Hey!

In the last post we announced the completion of 16 bed tracks… For those of you who don’t know what a bed track is, it’s the foundation of recorded song, usually drums and bass, and sometimes guitar… Think of an empty house before you put all your shite in it. That’s kind of what it’s like. Well we’ve since put our shite in the empty house and are getting used to where things are.  Not quite ready for a house warming tho. A few interior design flaws yet to sort out….

All metaphors aside, things are well and good in the Mother Mother camp.  We just got back from an exhilarating trip to The Calgary Stampede where we performed in a large tent and before that we played some shows on Vancouver Island, and before that even, we went to the UK for our first time as a band, and we even have the VLOGS to prove it (see below).

As for things on the horizon, we’re playing some upcoming festivals, namely the Squamish Music Festival and The Sonic Boom Festival in Edmonton, and a little birdie keeps chirping about other Canadian dates.  Check our TOUR page for details.

Until the next time. Thanks for reading.

All the very best,

MM

Hello,

We are well on our way. After a 10 day stint at Mushroom studios, where we recorded drums and bass for sixteen new songs, as well as pianos, organ, acoustic guitar and strings, we’ve moved into a smaller studio where we will begin to track vocals. Our inspiring stay at Mushroom was one we’ll not forget, and we’d like to thank Rob Darch and everyone there for being so hospitable. Our incredible and creative engineer, Shawn Penner, captured amazing sounds in that big room, and the band, with Ryan producing, gave its most spirited performances to date. Artist/Photographer Rick Waines took some amazing photographs of the process, which will find themselves in our photo gallery shortly, so check back soon for those.

We look forward to sharing these new sounds, but before we do, there’s more to make.

Be well,

MM

Hey all…

We’ve been sucked into a vacuous black hole where time evaporates and nothing seems real… It is called the studio. Having managed to escape for just a moment, we write to tell you all is well in the land of tape reels and microphones, and that album 3 is really beginning to bear shape. Consider this blog an ultrasound, and imagine a little music creature floating in the belly of its mother mother. It has a good fetal kick and a very handsome profile, and from what anyone can tell, it’ll be the most courageous and sparkling personality amongst its siblings. We look forward to introducing it to everyone, but before we do, there’s some crucial stages of development yet to occur. We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

We hope you’re all well and thanks for reading.

Now it’s back to the hole.

MM

Hey folks.

Last night was our first of 3 Olympic performances here in Vancouver, and it was an amazing time.  9,000 people and plenty of exuberance.  Thanks to everyone who came out and cheered us on.  This Saturday we’ll be at Holland Park in Surrey with Said The Whale and Hey Ocean!

Hope to see ya there.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the support.

MM

To the people.

Well happy New Year anyway.  It’s the year of the tiger, so that makes it easy to decide which lucky animal will be the mascot of album 3.  Or maybe the animal theme is getting old.  Perhaps.

As we approach our recording date, with the new tunes in tow, it appears our thrice recorded effort will be less of a conclusion to some farce-ark trilogy, but rather a new story altogether, post apocalyptic, all chrome and radioactivity.  Two turn tables, one Viggo, a shopping cart, and a microphone.  Enough about all that.  We don’t want to give too much away.  But we are working on the thing.  And before long, it’ll be yet another thing out there in the world.  Gosh.  One gets to thinking about all of the things.  And if making new things is the right thing.  Adopt a thing?

A beautiful thing recently had was our Calgary show on January 22cnd.  Thanks to all those who came out and made it a sell out show.  Our biggest show in Calgary to date and the crowd was amazing, as they always are in Cow Town.

We have a few shows for the ol’ Olympics here in Vancouver in February so check out the tour page for info.  After that, the aforementioned thing.

We hope all of you are doing well out there, adjusting to 2010 with style and grace.

Thanks for reading (sorry for the delay),

Meh Meh

Dear readers,

We write from Albert Lea, Minnesota, after a long day of driving.   The tour is officially over, but the driving is not, and still to be enjoyed is the spectacular and bizarre world of American truck stops.  This is a trip we’ve done plenty before, deadheading from Toronto back to Vancouver, and you’d think it would feel less purgatorial with each tally, but it doesn’t.  All day in a van is quite the lobotomy, but at least, in our itinerant haze, we’re able to reflect on the journey just had, drawing on all the great memories.  We’re sad it’s over, but so happy it went so very well.  Once again we’d like to thank Matt Good, his wonderful band and all the crew and helping hands of the tour for being such amazing people and road partners.  It truly was an enriching experience, one we will hold fondly in our hearts forever.  Another huge thanks as well to everyone who attended these shows.  The audiences, night after night, never ceased to amaze us with their generous warmth of spirit.  We hope very much to do it again sometime.

Thanks for reading,

Mother Mother

We are in Peterborough, drunk with elation brought by the night off.

Once leaving the Maritimes, we turned west for Toronto, then east for Montreal, then west again for the final stretch of Ontario shows that conclude this tour.

Now, as the lateral dance of our routing assumes one direction, being homeward, we allow ourselves to consider our landing.  This, like the wrapping up of any good trip, is bitter sweet.  Acrid, as the end of the fun is near, and saccharine, as the fun that was had, was had at all.

