Today (Saturday, April 28th), Sunday (12:05pm Radio One), and Tuesday (11:05pm Radio One )we’ll be featured on the Vinyl Café with Stuart McLean. We performed and recorded a very fun show with him and his crew back in January in Morrisburg, Ontario. His story about the car wash left me in full stitches. It’s a fine goodie.

Tonight we have a show at one of our favourites: Le Mouton Noir in Val David, Qc. Always a good time!

And the students continue. The national anglophone media has more or less only been concentrating on the issue of higher tuition fees and portraying the students as not much more than spoilt brats. Here at ground zero in Montréal, the issue has taken on much more than just an increase in tuition fees – it has become a wake up call for the citizens to be active participants in our society. Furthermore,  what many people have sometimes dismissed as the spoilt generation of iphone junkies, we see thousands taking to the streets fighting for something they believe in in a very peaceful, articulate, and proactive way. Don’t let a by far small minority of people causing violence blanket the huge majority of peaceful and socially-minded group of people. With the current federal government we have (with all the issues such as the F-35′s budget scandal, the censoring of scientists that work for Environment Canada, and the elimination of the majority of steps previously involved in the review process for big projects and their affect on the environment (in order to speed up the process for the Northern Gateway pipeline…to name a few), it is inspiring to see so many people take to the streets and voice their discontent with the current policies of our governments. The band and I salute them!

Here’s a picture from the Smithsonian archives that captures a creative approach to the Earth Day protest:

Aujourd’hui (samedi), dimanche (12:05pm Radio One) et mardi soir ((11:05pm Radio One), le concert qu’on a fait avec Stuart McLean et le Vinyl Café sera diffusé sur  CBC. C’était une soirée très agréeable et son histoire de ‘car wash’ est vraiment drôle!

Ce soir on joue dans une de nos salles préférées: Le Mouton Noir à Val David. Toujours une soirée bien le fun!

Puis les étudiants continuent. Les médias nationaux ont plus ou moins classé les étudiants dans la catégorie des ‘enfants gâtés’ et focalisent seulement sur le sujet de la hausses des frais de scolarité. Cependant, les manifestations ont pris une ampleur plus grande que cela. On voit un public qui se réveille et participe activement aux grandes conversations de notre société. Surtout avec la présence actuelle de notre gouvernement fédéral qui essaie de changer vraiment le visage de notre pays. Le band et moi les félicitons et leur disons: Courage et continuez pacifiquement!

At any rate – It’s been a very busy month for us – and we’ve put quite a few kilometers on the trusty van, and had a blast all around Quebec and our neighbour, Ontario. Some très belles rencontres were made, if you’ll excuse my franglais. Hopefully we’ll be able to visit you all again in the coming months…

Well it’s almost the end of March, and we have TWO MORE SHOWS to offer you all before April showers & flowers us, and before we take a couple of weeks off for good behaviour. So if you haven’t yet seen us this year, a great opportunity to do so (translation: free show) will be this THURSDAY, MARCH 29 @ 19h30 – at the Maison de la culture Villebon, Beloeil, QC.

However there’s just one little catch…. The priority seating goes to residents of Beloeil – all you others have to wait until 10 minutes before the show to be shown to any unoccupied seats that are left. Hope to see you there.

Otherwise, you can catch us in Deschambault, QC, this SATURDAY, MARCH 31 @ 20H30, at the charming Angelus Bistro one of our favourite intimate and cozy venues with a fantastic restaurant that strives to use locally-sourced ingredients, and an impressive selection of beers… Can’t wait!

xox

K

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C’est incroyable que la semaine passée il faisait 25 degres Celsius. Puis hier il faisait -7! C’est un peu n’importe quoi, mais voilà le mois de mars à Montréal. Comme Manu notre soundman nous a dit pendant le weekend à Québec, “Je suis allé regarder un film un jour, c’était l’hiver en allant et l’été en rentrant. Le printemps est passé quand j’étais en train de regarder le film!”

On a DEUX CONCERTS qui restent ce mois avant une petite pause de 4 semaines avant le prochain show. Ce jeudi, on joue à la Maison de la culture Villebon,, Beloeil, Qc. Le show est gratuit et tôt. Ce samedi, on joue à une de notre salles préférées au Québec: L’Angélus, Deschambault. L’accueil est excellent et les repas fournis par le restaurant sont vraiment bons!

Plus tard en avril (le 28 avril) on retourne au Mouton Noir à Val David. Toujours très bien comme soirée!

à bientôt…..

It’s with pleasure we announce that we’re on the cover of The Hour here in Montreal this week! Thank you to those kind folks.

