Alright, it’s February already and I haven’t posted anything here since November. I could tell you that I’m in the last phase of my degree right now and that my time is consumed with research and writing up my results and giving talks about my research and teaching two very large classes. Instead I’m going to go with the cooler excuse:

Last year I made the change from just writing about music to getting out there and playing music. (Actually, I’ve been playing music for quite a few years, but last year I joined an honest to goodness real rock band.) I’m sure I’ve mentioned this here before, I play trumpet in the Victoria rock band Versa. The band has been crazy productive these past few months.

[youtube http://youtu.be/c_ODXzeatrU]

First, in December we released a video for our new song “Lantern Season”. The title of the song comes from the Dresden Codak comic Lantern Season. The video had a bout of popularity when Dresden Codak and a few other internet comic forums gave us a shout out. Thanks comic fans for taking the time to watch and give us some us some amazing feedback!

Then on January 4th, we released our new Common Things EP. The EP features a radio edit (more trumpet!) of our song “Common Things” that originally appeared on our 2010 album The Decline And Fall Of…. In addition we have three new songs (“Love In Idleness”, “Lantern Season”, and “Flew The Coup” ) and remix of “Common Things” done by our friend Olav (Colin Liseth). You can take a listen to the EP version of “Common Things” below and you can download the entire release for free from our website here.

Last week we played a show at Lucky Bar with local bands Small Town Villains and Bloody Wilma. Both bands were great and the evening was a ton of fun. We gave CDs away to audience members who could keep up with our crazy time changes while bustin’ a move. I’m happy to report that some people out there do in fact have rhythm. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show! Our friend Adam from Magmazing Music joined us that night and took some great video of our set. Hopefully we’ll have that posted somewhere soon for you to see. Our friend Meg of Meg Super Photography was also at the show and has some excellent photos of the evening posted here and here.

Next up Versa maybe has a new video in the works, and we have a show at the Cambie in Nanaimo on Saturday March 3rd, and an all ages show here in Victoria in April. So basically, a lot of fun things are happening that will keep me from posting here regularly!

Enough of the shameless plugs, hopefully I’ll get some new photos and songs posted here soon. …Is February too late to put up my “Best of 2011” list?