OLD NEWS

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

October 11, 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 22, 2007

Hello everyone!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

September 17, 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! 

Cheers,

MRD and M

August 29 , 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 Matt’s (probably because he is the only one who has actually played it) – 20 minutes are 47 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 J).  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

April 9 , 2007

Well, we’ve reached the end of the 2nd annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Tournament.  Steven Dunford’s short reign as champion is over, replaced by Dwight Folk who finished with 1655 points, 35 ahead of 2nd place Curtis Beenen.  Our winners both get a Coal Mine Canaries hat, shirt and cd as well as their respective cash prizes of $150 and $50 respectively.  If both of our winners could go to our website and chose the type and color of hat and shirt they would like and then let their most familiar Canary know their choices and how to get those prizes to them.  Also, let’s not forget our 3rd place prize – A kiss from our very own bass player Dan, which goes to Deven Herle… congratulations (and we’ll throw in some free cold sore medication, Deven).

Also, we’ve recently had an article written about the band in “In-Tune Magazine” by Michael Potvin.  Unfortunately, the article was written while some of the band members were changing over and some of the credits from our last album are wrong but the pictures are correct.  We will try and find a way to get the article on the website soon, but if you would like to read it before the, please follow this link:

http://www.northeastintune.com/index.php?bd=reg&sb=land&article=020716

There are a few new pictures in the media section as well, taken by Marcus’s brother Jay Cipparrone.  He did a really great job, so please take the time to check the out. 

Finally, just a reminder about our show at the Silver Dollar tomorrow, Tuesday night at the Silver Dollar at 8:15.  The Silver Dollar is at 486 Spadina, just north of College.

Thanks to everybody that joined this year’s hockey pool, and we hope to have you back in it next year!

M,R,D and M!

April 5 , 2007

Happy Easter everyone!  It’s an especially great time of year for Matt because he can put on his big pink bunny costume and hop around yelling “ I’m a pretty pink bunny!  I’m a pretty pink bunny! ” until he gets dizzy and falls down… well, ok, he does that anyway, but at least this time of year he has an excuse for why he is doing it.

This year’s Coal Mine Canaries hockey pool is almost over.  With just 2 days left it looks like Matt’s Uncle, Dwight Folk will win.  It looks like Curtis Beenen will probably come in 2nd as he is 19 points ahead of Kyle “Big Daddy” Haaf.  We’ll update the final scores again when the season is officially over so that the winners can claim their prizes.

As for what’s on the near horizon musically for the band, we are getting pretty close to being ready to go into the studio to record a 2-4 song demo.  On the cd we will definitely be including Don’t Cry Angel and Cheater.    Haven’t heard the new songs?  Come out and give us your feedback at the Silver Dollar (486 Spadina Ave) on Tuesday the 10th at 8:15 as where we are one of the bands playing the NXNE discovery series show that night.  Can’t make it out that night?  Fine, but Dan’s tears are on your conscience.  However, you can make it up to him by coming out to our show on Saturday, April 28th as we return to one of our favorite venues, the Cameron House!  We will be joined again by old-bass-player-Tom’s new band – The Land of Midnight Sun….

Hmmmm…. I guess that’s it…
Gotta go… the Cadbury commercial with the clucking rabbits is on!  Too funny!

M,R,D and C!

January 31 , 2007

Hello all you beautiful people.  Oh, and hi Scott.  It’s been a long time since we’ve invaded your inbox but we have a lot of catching up to do! 

First, we have a brand new drummer!  His name is Marcus and he’s cute as a button!  Unfortunately, ladies, he’s taken so the only single person in the band is still bass-player Dan.  But don’t worry, Dan assures us he has enough love for everyone!  With Marcus joining the band we will be adding some new pics fairly soon.  This time we are planning for a band theme though.  We are planning to all grow gotees.  Well, everyone except for Matt who can’t grow one…

Also in Canary news, we are doing another live radio interview – they liked us so much the first time that they want to have us back on… yeah, we’re surprised too!  Thanks again for all your support and questions last time (the station was really impressed with how much interest there was in the band) and I hope we can count on you again.  The show will be online at www.artistfirst.com at 9PM EST on Thursday, February 1st.  I hope we can count on a bunch more great questions from all of you.  Just click on the link in the top right corner of the screen where it says “email the dj” during the show and hopefully he will get to your question.  Dan has said he would really like to have somebody ask him how he feels about abortion, Rachel would like to field some questions on the place of religion in politics and Marcus would relish the chance to discuss capital punishment.  Matt would like to have somebody to ask what his favorite color is. 

We would also like to remind you about our next show which is at 7:30 on Thursday, February 8th at the El Mocambo (462 Spadina Ave).  We are putting the show on as a benefit for the Sierra Club – for more information on them go to sierraclub.ca.  The cover is by donation with a minimum of $5.  We would love to have you come out and support us and the cause.  We always donate a dollar from everything we sell to the Sierra Club but on the night of the show, if you buy any cd’s or clothes from us we will also donate half of the money to the cause!... We would also like to thank everybody who purchased anything from us last year.  You helped us to raise $203 which we have donated to the Club on behalf of all of you.  Thanks!

