Canadian Music Round-Up

Smallman Retrospective:

I’ve been working on a retrospective for Smallman Records since as you may already know, the label closed its doors last year. If you want the long story about why I'm doing this, head here. But all you need to know is that I’ll be sharing little chunks from my project in this space. Today's excerpt comes from Daggermouth guitarist Kenny Lush and the band's vocalist Nick Leadlay:

The truth is Smallman didn’t get involved with Daggermouth until the last year or so of their existence. But apparently the band always wanted a deal with Smallman and worked towards it for many years.

“It was one of our goals when we started out as a band and started getting serious,” says Kenny Lush. "It was like ‘Oh, I wonder if we could ever work with Smallman one day?’ Because they were like the label, you know? For punk rock in Canada, they were right up there.”

But it took a lot of persistence and hard work. Lush would constantly email Rob Krause to get him to check out Daggermouth, seeing if they could possibly work a deal out.

“Every time we’d do something, like get on a tour, I’d always write him and say ‘Hey man, here’s some footage of a bunch of kids rocking out to us in LA or something like that."

Unlike many Canadian bands who decide to conquer their home country before trying the States, Daggermouth decided to do things backwards.

“It was more of a niche for us,” says Nick Leadlay. “When we started out, there was still a lot of screamo bands in Canada and the stuff we were playing didn’t really fit into what was going on in Canada at the time.”

So the band decided to focus mostly on the west coast and were beginning to pull in decent sized crowds in California. And they released their first record Stallone and eventually got a deal with a label in New York called State of Mind. It wasn’t until the band was ready to release their follow-up effort, Turf Wars, that Smallman actually showed some interest the band. In the fall of 2006 the band came to Winnipeg and played a show with some local hardcore bands, which Krause attended as a scout. And it must have impressed him because after he finally agreed to work with the band. The footage was actually captured by someone and put on YouTube. They write in the video description that it took place on October 15 at St Martin’s. [Thanks to Kenny for the heads up about this!]

“I think it was just persistence with touring lots and working hard, not persistence in the sense that we kept on bothering them all the time,” says Leadlay. “They wanted to break into the States a bit more and I think it was appealing to them to have a band that toured in the States and had a label in the States. Plus, our sound wasn’t that similar to Comeback Kid, but we could certainly play with Comeback Kid so they could pair us with them on a tour.”

“I think it was just simple. Like ‘OK, we’ll just press the CD that’s already there, they go on the road and what they sell, we’ll take half of,’” says Lush.

Check Out The Previous Excerpts Too:

Layaway Plan
Guy Smiley
Choke/Passenger Action
Another Joe
Moneen
Sixty Stories
Selfmademan
Small Brown Bike/Broadway Calls/Misery Signals
The Reason
Comeback Kid/Sights & Sounds
Ghosts of Modern Man
Sylvie
Our Mercury

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In case you missed them during the week, here are the posts made about Canadian content:

Alexisonfire's Wade MacNeil Joins Wharf Rats

Attack in Black's Daniel Romano Announces Release Date for Second Solo Effort

Black Lungs and Cancer Bats Working on a Split EP

Dead and Divine Co-Headline Canadian Tour With Architects

Diamond Rings Music Video

Faber Drive Recording News

Farewell to Freeway Tour Dates

Junior Boys Release Date

KEN mode Album Stream

Memoryhouse Signs with Sub Pop

The Midway State Post a New Song

Neil Young Tour Dates

Northcote Release Date

The Planet Smashers Work On First Record Since 2005

Protest the Hero Post Another New Track

Simple Plan's Sebastien Gives Away His Solo EP For Free

Steve Rawles Solo Record Info

Sum 41 Track Listing / Interview With Cone

Teen Daze Unveils a New Side Project

Woodpidgeon and More Announce Cross Canada Tour By Train

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Additional News:

I couldn't make it to Toronto so if you want some Canadian Music Week coverage, head over to ChartAttack and feel free to discuss.

Sled Island is taking place in Calgary again this June and the new curators have been announced.

Saint Alvia's stolen gear was recovered by the police.

Little Scream will release The Golden Record on April 12.

