https://blog.vilerichard.com/ Recent content on Vile Richard's Blogging Machine https://blog.vilerichard.com/marquee.jpg https://blog.vilerichard.com/marquee.jpg Hugo -- 0.125.7 en Vile Richard | Mon, 09 May 2022 15:41:57 -0400 https://blog.vilerichard.com/posts/music-we-are-excited-about-right-now/ Mon, 09 May 2022 15:41:57 -0400 https://blog.vilerichard.com/posts/music-we-are-excited-about-right-now/ The last couple of years have been tough on a lot of us. I’ve been listening to a lot of music over this time and I’ve happily been discovering new things that I like. Added to this, I’ve happily watched as acts I’ve been tracking for a long time are getting back to touring and recording. Here’s a sampling of the things I’m excited about. The Wonder Stuff is (are?) Back on Tour I’ve seen Miles Hunt perform his solo stuff on more than one occasion. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2022/02/vile-richard-never-stopped-loving-you.html Fri, 11 Feb 2022 11:12:06 -0500 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2022/02/vile-richard-never-stopped-loving-you.html Finding new music to enjoy can be a challenge. Often, when I start my day, I reach for the songs that I know and love. That gets me into a good mood. I also have a habit of listening to songs to the point that I can’t hear them anymore. To my great regret, I ruined a perfectly good Steve Earle album that way. To avoid burning out good material, I find it’s important to get some new music into the rotation. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2013/01/hear-us-on-cbc-radio-ones-bandwidth.html Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:13:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2013/01/hear-us-on-cbc-radio-ones-bandwidth.html Vile Richard’s “Hockey Song” is on the playlist for CBC Radio One’s “Bandwidth” today (Jan 26, 2013). You can hear the show live on the radio if you’ve got the Ottawa feed for Radio One. You can also hear the stream online: http://www.cbc.ca/bandwidth/ https://blog.vilerichard.com/2011/12/vile-christmas-now-available-for.html Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:31:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2011/12/vile-christmas-now-available-for.html We’re happy to get the word out that Vile Christmas is now available for purchase and download at CDBaby. Over the years we haven’t just recorded songs for albums – we’ve also made recordings for our family and friends. Vile Christmas is a collection of some of these recordings. These songs were not recorded for radio play, but to amuse family and friends and to provide an interesting gift for the holidays. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/06/download-club-issue-6.html Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:15:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/06/download-club-issue-6.html Back before Vile Richard even existed as a band, Andrew and I went to school at McMaster University and we played in a band called Rice. It was folky stuff with lots of covers thrown in. We played weekly shows in Hamilton’s Hess Village and met a lot of interesting characters. I could probably write a book about my time in Rice and maybe I will one day… Around this time, Andrew came across an ad in the paper (at least I think that’s how it came about). https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/05/vile-richard-releases-new-single.html Mon, 10 May 2010 14:15:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/05/vile-richard-releases-new-single.html PRESS RELEASE: Vile Richard releases new single. Music is prayer, and my first experience with christian music was at the 12th World Youth day in Paris, France (1997). It was then I was introduced to the many, many different styles of music which made up what can be called Christian Music. This opened my mind to the potentials and diversity of Christian Music, being not just hymns anymore, but high energy “rocking” praise. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/03/download-club-5.html Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:37:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/03/download-club-5.html PRESS RELEASE: Vile Richard releases new single. Available for free download below. Music is prayer, and my first experience with christian music was at the 12th World Youth day in Paris, France (1997). It was then I was introduced to the many, many different styles of music which made up what can be called Christian Music. This opened my mind to the potentials and diversity of Christian Music, being not just hymns anymore, but high energy “rocking” praise. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/02/download-club-issue-4.html Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:35:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2010/02/download-club-issue-4.html With the Olympics in full swing and Canada’s Women’s team stomping all over the rest of the world, we felt it fitting to make this month’s free download hockey related. Oh yeah, the men won their game against Russia this evening, but they haven’t been nearly as convincing as the women. Without going into a lot of post-game analysis, let me leave you with this, the first official Vile Richard Hockey Song ringtone. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/request-baby-its-cold-outside-on-cbc.html Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:12:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/request-baby-its-cold-outside-on-cbc.html If you’d like to help us out, please take a moment to request “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” by Catherine Taddo and Vile Richard on CBC Radio. The relevant contact information for the two radio shows which we’re targeting are: Points North 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Call the listener line: Talkback: (705) 688-3226 or (toll-free) 1 (800) 461-1138. http://www.cbc.ca/pointsnorth/ Morning North 5:30 a.m. to 8:37 a.m. Markus Schwabe Call the listener line: https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/baby-its-cold-outside.html Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:27:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/baby-its-cold-outside.html Earlier this month, I worked on a duet with Catherine Taddo. It’s a cover of Frank Loesser’s Baby, It’s Cold Outside. The piano is played by our good friend David Lynch and the vocals are sung by Catherine and myself (Olaf). The song is available on this year’s Vile Christmas album. Catherine took the time to create a video for the song, which I’ve included below. We’ve never recorded anything in this genre before. