›› June 13, 2007 - Sweaty Clubs and hot festival stages

But summer is upon us and Moses now prepares for a quick but fulfilling tour across Canada and one part of the USA - we also performed last night for what would become the hottest gig ever. We're you there last night? Did you sweat a marathon out of your pores? Did you see the mist in the air of West End from the humidity in there? We did.

A broken AC + really old venue + TV lights + 200 people + dancing + 5 songs = one sweaty show. It's been very very humid in Winnipeg and having one of our storied venues with no AC, well, it makes for damn hot 

performance. The show was fun though and despite the heat reeking havoc on on gear (we use waaay to many electronics) I think we pulled it off well. I must admit, the audiences cheer to great us on stage was overwhelming....what can I say, we missed you guys too! And so, now we wait to see what TV can do and hopefully the whole 'Live at the West End' TV show gets picked up and aired!

Speaking of live, there will be lots of that this summer - but posted right here in this blog is a clip of our Nov2007 performance in Toronto to wet your appetite! I hope this inspires your town to beat our new record for the hottest gig ever which took place on Tuesday June 12, 2007 at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg...it had to 50c in there kids, I swear. There's a photo of me and my family on facebook (and some of the band playing) and my face is so eerily red and I looked completely zoned - I thought I was smiling for the camera (and the person took three photos too cause of the way I looked), but guess I wasn't. I was zoned and in awe of what just happened...

Again, Winnipeg, you guys are amazing...we can't wait to show everyone else next week when the tour starts.

- RPG

›› February 21, 2007 - These cold cold days that will become warm again cause it has to cause we're all stuck inside and I don't see anyone anymore

So, myself, Mark and Nathan have been writing away and trying all this new stuff. It's been another transition for us and we're really exploring some pretty progressive grooves in this freezer here. We also started revisiting some of our older music and thinking differently about that too. So we're gonna remix some old songs, in-house, all of us with you and put together a trimmed down version to keep parties going - gonna be a fun project. We've also gotten word will be on tour this summer, playing many jazz festival across the nation. And we're also going back to the 10,000 Lakes Festival! Winnipeg, Canada, USA!!!! Make sure to make the trip down for this wonderful festival on one of the best festival sites I've ever seen! We're also stoked to be doing a show with Toronto's God Made Me Funky. Keep checking back for news on that...

Ok, there's the spiel...so I wanted to also tell you to check out a great band called Mr.SomethingSomething. Hailing from Toronto these guys will make you move if your into bands like Fela Kuti, Antibalas and Montreal's Afrodizz. They we're just nominated for a Juno and they are a fantastic band, they came through Winnipeg about a year ago and I spun before them and everyone there was smiling the night to close.

On that note, make sure to listen to the radio, get ready for the playoffs and don't buy hemp jackets cause they don't last (trust me). -RPG

So here I am, at my desk, back home in Winnipeg which is currently being blanketed in 15cm of snow...winter is finally here! It's amazing that we really had only one bad drive that entire tour - snow in the mountains is no fun kids...makes for long drives I tell ya'.

We just returned from the last part of our CD Release tour - we had the pleasure of slamming three main kingpins in central Canada: Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. And this has to be the best showing we've ever had in these cities - thanks to all of you for showing Moses the love! 

Moses performs at the Reverb in Toronto with DJ Krafty Kuts & Kobayashi.
BlogToronto reviewed the show - read it here:

Click the logo

Ottawa was also a great time - we hit the stage at Mavericks with our good friends Kobayashi (Montreal). Man these cats are sick - they have improved so much since we first played with them years ago and there's a reason why they are the pivotal funk-jazz band of their city. This was the second time we did this venue with them and Ottawa came out that night and danced and cheered to the very last song of the set for both acts. Ottawa, we say this often about every city, but your continued support and growing numbers every time we come out puts a smile on our faces.

