Dough Re Mi
Monday, July 18 2011
Posted by brockp
Johnathan Cummins used to say that when referring to money. Do-Re-Mi. I like that, so am using it again.

Further to my recent posting about Doughboys reuniting to support Foo Fighters in Montreal and Toronto August 9th & 10th, I am back again to shamelessly ask for help in raising the Dough (pardon the pun) for a flight back East.

The band, for those of you who are asking, will be the Happy Accidents lineup of John K, Jonathan Cummins, Jon Bond Head, and Paul Newman. I've been invited me to join them for a song, or a couple of songs, as the case may be.

The hitch for me is that the offer does not include expenses, so I have to pay my own way there. Without going into that at all, let me just answer by saying its just the way it is. Its certainly important enough to ME that I can get there and do these shows, but the fact remains that I am barely hanging on here in Vancouver and until the next leg of the Hats tour starts up in late August, am without gainful employment.

Anyways, if any of you are so inclined as to wish to help me get to Toronto and Montreal for these shows, I'm crassly placing a paypal donate button below. Seriously. I know its pretty shameless, but I'm already about to sell my 1953 Gibson L50, which is already in pawn, in order to get my car out of impound. See my previoussymmetrical bruising post for that story.

Eat my hat
Friday, July 15 2011
Posted by brockp
OK OK.

I now have to go back and say something else after my other Doughboys reunion rant from a few months back, I guess. The truth is, assuming I can actually afford to get back east again next month, I have been asked to join the band for a few songs.

John K and I working together on the Hats tour has been a real blessing for getting over the past.

We finished up the east coast leg at Monktropolis in Montreal on Canada Day, and I'm still kinda reeling a bit from being back in those neighbourhoods.

Our guest list for the last show had like 50 people on it, but being super busy with all the post show type stuff, I barely saw anyone. It was like, "Oh, there's Michel..." as I head back upstairs to shut down the laptops and strike the stage. So Hey, Michel, it was awesome to see your face again!

I did get to spend a bit of time with Carlos, my first time seeing him since... well... you know. Carlos is on my mind a lot lately, since he is by now evicted from his place and back in the street somewhere. That's about all I will say about that right now.

Transitioning from being back in Montreal eating Harmoon and hanging out at Casa has been a bit of a challenge, and has not been without casualty. So much emotion has been stirred up. At least it has got me writing again. Mark, Lou and I stopped at Tone Boutique on the way to the airport in a flurry, so's I could pick up the cigar box guitar. That has proven to be the instrument of choice for me lately. Only four strings and a mini-humbucker. That plus a few unexpected jams at Mani (Khaira)'s place. The last one a few nights ago, I found myself bowing my cymbals, and was again overcome with the chest exploding torrents of emotion. Who would have thought it would be bowing cymbals.

Anyway, about the Doughboys thing, yes, for those of you that have asked, I am involved in the upcoming shows, albeit in theory. I have yet to make it to a rehearsal, but assuming I can find my way to Toronto in a few weeks, I plan to take John up on his offer.

Hats Tour 2011
Sunday, June 26 2011
Posted by brockp
First off, tethering is great. As a result of this fabulous technology, I am now blogging on this site while sitting in the front seat of our Ford Econoline 12 passenger van. Moving. How cool is that? Thanks iLou!

So yeah, second off, I guess I should say something to account for the complete lack of anything new on here in ten aeons. Thing is, I pretty much always start off a new blog that way so... Yeah, not going to happen.

"You're gonna wanna let that one go, buddy". Kind of in the same way you have to let certain stuff go, when you're on tour in a van with a band. Not everything, mind you. For example, one thing that you're gonna need to let go of is not getting paid. Not that that would ever happen on this tour, mind you, but... just sayin...

