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Graventowners and Bright Eyes Turn-Arounders - what's the ham hock? This weeks brand new season 2 episode is all about someone who has become a big chef in the country kitchen mess hall of Camp Graven; Mister Tom Thompson. Being born in Toronto and never really fitting in in high school, Tom had his consciousness blown wide open when he went with his sister to see U2 at Maple Leaf Gardens on the Unforgettable Fire tour. Having similar experiences at shows ever since, the once mod and metal-obsessed Tom has morphed into a sonic mainstay in the Ottawa music scene and has probably played on an album that your friend released. Having made magical sounds with epic acts like Toque, That's The Spirit, Orienteers, Still Winter Hills, Jim Bryson, Kathleen Edwards and of course yours truly (Graven),  Tom has had the chance to open for and share stages with The Flaming Lips, 54/40. Kim Mitchell, The Grapes of Wrath and just recently Stephen Stanley and Ron Hawkins from Lowest of the Low and Chris Brown from Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. Tom is also a  podcast producer for Library Archives of Canada and now runs his own deep dive music podcast called TNT's Hit Songs from Mars. It was a pleasure to chat with this lovely human today.

And you can catch Tom and I on tour this weekend, as the gritty Graven duo:

DEC 9: Linsmore Tavern - Toronto, ON
opening for Stephen Stanley

DEC 10: Hotel Wolfe Island - Wolfe Island, ON
opening for Stephen Stanley

Info, tickets and times here.

#graventownpodcast
#TomThompsonTheToneAdmiral

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

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Whizbangers and swizzle sticks. Season two is really rocketing out of the mental Cape Canaveral of our mindspheres. I'm so thankful to have had some insanely talented guests so far and episode 4 (4 already?! DANG SON!) is NO different. But also different. Because yeah. We don't want to paint people with a broad brush here in Graventown. Broad brushes just leave more cleanup. Boy, I've really painted myself into a corner. Anyhoozleby...the next guest is not only a 613 pal and someone who I've collaborated with musically in different parts of Canada, but someone who crushes crowds in every venue she graces. Alexandra Sullivan is a Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Fueled by a lifelong love of poetry and music, she encapsulates specific moments and emotions in her original songs. With moving melodies and imaginative lyrics, she can break an audiences’ heart while simultaneously filling them with hope. Her style blends various folk, pop and indie styles. Alexandra has headlined the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, played Marvest City Folk Fest in Ottawa, and shared stages with both Craig Cardiff and Lynn Miles. A live performance of her latest single, Little Hope (2020), was featured in Season 11 of Ottawa’s Shot in the Dark Sessions.

CATCH ALEXANDRA AND MYSELF LIVE AT RED BIRD ON FRIDAY NOV 18!!

UPCOMING SHOWS:
NOV 18 - RED BIRD LIVE
Bank St South - Ottawa, ON
(w Alexandra Sullivan)

Find tickets for the show at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/graven-and-the-new-band-with-alexandra-sullivan-tickets-407006355967

#AlexandraSullivan
#GraventownPodcast
#Gravencanada
#GravenRedBird 

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Holy cow, my dudes. I have a real hot pocket of a cheesy saucy episode in store for you today.  Matt Mays is a Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter and was the lead singer of Matt Mays & El Torpedo  (a rock music group based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and New York City). Previously, Mays was a member of the Canadian indie band The Guthries and was born in Hamilton, Ontario, but grew up in Nova Scotia. With 10 incredibly varied musical releases under his belt, Matt has collaborated with Canadian icons like Sam Roberts, Kathleen Edwards, and the acclaimed singer songwriter Adam Baldwin is Mays’ main guitarist. His 2014 album “Coyote” took home the JUNO award for best rock album and he and his band played on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” in 2006.  It was a pleasure to chat with my friend Matt. Thank you for being you. Stay safe and be as kind as you can.

