The leaves are already changing colour on the Hauptallee through the Prater in Vienna, where I ride my bike every morning from one end to the other. There have been so many adventures this year already, but a new one has just begun, and it’s the sweetest.

A couple of things to tell you about:

1. The new Woodpigeon album is nearly done. It should be with you in the new year. It’s different and exciting.

2. Peter Lynch’s Buffalo Hours, made as part of The National Parks Project and featuring music by Radius Claws (Laura Barrett, Cadence Weapon, and Woodpigeon, all written and recorded in the wilds of Waterton National Park with Paul Aucoin) is part of the Toronto International Film Festival in a special installation screening at the Royal Ontario Museum, opening on 7 September 2011. More … Continue reading

Summer is upon us, and here at WPHQ we’re hard at work at a new album for release at some point in 2012. But one can’t spend all their time inside, so here’s a handful of special summer one-offs shows (with more to come shortly) to keep fingers nimble and nerves steely. Also: a new song recorded in Newcastle this past January with Beth Jeans Houghton on heavenly harmonies. The lyrics come from a stack of writing by Marie Cecilia Ryan, found in a Newcastle vintage shop. The poem ‘The Way to Happiness’ was left un-dated, but some of the other materials were dated to the 1930s and 1940s — so right during wartime. Amazing to read something so hopeful from a time so dark.

• The Way to Happiness

SUMMER/FALL DATES:
18 June 2011 BANDSTAND BUSKING @ MELTDOWN FESTIVAL … Continue reading

14 March, 2011 at the stately Circolo Esperia was a special evening in Turin, one of the sweetest tour nights I can remember. I’ll swoon about the city, the Esperia, and the crowd for as long as I manage to keep my wits about me. (A sweet review in words far more beautiful than mine is available at indie-rock.it). And in remembrance, here’s a few right-click-downloadable songs from the night (and what composes the very first WP Live Album). Ta-da!

• Knock Knock [Live in Turin]
• Oberkampf [Live in Turin]
• Redbeard [Live in Turin]
• An Entanglement of Weeds [Live in Turin]
• I Live a Lot of Places [Live in Turin]
• … And as the Ship Went Down, You’d Never Looked Finer [Live in Turin]
• I’m Set Free [The Velvet Underground] [Live in Turin]

Hopped into a car in Calgary and drove to Vancouver, jumped a train to Edmonton, and again to Saskatoon. Overnight, sleeping upright all the way to Winnipeg. Four days later, our next train sat at the station until the following afternoon, 48 cars of a freight train ahead of us derailed. We flew to Toronto, drove to Montreal, and onwards to Rivière-du-Loup and now Fredericton. Along the way, we’ve made some stops at some of Canada’s finest independent radio stations, and left a song or two behind. Here’s to all the rest yet to see of this, our home country of Canada (for the very first time)!

• An Entanglement of Weeds (Acoustic, on CHUO, Ottawa)