Updates: December 2003 - August 2004

August 29. 2004 - If you haven't been to the Features Index lately, you may not know that one of Moe Berg's day jobs (along with being a producer, arranger and devoted husband) is book reviewer for Amazon. To celebrate their recent 5th anniversary, amazon.ca got their finest minds together and created a Canadian Essentials list of the 50 greatest Canadian books. While they were at it, they got some reviewers to come up with their own specialised lists, and Moe got to pick "11 Books To Read By Age 25." It's a great mix of friends and legends, fiction and non-fiction, kid stuff and very grown-up stuff - and his number one pick inspired a song on Where's the Bone. Even over-25s can enjoy this stuff, so of course Amazon provides convenient links so you can pick up the ones you haven't cracked yet. You check out his picks here.

July 20, 2004 - We haven't heard much from Kris Abbott, who's been setting the IT world on fire, but she's finally back on stage, playing with a "pop/country/rock" girl band from London ON called Jealous Pet (previous incarnation here). Welcome Kris back to the limelight and check out the band Thursday in Toronto at the El Mocambo among the bands at the Remnants CD release party.

July 6, 2004 - Well, that didn't take long.  Moe's solo CD Summer's Over is now available on MapleMusic!  It's a dollar per track and $9.99 for the whole thing (all prices Canadian, though USD and Euro prices are also listed) - credit cards only.  The files are MP3s with a 128kbps bitrate.  When you make your pick, be sure you check the "More Digital Details" link for everything you need to know about downloading from them, and download the test file to be sure your computer can do the job (Maple isn't favouring any OS or player, but computers with firewalls may have difficulty).  Moe has long toyed with the idea of making available any future new material in this same way, so attention will likely get paid to how this is all received.  So now you know all that, go to MapleMusic NOW, or do some research on our Summer's Over page and then go!

July 4, 2004 - Perhaps you've heard that long long ago, through some freakish series of misunderstandings, all of the remaining copies of Moe's solo CD Summer's Over were destroyed by a bulldozer and a lot of dirt. (Okay, so now you've heard.)  But if you didn't get that album before that happened, you many finally get your second chance.  Your friends and ours at MapleMusic are making Summer's Over available for purchase as MP3 downloads.  Moe says it should be up as early as this week for prices of a dollar per track or $9.99 for the whole album (Cdn $).  We don't know anything else yet, like whether it's exclusive to any one operating system or player, or of course when precisely the whole thing will be available.  For everything else you need to know about the album, scoot on over to our Summer's Over page.

May 27, 2004 - Just in time for North By Northeast season, Moe's coming out from the studios producing other bands to be a man about town. Tonight (Thursday), he helps celebrate the release of a new Canadian indie film he has a cameo in. Goldirocks is about a woman who joins a band, lives with her bandmates and finds herself in various romantic complications (gee, does that happen?). The party at Lee's Palace will be suitably rockin', with the legendary Teenage Head kicking everyone's ass and plenty of guest stars helping them, not the least of which will be Moe. Not only that, there's no cover!

- Fast forward to North By Northeast, where Moe will again be providing his wisdom and diplomacy to the conference's "Demo Derby," where music pros rifle through a pack of dropped-off demos and critique them. He'll be at the Saturday session. By then, he'll have slept off playing alongside Galore when those Pursuit Pals do their short-but-mighty set at Rancho Relaxo Thursday June 10th at 1am (technically, that's Friday morning, but they list it as Thursday). Remember, the sets are about 40 minutes and run like clockwork, so don't be late! Most conference events are for delegates only, while the festival just takes having the special wristband (all the shows for 22 bucks!) or paying an individual cover. For more info and to catch up with the last-minute festival schedule firming, head here.

April 12, 2004 - So at the big Monteforte show last week, we noticed a cool guy with a snazzy-ass camera taking shots of the band. Pursuit Pal Dan Roberts helped us hook up with his fellow Winnipegger, photographer Michael Roberts. You can now find some of his fine shots on the revamped Monteforte page along with some other pics from the past. Check it out, and keep up with Michael's other work here.

April 4, 2004 - It was boho beatnik night last Friday, as your heroes in Monteforte did themselves up in black turtlenecks and berets (and was that black eyeliner on Brad From Halifax?) to blow some cool sounds to the cats and chicks at Healey's. Hell, they even had a sax player again. Also there were celebrations of Roxy's birthday, which we've heard is a national holiday in Greenland. As you can see from the setlists, the music ranged through the history of the world and the band, bringing us up to a big 4 new songs, including "Careless Whisper" (the first of two sax songs, followed by "Who Can It Be Now") and Jennifer Paige's "Crush," which beats the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" (though by a whisker in Germany) as the most recent hit to get the MF magic.

