Also, big thanks to everybody at theWOLF for coming through for us and because you “Listened…. To…The….Listenerrrrrrrrs!”. (sing it to the tune of ‘the Mothers’ and you’ll understand that one!) Now the IMEnation can send some good old fashioned love your way! Now let’s get to work and do something cool for this town! Awesome!

Also, if anybody is ever in Peterborough, head down to the Red Dog and Pat will hook you up! (especially on Shirtless Tuesdays!) Great place that supports a lot of good artists, and full of IME friends!

Now i’m going to the mall to strut…….

Jt

It’s funny, but even stations that aren’t currently playing it are being inundated with your requests to play the song. One station even reached out to us to see if we could get you to ease up … Seriously, wtf is up with that? Oh, i get it, you actually DON’T want to play what your “listeners” want…sorry, i misunderstood. I get it, and i’m sorry we haven’t spent any money on advertising lately, we’re a little tapped at the moment… being “indie” and all.

On a more positive note, we really have been making some new friends in the radio world and have obviously found a whole bunch who get it! There are more good people out there than I initially thought… my apologies, i stand corrected! It’s funny but the idea of our independence is actually kind of cool to these folks, and we are thrilled that they are ‘taking a chance’ on us! Lol! Brian has done some really awesome interviews lately with a couple of stations (London, Ottawa, Edmonton) and the discussions have been spot on, and WAY cooler than they ever use to be. Definitely feeling ‘the shift’.

One thing to note is that we haven’t released an official bio or information package that outlines the strategy behind this, as we really have none. So in order to talk with us, we ask people to first read the blog, read your comments and actually become a part of this ‘happening’. They are responding favorably to the idea and it of course leads to good conversation. We just don’t have time for the fluff you know? Kudos to them for sure. All it takes is a little effort and it really makes us want to get to that city and do something in return for them. Seems like a solid game plan.

Want to hear something hilarious? Every station is playing the fuck out of the song except a couple of stations… One of them being The Wolf, right in our hometown of Peterborough! Fucked up right? 3/4 of IME actually live and have businesses here, and we all do things with our personal time to promote and build the reputation of this town wherever we go and for some reason they just won’t support us. (they never have actually, I don’t get it!) Sure they’ll play the usual stuff and even play some fucking band that draws 40 people to the Red Dog on Shirtless Tuesdays but c’mon already! To tell the honest truth, I’m beyond caring, but if I hear my Mom ask about it one more time I’m going to snap. For some reason, it matters to her and if you make my Mom upset, this will end badly… trust me. Don’t you love your own Mothers? Lol!

www.thewolf.ca, @thewolfca … You know what to do. Be kind… Sort of.

So thanks to all for the continued support. It’s really turning a lot of heads in the industry and you have no idea how wonderfully uncomfortable it is making people!

There is a bigger picture thing really taking shape here, and you guys are the reason it’s happening. Thanks to you all.

Strange this radio ‘success’ thing… wasn’t supposed to happen.

Jt

See what happens when a lot of determined people get involved!!?

Thanks to all… we share this little victory with you!! Let’s keep at it, whatever everybody is doing, it’s working!!

Jt

Now that it is officially being serviced, AND you guys continue to be relentless in your requests, there isn’t any excuse for it not to be played. So, let’s go for it and see what happens. If it doesn’t fly, then we all know that there are other forces at play… I mean, c’mon!

The List! (be polite with your requests, and if they play it, thank them!) So a big IMEnation reach out and around to the following!

Live 105 Halifax
Q-104 Halifax
C-103 Moncton
Big John Saint John
The Fox Fredericton
KYK Saguenay
98.1 Radio X Quebec City
CHOM Montreal
Capitale Rock Ottawa
Live 88.5 Ottawa
The Bear Ottawa
K-Rock Kingston
The Drive Kingston
The Wolf Peterborough
The Rock Toronto
The Edge Toronto
Y108 Hamilton
Rock 95 Barrie
HTZ FM St. Catharines
FM96 London
Q92 Sudbury
Power 97 Winnipeg
Rock 102 Saskatoon
The Wolf Regina
X92.9 Calgary
CJAY Calgary
Sonic Edmonton
The Bear Edmonton
Rock 106 Lethbridge
Power 104 Kelowna
CIFM Kamloops
The Fox Vancouver
The Zone Victoria
XM The Verge
Sirius the Iceberg

Now, please note that some of these stations have already come on board with us and we are eternally grateful, while others have been featuring it daily and are on the verge of adding it to their rotation if we all nudge a bit harder… but some won’t even touch it because it’s over 3 min long! No worries about that, we get it…. but lets really support the stations that get behind it and remind them that there are still a ton of real music fans out there.

