DAY 3: QUÉBEC

Man oh man, I'm sitting in a York library, showerless for days, fresh off an eight and a half hour drive from Quebec to Toronto and I'm thinking I want to head right back into that Blazer. Last night was the last show of our little jaunt with the Hunters and Protagonist, and it seems it left just as soon as it came. Dag yo!

With waking up in a parking lot out of the way, we pulled into the capital city at about eleven o'clock. For half the band, this town was old news. For me, a tortured affair: I was booted off the year-end grade eight Quebec trip 'cause I mooned some kids. BIG DEAL RIGHT. Because of this, and because we're the proud, flag-waving Canadians that we are, we spent a solid two hours slumming around the Plains of Abraham. The air was clean, the sights were gorgeous, and it left us with a purely Canadian sensation, like pouring maple syrup on a Margaret Atwood novel. Sorry Quebec, we're nationalists.

As time was something we had much of, we parked our car near the venue to reap the benefits of free parking and a stolen wireless connection. Pat and I took a trip to a liquor store and discovered some colossal bottles of PBR. Naturally, we scooped up damn near all of 'em. Dinnertime hit, and we strolled around a subdued Sunday Quebec: closed establishments, empty streets, and plenty of Christmas decorations gleaming tastefully around much of the downtown. We hadn't the chance to experience a true Quebec delicacy, so we settled (stress the "settled") in at Valentine's for some rigid, pretty disgusting poutine. Thanks stupid impatient stomachs, we'll wait for Ashton's next time.

L'Agitée itself was a great little space. We loaded in and were graciously ushered to a green room of sorts (by a bartender who as well suffered the awful poutine at Valentine's) and had at 'er. We met the dudes of Sick Scene Productions and they were very, very solid. They brought in pizza and pop for Protagonist and us, so we chomped down while criticizing Fox's deteriorating Sunday night line-up. Peter from Protagonist showed us the Beyonce Clown video for the first time (and a subsequent 30 times to further the giggle fit).  Marcus shaved off his beard and he is no longer the man he used to be.

Locals The Hangers opened up and were a lot of fun. Violins and shit!  We played a rip-roaring, completely sober set, and it was probably the most successful of the tour. Lesson learned: sobriety is sometimes beneficial for punk rock! THE MORE YOU LEARN. The Hunters tore up their hometown. They play with some bold-faced, bravado-ridden conviction, especially that damn Sabotage cover.

Unfortunately, the night begged us to hit the road before Protagonist played. It was a sombre, bittersweet moment for the three of us. The bands all huddled onstage for a picture, holding each other tight, our closeness whispering the longing we couldn't express through waves goodbye and friendly bro-hugs. TEARS AND SHIT. We scooted to the Blazer and took off around midnight. After pit-stops, sleep-shifts, and listens of both Mastodon and Kevin Frayne, we arrived at Keith's place around 8:30 and unloaded. Pat took off with Cam to the Saug and Exeter, Keith lounged pants-less in his living room watching the sports highlights, and I took a few buses to my car and to the last five minutes of class. And here I am. Writing this thing and struggling not to cr--BUCK UP SISTER.

We have to thank our our buddies The Hunters and Protagonist for being two great guides and tourmates throughout the trip, Steve and Kickflip Productions from Drummondville; Dan, Katherine, and Punk Me Up from Montreal; and François, John, and Sick Scene Productions in Quebec. BIG thanks especially to John for setting up the whole tour and just being a standout dude throughout.

Au revior Quebec! J'aime tu! Avec un bâton rouge!

-Ivan & SC

DAY 2: MONTREAL

WHAT'S UP THE INTERNET. We're on some godforsaken stretch of frozen Quebecois highway, contemplating why we slept for 3 hours in the car, but feeling pretty manly about it. Tonight is Quebec, yesterday Montreal. That was a total night.

We rolled right up to L'Absynthe fairly early, giving ourselves enough time to lounge around Rue St Denis searching for eats and post-show party possibilities. We got a solid buzz on at the bar with the super nice bartender, then realized it was like, 6:30. We slowed down.

Dave at Punk Me Up Productions was a solid dude and hospitable, though apparently Less Than Jake was bound to have a monopoly on the punk community for the evening. Whatevz, right? We beer'd it up some more with the Protagonist dudes and the awesome Hunters. They played to the bands and shit, we ate it up. Tonight is their hometown party, so it's gonna be nuts.

Our buddy Steve from Drummondville texted us that LTJ had finished super early and had a chance to drag some folks over to the venue. Unfortunately, the set-up of the bar let tons of people listen but not have to pay admission, and drink sales were to have nothing to do with bands getting paid. Fuckamiright? Whatever, we played a sloppy, awesome set, capping it with a blink cover.

By the end of the show, it was just the bands hanging out and genuinely enjoying each other's company. Bros, you know? Protagonist were encroyable and manly. Total bros.

