UC hit CMJ in New York City at the beginning of the month – Cadence Weapon rocked some shows at Fontana’s and The Mercury Lounge – big thanks to Terrorbird Media and Brooklyn Vegan for throwing good parties and inviting Cadence to play!  Props to the Swedish homies Lo-Fi-Fnk and the Aussie homies Macromantics. Then Cadence Weapon went on a 9-date tour across Canada with Jurassic 5! Vancouver twice, Calgary, Edmonton, London, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa & Montreal…peace to J5 and everyone who came out to see the shows! The geniuses at Spy Films shot the video for Cadence Weapon “Sharks” after the J5 tour and the details are pretty top secret but you’ll see it next year!

Big ups to everyone who made our Pop Montreal Le Throwdown night one god damn special memory for Upper Class. PS If you have better pictures than we do (you probably do because we were way too drunk to take good pictures) please share them with us at comrades@upperclass.to

props to The Russian Futurists, Cadence Weapon, Professor Murder and Madrid for playing, Paul Prince aka DJ Princely P for making it all run smoothly, Steven Himmelfarb and Daniel Seligman for making the night possible, Musiqueplus + CISM-FM for helping us get the word out, and most importantly – respect to everyone who kicked it with us.

The summer is officially done and DJ Princely P has shut down his Sunday night Prog Parties at Embassy, but begins his winter series DJing with RUN WITH KITTENS Tuesday nights at The Drake.

SHOWS!

CADENCE WEAPON WEST COAST CANADA & POLARIS!
Sep 9 – Edmonton (Ookfest)
Sep 10 – Vancouver (w/De La Soul)
Sep 14 – Calgary (Broken City)
Sep 15 – Calgary (U of C)
Sep 16 – Edmonton (The Syndicate @ Tucker Amph)
Sep 18 – Toronto (Polaris Music Award Gala)

TEAM UPPERCLASS AT THE DRAKE’S FILM FESTIVAL TAG TEAM DJ TOURNY
Matt (Russian Futurists) and Gareth (Cansecos)
Sep 12 @ The Drake Underground

THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS – TORONTO INT’L FILM FESTIVALS
Sep 13 @ The Rivoli (Canadian Music Cafe)

CADENCE WEAPON ONTARIO/QUEBEC SHOWS!
Oct 5 – Hamilton (w/ Dr. Octogon)
Oct 6 – Montreal (w/The Russian Futurists)
Oct 7 – Ottawa (w/Tokyo Police Club)

>>> IMPORTANT UC ANNOUNCEMENT:
Booyah!  Our first POP MONTREAL party! FRIDAY OCTOBER 6 as part of POP MONTREAL ’06 Performances by UC’s THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS & CADENCE WEAPON and UC homies PROFESSOR MURDER and MADRID! CLUB LAMBI DOORS AT 8PM 4465 St-Laurent Blvd !! AFTER PARTY IN EFFECT !! (just stay in LAMBI after the bands)

Here’s what else has been going on: The Russian Futurists helped the Junior Boys launch their new album “So This Is Goodbye” at the end of August with a hot double bill show at the El Mocambo in the t-dot.  The Futurists also just rocked the Toronto Film Festival with some ill vibes.

Cadence Weapon musically slayed ’em at Ookfest in Edmonton last weekend.  and Upper Class Recordings welcomes our dearest homeboy Tim Dempsey to Tha UC Family…here he is enjoying his birthday mid-afternoon drinks and doing his innaugural UC-employee “private” photo shoot…in the master bedroom of the tour bus for the Russian Futurists Film Festival show September.2006

SHOWS!

CADENCE WEAPON WEST COAST CANADA & POLARIS!
Sep 9 – Edmonton (Ookfest)
Sep 10 – Vancouver (w/De La Soul)
Sep 14 – Calgary (Broken City)
Sep 15 – Calgary (U of C)
Sep 16 – Edmonton (The Syndicate @ Tucker Amph)
Sep 18 – Toronto (Polaris Music Award Gala)

TEAM UPPERCLASS AT THE DRAKE’S FILM FESTIVAL TAG TEAM DJ TOURNY
Matt (Russian Futurists) and Gareth (Cansecos) Sep 12 @ The Drake Underground

THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS – TORONTO INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
Sep 13 @ The Rivoli (Canadian Music Cafe)

CADENCE WEAPON ONTARIO/QUEBEC SHOWS!
Oct 5 – Hamilton (w/ Dr. Octogon)
Oct 6 – Montreal (w/The Russian Futurists) Oct 7 – Ottawa (w/Tokyo Police Club)

I say, what a summer! The Russian Futurists survived break-ins, bomb threats, terrorist plots and health sabatogery to deliver arse-wolloping pop jams to the United Kingdom for the last few weeks.  Major thanks to everyone who came out and supported the Ruskies, Memphis Industries for all the love, Peter, Bjorn & John for sharing the stage with the boys throughout England and Scotland, and let’s just give one big shout out to all of Mutha-F****in’ Ireland in the house!  Now here’s the deal.

