In Features...Yukon Blonde Hit The Road To Test Drive Some New Material
>> Tuesday, 22 February 2011
For Yukon Blonde, it’s hard to top 2010. But the band – comprised of core members Jeff Innes, Brandon Scott and Graham Jones – are sure going to try.
In February last year, the Vancouver-via-Kelowna indie-rockers released their self-titled debut, a palatable batch of songs heavily influenced by lo-fi 60s rock, music that just teems with familiar harmonies and irresistible, can’t-miss hooks. The 11 song LP received praise from critics nationwide, even earning the band a place on the highly coveted Polaris Prize longlist.
But it’s their incendiary live reputation that’s brought Yukon Blonde into the consciousnesses of many a music fan.
“Ending in early December, we played 158 shows last year, so it was a super busy year,” admits drummer Graham Jones over the phone from Vancouver. “We’ve been taking a breather.”
By “breather” Jones means travelling to and fro Vancouver and Kelowna and sitting down with his bandmates to pen some new material, a collection of untested songs that may raise a few eyebrows amongst fans.
“The songs are coming along really well,” he explains. “But, it’s all a little different than the older stuff and people might be surprised. I think it’s all a little faster, a little grittier.”
Their upcoming coast-to-coast tour of Canada (literally) sees Yukon Blonde play a string of dates from Vancouver to Winnipeg with Montreal rockers Plants & Animals; then, the bands will part ways post-Winnipeg and Yukon Blonde will seize a headlining position for their Eastern Canadian leg.
But whether opening or headlining, one thing is guaranteed: new music will be played and heard for the first time.
“We’re going to basically be testing out a bunch of new stuff,” Jones says, “and it’s going to be really fun to play some material.”
And after that tour wraps up in late March, it’ll be back home for a week or so to write before the guys return to the studio and begin recording their still-to-be-named second album. Then, armed with even more material, the plan is to, you guessed it, hit the road for the summer.
“We’re not really the sort to sit around,” Jones confesses with a laugh.
Catch Yukon Blonde at the Pyramid Cabaret this Saturday night with Plants & Animals.
4 comments:
Except the coast-to-coast tour does not (literally) see Yukon Blonde.
: )
C'mon, Mykael! Use those English chops of yours.
However, they are (literally) touring from one coast to the other...
kelsey...it would be as you wrote and therefore an absolutely incorrect use of literally had mykael not used the brackets. as it is, it's ambiguous and can be read as a parenthetical afterthought.
if i were mykael i would've made it clearer by inserting an exclamation point within the bracketed "literally" or typed commas around literally and no parenthesis.
the best fix, in my grammatical opinion, would be to move literally as anonymous suggested but removed the brackets.
I meant and read it as an interjection to "Their upcoming coast-to-coast tour of Canada" and should've used an exclamation point or two.
I see the ambiguity now.
Literally!
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