News Updates

Big changes have happened here. This page is no longer being updated with new news about the folks in the band - that is now the domain of The TPOH Updates blog, so you can subscribe and get all the latest fun stuff (including video and .mp3s and who-knows-what) delivered right to your news reader! So I've migrated the Updates going back to the start of 2007 to the blog. For Updates from 2006 and before, you're in the right place.

This site isn't called "Incompletely Conspicuous" for nothing. News can be hard to come by, and it seems the more I know, the more I don't. If you know any other news (and you can back it up to the extent your name will be here as a source for all to see), help us all out and tell me at webmaster-at-tpoh.net.

First time visiting the Updates? Remember to visit the Biography page for the history from the beginning. For a brief review of what's happened to the band's people between the last tour and now, check here (and it was updated October 30th..er, some time last year? Okay, I need to update that).

Past Updates: 3-11/05 / 9/04-2/05 / 12/03-8/04 / 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


(Remember, for news after 2006, go to the new TPOH Updates blog!)

December 10, 2006 - So we talk about producer Moe, but what the hell is he really doing? A few months ago, he did a fine interview with the IndieCan podcast that gives you a pretty good idea. You can get a .m3u stream of the full interview (well, almost full - it kinda cuts off near the end) here.

December 6, 2006 - Producer Moe is back in the studio up until Christmas, working with Vancouver's The Left. Once the eggnog has been drunk, the mixing starts. But there's also pre-production with that band you'll recall opening those reunion shows this whole long year ago, The Populars. Oh, and he plays sideman again for Shannon Lee Briggs December 20th at the Rivoli in Toronto. AND he'll be doing a reading at the Gladstone Hotel January 2nd.

We really have to update the Pursuit Pals not just for these swell new people, but a lil' ol' group from Edmonton called The Ambers. Yeah, Moe produced their two-song demo, but maybe more important is it's the fabulous Renée and her sisters! Listen to them sing their asses off on their myspace page!

Fireese Berg and her parents at The Gill Deacon Show on CBCNovember 21, 2006 - Finally, some news from the land of Berg, and it's great stuff. About a week before turning 1 (ONE!), daughter Fireese was a star on CBC's daytime talker "The Gill Deacon Show," flawlessly demonstrating baby sign language taught by her mom Laura. To find out more about this neat concept ("Why are you throwing those Cheerios?!? Ohhhh, that's what you want..."), check out Laura's site here. Meanwhile, papa Moe (that guy on the right) has finished production work on an album by upcoming Pursuit Pal Shannon Lee Briggs, who's described as sounding like "The resulting lovechild of a drunken summertime affair between Tom Petty and Emmylou Harris." And he'll be helping out in her band when she plays the Horseshoe November 22 (yes, tomorrow, as we write this).

September 18, 2006 - It's been in the wind since the release of When We Ruled, and now it's come true: this Tuesday, Linus Entertainment and MuchMoreRetro are releasing a DVD of The Pursuit of Happiness playing Muchmusic's "Snow Job" in Whistler B.C. in 1993. Maybe as important are the bonus features: the music videos from the first two albums and the indie "I'm An Adult Now" that started it all. Here's the artwork and the whole lineup:

the cover for the TPOH Live In Concert DVD, from Linus Entertainment 1. Hard To Laugh
2. Bored Of You
3. The Downward Road
4. In Her Dreams
5. Food
6. Pressing Lips
7. New Language
8. Cigarette Dangles
9. Two Girls In One
10. I'm An Adult Now (Medley)
Bonus Features:
- I'm An Adult Now (Original)
- I'm An Adult Now
- Hard To Laugh
- She's So Young
- Two Girls In One
- New Language

To celebrate, MuchMoreMusic is airing a special about the show and other classic Much shows coming out on DVD from Glass Tiger, the Spoons, Gowan and the Payola$ - check it out Tuesday at 7pm and midnight, Wednesday at 3pm and Friday at 7pm.

For more information, a .wmv sample and to order direct, go to the Linus site here. You can also get it from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.

September 10, 2006 - The Mojo piece on Love Junk, with some interesting revelations, has now been transcribed and can be found in our Features Index, where you can also find an old article from the British rock mag Sounds kindly contributed by our friend Andy Gardner. Andy also gave us a great review from that mag for One Sided Story, which you can find in our Album Reviews section. Another Sounds piece is still to come in the next couple weeks. Thanks, Andy!

