Mockingbird WIsh Me Luck

These Songs are True. These Days are Ours.

2010-10-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

Learn more about violence: here.

Eventually our capacity for neglect will to collapse under it's weight.
Our first 7" will be out in December.

Branches

A-Side:
American Homes (4:00)

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B-Side:
Branches (4:27)

Updates soon.

Patrick's Interview

2010-08-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Beat Noir's Patrick McEachnie asked us some questions for The 1rst Five.

Heres the interview, check out the site for more punk rock sort of stuff.

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Mockingbird Wish Me Luck is a four-piece punk rock band from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. In the summer of 2009 they released the Goodbye Debris EP, which has since been rereleased by Dine Alone Records as a digital download. Mockingbird Wish Me Luck just signed to Dine Alone Records in the Spring of 2010, and Patrick McEachnie recently had the chance to meet up with them after a gig to discuss some questions regarding, but not limited to, their recent signing.

Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, interviewed July 15th, 2010 at the Mansion House in St. Catherines, Ontario. Interview by Patrick McEachnie.

Amos LeBlanc – Guitar

Bishop Wierzbicki – Bass (vocals)

Kyle Krische – Drums

Mike Arnott– Guitar (vocals)

Patrick McEachnie – Your name, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck is an obvious reference to the Charles Bukowski book of the same name. Was there a certain part, theme, or idea behind the book that made you want to name to band after it?

Bishop – We were I think between 16 and 18 when we started the band and Buks persona aligns with the art we were trying to make, which actually probably doesn’t mean much. After we wrote the first batch of songs some of the themes and maybe a bit of the style he worked most of his career seemed to cross. So, not that book in particular, although it did have some of my favourite poems. But I mean it was cool to have a name from a book, and like Hot Water Music did it…

(General laughter)

PM – I was just going to say, “It wasn’t the Hot Water Music thing!?”

Bishop – It’s weird, if we weren’t already invested we’d probably change it. It’s grown its own meaning to me now, I actually almost like it because it’s sort of long and hard to remember so it’s kind of challenging, hard to type out. You get some effort from the listener. The Hot Water Music thing was sort of half conscious. You know, I feel like when you’re a 17-year-old kid and you have to name your band, what else do you do?

PM – When I was 17 my band was named “Robots Unite”, and I think I’d rather be in a band named after a book.

Kyle – I don’t know, I like Robots Unite!

Amos – Yeah, I like Robots Unite.

Mike – Kyle’s got a pretty lively career of band names.

Kyle – Yeah, I’ve got some great names!

Amos – Just name them off right now. Necrocarcass first off.

PM – We’re skipping straight to question #6 here!

Kyle – Okay, well I’ve got to start from the very beginning.

Amos – Okay, this is a list of Kyle’s band names.

Kyle – Zombie Rave was the first one, The Filthy, Shoelace Paparazzi, then Mockingbird Wish Me Luck came in there, Confusion Bolts, Necro Carcass, Wayfarer, Fathers Day, what else have we got? Is that all of them? I can’t even remember.

Bishop – That’s still a shit ton for six years.

PM – You guys call Kitchener, Ontario home. Are you all Kitchener locals, or natives?

Amos – Yeah.

Kyle – We’re all from there. I live in Guelph during the school year. Kitchener, Toronto, Oakville or whatever.

Bishop – I live in Ayr

Kyle – Yeah, Ayr, which is a shithole.

Bishop – It’s not a shithole!

Amos – There’s nothing there!

Kyle – it’s just a gas station and Bishop’s house.

Bishop – Yeah, that’s true. It’s a place for artists.

PM – So it’s boring?

Bishop – Its farm country, I don’t know if it’s boring.

PM – You guys just finished a two month tour of Western and Central Canada, and some of the Northern United States.

Bishop – Two Week, a little bit less.

PM – Do you have any funny anecdotes, or border stories?

Amos – We bought a bunch of fireworks.

Kyle – Yeah, we had a bunch of fireworks basically in one suitcase, and the dude at the border made me empty our van and give him our bags, and I knew the one had all the fireworks in it. So I put a pillow overtop of it just hoping that he wouldn’t be able to see it. And it actually worked! That was the only bag that didn’t get searched.

Amos – Which is bullshit, because the pillow went on top of this giant foot deep suitcase. And it’s just a pillow on top of a bloody bag! He looked under the floorboards and everything, but when it came time to look behind the amps, he wasn’t up for it.

Bishop – Yeah, once he saw the amps he was just defeated, and was like “Aw, I’m not searching through anymore shit”

Amos – The only personal bag that didn’t get checked was mine, and it was full of illegal fireworks, and alcohol.

