SUMMER BULLETINS

It's summer - or it almost is, and we've been getting excited about warm weather, pools, gardens and bands.

We've got a few cool things coming up on the horizon, so I decided to get into blog mode and write about them.

Starting this week, the NXNE festival moves into Toronto's venues, and we'll be playing two shows:

Thursday June 14 at The Rivoli at 9PM
and Saturday June 16 at The Garrison at 2PM

The first is an Arts and Crafts showcase, and the second is a PWYC pop-up show which has promised caesars and tacos (yum). Any show with tacos is a good show in my mind.


Following this, we have a couple more dates in Toronto in July, then an appearance at the Hillside Festival in Guelph ON. We are extremely excited about this show. Having been to the festival as a spectator a few times, I know how fun it is to be there. Now having the opportunity to play is a mini-dream come true!

Later in the summer we'll be joining the SummerWorks theater festival's Music Series, playing the closing night party at The Great Hall on August 19. Also a great festival to be a part of. There are some great acts performing this year including Bry Webb, Hawksley Workman and The Magic.


The summer is already racing by even though we haven't even reached June 21st. We're making the most of it though - and playing in the summer rules. Here we go:

NEW YEAR'S GRIN

Happy New Year! 

2011 was an incredible year for the Rival Boys clan. We released our first full length album, played more shows than any other year in our short history (2012 will be 5 years in November!), and made new friends with some great Canadian bands.

The positive response we've been getting from our album is amazing. We are so grateful to any one who bought it, downloaded it, or came out to a show this past year. We can feel kind of insulated when we hear our old songs over and over again in our rehearsal space - so it's an excellent feeling when a people come up to you after a show and says how much they like the record. 

2012 is shaping up to be an even better year for us. We spent the fall of last year recording some demos of new songs, with the hopes of recording another full length album soon. We hope to re-enter the studio very soon to continue the pre-production of this next project. One of the tracks we recorded can now be downloaded on our bandcamp page! FREE!

Looking back on last year, here are my favourite band memories... ahh how I love looking back fondly at these moments:

The last recording session for our album! Our friends came to help sing on 'Recovery':

Releasing our record at the Garrison, our friends made this amazing cake!:

Riding back and forth on our bikes to the rehearsal space on the bike path near our house:

Seeing Wax Mannequin at Kazoo Fest in Guelph was AMAZING. Maybe the best show I've seen all year:

Playing with the dogs at the Fortnight Farm Fest in Guelph and sitting on a bale of hay at the same time was the best show environment for everyone involved. That plus free beer? The best"

Recording at Riverworks Studio! We always have awesome times with Mike Rocha:

Happy 2012!

RIVERWORKS

This post is long overdue - we spend a weekend recording 6 songs with Mike Rocha at Riverworks studios. We recorded 5 original songs and one special holiday number, with wonderful tape-y results. 8 track recording is FUN! We'll hopefully be doing much more of this before releasing another record. Here are some pictures of the process:

UNTOUCHABLE

Here's an interview we did with the nice guys at Untouched Sounds before our most recent show at The Drake. I just finished watching it (having not had a private moment with my computer by which to cringe comfortably at myself before now), but I found I was completely cringe-free! I think we're getting better at this! But more so - Ciaran and Geoff edited out our more annoying ranting dialogue so we come off looking smart and on the ball!

That's what I'm talking about! VIDEO

FARM FEST

Our adventure to Four Fold farm was a huge success. Though it got to freezing temperatures after night fall, we had a great time drinking beers, eating burritos and generally soaking up the farm atmosphere. When we arrived, there were two horses hanging out behind the stage (an old barn structure and a storage place for bales of hay), roosters and chickens and their chicks following them around as well as a puppy and a kitten to play with. Best show environment ever!

The whole event was wonderfully organized. We met some excellent people around the campfires when the sun went down, and heard some great songs throughout the day. And having a Rival Boys camp out was fun too.

FARM BOUND

This weekend, we're headed to the Guelph area to Fourfold Farm for an all day Music festival. So excited!
If you are in the area - this is well worth checking out!

AT THE EX

Rival Boys spent the day at the Ex yesterday. It was Sam's first time, and my first time on a ride. We ate deep fried mac n' cheese, deep fried twinkie, deep fried ah caramel (not sure what that is), deep fried blooming onion..... loving that deep fried food digestion later! Boo to the end of summer!