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Friday, April 29, 2011

I am a busker. I want to buy CD's again.

I am now a street performer. I got my license and everything. See?
So I can test out my change gaining abilities on street corners and such. Next week is my first time I'll be playing in front of a corner cafe downtown Barrie.


I few months ago I discovered downloading. 
Of course I've always known about it. Just never did it. 
I also like to watch tv only when a show comes out on DVD, usually they are HBO shows. 
I can't remember what it was, maybe Big Love or Californication, but I couldn't find the season and thus downloading was introduced to me. 
Now I download movies and music from torrent sites. 
But I feel bad. I really do. 
(mainly about the music less so over the movies)
Plus the movies tend to be in shitty quality anyways.
But I am trying to buy CD's again. 
It's just hard is all. 
Recently I heard a song by the band The Funeral Party. It's been on my mind to go and find a disc by them. I was in a Futureshop today. I used to buy quite a lot of discs from them about 5 years ago. Now they had 3 racks of CD's nothing of note, certainly no Funeral Party.  HMV has also lost a lot of disc space. They have new releases at the front and the back corner has some others. The rest of the store is loaded with DVD's video games and... Books?!? (although I do like books, it just doesn't seem  to fit HMV)
Side Note* I heard HMV stands for His Masters Voice. Anyone one know if this is true?

I miss going into a CD store and searching through the disc's trying to find something different. 
I also miss having an actual CD in my hand to look through the insert and read lyrics, see who are the band members and what they played....etc....
I can see why a lot of people download (I'm doing it) 
I hate when I find a disc by a lesser known band that I've been wanting to get but it has a price tag of $24-29. That blows. ( I do remember buying Primus' first CD Suck on This for 24.99, actually I had my mom buy it for me) I suggest if you see that price, go to the bands site (if you can't see them live) and buy it directly from them. It will surely be cheaper, and sometimes they throw you extra things. 
I am going to stop downloading music from torrent sites. 
Maybe this karma will come around and people will buy/download my tunes. 
We'll see.
I suggest if you are in Ontario go to one of my favourite music stores Sunrise Records. It's great!

I will be giving an extra thing away soon as well check my website in the next little while to find out what...

-Neil
www.eyeswide.ca








Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Recording at Chalet Studios Last Summer.

2 posts in 2 days?!?!
Ya I'm still sick.
Stuck at home.
At least last night I sweated a lot of the sick out of me.
Didn't make for a comfortable night, but at least I know I'm getting better.
So when I went to Chalet Studios http://www.chaletstudio.ca/ to record in Three Days It was originally In Two Days, because I had only 2 days to record the CD. I later was able to go to Red Sonic Studios http://www.redsonicstudios.com/ , where I had my mastering done, and record 3 more tracks. Anyway, for some reason I was never able to put the videos into the editor on my Mac to make a cool little montage. I kind of forgot about them. and I'll be wiping this PC very soon and those videos will go with them. So I'm going to post some of them here, unedited. Hope you enjoy them. 

Natural Things Practice

I Can't Play The Piano

The Intro is Key

The Song Chart

A look around the Studio while Aaron plays

Waiting from the Booth Last vocal take

I've got other's but they are either too long or too boring. It seems I've already deleted some of these videos because I remember there being a lot more. Ah well.
So there is a little bit of Eyeswide history. It's not even 1 year ago but it feels like it was quite longer. I'm planning on preparing the next album after the 2011 summer. I've got about 5 or 6 songs I'd like to record right now plus I've got 7-8 more where I've got varrying levels of completion. A few music is complete, a few have just verse chorus riffs. I've got some scattered lyrics for most of them. I'm thinking September is a good month to write.

-Neil

Monday, April 25, 2011

My Body Does Not Want to Function. How Selfish Of It.

Today I am ill.
I do not feel great.
My body is chilly and hot. I have a heavy head. I am weak, kitten like.
I am also mucousy. Let's not forget that.

I felt like writing something but not really about anything.
I'll mainly post some images.
Sadly I will not chat about the kids game I dislike so much, maybe next time.
In the realm of education I was renamed again. 2 students gave me  s couple of more light hearted but I find creepier names than the ones pertaining to poop.
They were, Mr Lovebear and Mr. Cuddlebum.
I'm pretty sure I gave these kids absolutely no reason to inspire those names.

Summer tour is going good I'd like to have it completed by Mid May. I've got 11 or 12 dates confirmed about 6 unconfirmed and some floating around waiting for me to figure out where they are.
Here's the promo image I decided to use to promote the tour. I'm a classy guy.

I;ve got some images done I'll be using for T-Shirts and Stickers. I'll save them for later until I finally decide which ones I'm going with.

Some more New York dates have popped up so the "You can't call this a tour" poster might not appropriate. Because , well, it seems to be turning into a short US tour.


I've got a banner floating downtown Barrie. It will be there until the end of June I believe.
It's to help promote The Spring Art tour, which I'm apart of. 
I did my bet shimmying to get up hear.

I think the bed calls for me again. 
Short and sweet.



Friday, April 15, 2011

While Promoting my CD I didn't play anything from it. I also hugged Grimace.

SET LIST Thursday Apr 14, 2011
To Believe
Infinity 8
Animal
Come Together (Beatles cover)
Brick
E-Dub
Dynamite (Taio Cruize cover)
What Are We Gonna Do Come The Month Of September (Matt Mays cover)
Man On Fire
I'm going to start listing my set lists. Here's the first one. Maybe I should add them to my website as well. What do you think?