Other than that, we are busy with pre-recording some new tracks which we are very excited about.  Also, we are starting to talk about some ideas for a video which we hope to shoot after the next batch of recordings.  We are trying to think of some really cool, different ideas that don’t require a huge budget… think along the lines of the videos by OK GO.  For those of you that haven’t seen these videos, definitely take the time to check them out at youtube.com and just search OK GO.  There are 2 main ones that I’ve seen – the backyard video and the treadmill one.  If you have any good ideas let your favorite canary know or start up a topic in the discussion forum on our website… coalminecanries.com.

Finally, a quick update on the 2nd annual CMC Hockey pool has our very only Daniel in first place with 1010 pts, Deven Herle amd Jody Preston are tied for 2nd with 1009 pts!  If you want to find your score go to officepools.com.  The pool name is cmc and the password is Ilovematt. 

That’s all,

M,R,D and M!

December 14, 2006
Hey everybody, the holidays are just around the corner and everybody is looking for that great gift.  How about this year you do something unexpected?  Instead of getting them something they’ll like as you normally would, get your family, friends or loved one a Coal Mine Canary hat, shirt, or jacket.  Or, if they are one of the few people that don’t have the Coal Mine Canaries album, “Bad Flavoured Bubblegum Rock” yet, put that in their stocking.  Nothing says you care like the gift of something that is kind of like music.  Or have our bass player, Dan, come over to your house in his new Santa costume to give you his new Christmas themed erotic massage!  Make it a couples evening and he can bring over his new friend, Bob the drifter who will be dressed up as an elf!

In sad news, we regret to say that our drummer Jay has left the band, so we are once again looking to fill that position.  I’m not sure why he decided to leave, but it was right around the time we decided to change the band name to “The Vaginas”.  I think it was when he saw the new logo that he really wanted out.  Or maybe it was the costumes… I’m not sure.  Anyway, it’s too bad because we eventually changed the name back to Coal Mine Canaries but by then he really didn’t want anything to do with us anymore. I’d also like to remind everybody that our next show is at the Cameron House on Thursday, December 28th.  For those of you who haven’t been there, it’s a beautiful room.  We’ll be playing with In Red Ink, The Shamans of Funkadelia (pretty neat band!) and our old bass player Tom Lai’s new band, Midnight Nation!  Hopefully all of you who are on holidays can make it out to have a drink with us. 

I’d also like to ask everyone to lend your support and drop a line to The Break Radio station!  They have had our music in constant rotation and heavy rotation on Tuesday nights after 9:30 on the Joe Show.  You can find them and tune in online at thebreak.ca.  Drop them a line and request your favorite CMC song by emailing them at thebreak@connorsmusic.ca  or if you live in the Newmarket area, they broadcast live from Orleans every Tuesday from 8:30 on so drop in and request it live. The only other thing to add is that Jody Preston is currently leading the Coal Mine Canaries Hockey pool with 633 points.  In a fairly distant 2nd is Travis T with 620; 3rd is Deven Herle with 614.  A temporary congratulations to Jody. Other than that, I hope you all keep warm and keep well. Happy birthday to matt’s mom!

Matt, Rachel, Dan and…. TBA

November 19, 2006
A big thank from all of us to all of you who took the time to listen to us on the Artist First World-wide Radio Network. An extra big thanks to everyone who took the time to email in a question for us! An extra EXTRA big thanks to everyone who emailed in to say "I love Matt" or "I Love Rachel" (though I speak for both of us, in the future if you feel that way please attach a recent photo and we may get back to you). Thanks to the person who emailed in to say "I think Dan's pretty OK" - it gives him something to cling to. We are pretty happy with how the show turned out as is the radio station... in fact they want to have us back soon! Although next time they asked us to stay away from our controversial views on politics, capital punishment and abortion. If you missed the interview and would like to hear it just click on this link.

Just a reminder that we are playing at Clinton's (693 Bloor St. West) this Saturday. Also, because of Clinton's drink policy, please order any of your food/drink in the back room where we will be playing. If you don't, it doesn't count towards the bar tab that we have to cover by the end of the night. If there is anybody out there that is available to be in charge of the door for that night, we would really appreciate the help, and we’ll compensate you in some way (Matt gives a great massage). We hope you can all come out, but for those of you that can't, please come see us at O'Grady's next Friday!

Also, we are just beginning to organize a charity event at the El Macambo for Thursday, February 8th to benefit the Sierra Club. Hopefully you can all mark that off on your calendar and come out to hear a couple of great bands (and us!) and learn a little bit about what the Sierra Club does.

Finally, just a quick update on the CMC hockey pool
1st: Budda Sac (Dave Janke) is in first with 443 points
2nd: Jody Preston catching up and making it interesting with 223
3rd (tie): Alex Mine, Deven Herle and Travis T are have 221.

That’s all for now…
And remember, friends don’ pee on friends…

M,R,D and J!

November 11, 2006
Hey all! We're pretty excited because this coming tuesday, at 9PM EST the Coal Mine Canaries (that would be us) are being featured in a full our radio program on the Artist First World Radio Network! For a full hour they will be playing songs off our album Bad Flavroured Bubblegum Rock and interviewing us. We hope most of you can set aside some time to check out the show. Just go to artistfirst.com and you can listen live on the net. Also, there is a tab you can hit where you can email the DJ to ask us questions during the show. So anything you always wanted to ask one of us – this is the time! Maybe you want to ask Matt why he’s so incredibly nice, or ask Dan and Jay why they always go to the bathroom together, or maybe you’ve always been curious why Rachel did that thing with the stuff at that place that time? Either way, we hope you’ll join us for this hour of quality broadcasting!

