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Barenaked Ladies Drummer and Comedian Form Hockey-themed Band

Sara Harowitz — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:58:56 +0000

Could this BE any more Canadian?

Barenaked Ladies drummer Tyler Stewart and comedian Marc Hickox have formed a hockey-themed band called the Black Aces who will be performing during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, reports CHARTattack.com.

The duo describes their sound as “Black Sabbath cross-checking The White Stripes from behind” and list John Bonham, Tony Iommi and retired Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks right-winger Bob Probert as their influences.

“Tyler and I have been wanting to do something hockey related other than just going to games for a while now,” Hickox, who takes on the lead vocal and guitar duties in the band, told CHARTattack. “We had this Olympic gig coming up and I’m bored off my ass in L.A., so I started writing songs while watching [Los Angeles] Kings games.”

“We jammed some songs out a couple of times over the holidays in Tyler’s garage, and he was so stoked he booked a studio and engineer so we could crap out a four-song demo,” he added. “We actually missed the world junior gold medal game because we were still recording vocals – that was tough.”

Their four-song demo is made up of ”Healthy Scratch,” “Flash Of Leather,” “U.U.B.I.” (undisclosed upper body injury) and “Riverboat Gambler.”

“The songs are all about hockey and girls or girls that play hockey,” said Hickox. “There’s some frustration and heartbreak in there, too, for good measure.”

From Feb. 12 to 28, the Black Aces will be joined by big names like Sam Roberts, The Odds, Sean Cullen, and a ton of other musicians, as well as comedians and ex-NHLers at the Hockey House. The Barenaked Ladies perform on Feb. 13.

Steven Page Parts Ways With Barenaked Ladies

Eva Lam — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:21:16 +0000

After more than 20 years, Steven Page is leaving the Barenaked Ladies to pursue a solo career.

Page, a lead singer and co-founder of the Canadian pop group, made the announcement on his official blog Tuesday.

The band’s website also contained a message about the departure, which was described as a “mutual agreement.”

“These guys are my brothers,” Page said on the site. “We’ve grown up together over the past 20 years. I love them and wish them all the best in the future.”

Page already has several solo projects lined up, including putting together an album, composing for a production of “Bartholomew Fair” at this summer’s Stratford Festival and releasing a studio recording he did with The Art of Time Ensemble, followed by a tour.

The remaining BNL members will continue to record and perform together, according to the band’s website. They plan to enter the studio in April before touring in the fall.

“It’s the start of a new chapter for all of us,” said BNL-er Ed Robertson.

Page made headlines last summer after he was arrested in upstate New York on felony drug possession charges. These were reduced by a judge to a misdemeanor in October, with charges to be dropped as long as he stayed out of trouble for six months.

BNL’s Steven Page Avoids Jail Time

Eva Lam — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:11:43 +0000

Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page won’t serve time in jail for drug possession charges laid this summer in New York.

A U.S. judge ruled Tuesday that the singer must stay clean for six months and seek drug treatment, with all charges to be dropped if those conditions are met.

Judge Thomas Miller, who announced the arrangements during Page’s appearance at a Fayetteville, N.Y., court, said lawyers underwent “extensive negotiations” to reach the agreement.

Page’s girlfriend and her roommate, who faced similar charges after police allegedly found the three with cocaine and marijuana in a Fayetteville apartment, received the same deal.

After the hearing, Page read a statement in front of a crowd of media.

“The respect and responsibility I have earned over the course of my life and my career thus far are important to me and I am moving forward from this with gratitude and with hope,” he said.

“I also apologize to all of those I have hurt or embarrassed during this episode.”

The Barenaked Ladies recently announced they would play a series of children’s and Christmas-themed shows in Toronto and Ottawa in December.

‘Barenaked Ladies’ Frontman Survives Plane Crash

Irene Ogrodnik — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:07:38 +0000

Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson and three others on board survived after a float-plane crashed in trees, reports the Canadian Press.

According to reports, Robertson’s private plane went down near Bancroft, Ontario Sunday afternoon.

Robertson is the host of “Ed’s Up” – a program which documents his travels by plane. The Barenaked Ladies singer received his pilot’s licence in 2005 but it is not known whether Robertson was the pilot on the plane.

