Photo by Heather Welsh.

Hello friends,

I am proud to announce that yesterday, (9/3/2011) Tyler Carriere aka John The Baptist of the Kingfisher Bluez Recording Company was wed at a private ceremony on Vancouver Island. I was honoured to be his best man and I have a few additional comments to share:

I am lucky enough to have been Tyler’s friend for the last eight years and I can say without a doubt if you had told me in January that I would be here today, typing my best man speech into his laptop the morning after his wedding, I would have believed you. In January, Tyler hadn’t even the faintest premonition of his impending nuptials. He had just moved to the Comox Valley, in hopes of paying off his phone bill before his journey to New York to live out his life as a Carthusian Monk (but that’s another story).

Tyler is the sort of person who dives headlong into everything he does, and I couldn’t be more proud of him for diving into his new life as a husband, father and business owner. Now that he’s taken these vows, he won’t be taking the previously intended vow of silence and I can say that Kingfisher Bluez will be that much richer with his continued presence, his unmistakable voice, and unequivocal passion for life, music and art.

Thank you Tyler, John the Baptist, with all the love in the world. You will always have a home at Kingfisher Bluez!

-Tim the mute

September, 4th 2011

Comox, B.C.

proof.

If you pre-ordered, I am sorry about the delays but the records are finally here and will be shipping ASAP. If you didn’t pre-order well then go buy one now from our “very expensive” online store!

PS: If you pre-ordered this record and moved in the last 9 months, please email me your new address!!!

One Hundred Copies Pressed on Glow-In-The-Dark 7″ Vinyl.

kingfisherbluez at gmail dot com to pre-order for Summer delivery.

Extremely limited quantities!!!

Hand Numbered. /100

That’s right, the debut 7″ from KFB megastars Teen Plaque is now up for grabs! There are 50 copies available. They are each one hand-numbered and lathe-cut into a very limited edition vinyl. There aren’t even really fifty because Jamie is getting some and I am getting one or two as well. El Searlo doesn’t need any because he punched his turntable and broke it. To any of my friends or KFB artists who think you will get one just because we share straws in our cherry cokes, well tough noogies because these are limited limited and there are no promos and only the fifty lathe cuts so if you want one better order it now!

TEN BUCKS

Thanks to everyone who came out to our last show with LA punk legends the Zeros! We’ll have some pics up soon but in the meantime here is a video from our last show at the Biltmore. It was shot by Aurelién Michon and Julian Bowers, the two cuddliest guys in the world. This song is so new it hasn’t even been recorded yet so look for it maybe on our next album? Thanks again to everyone who has been sharing the link around for No Revival 2! It’s got a lot of downloads so far and we are all really proud of it so keep linking it to anyone and everyone!

The Swell Season at Malkin Bowl Sunday 22^nd Aug.

Glen, The Frames and Black Francis

As I write this The Swell Season are just about coming to the end of their North American tour, and luckily for Vancouverites, this included a special performance outdoors at the Summer-special, soft-seater Malkin Bowl. The gorgeous Czech Marketa Irglova (complete with hot new pixie hair cut) and Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard blew me away. Support came from none other than The Pixies’ frontman Black Francis/Frank Black/Charles Thompson!

I, inexcusably, slept through getting to Stanley Park in time to see Black Francis perform alone. Luckily, he made an appearance later in the night but I will get to that later…

The first song was a Pixies cover (Cactus) by Glen and Marketa alone. Immediately it was obvious that Glen’s voice contrasts so well with Marketa’s. His is very Irish; strong, and impossibly loud (he even played one song without a mic!). Marketa’s voice is as delicate and soft as her playing. I knew how great they could be live from the film that thrust them into the limelight; ‘Once’. But hearing them together on stage was really moving and at the same time so much fun.

They played a couple of songs from the newer album, and of course the crowd pleasers from the film. Personal favourites included the more-recent single ‘Low Rising’, Marketa’s haunting ‘If You Want Me’, the decisive ‘When Your Mind’s Made Up’, and tear-jerker, ‘Once’. Glen hardly needed a microphone at all, his voice is so powerful. Despite the sad undertones in most of their songs, jokes were thrown about on stage and when Glen asked the sound guy to turn down the piano whilst Marketa was playing (He cited an abundance of sustain, saying “It just doesn’t sound good”) she pretended to be upset and stormed off stage. Then Glen did a little “I’m sorry” face at her whilst still singing. What a pair of cuties!

After the first song Glen invited some of the audience to get more intimate and sit up on the stage, so a few lucky ones got a few close-up songs before security broke up the party. Other highlights included a little 4 year old girl climbing on stage and dancing around, seemingly unaware of her audience. It was adorable!

