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| Sept 25, 2009 | 9pm |
All Stars Bar & Grill | Brampton, ON |
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| Sept 10, 2009 | 8pm |
El Mocambo | Toronto, ON |
| Aug 22, 2009 | 2pm |
Niagara Historic Gallery | Niagara Falls, ON |
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C M C N E W S
September 28, 2009
Hey all, the website is mostly up and running, though we are still working on getting the email server to behave well enough to actually initiate correspondence with our fans again!... we know you check the site daily. Let us know what you think of the new site.
Anyway, thanks to all of our fans and Jia Harlow and their fans for helping us raise $200 for the Sierra Club! Thanks also to the El Mocambo for once again hosting the event!
Also, thanks to Lewis Mercer and the good people at Vomstock II for the great night we had at All-Stars in Brampton! A great night and good time was had by all! We really look forward to playing there again!
As for upcoming shows, we plan to do only one more show before the end of the year, the date of which is still TBA. We are well into the final stage of recording what will be our second full length album! A few of you have heard 3 of the tracks already and your feedback is that the band has really hit a new level and that you can’t wait to hear the whole album. Well, we plan to release it early in the new year! I think it is safe to say that the band is incredibly excited to share what we have been working on!
Please keep your eyes on your inbox as we hope to be hitting you from our email account in the near future.
Be well,
M, R, D, and M.
May 31, 2009
Hi, we’re back. Not that we really went anywhere. Like that rash that you hadn’t seen in a while we’ve always been here and ready to annoy you again. The band has been busy since our website got hacked, put back up, and then hacked again several months ago. With our email being built into the site we weren’t even able to contact you. Hopefully, you’ll forgive us for our long absence and respond to this email if only to let us know that you are still out there are you still love us. We took advantage of the hacker-caused forced time off to redesign our website and start working on a bunch of new songs. So we hope you like our new look and look forward to your feedback. It would be ridiculous for us to try and tell you everything that’s gone down with the banc since our last email 6 months ago so we are just going to hit you with some of the big stuff.
First of all, the 4th annual Coal Mine Canaries hockey pool is well over. This year’s winner was BLANK BLANK from Vancouver who one the $150 first prize along with a hat shirt and CD. Better luck to the rest of you next year we say insincerely.
We’ve had a couple of fun shows in recent months, most notably our first ever acoustic show at the Cameron House earlier this month. I think it is something we may try again in a few months. Our next booked show is a matinee show down in Niagara Falls on August 22nd. As it is an afternoon show we’re planning to spend the night partying in Niagara Falls and will be getting a couple of hotel rooms. If you’d like to come and hang out with the band let us know and maybe we can book a bunch of rooms in the same hotel and party as a big group.
On the new music front, we are done the recording part of 3 new songs – Where Are You Now, Never Realized, and Crutch. For those of you who have seen us live, you will probably recognize these titles as we have been working them up over the past year or so. We are extremely happy with the results of these recordings and hope to have all three tracks available for you to listen to by the end of June. We all feel that they represent the best recordings by the band to date! We are also in the process of working up several new songs that will round out our next full length album that we hope to have finished some time around the New Year.
Finally, we were recently included on a podcast out of the states called Earl Clifton Radio. Thought you might be interested to hear what he had to say about us and, specifically, our song “Cheater”:
”Coal Mine Canaries another great band out of Canada (Ontario) have an alternative pop rock thing going on. Their melodies will stick in your head like bad flavored bubble gum rock (but in a good way) you might spit them out but you'll miss them :) I played their track "Cheater" “
Please take the time to stop by his page, listen to his podcast and send him some love:
www.earlcliftonradio.com.
In Passing: For those of you that saw us with our fifth member, Graham, he has left the band. Amazingly, he has gone on to the competitive eating circuit to challenge Kobayashi. We must be the only band in the world that has lost 2 members to the sport of competitive eating. For those of you who remember, Tom, former bass player of the Canaries also left the band to pursue his true passion of eating vast quantities of food in a competitive atmosphere.
