The new Woodpigeon album Die Stadt Muzikanten is available for pre-order via Boompa Records starting today. And because everyone’s all about the pre-order bonuses these days, we’ve got a few nice ones in store for you too.

First of all, all copies of Die Stadt Muzikanten released in our home and native land of Canada will receive the bonus mini-album disc BALLADEER / to all the guys i’ve loved before, a collection of new tunes recorded in Calgary and Dublin.

Secondly, the first 100 orders will receive a special Die Stadt Muzikanten poster, featuring album artwork by the amazing Jeff Kulak.

And finally, everyone who pre-orders before the 12 January 2010 release date will also receive some bonus .mp3 recordings between now and then, including (but not limited to, because who knows what will make its way to tape between now and then) some solo acoustic renditions of the songs from Die Stadt Muzikanten. These bonus .mp3s will also come with new illustrations by Mark and others, so you’ve got something to look at on your iPhone screens while the songs play.

Visit the Boompa Shop now!

Finally, it just has to be said – we spend a lot of time complaining in this part of the world about what our winters are like, but for me, there’s just nothing quite like the first snow of winter. The air is incredibly clear and crisp, everything’s covered in perfect white, and there’s no better excuse for staying inside under a warm blanket and taking it easy. I seem to get an awful lot done when it’s cold outside.

Here’s an example, a new song called ‘85’, in honour of our friends Anna and Beau. Here’s to the Canadian winter.

•  85

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 release, which we’re prepping ourselves for in January of 2010. We’re at the final round of making sure it’s all good to go, affectionately referred to as “the part where Mark travels somewhere and listens to it 1,000 times, finally ends up either liking it or just getting sick of it, and then most likely never really listens to it ever again” stage.

But at least there’ll be distraction. A small bit of recording is on the table in London-towne in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully we’ll have something to share with you on that soon. Until then, here’s a little recording we did in a Dublin hotel room this past May. It’s a song called ‘So Hold’, a version of which will appear on an upcoming split EP with our friend Chris Smith. All of the rooms in this hotel had a name, some of which were awesome (Vampyre, for just one example), except for the one in which we recorded this (which just so happened to be the one in which I slept) called Faerie Star. The chorus comes in a little off-the-rails, but that’s OK — we were probably just laughing about the name of the room.

• So Hold (Dublin Hotel Room)

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 some right here:

Canada!

Jun 20: NXNE at The Legendary Horseshoe - Toronto, ON
Jun 25: Sled Island at Central United Church - Calgary, AB
Jul 18: South Country Fair - Fort MacLeod, AB

Over Yonder!

Jul 25: Trowbridge Village Pump Festival - Wiltshire, UK
Jul 26: Gateshead Sage - Gateshead, UK
Jul 30: The Swan - Ipswich, UK
Aug 01: Field Day - London, UK
Aug 04: Brudnell Social Club - Leeds, UK
Aug 05: The Fishmarket Gallery - Northampton, UK
Aug 06: The End - Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Aug 07: T on the Fringe Festival - Edinburgh, UK
Aug 08: The Bandroom - York, UK
Aug 14: Haldern Pop Festival - Rees-Haldern, DE
Aug 15: Way Out West - Göteborg, SWE
Aug 16: Summer Sundae - Leicester, UK

Finally, we’re back at it, back in the studio, back to what we like doing best. In the next few weeks we’ll have details on a nice limited edition split EP coming out on Boompa Records here in Canada, shared with our friend and new label mate Chris Smith. It’s called Trouble, and it’s awesome. Our next long player Die Stadt Muzikanten is under-going the delicate digital massaging known in the biz as “mastering” (I have no real idea what it means or how it’s done) in Montreal and sounding great, and while we may have originally promised to have it out by September 2009, it’s looking like we’re all just going to have to wait a little bit longer and mark the start of 2010 with it instead.

Were that not enough, a couple of our side projects have been working on records of their own, including the debut LP from The Brenda Vaqueros, available only on vinyl (and it’s a beaut). Our Foon Yap has started recording her first EP Summer 2009 #1 as foonyap, and it’s a pizzicato thing of wonder. The Pigeonettes are plotting their next doo-wop assault, and the WP girls have also started up a garage-band four-piece called The May Pangs that features a different hot lad on percussion at every show.

Life is good. The sun is out, and dinner calls. Hope you’re all keeping busy too.

01. ON THE ROAD

Hey! Check out the following list of confirmed tour dates and come out and say ‘hi’ if we’re coming through your town!

