Playboy Bunnies + The Little Black Dress

If it's good enough for Hugh Hefner...

Find us here: @theLBDmusic

And of course our personal twitter accounts:
@DanLBD
@HohmannKyle
@BrianLBD
@SweetLewLBD
@DamianLBD

Winter Touring: The Road Less Travelled

Hey Folks, we have officially capped off our winter season GTA run with our final show at The Hideout, here in our home town Toronto.  It was another classic LBD party, except this time on a Monday night!  Lots of friends and family came out to cheer us on, and we were thrilled to have them there.  One of the nice things about "all ages" shows is that they usually start a little earlier, (this particular show has us on stage at 9:30!) allowing us to play to some new fans.  The band felt great about the show, which had a lot to do with all the loving and familiar faces we had in the audience.  This show truly reminded us that home really is were the heart is.  Simply put: we love playing shows in Toronto!!

Speaking of home towns, last week we made a midnight journey to London, Ontario, the city where Damian and I grew up.  We threw the keyboard up on the roof yet again and drove through the blistering winter cold for 2 hours each way to become a little more acquainted with our London fans!  London definitely has an energy of its own.  Our friends in the London-based band "Calvin James" (nobody in the band is named Calvin James, that's just their band name, I swear!) were hosting a keg party, and, of course, the logical thing to do is bring an entire busload of party people to the show; and that is just what they did!  While my parents stood a few feet away from quite possibly the queen of all drunken party girls (mind you she was wearing a little black dress and apparently it was her birthday) the rest of the rowdy crowd got down and dirty for our set.  We made sure to play our heaviest, bluesiest and rockin'est stuff for everybody's sake.  There was some jumping around, some moshing, and at one point we all thought the new birthday girl was going to bring down the PA system with her vivacious dance moves!  In here defense, the speaker pole did closely resemble a stripper pole.  Basically, she was awesome, and Dan took a few chances to get off stage to dance with her.  We certainly had a great time playing to a packed London crowd!  We look forward to our return... whose birthday will it be, one can only wait and see!  (Yeah, we spit rhymes when we don't even mean to.)

They're right when they say nothing brings a band closer together then touring!  There is something special about loading up the van and hitting the road.  Each gig and city brings a new energy and whole new mix of stories to tell.  You get a chance to work on your musical set and see the results of your hard work night after night!  Of all the bands I have toured with I have to say this one truly is awesome and unique.  The merging of our personalities is completely cohesive and mostly "laugh out loud" funny (that's LOL for you internet n00bz).  With a riddle here and there, a stop at Timmies every 40 minutes or so, and the likelihood that we probably won't let Lew drive again, this band has now found it's road... rain or snow...  frequently traveled.  We look forward to hitting the road as much as possible in 2012.

Now that our slew of outta town gigs is over, we have some time to gear up for our record release!  The mixes are starting to come in from our producer Johnny Simmen (@colourJohnny) and they sound big, bombastic, and phenomenal! Stay tuned for our CD release this year at CMW!

- @BrianLBD

A link to an amazing review of January 6 at the Horseshoe Tavern

Robyn Lewis knows a thing or two about music.  Especially about local music.  She recently wrote up this incredibly complimentary review, and posted it on her blog.

The following is an excruciatingly unbiased and honest review of The Little Black Dress, specifically our concert at the Horseshoe Tavern on January 6 in Toronto.  We'd like you to click on the link to prove that we directly lifted the text (with Robyn's approval, of course), and have posted a direct link as well.

Click here to check out this amazing review by Robyn Lewis!!

Here is Robyn's review:

