What’s up everyone -

I feel like we’ve been dropping a lot of bulletins lately, but there’s a lot going on! So please bare with us…

Lots going on with Living With Lions! They have launched their video for the song “A Bottle Of Charades” and it is being featured on MySpace! The video has also been added to rotation on MuchMusic, so keep an eye out there. The Lions have also been nominated for two FU Awards (fuawards.com), which are awards handed out by 102.1 The Edge’s Punkorama radio show in Toronto. The band is nominated for Song of the Year for “A Bottle Of Charades”, and Best Live Performance.

To check out the video, learn how you can vote for Lions at the FU Awards, and to take a peek at their most recent (and ridiculous) video blog, hit up their MYSPACE.

Ten Second Epic are about halfway through their national tour with Theory Of A Deadman, and so far so good! For those of you that are heading out to the shows, they are selling their new disc, “HOMETOWN”, which hits shelves next Tuesday. If you can’t make it out to a show, you can always pre-order the record at www.maplemusic.com. Not sold yet? You can preview the whole record on their MYSPACE from January 23rd-26th. The video for “Life Times” is up to #15 on the MuchMusic Countdown, so thanks for your support! Hometown - OUT JANUARY 27TH!

Finally, we’ve got some cool news on the Shad front. His song, “Brother (Watching)” was included alongside 48 other artists in CBC Radio 2’s ‘Obamas Playlist’ - a list of songs that voters deemed to define Canadian music. For the complete list, check out the following link:
Obama’s Playlist
CBC Radio3 has also posted some in-studio live recordings Shad and his band did back in November. This includes some new stuff and some older stuff - all of it is worth checking out. Here’s the link:
Shad’s Radio3 Sessions

Upcoming Shad Dates:
Jan 29 - Guelph, ON @ Vinyl
Jan 30 - Peterborough, ON @ Gordon Best Theatre
Jan 31 - Toronto, ON @ Nathan Phillips Square
Feb 12 - Kelowna, BC @ The Habitat
Feb 13 - Golden, BC @ The Roadhouse Tavern
Feb 14 - Calgary, AB @ Hi-Fi Club
Feb 19 - Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar
Feb 21 - Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore

The Wooden Sky should have a new video blog up from their recording session in Montreal soon. So keep checking back on that front. Thats all for now, go check out the new Lions video, and cast some votes for the FU Awards!

Ian

PS - Black Box just emerged into the world of Twitter! If you use Twitter, please feel free to add Black Box, me or Ten Second Epic. The internet is ridiculous.
twitter.com/weareblackbox
twitter.com/ianblackbox
twitter.com/tensecondepic

Hey Everyone, just a couple of quick bits of info –

1) Ten Second Epic will be appearing on MuchOnDemand tomorrow (Friday) at 5pm on MuchMusic! They’ll be talking about the release of their new record “Hometown”, and their current tour with Theory Of A Deadman. For all of you in the Toronto area, that show comes to the Kool Haus tomorrow night. For all the rest of the dates, visit myspace.com/TENSECONDEPIC. Don’t forget to go pre-order “Hometown” at maplemusic.com, and keep an eye out for a streaming album preview on mtv.ca starting Monday!

2) Shad got some love from KevinNottingham.com which is a pretty high-profile hip hop blog from the US. Check it out here:
kevinnottingham.com.

Don’t forget about Shad’s upcoming shows - Toronto, Guelph, Peterborough, Kelowna, Golden, Calgary, Vancouver and more…check them out at myspace.com/SHAD.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Just a quick update to ring in the new year. We have some tour updates and other news as well to pass along.

TOURS:
Check out the tours section for all the details, but here’s whats new…
Ten Second Epic - National tour announced supporting Theory Of A Deadman, Jan 12th-25th
Shad - Ontario & BC/AB dates announced, as well as SXSW and Warped Tour.
Crash Parallel - Eastern Canada headline dates announced, including Toronto at Mod Club on V-Day.
Classified - European tour dates with D12 and Royce 5′9, as well as SXSW and more to come!
Matt Goud - Western Canadian dates with fellow Saskatchewanians, Library Voices.

On top of that, Living With Lions are currently in the midst of booking a US tour (see www.myspace.com/livingwithlions if you think you can help), and The Wooden Sky are hard at work in the studio working on their album. Busy times, and we’re off to a great start in ‘09.

More to come!

Black Box.

Hey guys,

Here’s a quick year end note from your friends at Black Box - we have some awesome news and notes to pass along as our last update of the year.