We now have everything confirmed for our next show – Saturday, November 25th. It will start at 9:00 at Clinton’s Tavern at 693 Bloor Street West. We’ll be playing with our old friend Ash from Ashraf, Factor Fiction, Revolution Love and Charlemagne. Tickets will be $5 at the door or you can get them ahead of time absolutely nowhere! We’ll be playing a bunch of our new songs so if you haven’t heard any of them yet come check them out!
Finally, just a quick update on the hockey pool! As it currently stands Budda Sac (Dave Janke) has jumped out to a huge lead with 374 pts! In second is Coal Mine Canaries producer, great drummer and all around nice guy Alex Mine with 350, Matt’s dad (who embarrassingly has chosen the tag of “Elf”) is in 3rd with 346 and long time CMC supporter and also a great drummer Jody Preston has shot all the way up to a tie for 4th with Travis T at 344.

As always, you can check your points anytime by going to office pools.com and typing in “cmc” as the pool ID and “Ilovematt” as the password – you don’t just have to doodle it in you diary anymore!

Well, that’s all for this week. We hope to hear from you on the night of the radio show and if you have any questions just give us a shout!
Happy Trails from the Coal Mine Canaries!

M, R, D, lil’J

October 29, 2006
Wow! I can't believe it is finally here. Daylight Savings - my favorite day of the year! I'm finally getting my hour back which was so rudely stolen from me earlier this year. It's like getting a tax refund after paying taxes all year long.

So, I am using this free hour (or 10 minutes of it) to update everyone on what is going on with the Coal Mine Canaries. We had a great show (except for Jay's speeding ticket) at Les Minots in Montreal with the Darling Demaes. They are a great, fun band and I hope all of you will get a chance to see them when we host them out here in the new year.

You may have noticed that we have withdrawn from the band competition that we were going to be in next friday. We apologize to those of you who were planning to go but, unfortunately, our blood tests came up positive for a banned substance so as a P.R. move we withdrew ourselves to avoid the controversy.

We still have a few shows coming up however - the closest being saturday, november 25th at Clinton's. We hope to see you all that night.

We also have a bunch of other things in the works for later this year and the new year which are pretty exciting and will be a lot of fun! We're keeping the lid on it for now, but as soon as we have the events confirmed we will tell you all about it!

The new songs are coming along really well! Everybody who has seen us recently tells us how much better we are sounding and that the new songs are our best ones! We hope to start recording them sometime around the new year, but please come out and give us your feedback at one of our shows before then! It really helps us determine if we really are moving in the right direction.

Also, we have taken some new band photos... actually Ryan Young took them and some of them turned out really well. We will be posting them on the website soon. Please take a look and let us know which ones are the best (no, you have to pick one with Rachel in it and no, we can't crop her out) so we can use them for promo or, possibly, our next album. Maybe somebody could even start a topic on it in our (severely underused) forum...

Also, Corrie has recently redone our myspace site and it looks waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. Oops... I think I put one too many "a's" in there. Oh well, please take the time to check it out at myspace.com/coalminecanaries
.
Finally, the part you have all been waiting for, the current leader of the CMC hockey pool is Dave Janke (Budda Sac). In second is Coal Mine Canaries producer, Alex Mine and 3rd is Matt's dad. For the full leader board just go to officepools.com. The pool ID is "cmc" and the password is "Ilovematt". Thanks by the way. I appreciate the affection.
Happy Daylight Savings and Happy Halloween!

Hugs and kisses from Matt, Dan, Jay and whatsherface.

September 19, 2006
Hello everyone! Put on your seatbelts because this is going to be an exciting email! It is time for the 2nd annual COAL MINE CANARIES HOCKEY POOL. Free to enter with cash prizes – just click on this link for the rules and to enter! Tell your friends and family - you only have until October 3rd to get your picks in.

In other CMC news, Rachel is currently in China where she says there are a lot of Chinese people. Really – that is all she has said so far in her emails. The rest of us are busy working up new songs for the next CD. We are thinking of doing an EP fairly soon and then segueing that into a full CD some time next year. The band has just evolved so much we are in a hurry to capture our new sound. Once we have captured it we will begin a breeding program and release it back into the wild.

Also, while the band is going great as it is with the 4 of us, we are looking to add another guitar player. The arrangements are just getting more complex and we are coming up with too many parts to play live as a 4-piece. And oldbassplayerTom is getting tired of being pulled out of retirement to come play with us every time we have a live show.

We have been busy getting our bookings for the fall and winter and our schedule is starting to fill out. We are playing at the RAXX in Brampton on October, Friday the 13th (ooohhhhh, creepy!), at Clinton’s in Toronto on November the 24th and at O‘Grady’s in Toronto on Friday, December 1st. Details to come on all of the shows, but we hope to see all of you out at one of them.

