Happy New Year!
2011 was a year of firsts for the band on so many levels – including our first ever acoustic show that took place earlier this month (as seen in our “Show Recaps” post). Here’s the first of three videos, a cover of one of our favorite songs by one of our favorite bands – Big White Gate by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals:
Wishing you all the best in 2012.
Much love,
Canary
Seasons Greetings!
Last Saturday we popped into the studio with a few friends of ours and recorded the holiday classic “Jingle Bells.” You can listen to it and download it here:
Enjoy, take care, have a happy holiday, and we’ll see you in 2012!
Much love,
Canary
Hey everyone!
Amy speaking – we’ve had an exciting ten days or so. Thanks so much to all of you that made it to a show or two (or three!) – we sincerely hope you had a great time. We definitely had a blast.
On Friday, December 2nd, we played another show for our friends at b.good. Only this time we were in Harvard Square, and it wasn’t snowing or raining! Our friend Cam Porter stopped by and took some pictures. Have a look:
All together now!
Rock n roll and burgers can draw a crowd
The epitome of Dean and Kyle, captured on camera
Alex looking awfully devilish
Jackie Berkley, ladies and gentlemen!
Amy and Kyle in complete unison. Right down to the facial expression
Amy, per usual, and Jackie in the zone
(For more photos check out our Facebook page)
We had also had a surprise guest stop by – Livingston Taylor! He just happened to be in the neighborhood as we were playing. Jackie and I have both had him in class (he teaches at Berklee) and he recognized us and came over to us. We emailed him thanking him for stopping by, and he had some very kind words to say:
It was wonderful to hear you playing the other night…..stumbling on to you was certainly a 2011 highlight for me…..keep up the great work and thank you for making Berklee (and me) look so good. I’ve been bragging on Canary to everyone I know…..liv
The man himself - Livingston Taylor!
All in all the show was a blast. Big thanks to Jon and the b.good family yet again for having us play! Also, Jackie, Kyle, and I got to ride in their van, Harvey. That in itself was quite a treat – shout out to Aubree and Roger for the rides. We hope to see all of you b.good-loving people again soon!
That was Friday in a nutshell. Now here’s Monday in a nutshell.
On Monday, Jackie and I played a small acoustic set at Emerson College. It was the first time we’d ever done something like that (and it’s not gonna be the last). It was to raise awareness for an organization called Music Unites. Music Unites is dedicated to bringing music education to underprivileged children in underfunded inner city school systems and this is something we fully support. It was an honor to be a part of the event. We’ll have the videos from the show up here soon.
Then on Tuesday, we had the immense pleasure of playing at Church with two amazing bands – Luddy Mussy and Moss Points North. Church is a special place for us because we played our first show there and it’s pretty much in our backyard (compared to Cambridge anyway). We had an absolute blast! Big thanks to Pat for his Vox AC30 (and his cable).
This show was a bit of an adventure for us.
Here’s the story: Dean flew back home to Pittsburgh the night before for dental surgery on Tuesday morning. Then he flew back to Boston Tuesday night in time for the show. That’s not what makes the story though. Dean texts me saying he has to go back to his apartment “to get some medical stuff.” What he meant by that was go back to his apartment to cauterize his own mouth because his incision split. So Dean played the show like a champ (to use one of his favorite words). He said to me, in regards to the situation, ‘If anything, blood and rock n roll go really great together.’ After Tuesday’s show, I’d say he’s pretty on target there.
All in all, the show – all the shows – went really well. For those that couldn’t make it out, we sincerely hope to see you all in 2012. We’ll be back with more songs and we’ll be playing in a lot more places (hopefully near you!) so stay tuned! And as always, feel free to drop us a line at canarytheband@gmail.com. We love hearing from you.
Much love,
Amy and the band
We got some news!
So to make a short story even shorter – last night at rehearsal, Dean got a phone call from our friends at b.good asking us to play at their Harvard Square location this Friday, and we are! From 9PM to 11PM this Friday, December 2nd, we’ll be rocking and rolling at 24 Dunster Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Come on out, grab a burger, and enjoy some rock n roll!
(You know you want to)
Hope to see you there!
Much love,
Alex, Amy, Dean, Jackie, and Kyle
PS – here are a couple of photos from our show at b.good in Burlington on October 27 – we rocked and rolled in the rain / snow and the cold and it was awesome!
Kyle and Dean - you'd never know by Dean's lack of a jacket that it was snowing out
Jackie (properly dressed) from behind
(See you Friday!)