I had my art opening the other night for the Focus on Art gallery showing at Chris Schell's Optometry Clinic http://eyecarebarrie.com/ I didn't have a huge turn out but that's ok as Tara said "It's the quality of the show." I remember Theo Huxtable saying something similar to his friends in the change room when they asked him how many ladies his been tappin'.
I was amazed at how good the sound was in that place!
Here I was hiddling with my floor monitor. No sound was coming out of it, then I realize, Hey now! I don't need this. The room sounds amazing!
Now I still need to look in to the monitor to see what the trouble was... later, later.
For some reason I decided the night before that i was not going to play any songs form my CD.
I don't really have a reason. Some might say "Um Neil that is foolish." or "You're a fucking retard."
But I say Ney!
I wanted to play songs I wanted to play. And the audience enjoyed it thoroughly. I actually ended up playing one track from the CD , Man On Fire. They were enjoying and I thought one more was in order. Sort of an Unrequested encore, if you will.
Sold a goodly amount of CD's and got hooked up with a well paid gig in June so The night was a success says I.
Summer tour booking is in full force so far Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are locked in. As well another New York show added to the list in good ol' Rochester!

This is my red pick. It is my favourite. It's got a nice grip, not to hard, not too soft. Just right.
But some times it takes time off. Every now and again it disappears for varying amounts of time, and pops up just in time for an important show (but Neil are they not all important shows?) I had not seen this litlle guy for about 3 weeks before my Art opening show and 2 days before, there it is! it must be magic.

I am currently not drinking for the month of April. 15 days down 15 to go.
I find that with out the drinks I become less social in the evenings and go to bed earlier. I had free tickets to see Tokyo Police Club and Hollerado. after the opening band Dinosaur Bones, I went next door to have a seat until the next band set up. While sitting I got really tired and talked my self into going home to bed. I did see them already, I didn't pay for the tickets, I do have to work in the morning. Ya let's get outta here.  And off I went. 
I'm a party animal.
There have been a couple of times where i've craved a pint in a pub are a nice rye and coke in a heavy glass. That's about it. 

So how many of you have gotten a chance to hug Grimace. Or better yet who remembers who Grimace is? ok how about the Hamburglar? Oh Ya I was at McDonalds for a grand opening and hung out with the McFamily. Wouldn't you wrap your arms around that giant purple gum drop? 


OK that is all tonight. 
Next time, a child's game I refuse to play.

-Neil
www.eyeswide.ca 



Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I've been renamed....twice.

At work on Friday. I was given two new names.
The children felt The Mr. Crowe did not do justice to the awesomeness I exude.
Thus I was dubbed Mr. Crap and Mr. Shittypants. I think the last one is Italian.

To say the least it was nice to not have to work the next day.

I did an audition last week to be a street performer in Barrie this summer.
Me plus 4 our judges from Barrie, Toronto, Owen Sound, and Orillia.

I'm not really sure if I want to actually do it, or if I can because I will be off traveling the Canadian countryside in July/August area. but I figured what the hell. I've only busked once. It was in New York. I can't see any spot in Barrie having anything close to that effect Central Park had on me. Nonetheless  it will be exposure.
how grumpy do I look? I was actually trying to remember words.
I'm also wearing a She Roars! T-shirt an East Coast band I played with in Fredericton.

I returned to Toronto. I had the offer to open for a band at THe Smiling Buddha Bar. I didn't have much chance to promote because I found out about it the night before. I ended up with 12 people all from Thunder Bay(my home town). But here's why I bring this up.
I took off after my set and did not watch the main act. 
Not a great thing to do, I don't usually leave with out seeing the other acts. It seems rude. 
But this group of guys, who I have not seen in a long while and do not live in the area, wanted to go else where for drinks so I felt it was ok to slink off before the others started. 
But as we were heading out the singer was outside having a smoke and asked where we were going and told us it was his birthday. 
It was just, you know, I felt bad already but being caught leaving was like putting salt on the wound.

SO far it looks like I will not be apart of any Festivals this summer. I was hoping to get one or two and plan a tour around them. I've gotten either rejections and no replies. Which I guess is not a surprise. I'm new, I don't have a large following, I've not played many of the cities where the fests are taken place, and I'm not a full band. A lot of things going against me. 
So this month I will start emailing and calling venues to plot out a cross Canada tour first to the East, then the West, and finally back to the Toronto area. 
I've been collecting venues over the past year and have quite a good list, a mix of bars, coffeehouses, and music venues. I'm always adding to it. 
If any of you out there know of a good place to play in your hometown let me know I'll try and get a show there  this summer.

I may have sent this before, I've sent my CD off to the Canadian College radio stations, since it was released, but I never knew if it was being played or not. But now I have proof that my songs ARE being played (at one station anyway) The Ex in Kamloops, BC lists it's daily log and my songs pop up once or twice a week. They even played the intro track. Which I never expected anyone to play.
There we are at the bottom my song Waiting is in a set with Gas Light Anthem, Motorhead and Dashboard Confessional. Not too shabby if I do say so. Sure Eyeswide is supposed to be one word, what can you do? 
I must Thanks The Ex ( http://www.thex.ca/ ) for playing my songs. 

New York coming up. So far only one show I'm playing Piano's on May 26th. I would like one or two more butI can't complain. I'll be on Vacation with my girlfriend and I get to play a cool club in NYC.

I've go to practice some guitar before lunch.
Off I go.
-Neil
www.eyeswide.ca