What's The Story?

So much for me keeping up to date on here huh? Well, it's about 8am saturday morning and I can hardly stay awake. While some of you are fast asleep, or still up partying if you know how to do it right, I am here at the station attempting to be entertaining and informative. Good luck right? Well, someone out there seems to think it's a good thing that I'm here. His name is Will and he wrote an article on me. It's a tough read, and I have no clue what the hell he's talking about for half of it, but it's flattering in an odd way anyhow.
Here:

http://www.durhamregion.com/dr/entertainment/story/3749703p-4334977c.html

The Champion Heartache played to a noisy room on College downtown last night. We sucked, the room was dead and there was no sound guy. The night was topped off by us making a whopping $25.00 which in all reality is a bonus, but the rain came down all night, the headliner was tone deaf and the 10 people in the bar didn't really even clap after each song. Comes with the territory. In all seriousness, we played pretty horribly and I just want to forget about it. They say you take the good with the bad etc...we were the bad!

Nothing much to report recording wise. Kyle, Aaron and I hit up the Cobra Headquarters for another session on weds, but not much came out of it. We have 3 songs completely done, but last weds was lacking creativity for some reason. We're going to track some drums and stuff on thursday in hope of getting something rockier on the cd. I'll post a song perhaps next week.

For now, time to re-heat the coffee and act like I give a shit. Wish me luck radioland!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

A Fond Farewell

Today is the day that Elliott Smith took his own life 3 years ago. I know I haven't posted in a few days, and this might be somewhat of a depressing blog, but this day means a lot to me. Elliott was the one artist that made music real for me again. From the moment my friend Jay played me "Either/Or" , I was instantly a fan. I was also fortunate enough to see Elliott play three times in concert. Hell, we drove from London to Washington DC to see him play. I always regretted not talking to him, or attemping to thank him, but it doesn't matter. He's gone now, and it was super tough for me to get my brain around it for a long time, but after three years it still sends chills up my spine to hear his music.

We're holding a memorial show for Elliott and his fans tonight at The Blue Moon in Toronto. There's a lot of people coming out for this, and we'll be playing Elliott covers all night, so if you're in the city, please come by.

www.myspace.com/elliottsmithtoronto


In other news, my good friend Joe King and his girlfriend are expecting a baby! I just found out laast night while I was at the Arms for Stu's DVD release party. Congrats to both Joe and Stu. His new film is amazing. It's very cool to have such talented friends. On another note, our morning host on The Rock was canned on friday. Expect to hear a new morning show on monday, if you dare to tune in!

XO

Please listen:

Elliott Tribute on KCRW - http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/gz/gz031025tribute_to_elliott_s

Everyday is Like Sunday....

So no post yesterday. I was far too tired at work and really didn't care to type about my hangover. Thursday was so amazing. I sat with Edward from Grizzly Bear and we did an interview for The New Rock @ 9. He was very kind and allowed me ramble on about anything that came to mind. It was very casual, yet cool to sit and talk with someone I admire so much. After our interview, he told us we could add someone to our guest list only to call me back on my cell phone to tell me it wasn't approved and we couldn't! Funny thing was that I tried to get 4 of my friends to come, and they all turned me down! Thank Fuck!

The show was amazing, although I must say that Grizzly Bear's set was the highlight for me. Not only do they pull of 4 part harmonies, but they're set was really loud and intense as opposed to what one might think after first listen to their latest album, Yellow House. Don't get me wrong, their softer, more delicate songs translated just beautifully, but their drummer is just amazing, and had a way of kicking the songs into new a direction when played live. He even sings too, which blew me away. I could easily sit here and ramble for an hour or so about this band, but I won't. All I will say is, please go and see them. At least buy the record, it's wonderful.