A few weeks back – on Halloween, to be specific - we had the pleasure of recording our song “You Couldn’t Hold On” in our friend Pran Bandi’s analog recording class at Berklee College of Music with Susan Rogers. We then added some backing vocals at Dean’s apartment, and he also took care of the mixing and mastering of the song. We teased you a little bit last week, and now you can listen to it in its entirety! And also download it for free:
If you like what you hear and want to make our day, then please pass the word on! There’s a button that says “share” on it to make it really easy.
Our next show is Tuesday, December 6 at Church in Boston. We’ll be playing with Luddy Mussy and Moss Points North – two excellent bands that you don’t want to miss. We really really hope to see you there because it’s our LAST show until 2012!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Much love,
Canary
Canary, You Couldn't Hold On, released 11/21/11
Hey everyone!
We hope you all had a great HalloWeekend wherever you are, and if you’re in the Northeast, then hopefully that snowstorm didn’t hit you too hard.
So as you may have seen on Twitter, we landed a couple last-minute shows- thanks to Dean! – at the brand new b.good out in Burlington, Massachusetts. We played there on Thursday (10/27) out in the rain – but we had a great time despite all of us not being able to feel our hands. They were so appreciative and liked us so much that we were invited back to play on Friday (10/28) at their grand opening! Big thanks to Jon and the rest of the b.good family for having us!
Saturday night we were back at the Loft at Tommy Doyle’s, and we had an absolute blast! Thanks so much to everyone who came out in the nasty weather and partied with us! We had a wicked good time and hope you all did as well! By the amount of dancing that was going on, I’d say everyone involved was having a good time.
And today we did a little recording today thanks to our friend Pran. He asked us to be the demonstration band in his analog recording class – how could we say no to that? We’ll be getting the finished product to you in the very near future.
In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out the new Coldplay record – not that they need any more promotion, but I can’t help it – give that a spin or two. It’s amazing.
(Can you believe it’s already almost November??)
Have a good one!
Much love,
Amy and the band
Hey everyone!
Back in April, we were asked to be on a TV show being produced by students at Emerson College in Boston. We’re featured in the final episode of the show performing the show’s theme song, “Ganges A Go-Go.’ You can see for yourself right here:
(Go to 16:50 in the video to see us perform “Ganges A Go-Go.”)
As you can see from the video, we had a blast filming for the show. Thanks again, Katie and crew!
We’ve also got some photos from our show on the 7th, courtesy of the staff at Cafe 939:
All smiles from Christian
Jackie Berkley, ladies and gentlemen!
Canary in black and white
Get. Down.
Juxtaposed much?
Screen, keys, and Dean
Canary in color
That’s about it. Don’t forget – we’re at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square next Saturday, October 29th with Paperback. Show starts at 9:30PM and we go on at 10:30PM. Believe us, you do not want to miss this show!
96 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA - come on out!
Hope to see you there!
Much love,
Canary
Tags: 4 iroquois, boston, cambridge, cole, emerson, live, rock n roll, shows, tommy doyle's, video
Hey everyone,
So it’s been a while since our last post…
We had a great time at the Red Room on the 7th! To those who came out – thanks so much! We hope you had as much fun as we did. To those who didn’t make it out – and to those that did (we’d love to see you all again) – we’re playing next Saturday, October 29th at the Loft at Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge. We’ll be playing with another band called Paperback. The show starts at 9:30PM and we go on at 10:30PM. Come on out for an awesome night! It’s Halloween Weekend – come out and party with us!
We got around to uploading another video from our show in Maine last month. Here we have Searching For Mars featuring Alex Hartley on saxophone – check it out!
We’ve also got some pictures courtesy of Mark Jones:
Alex and Jackie
And Amy
Jackie, Kyle, and Alex
Amy and Dean
That’s all we got for now. Come on to Tommy Doyle’s on the 29th for more!
Much love,
Canary
What’s up, everyone!
We’re very excited to be kicking off Berklee College of Music’s series of concerts called Fresh Prospects this year! Fresh Prospects is a series of concerts put on by the staff at Cafe 939, Berklee’s venue located at 939 Boylston Street in Boston.
We’ll be playing this Friday, October 7th at 7PM. The show is all ages and it’s free! And following us at 8PM is an awesome band called China Fox. You don’t wanna miss out on what is sure to be an awesome night!
Hope to see you there!
