12/02/03 – MUTINY IN STEREO. That ladies and gentlemen is our new album title, which will be released during the first week of March, 2004. To celebrate, we’ll rev up the Smugglers live rock engine once again so get set to freak to the eleven new selections from “Mutiny In Stereo”  (check out a track here.). In March, we will be touring Ontario and Quebec with our pals the Evaporators (who will release their new record “Ripple Rock” in January). If you live in the area and want us to play your town, email gtwelve@aol.com today!

12/02/03 – Chapter four of our adventurous couple's India tour diary is ready.  Amazing race, you suck sour milk!

11/14/03 – Beez and CC in India, chapter three.   Ripped off? Enlightened?  You decide.

11/11/03 – Happy Remembrance Day, everyone. To celebrate the freedom we enjoy and to remember those who sacrificed themselves for it, today we are giving everyone a sneak preview song from our upcoming album. It’s called "Billy-Billy-Telly-Telly-Ba-Ba" and can be heard by clicking here.

11/01/03 - Beez and CC in India , chapter two, is up for all to read.  Just click here for all the exotic details!

10/18/03 – As some of you may or may not know, while most of the Smugglers are busily preparing for the release of our new album in 2004, Beez and his wife CC are taking advantage of the "down time" to embark on a five month journey to deepest, darkest India. Beez is chronicling his adventures in our Tour Diaryas section, and you can read the first exciting chapter by clicking here.

09/20/03 – Finally! Our latest tour diarya, chronicling our adventures at the Lookout 15^th anniversary weekend, is up now in all its glory in our Diarya section. Enjoy!

09/01/03 – Wow. We just got through it. We all just made it through a very happy, very fun 15^th anniversary Smugglers party weekend. On Friday night we had a "welcoming BBQ" for all those coming in from out of town (New York, California, Toronto, Berlin, England, Detroit, Olympia, Montreal and various other exciting ports of call!!), and then on Saturday it was the big wing-ding at the Waldorf Polynesian Room with the Leather Uppers, Los Furios and the High Balls. On Sunday morning it was the Nardwuar-hosted "power-brunch" at the Tomahawk BBQ. Thank you to all who partied with us five Smugglers all weekend – it was a really amazing, heart-warming time. If it sounds like we are exhausted, it’s because we are. But in a good way.

Now it’s time for us Smugglers to take a page out of the Beez manual of life and take a long nap.

Over the past few weeks we have been receiving a lot of congratulatory emails from old friends from all over the place and we would also like to thank all those who sent kind letters… here are a few:

Sayoshi, The Wind-Ups, Kyoto Japan<

08/26/03 – As many of you may be aware, The Smugglers’ home province of British Columbia is being seriously ravaged by forest fires this summer. With that in mind, The Smugglers will donate partial proceeds from our 15^th Anniversary Party Saturday August 30^th to the BC Fire Relief fund. The ticket price will remain the same, $14 in advance and $16 at the door, and so everyone that slaps down their money for a ticket will also be slapping down a small slice of assistance to the victims of this crazy summer.

The Smugglers have many friends and family in the Okanagan Valley (including Mint Records co-owner Bill Baker) and other affected parts of the province and our warmest sympathies go out to the victims of these outrageous fires.

Keeping that reality in mind, we are still planning to have a ball this weekend! The gig should be a fucking wing-ding so be sure to be there at the Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver for the Smugglers, the Leather Uppers, Los Furios and the High Balls as the Smugglers celebrate 15 years of rock’n’roll action!

08/09/03 – Attention folks! It is time to announce the details of THE SMUGGLERS 15^th ANNIVERSARY PARTY WEEKEND! Yes, it has already been five years since we all tied one on at the Starfish Room for the Smugglers 10^th birthday. Here we are again, time to let it all hang out for another Smugglers anniversary party! This go-around it is all going down on Saturday August 30 at the ultra-swank Polynesian Room of the Waldorf Hotel in the Smugglers’ beloved hometown of Vancouver Canada. Special for the occasion, we are importing the recently reformed greatest-band-ever, the Leather Uppers, from Toronto Ontario Canada. Also joining us will be Ska-T’s darlings, Los Furios, and our pals all the way from Tijuana, Mexico, the High Balls. This gig is a part of the annual Geared To Go Go Labour Day weekend festival. When tickets go on sale we’ll let you know how to buy them.

For those coming in from out of town for this event we will once again be having a BBQ party on Friday August 29 and a brunch on Sunday August 31. If you are planning to come in from out of town, please get in touch with us at gtwelve@aol.com. Thanks to everyone for making the last 15 years of our lives one long, fun ride. See you in the

08/01/03 – Hi gang – we just returned home from the Lookout Records 15^th Anniversary party weekend in San Francisco. We had a blast. Thank you to everyone who came to the show and partied with us, making it one of the most memorable Smugglers shows ever (at least for us). We would also like to thank everyone at Lookout for their very warm hospitality while in the Bay Area. Why we haven’t played there in so long is ridiculous and inexcusable – it seems we have more friends in this area then just about anywhere else. The most common question we received throughout the weekend was: "why haven’t you played here in so long?" All we can say is "sorry" and we hope our show at the Great American Music Hall made up for it in some way.

We also can’t forget the very good time we had at Old Ironsides in Sacramento, the night before the Lookout events starting rolling. Thanks to our dear friends the Groovie Ghoulies and all the cool kids in Sacramento for showing us such a great time.

Grant is working on the tell-all tour diarya as we speak so get ready to hear all the dope on the shows, the backstage antics, last-minute cancellation by the Queers, some wild sex involving a group photo and male cum, and lots more.

Safely back in Vancouver, we are going to put the finishing touches on our new album, still as yet untitled. We will keep you posted. Have fun in the hot August nights!

07/22/03 – Yo yo yo. Happy scorching summer of 2003, everybody. Here’s the latest from Smugglers camp: between the dates of June 27 – July 1, the Smugglers recorded our eighth full length record. We laid down all the "bed tracks" at the Factory (a lovely cedar paneled studio on Vancouver’s west side) and did the rest of the tracks at Smuggler Dave’s own JC/DC Recording Studio in sunny Hollyburn, BC. We’re very happy with the way the songs have come out, and so far we are dealing with eleven tunes – we want the record to be ten songs but so far we can’t decide which one to cut so who knows. We expect this record to see the light of day in January of 2004. Watch out for it, and until then we will be performing the songs from this record, like "Pirates Ships", "Billy Billy Telly Telly Ba Ba", and "The Get Up Syndrome" at all the shows.

And speaking of shows, we are all set to travel south for Lookout Records’ 15^th anniversary party in San Francisco. We’re playing Sacramento and San Francisco – please check out tour dates page for more details.

In other soon-to-be-released news, Lookout Records is putting out their first-ever "Tune In Turn On Lookout" DVD compilation of all the videos, including two Smugglers hits: "Especially You" and "Rosie". As a special bonus, the DVD will include the ENTIRE Smugglers movie "At Japan", a filmed, edited and produced movie of our first tour to Japan in December 1997 with the Queers and Supersnazz. There were only 1,000 copies of the videos made so if you missed it the first time around, now is your chance to see this hilarious film featuring lots of live performances, and plenty of behind the scenes action in hotel rooms, airports, aquariums, restaurants, tourist attractions, and of course, in the van.

06/01/03 – Hello World Of Friends! Our usual apologies for taking so long to provide news, and yes, that is exactly what we have! Lots and lots and lots of news!! First of all, on the Canada Day Long Weekend Your Smugglers will finally be locking ourselves away into the comfy confines of the Factory recording studio to create the long-awaited new Smugglers album chock full o’ hits. We counted them up and this will be our EIGHTH full length record. Suck on that, Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Come talk to us when you’re at around five or six! Until then, SHUT UP!

Once we’re finished the recording, watch for a single to be released in the fall, following with the new full length in the winter.

Also coming up rapidly are a few hot new show announcements, one in Vancouver with our pals The Pattern (featuring Chris Appelgren) and then a few gigs in the San Francisco area for the Lookout Records 15^th Anniversary Party Weekend! For some sick, perverted reason, this will be our first time in the Bay area in FOUR YEARS. Fuck that and fuck you!! Just kidding. Please go to the tours page here for more details on the show.

