--Six Shooter Bullets --

February 2005 - Vol. 2, No. 2.

the wind is an unpredictable lover

in this issue:

  1. Justin Rutledge: handsomeness unleashed

  2. NQ: more handsomeness unleashed

  3. NQUK

  4. Captain Tractor launches beer...oh and CD

  5. Luke Doucet, koala-faced phenom

  6. CMDubya

  7. Vp3

  8. Tarleks video lite

  9. Upcoming shows: Luke Doucet (Vancouver + Australia), Justin Rutledge (ON/QC), Ford Pier (TO), NQ Arbuckle (ON), Valery Gore (ON), Captain Tractor (AB/SK).

  10. Contest!

Hello pantsless readers of the world! I've realized that the nature of this interweb thing dictates that it is entirely likely that whoever may read my ramblings may not be panted at the time of reading. I have decided to just assume (teehee) that none of you are wearing pants so that I might treat you all as equals. Heck for all you could know I too could be in my skivvies. Of course, I am wearing pants...and a top hat...and a pinky ring in the shape of an agave cactus, but you don't know that for sure. On with the show!

JUSTIN RUTLEDGE

Hooray, our first release of the year, and it's a biggie! Justin Rutledge's "No Never Alone" hit the streets on Feb. 8. It was first released in the UK to rave reviews, starting with NME calling the album "an incredible breakthrough", and earning similarly enthusiastic 4-star reviews from the Independent, Americana UK, and Uncut, among others. His band, the Junction Forty, built a mesmerizing live performance over a nine-month weekly residency (yes, that is 40 Monday nights!) at Toronto's famous Cameron House. Rumour has it that the Cameron House makes a bitchin' crantini. Yes I just said crantini. "No Never Alone" also features a cross-section of Toronto's independent and alt.country scenes, including Burke Carroll, Dan Whiteley, John Showman and the ever-elusive Mary Margaret O'Hara. We are tha-rilled to the gills to be cutting this biscuit (anyone a big enough music nerd to catch that reference?). See below for dates.

NQ ARBUCKLE

In quick succession comes Six Shooter's second release of the year: NQ Arbuckle's "Last Supper in a Cheap Town". It's an album about hot dogs or something. A full band record (featuring his $10,000 band and a score of steamin' guests), the album was mostly produced by baby-faced phenom Luke Doucet. You have no idea how much I like calling Luke a baby-faced phenom, it makes me giggle endlessly. The amazing artwork for this album was created by Matt James and it is so beauty. See below for dates.

NQUK

Helen and Shauna trotted off to MIDEM (that big fat music conference in Cannes) last month and signed their first international label deal (see website for pics later this month!) with the gents at RSK Distribution. There was much carousing and celebrating, which ended in a casino jaunt to Monte Carlo where the girls raked it in at the BlackJack table. The conference laid the groundwork for many more such deals to come in the near future, and many more celebratory visits to blackjack tables. But first thing's first, our priority is to get the amazing NQ Arbuckle debut in the hands of those alt.country-hungry Brits (seriously), and so "Hanging the Battle-Scarred Pinata" hits the streets on Feb. 28. Our fabulous UK publicist, the esteemed and very handsometastic Paddy Forwood, has already secured reviews in Uncut and Mojo. How's that for some uncut mojo?!

CAPTAIN TRACTOR

More than 400,000 beers sold. Captain Tractor figures they've got just as much (OK, so way more) experience selling beer as they do selling records, and since the bottom has fallen out of the record market, they figured they'd better get in on the beer market. So in addition to launching their new album, "North of the Yellowhead", they are also launching their own beer: "Yellowhead". For those of you who have never ventured west of the Great Lakes, the Yellowhead is not a festering pimple on your face so much as a festering pimple of a highway running from Brandon, MB to Vancouver...taking, of course, the long way (through the glorious mecca of Edmonton). Now the beer is a draught...which is already available in six bars! The album, CT's first in FIVE years, comes out on March 15. Watch for all their drunken St. Patrick's Day shows in Alberta and Saskatchewan that week. Party on! See below for dates.

LUKE IN AUSTRALIA

Luke Doucet has been busy trying to convince apple computers and starbucks to join to together to create his brainchild, the iLatte. You can upload 10,000 vanilla bean sprinkles onto the venti gig version, like, oh-ma-gawd!