One thing that it is not a good idea to let go of while on tour (or in general) is, er, bad aromas. Descendents have an entire album devoted to not suppressing flatulence (or two depending on how you count) but not in this van. In fact, I've just been notified that my old suitcase has been voted off the van. Its about a gajillion years old (I think it used to belong to Grandpa Redfern) and has a musty waft that just cannot be ditched, even with dryer sheets. So upon getting into the van this morning following checking out of the hotel, I was given the news. New suitcase. Today. The journey of that old one is done. In my defense I had to bring the damn thing because I had nothing else to carry merch in on the flight from Vancouver. Yes, I apologize if your new Men Without Hats shirt has a slightly strange, musty smell...

The Ongoing Question
Tuesday, January 18 2011
Posted by brockp
So while I am still wrapped up in redesigning this blog-space and website (and my life, for that matter), I figure I'd address the question which you folks keep asking me at various intervals, namely, the "Is There Going To Be a Doughboys Reunion" question.

It seems with recent Big Drill Car activity, and John's Asexuals shows (I say shows because I think there are some more in the works) that many of you sort of arrive at the conclusion that a Doughboys reunion would be next.

Maybe it's a bit of an exaggeration to say "many" because the number of people out there who even know who that band was is more realistically "few". Nevertheless, I do get asked this a lot, and my answer has changed over the years. Yes, years. People have been asking me about this for years. I used to just say something vague and ambiguous because the odds of such a thing happening seemed small. At some point I started hearing rumours of such a reunion and started getting asked to confirm them.

At this point I learned that the most likely scenario was a reunion of a later era of the band, which would I guess be Crush-era or something. Now, I just tell people to ask John.

Someone very recently suggested to me that maybe I should tell John clearly that I would happily do a Doughboys reunion thing.... that maybe I have been less than forthright with him about that. I have also been asked by a friend of mine to get the band together to record a song for a compilation he is producing. So with those things in mind, I did bring it up with John again.

For those of you that do keep asking, the definitive JK answer is that most likely any reunion of that band would not involve me, other than possibly a guest appearance for 3-4 songs. This being my blog page, I can say whatever the Hell I want, so I am going to. When I asked JK about this, he replied that Paul was in the band for eight years and I was in the band for two (In fact it was closer to three, and they were the first three, but apparently it hardly matters). The important point being that, despite popular opinion, in John's mind, the Doughboys is the eight years after Home Again, and no more.

I guess that makes a strange kind of sense. I mean, loads of people have seen a band called SNFU but have no idea who Brent and Marc Belke are. This kind of stuff happens in music business all the time. I have heard that Thin Lizzy played shows after the death of Phil Lynott. Imagine Thin Lizzy with no Phil Lynott!

So those of you that have asked me about this Doughboys reunion thing, there is your answer, If you wanted a reunion of the Whatever lineup or the Home Again lineup, its not going to happen, and you might as well stop asking me, because, after all, I was only in the band for like two years...

Boss 20th Anniversary Comp
Thursday, March 11 2010
Posted by brockp

So on the first day off in 17 during the recently-over Olympic run at BC Place (Ceremonies) I, Instead of sleeping like a sensible person would do, spent a good eight hours in the studio with Johnny Stew and Brian Minato. Jesse was at the helm (thanks Jess) and we plowed kamikaze style through a version of Fountains by The Nils (from their Sell Out Young ep) and Apart (for my forthcoming EP).The impetus for this thing was Aston's (Boss Tuneage) 20th Anniversary Compilation which is due out in a month or two. The theme for the release is bands that have been on the label covering other bands who have been on the label. Since I missed the Nils tribute record that Mag Wheel put out, I wanted to do something that Alex (Soria) wrote.

I have been listening to Alex's various recordings a lot lately, and recommend that you do too, especially if you never got to hear any of those bands when Alex was still around.

Anyway, so Johnny Stew was a hero and Brian had, of course, made a chart the night before.Things went pretty well and it only took a couple of takes to get used to playing fast-ish, get out of stagehand mode, and into drummer mode again. We put a coupe of mics way down the hall and at the bottom of the stairs and then put the Garnet and a 2x12 cab just outside the door, firing down the hall. We tracked the song a tad slower than the Nils version, but it kinda sat right.

Anyway, I've handed those files off to Brian for mixing and overdubbing the harmony vocal Johnny and I failed to pull off, and it will be delivered by the end of this month.