Everyone's A Winner
Today marks the release date of "Planets Conspire", the much-anticipated third release from The Meligrove Band. I've had the disc in my possession for a couple of months now and I assure you that it is a grower of the highest order. Pick it up.But it's not as if these guys need my help in the buzz department. Their CD release party at the Mod Club this past weekend (which I regrettably had to miss due to illness) sold out.
Okay, let me say that again in case you missed it the first time: The Meligrove Band sold out the Mod Club!! The gigantic venue was packed to capacity and they apparently had to turn droves of people away at the door. Not even Teenage Fanclub did that.
Something is happening. Something big. And if anyone deserves it, it's these guys. The Meligrove Band are not a flavour of the month. They have talent and passion and drive. Plus, they're seriously funny fuckers and are easily the nicest bunch of boys you could ever hope to meet.
Way back in 2001, I invited The Meligroves to play GW-Palooza (a show I booked, which was backed financially by Golden Words, the campus humour newspaper I wrote for at the time.) I was pretty naive when it came to booking shows and initially offered them several hundred dollars more than we could have actually afforded. Mike Small wouldn't even hear of it. The band drove all the way to Kingston, put on a damn fine show at Clark Hall Pub, and only accepted gas money and a pitcher or two of beer.
I still love them for that.
The phrase "Nice guys finish last" does not apply here.
In other music and Mod Club-related news, Metric shot a video for "Poster of a Girl" yesterday. According to the band's website, they were looking for extras who "have the fresh style and look of Paris in the 1960s". I would have liked to have thrown my beret and cigarette holder into the ring, but alas. Work gets in the way of everything fun and monochromatic.
(Now playing: "Ages And Stages", The Meligrove Band)
posted by Sofi @ 1/17/2006 05:18:00 PM
8 Comments:
I'm thrilled to hear that The Meligrove Band is doing so well. Kudos again on the GW-Palooza. I fondly remember it as the only big event as Ops where I was able to say, "Here's the money. You know what to do."
Any word on the other bands that played at Clark that evening?
None of the other bands are still together.
Members of the Newfound Interest in Connecticut (including sweetheart Matt King) are now MM/DD/YYYY or something similar and play the occasional show in and around Toronto.
Reno's Hitmen broke up not long after that show. Paul Villeneuve-Butler joined Spora, but left them a couple of years ago. Shaun Weima kept up with Mystic Caravan, who are still around, as far as I know.
As for Stephanie Earp & The Ex-Boyfriends - Stephanie dropped the Ex-Boyfriends after graduating from Queen's and did the solo thing for a while. More recently, she and former Journal writer/current Dose writer Joel McConvey formed The Lost Cause. I haven't heard of any shows lately, so I'm wondering if they're still together.
Wow. That was extremely thorough. Good for me.
But yeah. That's for giving me wads of money to put on a show that involved only bands I liked. And also for letting me get trashed for free. That ruled.
Wow. I'm imprecssed.
Also, we're doing Science Fair again this year. You should come down to Kingston and get drunk again on GW's nickel.
Sadly, I'm not sure if moving onto Dose was a step up or a step down for McConvey. And that's not saying much about either paper. At least Dose doesn't pretend to be "news" like Metro does.
I really wanted to hear some Meligrove before heading out to the Mod. Then I heard it was sold out. Boo.
Holy shit.
I just found their blog!
www.renos-hitmen.blogspot.com
Flashback'dddddd to being 20 years old. Jesus Christ.
There are quite so many jobs in journalism in Canada that writers can afford to reject jobs at places like Dose just yet.
And, yes, The Lost Cause is fini.
That should say "aren't".
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