Usually the headlines about the pending end of the earth don't bother me - doesn't quite stir anything in me ... but helps me remember that, yes, it will end some day.

Now, a recent headline about some kind "experts" stating that soon many record labels will stop producing physical CDs, as early as the next 1-2 years ... upsetting, and I hope they're wrong.

Sure it doesn't make logical sense, but I just enjoy listening to my favourite albums when I am putting in the physical CD ... not clicking a digital file with a mouse. I am not a caveman, I still like to put tunes on my iPod for times on the go - and I love how easy it makes showing your music to people via internet ... but I like to load those digital files FROM the actual CD which I own, and put on my shelf at home.

Even if the future is to have digital music take over a huge, dominant portion of the market - I still want to print CDs ... if Vinyl is any indication, people can keep certain forms of music recordings alive long after they are bumped from the top of the mountain. There will always be hard cores I suppose.

Time to get onboard with lots of online cloud spaces ... Buuuut keep buying (and printing) new CDs!

Stay Classy, Movember men (great work with the staches)
MP

 Tonight ... the 4th day of the 11th month ... right?
Well - that is the day we play Montes, for Live 105's "Live Underground" show.

Also playing will be Charlottetown's "Arrows in the AIr" ... and the fellas in "Little King Hunter" with be getting things started tonight at 10pm.
If you're in the mood for some live rock tonight, we would all love to play for you. (thumbs UP!')
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=248041215245617

We'll be rolling in with a bakery fresh new batch of our brand new album "Learning to Lose Control". 12 tracks of 'Modern Rock' - whatever that is ...

Next in line are plans to go play for our peeps in Moncton! Since some of our members are calling the area home, how can we NOT come play soon? 
We're looking to make that happen as soon as possible, and will be looking forward to teaming up with some local talent as well!!!

Thanks to everyone who has been the supporting the new release - grabbing a disc at a show, or online ... coming to a show or two ... kissing the album cover ... wearing the unfolded cd booklet as a hat on rainy days ... Being sure to return it to its case, so it doesn't get scratched ... all THAT stuff that's been a help to the new "LTLC" release from "MPATM" ... "-"

Peace out ... for now ... ... ...
Matty

We will have the first run of physical CDs available for sale this Friday at the release show in Sacktown.

MPATM's "Learning to Lose Control" is also available on iTunes.

 Good day to you ... all of you ... good day.

October 7th - all the lies can stop. "When will your CD be ready for sale?" ... "October 7th - no fooling!"
Order is in to the print shop, digital files are submitted for iTunes approval, and venue is booked for the CD release party.

What: MPATM CD Release for "Learning to Lose Control"
When: Friday October 7th, 2011
Where: The Kinsmen Club, (71 First Lake Drive) Lower Sackville NS
Cost: $5 at the door

As a proud Sackvillian ... or Sackvillain, I am oddly thrilled to be playing a private venue booking in Sackville for a cd release. It seems good venues in town are becoming so rare that you have to barter several of your limbs and/or future children to get a decent spot at the cluuubs. And considering the fact that half of our fan support come from Sacktown already, why not 'bring the show to the people'. Shaping up to be a great night; one for the Sackville historian's notebook.

More?
Yes, more

A streamlined faction of MPATM will be playing an acoustic set at the Company House on Tuesday October 18th, as part of an NSCC event. Always a great venue, great sound, and fun to go acoustic from time to time.

More still?
Still ... more

MPATM will be playing on Friday Nov.4th at Montes Showbar in Dartmouth.
More detail on that as they fallout.

Those other dates are just an FYI ... fill your mind with thoughts of the Sacktown party, and the Sacktown party alone!

Until we meet again, and the case is solv'ed.
MP

 Be sure to check the "Photos" section of MPATM.com for some new pics from recent shows on the Waterfront, at the Seahorse - and more.

Thanks to Sarah and Kristy for featuring our new single "Bring Me Sunshine" on their 'covefm' radio show this week. We're sending out the masters to CBC, Live 105, Q104 and college stations across Canada in the coming weeks - so we'll wait to hear for more tracking of our tunes soon!

I've also decided to (as a reward for everyone's patience waiting for this record to get printed and released) post several of the new songs on Sound Cloud. 
I would simply post them here, but the site player has some serious limitations with streaming quality ... So check out a few new selections from 'Learning to Lose Control' on our Sound Cloud page.

The album artwork is complete ... cd master is in hand - and we're heading to the print shop, while hunting for the right venue for our release!

Peace for now
MP

Arcade:
Arcade Fire last night ... what can I say? They impressed.
Kicked off with Ready to Start; I was - and so were they. With such a varied catalogue, not necessarily noted by hit singles, I was amazed how many of my pet favourites they hit.

As a unit they were full of intense energy (gave me all I could handle, and likely all they could before nearly passing out from exhaustion), Win Butler played the indie lead role to perfection, while Regine snuck in and stole the show for several surreal moments. I never knew it was her alone banging out the funky drums to the Crown of Love outro, and ending it with Sprawl II was a perfect taste to leave in my mouth. I hope when my daughter is her age, she feels free to dance in front of thousands with swirly ribbons and a gold sequin dress. Or not ... not sure.

From the land of 'weird things', one of my fondest memories and best feelings of the night was when Win counted in Rococo with "Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy". For anyone who doesn't know or recall, that is the way John Lennon counted in the first full band demo version of "A Day In The Life" in the studio. I have a clear picture in my mind of Sir George Martin telling the story to the Anthology makers as he played the original reel-to-reel, that just out of nowhere John decided to count in the song using the words sugar plum fairy ... never appeared on the actual release of the greatest (Beatles) song ever - a very cool tribute by AF.

