Things have slowed a bit since Halloween, mainly because of Jeff’s back surgery and Jeff moving again (3 times in 2 years…wow!).  Back in the groove again though.  We’ll have something for you crazy, hard rock loving, motherf%*&%  soon!  Work has already begun for the next CD and we’ll keep you posted!

A new limited edition “Still Standing” will be coming out soon as well.  This CD will contain all of the original songs re-mixed and re-mastered, but some bonus material too!  Once again, we’ll keep you posted.

Maps and all info at the link below.
You can find more info here.

Rock Apocalypse Rock Festival is coming and will be held in Sundre, Alberta, Canada August 6, 2011. And, you guessed it, TLA is a headliner. But there are ONLY 340 tickets available and once they go public, they will sell out FAST. From the website

“This outdoor show will include 13 of the hottest breaking ROCK bands in Southern Alberta. A complete celebration of their hard work and incredible talents on display August 6th, 2011 for a intimate and extremely privilaged crowd. Tickets will be made available TO THE PUBLIC on June 1st, 2011.”

TLA is giving away 2 VIP tickets in a raffle, available to Fan Club members only! If you are not an Official Fan Club member, then click here to become one!

As well, WE have tickets for sale RIGHT NOW! And, if you are part of the Official TLA Fan Club, you guys can get $10.00 off the admission, whether that be a regular or VIP ticket…it doesn’t matter which! The Coupon code will come in the welcome email (with other stuff).

Once you have it, just go here to get your ticket:

Standard Ticket	VIP Ticket

What you get:

Standard Ticket:
This ticket is transferrable however to enter the grounds you will need to be 18+ and have picture ID (Driver’s License, Passport, or Student ID).

This ticket includes bus transfer into the event, entrance into the IMPACT ZONE, and bus transfer back to the pickup point.

VIP Ticket (this one is pretty awesome!):
This ticket is transferrable however to enter the grounds you will need to be 18+ and have picture ID (Driver’s License, Passport, or Student ID).

This ticket includes the Friday night pre-party with all the bands and staff including an acoustic Jam where all band members can perform. Onsite parking will be made available for this event to VIP ticket holders.

For Saturday the ticket will include the bus transfer to the event, entrance into the IMPACT ZONE, and access to the VIP indoor bar area where all the bands will be. This area has a walk out deck overlooking the IMPACT AREA and a perfect view of the stage.

If you don’t have your ticket, you probably should get it at the links above!  What are you waiting for?

• We get one guy saying he loves the writing, melodies, yet the production is some of the worst he has ever heard
• On the other side we get another who loves every aspect of the disc. Just loves it.
• We get one guy who loves the overall sound production and engineering, yet some of the songs don’t work for him
• We get another critic that says TLA sounds like Motorhead and Jason sounds like Lemmy.  This guy also goes so far to say that all the songs sound the same.  I can see what he is saying here as ‘Burning Stack’ and ‘the Last Light’ sound like almost the same song (not).
• Etc.

We have had these critics state that their most popular songs from the disc are anything from ‘Left For Dead’ to ‘Still Standing’, ‘Habitat For Insanity’, ‘Twilight Radio Waves’, and one was even ‘Break Me’. So obviously everyone’s specific tastes within this genre of music are totally different, as they should be. About the band and disc some say “Refreshing and different”, some say “Awesome, fresh, old skool rock” and some say “tired and dated” and “it’s been done”.

As you can tell, I am a little fed up with several areas involving ‘critics’ and need to vent a bit.  I know that critiques from all sources comes with the territory (i.e. everyone has an opinion), but never did anyone say I have to like it…and I don’t. So if you don’t want to hear Jeff’s opinion/rant, then stop reading now! Here we go.

<Rant On>

My favorites are the armchair critics who frequent Facebook and sites like that. People who tout themselves as music industry “experts” (or some such thing) and know no more about the music industry than those of us who love to listen to music. Their “grand opinion” is supposed to mean something, especially if they don’t like whatever it is that they listened to…because they are so important (<sarcasm> I mean, c’mon…we should all know how important they are! </end sarcasm>).  I hate to tell these people, but for every one of them that don’t like our stuff, there are 500 that love it. So we should pack it in or change because you say so?  Uh huh.  Then there’s the trolls that get banned from the TLA Facebook site because they drop in and start throwing hate for no reason: “That sucks, you guys suck, everything sucks, and why don’t you quit playing?”.  We listen to constructive criticism and take it if it is warranted or if the same sentiment is echoed from a lot of people. We don’t pay much attention to these others.