One more thing: Grant and Nick and Nardwuar recently attended the Flaming Lips concert here in Vancouver, a show that includes not only the wonderful personalities and songs of the Flaming Lips, but also pyrotechnics, massive confetti-filled balloons and kids in full length animal costumes dancing about on stage. Guess what. Grant got to be the Pink Panther and danced like a joy-filled, sweak-soake crippled school girl in a Pink Panther costume for the entirety of the incredible set. The occasion also marked the first birthday of Nick’s baby Alia, and at one point in the show the Flaming Lips led the 5,000 person strong audience in a massive rendition of "Happy Birthday To Alia"!!! Thank you Flaming Lips! Check out Grant in the panther costume by clicking here.

04/18/03 –Well happy Easter, everyone. That is, happy Easter to everyone who digs Jesus and his totally unexplainable relationship with fluffy little chicks, chocolate, and the Easter Bunny. A couple of things to announce on this most glorious of holy long fuckin’ weekends: first of all, The Smugglers have a track on a new compilation called "Kitestringing: The Prison Literature Project". All proceeds from the sales of this CD go towards helping the two million people that America has behind bars to read, write, and expand their minds in positive ways through the magical delights of fine literature. To some long-suffering Smugglers fans it may seem odd that the Smugglers would suddenly throw their toques in the ring with the other political artists also featured on this CD, such as Propagandhi, the Weakerthans, Chumbawumba, and Noam Chomsky, but you see folks, Smugglers lead singer Grant Lawrence has always been a huge fan of the show "Oz" and so you know, therefore, uh, well, buy the CD here.

In other news, maybe we shouldn’t have been so quick to throw a friendly jab in the direction of our pals Chixdiggit in our last "update". Go to their website by clicking here and read their update of February 15^th, 2003. Yeeouch!

03/11/03 – Oh my god. We’ve turned in to one of those pathetic type bands that write on their news page shit like "sorry we haven’t updated our site in awhile but there’s nothing really going on with us right now". Shit. It’s true. Maybe we should change our name to Chixdiggit. But really, we ARE all busier than an outrageously gay leper in plastic surgery wholesale warehouse, it’s just that nothing is immediately coming to boil on the Smugglers’ stovetop. YES, we are aware that every single band we’ve ever played with besides Chixdiggit is signing multi-million dollar major label record contracts, but hey, what can we say? We’re "between albums". Timely, huh? Nonetheless, you keep your goddamn bookmark thing pointed right fucking here. Remember, we bring the party, we ooze hot sex, write the rock, walk the talk, and (one of us) love the cock! Here’s to fresh Smugglers action sometime soon!

01/20/03 – Hello ladies and gentlemen! If you are like Lisa in Thunder Bay, Ontario, you may be hunkering harder than a closeted gay Viagra addict at a Pride Parade for a new Smugglers record. If you are indeed one of "those people", thank you! We have a morsel for you to chew on! The Smugglers have a brand new song called "Larry Where Are You" (about Lookout Records founder Larry Livermore) on the new Lookout compilation called "Lookout Freakout 3". It’s filled with all the Lookout bands of 2003, like Ted Leo, the Pattern, and Moral Crux, and nestled comfortably at track 15 like an adopted black child in the loving arms of two crew-cut sporting lesbians, is your Smugglers. Click here for more information. For some reason, "Larry Where Are You" is one of our most favourite songs that we have ever recorded. We hope you enjoy it, too. Consider it a preview of sorts for the eventual smash sensation follow-up to "Rosie".

01/01/03 - Happy New Year, everybody!!! We hope that you were one of the fine folks who chose to ring in the New Year with us down at the Pic Pub in Vancouver, but if not, it is our wish that you had lots of fun anyways. Indeed, the Smugglers show on December 31 with the Epoxies, Goblins and Rumours here in Vancouver went off (almost) without a hitch! The place was sold out and jam-packed right from the start, so the Goblins were able to play new songs like "I’m A Fat, Frustrated Fuck", "Addicted To Cheese" and "Maria!" to a full house. The all-girl Rumours were up next and played a short set to a mixed reaction. Then it was our turn, and we let our twelve months of Vancouver gigging down-time explode all at once. We really had a stellar time and we hope those in attendance did too. We counted in the New Year right on time, and gave away our first dance contest trophy of 2003 about ten minutes into the New Year. The Epoxies went on after us and rocked out deep into the night as the Smugglers partied in the crowd with friends old and new, sucking back cheap champagne and cold beer. Blissful. It was great to see and meet so many people from out of town; special thanks to hardy road warriors Heather and Frank Leone who made the trip all the way from New York City right to the front row! The "almost without a hitch" thing is a reference to our only lame duck audience member of the evening, some dude who was so wasted he thought he could command the individual conversational attention of band members in the middle of sets! Somewhere, sometime long, long ago, a higher power must have etched into stone that there will forever be at least one representative asshole at every single rock’n’roll gig to ever be performed in the history of the world. He was our New Years asshole, but everything turned out alright in the end. (Unlike the Canadian diplomacy of the Smugglers who actually tried to deal with the dope politely, the American Epoxies shot first and asked questions later, cracking him over the head with a guitar the second he tried to fuck with their set). Oh, and keep your eyes peeled here, because we’ll soon be loading up our New Years photos on the Gallery page, courtesy of Frank and Heather’s digital camera.

If anyone happens to be wondering what the Smugglers plans for 2003 are, it’s very simple: record, mix, produce, master and release our new album. It’s taking a long time, we know. After that, we will theoretically see you in your town sometime soon. Happy New Year once again, and here’s to a peaceful 2003!

12/10/02 - Happy holidays, folks! An apology right off the bat for leaving this page unattended for another inexcusable stretch. We've been waiting and waiting to confirm our New Year's Eve show here in Vancouver and we are happy to report that it is finally done. We'll be playing at the Pic Pub in downtown Vancouver, and hark, this will be our first and ONLY show in Vancouver in the year 2002! Yup, we haven't played our beloved hometown since last year with the Hives and the International Noise Conspiracy. So come on down! We'll be playing with some other cool bands like the Epoxies and the Goblins, (both electro-clash bands) so click here to get the details! See you there!

10/15/02 – Hey everybody, sorry our site hasn’t been updated in awhile!! We’ve been trying, but due to some server problems we’ve been locked out for a few weeks. Anyhow, we’re back, so to our Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving, and to everyone else, happy autumn! Here’s all the recent news: a couple weeks back, we played an incredible gig over in Victoria on Vancouver Island. We didn’t really know what to expect, as we played this same multi-band event last year, right after 9/11. Last year’s show still went well considering, but university crowds are fickle, it’s been a year, yada yada. Worry not should we have: something nuts like 900 tickets pre-sold for the event, with an eventual 1400 showing up, meaning the show was mostly out of control and tonnes of fun!!! We’re pretty confident we were able to cover our asses on some stressful screw-ups (one of the amps broke down one minute before show time, and Grant chipped a big chunk out of his front tooth during the first song of the set). The crowd didn’t seem to notice our excruciating pain too much, and we applaud them for their energy and kindness; a desperately needed rebound after our recent Kamloops conundrum, which you can read about in our brand new Western Canadian tour diary which is posted for all to read, right here, right now!

In other news, the Smugglers finally strode into Dave’s JC/DC Studio a week or so ago, rocking out some new material for Lookout. Expect the first glimmer of it to appear on the upcoming Lookout compilation that will be in stores before Christmas. A new Smugglers video appears to be in the works as well, an answer to all those punk-ass kids across Canada who said to Beez "I’ve never seen you on MuchMusic or MTV". As for shows, we’re looking at a doing a New Year’s gig in Vancouver, but nothing is confirmed as yet. We’re starting to feel really guilty going back to so many cities without having put out a new record in awhile so it’s time to hunker down and tape what is in our heads: the greatest Smugglers record ever. 

 09/01/02   We're back! It felt like a month but it was only ten days or so.  Yes folks, the Mint Records Party Wagon tour is over and done with: eight shows, five bands, and about 5,000 or so kilometers later and what do we have to show for it? A bunch of runny noses that we picked up in a moldy hooker hotel in Winnipeg. Oh, and lots of great memories!! More on those and all the other action, like naked bums wiped across sleeping faces, Ska-T on all fours in drag, and Grant, King Rat of the go-cart track, will be in the tour diary being punched up as you read this. Thanks very much to all our great friends who set up, helped out, or came out to all these shows. One question: Kamloops, what the hell happened?