Of course, the above is all "outback" code for: Luke is excited to have released his first album "Aloha, Manitoba" in Australia! So excited, in fact, that he is going to dig a hole through the earth's meaty crust and play some shows up in that southern-hemispheric biatch. See down under for dates. HAW HAW!

CMDOUBLEWOO!

Six Shooter Records kicks off Canadian Music Week with a bang-bang! That's right, we're skipping the chitty-chitty altogether! Don't miss the Six Shooter Crue CMW showcase at the Rivoli on Thursday, March 3 from 8pm to 10pm, featuring roster newcomers Valery Gore and Justin Rutledge. Oh yeah! We love those two! Prizes galore! We couldn't just stop there though, so NQ Arbuckle plays later in the weekend...9 pm Saturday (March 5) at Lee's Palace. Rumour has it that a track from NQ's upcoming release, "Darkness has Fallen", will appear on the CMW compilation. Ungawa! Oh, and we're also going to eat grilled cheese sammidges with our pal Tonni at Epitaph and a bunch of other labels at a non-panel CMW panel: Speed Dating with the Indies on March 4. That's right, we like it fast. Fast like borscht. Is that an expression? It should be...maybe we'll mention that on the non-panel....

TARLEKS VIDEO

The Rheostatics’ amazing video for their song, The Tarleks was added into LIGHT rotation at MuchMoreMusic. So if you want to see it, you'll either have to stay up until 3 in the morning, or pester them mercilessly to show this brilliant piece of work more often. It's seriously great, and will get you drunk much faster than most other "light" products. I suppose you can also go to their website and watch the video on the tiniest of screens. Or, you can see it at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in May called "Scene Not Herd" (ha! it's a play on words! get it?). I also believe they are showing the video before the feature films at some repertory theatres in Toronto and the Princess Cinema in Waterloo. I like Waterloo.

VEAL


Veal's "Judy Garland" was recently named on the top ten of an mp3 web site called Fingertips , which is subtitled, "An intelligent guide to free and legal music on the web"...which Nik (of Veal) has subtitled "Some dude's Blog" and "Hey, someone out there in cyber-land likes us!" and "...Do we even exist?".

pat-boone-debby-boone-pat-boone-debby-boone-bette-midler-bucket-of-fish! (say that quickly while air-drumming and your life will be saved).

UPCOMING DATES

Justin Rutledge
February 10: Appearance at fundraiser, "Closer to the Heart", Club 279, Toronto
February 12: Instore performance at Soundscapes, Toronto, 8 pm.
February 17: CD Release Party at the Rivoli, Toronto, 10 pm, with guests Elliot Brood
February 23: Supporting Buddy Miller at the Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, 9:30 pm
February 24-26: Participating in the North American Folk Alliance, Montreal.
February 27: Casa del Popolos, Montreal, 9 pm., with Oh Susanna and AA Sound System
March 3: Six Shooter CMW showcase, Rivoli, Toronto, 9 pm.
March 12: Montreal House, Peterborough

Luke Doucet
February 10: Railway Club, Vancouver, 10 pm, with special guest Melissa McLelland.
**we are looking for a merch volunteer for this gig if you're game!
And watch for Luke in Australia:
March 15: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy, Melbourne, with the Vandas
March 18: Sandringham Hotel, Newtown, Sydney
March 30: Troubadour, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, with the Gin Club
March 31: Tune in to PBS-FM's "Studio 5 Live" to hear Luke Doucet perform live to air from 7-8pm on 106.7FM or www.pbsfm.org.au
April 1: In-store @ Basement Discs (24 Block Place, City), Melbourne, 12:45 pm
April 2: Cornish Arms, Brunswick, Melbourne, with Matt Walker and Ashley Davies

NQ Arbuckle
February 21: Mitzi's Sister, Toronto, with Ford Pier
March 5: CMW showcase, Lee's Palace, Toronto, 9 pm.
March 17: Jane Bond, Waterloo
March 31: CD Release Party at the 360, Toronto. 9:30 pm.

