OMG!!!

We just *may* end up touring with my favorite new band (that features members of my all time favorite band)!!!
I hope this is real and not a hallucination or a false alarm!!!!!!!!!!!

Cross yr fingers for me?
xo
chloeeee

How'd ya get built like that? You ain't been here that long.

"So do you wanna fuck?"

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Thursday :

When we were in Pittsburgh last week , one of the more hilarious things (((microwaves))) drummer , host with the most and general bon vivant , John Roman , said was (more or less) "sooner or latter every weird n' heavy band gets compared to Dillinger Escape Plan " . Thanks to local blog , Midnight Poutine , we too join the ranks of bands that sound nothing like D.E.P being compared to them. M.P. DID play us in their podcast so the youth can decide , Dillinger or not.

The show at Sala was fun , but like all local shows nerve wracking as all fuck. Personally , I find when we play Montreal , I'm just WAYYY too aware of what's going on. Thus , it's harder to get into "the zone". Things got off the a late start because of the hockey game and it was 1:15 by the time we played (and almost 4 when we got home!). Despite the lateness , things were more or less perfect. I was well chuffed at the line-up we chose and none of the bands disapointed. I thought that each brought a different take on what could loosely be described as "noise rock" , while still leaving a large margin of variety.

As usual , it was a joy to see Japanther and Sightings + Black Feelings are on the list of Montreal bands worth keeping an eye on. It was my first time seeing them but Andre's praise was right on.

I noticed tons of fresh faces , which is nice. As much as I love my friends coming to our shows , it's nice to know they aren't the only ones. One thing that was especially heart warming , was to read so much praise about our set on the local scene msg board. As a band , we've always felt a lil' outta place here , it feels good to see we aren't as alone as we thought.

a review , en francais + pics




Pics above and in link are by Sandra Lynn Belanger

Notable event: several couples making out HARDCORE during Sightings set , a couple fucking in the downstairs men's washroom (thanks for the tip Kyle) . I guess other people think the slow grooves are sexy too.

Friday :
Woke up at 8 to grab the guys and DRIVE, after packing it made for exactly 3 hours of sleep. RAD. Our van started dying once we got into the city and it took us a million years to arrive at the Knit so we missed soundcheck.

We ran out grab some food and were spotted by a few young fans who seemed really excited about the show , screams and all , giving us a nice boost of energy. On returning the same kids were crying , telling us their dreams were shattered (no , I'm not making this up. We s attract some pretty intense folks and we love 'em to death). Turns out a guy they were chilling with was getting drunk on the sidewalk and the bouncers weren't gonna let any of them in. Jake said he'd put in the word and we went inside to watch 2up.

And had our brains blown. 2UP , for those not in the know are a Japanese noise rock duo featuring our good buddy Tetsunori , also of Dmonstrations.


Got changed , played . The super fans were in the house (managed to talk their way in it seems) and by our 5th song the girl who was bawling just 45 mins earlier had her shirt off and was licking my boots! I got rowdy with several kids in the crowd and felt a surge of great vibes the entire show. Faces were grabbed , legs were bit.

Watched Pissed Jeans (great!) , banged my head HARD , chatted with a few friends and we were OUTTA there. Early shows and late arrivals don't leave much time for bro-downs , sadly. I only met 2 of the dudes from Pissed jeans and BRIEFLY. They both seemed sympathetic to my begging that they play Montreal , if for no other reason than to please Blam Blamerson , their super fan.

the word "Pissed" is a no-no?














All posted pics of AIDS Wolf at the Knitting Factory by Todd Fisher.

**
CMJ review + pics + DRAMA.

**
More photo documentation.

Notable : No , I will NOT sit on your face. (Do today's kids have no shame?)



Still Friday (show no.2) :

Arrived at the Market Hotel for the not-so-secret-secret Todd P party , our ex-bandmate , Christopher was already waiting for us at the back door to help load in.
By this point fatigue was setting in BIGTIME and I'm surprised I actually made it through our set. Most of the night I just got caught up with Christopher and my buds Josh and Harrison. Unfortunately , I was too tired and the venue was too smokey ( I've got wicked bad asthma ) to really watch the other bands. And I'm bummed 'cause I had zero clue Knyfe Hyts were most of Ex-Models , who I LOVE. My bandmates taunted me for missing the good stuff but I've only got so much juice in me. Instead I stood around with my eyes half closed (looking like a junkie on the nod) and got hit on by really hot , really young guys.

I met Josh from Deerhunter (and the lamented SIDS) and we had a nice chat about neo-no wave + Mark Mclean.

Zack from Knyfe Hyts seemed in worse shape than me as he slept under the merch table most of the night. Wish I had a photo!
Got Back at 5 am , crashed hard!