Mojo cover, 9/06August 20, 2006 - Here on the right is the cover of the September edition of Mojo, which you should be looking for on newsstands soon if not now. Why? Well, there's that nice photo of the late Syd Barrett and that bonus CD of Bob Dylan influences. But really you're getting it for this edition's Buried Treasure feature on Love Junk, which you can find on page 122.

July 23, 2006 - Who was that girl who looked like P!nk? Who was that guy who looked like Mike Skinner? Who was that guy who looked like noted Canadian actor Geraint Wyn Davies? Who was that guy who looked like that Canadian Idol judge with the funny glasses - oh, no...never mind. And was that Roxy's mother boogying on the dance floor??? The stars were out and the tube tops were slipping down on a hot summer Friday night at the Horseshoe for Monteforte. The band dress code was "castaway" with white button-down shirts and black ties over rolled-up cargo pants - except for Roxy, who had some polka-dot miniskirt/leggings combo going. The answer to the "Heat of the Moment" question was settled when the band cut the song off before the big drum part at the end, much to The Crunch's relief. But his bad back would not stop him as he blazed through the other new song, Loverboy's "The Kid Is Hot Tonight". Other highlights included "Sweet Caroline", "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "You Might Think", "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Fame" and "Saturday Night".

Moe plays at the Tacoma Redd EP release party @ the 'shoe.  Courtesy Doug Smart.July 16, 2006 - Moe will be playing sideman for a few songs with newbie Pursuit Pals Tacoma Redd when they celebrate the release of their Berg-produced EP "A Momentary Misfortune" July 25th at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. What's more, it's free to get in, so you can use that money toward buying the record. (Note: the set is scheduled for around 10:20pm, so don't be late.)

As well, Moe played old man - really, with makeup and everything - in a cameo for The Salads' video for "Growing Up". Head to their site here, then click "video" and go get it!

And word is Bobby "The Crunch" Dupont has been going through accupuncture and reiki to mend his ailing back - all because Vikki wants him learn Carl Palmer's drum part on Asia's "Heat of the Moment"! Can Bobby do it? Will there have to be a nurse on duty (this time a real one and not some model in a hot nurse outfit)? Find out when Monteforte make with the rock'n'roll craziness (opening band: Galore) at the 'shoe July 21st!

June 25, 2006 - Moe recently had an interview with the gang at the prestigious music magazine Mojo for an upcoming appreciation of Love Junk, so we'll let you know when that comes out. And the praise from Todd Rundgren continues almost in spite of itself. In a recent intereview with Amazon.com, while recommending the work of another band he produced, XTC, he said:

...they remind me also of another highly overlooked band called Pursuit of Happiness, who I also produced two records for, and who also no longer exists. OK, let's find something else here... well, I've recommended Pursuit of Happiness so many times, I'm going to spread it around a little bit.

June 18, 2006 - Your summer plans are now officially complete. The mighty Monteforte lay waste to The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern July 21st.

May 29, 2006 - Moe's up to some things lately we haven't seen him up to for a while. He's co-writing songs with Gypsy X for her upcoming album, he has a short story in the new edition of the literary magazine Taddle Creek (which launches with a party June 2nd at Cadillac Lounge) and then on 06/06/06, he's part of "Readings For the End of the World" at the Cameron House starting at 7pm.

April 23, 2006 - If you listened to the podcast's ending of the Indies' performance of "I'm An Adult Now" and thought, "hey that's great, but could you make it sound better and let me play video of it on my snazzy-ass video iPod?", then you're an ungrateful, greedy bastard. KIDDING! Dave Gilby got a hold of great video footage of the awards, and converted the big finale to .m4v for your portable visual enjoyment. You can download it here (oh, and let me know if anything's screwy with it, because I have no way of previewing the thing myself. Big thanks for Dave for donating and Peter for testing.)

April 16, 2006 - It's podcasting time again, kids. Have you ever wondered how your humble webmaster got to know TPOH and started doing this goofy website? Didn't think so - but you may want to download my latest podcast and fast-forward to halfway, where the rest of the episode has an exclusive track from the JACK-FM show and behind-the-scenes nonsense from December 28 in Waterloo. The blog for the Description podcast is here.

