Old World Vulture

Model Citizen – opening reception

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 23:52:25 +0000

For those of you that live in St. Catharines, Ontario (or within the vicinity of), Mike’s having an opening for his first collection of works in a long, long time. Model Citizen opens this weekend. The images are watercolour on paper depicting various political figures from the last 200 years. Details are below:

Saturday, December 3rd, 7pm
Niagara Artists Centre (Member’s Gallery)
354 St.Paul Street
St. Catharines

Artist statement: This body of work represents my interest in the history of modern propaganda, the public image, youthfulness vs. aging, nationalism vs. individualism and the illusions contained within.

Here’s a link to the Facebook event page.

Photos: Rancho Relaxo, Toronto, November 12, 2011

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:28:52 +0000

The Take Media took some photos at the Two Way Monologues showcase we played with The Famines and OPOPO. Check them out here.

Hear|Here Video Series Vol. 1 featuring The Famines & OPOPO

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:16:46 +0000

Over the years we’ve had the chance to play with some great bands, and outside of archived show listings we’ve never truly documented the lineups.

We’ve started a Hear|Here video series that will feature clips and a brief write-up for every band that we play with. Simply put, there are way too many bands out there not to share with you. Support these artists when they roll through your town.

Band: The Famines
Hometown(s): Edmonton/Montreal
Website: thefamines.ca
Label: mammothcaverecording.com

Is this one song or three? In the end it really doesn’t matter. These guys are all about intensity. One of them lives in Edmonton, the other in Montreal. We were told they practice trough Skype, which clearly shows their dedication to the sport. Nice guys to boot, and they had a wicked graphic design aesthetic for all their albums, including a newly minted 12-inch that compiles tracks from 2008-2011.

Band: OPOPO
Hometown: Toronto
Website: opopo.ca
Label: urbnet.com

OPOPO sound like a two-piece garage rock band that only ever listens to house music. Pretty intense live set, too. We told them they had a lot in common with The Stone Roses and Screamdelica-era Primal Scream. They had never heard either band before. We made them vow to rectify this tragic mistake. Grab their entire catalogue here.

The whole night was put on by Two Way Monologues.

How the West Was Revisited

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:38:04 +0000

Download new single: “Trophy Lovers”

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:40:58 +0000

Click here to download.

A little bit about the song:

“Trophy Lovers” was recorded and mixed by Chris Hegge (Fucked Up, The Meligrove Band) at Audiolab Recording Company between November 2010 and May 2011 and mastered by Harris Newman (The Besnard Lakes, Handsome Furs) at Grey Market Mastering. The song’s title is from a series of paintings by Toronto artist Jane Duncan. The cover art was designed by Mike Costanzo.

It’s a bit more synth-focused than anything we’ve done before, and much of the new LP follows this direction. The song was written around the main synth melody (at the 1:04 mark) in bits and pieces over the course of a few months in 2010. We initially had a different ending, which, thankfully, was cast aside for what you hear now. We’re also not ashamed to admit that the new ending is reminiscent of Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life.” Your dad probably loved that song.

So there you have it: the first song off our new album

Thanks, as always, for coming out to the shows. 2012 is ramping up to be a great year. More details on the LP soon, we’re just sorting out some last-minute odds and ends.

A little older, a little wiser

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:18:59 +0000

Sheeeeit! It’s been, like, forever since we’ve played live, let alone updated this blog. We’ve all aged a little bit, lost some hair, gained some wisdom, expanded our families, and recruited a gun-slinger of a harmonica player named Mac (bottom-right). Check out his steely, stone-cold gaze in our new press photo. Run for cover.

We’re getting back into the live swing of things on November 12th with a solid show put on by our friends over at Two Way Monologues. We kick things off at 10pm, followed by The Famines and Opopo. Details are below:

Saturday, November 12th @ Rancho Relaxo, Toronto
Doors: 9pm
Cover: $7

Old World Vulture – 10pm
The Famines – 11pm
Opopo – 12am

ALSO! We’re giving away something special to our e-news subscribers the first week of November. Our communication is sporadic at best, so you need not worry about us spamming you too hard. You can sign up here.

Last show of the summer?

