Continuing the voting theme of the last post, A Sheep at the Wheel needs your vote in the Indie Band showdown put on by Steamroller eZine. Unsolicited good press is like gold in the music biz, so we could really use your support. We are up against Skytone from Ottawa and John Pippus from Vancouver. Click on the following link. The voting box is in the upper right hand corner. It instantly tells you how we are doing. Thanks for your continued support.

After all, he’d vote for you!

Here’s the story for those of you that have been living under a rock. The NHL All-Star game has guaranteed places in the starting line up for the players who receive the most votes from the fans; and there is no limit to the number of times that you can vote! So, some enterprising soul decided that Canucks defenceman, Rory Fitzpatrick deserved to go to the game. www.VoteForRory.com was born.

You can follow the links from that website, or directly at the NHL.com website to vote for Rory.

But who is Rory? He’s a “journeyman” defenceman, who’s never been a superstar in the league. Just a nice guy. While the campaign started slowly, it’s taken off in the last 10 days. Rory is now 5th in voting, and he needs to get into one of the top two positions to make it. So…go vote for Rory!

For all of you who couldn’t make it to our CD release party for Blend (in June 2005), here’s a video we showed that night. It’s a bit of an introduction to the band and a look at the tomfoolery behind the scenes recording our debut EP.

Well, well, well..

After great reviews of our video “Machine Guns and Jesus Christ”, we know we are on the right track. “Machine Guns” is a small example of the new music that is ahead. Last week, we played a couple shows and I thought I will fill you in on the details.

Our first gig was at the UBC Campus pub called Koerners. A great hang out!

I honestly cannot think of anything sarcastic to say about this place. It was comfortable and I would play there again anytime. Our first of three sets began, and it was great to watch peoples faces react to the great show…. that was on the TV next to us. I think Ultimate Fighting was on, or MXC perhaps. Either way, the attention was being paid the places other then where we were performing. Never the less, we soldiered on and played our souls off. The area in which we played looked pretty much like our rehearsal space when we started; Gear scattered on the ground. Cables going everywhere, and of course, we couldn’t hear eachother if we tried. The free beer helped the situation, and made us forget the fact that there was only 5 people watching when we started.

First set finished without a hitch. Up comes the house music. Which to be honest, I could have listed to all night. A little bit of “Black Eyed Peas”, “Justin Timberlake”, Maybe some “Panic! At the Disco”. The beer gulping sheep hit the bar. More Dead Frog Please! Wow, I can’t believe that I drank two pints of Dead Frog, I was not a big fan, but somehow ended up with another pint in my hand. I don’t turn away a free drink. You know, you expect people to run up and ask for autographs after a set like we played, but that was not the case. We put down our instruments and dragged our gullets up the bar. We all sat at the bar as if we were waiting for sushi. It’s quite depressing when someone comes up to you and says “Hey, the band that was on was amazing. Did you see them?”…. Uh “dude, I am the drummer… have another drink and stick with the tour!”….The next set will blow your mind!

So, we decide it’s time to pick up our gear and make some noise again. Now, we are a little more comfortable with the volume. Noise, precious noise! People are starting to stumble in!… Yeah! I hear alot of balls being hit around at the Pool table, which means cool people are here!! I can’t wait to be heckled! Funny, the only time we got those peoples attention was when Christian played a solo. Man, I hate guitar players for that reason! They would look over with that “wow, that’s awesome!”, but then the guys would turn to their girlfriends with that look like “ya, I could do it better… oh and I am not sinking any balls because I am a pool shark, but I don’t want to blow my cover.” Yikes! We played great, and it was nice to play our music in a more acoustic setting.

The end of set two ended much like the first except a whole bunch of Christians friends showed up. They filled up the tables in front of us. So, now we have to go from the stage to the bar to the tables. One more step added this time. This time, MC Escher was hanging around wanting to jam with the Sheep Rhythm Section. This Rapper was here with his friends and he was looking for some stage time. After consuming more beer and attempting to read a Georgia Straight in the corner of the room. My thoughts were If can’t read, I can’t play! It’s my sobriety test.

So, set three is up and coming.

