I could have (and probably would have in past years) made multiple threads for all of this impending news, etc, but I'll just go ahead and do it all in one big post...
Newscast begins in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
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Yep, June it is! There isn't a specific date or album name yet, but Tyler Stewart has said it will be released in "A summer month beginning with J and ending w/ a vowel."
Lyrically,
Matter of Time isn't as up-beat as the three singles from Grinning Streak (
Boomerang,
Odds Are, and
Did I Say That Out Loud?), but it's a really good song.
If I didn't know any better (I don't, actually), I'd say
Matter of Time sounds like a sequel to
You Run Away. I think that's a really interesting concept, and one that isn't explored very often in music. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one other pair of songs that were, more or less, parts one and two (Smashing Pumpkins followed up
1979 with the song
Perfect a few years later).
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Serious news...
In mid-January, Kevin Hearn posted a
message on his website as well as BnL's Twitter and Facebook pages saying that he would be taking a few months off from touring to deal with a "serious health issue". It was only made known yesterday that he was
diagnosed with cancer of the tongue in late November. Kevin says that he is "on the mend", so it seems that he's kicked cancer's a** twice!
If anyone wants to drop him a "get well soon!" message, here are some links:
BnL's FacebookBnL's TwitterKevin's FacebookKevin's website----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little while ago, Barenaked Ladies took part in David Suzuki's Blue Dot Tour, which was a Canadian environmental awareness campaign featuring speeches, art, music performances, etc.
BnL contributed the song
Our Blue Dot. It has a great message and really fun / interesting music! Being an Environmental Studies / Policy major when I was in college, I really love the fact that BnL seems genuinely interested in and concerned about environmental issues. They've also been involved with
Reverb for about ten years, trying to be as "green" as possible on their tours.
Neil Young wrote what was basically the "theme song" for the tour. It was a little too obnoxiously in-your-face, in my opinion (which is bad when you're trying to communicate an env. issue). Oh well, everyone involved with the tour sang it together at the end of each night and this is to my knowledge the only time my two favorite bands shared a stage. Stage right is Barenaked Ladies and Hey Ocean! (and whoever the lady with black hair is...). If anyone cares,
here's a link!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, a few years BnL teamed up with Ed's friend, Chris Hadfield, who was a Commander aboard the International Space Station. They wrote a song together and recorded it while Hadfield was in space. As I recall, the song was to promote music education in Canadian schools.
Here's a link!
I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing?)/end
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