Later on in the set, at the request of the audience, Glen broke into ‘Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy’ saying it felt like the whole evening had been leading up to that short ditty. And as part of the encore, we got to see Black Francis after all. They made a duet of ‘Where Is My Mind’ that was prefaced by the story of how Glen discovered the Pixies as a rabble-rousing teenager in Dublin and how much their music meant to him. It was the perfect finale! Black Francis leant in to snap him and Glen with his iPhone. I’ll have to see if I can find it on the internet somewhere….

Seeing The Swell Season live lived up to all of my expectations. Marketa was quiet and gorgeous, Glen lead the show, the fiddle was beautiful and the Glen/Marketa singing combo brought out a little eye juice. I suggest that you grab a chance to see this band live with both hands!!

-Heather Welsh

Well, folks, it didn’t take long.  Tim and I were the last to arrive and when we opened the door, it was already complete pandemonium.  Colin was in a stained bedsheet chanelling Caligula (Malcolm McDowell’s version) yelling he was God within human form.  Spence’s listless body had been hoisted onto a wall with a pentagram painted on his stomach and the words, “FOOLISH MORTAL” written on his forehead.  Devin and Rob were grovelling at Colin’s feet, offering him grapes and hams which they roasted overtop of a fire made from their instruments.  The less said about Cody, the better.  I’m just still shocked a human being could endure what happened to him.

I guess they had the idea that since the session would invariably end in disaster,  they decided to just go ahead start the mayhem themselves before anything else happened.  Tim, after a few moments of stunned horror, shruggged his shoulders and decided to join in and start flogging Devin and Rob while Colin laughed maniacally at the heavens.  I sipped a beer.  It’s complete debauchery.  Madness.

And to think we only wanted to record some songs.

Please send us photos of our loved ones.  Or Red Bull.  Preferably Red Bull.

-Julius Bowersius

[We’re serious about the red bull -Ed.]

Yes it’s finally here! Our second compilation. I could honestly not stress more how much work was put into recording these songs and arranging this compilation. All of these artists mean a lot to me; as artists and as people. More importantly however, these songs mean something to me and I chose each of them because I really do care about the quality of music that KFB releases. For a year and a half now, this “record label” has been a big and exciting part of my life. I can’t imagine having a better group of people to share this time with. Thanks to the artists for their help. Thanks for coming to this website. Welcome to our new friends. Please support independent record shops and DIY labels. Form a band. Record everything. Fight the power!

-Tim the mute, Vancouver B.C. 8/17/10

CLICK ON THE ALBUM COVER TO DOWNLOAD

Tracklist:

1. Fall Fair Car – Come Around
2. The Lion In Love – Unceremonious Splendour
3. Eeek! – Sassafrance
4. Julian Bowers is Getting Married – Getting Married
5. The Shiny Diamonds – Such A Sucker
6. Cottage Days – Everything Was Beautiful, And Now
7. Born By Science – V Card
8. Pretty Eyes For Captain America – Under The Stands
9. Sticky Silver – Turpentine Girl
10. Red Soul – Eyeliner
11. Gold And Shadow – Fiction
12. Count Oak – Hungry For Us
13. Devon Parkin- Glass And Marble
14. Sommer – Whipped In The Wind
15. Teen Plaque – Teen Plaque Text Message
16. Button Fields – Untitled
17. Village – Stranger Thoughts
18. I Came Back For You- Hey Kid

[Photo stolen from the Vancouver Sun, no copyright infringement intended.]

Martha Wainwright Sings Edith Piaf- The Centre For Performing Arts In Vancouver June 26th 2010

by Heather Welsh

This was my first time in the Centre, and I thought it was really rather nice. Great acoustics, so even being sat upstairs in the peasant seats I caught every note coming from the beautiful grand piano.

Jose James and Jef Neve opened the show, James told us he was recently signed to the famous Impulse Records but it was Neve who grabbed my attention. Maybe I appreciated him more because of the hours spent sat at my own piano before school.

After people-watching in the interlude, the seductive Martha took to the stage with 3 instrumentalists, a very tight black dress and some huge sparkly dorothy-style heels! It wasn’t until later when she introduced her band that we learnt the pianist was in fact Doveman a.k.a Thomas Barlett who is like, the best touring pianist ever. He’s toured with The National and The Swell Season, as if you need any more persuading he is a good egg.

Anyway, back to Martha… She was a delight, mimicking Piaf’s famous dramatics as well as dress, and yet still made the songs feel her own. She sang Piaf so well in fact, that during her vocals I almost forgot she isn’t French. Between songs she chatted away like she was performing for a few old friends. She revealed they had just been to Tojo’s and were sharing around a bottle of sake with them on stage. I think they had spent a liiittle bit too much there, Martha asked us to buy her album as a result! By the end of the set, she had paid tribute to her late mother as well, singing one of her English-language songs that had been translated to French.

I would have liked to have heard some of her classics too, but hey I can do that in the future, last night I got to see a little slice of history in Martha’s passionate tribute to one of France’s most celebrated artists.

Heather Welsh is from England, which is in Europe somewhere.