We’d also like to remind people of the discussion Forum on our website. It is pretty sparsely populated these days. Any trash talking regarding this year’s hockey pool can be carried out there. Also a new thread has been started to discuss what fans of the Coal Mine Canaries should be called. Log in and have your say.

Finally, we are still looking for green bands that would be interested in doing a benefit show for the Sierra Club. We are looking for bands that have a fairly significant draw and preferably already have an interest in environmental issues who would be willing to give up all door proceeds to the Sierra Club.

That be it for now… Canary Heads?... Miners?... Bird Brains?... yeah, I like that one!
M,R,D,J and sometimes T!

August 12, 2006
Hi all, Matt here from the Coal Mine Canaries.  One of these days I will actually make somebody else email you - a treat for all of us I'm sure. Until then, however, things are going great for the band right now.  Our band is back up to a full complement, though we are still looking for another guitar player to come on board before the next album is recorded, though we are in no huge hurry as everything is sounding great as it is. The band is now me, Rachel, Dan Rosenthal and our new drummer Jay Trickey. Of course, our old bass player Tom is still a part time member of the band and we hope he continues to be.  He was with us at our last show and will be at our next one as a cowbell player extraordinaire.  We are still busy trying to sell our hats, shirts, sweat shirts and cd's/drink coasters to raise money for our next cd and for the Sierra Club of Canada.  As most of you already know we are selling our cd (Bad Flavoured Bubblegum Rock) for $12 each and a dollar from each sale goes to the Sierra Club.  Please help us reach our goal of raising $1,000,000 for the Sierra Club (and coincidentally $11,000,000 for ourselves)... only $999,948 to go! Thanks to all of you who have bought a cd, we truly do appreciate the support.  I know some of you want to purchase a cd but are intimidated by purchasing off the net whether it is through the link on our site or off of iTunes. Well, you can come pick up a copy in person at our next show which will be at the Degrassi House at 780 Queen Street East on Saturday, August 19th.  We are opening up for the band Ash again. Those of you who caught the last show we played with them will know that they are fabulous musicians and a great show.  We go on around 9PM and will play for about 45 minutes at which point Ash will start.  Please come out and pick up a hat, shirt or CD and have a beer with us and meet our new drummer, Jay. Ok, it has been a while since we have sent you some funny/interesting/scary links so here are a few to catch up.

First, for those of you who haven't seen it, this is the video Natalie Portman did while on SNL earlier this year - funny because it is so unexpected and out of character.
http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/42822/

Next is a'senses challenge'.  Normally I brag about how well I do on these but after getting the first 6 wrong (there are 20) I quit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/senseschallenge/

Finally, here is a really funny scam pulled off on some guys called, 'So you think you know her'.  Too, too funny unless it happened to me!
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/112631/do_you_really_think_you_know_her/

That's all friends, hope you are having a great summer and hope to see you at the gig next
weekend!

M,R,D,J and sometimes T!

May 30, 2006
Ok... Matt here from the Coal Mine Canaries. It's been a while since you have heard from us here in Canaryville so bear with me while I try to update you on everything that is going on.

First off, our first full length cd is finally done! "Bad Flavoured Bubblegum Rock" is now available for purchase on our website by credit card for $13.99 or from your favorite Coal Mine Canary (pick me, pick me!) for $12. Now, as much as we would like to give away the cd’s to all our friends and family (or in Rachel’s case her friend and family) we just can’t afford to do that. We thank you all for your support of us and our music ahead of time but deciding who we can and cannot give free cd’s to is not something we want to put ourselves in a position to have to decide. Also, $1 dollar from every cd sold, whether purchased off our website or from us in person, will go to the Sierra Club of Canada to help keep our world beautiful. (For more info about the Sierra Club of Canada, please go to sierraclub.ca). For those of you who don’t want to support us or the environment, you have very little time to get your free mp3 copies of our songs off of our media section as they will be pulled down any day now. However, they will soon be available for purchase from iTunes.

Second, Tom Lai, our much loved bass player has left the band to pursue his life dream of joining the competitive eating circuit. We wish him the best of luck at his first professional event next week – The Milwaukee Pickled Egg Gorge! Unfortunately, Tom was not only our bass player, he was also the “good looking one”. (In case you were wondering, I am the “deep, thoughtful, and troubled one”, Rachel is the “funny one” and Tommy is “the clumsy one who carries with him a slight scent of day-old fried chicken”). Fortunately, we were able to keep our band’s sex appeal with our new bass player – Daniel Rosenthal. A good bass player with model-like good looks, Dan will step right off the runway and into your hearts! Stay tuned for pictures and more info on the website about Dan.

Third. So when can you see newbassplayerDan and get a copy of our new cd from us personally? Friday, June 9th ! Come check us out next friday when we will be opening up for the band Ashraf. After our set of stumbling around the stage knocking things over and trying to ignore that faint scent of aging fried-chicken you can see some real musicians. The show is at 9:30 at The Where Else Lounge and Pub in the beautiful villa of Scarborough. AND we will be joined on stage by oldbassplayerTom which should be kind of exciting (I’m not sure for who but I need to upsell this stuff). With both Tom and Dan there it will be kind of like the passing of the Green Jacket at the Masters… except NBC probably won’t carry it. Even the Outdoor Life Network took a pass.

