Piktias. Embark

The tour has begun.

r.

Piktias. Embark

Coch's

Rob and I are holed up in our room above the venue we are playing tonight. It is nice to be out of Thor. He is quite possibly one of the bumpiest rides ever. Trying to open a piece of fruit leather is a major task. Paul was slammed into the bottom of my bunk when we hit a particularly large bump. I was about to suggest that he apply with resume as a theme ride for Canada's Wonderland, but then I realized that I was making a suggestion to a bus... sleep deprivation will do that to one.

Emeri and Paul have run out to get supplies for some minor repairs/alterations. My bunk is directly below the air conditioner. It was leaking on the way here, but a quick pit stop and a bit of elbow grease from Paul had it fixed in no time. Water is relentless, but unfortunately for water, so is Paul.

g.

Coch's

Wawa ?

Today we learned that we will be leaving 2 days earlier than we thought. The race is on. 6 days and insanity. Things seem to be giving way to the inertia of productivity though.. and I am not questioning it. There is too much other stuff to do, to be wasting time on thinking about 'why' things are getting done. They just are. Close your eyes and grip the handle bars... see you in Wawa.

r.

P.S. All Hail the God of Thunder. We have wicked silk-screened 'iron on' patches. They are so boss I want them all for myself. Yes I am an ego-maniac. Yes I have an affinity with Owls.

P.P.S. Schmitty is the man

P.P.P.S. Greg's pedal board is 12,000kg and not rated for use on 400 series highways.

Wawa ?

Tour Rehearsals

Tour rehearsals well under way. New songs are making headway. Haven't been this productive in a while. 8 days and counting.

Off to purgatory.

g.

Tour Rehearsals

Not a clean glass in the house

Boathouse Saturday night was awesome. What a great note to leave the hometown on. Shared the stage with our good friends in The Free Press. We're on the same page as those guys. It's good to connect with people like that.

Afterwards we headed back to Paul's house and had some beers and laughs too. Great night.

Check out our new buttons! Emeri is a design master guru.

g.

Not a clean glass in the house

Bat-THUMB!

Things are coming along nicely in bus-land. Tonight Thor will take his maiden voyage. SURE!... The Boathouse 'is' just around the corner, but you have to start small and think big. Perhaps not think at all. Who knows? Not I.

Come and see The Free Press...... you will not regret it. Buy their CD. Buy them beer. Make them feel at home.

r.

P.S. Paul is: Spruce Wayne

Bat-THUMB!

Gettin' Schmitt-faced

As Greg explained. We have been hanging with our good friend 'Schmitty', from the transcendental hours of 8 and 9am. He is a master... Thor is transforming. I can hear the primal roar of his inner bus being unleashed..... until his battery is dead and we can't get him to start again... and we end up having to get the neighbor to help us push him back in the driveway after a failed jump start, leaving hand prints all over the back.

yes. we are cool

r.
Notice the florescent orange goodness that is Cheese Whiz. Nothing gets done without it.

Schmitty routes and bevels. Paul steadies board. Thor waits patiently.

Propane powered truck. Hells yeah. Yes it is from GTA. And, no you can't touch it.

The foundation for what will become the gear box. Guitars and amps and other shiznit.
Schmitty takes in the specs. Notice as Paul looks on with shear amazement.

The Office. T-shirt design studio / Email launchpad.

Hand prints and embarrassment.
More Handprints.
Stupid F-ing Battery.

Gettin' Schmitt-faced

Bus Building

Sleep is an asset. We've all been getting up at 9am, helping Schmitty with the bus, going home for an afternoon nap, then heading to purgatory for midnight rehearsals. Long days and nights yield results. Schmitty says cut wood, we say how long.

The Master at Work

Thor's Control Panel

Rob's got some cool pictures of construction. He'll post them shortly.

g.

Bus Building

Ownership is a heavy anchor.

Our year end class trip in grade 8 was to an amusement park called Canada's Wonderland. Paul, Emeri and I went on a ride - I don't remember what it was called, but to this day Emeri was convinced that he was sliding out of the harness. In the past I've been known to doubt the strength of his conviction, but needless to say, it was a close call.

Rob, Paul, Emeri and I went to high school together. We were in a band then too. That was almost a decade ago. We used to salivate collectively about buying a 'band house'. A few years ago, we bought the house on Victoria street. We lived in the house for 3 years and produced almost no music. We got into debt and life got murky and though we didn't quite get 'sucked into the machine' - it reminded me of Emeri's experience at Wonderland - it was a close call.

We've since vacated such house on Victoria street for loftier pastures - parent's basements, girlfriend's houses, our bandhall and soon, our bus; Thor and a combination of floors and beds across the continent. We still own the house - ownership is a heavy anchor. Renting it out has proven to be quite the task. We've met and delt with a lot of sketchy people. We've been royally fucked over. It's a drag, but you pick up the pieces and you move on. Last week we spent a day cleaning up about half a ton of garbage from the property. We've got some quality people, that we know, moving into the place. All appears to be proper in this department.

If you've been out to a show since the release of 'Blanket Sky', I certainly hope you've seen our good friend, Jamie Usas, mixing live video in tandem with our music. We've been friends and working with Jamie since 'Come On Get Real'. He has recently left us for a short while for schooling in Rome. He'll be back though. Farewell Jamie. You are missed already.

