Forest City Lovers

If you were at our Toronto show, you’ll know that there was a tower of cupcakes beside the merch table. They were lovingly made by Claire, Mika and myself and they were free with a pay-what-you-can donation to the food bank. After the show there were a few cupcakes left (I don’t take offense…haha) and a good amount of donations for the local food bank. Today I had some time so I went shopping and donated all the food I bought with your donations to the food bank in West Toronto that feeds local families.

So thank you very much for your kind donations while you [hopefully] enjoyed the treats. xo

That means it’s free so there is no reason to not click on this giant pretty image below…. xo

Hello internet friends! HERE IS  A SNAZZY POSTER. Lots more to read after so scan on down….

There has been a lot of excitement and fun over here in Loversland lately. We were honoured to be invited to play the season finale taping of Late Night in the Bedroom this past Wednesday and we had a blast. Beautiful warm people and popcorn! It was a great turn out (400ppl!) and it took place in an amazing new-ish space called the Toronto Underground Cinema. I look forward to seeing more events there, it’s a really great alternative space for music and arts, and of course films.

We’ve also been busy planing our album release party. I have been busy constructing some ridiculous installation for the stage. Hopefully I can figure out a way to install it…   and we have a window display going up in Soundscapes in the next few days. Which segways nicely into the other announcement that we’ll be playing a FREE and ALL AGES in-store at that same record store on Tuesday the 10th of August. I’m bringing cupcakes for you to gorge on.

This will get you all primed for our big launch party on Thursday the 12 of August at the Great Hall. Should be a blast, seriously. A “hoot” even. We plan on having fun. And more cupcakes. I’m pretty into the idea of cupcakes lately. Small…delicious.. cakes. Feel free to bring cupcakes to anything we ever do. I promise we’ll think you are cool.

After that we take two weeks off for va-cay and then begin the release shows in Ontario. Lots of fun planned for the fall!

xo - kat

p.s. if you live out of town and are not attending our launch party, you should watch Rookie Blue and listen for our song “Don’t Go” (featured on that episode) and just think about how much we love you.

O highway I travel! O public road! Do you say to me, Do not leave me?

Do you say, Venture not? If you leave me, you are lost?

Do you say, I am already prepared—I am well-beaten and undenied—adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you, you express me better than I can express myself.

- “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

When you are touring, you get used to being in very close quarters with your bandmates. Squishing in vans, hotel rooms, hanging out and playing music with the same people for an extended period of time can be both challenging and rewarding. It’s a true test of friendship and temperance in all situations, good and bad. I count my band as some of my best friends and  I am so lucky to have a small [but ardent] family of brothers-from-other-mothers and sisters-from-other-misters that enjoy traipsing the land in a rolling block of metal and body odours as much as I do.

This tour was so successful for us, and we can’t thank everyone enough. We were constantly surprised and encouraged at the warmth and positivity we received from so many people we met (and re-met) along the way. I was happy you remembered us! Thank you to our new friends, our old friends and those who opened up their homes, lives, Sunday nights and pocketbooks for us along the way. You make me so excited to be able to do this.

Here are a few highlights:

We are waiting for the Subway sponsorship…

We were the most tanned beach bunnies around.

Evening Hymns + Lovers = Awkward photos

Dear mountains watch over us, we small beings by the sea.

Now it’s time for us to start preparing for the Toronto cd release show and a string of Ontario shows in the fall. You can purchase advance tickets by hitting up your local independent record shop in Toronto. They’ll be available at the door but we always suggest getting advance because this just might..be …a …party.

xo to the moon
-Kat

We found an Evening Hymn!

Everyone in Winnipeg should go to their show tonight, at a brand new space called Freud’s Bathhouse. And failing that, you should check out our other pals Ohbijou at the Lo Pub. We played there (Lo Pub) last night and it was quite fun, we must say. Thanks to Jack for having us, and thanks to those special two with the spiffy shoes who made our night.

I am cross posting this with our Exclaim blog for the sole reason that I just had to share the fantastic time we’ve had in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. This has been our absolute most favourite (and awesome!) show on this tour. It all began when a girl called Cindy emailed us and asked us to play her town. I told her, “well, if you can get something together – we’ll be there!” And boy oh boy, did that town ever come together. We had the pleasure of working with Cindy and Shann (a lovely woman who helps run music events in town) who organised our night at the historic Lyric Theatre. The space was beautiful, expansive and old. The building has been saved from demolition by the local volunteer committee and they are working hard to restore it to its original beauty. Originally a popular theatre in war time, with live caberet and silent films, italso featured an apartment complex above the theatre for the caberet performers, and later the widows of the war.

Our show was such a success. We had a great all-ages crowd, so attentive and quiet, and it was really getting to know some of the audience members after the show. I can’t speak more highly of everyone that helped to run the night, they were incredibly hospitible and friendly beyond our wildest dreams. We will DEFINITELY come back to this town. And we have high hopes that others will stray from the Trans-Can and visit this inspiring community.

thank you so very much.

-kat.

We love this town! Just wanted to let you cool kids know that we’re keeping an updated-regularly-we-promise blog over at Exclaim! You should go read it! Here —-> http://forestcitylovers.exclaim.ca/

Before we left Mika and Kat did a session for Explore Music, including an interview and a couple songs. Watch Kat talk about the new album, touring and pirates in the interview, and watch us play “Sea to Land” acoustically.  We’re heading to Edmonton today, looking forward to it!

We’ve begun our fun times of travel for the summer, and I am currently writing this from Chicago. It’s a pretty wicked town and we have some fantastic friends here. Last night we had a full on American style BBQ (with watermelon and pink lemonade of course) and then played at our friend Kelly’s place. It was a really nice treat to play to a small group of attentive people, surrounded by cans of PBR and our amazing new mascot (more on that later – he still needs a name but I can tell you he is a taxidermied bird of sorts about 10 x life size…)

okay that’s it for now!

Tonight = Box Social in Chicago, tell yr friends!
xo

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

This is a drawing that I recently did for UK based site The Line of Best Fit, for the cover of their OH Canada compilation. Ro Cemm runs the site and oversees the releases, and he’s a pretty solid fellow. You should go to the site and download this latest installment for some great Canadian music. Celebrate our nation’s birthday!

As you all know our record came out a few days ago (whee!) and we’re heading out this weekend to play a whirlwind tour of this dear nation (and a few dates stateside). What could be more exciting? I don’t think we have more than a day off which is hardcore, but it should make for some good tour blogs. Which, now that I mention it, are going to be up at our Exclaim site (remember 2008?) since they’re nice enough to sponsor our tour. Check it out for ongoing updates from us all! There might be adventures, I’m just saying…

We’re really happy people are enjoying it and once again, thanks to everyone for pre-ordering it, ordering it and just generally being so lovely to us. We’ve been bombarded with some great press for our record, here is a small selection:

Chromewaves
Exclaim Interview
Exclaim Review
National Post
Chart
I Heart Music

Also – Calgary and Abbotsford, we’re adding dates in your town so keep on this. See you alllllll soon! xo