Thanks to all… Now off wi’ ye! Go forth and spread the good word….and the Love

Jt

So, if you haven’t heard, we have this tune out there and I just want you to know all of the people involved in making it happen. First off, the fast credits.

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by: Jag
Recorded at: DNA Recording (drums) and Wallis Heights (rest of song)
Mixed at: Wallis Heights
Drums engineered by Steve Chahley
Mastered by: Phil Demetro

So the big thank you goes to the gang at DNA. I feel like i’ve been recording here for ages and the Tedesco brothers, Chris and Dave have never let me down. They have accommodated me and all of my craziness for years and years whether recording known or unknown artists , or just me plain ‘ol fucking around. They have maintained the admirable directive of finding ways of helping new artists out, and bend over backwards for their other clients. If you are looking at doing anything, put these guys on your short list… you’ll see what i’m talking about.

Now for Steve Chahley. Steve is the house engineer there and I feel like i’ve known and worked him forever. Steve has the unenviable job of sitting with me on my DNA sessions and always has the nicest ways of pointing out the holes in my engineering game. I have always credited the engineers I worked with on the IME stuff as the ones who have “taught me everything I know” about engineering, actually, i’ve learned a ton if not more just working with Steve through the years. Incredibly good engineer, and an even better person. Can’t go wrong with this combo. With regards to We Got The Love, thanks for helping me out yet again… (wish we could have returned to finish it up!)

We mastered the song on incredibly short notice with an old friend at the Lacquer Channel Phil Demetro. I send everybody I can to see Phil with their projects because he has that unbeatable combination of really knowing his job, and being a great guy. Thanks for being there for us, and always going that extra step for all of my projects.

IME is pretty damn lucky to know all of you guys and owes many thanks for the help in getting our music back out there for our fans.

Jt

So they get their own page…..

Ok… One person who has been with us longer than we can even remember and who you all know is our beloved friend and percussionist Daniel Mansilla! How could I forget to thank him! (i’m such a tool!). Do you know how hard it is to find a percussionist that loves to rock? Virtually impossible! Daniel is more rock than we are actually … known for his late night shenanigans on tour blasting Humble Pie and Hendrix down hotel hallways, helping bus drivers stay awake throughout the night on long drives, and of course making kick ass sandwiches and soup for everybody if they “look hungry”… Thanks for sticking with us all these years and not changing one bit. It’s always been 5 brothers after all … (if we owned the rights to the fucking song, yes we’d change it!) Glad you’re with us, and so are the fans!

You might have also noticed a strange floating head behind my cabs during the shows. That was a friend playing keys by the name of Fatty Collins. Yes he’s so cool he’s even rocking the ‘F’ instead of the ‘Ph’. Matty D from Dodger hooked me up with Fatty and I thought it was a sign and totally weird that he actually lives just up the street from me! Who knew!? Funny, you might remember him from Canadian Idol as he made it quite far… Only to be told he actually needed to be ‘Ph’ instead of ‘F’. He actually said “I’m Fatty Collins… go phuck yourselves!” and kicked Zach Werner in the shins. God bless him. Thanks for digging in on these tunes and being there for all of the rehearsals. Sorry your keys were blowing up on you the second night but you still made it through in style, head still bobbin’ and weavin’ … I’m also sorry for glaring at you all week, it’s just my thing. Evil Jiggs is sorry too. Let’s do it again soon shall we?

There you have it folks. Keep these boys in mind as we move along. They are an important part of pushing and polishing this big musical uh…. thing, out to you live. (Yes, I almost said turd, but thought better of it…. Wow, I really HAVE grown!)

Jt

The Shows

First and foremost, a massive thanks and dirty man hug goes to Zeke Myers and the entire Sound Academy gang. Zeke has been after us for 8 years to play again and well… we just gave in so he would leave us alone. He has been an instrumental partner in shaping our re-onion, and planning and executing two sort of flawless nights of fun. His sensitivity to our concept was consistently accepted with a common sense approach that made sure he wasn’t the one “that ruined I Mother Earth” with these shows. He made it so that it was 100% our fault if the legacy became tarnished. Just how we like it. So thanks for that and here’s to looking ahead together.