Bishop – If he had even peeked in the bag he would have seen them. There were thousands.

Amos – Probably about 3,000 individual fireworks.

Kyle – And we lit off most of them in the van. You know, in celebration of getting over the boarder.

PM – So how was the response and turnout at the shows?

Kyle – The American shows were good.

Amos – Better than we expected is generally what it was like.

Kyle – We go into everything now expecting it to be awful.

Bishop – We just aim low.

Amos – We have a booking agent now, but the shows we booked in the US were all booked by us, mostly Bishop. We figured “whatever, that’ll get us to Calgary so we can make some money”

(General Laughter)

Amos – Sorry, Get some money so we can pay for gas!

Kyle – Not punk! Not punk!

* Enter Timur (Show promotor)

Kyle – Fuck Timur. Put that in the interview.

Timur – Yo, you guys know about the bet [Kyle] lost, right? Wayfarer played that June 8th show here…

* This is where Amos spills his beer all over my notes

Kyle – This pretty much sums up out band.

Timur – Anyways, Kyle lost a bet because they were kicking a football into a trashcan, and Jason Whitney got it in.

Kyle – A guy who can’t play fucking sports for his life!

Timur – Kyle has to get my face tattooed, Jason’s face tattooed, and Derek’s face tattooed.

PM – So getting back to you guys playing shows in Calgary, you’ve played four big festivals in the past little while. Sled in Calgary. Scene here in St. Catherines, Radfest in North Carolina, and North by North East in Toronto.

Amos – Definitely more than we realized.

Kyle – Yeah, I just realized that.

PM – So did Dine Alone Records have anything to do with getting you onto these festivals, or did you playing them get the attention of Dine Alone?

Kyle – NXNE, yes.

Bishop – Joel from Dine Alone, founder, registered us for NXNE.

Kyle – Radfest, the dude just emailed us. Sled Island, our booking agent had a part in that. And same thing for Scene Fest.

PM – How did you first come in contact with Dine Alone Records?

Bishop – I believe in was Greg from Stuck in the City, who puts on some really great shows in Toronto. He sent them a link. the funny thing about that is he actually doesn`t book us now that we go through Kreeft (booking agent). Has sort of an ebb to it. Anyway Joel sent an email pretty early after we released the EP. We talked for a long time after that.

Kyle – Yeah, he came to see us play. About halfway through our set we all figured he wouldn’t like us; saw that coming!

Amos – The only impression we got off them was that we’ve got to make this show work! But then we played it, and it was like, “Fuck!” Even though they said it was cool, they just left after.

Kyle – He must have gotten drunk one night and thought to himself “I feel like losing a lot of money, lets do this!”

PM – It’s pretty well known that Dine Alone has a lot of big, active bands. How does it feel to sort of be in the same group of friends with them?

Mike – I didn’t think we had any friends on the label.

Amos – Well we just played with Alexisonfire. Who were the nicest dudes ever. They pretty much sat us down and gave us the whole “this is what it was like when we were small”. Even though we’re probably going to stay small, they appreciated us as if we were going to appreciate ourselves. It feels weird, but we had an interview. No, we had a meeting this week. Am I fucking this up?

Kyle – Yeah, pretty hard.

Amos – But we had a meeting!

Bishop – (cuts in) Lets just say it’s pretty cool being on the same label.

PM – Okay, so tonight you’re playing in St. Catherines with The Menzingers, then you’re heading East to Montreal tomorrow for a second show. Other than those two shows, so do you have any tours, or even shows planned?

Kyle – Well we’re going down to The Fest in October.

PM – Touring all the way down?

Kyle – A little bit, because three of us are in school right now. So we’re touring down with our friends Vicious Cycle. They’re playing Fest and we’re coming back up with them. That’s really the only thing. We’re trying to write a record, kind of.

PM – So how about recording plans?

Kyle – We’re right in the middle of a 7” right now, I finished recording the drums two days ago. We finished Mike’s guitar tracks last night. So we’re working on that. It might be a 7” or it might be a split. We don’t really know. After that we’re taking August off to start writing the full length.

PM – And are those both coming out on Dine Alone?

Kyle – The 7” is still up in the air, but they are releasing the full length, yes.

Bishop – Well, if they want it.

Kyle – We’ve got to give them demos, and if they suck they’ll just tell us to fuck off.

PM – Who has been your favorite band to play alongside?

Kyle – That’s tough.

Bishop – Well I think The Menzingers tonight.

Amos – Cavaliers!