It is interesting, the ending of things, and when they are considered.  Once from afar, intangible, laughable, and impossible; a faint tragic romance perfuming the air of new dawn. And once again later, from just around the corner, penultimate to its final cadence; real, pressing, and still, wrought with last minute reclamations.  And maybe also from the afterward, murky and malleable, to suit one’s own image; hyperbolic.  But never while they actually occur.  Endings happen without us.  They’re found on the doorstep, in the morning paper, in the obituaries. Not so much sad, but sober.

And so things are wrapping up nicely.

We had some great shows on the East Coast, including a headlining set in Charlottetown, followed by a memorable evening in Montreal where we played The Metropolis for the first time – hopefully not the last.

We stood speechless before The National Arts Center in Ottawa, a venue so elegant, with an ambiance so transcendental, one gets the feeling of sacrilege when producing sound.  We quickly got over that, letting the muse run free.  And she did.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

Hello from Newfoundland where the rain pours like a slow divorce.

A couple of us just bought books from Chapters today. My mother, a wonderful woman who’s also the kind owner of an independent book store, would and will likely frown at this. Sorry Mom. I’m in Moncton and I need a book, and there’s no indie boutiques in yonder, and you’re not here!  Something positive however, did arise from our corporate outing. In the checkout line we met a nice woman who’s a retired CBC host, and who’s daughter is a thespian in Vancouver.  Being that we are mostly not, but somewhat thespians, and are in fact Vancouverites, not to mention it was only moments before that I and CBC 3’s Grant Lawrence conducted an interview, I found this meeting of strangers somewhat providential. The Island of Serendip Emerges From Itinerant Fog and the Cosmos Smile Down. Anyhow her daughter’s name is Genevieve Fleming and she will be Maid Marion in Robin Hood at Granville Island, Jan 2 2010, in Vancouver.

This allowed me to ponder what felt like a very meaningful childhood crush I had for Maid Marion in the Disney version where she was played by a fox, and not a fox like Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in Kevin Costner’s smash hit, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but the cunning carnivorous mammal of the dog family with a pointed muzzle and bushy tail. It’s strange to have sexual feelings for a fox I guess, but really this just reflects that beauty is only skin deep.

But hey, I did think Cristian Slater was pretty good in the blockbuster version of Robin Hood, and more than that, I was deeply intoxicated by his potent character in that wonderful cult classic Pump Up The Volume, where the opening scene, which ipitomized “cool” in my eight year old mind, has Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows playing loud and clear.  After rushing out to purchase the soundtrack, I was somewhat crushed to find that Cohen’s version wasn’t on there, but rather a Sultry Interpretation by Concrete Blonde.  Not better, but great, the soundtrack’s stand-in proved to be serendipitous, if I may use the word, having acted as the direct catalyst for what would transpire into my love for the band, and especially their song Joey, which still to this day makes me feel very lost and found simultaneously, and reminds me that bliss would be blah without sorrow.

So anyway, it was nice to grab some reading material and it was nice to meet the ex CBC host who’s name was Maureen, and who’s daughter will be Maid Marion.

And speaking of words with dubious etymology, after today’s interview with CBC 3’s Grant Lawrence, during which I employed the phrase “for all intensive purposes”, it dawned on me that I may very well know not how to use the idiom. And so, down the Google worm hole I go, only to find out I surely don’t, and worse than that I’ve been using the bastardized version of what should be “for all intents and purposes”. Since only the well read read this blog, I’m sure this isn’t news to you, but I bet it feels good to be reaffirmed of your brainpower in this moment. And besides, my journey of ignorance led me to The Egg Corn, for which I’m grateful, but likely another redundancy for you a(cute) ones.  So for all intents and purposes, I apologize for such grammatical blunders, especially those broadcast on satellite radio.

Which leads us to Portishead.  Since, during our X929 Takeover in Calgary we were cut short of time and weren’t able to air all of our song choices, here’s Glory Box, Jasmin’s pic and also a moody number by the Bristol band who made one hell of a classic album back in ‘94. Can you believe 1994 was 16 years ago?

And here’s some less random, more MM pertinent links for your cyber perusing:

Mother Mother’s Polynesia Acoustic on a Lake in Rouyn-Noranda, QC

Mother Mother’s Wrecking Ball Acoustic Beside a Tree in Rouyn-Noranda, QC

Mother Mother’s O My Heart Live at The Boat House on Granville Island, Van BC

And things continue to go groovy on this tour. Thanks again to those who are coming out and showing support. Stuart Cameron, Matt Good’s guitarist, makes a cameo each night and Plays With us on Body Of Years and that’s an honor and a real pleasure.

And the rest of MM sends their love.

Thanks for reading. Be well.

Ryan

Hey children of the universe. We be getting to know quaint lovely Ontario towns. Barrie, N Bay, Parry Sound. Ain’t it something, all these patches of lil scattered stories acrross the big bad world. People, communities, roots, history. Well, it’s been great getting to know those of whom we talk to after the show. Thanks for extending yourselves. Had a nice moment side stage tonight watching MG and his band. An arsenal of great songs delivered by amazing musicians plus A- Grade stage banter. Felt lucky to have that vantage point. Funny thing, about 10 yrs ago, my high-school-pipe-dream-heavy-metal-band called 101 Damnations opened for The Matt Good Band at a speedway on Vancouver Island. Anyway, there’s something sentimental/serindipidous/full circle ish about that and this, isn’t there.

Tomorrow be Kingston man. Looking forward to it.

Thanks much for reading. Be well,

Ryan