The True Adventures of The Key Frames

Mixin' & Titlin'

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:35:00 GMT

Don and Josh are currently (well... "currently") sequestered away in a West Toronto attic putting together the mixes for our second disc, and it's going to be called Low Light High Light. Going to be in your ear by June or so, by the looks of things. Theo's working on the album art too - going to post it as soon as it's ready.

In the meantime, a present! Check out this brand new video of us doing "The Hit Plays You" (from ze new deesc) at Gladstone last month - thanks to Mike and the crew down at gottaBscene for putting it together.

www.youtube.com/watch

I've also got to tell you about this recording session we did in February, because honestly, after the drawn-out process of doing Out On The Point it was like getting struck by musical lightning. Times five.

Browse through our old blog posts sometime and you may find yourself chuckling light-heartedly about how every six months for three years I was like "First Key Frames album - just around the corner, kids!" and then inevitably, radio silence.

Not this time out, Chet! We were in Blue Rodeo's studio out on the Danforth over Family Day for three days. Had the whole band playing live (as opposed to one piece after another) - very much a "capture the moment" kind of session, with Josh from Skydiggers producing, and keeping us on an even keel. The result: we got ELEVEN tracks in the can in that three-day time-frame. We were pretty well-practiced, but shit... it still strikes me as nuts-ola that we pulled it off. A little tambourine/shaker/etc added in, and we were away to the races. (Of mixing?)

The tracks we put down, in no particular order:

Way To Love (Rob)
National Keyframe Rag (Theo)
Bootlegger (Rob)
Midday Sun (Ryan)
The Hit Plays You (Ryan)
Sorted Out (Rob)
You've Been On My Mind (Rob)
Wanna Be Rain (Ryan)
You're His Baby Now (Rob)
Yer Spell (Ryan)
In The Mirror (Rob)

We're all pretty fired up to get this to you (even Schwartzy, for shitssake).

It's a different kind of disc than OOTP (in the best possible way) and we're pretty positive you're going to like it plenty (in the baaaaad way). Keep an eye peeled - I've got a crazy idea rattling around in my head about how we might be able to get you a sneak preview (all for yourself!) when we start getting a couple of rough mixes back from Don. We know you're way too cool to Chinese Democracy our asses.

Peace and love, buds.

-RW

Key Frames II? Electric Boogaloo!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:11:14 GMT

The time has come to make it official. If it seems like you haven't heard much from us in the last little while, it's not because we've turned on you and are secretly planning your downfall. It's because we found out we're expecting another bouncing baby album and we've been double-timing it trying to get ready. And with Out On The Point barely out of diapers - it's just too much for words. We're not sure of its name, or absolutely everything that's going to be on it yet, but it looks like we can safely say you'll get to hear "Sorted Out", "Midday Sun", "The National Keyframe Rag", "Way To Love", "Wanna Be Rain" and "Bootlegger" for sure, plus more that we're horse-trading amongst ourselves to get included. What we also know is that we'll be recording it almost completely over the February long weekend at Blue Rodeo's Wood Shed studio, and we're mondo excited to announce that it's going to be produced by Josh Finlayson of The Skydiggers, with our main man Don Pyle (ex-Shadowy Man from a certain Shadowy Planet, & way more) reprising his role as mixmaster general. We're hoping to mix and master it in March/April, and have it ready for sometime in May or June. For our old and new friends in Quebec and points east to Halifax, we're aiming to come share it all with you in person sometime in July. So if you've got a) favourite bars you want us to play, b) friends who work at college radio that you're trying to butter up with your sweet 'find' from Toronto, or c) couches/basements/attics/root cellars for us to crash at/on/in while we're touring.... would we ever love to hear from you! More as it develops, folks. Thanks for reading about our things while you're spending time on the internet. Peace and love, RW

Tour Diary #3: So uh, it looks like there are only going to be three of these

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:30:00 GMT

At about 1:00 am, early on Sat. Sep. 3, the five Key Frames jumped from a pier into the welcomingly cool waters of the Gatineau River across the street from our tour's last gig at Kaffe 1870 in Wakefield, Quebec, north of Ottawa. It was a fitting and refreshing end to an incredible tour and a transformative experience for all of us. By the time the van was returned, we'd racked up almost 5100 km from Tillsonburg, Ontario to Halifax (twice, due to bag-gate), Charlottetown, and a whole lot of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario in between.