UPCOMING SHOWS:
NOV 18 - RED BIRD LIVE
Bank St South - Ottawa, ON
(w Alexandra Sullivan)

Find tickets for the show at http://gravencanada.com

#MattMays
#CanadianMusic
#CanadianRockNRoll
#GraventownPodcast
#Gravencanada

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Graventowner Beancounters: get off the abacus and on to the graven bus. Welcome back for another episode of Season Two to warm your intellectual biscuits. If you were anything like me, you spent a lot of the 80's and 90's glued to a screen and enthralled in the vast array of television and cinematic gold that helped us all grow up. The legendary Hollywood actor Keith Coogan played some major roles in that story in my life, and I had the pleasure to speak with the epic dude himself tonight. Keith Coogan was born Keith Eric Mitchell on January 13, 1970 in Palm Springs, California. The grandson of legendary character actor Jackie Coogan, Keith began his acting career doing TV commercials and his first gig was as a stand-in in a McDonald's TV spot -- as well as various TV shows and made-for-TV movies. Coogan did the voice of Young Tod for the charming animated Disney picture "The Fox and the Hound." His first on-screen role was the smitten Brad Anderson in the delightful teen comedy cult favorite "Adventures in Babysitting." Keith gave a very funny and engaging performance as Christina Applegate's stoner layabout brother Kenny in the equally enjoyable cult classic "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" and was impressive as Jonathan "Snuffy" Bradberry in "Toy Soldiers." Among the television programs Coogan has made guest appearances on "The Love Boat," "Eight Is Enough," "Mork & Mindy," "Knight Rider," "CHiPS," "Starman," "21 Jump Street," and "Tales from the Crypt." Keith graduated from Santa Monica High School and attended Santa Monica College, where he majored in Drama and minored in English Literature. He also attended Los Angeles City College, where he majored in Java Programming. Coogan resides in Los Angeles, California and also had a hilarious and timely cameo in Kevin Smith's star-studded 2019 comedy "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot".

UPCOMING SHOWS:
NOV 18 - RED BIRD LIVE
Bank St South - Ottawa, ON
(w Alexandra Sullivan)

Find tickets for either show at http://gravencanada.com

#KeithCoogan
#GraventownPodcast
#Gravencanada

UPCOMING SHOWS:
FRIDAY NOV 18 - Red Bird Live

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Graventowners: welcome here - wherever here is. Here we freaking are. Season two. I even have a new theme song, for gosh sakes. So kick back, grab a muffin or a meringue and let me put your thought train back on the rusty rails. I have a sizzler of a second season in store for you and I'm so happy to kick things off with a serious kazam whizbang from the heavens of hilarious hounds with Janelle Niles (*insert arena sized cheering noises*) - Janelle Niles is a beautifully minded Black-Mi’kmaq woman from Sipekne'katik, Nova Scotia. Janelle’s comedy career began in Ottawa, Ontario and was soon to follow with her indigenous comedy show called "Got Land?" which expresses solidarity through humour. Janelle had the opportunity to perform on Just For Laughs, JFL42, Toronto in 2022 with "Got Land?" -  Watch Janelle on CBC Gem’s New Wave Of Stand-up Season 2 (Canada Only). Janelle has also performed with Crack up Comedy Festival and Arctic Comedy Festival alongside her peers. She appeared on APTN’s Indigenous Day Live 2022, now on APTN’s Lumi. She frequents the United states and hopes to one day perform in New York City. Janelle’s is a force to be reckoned with and her humour is described as eccentric yet captivating.

Be safe and stay kind. You're loved.

Come catch myself and the full band at a few shows to round off the year.

NOV 12 - BUPL ROCKS
(Fundraiser for Bonnechere Union Public Library)
The Eagles Nest - Eganville, ON
(w Annie Martel and The Winter Months)

NOV 18 - RED BIRD LIVE
Bank St South - Ottawa, ON
(w Alexandra Sullivan)

Find tickets for either show at http://gravencanada.com

#JanelleNiles #GotLand #IndigenousComedy #GraventownSeasonTwo

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Folks - have I got a big bang of a beautiful Graventown season-one-ender for you. Originally from Marin County, California, Seth Morris is a comedic wizard who steals every scene that you’ve seen him in. Morris started a career in comedy after moving to New York City, performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) as an improviser and sketch comedian, and became the first staff writer for the legendary Funny or Die website. He then began regularly appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the HBO sketch series Funny or Die Presents, and the MTV prank show Damage Control. Morris has also made numerous hilarious guest appearances on comedy programs such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Parks and Recreation, The League, Reno 911!, Crossballs, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Maron, How I Met Your Mother, Broad City, Big Lake, Human Giant, and Nick Swardson's Pretend Time. He has appeared in films such as The Dictator, Step Brothers, Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, and I Love You, Man. You can catch him weekly in his Dinosaur Improv group w/Chad Carter, Phil Augusta Jackson, Rob Riggle, Jason Mantzoukas, Charlie Sanders, Rob Huebel, Seth Morris, Owen Burke, Paul Scheer at the Largo at the Coronet Theatre in L.A. He was a blast to talk with and I laughed more on this podcast than any other one to date. So fun to have Seth in Graventown for a 46 minuter that seemed like 5 seconds. Enjoy your summer and we'll see ya when season two begins. Thanks for a fun pod-ride pals.

