Land Of Talk Release Debut EP Stateside

Montreal threesome Land Of Talk have announced upcoming dates in support of the March 20 Stateside release of their highly recommended EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss.

The trio are currently working on a debut LP with hopes of an autumn release.

The band’s first full-fledged national tour starts March 9 in Toronto, followed by six SXSW dates, including a WOXY in-studio set on the 14th, a free performace at Emo’s and a slot on Hot Freak’s blogger-curated showcase. They’ll also join up with Menomena and Field Music for 10 shows throughout the Northeast, including a sold-out gig at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. After tearing it up in the US, the band plans to hop the pond mid-May for eight UK shows.

Tour Dates For Land Of Talk:
03/09 – Toronto, ON – The Horseshoe Tavern
03/10 – Cincinnati, OH – Alchemize Bar **
03/11 – Bloomington, IN – Landlocked Records ***
03/12 – Memphis, TN – Young Avenue Deli
03/14 – Austin, TX – SXSW (WOXY in-studio)
03/15 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
03/15 – Austin TX – SXSW Day Stage
03/15 – Austin TX – Maggie Mae’s
03/16 – Austin TX – Emo’s
03/17 – Austin TX – Club DeVille
03/20 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle *
03/21 – Cleveland, OH – Beechland Ballroom *
03/22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Lawrenceville Moose *
03/23 – Toronto, ON – El Mocambo *
03/24 – Ottawa, ON – Zaphod Beeblbrox *
03/25 – Montreal, QC – Main Hall *
03/27 – Boston, MA – Great Scott *
03/28 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom *
03/29 – Princeton, NJ – Princeton University *
03/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s *
03/31 – Washington, D.C. – Rock And Roll Hotel
04/03 – Brooklyn, NY – Union Hall
04/04 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwells
04/05 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
04/04 – Bennington, VT – Bennington University
* w/ Menomena, Field Music
** w/ Takka Takka
*** w/ Besnard Lakes

Download: Land Of Talk – “Speak To Me Bones”
Download: Menomena – “Wet And Rusting”

 

Label Profile: Dependent Music

A brief bio of your label: Who started it? When? First band signed and/or first release?
I (Brian Borcherdt) started the label in my teenage years, with the intentions of releasing my own band as well as some other locals. It was an imaginary entity, a logo to put on some homemade cassettes.

Where does your label call home? Describe your headquarters.
Our home is somewhere between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario. Our headquarters look not unlike some sort of buzzing beehive. There are phones ringing off the hook, and fax machines spitting out so many documents and contracts that we had to hook it directly to the paper shredder. We have all kinds of new Apple iDevices, most that haven’t even been released to the public. All of our interns have screenless computers with a holographic scroll pad projected into the space in front of them. There is a queen and there are many drones.

Your name? What are your primary duties for the label?
We’re Dependent, quite literally. We never set ourselves up to be a mega-label. I think we were the first Canadian Co-op label, in the style of G7 Welcoming Committee and Blocks Recordings. Basically we are dependent upon each other. The idea that any band out there is truly ‘independent’ is a bit far fetched. The primary duties of a label are lost on me. We simply make music we like and put it out there.

Who are a few of the bands on your roster? Most recent signee.
Our most recent signee was Land of Talk. We also release the music and many side projects of bands like Wintersleep, Holy Fuck, and myself.

What is the best method for an unsigned band to capture your attention?
I don’t tend to listen to demos or myspace pages. I’m too ADD to sit still and listen to anything I’m not absolutely sure I will enjoy. We haven’t released anything yet that hasn’t come from someone we’ve known first. This way it just keeps the integrity of the label intact. We want this to be a reflection of ourselves, the same way we want the music we record to reflect who we are as individuals. I only met Elizabeth Powell a few times in Montreal. I didn’t know her that well but I was excited to play an acoustic show with her at Pop Montreal as I thought she was pretty rad and she always cracked me up. I was blown away by her voice and her songs. Even though the four songs on the Land of Talk demo she gave me only clocked in at fifteen minutes, I listened to it the entire five hour drive back to Toronto. Now when I hear of their success I can be happy for them, not because they are associated somehow with this label, but because I’m a fan and, as I’ve gotten to know the band quite well, I wish them the best. I really hope that’s how all the Dependent bands feel for each other and support each other.

Any upcoming release(s) you’d like to plug?
Holy Fuck are working on new recordings. We’re releasing the first batch of six songs on a limited run CD and 10″ LP that will also serve as some sort of demo, hopefully gaining the attention of labels outside of Canada, as well as win us some cool sneaker and wacky keychain endorsements. We expect more similar-style Holy Fuck releases to follow. We’ve also been sitting on a really awesome live recording from this band called… um.. Hot Carl Loves the Ladies. Really, it’s awesome. We haven’t put it out before because the band broke up, all two members. But we’ll release it now just for the fuck of it…. and because it’s awesome.

