An accomplished pianist, agile vocalist, and adept guitar picker, Patrick Brealey is a natural performer. His ability to engage an audience is a signature of his live shows. Captivating crowds and moving them to react is a true testament to his belief that art is nothing without an audience. And surely the fact that he offers his own homemade pickles and preserves at his shows doesn’t take away of his charm. (Visit The Dakota Tavern and Henhouse in Toronto to taste for yourself!)

Patrick’s latest album Mercury in Songbirds is a collection of songs born in a different era, raised today and fed by the influence of songwriters like Lyle Lovett, Tom Waits and Willie Nelson. From the early rock and roll swagger of “I Don’t Want to Hear Another Love Song” to the laid back dobro on “Castaway Heart” and the country heartache of “Please Don’t Love Me with that Love”, these songs reminisce of days gone by while carving a distinctive niche in today’s Canadian folk and roots scene.

Upcoming Shows

July 09: Comox, BC - House Concert
July 10: Ucluelet, BC - Wild Heather Books
July 12: Duncan, BC - Duncan Garage Showroom
July 13: Saltspring Island, BC - Treehouse Cafe
July 17: Vancouver, BC - St. James Hall - CD Release Party
July 18: Winlaw, BC - Cedar Creek Cafe
July 21: Calgary, AB - House Concert
July 22: Saskatoon, SK - The Hayloft
July 23: Edmonton, AB - The Haven Social Club
July 24: Saskatoon, SK - House Concert

• Downloads

• “I Don’t Want to Hear Another Love Song” from Mercury In Songbirds

It took a little while to finish (a few years) because the band was spread out across the country studying math and architecture and art and such, and vocalist Lisa Lobsinger toured the world with Broken Social Scene more than once. So they were busy, and we waited patiently.

We listened to their self-titled debut EP over and over and over again, and are glad that come May 26, when it’s released digitally worldwide complete with a new bonus song, you too will be able to put the EP on repeated play. And even better, on June 23rd the very long-awaited full-length follow-up to the aforementioned EP, which is also self-titled, but is even more awesome will finally be in stores both online and off. You are welcome.

• Downloads

• “Rip The Universe” from Reverie Sound Revue EP

Reverie Sound Revue

01. An Anniversary Away
02. We Are The Opposite of Thieves
03 Prelude To A Debut
04. Pretty One Play
05. Arrows
06. In Hotel Homes
07. Off Rooftops
08. I Could Be Dangerous
09. You Don’t Exist If I Don’t See You
10. May Be First, May Be Second
11. The Leisure Lost

Reverie Sound Revue EP

01. Walking Around Waiting Downtown
02. It’s All The Same
03. Rip The Universe
04. Passes & Passports
05. The A.M.
06. One Marathon
07. In The New (floor mix)

From Circlesquare’s new album, Songs About Dancing and Drugs.

DJ Laura C Chord hails from Canada and has been hosting and producing a specialty show on BTR called The Scenic Route since November. She discovered Boompa by way of the Salteens, a band she’d been a fan of for years.

“I felt that it was important to showcase a label that I had a strong connection with,” says C Chord. “Since its inception, Boompa’s lineup has continued to impress me,” says DJ Laura C Chord. “I played a lot of the Boompa artists on my shows when I was doing university radio, and I am really excited to be sharing them with the BTR audience.”

DJ Laura C Chord’s hour long specialty show featuring the Boompa roster can be found in the media player at www.breakthruradio.com.

Featured are songs by Tegan and Sara, Sleater Kinney, Le Tigre, Esthero, Frazey Ford (Be Good Tanyas), Tracy Bonham, D’Angelo and Boompa’s Catlow who has contributed the fast-paced and catchy title track from her debut album Kiss The World. Catlow is the new incarnation of Natasha Thirsk, lead-singer for indierock darlings The Dirtmitts, who not-so-coincidentally kicked in a song on The L Word: The Second Season.

The L Word is the highest rated series on the Showtime network. It chronicles the lives of a group of friends living in Los Angeles - both gay and straight - through stories of career, family, inner struggle, friendship and romantic relationships. The series has become a critical and ratings success, and its influence has helped usher in a revolutionary new wave of gay and lesbian television programming.

Car Free Day Street Festival
Thursday, September 22, 2005
12 noon to 8 pm
Water Street from Richards to Carrall

Car Free Day focuses awareness on the social, economic and environmental benefits of reduced car use. It is one of the sustainability initiatives undertaken by the City of Vancouver, presented in partnership with Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) and the Gastown Business Improvement Society.