Truly, I did keep this as short as possible – 6 months condensed into a few minutes worth of reading. Thanks to all of you for your support of the band to this point. We hope to hear back from at least some of you (let us know this is actually getting out there!) and hope to see you soon!
Happy Trails,
Matt, Rachel, Dan and Marcus.
November 2, 2008
We hope you are all feeling extra-well rested after getting your free daylight savings hour. Why? Because you are going to need all the extra energy you have to participate in our first annual scavenger hunt this coming Saturday at O’Grady’s. You can find all the info on the attached poster. It is shaping up to be a great event so we hope to see all of you out for this one!
We do have another show coming up before the end of the year – a fundraiser for the Toronto Wildlife Center that will be held at the Smiling Buddha some time in December.
More on that post Scavenger Hunt.
Finally, just a quick update on the early CMC Hockey Pool standings.
Currently, the top 5 are:
Alex M. at 211 pts
Chris D. at 203 pts
Cool Cat Matt and Dido tied at 202 pts
Elf and Smellypants tied at 198 pts.
To check your score, just go to www.officepools.com. The pool ID is “canaries” and the password is “2008”.
See you at the Scavenger Hunt!
M,R,D,M
October 11, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving-Halloween Lull! We hope you have enjoyed your turkey, goose, chicken, quail, duck, tofu-bird, grouse, pheasant or whatever you may prefer. Just remember, canaries are never an appropriate Thanksgiving dish.
Before going too far I want to apologize for some website problems we have had. Not sure what the exact problem is, but we have been unable to email you (I’m sure you missed us) or update the site in our normal, haphazard fashion. Since we are having problems anyway, we plan to take this opportunity to revamp the site so it may frequently be inaccessible for a while. If you have any trouble getting on to the site, just go to www.myspace.com/coalminecanries and you can get all the same info!
There are a few things we wanted to hit you with between your tryptophan crash your sugar high. First, the CMC Hockey Pool is now closed and I will soon have all the teams entered. To see how you are doing, go to www.officepools.com. The Pool ID is “Canaries” and the password is “2008”. Second, we did not win the Best Alternative Rock category for the Ontario Independent Music Awards after our recent nomination. On the bright side, we made sure that the same band will not be in any shape to win the award next year. Who likes little kid bands anyway… well, their parents seemed to, I guess.
Finally, our next show will be held at O’Grady’s on College (171 College Street). We have been working on this one for a while and are very, very, VERY excited to invite you to our first (hopefully) annual CMC Scavenger Hunt! Admission will be $5 per person and it is up to you to organize yourself into teams of 2 to 4 people. The registration money will go towards the cash prizes that will be awarded for the winning teams. This event will be held on Saturday, November 8th so be sure to keep that day open and start organizing your team now! Registration will be from 7 – 7:55 PM. After that we will turn you loose on the city. The Scavenger Hunt will be followed by performances by us and our new friends, The Sitwells (myspace.com/thesitwells). For those of you that haven’t heard us in our new 5-piece format, you should really make a point of checking us out – we are 25% more Canary than we have ever been before… take that as you will.
Ruthlessly yours,
The Coal Mine Canaries,
M,R,D,M and G!
September 14, 2008
Lucky you! 2 emails from the Coal Mine Canaries in a week! It doesn’t get much better than that, does it? (Rhetorical question – please do not reply).
Thanks to everyone who came out to the El Mocambo on Thursday night for our 2nd Annual Sierra Club Fundraising show. We really are going to have to come up with a catchier name for the event next year… We had a lot of fun and raised several hundred dollars! It was great to have Graham join us as the newest band member – we love being a 5-piece as we now have somebody new to blame for any on-stage mistakes!
We have two more shows this month – and they are big! On Sunday, September 21st we are playing Car Free Day in Mississauga, held at the Civic Center! We are the last act and go on at 3:30, but feel free to come out and hang out ahead of time. For more information, go to www.smartcommutemiss.ca/announcements.php?id=33
Also, we are playing Toronto’s Car Free Day in Yonge-Dundas Square on Monday, September 22nd. We go on at 1:45, right after Mookie Morris of Canadian Idol fame.
