SONIC AVENUES

BUSY TIMES 2011

2011-01-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

2011 is shaping up to be one great, busy year for the Sonic Avenues wankers.

Euro-Tour with Steve Adamyk Band:

21.03 - Mannheim, Germany - Juz

22.03 - Kassel, Germany - TBA

23.03 - Berlin, Germany - Koma F

24.03 - Leipzig, Germany - Zoro

25.03 - Prague, Czech - 007

26.03 - Graz, Austria - Musichouse

27.03 - Munich, Germany - Kafe Kult

28.03 - Karlsruhe, Germany - Alte Hackerei

29.03 - Cologne, Germany - Sonic Ballroom

30.03 - Paris, France - Bouillon Belge

31.03 - Kortrijk, Belgium - The Pits

01.04 - Meppen, Germany - J@M Center

02.04 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Occii

Weasel Weekend (Screeching Weasel 25th Anniversary) - 2nd night:

28.05 - Chicago, IL - Reggie's (wt Riverdales, Chixdiggit, Visitors, etc)

The Steve Adamyk Band and the Visitors are also on the bill so it's almost garanteed that this is gonna be a "son-when-i-was-your-age, i-was-ripping-my-pants-off-and throwing-sausages-in-the-fan-at-the-Weasel-Weekend-party."

Hopefully, will hit the westcoast again at the end of the summer.. if we're still alive after all this...

In the meantime, we will be focusing on new recordings (new LP - scheduled for later in 2011 - and upcoming 7"'s. New shirts are on the way too.

One last thing, Jay Reatard died a year ago today.. Have a minute of unsilence in his honor; blast a Zaxxon 7" or something.

alrite, alrite, i think it's enough for now.
Stay tuned and have a rad 2011!

Fall blows...

2010-11-30T01:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we updated the blog.. First, we're proud to announce that the repress of our LP is out now on two awesome German labels: Sabotage and Taken By Surprise Records! If you don't have one already, get one now!

So it's been a busy last couple of weeks.. lots of song writing and recording for the new album and for a split 7" with Steve Adamyk.. and lots of doing fuck all; november sucks here in canada -> rain, winds, movember, depressed people everywhere. Anyways, the split's gonna come out on P.Trash at some point in the next couple of weeks/months to promote our tour in Europe in the Spring. So we're looking fwd to this.

As far as local shows are concerned, the next one we have on our agenda is a steamin' rager on december 28th at Katacombes in Montreal with the White Wires, Mother's Children, City Sweethearts, Bators. See you there!

One last thing... if anyone owns a Tascam 388 and wants to get rid of it, i want it! message me at maxime_desharnais@yahoo.ca.

New stuff....

2010-09-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here's an ultra rough 4-track take of a song that's gonna be on the new album... which we start recording in 2 weeks! bedroom take. no drums, no overdubs, no bass. RAW!

Dig!

-max

Bored With Love

Power Pop Weekend + SOLD OUT album on Going Gaga Records!

2010-08-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Holy macaroni, last weekend was in-sa-ne. We had the chance to play 2 gigs with Paul Collin's Beat along with Mother's Children and the Walnut Kids. Sounds fun? You bet! It was just like when you were 15, drinking peach schnapps and eating a stack of pizza pockets with the new Playboy of the month in hand while your parents were out of town... maybe even better than that?

The Friday show was at Babylon in Ottawa. What a great city with the coolest, rock'n'rollest, nicest dudes ever. We always have a good time there... The Walnuts Kids were killer. Get their 7" on Going Gaga Records if it hasn't completely sold out yet. Mother's Children were absolutely jaw droppingly tight and fun. They also played a bunch of new songs, which highlighted their high productivity and consistency in coming up with solid tunes. Their new S/T album on Deranged is greaatttt stuff btw! Once the opening bands were done heating up the room (literally), it was Paul Collin's turn! Wow, the man is a pop machine. It was hit after hit just like Rocky vs Apollo. People were jumping, crowd surfing and rocking with their fists way high during the hour-or-so-long set. What a treat that night was!

Luckily, the hangover knob wasn't too high the next morning; maybe a 6.5/10, except for Jamie who scored a big 9. Good work! Before we headed back home, we went for a swim at a really cool river in Wakefield with all the bands and the Ottawa crew. Scene: a nice bunch of "ripped" "athletes" drinking beers and smoking cigarettes slipping off flat rocks into the lake with jeans as bathing suits. Very classy... Anyways. The show that night was in Montreal at a newish venue, The Pound, which is a byob loft (which = awesome). The show was very much the same as the one the previous night: good attendance, killer bands, crowd surfing, beer-towers, Paul, Juancho, Tim and Chris rocking and power popping hard! Definitely a weekend to remember with one of our heroes, Paul Collins! Thanks to Oliver and Matthew who organized that party... and I guess most of the Canadian leg of the PCB's North Am tour.

Now... On different subject, our album on Going Gaga Records is now completely SOLD OUT!!! We're proud to announce that it is going to be repressed and released in Europe this fall by both Taken By Surprise and Sabotage Records in Germany. We're really stoked!

Also we're gonna be touring Europe this fall with our friends in the Steve Adamyk Band. Check them out, they have released a bunch of 7" on a few german labels (P.Trash, Red Lounge, Taken By Surprise and more)! Touring dates will be up soon!

T-SHIRTS!

2010-07-11T16:53:00.001-07:00

So we have t-shirts for sale.. We have a few girl smalls and mediums and a bunch of men mediums.

12$ + shipping!

EDIT: Now available ONLINE at www.sonicavenues.com!

