There's a short article over at Chartattack.com about the new El Torpedo record. It includes the prospective release date (July 8) and the track listing. Which, for anyone who's been to a show over the past year or two and heard some of the newer material, is here:

* "Building A Boat"
* "Digital Eyes"
* "Tall Trees"
* "Rock Ranger Record"
* "Terminal Romance"
* "Shining Eyes"
* "Northern Belle"
* "Stand And Deliver"
* "Laser Guided Love"
* "The Hunter, The Hunted"
* "Long Since Gone"

Not that I have heard it. But Adam, from Gloryhound, is playing keys (and various other instruments) with El Torpedo at the moment, and he was telling me a bit about what to expect. I'd already seen an interview with Matt where he said they wanted this record to sound more "produced" than the eponymous one. Not so much that he was no longer happy with the first record, just that he was into each record having its own individual sound, and besides you'd expect the band to change some just with the passage of time and some changes in membership. (Jarrett leaving and Jay coming on board means the band now has, in effect, two lead guitarists, and the shift in dynamic is already evident even when they play the older material.) And of course since the first record came out they had an extended period with Rob replacing Brad, and now Adam in the keyboard seat. (Any resemblance to the Grateful Dead and their keyboard problem is purely coincidental. As far as I know Brad and Rob are both still alive!)

Anyway, it seems the upcoming record, Terminal Romance, is going to be much tighter than the previous one, which will be reflected onstage as well, and it's a bit more of a pop sound. Which might have alarmed me eighteen months ago, but after When the Angels Make Contact I confess I would have been disappointed if the new El Torpedo record had ended up being a retread of the old El Torpedo record. I remarked to Adam that given Matt's songwriting, I wasn't concerned about not liking the new one. Adam then told me that the next record is going to be the "songwriter record"--apparently Matt has them planned out in his head the way novelists contemplating a series do with future books.

Which frankly makes me feel even more confident about the whole enterprise. I've said this before but one of the things that makes Matt such an interesting artist to follow is that sense that he's following an actual artistic vision, rather than just trying to figure out how to sell a whole bunch of records. Like, I'm pretty sure he would be pleased if he went ahead and did sell a whole bunch of records, but that never seems to be the primary thing on his mind.

Anyway, sounds exciting. Particularly, of course, for Adam!

...whether Matt Mays & El Torpedo would ever play the Marquee again, or whether they've outgrown it.

I just got my answer: they're scheduled to preview their upcoming new album there, on June 6th.

Well yes, of course I bought a ticket immediately. What do you take me for?

Ask me if I'm excited!

...so here is a video to tide us over:



(Okay--tigereyed24 mentioned that Matt Mays & El Torpedo were supposed to play a short set at the Cunard Centre as part of the Olympic torch relay event on Tuesday. I ended up missing it because I was on the reference desk, but I did wonder what they were going to do about a keyboard player. I actually walked down after work in case anything was still happening--and it wasn't--but the stage was still partly set up and the keys were there. With a cozy wrapped around them. Which leads me to the conclusion that perhaps Adam may have been involved in the set, and if so, that must have been fun.)

Anyways. Someone who knows Matt told me the new record is due in June, and the CHLA conference is happening the last week in May, and I have too much to do in the meantime to be going "hurry up!" so I can't say I'm wishing the days away until June... but as soon as the conference is safely over I will.

In the meantime:



(The song is from When the Angels Make Contact and has been exported to El Torpedo's repertoire. The video was taken at the Rustler's show last October--the same one where this video was taken--and in fact since the videographer was standing right behind me, this was even my perspective.)

That'll hold us. For now.

Video from the Rustler's show in Truro:



Gloryhound & the Skyhawks join Matt Mays & El Torpedo for the encore.

Heh. I love Facebook. I just found a band profile for Matt Mays & El Torpedo and added myself to their fan listing. And the update thingie popped up with the message, "You are now a fan of Matt Mays & El Torpedo."

Thank you, Captain Obvious. And also, "Finally!"

Heh.

Matt Mays & El Torpedo listening to a guitar track in the studio.



Apparently things are going well. According to their MySpace updates, Matt's playing on the keyboard tracks, Tim the drummer has gone home because he and his wife are expecting a baby very shortly, Jay the guitar player and Andy the bassist have gone insane, and owing to the isolation (enclosed studio-with-bunkhouse--sounds like summer camp but Matt refers to it now as Rock Prison) Matt has developed an imaginary romance with Summer from The OC courtesy of reruns on BBC2. (Well, if you're going to have an imaginary romance with anybody on The OC, I would certainly recommend Summer.)

How I love the Internet...

I hate change, but I guess when changes happen one has to cope with them. In this case, the change is that Rob the keyboard player has left El Torpedo (the announcement is up on the band's Web forum.)

And okay, thanks to the Gloryhound connection (you hang around long enough and it's astounding how many different local musicians you end up hearing) I've actually heard some of the new stuff Rob's doing outside the band and it is mighty cool. So you could say this will probably lead to all sorts of great new music from different directions.

Right. That's how we'll look at it, then.

Here's Matt and El Torpedo playing "Cocaine Cowgirl."


And here is a piece of "On the Hood," with Gloryhound & the Skyhawks joining in!

Whew. In my last post I mentioned that I was looking at a pretty full weekend (in a good way) and last night certainly kicked it off with a bang. The mini Maritime tour involving Matt Mays & El Torpedo, accompanied by Gloryhound & the Skyhawks, came to an end last night at the Cunard Centre in Halifax. Just so we're all clear here, the Cunard Centre has a capacity of 4000 people for concerts (I just looked it up) so we are probably safe in saying it was one of the bigger shows Gloryhound has ever played.

