The summer is ending too fast! Here in Toronto it feels like it only arrived about 10 days ago, and it’s already getting chilly again.
Summer is traditionally my busy time “jobbing”; playing in various cover bands full of mind-bogglingly stellar musicians cranking out the hits of yesteryear. It pays the bills, and thanks to the company onstage, we actually manage to sneak in some capital “M” music on a fairly regular basis.
Next month, “improvised roots” is released (and we’ll see you all at the gig Sept 12 @ Tequila Bookworm to celebrate), I resume my teaching program “Drop-In and Drum!” in Toronto, and the Glen Hall quartet rehearses and records an album prior to our departure for Siberia at the month’s end.
The Siberia tour will undoubtedly be a highlight of the professional year, and perhaps of many years combined. I have very little idea what to expect; I’ve been in touch with a few drummers who’ve toured there previously, but I’m still not sure just what it will be like.
Upon my return from Siberia, I’m hoping to take cc3 out on the road in Ontario for a day or two (we’re still working on a Peterborough date Oct17) and finish the month with a gig with SeeWhySound (Chip Yarwood and Celina Carroll) at the Free Times in Toronto on Oct30.
In November I’m attending PASIC in Indianapolis (the annual drum/percussion shindig: gear, clinics, hangs, riding in hotel elevators with drumming heroes…) and then embarking on a short tour with Scarborough Streisand (aka “Scabs”) (Michael Keith, Glen Hall, and myself playing blues/middle eastern/outerspace improvs), hopefully with stops in Toronto (as part of the 416 Improvisers Festival), Hamilton, and Kitchener-Waterloo. The tour is set to run Nov17-21 and I hope to fill it with as many dates as possible. GH may not be able to do all of them as he is the host of the 416 Fest and will be required elsewhere, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I’m also thinking about video-ing the Scabs events for future YouTubing and/or release.
Categories: concert dates · journal
I’ve spent some time mucking around on MySpace in the last few days. I find the process of requesting and accepting “friends” on it to be very cumbersome and tedious, so I’m looking at the MySpace page more as a low-cost EPK to direct interested parties too. If you want to interact with me (which would be great!) please look me up on Twitter (@CoagulatedInt), the 140 character lifestyle seems to suit me fine online. 
Anyway, in addition to my main MySpace site (www.myspace.com/chriscawthray) I’ve created a MySpace profile for the CPZ band with Rob Price and Ed Zankowski (www.myspace.com/cpz) and the brand-new trio of myself, Michael Keith and Glen Hall: Scarborough Streisand (aka “Scabs”) (www.myspace.com/scarboroughstreisand).
The CPZ page has music and photos to check out, and the Scabs page is not much of anything yet. Honestly, I wanted to make the MySpace page for Scabs quickly because (I feel) it’s such a good name someone else was bound to think of it sooner or later. At least not I’ve got a date-stamped claim to it. 
I’m hoping to submit the files to the CD manufacturer today, and have decided to do a short run on cc3’s first album “(pamplemousse)” as well. It never received a proper CD version; we released it online and also as a DiscRevolt download card, which looked cool but was rather a hassle for customers to actually use it to get the album. Anyway, bona fide CD copies of that record (which has done OK sales-wise on iTunes and elsewhere) will be available at the Tequila Bookworm gig on September 12.
Speaking of Tequila Bookworm, I’ve been asked to play percussion with my friend Chris Stott on Friday night at TB. He booked himself a night there, and is gathering an impromptu band for the evening. I have no idea what we’ll do, but I’m bringing congas and I might play this new Brian Eno-designed music app that I bought for my iPhone. Kinda defeats the purpose of the iPhone’s portability when you have to bring a big old amp along with it, but what the heck.
Also this week: Undercover Three at Canyon Creek Scarborough Wednesday 7-9 and HBS hits a private party in Maple, ON Saturday night.
Categories: concert dates · downloads · journal