Mixes:
Working tirelessly with Paul MacRae, we now have our running mixes for the album.
One thing about DIY recording and mixing is that you always feel like you could make one more 'tweak' since you're not on a studio's clock ... but that makes it harder to say "okay, we're DONE now" ... I believe we're finally saying that with these mixes, which means they'll be off to master within the week. Yayaa.

1668:
MPATM is playing a show at Club 1668 on Friday August 5th, with Overnight Enemy (featuring some fellow Sackvillians Andy MacLean and Matthew Wilson). I'll be sure to post asap with the specifics on when the show starts, when we play, cover charge, etc. If you don't know club 1668 is on Lower Water, and is next to the big Golden doors of the dragon king, or whatever that Chinese food buffet is called on Lower Water.

Just so happens, I hear there is some kind of beer fest happening that night on the waterfront ... just a quick step across to club 1668 ... with a belly full of international beer ... and an appetite for rock? Beerfest ends around 10pm, which lines up perfectly because the music will not have started, but will be coming soon!

Cover art:
Art design from our resident 'awesome designer', Chad Boutilier is ready to rock ... I sent him a rough black and white sketch of an idea and he turned it into something that certainly makes the eyes follow it's shapes and flow. Couldn't be happier, and i'm now designing the rest of the booklet to go along with our soon to be mastered tunes.




Hooray for the weekend ... enjoy Moncton, everyone who's gonna go see AF and U2 up there.
Party safe.
MP

 Ahoy ... relying heavily on my cd collection of older music lately, i'v decided to try and see if anything new is awesome. So far, mostly sticking with the old discs. Except:

The Strokes - Angles ... Sure we already knew who they were, but with the weak sales of recent efforts they were considering calling it a day after this record. Well, after living it for a good month exclusively I seriously hope they don't stop making this addictive modern rock. Even my 11 month old enjoys wobbling to these tunes. Only 10 tracks, but filled with riches up until the last note - actually tracks 8, 9, 10 are my favourites. Not a weak moment on this monster ... "Don't try to stop us, get out of the way". I won't ... I will ...

How about Ray-ray? Picked-up a disc from folk-alt-rock-country-guy ... Ray LaMontagne & the pariah dogs. 'God willin' and the Creek don't rise' ... very tasty. Mostly slow, chill jams - with a little hop thrown in for sport ... hard to put anything else in the car stereo right now. 'Are we really through' - what a track! Go Ray-ray, Go.

New Eddie Vedder album is good summer listening, although with no major hooks into me yet ... and I hear Ben Harper's got something delicious going right now ... yeah.

How about MPATM? Recording, done. Mixing, half done. Currently hunting for a good mastering situation, and working on the album art. Probably gonna pick a single asap, and push it to radio before the whole disc is complete ... Maybe 'Bring Me Sunshine'. Sounds like a good summer single ... 

Until then.
MP

Quick BLOG attack to let everyone know that we're playing a show next Friday February 25th - at the Seahorse in Halifax.

It's a benefit for Surf Nova Scotia ... And will also be featuring Maddison Avenue, promoting "Sweet Renegades".

We hit the stage at 11pm - can't wait to rock the Seahorse again ... one of the best sounding places in Halifornia.

PEACE
MP

In a strange world of head scratching musical popularity of "icons" like Katy Perry ... Justin Beiber ... Lady Gaga ... entertaining, catchy, strongly attacking the teenie-bop market - (good for them) ... there seems to be no escape in sight ... no signs of hope ahead for "bands" writing cool tunes.

And the Grammy for album of the year goes to ... ARCADE FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!! The SUBURBS!!! MY favourite album of the year!!!

So am I going mainstream pop, or is 'good' music actually starting to claw back onto the scene. Maybe it's an abberation ... actually, i'd even call that chance 'probable'. At least there is a dim light of hope. This commercial win was so well deserved that it didn't seem it would happen ... it seems in most awards and competitions that the obvious choice is the one that gets overlooked.

Good for Arcade Fire ... and hopefully, good for many other bands that could get a closer look based on AF's big accomplishment.

... Just wait ... next people will start buying actual, physical albums in large numbers ... then i'd have to pinch myself even harder!

MP

What does it all mean Baz? I don't know ...

Everybody's searching ... for something ... in a lot of ways that's a "voice".
How do you express yourself? How do you find yourself, calm yourself, excite yourself ... find meaning. What's your voice?

Maybe the answers to these questions are variable, or maybe you don't know - but I bet your looking.

Some days for me it's easy ... write a tune.
Other days its just as easy ... listen to someone else's tune.
In a perfect continuum of searching and finding, I strive to get to a place where my creation of songs also serves as a songbook for others to listen to and find a piece of yourself.

Gawdy goals? Sure, but when I think of helping the world with my time here I don't always think of feeding the hungry in poverty-stricken countries ... bad example, because I actually DO think of that a lot ... but beyond that I want to help 'feed' people who are hungry in other ways. In ways that i'm hungry sometimes.

My cupboards have some grub in them, and food is only ever a small drive and credit card swipe away ... but I still hunger. Greatly.
I want more ... bigger ... beyond ... more.

Music is a first stop for dabbling into the great beyond, and i'm thrilled to be blessed with the ability and openness to dive in.
As always, I hope to pull something out of the nether that will stand the test of time ... or help someone on their pursuit by opening a door.

What does it all meean, Baz? What am I even talking about? Maybe nothing. Maybe not, we'll see 

MP