A spokesperson for the band reported that everyone was fine but would make no other comments.

This is not the first time this summer that a member of the Barenaked Ladies has made the headlines. Back in July, singer Steven Page was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Barenaked Ladies Singer Arrested On Drug Charges

Eva Lam — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:34:49 +0000

Steven Page, singer and guitarist for the Barenaked Ladies, has been arrested for drug possession in upstate New York.

Police say Page, 38, was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance Friday in the town of Fayetteville.

Authorities say the arrest occurred after officers who were investigating a suspicious car found a man and two women in a nearby apartment along with cocaine and marijuana.

Two American women are also facing drug charges.

Page, who was released after paying $10,000 bail, had been scheduled to appear in a Fayetteville court on Thursday, but the date has now reportedly been pushed back to Aug. 26.

Following the news, the Barenaked Ladies thanked fans for their support via the band’s website, saying that Page has pleaded not guilty and “the validity of the charges against Steven will be strongly contested.”

They added, “While this is happening, it’s business as usual for Barenaked Ladies. We will continue to perform and look forward to heading into the studio later this year to record a new album.

“We want to thank our loyal fans for their continued support during this difficult time.”

Formed in Toronto in 1988, the Juno-winning Barenaked Ladies are known for hit singles like “Brian Wilson” and “One Week,” and recently released a children’s album titled “Snacktime.”

Barenaked Ladies Frontman Ed Robertson is Up!

andPOP Staff — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:00:02 +0000

Fresh off the tour, and not ready to record a new album, Ed’s Up! is back with Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson for more gruelling days of pain and hard work across and around North America. Each episode has Ed at a new set of coordinates for a new job with a new boss.

While Ed was busy signing autographs, and playing with his band, his plane had floats installed. Ed needs to get comfortable landing the plane on water. If he wants to touch down he has no other choice. The Hudson River!, The New Orleans Delta!, what about the hills of Northern Ontario? Each episode begins on a dare as Ed has to find enough water to land the plane, then get to work as an Air Force Pilot, Race Car Pit Crew, how about cleaning a Hospital in Brooklyn. The pampered prince of BNL better suck it up and get to work. This is less a TV show, more of a hard days work – a job has to get done, and Ed is here to do it.

These are the jobs that define the foundation and spirit of a country, the jobs everyone has to do day in and day out, the jobs that pay the bills and keep us a proud nation. Ed’s Up! for anything. Does he have what it takes to work in an Abattoir, an Underground Gold Mine, or working with an alligator biologist – with LIVE alligators!

Ed’s Up airs on OLN Canada and andPOP sat down with the one and only Ed Robertson recently in Toronto.

Barenaked Ladies Return All Grown Up

andPOP Staff — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:59:55 +0000

The latest album by the Barenaked Ladies, “Barenaked Ladies Are Me,” sounds more mature and more grown up than any of their previous releases.

Hopefully that’s the case, says the band, since it’s been almost 15 years since the release of their smash debut album, “Gordon.”

“We have grown up,” says the band’s singer and guitarist Ed Robertson, sitting on a bed in a Toronto hotel room beside keyboardist Kevin Hearn and bassist Jim Creeggan. “It’s still us though. I mean, it’s the same guys. I think the beauty of it is it sounds like us, but it doesn’t sound like anything we’ve done before.”

The guys agree that the biggest difference with this record was that they didn’t have to cut as many songs as they usually do. Most artists tend to write too much and then find themselves cutting songs in order to fit as much as they can on a CD. But with this album, the band has released several variations: a 13-track CD, a deluxe edition with all 29 songs, a USB stick with all the tunes and a special edition CD with the remaining tunes that will be available next year (the CD is to be called “Barenaked Ladies Are Men”); and all of the songs are available for download via the BNL official web site or iTunes.

“In the past, we have written a lot of songs, and then released the record, and those songs fell by the wayside. I think it was Jim that put together a group of songs that never made it on to any of our records and we listened to it in a hotel room in Boston. It was Jim that said ‘I think this is my favourite record of ours.’ And it was all the songs that we hadn’t released,” says Robertson.