Fourth. Fish are really weird compared to us. It has to be said.

Fifth order of business is that I am trying to organize a 10 person Relay for Life team to help raise money for cancer research. The event goes from 7PM, Friday June 23rd to 7AM, Saturday June 24th. Ask your mommy’s and daddy’s if you can stay overnight for this event. There will be lots of entertainment (don’t worry - not our band so it will probably be pretty good) and it should be a good time that you will walk away from feeling like you have done something to make a difference. If you would like to be part of this event, please email me back.

Finally, the first CMC hockey playoff pool is effectively over as there is only one person with any players left and he is winning. Congratulations to Kyle Haaf who took first place and Corrie Harkness who finished 2nd.

Coal Mine Canaries out!

April 19, 2006

The end of the 1st annual Coal Mine Canaries hockey pool has arrived! Congratulations to the winners: Steven Dunford came in 1st and wins $150 and a CMC hat shirt and cd; Mohammed Ali wins $50 and a hat shirt and cd, and Dave Jones wins the much coveted hat shirt and cd combination. I'd ask all the winners to contact myself, or whomever in the band they know best to let us know the size and color of the clothing they want and how we should get the prizes to you.

Next order of business... the first annual Coal Mine Canaries playoff pool is now open. Games start on friday but you have until 6PM on saturday to get your teams in. We made it really easy this time - all you have to do is pick an 10 players you want and email them to me (matt@coalminecanaries.com). The only rule is that you have to have players from at least 2 different teams. Goals and assists are worth one point each. The team with the most points wins. Once all the teams are in I will enter them in officepools website again and send everyone the password information. Prizes this time will depend on how many people enter. First prize will be one dollar for every person who enters up to a maximum of $250 and a shirt and cd, 2nd prize will be a shirt and cd and third prize will be a copy of our musical beer coaster, "Bad Flavoured BubbleGum Rock". So, the more people who enter, the more there is for first prize - only one entry per person and per email adress please. Get your friends and family to mail in their draws - it's open to anybody. Eveyone who enters will be automatically be added to the Coal Mine Canaries Mailing list - relatively painless. Ummmm... am I forgetting anything? Don't know anything about hockey?... try espn.com or cbssportsline.com and look under hockey (Mom, that would be the "NHL" tab). Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have.
Matt out.

Oh, and for all those die hard Maple Leaf fans - yes, you can still pick Leaf players if you really feel you have to.

April 14, 2006
Hi all, lots going on here in the Coal Mine Canaries’ band board room. First of all, we are in the final stretch of getting our cd finished. We are just finishing up the artwork on the album and then need to have the cd’s pressed. We have had some trouble deciding what to do as far as our album cover goes. It’s funny, but we have spent almost as much time on that as we have on the music aspect of the cd. We were hoping to get some feedback from those of you who know the band what type of image we should go with. As such we have selected a bunch of album covers from some our favourite bands that we are trying to use as a template for our own cd cover. Here is a link to the album covers we are thinking of copying. Please take the time to look at these album covers and email us to let us know which type of look would best reflect our music and the bands’ personalities… well, not Rachel’s personality. We don’t want to reflect that.

Also we now have a copy of all 11 mastered tracks on our website in the media section. These are the final versions of what will be on the cd except that these are all in mp3 form. They are free to download for at least a little while until the cd is actually done and ready for sale. We know you will all want to buy the cd’s when they come out anyway to support the band and the Sierra Club of Canada whom we will be working with. How come I type the word “whom” but never say it? Anyway, $1 from every cd sold will be donated to the Sierra Club.

Finally, it is good that the cd is almost done as it is part of all the prize packages for the first annual Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool that is now drawing to a close. With just a few games left the leaders are:
Mohammed Ali – 1025 pts
Steven Dunford – 1018 pts
Christ Wright – 1008 pts
Dave Jones – 1007 pts
Cool Cat Matt- 979 pts. (Yeah me!)

For those of you who missed the regular season hockey pool, or just didn’t fare so well, the relatively instant gratification of the playoff pool is just around the corner. We will announce the rules and prizes for that fairly soon so stay tuned.

Lastly, just a reminder that the Coal Mine Canaries are playing at Sam and Pete’s in Vaughn on Thusday, Apr. 20th at 9PM. We would love to have all of you come out to see us play, but would settle for some of you. The show is upstairs and there is free pool. Sam and Pete’s is located at the Hwys. 400 and 7 AMC Plaza. That be it for now! M, T, T and R

March 06, 2006
Hey all, it's been a long time since we've bothered you with an email, but I thought it was time to remind everyone that we are still around.  Things are skipping along for the band.  The mixes are starting to sound really good as we get closer to finnishing the album and the artwork is really starting to come together.  We will be playing our next show on Friday, April 7th in Toronto at 360 Adelaide St. West.  The venue is so new it doesn't even have a name yet.  We will have band hats, shirts and jackets there for sale and hopefully our freshly printed cd's too!  But maybe you're too cool to wear anything that says Coal Mine Canaries on it?  Us too!  That's why we suggest you buy them for your friends and family.  Has the neighbours kid broken your window again?  We have kids shirts - buy him one and know that he will be ridiculed by his friends and classmates until he developes irreperable psychological damage!  Are you rich?  Think of our merchandise as high end cleaning rags!  Nothing gets tough sticking grime off your bathroom surfaces like a ladie's fitted t-shirt!... Except maybe two of them!  Do you hate our music?  And why wouldn't you?  But don't think of them as "C.D.s" - think of them as beer coasters (of course you will probably want to buy four for a complete set).  Anyway, please come out and check us out on April 7th.   