Shad won a CBC Radio3 Bucky award this week for Best Video for, you guessed it, “The Old Prince Still Lives At Home”. Check out this note posted from his fan page:

++ SHAD WON THE BUCKY AWARD FOR VIDEO OF THE YEAR!! WOOPWOOP!!!.. We love The CBC and all of y’all for voting!! Check the YouTube link (which our homeboy Myles cut and posted - much respect man!) to see Shad’s acceptance speech (I promise, it’s worth the time spent!!)… and also… check the CBC Radio 3 link. R3 is the the best online radio station that exists, and they do HUGE things for Canadian music… annnnnnnnnd.. they have some doooooppppe scarfs!!!
View Shad’s Acceptance Speech
radio3.cbc.ca ++

We’re also EXTREMELY excited to announce that Shad has been added to the entire 2009 Warped Tour on the Skullcandy Stage! We’ll have more info on this as it comes, but you can check out the entire 47 date list at warpedtour.com

Ten Second Epic’s video for the song “Life Times” continues to climb the Countdown on MuchMusic and the Daily 10 on MuchonDemand. Thanks so much for your support. You can pre-order their new record, “Hometown”, here:
MapleMusic.com

In other news, Living With Lions just finished their video for the song “A Bottle Of Charades” which should be up at some point early in the new year - keep an eye out. If you missed the note last week, the band has signed a US deal with Adeline Records and Make Your Mark will be out in the States in early 2009!

Classified has finally dropped the viral video for his street single, “Trouble” to rave reviews. It’s an animated video, available exclusively online and on MuchVibe. Check it out here:
“Trouble” on Youtube
Expect the new album, “Self Explanatory” in March.

The Wooden Sky is just finishing their tour with Pascale Picard and have already begun tracking for the new album in Montreal with Howard Bilerman (The Arcade Fire & more). Stay tuned there, and check out a recent roof-top performance from their home in Toronto on aux.tv

Crash Parallel is home writing some new material and enjoying some time off after an extremely busy Summer and Fall. Thanks to everyone who supported the singles, came out to the shows, and supported meTOwe!

Thats all from camp Black Box for 2008. We’re going to hunker down in this Southern Ontario blizzard and re-emerge some time in early 2009. Thanks for a great year, and don’t forget to add us to MySpace and Facebook.

Happy Holidays to one and all.
Ian/Jay/Steve.

Whats up guys -

Just a quick reminder that Ten Second Epic’s new video for Life Times is up online! Just hit up our Media section to check it out. Make sure you’re voting for the MOD Daily 10 as well by clicking on the link here:

<a href="http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/mod20/daily10.aspx" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.ethicsind.com/mod-banner.gif"></a>

Living With Lions roll through Ontario with our friends in Fireworks - heads up to Woodstock, Guelph, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto! Also make sure you check out their MySpace and the Sharpie Contest we have going on.

Shad has been nominated for 2 CBC Radio 3 awards! “Best Video” for ‘The Old Prince Still Lives at Home’ and “Best Collaboration” for the song ‘Vagabond’ which appears on Hey Ocean’s new record. Please go vote, here’s the link: http://radio3.cbc.ca/polls/?pollId=25>.

Finally, Classified hits the prairies with D12, Joe Budden and Royce 5′9 this week. Get ready!

More to come!

Hey everyone,

Just dropping a quick note on some of the sweet goings-on this month around the Black Box camp…

- Ten Second Epic will be on MOD tomorrow (November 7th) at 5pm to premiere their new video for the song “Life Times”. The video has been added to heavy rotation, so keep an eye out and make sure to request! “The Virtual EP” is up exclusively on iTunes as well, so go check that out.

- The Wooden Sky, Living With Lions & Means are both out on the road this month - The Wooden Sky heads deep into Quebec with Pascale Picard band, Means is currently on the Unity Tour with The Artist Life, then completing their final run of dates with Horizons in Western Canada, and Living With Lions heads out for dates with Aspirations, Carpenter and Fireworks this month as well - check our tour section for all the details.

- The Polaris Music Prize Gala which was held on September 29th is being broadcast this Saturday on CityTV at 7pm. The show features performances and speeches from all the nominees, including our own SHADrach Kabango! Tune in!

- Crash Parallel is finishing up their tour with David Usher, then heading down to do some showcase dates in Los Angeles…we hope to have some info on a US release very soon, so stay tuned.

- To all you Classified fans - we have new music…check back next week as we unleash “Trouble” - the street single from his forthcoming record titled “Self Explanatory”. Huge!

Thats all for now - I’m going to ACTUALLY keep my blog up to date this month. You can expect a little music, and a lot of baseball.

Ian.