Can the old world underground ever truly exist any more?  If all goes to plan, this should be the month we debut the Last Gang Newsletter: LGR411….you gonna get yours?  Everybody says, “you gotta have a newsletter.  You gotta have an online department. You gotta have designers.  You gotta have managers.  You gotta cover international.  You gotta stay on top of retail.  You gotta be looking for good bands.  You gotta stay on radio.  You gotta work the videos. You gotta get chummy with the press”.  How about “You gotta have good music?”   Is there really anything such as an “undiscovered gem” anymore?  Where are you now?  With the omnipresence of the internet: blogs, music sites, iTunes, Limewire, MySpace, Demonoid – can anyone really argue any more that their music is under-promoted, under-hyped or too hard to find?  Come on.  We may not have memorized the 4^th album of Sufjan Stevens’ B-sides but we’re cool enough, we work, and we be laying it down….If you build it they will come.  Now more than ever.

Further to that Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton have confirmed Tall Firs as openers on her North American tour.  Tickets for Emily’s shows are selling fast so get yours now…  What a great stocking stuffer for that music fan that somehow missed the memo.  Show some love…..vote for Emily & TSS at the Plug Independent Music Awards.

MSTRKRFT just returned from an international tour…check out the links from their balled out Australia and Los Angeles shows.  If you wanna see more of the madness….peep these photos from shadowscene.com.  In a few short days they land in Paris for Les Transmusicales.  The Robot Rock then swings back to Canada for what will surely be the craziest New Year’s Eve Party Edmonton has every seen: MSTRKFT + Shout out out out out……be warned!  East York’s favorite sons have finished their video for “Street Justice”.  We’ll have a link posted for you very soon on the LGR site so look out for it.  You won’t even recognize them!  They look like Earth Wind & Fire, they’ve multiplied and they play instruments.  Did you check out their All Saints remix yet???  It’s like caffeine; heart palpitations and everything.  They are already in MSTRKRFT studio working on the follow-up album and fielding remix offers from high and low.

Tiga is at #19 on the Billboard Dance Chart this week with “You Gonna Want Me”.  He was just voted “Best Electro DJ in the world” by DJ Mag, but MTV still won’t play the video…..don’t fear, we got you back.  His new video for “Louder Than A Bomb” is being planned now in Montreal.  Watch out for his remix album set to land on our shores in early 2007.  It will feature the hottest of the hottest remixes including Depeche Mode and the St. Lunatic Nelly.  We hear he has a remix for another Nelly on the way.  He’s so damn promiscuous.

Metric finished up their Euro – gates of the East – Ireland – Germany run and are now in the wilderness of Washington state writing new songs for the new album.  Fingers crossed someone will hear it. God willing.

Check out the experts here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhwUr5LfRO4

World Wide Web??? Two words: ….Pet…Rocks.

Your President.

Spring has sprung and another Coachella is in the books. Of course, I am not the most objective viewer but I’d said Metric kicked some ass on Sunday afternoon in the desert. Go online and see the message boards for Coachella if you don’t believe it. I’ve never Jimmy, or any other human being, smile onstage for such an extended period. Did Hodgie hit you with that tab BEFORE the set or AFTER? Come on man, you can tell Daddy. Other highlights included Daft Punk (they wear helmets!!!!) and Wolf Parade. Still an amazing festival for the live music fan but they need more people to serve the food and more toilets for the bladder-challenged. Metric are coming to Germany and the UK this month. See you over there! MSTRKRFT and Tiga are on the road together showing Canada how to throw down. They just rocked Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary. Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto are next – check your local listings or the artist websites. The new Tiga album releases tomorrow (May 2) in Canada and soon on Last Gang in the U.S.A. Go out and get it – for the artwork alone. MSRKRFT will be released in U.S.A. and Canada July 18 and August throughout UK and Europe. Both MSTRKRFT and Tiga have dates all over the world this Summer. Check for the MSTRKRFT remix on Wolfmother – out soon! It’s hot. Also, “The Gossip” and many others in the pipeline. Last Gang will base itself in Ibiza this August – it’s a tough life. Check here for Ibiza announcements soon! Emily Haines Pitchfork/Emily – http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/06-04/24.shtml – is readying her solo record, “Knives Don’t Have Your Back”. A stabbingly (yeah, not a word) good time. Look for a big launch in September in USA/Canada – more international details to come.