2 things about the Market Hotel: -AMAZING PA. Like holy crap , I can't believe a loft venue has such a great sounding LOUD system.
-Great ambiance , friendly and unpretentious folks running the place.

Clashing reviews (with pics) here and
and here .

Pitchfork hearts Deerhunter.


Saturday:


Woke up at 9 to bring the van in for repairs ( 3 hours of sleep is starting to feel like a theme here) , went broke. Had brunch with Jake and Michelle and Carlos and Chris , and then got locked out of their (j+m's) place for a few hours while they were looking at offices . Met their cute and friendly neighbor and talked about jam bands. Finally got in , put on our shoes and left for Providence. Our van filling with exhaust the entire drive .

Loaded in , ate burritos , hung with buds . Japanther had to bail due to injury (get better Ian!) so the bill was down to just us , Sightings and Trouble vs Glue , our buddy Toni's band all the way from Roma. T vs G is 2/3 of Dada Swing and they played angular , stripped down & noisy weird pop. Toni is also known for being the drummer in Hiroshima Rocks Around and for being an amazing host and wicked cook.


During Sightings set some really drunk , really messed up kid jumped on stage and grabbed the mic. Mark gave him a HARD shove offstage and the fucked landed on me. Ouch! Shaken , I went out side for the next song. When I came back in the same dude insisted on grabbing me in inappropriate places several times over . Harsh words were said and he left.


I got asked to fuck several times by a very good looking young guy (another theme? Am I the punchline to some joke I don't know?) and we played to a smallish but rowdy crowd. Several rows of positive vibes and spastic dancing momentarily cured any fatigue related blues.
After the show , we all went to this bar where Rebecca works and hung out with the crew (minus a few ). I think it's the first time our band has been to a bar after playing. We certainly don't do the party thing.
Crashed a Vik's with the meowers , ate salad and regained a sense of humanity. Some douches tagged out van with inanities while we slept , awesome.

Notable : I can carry Jeff Schneider with relative ease. Deadlifting , try it.

Sunday:
Met up with Dare and Rebecca for brunch at Jillian's (fellow vegans take heed : you MUST try the Saint Jamez Benedict while in Providence , it's heaven in your mouth) did the thing , saw peeps. Had a nice hangout with Quigley that I wish lasted a year. Drove to Boston and caught up with Neptune , ate pizza sat around and talked to dudes.

I had brought a Jean Louis Costes book to read on this micro-tour , in the spirit of offensiveness , but at this show had to put it away. Not because I was OFFENDED but because I couldn't surpress my gag reflex any longer.

White Mice are now a 4 piece and have a new oscillator guy + a guitarist . They sound better than ever (industrial jams are back in a big way) and played a short set. They had a bunch of new gear (helped the sound a bunch) and in general the material they played was "groovier" that the previous times I'd seen them.
Our set was totally frustrating as there was ZERO vocals in the monitors and our stage sound was mud - none of us could hear each other. I ended up staining my vocal chords pretty bad by over compensating - I still can't talk. AT ALL. Meh. . The same thing happened last time we played Milky Way. The PA there just isn't powerful enough for a loud band.

More memorable than PLAYING was grabbing this kid and carrying him around after our set.

Neptune had a few gear issues but played a great set of all new (well new since I last saw them) songs. Kickass , as usual . I got their new record , Gong Lake ( Table of The Elements )and have been jamming it all freaking day.
More bro downs and attempts to get caught up with various friends but the time at a show is never enough and such meetings are often less than satisfying . At 1: 30 we were in the van and drove to our motel in Vermont , to the consternation of our would-be hosts. We needed a head start home so Myles could spend time with his fam before Europe.



Notable : Dan with the mic duct tapped to his face! + Eating raw spinach , straight from the bag + Homemade tats.



Got home saw the doctor , got steroids and horse pills . Was told to stay away from second hand smoke (I wish!) and get plenty of bed rest (YEAH RIGHT) . My lungs are pretty seriously infected and we're leaving for tour in less than a week.








AIDSWOLF aids wolf AIDS WOLF aidswolf.





I'm not quite sure what these are for but we have one anyhow.


I'm making a move to formally start boxing training on returning from tour. I think it would be much more fun , productive and cathartic to fight those who have a problem with our band than engage in circular arguments. Besides , everyone's bored of music. Let's have a good ol' fashioned cage match or 2 , in good fun and good faith , to resolve issues and get our hearts racing and cheeks flushed.
HEALTHY, 'cause health = wealth .

Upcoming tour posters

Okayyyy this is what we did for the upcoming European tour, there will be an edition of 200 screenprinted for sale at the merch booth by yours truly. I know there has been a whole bunch printed offset tabloid size, and put up here and there in venues etc already:



and here's a poster designed by our buddy Elzo from Brussels, created especially for our leg of shows in Israel:




AIDS Wolf , aids wolf, AIDS WOLF , AIDSWOLF

Art , Class , Accessibility

My personal misgivings about "conceptual art" have always been about class and accessibility . Art that requires an artist's statement or manifesto to understand means it can only be understood by those educated in conceptual art. Art that requires the white walls of a gallery to contextualize it , fails to be accessible to to the majority of people who for reasons of class , will not step foot inside a gallery.

