Southern Souls made a little video of me playing a new song.

http://www.southernsouls.ca/waxmannequin.html

September 20

Hello,

I've been napping in the back room of Exit – it's the dark, empty rock club in Rotterdam where I'll be performing tonight. The cleaning lady just left. The night staff won't be in for a couple of hours. I've got some time to write stuff down.
I arrived in Amsterdam at 11 am on Wednesday morning. I snuck a lot of things past the baggage check -- way too much to carry. Nothing elicit. Just my merch and gear. Things I probably should have declared. I inched my stuff over to an information booth down the hallway. The lady behind the shatterproof glass spoke decent-enough English (better than my Dutch) and directed me to other side of the city where I would catch my overnight bus to Berlin. I only had three shows in the first week, so to save a few euros, I opted to bus from place to place, rather then rent a car for this time.
I slouched towards the underground train that, after a couple of hours and mistaken transfers, finally took me to the station – a small facility where I could sleep for a while as I waited.
Sprawled across my packs and cases, I napped, fitfully for most of the day, waking only occasionally to use the nearby Internet station and the pay-to-piss washroom. At one point a patient transit staffer said that I had to move because my campsite was upsetting the flow of passengers to-and-from the front desk. She directed me to a small bench in the back corner of the station. Here bewildered travelers would frequently stand inches from me as they read the city map perched on the wall above my camp. 8 pm rolled around. I balanced my precarious load up and around me and hobbled to my bus, where I continued to peacefully sleep off my jet lag as the dark dutch countryside rolled by.

I arrived in Berlin at 7 am and I took the underground across town. I met my friend Mathias not far from the stop and we brought my stuff to the apartment where he and his band – The Burning Hell – had been staying. We went for breakfast at a little place in a low-income, arty district -- Treptow -- southwest of downtown. The rest of my morning was spent making funny things happen with some new German friends, and looking for a used pair of dress shoes.

After a few hours of napping, it was time to head to Zapata for our show. The band took a cab over. Kim Barlow and I foolishly decided that we'd bike with all of our equipment. I took my backpack filled with stuff and a huge guitar case that I balanced on one of the handle bars all of the way. It was an incredibly treacherous and exhilarating 40 minute ride. Berlin drivers are used to dangerous cyclists, so they all calmly steered around my erratic swerving without so much as a honk. We did get some polite swears from other cyclists. Germans aren't afraid to tell you what they think of you, and they do it in a very direct yet oddly respectful way. I'll be renting a car on Thursday for the rest of my trip.

We arrived at Zapata – a beautiful, trashy old squat on a very popular strip in downtown Berlin. The interior of the venue is decorated with dark metal pipes and sculptures. There is a makeshift bronze dragon that towers above the bar with an acetylene torch perched in its mouth. After every song the bartender pulls the cord and the dragon shoots fire over the crowd.

I stayed in Berlin a couple of days, biking from place to place and visiting friends. On Sunday, I piled on my heavy gear and took the overnight bus to Rotterdam. When I arrived, a cleaning lady let me in to the venue early. I stowed my gear and have been napping here ever since.

Lakehead University proclaimed Saxon to be the CD of the week:
http://www.theargus.ca/ae/529

Super famous.

Hello,
In August, Exclaim! Magazine ran a feature on me and the new record.
You can find it here:

http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/multiarticlesub.aspx?csid2=4&fid1=40135&csid1=135

Hello,
I've been hiding out in France for a couple of weeks.
In Paris they've got these underground tunnels that are filled with skulls. Two centuries ago they decided that the cemeteries were full, and not nearly scary enough, so they started putting the dead people in caverns under the streets. It was a clever solution, because now the skulls make money for the city. If you have fifteen euros and a couple of hours to burn standing in a sweaty, meandering line, you get to see the long- dead people and take their pictures. Paris has lots of greasy secrets like this.

This town has a great tradition of low culture – trashy cabarets and street performers, drug-addict artists painting dirty pictures on their patron's dollar. But all of the opportunism and self-destruction of the past has now been idealized into untouchable high-art.
I'm probably not looking in the right places, but I can't find modern examples of this desperate but essential low culure. There are hardly any rock shows; the artists are all hiding out; the cabarets have become safe, ironical tourist affairs. Fancy culture is going to starve in a few decades if there are no corpses for it to feed on. Dig up the skeletons. They should pour out of the catacombs and cemeteries. They should line the streets and play their bones to scare off us crappy, crappy tourists. September 8th, 2009

Now I'm home and heading to Europe soon. I'm in the midst of a series of southern-Ontario performances with a cuban art-grunge band -- Popeye's Golden Theory. They are very thoughtful and witty off-stage. When they perform, they scream and wear big red machines made of cardboard on their heads. Tonight we'll be performing in Windsor. I'll be in Guelph on the 11th with the band. Europe soon.

After much toil, hard work and shenanigans it pleases me to announce that Saxon is ready. 

You can buy either the MP3 or FLAC downloads from Zunior.com here:

http://www.zunior.com/product_info.php?products_id=2534

Order the CD with an instantaneous MP3 download here:

http://www.zunior.com/product_info.php?products_id=2566

Joyous Pop Duo 'Trike' has recorded a frenetic cover version of Tell the Doctor.  It was a crazy song to begin with. Now it's absolutely TWISTY!
You can find it (and them) here: www.myspace.com/trikeaband

http://www.hour.ca/music/spin.aspx?iIDDisque=4739

Orchard & Ire
Steve Guimond
 
..tr> ..table> Hi-fi power pop and an over-the-top gruff operatic growl are the hallmarks of Wax Mannequin, the tinted visions growing from quiet bedroom confessions three records ago to what we have with Orchard & Ire, ballsy Canadian indie rock with a twist. Wax holds a guitar and keyboard in one hand and lyric sheets in the other, joined by a few other players who bring his robot and animal dreams to you and me. Expect some rollercoaster rides into prog, noise, electronic and quieter tunnels while you’re exploring this underground cult figure.
 

..tr> ..table>

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