For more info on that one, www.carfreeday.ca . For those of you who still haven’t received a copy of our new EP, you can pick one up for free at either show.
Additionally, for those of you of an environmental mindset, you can go to www.sierraclub.ca to view a voters guide which reviews the environmental policies of each federal party. Regardless of who you eventually vote for, the Coal Mine Canaries want you to get politically active and actually head out to the polls and VOTE!
In other band news we have been nominated for the Ontario Independent Music Awards. We’re not sure what song(s) have been nominated or what categories they have been nominated for but hopefully we will have more on that soon. Also, stay tuned for the 4th (can you believe it!) Annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool. We will have it up on the site as soon as we can. As always, it will be free and you you can win Cash and Prizes.
We are still hoping that some of you can come up with some ideas for our soon-to-be-shot video for the Canada song. What is the song about to you? What things are so intrinsically Canadian that they HAVE to be included?
Also check out the pics from our photo shoot with Sarah Thompson as well as a bunch from Sneakers are now (I think) up on the website. There’s a great one of cousing Ty with his super-masculine guitar. Unfortunately, there are no pics of Graham yet – hopefully somebody can take some at one of the car free day shows!
Finally, we would love to have all of you with facebook pages (which is almost all of you) join our Coal Mine Canaries Facebook page. There are only about 25 members right now and we are feeling a little unloved.
Hope to see you out at our shows on Sunday and Monday!
M,R,D,M and G
September 7, 2008
OK, I know it’s been a while but things have been busy for us! First of all, thanks to all of you who came out to our show at Sneakers in Vernon, B.C.! We had a blast and from all the feedback we’ve received so did you. It was also our single biggest night of merchandise sales ever! So thanks again. We are hoping to put a few live tracks from the show up on the website for you to download for free but we are having a bit of trouble with the files at the moment. We will also be adding some pics of the show as they come in. Thanks again to Matt’s cousin Tyler who sat in with us for most of the night. It was great for us to hear instrumental parts that we put on our studio CD’s actually being played live. We so enjoyed being a 5 – piece band that we are adding a full-time 5th member. Want to see him?... You can see our new Graham this Thursday, September 11th, at our Sierra Club benefit show at the El Mocambo (462 Spadina Ave). Doors open at 7:30 and we play at 10:00. Cover is $5 with a non-perishable and $8 without. As we’ve said before, if you can only make one show this year, this is it! It is a great venue and a great cause! We will again be giving out free copies of our disc, Greatest Hits Volume 3. Remember, you can only get your copy of the new CD by coming out to our shows. We won’t sell them and we won’t come to you!
Also, we are now actively planning a video shoot for “The Canada Song” – voted by you as the favorite track on the new CD. Now we just need your help in generating some ideas for the video. Got any great ideas? Play the song for your family, friends and pets and see what ideas you can come up with. Then let us know – tell us, call us, post it on our myspace.com/coalminecanaries, or email matt@coalminecanaries.com.
We have a lot of other stuff to announce but we don’t want you to suffer Canary Overload as we have to pay a $5000 deductible on any damaged fans. However, we will be in touch soon with more news!
M,R,D,M…. and G!
July 17, 2008
Finally! After months of us stalling the new 5 track demo is really here. We are proud to present to you “Coal Mine Canaries – Greatest Hits Vol. 3.” We realize that our disc is coming out at the same time as the new Batman show but we are pretty confident in our new tunes (also, our release is free). Make sure you hit up your favorite Canary or Matt for your free copy.
We’d also like to thank Mayfield, Tungda Brown and everyone else who came out to the Cameron House last Friday for making it such a great night. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to do it again. Speaking of which…. Out next show is at 9PM in Vernon BC at Sneakers in the Village Green Hotel and Casino, 4801-27th Street, Vernon, B.C. Another free show for our wonderful fans! This will be our longest show to date with almost 2 hours worth of material from our first cd, Bad Flavored Bubble Gum Rock, our new demo, a few covers, and some brand new songs that have yet to see the light of a studio! Of course, we will be giving out free copies of our new disc to everyone.
