Broadcast Zero News

  26 January 2010  

For those who enjoy images and hard to read text as opposed to the nice legible text of a website, here's the tour flyer for Brat Attack. Oh, and for the record, we're not touring, the Brat Attack are touring. For simplicity sake it seems easier to just say we're both touring but we're simply accompanying them on their tour. Unless we're more than 10 hours away from more than a few days, it's not touring in our books. We don't think its so much that we're pretentious assholes as much as it is (and I've said this before) that we know bands in the prairies and viritually everywhere else in Canada who can't play a second show outside of their hometown without driving at least five hours so as far as we're concerned as long as we're in Ontario, we're just playing locally. Oh, and here's that flyer:

  19 January 2010  

Brat Attack & Broadcast Zero Do Ontario (And that Other Province)

Comically enough I found out about most of these shows on Twitter (at least I think that's what it was, I was re-routed there after trying to check out the new rebeltimerecords.com site which is still under construction). Apparently I get my own blog on there, boy are they going to regret that. Anyways, keeping focused:
We're hitting the road with Brat Attack beginning February 19th and we're playing 9 of their 10 dates throughout Ontario and 2 in Quebec. So, what the hell does Nick mean by 'that other province'? Well, I'd like to lie to you like many people I've been reading lately and tell you've we've played everywhere in Canada a thousand times when they (and us) clearly haven't. In fact, we've never played the province of Quebec but that's all about to change. We're not sure why we've never played Quebec, we just know it's not on the list and we look forward to playing it especially with great bands like Subsistence.
Don't forget about the new demo song posted in the player. Oh, and check the shows section for details regarding the Brat Attack tour.

  14 January 2010  

New Demo Song Posted Above on Player

So, as I promised I've posted a song from our demo recordings we did just before the end of the new year. The song is called "Battle On" and we recorded it along with 14 other songs at Bala Clava Studios (yes, where Tirekickers and Marilyn's Vitamins recorded their first albums). It's kinda becoming a tradition to do pre-production there and we enjoy it thoroughly. Anyways, it is just a demo so stay tuned for the full length available for our (dare I say) North American tour in July 2010. Now we've never booked the USA before and for those of you who know us we like doing things ourselves so we're going to see how that goes but we think it might turn out alright. Enjoy the track (just click listen up in the top left corner there)

  21 December 2009  

2009, Mission Complete

This year's run of shows came to a close last night in the same way it did last year, at the Stumble X-Mas Bash. It truly was a fantastic end to what has been a great year. In 2009 we performed our second Canadian tour traveling to the far reaches of Canada: from Whitehorse, YT to St. Johns, NL. We saw places that we thought we know we would never have had a chance to see without the opportunities that have presented themselves to us through this band. We've played 104 shows in the past two years and by far the 53 this year were some of the best.

We met a ton of new people that exemplified the spirit of punk rock and the importance of community not only from coast to coast but also without our own province as well (something which used to be hard to find). If you didn't hear about what happened at the beginning of the Western leg of our tour I'm not going to be repeating it here but considering our van broke down and we had gear stolen and we managed to not miss any shows and not lose money is a feat that was only possible because of the great people we met along the way.

We played with a number of our favourite bands all across the country. I like to think we know virtually every punk band in Canada (or at least of them) and we know who is doing what but we still managed to meet a few more bands across the country that reminded us of one of the first reasons we got on the road. Special thanks to The Rebel Spell and Class War Kids with whom we played a disgusting amount of shows this year.

Next year, we plan on playing just as many shows, going to new and exotic places (yes, since we played all of Canada that means leaving Canada for a little bit to test out the international waters), and, of course, to put out our second full-length album.

  15 December 2009  

In the Studio: Pre-Production/Stumble X-Mas Bash

Well, as tradition would have it we're going into Bala Clava Studios today to record a few demo songs for the upcoming album. We do this primarily for our own purposes so we can get a sense of how the album sounds and what works and what doesn't work and, you know, to teach Sean the progressions and to force Nick to write lyrics (yes, he got the memo). While we are live-to-flooring all of the 16 new songs to-date, we'll be spending the afternoon tracking three songs: The Enemy, He Hates You All, and Battle On. Now although these tracks are, as I said, mainly for us and some label-types who might want to here what we've been working on, I can only assume we'll post at least one or two of the demos on the .com. Well, I have to leave in five hours I should go watch TV and not sleep and not change my strings. Those are things that sound like they will contribute to a positive experience in the studio tomorrow.

