Morning Noon Night

Here’s a video of Attack in Black playing a new song at this year’s SappyFest. Highlight of my summer.

One year ago this month, I posted a video on my blog that I shot of Attack in Black playing at SappyFest 2008. I didn’t know it at the time, but that video was really the start of Morning Noon Night. It took me a few months to realize that it might be interesting to have an entire blog dedicated exclusively to live videos, but once I did there was really no turning back. I’ve uploaded almost 100 videos now, and with this month being the unofficial one-year anniversary of this blog it seems like a good time to go through my video vault and post some never-before-seen gems. The first one I’ve got for you is a song I shot this past August at SappyFest! On the last day of the festival in the middle of the afternoon we all packed into the Vogue Theater to watch Snowblink. It was about 300 degrees in there – people were literally sticking to the seats. Anyway, the band invited a bunch of their friends to come sit on stage and clap and ring bells, and once they all started playing it really didn’t matter how hot it was in there. Grab their newest album Long Live… because it’s gorgeous!!

I sorta forgot to post the rest of my POP videos. Is it even worth it anymore? Just check my YouTube page for the rest. This one here is of PS I Love You, shot at a house party they were playing. Free beer and nachos. Oof.

Here’s a new one from Adam and the Amethysts, shot last week at POP Montréal. I hadn’t seen ‘em play since SappyFest 08, so I was due to see them again. I still pop in their album Amethyst Amulet every so often and each time I’m struck by how fresh it sounds and how damn good all the songs are. Pick it up if you haven’t already!

After his set at this year’s SappyFest, I said, “Jon-Rae, wanna go play a song for me in the marsh?” and he said, “Sure Colin.” Once we got there, he told me that the marsh was haunted by an old woman with a lantern. He decided upon “Ghostsong” from his album Knows What You Need, which seemed appropriate. What you can’t see in the video is there were a couple skater kids watching from down the boardwalk. Once we were done filming, we started walking back to town, and as we passed them they told Jon-Rae how beautiful his song was. Yeah, it is pretty beautiful.

I didn’t end up shooting much video while out east. In fact, I brought about eight tapes but only shot 60 minutes worth of footage. It’s kind of hard to party when you’re carrying around a bunch of gear, and my main intention at SappyFest was to have a good time (and I ended up having the time of my life) so it ain’t such a big deal that I only got a couple videos. Here’s $100, who I’ve seen more than any other band this year, playing with their newest recruit, my old homie from Oshawa, Jeff Peers. They’re running through a great tune written by Rick White, who is also sitting in with them for this number. I’m pretty stoked ’cause Ian is playing the electric guitar. It’s all my dreams coming true. Enjoy.

As for me, I’m leaving in a few hours for Kingston, where I’ll be shooting a music video with PS I Love You. I’ll be sticking around the limestone city all weekend for the Wolfe Island Music Festival. Come say “Hi!”

One of the first bands I saw this year at SappyFest was The Harbourcoats, the still-sorta-new-because-they’re-relatively-unknown band led by Bry Webb from the Constantines. It was a really nice way to kick off the festival and definitely had me humming the songs to myself all weekend. This wasn’t my first time seeing Bry playing away from his regular gig – I remember hearing at least one of these songs when he did a set at the Three Gut Records 5th anniversary party years and years ago at the Tranzac, and I’ve subsequently seen him play on a few other occasions leading up to last Friday. Joining him this time ’round was Mike Feuerstack (aka Snailhouse) and my old pal Jonas Bonnetta (aka Evening Hymns). The songs were subtle and majestic, showcasing Bry’s powerful voice in a whole new way. I’m super excited to hear their forthcoming record, too bad no one knows when it’s coming out. Maybe I should look into getting that Constantines acoustic EP they put out a few months back to hold me over. Which reminds me: if anyone from Arts & Crafts is reading this, can you please press it to 10″ vinyl and send me a copy? What’s with this digital-only foolishness?

Anyway, while watching the video, please try to ignore the crowd chatter and shaky camera work and just appreciate the song. Doesn’t it make you want to hold somebody?

I took a trip to Sarnia earlier this week with some friends. Some of them play in the band Forest City Lovers, who were in town to play a couple shows. My friend Liz is originally from Sarnia, so we all got to stay at her old house where we played pool, drank Żywiec, hung with her dog Sophie and sampled unusual potato chips. In the morning we had a giant waffle breakfast. Awesome.