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/download-club-issue-3.html Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:08:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/12/download-club-issue-3.html It’s Issue #3 of the Vile Richard Download Club. This month’s download is Away In a Manger, a track from this year’s Vile Christmas album. The track features Andrew Vanhorn and Emily Fennell on vocals. Vile Christmas 2009 can now be ordered for digital download or postal delivery at http://vilerichard.com Last year’s album sold out very quickly, so this year we’ve updated it with a couple of new tracks and actually made it available on the site for orders etc. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/11/download-club-issue-2.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:22:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/11/download-club-issue-2.html Way back before Andrew joined the band, I (Olaf) recorded an album I called “Lucky Me”. Andrew did pop by to record some vocals on the album and you’ll hear him if you listen carefully here and there. One of the standout tracks on this album is Lazy Eye. To give it some kind of context, let me just say that I was having dinner with a couple I knew from school. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/10/download-club-issue-1.html Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:37:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/10/download-club-issue-1.html It’s time for our inaugural Download Club posting. The rules are simple. On the 1st of each month, we will post something free for you to download. The item will be available for one week. After that point, it will go offline. To be notified of our monthly downloads, you can either: a) Join the mailing list b) Follow our Twitter feed c) Subscribe to this blog So, let’s go ahead and kick things off. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/10/oktoberfest-at-fionn-maccools.html Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:28:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/10/oktoberfest-at-fionn-maccools.html If you’re in Toronto on Oct 17th, please do stop by Fionn MacCool’s on the Esplanade. We’ll be there from 9:00 pm to 1:30 am playing our tunes plus lots of Country, Rock and Oktoberfest covers. The evening is sponsored by Paulaner Lager. There will be midway games, beer in Steins, girls in dirndls and, of course, Vile Richard. Admission is free. Come on by and say hello! We rarely play Toronto more than once per year, so this is a good chance to come by and hang out. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/09/join-our-new-download-club.html Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:31:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/09/join-our-new-download-club.html Over the time that the band has been together, we’ve recorded a lot of musicwhich we’ve never released. What we’d like to do is release some of this music (and other cool stuff) for free on a monthly basis. If you’d like to be a part of our “Download Club”, there will be 2 ways to get the files: Join our mailing list Follow us on Twitter The rules of the download club are simple. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/09/loyalist-cove-marina-sept-19-2009.html Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:14:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/09/loyalist-cove-marina-sept-19-2009.html A last minute show has dropped into our laps, so we’re going to pack up our gear and play an evening of cover tunes at the Loyalist Cove Marina in Bath, Ontario. The occasion is the Easter Seals Regatta. We’ll be playing all night: 7 - 11 pm and the set list will be Country and Classic Rock covers. I can’t remember that last time that we played purely covers, so this will be a fun one. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/08/vile-christmas-2009.html Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:23:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/08/vile-christmas-2009.html It’s probably a little bit early to be talking Christmas. I mean retail stores haven’t quite got the decorations up yet, but it feels like it might happen any day now. Having said that, we’ve been thinking about Christmas a lot as a band and we’re working on a new and improved Christmas album for 2009. The 2008 project was a lot of fun and we were very, very happy with it, so we figured it would be a great project to try and fill out a little bit more. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/08/follow-us-on-twitter.html Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:23:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/08/follow-us-on-twitter.html Yes, we’ve finally embraced the microblogging phenomenon. It seemed kind of silly at first, but we now see that it doesn’t have to be that way. If you tweet or enjoy reading the occasional tweet, you can now find us at http://twitter.com/vilerichard Tell your friends! https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/03/coverville-podcast-for-music-snobs.html Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:15:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/03/coverville-podcast-for-music-snobs.html OK, so maybe Coverville isn’t a podcast just for music snobs, but it is one of my favourite sources of musical gems. I don’t really subscribe to a lot of podcasts, but this is one that I listen to fairly regularly and, I must say, a show which has led me to discover a lot of great tunes which I’m not sure I otherwise would have heard. I’m not going to list them off right now, but that’s mostly because I hope to list off a lot of these songs in future. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/02/paddy-flahertys-in-sarnia-on-feb-28.html Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:21:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2009/02/paddy-flahertys-in-sarnia-on-feb-28.html If you’re in or near Sarnia, ON today (Feb 28th, 2009) you’ll find the band playing at Paddy Flaherty’s between about 9:30 PM and 1 AM. We’ll be playing all night, playing our own songs as well as a bunch of covers that we’ve been playing over the years. If you do stop by, please be sure to say hello! On an unrelated note, I see that there’s a new Depeche Mode video on Youtube. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/christmas-show-was-blast-fun-had-by-all.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:10:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/christmas-show-was-blast-fun-had-by-all.html The Christmas Show was a blast! Fun had by all. Thanks to Left of Here and Wiggler for sharing the stage and their talents with us. There were snacks to snack on, where bygones could be bygones. Looking forward to next years show, it just possibly might have been the biggest toronto draw ever! There are still only a couple of Christmas Discs floating around. We’d like to congratulate Patricia Tucci as the proud winner of the Silent Auction item, the signed, and framed Mistress CD wall hanging. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/vile-christmas-final-details.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:52:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/vile-christmas-final-details.html The Vile Christmas CD is almost finished. It will be getting the final touches this evening. We’ve got 9 tracks of holiday goodness for you to enjoy, courtesy of the band + our good friend Chris St. Pierre, who contributed a couple of Christmas songs which he has written. The CD will be available at the show tomorrow. We’ll only have about 30 copies with us and some people will be picking up multiple copies, so if you need one, be sure to get it earlier in the evening. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/first-time-ever-vile-christmas-cds.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:16:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/12/first-time-ever-vile-christmas-cds.html The entire band is really looking forward to the Christmas show this weekend at Holy Joe’s. This year we wanted to do something different, so we’re putting together a Vile Christmas CD for the occasion. The CD will contain some of our versions of Christmas songs (sacred and secular!) as well as some bonus material that we’ve never made available and that will most likely never make it to retail shelves. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-at-movies.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:52:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-at-movies.html A few weeks ago, I had a friend message me. She said she had been watching a movie on TV and she heard “Lazy Eye” (off the “Lucky Me” album) playing in the background. Now, I had remembered signing paperwork to license that song out to some sort of low budget production, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of it. I had to do a fair amount of digging around. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-in-sarnia.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:11:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-in-sarnia.html Mark your calendars for 2009. Vile Richard will be playing at Paddy Flaherty’s in Sarnia, ON. We’ll be playing all night. Here are the pertinent details: Vile Richard @ Paddy Flaherty’s 10:00 pm - 1:00 AM Saturday, Feb 28, 2009 No cover to get in We’ve never played in this neck of the woods before, so we’re really looking forward to meeting some new friends out there. It’s a full band show – everybody loves a road trip! https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/wiggler-joins-vile-christmas.html Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:14:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/wiggler-joins-vile-christmas.html Vile Christmas continues to come together. Our latest addition to the line-up is Wiggler. If you haven’t had the opportunity to join the Wiggler Nation, then this is your chance. We played a show together back in ‘06. It was such great fun that we decided to have him out again. Mr! Erik (the Wiggler himself) has agreed to abide by the code of Vile Christmas. There’s really only one rule and that is that you have to play a Christmas song. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-on-radio-this-week.html Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:07:00 -0800 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/11/vr-on-radio-this-week.html I’m not going to post an article every time one of our tunes gets played (or maybe I will!) but I wanted to give a special thanks to Hamilton, Ontario’s Bruce “Mole” Mowat, who played “Glass Eye” on his CFMU-FM radio show last night. Bruce has just recently changed the format of his show to classic country tunes, which fills a void in radio here in Southern Ontario. He’s playing some great stuff and I highly recommend it. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/10/playing-in-toronto.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:58:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/10/playing-in-toronto.html Playing in Toronto has never provided the satisfaction musically (appreciative bars, new fans) or promotionally (radio, interesting/meaningful reviews) and certainly not financially (money in the pocket); which attributes to why we don’t play there. In contrast has been great experiences like the east coast, NFLD, Kingston’s “Wild Stallion”, Peterborough’s “Red Dog” and certainly Sudbury’s “Peddlers Pub”. In fact just recently a new fan noticed himself and friends in a video of the hockey song, filmed on location during last years St. https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/10/vile-christmas-2008.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:45:00 -0700 https://blog.vilerichard.com/2008/10/vile-christmas-2008.html With the Halloween decorations still up, it’s probably a bit too early to string up the Christmas lights, but it’s not too early to spread the word about this year’s Vile Christmas. We always look forward to this show and this year is no different. One of the things that makes Vile Christmas a lot of fun is that’s it’s one of the only occasions that we play in Toronto. In fact, I believe that VR hasn’t played in Toronto since last year’s Christmas show in 2007.