Around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world, around the world…

Your President.

For the first time in 9 years I did not attend every single minute of SXSW and the sky did not fall, the label kept afloat, and we got more done in one day with a Metric show at Stubb’s than we did for the whole festival in 2005. Was that Wayne from Flaming Lips sidestage? Huge shoutout to Magic Numbers. I don’t know anything about them other than what I saw at Stubbs but they were wonderful. We are in the Top 15 on the Much Music Countdown….New single, Poster of a Girl is rocketing up the Canadian charts. Our U.S. tour dates have been splendid (except for that broken Johnson rod on the bus before Denver – sorry Denver you were buying tickets!! It was going to be a great show! We’ll make it up to you we promise) – New York Webster Hall – SOLD OUT, LA – Henry Fonda Theatre – SOLD OUT, San Francisco – The Filmore – SOLD OUT, and places in between rocking hard. Clearly a band that has hit its stride on the live tip. Wait until you see the light show. Did we really lose the Juno if half of Metric is IN Broken Social Scene? Do we care? Yeah, sorta but if you gotta lose, might as well lose to yer friends. Metric is off to Coachella, Carson Daly, Germany and UK over the next 2 months. Check their website for live updates. The MSTRKRFT album is done! We are working on the artwork, putting together a new video for a rawker, “Street Justice” – a video so dangerous we can’t get insurance to shoot it….legally. Did you know people don’t sleep in South Beach? 2 Live Crew/Crude!! Until 2007 WMC….. We’ll be announcing UK/Europe dates for May 24 – June 4 very soon. Welcome aboard kindred spirit Modular People as our Australian partner on this one. Maybe UK too? The Tiga train is rolling in Europe. Wanna learn more about Last Gang’s next big thing? Check here: http://pias01.wizzz.net/tiga/press/FrameSet.html. From Fiction wailed a heavy duty set at our Last Gang/CMW Showcase and released their first full length album on March 21. See them on tour with Metric in the USA April 11-15. Watch for Tricky Woo on Bad Reputation throughout Europe this Summer. Electricity runnin’ wild.

Your President.

Festivals and Festivals and Festivities. Metric rocks SXSW on March 16 and 17 in primetime gigs – check out www.sxsw.com listings for all the details. If you’ve never been to SXSW you HAVE to go. Yeah, yeah, there are too many bands and too many people but if you’ve NEVER been before you have to go. Where else in North America can you see Toots and the Maytals, Willie Nelson, and Death From Above 1979 all in the same day? And that’s just if you wanna score free pot at each show while you’re there. Following their SXSW stopover, Metric perform at the revered Coachella Festival in Indio, CA. Fuckin’ hell, Daft Punk, Massive Attack and Metric – my 3 favorite rock bands of the 90’s! ….but who will convince Haji to dance around in that gorilla outfit again in 100°+ weather? In 1992 I traveled to Austin/SXSW with Haji with our band. Ten guys in a fucking Ford Econoline van with a huge ugly wooden luggage box on top. No fancy trailer. No fancy hotels. Hideous. We billeted with a guy who had boxes of canisters of nitros oxide, garbage bags of pot and huge bricks of hash. I’m not exaggerating. It was like something out of a fucking Hunter Thompson novel (RIP!!). Uh, you know what? It’s too long a story and someday my kids are gonna read this shit….Seriously kids I just made it up for the fans! Another Canadian Music Week is upon us. What the hell is there to do? Where is the gem in the coal mine that is Canadian unsigned indie-rock?….Last Gang’s first official “CMW Night” is Saturday, March 4, 2006 at Lee’s Palace featuring From Fiction (11 p.m.), Tricky Woo (12 mid), MSTRKRFT (1 a.m.). Come down and see us. Much love to our friends at www.radiolibre.ca for their support. Check out MSTRKRFT’s cover story this month in Now Magazine http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/current/. Already there is talk of Summersonic (Tokyo), Reading/Leeds (UK), and Pukkelpop (Netherlands) – yeah, there is a Festival called “Pukkelpop” and it’s good. When will the fun ever end? Answer: when Jimmy Shaw says so. We’re trying to cook something up for you across Canada and the U.S. for July/August – stayed tuned. Cause there can never be enough festivals. Speaking of fun…. LGR staff all had lampshades on their heads February 24 at our Metric after-party. Gold records should never be this hard to achieve again – but we did it!! Celebrate! I hope I never have to party like that again. [note to self – maybe we start posting photos of this stuff?]

