Veda Hille

a little instrumental ditty for you, with a horn arrangement by the inscrutable ford pier. someone should make an animated short out of this one. i offer it up.

 

 lost wall of penguins [1:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

and here we have another outtake from This Riot Life: a version of Soapland Serenade sung in Japanese. that’s us: maiko, patsy, skye and me, singing phonetic japanese. except maiko of course, who actually speaks the language. skye had a leg up because of his extensive karate lessons. maiko’s mom was in at the session, taking care of hokuto and being the eagle ear for our pronounciation. i’m still longing for the country of japan to totally embrace us so that we can go there and play and eat and visit miyazake. just letting you know, japan.

 

 soapland serenade (japanese version) [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

ok, this is a song from the long ago first cassette. i know that some of you already have this, but a fellow was asking about it at the shows last weekend and i promised i’d put it up. and yes, i still live in the same hood. this song also acknowledges my lifelong debt to sesame street.

 

 neighbourhood song [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

this is a recording from about a year ago, made on my ipod which you can hear gurgling and ticking away. this is an early version of the neil young song Transformer Man, which i cover on the upcoming record Young Saint Marie. due out next year. teaser!

 

 tiny transformer man [2:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

hey team. here begins my little series of presents for you. there’ll be a free song up every day or so until christmas. kind of like a stunted advent calendar!

 

 First in your laboratory [5:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

alright, a little info on the upcoming shows: duplex is going to raise the kiddie roof on thursday night AND saturday day AND sunday day. friday night is all cover songs, with The Fits (who are working on a live record) and a 15 piece band conducted by giorgio magnanensi. saturday night i have my regular old 9 piece supergroup playing songs from path of a body right up to riot life. cbc is recording that one for broadcast and podcast, huzzah! and colin stewart is recording the friday for posterity and fitfullness. so in one way or another you can all attend.

all shows are at the fabulously renovated Vancouver East Cultural Centre. i plan to collapse on monday and start eating stollen nonstop til christmas. just you wait.

we are home again! phew. vancouver is obliging with stunning winter weather. i have promised some exciting posts, and they are coming. in the meanwhile, check out this interview that i did with jessa at bookslut: right here. anders steals the show, of course.

a late notice: i am playing tonight in vancouver at theatre replacement’s annual fundraiser DC5, at the Russian Hall. fun raiser!

i’m happy to say that berlin has turned back the seasonal clock, and it is a warm fall here again. just in time for a very busy week: wednesday night in munich at the bayerischer hof, thursday night in berlin at lagari, and saturday night in bremen at ratsaal stuhr. i’m looking forward to being out of the house. i’m particularly excited about the berlin show, where i have rallied my friends reimar servas, josepha conrad and tim knillman to do a rough sing through of the new musical Peter Panties, currently in process with the leaky heaven circus. these are brave people, coming along for the ride.

hello folksens. i’m sorry, i’ve been neglectful of my posting lately. to be fair, i am twittering and myspacing and facebooking. it’s ridiculous. plus we’ve been sick ALL MONTH. wah wah wah.

so this is my promise that once we are home from berlin in december i will do some cool posts. and give you some songs for christmas. promise.