We hit up Le Gentleman's Choice with Marcus and a hesitant Kyle from Protagonist and enjoyed quite the entertainment. A stag named Steve was called up on stage to be double-teamed by some ladies. He kept trying to grope, but the announcer was like "Steve, if you touch the girls, the show is over." They ripped off his shorts, revealing a disappointingly tiny penis, to which the crowd catcalled and cackled. Like, the man suffered some thorough lapdances and his prick was damn near unconscious. In defence of his weak willy, he started to tug on the little guy, trying to get hard for the crowd. It was a goddamn spectacle. After further attempts at groping, they put him on his stomach and belted his ass. One girl didn't get the desired smack, so one of Steve's bros offered to whoop for her. By this point, there was certainly a lot more homoeroticism than we had hoped for or anticipated. We promptly left, but delighted.

Dominique, our caretaker for the evening, texted us as we arrived at his house that he was scoring, so we crawled around the bars letting out, searching out drunks to let us crash their house. Obviously this didn't work. We opted to drift outside of Montreal and crash in some post-Wal-Mart-ian shopping hell parking lot. It was 4ish before we even thought about sleeping, and even then, we were on the road at 7:30.

We're here in Quebec City right now, writing this down in some parked car at the side of the rue. We're going to tear 'er apart. This is the last show of the mini-tour, and this province has been a total thing. We'll let you know how it went.

-Ivan & SC

P.S. Kudos to "Tongue Wag" for playing a much tighter version of Dammit than us.

DAY 1: DRUMMONDVILLE

Hey mangz, we are on our way to Montreal heading out of Drummondville as we speak. It's Le Streetcore Quebec Tour 2009 baby!

Last night we hammered from Toronto to Drummondville in a seven hour blitz, destroying our brakes along the way. We nervously tumbled into the venue and met our man Steve the promoter. We loaded in our gear and our beer and met up with our tourmates, Quebec's The Hunters and Florida's (or Floride's, if we're feeling Francais) Protagonist. The guys were total dudes and judging from just brief encounters, it was a great omen for the weekend.

The venue itself was sick: a community centre, decked in Christmas decorations, and featuring a giant fridge for the BYObeers. The first band was some locals We Don't Fight Fair, and they brought some primo pop-punk, ripping out a New Found Glory cover for that extra sticky pop-goo. I loved it. And their band name? A Fall Out Boy lyric. Incredible shit.

The Hunters were rawesome, and busted out a sick version of Sabotage. The audience was funnelling and singing along as they played. We played a burner, and the kids were so fun. I was heavy on beers, and it was such a sweet time. Protagonist brought some damn good times, and did an Op Ivy cover; apparently we missed the cover boat. We hung around the venue, drinking beers, learning French, showing our nips, and all other matters of mayhem before we got kicked out. Steve was awesome and held Protagonist and us in his house (except Pat, who slept in the Blazer).

Today was freaking out over the colossal bill of our brake repairs and slumming it in French Mac's and Canadian Tires. Montreal tonight! Maybe we'll crash the Austin Lucas show! Either way, the tour is spinning madly on.


-Ivan & SC

Hey friends,

Hadn't written in awhile so I thought I'd let the rest of the world in on the inner life of streetcore.  Winter is coming, which in this fair country means it's time for bands to go into hibernation to start writing new records.  We were planning on doing a bit of touring in December, but all of us have wacky school schedules that didn't really allow for that.  We are however, still going to be playing lots and lots and lots throughout December.

We've got 4 shows coming up with Protagonist off Paper and Plastick records later in the month.  We're finally getting the Montreal and Quebec which I'm really really stocked for!

Early December we're playing back to back nights with O Pioneers @ 73 in St. Catherines (YAY TIMUR), and then with Fake Problems @ The Trinity Lounge in Sarnia (YAY DOUG), which should kick the month off to an awesome start.

We'll be hoping to get to London and Windsor also sometime throughout the month, and look for a great back home Huron County show with our best buds Remember Us Always sometime before Christmas.

So you're probably saying... only 5 shows in December, what's wrong with you.  That's because our main focus is going to be on writing.  Me and Ivan and Keith all have written a plethera of material over the summer and since.  Now it's about bringing it together and making them all sweet sc tunes.  Some of them will be on an upcoming full length, some on splits or who knows, maybe an EP.  Regardless the new jams are coming.

For the rest of the winter it may get harder to spot us at shows.  We'll still be playing the odd one, but mostly we'll disappear until the spring.  Look for sweet tours of Ontario/Quebec and hopefully the states sometime this spring/summer.  We can't wait!

Love you all,
cam and the rest of sc

So we're back in Bayfield after week on the road with good buddies PJ Bond and Brian Carley aka The Waltz.  This week was the most amazing for the following reasons:

1st. We released our debut record I'll Be Found One Day to a rowdy sweaty loving crowd in our home town of bayfield, ont.  We couldn't have been happier with the night or the friends we got to hang out with.

2nd.  We got to play with some of the best bands/buddies we know.  PJ and Brian were both as amazing to watch/hear play as they were to shotgun beers with.  We also got to play with Richmond Hill punks the Deficits, bayfield punks the Aereolas, St. Catherines folkies the Honkies, not to mention a full bill of awesome in Sarnia w/ Broadcast Zero, The Class War Kids and The Rebel Spell.

