Sometime in the dead of winter I ventured north on McPhillips street to drop off a CD to Uptown magazine.  They are located in the Winnipeg Free Press building which meant I got to hand over a copy of our album to a reasonably friendly security person.  That journey resluted in our EP being reviewed in the May 21st issue of Uptown Magazine.  Thanks to Jen Zoratti for her kind words.  The review is posted below.  Lindsey



"Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers establish themselves as serious ones-to-watch with this winning five-song EP. Comprised of six classically trained musicians (two of whom are also Liptonians), this outfit effortlessly blends jazz, pop, rock and folk to create a bombastic sound that has no shortage of swagger. Vocalist/guitarist Jesse Krause has the pipes of an old-school crooner, and he's backed by a band that has no limits when it comes to energy and diversity. Be sure to check out the sexy, jazzy Nurse (which actually sounds like a lost Hawksley Workman track) and the dreamy, downright adorable Sparrows. More please."  — Jen Zoratti
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Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers haven't blogged about anything in quite a while, so this is long overdue.  A few nights ago we played our first show in about 3 months at the Cavern with Richard Brilliant.  I think it is pretty safe to say that it was our best gig to date.  There was a great turnout and rumor has it that some people were actually turned away at the door during Flying Fox's set due to the venue being beyond capacity.  There was an amazing energy in the room and it was a pleasure for us to play our music to such a receptive crowd.  We debuted a new song, "I am Peter, You are Wendy" and gave two newer songs, "Memory in Vanity" and "Celestial Serenade" their second public performance.  The Cavern show also helped us to solidify a spot in a music festival just outside of the city during the upcoming summer months.
        Flying Fox recently entered "Anthony Milton Quits His Job " into the Noisepop song contest on the Ourstage website (see link directly on our profile).  We made it into the top 20 out of approximately 250 entries in this category.  Although we will have to win the category and go beyond to see any sort of prize, it has still given the band some valuable exposure; we went from approximately 100 song plays to over 800 song plays in just one week.  If you have the time to go and vote for Flying Fox in the Noisepop contest it would be greatly appreciated!
        Flying Fox's drummer Bucky Driedger has taken the great opportunity to go on tour with The Waking Eyes for the month of February and the beginning of March.  The Liptonians' drummer Terrell Froese will be filling in for Bucky on February 14th for Flying Fox's Valentine's Day show with From the Moon and J.R. Hill and the Oktars.  Flying Fox will also be playing Tuesday, March 3rd at the Lo Pub, hosting an open mic night and playing a short set with stripped down versions of our songs.
        As 2008 came to a close we here at the Flying Fox camp consider ourselves to be a lucky group of music makers.  The Manitoban listed Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers debut EP as the #3 local album of 2008.  The #2 spot went to our brother band The Liptonians, who also managed to snag a WCMA for their self-titled debut album.  Both bands are looking forward to a busy 2009 filled with lots of touring and music-making.
Lindsey
      
         

Our new mix of Nurse is now posted for your listening enjoyment!  We recorded it at a MidOcean student session and then had some friends work their magic to fine-tune Nurse to our satisfaction.  A big thanks to Braden Salt and Jason Gladu for mixing it and to Clayton Turner for mastering it.  Also we owe a big thanks to the crew at MidOcean School of Media Arts, specifically Carlos Vela and our students Karla and Kyle.  As mentioned in the previous blog, anyone who bought our EP sans-Nurse can e-mail me at collinslindsey@hotmail.com and I will send you an MP3 of Nurse.  Sincerely, Lindsey

Flying Fox's first tour of Ontario is now booked.  Although there may be a few dates added, the tour is essentially solidified and tour dates have now been posted.  We look forward to bringing our music to fresh sets of ears all over Ontario. 
       We have a tour kickoff show booked on Sunday, August 24th at the Cavern.  The show will be an early one, starting at 8pm and finishing by midnight.  The Honeybuckets and The Vinyl Penguins will be opening the show, so come early to hear these two great Winnipeg bands.
       We recently recorded the new song Nurse at MidOcean and will be adding it to our EP for this tour.  Anyone who already owns our EP (sans-Nurse) can e-mail me at collinslindsey@hotmail.com and I will send you an MP3 of Nurse.  Lindsey