Ford Pier
February 21: Mitzi's Sister, Toronto, with NQ Arbuckle, 9:30, Free.
February 23: El Mocambo, Toronto, with Scribbled Out Man (make up show), 9:30.
February 25: Earshot Experimental Music Series, Polish Veterans Hall (on Dundas West), Toronto, with Wayne Omaha, Martin Tielli, Selina Martin, and more.

Valery Gore
March 3: Six Shooter CMW showcase, Rivoli, Toronto, 8 pm.
March 5: W.A.R.M.'s 6th International Women's Day Event, Quality Hotel, Parkway Convention Centre, (327 Ontario Street), St. Catharines, ON, 9:30 a.m.-1:30p.m., Luba Goy performance, brunch, music, silent auction, $50, Tickets: 905-688-5550 ext. 3257 March 7: Parkdale Songwriter's Night, Mitzi's Sister, Toronto, 9:30p.m., free.
March 20: Valery Gore Gallery Opening: Photography, Butler's Pantry Café (484 Queen St. W), Toronto.
April 23, Staircase Café (27 Dundurn Street N), Hamilton, ON, with Royal Wood

Captain Tractor
Feb 27: Powerplant, Edmonton
March 4: Labatt Brier...not Briar (patch?). Edmonton
March 18: St. Patrick's Day in Saskatoon
March19: Druid South, Edmonton

All Of You
February 14th: w/ your respective Sweeties (awww)


Contest

The winner of last month's contest is James Whitton. And he doesn't even know he is the winner because we have been so gall durned busy that we forgot to tell him. Although James really needs to learn what a split infinitive is (who doesn't?!), he is clearly on the ball...he had a resolution for pretty much all of our artists, and his was the first one we received. His answers:

Captain Tractor - To finally return those empties!!
Christine Fellows - To take up curling.
Ford Pier - To finally master the art of juggling bowling pins.
Luke Doucet - To find out the truth - is he related to legendary Canadian guitarist Jerry Doucette?
Martin Tielli - To personally paint each and every CD cover that he releases in the next year.
NQ Arbuckle - To finally lay to rest the rumour that he is in no way related to crusty the clown.
Richard Buckner - To finally reach Cohen-ism and be known around the world as a ladies man.
Veal - To really reconsider that vegan diet.
Justin Rutledge - To get the Rheos' to be his full-time backing band.
Michael Philip Wojewoda - To broaden his horizons and start exclusively producing ring tones for cell phone users.
Rheostatics - To time travel 99 years in the future to see how correct they actually were.
The Weakerthans - To reinvent themselves as The Ruttles.

I'm sure all the artists will really take James's answers to heart and change their evil ways.

James wins a Six Shooter toque (don't worry, when the snow melts you can start a nu-metal band!), a Luke Doucet t-shirt, and the new albums by Justin Rutledge and NQ Arbuckle. Hoodiggity!

New contest:

Ok, here is the skill testing question:
If you buy a loaf of rye bread and you eat some of it, but then you get busy for a few days and when you come back to your rye bread it has gotten a little moldy on the crust but not the middle part (and you are going to grill that sandwich anyway and surely the purple bit couldn't stand the intense heat of the panini maker) is it acceptable to just tear off the crusts and giver? Will it cure malaria?

Answers must be in proper essay form. Most convincing essay wins various stuff.

alternate contest:
February 25th is Whitesox Day! That's right, it's Martin Tielli's birthday! I urge everyone to have a Galoise Blue and don their white socks in this great man's honour. The first person to email us a pair of white socks and a Galoise wins a pair of white socks and a Galoise. Ok, I've just been told that the interweb can't handle that kind of so-called "bandwidth". Soooo, send us a jpeg (ooooo...the future...) of a birthday card for our pal Martin, or a jpeg of you and your Galoise Blue, and the greatest entry (as judged by us) will receive a Martin Tielli themed present.



beauty on suckas,
Six Shooter Posse

Title track: From "Outside the Stars", Track 2 of NQ Arbuckle's "Last Supper in a Cheap Town". Helen thought this was a nice way to honour Valentine's Day.

This was Six Shooter Bullets Vol. 2, No. 2.


Six Shooter Records
Box 98038, 970 Queen St. E.
Toronto, ON M4M 1J0
416-465-2459
http://www.sixshooterrecords.com

Life is too short to listen to shitty music.