Now on to some sad news.  I haven't really wanted to talk about this (as I am no longer in the lead) but it is time to face our demons.  Mohammed Ali looks like he is on the verge of running away with the hockey pool.  He has 799 points as I write this.  The battle for 2nd, however, is still very close and there is still a possiblility that will a couple of injuries he could still be caught by Ritchie S, Chris Dorans or Dave Janke.  But remember, after the regular season their will be a playoff pool!  Please stay tuned to updates as that time approaches.   

Ok, here is the CMC link of the month.  It was sent it was sent by Dave "budda" Janke (the same one who is currently in the top five of the hockey pool!). http://www.killsometime.com/video/video.asp?ID=103    

Finally, we have recently put our band up on myspace in addition to our original website.  One problem - we are almost friendless!  So if you have a myspace account, come visit us at myspace.com/coalminecanaries and give us at least the facade of social acceptability by adding us to your friend list. M, T, T, and R.

January 21, 2005
Hey all! Matt here from the Coal Mine Canaries... again, giving you the update on what the low-down on the band is.

First of all thanks to the new people who have joined our email list. Sorry, but you will now recieve emails from us. Also, thanks to everyone who came out to see us at the Horseshoe Tavern - I know it was short notice and the support was definitely appreciated. The show didn't go quite as well as we would have liked as we had some techincal problems (the drummer forgot his drum kit). Thanks to the band Focal Point for lending us theirs. Check them out at www.focalpointband.com.

As for out site, you can now view the hats and shirts and hoodies that we have for sail. It says to email Matt for any merch, but if you are friends with Tom or Tommy you can email them instead. If you are a friend of Rachel's I know you are just an imaginary one. It helps her to pretend. Also we have a couple of pictures from the Horseshoe gig that you may want to check out. People have said it looks like Matt's guitar is too small. I don't think it is and it isn't reflective of the size of anything else anyway.

As for the CD, we are now in the mixing process so things are getting really kinda sort of close to almost being in the final stages. We are starting to work on our album art and hope to have everything done by some time in March. None of the partially mixed tracks are up on the site yet but things are starting to sound pretty good.

Also, you can view our Electronic Press Kit if you go to our links section. This is the basic form of what we will be sending out to Music Business types when we have our mixes done. Please check it out and give us some feedback on it and how we can make it better.

Finally here is our fun/interesting/educational link for this month - It comes from Jeff Linnen in Vernon, B.C. It is a bit more challenging than the sheep shooting I think. You will see two pictures and you will have to find as many differences as you can. I'm embarrassed (hey, do you think that word comes from having a bare ass, because that would be em-bare-ass-ing, wouldn't it?)... anyway, I'm emabarrassed to say that I was only able to find one difference between the two. Here's the link - let me know how you do. http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf

Finally don't forget to vote. We in the band don't know much about politics, but we all agree it is important to get that Bush guy out of office.

Matt, Tommy, Tom and Rachel (and her imaginary friends).

December 24, 2005
Seasons greetings from the Coal Mine Canaries. Matt here (as usual), giving you the update on what is going on in Canaryland. We gave Ms. Rachel Pottymouth a chance to write it but she is mean. For those of you who would like to read her very cruel, non-informative, profanity-laden, lie-infested update anyway it will be below this one.

First off, we are playing at the infamous Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, Dec. 30th at 8:45. We are (kind of) opening up for the Sadies. They play the night after us. We entreat (this is less humbling way of begging) you all to come out. We are playing at 8:00 - a good time for people that want to get home early but also great if you want to hang out with the band afterwards. It will be my New Years so I plan to have fun. Tickets are $10, but only $9.50 after mail-in rebate for anyone on the Coal Mine Canaries Mailing list. The Horseshoe is located at Queen and Spadina (370 Queen St. West to be exact). We encourage everyone to come out and bring your digital cameras to take pictures of the band. The best picture will win a $50 gift certificate to Kelsey's Restaurant and the 2nd best will win a CMC shirt or hat that has already been worn-in, but not washed, by Matt (you really want first prize in this one). Limit 2 pictures submitted per person and you can email them to admin@coalminecanaries.com. Also, you can't just take a picture of Tom because he is really photogenic. You have to include Matt or Tommy in the picture as well - it's more of a challenge to make us look good/cool. It is kind of like capturing a picture of a humming bird that isn't moving. Don't worry about Rachel - she won't show up on camera because she is mean.

