December 23, 2009

Ambers For Christmas...and Boxing Week!

Behold the mighty Suchy Sisters of St. Albert, aka The Ambers. Last week, Renée and her sisters put on "The Canadian Christmas Canon", a concert with holiday music new and old and vaguely-related, and you can find it all from Concerts On Demand on CBC.ca for your gift-wrapping or opening pleasure - and it IS a pleasure (turns out Renée's sisters are as funny as she is).

But that's not all. Though the CD they made with Moe lo these many months ago, Rain and Sun, has been on CD Baby for a while, next week it gets a proper release party. Not only will the ladies be rocking it out live at The Ivory Club in Edmonton December 28, Moe (who just happens to be home for the holidays) will be playing alongside them! If you're anywhere near the City of Champions, hightail it on your snowmobile for an amazing night - until we can drag the girls out for more shows in other places.

December 22, 2009

Master Tracks: Diemonds

In this edition of Master Tracks, Diemonds bring the rock for "Little Miss", but Moe starts feeling like he's trying to turn around a bad date. With a few beers and a lesson in "Arrangement 101", though, things do indeed turn around. Check it out here or below:

December 6, 2009

Master Tracks: Big Ideas

This time on Master Tracks, Big Ideas accepts some of Moe and Lawrence's ideas for their song "Set a Fire". Moe tries not to mess with the bassist's "contrary motion," the guitarist learns a new chord, the boys pick prettiness over twang and the drummer tries not to lose his shirt. Check it out here or below:

November 12, 2009

Kris and Dee Lose My Mind

The latest song posted by Kris Abbott and her wife Dee Abbott-McNeil was actually born of Dee's day job as a physiotherapist and educator in elder care in Kingston, Ontario. According to Kris' blog post on their myspace page, Dee was preparing a conference presentation about Dementia, and when she sought stories to give a more human perspective on the condition, she found a woman in the UK who has been keeping a photo journal of her experiences with her mother, who lives with Dementia. A collaboration began for which music was needed. Kris describes her role in the project as "co writer and musical interpretor of the photo journal collaboration. ie.. producing I suppose and getting the music to match their evolution between technical and emotional."

Read the blog post for more details about creating the song, but more importantly, check out the song itself, "Lose My Mind", on the main Kris and Dee myspace page or their ReverbNation page on Facebook.

October 26, 2009

Master Tracks: Everything All the Time

In this edition of Master Tracks, studio virgins Everything All the Time set a record (longest day? shortest day? most gang vocals?) working on their song "Love Love" with Moe and Laurence, who have to navigate FIVE sets of keyboards. Look out for Laurence's secret mic technique, drums that are "more April Wine than AC/DC" and the use of a rattlesnake. Take a look here or below:

October 14, 2009

Master Tracks: Turn Off the Stars

And so the new season of Master Tracks begins with Toronto band Turn Off the Stars taking "Heartbeats" from demo to download in a day (give or take 10 minutes) with the guidance of Moe and Laurence. The band finds a focus after being around the block in the music business, Moe plays bass during an intonation crisis, Laurence finds "no love in this coffee," and the band literally sings Moe's praises for the traditional gang vocals. Check it out here or below:



And in an AUX web exclusive, Moe relates a cautionary tale for musicians who didn't play before the age of ProTools. Watch here or below:

September 30, 2009

Welcome for real! Master Tracks Preview Roundup

YES! It may have taken just a slightly shorter time than it took to release The Downward Road, but the Updates blog is here. If you had been going to the Updates section of Incompletely Conspicuous for the latest (sort of) news on TPOH-related stuff, this is now where you'll go instead. I've copied the Updates posts from the past two years (not much) and put them here, so for stuff from 2006 and before, you can still meander through what will now be the Updates archive. The Updates links on the main site will be changed (uh...eventually) to direct you straight here. Of course, there are other changes and tweaking to be done, so hang in there.

Oh, I should mention: I haven't started this new chapter of the Updates because there's actual band news, like they're getting back together or anything. Everything is as it's been, with everyone leading their own lives and crossing paths from time-to-time (yikes...I should be updating the "To Review" page on the site. New babies have been born, people have moved, jobs have changed...) and there are no new reunion plans. Seriously. So the Updates continue to be mainly about life going on, and any remnants of the past that come back to pleasantly haunt them. :-)

Now, let's get down to business!

The big news lately has been the promo push for Master Tracks, Moe's series with Laurence Currie where they produce a young band "from demo to download in one day," mainly because their home at AUX.TV is making the leap from the internet to digital television tomorrow and the second season is currently in production. New episodes should be embedded here as they come in, but you can catch up on the first season at Master Tracks' online home.

Leading up to all this, Moe and Laurence have been making the media rounds talking about the show, the AUX tv launch and life in general. You can check out the coverage at Torontoist and at Dose.ca. Moe also had a chat with Kevin McGowan on The Ruckus podcast at rabble.ca, including a couple of the finished demos, as well as a couple TPOH tracks for good measure. Take a listen here!

September 11, 2009

Welcome to the test

Really? The Updates section of tpoh.net is FINALLY turning into a blog? After she's talked about it since the start of the year?

Yeah...well, at least I've gotten this far.

August 4, 2009

More Pursuit Babies!

Seems like it would take some big stuff to finally get me to update here. In fact, it takes some little stuff.

This morning at 12:36am, more than a week late, Hartford Jack Berg arrived in the world. Dad Moe reports that everyone is fine. This reminds me to also update you that in late May, Renée gave birth to Brynn Renée. So congratulations to the Bergs and the Strains: parents, siblings and the new Pursuit Babies!

March 9, 2009

Moe Makes Master Tracks, Ambers on CDBaby

Yes, it's been a while. Here are some things to catch up on.

Moe and longtime friend Laurence Currie have been hard at work on a project called "Master Tracks" for Aux, part of the website/digital TV channel BiteTV. Each episode follows a young band in the studio with Moe and Laurence as they take one song from "demo to download". The first episode airs tonight on the tv channel, and will then be available on the site. Last Wednesday, Moe talked about the project (and the Blackhawks) with Dave Bookman on 102.1 The Edge, and you can download an eight-minute .mp3 of the chat here.

Meanwhile, out west, Renée and her awesome sisters, otherwise known as The Ambers, now have their album (produced by Moe) available for sale on CDBaby! Rain and Sun features Renée's lead vocals on four tracks. She wrote three songs on her own, and co-wrote with Moe on two, while Moe wrote "Endless Summer" and co-wrote "City Lights" with Melanie Himli. Hear samples and order here.