My friend Frank took some amazing shots....they're here: http://www.chromewaves.net/concertPhotos.php?concertID=388

TV on The Radio's album Return To Cookie Mountain is amazing, but live it just didn't do it for me. I love the frontman Tunde's energy and they sounded fine, but it's NOT what it sounds like on CD. It's more in your face punk rock as opposed to the slick production on the album. My opinion only, so no worries.

After the show, we hit the Undeground with Grant, Rusty and Ozzy. Grant ended up paying $40 to get us in so we didn't have to wait int he cold. He also let Karlie and I pass out in his bed too (without him in it). Karlie thought she could keep up with the boys that night. Nice try baby, but maybe next time I won't get you 2 drinks each time I go to the bar. Rusty and I ended up staying up until about 6 a.m. Once again, this was a great time and I can't wait until the next show.

I'll post pics as soon as I take them off of the camera....wonder where it is?!

Last night our band played in the middle of nowhere in an unheated garage at a small festival called Foxstock. We were by far the most mellow act there. Other bands that played were The Boxheads, The Flying Tigers, The Micronite Filters, Planet Uranus, and then us The Champion Heartache. Although every other band was totally rocking out, our set was very mellow with just piano and acoustics. Thank god the kids were so cool because I really thought we were going to get bottled. Nope. Turns out some of them loved Iron and Wine because we covered one of their songs, plus about 7 originals and they seemed to really dig it. Thanks to all who came out. Read about it here: http://durhamrock.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=44774#44774

On that note, Aaron and I are just about finished 3 songs completely. Our last session at Cobra Headquarters went amazing and we finished harmonies to track number 2 titled "For A Little While" because the chorus says "I promise we'll be fine if we stay high for a little while." Pretty deep huh? It totally sounds amazing to me anyhow. The third track is a poppy piano rocker that is gunna smoke. I can't wait to lay vocals on it on wednesday night. I'll post one in a week or so when I feel ready to. At this rate our album might be ready for January.

Well that's all for now. Tonight is Badly Drawn Boy at the Mod Club. I'm not sure if we'll go, but if I do, I'll have a full report tomorrow night.

Fun pics to come, I promise.

Matt

Wolf Like Me...

So obviously I'm feeling much better today. The rain is falling, the temperature is cold and I'm stuck at work, but I'm quite content tonight. Today, our cover band got together and learned like 6 new tunes, which puts us at about 30 songs. We're even doing a GBV song, "Chasing Heather Crazy" and it sounds great. I'm not singing it, so maybe that's why. After that, I got my mop chopped and then hit home to pack up for tonight's recording session with Aaron. Tonight's beer of choice - Laker Honey Brown. Yep. Fucking Gross, but cheap and cold.
I also had dinner with Kar's family whcih is the best part of us living back at home. Dinners rock everynight!

Tomorrow night I'm doing my Grizzly Bear interview before the show starts at The Opera House. Those dudes up there are headlining. TV On The Radio have put out an amazing album titled "Return To Cookie Mountain" and I'm really excited to see them play. We're hooking up with Anita and her boyfriend, as they're big fans too, and then possibly out for drinks afterwards too. I only hope I'm up for it, as these wednesday recording sessions tend to stretch me out a bit. Worth it though, totally.

I'll take some cool photos at the show then post them tomorrow. As for now, here's some of the goodness we'll be witnessing:

TV on The Radio - Province
http://www.ezarchive.com/situationrocks/AlbumSpace/1QNJKEVYX4/Province.mp3

TV on The Radio - Wolf Like Me
http://www.ezarchive.com/macktronic/AlbumSpace/4Q8CHOD3WB/Insound+-+Wolf+Like+Me.mp3

Feeling Sorry For Myself...

I've had one of those days where I feel like shit and don't know why. It's funny how quick guys are to judge women over their "time of the month" when in fact we get it too, only mine comes once a week! Poor Karlie. Maybe it's post turkey depression, or the fact that I feel like everyday is exactly the same, but I've been in a bad mood and just don't know why.