MC Escher approched Joel and asked if he could sit in on the first song. Joel grabbed his Bass player and Drummer (me) and had us lay down a groove for the famous MC. I was scared and curious. We played a phat groove, and up comes buddy with some lyrics that I couldn’t hear but all his friends stopped playing pool to watch. We had a hard time getting him off the stage. BUT In his defence, he did lyrically assasinate everyone. He murdered people with his words… and we had to clean up the mess. So just like CSI agents, we put a “do not cross” sign around the stage and started taking samples. Oh wait, no we played some songs. and THEN……

Like a superhero in the night. In comes two gentlemen. One holding a Saxaphone case. Now, my first thought was that it was a gun… but, as we all know, it’s a violin case that works well for a gun.. maybe a trombone case for a bazooka. But as we found out, there was in fact a Sax in this case. The only thing missing from this sax was someones lips on it. The sax case sat on the table while these group of men put back drinks, as they did in the previous place they were. They almosy sized us up to see if we were worthy of them playing with us. Sure enough, during one of our songs, the case was opened and the sax was put together. The man walks up to the stage and starts playing. Who needs an invitation these days? You know, next time Dave Matthews is playing, I am going to go and kick Carter Beauford square in the nuts and take over drumming. The only difference is the fact that security would have me in a back alley beaten and bleeding before I knew it. He sat in on a couple tunes and to be honest, he was pretty damn good! We ended our set and said our goodbyes.

You know, things were great until I went into the bathroom, and I had this guy complain to me that our set was the shortest set he has ever heard. Well buddy, the set started well before you walked in the door 10 minutes ago. It was nice to hear that he wanted to hear more though. I head out to tear down my gear, but our “random sax guy” was trying to convince us to play some more. Rollie was his name, and he had played with alot of people. So, to please the crowd that was gathering, we played some more songs. Rollie played that sax like he was sucking on the straw of his favorite milkshake. hmmm… anyone remember the Shamrock Shake from McDonalds? Man, I miss that. They should have that back with the McRib. Damn that would be a great combo. McRib, Fries, Shamrock Shake. hmmm……

anyways…. really,..it was a pleasure playing with this fine musician. We ended our set and all laughed like school girls. I went to grab my cases for my drums only to come back to Rollie trying to convince us to play some more songs. Bertrand caved and started playing some song that Rollie knew the lyrics to and he played this crazy solo. So, I needed to feed my own ego, so I sat down and played a groove to the song. By this time, Sabrina was trying to kick everyone out and us playing was making things harder for her. We ended the song, and we started taking our gear down right away. We took some pictures with Rollie. Notice he is wear a Sheep T-Shirt. Another musician who a part of our flock!

The Audience was lyrically and Saxually assulted that night! MC Escher and Rollie have been added to the Sheep family.

Our second gig was at the Columbia. Anyone who knows the Columbia knows that I don’t need to write a long story. It speaks for itself. All I can say is “B6… under the B….. 6….” “BINGO!”…… oh and up next is “A Sheep At The Wheel”. I think I got a disease from the couch in the band room. Yikes, I ended up at the Railway with Courtney putting back Rye and Cokes. A great way to end a night!

This was the wrath that we called a meal a couple weeks ago for me and my buddy Jovahn. What you are looking at is HALF of a 16oz Smoked Montreal Meat Sandwich. It was in fact served on a dixie plate with two pickle slices. How much would you expect to pay for this punishment to your body?

$20.

Yes, I said it. We paid $20 for both of us to ingest 8oz of meat. I could have easily went to IHOP or Denny’s and asked for them to pour some grease into a bowl for me, OH, but I would have needed a cherry coke with that as well. That’s where they get you!

Instead, we walked up to a counter on the street and said one word. “Sixteen!” The girl behind the counter, with fear in her eyes, started gathering up and weighing meat. After a while, she prepared the bread with some mustard. Then proceeded to pour the meat onto the bread. With a dull knife, she then cut the “Cow between two ritz’s”. She was not offended, and actually understood the fact that we were going to split the sandwich between the both of us, and even gave us seperate plates with pickles all for ourselves! Very honourable.

Yikes, Fast was the only way to eat this. The only reason for the bread was to hold the meat. I’ll be honest, it was pretty damn good! The presentation was depressing, but the food made up for it. We didn’t even get Tee-Shirts that said we ate it. No camera crew or news story. Just a couple guys who were hungry I guess. Afterwards, I went back to work and regaled my co-workers of our adventure.

You maybe wondering “Where is this holy place?”. Well, this place is called Frenchies, and it’s located:

here.

Their menu is pretty amazing! You should check it out. Smaller sandwiches, Poutine, Shepherd’s Pie, etc. Well, my work is done, hope all is well and keep out of the rain!

Paulie.