To some of this I say whatever.  I mean, Jason sounds like Lemmy and TLA sounds like Motorhead? Seriously? I would have picked Sound Garden, maybe Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden (as many people would). The worst production ever: well, it can’t be that bad if so many other people can’t tell if there is a problem or not. Some people outright love the production. And if people like/love the disc and the songs, then who cares? People often lose sight of the fact that it’s about the music and if it gets the emotion across, not how perfect the snare sound is on a particular song.

The “best” thing I saw so far was these guys who slagged the band for using the names Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Iron Maiden when describing the band’s sound/genre.  “TLA is not worthy to use those names” was the statement or something ridiculous like that. Let’s clarify this point for the kids: when these bands names are used in describing TLA’s sound, that immediately helps identify the genre and if people would like that kind of music that TLA is playing based on their “like” of these other bands. Probably better to do it that way than say “Do you like Joe’s Garage Rocking Band or the Little Metalheads? If so, you will like TLA!” as I doubt that the last statement makes you want to hear anything from TLA, nor does it clarify whatsoever the kind of music/genre the band plays. That is unless you know who “Joe’s Garage Rocking Band” or “the Little Metalheads” are, which is highly unlikely.  Chances are also really good if you saw an ad stating “Do you like Joe’s Garage…” no one would click on the link associated with it for the afore mentioned reasons, therefore no one would find out who TLA is.  And in case there is still some confusion, at no point did anyone say or otherwise infer that TLA IS Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath. Seriously…do we really have to state this?

My mom always said “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. Apparently this is a lost saying as so many feel it’s their god given right to be ***holes and that everyone wants to hear whatever they have to say, especially on the Internet. As I have heard about the Internet these days “Hard to hear when everyone is shouting…”.

Bring the responses if you like. I got my flame suit on already (but I would actually have to care about getting flamed for that to matter).

<Rant Off>

Until next time, Stay Heavy.

–Crazy, Ranting, Hard Rocking Jeff

The drums I am using currently are an old set of Pearl Exports. I’m not totally sure what year they are but I do know they are from the early to mid ‘80’s. They are a birch shell with a cheap cedar outer ply. Not a bad combination, they are about a low to mid-grade drum. The birch in the shell gives a nice resonance but not a lot of depth, while the cedar outer plies mostly give an inexpensive filler. The drums were originally covered with a plastic coating which can be compared mostly with a krazy carpet. I have since taken the plastic off and stained the shells a darker kind a mahogany color. This lets the wood breathe easier and gives a warmer tone. The only problem is I f*****d up and got stain on the skin seat and threw out the easy tenability of them…although it’s fixed now.

Through out the years of my drumming career…which is a huge overstatement…I have used a few different skins, I have used stock skins, I have used evens clear and coated skins, and different type of Remo skins. The ones I favour the most, by far, are Remo Embassador Pinstripe. These skins are so fantastic because they are a two ply, reasonably thick skin, with a thin film of oil between them. This gives a slappy hard hitting sound that also gives fantastic action and also can be tuned to a fairly wide range of notes, but can be a **** to tune. They are most suited to rock and metal styles and hold up very well to those with a heavy hand, I’m definitely guilty of this. Come to a show and I can show you how much!!

The ringing I started talking about is a nightmare in the drum world, sort of, more annoying than anything else…but you get the point. A ring occurs when you hit a drum head and the drum has a high pitched ring that carries on long after you hit the drum. It is cause by a few things and can be easy to get rid of, sometimes not. One cause of this ring is when one or both of the heads have an uneven tension across the skin. This is fairly easy to fix, there is a simple tuning method to even out the tension. You tap the skin about an inch and a half from the outside ring directly in line with each tuning lug, listen to the tone, then make all the lug points match the tone. This is one way to get rid of the ring. Another cause in conjunction with uneven head tension is if the batter and resonator skin are tuned off pitch to each other so the vibrations reverberate horribly. To fix this all you need to do is tune each head at the same pitch or one to be two to three notes higher or lower than the other, each drum is different but this should solve the problem.

Now next time you hear a really good sounding acoustic drum kit you can appreciate the art that is the awesomeness of a kick ass drummer and having awesome sounds all around you!

Taylor Sanderson - TLA Drummer

About 4-5 months later in early 2009, TLA’s long time drummer Shawn Speirs (the guy who was with the band before the first CD in the late 90’s and came back after the first CD) seemed like he didn’t want to quit, but he didn’t seem to want to be in the band anymore either. So the band asked him to leave. It was a hard decision as Jeff and the guys had a problem (and still do have actually) rewarding Shawn’s loyalty to the band and the music by dismissing the guy. As Jeff says “It was brutal. One of the worst things I have ever had to do. But we needed someone behind the kit who wanted to be here and really wants to be here…if you know what I mean”. It was a few months (about 3) before they found his replacement, Andrew Whiting. In April 2009 Jeff was camping in the middle of nowhere and got his 4×4 stuck in a huge mud pit. He and his wife and 2 year old son walked for 10 km (Jeff’s son was carried) before finding someone to pull them out. Andrew was part of the group of guys who helped do that. Andrew stayed with the band throughout the disc and left August 2010 due to his lack of interest. It was a mutual decision for him to go as it was clear to everyone that their paths were not going the same direction anymore.