And now to clear something up for you Vancouver folks: for once and for all, the Smugglers were never confirmed to play the Labour Day weekend event Geared To Go Go. Our apologies to the folks who went out on Sunday Sept 1 expecting to see us. Unfortunately the promoter (a friend and a good guy) jumped the gun and advertised us before we had agreed to perform. Unfortunately, we couldn't come to a mutual agreement and the Smugglers declined the offer. We didn't cancel, we didn't bail, and we didn't pull out last minute, we never agreed to do it in the first place. Sorry for the confusion!

In other news, we'll be in Victoria BC at the end of the month playing at the University, and until then we will keep on keeping on writing the new material for our new record! Folks in Western Canada were able to catch an earful of our new songs like 'Larry Where Are You?', 'Shock The Shanker', and 'Pirate Ships' and we can't wait to record them. We'll be doing 'em all under the watchful eye of our very own Smuggler Dave at his own JC/DC Recording Studio. We'll keep you posted!

08/01/02 - Yo! Hope everyone is having a swell summer! The weather continues to be record-breakingly beautiful out here in British Columbia and we're loving every second of it. The grass is even starting to get a little brown. Us Smugglers will soon be jaunting merrily across Western Canada headlining the "Mint Records Party Wagon Tour 2002" with our Minty friends the New Town Animals, Operation Makeout, Mark Kleiner Power Trio and Tennessee Twin, who are all playing various dates on the tour. It's pretty much all set up, so click here to see the dates! Tell your friends and see you there!

01/07/02 - Happy Canada Day everyone! It’s Canada’s 135th birthday today, and the Smugglers celebrated by having a practice, working on fabulous new songs for our forthcoming record. Also on this wonderful national holiday weekend, drummer Graham and his family bought a new house in Nanaimo (congrats!) and Nick and Grant went boating in Howe Sound to check a prawn trap set a day earlier. Expecting about twenty to forty fat, delicious prawns, Nick hauled up the 250 feet of rope while Grant supervised to find one massive, useless, inedible sun star fish and a measly four prawns. To add insult to injury, the boat broke down at a visit to a nearby island, so Nick and Grant spent the rest of Canada Day trying to fix a busted down 1974 cabin cruiser. We never did get it fixed and ended up catching the ferry back to the mainland, leaving the boat, Cariad, on the island for Nick’s dad deal with. Good riddance!

Ok folks, news update: because of horrendous problems with the US border, our fucked up work visas, and outrageously inflating tour expenses, our planned jaunt to the USA has been postponed until we have a new record out. In the meantime, we will however be using that allotted period to tour the somewhat less-glamorous-but-just-as-picturesque-and-possibly-more-fun-to-play-(no-offense-America) Western Canada. SO, if you live anywhere between Vancouver and Winnipeg and would like to see the Smugglers rock your town later this summer, please get in touch asap: gtwelve@aol.com. For all of those in the Western USA who had emailed about our planned tour, our most humble apologies that we can’t make it, especially to Mike Lavella, Lookout, Margie, Red Planet, and those in San Francisco and Austin. It’s been way too long.

06/15/02 - Happy almost-summer 2002, everybody. Us Smugglers here on the West Coast of Canada have been enjoying a beautiful, hot, lovely month; hope it's as nice wherever you are. OK, so news.  Our superstar friends the Hives roared through town a little while back and we had a great time with them. They really wanted to play hockey with us, so we set up a game, Smugglers versus Hives, for the afternoon before their gig. Now, regular readers of this page will no doubt recall that the Smugglers have enjoyed an unbeaten record when playing hockey against other bands... let's review the stats: Smugglers beat Chixdiggit 10-9, and Smugglers whipped Shocore 10-6. Now along come these fancy-pants Swedes and we thought to ourselves "whatever, these guys wanna play hockey against Canadians? Sure we'll throw em a bone, show these sweety-Swedes how it's done". To cut to the chase, the Hives KICKED OUR ASSES 10-2!!!! Nick Arson was definitely their first star, rifling all sorts of amazing goals past goalie Grant, while Chris and Matt were pretty damn good two. We're still stunned. The Smugglers? Only the once-great Smuggler Nick was able to "bulge the twine" as they say, and just barely (we'll have photos of the game up soon). So cheers to the Hives for walking into OUR backyard and beating a bunch of Canadians at our own game. When I crawled to the bench after the beating/game, I panted to Pelle "I... can't... believe... you guys... beat us!" to which he replied "Hate to say I told you so! Alright!"

05/23/02 - Smuggler Baby Born!!! During the midnight hour of Thursday May 23, a healthy, bouncy and screaming baby Alia Maria Thomas was born at St. Paul's Hospital here in Vancouver, weighing in at seven pounds six ounces, if the weight of a baby is for any reason an important 'stat' to you. The baby and proud parents Soraya and Nick are all doing fine. So far the little Alia has dark hair and blue eyes... sexy combo for later in life, eh? In fifteen years Beez will probably ask her out....

05/05/02 - Hey everybody! So OK, finally, the 'Don't Mess Around With Beez' Ontario Tour Diary of our recent adventures to Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and London is up now for all to enjoy, except possibly members of a cult-like organization called classmates.com. Find out what we're talking about by clicking here and read-read-reading it! Photos too!

In other big Smugglers news, looks like we may just be hitting the road again a little later this summer to do a tour of the Western USA!! Why? A good question that needs a great answer. Seems there's a big ol' rock'n'roll festival happening in Texas on the Labour Day Weekend that we have been lucky enough to get an invite to. We'll give you more details on the fest and the tour at a later date, but suffice to say, if you live anywhere between San Francisco and Texas, chances are you will have the chance to tip a jar with us August. See you then? Check here frequently for more details? OK! Thank you! We haven't played San Francisco since Labour Day 1999! That's disgusting!

Lots of our rock'n'roll pals are headed to Vancouver soon. Our very first real-life big-time influence for the Smugglers will be coming to town this weekend, the Gruesomes. We'll be there, even though the show is at a total dive (The Cobalt), but it has a foozeball table, one of the only ones in Vancouver! A couple weeks later the Hives return, right smack dab on the weekend Nick and Soraya's baby is due, so we're not playing with them. But we do hope to get them out for a game of Sweden vs. Canada street hockey. We'll let you know just how much the Smugglers margin of victory will be after the game. (So far our record against other bands is 2-0: a 10-9 squeaker victory over Chixdiggit and a 10-6 ass-raping of SHOCORE). Soon after the Hives event will be the White Stripes. The last time they were in town they played to 50 people at the Piccadilly and slept on Grant's floor. This time around they sold out the rather huge Commodore Ballroom in less than 24 hours. The Smugglers have a similar stat: we sold out the Commodore in just over 2.4 months, so you know, we know what it's like. It's great.

04/01/02 - Happy Easter, everyone! Rejoice, because like 2,000 years ago at least, in a little manger, Baby Jesus was born, surrounded by rabbits, and little yellow chicks, and wonderful, wonderful, delicious chocolate eggs! Hallelujah!

To quote our dear friends Heather and Frank of New York City, "Oy veh!" To quote our friend Nicky Newtown, "Oi!" We have some fabulous Smugglers news to share! Our very LONG AWAITED 7" picture disc is finally out in all its Italian glory!! It’s a slick little record featuring three rocking songs, and it looks damn good if we do say so ourselves. To purchase a copy of this insta-collectors item, please go to http://fly.to/ssrr, home to Supersonic Refridge Records of Genoa, Italy. (To the folks who won copies of this record through our old "Letter Of The Month" contest, it’s been awhile, so please email Grant at gtwelve@aol.com to finally claim your prize).

In other, other news, has anyone out there picked up the latest edition of Alternative Press (April 2002)? In it you’ll see an article about the "Top Five Greatest Canadian Punk Bands Of All Time". We wonder if you’ll be as shocked as we were to see that YOUR SMUGGLERS came in fifth spot, behind Can-punk giants like DOA, NoMeansNo, SNFU, and the Pointed Sticks. Do we deserve the honour? An argument can certainly be made if one takes a look at the "runners up" list also published... the Diodes, Slow, the Evaporators, the Viletones, Subhumans... hmmm... well, we don’t know if we deserve it, but we’ll take it, thanks!

And hey, these cool new photos you see on this page were kindly sent to us by Shannon and Gerrit from Toronto. Thanks!