Our last show was in Toronto at the intensely PA'd Reverb - this venue has the most serious rig I've ever heard and the best sound guy we've ever had the pleasure of working with on the road (and it's also a crazy ass dice…man Toronto bathrooms are just nasty…deadly nasty). It was a huge party, 700+ showed up for Moses, DJ Krafty Kuts (UK), Kobayashi and a wack of local DJ's. NuFunk put on one heck of a party and we slammed the people of Toronto with a banging set of non-stop funk and house. This was by far the most appreciative audience we've had in this town and wow Toronto, you guys blew us away. The night was perfect with almost all the cats that helped us with the new record coming out to see the band. Brownman killed it with his solos for his hometown crowd and set the tone for that night. After the set we sat back and enjoyed the cheering of the massive audience and then we all helped put out a fire in the back-alley so the party could keep going! Honestly, the backstage area was washed in smoke that we all thought was the smoke machines from the club. Then, someone in the greenroom said "I don't think that's a smoke machine...that's a fire!!!!). After locating the fire from the fire escape near the greenroom, a group of us starting pouring our drinks on it and then the ice tub that kept the refreshments cold went overboard to lay that thing down! And, once again we save the day and kept that party going…lol…well, we certainly felt like heroes (Maybe that fire was started by the hot party going on inside lol ;-).

To finish this blog off...just want to say that this was one great tour people! From Vancouver to Montreal...one of the best club tours we've had in our 6 six years doing this across Canada!

The new record is charting, reviews have been pretty good and everyone has been picking up copies at the shows...we can't wait to get back out there and I'm 100% sure it won't take long for that to happen.

Great seeing you all and we can't wait till the next one...

RPG

So where are we now? Well, we're in Toronto for our last show of the tour with our good friends the Pocket Dwellers - gonna be one hell of a time as we have not played with them in a couple years. This tour has been ultimately great - coast to coast this summer and not a moment has gone by where i haven't been smiling (well, a couple days I was a grump and an ass, but hey, we all can be under these circumstance when your tired). I have to say this has been by far the most enjoyable tour in my 7 years with this band and the best sounding the band has ever been! We've been fortunate to have some great players on board this tour and I really hope this incarnation of the band sticks around for a bit as we get this new record ready for release.

So many smiles, so many gracious hosts, dancers, joints, jams, rum, late nights, early to bed, long drives, making money, making no money, getting mad, laughing to hard, playing way to much civilization and video taping almost every moment (missed a lot of it actually, but got lots!). Now we head home for the first time in a long time to enjoy a 24hour sleep and then back to work...waaaaay too much happening in the moses world to take a vacation (and looking forward to it all). The break isn't long, we have more shows and music and touring coming up! You keep us all going and for that I thank you all!

rpg

The road is a nice place this summer

Wow, Western Canada has once again shown Moses the love, we've had an amazing run the last two and half weeks. We're finally on a lucrative day off in the mountains (laundry time people!) and now head to Banff for a nice two night stay. The tour has been amazing so far with packed clubs from Golden to Tofino. The Jazz fest shows in Vic and Vancouver we're off and the sun has been following our white van (and white skins) the entire way. Revelstoke Music Fest was banging, thanks to all the people that came to party with us! As always, the Island shows were packed and ready to dance to the Moses sound and the band has never sounded better. We have alot of new players on this tour and they've really pulled it together to make the band sound tight and keep the killer groove going for all the shows. Thanks to everyone who've responded with kind words to the new EP - our live vocal dj mix with the band has been going over well too. It's something we we're on the fence on but people have been digging the combination of DJ accapela mixes into the music - we hope one day to bring our guest vocalists on the road. We're almost done the Western portion of our summer Rock is So Hard Tour with shows in Banff, Canmore, Edmonton, Calgary and Regina left. Winnipeg, we've just added a date on July 20 back home at the Park Theatre on South Osborne, we hope you can make it to send us off on the rest of the trek. Other then that our only USA date will be at the 10,000 Lakes festival July 21 and we're super stoked to announce we'll be playing with the Duhks in Toronto at Harbour Front! Our good friend and percussionist Scott Senior may even grace the stage with us like old times!

