The Sidetrack- May 29
Calgary won last night! They are up 2-1 in the final playoff series just in case you didn't know. I was a bit worried that no one would come to the show last night because they would be too drunk or tired after the game but low and behold the room was full. I had fun sweating and delivering my new rock moves to the octagenarians to my left. My band mates delivered their moves as well and I think had fun doing so. I love playing with them. When we are a cohesive unit, it all comes together (ironically enough). I tried really hard to lay back and really listen to Kim's snare cuz that's what being in the pocket is all about. Kim, you are the best drummer I have ever played with. For Christmas, i am getting you a new tamborine. Sorry about running over your last one. I was tired and it was dark out. xoxo
"The Almost Leather Band" was spot on too. I have always been a big fan of Chris Smith's song writing. Oh, and Jason Kodie!!!!! Yowsers! That boy knows how to play! He played on "Deep" and his licks sent chills up my spine. Piano licks that is!
Well, I have just returned from Shrek 2 and was moderately satisfied. Funny, yes. However, I think I prefer black humour now that I am discovering my Dutch roots. Kill Bill 2... now that was over the top funny.
Thanks to Stephen Banks for selling our scheisse last night. Thanks to Kelly Korpisio for filming. Thanks to David Banks for always doing good sound and keeping us afloat in times of turmoil. Thanks to all the fans for showing up and bopping your heads, especially the roof inspection team. I hear you guys are really fast with measuring tapes. AND FINALLY, THANK YOU SIDETRACK FOR LOVING US FOR 9 YEARS! Wow, it seems like just yesterday Daisy and I were on the Sidetrack stage, opening up for Junkhouse. If only Tom Wilson could see us now... all growed up.
May 28, 2004
I apologize if you are tired of hearing about my side of things but I seem to be the only one who has the time to write right now. Yes, i am unemployed. So, here it goes...
Tonight is our last rehearsal before the big show at The Sidetrack tomorrow. I spent my afternoon mountain biking with Chris Smith (Almost Leather Band). We did a few tough climbs and nailed a good portion of them. I now have a sweet one that is on my mind for Sunday. I have just upgraded my bike with a Chris King Headset so she is turning like a hot knife in butter.
When we tour the west coast I am bringing both my road and mountain bike cuz the riding is superb! Hornby Island has a small mountain in its centre that has over 20 trails just for riding. My fave is "No Horses".
I am trying to get us a gig at The World Cup Mountain Biking Championships in Calgary for the beginning of July so that I can take Alison Sydor for coffee. I hope it comes through. It would mean that we would have to fly from Comox though. Could be dodgy but worth it if Alison will dance to "Sheep".
So for all you kids out there, keep riding and playing hard. Be safe and don't light any matches in the woods.
May 26, 2004
It is a beautiful, sunny day today. The clouds are hinting that this may come to an end eventually but I don't mind. Being a farmer, I appreciate rain very much. Daisy, Carolyn, and myself had an acoustic rehearsal yesterday. It was brief but to the point. Harmonies, harmonies, and more harmonies. As I drove home, "American Woman" came on the radio and I was suddenly very excited about the whole rock n' roll thing. I am looking forward to working with Randy Bachman and hearing his ideas on song writing. In case you were wondering, Randy Bachman co-wrote "American Woman". He wrote a scheisse load of more tunes and has toured in a Ford Econoline van that had no heater... just like us. The music business can be such a crazy game. We are very lucky to have gotten this far with only a few bumps and bruises. Our 10 year anniversary is next year in September! I think we are going to have a big party with horses and balloons and gogo dancers and fire blowers.
May 25, 2004
My heart is broken.... I am laying on the floor at Stony Plain Records recovering from 2 hours of mountain biking with Chris Smith of The Almost Leather Band. I think that my body is messed up from all the driving and cigarette smoke and is retaliating. Chris rocked my world. He did most of the hard climbs where the roots play tricks on your mind. I was very impressed with his skill. It is nice to see all of my rock n' roll heroes who used to live hard come back to healthy living. Painting Daisies are preparing for a hometown show at The Sidetrack Cafe on Saturday. Rehearsals, interviews, new guitar strings. So much to do and such little time.
May 24, 2004
We're back. Fifteen hours to get from Winnipeg to our beds (I hit mine around 4 am).
