Anatomy of a show poster + music videos, yah!

My band Nightwood is launching the Big City E.P. next weekend (more soon) and will be kicking off a small Ontario and Quebec tour, our first ever! We’re super happy to be a trio because that means we fit snuggly into Erin’s vehicle. I’m going to bring my super8 camera and diary to record what happens, what we will do and see in the small communities and larger cities they surround.

What’s most exciting for us is that this is the thing (music, performing) that Erin and I love to do and which we have been doing together since we were seventeen or something. Now we’re at this place with Eric, forming a trinity of sorts, ready to do our best gypsy impressions with our wee musical caravan. Along the way we’ve started to realize what works for us and what doesn’t, which is awesome. For example, no more quiet shows. We aren’t quiet. We are no longer apologetic when we fiddle with our volume knobs. This might sound silly, but it’s taken a bit of time to be cool with embracing loudness, especially when it’s not so easily transposed into lofts, cafes, etc.

Anyway, so I loved putting together the show poster for our Montreal Big City E.P. launch, it brought me back to my pre-Lickety Split cut-n-paste zine days. It’s also a bit o’ magic: a street-level declaration of our passion, with symbols that mean something to us. Part of the main image is made up of images from this book Machinery and Mechanical Devices: A Treasury of Nineteenth Century Cuts by William Rowe. The other parts are from Shoulder to Shoulder: The Stirring History of Militant Suffragettes by Midge Mackenzie. Sometimes, when I limit my inner critic and let myself roll, I like to imagine that as musicians we’re these electrical-mechanical beings devoted to making sound. So yeah, that’s the overarching theme. With some lady-ness and pussy-ness thrown in for good measure.

Our tour poster, designed by Sherwin Tjia who also did Big City E.P. s album art work, is more pragmatic, useful for in-store record promotions and for sending to touring cities due to the handy white box situation. These were silkscreened by Ravine Printing.

If one is interested in taking a gander at show poster art work, GigPosters.com is your interwebby spot. Also, on the always fire-y Montreal Shows message board, there is a thread devoted to the thing. Best way to appreciate local posters of course would be to keep your eyes peeled next time your striding along Montreal’s fair streets. Poster artists like Jack Dylan, Tyler Rauman, Edmund Lam, Lisa Czech, Nomryn and the irrepressible Seripop have really upped the visual quality of lamp posts in the last few years.
*****

Last but not least, I am pleased to say that our video for “Cave of the Spleen” (by *safesolvent) got aired on MuchMusic on two Friday nights (May 2nd and last night the 9th)!!! This was our first video airing so we are super thrilled.

To help us get more airplay on MuchMusic, here is how you can help… please use the following link and request the Nightwood Cave of the Spleen video:
http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/mod20/talk_to_us.aspx

Also, we are also going to try to get some additional airplay on MuchLoud, so please also email the following address to request our video: muchloud@muchmusic.

We will be in touch shortly this week with our upcoming tour/launch info.

Love, Amber for Nightwood