The new Russian Futurists album “ME, MYSELF & RYE” is in stores in the United Kingdom and all of Europe and all of the Middle East and all, we repeat – ALL, of Africa AUGUST 28.  IN STORES AUGUST 28.  But if you live in those places you can get the album NOW NOW NOW on iTunes WITH an exclusive LO-FI-FNK remix of “Paul Simon”.  Okay?  August 28.  And the 7″ of “Paul Simon/Plight Of The Flightless Bird” is available now in our UC store and in cool stores across UK and Europe. In the meantime you can read about the album all over the place – check the Sep issues of Uncut and Clash, check the NME out and Q, listen to the BBC andX-FM, watch MTV2, read online stuff like Tiny Voices, Drowned In Sound, TuneTribe, Pitchfork,Gigwise, that shit is all the over the place right now!

Cadence Weapon’s “Black Hand” video is on Muchmusic and MuchVibe. Have you been watching?  #3 VIDEO ON RAP CITY!! Cadence Weapon rocked Hillside like this:  and the Weapon keeps on rolling: AUG 25 – Calgary, AB @ Slam City Jam SEP 9 – Edmonton, AB @ Ookfest SEP 10 – Vancouver, BC @ UBC w/DE LA SOUL many more September and October dates being announced very soon! In the meantime, keep your eye on the Polaris Music Prize, and peep the Sharks Remixes currently burning up college radio stations in the USA and Canada – this disc is available for purchase exclusively in the UC store!!

Upper Class is cooking up some nights for Pop Montreal, CMJ and Halifax Pop Explosion, The Cansecos album “JUICES!” is still rocking “coming soon” status, and we have lots of news coming soon along with that…stay tuned!

REMINDER FOR EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY  THIS SUMMER: SUNDAY NIGHT @ EMBASSY IN TORONTO – PROGRESSIVE SUNDAYS WITH DJ PRINCELY P If you don’t believe us that he does a midnight bass solo, dressed as a wizard…

Visit Princely P on Myspace.   Thanks Toronto and The Drake and Chart for another super fly Toronto show by The Russian Futurists!

That is the last Canadian Russian Futurists show for a while.  Canada, you just are not comparing to Europe right now.  The Russian Futurists “Me, Myself & Rye…An Introduction The Russian Futurists” is in stores AUGUST 7 through Memphis Industries/V2.  The first single“PAUL SIMON” is all over BBC and X-FM and MTV2 and is this week’s runner up single of the week in NME.  A special “PAUL SIMON” Vinyl 7″ is coming out July 17 and will be available in the UC Store and through Memphis/V2!

We are thrilled to announce that 2 hot shit bands right now THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS and Sweden’s PETER, BJORN & JOHN will be touring UK together in August! PETER, BJORN & JOHN + THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS ON TOUR August 5 – London – The Spitz August 7 – Birmingham – Bar Academy August 8 – Manchester – Roadhouse August 9 – Glasgow – Nice & Sleazy’s and also catch The Russian Futurists with Jape August 10 – Dublin – Whelan’s (Foggy Notions Presents) GO FUTURISTS GO!!!!  Many more Europe dates to be announced later this summer!

CADENCE WEAPON…YE HATH EARNED YO’SELF PROPER RECOGNITION!! Cadence Weapon, along with Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Final Fantasy, The New Pornographers and some others has had his debut album BREAKING KAYFABE nominated by the Canadian Press to the shortlist of the first annual Polaris Music Prize – a Canadian interpretation of the Mercury Prize.  It’s a very proud moment for Upper Class…a well deserved congratulations to young Mr. Pemberton, better known as Cadence Weapon!  The winner is announced at a Polaris Private Throwdown September 18 in Toronto. Check out CADENCE WEAPON LIVE over the next week! JULY 8 – Toronto – Beats, Breaks & Culture Festival w/Jamie Lidell, Konono #1 JULY 9 – St. Catherines – SCENE Festival JULY 13 – Quebec City – Festival OFF JULY 14 – Ottawa – Cisco Blues Fest Main Stage (w/Rihanna!) JULY 14 – Ottawa – DJ SET @ Clocktower Brew Pub (12:30am) That’s it for now Comrades.  Get ready for the Cadence Weapon “Black Hand” video and “Sharks” remixes….Much more soon!

Thank you everyone who voted for The Russian Futurists on Steve Lamacq’s BBC6 show!  “Paul Simon” totally destroyed the other 2 songs.  Hollaaaaaaaa!