The cover photo was taken by the very talented Frédérique Bérubé (no direct relation ). Please go and check out her stuff here:

http://www.frederiqueberube.com

To celebrate, we’ve decided to make our two previous albums, What the River Gave the Boat (2007, nominated for a Western Canada Music Award) and What the Boat Gave the River (2008), FREE FOR DOWNLOAD at Bandcamp for 1 week starting tomorrow, March 15th. Please feel free to pass this around, post it, tell your friends, aunts, grandfathers…whatever you wish. We’ve also made our latest album June in Siberia downloadable at the price you desire, otherwise phrased as “Name Your Price” on Bandcamp. There is no minimum.

As well, we have lots of shows around Québec coming up and our big Rentrée Montréalaise at the Théatre Outremont on Thursday, March 22nd with our friends Harvest Breed opening up. You can join the Facebook invite here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Berube-and-the-Patriotic-Few/50768102924#!/events/203894519706751/

PS: I almost fell off one of these cliffs as a kid (picture below)….Love this spot in the highveld in Swaziland!

Un grand merci à The Hour pour l’article de cette semaine. On a décidé de mettre nos albums à la disponibilité de tout le monde sur bandcamp.com gratuitement !(Lisez au-dessus pour les détails).

Il faut vraiment voir les photos de Frédérique Bérubé qui a pris la photo. Vous pouvez voir ce qu’elle fait ici:

http://www.frederiqueberube.com

On a hâte pour le show la semaine prochaine à Montréal au Théatre Outremont avec nos amis Harvest Breed, jeudi le 22 mars….à bientôt…

Aussi cette fin de semaine::::: vendredi St Andre Avelin ::::: samedi Victoriaville !

Notre vitrine au Rideau à Québec s’est très bien passée. En fait, ils nous ont donné le Prix Résidence de la Ville de Québec: Coup de cœur unanime du jury!! Un grand merci au jury pour cet opportunité encroyable, surtout dans une si belle salle:

Vous pouvez aussi lire l’announce ici:

http://info-culture.biz/2012/02/17/la-ville-de-quebec-remet-deux-prix-dans-le-cadre-de-la-bourse-rideau/

Ontario….on arrive!

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Alo alo,

Our showcase at Rideau last week went very well. We were awarded the prize of a Residency in the beautiful Palais Montcalm in Québec City. Apparently we were the unanimous choice by the jury! We’re very grateful for this opportunity. Very excited. You can see a picture of the room above, as well as the press release in the link below it.

Ontario coming up……

Demain on part pour Québec pour notre vitrine officielle Rideau, grace à ROSEQ qui nous a donné un petit prix pour ça octobre passé! On joue à 21h00 au Théatre Petit Champlain. On a bien hâte pour ce show-là. Puis, jeudi et vendredi, on retourne dans le coin de Lac St Jean: Jeudi au Café Clocher, Alma et vendredi Le Sous Bois, Chicoutimi. À la fin du mois, on sera en Ontario. Regardez les dates à coté!

Un petite photo au bord du St Laurent à Morrisburg, Ontario:

Tomorrow we’re in Québec City for our official Rideau Showcase. We’re on at 9pm at Théatre Petit Champlain. Looking forward to this. Thursday we’ll be in Alma at the Café Clocher and Friday we’ll be at the Sous Bois in Chicoutimi. Looking forward to heading up to the region of Lac St Jean again. Never been to Chicoutimi either. At the end of the month we’ll be back in Ontario. Have a look at the dates to the left of this entry!

A small photo taken from the shore of the mighty St Laurence in Morrisburg, Ontario two weekends ago!

Off shortly to Morrisburg, ON for two nights at the Upper Canada Theatre with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café. Being trying to get on this show for a few years, so we’re damn excited to do it.

Our Winnipeg release party back in March, 2011 for June in Sibera was re-aired by the CBC Radio 2 on Canada Live this past week. If you missed it, you can check it out here:

Canada Live recording

On sera à Québec bientôt pour le RIDEAU, le 13 février! Yebo!

Check out this house among the 1000 islands on the St Lawrence, not far from where we’re going. I hear it’s for sale….

La Neige. Elle est partout. J’ai fait du ski de fond au bord du chemin de fer hier. C’était magnifique. Tout seul, pas de traffique. J’aime bien Montréal pour ça. A la fin du mois de janiver, on sera à Morrisburg pour deux soirs avec Stuart McLean et le Vinyl Café. On a hâte pour ce show-là. Le deuxième soir sera diffuser sur la radio CBC plus tard pendant l’année.

à bientôt

une photo d’une place qu’on adore:

The mountainous region of Swaziland.