“So we realized this time, let’s just get the songs to a place where we really like them. Let’s serve the song.”

The way their newest album can be picked up – in CD form, online, or even on a handy USB stick – shows that the guys know that people aren’t necessarily just buying CDs anymore; technology has changed the way people buy music.

“Certainly people are downloading more than they’re buying, but people who are downloading are buying more than people who aren’t downloading. So as confusing as that sounds, it means downloading is good,” Robertson says.

Hearn agrees, which is why the band has decided to release the album in a multitude of ways in order to please every fan out there.

“These are ways to try and offer different sources of music,” Hearn says.

Robertson says he doesn’t think people are downloading in order to “steal” music, but that they do it because it is much more convenient than going out to buy a CD or a single.

“I think they want to know that the artists they love are being compensated for the music they’ve made,” says Robertson. “I think people just feel like there is this lack of relationship between artist and fan, that I think this gap has been widened by record companies and I think that people generally have the perception that record companies have been ripping off artists and records companies have been ripping off bands. So they think that by stealing music, they’re not hurting the artist. And I think we’re in a place now where, as a band, we can take advantage of the technology and deal with our fans directly.”

The Barenaked Ladies are obviously not afraid of the technology available to their fans, as can be noted by their recent contest on YouTube, looking for a fan to guest star in a BNL video. Robertson says the internet has opened up possibilities for relationships between fans and artists and fans and other fans that weren’t possible before.

“There’s a lot of crap online, but it can be a really effective tool for connecting people if you can read through all the crap and garbage. The internet is an amazing way of connecting people and creating communities that didn’t exist before so it’s a pretty exciting time to be a band, but also to be a fan,” Robertson says, noting that the guys are musicians, but that they are also fans of music and are online themselves interacting with the artists that matter to them.

“It’s an interesting time because of the technology available to the fans, they can interact with us in a creative way, instead of just receiving (the music). It’s interesting to see what they do and how they work with our music,” Creeggan says. “That’s another situation where we will be releasing separate instruments of five songs and the fan gets to mix it to their own beat and mash it up however they want. It’s an amazing thing. And there’s a chance that we’ll hear it.”

And it truly is the fans that the Barenaked Ladies credit for their success, and that is why they work so hard for their fans in their recordings and when they are performing a show.

“I think maybe one reason is we’ve come to our state of success through live shows, and so we get to see the people often enough that we realize these are the people that have really given this music legs,” Hearn says. “And when we meet people after the shows and seeing them face to face, you just realize I’ll forget things that they remember that happened to me or the band.”

“The fans know way more about us than we do,” Robertson pipes in.

“There’s really so much value that they have for or music,” Creeggan adds.

Hearn reminisces about when the band was trying really hard to break into the American market, U.S. radio stations wouldn’t play their music. It wasn’t until the band started playing live, and radio stations witnessed that not only did people come out to the shows, but they packed the house, that their music was finally played on the radio.

“I don’t think we forget that,” Hearn says.

The fans are also why the Ladies make it a priority to connect to every audience they play for. Recently at the 2006 World AIDS Conference, the Ladies were the closing act at the AIDS Benefit Concert, which was part of the conference’s opening ceremonies. They didn’t take the stage until close to 1 a.m., but they got the crowd moving, singing and energized. How do they do it?

“I think we’ve always made it the priority to be very present when we perform. And people know that we know that we’re in the ACC, or in that case SkyDome, or whatever they’re calling it now, we know where we are, we know what city we’re in. We appreciate who we’re playing for, we know what it’s about, we get it,” Robertson says.

He says that point became very important to him when the band was touring in the U.S., and they were playing at a club in Phoenix. Steppenwolf had played there the night before, and taped on a monitor on the stage was a sign that said, “You are in Phoenix, Arizona. The name of this club is The Roxy.”

“It really struck me and I thought I never want to be in that position, where I have to look down on the stage to see where I am, what city I’m in and what the name of the venue is. Touring can be a real grind, but it’s very important to me to engage with the community I’m in and directly with the people I am performing for,” Robertson says.

