Day One

Sitting in the back row of our big ass desiel van and thought now was
as good a time as any to start our tour blog.

We've already listened to two records all the way through; an old one
from Tony Sherr and a new one from Wilco. That doesn't bode well for
our relatively small CD wallet. A couple of audio books should take a
fair chunk of time to get through, but I have a feeling well be coming
back around to Sherr before the trip is through.

We've got about 9 hours until we hit the Beaver Inn in Wawa, where
we'll be recieved by the conveniently named Bruce family.

More to come. This is just day one.
xo BP

(oh, so you know, these posts are gonna be written on an iPod so the
messages won't go up until the next time we hit a wi-fi signal. If the
date above doesn't correspond with what we're talking about, that's
why!)

Boot Camp

Well, here we go. The all-consuming month of July.

It's Canada Day today so we're taking it (relatively) easy today. Just
doing some laundry and trying to learn a couple covers. Tomorrow and
Friday though, we mean business. We are hellbent on bringing our two
newest songs on the road with us and we seem to be getting close. By
the time the weekend is over, they should be ready to join the pack.

Saturday night, Matt's Goin' Steady dance party celebrates it's fourth
year anniversary at the boat but we're still gonna get him up bright
and early on Sunday morning so we can get to Wawa by dark.

We are still looking for some kind folks that could offer us floors or
couches to sleep on, or at least to suggest a cheap motel, hostel or
dorm room we can inhabit for the night. We have some places already
but we are still scratching our heads about Winnipeg, Saskatoon,
Edmonton, Lethbridge, Regina, Quebec City and maybe Ottawa. Leave a
comment or email us at brucepeninsula@gmail.com

Ok, wish us luck! Check back here for occasional musings from our trip.

xo BP

Lethbridge!

We weren't content with our measly tour dates, so we had to add one more. We'll be in Lethbridge on July 16th at Henotic. If you know anybody who lives there, please tell them to come out and meet us!

So, here's our July officially...

6/20 - Kingston, ON - Skeleton Park Festival
7/7 - Winnipeg, MB - Pyramid Cabaret *
7/8 - Saskatoon, SK - Walker's Nightclub *
7/9 - Edmonton, AB - Brixx Bar *
7/10 - Calgary, AB - Dicken's *
7/11 - Canmore, AB - Canmore Hotel *
7/13 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret **
7/14 - Victoria, BC - Logan's **
7/15 - Kelowna, BC - Habitat **
7/16 - Lethbridge, AB - Henotic
7/17 - Regina, SK - O'Hanlan's
7/21 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore ***
7/22 - Quebec City, QC - Le Cercle
7/23 - Ottawa, ON - Cafe Deckuf
7/24 or 25 or 26 - Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival

Box Social

To the city of Kingston;

Our utmost thanks for the fun day outside yesterday. Rainy as hell but you stuck it out and we'll remember your smiling faces huddled under that tarp.

Also, Neil is totally red-faced this afternoon and wants to say sorry and "oh my god, duh" to the always lovely Annie CLIFFORD. For those who didn't already have a laugh about it, it should be noted that Annie SHAW was nowhere near Kingston yesterday. Brain farts are much louder through a microphone.

Some of us are going to catch the Gertrudes at the Rivoli tonight for the last throes of NXNE. We think you should probably go too because these guys are kings and queens. See you at 9pm.

Otherwise notable.... we're probably going to mainly update this space throughout our tour. Tweets are sort of unfulfilling, so if you want the straightest goods, check on this page throughout July.

We fixed the comments so a new window pops up and we hope you feel free to post back. Some other improvements will hopefully be made to the site in between bag packing and other vacation planning duties.

Ok? Ok.

Healthy Competition

Today we were Long Listed for Polaris. It makes us feel proud and it also makes us feel kind of funny. In the last hour we got one Google Alert that said we were the deserving underdog and another that said we were the most over-rated of the bunch.

Either way, thanks to everyone for their congrats. And big high fives to the other bands on the list, and high tens to our close buddies Timber Timbre and Snailhouse.

As for our vote, if we were allowed to make it, I think most of us feel like Chad VanGaalen's record was the best of the year.

What we're really looking forward to is our tour. Please come out to one of the shows! We're gonna be chiseled old people by the time all that driving is over with. The dates, in case you haven't seen 'em, are here...