SO...today's post is about those days where it just feels good to feel bad! Modest Mouse pushed their new album back to 2007. The disc, titled We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, has been moved from a previously announced December 19th arrival to sometime early next year. No immediate reason was given for the delay. In the meantime, the group will play a series of concert dates next month, including four in the Los Angeles area, five in New York and one in Miami. No dates around here yet.


Some music to get me through these nights:
(right click, save target as)

Elliott Smith - Twilight
http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2271

Pedro The Lion - The Longest Winter
http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=1039

Low - Sunflower
http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=1092

Damien Jurado - White Center
http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2442

This is how I feel today. I only had a few pints of Guinness, but when you don't drink for a while, a few can do just this to you....well, me but you know what I mean.

I had to be at work for noon today, and woke up with 20 minutes to get here. I didn't even have time to grab a coffee. Poor me.

Tonight I'm having the final dinner of the weekend at Kar's parents place. It's her sisters birthday too, so afterwards we'll be buying her first legal drink. I'm more excited than she is I think.

I'm also being interviewed by Oshawa This Week tonight at The Velvet Elvis. A writer got in touch with me via email and requested that we talk about my radio show and my band too. This is the first time this has happened in 3 years of being on The Rock, so I'm quite pleased. After the interview I'm going to play a few songs at the open mic too, so that'll be fun.

Tomorrow's post may have something more exciting. Turkey sandwiches possibly?

Right now it's about 3:30 am. So it's technically Sunday, but once I get to work at 11 am I'll write another post from work. Right away, you're thinking, "what the fuck is with the guy with the gun in his mouth?" Well, I'll tell you. Tonight we had dinner number 2 at my dad's, which was amazing. Roast Beef, and the fixin's with lots of wine and other treats. After dinner I called around to see who was going out for post dinner pints. The Arms was once again the place to be. As usual, there were tables of 18 yr olds, a few old perverts at the bar, and......another table of my best friends playing poker. We settled in, played 2 games...(which Karlie both won) and then got ready to leave. It was great to see the boys again, but it came to my attention that some of my friends actually read this fucked up little page...SO....thank you to Conway, Blake, Ozzy, Wells and whoever else made a comment about it. I felt like such a douche because on my list of things to be thankful for, I forgot my dear friends Jay and Amy's engagement. I mean, I love them both so much and totally forgot to say anything about it, so Jay and Amy I'm sorry. I won't DJ your wedding, but I sure hope I'm drunk at the reception.

Now, to the picture above. One of my dearest friends Grant, who I admire to the fullest, for some reason, told me to go home and shoot myself. I still love him, but when I won a poker hand, I said to him "shit G, sorry...whattya want me to do?" ...he responded with "Go home and shoot yourself." Well, I can't do that because I don't have a firearm, but I will say this...you're a heartless bastard, and I think I might think about buying a gun very soon. By the way, Karlie won 180.00 off of these guys, but they still talk nice to her.

Right Click Save Target As: http://saturn5.com/darwin/beef/MP3/100-ice_t-ya_shoulda_killed_me_last_year.mp3

If you can't pick up on the sincere sarcasm outlined in this post, then you should take Grant's advice. It really was great see you guys. I need to load this thing and hit the hay.

Happy Thanksgiving, even if I didn't get to spend 500 on Yager-Bombers.

G' NIGHT!!!!!

Grrrrrrr!

It's Sunday today, and I must say that yesterday's Turkey Dinner completely rocked. One down, 2 to go! Thanks Mom.

These dudes up there, also rock. They're a band from Brooklyn NY called Grizzly Bear and they're headed to The Opera House this Thursday to open for TV On The Radio. This is one of my most highly anticipated shows of the year. Not only is "Return To Cookie Mountain" one of my fav's of the year, but Grizzly Bear's "Yellow House" is a mix of dream drenched, ghost - rock that will leave you confused, and craving more. I really wasn't sure what to think at first listen because there's so much going on, but after 20 or so spins of their disc, I'm convinced this will make my top 10 list too.

