 PLEASE NOTE: My Weekly Crime is currently on an indefinite hiatus. Each of the band members are currently pursuing outside projects. UPDATE - Feb 17th 2008 - Added some screen captures to the Images section from our own video footage of the Tribute Documentary videotaping session on April 1st 2007. UPDATE - Oct 24th 2007 - Please note!!! I just received an email advising that the air time for the 3 remaining episodes of the Tribute documentary has changed from 10:00 PM to 7:00 PM. The dates for each episode remain the same. Also, the first episode will air again as an encore presentation on Sunday Nov 18th at 7:00 PM. UPDATE - Oct 20th 2007 - The production company that created the documentary
about tribute bands (see Sept 17th update below) sent me a "press release" regarding the TV airing schedule of the 4 episode series. Note that the schedule
is for TV viewers in Ontario Canada, but the director did tell me that the series would eventually air internationally so if you
are outisde Ontario then keep checking your local listings. I will post more info when/if I get it. Here's the press release:
UPDATE - Sept 17th 2007 - I recently received an email from the director of the Rush Tribute documentary that we we're asked to participate in this past spring, and unfortunately we've been cut from the documentary. The network asked for only 2 bands to be included in the episode about Rush and the other 2 bands were actual working bands so we got cut. It's disappointing, but understandable. I'm still looking forward to seeing the documentary which I've been told is scheduled to air Sunday October 21st at 10:00 PM Eastern Time. I'll have more details as the become available. In the meantime, I've asked the director if she could send us some of the footage they shot of us back in April. She responded that she is going to try to get some of the footage of us sent to me but the documentary is the priority at the moment so she will keep me posted. When the video becomes available I will try to post some of it here. Stay tuned... In related news... It's been a while since I've posted any news about "My Weekly Crime". After we finished the videotaping session for the Rush Tribute documentary we all decided to take a break for the summer with the intent of getting back together in September to see what might be next for the band. Last Sunday Terry, Scott and myself got together and after a very amicable discussion we've decided to put the band on an "indefinite hiatus". After 5 years of plugging away at the same basic list of Rush tunes we've all gotten kind of bored, and the recording project didn't pan out either, so we've all gone our separate ways musically for the forseeable future. Terry is getting lots of use out of his new iMac recording some original tunes with a couple of friends. Scott has taken his drums home to woodshed a bit with some of his favourite CDs. And after 5 years of playing bass my trusty homemade guitar seems to be re-asserting itself in my life. I've setup most of my gear in my home office and made it into a basic home recording studio. I've started working on some new ideas but I think things may really get rolling with a new audio interface and some badly needed repairs to my speakers. So far the music I've come up with fits nicely with my long-standing desire to record a followup to the Tower demo. Tower II? We shall see... and I'm still working on the Digital Men project as well. I'm hoping to post a finished mix for Spirit Of Radio soon, and then I can focus on finishing Freewill, and then ??? So does this mean My Weekly Crime is finito? One phrase I kept repeating during our discussion on Sunday is "never say never". We may all get bored of whatever we're doing on our own in a few months and decide to get back together to work on Rush tunes again. Or we may not. That's why I used the term "indefinite hiatus". We've left the door open so who knows? In the meantime we've all got some projects to keep us busy over the winter and I'll keep posting progress reports here as I get them. UPDATE - Apr 23rd 2007 - The band has decided to take a break for the summer, but here's the video clip I promised. It's only 4 minutes long but it's a 45 MB file so you may want to go make some coffee while you wait for the download ;) Requires Quicktime 7 or a compatible MP4 movie player. DOWNLOAD: Documentary Day Video Clip ~ 45 MB MP4 UPDATE - Apr 15th 2007 - The "short-term project" I mentioned below is now complete. The band was invited to participate in a documentary about Rush tribute bands, and the video-taping took place on Sunday April 1st. Why us, you may ask, considering we've never played a live gig? The documentary is going to focus on several Rush tributes, and the documentary crew thought it would be interesting to include the story of a band that has been practising for a while but hasn't yet made the jump to the stage. We were asked a lot about this, but you'll have to wait until later this fall to see and hear the answers when the documentary is released. I'll have more details on the release date as they become available. We shot a little bit of video of the session ourselves, and I hope to have a short clip up soon. In the meantime, the band is getting together today to discuss the future. Stay tuned... UPDATE - Feb 28th 2007 - "The more things change, the more they stay the same." A new short-term project has the band working on a set of Rush tunes again. The recording project is on hold temporarily until we complete the new project at