Mike – Leatherface for sure.

PM – Who would you love to tour with?

Amos – It’s kind of like, if we were good enough we’d tour with a lot of bands. But right now we’re not going to tour with anyone.

Kyle – Menzingers for me.

Bishop – Any of the good upcoming punk rock bands; Menzingers, Banner Pilot.

Kyle – Dear Landlord, even.

Bishop – Oh, Forgetters too. That’s the new Blake Schwarzenbach band. I could quit music if I got to play a show with them.

Mike – I’d like to go on tour with our friend Steve, who has his own project called Hinindar. Essentially I would want to be in a van with my friends, so I’m really looking forward to the shows with Vicious Cycle.

PM – Records of the now. What have you been listening to a lot lately?

Kyle – Menzingers – Chamberlain Waits, Dear Landlord – Dream Homes, Banner Pilot – Collapser.

Amos – Infinite Arms by Band of Horses just came out, and that one is really cool.

Bishop – Yeah, that Band of Horses album has been driving me nuts in the van.

Neglect

2010-08-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Fest 9

2010-07-29T13:52:00.001-07:00

Mockingbird Wish Me Luck will be playing this years Fest in Gainesville Florida!

The lineup is unreal as usual. Worth the trip.

Planes Mistaken For Stars, The Menzingers, Lemuria, Bridge and Tunnel, Assholeparade, Banner Pilot and so many more.

CHECK IT OUT.

2010-07-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Jimmy Jazz tonight in spite of the rain.

Check out Junior Battles, and if you like what you here, purchase/download their new 7" (you can link from their MYSPACE.

Dry Mouth

2010-07-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

We just got back from an awesome weekend in St. Catherines/Montreal with The Menzingers. Their record Chamberlain Waits has been playing consistently in the van for the last two months. I think it's overtaken Kyle's Lawrence Arms mix-cd for most played, which is a pretty significant statement.

One of the best records of the year though for sure, check it out here

Thanks to Elk , June & July , Timur and Timur's couches, and the rest of St. Catherines. Also big thanks to Miles for helping me push Amos off the porch.

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Lots going on in the Mockingbird camp recently, including the recording of a new 7" record with our main man Adam Labadie.

Expect another post with a full review of the Mid West mini-tour soon. In the meantime, come to Guelph this Thursday for SunSun's with us and Junior Battles.

Event Here

-Mike

Scene Fest + Goodbye Debris on iTunes + Midwest Tour

2010-06-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to watch us play some songs and sweat through some clothes tonight at Scene Fest. The weather was shitty, everything was crowded and I couldn't find a washroom. I did check out the guys in Elk, who played an awesome set.

Dine Alone has released Goodbye Debris digitally on iTunes. You can find it here or straight from iTunes. Not sure who buys music from iTunes, but It'd be great if you decided to.

Tomorrow we start our midwest string of shows, that will probably substitute the consumption of exclusively American softdrinks in place of sleep. Check out the dates below and come see us or hang out with us if we are coming to your city. We are all friendly except for Kyle, who can be a bit of a rockstar.

The route:

JUNE

12 - Club Absinthe - Hamilton, ON
19 - Bovine Sex Club - Toronto, ON (NXNE Showcase)
27 - Scene Fest - St. Catherines, ON
28 - Dadhaus - Detroit, MI
29 - The Moving Castle - Chicago, IL
30 - The Fuck Factory - Minneapolis, MN

JULY

3 - Dickens Pub - Calgary, Alberta (Part of Sled Island Fest)
4 - The Club - Regina, SK
7 - The Black Pirates Pub - Thunder Bay, ON

If we make it across the border there should be some (photo) updates soon.

-Mike

Familiar Light

2010-06-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile, but heres some awesome news:

The good people at Dine Alone Records are doing a digital release of Goodbye Debris, out at the end of the month (June 22nd, mid/end).

We're all really excited to be part of the family!

Upcoming shows:

JUNE

12 - Club Absinthe - Hamilton, ON
19 - Bovine Sex Club - Toronto, ON (NXNE Showcase)
27 - Scene Fest - St. Catherines, ON
28 - Dadhaus - Detroit, MI
29 - The Moving Castle - Chicago, IL
30 - The Fuck Factory - Minneapolis, MN

JULY

3 - Dickens Pub - Calgary, Alberta (Part of Sled Island Fest)
4 - The Club - Regina, SK
7 - The Black Pirates Pub - Thunder Bay, ON
8 - Millard's Garage - Sudbury, ON
22 - Jimmy Jazz - Guelph, ON (Free Show!)