Over the course of 9 short days we played for St-Hubert hobos, backwoods beards, afternoon loungers, underworked bar staff, overworked bar staff, VLT dead-enders, our dearest friends and family members, record shoppers, CTV Morning Live, Islander poets, hot-dog clutching picnickers, crypto-stabbing victims, crowds of manic hotel workers, Rocky Horror frosh rejects and hippie hermits.

We loved them all.

Although Ryan lost his voice during a few dates on the second half of the tour, it actually marked an uptick in our fortunes more generally. Shows were better attended, interest started picking up. We even kicked off a trend of selling our vinyl 45s after our main man Bruce in Charlottetown broke the curse. By the time we rolled into Toronto we were definitely ready and happy to be home, but we were also playing and singing the best we ever have. It's amazing what happens when you play for hours every day... sometimes twice.

So now its onward and upward; next up is our Gram Parsons tribute gig at Silver Dollar on Sept. 15 with a boatload of old friends and great acts, incl. Sunbear, Big Tobacco and Jacques (avec les Shakey Boys). See you there!

Tour Diary #2: Oh It Looks Gooood

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:47:17 GMT

My optimistic plans for constant updating were quickly proven disastrously inaccurate, but here we are halfway through the jaunt, and I've found an opportunity to touch base.

Where to begin? A great first night in Montreal at L'inspecteur Epingle with Ol' Savannah. Awesome crowd, cool bill, lots of friends and family to catch up with. The only snag was that I left my guitar gear bag there and have since been scrimping by on borrowed odds and ends waiting for the priority mail (unbelievably-so-kindly arranged by Ol' Savannah Dave) to arrive in Halifax. Even though our gigs in Halifax were yesterday! Yipes.

Shit got real on night number two in T-intersection-with-a-bar Juniper, New Brunswick. Friendliest folks, and just jazzed to have us in... show was cool, and all five of us got to stay in this maniacal backwoods hunting lodge. With five separate cinder block rooms. Ryan called the one with the zebra print bedspread. We were all treated to framed photos of successful hunters giving the "yeah!" gunhands next to four or five upside down deer waiting to be field-dressed, and the like. Some bears. These photos were, of course, screwed into the cinder blocks to prevent... theft? Overall - not a place to brush your teeth.

Fredericton and Sussex were fun shows, though Ryan and Theo got into a bit of a middle-of-the-night tangle with a bat loose in the house we were staying at; a ne'er-do-well who didn't know when to quit, this particular flying rodent. Meanwhile Brian and I were trying to organize ourselves without pratfalling out of a camper van on the front lawn - lunacy. These events were unconnected.

Halifax and Moncton have been much-needed recharges in great digs; we were written up a couple times in the local papers in each city (links to follow when I can find the time to hunt them down). The Moncton show at Plan B last night was certainly one for the books. While we were playing the National Keyframe Rag a bunch of cops showed up at the bar, which promptly emptied of patrons/rubberneckers. We soon learned there had been reports of a stabbing on the sidewalk right next to the bar (which ultimately turned out to be false), quite naturally leading to an impromptu rendition of Gimme Shelter as we stood onstage in an emptied bar... complete with Dave Bradshaw on fiddle. Somewhere in there I ended up playing guitar lying on my back looking up at the band and ceiling tiles. So that has happened.

And this afternoon we play the Port Elgin benefit BBQ, followed by Alibi Lounge in Charlottetown PEI this evening. May these knucklehead misadventures continue! I'll keep ya posted next time I can get a dispatch together.

