Decisions & Dilemmas

We have just found out that we will be playing at Beat Kitchen on May 17th. This doesn't give us much time to promote, but I think we'll be fine. It's our first show that is 17+ so we're excited about that. We go on first so we'll have to see if we can get a crap load of people there to kick it off right.

Last Friday we played at Kinetic Playground with Edith Blade, The Young & Madlys, Kamadevah! & Tiny Speakers. Thank you to everyone who came out to the show! There were a lot of people there that we didn't know, could it start to be the signs of a fan base!? We're keeping our fingers crossed.

A huge topic of discussion has been recording. Before we go back to Blam we would like to finish writing one to two more songs to ensure that the album is just a little bit longer. We are hoping to weave all the songs together as well, so it's one conscious stream. This is where the decision and dilemma comes in. We do have a few songs that we're working on but as of right now we're not sure which to focus on. Also, the last song we wrote was Cold Fusion... how the hell do you top that?! We're not sure... we may have screwed ourselves with that one. Time will tell.

Cold Fusion @ Union Rock Yards

Cold Fusion

This song was originally called Winter Ghost, an ode to Isa. On a very, very cold winter day in December, CANYON was practicing for their show at Elbo Room. After running their set several times, Brandon and Hex decided to work on a riff that Hex had shown Brandon previously. The riff was called "the Wind or Ghost" riff, because Hex said it reminded him of the band Wind or Ghost.

After hammering out the riff with Brandon several times, Brandon suggest that Hex use another riff that was in a song that had been long tossed out. The riff which was initially used in a song called "Getting Away With What The Girls Call Murder" was then added to the song. In order to get from one riff to another, Hex through in what he likes to call a "cop out" part. These are bridges that fit the song but are not very technical. In his words, "they get the job done." This part the called the "shoegaze" part.

About a month went by before CANYON was able to work on the song again. After moving to a new practice space in the beginning of '09, they were finally able to start working on new material. Brandon and Hex ran through the three parts they had initially had but weren't really able to come up with anything beyond that.

Another practice came around and Hex found Bailey & Brandon jamming out. Hex came in and started jamming along with them. While jamming Hex came up with a riff that he liked. Although it didn't really fit in to the jam that Brandon & Bailey were working on, he kept it in the back of his head.

Later on Cain showed up to practiced and the four of them continued to work on Cold Fusion. As they were playing the song Hex incorporated the part that he had come up with during the jam with Bailey & Brandon. By the end of practice they finally felt that the song was structured correctly. They ran through the song several times feeling fairly satisfied with the song.

At the next group practice CANYON ran through the songs as Ursula listened in. The song was worked on by all the members for a few practices. As the song finally felt done they stamped the song Winter Ghost, an ode to Isa.

The next practice CANYON decided to play Winter Ghost to get it out of their system. As the song was done everyone felt fairly happy with the song. Suddenly, Hex said, "this song sucks." Everyone was shocked asking why. He said he wasn't sure why. He said, the parts were there and they were all good parts, but that's all they were, a bunch of parts put together.

After dwelling on the song for a while they rearranged the parts in a slightly different pattern. While running through the new structure Cain heard Bailey try to do a 5/4 guitar riff during one of the previous attempts of the song. Cain suggested that Bailey incorporate that back in to the song. CANYON had tried several times to recreate what Bailey attempted in Cold Fusion. After several tries with out any success Hex, slightly frustrated, asked Cain where he came up with the idea. Cain stated that Bailey was able to pull it off. Hex started screaming "cold fusion." Cain said, "what?" Hex said, "they created cold fusion, once... it never happened again." Cain said, "it can be done, I heard it." Hex continued to just say, "cold fusion."

Hex trying to never oppose any one's ideas listened to Cain and CANYON kept hacking away at the new part. Eventually they were able to recreate what Bailey did. With this new addition they were able to add the final touch to the song and the structure was finally done.

Previously, Brandon and Hex had discussion about post-rock bands that would do a lot of "dramatic pauses" in their songs, but that most bands, they felt, never used them correctly. Taking this idea Brandon began to work on the ending of Cold Fusion.

Brandon was so energized by the song that he would come in on days that CANYON wasn't practicing to work on his drum parts. He eventually came up with an ending that he was satisfied with and thought that it would solidify the song, while Bailey and Ursula would come in before practice to eventually solidify their parts.

This is the story of Cold Fusion, the naming and structuring of the song.

No news can be good news.

Right now we're just preparing and promoting for our April 24th show at Kinetic Playground. We plan on giving away tickets, we're just trying to figure out a few ways to do so.

I'm finishing up a comp CD to give to WLUW so they can start promoting the show next week. It should have two songs from each band on there so they can play it during the day.

Here's our promo:

4/24/2009 9:00 PM at The Kinetic Playground
1113 W Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60640
Cost: $5 / 21+

Edith Blade - CANYON - The Young and Madlys - Kamadevah! - Tiny Speakers

Special Guest, DJ Monky

FREE PARKING

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for ticket give-aways. Also listen all next week to WLUW for tickets.

Enchufate!

Yesterday we played at Cobra Lounge with Subatomico and our good friends Arctic Fox. It was for a new TV program that is being put on by Enchufate! which airs every Wednesday on Channel 25, if you're in Chicago. We'll try our best to get a copy and post it on our You Tube and everywhere else.

We have also just posted our final versions of Good News and Seahorse & The Monkey on our MySpace page.