The Wheat Pool

“Behind The Stars – EP” Released Today

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:59:25 +0000

Behind The Stars - ep

New Music Tuesday!

We are very proud to announce the release of our new 4+1 song EP today, titled Behind The Stars. It is available in Canada and the UK today, and will be available in the US by mid July.

BTS is a handful of songs recorded during the Hauntario sessions in 2009. There were a number of ideas and plans surrounding these few songs at that time, but as band life got busy they ended up sitting for most of the year, un-mixed and un-used. The primary hinge for these extras was the recorded version of Neil Young’s “Helpless”, a live-show favorite for the past year which the band had mixed and mastered by John Whynot and Joao Carvalho respectively, along with the rest of the Hauntario tracks, but never included with that record. For this release an alternate mix was included, done by one of the co-producers, James Murdoch.

The track listing is as follows:

Helpless (Hauntario mix)
Edith Cavell
Woman
Evangeline (Hauntario alternate version)
Helpless (EP mix)

During the Hauntario sessions it was conceived to record a series of extras. There were several alternate versions of songs going on Hauntario that the band didn’t want to do away with, such as “Two Far Apart” – a slower, sombre version of the radio-rocker “Too Far Apart”. The band felt strongly enough about the recording of the alternate, and its perfect placement at the end of the album, that they opted to pluck it from the “extras” list in exchange for the original tune “Edith Cavell”. That song was written by Mike for another band member’s wedding. (trivia – what other TWP track was written for a friend’s wedding?)

“Evangeline”, another alternate version of an original and stripped down/slowed down, is actually the original version of that song. It was originally recorded on a self-made EP by Mike Angus, titled Yellowhead Diaries, produced before TWP came together (also featuring versions of Township tracks “Whyte Avenue” and “Evergreen”).

“Woman” is a favorite, written by close friend of the band, Ryan Waye. Ryan is an incredible singer-songwriter formerly of Edmonton, now Toronto, who used to hang around the same open-stages as the guys, stunning everyone with his bevy of unforgettable new-folk songs. There is actually a recording of this song by Ryan, done live at the old Red Strap Art Market, captured by Shameless Records, floating around in limited edition somewhere. Ryan is incredible, you should go listen to his songs on myspace.

June 22/2010

So that is the story. It has been released today, digital only. There will be no physical copies pressed, burned, or otherwise manufactured. So go to your favorite online retailer, use your iTunes gift card, your eMusic credits, etc, and roll a few bucks on a little more TWP in your life.

NxNE Last Minute Show Added!

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:45:13 +0000

The hanging Cadillac

Hey friends! We are doing a fill-in show TONIGHT! Getting the rock party started at 9pm sharp, at one of our other favorite places to play in Toronto, the Cadillac Lounge.

We’ve been having a great time out at NxNE this year, so why stop now? Other than having to find a different shirt to wear on stage, what would stop us? So if you’re here for NxNE or a GTA resident, why not get the night started with us? We’ll talk, and sing, and maybe give high-fives after.

Cadillace Lounge (1296 Queen St W) @ 9pm sharp

And after, why don’t you join us as we run up the road to catch our good friends and Edmonton label-mates F&M playing at Czehoski at 10pm. Then maybe over to the Horseshoe for the CBC Radio 3 showcase? And maybe to C’est What by midnite for The Details (Winnipeg)? Good night ahead.

NXNE Update

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:28:30 +0000

Show added for NXNE! We are happy to announce that we will be playing on Friday afternoon at the Regency Hyatt, NXNE Headquarters.

If you are in TO Friday and downtown and looking for your best options, well the odds might be perfectly lined up for us.

Some radio spots and other appearances will be announced shortly as well.

NXNE TWP TO U

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:08:33 +0000

The title is code. It means “North by Northeast, The Wheat Pool, Toronto, and you”. Don’t bother leaving any comments, we know its weak.

The band is looking forward to coming back to Toronto, especially to play the NXNE festival, and especially especially to play the unique showcase we are part of. Friday night, June 18 at the incredible Dakota Tavern, will see easily one of the best shows NXNE has to offer, co-hosted by our incredible publicist Killbeat Music and the standout east coast music blog HeroHill.

We can’t wait. So Toronto, lets hang out. Its going to be great. Here’s the official lineup:

Friday June 18 at The Dakota Tavern

8PM – T. Nile Band
9PM – Old Man Luedecke
10PM – David Myles
11PM – The Wheat Pool
12AM – Evening Hymns
1AM – Young Doctors In Love

Here are some links to those with the information:

NXNE festival conference
Herohill blog
Killbeat Music (videos, music from performers)

NXNE is packed full of great shows from some great bands, many of whom we will be trying to get out and see ourselves. So a future post will feature some of the bands we are going to try to see and think you should come join us, as well as bands that are worth seeing but playing at the same time as TWP, and why we think you should of course skip those shows to see the TWP show. Of course.