March 19, 2006 - Keeping the MP3 of the Week up an extra week seems a good excuse to bring out a special bonus. We have audio of a recent TPOH feature on the Canadian entertainment news show Inside Jam (sort of a competitor to ET Canada). Check out the Moe interview and usual breathless journalism in the MP3 Archive Misc. folder.

Moe Berg plays at the Indie Awards, March 1, 2006.  Photo by Nick SciarrattaMarch 5, 2006 - The Canadian Indie Hall of Fame induction was a memorable one. Manager Jake Gold gave the kids a history lesson on the band who put out an indie video even before an indie single which was an unprecented breakthrough for the time - if not all time - and expressed his personal appreciation for the members as people, calling Reunion Tour Week "a personal highlight for me". Then he introduced the band, who of course played "I'm An Adult Now". Soon after in his highly-regarded newsletter, Bob Lefsetz wrote this about the performance:

"It was MESMERIZING! We think of the past as nostalgia. With acts like the Stones having us wondering what all the excitement was about. But Moe Berg, in his cardigan that nobody would wear, and seemingly polyester tight-pegged pants, was alive with the spirit of rock and roll. Of rebellion. Of changing the world. The audience was there to see the headliner, Stars, but they were treated to a piece of rock and roll history. I hope they know that."

Moe then gave a brief but heartfelt speech encouraging the young crowd to make their own records and videos. You can get MP3s of the induction speech, performance and acceptance speech from our MP3 Archive.

February 26, 2006 - Just a reminder that tickets are still available for the Canadian Indie Awards, where the Pursuits will be inducted into the Indie Hall of Fame. It happens March 1st at the cavernous Docks in Toronto, with the awards ceremony starting about 7pm, the induction scheduled for about 8, and the Pursuits performing one song near the end of the ceremony just before 9. Then you can stick around for a show by Magnet and then Stars. Get your tickets here. But if you're, say, on the other side of the Earth, we'll have coverage for you next week.

February 12, 2006 - If you've tried to get The Green Room, Moe's book of short stories, and found it unavailable, there's good news. A fresh stock of copies has landed at Maplemusic, which is now the exclusive carrier of the book (unless you get lucky at a used bookstore). So now you have one less excuse to not have your Berg fix sitting on your shelf - go to Maplemusic now! If you need a little reminder of what's in the book, one of the stories, "After Dinner," is still online through the literary magazine Taddle Creek here. Otherwise, life has settled back to normalcy (as much as it ever will) for Fireese's dad, as Moe prepares to go into the studio to produce another great record by another great band, this time The Cliks.

January 8, 2006 - Okay, the Reunion Tour Week gallery is up here! Thanks again to everyone who sent photos, and it's not too late if you haven't sent yours yet (especially folks who went to the Hamilton show!). Also, we have a pretty complete list of the video clips now up on xdrive. Check the bottom of the Audio page for what's where.

TPOH @ Big Buck's in St. Catharines, 12/26/05, (l.-r.): Kris, Dave, Moe, Brad, Renee.  courtesy Andrew Lee Kris and Moe @ Lee's Palace, Toronto, 12/29/05.  Courtesy Mitsuyo Okada

January 1, 2006 - Happy New Year! Here's a taste of an upcoming Reunion Tour Week page, with a shot of St. Catharines (thanks Andrew!) and Toronto (thanks Mitsuyo!). We're a little shaky on the Waterloo setlist, but that show was terrific, with Moe praising the local promoters associated with the Starlight for helping with the big turnout. But the show of the week had to be Toronto at Lee's Palace, which was absolutely packed with everyone in town roaring approval after every song. And the songs? Hard To Laugh, Kalendar, ...Social Tool, Nobody But Me, Beautiful White, Shave Your Legs, Two Girls In One, Gretzky Rocks, Pressing Lips, Down On Him, Ten Fingers, Food, Looking For Girls, She's So Young, Killed By Love, Cigarette Dangles, I'm An Adult Now. The first encore had When the Sky Comes Falling Down, When Doves Cry and I'm Ashamed of Myself. The second encore was Man's Best Friend and Young and In Love. The THIRD encore had Bored of You and Hey Mary Anne. A remarkable night, and it will be featured as the next - and probably final - MP3 of the Week series.

New Year's Eve in London was the cherry on top, a slightly truncated set to allow for the big countdown: [Update update Jan. 2: thanks for the setlist, Dan!] Hard To Laugh, Food, ...Social Tool, Beautiful White, When The Sky Comes Falling Down, Kalendar, Two Girls In One, Gretzky Rocks, Pressing Lips, When Doves Cry, Shave Your Legs, Man's Best Friend, Killed By Love, She's So Young, Young And In Love, Down On Him, Ten Fingers, Cigarette Dangles, I'm Ashamed Of Myself, I'm An Adult Now. The sound was great coming from the Victoria Park Bandshell in mercifully mild weather with thousands of people dancing and ice skating. Photos are on the way.

As we work on the new page over the course of the week, there are video clips of the St. Catharines (thanks Andrew and Nick) and Toronto (thanks Mitsuyo) shows in our xdrive archive. If you haven't been there before: head to xdrive, enter the login name tpoh@canada.com and the password pursuit, then go to the tour week folder in the video folder. While the St. Catharines videos give a fair idea of what's going on, the Toronto videos are extremely good - which is partially why the file sizes are massive. Enjoy, and we'll get more photos together as soon as we can. [Update update Jan. 2: Nick has uploaded some nice video from New Year's Eve in London, including their Auld Lang Syne! Thanks yet again, Nick.]

December 28, 2005 - No time for much yet on Reunion Tour Week except the setlists thus far. Boxing Night at Big Buck's in St. Catharines, the lineup was: Hard To Laugh, Food, Consciousness Raising..., Nobody But Me, Two Girls In One, Beautiful White, When Doves Cry, Gretzky Rocks, Pressing Lips, Killed By Love, Looking For Girls, She's So Young, Kalendar, Ten Fingers, Cigarette Dangles, I'm An Adult Now, with the encore songs Down On Him and I'm Ashamed of Myself. (We have some dispute as to whether Girls was played in the main set or as an encore.) Thanks to Andrew and Nick for the photos and setlists. For Tuesday night at The Underground in Hamilton: Hard To Laugh, Food, Consciousness Raising..., Nobody But Me, Beautiful White, Hey Mary Anne, Two Girls In One, Gretzky Rocks, Pressing Lips, Killed By Love, Kalendar, Down On Him, Looking For Girls, She's So Young, Ten Fingers, Cigarette Dangles, I'm An Adult Now. (Ed. note: I was at this, and suddenly I can't remember what encore song there was besides I'm Ashamed of Myself.) As previously mentioned, photos are rolling in, and it'll take time to get them together into a special Reunion Tour Week section, so stay tuned. If you have photos to send for that section, fire them off here.

From the cover of Echo Weekly, 12/22/05: (l-r): Brad, Kris, Moe and DaveDecember 23, 2005 - Leading up to Tour Week, two (or, technically, three) features came out in southern Ontario alt weeklies yesterday. There's this feature in Toronto's NOW Magazine, and this pretty extensive piece - which totally butchers the spelling on Kris' name - now appearing as the cover story in Hamilton's paper View and the "tri-Cities" (in this case, Kitchener/Waterloo, Guelph and maybe Cambridge - things get complex around here...) paper Echo, whose fine cover is over there on the left, although eye colours may not be entirely accurate. Among the revelations, Moe says, "...the reunion is an end in itself. I wanted to see some sort of document that we were here. We’re doing some songs, but I don’t see anything past that. We’ve never tried to close the door on anything but we definitely have no plans to do anymore.”

Meanwhile, more details are now available about Countdown London for New Year's Eve here. Again, the whole thing is free, and while the Pursuits take the stage at 10:45pm, earlier in the night there's free ice skating, hot chocolate and "free kids' Space Train and Air Bounce carnival rides." So if you needed any more reason to go besides this might be one of the last shows if not the last, there you go.

