New Dawn Fades video (Joy Division cover)

Joy Division is one of my favorite band.

I was recording a new track and noticed that the chords progression, even though slower, darker & kinda far-fetched, had similarities to "New Dawn Fades". Every time I would work on my track, I couldn't get the original one out of my head. So I gave up and went ahead to record a cover instead, embracing the essence of its mood --- doom-gaze style!

I impulsively decided to make a video for it, shot in NYC:



I also fell on Moby & Dave Navarro's cover, who managed to completely butcher the song. So this is kind of a response to it as well... although I'll probably get bashed on Youtube like everybody else.

CATALOGUE @ Pop Montreal 2009

CATALOGUE is a music event of improvised music on analog synths, debuting at the festival this year.

CATALOGUE is not a traditional music performance. Musicians will be displaced all around the venue, and there's no stage. "Sound stations" — an analog synth, an effect pedal and an amp — will be located around the space, and musicians are invited to use any vacant station at their will.

See local artists The World Provider, Montag, Bernardino Femminielli, and Numéro# — along with other Pop Montreal performers who join in. Visuals by the amazing, trippy Organ Mood.

The CATALOGUE itself is a registry that logs participants' contributions, so that all musicians will be credited on the session recording — available for download on the CATALOGUE website.

All musicians performing at Pop Montreal 2009 are invited to be a part of CATALOGUE. Go to http://www.montag.ca/catalogue to learn more.

PARTICIPANTS include members of...

BERNARDINO FEMINIELLI
MONTAG
NUMÉRO#
PIERRE CRUBE
THE WORLD PROVIDER
THIS QUIET ARMY
ZACHARY GRAY
LE COULEUR
PLAZA MUSIQUE
HEXES AND OHS
ILKAE

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Alien8 Recordings presents: Nadja + Aun + thisquietarmy

So, Nadja is back in Canada! First show in Montreal in a year or so...

Funnily enough, it'll be the first thisquietarmy show since I last played with them on the last day of our European tour in Szczcecin, Poland on June 21st. I've played some local gigs since I came back, but they were for the most part improvised or collaborative sets... which were well needed after playing semi-rehearsed material for 3 weeks straight, almost every day.

Also, after several months of inactivity, Casa Del Popolo is back in full operating mode as a legitimate venue! We all missed this place dearly, I've already seen a few shows there since the re-opening this month, and it's stronger than ever!

Looking forward to it!

Jam with Shane Whitbread in Ottawa

P572 improv show

P572 house show in Quebec City on 26/08/09
featuring Electroluminescent, with a thisquietarmy/Millimetrik/Electroluminescent collaborative improv;

We all got at the house early pm to jam in preparation for the show that was to happen later that evening. Pascal/Millimetrik played drums, I played guitar & effects of course. Ryan/Electroluminescent decided to join us on korg/moog dual-synths.

The actual performance was much better and tighter, things were happening, krautrock/experimental-ambient style... very nice! Good reception from the 30 or so people that made it on a sunday evening, in Limoilou, Quebec City.

Here's what the live jam sounded like: http://bln.kr/1HW/

Maybe the beginning of yet another project?

Video: Live performance @ TAC, Eindhoven (NL)

Live performance at TAC, Eindhoven (NL) - June 11th, 2009

It's short video, courtesy of TAC TV, only 8 minutes which is too bad, because it cuts as it is getting good... but the video captures the atmosphere of that night, the massive projections (done by tqa), the head swaying, the bar in action... great souvenir & memories! Had a great time there...

This quit army, 11 juni '09 from tactv on Vimeo.

This Weekend: UNSOUND 4 + Piknic Electronik

Saturday July 11th 2009: UNSOUND chapter 4

World premiere of GHIDRAH, the 3-headed drone-monster comprised of Aun, Maggot Breeder & thisquietarmy --- playing with this awesome lineup:

LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK (Crucial Blast, USA)
http://www.myspace.com/cleansingdrones

SQUALOR (Montreal's Sludge Kings!)
http://www.myspace.com/squalormtl

REI REA (Brise-Cul Records)
http://www.myspace.com/reirea

DJ KALI
http://www.myspace.com/morelikespace

UNSOUND MTL is the Canadian chapter of UNSOUND NYC. Established in october 2008, UNSOUND MTL is an organisation dedicated to bringing the best in live underground music to the stage in Montreal. Spanning a range of obscure sounds from dark ambient, industrial noise and power electronics to doom, drone and post metal, we host a diverse cross section of some of today's most challenging artists.

http://www.myspace.com/unsoundmtl

++

Sunday July 12th 2009: Piknic Electronik

Piknic Electronik - Scène STM (ambiante)

Nouveauté cette année! Une fois sur deux, 50% du temps, 2-3 fois par mois, une douzaine de fois dans l'année, la STM et le Piknic érigeront une 2ième scène qui sera positionnée aux abords du lac des Cygnes et qui proposera une programmation ambiante explorant un autre spectre de musique électronique.

http://piknicelectronik.com/programmation/

Dimanche 12 Juillet 2009
Piknic Electronik
Lac des Cygnes, Ile Ste-Hélène

15h00 - /de.i.te/
16h00 - Ben Steiner-Fleury
17h00 - thisquietarmy
18h00 - AUN

http://www.myspace.com/deite73
http://www.myspace.com/bfsprojects
http://www.myspace.com/thisquietarmy
http://www.myspace.com/martindumais

Regular piknic cover charge.