"I titled this post ‘The Little Black Dress: Rock Stars In The Making’, but let’s face it. If you have ever seen The Little Black Dress perform, you know that these guys are already rock stars. They strut around on stage, they dance, they rock out on guitars and bass and drums, they make jokes and they make the crowd feel involved. They always have a lot of fun, which I think makes the crowd have a lot of fun! Everytime that I see them perform, the energy in the room is just fantastic. Everyone is excited and ready to sing and dance and have a great time. I can’t imagine that it’s easy to bring that kind of energy on stage and give it to every single person in the crowd, and yet somehow they do it every show. 
The band consists of 5 guys. Dan, who is the frontman, guitar player, songwriter and a super dedicated, talented musician. He loves to engage the crowd, dance around, and be an all around crazy person. There’s no possible way you can’t love this guy. They couldn’t ask for a better frontman. Then there’s Kyle, who plays keys and bass, and I would say is equally as crazy as Dan. Brian plays guitar (a pink one actually, which I think is awesome!) and Damian plays bass. These two may not be quite as crazy on stage, but they are both very talented, and the band wouldn’t be the same without them. Last but not least, there is Lewis on drums, who did not play for the night, and was replaced by an equally talented drummer Alex.
It was Friday January 6th, at Horseshoe Tavern (in Toronto). I’m wearing my little black dress and The Little Black Dress was set to start at 11:45pm. Their set ended up starting just after 12am, since the bands before them went late. Horseshoe suddenly became packed, which of course didn’t surprise me. I believe it was $7 to get in to the show, but I couldn’t tell you for sure because you don’t have to pay to get in when you’re on the guest list.
They played lots of great songs over the course of the show. This was their set list:
Easy Type, Lovers & Paparazzi are all off of their self titled EP. Four on the Floor and This Town are off of their EP ‘Strut’. Each song that they play makes the crowd sing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Easy Type, September or Spotlight. If you are in that crowd you will feel the urge to sing and the need to dance.
There are a lot of really awesome bands in the music industry. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and talent to become a real success. Yet there are a lot of artists in the industry who are popular, with millions of screaming fans, but they don’t really have any actual talent. Within a few years (or possibly months) they will disappear, only to be heard of when they go into rehab or randomly end up on Dancing With The Stars. The talented artists work long and hard, and stay around for a very long time, which they deserve for all the long hours and hard work that they do. These talented artists are the ones who care about their fans, because they realize that the only reason they are so successful, is because of their fans, and if they weren’t there they would be nothing.
The Little Black Dress is one of those talented, awesome bands. They work hard and are very good at what they do. They have a very loyal fan base and have a lot of family and friends who come out and support them. What I don’t understand is how they are not already with some huge record label, selling millions of albums all over the world, while touring all over the world. Now you see, I could be selfish and want The Little Black Dress to not become so hugely popular, because I want them to have shows in my area as much as they possibly can. This would be very selfish of me though, and even though I want to come support them at shows as much as I can, I want them to be able to tour the world and have millions of fans all over the world, because they are too good not to be noticed.
If you have never heard of The Little Black Dress, or you have but just never listened to their music, please do so. If you don’t now, you will regret it.
I’m just waiting for that day when The Little Black Dress is headlining at the Air Canada Centre, or some other huge venue, and I can sit there and say I’ve been there since before the world realized how talented they are…"

Thank you Robyn, your words are so touching and so encouraging!

Return of the Mack

Greetings, I'd like to take this opportunity to formally announce my return as drummer of the Little Black Dress. After missing two shows due to a brief expedition through the jungles of south america, collecting field data on the indigenous populations of northern Brazil, I return to my natural calling as timekeeper for Dan, Bri, Kyle and Dame. Upon my return, I experienced no sense of gradual rehabilitation back into the non-stop lbd grind as I was thrown immediately into the trenches on what I have been referring to as the Little Black Dress' very first TOUR!!!!! We travelled across the vast landscapes of south western Ontario on what was an exhausting journey of self-discovery, pushing the limits of human achievement and demanding of ourselves physically what few people have ever dared.

The tour, consisting of three dates kicked off in Cambridge, Ontario at Bar 515. Being what it is, our tour van, that is, Dan's Jimmy could not withhold the required gear, forcing us to strap Kyle's incredibly delicate and expensive keyboard to the roof of the car. After some savvy engineering and an emergency test conducted by myself, the band concluded that the keyboard would be fine on the roof, and at worst, fly off while on the highway harming those cars behind us, leaving us without a scratch. All ran smoothly until we were victimized by a noise so insufferable we could hardly bear it. Similar to that noise created by Jim Carey in "Dumb and Dumber", the one he refers to as "the most annoying sound in the world", the wind between the keyboard and the car produced a relentless screech that followed us from city to city, driving us slowly insane.