All of the Coal Mine Canary Merchandise turned out really well. We will try to have some available at the show for sale and hopefully some pictures up on the website before then. As for the Hockey pool I have fallen to 4th place! After so long in the #1 position it is pretty upsetting to get knocked out of there. So we (I) am adding a rule change to the hockey pool. Anyone who passes Matt in points will be automatically disqualified. Oh, look, I'm back in first. Yeah, me! This is so exciting! Ok, just kidding. For those of you who are still emailing me, asking how to check the stats in the pool, here it is: Go to officepools.com. The pool is ID is "dirtybird". The password is "Mattiscool" You will not see "Mattiscool" You will see dots instead. This is OK and does not make it any less true. OK, that is all for now... unless you have a strong stomach and want to see what Rachel wrote (below). From all of us in the band have a great holiday season. Except for Rachel. She hopes you all get really sick and die.

(From Rachel) > I think that if there was anything more annoying than dirty fat men in speedos hitting on you at the beach when it's 100 degrees outside, it's Matt Folk. It's quite common really, on first contact, to think that Matt Folk has witty rhetoric, but upon further investigation, his dry, sarcastic wit is merely a poor attempt to mask his ignorance. Here are some testimonials.

Ruby is a bag lady from Hickstown, Ontario. Ruby the bag lady says "I met Matt Folk about 2 years ago while he was buying liver paste from the general shop, we chatted a little bit, he told me how he liked my bags. I laughed so much that milk came out of my nose, which was odd, because I wasn't drinking milk, but then, eventually, I realized that everything that came out of his mouth was just poorly articulated mindless dribble. But then, I met Tom Lai, the bassist of the Coal Mine Canaries, and damn shit! he's so dreamy. I wish I could borrow his vibrating bass!!"

Dave is a homeless guy from Matt Folk's home town of Vernon, B.C. Homeless Dave says "F**k dude, Matt Folk, I ain't heard that name since, well, since that stupeeed be-otch forced me to sign up for the Coal Mine Canaries mailing list. I ain't even got no computer! What an ass!! And then, he asked to borrow a quarter so he call his mom!! the nerve!"

Tommy is a drummer* from Toronto, Ontario (*name and occupation have been changed to ensure anonymity). Tommy says "Matt Folk talks too much. He never shuts up, especially when we are trying to practice. SHUT UP MATT!! who wants to come and smoke a spliff with me?" All in all, there really is no point to this except to take advantage of every opportunity to possibly throw insults at Matt. His head was getting a little bit too big anyway. (er, I mean his ego head, not his physical head, yes, that's big too, but there's little we can do to shrink his massive cranium...what a waste of space!)

peace out.

Rachel. <<

November 24, 2005
OK, I know you have all been waiting to find out when you can next check out the Coal Mine Canaries. The answer to your question is Friday, December 2nd at the Silver Dollar. Doors open at 8PM and ticket prices are TBA. It should be a great show because there are other bands there as well. If you only have time to watch one band I'd recommend the one before us as they will be much better than we are. We'd love to see you all there but we are realisitic so we will settle for our moms showing up (as usual). Also, ladies, don't forget bass player Tom will be there and he is a very good looking single guys with a great day job. And, guys, well... you can try your luck with the girls that strike out with Tom.

Coal Mine Canary shirts, girls fitted t's, kid's t's, hats and jackets are now ready. We are not sure if we will have any clothing available at this upcoming show for sale and our online store is not up yet but be sure to get yours before the Christmas rush (unless you are one of our family memebers - you already know that's what your getting for Christmas - just let us know the size and color you want). And we still need models for our new clothing line. Apparently our appeal to the people who have always wanted to be models didn't work out so I am now appealing to the people that hate models and resent the thin, child-labour promoting, arrogant business that is the fashion industry. Model for us and I guarantee you will never get another modeling job again - not even the thrift store will touch you with us on your resume.

That's all for now. Oh wait, the hockey pool. Who's winning... Oh, it's me! Now that's all,

Matt (and Tommy,Tom and Rachel who always make me do these emails).

October 30, 2005
Hey Canary friends, I hope you all had a great end to daylight savings time. It's my favorite day of the year. It's like getting money back from the government after paying taxes all year. Things are going well for the band. Coal Mine Canary hats, shirts and jackets will soon be available in a variety of colors and sizes. And guess what?... we will need people to model them. Have you ever wanted to be a model? Then get in touch with us and we will put you in some of our clothes and throw you up on the website. If you are ugly please don't reply (sorry to my family). Word to the wise, however, this will not be a professional photo shoot and we can't aribrush. You are stuck with what god gave you. I am actually thinking of modelling some of the clothes myself. I once had a job as a model. It was with a sporting goods company modelling goalie masks.

Other than that we are in the process of trying to confirm our next show which we think will be on Friday, November 18th, though we won't know for sure for a week or so yet.

The hockey pool is going well. Heck, it's going great! I am pleased to announce that as I write this I am tied for the lead with Mohammed Ali. For those of you who have deleted the last email, you can still check your hockey pool at officepools.com. The pool name is dirtybird and the password is "mattiscool" (if you type it often enough you will start to believe it).

