There’s far more to Vík í Mýrdal than just its record as the rainiest place in Iceland (the seas are so rough here, they’ve never been able to build a harbour). It’s also one of the most inspiring views one will ever see. In tribute, a new song, dedicated to Reynisdrangar, the three trolls. (Listen for the rain through the window … a bit of a theme with these recordings).
xox, mark + benjamin stacey of reykjavik.
Read More »
Our pal Jack Day is one of our favourite folk traditionalists. It was hard enough to get him to play into a “newfangled” recorder, and then he kept trying to throw me off by holding phrases and being difficult. So, one take. No overdubs. A song handed down for ages, and now from us to you.
xox, mark + jack day (chris dadge on beatz)
Read More »
Beth Jeans Houghton is one of our musical favourites. In the entire world. Ever. Whenever we’re in Newcastle together we always record something at the Heaton Perk Cafe after closing time, and this time around, it’s Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘I’m Not Saying’ (originally re-interpreted by Nico).
xox, mark + beth jeans houghton (chris + dav on beatz)
Read More »
There’s not much else to do when it’s rainy but stay inside and pay tribute.
xox, mark and louise hull
Read More »
Tomorrow afternoon, WP leaves the comfy confines of our prairie Canadian abodes for a short string of festivals and shows in UK cities we haven’t made it to quite yet. In preparation, the focus has not stayed on booking the necessary train tickets or filling the gaps left in accommodations. No, instead, it has been the far more important act of filling up one’s iPod touch that has taken up much of this last-minute panic zone.
Just added: Scout Niblett’s This Fool Can Die Now, Quasi’s Field Studies and Featuring “Birds”, Stereolab’s Sound-Dust, and The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs. These join Coeur de Pirate’s Coeur de Pirate, Do Make Say Think’s You, You’re a History in Dust, and John Cale’s Paris 1919. I’ve been figuring out a perfect time and place to listen to some of these records. Am I alone in thinking Scout Niblett’s simply perfect for an Icelandic sunset? (On second thought — scratch that. The sun doesn’t set in Iceland this time of year. Drat).
Anyway, there’s also a little record on this here iPod we’ve been working on for quite some time now titled Die Stadt Muzikanten. We’ve tweaked the mixes and mastered the mastering. It sounds just about as big as we’d hoped it would, and there’s a few more surprises in store for its…
Read More »
Damn, Toronto. This is total ‘from the bottom of our hearts’ kind of stuff: thanks for the amazing weekend. Thanks for packing into the Horseshoe and making us feel welcome (and a tip of the hat to Grant Lawrence for reminding us that NXNE was also our return to playing on Canadian soil for the first time in months), and for somehow letting us go over the written-in-stone LIVE ON CBC / NXNE set time allotments. And oh, the whole surprise live-on-air awarding of the NXNE Galaxie Rising Star award thing was an added beautiful surprise. We’ll come back any time you’ll have us, Toronto.
As for the rest of our trip, that too was grand. Boompa Erin and I tried to take in as many Pad Thais as possible over the course of four food-stuffed days. The Red Room gets points for being nice and spicy (and cheap), but I think I’m going to have to proclaim Queen Mother the winner in the Toronto’s Best NXNE Pad Thai Race 2009. (And when it comes to breakfast, Sandro Perri revealed the incredible Café Lula’s poached eggs on cheesy polenta as one of the city’s finest morning offerings).
It was great to see so many friends again, and exciting to walk past so many artists recognizable from our music collections at home.…
Read More »
Seriously, if you’d ever told me that we’d someday find ourselves on a list of names alongside Leonard Cohen vying for the same prize title, I’d have laughed in your face. Really close and spitty-like. With deep, throaty guffaws. But, alas, it’s happened, and Woodpigeon’s Treasury Library Canada c/w Houndstooth Europa was named this morning as one of the records on the Polaris Prize’s long list, alongside such personal favourites as Chad Van Gaalen’s Soft Airplane and WOMEN’s self-titled record. And oh. Leonard Cohen.
But where’s everyone else? It’s easy to feel complimented by this sort of thing, but once you realize who didn’t make the list, it’s kind of mind-boggling. Every blogger from here to Halifax has already written on who they think is missing, but here’s a couple of others we really think you should check out: The Blistering Sun, The Pale Moon, Hahahaha by Knots, In Flesh Tones by Azeda Booth, and where the heck is Julie Doiron? Still, despite the omissions, it’s great company to be in and we’re well pleased to be included. Thankyouthankyouthankyou, etc. It’s a real pleasure just to be nominated, and so forth.
But, there’s no time to rest on one’s laurels, so we’re right back at it. Want some new summer tour dates? Well here. Look. We got…
Read More »
Thanks to everyone who came out to our last round of shows in the UK, Ireland, and Sweden (the very first Woodpigeon shows in Scandinavia, yo). Extra Special Thanks to the great new bands and performers we met and shared the stage with along the way — Music for Dead Birds, Dag för Dag, Beardfish, Stuart Silver, Serafina, Murray Lachlan Young, and on and on … It was great to premiere a couple of new songs for everyone, and collaborate with some new pals too.
I rode my pal Hampus’ bike through Stockholm the other day, and wandered through a children’s library, looking at the best-designed kids’ books I’ve ever seen. We planted potatoes in Hampus’ garden allotment with Phoenix on the portable stereo, and found ourselves dancing until the wee hours of the morning to Daedelus at the Normal Books publishing party. Three weeks before, we stopped through Bulgaria in search of gypsy folk music and hand-knit slippers, and a visit to the rather awe-inspiring Rila Monastery up in the mountains. En route to Ireland, we took the ferry from Holyhead, Wales, a tiny settlement worth exploring if you ever get the chance. In Cardiff, our hosts Liz and Ryan of the band The School took impeccable care of us (including a visit to Spiller Records, the world’s oldest…
Read More »
Man, it feels like we’ve only just gotten back from our last tour (and considering that it’s only been a month, that’s pretty accurate), but it’s time to start announcing some more dates for this upcoming summer.
Anyway. On to business: WP’s first proper tour of Ireland, and our first date in Wales, as well as a spot on the annual Phrased & Confused tour, focused on lyric-writing and the collision between words and music. It’s a chance to hit some of the UK’s smaller centers, not to mention an interesting opportunity to premiere some new works. For the first time on a tour longer than 3 days in duration, our producer Arran Fisher will also be coming along, so we’re sure to have some interesting recordings to share with you all at some point in the summer.
But! Before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s the P&C dates:
09 May: South Hill Park - Bracknell, UK
10 May: Cross Kings - London, UK
11 May: Norwich Arts Centre - Norwich, UK
12 May: Arc - Stockton on Tees, UK
13 May: Assembly Rooms - Derby, UK
14 May: Exeter Phoenix - Exeter, UK
Secondly, WP will be appearing once again at this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton (May 15-16). You’ll most likely find us down on…
Read More »