AUGUST 2008
30 - THE GATEWAY w/ Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir - Calgary, Alberta

SEPTEMBER 2008
06 - THE LUMINAIRE w/ Orphans + Vandals & Spokes - London, UK
07 - THE COLCHESTER ARTS CENTRE w/ Guests - Colchester, UK
08 - THE CAPTAIN’S REST w/ Eagleowl & Kelley Stoltz - Glasgow, Scotland
10 - TRIPOD w/ Calexico - Dublin, Ireland
11 - QUEEN’S HALL w/ Calexico - Edinburgh, Scotland
12 - CARLING ACADEMY w/ Calexico - Oxford, UK
13 - LEADMILL w/ Calexico - Sheffield, UK
14 - END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL – Main Stage (5PM) - Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset
14 - END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL – Tipi Stage (Midnight) - Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset
16 - THE LAMP w/ Guests - Hull, UK
17 - THE JUNCTION w/ Guests - York, UK
18 - CUMBERLAND ARMS w/ Guests - Newcastle, UK
19 - THE BODEGA w/ Guests - Nottingham, UK
23 - ROUGH TRADE EAST – Afternoon Instore - London, UK
23 - HOXTON BAR w/ Guests - London, UK
25 - SCHOKOLADEN w/ Ghostmice - Berlin, DE *
30 - CLUB VINYL w/ Guests - Wetzlar, DE *

OCTOBER 2008
01 - FRAU HEDI w/ Guests - Hamburg, DE *
03 - VALENTIN STUBERL w/ Guests - Berlin, DE *
08 - MACEWAN HALL BALLROOM w/ Iron & Wine - Calgary, Alberta
09 - MEYER HOROWITZ THEATRE w/ Iron & Wine - Edmonton, Alberta

* All German dates performed as a two-piece composed of Mark + Foon. We’re christening it the Balladeer tour.

We’ve plotted it out for you on GoogleMaps, so you can see what a UK / Ireland tour looks like:

02. SUMMER FLINGS

We’ve had such an amazing summer. Thanks to everyone who’s come out to see us play or said ‘hey’ on the interwebs. We’ve been particularly touched by the way Treasury Library Canada has been taken in by everyone who’s heard it. We really only intended it as a between-album-album to tide things over on the upcoming UK tour and to give folks something new to listen to this summer, but it’s getting props. If you ask us, it’s really only Album #1.5. Album #2’s on the way. But hey. How often is it that your tour CD gets written up in nice, big ways? We’re not complaining. We’ve only printed 1,000 of them, and at the moment the big box at WPHQ has just dwindled down to 200 left.

We don’t mean to be alarmist, but once these hand-numbered ones are gone, they’re gone! (And incidentally, the 200 hand-stamped hand-made ones are long gone too!) We’ll try our best to increase the ebay re-sale value of these things as much as we can for y’all, so you’d best grab one now. We’ll have a few at the upcoming shows.

03. RELEASE DATES!

15 September 2008 - Songbook UK is released via the Rough Trade Album Club w/ a bonus EP
29 September 2008 - Songbook UK is released in all other UK retail shops
06 October 2008 - Chorus of Wolves UK EP is released through digital retailers

Keep ‘em in your calendar.

And oh, just in case you missed it, here’s what’s coming on Chorus of Wolves EP:

> 01. Chorus of Wolves [from Songbook]
> 02. Matty John Chyzyk
> 03. Camera-Man
> 04. Oberkampf [from Houndstooth]

04. ONWARDS! UPWARDS!

If planning a tour and record release across the pond wasn’t enough work, we’ve been hammering away at the mixes for our next album, Die Stadt Muzikanten. It’s close. Very close. In fact, it’s about a week or so away from being done. And if you come to one of our UK shows and you’re really friendly about it, we might even let you listen to a track or two on one of our iPods. (Foon, however, will require some sort of exotic snack to comply).

05. BALLADEER!

And hey! There’s a couple of other projects a-brewing. Upon WP’s battle-scarred return to Canada in October (and post-Iron & Wine dates too), we’ll be recording an EP entitled Balladeer with our dear friend Kris Ellestad. We’re hoping to capture some of the weirder shizzit that happens when it’s just Mark + Foon messing about on-stage with dueling loop pedals and open-ended song structures, butting heads with Kris at the controls. And still kind-of folky too. Like Houndstooth on mushrooms. Check Kris out here:

Dude’s seriously amazing. One of the best things about being in a band is getting to meet people like this. It’s even better when you get to work with them too.

06. POSTCARDS!

And Kris isn’t the only genius cat we’ll be working with through the winter. Mark’s looking to work on tunes with songwriters across Canada and beyond for a series of free download EPs. The first two are already underway and they’re going to be tops.

#1: Ryan Doyle (of Brooklyn):

Swoon.

#2: Carl Johnson (of Regina’s The Library Voices):

Damn. There’s even more of them than there are of us.

