Our album is up on Kerfmusic

If you like downloading music digitally AND legally, and you like good quality mp3's (256k) and you don't like DRM, then Kerfmusic is for you. You can go there, buy the album, and then you've got the mp3's and that's it. No fancy software, nothing restricting where you can play the files, and better sound quality than the usual online stores. Click on the link below.



Secure Downloads on KERFMUSIC

Number 1 on CKXU (Lethbridge)!!!

It's true! For the week ending July 29/08, we are in the number 1 spot on CKXU's charts. This would be our first number 1 in anything. I guess you could call it our #1 #1. It was as simple as sending them a cd, and the dj's must like it! Thank you thank you to CKXU in Lethbridge! Below is the chart for the week:


Rock/Pop charts for the week of 31 Jul 2008
CKXU 88.3MHz - Lethbridge
* indicates Canadian artist.
** indicates Local/Alberta artist.
Chart ranking reflects airplay during the week ending 29-Jul-2008.

Top 30
29-Jul-2008
RANK ARTIST TITLE LABEL
1 The Martingales** - The Martingales - Independent
2 Swank* - Campfire Psalms - Independent
3 Aviary Ghost - Memory Is A Hallway - Independent
4 CSS - Donkey - Sub Pop
5 Various - Ed Rec Vol.3 - Ed Banger
6 Mantrakid** - Palmflower Black - Neferiu
7 Matmos - Supreme Balloon - Matador
8 Beck - Modern Guilt - DGC
9 Daedelus - Love To Make Music To - Ninja Tune
10 Fred Eaglesmith - Tinderbox - Independent
11 Watermelon Slim And The Workers - No Paid Holidays - Northern Blues
12 Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold - Rhymesayers
13 Lownote* - No Place For Romance - Police! Freeze!
14 Snailhouse* - Lies On The Prize - Unfamiliar
15 Sebastien Grainger* - American Names - Independent
16 James Jackson Toth - Waiting in Vain - Ryko
17 Samantha Crain - Canfiscation - Ramseur
18 Negativland - Thigmotactic - Seeland
19 Jay Semko* - International Superstar - Busted Flat
20 Saul Williams - Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust - Fader
21 Various* - North To Ontario 2008 - Independent
22 Bob Sinclair - Live At The Playboy Mansion - Defected
23 Dr. John And The Lower 911 - City That Care Forgot - 429
24 Gilles Peterson - In The House - Defected
25 Sound Tribe Sector 9 - Peaceblaster - 1320
26 Quinzy* - One Boy's Guide To The Moon - Independent
27 Bajofondo - Mar Dulce - Surco
28 My Education - Bad Vibrations - Strange Attractors Audio House
29 Valient Thorr - Immortalizer - Volcom Entertainment
30 Wolf Parade* - At Mount Zoomer - Sub Pop

You could also click here.

Little bits of news

It's been an exciting couple of weeks here in the land of The Martingales (that would be Edmonton). We celebrated a few firsts. On Thursday May 22, our first album review was published. Yes, Eden Munro from Vue Weekly wrote some kind words about out album, comparing us with Neil Young and spaghetti westerns. You can read it here (scroll down a little to find our album). That very same day, we had our first on-air live radio interview. Tammy from CJSR interviewed us on her show "You're Soaking In It". We talked, and some of our songs were played. It was a fun time for all and we really appreciate Tammy giving us so much time on the air! This was some publicity for the release party the following day (of course, another first). Thank you to all who came and enjoyed our CD release party show. We had quite a lot of fun and hope you did too. We played lots of songs - all the songs from the album and 6 more new ones, along with a few covers thrown in there. We took some video and hope to break onto the youtube scene (which will be another first for us) soon!