Thank you Anna, Alyssa, and friends for being our super-fans in Winnipeg. When we pulled up for sound check at 4:30 pm, we saw three people waiting in the bus shelter outside of the club. "Oh look, our fans!" we joked; then we noticed that one girl was wearing a Painting Daisies shirt. They were our fans, and they had already been outside waiting for us for hours.
Thank you for the bottle of Beaujolais too, guys. We enjoyed it with some massive salads in our hotel room before the show.
It felt great to be back playing. We were fresh and had solid groove all three shows. I can't wait for the Sidetrack now. 90 minutes of audible joy coming up this Saturday.
May 21- Saskatoon, SK
We drove six hours yesterday to make our show in Saskatoon. There were a few shorts stops for $5 Portobello mushrooms and pee breaks putting our arrival time a little farthur ahead. Kelly Korpesio came along to start filming her documentary on the life of PD.
Lydia's has expanded and has greatly improved since the last time we were here. Our show was so fun. We had to play three sets so that meant pulling out all of our songs from the 90's as well as our new stuff. I was so happy to be back in action. I think we all were. Our sound was fresh and revitalized. Even old songs like "How I'm Supposed to Be" were new and exciting. Kelly got great footage of Rick the famous doorman and our power load in and load out on slippery iron stairs. I think i have a hernia from my piano. Now we are having a complimentary breakfast with Daisy's family and then it's time to bust a move to Regina. Kelly and I were planning on road cycling the first hour but it is about to snow and I am feeling too princess to suck it up.
The Reunion- May 18th
Daisy found Muffy, loaded her with instruments, and made her way over to find her bandmates. It was a wonderful reunion as we cruised the streets of Edmonton on our way to the rehearsal space. I was jammed behind a bike and 5 guitars while Carolyn straddled my back tire. Kim got shotgun and Daisy was behind the wheel. It was so peaceful and so homey. Once at the space, Rachelle (me) realized that she had the wrong keys so she called John Gorham, the owner, to drive 20 km and let PD in. He came bless his heart. Meanwhile the ladies (us) had been in the sauce that was bought before hand by Ms. Groff (her). My Leffe was formidable. We rehearsed very loudly for 1 hour and then it was time for Carolyn and I to play a benefit show at the Sidetrack (ahh). We were still slightly sloppy from the Leffe but managed to knock off some tuneage. All in all it was a killer experience. Now I am going to curl up and call er a night. Tomorrow is an 80 km road ride out to the buffalo herds of Elk Island.
The Computer Iliterate Files
Hi. Both of my last diary entries are very similar. It is because i don't know how to work my computer properly and thought I hadn't actually saved my first entry. Anyhow, you now know what is up in full detail. I just got back from a crappy 17 hour bus ride and am now practicing for the gig tonight at the Sidetrack. We also have a PD rehearsal so that Saskatoon will go ticketyboo. Muffy is getting some tender loving care thanks to Daisy so that we won't be stuck along the Yellowhead highway somewhere. I just got word that we may be in Butte before Helena now so that means crazy riding time!
The Farm Girl Files- May 15
It's been a busy week filled with cow chasing, mushroom picking, pipe hauling, fence repairing, and trout fishing. Now I am up in Terrace for my final venture before returning to the Chuck (Edmonton). Painting Daisies are well known up north thanks to CBC Television and radio. God Bless CBC. I have had three people come up to me and say that they liked the band. We need to do a tour up to the Queen Charlottes very soon.
Carolyn and I are playing The Sidetrack on tuesday at midnight in support of Minister Foust (the future NDP leader). It will be slide guitar and bass groove night with the power hits in full form. Then we all pile into Muffy the Highway Slayer and head east on the Yellowhead towards Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. The gas prices are super high so I think that we will be coasting and 100 km/hr and no more. Hopefully Muffy won't blow a gasket.
The Farm Girl Files- May 10
One more week and it is full time Painting Daisies. I am at the farm helping with the cow action. So far 80 healthy calves running around the field. Usually my dad loses about 8-10 % but this year he is at 105% due to two sets of twins. I just got in from picking mushrooms. Tomorrow dad will make an omelette worth $100 on the 5 star hotel market, and we are eating it for free. Murells (sp?) grow for three weeks once the last frost hits, usually in meadows with aspen stands. They are excellent with fried eggs. Hmm. "Walking Home Lately" has been playing on the radio at least 3 times a week and now my dad is popular when he goes for coffee at the town coffee shop. All the local loggers think he is where it's at. We went boot shopping and I helped hime pick out some fashionable work boots just to keep ahead of the game.