Much love,
Canary
Tags: berklee, boston, cafe 939, free, fresh prospects, let down your guard, live, rock n roll, shows, youtube
Hey everyone,
Thanks so much to all of you that came to our shows this weekend! Your support means so much to us – you don’t even know! For those that were unable to make it out to our shows, here’s what went down:
On Thursday we had our very first show with our new lineup of Dean Davis on the drums and Alex Hartley on keys and saxophone. We played a solid 45 minute set at the Loft at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square. It was wicked wicked fun! We debuted two new songs – Vagabonds and Handsome Stranger. We also have the entire set recorded so keep your eyes peeled for some songs from that show. We played all your old favorites, covered a few choice songs (Medicine by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, anyone?), and had a lot of fun. A lot of fun. It was the perfect way to get the ball rolling.
The next day (Friday), we made the trek up to Biddeford, Maine, which is where I’m (this is Amy, by the way ) from. I helped organized a fundraiser for my former high school teacher’s mayor campaign and we got to play at it! It was a really really fun night, and it meant a lot to me to play for my friends and family who hadn’t seen Canary or really heard me play guitar because I never played out when I was in high school. I did play the National Anthem before the volleyball and basketball games, but that was it. We played a brand new song that no one had heard yet called The Devil Gets His Due. We have the audio for that show too. AND we have some video footage! My neighbor was awesome and filmed half of our show. Here’s one video for you all – as I mentioned above, we like to play Medicine by Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. So here it is live from the North Dam Mill in Biddeford, Maine:
We had a really great time playing in Maine, and I can’t wait to come back to my home state and play again sometime real soon.
The next day we packed Dean’s car to the max and drove back down to Boston for our third and final show of the weekend. See for yourself:
and THAT is how you pack a car!
We fit a keyboard, a Fender Blues Junior, my guitar, Kyle’s bass, an electronic drum kit, a saxophone, a keyboard stand, five backpacks, two other bags, a stuffed animal pig, and five people in Dean’s Toyota Land Cruiser.
We got back to Boston around 3PM and had to be at Sweetwater Tavern, where we were playing that night, at 8:30PM. So after a bit of downtime, Dean swung by my place – this time with his drum kit, all his hardware, my guitar amp, Alex’s gear (keyboard, stand, and saxophone), my guitar, and a microphone stand – and we went downtown to set up and meet the rest of the band there.
We had some major technical difficulties with the PA system there. I was told it was fixed – it had been broken recently and still was broken last night. After we loaded everything in, we set up the drums and then went to turn on the PA so we could get Jackie some sound. Well, we turned on the PA, and there was no sound. Kyle, Dean, Alex, and I did everything we could to get it to work – and we did. But then once Kyle and Alex plugged in, all Hell broke loose. Everything started clipping and we couldn’t fix it. Jackie went and got the manager who informed us that the board was still broken. Fortunately Dean (so much love going out to Dean right now) has his own mixing board, but he didn’t have it with him. So he drove back to his apartment and got it. Yay!
We plug in Dean’s mixing board and realized that the speakers won’t connect because they’re only good for the board that was broken. The manager then said that he has a speaker upstairs that might work. So he goes and grabs it and voila! More than an hour after we were supposed to start we FINALLY get to start playing. We were all getting a bit antsy, and we now have bass, keys, and vocals running out of one speaker.
Our problems are solved, or so we thought. As you may recall from the post about our House of Blues show in April, my amp gave us a bit of trouble. I had fixed it,or so I thought. It had worked fine up until yesterday – and it’s working fine again right now. About five minutes into our set, my amp starts to make the most obnoxious noises you could imagine and then it dies. It just stops making sound all together. Kyle looks at it, looks at me and says, ‘..Do you wanna go through the PA?’ We laughed and I tossed him my cable to plug into the fourth channel. So we had bass, keys, guitar, AND vocals going through one tiny JBL speaker.
Despite all of the hassle, the show went really well. What could have been an awful night turned out to be an awesome night. And we got a great story out of it! I would never ever want to go through that again – once is more than enough. You live and learn. We had a lot of fun once we got going and the people that were there were really into it and I can’t help but smile and laugh about it now.
I hope you all had a great weekend! Our next show is Friday, October 7th at Cafe 939 in Boston. We’re playing with an awesome band called China Fox. The show’s free and it’s all ages! So everyone can go!
Hope to see you there! Have a good one.
Much love,
Amy
Tags: alan casavant, alex hartley, biddeford, boston, cambridge, dean davis, grace potter, live, maine, medicine, mini tour, new songs, news, north dam mill, rock n roll, shows