Also want to say a big thanks to Chason and the rest of the RadFest crew, especially Lemuria for the gear/motel tip.

Updates soon. Thanks.

Going North

2010-03-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

We've got some miles ahead of us this weekend, making our way down to Sudbury and Thunder Bay to play for some strangers and friends. Thanks to the guys from Shared Arms for the van.

Saturday Night (March 20) with Cities Collapse, Bunnies in Berlin and Killing Queens

Myths and Mirrors
500 Frood Road
Sudbury, Ontario

$5 / Starts at 7 / No alcohol

Sunday Night (March 21) with Alexisonfire and some rumored supergroup.

The Outpost
955 Oliver Rd.
Thunder Bay, Ontario

$30 (!?) / Starts normal time I guess.

We'll have some Ep's for sale as well as a small run of shirts and posters.

Also, if you haven't heard the new Wayfarer record, go hear the new Wayfarer record.

OUR FATHERS

CastleFlattener

2010-03-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

A track we've been siting on for a few months, we wrote before Debris. It doesn't have a destination. It might seem like a step backwards but I still enjoy it, it wont be up that long...

The music video from 07'

I Want The Moon

2010-02-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

Surprise Leatherface show tomorrow night in Toronto.

Details:

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 9:00pm

$20 / 19+
The Bovine Sex Club
542 Queen St West

special guests Yesterdays Rising, Sinking Ships and Us.

Legendary band. If you missed them yesterday, this is your chance.

Welfare

2010-02-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

An excerpt from a conversation I had with Steve Sloane (Hinindar, The Music Box, Wayfarer) about ten minutes ago regarding employment - via computer.

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Steve 12:20am

yo lets get rim jobs next year
are you allowed to again?

Bishop 12:20am

i don't know if they'll let me

Steve 12:20am

dang

Bishop 12:21am

theres lots of shitty jobs out there though
i got fired from world vision

Steve 12:21am

surprised?
I thought you just stopped going anyways

Bishop 12:22am

naw, i was gonna stop but then they let me keep coming

Steve 12:23am

only to fire you?

Bishop 12:23am

i got fired on an unrelated note

Steve 12:23am

?
another "buried my father" joke?
or something along the lines

Bishop 12:24am

there was this tiny women in an SUV and i was standing outside of starbucks..
and she had to get right out of her giant SUV to go into the starbucks
and she had to walk right passed me and it had been a long day of getting ignored by people

Bishop 12:27am

so once she ignored me i said something along the lines of "of course you don't have time to stop. you and your giant SUV had to drive a block to get starbucks.. you're running a tight ship"

Steve 12:27am

...

Bishop 12:27am

"for just the price of a cup of coffee a day..."

Steve 12:27am

fuck
haha

Bishop 12:27am

but she was gone...
and my manager heard and called me after work

Steve 12:28am

heard how?

Bishop 12:29am

The girl i was working with was called a coach
and she's like a fake manager

Steve 12:29am

pfft
pwer tripping cunt

Bishop 12:29am

but she reports to the real deal
it was bond to happen

Steve 12:30am

haha
so what's next for you Chinaski?

Bishop 12:31am

ha, i heard someone talking about a place called "labor now"
where you show up at 4 in the morning and they put you to work for the day

Steve 12:32am

wow, how appropriate

Bishop 12:34am

sounds like it'll give me a nice chance to get to hear the plight of the immigrant

Steve 12:34am

awesome
you'll love that

Bishop 12:35am

i almost washed truck with mexican in breslau once...

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The band is working on getting new music out into your headphones.
Show tonight @ Van Gogh's Ear in Guelph at 9pm.

To hear Steve's music (my favourite songwriter) go to: http://www.myspace.com/hinindartouchthesky

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2010-01-05T17:39:00.000-08:00

Short live video from the Wax on Boxing Day. Thanks Curt.

Toronto

2010-01-01T21:59:00.000-08:00

It's going to be a lot of fun.

End of a Year

2009-12-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

Punknews.org listed Goodbye Debris on their Top 20 EPs/Singles of 2009. Heres what they had to say:

Kitchener, Ontario's Mockingbird Wish Me Luck describes their songs here as "the heart of basement songs strung together through a lot of bad times" and I'm not sure I could do them more justice. The sounds contained here are reminiscent of small towns and cold nights, with melancholic post-hardcore arrangements with just-bright accents of hope and vocals the most gravelly you've heard since Frankie Stubbs stepped on the scene.

Incredibly flattered to be on a list that included John K. Samson, Small Brown Bike and the Lawrence Arms.