03/04/02 - Hey Now!! Your Smugglers here, home safe and sound from our latest spin through Ontario. We had a BLAST on this trip! Most of the shows were totally great (except maybe... uh... London) and it was fantastic to meet new and old pals alike. Our show at the Horseshoe in Toronto has been heartily reviewed by the folks at Chart Magazine, and you can read that here, as well as see some pictures from the show. Thanks to all who came out, had fun, and asked us about all the new songs we're playing. We'll be recording them soon! Kudos especially to Moby (our roadie Dj Ska-T swears that he sold him a Smugglers record in Ottawa, and then Nick swears he spotted him again at the show in Toronto! What the fuck?), Gerrit and Shannon (who drove Grant to Hamilton on Saturday night after he finished his radio show), Yvette, Megan, The Shanker, JC and Craig at the Horseshoe, Chris and Shiela Page, classmates.com, the Lofters, New Town Animals and of course, Squirrel Boy and his stinky, but incredible, sausage.

As for other happenings, we're sticking close to home for awhile as Nick and his wife Soraya prepare to have a baby in May, but in the meantime we'll be recording our many ridiculous and touching new songs... so folks, prepare. See you around after the baby comes out!

02/11/02 - Ok folks, our Ontario tour dates are all confirmed! At the end of the month we'll be in Ottawa, London, Toronto and Hamilton. The details can be viewed on the tours page. We really wish we could be out there longer! Thanks to everyone who is putting on a show and to all who offered to put on shows. As you can see on the tours page, we only had a limited amount of dates to work with but it was really great hearing from people in Montreal, Windsor, Barrie, Moncton, Quebec City, Kingston, Waterloo and Sudbury offering to do shows or asking why the hell we weren't getting to your city. We should be!! Shame shame shame on the Smugglers. We haven't played for awhile so we're just about ready to burst, we've been having great practices and have lots of asscrack-wrenching new songs ready to showcase like "Shock... The Shanker!" and maybe one about Beez' memory called "20 Second Blackout". (The other night Beez met a guy, sat with him at a restaurant, chatted, then saw the guy the next day and had no idea who he was.)

01/15/02 - Hello World Of Friends! On this wonderful winter's night, a brisk evening when the Vancouver Canucks triumphed over the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 AND we got to see the Pens'/Team Canada captain Mario Lemieux score a goal, we are happy to announce new Smugglers tour dates for 2002! We'll be ripping southern Ontario a third asshole in late February and early March for a festival in Toronto called Canadian Music Week. Besides the show in Toronto, we'll be playing other towns around the area with our Mint pals the New Town Animals so check out the dates by clicking here. If you live in 'the zone' and want to help us out with a show, email us asap at gtwelve@aol.com. See you in the front row!

01/01/02 - Happy New Year everyone! Yeah, we're as happy as anyone to see the year 2001 behind us, let's hopeful for peaceful party times in the year 2002. As for Smugglers news, we have several projects in the works but nothing is quite finalized as yet so we'll remain quiet in the 'big announcements' department. Looking back on 2001, we were horrified to realize we played our hometown SIX times, way too damn much, so for you locals, don't expect to see us play around town any time soon. We overdosed! In the meantime, we'll be burrowing in, writing songs and answering email, planning for a new release sometime soon. Keep an eye peeled for shows, they'll be announced here when they're confirmed. Cheers!

12/01/01 - Happy December, everybody! First things first, the new tour diary of our quick trip to the Canadian prairie provinces is up in all its rugged glory. Read all about the hot 'n' saucy details right here, and let us know what you think by emailing gtwelve@aol.com. And hey, for those in the Vancouver area, hope you've got your tickets to the International Noise Conspiracy/Smugglers/Hives show because the word on the street is that it's already sold out! Beez is freaking out because his usual adult-dinner-party-entourage' is going to be out in the cold!!

11/15/01 - Hey kids! Our Swedish friends the Hives are currently on their first-ever large-scale tour of the USA, opening for another Swedish band, the (International) Noise Conspiracy. The Smugglers are playing the last show of the tour in Vancouver, but before that, if you have a chance to see this show, DO IT, and GO EARLY!! The Hives are on first and lots of folks have been missing them already. DO NOT MISS THE HIVES!! You will thank us later. Here are their tour dates.

The Prairie tour diary 2001is up!! 

11/07/01 - Hey yo! We just returned home from a fun yet rather pooping three city, eight flight stint of the Canadian prairies. After a five year plus absence, we finally rocked Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon once again, and before we left Vancouver we even played a Halloween wedding! We'll have all the details and photos up in the Diarya section soon, so uh ... what's the phrase? Keep surfing us?

Show announcement! Earlier this fall we received a nice juicy offer to do some touring on the (International) Noise Conspiracy / Hives tour. Things didn't come together, but we have landed on their rather convenient Vancouver performance... And not that the show really needs us in the first place, we've ended up right in between the two Swedish bands. Nonetheless, should be an amazing gig of matching outfits and stage moves from all three bands, and hardcore left-wing politics from one band (not the Smugglers) so click on our tours page for the details.

10/26/01 - Hello World Of Friends! Your Smugglers here, inviting you to take a gander at our brand new tour diary chronicling the Smugglers latest adventures amidst the festivities of this year’s Las Vegas Shakedown! There’s plenty of tell-all tales, reviews, anecdotes and photos, poolside and otherwise, featuring your Schmugs, the Evaporators and other friends from around the world. Click here to check it out, and let us know what you think by emailing gtwelve@aol.com. For all you rockers in the Canadian Prairies, we’ll see you out there next week!

10/10/01 - Ouch! That’s how all five Smugglers’ booze-soaked brains felt after returning from Las Vegas from the annual Shakedown festival. While we heard several "veteran" ShakeDOWNERS bitching about things like the isolated venue, shitty beer, and shittier sound (for some), Your Smugglers can genuinely report that we all had an amazing time playing in our slot, which eventually turned out to be around 9:00PM on the Friday night. It really was a global audience... right in the front row were kids from Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Beglium, Canada and of course the USA. In light of all that has happened in the world, it was actually uplifting to get together with people from around the world, if only to get drunk, dance, and yell. The Smugglers vote for best band out of the forty? (Besides the Smugs, of course?) A deadlocked tie between Supersnazz and the hilarious San Francisco band Red Planet. See ‘em if you can! Grant PROMISES that he will do a weekend diarya for the Vegas trip, spilling all the beans about the pool parties, the jackpots, Beez’ poker tournaments and Grant mistaking Ben Gay extra-strength muscle relaxant for moisturizer and rubbing all over his body... ALL over his body.

HEY KIDS!! NEW SHOWS!! Yes, after FIVE LONG YEARS, we are FINALLY returning to the Canadian prairies to play shows in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina!! We’re excited to finally get back to the Canadian heartland, and we hope all you folks out there who haven’t seen us in so long will come out and say hi. Click here for more details on the dates.

 09/21/01 - Here’s a last minute reminder to all friends headed to Las Vegas for the Shakedown Sept 28 - 30, 2001. Our timeslot has moved again.  We are now playing at 7:15PM sharp on Friday night September 28, 2001. We have no idea who is on before us or after us. Who knows, we could be the very first band of the whole damn thing! See you there? Early? To quote the Cramps, let’s get fucked up! To quote the Supersuckers, let’s be hungover together! To quote Elvis/the Dead Kennedys/Girl Trouble, Viva Las Vegas! To quote Arling and Cameron, don’t you fuck! At least not without your fabulous Smugglers! (They didn’t say that last part, we said that).

09/16/01 - Hey gang. Finally, the end of a fucked up week. On behalf of each Smugglers member, we send out good wishes to all of our friends in New York, Washington DC and Pennslyvania, and the rest of the United States. It's a scary time, and our thoughts are with you.

We just returned home from another Vancouver Island jaunt, playing shows in Victoria and Nanaimo. We weren't really sure if we should actually even play either show in light of the events of the week, but after discussions with both promoters, it was agreed that everyone wanted to let off a little steam and some party-rock action may be the perfect recess from reality. Turns out it was, because we had two fun-filled nights that did take our mind off things if just for a little bit. Victoria's show was on the UVic campus, part of a "welcome back" party with eight venues and all sorts of bands. We went a little bezerk at our show, passing around party boxes of wine, pouring it down people's throats and spraying it in people's faces, and holding multiple dance contests. Andrew Molloy (once of Bum, now of Suite Sixteen) joined us for "Kings Of The Party" and during our finale of the old Leather Uppers' song "Supercar" we dragged almost the entire audience up on stage for a mass-jogging-on-the-spot-to-the-furious -Smugglers-beat-a-thon, much to the soundman's unhinged rage. A wild night. Huevos Rancheros and Run Chico Run were rockin' too.

