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

Yo Pierce! I hear your Mom's goin' out with Squeaks!

Hey there Pals, Kyle here.

So in the midst of all these great happenings in LBD camp I found myself buried under three feet of snow this morning. The phones were ringing, dogs were barking, and Dad came into my room and started his ferocious workday...(basically I've been visiting my parents and my father's office is my room.)

Technically I was supposed to be making the trek up to Johnny today to track synth lines and other types of keyboard related accoutrement. Unfortunately I cannot move. The good news is I'll be able to go in at the end of the week and lay down the goods AFTER Brian finishes cooking his thick'n'sweet guitar muffins.

...It will be like showing up to the school dance after being informed several times via the cutest girl ever that she is already there waiting for you.

I'm going to pop my earbuds in, turn on a lil Weezer, and head outside to shovel snow. There's a slight chance I'll be taking a ten minute break to rip donuts in my Dad's Nissan. It's only fitting since he barged into my room and woke me up. Stay tuned!

Also, get stoked. Get really stoked.

hohmann

Stereo - Passion Of The Heist-I Am Abomination
Reading - Michael Crichton's "Sphere"
Viewing - NHL 2012

Slappin D'Bayss

See that title? Yah. D'Bayss. I'm not quite sure how to properly spell that out, phonetically but it helps if you say it out loud, with kind of an Irish accent. Now with a Jamaican accent. Now kind of in between... There you go. SLAPPIN D'BAYSS!
Just to be clear, that's not a ridiculous pseudonym that I came up with for Damian today in the studio. Not even after watching him absolutely slay the bass parts for a slew of new songs. Not even after rocking the eff out beside him every night on stage. Slappin D'Bayss is just simply what he does. And does it so well.

Today we were in the studio - Astareaway studios, with our homie Johnny Simmen. Drums were done a few days ago, and so, lineally, it was time for bass. Damian did such a killer job. Laying down the bass for these new tracks got me so excited about the album to come! It also helped that I was working on the cover art as these tracks were being recorded, and Damian and Johnny were on either side of me, being uber-productive.

Speaking of the upcoming album, I'm making myself kind of crazy with this track listing, in a good way! I knew that it would be tough to figure out which songs were placed where, & so I'm taking it in stride and having fun getting excited about it. There are so many aspects of putting out an independent full-length album, and I'm loving every second of it. Everything from the DESIGN - album art, the fonts, the colors, the concept, the REPLICATION - digipak? jewel case? cardboard sleeve? quantity? drop cards? CDs? Digital? Vinyl? how about the SONGS - number of songs, the song order, (bonus tracks? hidden tracks? downloadable exclusive tracks?) how about MASTERING and how about DEADLINES and ALBUM RELEASE DATE and... Well, you get the idea. The point is, there is oh-so-much to think about, to deal with, to figure out, and it's all so important and so exciting!

To sum it up:
Today's bass session was fluid, productive, and successful. This album is going to be a culmination of many years of hard work, and it's already proving to be an intense and exciting process thus far.

See you all during guitar sessions this coming weekend!

Dan

January 2012 Overview

Hey!

January 2012 is shaping up to be an awesome month for The Little Black Dress!
They year started off by playing on New Years' Eve at the Hard Rock Cafe, right in the heart of Canada's biggest, best, most happening city, Toronto!  It was absolute mayhem, and amidst all that, everybody looked so prim and proper for the occasion; tuxedos, for sure, and of course there were miles and miles of little black dresses.

Next, the Horseshoe Tavern not a week later, on January 6. We felt outrageously supported by our friends and our fans, and really had an amazing time on stage! It was so hot and sweaty in the venue, that almost immediately after our 10-song set, the horseshoe cleared out so everyone could get some well-deserved fresh air.

We've got 7 more shows lined up right now, which can be found at http://thelittleblackdressmusic.com/about.html
The cities we're heading to in the next month include: London, Hamilton, Oshawa, Guelph, Niagara Falls, Cambridge, and we're also playing an all-ages show in our hometown Toronto at the beginning of February. Go check the calendar dates (previous link) for more info!

On top of all of our live shows, and perhaps the most exciting part of upcoming year, is the anticipated release of our first full-length album! You read that correctly... our first FULL LENGTH ALBUM!!
We are so excited for this album that it's hard to even put into words. I'll get all emotional at a later date, so prepare for that.

We are recording this album with one of our oldest friends, and uber-talented engineer/producer/musician, Johnny Simmen (Owner - Astareaway Studios). He understands us, we understand him, and he knows our sound better than anyone out there. He has become an integral part of our sound, and couldn't be happier to be working with him to finish up this album!

I'll be posting lots of studio updates in the next few weeks, including photographs, videos, & general ramblings and thoughts.

Here's the first studio photo that I snagged yesterday, when Lew was tracking drums!

Over and out.
Dan