Highlights include:
- Car-free Foot Parade led by the Carnival Band
- Carnival Band and Joey Keithly (aka Joey “Shithead”)
- Alpha Yaya Diallo
- Take it Easy: A Fashion Show for You and the Planet
- Swank
- Sparrow
- Catlow mainstage performance at 4PM!
- Gaoler’s Mews at Simon Fraser University Philosopher’s Cafe
- Car Part Art exhibit in Storyeum
- BMX free-style bike tricks
- Vancouver’s first ever “Car Park Garden” parked in front of Storyeum
- Pedalling Zoo ride-able bike sculptures
- Climate-friendly Car Park - a fuel efficient vehicles display

All events are free and suitable for the entire family.

For more information contact:
Barbara Constantine
City of Vancouver Sustainability Office, 604-873-7981

Essentially a solo project on record, Catlow is now a full-fledged band, featuring Thirsk (guitar), Brent Follet (drums), Kevin Cooper (bass) and Jay Sly (guitars). Having already played a well-received set at Toronto’s North by Northeast, Catlow is now preparing for Fall showcases at PopMontreal and New York’s CMJ Music Marathon.

With band in tow, Thirsk is bringing Catlow on the road for a West coast tour heading back to where it all started - the famed Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles on September 4th. Here is an overview of where and when Catlow will be performing:

08-30 Olympia, WA - Le Voyeur
08-31 Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
09-02 Stockton, CA - Blackwater Cafe
09-03 Santa Monica, CA - 14 Below
09-04 Los Angeles, CA - Hotel Cafe
09-05 Sacramento, CA - The Press Club
09-06 Portland, OR - Ash Street Saloon
09-09 Edmonton, AB - The Victory *
09-10 Calgary, AB - The Hi- Fi *
09-17 New York, NY - The Alphabet Lounge ^
09-30 Montreal, PQ - Le Minot ~

* w. The Salteens, Leeroy Stagger, my project: blue
^ CMJ w. Leeroy Stagger
~ PopMontreal w. Leeroy Stagger, The Ladies and Gentlemen, my project: blue

Kiss the World will be released by Boompa Records through EMI Music in Canada on September 20th and Caroline Distribution in the USA on November 1st.

(Vancouver - July 28, 2005) — Only one week after publicizing a new distribution partnership with EMI Music Canada, Vancouver’s Boompa Records also announced today it has finalized another new exclusive distribution agreement, effective immediately.

The new partnership is with New York-based Caroline Distribution, which also has a secondary office in Los Angeles, CA and sales representatives across the country. Boompa Records teaming up with Caroline signifies the debut of Boompa Records and its releases in the the USA.

“We’ve seen what great success Caroline has had as a partner with other Canadian indie labels,” said Rob Calder, Vice-President of Boompa Productions. “So we’re really excited to be a part of the Caroline family.”

One of the fastest growing independent labels in Canada, Boompa Records has released a series of records that have become favorites to fans and critics alike. Since 2003, the label has released albums from former-Weezer/The Rentals Matt Sharp, Aussie cult faves The Lucksmiths and college radio vets The Salteens. All of Boompa’s past releases will be made available Stateside for the first time along with several new releases including alt-country rocker Leeroy Stagger, Catlow (new project from ex-Dirtmitt Natasha Thirsk), an EP from emerging artist My Project: Blue, amongst others. Early 2006 promises new albums from Run Chico Run, Aussie power-pop trio Sekiden and a long-awaited follow-up from The Salteens.

“In the last year, we’ve released nine albums in Canada with several more coming out this year and at least that in 2006,” says Shannon Martin, Label Manager for Boompa Records. “We’re specifically focused on the long-term international development of each artist and we’ve been doing some great things in Canada. And now, we get to crank everything up a few notches by going into the States.”

Caroline Distribution, founded in 1983, is one of leading independent music and DVD distributors in the world. With distributed labels spanning indie rock, electronic dance, hip hop, metal, punk and world music, including some of the biggest local and international names in the recorded music industry, Caroline boasts strong and long-term partnerships with labels such as Arts and Crafts, Century Media, Domino, Stones Throw, Plexifilm, Definitive Jux, Ultra, Ninja Tune, Battle Axe, Astralwerks, Mute and Warp.

“Boompa has several things going for them that really got our attention,” said Michael Bull, VP of Label Relations for Caroline. “An eclectic roster of interesting artists with a lot of potential, a deep-seated understanding and commitment to marketing and developing those artists over the long term and a top-notch staff who get what it takes to be successful in a difficult marketplace.”

Yeah, yeah but c’mon, what’s the real reason Caroline teamed up with Boompa?

“Well, they’re Canadian,” confessed Bull. “And we all know how sexy that is right now?.