Also manly yet very professional hugs to the great people around Zeke. Riley MacDonald, Mark Fortuna, Tony Grossi, Catherine Fowler and even “rest of staff”… (I don’t know you all but feel a little closer to you for some reason). The Sound Academy was gracious enough to let us use the facilities to “work our shit out” and didn’t make fun of us trying to relearn Meat Dreams. You deserve big fat raises along with the thanks…(well, not Tony and Catherine for obvious reasons) Just email Zeke, i’m sure he’ll take care of it.

There are a whack of Live Nation peeps who deserve a huge thank you. (I’m not sure if a bunch of promoters together is called a “whack”… maybe a pod, herd or den? Pretty sure they are called a skein when in a migrating formation though) Jacob Smid, Riley O’Connor, Brian Kehoe, Candace Valin and of course the wonderfully intimidating and divine Vanessa Arscott, a great big thank you to you and all of your staff for believing this pig could fly, and for asking people to pony up the dough to witness it. Hope we did you proud and we hope to work together again real soon like…. How’s your July looking?

The Edge 102.1 needs a thank you for getting involved and presenting the shows, and for years and years of support. Special thanks to Dave Bookman, Josie Dye, Dean Blundell and Ross Winters for helping us come back in this manner and basically showing the country what IME has always been about.

An intense full frontal full eye contact thank you to Jason Wells for keeping you all informed via website, facebook and twitter. He has worked together with my company Segment X for a long time and be assured, he knows more about you than your parents do … dirty birdies.

We also wouldn’t have been able to do this without Jacob Hamayda. Jacob has graciously allowed us to “work our shit out” at his studio and hasn’t complained once about the stuff we blew up or perhaps stole from him. (sorry you had to find out this way)

Our Crew

A massive thanks to our patchwork crew who came off nothing short of amazing throughout the week. These are the folks behind the scenes:

Sound: Chris Kaplinski. Chris and IME go waaaaay back and it was awesome to finally work together in this capacity. Thanks for a full week of hard work and two great nights. (and for not fucking with my tone!)

Lights: Jeff Sneyd. “Klinger” has been blinding us for a ton of years and we are thankful for it. Strobe seizures aside, it was great having you back in the fold. Thanks again for working with us throughout a long week of rehearsals and for the flawless shows.

Guitarland: Aron Gillman. Aron worked tirelessly building my rig from scratch throughout our 3 days of rehearsal as well as Bruce’s makeshift set up. We had a clean slate, boxes of pedals and switchers and miles of cable and through a ton of trial and error, got something up and running flawlessly for the shows. If you noticed, on the second night I even played my old beat up guitar with the writing all over it that I have had since I was 12-13…. Aron worked on that thing all week to make it playable and finished it right before hitting the stage on friday. Meant a lot to strap that one on. Thanks Aron for a great week, and just remember, theMothers is in E. See you in July. Shalom.

Drums: well, actually we didn’t even have a drum tech on these shows but at the last minute, our old drum tech Adrian “theTorso” Gorizzan just kind of popped out of nowhere. One minute there was nobody there, then I turn around and see the Friulano Phenom eating sandwiches and saying politically incorrect shit behind Bruce’s cabs. Thanks for just showing up and helping… loved having you there. Question: how did you get past security? Must have been the dress pants.

Film and Sound: huge thank you to Paul Taylor for organizing the documentation of all of the events for Segment X. Brandon Cooper from Dazmo for the awesome gear and for helping us accomplish what we needed to…So many cameras, so many people… All good. Michael Hurcomb Photography for getting involved and for the billions and billions of photos that rival even the best cell phone shots on facebook (yikes and egad!!) Saved By Technology for helping with our little software issues and sending in Steve Andrews for the recording on such short notice.

Other notable folks include Mark Fortuna, who bent over backwards for us throughout the week and handled every crisis in his abnormally calm and collective way. It’s disturbing I tells ya… makes me wonder what you have in your freezer. Also Ed Collins for keeping us up and running with the monitors even though we are old picky bastards… you responded admirable to our endless requests of “more”. Mike Kerwin, Dan Preston and Stuart Evans from Frontier Sound and Light: you guys are like family to us, ’nuff said. (you even know what we look like naked…. musically speaking.) p.s. Sorry about the milk crates.