March 22, 2004 - On this occasion of Moe's birthday (everyone sing to yourselves...now we'll continue), it seems a good time to note that our boy's getting busy at the production boards with Pursuit Pal bands who've opened for TPOH reunions in the past. He's currently in the studio with Galore producing their next record with the odd musical cameo including Blue Rodeo's James Gray on Hammond organ and even some guitar solo-ing from the producer himself. Then, in a couple weeks, he'll start twiddling knobs for na-na-National Anthem for their second big CD. We'll let you know when these discs hit the street.

February 29, 2004 - The dalliances continue with Moe and TSN. Last week, The NHL on TSN had a little "Idol" segment with NHLers trotting out their music chops (sort of like the past season of "Monday Night Football" on ABC in North America, where NFLers held their own in bands - way to go, Doug Flutie), and the judges were the legendary Kim Mitchell (who wrote his "Pure As Gold" with Moe), Darren from Goldfinger and our hero - who may have been drawing from the experience of his friend Zack Werner, Robin Black's manager and the bitchy Canadian Idol judge who drew Simon's wrath on World Idol. While Moe picked Detroit Red Wing Darren McCarty rockin' out with his band Grinder, the viewer vote favoured the country stylings of Nashville Predator Jamie Allison. Perhaps he'll gnash his teeth about that as he discusses a bunch of other sports-type things when he returns to "Off the Record" this Tuesday at 6pm eastern with a repeat at noon the next day.

February 22, 2004 - The first Monteforte show of 2004 is finally coming, though you have more than a month to get new dancing shoes and line up a babysitter. April 2 is the date the mighty Monts return to the hotbox that is Healey's at Queen & Bathurst in beautiful downtown Toronto.

January 7, 2004 - Moe recently had a little chat with our close personal friends at Chart Attack (well, actually a guy who works for our close personal friends...) reflecting on the year that just was. All we need to say about the article that has ensued is the title: "TPOH's Moe Berg Talks Red Panties and Catfish." Go get it here.

- If this somehow inspires you to see the guy, he's reported to be one of the galaxy of stars performing in the bi-annual Real Living Elvis Karaoke at the Horseshoe tomorrow January 8th.

December 24, 2003 - TPOH's version of the NHL on TSN theme "The Silver Cup," which they did the same day as the CASBYs, has now aired, and the whole thing is available streamed through Windows Media Player on TSN's site here. You have to do some registering thing to get to it, so make up some names, blow off the newsletters and go get it!

December 14, 2003 - Last Friday's Monteforte show was festive...and feisty! The gang was decked out in Santa hats, though Brad From Halifax noted with some consternation how Bobby the Crunch had lights on his. That wasn't all that had the MF leader in diva mode. He chewed out Vikki for pointing instead of making the stop sign at the end of "Papa Don't Preach," then snapped when he suspected Vikki didn't point on "You Give Love a Bad Name" (fans up front were quick to defend the erstwhile axeman and yell that he was pointing, only leaving Brad suspicious). He even said the rest of the band could "blow me," while turning to the audience with a smile and wishing them all the best for the holiday season. Despite all this, the night was full of joy and rock, with new additions "Heaven's On Fire" (one of two KISS songs for the night) and "Who Can It Be Now" (complete with sax, thanks to openers the Rude Mechanicals). Even Scroogy Brad got gooey dedicating "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to a happy couple who met at an MF show and likely fell in love to that very song. Well...it is likely...

- Back to The Pursuit of Happiness for a moment. Phil Wilding, who'd written the odd fine article on TPOH back in the day (hey, does anyone have that piece of his we had in the Features Index, but lost when the Node bailed? Let us know!), takes another look at Love Junk in the latest edition of Classic Rock magazine out of the UK. In this appreciation of "an undervalued or forgotten gem you may have overlooked," he calls Love Junk "an album full of songs for those who've given up on love but have somehow done so with an open, still hopeful heart." For those who can't get the issue on newsstands (look for the 50 greatest live albums on the cover), our beloved friend Rob Winder has scanned the page and put it up here.

Updates: 9/04-2/05 / 5-11/03 / 9/02-4/03 / 6-8/02 / 2-5/02
9/01-1/02 / 4-8/01 / 1-3/01 / 8-12/00 / 4-7/00 / 12/99 - 03/00