Nanaimo was next up, and once again the kids of the Hub City didn't disappoint. We tried to get a member of opening band Club Fungi to come up on stage and puke on demand, but instead he treated us to the loudest and longest belch any of us had ever heard. AMAZING! This very fellow also won the dance contest. The Evaporators also totally rocked out much to the shock and bewilderment of the bar staff, and we had fun hanging out with all of our Nanaimo pals, and members of the Crusties, Papillomas, Riff Randells, and Hot Hot Heat. When in Nanaimo, visit Blackball Records, home of the hits!!

Next stop for the Smugglers (and the Evaporators): THE LAS VEGAS SHAKEDOWN!

09/01/01 - Happy birthday Mint! If you were anywhere near Vancouver BC Canada this Labour Day weekend you were hopefully partying HARD with us at the Mint Records and Geared To Go Go festivities. The Smugglers set at the sold-out Commodore Ballroom went over extremely well. Thanks for being there and thanks for rocking out with us! We met fans from all over, such as our (rude) dance contest winner from Birmingham England, as well as kids from Japan, Phoenix, Olympia, the North West Territories and northern Quebec! We debuted two new songs at the show, the first being the soon-to-be-hit stomper "Don’t Mess Around With Beez" and another fast dance number which closed the show, "The Get-Down Syndrome", complete with three breakdancers!! More details in the diary coming soon.

We’re also taking the Mint tenth anniversary party on the road soon, over to Vancouver island for two Smugglers shows, one in Victoria with Huevos Rancheros, and one in Nanaimo with the Evaporators. Click on the tour page for the venues, dates and times. We’ll say this though, the first twenty people at each gig gets a free copy of the new 23 song, 70 minute Team Mint 2 compilation CD, plus a bunch of Chupa Chups toys and candy.

In regards to our Las Vegas Shakedown show coming up at the end of the month, our timeslot has been moved and we are now on much earlier than we originally thought. Again, check the page for details but if you plan to fly in to Vegas on Friday, make sure you get there early so you can catch our sure to be stellar set! We’ll also be hanging out all weekend down there so be sure to come up and say hi.

Also, here’s some news for fans in Canada: our singer Grant has just been promoted at his work at CBC Radio. Starting Saturday September 8, 2001, Grant will become the host of RadioSonic, heard on CBC Radio Two right across Canada and into the USA on Saturday nights between 7PM and 10PM!! If you’re in Canada or live in the States along our border, be sure to tune in - he plays awesome music! Check out www.radiosonic.com for more info.

08/15/01 - Viva Las Vegas!!

Hey everybody, hope you’re all having as fantastically a relaxing summer ‘01 as your Smugglers are out here in beautiful British Columbia! We’re getting all geared up for the massive Mint Records Tenth Anniversary Party on Labour Day weekend (see below for details, get your tickets quick at www.ticketmaster.ca) but we want to let you all know that in September, we are Vegas Bound! That’s right, the Smugglers will be performing as part of this year’s Las Vegas Shakedown festivities, along with other Vancouver pals like the Evaporators and the Black Halos, and friends from afar like Supersnazz, the Swingin’ Neckbreakers and the Zeros!!! The whole thing is happening at the Huntridge Theatre in Las Vegas this September 28 - 30, 2001. Click on our tour page for more info on our exact slot (subject to change) or go to the Vegas Shakedown website:  www.vegasshakedown.net. We’ll see you at one or both of these awesome parties in the coming weeks!! Which will it be? Vancouver? Las Vegas?? BOTH?!? WHOOOOO!!!! LET’S FUCKING PARTY!!!!!!

07/15/01 - Mint Tenth Anniversary On Labour Day Weekend!

Yup, Mint Records, our very own Canadian label, is turning TEN this Labour Day weekend! To celebrate, Mint is holding a multi-night shindig at Richard's On Richards and the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. There will also be plenty of other festivities in the day time to keep attendees occupied. We don't know too many of the details just yet, but you can click here to see the ones we do about our specific show at the anniversary. As we're taking most of the summer off and won't be around this page again til mid-August, please check the Mint Records site at www.mintrecs.com for pertinent details. Hope to see you all on Labour Day Weekend!!

07/01/01 - Happy Canada Day everyone! We just returned home from our show last night in Seattle. A weird one, but a fun one! This show was at the EMP, or long-wise, the Experience Music Project, a massive music museum at the base of the Space Needle. Inside are all sorts of rock 'n' roll artifacts with emphasis on the Northwest rock'n'roll explosions of the past forty years; everything from a Wailers' guitar to a Young Fresh Fellows suit jacket circa 93. Pretty cool, but also pretty strange to see so much rock'n'roll, punk, and hip hop souvenirs displayed as hermetically sealed "artifacts".

Our actual show was part of the Seattle Vespa Club scooter rally, and so when we pulled up to the bizarrely shaped EMP building (we were told it was supposed to resemble one of Jimi Hendrix's smashed guitars, but...) there were Vespa scooters lined up around the block, creating all sorts of commotion with the tourists. The venue was a massive hallway (not hall, but hallWAY) that by day serves as the line up to the "funk ride" and by night turns into a rock'n'roll venue. Rising up behind the stage was a massive three story screen that projected all sorts of crazy light-show images while we played... lightening, fire, surfers, sharks, electric volts, you name it. It was totally outrageous and totally distracting, but in a good kinda way. A nice crowd was on hand too, full of drunken scooterists, rock'n'roll kids and friends from Vancouver, New York City, and around Washington and Oregon. The dance contest winner gave the first-ever extended dance contest winner acceptance speech!, and we were happy to welcome surprise guests like Kepi from the Groovie Ghoulies up to sing, and Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks (and "Rosie" producer) up to screech out the guitar licks on "Kings Of The Party" like only he can.

Thanks to all at the EMP for the first-class treatment! Sorry about the between song banter - if we had known the show was being broadcast on the jumbotron to the family-night fairgrounds outside, our babbling wouldn't have included flippant remarks about vaginas, midgets, Grant's cock, Nazis, and the stupidity of the American President. Actually, it probably still would.

A Seattle moment: while we were waiting for a table for breakfast in Seattle, we saw a young yuppie family of four excitedly looking at a guidebook. Mom: "Ooo kids! Guess where we're going today? The first EVER Starbucks location!" Kids: "YEAAAHHHH!!! THANKS MOM!!! WHOOOHOOO! WE LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!" Dad: "Gee whiz, good thinkin' hon! I love you too!"

Smugglers: BARF.

Ok, so now that the Seattle show is behind us, that means we take the next couple months off for summer! Nick is bound for the wilds of British Columbia to maintain his OTHER career in rock: geology. Dave is headed to Fiddle Fest with his wife and then Yo Yo A Go Go with the Evaporators, Beez will spend the summer dining with his adult friends, Graham will chalk up some quality time with his family, and Grant will spend the summer face down in his own puke, shit and piss.

The next time the Smugglers plan to surface to rock out will be on Labour Day Weekend in Vancouver for a huge Mint Records tenth anniversary blow-out multi-venue rock extravaganza. More info when we get it. To our friends in most of the world, have a sizzling summer! To our pals in Oceania, have a wild winter!

 06/05/01 - FINALLY!! Yes, it’s true, we have finally posted the latest edition of the Smugglers Tell-All Tour Diarya. This one is of course a day-to-day account of our most recent European jaunt, including every last bit of blood, guts and glory that we spilt over there. Apologies in advance to anyone we mistakenly or purposely roasted, and thank you once again to all of our European friends (and foes) who have become fabulous new characters in Smugglers lore, or have reoccurred to stir up some great memories of stories gone by. We hope you enjoy the read, the photos, and the uh... well that’s it actually. Click here to read all about it.

Speaking of photos, we should finally have a bit of new action in our Gallery photo section. Either now or soon will be shots of Smuggler Nick’s honeymoon with his wife Soraya, as well as other odds and sods we’ve been collecting and meaning to post.

Recapping our last couple of weeks, our roadie Ska-T’s 30^th birthday party here in Vancouver was a HUGE success, attracting about 400 people. We played a Ska-T-picked set list, which meant we played a bunch of old, weird songs like "Chicks Like That" and "Whiplash!" It was a hell of a lot of fun, and of course inbetween songs we - here’s that word again - roasted Ska-T with all the stories we’ve collected about the guy. Poppin’ ass cherries, catchin’ and spreadin’ scabies, masturbatin’, drinkin’ piss, buyin’ hookers... the list goes on and on. Happy birthday, Ska-T. We actually gave him something really nice - an Op-Art original of a Lambretta scooter by a Canadian artist. In a frame and everything!