On the Gear front: I just wanted to personally thank a few people who helped out in the gear department and in effect, got us up and running. Joey Osisek at Randall Amps for the absolutely kick ass awesome cabs I was using. They felt fantastic to stand in front of… can’t wait for the customs! (thanks to my old friend Steve Borisenko for introducing me… give some love to Nuno for me!) Mike McAndrew and David Koltai at Pigtronix: Stellar guys building stellar stomp boxes that help me sound way better than I do… like my sonic glue and ego boost…so much more to hear from these guys! Jessica Luther at Voodoo Labs. Ive been using their products for years and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon… simple and incredibly useful tools which every guitarist can’t do without. Joe Barlow at Long and McQuade Oshawa. Joe always knows what you need before you finish explaining and it’s why every guitarist gets told to “just go see Joe”. Stand up guys like Joe (who is also a kick ass player) should be the highest paid guy on the floor…. make it so L&M, it’s why we all shop there. Thanks for not making him wear a tie.

A very special kind of love goes out to the gang at Carparelli Guitars. What can I say? Mike Carparelli is a rare gem. Kudos for your tireless work getting high quality guitars into peoples hands, your constant effort raising money for various charities with your company, and most of all just being an incredibly decent human being. Of course Im happy playing your guitars, but most of all really just happy to know you… as more people should. Extra thanks to your right hand man Al Farrugia Ballach… Who actually has to put up with me on a more regular basis and hasn’t even tried to kill me yet, as well as Matt Antonacci from the custom shop for the beautiful neck! Support good Canadian companies like this people… We need more just like them!

On the personal front, just want to say thanks to Joel Carriere, Alan Cross and Nancy King for the kind words and good vibes you’ve put out there. Really appreciative to know people like you.

So thats it for now! As I keep remembering people I will add them in of course so forgive me if I have overlooked anyone…. It’s not on purpose! More thanks to come with regards to the recording of “We Got The Love”… Just give me a sec, I some other shit to do first!

jT

While I know we have given approximately 5000 downloads away and everybody probably has the song already, we thought we would put it out for sale just to see what happens. I have some theories I want to share with you before doing so if that’s okay.

We in the band have come to a basic understanding that we will probably never make any money from writing and recording music again… We have absolutely zero expectations of that ever happening. (I honestly don’t ever recall any fat payouts in the past for going platinum many times over so the bar has been set really low!). You would think it natural for us to be bitter and angry about that fact, but surprisingly, we aren’t.

Releasing this song has given us an opportunity to share some new concepts with regards to the relationship between band and fan, and given us some new things to believe in.

The idea that is constantly put forth in the media and in the industry is that music fans everywhere are all thieves out to destroy all that is good and sacred with the music business. People who do hunt out good music and promote artists simply through word of mouth are lumped in and labelled alongside massive pirating sites and we think this is absolutely unfair. Our very public relationship with you now has an opportunity to show others that when fans have something to believe in and when they feel informed and involved, good things can happen.

So we are releasing this new track with a few simple ideas that I think you will all understand.

1) if you can afford the song, please buy it… If you honestly can’t, steal it from somewhere but take on the noble mission of recruiting new people to join us all in this new adventure.

2) if you do have to steal it, let’s call it something nicer like “borrowing”, and hopefully you’ll be in a better spot financially or otherwise to buy the next, or perhaps buy a ticket to a show, or call the local radio station to play it. Support=currency to us in a way, and we will gladly trade you straight up!

3) As we no longer look at really trying to make a living from this, all that we ask is to be acknowledged for the work we put into it and hopefully make enough to get the next one made. No more, no less. We aren’t looking to get wealthy from releasing songs or even care all that much about that kind of stuff, we’re definitely over it! We just really want to prove to a lot of people that being honest with fans can work, and that a band like us can continue to make music and be relevant given the right circumstances. The commerce side of things for us just has to be based in honesty and a belief that our music actually matters enough to a handful of people, allowing us to make more for all. The $$ becomes secondary and actually insignificant. For us, it’s all about integrity and principle, period.

So, it all seems kind of simple, right? I dont really know what to expect. Just know that as we promised with playing shows, you supported us, and we immediately added another show, and we are treating songs no differently.. if you support us, we write and record more for you. That’s it. We are putting 100% of anything we make from We Got The Love directly into getting the next song made, and so on and so on. If we have a surplus from one song, we’ll find ways to make more music available cheaper if not free. Contrary to popular belief, it wouldn’t take much at all to do this, surprisingly enough… If we all can grasp this simple concept, and get involved, there is no reason to stop creating for you at all.