And don’t forget we are holding our 2nd annual Sierra Club fundraiser on Thursday, September 11th. Sorry but we are charging $5 with a non-perishable food item for this one or $8 without…. It is a fundraiser, after all! Exact times and artists are still TBD but we are excited to have Clara Engel as one of our performers. This girl can sing! Check her out at www.myspace.com/claraengel. Check out my personal favorite song, “Madagascar” – that’s live!
We are also happy to announce that we finally have some new photos – the first professionally done since… umm… well… let’s just say that a rampaging triceratops wrecked our last photo shoot. We plan to have the first of the new photos up on our websites soon. And we are excited to show them to you – because we look awesome! (I love photoshop).
The next order of business is asking for your help in helping us make the 2nd round of the CBC Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge! We entered 2 songs – “The Canada Song” and a shortened instrumental version of “Cheater” – both off our new disc. Unfortunately, “The Canada Song” was rejected because of lyrical content. I don’t know why. If a profanity-laden song promoting pornography, racism and drug-use don’t just scream hockey I don’t know what does. Fortunately, we still have our 2nd entry. It is called “CMC Hockey Song”. You can go on line and vote for it. In fact you can vote for it as often as you want – please do! There seems to be a bit of a crabs in a bucket thing going on with the contest though because as soon as a song starts getting a lot of positive ratings (the top being 5 – what you will, of course, give us) other contestants automatically go in and give it a zero to lower the average score. We hope you can rally your troops to go in and give us a rating of 5 out of 5 and also make a positive comment in the comment section underneath – why do you like the track and why would it be suitable for the Hockey Night in Canada theme. The comments section is important so that the judges get some more comprehensive feedback about what you want your new anthem to sound like. You can find our song at the following link:
http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/mediadetail/267360">http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/mediadetail/267360
Thanks for your support ahead of time. We love you.
Also, check out “Hockey Scores” by Logan Aube – you can find it if you click on the “top rated” tab. Too funny! Make sure you read the comments.
We shall return.
Matt, Rachel, Dan and Marcus.
April 10, 2008
Well, another NHL season has come to a close and with it another Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool. This year’s first prize winner is Trevor P. who collects $150 and a CMC hat, shirt and cd. Second place goes to Scott K who gets $50 and a hat, shirt and cd. Congratulations to both of them. I can’t think of two more undeserving winners. Finally, our greatly desired 3rd prize - a make-out session with our bass player, Dan, and a 6 month supply of cold-sore medication goes to Jason E. who has been calling me twice a day since the end of the season to see when he can collect his prize. Honorable mention this year goes to 4th place because that was where I finished. Hopefully you will all be back in the pool next year!
Also, we are still almost done the process of finishing up the tracks for our upcoming demo and hope to have some tracks for you soon.
Also, we have just added our first show to our schedule in quite some time. We will be playing an extended show at Sneakers in Vernon, B.C. on August 1st this summer. Please check back for details and other upcoming shows.
Happy Trails!
M,R,D and M!
February 25, 2008
We’ve missed you. It’s just been a crazy time for the band with everything musical and otherwise. Matt has been working two jobs and planning his wedding, Rachel has been working hard, and breaking dates with would-be suitors, Dan has been getting mugged and studying for final exams, and Marcus… well Marcus has been busy just being a very cool dude – being so incredibly awesome apparently takes a lot of time.
