Radio Hell
Sunday, April 29 2001
Posted by brockp
Well well. Live for an hour can be a very interesting thing. We played on CiTR the other night and I figure that since I didn't blog about the video shoot I did last weekend with The Isosceles I'd better get on it.

Our last performance with Chris was good fun despite Simon's string breakages happenning at three very poignant moments. The most ,memorable for me was in the middle of Numbered Days. I've listened back to the tape (don't worry Chris I will burn you a cd when I get a chance) and had to notice that # Days sounds actually not bad with only drums and bass and vox. Not that it was intentional though, but Chris playing Lemmy chords on the bass to fill in had me snickering. Fortunately we had added an organ part for Heather just the practise before and so once I'd resigned myself to finishing the song without any guitar, in bursts her blaring organ ripping out the speakers of my little vibro-champ. Hilarious...well for me anyway. Don't know if I'd have been impressed as a listener but hey...live is live.

So the first string busted in the middle of Bond Head's song 6 Days (which we ought to record soon) and we ended up looping this part while Simon changed guitars. It was like suddenly finding yourself in a bad Phish-style jam band who was stuck on one chord. Simon did pull it together though and was mightily pleased with himself at the end of that song. The tragedy of radio is that no one got to see him scramble.

Another interesting moment came when we decided on a semi-spur of the moment whim to offer a cd giveaway to any caller who could answer the skill testing question. Unfortunately, Evan responded that he was unable to get to the on-air dj phone due to being trapped behind the mixing board. He then coerced Simon into giving his cell number over the air so someone could actually get through. College Radio rules ;-)

While I'm babbling maybe I can mention something about police brutality at the FTAA protests. Heard on CFRO today and yesterday a couple of accounts of injuries resulting from rubber bullets being fired by riot police. I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel if my son or daughter went off to college and while protesting the privatisation of education was shot at close range in the throat by some armour clad, baton wielding thug. I heard that this actually happenned and the victim required an emergency tracheotomy. I am not 100% sure what that means - my dictionary says it's surgery wherein the trachea (the tube which allows air to go into your lungs) is cut into. Apparently the person may not talk anymore.

Add to that people losing fingers and having hands exploded with multiple fractures. I don't know why these things aren't on the mainstream media. Actually I guess I do know why but it still pained me to hear all this stuff.

So there you have it...

Troublesomes again
Friday, April 20 2001
Posted by brockp
Brock Pytel & The Troublesomes will be playing live on the Thunderbird Hell show on CITR this Thursday April 26th. Tune your radio to FM 101.9 at 10 pm PST in the Vancouver area or stream the broadcast in realtime from CITR's website. Chris Kelly, our recently departed bass player and all around fun fellow, will be resuming his previous role for the show so that we can at least get a live recording of Andy before he "goes crazy" again.

Also, The Rippin Young Clarks are playing what is rumoured to be their last show at the Anza Club (at West 8th & Ontario St.) tonight, Friday April the 20th at 10pm. Do go, unless you don't have to be at work driving a delivery truck...

Time for a haircut ?
Thursday, April 12 2001
Posted by brockp

Well, Shauna has been not so subtly trying to get me to cut my hair but today I think she may have a point.

I was in Long & McQuade this afternoon (I know, I know but you have to buy gear somewhere) to get a mic cable and another mic & stand & cable bargain pack for broke musicians. I was standing and looking at the board where people post signs for musicians wanted and available (yes we are looking for a new bass player but that's another story, as those of you who visit the Chris blog page may have gathered) when an L&M employee with typical fashion mullet styler guy look comes up and starts to pal around with me. He asks me some question or other about shows and then mentions tonight's show and then I'm wondering who he thinks I am because we are not playing in town this evening anywhere but the rehearsal space.

It turns out he was mistaking me for someone travelling with Honeymoon Suite who is apparently playing in town tonight. For those of you non-Canadians out there, Honeymoon Suite was one of those kind of top 40 hair bands from the eighties that would now play at the Ballard Firehouse or some Casino or something. I think he was expecting a roadie from the band to show up and get some gear items, and me having long hair and an anvil brief case with stickers on it...oh well.

So the Chris thing I have kind of neglected to mention for a while because it was a bit of a shock and I kind of half thought he would call me back in a few days and we would resume our previous work.

That did not happen and all I can really offer as an explanation is that Chris asked me to quote a member of Slayer or somebody who said, "Tell 'em I just went crazy."

So in the meanwhile we've been jamming with Hack, a buddy of Simon's who used to play in Atom Smasher and Elvis Love Child. He also alledgedly got fired by Econoline Crush for not wearing leather and makeup and being difficult. We'll keep you posted on how things turn out, and if you are an aspiring bass player who can sing and live in a van for a couple weeks at a time, drop us a line.