Lo-fi and minimalist, all done quick as you like — musical correspondence at its finest! We’ll keep the others a surprise for now …

07. ADIEU TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD COUNCIL. WE’LL MISS YOU. A LOT.

Our friends The Neighbourhood Council moved off and away from Calgary to Montreal, and we already miss them loads. Check out the group performing live at Olympic Plaza in Calgary this summer. Then visit their myspace, or read about them on Stereogum. You’d be an idiot to miss these guys when they play with Deerhunter and Times New Viking in Toronto and Montreal this October. A stone-cold idiot.

08. UNTIL NEXT TIME

We’ll see you in the UK, Ireland, and Germany! WPHQ signing off.

xox,
 W.P.

01.
We self-released a new album entitled Treasury Library Canada that we’re selling at shows and through this here website. The reviews have been swell. There’s only 1,000, and just 4 days since releasing it we’ve already sold over 300 of them. Get ‘em quick! Click here! Or check it out soon on zunior.com, where you’ll also get an exclusive bonus disc’s worth of remixes and a other things.

02.
We finished all of the tracking for another album that we’re going to have done up and ready for early 2009. Mixing finishes in the next couple of weeks. The record’s called Die Stadt Muzikanten and it’s based at least in part on the Bremen folk tale of the same name (but different spelling). We just like the way it looks as two separate words better.

03.
We played a show at Sled Island 2008 with Kris Ellestad and Grizzly Bear. Holy cripes. This week Grizzly Bear’s touring with Radiohead. Weird.

04.
The phone rang and a voice on the other side said, “I’m with Calexico. They’re hoping you’ll do some shows with them,” and so we did. Toronto’s MOD Club and Montreal’s Le National Theatre were both lovely, and at the latter show WP came out and helped out on an epic cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Going to Acapulco’. Here’s a shot from the back of the venue.

05.
We played at the Calgary Folk Festival alongside our new friends Julie Doiron, Calexico, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Basia Bulat. It was also time to bring out some new songs, so we unveiled ‘Thumbtacks & Glue’, which we’re pretty excited about. Here’s one of the best songs of the year, no doubt (‘In The Night’ by Basia Bulat from her album ‘Oh, My Darling’):

Woodpigeon will also be at the Regina Folk Fest 8-10 August, 2008!

06.
Songbook UK’s also bringing with it a new online EP single for Chorus of Wolves, released 06 October 2008.

01. chorus of wolves
02. matty john chyzyk
03. camera-man
04. oberkampf [from the Houndstooth EP]

07.
Songbook UK will be released in the UK on 29 September and in Continental Europe shortly afterwards. We’ll be celebrating the release with a UK tour and a few dates in Germany and Sweden too. So far those dates (with more to come) are:

06 September 2008 - THE LUMINAIRE, London, UK
07 September 2008 - ARTS CENTRE, Colchester, UK
08 September 2008 - THE CAPTAIN’S REST, Glasgow, Scotland w/ Eagleowl
10 September 2008 - TRIPOD, Dublin, Ireland w/ Calexico
11 September 2008 - QUEEN’S HALL, Edinburgh, Scotland w/ Calexico
12 September 2008 - ACADEMY, Oxford, UK w/ Calexico
13 September 2008 - LEADMILL, Sheffield, UK w/ Calexico
14 September 2008 - THE END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL, Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset, UK
16 September 2008 - THE LAMP, Hull, UK
17 September 2008 - THE JUNCTION, York, UK
18 September 2008 - CUMBERLAND ARMS, Newcastle, UK
19 September 2008 - THE BODEGA, Nottingham, UK
24 September 2008 - SCHLACHTHOF, Wiesbaden, Germany w/ Gravenhurst
25 September 2008 - SCHOKOLADEN, Berlin, Germany w/ Ghostmice
04 October 2008 - ABENDSEGLER, Feldberg, Germany
08.
Soon, soon, soon, another new EP. It’s entitled Balladeer, and it’s pretty different. Yes yes. Part of our annual series of free download-only records. And by annual, we mean we’re going to do one every year. At least. Some of the things sure to be on it: ‘I Want To See You Again’ (which we’ve been playing at the past few shows), ‘Music Belongs To Those Who Make It’, ‘The Two Amelias’, and ‘I Am Your Balladeer’. Maybe a couple more too.

09.
Spreepark’s finishing up the recording of another record entitled Slow Jamz. All the songs are dirty. We’ll be sure to tell you when that one’s done and ready too. Another 8 songs recorded up at Vasa Park, a tiny Swedish settlement in Northern Alberta. There’s even an actual Swedish telephone booth there, and we recorded in the main room of the dance hall underneath posters of King Carl Gustav & family. Some of the songs: ‘Vasa Park Lullabye’, ‘The Fall of the Berlin Wall’, and ‘To My Left, The West, And To The Right, You, Beautiful You, Oh So Far Away In The East’. You can still get both We’re Reinventing Music and The Gaysian Invasion albums for free from spreeparktheband.com.

10.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that’s more than enough for now.

xox,
 W.P.