Having said all that, we are very close to having some new material to share with you! All the recording has been done on our new demo CD with our super-producer, Alex Mine, and we are beginning the process of editing. The CD will contain tracks that some of you have heard us perform live including Cheater, Don’t Cry Angel and The Canada Song. Also, we are excited to have you hear our very long and artistic intro to Cheater. It is our intention to provide everyone with our new tracks free of charge. You will be able to obtain mp3’s of the tracks for free on our website – www.coalminecanaries.com – or just ask your friendly neighborhood canary for a free copy of the disk. We are also beginning to explore ideas for a video for one of the songs and hope to have that done in the next few months. Also, we are still in the planning stages for our next Sierra Club benefit show which we hope to again hold at the El Mo Cambo, though this year on a weekend! At that show we will be unveiling a whole bunch of new songs that we are VERY excited to share with you… or at least Rachel and I are. Dan doesn’t really exhibit much emotion and Marcus is too cool to get excited. We thank you for your patience and continuing support during our lack of performances and releases over the past several months.
Finally, here are the top results of the CMC Hockey Pool at this time… Trevor P who was running away from everyone has been slowed down my injuries and is now with in striking distance!
1st – Trevor P – 1066
2nd – Scooter – 1025
3rd - Jason Elliotson – 1014
4th – Brad Embree – 999
5th – Craig Erskine – 996
6th – CoolCatMatt – 990
7th – T. Rockman Cool – 985
8th – Jody Preston – 981
9th – Don Campbell – 978
10th – Dwight Folk - 977
Happy trails from the Coal Mine Canaries,
M, R, D and M
December 24, 2007
Matt here (again) from the Coal Mine Canaries wishing you a Very Canary Christmas. If that sounds stupid, Rachael said I should say it.
We just wanted to send one last email this year to thank everyone who supported us by buying our CD’s and coming to our shows. In appreciation of your support we promise that we have not used any performance enhancing drugs… something anyone who has been to our shows can attest to. In fact, Dan was the only person in the band who could even spell HGH.
We are still busy in the studio working on our new demo and are looking forward to sharing it with you in a few months. We are excited about our new sound - these are the first studio recordings that will feature Dan on bass and Marcus on drums. We are also working on a bunch of new songs that we will be putting on our next full album.
We didn’t have quite as good of a year as far as raising money for the Sierra Club in terms of merchandise sales (for those of you new to this mailing list, 10% of everything we sell we give the Sierra Club). I guess this isn’t too surprising since we didn’t have as many shows this year with the changeover of band members and no new releases. We did have the one successful fundraiser that we organized in the spring and plans for another are in the works.
And finally, of course, here is the leaderboard for the CMC hockey pool. Remember, you can check how your team is doing any time by going to officepools.com. The pool ID is “cmc” and the password is “Idreamofmatt”.
1. Trevor P…………….680 pts
2. Coolcatmatt………....640 pts
3. Brad Embree..........…627 pts
4. Jeff Wooley…………626 pts
5. T. Rockman Cool…...619pts
Happy Holidays from Matt, Rachael, Dan and Marcus.
November 10, 2007
Hi all, Matt here from the Coal Mine Canaries. I just had a couple of things I wanted to cover on behalf of myself and the rest of the band. First of all, I have something I want to get off my chest... something I have been carrying with me for a long time. About 2 years ago, I came out to all of you and admitted that I was a closet Bangles fan. I appreciate all of the support you have shown me and would like to share with you something else I have been hiding for quite sometime. I have already discussed this issue with my friends and family and they are behind me all the way. In fact, some of them have even revealed that they have been carrying the same secret, though none of them are ready to go public yet. I hope I can count on all of your support once again and you can still accept me for who I am. I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think it is a really good show. I had not seen it until several months ago and am now on season 4. I am already sad that I only have 3 more seasons to go before it is over. I throw myself at your mercy - judge me as you will, though I no longer feel any shame.
OK, on to band stuff now. First of all, the hockey pool: All teams are now entered and you can check to see how much I am beating you by. Normally, this would be a joke but, for once, I really am in the lead. You can expect to suffer through some degree of childish arrogance from me until somebody catches me. To see how your team is doing just go to officepools.com and use the POOL ID: cmc and the PASSWORD: Idreamofmatt. They say if you repeat something often enough it will come true - sweet dreams! If you find any problem with your team just send me and email and I will look into it. Just a note though - I can't promise to get to it right away as I will be moving this weekend and won't have internet for a few days.