Why am I writing about them today? Well I just received an email stating I will be meeting them after sound check to do a sit down interview for my New Rock @ 9 Radio Program. Very excited indeed.


Wanna hear the Bear roar? http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2907
TV On The Radio? http://mp3.insound.com/download.cfm?mp3id=2916

Right click and save target as, then thank me later.

Some other stuff going on this upcoming week include a show for my project The Champion Heartache. We're doing an outdoor show in the midst of October at "Foxstock". What is it? No clue, but I know this much...it'll be cold, we're be playing sad slow music, and I'll be drinking something to warm the belly. We'll share the bill with Matt Seger and The Micornite Filters. Check out details here: http://www.myspace.com/foxstock

Other shows coming up include Badly Drawn Boy at the Mod Club on October 15th. Damon will be doing an acoustic set in support of his upcoming LP "Born In The UK"

Also, if you're a friend of mine, you know how much I love Elliott Smith. We're hosting a tribute show at The Blue Moon next door to the Opera House on October 21st, the day he died.

Check us out at www.myspace.com/elliottsmithtoronto

All for now. Enjoy the tunes, and I hope to see you at at least one of these shows, and I mean it.
Gobble Gobble.

"Gobble Gobble Bitches!"

Ahhh it's that weekend again. The weekend that means a lot of booze, a lot of food, and a lot of Tryptophan. Tryptophan is a component of many plant and animal proteins, and a normal part of the diet that humans must get from outside sources. It is a precursor for serotonin from which our brains make serotonin, which is then used to calm you down and make you sleepy. In other words, I drink a beer or two, eat a plate or two, then I sleep an hour or two. It happens every year, and I have no problem with it. Hell, this year I get to do this 3 times! My feeding frenzy looks like this:

Saturday - Turkey Dinner at my Mom's with my Sister Amy, her husband Graham, my Mom, and Karlie.

Sunday - Ham / Turkey with my Dad, his wife Heather, and others.

Monday - Kar's Mom and Dad's which is also her sister Natasha's birthday. This means all of the above AND a freaking birthday cake. God help us now.

So in tradition of this hoilday, I thought I'd write out a short yet sincere list of things I'm thankful for this year. I guess I'm already known to my friends as the cheeseball anyhow, so why not?

#5 - Living at home again. It's been so cool to be back in the neighbourhood I grew up in. This is my fav time of year, and walking the dog on the same route I did 10 years ago is somewhat surreal, but great too. My Dad is allowing me to live rent free, and he's allowed me to turn the basement into my own little apartment. At first it was pretty odd, but I'm quickly feeling more at home each day. Karlie's parents have let us do the same at their place too. We have very supportive parents.

#4 - My Job. I know I'm the kind of guy who bitches about working weekends, but in all honesty, I really love working in radio. This is a cushy, laid back job where I'm paid to surf the net, and talk about music. No one likes to get up at 6am on Saturday, but it could be worse, and I lose sight of that sometimes. If I ever leave here, it'll be hard. I'm thankful I'm not in an assembly line somewhere.

#3 - My Mom / Sister. Ya I'll get whipped for this one, but my Mom is has been through a lot of shit in the past year, yet she manages to maintain a positive attitude in all she does. She's gained her independence back, lost a bunch of weight, moved into a new apartment and seems to be really happy. 10 years ago I never would have thought she could live this way again, but that's my Mom for you...always full of surprises. She truly is the strongest person I know.

Also, my sister met a great guy and they were married this past summer. She's so great for him and he's great for her. He puts up with her shit, and she laughs her ass off at his excentricities. No, seriously...they both rock. The true reflection of a relationship that works and always will.