05/16/01 - Wow, lots of news in May! First of all, we won that award we were nominated for! Yup, Nick and Grant were present at this year’s Georgia Straight Music Awards and were proud to accept the award for "Favourite Record" for "Rosie". Thanks to all who voted for us! Grant also had a great time singing with the Black Halos before the sold-out crowd at the awards show.

The Mint Records showcase we played two night later for NewMusicWest was fun but a little out of control and fucked up. Seems that way too many people showed up, which is exciting, except that people who actually took the time to buy advance tickets still couldn’t get in if they showed up too late. We apologize to all who had to wait or were rudely turned away. Shouldn’t have happened.

Here’s some new shows to talk about. Oh boy, back to our roots. Smugglers historians will no doubt recall that our first show ever was at a mod scooter rally back in 1988. Seems we’re back where we started as we are playing TWO scooter run parties in the next couple of months in Vancouver and Seattle. The first one is THIS FRIDAY NIGHT, MAY 18 in Vancouver. It’s our roadie Ska-T’s 30^th birthday party (he’s a scooter boy besides being our roadie) and we’re doing a kinda special set for it. Check out details for both dates here.

Lots of people are emailing about the Europe tour diary. It will be up soon, we promise!

 05/08/01 - (Almost) Death At Disneyland! Whoa! Thanks a lot to Erin from Boston for sending us this wild story of a massive tree falling on a bunch of people at Disneyland! We here up in Canada are often out of reach from Disneyland black-eye news like this, so thanks for keeping us informed. For the complete story on the Disney’s wanton wanna-be widowmaker willow, click here. It almost reads like something from the Onion, but it’s real. For more info on why the Smugglers callously care about this, listen to our song "Death At Disneyland" on our latest record "Rosie". (And don’t get the wrong idea, we don’t want people to DIE at Disneyland, but Grant is admittedly slightly majorly kinda fascinated when things go "awry" at The Happiest Place On Earth", that’s all).

Oh, one other thing. This Wednesday May 9, 2001, at Vancouver’s Georgia Straight Music Awards at Richard’s on Richards in downtown Vancouver, Grant will perform a song with our pals the Black Halos as part of the awards show. Grant and the Halos will be on at about 9:30PM. See you there? For others in the Vancouver area looking to get in to the Vancouver show at the Pic on Friday night, get your tickets at Scratch Records NOW! They’re going fast and there is a very limited quantity! (Did you vote for us?! Last chance: www.straight.com. Thanks!)

04/24/01 - New Vancouver gig announced! The Smugglers will be headlining a Mint Records / Exclaim Magazine showcase in conjunction with the NewMusicWest conference here in Vancouver. We’re playing the Pic, which has a very limited capacity, so for those headed to the show, be sure to buy your ticket in advance!! Click here for more info on the show.  And we’re starting to sound like a broken record here, but we are still working on shows in places like Seattle, Saskatoon, San Francisco, and Kamloops. Yes, Kamloops. That town rocks! We’d get there a lot faster but Beez keeps planning "adult dinner parties" for his "adult friends" (NOT us) on what seems like every weekend of every month! He loves his adult friends. We think they’re STUPID!

By the way, keep voting for us at www.straight.com for our local music awards, announced soon! Thanks!

04/12/01 - It's time to vote! Yup, everyone out there can help out Your Smugglers by voting for us in The Georgia Straight Readers Choice Music Awards (our local Vancouver music awards). Last year we won "Favourite Local Band", and this year our current album "Rosie" is nominated for "Favourite Local Record". Please vote (often) for us at www.straight.com. Thanks for notching us the winning votes last year; let's make it two in a row! Thanks!

04/01/01 - Hey sweet lads and lasses, your Smugglers here, on April Fool's Day, providing you with a web update for this month. Smugglers trivia: can anyone name the city we were in exactly one year ago on April 1? If you shrieked "Salt Lake City!" you'd be right, fucker. But folks, this April won't find your Smugglers in Salt Lake or any other city besides Vancouver most likely. It's already been a year since our last album "Rosie" was released. In that year we fulfilled "The Plan" to tour all over the place, storming Canada, the USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Now we rest, dammit! The only place we didn't get to and still in "The Plan" is some of Western Canada, and we'll still get to that, just not in April. Thanks for all the email prods, Canadian Prairie Dwellars! See you soon! To fill you in on what is up in this quiet month: Dave isn't really resting, as he's currently touring the West Coast USA with his other band the Evaporators and most likely having a very good time (they have a new 7" out called "Honk The Horn"). Nick is playing lots of shows with his other band the Tonics, and Grant is busy putting the finishing touches on the European Tour Diarya. Graham is in his hometown of Victoria sweating out the end of the regular hockey season (both Vancouver and San Jose in danger of missing the playoffs), and Beez is fully stressed out at work at the phone sex company.

By the way, thanks to all who came out to our all ages St. Patrick's Day show in North Vancouver. Besides Grant's dislocated knee (still hurting!) it was a great time. Especially enjoyable were the Lottie Collins here all the way from Japan! More enjoyable to Beez was the fact the band stayed at his newly bought house for two entire weeks.

03/06/01 - Whoa! We've been home from Europe for almost a week and haven't updated this mama! Sorry. The Euro-tour was a grinder and we needed just a wee bit of time to sleep for about four or five days straight. But now we're back at it, and we have lots to share! It was an interesting tour... we're working on the tell-all tour diary right now, but we'll say this: it was pretty much divided directly into two halves. The first half and the second half. We don't want to reveal too much, but we will say that we once again loved France, Italy and Germany, enjoyed the Netherlands, Switzerland and parts of Spain, but had a pretty rough go of it in the UK. Grant fell seriously ill on tour for the first time ever, catching a wicked case of food poisening and ending up in a Welsh hospital while the rest of the Smugglers performed a show without him! But again, read all about it in the upcoming tour diary. Highlights included seeing old friends, making new ones, and meeting, befriending and rocking with other bands like the Hives, the Boonaaras, the Manges, Berlin 80, Jesse James, the Nasty Feel Good, Les Drageurs, Morte A Venise, Toxic Guinea Pigs, and the Solingen scene. Thanks to EVERYONE who booked a show and provided us with another round of fantastic European hospitality, most especially Hans at Slavetraders for setting up and coordinating the entire tour, and Gijs for the gear and the van.

In news back home, we have our first Vancouver-area show coming up on St. Patrick's Day, an all-ages show in North Vancouver at Seylynn Hall. This one is with our pals from Japan the Lottie Collins (who, while in the area, will also play with Beez' band the Beauticians, Nick's band the Tonics and Dave's band the Evaporators!!) After that show, we're going to take it easy for awhile, but those on the west coast of the USA can see Dave with his awesome aforementioned combo the Evaporators on tour in late March and early April. And congratulations to Evaporator bassist and one-time Smuggler John Collins for winning a Juno (the Canadian equivalent to a Grammy) with his other band the New Pornographers!

I think that's it for now. Watch for the Euro tour diary coming soon, plus new photos in the gallery.

02/01/01 - Ok folks, we're leaving for Europe TODAY so for all you Europeans, we'll see you soon, and for all you folks back home, and elsewhere, we mostly likely WON'T be able to update this site while in Europe so you'll have to bear with us until we get home in March. To answer at once many of your emails about our Madrid show, we still don't have a venue but will soon, so check the Lookout or Mint site for that show as it will be announced soon.

Here's some news on some items happening in February. For all you Canadians (and Americans with great cable... and New Zealanders for that matter, who we learned get MuchMusic) on Sunday February 18, the Smugglers will be featured on "MuchWest" a show featuring west coast bands on Canada's MuchMusic. On this feature you'll not only see us live at our recent show in Victoria, but also see how we put together our on-stage "looks", and where we find our clothes and trophies. They'll probably play our "Rosie" video too, hopefully! It should be pretty good TV. Thanks to Chris at MuchMusic for making it happen.