Here's the shirt showcased by Canadian surfing star Nico Manos!

SA vs G20

2010-06-30T04:46:00.001-07:00

We played two shows last weekend.. The two last ones until the Paul Collins gig in August. The one on Friday was at Casa Del Popolo in Montreal with Steve Adamyk Band. They sounded really fucking great. Everyone should buy their Speed It Up 7". There might be a copy left at Sonik (on Duluth) but I'm not 100% sure. Anyways, get on it! It's one of those records that'll get you off the couch so many times to flip it from side to side it's gonna make you feel okay about the bacon poutine you're eating.

We played another one with Steve Adamyk the next day in Toronto, along with First Base and the Nymphets. It's no secret to most smart people that the Nymphets are a very awesome band but if you do not know First Base, they absolutely rule as well. Very, very catchy bubble-gum pop punk stuff. It's what I've been listening to the most in the last couple of days. Anyways, the show was alright... The G20 took a big hit on the turn-out though, paralyzing most of the downtown area (burning cop cars, riots, rubber bullets fired in crowds, etc: casual shit, you know)... so the show was a little under-attended but it's all good. It was fun regardless. The venue's sweet too (Parts & Labour).

Here's a few pics our friend Gord Ball took last Friday...

- max

GAGA WEEKEND 2010!!!

2010-06-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

So we played at the GAGA Weekend on June 12th and I gotta say, it was the best show of the year for us so far!! WOW!

So many people showed up, so many great bands playing: Cold Warps (go download their first tape for free on their myspace - it's powerpop/punk genius shit), Mother's Children, Year Zero, Steve Adamyk, Statues, White Wires, Visitors, Suppositories, Emmanuel Sayer's new project whose name I can't remember (sorry dude.. can't wait for the 7"), Walnut kids, Davey with his 7 or 8 different projects, etc, etc, etc, etc!

Anyways, it took me days to recover physically and emotionally from it all and I will probably die a week sooner now. Such a great party. Ian Manhire (the Gagaman himself) and his crew of helpers did a VERY impressive job organizing this 3-day event. Montreal scene people, let's take notes of the all the cool shit that takes place in Ottawa. We have a lot to learn!

-max

WEST COAST TOUR (MAY / JUNE 2010)

2010-06-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we're back already (and it's been 3 weeks!)... So much planning ahead and anticipation and all and bam, it's already over! It sure was a fuck load of work to put together and to keep things running smooth on the road. But was it worth it in the end? You bet!

The tour started off with 2 pretty packed awesome gigs in LA. One with The Clorox Girls at Five Stars Bar and one with Muck and The Mires / Lords of Altamont at the Redwood's. All these bands are really, really good, both live and on recording! You gotta check them out if you're not on top of it. So I guess we had one too many beers at some point because I remember we had all these plans to do a bunch of stuff on Sunday after the Muck/Lords show, but we ended up going to a baseball game instead because we were too hungover to do anything else.. Luckily, we had a few days off before heading north, so we still got to do a lot; surfing malibu and venice, eating burritos, people watching on the dogtown boardwalk, tourist shit... Oh! Cristabel and Frankie, you rule. Thanks for the good times.

The Santa Cruz / Davis /SF part of the tour was pretty good in general. The Davis house party show was definitely the highlight of that part. The Poonteens were great hosts and they put together an awesome night for us so we were really stoked to be there! Santa Cruz is awesome. This is where the southern palm trees meet the northern style coniferous climate. Interesting shit huh? SC is also home of Taqueria Vallarta if you didn't know: the best cheapest biggest burrito joint I've ever seen. Wish we got to spend more time in SC..

Pacific Northwest! Portland is the shit!! We played a show, which was organized by Ken at Dirtnap Records / Green Noise, at a place called the Know. Really cool venue and staff. The scene / people there reminded me a lot of what goes on in Ottawa these days. A bunch of really nice and ultra stoked people who love their punk, powerpop, etc. We met a lot of cool dudes; the mean jeans crew and friends, pat (who recorded the exploding hearts, the lovvers, clorox girls, etc), the cuntifiers, night gown, etc, etc! I also bought The Yolks LP (which absolutely fucking rules) at the Green Noise store. Ken knows how to run a good shop; no classic dead wood in the racks there. A true punk's paradise.

Can you believe grunge is still alive and apparently well in Seattle? I even saw a guy that looked like Geddy Lee. I know Giddy Leeee isn't grunge, but you have to be an uber-grunge if you're young and looking like the Rush half-man, half-wtf in 2010. Anyways, fun times and average show in Seattle (too many bands playing for too long i guess). The Cute Lepers were out of town so we didn't get to hang with our friend Stevie Kicks so that was too bad.. but we hung out with some of his friends and they were awesome.

The Victoria show was a lot of fun! Awesome crowd and cool place. Glad we got to meet the booker (Tiemen) who seems to know and love his punk! Check out his new record shop if you're in Victoria: Talk's Cheap.

Vancouver. We couldn't have asked for a better tour closing show. We got to play and see the Tranzmitors who absolutely killed it that night. Solid band writing solid songs.. Live, it sounds like the Buzzcocks covering the Jam. Alonside the Statues and some Ottawa bands, they're definitely one of the few top shelf bands in Canada. They have to come out east soon. Anyways, the show went well, our merch dude - jay - was really drunk and we didn't get to sleep at all before we took the plane back to Montreal at 8am.... We were green zombies when we got to Montreal. Braaaaains.

We didn't kill each other in the end so we're looking forward to our next road trip, hopefully in Europe in the Fall 2010!