#2 - My Friends. This past year I've seen quite a few of my best friends either get married, engaged, have children, or make big career moves. I 've some how managed to ween out the idiots in my life, and I'm now surrounded by amazing people. Kar and I babysat Jo and Aaron's little dude Noah last night, and I couldn't believe I was staring at the seed of Monty. Kurt also finally married Carly this year, Cal popped the question to Claire, Saul cleaned up his act big time, and Jay Price landed a great job a few years back and is still proving his move to Kincardine was a the right choice. Rusty and Nash got a sweet condo in Toronto and they both have Girlfriends! Stu made another movie, Jordy is back in school, Colin is a medic, and Peter is still making television shows on the road. McCarten stays up with me until 8am partying and still keeps his job! Seriously, what a great group of people I have as friends. So proud to have them in my life.

#1 - Karlie. Yeah, you knew it was coming. This past year Kar lost her Grandma, her apartment, got laid off of her job, and had to live with me everyday. She is so amazing. She never complains about paying more for things, cleaning up after me or allowing me to spend time playing music. She supports everything I do, and never says a word. She deserves so much more but for some reason, she's content to stay by my side. I'm very thankful to have her. Also, she's reeeeally hot, and I can't keep my hands off of her. Any of my guy friends barf yet? Aw well, deal with it. When you've got it this good, you talk about it. Love you Kar!

So there....that's my list of reasons that I'm thankful this year. Sure it's corny, but that's just me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Game Onnnn....

I found this diagram rather useful, as we all will this season I'm sure. Tonight marks the home opener, and I'm sure you all have your teams picked etc.

You see, my sick friends feel the need to bet on just about everything in life. The NHL season means endless discussions on trades, deals, and other fantasy hockey terms that I don't know, or care about for that matter. It happens every year for about 5 months. We meet for pints, I sit in the corner at the pub and nod my head as to say "Yes Ray, that would be a great deal for Peca." Like a I know what the fuck you're talking about? Nope.

I do enjoy Leaf hockey, but that's about it. So this post is to signify the kick off to a long NHL season, and more money lost from the pockets of my twisted franchise of friends.




At 12 midnight, I'll be heading into the Studio to try to wrap up 2 songs with Aaron. I'm getting really excited about this stuff. It's weird because of the hours we record at, but at the same time, it's great to have someone else willing to work at these hours. We drink a lot of beer, smoke a lot of pot amongst other things, and have fun making noise until the birds outside drown us out. I'll keep you updated on how this stuff is going.

A few awesome shows in Toronto tonight, other than at the ACC:

The Long Winters w/ What Made Milaukee Famous @ Lee's Palace
Ohbijou w/ Joanna Newsom @ The Mod Club

Next post, pictures and hopefully a link to one of these songs we've been recording.

Later!

Red Hot and Ready To Rock!

Long time no post....try about 5 months!

Shit has been CRAZY lately. We're now moved out of our apartment and living in between Kar's parents home and my dad's too. Thank god they're both just around the corner from each other. This now means the following:

- Home Cooked Meals
- Smoking Pot OUTSIDE Only
- Music Levels Turned Down
- Panic Attacks For The Bunny

Seriously though, this was a good move for us. We need to save money for a year so we can move into our own home, and I know it's going to be tough, but it's a smart move.


Since I last posted, I've been to a slew of great concerts and met a bunch of fantastic people. This summer was also great because I got out and played a bunch of acoustic shows of my own with The Champion Heartache. We have some more lined up for october too, so check www.myspace.com/matthewholtby for details.

I've also started recording with my good friend Aaron Blasko at his apartment studios we've dubbed "Cobra Headquarters" because of the huge carpet with a picture of a snake on it that hangs within it's walls. Sessions are going great, and they usually start at midnight and go until 8am. At this rate I should have at least an EP in the can by December. That's the plan anyhow, so please buy it when it's ready.

Last week, Chad Smith swung by the Studios for an interview. He's the coolest guest I've had thus far, and the only Station he visited was The Rock. Thanks dude.

Well, I'm going to try to get back at blogging at least 3 times a week, so if you actually check this page, please email me and let me know that you're reading it again.