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Here’s a report from Saturday’s performance at NXNE.

Thanks to those who came out. We’ll be back in Toronto in August.

We are back in the studio this week. FOLLOW OUR PERPETUAL TWEETS .

-the gang

For those of you who haven’t already heard via our Tweets, we are a lucky bunch of lads.  Our van was found and is now back in our hands AND the most unbelievable part is that nothing was taken from it.  I’m almost offended that the joyrider(s?) didn’t like our P.A. head and tambourines.  We’d also like to think that once they saw the “Young Rival” sign, they knew who they were messing with and ditched their plans accordingly…

Thank you CBC Radio 3 and CHARTattack for reporting the story.

Back to the studio tomorrow in T minus 9 hours. I should get some sleep.

Bon soir!

John

The Good:

Last night capped off our 2nd day of recording: we completed 14 bed tracks and managed to do a bit of additional guitar slaying. It’s sounding boss! Pics below!

The Bad:
I got home from the studio around 2:30AM last night after dropping off all of the guys, and checked through some e-mail before hitting bed.  I turned off my lights, and just before I fell asleep I heard this thudding noise… which sounded like the noise my dog sometimes makes in his sleep when he’s having an awesome dream, (and his tail wags against hallway closet door)… so I ignored it.  But then I heard it again and suddenly realized it was coming from outside.  I had that super sudden gut-sinking feeling…  knowing right away that someone was trying to break into a car, so I ran to my window as quickly as I could, and pulled up my blinds only to see our beloved Winston Vanimal peeling down the street.

Luckily ( I suppose) we didn’t have too much gear in it - but we did loose Noah’s drum hardware and Kyle’s equipment bag - and our “YOUNG RIVAL” Neon letter sign that you see at the top of this blog.

Such a frustrating ending to an otherwise great 2 days of recording….

John

It has been forever since we’ve updated this lil’ page.  It’s one of those daunting annoying things that would prompt an “I should really update this shit”, but then realized it was way easier to not update this shit.

So….where to begin.  There are many fine things going in the YR world.

We have a video that has not been blogged about on this page yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGG2fzvh32c

We have demos coming out of every orifice of our body and are currently narrowing down to a firm 14 songs. These will make for a new album.

We will be playing NXNE on JUNE 20 AT 9PM at The El Mocambo for the Myspace Showcase.

We have a west coast tour in the works: www.myspace.com/youngrival for dates.  More to come.

I totally swear that we were on twitter way before it went bonkers:

Aron bought a motorcycle.

Kyle moved into an apartment behind me and we’re wondering if a tin-can telephone might stretch between our back doors.

Last November we stopped by CBC Toronto to record a live session. You can now listen to the session here and check out some photos too.

-John

It’s been a good weekend.

Friday we played with The Job and Invasions in London.  We’re convinced that it was the most freezing club in Canada on that particular night.

Saturday, we shot our first video in what can only be described as Hamilton’s coldest (note the coldness theme in our lives) and most interesting room.  Capri Restaurant is a staple here in the Hammer, and they were kind enough to let us film in the dinner theatre on their second floor.  Apparently it hasn’t been open or even touched since the 60s.  Should have some samples to post next week…

Tomorrow we open for Nikolai of The Strokes at the El Mo in Toronto.  His new band/side project is Nickel Eye, and it’s something of an honour to share a bill with a member of that seminal band.

Hola Internet,

It’s been some time since we’ve written, but I’d like to think that our holiday blog inactivity is ok.  Much is going on behind the scenes - we’re recording like crazy, plotting tours, and screwing our heads on tight for another good year.  We’re seriously excited about 2009, and you should  be too.  We’ll be starting off our band calendar year with a show in Peterborough on Thursday.  Also, we’ll be shooting a video for “Your Island” this Saturday.  The concept is great, the people we’re working with are great, and, fuck, I think it’s going to be good.  We’d like to thank the good folks at VideoFACT for lending a hand.  It’ll be shot by Ryan Furlong of Fenian Films - they’re yet another creative force to be reckoned with here in Hamilton.  Keep it in the family, baby.  keep it in the family.

Last week we hit our peak on the CBC Radio 3 charts at #2! Thanks to all the supporters and listeners out there! Rest asuured, 2009 is gonna be a wild one….

(Week of Dec 12, 2008)

1. Stars – Sad Robots (Soft Revolution)

2. Young Rival – EP (Independent)

3. The Dears – Missiles (MapleMusic)

4. Bend Sinister - Stories Of Brothers, Tales Of Lovers (Distort)

5. Novillero – A Little Tradition (Mint)

6. Land Of Talk – Some Are Lakes (Independent)

7. Final Fantasy - Spectrum, 14th Century (Blocks Recording Club)

8. The Buttless Chaps – Cartography (Mint)

9. Angela Desveaux & The Mighty Ship – self-titled (Sonic Unyon)

10. Tusks – self-titled EP (White Whale)

….

Last Sunday we took home our first Hamilton Music Award (for best Alternative/Indie Rock Recording of the Year). The new addition to the YR family is filling a nice space upon the TV in our rehearsal space.  We also played a song during the sold-out award ceremony - which I’m sure all you 905′ers will be able to see on the TV sometime next month…..(oh the pace of community programming).

In other news, our EP is still climbing the CBC Radio 3 charts - hitting #9 yesterday…

John

So as our previous post mentioned, we spent the past month touring across Canada, and documenting it via an Exlclaim tour blog.  We’ll be returning to this blog once again to resume our internetting.  If you’ve missed it, there are lots of photos/video/words you should check out over there: