Come check out our show at Mosquito Creek bar and grill in North Vancouver. Help raise funds for the family of Pavel Kulisek. Check out his story at www.pavelkulisek.com .

On November 16, 2010 we played a show at the Railway club in Vancouver. We hired Drew Dyce and his crew from Reel Frame Media to film the show. They brought some quality recording gear to capture the sound and 3 stellar cameras that give the video a film like quality. Most of the tunes have been edited and are up on Youtube but we enjoy working with these guys and have had them around more often collecting footage for what will eventually be a concert/documentary DVD. We’ll let you know when it’s ready.

After the release of Full Fathom Five in 1995 we went into Hipposonic studios in Vancouver with Rage Against the Machine producer Garth Richardson to record our next album. We did bed-tracks (guitar bass and drums) for twelve songs but only four were ever finished. These four were released in 1997 as an EP entitled Crow. The owner of Hipposonic studios, Rob Darch asked me to paint him a 6 X 8 foot painting as payment for the session. I tried, but I really didn’t know what I was doing at the time and quite literally the painting sucked. A year went by, then two and before you knew it fourteen! We all thought those reel to reel tapes have got to be taped over by now if not lost all together so we just forgot about it.

In 2005 Rob Darch Bought Mushroom studios, one of Vancouver’s most historic and esteemed musical artefacts having been host to everyone from ACDC, to Aerosmith, even Led Zeppelin recorded a harmonica part there back in the day. In 2010 after re-acquainting with Rob, Hamish and I popped into Mushroom to see if he still had the Tapes. After moving everything from the old Hipposonic building and various storage lockers into a small attic like crawl space at Mushroom Rob told us “if your tapes are here they’re in this room.” It looked fairly daunting as the room was completely stuffed from floor to ceiling like a moving truck with old recording gear, odds and ends including two rows deep of reel to reel tape boxes encompassing the perimeter. We just looked at each other and said “if it takes all day to find these tapes then it takes all day.” But within twenty minutes of digging we had miraculously found all four! The tapes luckily were still in usable condition and I must say we were all blown away by the sounds that Garth had captured. The performances of the band were pretty amazing as well capturing a snapshot of us at a time when we were rehearsing fiendishly and really gelling. Anyways we are working on this stuff adding overdubs and vocals to the recording. Hopefully we will have something to play for you soon from this never before heard BTG album so stay tuned.

Oh and by the way, I finally figured out what to paint for Rob and on the night that we went into Mushroom to listen to the tapes for the first time I gave two paintings to pay for the session.

BTG will be organising a handful of Art/Music events at a variety of gallery type locations throughout 2011 and 2012. If you are an artist, artisan or crafter and would like to exhibit at one of these events or if you have other special carnivalesque offerings that you think might enhance such an event please click here to apply. Applicants will be selected through a juried process.

Our new currency is out and is beginning to appear on the streets. At first glance it looks like Canadian currency but there are obvious differences.
The imagery printed on this money is 100% original content made from concert posters and album art. The bills do have serial numbers on the back making them extremely difficult to counterfeit. If you or anyone you know comes across any of this money be sure to report it to a clerk at the nearest Big Tall Garden merchandise booth. This is the only place at the moment where this currency can be redeemed for highly sought after collectables.

I must say we were excited about this one. What band wouldn’t want to see how they look on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? This is a mock up we’ve made and although there are only a handful of rough copies in existence so far they have been appearing on stores shelves in selected locations.