Okay, seriously, just when we are about to unvail our first official Cadence Weapon video for “Black Hand”, some genius “Redsatyr” on YouTube drops this masterpiece on us of “30 Seconds”…….

And while we’re on the YouTube (best thing ever) topic here is a shot of Islands, Cadence Weapon and Busdriver doing “Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone” live at The Opera House last month in Toronto!

Furthermore, there are some new Cadence Weapon and Russian Futurists Canadian dates in the events section, we’ve got a big fat update coming to you soon regarding the release of The Russian Futurists “Me, Myself & Rye” in UK/Europe August 7 and some deadly live dates over there, lots more Cadence Weapon news and all that! We are happy to report that progress on The Cansecos sophomore album “Chinese Democracy” is steady and positive.  Bill “Axel” Halliday and Gareth “Slash” Jones reportedly have over 6,000 hours of material recorded for the record. Due on Upper Class Recordings sometime this or next year, the reported length of “Chinese Democracy” or “Juices!” as it’s code name has been (to keep it under wraps) ((code name has since been changed to “Jussi” to shout out to the Edmonton Oilers)), is to be between 1 and 72 discs long.  Paul “Duff” Prince, the band’s infamous bass player recently commented on the rumour that Halliday and Jones were spending the next 5 months an ocean apart (Halliday in Dublin, Jones in Toronto) to let the in-studio intensity simmer down, “Man, we’re cool, we’re all talking, who’s Dublin?  You better come out to my fucking prog night at The Embassy in Kensington Market, that’s all I know”

Busy times, shiiiit! Cadence Weapon is somewhere between Seattle and Salt Lake City, The Russian Futurists are deep in the underground recording lair and The Cansecos are reppin’ Dublin for 5 months starting next week!

Mega thanks for coming to the mega-partay at The Horseshoe Friday night – The Russian Futurists, Mantler and Born Ruffians gave you mad jams!!!!!

ME, MYSELF & RYE…An Introduction To The Russian Futuristscomes out via Memphis Industries/V2 Cooperative Music on AUGUST 7 in UK/Europe/Middle East/Africa!!!!!!  Paul Simon single (special 7″) out JULY 17!!!!!

LOCAL ANNOUNCEMENT: —————————– If you are in VANCOUVER: a) we are deeply sorry about the cancellation of the Islands/Cadence Weapon show…there is nothing we can do, sorry, he’ll be back soon enough! Back to regular business…

Thanks to everyone who is making it out to see Cadence Weapon on tour with Islands, Why? and now Busdriver.  8.0 in Pitchfork for BREAKING KAYFABE! Video for “Black Hand” coming soon from these geniuses! CD Single for “Sharks” with deadly Ghislain Poirier and The Russian Futurists remixes is coming very soon!!!

Congratulations to CADENCE WEAPON who is in URB Magazine’s NEXT 100 – peep the April issue to read all about it! Shout outs to Ghostface Killah who took Cadence to dinner in Texas, Hot Chip who had Cadence rap with them in Toronto, Islands who had him rap with them at SXSW, and the Shout Out Out Out Out’s who came to every show in Texas! Cadence Weapon is out there pounding shows while his debut album BREAKING KAYFABE makes its way into your ears, and we have a slew of new live dates to tell you about!

CADENCE WEAPON LIVE IN CANADA:
APRIL 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Stadium w/New Pornographers & others
APRIL 14 – Hamilton, ON @ Pepper Jack’s w/Spank Rock
APRIL 15 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace w/Spank Rock

ISLANDS, WHY?, CADENCE WEAPON
04-19 Cambridge, MA – Middle East
04-20 Providence, RI – Living Room
04-21 Northampton, MA – Iron Horse
04-22 New York, NY – Avalon
04-23 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
04-24 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
04-25 Washington, DC – Black Cat
04-26 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04-27 Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
04-28 Pensacola, FL – Sluggo’s
04-29 Houston, TX – Walter’s on Washington
04-30 Denton, TX – Hailey’s
05-01 Austin, TX – Emo’s
05-03 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
05-04 San Diego, CA – Epicentre
05-05 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey
05-06 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s

ISLANDS, BUSDRIVER, CADENCE WEAPON
05-08 Portland, OR – Loveland
05-09 Vancouver, BC – Mesa Luna
05-10 Seattle, WA – Neumos
05-12 Salt Lake City, UT – Kayo Gallery
05-13 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
05-14 Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
05-15 St. Louis, MO – Creepy Crawl
05-16 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
05-17 Chicago, IL – Metro
05-18 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick

ISLANDS, FROG EYES, SUNSET RUBDOWN, BUSDRIVER, CADENCE WEAPON
05-19 Toronto, Ontario – Opera House

ISLANDS, BUSDRIVER, CADENCE WEAPON
05-20 Montreal, QC – Le National