It has been too long since we wrote of Flying Fox happenings.  We have been keeping very busy, but you may not know that unless you live in one of the houses that we inhabit.
       Firstly we need to give a big thank you to Kylee Chandler and Rhayne Moore for the video they directed back in the spring for the song Molly.  The video is embedded on our myspace page, so it's pretty hard to miss.  It is also available for viewing on Imeem, but not Youtube.  Posting the video on Youtube proved to be very problematic, so we will try again in the fall with the aid of some knowledeable individuals.
        Secondly we are playing a show July 25th - one week from today at Hooligan's on Sherbrooke Street.  This will be a really fun show with All of Your Friends starting the show off around 10pm.  All of Your Friends are a fun new band with a high energy live show that is definitely worth checking out.  Flying Fox will be playing 2 sets to finish off the night.
        Thirdly we are in the process of booking a tour of Ontario for the end of August and early September.  We've already have multiple dates confirmed, but we will wait to post the dates once the whole tour is booked.
        Fourthly the Foxes will be hitting the recording studio next week to record Nurse, one of the newest additions to the Flying Fox catalog.  We are all very excited to get this song recorded.  Stay tuned for the song to be posted on Myspace in the not too distant future.  Lindsey

so we're in this mazda showcase/contest thing monday night with a bunch of other bands. Prize = chance to play a show with Sam Roberts plus some recording. woot!
if you can't make it you can still vote.. check the show info.
neato.
paul

Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers will be playing a show at the Park Theater on Thursday Feb. 28th with Broken Halo.  FF will be playing from 7-7:45.  The show is a benefit for the Siloam Mission, so come support a good cause!  There will be Flying Fox EP's in all the colors of the rainbow to be purchased and enjoyed.  Hope to see you there.  Lindsey

It has been a busy week here in the Flying Fox camp.  A 3 day recording session for Advent, another evening for remixing the 4 other songs, and many hours on CD and T-shirt production have left us tired but happy.  We will stand strong and unified on stage tomorrow night at the Park Theater with products for sale to the kind faces we meet.  As promised the songs have arrived online in time for our gig - which will be in about 22 hours.  We hope these songs will fall on fresh young ears that will let them in with smiles and excitement.  We owe thanks to many people that helped in this process - the good people of MidOcean; Ryan McVeigh and Carlos Vela, Jason Gladu, Good Earth, Pizza Hotline and a big thanks to Clayton Turner for his amazing ears and all around enjoyable presence in getting these 5 songs as good as possible.  If we are patient there may eventually be another mix of Advent that demonstrates the mixing skills of Clayton Turner when a lack of time is not guiding the process.  Enjoy Advent and the new mixes for the other four songs.  I'm going back to finishing my homework.  Lindsey

we have finished recording and mixing the new song Advent.
to be placed on this site before friday i hope,
thanks to some folks at mid-ocean studio.
and are awaiting with great eagerness, the release of our New EP.
which is completely different from the last EP.
and we have decided from henceforth,
All shows by Flying Fox from now on will be CD releases.

good news:
no one died in the making of the EP.
i did have my doubts about the wisdom of sewing cloth cases and block/stencil printing labels on everything by hand the day before the release.
luckily we had the oppourtunity for a break from the sweat shop at around 1 am, when lindsey darren and i found ourselves in a karaoke bar looking for a can of spray paint with which to finsih the project. we didn't find it there, but we did meet a lovely newly immigrated korean constructional engineer acting as bartender named Hissan.

i think it's safe to say that the release went off with out many hitches, especially taking into account that, of the 44 copies of the EP we brought to the show, we sold 46.
although 4 did go to lindsey's mom.
cheers.
jesse