Also, you are all invited to our next show which is at the Cameron House (408 Queen Street West) on Saturday, October 27th. The show starts around 9PM and cover will be $3. All the money we take in will be going to our friends on tour from Montreal, The Darling Demaes, who will be joining ourselves and Say Ah! (and hopefully Land of the Midnight Sun). Also, we will be sure to have cd's, hats, shirts and jackets for sale for those of you who want to pick something up. As always, 10% of the proceeds from everything sold will go to the Sierra Club of Canada. We are very busy in the studio working on a new batch of recordings so this may be your last chance to help us and the Sierra Club out this year.
Going back to the recording, we may take a live track from this upcoming show and put it on our demo so if you come out, be prepared to cheer as if you actually liked us during the show. Barring that, please at least refrain from booing (this means you mom).
Well, that's all for now.
Happy trails to all of you,
Love CMC: Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander
September 24, 2007
Howdy bird lovers! Well, we’re excited to announce that the 3rd annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool is up and running! Just go to our home page at www.coalminecanaries.com and click on the blue link embedded in the text and follow the instructions from there to enter.
Thanks to everyone who came out to support us and support a cleaner city by attending the Car Free Day show in Yonge-Dundas Square this last week. We know it’s not easy to find a way to attend a show during the day, midweek! Despite some equipment malfunctions and a small group of people who lacked any amount of self-consciousness the day went great!
Finally, we just wanted to mention that our next show is on Saturday, October 27 at one of our favorite venues, The Cameron House. The sound and atmosphere there is excellent and intimate. We will be sharing the stage with our good friends from Montreal The Darling Demaes. Details on this show to follow.
Sorry for the lack of humor in this email but nobody in the band has done anything particularly stupid recently. Hopefully by the next email we’ll have something to laugh at. Or we could just all laugh at Rachael ahead of time.
Cheers
M,R,D and M!
September 16, 2007
Hey All, just a reminder that we will be playing a show down in Yonge-Dundas Square between noon and 2 PM this Thursday, the 20th of September in support of Car Free Day!
We know it’s tough to make it out during the day mid-week but we hope to see at least some of you there!
Also, just a reminder that the 3rd annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool is now up and running! The pool is free to enter and has cash and swag prizes. Just click on this link and good luck to… well, none of you since I’m entering the pool as well.
Be sure to get your picks in before the first game on September 29th!
Cheers,
Matt, Rachel, Dan and Marcus
August 10, 2007
Greetings from your friendly Coal Mine Canaries! We are pretty excited to tell you about everything that is going on. First of all we are officially back in the studio! We have just started the recording process for a new 3 song demo including Don’t Cry Angel, Cheater and another song we have yet to perform live and is still untitled. We have been developing these three songs since Marcus joined the band about 6 months ago and can’t wait to have you check them out. Of course, you don’t have to wait until we have the recordings done to hear them. You can hear us play the new songs and a bunch of our old favorites when we play Car-Free day downtown on Thursday, September 20th . It is a free outdoor show at Yonge-Dundas Square in support of our friends at the Sierra Club (sierraclub.ca) as they raise awareness about the effects of pollution. For more info, check out carfreeday.ca.
We are also happy to announce that the 3rd annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool is just around the corner. The set up will be similar to previous years, with no entry fee and cash + other prizes.
Finally, we just wanted to issue a challenge to all of you to escape from the closet. Yes, we know your little secret. Actually it’s an online problem solving game – all you need to use is your mouse. The time to beat so far is Rachel’s – 8 minutes and 37 seconds. You only get one try at it so be honest. Email us back with your time (on your first try – no one cares how fast you are the 2nd time). Whoever has the fastest time wins 500 Coal Mine Canary Points. What, you ask, are Coal Mine Canary Points? What can I do with them? Well they are something we just made up now and they can’t be used for anything. Now, if that’s not motivation to get out of the closet, we don’t know what is…
http://www.addictinggames.com/escape2thecloset.html
Cheers,
MRD and M