Also, props to our friends in Vicious Cycle, whose Pale Blue Dot record made the Top 20 list of Full-lengths. Buy it HERE

Finally, thanks to all our friends who came to see the show at the Wax on Boxing Day. You guys made the show worth playing.

Hamilton

2009-12-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Kevin for putting us on the show and Hamilton for coming to hang out.

If you haven't already, check out Kevin's band Vatican Chainsaw Massacre

Gold

2009-11-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

DOWNLOAD

Barrier's 2008 CD EP ‘What To Make of a Diminished Thing’

Come see this Barrier with Orphan Choir and ATTENTION! this Saturday at Siesta Nouveau.

...Camouflage

2009-11-18T16:35:00.000-08:00

There's lots of news but nothing to report.

Goodbye Debris is never coming out on vinyl.
We've working on a 7" (exclusively vinyl) out in the spring.
Forthcoming shows are going to be great, we'll list them as they're confirmed.

More updates to come.

Have a poem for solidarity:

Arts Of Camouflage
By Dean Young

After years of walking funny,
of sleeping sideways like a shrub,
of trying to transform myself into a panther
the morning i woke transformed into a panther
wasn't all that different from waking transformed
into a jellyfish, dune grass, into nothing at all.
Same sun in the eyes, same clouds bleeting
like lambs, bleeting like lions eating lambs,
same stupid choice of shirts:
blue or brown,
would i be hiding in the sky or ground
which finally didn't matter much
because i tore them all apart. This was in '42.
We felt pretty routy in ' 42
There was a war. There was stacking stuff
upon the endless courseways. Nobody was eating
chocolate, then suddenly, chocolate was okay.
There was deferment, inkblots, obscure
forestries. The Effort. Kids today,
they look at a rock and think nothing,
think a rock can't just rise up and smote.
there wasn't all this equipment you see advertised
even in commercials about killing ants
Still we carried plenty.
Detonators. French letters. Atropine.
Philosophy Tracts. A thing never fully itself
but often talks to itself in code.
You'd dream you were surrounded by torn-open bodies
and wake surrounded by torn-open bodies until
the spiritual seemed preferable dwelling
but purely in terrifying manner like leaf
falling from tree or a stranger
speaking your name.
Sure, i believe in life after death,
it's just that this life after death
is so much like the last one, no one notices
they've already died a bunch of times. Same
trenches. Corrosive fogs. Same protective coatings
nearly impossible to get off and when you do,
you've damaged the inside. Actually i never
changed into a panther. I just said that
to get your attention like someone yelling Fire
when there's really not even a spark,
in fact it's rained solid for weeks.

Into the Hive

2009-11-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

We're going to be playing in Kitchener tomorrow night. The venue is the Hive, King/Scott st. downtown.

Come out to see the handsome guys Mark It Zero (especially Ben), Nights Below and of course Carpenter from out west. Check out their new video too.

Doors at 8. See you there.

A Young Wife

2009-10-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

All I've been listening to lately. Haunting and beautiful.

Check it

We Suffer

2009-10-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

Too much screenprinting combined with the lingering effects of playing drums in a grind band was just enough to do in Kyle's elbow for a few days. The truth is that Kyle would probably play with two broken arms, but the rest of us guys wanted to play it safe on this one.

Our apologies to anyone who came to the show in Brampton on Saturday expecting to see us. We'll be back in action this coming Wednesday in St. Catherines for what might be one of the best shows of the season as far as I'm concerned.

Additionally, follow the link to order the record online. Thanks to Jason for setting that thing up and taking care of the orders. More updates soon.

Young Guns

2009-10-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

Lemuria, Wayfarer, Elk in St. Catherines

2009-10-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

We're going to be playing the last show ever at 73 with our pals/rivals in Wayfarer. We're also excited to be opening for Lemuria and playing with a band called Elk.

Come hang out.

September 25

2009-10-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Some photos courtesy of Riley. Check out his whole set for WGTS Magazine.

WGTS

October Blues

2009-10-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Children's Museum and grabbed a copy of the record. We're working on a paypal store for the Myspace page. Expect that up in the next week or so, as well as some shows we have lined up with some friends.

Goodbye Debris

2009-08-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Debris – Out Sept 1, 2009

1) Survival and Defeat
2) Hollow Graves
3) Orphans Of a Storm
4) Brooklyn, NY

The heart of basement songs strung together through a lot of bad times. You’ll wake up in places you didn’t fall asleep, sometimes that just how our heads work. Our sleep walking bodies are the product of our souls. A strangers car, a nest.