Peace and love from the road,

RW

Tour Diary #1: Higgins' Rules Come to Fruition

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:03:02 GMT

The last couple days we've spent preparing for the Key Frame Express to set off (intrepidly?) down the 401 tomorrow morning. First stop is Montreal, followed by Juniper, Fredericton and Sussex, NB, then Halifax on Sunday. This tour is not going to 'take it easy' on us by any stretch. It, in fact, we're doing 13 shows in 9 days... four matinees to do in addition to our evening gigs. I think we're in eleven towns total. Most are bar gigs, but there's also an in-store gig at Obsolete Records in Halifax on Sunday afternoon, a Crimestoppers Benefit BBQ (!) in Port Elgin, NB next Tuesday and we're taping Breakfast Television in Hfx on Monday morning. To air Tuesday, I think, though I could be wrong (more on that later). Long story short, by the time we get back you'll be able to call our playing 'Chicken Vindaloo' because we are going to be shit-hot. But I have to admit I'm morbidly curious at just what kind of physical punishment this is gonna dole out. I've never been on tour before. Ryan has; that's why he imparted his knowledge in Higgins' Rules of the Road. No, I'm not actually allergic to multivitamins! Those shits are packed, along with a bunch of fruit and veg for the road. Gotta stay wholesome while you can; I have a feeling the pubs are going to be a different story. I'm also faintly bemused by the prospect of having to reach deep into my farm-labourin' past and dig up the skills that allow one to back up a trailer into a narrow alleyway, should that come to pass. Love ya, insurance! More to come later! - RW

Let's hear it for the boys!

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:25:00 GMT

Yesterday I packed up some shopping bags and went down to see our pals at Indiepool in Toronto, where I picked up all of the printed and pressed copies of The Key Frames' first-ever full length disc, Out On The Point. It was pretty overwhelming, after waiting for so long. I'm excited, but I'm also a bit nervous, because now all of you get to hear it, and I don't get to hide it on my hard drive and be one of five people who have ever checked it out. But I'm pretty sure you'll find it as jaw-droppingly cool as I do. With no delay, I've spent the last four hours uploading tracks like a madman to this site and to Bandcamp so that you can get a taste as quick as is humanly possible. Within a day or so we should also have our digital shopping cart up and running so that you can order the CD directly from Indiepool, if you so choose, and the digital retailers (including everybody's ol' pal, iTunes) should be coming online next week. We will keep you apprised. We've also got some awesome video clips we're going to be uploading on to Facebook and Youtube over the next while to pump up the volume on this pigeon plate, so enjoy those. They're great edits from our pal Matt Brown, from a few years' worth of our own footage and stills, as well as some from Philip Pellat, Margie Galita and The Jazer. We'll be rolling 'em out throughout the summer, and they're not to be missed! Hm - tomorrow we hit the road and try to get our consignment sales together around the city. Sleep beckons. Enjoy Out On The Point, folks. And if you like it, tell absolutely everyone you know. If you don't like it, well.... keep it to yourself, will ya? Peace and love. -RW

Finishing touches, summer plans

Mon, 09 May 2011 11:15:00 GMT

Hey you lovely people.

We're excited and giddy to announce to you that the final master of our first album "Out On The Point" is in our hands at last, and now as soon as the artwork (product of our resident polymath, Theo Edmands) is finished, we'll be able to send it to get manufactured and sent away to the digital retailers, as well as made available for sale through this very website. Some delays with all this stuff have meant we've readjusted our sights and are now going to try and make it available to you on Tues. the 24th of May. This can't come quickly enough as far as I'm concerned because the sound of this disc and the experience of putting it together have given us a collection of work that's truly and completely exceeded our expectations and we're anxious to share it and ask you a litany of inane questions about it.

Exciting plans are also afoot for the summer, and they are totes bigger plans than we've been able to collect in one place for quite a while, so strap in:

First: We're gonna be pressing and distributing a vinyl 45 rpm single this summer to accompany "Out On The Point", which will feature two sensationally rambunctious cuts not included on the full-length disc. We'll have it with us at shows, and it'll be available to order online exclusively through thekeyframes.com, as well as on consignment in select Toronto record stores if we can cajole these digitalfied whippersnappers to stock it for us. Our hope is that we'll have it by the time we play our....

Second: NXNE showcase on Sat. Jun. 18 at 11pm, which will be at Mitzi's Sister - we haven't yet heard who else is on the bill but it's fantastic to be back in the 'fest this year and Mitzi's is a great room for a great night.

