R.I.P. Hambeast?

Is this the last we've seen of our beloved band vehicle Hambeast? This week Decade of Sleep were back out east in Fredericton N.B. and although the trip started off well enough we ran into some problems riding though Quebec.

Decade set out for a three night engagement at Dolan's Pub in Fredericton Wednesday night July 6th from Toronto and drove through the wee hours of the morning stopping only briefly to recharge batteries at a 2 star motel.

Lance and I had already taken turns at the helm and because multi-talented member Eric Walker still isn't talented enough to pass his drivers test, it was Mat's turn to "conduire". Turns out the rattle I felt under my feet before leaving Toronto wasn't Hambeast's excitement to hit the highway again, it was a plea for respite. Unfortunately none of us know how to speak Van and so we ignored her pleas to pull over and drove her all through the night. Then somewhere between the part of Quebec where they still speak english and the N.B. border all systems failed. With my frenchy skills I got the ball rolling on a tow-truck and an appointment to have the van looked on that day while the others were busy trying to contact the various parties we needed to alert of our distress.

Ewalk & Mat found the only English speaking couple at a nearby rest stop and convinced them to drive the two to the mechanic's shop in Edmundston N.B. in exchange for a CD and a T-Shirt. Lance and I rode shotgun in the tow-truck while Hambeast lay lifeless on the back of the rig. After being told that our engine was F@$Ked we rented the last cargo van in the county and had to hitch another ride to the nearby town of Grand Falls N.B. to pick it up. We then went back to pick up the others in Edmundston and still made it to Fredericton in time for our show Thursday night.

The best course of action was obviously to party hard enough that night to forget our predicament and deal with it in the morning, and so we did. As always the crowd at Dolan's was rowdy and full of energy. We played 3 great shows and hung out with the staff and patrons as well as a couple Newfie buddies of mine. Saturday night after the show we set out from Fredericton with a second rental van (the first had to be returned to Grand Falls) and drove all through the night and morning to arrive back in Toronto late Sunday. We were extremely tired from the drive but very happy with the weekend shows. Fredericton likes to party and amidst the cheering and the dancing and the fighting I'm pretty sure we made some new fans! Unfortunately we may have lost a dear friend, Hambeast.

We now wait with bated breath to hear from our Mechanic in Edmundston if our van will ever hit the highway again or if New Brunswick will be her final resting place. We hope she can make a full recovery but the initial prognosis has us worried for her health. Tune in next week to read our next blog "Hambeast Rides Again" or "The Big Green Death"

Phil

Summer Days Driftin' Away

Hello friends,

Hope everyone is enjoying the sun and the warm weather. Summer is
finally here and we've been making the most of it. May saw us playing
a residency at C'est What in downtown Toronto paying tribute to
probably the most legendary Canadian musicians ever The Band (O.K.
Levon is American but he should be made an honorary Canadian). I know
I can speak on behalf of all 4 of us when I say that working out and
playing those songs was great fun and they seem to transcend genre and
are so timeless. Songs like Cripple Creek and Don't Do It are so
infectiously hooky you can watch the smiles in the audience stretch
out ear to ear over the course of the song. The bar manager Chad and
the rest of the staff at C'est What were amazing and it was fun
getting to know them and hanging with them every week.

The month of May also saw us flying to my old home in Iqaluit, Nunavut
to play two sold out shows back to back. I got a chance to show the
boys around a bit and let them see what living in the Canadian Arctic
is like. The crowds were enthusiastic to say the least! The dance
floors were packed and the speech was slurred... It was great to see
a lot of my old friends party with a the locals til 6:00 in the
morning the day of our flight home. It was a huge success for us and
I know that everyone who came out had an amazing night. Even the
elders were coming up to me to say how much they loved it.