the end of March. More details will be available then... UPDATE - Nov 12th 2006 - Back to work! Or is it back to play? After 6 months off we got together 2 weeks ago to discuss what was next for My Weekly Crime. After deciding to put the cover tunes aside for a while to focus on our own music we listened to some original ideas Terry had been working on over the summer and rummaged through my collection of dusty old 4 track tapes. Last weekend we got together to jam on some of those ideas and during the week Terry and I did some arranging on the computer. Today a song finally emerged from all the cutting and pasting! Looks like we could be very busy over the winter! More soon... UPDATE - Apr 17th 2006 - Summer break! The band is taking a bit of a break over the summer with fewer practices so that everyone can enjoy all those Sunday family barbecues to come, but that doesn't mean things are slowing down. We're all keen to work on some original material and will be doing so on our own over the next few months. Hopefully we'll all have some new material to share and work on at the end of the summer. In the meantime we're starting work on learning a song by Dream Theater. That should keep us busy for a while ;) UPDATE - Mar 12th 2006 - So what's new? Not too much, but things are evolving in subtle ways. We are once again discussing the possibility of working on some original songs. At my end of this creative process, I'm slowly sifting through a box of tapes (yes tapes) that represents 20+ years of my efforts to write songs. Honestly, most of it now sounds dated and unusable (though amusing to listen to) but a few pieces may be useful. At this point though I'm more anxious to see what we can create now from scratch. To that end I am employing GarageBand and Logic Express to capture some new ideas on my PowerBook. Tapes... sheesh! One other musical note- I recently purchased some new synthesizer software called GForce Minimonsta being distributed by M-Audio. For those not familiar with this software, it is a softsynth, a program that emulates a hardware synthesizer, in this case the venerable old MiniMoog. It's a great piece of software though a bit overwhelming with all of it's options, but I am hoping to put it to good use on any original projects that may be produced in the near future. If you've always wanted a Minimoog but could never afford one (like me) then check this program out. Be sure to look for the demo download link to have a listen to what it can do. Stay tuned... UPDATE - Jan 22nd 2006 - MUSIC UPDATE - The band worked on "Witch Hunt" this week and last week, and what a cool tune! Not a toughie by Rush's standards but it's such a powerful tune and really exhilirating to play it loud so that those big synth chords fill the room. We also attempted "Cygnus X-1 Book II" from Hemispheres. It has to be one of the toughest things I've ever tried to play but it's a welcome new challenge. UPDATE - Jan 17th 2006 - The new mixer is here! What a difference. I think everyone in our band would very happily recommend Behringer Mixers to anyone thinking of getting a new mixer with a tight budget. We picked up the USB2442-FX Pro. The preamps are super-clean and we can now hear everything much more clearly. With a new mixer, and the "semi-live" recording project now behind us, we hope in the near future to record a few more Rush tunes and ultimately some of our own original material. Stay tuned... UPDATE - Sept 5th 2005 - After a year plus of recording ourselves playing Rush covers our recording project has been put on hold for a while. Time to get back to what we really enjoy doing- learning new songs! But there has also been talk of working on originals and we have lots of ideas on computer and in my box of old tapes, so ya never know what might show up next... Spirit of Radio has been added to our list of MP3s. UPDATE - Aug 10th 2005 - Haven't got the final version of Spirit of Radio done yet so here's a link to the current version to hear what we've been up to. It is a rough version so mind the bumps! UPDATE - July 29th 2005 - Been a while since the last update but here's the scoop; Scott has returned from his vacation, but our weekly Sunday practices have been few and far between due to family committments and a weeklong vacation by myself. But we managed to squeak in a Sunday recording session to work on "Spirit Of Radio" and the results are very encouraging. This Sunday coming up (July 31st) we should be able to wrap up Spirit and move on to our next song- YYZ... check back here after the weekend for the finished version of Spirit! UPDATE - June 4th 2005 - While Scott has been on holidays out west for a couple of weeks the band has been taking a bit of a break from recording, but progress has occured on a few side projects recently. I have been working on building a set of MIDI synth pedals for Terry using a set of old Hammond organ pedals I picked up on eBay and a MIDI encoder kit I picked up from Sound Research. The pedals are finally done so Terry will be working with them over the next little while to add in a few synth sounds and sample loops here and there. Also, I stopped by one of my favourite music stores last week, Maestro Music Academy in St. Thomas Ontario (no webpage), and tripped when I saw a replica (or "faker") of a Rickenbacker 4001 bass for sale! It has some problems with the neck, but I a local luthier seems to think it can be fixed so I snapped it up! I've added pics of Terry's MIDI pedals and the "Rickenfaker" bass to the gearpics