BRING YOUR OWN BOOZE and anything else you want!!!!
food, drinks: this is a piknic after all... no glass though.

The Big Takeover reviews Blackhaunter!

Awesome review of Blackhaunter (Elevation) in the Big Takeover, Issue No. 64, with the best name dropping I could hope for: GY!BE, MBV, Low & David Lynch! Also, I'm definitely taking this quote "relaxation tape for demons" as an artist description! Read it:

thisquietarmy - Blackhaunter

Slow waves of sound wave breathe into the first song, and continue for the next seven minutes. I'm not sure what I was expecting with a "post-shoegaze" description, but this is almost post-everything. Experimental lush soundscapes, created with minimal notes and chords, sound like a capture of one background effect off of My Bloody Valentine's mixing board. Drums and keyboards kicks in on "Vampyr" as we shift into ethereal gothic oceans, like Godspeed You! Black Emperor covering a song by Low, and then next into a nine-minute journey that feels like a David Lynch backdrop. These sounds are pulled like sonic taffy and stretched out so far, that you can't even see the rock that it's supposedly post from. It's like a relaxation tape for demons, I think! Check it out. (elevationrecordings.net)

Nightlife Magazine reviews Transmissions!

Local Nightlife magazine reviews Transmissions (Alien8):

thisquietarmy - Transmissions (Alien8)

Melodic drone and atmospheric noise is like classical music for rave babies reaching maturity (or beyond). While classical music is largely based upon natural sounds, our unnatural environment is a major influence (as are film soundtracks, of course). In fact, this album is intended to be a soundtrack for Christy Romanick’s book, Very Large Array, which comes with the digital download. It’s also inspired by the intersection between nature (space) and technology (TV transmissions). But the best thing about Transmissions is the music, which is exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric. Gentle, melodic and as big as space, tune in to receive thisquietarmy’s excellent Transmissions. (LC) 4.5/5

http://www.nightlifemagazine.ca/magazine/view/2043

Labelmate, fellow droner and friend Aun also got a good one for Motorsleep:

European tour CD/DVD Luftpost & new T-shirt now available for worldwide consumption!

"Luftpost" is an exclusive European tour double 3" CD-R/DVD-R, hand-packaged in a black envelope designed by thisquietarmy. The CD-R contains 21 minutes of exclusive music (2 new tracks: "Luftpost" & "Ceremonies"), and the DVD-R contains a 30-minute audio live set recorded in Montreal, with the visuals projections that were used for that show. Also included is a set of 4 photographs by Meryem Yildiz (www.nitescence.net) made specifically for thisquietarmy.


Leftovers from the European tour with Nadja are now available for worldwide consumption: http://www.thisquietarmy.com/records/releases.html#tqa010


New thisquietarmy T-shirt designed by Matt Gauck @ Next Stop Adventure from Portland, OR. White ink on army green, printed by Toxic Kids Screenprint in Berlin, Germany!

Get yours: http://www.thisquietarmy.com/records/distro.html#tqats002

Europe Tour Recap

Hello,

I am back from the European tour with Nadja!

17 shows in 21 days, in 7 countries --- some 7000 km or so! Quite a lot of road and a lot of work, but it was a pretty great experience. As always, some surprises and some disappointments but still successful enough, especially for a first TQA tour.

Favorite shows were in Paris, Berlin & Krakow, though honorable mentions to Esslingen for having the show in an outdoor museums, Lyon for being in a boat and Eindhoven for the great arts center & its crew --- though every city had something special and/or different that will always be remembered, and I would go back to play in each one of them.

Many thanks to everyone who showed up, talked to us, promoted the shows, made us food, provided us a place to stay & entertained us. It's these little things that make it nice and enjoyable on the road.

I will attempt to do a recap in the next few days, with pictures, diaries, reviews and everything. Maybe it might get redundant and boring, who knows... thus the emphasis on attempt.

Stay tuned and check back in time as entries for every day are being added!

Poland

I need to get rid of these blog updates, so let's condense all of Poland in one entry.