There is a lot going on in Vacuity Land this week. Our friend (and my roomate) Elena has locked herself into her sweatshop while she manufactures bags and patches for us. They are going to be very cool. Stay tuned for more on that. We also met with our 'marketing guy' - Dan - yesterday. Now that we can say 'our marketing guy' we're hotshots. In all seriousness though, Dan is going to help us get the most out of this tour. He is helping us help ourselves. Great guy, great insights. Tomorrow at 8am, we are meeting another friend of ours, John Schmitt. Schmitty, will be helping us get Thor ready for the toil and strife on life on the road. He has an amazing bus himself. I haven't seen that ungodly hour of 8am since my father took me shopping for a suit a few months ago. it is early, but the coffee will taste great. (I hate suits.)

Another day I'll tell you about the time I saved Emeri from drowning - nearly at the cost of my own life!

Night.

G

Ownership is a heavy anchor.

Pete's Pick

I've just been bludgeoned out of bed. What the hell happened to the day? Late rehearsal + late rehearsal + late rehearsal = tired.

I was dreaming that we were backstage at a massive show, eating tacos. Subsequently this lead to messy hands. I thought I wouldn't be able to play guitar and washing my hands wasn't an option. You know dream logic. Sometimes you can't do certain things. Anyways, I was terrified to go onstage with greasy taco fingers.

The Pete's Pick article by Pete Nema was picked up by USA Today and Rueters.

So hello to anyone who ends up here as a result of being there.

Cheers.

Greg

Pete's Pick

The Eagle has landed.

Saturday August 30th we'll be kickin' it at the Boathouse in Kitchener. Should be a fun night, it always is.

I guess this should be the last show in Kitchener for a bit. While you all wait patiently for our return, I will be stuck in a bus with 3 unkempt men...
Somebody suggested that we'll just buy a huge bag of apples and just eat apples for the next 2 months... that sounded like an okay idea, I do like apples... however that's a lot of apples man.
Someone else suggested we paint a huge bald eagle mural on the side of the bus... it would look sweet!

Either way we have been working hard getting everything together... losing more and more sleep and soon to be losing even more.

I hope everyone is well and in good spirit... and I hope to see everyone out on the 30th, maybe hear some newish oldish stuff we have been diggin up for the past 3 weeks.... maybe if you ask nice we might even have a cover tune ready for ya.

night.
p.

The Eagle has landed.

Pete's Pick

Good morning... errr, afternoon.

At the Command of the Blanket Sky is one of Pete's Picks. Thanks Pete!

Also, JD from The Free Press had some very kind words to say about us.

Thanks for listening everyone.

G

Pete's Pick

Goodnight Sweet Prince....

As we were loading the van for our show at the Jimmy Jazz, it occurred to me that we might not be loading it again for quite some time. THOR is in the process of being ready enough for us to load it instead. So.. I say to you our close burgundy friend, our time has been good. Through broken transmissions, and overheated engines, to ball joints that crack on the Gardener, you've been with us. From the confederation bridge, to the Santa Monica Pier, to police escorted exits in North Bay, you have served us well. Surely you will stay with us..... in our hearts... in our memories.... and in Emeri's parent's driveway.

Please pause for a moment of silent homage.

- rob

Goodnight Sweet Prince....

not quite flashing lights

Thanks Hilary.

G

not quite flashing lights

i was digging around my computer and found this old video... thought it was neat, maybe you will too.

- Emeri

FRance

Set up and ran through some songs tonight. It was hot in there. Paul almost fainted. It must be his thick chops.

The good word on the street is people were digging the track we closed with Saturday. It's called France and it's been lurking around since we were working on Blanket Sky.

(I love the graffiti behind Emeri in this picture. What a classy place.)

G

FRance

Good night, Good Morning

Sometimes I think people hate on wherever they're from for no real reason other than because it's where they're from. So I don't like to slag downtown Kitchener, but when you play a place like Guelph, with it's superb nightlife, it's hard not to wonder "Why does Kitchener seem to suck by comparison?"

Despite a rather cramped stage setup and us ambitiously trying out some rough material, we had a great night. Guelph has always been the city we want to play more, but tend to play less. We will try to change that. My guitar kept shorting out due to some uncovered adapter plugs. If they touch metal, zzzzzzztttttt, no guitar. I must get around to fixing my board up.

The Free Press sounded awesome last night, so come and check them out at The Boathouse on the 30th. We will be sharing the night with them again. If all goes as planned we'll even have our bus up and running by then. We're actually seriously looking into converting it to veggie as a long term project.

Rehearsal. Midnight.

We own the moon. The sun is much too bright.

G

Good night, Good Morning

tour rehearsals

We should be posting the first of the tour dates shortly. Keep checking back!

tour rehearsals

coast to coast

A proper tour is in the works. This is certainly something we have been wanting to do for a long time. (since grade school?) However, it's increasingly complicated to get a band out on the road for a duration of time without coming back to a pocketbook in ruin. Sounds kinda lame, but rock and roll has cheques and balances to make too.

Right now it looks like we'll be doing about 40 dates coast to coast. The details will start coming in soon - so for all of you national Vacuitants out there - keep an eye on the blog/site as we'll be posting dates as they pour in. That being said, if you or anyone you know has a couch, floor, or hallway we can sleep in - email us. Everyone except Emeri is housebroken and we'll bring a spray bottle to keep him in check.

A lot of new material is in the works. We plan to debut a good deal of it on the road. Lyrically it's pretty dark, but in a much more figurative/fictional sense than Blanket Sky. We're all reading a lot (fiction and non fiction) about the collapse of civilization. Picture Times Square on New Year's Eve - except the countdown is for the launching of the bombs. Everyone is happy and thrilled, but for all the wrong reasons... i can't sum it up proper, but it'll translate itself in time. As far as the music goes, everyone in this band is at their best and as always I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

See you out there.

Oberson

coast to coast

happy birthday emeri

Skipping, fireworks, and alcohol. Quite possibly a lethal combination.

happy birthday emeri