December 18, 2005 - The legacy-building continues with the announcement this week that in the spring, The Pursuit of Happiness will be inducted into The Indies Hall of Fame. Voted on by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Music and the Arts, the Hall of Fame "recognizes the long-term contributions of an individual or band to the development of Canadian artists and the growth of the Canadian music industry." Er, and it has something to do with being indie at some point, which the band was when they found their first fame. Last year, the very first inductees were Vancouver punk legends D.O.A. and Toronto new wave outfit Martha & the Muffins, and going in alongside the Pursuits will be Parachute Club, who were doing world-beat-influenced, socially-conscious music before anyone knew what that was. The Hall of Fame thing will happen March 1st, during the Canadian Indie Awards, which is part of the Canadian Music Week conference in Toronto.

- One update on the Hamilton show for 12/27: The Underground website says advance tix are available at their usual suspects of the Casbah Lounge, Dr.Disc, Reigning Sound, Screamin' Mimi's and the Sonic Unyon Store. But if you are from out of the Hamilton area, you can call the club to reserve tix: 905-741-ROCK (7625). They'll be held for an hour after the doors openon the night of the show, which means at 9:00pm, they go back up for grabs.

December 11, 2005 - First, the bad news. Then, lots of good news.

We were a bit unnerved when we got an email from Moe Friday asking if we were going to make it to the show the next night, because we had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out the radio station JackFM in Toronto had been running a contest for tickets to "JackFM's Private Pursuit of Happiness," a show for contest winners only at the Rivoli. At their one rehearsal, the band was asking each other, "You didn't tell them?" "We thought you told 'em!" (er...let's not bring the management into this...) We're really sorry no one let us know about this, so you could've tried to win. However, we are able to give you a piece of the experience, providing a sneak preview of the shows to come. The truncated setlist (it was an early show) was: Hard To Laugh, Ten Fingers, Food, Consciousness Raising as a Social Tool, When Doves Cry, Gretzky Rocks, Pressing Lips, She's So Young, Kalendar, Hate Engine, Cigarette Dangles, Killed By Love, I'm An Adult Now and as an encore, Down On Him. Photos of the night will be coming later, but for now, we have their performance of When Doves Cry as a special MP3 of Week on the Audio page! (Update: that track will be back 12/28-1/1)

Along with it being a fun night for the 50-or-so winners and for the band's spouses and significants (including Renée's husband Pat, who was back behind the sound board as he will be for the future shows, and Kris' wife Dee, who finally got to see Kris live in full Pursuit rock mode - btw, Laura was home taking care of Fireese), it was an excellent low-pressure warmup for what now looks to be a week of reunion shows which have been confirmed. Get ready for shows on Boxing Day (12/26) at Big Buck's in St. Catharines (tickets here - The Populars will open), and 12/27 in Hamilton at The Underground (check the "tickets" page for ticket outlets and especially the out-of-town ticket policy). To review: the following night is Waterloo's Starlight Room (The Populars opening), then it's Lee's Palace in Toronto (The Populars and Galore will open), and things wind up New Year's Eve at Victoria Park in London.

December 6, 2005 - The shows for Waterloo and London have now been confirmed, and getting tickets is fairly easy. Thanks to the guys at the Starlight Room (associated with the equally cool Jane Bond) for telling us tickets are now available for the December 28 show at Maplemusic here (not in the TPOH section, but the Starlight's section) for $15 Cdn. If you're in the K-Dub, you can pick up tickets for $13 at Golden Monkey Music in Waterloo or Encore Records in Kitchener. Note that we think capacity is 300 people. There's not a lot of information on "Countdown London," New Year's Eve just down the 401, except it's at the Victoria Park Bandshell (Outside! Yikes!) and it's FREE, so you can save your money for long underwear.

December 4, 2005 - As we suspected, whoever was talking about a date in Winnipeg was jumping the gun, unfortunately, but now there are possibilities of December 28 in Waterloo at the Starlight Room and maybe New Year's Eve in London (Ontario). While we try to get these confirmed, enjoy Moe's first post-baby public appearance as he talks Canada Olympic hockey and Carlos Delgado on TSN's panel show "Off the Record". The mp3 of two segments (he didn't talk much in the third) is in the ET Canada folder in the MP3 Archive.

(Back on Top)

Past Updates: 3-11/05 / 9/04-2/05 / 12/03-8/04 / 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


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