Caribou

Hi all,
One final addition to the lineup for our two upcoming Caribou Vibration Ensemble shows: Jeremy Greenspan (Junior Boys) will be joining the band on vocals and modular synthesizer.

Also, I'm going to be doing a DJing at Wrongbar, Toronto On September 17th. Gary Abugan (Muscle n Heat, Seventh Heaven) and I will be playing records. Hope to see you there.

Dan

Hey everyone,
I’m sorry for the long silence. I’ve been busy making music for a new Caribou album which I’m really excited about.

I’ve just added some summer festivals and DJ sets to our Live Dates. Hope to see you there!

In particular, the Flaming Lips have invited us to play at their ATP New York festival on September 13th. We’ve put together a special 14-piece band, named Caribou Vibration Ensemble, to play this show and a show at the Opera House in Toronto on Sept 10th.

Caribou Vibration Ensemble features Kieran Hebden (Four Tet, Fridge, Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid), Koushik (Stones Throw Records), John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac), Kathryn Bint (One Little Plane), Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane), a four piece horn section, choir, four drummers, etc.
In addition, for the ATP show only, we will be joined by MARSHALL ALLEN, Sun Ra Arkestra leader and Arkestra member for over 50 years!
At both shows we will be playing new and old Caribou songs reworked to make the most of this special line-up.

Also I’ve just done a remix of Cortney Tidwell’s track ‘Watusii’ under the name Daphni. It’s out on City Slang shortly.

Finally, Andy Lloyd who has played bass with us these last couple years is unfortunately not going to be playing with us in the future (apart from the Caribou Vibration Ensemble shows) as he’s now touring with our friends Born Ruffians. Andy is a dear friend and a great musician and will be sorely missed but we are very lucky that John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac) will be joining Caribou and playing bass and singing with us from now on – starting with the upcoming shows this summer.

I think that’s it for now. As always, apologies to everyone whose emails I have taken an eternity to reply to. Hope to see you at a show,
Dan

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your support regarding the Polaris Prize and sorry it's taken so long to write this message. I was completely overwhelmed and overjoyed to have been chosen from such a great list of albums. I was also overwhelmed and felt a responsibility at being given the prize money out of the blue!

I'm in the early stages of recording my new album and part of the prize money will go towards that. I have also chosen to give some of the prize money to two Canadian charities:

The first is Ecojustice.

I have always thought of Canada as an environmentally progressive place, something which I believe was reflected in my education in the Canadian public school system. However, recently the Canadian government has acted as a global obstacle to climate action. In a study this year Canada ranked 29th out of 30 industrialized nations for tackling climate change. With another term of Conservative government beginning that looks unlikely to change which is why I believe it's important not only to address climate change individually but also to fight for environmentally sound legislation in Canada. This is Ecojustice's mandate and why I chose to support them. Read more about them and their projects here.

The second charity I have chosen is the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

They fund community based projects in Sub-Saharan Africa which address the fact that the AIDS epidemic affects not only those infected but their care networks and communities as a whole, emphasizing women, orphans and grandmothers. The Stephen Lewis Foundation's excellent track record and thoughtfulness in getting donations to the places and programs where it will make the most difference is an excellent example of Canadian humanitarian action globally. Read more about all their programs here.


Also, the gala is going to be aired on TV in Canada tomorrow - full details below.

Thanks again for all the kind words and messages,
Dan

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Rogers Presents The Polaris Music Prize on Citytv

Not Your Average Music Award Show!

Saturday, November 8th


Broadcast Schedule is as follows:

Citytv Toronto, Saturday, November 8th at 7pm ET

Citytv Winnipeg, Saturday, November 8th at 7pm CT

Citytv Calgary, Saturday, November 8th at 7pm MT

Citytv Edmonton, Saturday, November 8th at 7pm MT

Citytv Vancouver, Saturday, November 8th at 7pm PT


Tune into Citytv this coming Saturday Nov. 08 for an hour of exciting and eclectic Canadian music featuring 10 diverse and must-see performances building up to the announcement of this year's $20,000 dollar Polaris Music Prize. Performers include Vancouver's Black Mountain, London Ontario city mates Shad and Basia Bulat, Toronto's Holy Fuck, Ottawa's Kathleen Edwards, Montréal's Plants and Animals, and Charlottetown's Two Hours Traffic. Fellow nominees Stars from Montréal, Caribou from Dundas, Ontario and The Weakerthans from Winnipeg, Manitoba will represented by exclusive video performances.

So... after doing 200 concerts over the last year we're finally finished touring for a while. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and saw us - so many amazing concerts and memories. It's been a fantastic year! Now I'm eager to get back to making some new music.

Also, we've just found 5 more videos from the Pink Room Sessions recorded in 2007 which we've put up on this site and our YouTube page. Hope you like!

See you in a while and thanks,

Dan, Ryan, Brad and Andy.

We're about to head off on tour for a month which will see us playing in the United States, Switzerland, Taiwan, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, England and Wales. These will be the last concerts we'll be playing for quite a long time while I get back to making some new music so hope to see you there!

I feel really lucky that Andorra has been included in a great shortlist of albums for the Polaris Prize for Canadian albums released in 2007. See the list of albums which have been nominated here.

Last but not least, Video Marsh, the team behind the beautiful video for Irene have made another great video for Hummingbird - off the 2007 Tour CD - which you can see here.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at gigs and festivals recently and hope to see some of you at our upcoming shows,
Dan