Derek and myself got up at dawn last thursday and got some cool footage for our Western Vulture video.  It involves bikes, cigarettes and denim.  This one’s being filmed with Derek’s high def SLR cam-cam, so it’ll be a nice change of pace from our laptop-quality-helmed visual aid series. Still self-produced, though.  Still no budget.  Chock full of creativicles.

The EP should be done pressing any day now.  Went in a couple weeks ago, usually takes around 15 business days.  The Western Vulture EP has been a long process, painstakingly at times.  We’ve cycled through 4 studios over the past couple years, sneaking in sessions whenever the big wigs skipped town.  It’s truly refreshing to see some form of a finish line.  Our release date is projected to be sometime in late August.

Speaking of August, we’re booking a few shows throughout the month, so if you miss out on Thursday w/ Pigeon Park, we’ll keep you posted on those dates.

Till then,
b

We love our friends over at Pigeon Park, and we’re thrilled to be playing their tour launch.   Check it out

Check out FCC-TV.  Better organized with some new additions to our “Visual Aid” Series.

Our “Visual Aid” series came about when we were posting songs on youtube.  Instead of throwing up a bunch of lame still-pictures for the video, we thought “Wait, why don’t we just throw some creative footage together for each song? Sure, we don’t have any money, but that doesn’t mean we can’t film interesting visuals on our laptops and/or cameras!”

And there you have it.  Our “Visual Aid” series is an outlet that exists beyond the confines of budget and form. 

Of course, we love to collaberate with other filmakers.  Send us an email if you’ve got a visual experiment you’d like to put to some music.  freecitycollective@gmail.com

Having said that, our OFFICIAL music video for “Indian Arm” is being shot and chopped as we speak by our good friends at The Futurists.  We’re hoping to get it done in time for the EP release.

We’ll be back at Nimbus Studios to finish off some more demos at the end of the month.  Much thanks to Adam Riddle and Co. for making it sound so damn good.

Time for some world cup.

Some stop motion artistry for your viewing pleasure.

We’ve started recording some new demos.

Our good friend, Adam Riddle (of Vespertine), is learning the tools of the trade over at Nimbus Studios, and offered us some free studio time.  We’re not ones to pass up anything free.. anything.. so we’re laying down some tracks from the FCC song bank.

The FCC song bank is a compilation of 25-30 unfinished songs that exist solely in the world of memory.  From this bank, we’ve pulled two songs:

Hipster Love (Formely known as “Upper Middle Class Blues”)

Nora’s Birthday Song (Sometimes refered to as “The Pasture”)

And there’s room for one more, which, as of yet, is undecided.  Because of the continuing trend/philosophy of our band that nothing is ever set-in-stone, all songs are subject to change. 

Remember the band, Subject 2 Change?  They’re a defunct band better known as The Relief in later years.  We played our first show with them, and they’re former lead singer/chief songwriter, Jordan Oorebeek, has produced almost all of our material.  Jonny Wiebe (of “The Latency” fame) was formerly their drummer, and also did temp-drumming for FCC before he broke his hand.  Small world.  When you join the Free City Collective family, you’re a member for life.. in some way or another.  If that doesn’t make you sign up for the newseltter, I don’t know WHAT will —————————————————————->

We’re now working hard with a fantastic drummer by the name of Joe Chipman.  He’s been an absolute pleasure thus far, and we hope he sticks around for a while.  At this point in time, he will be the drummer at our EP Release, slated for late Summer/Fall.  However, he will not be prepared enough for the new demeauxs.  Yours truly will be laying down the beats.  Double time.  Billy  Banks.

In other news..

Deutschland über alles, 2010

Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
Benjamin

Our EP has gone in for pressing.  We are all very excited, and hope you are too.

We also may have found a drummer.

Fingz crossed.

Due to some rather unfortunate circumstances, your friends at FCC will not be releasing our EP on Friday, July 2nd at the Cobalt.  However, we are almost done printing the disc and a new venue/release date will be announced in the coming weeks.

Among other things, personal injuries have hit us quite hard.  As many of you are aware, our resident drummer, Brandon, has broken his hand.  Futher complicating the situation, our temporary replacement, Jonny Wiebe, has also injured his hand.

This is but a minor setback, and Free City Collective still has a busy Summer planned ahead.  We will be playing a few dates this July in Alberta, releasing our official video for “Indian Arm” (thanks to The Futurists), releasing our EP, and playing tons of gigs in between.

For now, we must re-evaluate our initial plans.  We will keep everyone posted on the changes coming our way.

In a way, it’s very exciting, and your friends at FCC will still be working harder than ever.

As always, the support we recieve from our friends and loved ones is overwhelming.  Thank you for everything, and we look forward to our next gig together. 

Just the two of us.

-Ben

Lookie lookie here here:

http://www.vanmusic.ca/vancouver-music-blogs/sweaty-nights

Vanmusic did a little write up for our Biltmore gig last Saturday.  Check out the photos.. a stellar close up of my hands, and a very complimenting picture of Samuel doing what he does.

..was lovely.  Our beautiful Free City girls were, once again, front row centre and shaking it.  Next time you’re at the J Lounge, grab an Electric Iced Tea.  Basically, it’s a long island with curacoa.. but it gets the job done. 

We have such a great time playing with Vespertine, those boys are tight.  Check ‘em out here 

Vanmusic did a great write-up of our set at The Biltmore, we’ll post that soon.

Love,
Ben

..was just great.  Another goal on the FCC list checked off, and everyone who came made it so.. fantastic.  We’re so grateful, thank you.

The video footage for “Indian Arm” is looking beautiful.  Once again, much thanks to our good friends at the Futurists.  Now it’s off to the Rowley bro’s (aka Brows) residence.  Why?  We’re taking out the 1982 Four Winds and crusing up the Indian Arm.  We want people to see what inspired the song, and Summer’s finally here (sort of), so we should be getting some excellent shots next week.  A day on a boat with FCC and the Futurists?  Damn.. this could get messy.

Big thanks to Jonny Wiebe for helping out on drums.  Brandon has fractured his hand, so he’ll be out of comission for a while.  But your friends at Free City Collective have experienced our fair share of curveballs over the years, and the train ‘aint losing momentum.

Check us out at Jupiter Lounge this Wednesday with our good friends from Vespertine.  It’s a free show!  Here’s the facebook event.

Isn’t life under the sun just a crazy, crazy, crazy dream?