“I think a band that is already above par they go out there to entertain people and engage people. Right there, the music, you know to me, that’s a big factor of whether I like a show or not. If they are out there to connect,” Creeggan adds.

One of the highlights for Roberston was working with Kim Mitchell who did a guitar solo on the track, “Wind it Up.” He says he’s a huge fan of Mitchell’s and all it took was an e-mail to the legend to get him to do the solo.

“It was so obviously me wearing my influences on my sleeve. I emailed him and said, ‘hey would you consider doing a guitar solo on this?’ And he was kind enough to email right back and said ‘I’d be crazy not to, yeah let’s do it.’ Total dream come true for me. Within the span of a year I got to play ‘Closer to the Heart’ with Rush, and then Kim Mitchell played on our record, so all my high school fantasies have come true.”

Barenaked Ladies Album Scheduled for September Release

andPOP Staff — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:06:14 +0000

Three years after their last disc of original tunes, the Barenaked Ladies are set to drop their next album.

The new album, “Barenaked Ladies Are Me,” will be released on September 12.

“It’s a good record too, I’m happy with it,” band member Kevin Hearn told andPOP last week, adding the band will soon launch a tour to promote the album.

According to their official web site, the first single off the CD will be “Wind it Up,” and they are currently having a contest for their fans to appear in the video for the song.

BNL performed last Sunday night at the AIDS Benefit Concert, which kicked off the 2006 World AIDS conference in Toronto.

Alicia Keys to Headline Toronto AIDS Benefit

andPOP Staff — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:45:41 +0000

A headlining performance by musician Alicia Keys will open the six-day-long International AIDS Conference in Toronto next month.

Blue Man Group, Our Lady Peace, Barenaked Ladies, Amanda Marshall and Chantal Kreviazuk will also perform during the kick-off show, to be held on August 13 at the Rogers Centre. Actor Richard Gere will also make an appearance.

The first portion of the evening is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with a speech by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Bill and Melinda Gates, who support a number of HIV/AIDS programs through their charitable foundation, will follow with a keynote address. Then Canadian opera singer Measha Brueggergosman will perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

The benefit concert will start at 9 p.m. Proceeds from ticket sales to the event will support various AIDS-related organizations.

“These two events in one evening at the Rogers Centre — the opening with the concert — promise to make this a memorable evening that will bring even greater attention to the AIDS issue here in Canada and around the world,” said Andrew Pringle, board president for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, according to the Associated Press.

Other notable guests set to attend the conference include former U.S. president Bill Clinton and UNAIDS special representative Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway.

Tickets are already on-sale through Ticketmaster. Prices range from $30 to $150 each.

Brit Sean is Named ‘Apprentice’

andPOP Staff — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:08:18 +0000

The commercial, er, I mean, “The Apprentice” is done for another season.

This year it boiled down to two men ? Sean and Lee. Both had charity tasks to organize, and of course had to overcome the obstacles set in his way to be crowned “The Apprentice.”

Lee organized a charity hockey game between celebrities, benefiting the Leary Firefighters Association, where he had to auction off two new Pontiac cars. Meanwhile, Sean had to organize a charity concert by the Barenaked Ladies, benefiting the World Wildlife Federation, and where he too had to auction off two Pontiac cars.

Lee chose Pepe, Roxanne and Lenny for his team, while Sean picked his girlfriend Tammy, Andrea and Tarek.

Lee looked like he was in trouble when Trump arrived at the rink and Lee was no where to be found to greet him. Trump wandered around asking everyone where the kid was, but no one had seen him. Lee finally caught up to him and showed Trump to his seat.

Sean was quite the opposite, he was waiting on the roof of the Trump Taj Mahal for when the Donald arrived, and guided him into where the auction was already taking place.

It seemed like Sean would be crowned the winner. But after a poll of the audience, a poll of the former candidates, and asking the opinions of Ivanka, Donald Jr., and George, everyone was split down the middle.

And after looking at the web voting results which millions (you hear? MILLIONS) voted, the results were clear, and Trump happened to agree with the public. I’m sure he would have said that either way though, and Sean was declared the winner.

We get an extra long break from the show, it will return next spring in L.A.