Colourbook

It figures that a week after I made a list of my favourite EPs of 2007, another one comes along in the mail yesterday that would've ranked pretty highly had I heard it in time. Admittedly, the sheer volume of places compiling year-end lists makes them almost worthless, but it certainly would've been nice to be one of the first sites to not only rave about Colourbook, but to also have their self-titled EP conveniently on a year-end wrap-up so that, twelve months from now, when everyone is raving about this supposedly new band from BC, I'd look positively prophetic.

As it is, I'm glad that I'm able to hear Colourbook now, before they've conquered the world and made it impossible to hear them with an unclouded ear -- because, without any exaggeration, their EP makes world domination seem like a pretty plausible outcome. They may not be the most original band, but they do hit all the right notes and make you think of all the right influences: a slacker-y Pavement vibe runs throughout the album, while echoes of Pinkerton-era Weezer, The Unicorns, and Modest Mouse all pop up as well (on "The Wimbledon Riot", "Krakatoa", and "Older Wiser", respectively).

I don't want it to sound like Colourbook are ripping anyone off, though. They don't. What they do, as is evidenced throughout their first album, is make music that fits squarely in the context of modern "indie rock" (however you want to define that), but also goes beyond that context. It's a pretty great debut, and it's one worth investigating.
Posted by matthew in mp3, reviews at 16:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) - I (Heart) Music

And the band plays on
In the MySpace age, a national tour is just a click away
Published July 19, 2007 by Andrea Campbell in Music Features

Glossy billboards face off daily against banners across web browsers. Sold-out stadiums are pitted against packed local bars. After over a decade of online saturation, some say the indie underdog is winning. Gone are the days when bands relied on hometown gigs and a big break from a record executive passing through town. Musicians can now maintain control over their creativity instead of relinquishing it as soon as they sign a contract. With the arrival of the Internet, bringing with it mp3s, web-zines, blogs and MySpace, musicians no longer need outside sources to market their music or book venues.
MySpace promises to “let you meet your friends’ friends.” There’s no cost to post musical attempts on a MySpace page, which grants immediate access to the friendship of over 80 million members. While some admonish MySpace for creating a false sense of community, it does allow a band from one end of the country to connect with a fan-base outside their small circle of friends without the help of a major studio advertising campaign. And now Colourbook, a band from Victoria, B.C., has used the ingenuity that defines the next generation of techno kids to translate their virtual friend base into the realm of real-life bookings.
Colourbook’s fearless integration of off-kilter sound effects and its sad sappy suckerish lead vocals attracted the attention of MySpace friends and fellow Victorians Run Chico Run. With the help of that nationally established band, Colourbook was able to forgo studio time and record their CD in their living room, grabbing objects from around the house like wind chimes, pots and wine bottles to accent their traditional guitar and enigmatic techno sounds. With the CD in the bag, Colourbook began plans to bring their sound beyond Vancouver Island.
What started as a trek to Saskatoon to play with their friend’s band Fury and the Mouse soon morphed into a full-fledged cross-country extravaganza, including a stop at Emmedia in Calgary on July 23. Jordan Minkoff, one of the two vocalists and guitarists alongside Aaron Burgunder, started messaging bands and promoters on MySpace to lengthen their tour. Initially, the band tried to get a hold of people the old-fashioned way — using phone numbers and names other bands had passed on to them.
“We had all these contact numbers that other bands had given us, and we called them. They were just defunct and nothing was working,” explains Luke Postl, the band’s drummer. “And then we were like, oh, we’ll just do it through (MySpace). It’s so easy. We would just go and find a city on MySpace, and then narrow down the search capability until we found a band that sounded good. It was so bizarre. There’s a full-on indie community on message boards. We did it with the greatest of ease. It’s really the only way now. We’ll just find some people who live in this town, they look like cool kids, we like their sound, we’ll send them a poster, and then they can put it up.”
Leaving the advertising solely in the hands of MySpace contacts thousands of kilometres away can have its downfalls. In Winnipeg, bassist James Twiddy recalls a show that went completely unpromoted because the two local bands involved each thought the other took care of the advertising. With zero accountability, there’s no one to blame and no recourse for the disadvantaged band.
While Colourbook isn’t concerned about headcount, insisting an audience of four or 40 is all the same to them, other musicians expect their advertising on MySpace to sell out shows. A recent article in the New York Times profiled Jonathan Coulton, a musician who dedicates full-time hours to building a fanbase. He answers e-mails personally, keeps his blog detailed and up-to-date, sells T-shirts and CDs, and ultimately plays shows in other states with headcounts guaranteed before he purchases a plane ticket. Colourbook can’t dedicate the kind of time required to cultivate a guaranteed following, nor do they want to. As Postl claims, the band is too “nonchalant” for that kind of commitment. While they might not admit to a concerted effort to sell their band or their image, Minkoff certainly relishes creative control over their own schedule and merchandise, and says he’s happy with Colourbook’s current level of success.
Checking their MySpace page at Internet cafes or fellow bandmates’ homes, the band books shows in available slots en route to their final destination of Montreal. Now in their third week, Colourbook paid for all the gas in their van’s tank with money from shows and sale of merchandise sewn, screened and created with the help of their real-world friends, keeping costs at close to zero.
Hence the mantra for musicians: creative control is more important than fame and fortune. Today’s bands thumb their noses at the old system they once reli - FFWD Newspaper Calgary

Colourbook Lung Fung
Victoria’s Colourbook make their play work and their work play, which is to say that their glad and crashing music sounds like it could lug burdens, carry you somewhere, get you a job. Scrap the résumé, tear up your suit: play your bosses these yells, these shakes, these booms — show them Colourbook’s electric guitar and gleaming Rhodes. (This album will be released soon.) - National Post

Colourbook - "Lung Fung". The joke's on me. I let Colourbook's debut sit for weeks in my office, neglected, decaying, forgetting to listen. And then I listened, and I found a band that's hot, wild, kind, ramshackle, and send-you-spinning. From Victoria, BC, and they have a 'u' in their name, thank goodness, and they're the kind of band that will build you a door, paint it a nice shade of green, install a burnished bronze doorknob, let themselves in, and then in a fit of mischief and flirt kick that very same door down. The joke's on me. Other jokes that are on me: russet apples, daylight savings, cinnamon, new dimes. There's an awesomeness that cares not a lick whether or not I recognize it, that glints in every kind of light. If you were to invite Colourbook over for dinner, after they'd built your door and knocked it down they'd be installing a glitterball on the ceiling, planting new plants on your mantel, spreading ivy all over the walls. They'd be getting your girlfriend drunk, and your boyfriend too, and playing the first Arcade Fire EP at enough of a volume for you to remember the spiced, white nights of 2003. They'd make a mess, and a party, and a forest whether you liked it or not; they'd leave winestains on your hands and still you'd invite them back. I don't know why the hell I haven't heard their name before because shit I may be late but this here is one of the hottest bands in Canada. Do what you can to buy their self-titled CD-R now, not so you can look cool in 2008 but so you have the pleasure to listen to a great & gnashing debut even in the months before they're famous. - Said the Gramophone