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:59:51 +0000

Just a quick update to fill you in on what might be our last show of the summer. We’re playing Wednesday, July 6th in Toronto at Hard Luck Bar with Portland/Boston-based ambient soundscapers Arms and Sleepers and our friend Ken Reaume, a.k.a. Black Walls. This isn’t a show you’ll want to miss. Another fine, fine a mountain far… event.

The plan, henceforth, is to spend our collective energy finishing the LP. We know we’ve been talking about this thing for a while. Well, here’s some stuff we can tell you about the record:

We went back to Audiolab and recorded it with Chris Hegge
There are nine songs
One of the first song we wrote is on it
There are lots of synths
There are lots of drums
There’s a lot of bass
There’s a moderate amount of guitar, but it’s tasteful
There are horns on it
Two of us listened to unhealthy amounts of Steely Dan while mixing the record
The other two abhor everything Steely Dan has ever released

NXNE 2011 & S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival updates

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:00:16 +0000

What day/time is it? In the event that it isn’t Thursday, June 16th at 2am or later, then this blog post is still relevant.

NXNE 2011

Our NXNE set is part of The Windish Agency showcase at the Horseshoe Tavern with the following bands: The Luyas, Royal Bangs, Suuns, PS I Love You and No Joy. Holy mackerel that’s a solid lineup. We’re on last at 2am.

S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival

We’re playing S.C.E.N.E. this year. ~~We have yet to find out the date/time of our set. More on that later. It’s a one-day festival so you’ll be able to catch at some point on Sunday, June 26th.~~ This just in… we’re playing at 9pm, upstairs at the Red Hot Chilli Pepper right before Northern Primitive – a band that put out one of our favourite videos earlier in the year. Here’s the full schedule for the day.

Odds & Ends

Some photos recently surfaced from our Indie Machine set on June 8th. Click here to check them out.

One of these days we’re going to post some LP info. Soon.

Comp Action

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Tue, 31 May 2011 02:08:29 +0000

There’s a great blog based out of Bahstahn called I Heart Noise that’s going to be putting out a few mammoth compilations over the next few months. We happened to land on one called Theory of Everything, and even though it’s not going to be officially released until October, you can download a four-song sampler here. So far we’re holding down the fort as the only Canucks with our song, “Benny.”

We recommend checking out all of the I Heart Noise comps, which you can download here, here, here and here.

There’s some good shit brewing in Beantown. But hasn’t that always been the case?

Toronto and Brampton shows

Mr. OldWorldVulture — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:33:03 +0000

We have a couple of shows in the works for next week. Details are below:

The Indie Machine is back with another showcase folks. Join us on Thursday, June 2nd at Rancho Relaxo for an evening of incredible music. We’re playing with The Best Friends With Wolves Club, Paradise Animals and Oh, Darling! Solid lineup. Doors open at 9pm and it’s only $5 to get in!

We’re on 11:25pm.

Here’s what The Indie Machine has to say about the bands we’ll be sharing the stage with:

THE BEST FRIENDS WITH WOLVES CLUB
“What can we say about TBFWWC? The iM’s May 2011 artist of the month doesn’t disappoint when it comes to live performances; this rockin bunch stopped by the show a few weeks back for the iM Sessions and destroyed our gear (and quite possibly the studio) in the process, so you can expect a rowdy show for sure.”

PARADISE ANIMALS
“Toronto-based indie-electro quartet Paradise Animals is set to drop their self-titled 7″ on June 1st – and you can catch them live one day later RIGHT HERE! This stuff has been in heavy rotation here at The iM for a while, so it’s about time we got some live music action on the go as well!”

OH, DARLING!
“Fresh off the release of their debut EP – October – Toronto’s Oh, Darling! are setting off on a pop rock adventure of epicness! Recent iM Sessions alum, Oh, Darling! are ready to play some of those poppy grooves just for you.”

There’s a Facebook event page here. Spread the love, people.

We’ll also be playing our first show in Brampton on Saturday, June 4th at the Goodtimes Cafe (Kennedy & Glidden). $8 will get you in, $3.75 beers will get you hammed. We’re on at 10:20pm. The lineup with set times is below:

Megan Young 8:00-8:35
Hormoans 8:50-9:20
Sleep for the Nightlife 9:35-10:05
Ero Guro 11:10-12:00

Carry on,
OWV