Because of this , the world conceptual art becomes a gated community where the entry key is connections , money , education and ample free time. Only the social elite need apply .

Brendan Fowler aka BARR , despite his "cred" in the D.I.Y scene doesn't seek to prove otherwise with the piece he made about our band and Jay Reatard. The piece in question (titled 11/16/07, 11/18/07) costs $3000, the most expensive piece in the show.

The price of the speaks loud and clear on WHO Mr.Fowler seeks as an audience. And it ain't "the kids" .

(In stark contrast , the most expensive anything by my and AIDS Wolf drummer Yannick's art factory , Seripop , was 150$ for a 16 color one-of-a-kind silkscreen monoprint.)


You better have a good job or large trust fund if you wanna buy some of this brand of empowerment.


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Our buddy Jake overheard this BRILLIANT tidbit : "Why isn't Child Abuse ( Our LPU labelmates , FYI) in it?" and his friend said "Well, I
guess he knows those guys and knows they're good dudes".


No news on if he will be doing more of this deep , hard hitting work about the bands Child Pornography , Anal Cunt , Fag Cop , Two Dead Sluts , One Good Fuck or canuk punk legends , The Dayglo Abortions.






Read a review of the show here.

Unfortunately , Brendan declined an invitation to our Knitting Factory show this Friday. A shame because I have tons of questions to ask him about art , class and the controversial works of some of the artists featured in his magazine. Because if Raymond Pettibone's (bless his soul , I love him to death!) drawings aren't "socially questionable" , I don't know WHAT is. That's exactly why his work is so relevant.

Socially Questionable Is The New Pink?

I don't even know WHAT the fuck to say about this....



"Fowler’s most recent performance project/band, Disaster, began as a direct address to what he sees as the growing roster of bands with socially questionable names (Aids Wolf, Jay Reatard etc.). In doing so, Fowler created a project he himself would find morally negligent in hopes of understanding their motives."

2 Watchdogs Watching Cable.........

Never before Sightings have I ever met a band that is so cheerful and matter of fact about bumming out audiences . And when you are as far on the weird dial as these guys are , a bit of joy goes a long way to keep morale up. They are 3 regular , down to earth dudes who are making some of the most original and spellbinding music I've ever heard. A band that manages to be both fast and slow at the same time , where the grooves reside in the empty spaces between notes & beats .

Their latest record , Through The Panama ( Load / Ecstatic Peace!) is produced by Andrew W.K and manages to be both more clean and austere than their earlier work. Some noise fans might sniff at the queasy melodies but fans of Sightings' cathartic performances will dig the accurate representation of the live sound on record.

Personally , I find that shaving a layer of fuzz from their records does A LOT to expose the songs' scaffolding and shows off some next level playing and composition. In FACT , I personally challenge any jaded fuck insistent that music just ain't as good as it was "back in the day" to listen to 'This Most Real of Hells', the 5th track , a few times and then try to say with a straight face that there's nothing new under the sun.

It's danceble , hypnotic , paranoid and HOT.

Oh and very weird. It's become a bit of a single-player game for me to listen to this at the gym and mentally deconstruct the songs to see how they are put together but no matter how many times I listen , I can't get any insight on their compositional process.


Scarier and sexier (seriously , it's avant-rock that you FUCK to. When did that last happen? Not since Royal Trux and U.S Maple called it quits that's for sure!) than any other band around , last time we played with them I gave myself a concussion from banging my head too hard and hitting in on the monitor. And it was well worth it , even if I lost a few IQ points.

While the sound on this live clip doesn't do the band justice , it gives you an IDEA of what's in store.


10 Apr 2008 Sala Rossa Montreal, Quebec
Sightings w/ AIDS Wolf , Japanther , Black Feelings
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11 Apr 2008 Oxfam Cafe Medford, Massachusetts
Sightings w/ Baixa, Bezoar , Life Partners

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12 Apr 2008 AS220 Providence, Rhode Island
Sightings w/ AIDS Wolf ,Japanther , Trouble vs Glue

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Going Back In Time

I never posted this before 'cause the bio is so lame it makes me cringe (Seriously , who come up with this shit? It makes me wanna eviscerate myself.) but in spirit of our Friday night show at the Knitting Factory I figured these vids of our CMJ show there made sense.

They actually sound/look pretty good so here ya go:

AIDS Wolf @ The Knitting Factory part 1

AIDS Wolf @ The Knitting Factory part 2
AIDS Wolf @ The Knitting Factory part 3

love love love
chloeeee