Finally, we are now going to set up a Fun Link section on the website that we will add to once every month. The coolest or funniest link we find will be added. The best link we got this week comes from Kyle Haaf. Always wanted to shoot sheep with a tranquilizer gun but never had the chance? Well, here's it is! Sheep-Tranq Can you beat Matt's score of 0.1045? It only took him 4 hours. Let us know what your best scores are - we are competitive! Have a happy Halloween everybody! I'm off to see if my Wonderwoman costume still fits. Matt (and Tom, Tommy and Rachel)

September 14, 2005
Hey friends! Things are going great here in Canary Land. We have been busy in the studio editing, busy in the rehearsal hall practicing, busy out in the city playing and busy here on the website. Editing is going well and it still looks like we will have our cd done early in the new year. This timing will work great as a cd part of all the prize packages that will be awarded to the winners of our first annual Hockey Pool! 1st prize is $150 plus a Coal Mine Canaries hat, shirt and cd (all still in the manufacturing stage, but keep and eye out in our store section). 2nd prize is $50 plus a hat, shirt and cd. 3rd prize is the much sought after hat, t-shirt and cd combination. The cost to you for entering the Hockey pool… Nothing! This contest is open to anybody on our Coal Mine Canaries Mailing list. Sign up now for this contest and future contests. The deadline to get your teams in is midnight of October 4th, 2005. If you have any questions, hit Matt up with an email. Matt is already talking trash, saying he has a “system”. If anybody else has a “system” please enter the pool so Matt doesn’t win. If he wins, we will never hear the end of it!

Also, after October 1st all news from the band will only be available through their mailing list and the website itself so sign up well the signing upping is good. Arrrghhh… I’m starting to talk like Rachel. The Canaries have been busy playing out around the GTA lately. Most recently they played at Clinton’s. The gig was…. well, nobody died during the performance. Actually, it went pretty well though the crowd was small (too much caffeine when they were kids in that part of town). Actually, we would like to thank the people that did show up (especially the one that wasn’t heckling us) on such short notice. It is better to play to a few friends than the sound man. The next scheduled date for the band is Saturday, October 1st at the NOW Lounge located at 189 Church St. in Toronto. We’d love to see all of you there (except for Ugly Bob) – please let us know in advance if you are coming so we can try to reserve a ticket for you as they seem to be much in demand for this particular gig. Also, please check out the pictures from our recent shows in the media section and thanks to everybody who has been trying out our chat forum… though I notice most of the postings are still from Rachel who sees it as a way to compliment herself and from Tom who respectfully disagrees. See you soon, M.T.T.R

September 11, 2005
The Coal Mine Canaries Hockey Pool will be set up within the day. Stay tuned.
The show was great last night, thank you all for coming out. Picutures coming soon!!

August 22, 2005
Hey there, we updated our media page. We have added some of the songs that will be on our upcoming cd (as of yet untitled - but please send us any album title ideas if you have them. In fact, maybe somebody could start that topic in our Forum). Since it looks like the cd won't be available until the new year, we have put up 5 songs that don't sound too awful for you to check out. Please note that these songs have not yet been edited, mixed or mastered yet (this is Matt's disclaimer on any poor vocal takes)! They are still a long way from completion but we just wanted to share a bit of where we are with regards to the recording process. If you decide to download these songs, please make sure you do get a final edited, mixed and mastered copy of the songs when they are finnished as they will sound much better.We probably shouldn't be putting the songs up yet as they are not finished, but we were finding it way to frustrating to be telling fans, friends, family and the occasional tech-savvy vagrant who live scattered around the planet about our new songs but have nothing to show for it. Patience is a vertue? This band is BAD with a capital B(and A and D - like the vitamins) - we don't even know how to spell virtew! And the spell checker isn't working so hopefully you know what I'm trying to say.

Oh yeah, anticlimactic but please, please join our mailing list! I'm on my knees begging you to join it (you'll have to take my word for it). We are ever so insecure without people to spam. Also, you can soon expect pictures of the band to show up on the site so check back frequently. Tommy will be the bald guy, Matt will be the token white guy, Tom will be the guy with glasses and you will recognize Rachel as the one with the immaculately-kempt gotee. The dark spot in the fore ground will be a thumb as we are doing the pictures ouselves. I guess what we are trying to say is check the site out often as it is constantly being updated and becoming an internet wonderland. And hey, free thumb!

August 19, 2005
Hey there, this site is still under construction but there is still some fun stuff for you to see here - especially if you have a computer! We have finally (almost) finished recording our album! We have been in the Alex Mine's Recording Studio and House of Bondage (oops, those are actually two completely different places) for the past several months recording our first album which we intend to call our "Greatest Hits!". A link to Alex's studio can be found on our Links page (sorry mom, there is no link to the House of Bondage). Although the album is pretty much recorded we still have several months of editing and mixing ahead of us so we don't think the album will be ready until some time in the new year. We have, however, put up one song in our media section that we think sounds pretty good. Unfortunately this song may not make the album as it is our only original song and doesn't really fit well with all of the Celine Dion covers that make up the rest of the album - just kiddin'. Actually, more songs will be posted in the coming weeks as we plow through the time consuming process of editing and mixing. We are also practicing and getting ready to start playing out again and will update the site when we have some shows booked.

Please feel free to give us feedback and constructive criticism by visitng the forum or sending any of us an email. Note: "This site sucks" or "This song sounds like three cats and an elephant on acid making love on the back of a flatbed traveling 100mph down a bumpy road" is not really all that constructive. Really though, please do take the time to listen to our song and join our email list and enter your credit card number (never mind we've already got it, and at $8.99/minute we thank your for your patronage).

Matt, Tommy, Tom and Rachel.