You can download our new album, Centre of the Universe, for FREE on September 30^th at 12am. You can get it right here on our MySpace page.* Why are we giving the album away for free? Several reasons:

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1. I steal music. You steal music. We all steal music. That’s how things work these days. Providing you with a free digital download prevents this from happening.

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2. Pressing CDs hasn’t really helped us financially. We sold quite a few CD copies of Walking Papers but are still in debt to our old record label. The current structure of the music industry is not artist friendly, and we have all but abandoned the notion that we could subsist as a band on album sales alone. Some artists and groups are able to do it, but Hostage Life is not one of them. As a result, it makes more sense to just give the shit away and hope that people will like it enough to come see us live and help us out that way.

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3. Let’s not bullshit ourselves…any CD we press is eventually going to end up in a landfill where it will take decades, if not centuries to biodegrade (if it ever does). The last thing this planet needs is more disposable Hostage Life merchandise that nobody wants.

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Considering the above statements, however, it does seem kind of fucked that we will also be offering Centre of the Universe as a 12 inch record. The vinyl version will NOT be available on September 30^th, but on that day you will be able to pre-order it from juiceboxdotcom.com. It can be purchased in November. To sweeten the deal, the vinyl version of the album will contain a bonus 7inch which will include 2 previously unreleased tracks – a song called Armageddon Jane, and our cover of Tappa Zukie’s M.P.L.A.

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Our first scheduled show after the digital release will be in Gainesville, Florida as part of The Fest 8 (Oct.30th – Nov.1^st). Stay tuned for our set date, time and venue. Very exciting.

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I’ll be launching a blog when the album is made available which will contain essays pertaining to each song. Those of you that have a distaste for pseudo-intellectual wanking may wish to avoid it. But while we’re on the topic of pretentious lyricists, I’ll explain the concept behind the album. A couple years ago I was reading the 16^th issue of Chris Ware’s brilliant comic, The Acme Novelty Library. In it, the semi-autobiographical character of Mr. Ware explains to the story’s protagonist W.K. Brown (loosely based on the sci-fi writer of the same name) that his depression and sense of disconnection is a result of the westerner’s predilection towards viewing himself as the protagonist. In short, we feel so dissatisfied with our lives because we feel that we are the entire reason that everything around is occurring. If life is one big story, we’re supposed to be the heroes. It’s a pretty arrogant worldview, but one that is indicative of our species as a whole. From Ptolemy’s 2000 year-old geocentric model of the universe** to the three most popular and successful religions of our day, we tend to see ourselves as the centre of everything. We think that we are made in the image of gods, and are thus part of some kind of divine lineage; somehow more than just hominids that learned to spell, drive, and write shitty poetry; somehow separate and superior to the rest of the natural world. We believe, or rather, a great deal of us believe that we are immortal and will be whisked off to paradise when our last synapse fires and our bowels empty into our pants. It is the oldest con we know. We have bought into it for as long as we have been asking questions about ourselves and our world and accepting easy answers. But enough about that. I have rambled for too long.

Sept. 30^th.

Have our album.

It is our pleasure. 

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xo

Colin
       

*initially we were going to re-launch hostagelife.com as the place to download the album but since we let the domain expire, some wiener has bought the name. Shamus contacted the dude and asked to buy it from him. He wanted 3 grand. We laughed at him. Soon we’ll share the emails we exchanged. ....

**the album cover for COTU, beautifully painted by Alex Snelgrove is intended to be a variation of the Ptolemaic model…except this time everything in the universe revolves around Hostage Life.....

We’re still plugging away, trying to finish recording the next album. There’s nothing too interesting to report on that front, although we did figure out the problem with our guitar tones, and everything is sounding great. Thanks to all you kind souls that wrote in with some suggestions. Cheers!

Anyway, here is the track list:

Centre of the Universe

or

Solipsism and the Confidence Man

1. Bonfires
2. White Jesus
3. Shake, baby, shake
4. Ratlines
5. Nuclear
6. Ghosts of the Upper Paleolithic
7. Exhale
8. The con man’s guide to quantum mechanics
9. Purple Hands
10. Paper Citizen
11. New drugs
12. Form/function/execution

So we were moving along pretty quickly in the studio. Drums, bass, and guitars (save for a few overdubs) were done. Soon we would be getting to my part, and I would have something to contribute other than complaints about my boredom. I was stoked. But then we listened back to everything and decided the guitar tones could sound better, particularly on the songs where Hai is out of tune. So I’m just going to have to wait. We’ve moved from Silver Studios in Hamilton to Donnie’s house in Parkdale, rented some new equipment, and started from scratch with guitars. This will be the third time Patt and Hai have recorded their parts.

The conversations that have arisen as a result of our tonal dilemma are pretty hilarious, as each of us struggles to articulate the type of sound we are hoping to achieve.

“We want a clean tone with a lot of chunk.”

“But without using too much distortion or gain.”

“The tone shouldn’t be too heavy, but it should still have balls.

“Yeah, it’s got to be big, with just the right amount of high end. But not too tinny.” 

So all we need is a clean tone with chunk and balls. One that is big. No problem, right? Anyone know of a guitar or amp that provides the sound of balls?

All criticisms of our asinine language aside, I love that we’ve relocated from Hamilton to Toronto. Not that I have a problem with the Hammer. It’s just that Donnie lives right down the street from me, so when we finally get to vocals, I can just wake up and walk to his place. That rules. No traffic, no sleeping on the studio floor. I can just walk there and walk home when I’m done.

In order for me to begin my parts, though, we need to find the right guitar tones, and then find the right mics to capture those tones. I’ve heard horror stories about bands spending days, weeks, and months trying to get guitar sounds right. Hopefully that will not be our experience. I don’t think it will be. Donnie knows what he’s doing, and seems to be in tune with what we want the album to sound like. Here’s hoping it all pans out. Soon.

xo

Colin

It took us over three years to get around to it, but we have finally started recording our follow up to “Walking Papers.” This past Friday, we drove to the Sonic Unyon Studio in Hamilton and began tracking drums for our next album, “Centre of the Universe.” It went really well. We enlisted the help of Donny Cooper, who is a really calm dude and does a great job of pushing buttons and making us sound good. Paul blew through his takes so quickly that he had time to record a few extra songs that won’t be on the album. Shamus laid down a bunch of bass tracks, and Hai and Patt managed to lay down some guitar tracks. I had fuck all to do during this time, so I consumed some beers, struggled to get my hands on some weed (thank you, Greg, for hooking me up), and started reading Keith Giffen’s “5 Years Later” run of Legion of Super-heroes. So far, it’s actually pretty dull. I mean, I like comics, but I just have such a hard taking the exploits of guys named “Sun Boy” or “Cosmic Boy” very seriously.

But I digress….back to the album.

As some of you may or may not know, we have parted ways with Underground Operations. We still like those guys, and we are continuing to work with the UO Booking Agency (because our agent, Adam Kreeft, is amazing) but we will not be releasing any new music through that label. Instead, we will be working with the Juicebox Recording Co. for the release of “Centre of the Universe,” and we’re pretty psyched about it. I would like to tell you why I am so psyched, and explain how this will affect you, the casual listener of Hostage Life, but I’m going to stop right here. Anyone who remembers our many statements regarding the release of “Walking Papers” is well aware that we often talk out of our asses. We’re trying to change that, and not get too far ahead of ourselves with our plans. So, that’s all I’m going to say for now. All that stuff about guest musicians, release formats, and release dates, will be posted later, when I’ve had a chance to do something in the studio aside from nodding off and spilling things.

xo

Colin