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It’s been a real winter finally. Lots of snow. Cross country skied along the tracks yesterday. Had the tracks all to myself. Lots of show upcoming. The next one will be with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Café in Morrisburg, ON on Jan 28/29. The show on the 29th will be recorded and aired later in the year.

The photo above is a place we love!

Hopefully see you soon!

We’ve finished the first 12 dates of the tour, now a week off in the mountains. Once again saw the sunrise in Vevey, hung out with the kind folks of Groundation in Zurich after the show, then took their hotel rooms because they left on their tour bus at 2am. Also  realized how horrible my German is. We played a show for about 60 students from Bern, aged 7-12  the day after our show at the Turnhalle in Bern…..I tried very meekly a few words in German (….literally…”Look kids I can count to three in German”) to not a hell of a lot of fanfare, deservedly-so. An enjoyable moment nonetheless.

We’ve got a house concert in Neyruz, CH (canton Fribourg) on Nov 19th, then fly to Berlin for some dates with Olivia Pedroli and her band. Looking forward to those immensely.  The last time I played Berlin was in a small cafe run by a kind gentlemen that I think had done a few too many tabs of acid in his life…but very kind.

Thanks to everyone who’s come out to the shows: Bern, St Imier, Geneva, Cressier have been some of the real highlights so far. Here are some pictures taken by photographer Marco Zanoni from the show in Bern:

On a une petite pause la semaine prochaine après les derniers 12 concerts. Ce fut un grand plaisir, comme toujours, de venir en Suisse et jouer dans les salles comme L’épicentre à Genève, Turnhalle à Berne, le centre culturelle de St Imier, parmi les autres. On a fini la soirée dans un club avec l’équipe de Groundation à Zurich. Une chouette équipe, puis on a tous pris leurs chambres de l’hôtel parce qu’ils sont partis dans leur bus à 2h00 après notre soirée hip-hop Zurichoise. Un grand merci à Marco Zanoni qui a pris des photos de notre show à Berne que j’ai mis au-dessus.

La suite, un petit house concert à Neyruz, CH (canton Fribourg) le 19 novembre, puis après cela, un vol pour Berlin où je commence trois dates avec Olivia Pedroli en Allemagne. J’ai ben hàte pour ces dates-là!

à bientôto

M

It all started in Geneva at L’Épicentre – a beautiful artist centre, intimate, slightly off the beaten path, and with a truly superb team working with the best equipment, attentive and generous audience included. We will gladly return to play there again the second we are invited. Then followed the Cressier festival Seul-en-Scène.

Finally our secret show last night at Bar King in Neuchâtel where we pulled out all the stops, and played almost our entire repertoire for very good friends and strangers alike. You know it’s a good night when Yesterday’s Halo inspires a dance solo!

As usual, we’ll leave you with a picture or two… and hopefully we’ll see some of you tonight in Bern at the Progr/Bee-flat!

K

My favourite part about getting ready for a tour is making a checklist. It’s all conceptual you see – no actual limits of physical space are faced, no tetris games with toothpaste, quarter-inch, cds and undergarments.

However, one always finds oneself suspecting that the suitcase you used last time shrunk, and wondering exactly how many pairs of underwear you really need after all. And sacrificing a sweater and two pairs of socks to take the hiking boots so that the day off in Neuchatel can be spent in the nearby mountains.

We’re off to Switzerland tomorrow to begin a serveral weeks-long tour of Switzerland, Germany and France! Almost all packed up, and almost everything checked off.

Two things are certain:

1. Something will be forgotten
2. We’re going to have one hell of a good time!

For our tour dates, shift your eyes over to the left a couple of centimeters. And if you’re going to be in the area for any of those shows – don’t be a stranger! We’d love to see you.

It’s crazy, because it seems like only days ago we came back from our last tour… Oh wait! It WAS only days ago. Two, in fact.

We had a short and very sweet gander over to the West very recently. Starting in Winnipeg, at a great venue we are beginning to know well – The West End Cultural Centre – it was off to a good start right off. We were lucky to have the lovely Jenny Berkel open the night with her friendly and charming group.

Then it was a long day of travel, a Showcase performance for the Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta, followed by the best kind of dessert – a satisfying set at the Haven Social Club in Edmonton.

Last, and most definitely not least was our night at the Palomino in Calgary. The opening band – native Calgarians Reuben Bullock – played far too short a set in our opinion. So inventive and captivating!

The folks at the Palomino get a special mention in this post for their generous nature (especially where whiskey is concerned) and their truly zany and amazing staff. We’re already looking forward to our next visit to Calgary!

We’ll leave you with this photo of Tonio and Kristina putting Winnipeg’s vintage shops to the test.

Jet lag – here we come!