To keep track of my upcoming show dates, head to http://gravencanada.com or follow me on the socials at @gravencanada

AUG 20 - Graven in Graventown (Yard Show - Nepean, ON)
(email [email protected] for details)
AUG 26 - Acoustic Grill - Picton, ON
AUG 27 - Barnstorm Festival - Finch, ON (w full band)
and more to come!

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

It's been one hot RHCP minute, my pals. This summer has been redonkulously busy for shows and I've finally had a few minutes to reflect on some/all of it. I hope you're thriving wherever you are. Special thanks to the incredibly talented and legendary Chris Walken who popped by to say a few words on the G-Town pod.

JULY 16 - Graven In Graventown
Nepean, ON
(Email gravencanada@gmail for tickets and directions)

Check http://gravencanada.com for all updates and some new summery neon/pastel tees. 

Yer loved.

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Friends - it's been a red hot chili pepper minute since I've been on here. I sort of wanted to talk openly and freely, with little context or subtext, about some heaviness that's been on my mind lately. The recording and undertaking of Simple Complex (my newest album) took up a lot of psychological weight and I'm just sort of realizing that now. I wanted to unpack how I've been feeling for the past few months. No guest. Just me. Wild and free. I hope it finds you well and I hope you find ways to unpack your mental state. Love y'all and can't wait to connect on Thursday for Graventown on IG live on my @gravencanada page at 9 PM EST. 

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Holy crow: was it ever lovely to converse and catch up with my old touring pal and JUNO nominated mega-talent Saskatchewanian music magician Megan Nash. Throughout their self-produced upcoming album Soft Focus Futures, Megan Nash mines the death of her marriage for clues that could decode its demise and set her on a path toward some sort of stability in self. In the process, they achieve a distillation of heartache and its attendant, all-consuming power that arrives like a 100-year flood in blossoming crescendos buoyed by precise poetry evoking unnatural disasters, the tyranny of silence, old dogs, and the isolation of life in the country. Megan and I chatted about the road, touring life, mental health, the shared trauma of the pandemic, relationships ending, pep 'n cheds (those dual pepperoni and cheddar sticks you get at most gas stations), and her new podcast which is actually called Pep 'N Ched. It was a lovely time. Find out more about Megan on her website at http://megannash.ca and check out her latest youtube video at https://youtu.be/xpwHzlpLtr0

Catch me live on Rachel's driveway (in the west end of Nepean) on Saturday May 28 to kick off Yard Show Season! Email $20 to [email protected] to RSVP (limited tickets available)

For more shows and updates, stay tuned to all Graventown happenings at http://gravencanada.com - you are loved. 

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month. 

Send us Fan Mail

Today in Graventown, I had the chance to chat with a fellow CBC alumni and someone I would run into frequently in my journalism days. Waubgeshig Rice is an Anishinaabe writer and journalist from the Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario, in Canada and released his amazingly successful post-apocalyptic novel “Moon of the Crusted Snow” in 2018. Rice has been recognized for his work throughout Canada, including an appearance at Wordfest's 2018 Indigenous Voices Showcase in Calgary. The New York Times named Rice, alongside Cherie Dimaline, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger and Stephen Graham Jones, as "some of the Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror and fantasy." It was lovely to chat with him today.

Stay tuned for some spring and summer shows and please feel free to purchase my new album "Simple Complex" (mixed by Joel Plaskett) on my website. I feel the kind words and I'm loving the support. Be good to each other and please try to stay kind! I play live on Instagram every Thursday at 9 PM EST for Graventown. Come hang!
#gravencanada
#graventown
#canadiansingersongwriter

My new album "Geographics" is out now on all platforms. You can buy the digital, cd and vinyl versions of the album on my bandcamp page, (which helps me greatly) but I understand that cash is tight all over the map, so you can also order a five dollar Geographics sticker. 5 beans! This album is really special to me (as my friends Melissa Payne and Charles Austin played all over it) and I hope you'll come along for the supersonic ride. Follow me @gravencanada on all the socials, and check my website to see when I'm playing live in a town near you. Join Graventown today to support yours truly for only 8 clams a month.