Now that May is in the rear-view their is a lot more to look forward
to coming up this summer. We've put together a live off the floor
video that will be making the rounds shortly and we had a little help
from our friends on this one. We brought in guest vocalists,
percussionists and even tracked down 'Mike Smith On Bass' to bow some
low notes for us. We are going to be playing a huge show on July 29th
at one of my favourite live venues in Toronto, The Supermarket in
Kensington market where we will be joined by We Are Growling Woods who
are an amazing alt-folk band from Toronto and Right By Midnight from
Ottawa who are also known to bring the rock! We're playing the
Easter Seals Benefit in Coronation Park for the second year in a row.
July and August will have us travelling non-stop back out east to
Dolan's Pub in Fredericton N.B. We'll also be shooting through
Ottawa, Montreal, Port Severn, Sarnia, Waterloo and London and then at
the end of August comes our favourite weekend of the year,
Barnapalooza!! Every year for the past 5 years now we head out to the
Crocker family farm in grey county and play in their barn to a massive
crowd that gets bigger every year. Decade is a constant at this
annual event and other past performers include, Dala, The Hoolie
Snatch and Peter Elkas w/ Oldies 990. This is always the highlight of
the summer for us and i'm pretty sure this year will be bigger and
messier than the ever! For more details on our shows coming up check
out the front page of our website or drop one of us a line. Hope to
see you out at a show!

Cheers,

Phil

Nunavut Bound

Good evening folks, we've been hinting for a bit now about a special
group of shows for what seems like forever now and we are finally able
to announce that Decade of Sleep will be traveling to Iqaluit, Nunavut
to rock the artic!

Several parties deserve a great deal of thanks for bringing this
little dream of ours to fruition. Masterminded by my good friend Eddie
Rideout and in partnership with The Elks Lodge, The Royal Canadian
Legion branch 168 and my very good friends at First Air, The airline
of the north (my employer while I lived in Iqaluit) We will be playing
two nights of the absolute finest rock music all night long on Friday
May 20th and Saturday May 21st.  I can't wait to see all of my
northerner friends once again and reunite for 2 nights of stellar
music and friends.  We will be playing songs from our self titled
album as well as the best music the 60's 70's and 90's have to offer.
Let's face it the 80's weren't so hot.

So those are the deets.  Mark it on the calendar and get your tickets
now!  I personally guarantee a night you'll remember for a long time.
The memories will keep you warm until the bay thaws :)

Cheers
Phil

Ocean - Acoustic Earth Hour

Hey everyone!

We wanted to share with you a small video we put together over Earth Hour last weekend. It's an acoustic version of a track of ours called "Ocean". We had the pleasure of having Kerri and Darren from "We Are The Growling Woods" join us, as well as a close friend of ours, Lindsey on the piano.

Enjoy!

Ocean - Acoustic Earth Hour Performance

Band Van 3000

Hey All,

Exciting things keep happening in our little world. Canadian Music
Week has come and gone. We had a great time checking out our friends
play some showcases. Our dear friend and music cohort Pat Maloney
played an amazing set with his hip-hop funk group Two Crown King.
Eric and I checked out to Zeus and I got to see an amazing acoustic
set by Darren Eedens.

In the last couple of months we've forged a strong bond with Darren
Eedens and Kerri Silva who along with Decade's rhythm section Mat and
Ewalk play under the name "We are Growling Woods" They are a
fantastic alt rock outfit. Kerri is a fantastic songwriter who gets
angry at me when I try to tell her so, and watching Darren play
furiously on his banjo reminds me of our own bands beginnings as a
blue-grass rock group (I know that sounds weird but yes we started as
a bluegrass group). They both play in a few outfits in Toronto...
check em' out!

On a more personal tangent ;) We have been hitting the road a ton
lately, shooting out to Montreal and playing during Nuit Blanche and
we keep rolling into Sarnia and Windsor. We played a very seedy and
definitely illegal after hours show during CMW. I found it hard to
sing all night whilst people were smoking right in front of me. The
place smelled like B.O. and illicit substances but it was a blast none
the less. We played from 2:30am til 6:00 in the morning and then
Ewalk and Lance went to work haha...