Luckily we made it to Cambridge and played a hell of a show. And man did it feel good to be back together again. We were accompanied by fellow bands Brendan Distefano, Slow Motion Victory and Breaching Vista. On the way home, eager to distract ourselves from the sound of a yeti dying slowly (the keyboard on top of the car) Bri had the brilliant idea to download a riddle app on his phone. We spent the rest of the ride home, as well as all forthcoming car rides honing our riddle skills, and what fun it was. After a day of recovery, with what energy we had, we piled back into Dan's truck and travelled to Oshawa. At this point, being scrunched in the back of Dan's truck with two other grown men had become natural as we learned to embrace the warmth each other provided, which further deepened the affection and brotherhood generated by being band mates. In Oshawa we took the stage at E.P. Taylor's, a venue graced the night before by none other than The Sheepdogs. Another great show.

Day 3: After a brief scare in which the car began sliding on an icy road, immune to its breaking system, towards a large pole but was stopped by the curb just in time to avoid denting the front of Dan's car, we made it to the highway, going at a safe 20km/h and headed towards gig number 3. We capped off the tour in Canada's steel town, Hamilton, at the Cork Town Pub.

Big thanks to the guys from Track Avenue for being the wind beneath our wings.

 - Sweet Lew

Busiest Week Of My Life.

Woah! 

What a roller-coaster week for me! I'll lay it out for y'all sequentially. Lets begin with an abrupt Monday morning. I awoke from a hollow cylinder of rest and jumped into my mom's van so she could transport me back to the big city. (To provide backstory, I had spent an entire week in Bowmanville protecting my family from the toils and troubles of emotional decoupling. The End.)  

I went into work for a 12-9 shift, which I had been debating following through with for a few days. I gritted the trenches, got'r done and hopped into the truck with Dan at 9:05pm. We headed straight to Helm's Deep (ASA Studios)... Well, first we spent a couple bucks on some Little Caesar's before hitting the grind. 

I started laying down all the backing vocals. I had to really open up my throat for some of them; being in a headphone cave forced me to hear every aspect of my voice that needs work. 

In my opinion, one of the best kept secrets to a great album is opening the mind to vocal possibilities regarding placement of the abstract vocal pads. (I.E: "ouuhs" and "aaahhhs.")

Dan kept a naked ear on the happenings so we could bounce ideas off each other. He also did a tonne of tweeting and instagram-ing during my takes. We became very serious, and finished our work.

To my delight, Dan Flannel suggested we stay at the cottage after we had finished. The Sadowski cottage: It's an essential part of any young man or woman's personal development in this big game of life. 

I ended up watching American Beauty. The film blew my mind, why did I put this off for so long? I would have never guessed the military dude was gay the entire time!

The night expired into morning, and we managed to consume about 4-5 hours worth of sleep between 6-11am.

Work resumed. Johnny and I meddled with various synth sounds and organ pads, found the right tone, and went to town. We also opened up some of the original files from the classic LBD EP and added some keys into those tracks as well.

I started to fade around 2am on Wednesday morning as we drove back to the city. I was NOT looking forward to going back to work. 9-6 on a Wednesday morning isn't very amusing after 15 hours of tracking. Nevertheless, it feels good to cap off the recording process with a spirited effort. 

I'm so geared up for this album to drop. It has so much integrity and colour to it. It is musicianship at its finest.

I realize its now 4am on friday morning. We just got back from playing in Cambridge with Breaking Vista and Brendan Distefano. It wasn't too bad for an out of town show. We also have Oshawa and Hamilton in the next couple of days...LOUD NOISES!

Yup. Bedtime for this young soul. We spent one hour too many in the truck on the way home trying to solve riddles on Brian's blackberry app. 

Night Kids. Stay Classy

- Hohmann

Vocal Szechwan ("The Importance Of Lyrics")

Hi. It's me, Dan. The lead vocalist. The lyricist. The person whose guts are spilled all over many crumpled up papers, beat-up leather-bound notebooks, white-turned-yellow-turned-brown-stained Macbook keys, and, eventually, into the core of every song written by The Little Black Dress.

They lyrics of these songs are so important to me. Lyrics, as a general rule, are of the utmost important to me (in my songs and in others'). I spend so much time preserving a moment, fleshing out a thought, trying to describe an emotion or an event or a nondescript color or place or person... I fumble with feelings and sarcasm and awkwardness and wit, and do my best to pull it together just enough to write it, say it, sing it.