Tour Diary: Day Nine

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:08:12 +0000

Mike Exclaim cup

Final day of the tour, and no music! But how about a close second, with a hockey tournament that gathers together “musician” rec hockey leagues from across the country? Sounds awesome, and yes, we did time the end of the tour just perfectly.

Beside the obvious fun of playing hockey in this kind of tournament, its always fun to see who is around in the halls and lockers and rink pub. Noticeably absent this year was Dave Bidini (Rheostatics), a fixture at the Summit, but other well-knowns were seen on the ice and in the building. Chris Murphy and members of Sloan in particular are regulars, as well as an appearance by George Strombolopolous on the ChartAttack team.

The brothers played for the Edmonton Gong Show team, and won both their Saturday games with relative ease, which puts them in the final for Sunday morning. Stay tuned, we will be sure to announce the results.

So that wraps it up. A great Canadian tour? Lots of driving, lots of shows, some new friends, and some hockey. Perfect.

Goodbye Toronto. So long Ontario.

update : GONG SHOW WINS! Hockey Champs two years in a row!

Tour Diary: Day Eight

admin — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:59:46 +0000

PHOG Lounge tvs

The final night of the tour lands us on the edge of Ontario, in Windsor. Last June it was Windsor where we began our tour, with an interesting two nights at the infamous PHOG Lounge. Back then it was the heat of summer, an ugly municipal strike, and a Tigers game across the river for Fathers Day. This year we aren’t afforded quite the same time allotment to get adjusted.

The band actually returned to Toronto following the London gig to be closer to the city for Friday morning. The Angus brothers were actually taking part in what has become an annual ritual for this band, the Exclaim! Hockey Summit of the Arts. The boys were able to play, and win, their first game, but had to miss the second in order to get on the road.

A great night, great fan

It was a great final night at the PHOG. Voted Canada’s best live music venue in a CBC Radio 3 reader’s poll just over a year ago, it has become a must-stop for a lot of bands. Not surprising, it was a lot of fun, and we were joined by some big TWP fans who arrived from Michigan, Washington, and Florida. Extremely flattering, and it was great to meet them and try to give them a show to remember.

More new friends and fans, which was the theme of the Hauntario tour, and a great wrap up. Thx Tom and Frank and everyone at the PHOG.

Tour Diary: Day Seven

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:37:39 +0000

grass is greener

We are pretty sure that when we arrive home in a few days time that all we will see is brown, everywhere.

So taking a morning stroll downtown Toronto and seeing green grass felt, well, really good. Short sleeves. C’mon! And by the way, an early morning stroll around Spadina and Dundas means you and about 400 elderly Chinese – it felt like the matrix, everything/everyone else was moving in slow-mo. Awesome.

Off to foggy old London-town! London, Ontario – 22 degrees and plenty of downtown patios! A great welcome. It turned out to be a really fun night at The London Music Club. They are running a pretty good gig over there. We had a chance to meet a lot of new people, re-aquaint with some old friends, and hook up with a great great music fan who came a long way just to see us in London and Windsor. He’s a twitter friend of ours if thats your thing.

Looking forward to the show in Windsor. Hopefully the sunshine and the reduced drinking age will bring out all the wonderful people from Detroit. Ha. We’ll be happy with the wonderful people of Windsor. See you soon PHOG!

Tour Diary: Day Six

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:30:45 +0000

Sarah of Much

DAY OFF!!!

Yes, the infamous tour-day-off. So excited to make your own choices for the day, have no schedule, no long drive, no need to hang around a club for hours on end. Yet, you’re paying for meals and a hotel and not making any cash that night. But, no long drive.

We spent our day of leisure in Toronto, the little apple, and did what we often do on our tour day-offs; bugger off on our own. As much as we love to be together, being together is easier over a tour if you don’t spend every minute together. And TO has a lot for us to do on our own. Since I (Glen) can’t tell you what everyone else did with their time, you get my play by play of the day. Abbreviated, maybe.

I started by following a tall and attractive girl in leather pants for two blocks down Queen St. I suspected that behind the shades it was Sarah Taylor, Much Music VJ. She was taking her time, eating something, and I it took me about 4 store window reflections to convince myself it was her. Funny thing about ‘celebrity’… what do you really say to someone who is just a regular stranger to you, but you feel compelled to say something because they are ‘celebrity’? “I think you’re cool,” or in my case, all I could come up with was “i liked your hair better before.” Yeah, I kept my mouth shut and turned into Steve’s Music.

So I had three items on the agenda: Guitar pedal fix at Steve’s Music, Black Market, and Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF). Pedal was fixed, trip to the Hall successful, but no good buys at Black Market. I think I’m getting too choosy with my old school cowboy shirts. Or everyone else is buying the same thing. I keep kicking myself for not buying the perfect shirt they had there two years ago, and going back each visit, hoping. Robb and I were greatly annoyed by a beligerent but well-dressed drunk though, bent at a 45 degree angle and slurring words about the battalion and “touch my belt.” Thanks for the downtown experience, but no-thanks.