6/20 - Kingston, ON - Skeleton Park Festival
7/7 - Winnipeg, MB - Pyramid Cabaret *
7/8 - Saskatoon, SK - Walker's Nightclub *
7/9 - Edmonton, AB - Brixx Bar *
7/10 - Calgary, AB - Dicken's *
7/11 - Canmore, AB - Canmore Hotel *
7/13 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret **
7/14 - Victoria, BC - Logan's **
7/15 - Kelowna, BC - Habitat **
7/17 - Regina, SK - O'Hanlan's
7/21 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore ***
7/22 - Quebec City, QC - Le Cercle
7/23 - Ottawa, ON - Cafe Deckuf
7/24 - Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival

* with Rock Plaza Central
** with Jon-Rae Fletcher
*** with My People Sleeping & Snowblink

Beacons, Self-Help,

Hey friends. Some new BP family-related projects to tell you about.

Casey's band ohbijou are releasing album number two tomorrow and we think some serious shit is about to go down for them. We can't think of a more deserving bunch of people. What we've heard of Beacons is absolutely beautiful and everyone involved should be proud of the top-notch fidelity and spot-on playing. It's really lovely music and that's something we all need more of. Visit their myspace for all the pertinent details.

Secondly, we have Self-Help, which was recently released by our bro Thom Gill. It's ultra-smooth and sexy and features some serious guitar work and that trademark slithering coo from the man in the blue pants. We can't find a picture of it. You should just message Thom at myspace and get yourself a copy.

oh, and...

Katie Stelmanis has a new 7" out on Vice / Loog and also Isla Craig is holding her CD release this Saturday at St. Andrew-By-The-Lake on the island. Both of those recordings are off-the-chain too.

Got all that?

Devour the Mountains

Not every day of July is officially stitched up just yet but you can't say we aren't trying. An official announcement for the Western Canada dates below will likely go out tomorrow or the next day, but we figure this is as good a place as any for a scoop.

6/20 - Kingston, ON - Skeleton Park Festival
7/7 - Winnipeg, MB - Pyramid Cabaret *
7/8 - Saskatoon, SK - Walker's Nightclub *
7/9 - Edmonton, AB - Brixx Bar *
7/10 - Calgary, AB - Dicken's *
7/11 - Canmore, AB - Canmore Hotel *
7/13 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret **
7/14 - Victoria, BC - Logan's **
7/15 - Kelowna, BC - Habitat **
7/21 - Montreal, PQ - Il Motore
7/23 - Ottawa, ON - Cafe Deckuf
7/24 - Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival

* with Rock Plaza Central
* with Jon-Rae Fletcher

We couldn't be more excited. We're caught up with a delightfully nervous and mysterious energy. Can't wait to see the towns and cities that litter our country and to meet some of our national brethren.

If you are a friendly type and we've had some kind of effect on you in the last year or two, maybe you should get in touch. At least, we'd love to hear about your favourite place to eat in town or your favourite record store. At most, we'd be ever-grateful to crash on your floor. Please don't hesitate to send us an email if you have some insight on your city that we might not have. brucepeninsula@gmail.com

More dates are coming together and there will surely be more news to come on this in the coming month. Please stay tuned.

xo BP

Scarborough

Going to the lake to reunite.

Going to suburbs to get down to it.

Going to have news about the West shortly.

Go go BP

The Line

We picked a great time to induct Tamara Lindeman as an occasional choir member, didn't we? She starts singing with us just as her own band, the Weather Station, release their beautiful debut.

Tamara and the rest of her band will be playing shows all around this summer and we think you should go see them. Just listening to The Line now and can tell you its a real raw nerve. Why don't you find out for yourself by buying the mp3s or at least listening to the Weather Station at myspace.

In other BP side project news... Andrew is putting the very final touches on his new record Man of Leisure / Man of War. It's release is imminent... Steve recently joined forces with Fuzzy Logic Records for a limited re-release of his Whistle EP and, presumably, some new recordings will be birthed by the newlyweds sometime soon... Casey's new ohbijou record Beacons is just moments from release... Mike, Isla and Katie have new ones coming soon too. Busy year for all the random affiliates of BP, huh?

Tweet

We like to consider ourselves reluctant but saavy when it comes to computer trends. We waited for months before we ended up on Myspace. We actively ran from Facebook but were eventually drawn in.

Well, it's happened again. With much humming and hawing, BP have joined the Twitter generation. It seems a little silly to us but we know a lot of you guys like to check it on your phone when you're on the bus and shit, so we figured it couldn't hurt to join.

We'll try to ramble on it regularly.

http://www.twitter.com/bruce_peninsula
@bruce_peninsula