That all sounds pretty good, but for us, it got cooler the next week. On Tuesday, May 27 CJSR published their top 30 list for the previous week, and (no doubt thanks to all the songs Tammy played during the interview) we ended up at #3 for the week (just one above Portishead at #4)! As awesome as it is to be played on CJSR, things got more surprising later on in the week, when we found out we had been played (at least twice so far) on CKUA, Alberta's public radio. That's right - we've been heard all over Alberta now!

And lastly, though the band doesn't have any shows scheduled at the moment, Andrew will be doing a solo acoustic show along with Erin Ross and Melissa Majeau, a couple of awesome artists from Calgary and Edmonton. The show will be at the Axis Cafe on Friday, June 27.

CD Release Party May 23/08

It is official. The CD release party will take place on Friday, May 23/08. Doors at 7:30pm, show at 8:30pm. Admission is FREE. Location is the Three Bananas Cafe (in Churchill Square). We'll be selling our new album, of course, which is now finally all printed off and ready for sale. We actually already have copies for sale here in Edmonton through the local stores, Blackbyrd Myoosik, Megatunes, and Listen Records, if you want to get it early. Either way, we hope to see you at the show on May 23!

The Martingales.

We're off the charts!!!

Yup, as an epilogue to last week's post, we're off the charts now! Yes, so that means, "we're no longer on the charts" at CJSR.

No. 19 on the CJSR Charts!

Up from no. 28 last week, this week we're no. 19 on the CJSR charts. Take a look (before we're off the charts):

http://www.cjsr.ualberta.ca/charts.php

the album is available online

Hello!

Our album is finally up on all those major online stores, like iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, and Rhapsody.

Check out all those awesome 30ish second-samples!

The physical CD will be ready in May, with a release party to kick it off.

The album!

Our debut album, produced by Jeff Olson at Phonetic Sound Studios, is finished. At least the audio part. Now we just need to finalize the artwork and get the copies made! We're thinking it'll be about a month before that happens, and when it does, we'll be having a cd release party to celebrate. In the meantime, check out the cover (above - click on it for higher quality), and the tracklisting (below):

1. Manitoba
2. Storm Cell Blues
3. Never See You Again
4. Snow Goons
5. Time Travel Song
6. Sleepwalker
7. The Second Board
8. Oscar the Fish
9. Come Around
10. October Sun
11. Green Light
12. Great Fantastic Dream

really almost done....

alright, so we finished singing. that happened a few weeks ago. Jeff at Phonetic Sound Studios has been working on mixing it. And things are moving along with that too. Soon the album will be done done, as in DONE, and then we'll send it away to get manufactured. Did we mention how excited we are about getting this out? We're going to send it to EVERY RADIO STATION IN THE WORLD! ok, maybe not, but you know... a lot of them. And maybe they'll play some songs, and people will like them and all that. And then a bunch of people will come to our shows, even in different cities... ah yes... once the album is done.... we expect it to be available for sale in March or April.

oh, and... we merged some posts from our myspace blog onto this blog, so there is a bit of duplication in those last two posts.

New blog!

Welcome to the new blog for The Martingales! We will be posting news about recordings and shows, and anything we feel like. We may as well start off...

The album. Our first album is almost done. We've just got to sing on five more tracks, and then we will be done. There are a total of twelve songs (two instrumentals). We do not have a specific timeline, but we expect people to be able to get it within a couple of months (after mixing, mastering and manufacturing take place). So far it is sounding great (in our own opinions, of course), and we can't wait to have everyone hear it.

Until next time,

The Martingales

Almost done...

So, the album... we went into the studio for two days in late December, just as promised, and we recorded all the instruments for twelve songs. We went back last week and did a vocal session, and got half of the vocals done. We're going one more time this weekend to finish up. Then it'll be mixed, mastered, and then we'll make copies to bring to our gigs and all that. We're pretty excited about it - it's sounding exactly as we want it to sound.

That Jeff at Phonetic Sound Studios is quite fun to work with - thanks Jeff!

Keep your ears and eyes out. We haven't thought about it too much yet, but we'll probably do a release party show sometime soon...