Worn out NHL jersey

I spent a couple of hours in the HHOF, one of my favorite stops. This time I took a lot of pictures on the phone, knowing someone back home who would enjoy them. Very little connects me to my boyhood like hockey; stats, records, photos – I was a sponge for that stuff growing up. Loved it. Did you know Mike Bossy had 9 consecutive 50 goal seasons? Shame he retired early. Did you also know that a new player like Steven Stamkos would need to record 20 consecutive 40 goal seasons (basically until the day he retires) to come close to breaking Gretzky’s goal record?

What else. Some of the guys had a great night at Casa Stanton, some of us had more corner dogs from Spadina/Queen, and some of us had a shot or two for Joe Bird. Nice day, Toronto.

Tour Diary: Day Five

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:00:56 +0000

dirty

It began just like any other day… sleep too long, throw your junk together in the suitcase and shimmy down to the van one by one, and start debating where to eat. Native son Stephane took us to a cutesy part of Ottawa to look for eats, but settled on the classic Timmy Ho brunch thx to our own lack of adherence to time constraints. We had to get to Toronto and it looked we would pull in for rush hour at this point (recently voted the worst commute in the world btw). That’s when we found these beauties by the front tire. A reminder to us all that as long or hard as your day was or as tough as things may seem – at least you didn’t lose your dirty drawers in Tim Hortons parking lot. You can always look up.

So time to leave Ottawa, now named Awesome-wa, and haul it to TO. Pit stop in Kingston so Mike can get some work done, and back on it. Passed the train de-railment just off the 401 by Pickering (crazy) and hit the butt-plug of traffic as expected. Hello Toronto.

Cadillac lights

We’d been looking forward to this show for a while. Lots of good friends in TO that we can’t wait to see, as well as a lot of new people invited, always the chance of some industry folk etc – it all lends itself to high anticipation. As intimidating as Toronto can/should feel for a western Canada band trying to get somewhere in the biz, it actually feels a little like home. Good feelings. We had a great show, some great support, and we love the Cadillac Lounge. People seem to expect us to have played anywhere else, but really it felt like a good fit. Even our russian comrade Val, who rents us our van everytime we pass through, came out to watch and buy a round. We love Val, and feel sorry for his great shame over his olympic hockey team. Thanks to Paul Corby who brought out a handful of guests, and Jeff Butler of IndieTV for coming by with his cameras, as well as Eugene from Guttersnipe for stopping in.

Below are some more images from the room we love so much. Thx for a great night Toronto.

Cadillac Lounge grill

packing up the stage

Tour Diary: Day Four

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:15:02 +0000

Stephane in Ottawa

Stephane is home!

Well maybe that isn’t his exact home there behind him, despite what he told us, but Ottawa is home to Steph, our drummer (if you didn’t know). He was transplanted to Alberta many good years ago, but his Dad still lives and works here, just down the road from the Market where love to hang out and play. One more reason why Ottawa is always awesome!

A whole day – what to do. Well how about sleeping into half past noon to recover from a rough night? Yeah, that happened. Maybe it was later even. Brunch at Cora’s, also known as playschool restaurant, and a trip to Spaceman Music to look at some vintage equipment we can’t afford and get a parking ticket. Does anyone else find something wrong with parking meter guys who stalk their prey? Like the kind who you see on the block when you drive up, and obviously knew you were going to not read the confusing sign clearly, so they drive around the block and wait for you to go into the store and then pounce on your car and type as fast as possible? Yeah, those guys suck.

Ottawa Parliament etc

Walking around Ottawa is fantastic, if you didn’t know. Our band loves Canadian history. Sometimes we can be caught making a google and a wikipedia and clearing up little dates and facts for our own benefit. So getting a taste again of the history and being overwhelmed with nationalism just by the shadow of building is collectively satisfying.

And then there is Zaphod Beeblerox. An historic venue we haunted last June with great results. We were playing their highly promoted Free Music Monday showcase. Translation: no cover charge and the bands don’t get paid. But its the best gig on a Monday night we can hope for, as people come out, and again we had a chance to meet some fans, make some new ones, and use up all the extra drink tickets Tom gave out (thx Tom). We pulled out the ‘rock set’ and hammered out 35 minutes of our loudest stuff. Yes, testosterone-fest. It was great.

In good fashion we moved out of Zaphod’s to see a ’scuffle’ beside our van, and waited an hour while police arrived and took witness statements on our hood for an hour. Good times. Did we mention Zaphod’s is next door to “Bare Fax”. You figure it out. A few more drinks, some Shawarma King, and once again Ottawa rocks.