – a blogging reality tv show (that’s not on tv) if you will. Tonight’s episode follows me on the path to a supremely tip top DIET!

*CUE THEME SONG FOR MY REALITY BLOG – TEARS FOR FEARS – EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD*

This past Friday my new diet began. I was taken to try some authentic asian fare in the north side of Toronto. Some of you may have eaten at this fine dining establishment known as THE MANDARIN.


Now I have not eaten here in over 10 years but thank goodness nothing has changed! Seriously. Nothing. Same food, décor and even the same rabble rousers I recall eating here – yes 85 year old women and 10 year old kids – that demographic that wants to stretch a $10 all you can eat buffet to the max. Well, as I paroozed through the food some of it stood out more than others, for example:

ONION RINGS!


FRENCH FRIES!!!


And my favorite asian side –
PICKLES!!!


Ok I know what you’re thinking – Spark, this shit ain’t Asian, and it sure ain’t healthy!! For a moment I thought the same thing, BUT, upon further reflection into Asian culture I realized that maybe they are onto something here. I looked into the Taoist teachings of Lao Tzu who asks us to “go with the flow” and instead of doing things the hard way find the easy, simple way to accomplish our goals – in essence “do by not doing”.

I can’t believe all these years it never occurred to me. It is so obvious - I shall eat healthy – BY NOT EATING HEALTHY. After three helpings of all of the above, two helpings of dessert, and since that day 2 pizzas, a 2-4 of Lakeport, and 2 boxes of Lucky Charms I can honestly say I feel 150% better, no lie. Tonight I had ice cream for dinner and it was fucking delicious.

ICE CREAM RULZ!