-Krakow-

Because of the lack of highways in eastern Europe, it took about 7-8 hours to get to Krakow, Poland. We arrived late and the show started early, but we managed to get proper soundcheck and we rushed to the Green Way vegetarian bar for a pretty good meal (I don't remember what I had... some sort of Samosa/Pierogies). I had to get on stage right after that though... The venue, which was inside this huge pub with an outdoor garden, was quite packed at that point, a young appreciative crowd... A lot of the people around looked like college hipsters/scenesters, which was weird to see thousand of miles away from home. I didn't sell a lot of merch in Poland, but I can understand why: their Zloty currency is not the highest in Europe and for the price of one CD, I guess you can buy about twenty beers.

With the long trip and the late arrival with no time to relax, the gig happened and ended very quickly. We were brought to the Mundo Hostel to drop our stuff and we went for drinks at Kawiarnia Nokowa. I also had a late night Zapiekanka, which is like a long pizza bread... I had the regular one with mushrooms, cheese and garlic sauce, it was quite yummy!



-Poznan-

Again, with the 7-8 hours long drive. We arrive slightly late without breathing time. Shows in Poland have been starting at 8pm sharp, which is quite early and weird. Everyone was disappointed about the turnout, and blamed the next day exams...


25 minutes of Youtube clips available (in 3 parts):

To make up for it, the promoters took us out to two different bars for drinks (don't know the names)... We got out of the last one at 4am and it was already quite bright outside. I ended up getting wasted with beer, shots of vodka and else... We were quite intoxicated and I got... sick in the process, fun times though.


-Warsaw-

Felt quite under the weather for the whole ride and the whole day... The weather was crappy and did not help my mood. To top it off, the venue was switched and the show was moved to a squat in the middle of nowhere. There was a generator running on gas to provide power for the show and they actually ran out in the end, cutting Nadja's set short though it was planned. We were also playing with this other polish emo-crust band (?!) called Panacea, and there was no blank walls to project the visuals... so they were skipped for this show. But with the room jam-packed, no one could really see anything, the visuals would've greatly helped in this case... Ah well. Something weird also happened with my loop-sample, some kind of sketchy power surge made it skip a beat and it was one of those upbeat 4/4 song... it threw me off completely and I had to improvise and transition to something else... sort of embarrassing. Had to finish with Battlefield Arkestrah/Warchitects to save myself. Applause was quite long, sort of like a call for an encore, but I was frozen... Here are pictures of the squat:


-Gdynia-

Gdynia is an industrial/portuary town north of Poland... Again, this show was quite rushed because there was some kind of prom dance party going on after the show. The venue, Ucho, was quite huge that it was unclear how many people were actually attending the show... I think it went okay. The stage was high and there was a couple of photographers taking close-up shots and such. Also the projection screen was on the top-left of the stage, which was a bit weird.


Newspaper article:
http://gazeta.razem.pl/index.php?id=2&t=1&page=8234

Eight8s Blog report:
http://eight8s.blogspot.com/2009/07/thisquietarmy-nadja-ucho.html

-Szczecin-

Last show of the tour, we were all getting cranky at this point. The sky was still grey and the roads were slow and winding, although it made nice road pictures:


We played at the Alter-Ego bar, a nice little red pub at the bottom of this huge town hall. They played Swans' Children of God on the stereo for most of the evening.


END OF THE TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!

We went back home to Berlin that night... only 1h45 away. Stayed in town for a couple of days before coming back to Montreal...

Prague

Back on the road for one week in Eastern Europe. We arrive in Prague early afternoon, and make a run to see some of the city before sound check:


The gig itself was alright... Sound was good on stage, but the configuration of the venue was not the best for optimum sound waves traveling. Here's some pictures of the gig...

Berlin

Berlin - temporary home sweet home - last show of the 1st leg and a few days off. It was like a homecoming show for Nadja, at Scholodaken --- a small but warm and cozy bar mid-town. The soundcheck sounded pretty bassy on stage, but pretty trebly in the room... not sure what it sounded like at show time, but the place was pretty packed, which was nice to see.

For this show only, I used 2 projectors for my set, with different sets of projections which I think added to the ambiance and mood, however without screens. The ghostly abstract visuals had an even ghostlier presence on the red wallpaper. I was pretty satisfied with this set in general, I wish people snapped some pictures to capture the atmosphere of the moment, I haven't seen any online. Though I did snap one of Nadja during soundcheck.


The next day, Aidan, Helge & I went to see the Russian monuments:


Then took a walk around Treptowers Park:

We also jumped up the fence and broke into Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park, but we ran into security lurking so we quickly got out of here. That's too bad though. Leah & Jill attempted it again a few weeks later, successfully! Leah managed to take some great shots of it, check her entry and photos here.

Last day off in Berlin before leaving for Eastern Europe: the rest of the touristy stuff.