A lot of people are watching us right now… and yes, this includes you! Together we have the chance to prove to any and all that this is a concept that can work for a band like us, or any other artists for that matter. I SO want to be right…

Let’s have at it then…… Song #2 is waiting.

Jt

Ok… ive been quiet long enough. Ive had a few days to calm down, the throbbing in my aching thighs has subsided, and I think I can look back on the days (weeks, months) with a bit of clarity.

Bravo to you all. I know you all understand how we felt going into this; a little unsettled and uncertain and not really knowing what the hell was going to happen. Maybe you even felt the same? Are they going to come out and well…. be “old”? I have never been more nervous in my life as we announced the show (yet never more calm walking out on stage) and then released We Got The Love… shit, even the title scared me!. Once again though, all of you guys have proven to us that our relationship with you trumps all and proves everything to an industry that consistently beat us down through the years and drove us away in the first place. Can’t thank you enough.

I had stated before that all of us have accomplished something with some very real and forward thinking results. When we announced the shows, we had heard many voices in the industry say incredibly stupid things like, “It’ll never work” or “They are setting themselves up to fail” etc. We actually know who some of these little tits are… and they are of course still the same ones who shouldn’t have jobs. They walk around spreading their consistently negative and misinformed opinions and actually do damage to the reps of the good people in the industry simply by being dumbasses. I repeat, i’m not talking about the entire music industry which has some truly amazing people in it… just some of the folks who should go away and make some room for the good ones to rise you know? All I can say to them is GAME, SET, MATCH IMEnation…. and to not so kindly “go fuck yourselves” …. You are not welcome here. (although I can’t wait to see you again!)

Some highlights of the night: 1) some of the good industry folk actually buying tickets and having a blast… Some never having experienced IME and our fans, and admitting to us afterwards, “I had no idea!”. A very warm thank you for being open minded and for just having fun. 2) old fans bringing a ton of IME newbies to the show. This is the only way we can continue and expand the concept… We need to reach out and convince people one by one if we have to, that with and not against IME or other bands like us is definitely the place to be. From all reports from fans, we convinced all to join our cause. 3) everybody in the audience singing. I mean, to get a couple thousand people singing “while the tree of importance waits” is no small feat… Trust me. The biggest thrill, (and shock to the industry folk btw) was everybody singing We Got The Love after only 2 days as a non downloadable tune online. No mass radio campaign, no iTunes sales or promotion… nothing. Just our fans patiently waiting for new music.. and pouncing on it! Lol! Incredible amount of thanks for that. 4) that all of this was accomplished through non standard means. We have no label, no management, no permanent road crew, barely any equipment and no media push (we had something like 75 media requests for the shows to be reviewed and written about… and we said no to all of them. We felt that if you are coming to the shows just to find fault to write about, then buy a ticket and stand inline with everybody else. We are done with the ass kissing that we were expected to be a part of in the past. One popular writer even threatened us and said we “had to”… laughable. 2 sold out shows and we “have to”? Our response to anybody with that attitude is of course another “GFU”! Lol! 5) most importantly, looking around onstage and being surrounded by the best guys and musicians I could ever hope to be in a band with. Extremely emotional as I write that… You have no idea what it means to a musician to have this.

I’ll be writing more blogs now that we’ve finished up and have more time to do so. I need to hunker down and say thanks some very specific people who helped us with the shows and with the song. Stay tuned as I have a ton of new ideas to share as well and need your thoughts.

So i’ll close out with saying how special these nights were to us, clams and all, and you need to know how appreciative we are to be allowed to do them. After 8 years passing and with only 5 rehearsals we made it through relatively unscathed (with the exception of my aforementioned burning thighs) for almost three hours each night playing for roughly 4500-5000 fans… Not bad for a bunch of old guys huh?

As Brian stated during the sets…. The awesome reception of our return leads us to believe that this may be only the beginning.

Thank you.

Jt

Releasing this song to you guys is an absolute honour and I cant really explain what it means to us for you to finally hear it, especially at this point in our lives. We really never thought any of this would ever happen again. This song doesn’t represent us “getting back in the game” by any means and whatever happens with it, or whoever plays or doesn’t play it, is of no consequence.

It’s a simple thank you to our fans for sticking with us throughout our whole career as well as our absence.

As ive mentioned before, “WE GOT THE LOVE” is appropriately and unapologetically “us”. (I think when you hear the words you’ll understand where we are coming from) Hope you enjoy it!

Ps. Learn the damn words for the gigs! lol!