BTW, gotta love the hospitality on the road, thank you all who've treated us so kindly with food, hugs, dance moves and other pleasures our hearts desire ;-)

That's it for now, hope all is well on your end of the earth!

RPG

Some background on the Rock It So Hard EP

Hey,
I thought I'd give some background to the Rock It So Hard EP. Lots changed for us this year. Up until the summer of 2005, we had pretty much the same members. And pretty much all the writing was done together jamming things out. I don't know what was up cosmic alignment but within a 4 or 5 month period we found ourselves down to only 3 members (Nathan, Grant and myself). Well if we wanted to keep going we had to change how we write. We had been using programming to create songs before this but we always considered it a side thing but now it's one of the main ways we write.

Some songs are written using programming with the intention of turning them into live band songs. There are quite a few songs on our upcoming full length that were written that way. There are some songs that we felt were better suited to stay programmed. Some of those are the songs on Rock It So Hard. They represent our interest in Electro, Hip Hop and R'nB ("Flow"...kind of turned in Trip Hop?). There was a 4th track called "The Place To Be" which is kind of an early 80's party rap track (think Kurtis Blow) but while we were working on it during the last few days before the deadline we discovered a major change in the groove of the whole song that we really loved. So we pulled it to develop it more. That song is gonna kill!
What to expect from Moses now? The sound of this EP is not a new direction for Moses Mayes, just another direction. With only 3 people at the helm of the band we feel we can branch out to many directions. So now you will see us release a wide variety of music. Our upcoming full length was recorded with a full live band. There are grooves you'll recognize as classic Moses type grooves and there will be grooves that you'll say "wow, I've never heard them do something like that before".

So I hope you like fresh because that's our new middle name...Moses "Fresh" Mayes lol that goes for the live show as well. oh boy do we have some treats for you this summer!

later, Mark

we're currently writing a song that is poised to host some lyrics from a friend, its like disco meets hiphop kinda thing, sounding good. we're also trying to arrange some moses shows here at home (Winnipeg), Regina and Saskatoon at the end of march or start of april. We're having a hard time deciding on where to play at home cause we want to do something different but it's so hard in the peg due to the lack of venues. anyway, that'll work itself out and we'll all get to see the band play its first show(s) since NYE06. also, some of the guys in the band are putting together a tres cool funk fusion cover band to add some more groove to this city, check that out for sure. that's it for now, to the right is nathan by our whiteboard where we put our ideas down in a visual so everyone can remember what we talk about..lol...i think we have a 75% success rate with the ideas on there...

thx for reading, we'll get the other guys up here soon too and the ability to comment on our blogs...its all taking a little time, but it will come shortly! Cheers,

rpg

So nowadays we are pretty busy in regards to writing and pre-producing the new record - its been a different approach cause we've lost some members during 2005. To the right are pictures from our jam space where myself, mark and nathan have been every night for the past two months. We're really having fun getting all these new songs together, I think we have about 9-11 that we like but still have a lot of work to do. it's been a transition since we don't have a complete band around all the time. our new players Julien (bass), Paul (sax) and Miron (trumpet) are all jazz school cats so its been a balance trying to get us all together to work out the music. So its been us three getting it together and then later working on the arrangements and especially horn lines - i must admit, i'm loving the way the stuff is sounding, especially the electro stuff we've been hitting.

as for the new album, we've got none other then Jamie Shields helping us produce it and we're gonna do it right here in Winnipeg at Private Ear Studios. looks like a week in april and then again in may will be the time, then off to toronto to mix the record. we're all getting anxious about it and hope we have it together enough. we did some tracks with our good friend sheri st.germain which sound brilliant!!! can't wait to here those tracks in a finished form. we're aiming to have it out by fall 06 - we don't have a name for it yet but we'll let you in on it when it appears.

we're also planning an ep for a summer release which features some our ol'skool electro vibes - something new to the moses sound. there's also a track featuring phat al of god made me funky and n.i.gel of the pocket dwellers!! killer fun tune and again, can't wait to get it out there.

other then that we are planning summer tours as we speak and we will make some appearances before then...blogs are fun

-gpaley (aka RPG)