Speaking of good TV, Grant just pulled off a "cameo" in the new video from our pals the Black Halos. They are doing a take off on "The Usual Suspects" and Grant plays a priest. A very angry, pent-up priest. Also making cameos is Joey Shithead from D.O.A. as a cop, and Lee "Metal Queen" Aaron as a very sexy teacher. Does this mean the Smugglers are now in the same class as D.O.A. and Lee Aaron?? Hmmmm.... Talk to you when we get back from Europe!

01/22/01 - We just returned home from a whirlwind ride on Vancouver Island, playing two very fun-filled shows in Nanaimo and Victoria. Great to see everyone again, and thanks especially to Jack and Andrew at Blackball, the Queen's, Graham's mom, the Ice House, Chris from MuchMusic, Andrew Molloy, Rob Nesbitt, Punk Rawk Stacy, a cast of strippers, and the Grumpy Old Men old-timers hockey team for making it such a fantastic weekend. Shout outs also to the Crusties, Nogoodnix, Sweathogs and All State Champion for playing with us. Mini-tour diary on this weekend coming soon, before we leave next week for Europe!

Vancouver Gig Announcement!  Your Smugglers are finally playing a Vancouver show, the first since our record release party back in Feb 00 at the Commodore. This one is ALL AGES, and will be with our friends from Japan, the Lottie Collins! Click here for the details.

01/16/01 - There's some new European tour dates for Switzerland and France added. Check them out by clicking here. And remember, we play Nanaimo and Victoria on Vancouver Island this weekend!

Also, if anyone out there in the wide world is interested in seeing and hearing our "Rosie" record release party from Vancouver's fabulous Commodore Ballroom last year, it is now available for all the enjoy at www.justconcerts.com, a site from CBC Radio here in Canada. Go to the search feature, type in Smugglers and it will take you to the page where you can either listen to the entire show, or view up to about ten songs in all their manic glory. We're wearing the now retired white tuxedo jackets in this one, and even if we do say so ourselves, they look great!  If you want to skip the search just click here!

01/01/01: Wow, that date looks cool! Happy new year everybody, hope you all had a gas on the big night. Grant was the designated driver for the first time in his entire life so he spent the night in a bored, sober snit, but the rest of the Schmugs had fun. We didn’t play on New Year’s Eve this year, but did attend a party at Evaporators drummer Scott "Laughin’ Boy" Livingstone’s house, where we rang in the new year to the funky, flangy sounds of the Disc-goblins, live in the basement! To quote Nardwuar: "Let’s make some fuckin’ noize in here!!! 2001! 2001! 2001!" Nick eventually ended up spending the very wee, wee hours in a crack house on Vancouver’s lower east side dancing frantically to the timeless punk of The Sonics.

Thanks very much to all the friends who got in touch over the holidays through cards, letters, gifts and emails. You’re too nice! We don’t have our shit together enough to actually send out Christmas cards so we’ll use this vehicle to say "thanks and happy holidays" to all those who got in touch. Anyhow, all you Vancouver Islanders be sure to get out to our Victoria and Nanaimo shows coming soon, and we’ll see all you Europeans in February, just a month away! Click here to see the dates.

Our "Letter Of The Month" will remain the same from December, as late in the month we received an awesome photo to go along with the letter, so we want everyone to have a chance to see it. Click here to check it out. We promise a new letter next month just before we jet to Amsterdam.

Oh, one other thing. I can’t believe we haven’t mentioned this before, but does everyone know that our Smuggler Grant hosts his own national radio show in Canada on CBC Radio Two? It’s an underground music show called Radio Escapade. It’s on Saturday and Sunday night in Canada from midnight to 4:00AM, and can be heard on RealAudio anywhere in the world. For more info you can go to www.radioescapade.com. Grant plays all sorts of music, from rock’n’roll, pop-punk and punk rock, to hip hop, electronica, drum’n’bass, house, alt.country, you name it! Don’t be confused if you tune in and don’t hear Grant’s voice. While he hosts most of the time, part of the deal with the show is that he also brings in guest hosts from different parts of Canada. Hope you can tune in!

Coming soon to the Gallery: Nick’s honeymoon in Hawaii pics! Va va voom!

12/20/00 - Happy Holidays from Your Smugglers! I guess it’s about that time for a "recap" of our year that was, so let’s take a look. It’s been a hell of a year in Smugglers camp, and we want to thank all those who were a part of it. Highlights definitely included, in no particular order, releasing "Rosie", making this web page, playing with Joan Jett in New York, skating and toboganning in Quebec City, touring the USA with the Donnas, finally returning to the Deep South, making the trek to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, surfing at Bondai Beach, luging in New Zealand, floating down the Elbow River in Calgary, white water rafting in Whistler, seeing Smuggler Nick get married, and most especially making new friends in new parts of the world. Special thanks to Lookout and Mint, Do It Booking, Tomoko Snazz, Sir Luke The Duke, John Baker, and all the great bands we toured or played with in 2000: Flashlight, the Donnas, Chixdiggit, Black Halos, Goblins, Plus Ones, Fastbacks, Supersnazz, the Lottie Collins, Mach Pelican, the Datsuns, and Shaft. Did we forget anybody? Hope not... we’ve had a hell of time, and we can’t wait for 2001!

Speaking of the new year, we’ve finally announced some shows on Vancouver Island in January, our first time to Victoria and Nanaimo in over three years! We play in Texas more than that! Hoochie mama! Sorry Islanders, but here we finally come. And for all you Europeans, keep checking our Euro tour dates as they are changing a bit, especially the UK stuff. We get to play in Wales and Scotland for the first time, too! Whoo!

Ok so thanks for a fabby year, have a Rosie holiday season and hope to see you all in the front row somewhere in this world sometime soon. Love,

                                         Your Smugglers

 12/01/00 - Hello sweet mamas and papas! We’re back to fill you in with what’s new this month. We’re still working hard on our European tour for February, and believe it or not, we are trying to make some shows around Western Canada happen before we leave.

In holiday news, Smuggler Dave contributes to three tracks on the new Mint Records 7" comp "It’s A Team Mint Xmas Vol. 1!". Dave rocks with the Evaporators and the "Snowglobe-lins", as well as dueting with our good friend Megan Barnes on the amazing "I Wanna Kiss You This Christmas". The five song 7" is rounded out by songs from Duotang and Carolyn Mark. Get this perfect stocking stuffer for your indie-rock lover by clicking here. And speaking of Christmas, does your special someone have a copy of The Smugglers smash 2000 release "Rosie"?? It’s not too late to make Christmas perfect, saucy sue!

In other news, our pals the Donnas finally have their own fancy new website, and there’s plenty of Canadian Content all over it, in the form of Your Smugglers. Rock on to www.thedonnas.com, then click on photos and you’ll see the Smugglers partying with the Donnas all over hell’s half acre.

Our "Letter Of The Month" feature continues, this time tracking down a lost Lookout son. Click here to read a fascinating tale from one of Lookout Records’ most charming front men on the roster!

11/16/00 - Big Doeg! That means "hey how are ya" in Dutch. See, we’re already gearing up for that Euro-tour in 2001! Anyhow, awhile back Grant wrote a piece called "The Smugglers Top Eleven Things To Avoid When Touring" for a national Canadian magazine called Chart. The article received warm response, and since we stumbled across it again in the annals of the Smug-Drive, we thought we’d share. Read it by clicking right here.

11/01/00 - Hey now Smugglers friends and foes, another month has rolled on by, some news has piled up so it’s time to share!! First of all, we’re finally going back to Europe! We’ll be in the Old Country for most of February 2001, rocking they neighbours in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and anywhere else we can squeeze in. Check out the tour page for exact dates. If you’re over there and can help out, email our friendly agents at Slavetraders to set up a show: hemways@worldonline.nl, but only if you’re serious!

In other touring news, we’re still trying to get some Western Canadian shows organized, but damn if it isn’t hard getting the nurses to let Beez out of the old folks home for more than a few hours! Anyhow, they’ll happen - just keep your eyes peeled on that tours page.

Hey, it’s another new month so that means we have a new "Letter Of The Month"! This one is from a kid named named Scot who’s had a bitch of life ever since purchasing a supposedly cursed Smugglers button from our merchandise table. Click here to read all about it.

And by the way baby, there’s a few new records kicking about that have Smugglers "talent" all over ‘em. Our friend Sarah Lapsley has a new CD out by her band The Vancouver Nights, and our man David Carswell plays lead guitar on several tracks. It’s on Endearing Records. And from the back from the dead file is Victoria’s legendary Bum, who just released a new single on Magic Teeth records!! There’s two new songs, and on ‘em is guitar work from our other man Nick Thomas (who had joined Bum near the end, attempting to replace the God-like talent of departed singer/guitarist Rob Nesbitt), and of course drumming from the tall dark and handsome Smuggler, Graham Watson.