Third is our long-anticipated Disc Release party, which is going to be at one of the city's finest establishements, and most guaranteed great nights out: The Dakota Tavern on Thurs. July 21 at 10pm. You'll be hearing much, much more from us about this gig as it's undoubtedly going to be the biggest one we've ever played, and will be essentially unmissable given the show, the album and all the goodies we have in store. Stay tuned!

Fourth (f'n eh, fourth!) is our plan to hit the eastward road later in the summer and try to bring our unique brand of cowboy shirts, blistering banjo solos and history trivia to the good denizens of La Belle Province and the Maritimes in August, although planning is still in the early stages. More info is certainly to come.

Closer to right this second, we're returning to one of our favourite gigs, Country Saturday at the Gladstone, next week (May 14th) at 7pm and it promises to be a night of fun and frolic; every show I tell myself it's time to start experimenting again with throwing canned meat into the audience to ramp up the excitement. Will this finally be the one? You'll have to show up to find out.

- RW

Growlers, track listings, coffee and parking lots

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:31:30 GMT

Pulled pork sandwiches taste great with cumin - you may have already known this, but we didn't until we tried the special at Taps in Niagara Falls on Thursday. At least we think it was cumin... for more details, check out our forthcoming Key Frames cookbook, which is going to be released as part of the "Out On The Point - Collector's Edition". If it wasn't cumin, we're sorry, but we cannot afford to buy you new pork.

The Niagara Falls show was fun because they had giant beer towers that sit on your table called growlers. It's a well-known statistic that three out of every five Key Frames LOVES beer and two out of five love growling, but I don't think any of us were quite ready for what these magnificent contributions to alcotechture had to offer. Some nights, you just want to kick things over and leap around like an animal because the BAND finds it funny, forget about the crowd. A man can get juiced up when it comes to growlers. This is a lesson we have now learned.

Back home in TO, fueled on coffee, today is another Saturday spent working on the seemingly innumerable 'little things' that you have to do when you're getting ready to give people your first ever full-length disc. If we didn't care about anyone actually HEARING it and having access to it, and getting reviews for it and stuff like that.... it would STILL be hard just to get the thing done and manufactured. The fact that we're proud of our work and want you and everyone you've ever met to hear it just makes things crazy, and that's where growlers can get involved if you let them.

Today's big question is the track sequence. Obviously, this matters less than it once did as people are no longer forced to eat their music in order; it's much more likely they'll catch us on shuffle bumped up against Nancy Sinatra or the Inspiral Carpets, or some sort of outlandishness. But if these tech-savvy shufflers and mini-biters cancel themselves out of the conversation, then we're left with a small bunch of like-minded chin strokers who still like to take the album as a piece. So why not put some thought into it?

This is the dynamic we're thinking so far:

1. Building up to the heights of decadence.
2. Jackhammer punch-in-the-face (props: TE, SD)
3. Down a bit, introspective but with a growler of soul
4. Up and at them
5. Honky-tonk lagoon
6. Mid-tempo janglepop
7. Energetic folksy-scratch
8. Wistful lilypad
9. Late-night toe-tapping murder ballad
10. Utter chaos
11. Touching orchestral farewell

Go ahead, and send us your best suggestions if you think we haven't quite got it yet.

And if you can guess the actual song titles that match all those vague-assed descriptions... you WILL be rewarded with free shit.

RW

This just in: Myspace is buggy and outdated.

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:00:08 GMT

We'll still keep the old girl up, I suppose, because people like to go there to do their samplin', but holy. Let's just keep the blogging here at homebase from now on, shall we? Speaking of, we got ourselves a new homebase - we're still finding our way around but we hope you like it. March has been good for us so far - no shows, but plenty of time (which is quickly ticking away) to get our ducks in a row for Out On The Point, which is in the mixing stages right now, courtesy of nefarious underworld kingpin and all-around great guy Don Pyle. May 10th is still supposed to be the big day, and we're working our tails off to keep our promise. Reading back through the old myspace blog posts I realized just how often I've promised this disc "right around the bend" or "just a few months from now". And here it is, in the can and almost in your hands. And ears. Serious times, man. Serious times.