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Canadians!
Written Monday June 16, 2008 by Graham Wright
Hey Friends,
Specifically, this is targeted at our Canadian friends. Not that we don’t love the rest of you, because we do, but I wanted to talk about something thats of importance to Canadians. Its the new Copyright bill that was just tabled in Parliament. You may well have heard about it on the news or in the papers or on this fancy pants new “world wide web” that I keep hearing so much about. I can’t explain it all that well myself because I’m not all that smart, but if you mosey on over to Michael Geist’s informative and well written blog post on the subject you’ll be able to read all about it.
Obviously, the bill is meant to protect people who make their money from intellectual property. As musicians, we’re among those people. But I think it should be obvious to anyone that this is a law that would work in nobody’s favour. I’ve talked before about the problems posed to us by illegal downloading, and I do think that theres a solution out there to that problem. But this legislation is not that solution. Its a big step backwards and will no doubt create more problems than it solves: its a law thats so seriously flawed and obviously ridiculous that it could well drive people to ignore copyright altogether, which would have a very negative result for everyone.
I know that its sort of a foreign concept for people around my age (or younger) to get involved in politics on this level. I’ve certainly never written to my MP about anything before. But this is a bill that, if passed, is going to cause a lot of problems for you and me, and I think its important that we stand up and make our opinion known. Mr. Geist outlines the actions that you should take and I would strongly urge you to take them. I know I’m going to.
And spread the word. This is being spun as a simple attempt to go after “pirates” and illegal downloaders, but its important that people realize the more sinister parts of this before its too late.
So yeah, thats me expounding about politics, even though I’m just a stupid musician. But its the musicians and the fans that are going to suffer from this! It is a big deal, and every voice counts!
Oh yeah, we also do music. And we’re going to keep doing music and playing shows and stuff, so we’ll see you soon.
xoxoxo
Graham
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Snails...
Written Tuesday June 10, 2008 by David Monks
Comment [195]
It’s true, yes. We have been neglecting our blog. It’s been a few months since Graham wrote about our record coming out and all, and we haven’t been tricking you into thinking that nothing blog-worthy happened since then. But the good news is that a blog, our blog, is kind of like a giant snail. You know those really big ones that live up to 7 years and grow 20cm long? Well when food and water is scarce they go into their shells and hibernate until they wake up when supplies are aplenty. So wake up snail! Put out your horns.
We’re driving to Glasgow right now on the 10th of June and we’re in our last week of a 61 show tour. Even though I miss my bed, I have to say it’s been a fantastic one. We’re a lucky band to have such amazing audiences – not just in size (although we were definitely surprised by how many people were out many nights) but because they always make the show exciting for us. And it was great to meet and talk to so many of you after shows on the tour. If you didn’t get to come because you worked or you had to visit you’re uncle in Boston that weekend, don’t worry – we’ll be back soon. And sorry if you couldn’t come because it was a 19+/21+ show, we know it’s lame and we’re always doing our best to get more all ages shows. Lastly, holla to all the bands we played with – The Coast, Eagle Seagull, We Barbarians, Ruby Coast, Winter Gloves, Meligrove Band, Ult Cult, Mobius Band, and Smoosh.
That’s all really, just wanted to say thanks and that hopefully from now on our blog will be up to date with a long trail of silvery snail goo.
Keep well,
Dave
Our New Record
Written Wednesday January 23, 2008 by Graham Wright
Comment [26]
Second albums are difficult. You’re supposed to ‘grow’ or ‘mature’, but you’re also supposed to ‘honour your roots’. I think I understand the dreaded sophomore slump now. Its what happens when you try to please everyone. We have no idea how to please anyone except ourselves, and thats what we’ve done with Elephant Shell. I don’t know how you’ll feel about it. But I’ll tell you how I feel about it. Bear in mind that I am just the keyboardist, so you can take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
A Lesson in Crime was a record for Friday nights. It was the record you would throw on at the party with twenty of your friends, the record that everyone could get up and dance to. It was quick and immediate and to the point. But when the partys over, and you’re giving a ride home to the girl you have a crush on, thats when you put Elephant Shell on. Its the record that you listen to when you’re driving around town in the dark, wondering if she likes you, wondering if you should have tried to flirt more, or less.
So many of my favorite records still give me that nostalgic feeling, the feeling of falling in love with girls and with music and with life. Maybe thats stupid. It sure looks stupid, now that I type it out. But it really is how I feel, and Elephant Shell makes me feel the same way.
Don’t worry, we haven’t gone sappy on you. You can still dance to this record. Gregs still bringing the sweet beats. You can still turn it the hell up and blast it from your car. I hope you do those things. At the end of the day, its just a record, and you can listen to it however you want. But it means a lot to me, and I hope it means something to you, too.
Centennial
In a Cave
Graves
Juno
Tessellate
Sixties Remake
The Harrowing Adventures Of…
Nursery, Academy
Your English Is Good
Listen to the Math
The Baskervilles
Its coming out in April. I can’t wait for you the hear it.
xo
Graham
Mixing
Written Thursday January 17, 2008 by Graham Wright
Comment [7]
Hello friends. I just got home from Connecticut, where we’ve been working on mixing our record. We should be finished by Friday. Its sounding excellent, and we’re all really excited to get it out there and have everyone hear it. Hopefully we’ll be able to tell you all about it next week some time.
We also have started announcing tour dates. Over the next few weeks we’re going to keep on announcing tour dates, and we’ll be visiting as many cities as we can over the year. So don’t worry, if we haven’t announced your city yet, we probably will!
Okay. See you soon.
xo
Graham
Finished!
Written Tuesday December 18, 2007 by Graham Wright
Comment [18]
Well, after 20 days recording at Chemical Sound in Toronto, we finally ran out of things to record. Which means that we’re finished. For those of you keeping score at home, that brings our total recording days for this project to around 40, 10 times as long as it took us to record and mix A Lesson in Crime. And we still have to mix. But, for all intents and purposes, we’re finished our part of the equation. And it was fun. And it sounds good. Really good. I can honestly say that I’m excited about it. Very, very excited. It won’t be out for a while yet, but we’re so excited for everyone to hear it.
We’re still figuring out what to call it, and what order the songs will go, and all that stuff. But once we know, we’ll tell you. And we’ll see you on tour, too. But for now its time to take a short but well earned holiday.
See you next year!
xo
Graham