 10/01/00 - We're back, it's October and while we've been kinda quiet lately, the gears are grinding, the boys are rocking and we're having a really great, great time. Expect us to announce a few Western Canadian shows soon, as well as the dates for a full-blown European tour. In the meantime, check out the bizarre and amazing "Letter Of The Month" for October. It's from a Detroit-area kid named Jonny, who has a very interesting tattoo....

09/04/00: Hey now! As you can certainly imagine, we here at Smugglers HQ are often inundated with fantastic fan mail from near and far. Some of the letters jump out a bit, and so to honour those fans who have shared their lives in letter to us, we have started a new feature here at thesmugglers.com. Each month we'll post a letter from a fan, plus an answer from one of your Smugglers. As an added bonus, each letter for the next year will receive a copy of the Smugglers rare Italian picture disc. Read this month's installment of "Letter Of The Month"!

08/28/00: Smugglers Stag Party Weekend Diary Up Now! Yup, it was only a two-day weekend tour but it was for Nick's stag so we've written it up for all to read on the Diarya page. Forgot the camera on this one so not too many photos.

The Smugglers’ new video for "Rosie" is currently being played in Canada on MuchMusic. Please request it! Email dedications@muchmusic.com to send it out to someone (get juicy) or ondemand@muchmusic.com just to see it for yourself. Thank you! We’ll keep you posted on when the video hits the USA and overseas TV. You can see the "Rosie" video on-line at www.mintrecs.com.  But El Vez just wrote and said he had a few problems "down loading" on it from the Mint site so let us know.

Grant recently attended the Las Vegas "Shakedown" rock ‘n’ roll fest and ran in to lots of Smugglers pals from all over the world. One boozey run-in included our pals Johnny Baker and DJ Skinny from New Zealand! A huge CONGRATULATIONS goes out to John, who met a girl at the Shakedown and promptly MARRIED HER in Vegas the day after the whole thing wrapped up!!! Grant tried to rekindle some March madness by spending the night in Donna F’s hotel room, but alas, no wedding vows were exchanged.

Oh and yeah, that whole "Survivor" thing has wrapped up, but not before it split the Smugglers down the middle like Beez in a tight pair of slacks. Canada’s Chart magazine got wind of the Smugglers rabid obession with the show and went so far as to publish an article on it. Click here to read it, but come back!

And speaking of articles, in the latest "Hit List" magazine, Reverend Norb now says "the Smugglers may not be the best band in the world, as, being from Canada they have automatically cheated". Norbert also says that "Rosie" should be retitled "We Pay Five Dollars For A Pack Of Cigarettes To Keep Canada Strong And Free, And To Help Our Goverment Force Our Radio Stations To Play Local Bands Against Their Will".

 08/07/00: Smuggler Nick takes a bride! Yes that’s right ladies, let the uncontrollable weeping begin, sexy Smuggler Nick Thomas has finally gotten hitched to sexy Soraya Thomas (nee Tayob). Nick and Soraya’s wicked wedding weekend started on Friday July 28 with a massive "Rosie" video release party here in Vancouver, attracting over 400 people to a big ol’ house on the west side. Bands played (including our pals Flashlight from Toronto), DJs spun, people puked, the Grizzlies girls showed up (co-stars of our video) , a guy fell off the roof, kids got naked and fucked (and Grant watched), an "imitate Grant" competition was held (much to the rage of Grant), they gave champagne to Nick and Soraya and of course they debuted the Smugglers new video "Rosie"!

Nick’s wedding was the next night, Saturday July 29, and was a fantastic affair held at the West Vancouver Yacht Club, a swank pier-side pad near where Nick, Dave and Grant grew up. Lots of family and friends showed up, including all of your Smugglers, and other rock dudes and dudettes like the Evaporators, Bum, the Tonics, Zumpano, the Molestics, and even Smugglers super-fans Frank and Heather Peavy Leone all the way from New York City! We all got together, pooled our meager monies and managed to surprise the living fuck out of Nick and Soraya by presenting them with a dream honeymoon to Hawaii! Aloha baby! Have great sex over there, huh now!

New release! In all this wedding hubbub we also have a new/old song come out on the new Lookout Records compilation "Lookout! Freakout". Our number is "Flying Buttress Of Love" (Nick’s favourite Smugglers song ever!). Long-time fans will recall this sweet baby deep on the B-side of our second LP "Atlanta Whiskey Flats", and then again on CD form on "In The Hall Of Fame". Both those versions had Dave singing, and we’ve always loved this tuney-tune, so now it’s back in the set and on a record, recorded this spring at Dave’s house, this time with Grant on vocals. Hope you dig it, we think it’s a great song!

07/24/00: Ok kids, finally, got diarya if you want it. Yup, all finished the Pacific Rim Job Tour Diarya, and it's up in all its glory on the Diarya page, so click on the button above and enjoy it! Email us to let us know what you think (gtwelve@aol.com). In other news, the count-down to Nick's wedding is five days, and we just got through ANOTHER stag weekend for him, this time an all out party at Whistler mountain. White water rafting, Mexican food, dance floor groping, you name it.

07/17/00: Just got back from Calgary and Edmonton and had a wild time for Nick's final Smugglers weekend as a "bachelor". I'll be doing a mini-tour diary for it (but first I gotta get the Pacific Rim Job one done first! I'm sorry! It'll be up this week, I promise! Thanks for all the email prodding!). I will say a quick thanks to the Night Gallery in Calgary for providing fabulous "burlesque" strippers and the Liquid Lounge in Edmonton for all the champagne. Nick was thrilled. It was the Stampede in Calgary, so we're also grateful that our pals in Chixdiggit convinced us to get away from the cowboy hat crowd to "take a float" on little rubber dingys down the winding, relaxing Elbow River under the hot Alberta sun. It was fantastic!  Thanks to all our Alberta pals!  Check out more details and a paddle pic of Grant from our Calgarian rafting adventure at Chixdiggit's web site!

Our new "Rosie" video will be on a TV screen near you in TWO WEEKS time!  It's our first video in a shitful FOUR years and is certainly worth the wait. No, really. Baby, it's a "searing, colourful romp, fully capturing the Smugglers' unbridled energy on and off stage. The video features Your Smugglers keeping pace with the NBA Vancouver Grizzlies Extreme Dance Team, as well as a special surprise performance by a gracefully aging Canadian superstar".   (That's all from the Mint Records propaganda files). We'll let you all know how you can help us out to request the video in your country. It will beserviced to Canada, USA, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. Do not vote us off TV island!! Gervace sucks!! Richard rules!!

07/03/00"The Smugglers are the best band in the world". Yes fans and friends, it's finally confirmed in print, thanks to the latest copy of Berkeley's national punk rock publication Hit List magazine (June/July 2000). The blunt statement is the lead-off sentence from the column by old Smugglers pal ,  Green Bay's Rev. Norb, writer and lead singer of Boris The Sprinkler.  Norbert rants and raves about several other rock 'n' roll artists before getting back to your Smugglers, where he lists several reasons as to why "The Smugglers are the best band in the world". The main reasons seem to be our new album "Rosie" and specifically the version of the song "Kings Of The Party". As usual Norb is hilarious, so be sure to pick up this milestone edition of the Hit List! Thanks Norb!! Hot tongue for you!

Oh... and we finally saw that "High Fidelity" movie with John "'Say Anything' is way better" Cusack. As many a fan have kindly pointed out, yes there are several sightings of the "Selling The Sizzle" burgers poster in the record store scenes. You can spot it in the shots of Cusack and co-workers at the counter. It's on the wall in the background. WOW! Also spotted were Hi-Fives and a Queers posters, all circa 96/97 or so. OH MY GOD!!

We're still working on the tell-all Pacific Rim tour diarya, and it'll be up soon! We promise! It'll be worth the wait, but as a forewarning, don't expect TOO much because it's hard to have sex with people in Japan! Too gracious! The video for "Rosie" will also be ready for TV screens everywhere by the end of July. And apparently, if The Smugglers were a tribe on "Survivor", Grant would be voted off first, no contest. Like before even reaching the island. Fuck that, right kids?? Email support to gtwelve@aol.com.