Our pals in Hot Panda are feeling a little restless. In addition to preparing for Vancouver's always exciting Victory Square Block Party, they are writing new material and packing their bags for their second European tour. Not bad guys, not bad. 

Their dates look like this:

Aug 18 - Comet Tavern, Seattle, WA
Sep 04 - Victory Square Block Party, Vancouver, BC
Sep 15 - Guilt and Co, Vancouver, BC
Sep 24 - Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg, Germany

Becky and Maya of The Pack a.d. are loading up their new van, named HAL, and bracing themselves for the tour of a lifetime! To commemorate the September 13th release of Unpersons, they'll be playing 40+ shows over three months. Be sure to check them out, and buy them a beer. Those girls work hard!

To satiate your appetite for Unpersons, we've posted "Sirens" from the new record here.

NEWSFLASH!

We're proud to report that Unpersons, the fourth full length release from The Pack a.d., will be out on Mint Records this September 13th. The record was engineered by Vancouver's infamous Jesse Gander at The Hive Studios and produced by mastermind Jim Diamond (The Dirtbombs, The Paul Collins Beat, The White Stripes) and will melt your face off.

Canada's hardest working garage rock duo, The Pack a.d., may be mourning the untimely passing of Falcon, their trusty tour van, but never ones to slow down, they aren't letting it stop their upcoming spring tour. This month, the Vancouverites are packing their bags and heading East. From coast to coast to coast (almost) the tour will see stops from Penticton, BC to Charlottetown, PEI to Whitehorse YK and many points in between, including a stop in Toronto for a killer NXNE show.

Attention LP lovers: time to break your piggy banks and roll some quarters. Mint just got in its first ever vinyl batch of the critically lauded debut solo album from Olivia "fanshaw" Fetherstonhaugh, known simply as "your next favorite band" by the folks at HeroHill. As you may already know, that debut, produced with a selection of Olivia's friends and former Minty collaborators, received a CD release in February of 2010.

if you are going to be gallivanting around the icy streets of Toronto for CMW, we've got a few bands there. Feel free to stop by and say hello. Oh, and mark these on your calendar:

The Pack a.d.

- Friday, March 11 @ The Bovine (10pm)

- Saturday, March 12 @ Wrongbar (9:30pm)

- Sunday, March 13 @ The Horseshoe (10pm)

After a few Top Secret meetings at the Dairy Queen (Cold War style – with our backs to each other, Oreo Blizzards in hand) the news is out, we’re piecing together a benefit compilation with our pals at CiTR 101.9 FM. It features 11 of our favourite Vancouver bands and only 300 waxy 180g LPs will be pressed, silkscreened and numbered by hand.
 

Larissa Loyva is a busy woman. In addition to her solo project Kellarissa (which literally translates to "in the basement"), we've heard her soaring vocals on noteworthy previous releases from P:ano, The Choir Practice and Gigi.

We at Mint are pleased to introduce a new sound and a new signing, Vancouver's Geoff Berner, whose Mint debut, Victory Party, will emerge on March 8th, 2011. His openness to experimentation, spirited Eastern European klezmer influences, punk rock attitude and work with producer/mastermind Josh Dolgin (Socalled) resulted in an innovative, engaging and lively album full of surprises that we are proud to be part of.