A documentary series on Toronto's music scene is coming out soon.

Lilith Fair is done for good.

The Wryd Fest is expanding into British Columbia this year.

The Songwriters Association of Canada wants a flat fee to be added to monthly Internet bills.

Unfamiliar Records and Hand Drawn Dracula are joining under the new name You Look Deathly.

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Additional Music and Videos:

Crash Parallel's music video for "Still Won't Let You Go" can be seen here.

Kiros recently posted a video blog.

Alpha380 remixed a song by Marianas Trench and These Kids Wear Crowns here and here.

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Additional Tour Dates:

Abigail Lapell recently announced a Canadian tour:

April 14 - Toronto @Tranzac Main Hall
April 15 - London, ON @ East Village Arts Co-op
April 16 - Hamilton, ON @ Casbah Lounge
April 20 - Montreal @ Casa del Popolo
April 21 - Woodstock, NB @Fusion Cafe
April 22 - Saint John, NB @Sunstar Lounge
April 23 - Halifax, NS @Gus’ PubApril 24 - Charlottetown, PE @Baba’s Lounge
April 25 - Truro, NS @ Coco Community Cafe
April 26 - Sackville, NB @ Bridge Street Cafe
April 28 - Ottawa, ON @Umi Cafe
April 29 - Peterborough, ON @ TBA
April 30 - Toronto @Tranzac
May 5 - Thunder Bay, ON @Apollo
May 6 - Winnipeg @ Mondragon
May 7 - Regina, SK @Fainting Goat
May 8 - Saskatoon, SK @TBA
May 9 - Edmonton, AB @Wunderbar
May 10 - Calgary, AB @TBA
May 11 - Nelson, BC @ The Outer Clove
May 12 - Kamloops, BC @ The Art We Are
May 13 - Vancouver @Cafe Deux Soleils
May 14 - Victoria, BC @ TBA
May 18 - Duncan, BC @Duncan Garage Showroom
May 20 - Penticton, BC @ Voodoo’s
May 21 - Kelowna, BC @ Streaming Cafe
May 23 - Lethbridge, AB @ Owl Acoustic Lounge
May 26 - Kenora, ON @ Cornerstone
May 27 - Thunder Bay @ Apollo
May 28 - Sault Ste Marie @ TBA
May 29 - Sudbury @ TBA
May 30 - Toronto @ TBA

The Acorn announced a short tour of southern Ontario and Quebec.

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Reviews That Were Posted This Week:

Destroyer - Kaputt (Holly HoX!)

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If you’d like to submit news for this round-up, email me at deborah.remus@absolutepunk.net or send me a PM with “Canadian Round-Up” in the subject line.

Nice. Turf Wars is one of my favorite pop punk records ever.

Deborah, Canadian Music Week has been so awesome. You need to come next year!

I have a few interesting interviews with a bunch of Canadian bands that will be posted this week...Finger Eleven, U.S.S(exclusively announce release date and title), Hollerado, Die Mannequin(Remember all those Major Label stories you hear of band's getting fucked hard? This is one of them), and a few others

daggermouth was amazing. sucks they broke up.

I miss daggermouth...

love daggermouth

Daggermouth owns

Memphis (Torq from Stars and Chris Dumont) released Here Comes A City last week. Been listening non stop! So good!!

Originally Posted by RockTheWalls

Deborah, Canadian Music Week has been so awesome. You need to come next year!

I have a few interesting interviews with a bunch of Canadian bands that will be posted this week...Finger Eleven, U.S.S(exclusively announce release date and title), Hollerado, Die Mannequin(Remember all those Major Label stories you hear of band's getting fucked hard? This is one of them), and a few others

I'd love to, but school gets in the way. I'm sort of thinking about going to Toronto this summer though, just to see what it's like. Never been and I could be moving there when I get my degree in 2 or 3 years. All the good opportunities/internships are over there and I know I'm missing out.

But feel free to let me know when those are posted, I can probably toss them in here next week if you want.

After watching that video (and going to shows when I was younger), I can't imagine being a band/rocking out and just having everyone stand there like statues and not give a shit.

I only gave them a listen lately, my bad!

<33 daggermouth