Oh, and you should probably come out to the Stumble X-mas bash early it's going to be rammed and there's simply not enough room for all the people that are going to show up. It's going to get wicked excellent. And I'd like to say two things: I officially pledge that this band will be coherent at 1230am when they hit the stage even though it is in fact Sean Jaundice's birthday (a name he earned I might add). Secondly, on a more pretentious note, if you're all anti-religious (because I know that's how most punks roll), take a piece of yellow sticky paper and write down the fact that "X" in x-mas is short-hand for "Christ" so you're not actually removing the religion from the holiday in anyway whatsoever. I personally don't care either way but its something I thought some of my anti-religious friends might be interested in noting. Cheers and see you for the party on Saturday!

  13 October 2009  

The Next Album

Well, it would seem appropriate to write this kind of stuff here more than it does "buried deep within a myspace blog" as one thorough reader noted. Yes, we are currently working on a new album. Technically speaking we've been writing new songs since a little while after the release of our first album but with the amount of playing we've been doing it is difficult to get into the jam hall often enough to hammer out enough new songs for an album. We toured this past summer across Canada with about seven new songs in our repertoire and we've since added about six more. The objective is to get about 17 in working condition and take the best 30 minutes of that and use the rest for a seven inch of some sort with one of our favourite bands. Yes, our hopes to do a split with the Mad Cowboys fell through unfortunately because the vinyl business is a cruel mistress (or a mistress' male counterpart) for bank accounts and producers alike. However, we feel capable of putting one together so we might just do it ourselves or with the support of Rebel Time Records...that's still a while from now so enough about that idea. I think I just like the idea of saying we're doing a seven inch and then never having it actually happen. I don't actually control anything in the process of making that happen but I find myself saying "we're doing a seven inch" followed very soon after by "no, we're not doing a seven inch." So maybe this time around next year that pattern will be broken.

The album will be far more thematic and far more political in nature. It would be an understatement to say that we haven't been influenced significantly by the political nature of touring partners this summer, The Rebel Spell and label-mates the Class War Kids. Broadcast Zero's lyrics have never been empty but they will certainly enter a deeper level of socio-political criticism that was not explicitly present on the previous album. But, not to worry, there will still be no discernible platform, agenda or common ground in our music. We believe in recognizing the diversity of positions and interpretations and urge people to remember that righteousness has gotten us nowhere. That is probably the preachiest I will get and nothing is that blatant on the album so far. As far as energy, range and attitude, little will change from the first album.

What is the purpose of a label? I've had a number of conversations with a number of bands in and around Canada regarding labels and, in particular, indie label support. It has come to my attention that I don't exactly hold a majority position on the subject but I think it's something my entire band would agree with. Indie labels cannot offer bands much, this is true. But it's not about what a label can give me, it is about what the label represents and the kind of community that develops around that label. We have never hidden our passion for the development of communities because with communities there is strength and longevity. A label for me is a community center. For us to be apart of a new label (Rebel Time Records) is to be apart of a new developing community that we hope will live long beyond our tenure as a Canadian punk band. If we were to release our next album with a label that has the longevity and strength of an established community, we would do so because we respect the community that they have developed. And the beauty of it all would be is that we will take Rebel Time with us wherever we go and links will develop between various communities helping to construct a network of inter-connected communities that voice their support for each other. This is something I've been wanting to say for a little while now so I'm glad I did. We are a very tiny part of what could be a very strong and vibrant nation-wide, or even international, punk rock community that is aware of local scene developments ... everywhere. We'd like to help tie it all together, not stand on top of it. I've said all of this because we may or may not release our next album with Rebel Time but I say all this to show that whether we do or not is besides the point.

When to expect this so-called album? I'd say next spring 2010. You'll also be seeing a new album from The Rebel Spell in and around that time and the Class War Kids will be heading to Europe for a two-month tour so there are lots of fun things coming next year. If you take a look on our photos page -- which is actually videos -- you can find footage of a lot of the new material including "The Enemy", "American Nightmare", "Personal Overload", "These Demons That I Hide", "He Hates You All", and if you look around facebook there's footage of "On Freedom" and "Vigilante".