Road Blog 1.1.8

Well 2 more shows and we're back in Vancouver/Whistler/Victoria for some much needed chill time. So that means warm your couches Release fans cause we don't have any places to stay! hahah, but seriously I love riding the couch wave.
So tonight we rock out in Canmore at the Can Ho, which is the best venue of all time!
hotel rooms and stuff, we're easy to please,
and tomorrow we drive only a few hours to Golden to play at the Rockwater Bar and Grill and man o man do they ever make a mean stake!
So get excited because your friend(s) in the Release have a few days off next week before getting back on the road for a busy December, so call us up, or invite us over, or throw stuff at us if you see us in the streets!
like candy, or pocket change!
haha
much love
Tom

Road Blog 1.1.7

Well we're in Thunder Bay Ontario right now but i'm putting up some east coast pics,
not that we're really that far west yet, but we're heading back at a furious rate.
So after a few days in Newfoundland everyone in the band was baffled at the way of life out there. I don't know what the have for actual written down laws out there, but if they have any they sure don't let it spot them from doing whatever they want.
I would list some specific examples but i don't want to get Newfoundland in trouble with the rest of Canada. Lets just say, imagine something that would warrant a reprimand from bar staff, just general stuff, in Newfoundland not only would you not get in trouble for it, but also the bartenders would also be guilty of said hypothetical crime.
Classic.
So here's a shot of us doing exactly what your not supposed to do, which is hang out right close to the water during some crazy storm with big 15 foot waves. Kostaman got soaked by some random 20 footer, at the time it was classic, but i can't think back on it without shuddering.


So all that aside Newfoundland comes highly recommended, although the
ferries are long and crappy and really expensive, but other than that its a party.


So on to Montreal.
In the M dot we were lucky enough to be hanging out with Marc-Boris St. Maurice and my good friend Adam Greenblatt. Boris ran for City Counciler for an area of Montreal and was nice enough to let us crash in his campain headquarters on St. Laurence street in a downtown montreal store front. Pretty awesome.
So here's some of the art that was up in his office and us hangin around montreal





and us hanging out with our friends in Volcanoless in Canada
http://www.myspace.com/volcanolessincanada

Road Blog 1.1.6

Snap i'm doing 2 entries back to back, partially cause that last one was pretty lame for a rock and roll road story.
But i digest,
got some great pictures to help catch up to where we actually are right now, Newfoundland. Boosch!

I don't know where this shot is from


This is my brother's room in Toronto, with a fresh paint job by his roommate Nathan.
We were there when he saw it for the first time. and i hope i'm not letting the cat out of the bag with this shot.

Thanksgiving at heuckendorff's


Taking a pee in New Brunskwick with some awesome scenery!



Confederation Bridge! That's a big bridge!
seriously cool




Some chillin' out in Hali, walking on the tracks with Brodie Peterson




Haha picture blog, who doesn't love that!
love peace and chicken grease

Road Blog 1.1.5

So our new van is now running great, and we're making progress again in our cross canada tour. There's still plenty of crazy stuff going on, but luckily it's not related to Van maintenance.
And we finally arrived in Ontario, for two nights in Thunder Bay. And on our way it was even warm enough for our last summer time road dip, in a cool lake in northern ontario.

not too shabby














So funny story..
when we were in Thunder bay we stayed at a hotel close to the bar and Thunderbay's Casino, and every night when we finished our show, we would fraternize with the interesting girl working at the front desk. and on our last night she offered us some casino vouchers for $25 in free slot play. So me (TOm), Kostaman and Tim head over to the Bino, only to run into constant trouble trying to get in past security. My nova scotia license was all peeled, Tim has an expired ID and Kman didn't even have anything, so it turned into quite a fiasco.
Anyway, I get my passport and end up being the only person let into the Casino,
I sit down at the Tiger Liger machine and start playing away, make 16 bucks off the bat and i'm super stoked. I'm all like "sweet, i'm gonna get a sandwich or something".
Then i up the bets and put all my money on one last spin. BOOM! $230! count it!
so i walk nonchalantly past the security, let them know that despite their efforts i cleaned up, and walk right out the door!
good thing i didn't take the winnings to the poker table and try my luck.

Road Blog 1.1.4

So the race against time had begun. He had little knowledge and a lot of problems, but morale was still at an all time high, on Broadway st. in Saskatoon.
So at 8 or 9 I begun disassembling some drum brakes, and man oh man, was that ever fun!
and it was raining, so the guys were taking shifts holding a tarp over the half of my body that wasn't under the van all day. We made our own little third world, shanty repair area, which would have been alright if it weren't for all the broken glass in the dirt that we called a garage.

Bigg Bigg thanks to our good friend Nick McDubby,(http://inthedubofthenight.blogspot.com/) without whom our adventure would have been much less pleasant.
So jumping forward 10 or 12 hours, the problems that were happening before our mediocre repair session were still evident and it was clear that we were not going to make our gig in Winnipeg.
So the next day we went van shopping.
and we found the nicest used, 2005 GMC Savanna 15 passenger, full ton, drive our hippy personal across the country and live to talk about it, Van ever! Its not as comfy as our rolling living room, which we parted with for $60 in a parking lot to some greasy tow truck auto wrecker dude, But it makes up for it with reliability....
Right?

Road Entry 1.1.3

So as we drove towards Saskatoon, gear at our feet, we monitored the gradual oil leak at the rear tire and continued on our way. At this point the night driving team of Tom and Tim had been up all night and we're still awake caught up in the brew haha of day to day vechicular troubles. After driving for 8 hours with an oily and leaky tire, heavy amounts of smoke had begun to rise from the tire, we realized our problems had worsened.


So, still 200k from our gig we realized our van was not fit for the drive, we called the good people at CAA to see what we could do. Having purchased the premium membership we were covered for 160k of towing, so we only had to pay for 40k of towing (still $200).

And our lovely Van was back on the road and we made our gig in Saskatoon.

Fantastic

So now we had a few days to try and work out our technical problems by our selves. This means Tom had a few days to fix all major problems with the van, after playing a gig with two hours of sleep over the last 22, and recieving advice over long distance phone conversations to our good friend/amateur mechanic/Brendan's cousin, the great Paul.

Road Entry 1.1.2

www.myspace.com/thereleasejamband

So as Tom and Tim Watson (Drummer) head up and out of Golden BC through the treacherous roads of Golden's construction district, moral suddenly hits the floor.

A loud noise from the trailer area has Brendan Ladner (guitar) awake and checking out the trailer. Soon he realizes that it is not sitting anywhere close to level and a blow out must have occured.

Upon further inspection it is clearly seen that not only did the wheel of the trailer blow, but the whole axle is removed from the trailer by means of broken leaf springs. And it is blatantly clear that the trailer's road trip has come to a dramatic end.



So at 4:30 in the morning we are forced to pack all of the gear snugly into our extra living space in our van, with almost no lighting, on a small shoulder, with a cliff right beside us, outside of Golden, 10 hours from our next gig,

So after some strategic packing, some level headed problem solving and straight up ditching our trailer on the side on the highway we're back on the road, but



Before we left we noticed a small oil leak from the back right tire of our van,
we checked our oil levels thoroughly and put it into the back of our minds,

little did we know that in a few short days we would be parting with our beloved van for $60

but more on that later....