section. Check 'em out! UPDATE - Apr 17th 2005 - Back to recording again today. We never felt like we'd got a "keeper" take for "2112" so we hammered away at it again today. Have a listen to the final mix in the MP3 section of the website and tell us what you think. Next tune up... Spririt Of Radio! UPDATE - Apr 14th 2005 - "TOWER" on internet radio! Thanks again to "Sue aka The Scorpion" on aiiradio.net for playing two Tower songs, "Waking Dream" and "Dragonslayer" on her show this afternoon. UPDATE - Apr 6th 2005 - "MY WEEKLY CRIME" on internet radio! Special thanks to "Sue aka The Scorpion" on aiiradio.net for playing our covers of "Limelight" and "2112" on her show this afternoon. Tune in to aiiradio's many streaming radio shows to hear great independent artists and bands! UPDATE - Mar 6th 2005 - Back to recording today. Everyone felt a little rusty after being off for a few weeks but after a few false starts we eventually got down to biz. The tune we were working on this time was 2112. Technically it's not an overly difficult song to play. The challenge is more in the timing and the pacing. As interim producer I pushed and prodded the guys into "one more take" at least a bazillion times (surely you exaggerate) this afternoon and came up with a take that still needs a bit of polishing, but came out sounding not too bad to this interim producer's ears. You can check it out in the MP3 section of the website. Next week we'll polish it up and then on to the next song! Stay tuned... UPDATE - Feb 28th 2005 - Quick update while the band takes a couple of weeks off from recording. Back in November of last year I purchased a set of old Hammond organ pedals on eBay. I then picked up a MIDI encoder from an online company that allows the organ pedals to trigger sounds from my synthesizers. Well, after a little confusion about the wiring diagram I've finally managed to get the pedals working, which means Terry is going to be a little bit busier next practice ;) If you're interested in building your own set of MIDI footpedals check out the Sound Research website. UPDATE - Jan 23rd 2005 - The recording project continues. The boys worked hard on this one (how many takes?) and I think it shows. Have a listen to Limelight and feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we're doing. Next week we start work on recording a classic epic. Stay tuned... UPDATE - Dec 3rd 2004 -
We've added a few new songs to the setlist and we are currently recording some
of those songs. Here's a short sample of Xanadu from 2 weeks ago. A little rough around the
edges UPDATE - Sept 25th 2004 -
I've expanded the website to separate webpages rather than a single page to
speed things up and stretch things out a bit more. Also, two more songs are
being worked on to add to the setlist. New World Man and Distant
Early Warning are proving to be challenging but in a good way :) Hopefully
we'll have time to do some more recording soon and get some of the newer songs
on "tape". Stay tuned...
UPDATE - Sept 12 2004
- News pics! Check the Images and Gear sections. New songs for next week?
UPDATE - Sept 08 2004 - Well
I'm officially on vacation and during my time off I've been working on the
songs. Practice was postponed last Sunday due to a fishing trip so I have to
catch up! There's an updated setlist including the return of Red Sector 'A'
(which I hope to have a recording of shortly), and the addition of
Synchronicity II by The Police. Rush is definitely our favourite band but this
tune is a lot of fun to play and is sounding pretty good (hopefully to be
recorded soon as well). We've also got some B&W pics yet to be developed so
lots to look forward to. Stay tuned...
UPDATE - July 24 2004 - Back
to work! Not much to report other than getting back to working on our setlist
after a couple of weeks off. The setlist has been updated a bit and new songs
are being worked on as well as brushing up on the old songs. Recording has been
put on hold while we work on tightening up the songs. Stay tuned...
UPDATE - June 13 2004 -
Another recording day... Click on Tom Sawyer on the MP3 webpage to download the song. Be sure to listen to it in
headphones to get the full effect ;)
UPDATE - May 16 2004 - More
recording today! This time "The Trees". Check out the MP3 webpage to download the song.
UPDATE - May 02 2004 - I've
just uploaded an MP3 of "Subdivisions", which we recorded today. Check
the MP3 webpage to download the song. We are in the
pre-production stage of recording so these are just rough versions for now.
More to come as we continue to tweak the songs and record the rest of the set
list over the next few months.
E-Mail us and tell us what you think!
UPDATE - Apr 17 2004 - Pics of our gear that only a fellow gear-pig could
possibly enjoy :)
UPDATE - Feb 11 2004 - First
practice in the new rehearsal space! Despite a slow start and 4 weeks off
everyone sounded great! And LOUD! The room is pretty live sounding due to a
lack of sound absorbing materials on the walls. But we'll fix that soon ;) My
new bass amp sounds so
much better. I'm glad I upgraded :)
UPDATE - Jan 07 2004 - A
name for the Sunday Band? What do you think of My Weekly Crime? Huh?
Listen to the lyrics to Red Barchetta for a clue... 2004 should be a productive
and interesting year! New rehearsal space, and the recording project starts to
take shape. Stay tuned...
UPDATE - Aug 10 2003 -
Sunday band pics! Who are these guys? Click here for
images of each member of "The Sunday Band"...
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