the tour went great in south africa.  we had some time there to just hang out and soak it all in.  camps bay was amazing, but the food at cape town fish market left much to be desired.  the show in cape town was amazing!!!!  the crowd was out of this world!  thanks to those who cheered loud and learned our lyrics from our myspace page!!!  j burg was also quite the show.  the coca cola dome was pretty big!!!  ian and i got some pizza from the super market which i liked more than he did.  mefaking was so beautiful!  show was great.  thanks so much to all the people who made our trip so much fun.  playing my home town of hamilton tonight.  then we have a week or two off then its back to work.  big u.s.a. tour coming up!  our first sxsw!!!!!!!  thats all for now!  take care

brad

so we've been in cape town for a few days now, and i think i can safely say that this is the most beautiful place i have ever been!  surrounded by mountains and wonderful architecture.  vibrant colours.  the locals are really nice people.  yesterday we drove to camps bay which was a 20 minute drive over and through the mountains.  it's where the atlantic and indian oceans meet.  huge waves and amazing views.  we did an interview on radio 2000 with carol last night.  she was a super cool lady.we did an interview and played "controlled wildfires" with the new classical acoustic i bought in cape town for 45 bucks!  off to soundcheck for our show tonight.  everyone be well!!

brad

We have been here in Cape Town for just over a day and it's a pretty amazing place. The people have been very friendly and the hotel staff are fantastic. We hope to get in some real site seeing later today. And are looking forward to our show at the Grand West Arena tomorrow night. Booyah!

Hello friends,

I am packing my bags as we speak, getting ready for the very long flight to Cape Town on the southern tip of South Africa.  The first few days we are just adjusting to the time change and jet lag.  Then we are playing in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Mefaking.  Thanks to the Parlotones for inviting us to play in their wonderful country.  I will try to post as many blogs and pictures as I can while we are there.  To all those reading this in South Africa, we will see you soon enough!

brad

Spirits
S/T
Sonic Unyon

Who would have thought a trio from Southern Ontario could produce a Brit-pop gem jam packed with infectious riffs, lighthearted yet strong bass lines and vocals that switch from Bowie to Byrne to Bono (before he sold his soul to Gap and Blackberry) and back again.
    Bringing together Ian Smith, Brad Germain of the Marble Index and Nick Skalkos of the Miniatures, Spirits has put forth an album with an ‘80s soundtrack vibe without losing and relevancy and maintaining a toe-tapping, feel good catchiness.
    “Open the Door” has a cool, flowing bass line opposite warm, bouncy piano riff with Germain and Smith trading off vocals during the verses and pairing up for the chorus, giving the track a Phoenix-esque sound.
    “Cold War” is British through and through and sounds like Franz Ferdinand wish they could do.  Smith and Germain are a match of absolute perfection and while individually they both shine, their strength lies in the harmonies, which are powerful and anthemic in an understated fashion.
    Rounding off with the nine-track disc, “Black Swan” is pop at its finest with song writing that could make Robert Smith and Morrissey jealous.
    This is by far one of the best releases to come out of our country over the last few months, if not the entire year, and having it fall through the cracks of a sometimes-oversaturated industry would be a shame.

    -Hayley Muir

so i was posting weekly blogs until the album came out and posting new songs each week.........but now the album is out so i dont need to post new songs anymore!  you can listen to them at home on your ipod or stereo very easily!  i will give you a few updates and try to keep up with my blogging.  our album is being pressed on vinyl and should be out very soon!  so if you're waiting for wax then you don't have to wait too long.  ummm.....two super cool shows this week with happy mondays and psychadelic furs in toronto and montreal.  thats it for now, I will post something else when i have more time.   oh yeah and our website is up and running now too.  www.spiritsband.ca   it is super awesome!!!!!  i will start posting blogs on there soon.

brad

So I have managed to post something about every song we've put up leading to our album release!  "into gentle arms"  is us at our most tender.  the song just kinda sways around.  It's a hard song for me to sing sometimes....tricky melody.  We did our first three shows to celebrate the release of the new album!  first was Waterloo which was fantastic, crowd was great there!  thanks to sex dwarf and vacuity and Bernard!  Friday was at the Hideout with Pumps who were pretty on fire that night.  Saturday was in my hometown and i thought it went pretty well!  home shows are always tougher, have to sing to your friends.  anyways we have some sweet shows coming up with the furs and the mondays, which i'm really looking forward to!  toronto and montreal.  um, that's it for now...we'll put up some pictures soon from the shows if you wanna have a look.

brad

Our album debuted at #23 on this week's top-50 campus charts!

Thanks to all of the stations that have given us some love and played some tunes.

!earshot online

Hello to everyone who is reading my weekly blog!  Usually I write about the new song that has been added each week.  This week it's "open the door".  What can I say about this song?  For me it has been my favorite since the beginning.  The first song of ours that I thought was really strong, and made me think if we keep going in this direction we'll be onto something.  It was really written on bass.  We mixed two parts together and started with no melody.  I think we tried a few different things over top of the original bass line, tried to write a chorus and a bridge to take the song in another direction.  In the end we realized we should just keep it simple, and I think that worked best for the song.  One of or maybe only the one true duet with Ian and I trading off parts of each verse and singing the chorus together.  I'm am going to take my dog for a walk now, have a relaxing afternoon before going to kitchener/waterloo for our first of three cd release shows.  Tomorrow is Toronto followed by my home town of Hamilton on Saturday at club absinthe.  AA and Uncle Buck downstairs for the official move back of "you say disco i say punk" to the club.  Summer is over!  Seek shelter!

brad

We're on the cover of this week's View Magazine:



There's also a feature in this week's Hamilton Spectator.

Less than 2 weeks now until the album release!