3rd. We met/saw friends we don't get to see nearly enough.  Thanks to Dan, Rachel, Rob, and Pat in Sarnia, Emily, Reid and The Stiff Wires in London, the dudes who were sweet that we met at the Gorilla Monsoon, everyone at the sleeping giant gallery, steve shawsy, and everyone else who came and sang, or danced, or bought a record or supported us in any other way.

So what's next?  The summer for streetcore is now over.  We're headed back to school in a week, but look for a few really ill shows coming in September and another week of touring this stellar province in December.  Our record will also be going up on Itunes really soon. We'll also be posting reviews from our new record in the next couple, so watch for those.

Thanks for the love and attention
we hope we can give as much back
cam

If you've been paying attention to our music player, you will have seen a clusterfuck of tracks added.
Well, that's because we've decided to stream both our latest EP, "The Proud, The Few", and our first EP "Not Buying What They're Selling" on this here MySpace page! What the deal?
Well, we have been and will continue to log mad hours in at Ice House Studios to bring to you our first record! The amount of new music that will be pumping out of our bodies and into your ears is going to be massive, so we're letting everybody taste what we've already made all they would like!
As a bonus, if you message us your e-mail address, we'll send you both EPs for free! Free! Then you can iPod or Zune that shit in anticipation until the new tracks are around. Get on it!

Also, if you're from Wingham, Hamilton, or Sarnia, come out and see us sometime this weekend! It'll be party city!

-Ivan
Meatsore

First things first! Happy New Year!

Streetcore is right in the shit. Besides Ivan releasing another Hanora holiday album(and me subsequently writing a few anti-Christmas songs), Cameron getting his G license, and Patrick just looking damn good(Look out ladies!) we have been stepping up our game. We hit the studio with the wizard and learned that bragging is just sharing accomplishments with everyone(thanks to Dale Hussey!). We also recorded 13 new tracks, some old and some new, with a few more still waiting in the wings. To add insult to injury, i produced record amounts of vommit. I am prepared to deliver a warning. The 24 hour flu will kill you. Regardless, Streetcore is alive and well and will be delivering a full length this summer! Until then, oldish news, but congrats to our pals in Fake Problems on getting signed to Sideonedummy! 

For those of you who care...The Arizona Cardinals? in the NFC championship? uggggggggggggh.

-Keith Holland
Streetcore!

           

For those who dont know...

Our EP "The Proud, The Few" is entirely fucking free! If you wish to get a copy of this masterpiece you simply have to...ask. We will mail it to you, email it to you, hand deliver it to you, carrier pigeon it to you, force throw it to you, bioshock it to you, bass and drum it to you, sweep pick it to you, etc! Its that fucking easy and that fucking awesome! FUCK! We are mailing one to someone in boston! We can certainly get one to thedford, or brussels, or wherever the hell you live! Just do it! We will be THRILLED!

-Keith Holland
Streetcore!!    

Hey ladies and gents, Ivan from Streetcore sending you hot spicy somethings from the REETROAR camp.

a) Yesterday, we recorded a hazy, drunken session of acoustic awesomeness that we plan to release as "The Sweater E.P." The deal will be that with the purchase of a soon-to-be-pressed hoodie will give you a copy of this acoustic E.P., including four all new Streetcore tracks:
1. Bent Ways
2. Scrantonicity II
3. I Like It Here
4. You'll Get No More
The sweater design is the cover, and the cover design is the sweater. It was a real riot to record, all done in my basement until 1:30 in the morning.

b) Sunday July 6th, we'll be heading into the ever resourceful, talented, and seriously good dude Thomas Ireland's Ice House Studios to lay down about 4 or 5 demos to scope out the sounds of our next full-length. Semi-oldies "Four Chord, Four/Four" and "Blindness" will be included, along with killer new tunes "Underneath My Feet", "David Leslie", and "Let's Call It Even". As an added bonus, we'll be giving away these demos to some highly important people, especially YOU GUYS, our fans! It'll be a taste of the full-length we hope to finish by the end of the year!

c) Shows shows shows! We got shows! We played a killer set on Sunday at the Salt Lounge with the folks in Sunday Warfare, our great friends in Tie Breaker, the sweet samply dudes of Aspirations, and our new pals Orphan Choir. Next up, we have some local Huron County dates that anyone within range should hit up, a CTO show with Montreal's Les Breastfeeders, and a bunch of shows we want to work out if things go well.

d) We're practically giving away our old EP, Not Buying What They're Selling, at all upcoming shows. Stop by the merch table, pick up a shirt, and get a sweet cheap copy before they run out!

e) We're all great friends in Streetcore, which is why we make sweet videos. Check out my youtube page to see our SNES NHL 98 Battles (all three uploaded!), and this awesome film we made last week called The Zapper!



That's all from us here at Streetcore! See you at the next show with fists, woahs, and all your friends!

-IVAN RACZYCKI
STREETCORE