MTT

Well I know it has been a long time since you heard from us.… mostly it’s been winter and we have been in basements making strange noises trying to keep ourselves warm. These days we are stirring up some delectable new sounds, and this happens to be an ideal weekend for you to come out and hear them.

On this, the first day of spring, we can give you some pretty good ideas about how you might go about thawing your brain. MTT Fest warms up Friday with our show at the Palomino. Saturday it’s full steam ahead at the Legion, with another show for us, then events spread to multiple venues on Sunday with a plethora of good things to hear. That wacky duck that has been Calgary’s fledgling psych scene might just become a big wild swan, with the help of some international heavyweights.

Here are some of the radical promo videos our friends have been making:

MTT Fest from Down Home on Vimeo.

MTT FEST | MARCH 24-25 | Promo 003 from Ryan Von Hagen on Vimeo.

Welcome to the West

Welcome to the West have been strong supporters of Deadhorse since our early days. We played their launch party during a snow storm back in December of 2009 at a basement venue called the Songwriters Club, under one of those historic East Village buildings next to the St. Louis Hotel. Collaborating for a video session had long been discussed, but being busy folks we didn’t get around to it until last summer.

We set out on a hot night towards a patch of land belonging to the family of one of Danny’s best childhood chums. The caravan of friends, fellow bands and film crew snaked its way down the dusty valley track of Willow Creek and ate a hasty snack of sandwiches and red wine amidst the sagebrush. A roaring fire was built and gear was hauled into the hoodoo hills. People pulled up their cars and pointed the headlights at our makeshift stage. We fired up the generators and plugged in.

Deadhorse – Cushion from Welcome To The West on Vimeo.

Playing live has always been an important part of who we are and why we make music. Getting the opportunity to do the song “Cushion” for film, in a place evocative of the sounds we were making at the time, was really a treat.

There have been a lot of changes in the band since this video was made, most notably the departure of Eddie who left us in the fall to aim his solo project Sons of Bullwinkle on the world of radical drone. We were lucky to have him for the time we did. Change is the best thing for artists, and we like to think we’ve got some pretty good changes rolling out before too long. Here is to the band we’ve been, and  here’s to the FUTURE.

Halifax Pop Explosion

It was a whirlwind of explosive drinking, fleeting from show to show and sampling delicious meals and dining. Halifax is one city in Canada that knows how to treat its guests. We had spent our first day encased in twilight, from waking up at 5am, to landing to a setting sun. Confused and a bit delirious, we were taken in by that lovely east coast hospitality at every turn, and it makes us fall in love with you maritime provinces. JB you know it, Hally likewise.

After some naps and some Propeller beers we were basically ready to go: and by that we mean do flips onto hotel beds, find the cheapest drinks in the city, chow late-night seafood, lip each other off a lot and play three shows of varying success.

The first show was our only official Halifax Pop Explosion showcase, and was probably the best show for promoting who we are and what we do. Tribeca is a gritty little upstairs venue, a tunnel of chipped brick with a rustic cave-like stage. We had the matching outfits, we had the stoke, we rocked it and others seem to agree.

Our Saturday shows were a bit more random. The unofficial Saved By Vinyl/Kelp/Herohill showcase, presided over by our lovely label-mama Dawn, had free drinks and tasty home-style food along with Jon Mckiel, Chris Page and our own Ryan Bourne all in it’s favour. We  however, were somewhat out of sorts – the mellow vibe of a BBQ party, low sound wattage, and unfamiliar gear being not the ideal situation may have contributed to the impression some had that we are a bunch of random hippies. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you get the fear, and it stays with you all through a show, even when all the elements are right, all the more so when you feel like your show is happening in a coffee shop for a bunch of hangovers. It’s just our luck that all the Toronto hippie haters who cant appreciate a little boy/girl music were at that show eating the free BBQ and having opinions. They should have been at Tribeca or the house party we played later the night for the real taste. Them’s the breaks I guess. On the bright side our banter about the Calgary Stampede had us taken seriously by at least one other appreciative audience member.

If you are going to find yourself in a random and somewhat dodgy situation, it might as well be because you are following Chixdiggit at four in in morning with borrowed amps and a single mic in a living room full of people determined to make the most of their festival by willingly punishing their ears further with noisy jams and random sweltering blues. Sound about right? See you at the next show.

Damn if we didn’t see some magical sets too: Thee Oh Sees, One Hundred Dollars, Snailhouse, Jennifer Castle (and thanks for picking up our cab fair too), Hind Legs, Cousins, fellow Calgarian Chad VanGaalen and local hero Shotgun Jimmie.

Halifax, your people are warm and your festival was just the right size.