Keep up to date with all that is happening with Smallman and all of our no-good bands. As well, we’ll be running exclusive giveaways for the mailing list (pieces of carpet, old fax machines ... you know, “cool stuff”), so sign up now to be part of the magic.
June 11th, 2008
Carpenter is now an official member of the Atticus Clothing company. They’re up at the Artist section at Atticusclothing.com/artists and as well, Atticus and Smallman are running a co-contest for gear and cd’s at the link below.
http://www.atticusclothing.com/index.php?area=1&articleid=352
Category: Carpenter
June 6th, 2008
In the next couple of days, Carpenter is one of the featured Artists at New Music Canada.
Category: Carpenter
June 5th, 2008
New interview with Carpenter from City In Tune Online.
http://cityintune.com/index.php?c=carpenter__the_unlikely_birth_of_farmcore
Category: Carpenter
June 5th, 2008
Calgary’s Beatroute sat down with Carpenter just before their Strike Anywhere dates.
http://www.beatroute.ca/view_article.php?sectionID=15&articleID=1508
Category: Carpenter
May 30th, 2008
This week, Carpenter’s song "Off The Road" made it to #2 on the Verge charts. Keep climbing, sweet song, keep climbing
Category: Carpenter
May 30th, 2008
This article deserves more than just a yawn and a stretch. But that’s all myself and the office cat gave it. But we are both old, tired and fuzzy.
Carpenter and the Cougar
By Sam Sutherland
“Mid-’90s hardcore is the music that changed our lives,” says Daniel Sioui, guitarist and vocalist for Vancouver’s Carpenter. “So I remember talking to friends when this band started and telling them that John Cougar was my biggest influence at the time, and they would stare at me in disbelief. Or they’d outright tell me it was going to be terrible.” A veteran of bands like the under-appreciated All State Champion (“Super angular, no repeated parts”), Sioui returned from a 2005 tour with Sparta to find his current band broken and bloody. Then he found Mellencamp’s American Fool, booked some studio time, and decided to make a new band. “I purposely wanted to write these pop-rock songs that were more straightforward,” he says. “Listening to Bob Mould’s stuff with Sugar, and John Cougar, those songs are timeless.”
By bringing together former members of West coast punk and hardcore heavyweights like By a Thread and Daggermouth, Sioui’s vision wasn’t likely to end up being American Fool 2.0. “I wanted to be able to take that, and translate it into a different version,” says Sioui. “We play John Cougar before we go on at every one of our shows. At our last show, some promoter friends of ours bought us this huge backdrop with ‘John Cougar is God’ on it and a huge picture of his face. It’s crazy, dude! It’s ten by ten!” Carpenter’s outrageously earnest enthusiasm for a guy that’s low on the cool-to-name-check list (as opposed to Springsteen, punk’s dude de jour) is matched by an equal dedication to the roots of’90s post-hardcore and early emo. As much Avail as Mellencamp crops up in the band’s anthemic, driving tunes, and Sioui’s upper-range holler connects as clearly to Piebald as Tom Petty. But Carpenter has taken more from Mellencamp than just his backdrop likeness. His dedication to supporting struggling small farms has rubbed off on Sioui in a big way.
“In terms of the punk and hardcore community, I don’t know how many bands are down with farming,” Sioui says. “Agriculture is fundamental to everyone and yet no one talks about it. There’s a lot of information on our CD, and we’ve been working with some different groups in town to help promote their work and their message. I want to be a farmer — that’s what I want to do with my life.” That themes of agricultural struggle run through the band’s debut full-length is no surprise. Law of the Land, recorded with no label, management, or support to speak of, is a huge, bombastic statement that straddles genre lines without flaunting its uniqueness. And people are taking notice.
“It just seems like finally we’re getting some help,” says Sioui, whose band now boasts the support of Smallman Records and Underground Operations Booking Agency. “Everyone in the band, in my mind, has paid their dues. These guys have slugged it out for years, done a lot of really hard tours. I think we’re just really appreciative of what’s happening to us right now. It’s one thing to have word of mouth in your town, but to get emails from all over is surprising. We hoped we would get some help, but we were planning to do this all ourselves. We just really believe in this so much, and I think that comes across.”
http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/multiarticlesub.aspx?csid1=122&csid2=4&fid1=31347
Category: Carpenter
May 29th, 2008
Carpenter is in the running for some chart standing on our favourite online radio station - punkradiocast.com. Go vote for "You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down" at the link below.
http://www.punkradiocast.com/REQ10.php
Category: Carpenter
May 21st, 2008
The first numbers are in and Carpenter are starting to attack Canadian Radio. XM channel 52 (The Verge) has got Carpenter on their charts at #3 this week. Carpenter will be going into the Verge studio to record some live songs and for an interview in mid June, so watch for that later in the summer.
Category: Carpenter
May 20th, 2008
Carpenter is one of the featured artists at The Georgia Straight’s Instant Playlist this week. Go check out “Until The Sun’s Up”
http://www.straight.com/article-145570/instant-playlist-may-15-2008
Category: Carpenter
May 2nd, 2008
Tons of new dates for Carpenter. Including the official announcement that the band is on the Atticus Clothing Tour this June, with Strike Anywhere. As well, CD release shows in Vancouver and Whistler are now posted.
Category: Carpenter
March 24th, 2008
Winnipeg, MB - Smallman Records will release the upcoming full-length album from everyone’s favourite farmcore band CARPENTER, a union both the label and band are thrilled about.
‘We’re ecstatic about joining the Smallman crew; one of our nation’s finest indies!,” says Carpenter lead singer Dan Sioui. ‘Many of the SMR bands are bros and we have a ton of respect for their roster, both past and present. We searched high and low for some dirt on Rob and Co. but couldn’t find anyone to talk trash!”
Featuring Dan Sioui of former Vancouver band All State Champion, Carpenter was baptized in the church of John Cougar Mellancamp and has recruited fellow-devotees Kelly Burnham (ex By A Thread), Ryan Howlett (ex Speaking of Heroes) and J.J. Heath (ex Daggermouth). Carpenter’s rootsy rock sound is supported lyrically through their outspoken stance against the corporate based Agribusiness industry and in favour of sustainable farming practices.
In the fall of 2007, Carpenter entered the legendary Mushroom Studios (Led Zeppelin, Heart, Sam Roberts) in Vancouver to record their first full-length album. Co-produced and engineered by Shawn Penner and Aaron Nordean (Bend Sinister, The Februarys, Three Inches of Blood), the album has 10 new songs of anthemic rock n roll music with a message. ‘Law of the Land” is scheduled for release early this summer.
Tour Dates
03/29/2008 - Vancouver, BC @ The Media Club
04/11/2008 - Edmonton, AB @ The Pawn Shop
04/12/2008 - Calgary, AB @ The Castle
04/15/2008 - Medicine Hat, AB @ The Ottoman
04/17/2008 - Winnipeg, MB @ The Albert
04/18/2008 - Regina, SK @ O’ Hanlon’s
04/19/2008 - Calgary, AB @ The Stetson
http://www.myspace.com/johncougarisgod
Category: Carpenter