The guys wanted to be sure that the guy they replaced Andrew with had talent, that the personality would fit with the other band members, and that the person had the commitment level that they are at: to do whatever it takes to make it in the music biz. An extensive tryout/audition period began late August with about 10 drummers. Many of these guys were really good and committed like you wouldn’t believe. Jeff says “It was heart breaking to let some of these guys know they hadn’t been chosen as they wanted to be in TLA so badly, and a good 4 of them were excellent drummers!”. In the end, Andrew was replaced late September 2010 by Taylor Sanderson. Taylor is 19 years old, but plays as good or better than guys who are 10 years older than himself. Taylor is a ‘savant’ (for lack of a better term) when it comes to the drums. The band says time and again they are lucky to have him. To show the commitment level Taylor has, he has to drive 1 hour in each direction 3 times a week to practice with the band…once again, wow!

The CD “Still Standing” is about just that: still standing after everything that the band has been through. And the band is still here. They setup their own studio for this disc and that helped them get quite a good product in the end. They actually released the disc twice. The first time in May 2009, but it was rushed to market in a half-assed state due to recommendations by a few industry pro’s (who obviously had not received all of the information or something). Long story and I won’t bore you with the details. Within a month of being released, it became very clear without a doubt that the CD needed to be remixed, re-mastered (different mastering company), and re-released.  4 months were spent re-recording large parts of the disc and re-mixing. After the re-master it was re-released as “Still Standing” version 2 in November 2010 and version 1 became a collector’s item as there will never be more than 1000 of them ever printed. The differences between the discs (so you can tell them apart):

Version 2 of the disc has:

It has generated a lot of interest with independent A&R people, Radio stations (internet and other), etc. Reviews and such are apparently coming in and will be posted on the ‘Reviews’ page soon.

Prior to releasing the disc, the band played a lot of gigs around Calgary, Alberta, Canada and area (mainly Central Alberta as well). A couple of the testimonials the guys received speak for the way it was: TLA blew club owners and audiences alike completely away! And now they are gearing up for a lot more live performances in 2011 so a lot more people can see them! As well as a new CD is in the works, of which they’ve got a great start on the first song.  The TLA Facebook site is doing exceptionally well, with an addition of 6000 fans in 2 months. Many of the fans arrived via Facebook and its TLA that kept them (and is keeping them!).

And the story continues and is still being written every day!  So stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated!

– Janet Sawchuck,
Writer for TLA and TLA Web Admin

The oldest members in the band are Jeff and Paul. And yes they are twin brothers. Yet Jeff is the only member who has stayed and kept the band together since the mid to late 90’s.  Everyone else has left, left at least once, or been asked to leave. With the exception of Jason and Taylor, the current guys.  They haven’t been in long enough to be kicked out! =P

The first TLA disc was released in 2000.  This was after the long time drummer at the time had left the band high and dry before they went into the studio. So it was just Jeff and Paul. The replacement drummer they met up with to do the CD with was in Kamloops.  He was an old friend of Jeff and Paul’s from school. This turned into a big fiasco, lots of drama, people getting ripped off, etc. A long, sordid, and drawn out story which we won’t cover here.  The good thing about all of that was the guys were introduced to the studio (Small World Studios) and Henry Small (think singer from ‘Prism’, album ‘Small Change’). Unfortunately the first attempt at recording in Kamloops was a wash. The band finally ended up using the studio drummer for recording the first CD on the second trip out to Kamloops, and Paul was singing. Good songs, but a seriously dated CD and the vocals are not bad, but could have been better. And a lot of lessons learned.

The next disc was “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” and was released in 2005 with a new band essentially. It was also produced by Henry Small and recorded at his studio in Kamloops. Paul had left the band by this point, but Jeff, Stan Engelage, Colin Murphy, and Shawn Speirs put together a pretty good CD with this incarnation of TLA. Unfortunately it was also quite dated. All of this was realized too late, well after the disc was released and started to receive reviews.  Not a lot of promotion was done on that disc until it was 2 years old…which at that point was a little late. According to Jeff “Everyone had the best intention to do something. But if you don’t have a plan, like we didn’t, time has a way of flying by with no results of any kind. Before we knew it 2 years had gone by and nothing had been done! So I started working on it”.  It was up in front of a few A&R execs at the beginning of the promotion, but they all said “nothing special” or something similar.  So Jeff figured he better learn how to promote it on his own. He sure learned a lot from this in preparation for the third disc, “Still Standing”.