New Release street dates:

Oct. 18, 2005: Leeroy Stagger - Beautiful House
Nov. 1, 2005: Catlow - Kiss the World
Nov. 1, 2005: The Salteens - Let Go Of Your Bad Days
Nov. 1, 2005: Canned Hamm - Erotic Thriller
Nov. 1, 2005: Run Chico Run - Shashbo
Nov. 1, 2005: V/A - Boompa Volume 1

More releases TBA

Rob,

Mike and I have formed a musical collective and we have decided to offer you and Boompa Records the first opportunity to sign a band that will bring nations to their knees and that will make Kings weep with the knowledge that despite their royal splendor they will amount to but a fraction of our splendid worth. Mike wants to call us “Too Rude Guses” I opt for “To Rude Guses”, one thing is for certain: we will not be “Two Rude Guses”. For that is what they would expect and if there is one thing we will stand for it is tearing down conventions to reveal nothing but pure, blinding truth; that and loose-fitting mesh fabrics.

Combining such influences as early Israeli minimalist psytrance and Poison’s seminal work “Flesh and Blood,” our first album, “We are Shifting your Paradigm” will forever alter sound. The rock elite won’t understand it and the bourgeoisie will riot for we will dismantle music and then reassemble it with Mike’s syncopated drumbeats and my innovative blip-work.

After defying categorization with our first album we will demand it with the release of our sophmore effort, “Electrified Post-Disco Glitch Funk,” it will be a burning sword of enlightenment thrust into the heart of apathy. It will be huge in Germany.

We are simple men and so our live tour, “We Are Terrific, We Are Having A Terrific Year” will eschew artifice. We will play only the largest stadia into which we will enter astride panthers. Onstage we will perform in a selfcontained, soundproof room from which nothing will be heard. We will emerge at the end of our set, sweaty, to the adulation of the multitudes, remount our panthers and return backstage to gorge ourselves on rubies.

Our third album, “High Fastening Pants and Complicated Shoes” will be our masterpiece. The fucked up time signatures will be embraced by critics and fans alike as they cut a swath through mediocrity. We will be hailed as saviours, as prophets. The subsequent fame will be too much for us. Mike will suffer a complete mental collapse and I will begin to synthesize my own hallucinogens. NME, Mojo and Rolling Stone will all mourn the demise of the greatest band to have ever existed. But we will return from our self-imposed exile a year later to release our last album, “Ripping the Head off the Mundane”. It will be love, distilled into 72 minutes of silence, silence punctuated by guest vocalist Stephen Hawking intoning “Thanks to Tito for bringing the cookies” over the sounds of two wolverines mating. It will be our least accessible album.

We will then slide into anonymity. Our adoring public will clamor for another album, for a reunion tour, but we will deny them. Instead we will allow our legacy to speak for itself. Years into the future, after statues have been erected in our honor and shrines have been dedicated to us our music will still ring out as a clarion bell leading the huddled masses into the light.

We are still looking for a bassist.

Sincerely,
To(o) Rude Guses

Vancouver’s Boompa Records announced today it has finalized a new exclusive distribution agreement, effective immediately.

The new partnership is with EMI Music Canada, joining their intimate roster in the Associated Labels Division. Boompa Records teaming up with EMI in Canada ends a two-year relationship with
 MapleNationWide/Universal.

“It’s been a good run for us at MapleNationWide,” said Scott Walker, President of Boompa Productions. “It’s been a real pleasure to work with their team and our company’s ongoing success is due in no small part to the growth we achieved while working with them.”

In two short years, Boompa Records have released a series of records that have become favorites to fans and critics alike. Since 2003, the label has released records from former - Weezer/The Rentals Matt Sharp, The Lucksmiths and Leeroy Stagger. Records being completed and released in 2005 include debuts from The Ladies and Gentlemen, Catlow, My Project: Blue, new albums from Run Chico Run and a long-awaited follow-up from The Salteens.

“In the last year, we’ve released nine albums with seven more coming out this year and at least that in 2006,” says Shannon Martin, Label Manager for Boompa Records. “We’re specifically focused on the long-term development of each of our artists and it’s been really exciting to watch the artists growing alongside of the label.”

EMI Music Canada, founded in 1949, is a unit of EMI Music and one of the “big four” record companies. EMI Music has artists in every leading music genre, including some of the biggest local and international names in the recorded music industry including: Coldplay, Norah Jones, K-OS, Paul McCartney, Nickelback, Joss Stone, The Rolling Stones and Keith Urban. EMI Music Canada boasts a strong Associated Labels division with labels such as: Arts and Crafts, Battle Axe Records, Nettwerk Records and Sanctuary Records Group.

“In the independent community labels rise above the rest with passion, artist commitment, artist development and of course hard work,” said Steve McAuley Director of EMI Music Canada’s Associate Label Division. “Boompa Records has proven all of these qualities and much more in a very short period of time. We like that and identify with that! It goes without saying that the entire EMI team is excited with this new partnership and we are looking forward to working with Boompa’s staff, artists and music.”

So what’s next for Boompa? “We’re not done yet,” warns Martin. “There’s more coming, but you’ll just have to wait for the next press release.”