I look forward to the next few months of rock n' roll and outdoor adventure.
The Rockstar Files- May 6 '04
Today I'm spending the day making handbills. First, I designed them in Photoshop on my computer. Next, I gently coaxed my printer to print on card stock. It jammed thrice, but I didn't swear at it. It was doing the best it could...
Next, I went to Tra Amici to have an espresso and take ten minutes to write in my diary. Having achieved a bit of written release and a caffine driven good mood, I went to Staples to take on the paper cutter. She behaved quite nicely this time, quite unlike the Juno handbill incident where she shredded rather than sliced every third sheet. Finally, I used the rest of my coffee change to buy a glue stick. Now, I am in the midst of gluing Painting Daisies stickers to the handbills. By giving away stickers with the handbills, we will get more promotional bang for our buck. Also, I saved design time and conserved printer ink by relying on the sticker for the graphic element of the handbill design.
Later on I'll mail my creations out to some friends and family who are willing to help promote us in Saskatoon and Winnipeg (our street team). Hopefully they'll be able to get them out to some good locations, places where people that would most likely want to see us would hang out (indie record stores, coffee shops, guitar & music stores).
Back to the gluing...
Home Again! Ahhh, It's Snowing Again!- May 6
Hi everyone. I am home and the thermometer reads -5 degrees celcius. But instead of being bummed out, I am embracing it with full force. Out comes the down jacket and the tobaggan.
Painting Daisies had a meeting last night. We are were all super tired but Daisy pepped up the situation with some tasty rock chocolate. Very tasty indeed. We are planning to record our third, full length album in September. Our summer is super full so we will have the crucial road time needed to make the new songs work. Then it is tour time. A full length Canadian tour followed by a jaunt over to Europe. Europe again...yay yay yay. Then back to the States, Montana that is. Thanks to all of our fans who have been patiently waiting for us to get our new stuff out. Our CBC recording is almost done and then we will have that for our summer tour. It is exciting.
The Europe Files- May 3
Doetichem, Holland
After a day of pannekoeken and war cemetaries, it was time for rock n' roll. On Sunday night I opened for "Purple Haze" in the quaint little city of Doetichem. The guitar I was using was tuned to E flat so I was singing very low, slighlty Tom Waitsy. It went well though. Harald, our tour manager, played bass for the final set and Nikki ? was on lead guitar. Deep sounded especially cool with the solo that Nick played. Sorry if I sound a bit dull in my detail but I have just returned home from a 17 hour flight! It was a hell trip and my bike had to be disinfected because of the sheep poo.
I am really looking forward to playing with the Daisies again. While Purple Haze was gracing the stage, I got the itch for the full rock n roll experience and the rush that I get while performing with PD in front of a packed house. I missed it big time. Look out Saskatoon and Winnipeg!
The Europe Files- May 1
War Cemetary- Oosterbeek, Holland
Today was a day of learning and remembering. All through Europe you can find these little war cemetaries with thousands of gravestones remembering the men who lost there lives during WWII. In Oosterbeek , which is near Arnhem, lies the war cemetary from "Operation Market Garden". Most of the dead are from the British and Polish Airborne Divisions. This particular site had 33 Canadians in it. In case you are unaware, Operation Market Garden occured from September 17, 1944 until the September 25th of the same year. During these few days in this particular area, around 1700 soldiers lost their lives. The land is very clay like so when a plane crashed, there would be a big cloud of smoke and then a hole with murky water hiding the wreckage. To this day, the local farmers are still finding planes and other war debris. On September 17th the British paratroopers dropped over Arnhem and to their demise landed on top of 2 very strong German divisions. The results were many casualties and 80% of the British resupply going to the Germans. The supply planes were like sitting ducks due to the fact that they had to fly so low to make an effective drop. It was basically a suicide mission as they knew the anti-aircraft fire was full on. I never took history in school so I found this all very shocking.
Until i find something alse exciting...