Last Gang has officially moved offices. I love the fact that you love our bands and our label but stop sending me demos. I WILL find you if we are meant to be together. I’ve got enough bands.

“When the going gets weird, the Weird turn pro.”
Hunter S. Thompson

Keep it weird. Keep it fun. Keep it festive.

Kisses,

Your President.
xoxoxoxo

Enroute London to Toronto I was up with MSTRKRFT until 4 a.m. at Turnmills with Fischerspooner (check the spelling yourself – I’m on a plane and can’t get online). I like to call it club music that you don’t have to be off your head to listen to – it rocks. They slaughtered people and the best part was the first song: “Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT remix)”. Our DJ, playing an LGR track remixed by an LGR artist in a monstrous London dance club. Glorious! See the new video for “Easy Love” at www.myspace.com/mstrkrft. I didn’t think that any video station would ever play this but already we have MTV2 UK requesting a 7 day UK exclusive and heavy spins. Our Tiga video is spectacular (www.tiga.ca) too. Contact your local video station and ask to see both. In the next several weeks we’ll have a new video for Death From Above 1979 for “Sexy Results” (MSTRKRFT remix), Metric for “Poster of a Girl”, and Tiga is shooting a second video for his album, “Sexor” for the song called, “Far From Home”. He’s in Japan working on it right now. Stay tuned to here to see it first.

We had wonderful meetings at Midem (www.midem.com) meeting with all our license partners around the world. Welcome aboard Japan (JVC, Imperial) Germany (Lado Music, Timo), France (Naïve), UK (Drowned in Sound), Australia (Modular, Shiny). Passionate independent record companies that are joining us in the fight to bring great music to great people.

The big Metric tour rolls out February 24 starting in Toronto. Did you see them on Conan O’Brien on January 19? Did you see them opening for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden on Jan 18 and 20? Yeah, it’s true. Next thing you know they will be getting Gold Records…oh wait, that is happening too! “Old World Underground” is now officially Gold in Canada. “Live It Out” continues to sell everywhere it is available.

Our new website is alive – check it out at www.lastgangrecords.com. Thanks Pinky! Have a look and let me know your comments. The president is listening…

Your President.

Method of delivery? What about the content???? Delivery methods and marketing techniques are for not if the content is sub-par. We’ve spent the first 2 years in existence trying to find you the most inspiring rock and roll in the well. We are loaded up on From Fiction (March 14), MSTRKRFT (May 9), Panurge (June 20), Emily Haines (Sept. 19) and DFA79 (October 10) and it’s time to let everyone in the Gutenberg Galaxy know. In 2006 we’re going to spend time focusing a bit more of the bells and whistles and the “mediums”.

Keep your eye on www.lastgangrecords.com in the next couple of weeks for our new website and the opportunity to be the first to buy the first split MSTRKFT/Metric release on 12” and cd. Side “A” is MSTRKFT’s first single “Easy Love” and Side “B” is Metric’s “Monster Hospital (MSTRKFT remix). The Seripop artwork is stellar!

We’re moving to the dancefloor (if we weren’t there already) in ’06!! Last Gang hosts its first Canadian Music Week night at Lee’s Palace March 4 featuring, From Fiction, Tricky Woo and MSTRKRFT. Mark it in your calendars. Stuff I’m excited about for 2006 but don’t own a piece of….Islands, and the new Dears record.

Better websites, better information, better office space, better health regimes.

Always the best music.

Your President.