Download: Land Of Talk – “Speak To Me Bones” (Highly Recommended)

 

Land Of Talk Release Debut EP Stateside

Montreal’s Land Of Talk will release their acclaimed debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, in the States on March 20. The effort will appear via The Rebel Group. Originally released May 2006 in Canada, the hype surrounding the band started to swell after a series of New York appearances.

Photo: Hilary Leftick
Applause Cheer Boo Hiss Tracklisting:
01. Speak To Me Bones
02. Sea Foam
03. Summer Special
04. Breaxxbaxx
05. Magnetic Hill
06. All My Friends
07. Street Wheels

Land of Talk will hit the road this spring with Memomena and Field Music. They will also play the SXSW music festival in March.
03/14-18 – Austin, TX – SXSW
03/20 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
03/21 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
03/22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Garfield Artworks
03/23 – Toronto, ON – El Macombo
03/24 – Ottawa, ON – Zaphod Beeblebox
03/25 – Montreal, PQ – Main Hall
03/27 – Boston, MA – Great Scott
03/28 – Bowery Ballroo – NYC
03/29 – Princeton, NJ – Princeton University
03/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
03/31 – Washington DC – Rock and Roll Hotel

 

Interviews: Land Of Talk

If you were making a mix for our readers, what would be the first three songs you’d select?

Wilco – Nothing Up My Sleeve
Pedro the Lion – Rapture
Eisley – Just Like We Do

Name any musical influence(s)?

Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Slint, Dave Binny, The Forms, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Snailhouse, Wooden Stars, PJ Harvey, Sparkle Horse, Fugazi, June of 44, Smog, Neil Young

What new music are you currently listening to?
Iron and Wine, Beirut, Born Ruffians, cRAP Your Pants, Orillia Opry

Name a band (current or defunct) that would be your dream act to open for on a major tour?

Wilco

Who, if anyone, would you like to collaborate with?

Mike Feuerstack (Snailhouse)

Tell us something about you that we can’t find on Google.

I get really itchy knuckles and palms.

Band
MySpace

 

Why Do You Hate Computers?

There are times that I try to reinvent the wheel. This isn’t one of them. Rather than attempt to rewrite this story, I’ll let Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt tell you.

“So why do you hate computers?” We tried explaining the humorous intentions of our t-shirt logo, featuring a no laptops symbol lifted from an airplane safety manual, to the tech-friendly thirteen-year old standing at our merch table. “You see we don’t hate laptops. We’re simply trying to show that Holy Fuck make music without laptops …in a kinda cool, funny way.” He obviously wasn’t understanding our neo-Neanderthal music invasion.

Everything we recorded so far, although captured live-off-the-floor with our lo-tech Casios and kids toys, was recorded straight into a computer. Hell, even the damn no laptops t-shirt logo was made on a laptop.

We realized then that it was maybe time to accept our robot counterparts. Unfortunately, this acceptance came a few days late. As if in some crafty karmic gesture my own personal laptop was stolen from the band room at a gig we played in Toronto only days later. Get it, no laptops? And even worse the Toronto Globe and Mail printed a small piece about the theft, incorrectly stating that it was an important instrument needed to make our music. I did lose a good number of spreadsheets; so at least the journalist had good intentions.

It seems that the final blow from the computer world came this past month. I think the words were “severe head crash” as I was handed back the contents of our crashed hard drive by the employee at a data recovery house. “You’ll be pleased to find that there are only a few corrupt files.”

photo by: Jerrold Litwinenko

When he said a few he must have meant something like 2156 corrupt files: all my personal four track archiving, dozens of my own demos and new studio recordings, an entire three days worth of recording in a barn with our friend and MC Beans, and every overdub we did on our new Holy Fuck record, including a smoke filled session with Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens (seriously, some real Sun Ra shit). Staring at the computer screen when I got home was like staring at the harsh sunlight through a moth eaten curtain. Probably should’ve backed it up. I can imagine the thirteen-year old staring back in disgust.

After a brief departure to the caves of Southern Ontario, where we grew noble beards, ate squirrels and wild berries, we’ve now returned to our modern technical world to once again work on the record. I even bought a new laptop, from which I am writing right now.

So to conclude, be careful what remarks and witty logos you may make against computers. They are smarter than us. Sorry for the delay in producing our new record. Here are some downloadable live MP3s we hope you will like: here

New Album News: This coming week we’re heading into do some mixing with Dave Newfeld of Broken Social Scene. However, we expect to finish up the rest of the mixes mid-January, for a release in the new year.