More unfinished Stop Die stuff, this was supposed to break out into four different parts which we used to perform live. I think this was recorded in 2004 or 2005. That was a long time ago now.
Samples Venetian Snares’ “Dad” from the “Winter in the Belly of a Snake” album.
Untitled (Too Late), rehearsal/improv track.
With Lucas Costello, Lyle Crilly (guitar), Mario Laquintana (drums), James Strachan (bass).
Recorded on my first, now gone iphone.
I think we stopped making music not long after this.
Another unfinished Stop Die Resuscitate demo thing.
Trouble (Alternate Version)
This was another version of Trouble, I’m still not sure which one I like better.
We wrote and recorded this in July of 2006, you probably only ever heard it if you caught us live around this time. I figure it’s as fitting a time as ever to let it back into the world again. It didn’t make it to The Gloom, as our direction shifted alot. Basically, we should have just started putting out internet EPs as we were going along. LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES.
We had a really awesome video concept for this where our friend Lucie Tic (dancer/dj extraordinaire) were going to dance/busk with a boom box in front of various cheque cashing places around Toronto until we got kicked out…I still kinda want to do it to be honest.
You can DOWNLOAD HERE feel free to share widely.
This is a remix we did for Simone (Battle) in 2008, I think she was still in high school. She’s a contestant in the top 16+1 of the X-Factor now, good luck Simone!
I had planned to get 10 hand cut vinyl 7” of four of the tracks done, but don’t have time or the money to do it right now.
Anyway, had to get this monkey off my back. Enjoy.
Was also going to write a guide detailing all the mistakes we made, so other bands don’t make them. Probably will do after this election.
FYI The really weird intro is like a minute long, feel free to skim ahead
Given that everyone in Toronto feels like fish en papillote when stepping outside in Toronto, I decided to post one of a few different versions of my favourite song that we recorded “Midnight Romance Blood” for the Gloom. I wrote this when I lived in an apartment in Parkdale that overlooked one of highest trafficking areas in the neighbourhood; so much happened while I lived there.
The first week moving in a dude whipped out his dick for the world to see. I woke up to gunshots within a month of living there (no one was hurt). There were two heartbreaking murders, and a man well known in the neighbourhood was sadly, hit and killed by a fire truck, right outside my window. I saw a HUGE drug bust with undercovers and a snatch and grab van. I witnessed a man try to convince his wife to come back to their family and to stop working the street. I saw a young kid whip around a corner and knock a full grown man out for money owed while I was ordering fish and chips.
The exact years that I saw and heard about all of these things kind of melt together, but somewhere in the middle of it all, on a brutally hot night or two I wrote this at my window (CLICHÉ I know, I know!).
The places that familiarized me with who was who in a parallel world; the runners, the users, the subsistence dealers, the suburban suppliers in luxury vehicles; Jimmy’s Tavern (?), the other place that’s now Mother India (the name escapes me right now), Jerry’s Fish & Chips, they’re are all gone now. I kind of miss them, I kind of don’t.
DOWNLOAD: Midnight Romance Blood
BONUS: The hombre vitaminsforyou did an incredible reimagineering (for real, not just a remix) of the track, which you can download/listen to here.
Hush Little - Stop Die Resuscitate
I think we recorded this in 2005, I liked it alot, Josh and Lyle hated it. If I ever get around to recording solo stuff, I’ll probably re-record this. I think this was on one of my really bad days/nights buried in the gauze…
Every remix off the Bad Night EP was dope. This one got a little less notice though, but I thought (and still think) it was incredibly bold. It was a pretty big honour for me as I was a fan of Da Grassroots when I was a kid, and of LAL after I moved to Toronto; and me and Murr are buds now, so yeah, it’s dope.
It has a slow build, but wait for it, as it’s very much worth it.
Stupidly, as I was coming out of a college radio/hip hop background I thought it would be a good idea to put an instrumental of the original version on the B-side. Our label (Summer Lovers Unlimited Music, do the knowledge) guy Doug wanted another track, in this Doug was way right. Sorry Doug. No idea what we would’ve put on it though.
Lesson learned: bands don’t put instrumental versions of songs on wax, unless you’re a band that puts out instrumental music. Duh.