Sometimes, especially during the days leading up to a vocal session, I sit and obsess over the words that I've written. Wondering if each of them are perfect for the moment - the moment in the song, and the moment I am trying to convey. I wonder if the picture I'm painting might be served better by a more direct or more abstract adjective or a more dramatic or more gentle verb. I battle with description, writhing throughout every sentence, always thinking about how much to leave to the imagination.

I will sit and sift through the words on paper, read them over and over, and change punctuation, altering meaning in the slightest of ways. I will change pronouns and realize that a song was never about its intended protagonist - rather a story about someone I've long-since forgotten, or, on a rare occasion, about someone I've never met.

Sometimes I will finish a song in a matter of minutes. Sometimes it will take days, weeks, months or even years to realize who a song is actually about. Sometimes it's so obvious.

Some songs are taken so directly from my personal experiences that I am transported back to a time and a place each time the words leave my lips. So often while I sing, merely a word and a blink can take me away to a situation that I only remember when I utter a line in a song. In a song like "This Town", I cover years of my life in a single and simple verse. And yet, as soon as the chorus shows up ("This town, this city is out to get you") and I am speaking on behalf of all of us, who, no matter how connected or removed we are from the place we grew up (or from the place where we currently reside) are conflicted, amused, and sheltered by that particular place and time.

That is just a small example of where these words come from. A very small example.

Everyone and everything has the potential to be a muse. Some, though, shine through stronger than others.

More often than not, I will be in the vocal booth, headphones on, eyes closed tracking vocals, and, stumbling over a last-minute change, I realize that I had gotten it right the first time. That I had just spent hours and days dissecting a word or a rhythm or a phrase or a guttural sound, and I'd had the perfect vocal all along. The reason I had always sang a certain word in a certain way with a certain inflection was because that way is the best way to convey the identity of that word, of that moment of that song.

Johnny, our magician engineer, master producer, and homeboy for life can attest to that. During a take, I will forget a line and say "Y'know what? I just changed this line and it's not feeling natural anymore." or "Y'know what? I switched up these lines because I thought it made more sense this way." or "Y'know what? This looked better on paper, but it's not rolling off my tongue." I end up singing what feels right. It makes sense. It's perfect.

Lead vocals for our debut full-length album are tracked! We are one step closer to having this album in our hands. And one step closer to putting it in yours.

x

Dan

And now a word from our musical director

Hey folks!
It's me, Brian, your LBD guide to guitar playing, chiming in with an update on our guitar session!

This weekend was an epic journey into the realm of the electric guitar. Heading up to the studio with Dan in sub-zero temperatures proved challenging for our overly humble vehicle. Luckily the icy roads couldn't stop us; not without a stop at Timmie's for a coffee to warm up.

After a quick set up we began laying down track after track of pulsing rhythms, heaving power chords, and soaring leads. Songs were flying by, and the 3-day weekend seemed to melt into one long and yet very productive session. We're proud to say all the guitar tones on this album were recorded using...

Guitars!! And, of course, analog pedals, and tube amps! No plug-ins were used. Yes, knobs were turned, feedback was made and some analog settings were tweaked on-the-fly during takes. Some of the most noteworthy tones and effects used were the classic Ibenez 808 Tube Screamer, Radial's Classic Tonebone, the Line 6 DL4 and Electro-Harmonix POG2. Most of which was played with our classic shell-pink Fender thinline Telecaster through a Fender Deluxe along with some cameo appearances from our "blues-bucker'd" Epiphone 335 semi-hollowbody, and Fender American Reissue Jazzmaster. Johnny, Dan and I were all surprised and excited to hear some of the amazing sounds coming out of this combination.

Each song took greater shape as the weekend carried on. It was a creative melting pot between Johnny and myself while Dan spent his time finalizing the artwork and detail to be printed on the album. This is working its way up to be our best recording session to date!

Also, our photographer friend Angela (@angelarevolt) came by to take a few photos, and we'll be posting them soon! Check the 'visuals' section of our website (http://www.theLBDmusic.com) for lots of updates soon!

All I can say from this point, is stay tuned for our record release party and showcase at this year's Canadian Music Week Festival 2012!

Stay Warm!

@BrianLBD