( Once again, long and illustrated, so here is the cut. )

And yes, that was the beginning of my weekend. Can the rest possibly live up to it? Tune in Monday to find out.

( I'm not a great photographer, but sometimes I like my results. And sometimes it's for silly reasons. )

I wish I had one that summed up the moment when Gloryhound started to realize how well they were going over, but you can't have everything.

I finally got all the pictures from Friday night uploaded to Photobucket.

Here's Gloryhound & the Skyhawks, opening the show.

Matt Mays & El Torpedo play the headlining set.

And they all ended up back onstage for the encore.

That should be enough dirty rock'n'roll for anyone on a Monday morning...

Okay, so Matt Mays & El Torpedo played at Rustler's Cabaret in Truro last night, with Gloryhound & the Skyhawks opening for them. This was not my first trip to Rustler's. Nor was it the first time I've seen Gloryhound open for El Torpedo. And hopefully not the last, in either case.

( And because this is going to be a long, illustrated post, suppose we put the cut right here. )

When the set finally ended I said goodnight to the folks I'd been standing with, and looked around very briefly in case anyone I knew was around to say goodnight to. It was probably best that there wasn't, because I probably would have grabbed them by the shoulders and screamed "THAT WAS AWESOME!!" in their faces or something equally embarrassing. Instead, I went out and found my car, got lost on the way to the highway but luckily it's hard to be lost for long in a place the size of Truro--eventually you just run out of Truro--so I found my way to the highway just after 2:00 AM and was home shortly after three.

That was great. Let's do it again sometime. Say, next Friday night?

Forgot the second half of my post!

I haven't yet made contact with the other person who's coming to the show with me, but I'm sure we'll speak later today. I'm really looking forward to the show tonight--I haven't yet seen El Torpedo minus Jarrett and plus Jay, so that should be interesting. They're very different guitar players so it'll be cool to hear how the old songs have changed and what's happening with the new songs.

Also, I'm excited about how things will go for Gloryhound. This is a great opportunity for them, too.

I'll try to get pictures, and if they turn out better than my last few efforts I'll post some.

My tickets to the Matt Mays & El Torpedo show at the Cunard Centre arrived in the mail this week. Sadly, they do not have "with special guest Gloryhound & the Skyhawks" printed on them anywhere, but I am definitely getting into the show.

Also, my contact in Truro is holding a ticket to Rustler's for the show the week before.

And I got the Joel Plaskett ticket for the acoustic show the day after the Cunard Centre one.

Whee!

A small tour, but a tour nonetheless: Matt Mays & El Torpedo have added a show in Moncton to their October schedule. The opening act is still Gloryhound & the Skyhawks. I totally recommend New Brunswickers make a point of attending--that way you can always say you saw their first show outside Nova Scotia!

You may be amazed to hear that I will not be attending. Well, I'm not. Come on. Even I have some sort of sense of proportion. (Oh, shut up, sagitare!)

Last night's Gloryhound @ Tribeca show featured a couple of lineup changes in a couple of contexts. Neither seems to be permanent or anything but they were fun.

The lineup changes actually almost included me--my back hurt for reasons that rate a post of their own and I briefly considered staying home. And then I figured I could always come home early if I started really gimping up.

Just as well I showed up when I did--the evening got off to a very quiet start, although by about the middle of the first set, and certainly during the second, I could have left at any time without being missed for a moment.

Scotty was absent behind the bar, his place for the evening being taken by Phil, who I understand is actually sound guy extraordinaire (and the sound was in fact really good.) He was on his own for much of the evening--beginning, of course, about five minutes before the crowd came in.

( Further lineup changes and so on. )
Long about this time last call was... called, to the audible dismay of several people including Greg Thomey. By this time my back was hardly even bothering me, and not because I'd been drinking, so I considered my evening well spent and came on home.

(This entry took forever to complete because this has been One Of Those Days at work. Thank goodness I started it in a good mood!)

So apparently the week before the show at the Cunard Centre, El Torpedo and Gloryhound will be playing Rustler's Cabaret in Truro. Which is always fun.

I suspect this would be fun, too...

(Getting home before daylight isn't the problem this week. Getting to bed before about two is, for reasons I will explain later. However, I is a professional.)

Last night's show at Tribeca features not only Gloryhound & the Skyhawks (and if you make it out to one of their shows, do check out Scotty's artwork on the haiku chalkboard. Last night's drawing looked like Sam the American Eagle crossed with Fluffy from the first Harry Potter movie--yes, I know, Fluffy is really Cerberus, but trust me--Fluffy)--

Sorry, I digress.

( Two bands for the price of one behind the cut! )

Just about at the end of the first break a crowd of people came in together, apparently in town for a wedding. They started the night mostly in the little private section at the back, but eventually ventured out and started dancing, at which point things livened up considerably. I missed one of our regulars (at least, I didn't see her) but another guy who used to come out all the time reappeared and was mighty impressed with the new-to-him songs.

I wandered out into the night in the knowledge that I'll be back tonight, at least for a while, for Harbourfire's show--I don't think I'll be able to stay for the whole thing but I'll let you know how the first set goes.

Ticket sales opened. I placed my order. Well, of course I did.

Yes, yes, I have no money and have to economize. But that means cutting out snacks and buying coffee at work or getting new books and magazines (thank God for the public library)--it doesn't mean missing out on important stuff!