In late 2007 the band started in on “Still Standing”.  The working name at that time was “Problem With Authority”.  In early 2007 some desktop wallpapers/pictures were released with the concept art and this name on it…a collector’s item if you can find it (I know where to get some)!  Stan Engelage had left the band due to time constraints and Paul Larsen joined up in November 2007. Colin Murphy had also left the band as he had another band he was playing with and TLA became second to what he was doing with them. The band brought a guy onboard to sing after that for 6 weeks but it was determined he was not a good match for what TLA was doing.  Same day that decision was made (and executed by asking him to leave), Jeff got a  call from a young guy who was a singer/guitar player looking for a band. There is quite a story around this, but we’ll call it fate for this tale.  The guy was Jason Turnbull, and a week later he was the front man for TLA. What sealed the deal was after giving him the music for “Is It True?”, the guys asked him to take a shot at melodies and lyrics. And he came back with what’s on the CD now, lots of the harmonies and everything.  Pretty impressive.

:: To be continued next week!  Stay tuned! ::

– Janet Sawchuck,
Writer for TLA and TLA Web Admin

Jeff and Megadeth 2006!

This topic is pretty confusing for a lot of people, and rightly so as these terms are often used interchangeably…but according to us (TLA) they shouldn’t be! Therefore I wanted to give you all my (our) viewpoint on it and hopefully add some definition to this area because people sometimes get confused as to what we are doing here with TLA. So here we go a defining dated versus ‘old skool’…

First, let’s define what TLA means by ‘old skool’. By ‘old skool’ we mean REAL hard rock. The kind of hard rock that has no era. The kind that could be dropped in today and would fit. Granted it would probably be a little different than it was when it was released given the influencing forces in music at any given time, but all in all it would be the same.  Bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, the Who, old Rush, etc. In other words the kind of hard rock that was being created when hard rock and heavy metal meant pretty much the same thing: hard, heavy, and timeless.

We look at dated versus ‘old skool’ when writing. The main features we are looking for when defining whether or not something is dated versus whether it’s ‘old skool’ are a few of these kinds of items:

• Are there new/modern elements in the song? These must exist, and be quite prevalent. Otherwise the song will be dated.
• Could the song be dropped into an era (80’s, 90’s, 70’s, etc)  and fit perfectly?  Does it sound just like the music of that time? If so, it’s not ‘old skool’ but clearly dated.
• Is the song off doing something new and exciting to the point of experimental? If so, it’s probably not rooted in ‘old skool’ rock. Could even be jazz…you never know…
• Is it heavy?  If so (and we wrote it), it’s probably hard rock. It may even be metal or have metal tendencies (think ‘Habitat for Insanity’), which is awesome!
• There’s probably more…but that’s all I got for now =P  And it’s good enough to make a quick distinction.

TLA’s philosophy when writing is to hit the target of ‘real’ rock. We strive (very hard, I might add) to add the newer elements of rock, try to define our sound to be as unique as possible, and to keep the songs fresh and with a good deal of “TLA flavor”.

We are not trying to recreate or do what has been done before; not at all. We are trying to stay true to the hard rock genre, keeping the songs as close to what we define as the genre’s true nature as we can. So when people say that TLA has an ‘old skool’ sound,  we feel these kinds of comments are pointing at that…the ‘trueness to form’ as mentioned…albeit painting everything we do with the same brush.  So in the end, TLA can probably be described in a sentence or less as:

‘old skool’ Canadian Hard Rock that’s original, new and fresh, with a ton of great melody.

There. That was easy right?  Anyways, I hope this week’s installment helped clear things up for some folks. If not, well, we’ll have more tunes coming soon so you can probably figure out what we are doing for yourself.

Keep it heavy…and Up Yur Act!

–JL

On the CD artwork there are 3 hidden items, aka Easter Eggs (version 2 of the disc only…version 1 — aka the Collector’s Edition — only has 1). These were “funnies” or oddities that were intentionally put in to provide some entertainment for those fans who wanted to take the time to hunt for these things.

So we’ve made a contest out of this!

The first 3 people to correctly find the 3 Easter Eggs and email what they are to info@thelastact.com will win an “Ultimate TLA Fan Kit“!

This kit includes:

Basically every product that TLA currently has. All valued at over $120.00!

BUT in order to get in on this you need a CD! You can get one easily through the main TLA website by clicking here or you can get one from CD Baby by clicking here. If you don’t have a credit card or paypal account, you can always walk into your local CD store and ask them to order it from their catalog (a service provided by CD baby…Bless their hearts)!

Contest will run until April 1, 2011 (or until we have 3 winners)