We are just coming off the back of probably one of the best shows
we've ever played at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern here in Toronto.
The place was packed which felt fantastic and we played arguably
better than we ever have. I guess the biggest advantage you get by
playing a ridiculous amount of shows is that you get pretty tight as a
band. It didn't hurt that Adam our sound guy had everything sounding
perfect on stage.

Also this weekend the band purchased a VAN!!! Which means no more
showing up to shows in a Prius and a Pontiac Wave. We are now the
proud owners of a 1999 Chevy Astro Van with 4 captains chairs and
plenty character to boot!

And that brings us up to date with the goings on in Decade of Sleep
land... This friday we are playing New Music Night at Fanshawe
College in London Ontario which is where we all met and formed a bunch
of bands with friends that would eventually collapse into Decade of
Sleep. It's always a party when we play Fanshawe especially if Pat
Maloney and Marianne Griffith are in town. If you are in London this
will be a wicked show to see...

That is all

Phil

here are a couple other dates coming up....

Mar 25 -Fanshawe College London ON
Apr 1st - Paddy Flaherty's Sarnia ON
April 2nd - Phog Lounge Windsor ON
April 8th & 9th - Roxxy Tap & Grill

A Month in the Life of Decade

Wow, what a crazy few weeks. It doesn't seem like much on paper - playing a friday in Sarnia, ON, Saturday in Windsor, ON, the next weekend putting on the wedding band hats, the weekend after that going to Waterloo (and staying up until 6am running mixes in the studio), and then the following weekend driving to Montreal - it adds up! I have to say, it feels great to be keeping this pace, especially while so many other things are going on..

So those gigs have been filling our weekends (and will continue to), but aside from that I thought I would mention a few other things we've been working away on. We're in the middle of organizing a small stint out to the states for a week and change this summer. This will be our first time out there and should be a blast! We're also in search of a band van so we can break the cycle of driving two sedans packed to the gills to shows. That will be particularly helpful during the long drives.. 

We've also been doing these cover nights at bars like Paddy Flaherty's in Sarnia, Dolan's in Fredericton, and a few others sprinkled around for a couple years now. Not only are they a wicked time and allow us to log a good three plus hours on stage in a night as opposed to an hour or so for original nights, but they also help significantly with raising the funds to make records, buy a van, and all of the other expensive reality's involved in being a band. At first these nights came pretty naturally, being that if we weren't out playing this stuff on stage somewhere, we would probably be in one of our kitchens drinking beer and playing it all anyway! Well we've started taking these nights a bit more seriously and for the past month or so have been learning a good 5 to 8 new covers per rehearsal. The goal is to develop our cover arsenal to a point where we could play almost any bar and have a night's worth of covers (with some originals snuck in there!) that can be tailored to any crowd's taste. It's been a challenge, for sure, but it also feels like we're being taught over and over again what hit songs feel like to play, and how to better play them together. A valuable lesson to learn, no doubt.

In addition to that, Eric and I have been playing and rehearsing as a backing rhythm section for We Are Growling Woods. Kerri and Darren are an absolute blast to play with, and to see live. I think we are all really starting to settle in with one another now, and Eric and I are pumped to be playing with them.

So, that's the just of what's been keeping us busy these days! Exciting times, indeed!

Always fighting to contain excitement for the next thing,

Decade

Great weekend in Sarnia & Windsor

Hey everyone,
We had a great time this weekend playing more shows around southern
Ontario. Friday night we were at Paddy Flaherty's in Sarnia. The
crowd were great, lots of dancing and shouting. Some of the staff
have even started coming in on their days off to party with us.
Saturday we braved the slick highways and made our way down to Windsor
to play at The Phog Lounge with The Mud Lions. T'was a good time and
the crowd made it feel like a huge show despite the moderate turnout.
When we finished the first song I did a double take cause this group
of 20 people or so people were louder than a lot of the bigger crowds
we've played too. It was enough to get us seriously moving up on
stage and all indications are that they had as much fun as we did. We
will be heading back to the Phog Lounge in early April to play another
show. Big thanks to Tom Lucier, the promoter their. It's easy to see
why everyone wants to play at his venue. He treated us like old
friends from the minute we walked in.