An isolated and picturesque setting, much like a rural sensory deprivation tank, can force one to seek out sources of inspiration, be they literary, audio or visual. In a place unobstructed by concrete and the need to follow trends, an internal prerogative arises from a confining reality of being forced to know and face one's self.
CHORE exists in a cerebral yet commercially accessible dimension that is progressively influenced yet reflectively their own. When they are light, they are heavy. When they are heavy, they are light. When they are both, CHORE is a new force.
Chore Call It Quits ChartAttack.com
Tuesday April 06, 2004
After almost 10 years of making dynamic, thought-provoking music together the guys in Chore have decided to call it quits.
Over the course of their existence, the Dunnville, ON quartet managed to tour from Ontario to British Columbia six times and Ontario to Nova Scotia three times. They made a couple of cool videos, released three awe-inspiring albums on Sonic Unyon and had their last album, The Coastaline Fire, released in Japan by Daymare Recordings.
Bassist Mike Bell says that he's extremely thankful to all who have supported the group. He cites chatting with fans, playing in Hamilton and Halifax and getting to open for some of his favourite acts as some of his favourite band memories.
"Honestly, bringing Shiner to Hamilton is definitely one of our crowning achievements," Bell says. "Also, opening for Burning Airlines in Toronto and playing to a few hundred proud Dunnvilites on a Festival stage opening for Finger Eleven and I Mother Earth at the short-lived Dunnville Music Festival in 1999. Getting emails from fans all over the world was always encouraging and meeting diehard fans while out on the road was a great pleasure. Just about any Hamilton or Halifax gig in the past six years has been among the best shows in our history. We'd always come off stage in those two cities saying to ourselves, 'Why can't it be like this everywhere?'"
Of course, along the way there's going to be some lo-lights as well. As individual incidents most can be overcome. After a while, though, problems accumulate and as Bell explains things just stopped being enjoyable, causing the group to want to explore other options.
"Getting rejected for VideoFACT 10 times was tough, as was deciding to part ways with Brian [Pettigrew — Chore's original bassist]," Bell says. "Being forced to 'headline' in some cities only to watch everybody clear out after all the local bands were done, never getting asked to go out on tour with any bigger bands and bickering on the road are also up there. We never managed to catch one of those lucky breaks that can get a band's momentum really moving. After almost 10 years of working so hard and wondering why it wasn't getting any better, it just began getting less and less fun."
Although they've decided to go their separate ways, the members of Chore are still very interesting in making new music. Bell recently begun writing music with Mark Raymond and the duo is currently looking for a drummer to flesh out their sound. His brother, singer-guitarist Chris Bell, is fronting a new band called Alive And Living and hopes to tour extensively with the act. Drummer Dave Dunham and guitarist Mitch Bowden have been jamming together and Bell says they may eventually also form a new group.
Chore had written six songs for their next release. Three were written by Bowden and are being saved for his next project. One of the tracks will be available for download on the group's website, http://www.chore.com, within the next few weeks. The fate of the last two songs is presently undecided, but Bell states that they may possibly surface on future compilations.
Presently, Chore's final performance is slated for April 23 at the Sonic Unyon building in Hamilton, ON. The gig will see them opening up for their good friends, Alexisonfire. Bell confirms that the group are considering playing one last headlining show in Hamilton before packing it in, but advises that anyone who wants to see the band one last time should try to make it out to the Alexisonfire show just in case things don't pan out.
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My new online radio show begins this Sunday with a launch on Fusion Radio. Home of such metal programs as the very popular "Govenor's Ball" and "Xplosive Metal Radio". This show will be solely focused on rock, stoner metal, ambient, drone, and anything basically that sounds good whilest you burnout on a Sunday evening. Everything from Autokinoton to Zombi! The show runs from 5-6pm and will most likely have podcasts available for download very soon. A myspace is also in the works.
If you have any requests feel free to leave me a comment or a PM and I'll try and play it this coming Sunday or on my next show. I'm quite excited about this. I have lots of fun things planned including giveaways and cool interviews with some of the best people in the underground scene. So tune out and turn up because your Sunday evenings just got their groove back!
AND DON’T FORGET TO WATCH SONS OF BUTCHER, every weeknight at 9:30pm, Friday nights at 9:30pm and 12:30am, and weekends at 10:30pm and 2:00am on the Detour on Teletoon!!!
…Pass it on! If we're gonna go out, let it be in a blaze of glory.
Thanks for your support so far with the “Save the Sons of Butcher” cause.
I've made up a quick petition, and I'm hoping you'll sign. All I need is your name, email address, and a quick comment, and if you have the time, please forward this to your contacts. Only we can save the SOBs!!
"The million dollar question has finally been answered but it's not the answer any of us wanted to hear. Teletoon has decided that 26 ep's is enough Sons of Butcher to serve the fans and will not be renewing us for a 3rd season.
If you're left scratching your head, so are we. We will be submitting an appeal that lays out all our accomplishments and hopefully they'll see the light. But at the end of the day, maybe they just hate the show. It's worth a shot though.
In the meantime, I think it's time we rallied the troops. We've seen what happens when the SOB fans unite. We will be compiling a list of letters to submit with our package, so let your voices be heard. Send your love to:
