From CBC.ca:

It’s fair to say that Ed Robertson and Chris Hadfield are about to set off on the most unusual collaboration of their careers. The singer-songwriter from the Barenaked Ladies and the astronaut are teaming up to write the song for next year’s Music Monday, a day to celebrate the importance of music and education. The twist is Hadfield will be orbiting the globe in the International Space Station while the two write, record and premiere the track, with Robertson on the ground in Canada.

Hadfield is a veteran of two space shuttle missions, and is also an accomplished musician and songwriter. He and Robertson, who is also a science buff, took to each other immediately. When their song is finished, it will continue its journey from space to all corners of Canada as students and teachers across the nation perform it at the same time to mark Music Monday in 2013.

The Hadfield and Robertson met up for the first time at CBC to discuss the project and try out a few ideas before Hadfield blasts into space. Take a look at a discussion of song and science between two very talented people.

– Mike Miner, CBC.ca

The project also garenered attention from LetzGetReal.com and BNL Tweeted about it yesterday (see below):

OK, this is really friggin’ cool! Ed@barenakedladies teams up with astronaut @Cmdr_Hadfield to write a song in space r3.ca/0PbY

— Barenaked Ladies (@barenakedladies) May 8, 2012

Watch the video below of the collaboration taking shape:

Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before! is available in the UK today!

You can purchase Stop Us… on:

Amazon (CD), Amazon (MP3), iTunes, Play.com. (NB these are UK retailer links).

So, for those who are giving the disc a spin today: what do you think?

Leave a comment on the BNLUK track-by-track analysis below!

1. I Don’t Get It Anymore

2. Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

3. Half a Heart

4. Old Apartment

5. Shake Your Rump

6. Same Thing

7. One Week (Remix)

8. Teenage Wasteland

9. Long While

10. Second Best

11. I Can, I Will, I Do

12. Adrift

Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before! is due for release on May 7th (UK) and May 8th (international), which is now only a week away.

You can pre-order Stop Us… on Amazon (CD), Amazon (MP3), iTunes, Play.com (NB these are UK retailer links).

Here’s a quick tease of one of the previously unreleased tracks. It’s a live version of Long While, originally recorded for Everything to Everyone, but cut from the final disc.

Have you pre-ordered Stop Us?

If so, what track(s) are you most looking forward to hearing? Leave your thoughts!

Remember this ’farewell’ post for percussionist and drum tech Tiny last year?

Well, the kind sentiments towards Mr. Menegoni still apply, but delightfully, Tiny is now back on board with BNL and becomes a full-time fixture with the BNL crew again!

Welcome back, Tiny!

Last week, Steven Page played a solo show in Toronto and was joined on stage by Kevin Hearn, as reported by BNLUK here.

Now, thanks to the wonderful Jason at HaterHigh.com, an audience recording of the entire show is available to download in Flac and MP3 – and it sounds GREAT!

From Jason’s blog:

Page and his band performed two sets of approximately a dozen songs each, spanning the entirety of his career, but it was established early that a Steven Page show isn’t to be confused with BNL-lite.

[...]

This is a phenomenal show, full of energy and enthusiasm. The band was clearly ecstatic to be performing in front of a home town crowd, and put together not one, but two spectacular sets of songs. BNL and Steven Page fans should have no problem overlooking the minor sound problems for the extraordinary nature of the performance.

To read Jason’s blog post in full, and access the show download, click here!

You can listen to a sample of Jane and have the option to download the show either in Flac or MP3.

Enjoy the recording and leave your comments on the show below!

Stephen Duffy of The Lilac Time is a long-term pal and writing partner of Steven Page, dating back to the early days of Barenaked Ladies.

Check out Duffy’s recording of “Jane“, the BNL hit that first surfaced on 1994′s Maybe You Should Drive. NB a number of lyric changes.

What do you think to this version? Leave your thoughts!

Page’s show on Friday night was his first full-band headlining show in Toronto since his 2008 split with Barenaked Ladies, and the set at the Winter Garden Theatre lasted for two hours.

Hearn took to the keys for Page’s three-song encore which consisted of “Next Time“, “Powder Blue” and “Brian Wilson“. Tyler Stewart also Tweeted suggesting that he was in attendance.

Page’s carefully-constructed set was peppered with BNL favourites, as well as new release “A Different Sort Of Solitude” and tracks from 2010′s Page One.

The show received a write-up from the Toronto Sun (includes set list!) which offered a slightly critical slant on the performance, highlighting technical difficulties as a niggling distraction.

Page’s Twitter legion, however, remained unequivocally positive about the show, complimenting Page’s voice and set list construction in equal measures.

Hearn’s late cameo in particular was met with much excitement:

@stevenpage on stage at the Elgin Winter Garden. Phenomenal! twitpic.com/99g238

— Bobby Singh (@BSingh_tronno) April 14, 2012

@stevenpage putting on incredible show at the Winter Garden tonight. twitpic.com/99gplw

— West Annex News (@westannexnews) April 14, 2012

yfrog.com/nwwl0skj @stevenpage making a whole room ask “Barenaked Who?”

— blog.haterhigh.com (@haterhigh) April 14, 2012

Mind = blown after seeing @stevenpagetonight. “Powder Blue” and Kevin Hearn?! #werenotworthy #win

— Exceedingly (@exceedingly) April 14, 2012

Steven Page back in Toronto. Sounds as good as ever #stevenpage twitter.com/rsp712/status/…

— Rob Patterson (@rsp712) April 14, 2012

WOW….the only word to describe the Steven Page concert tonight!

— Laurie Simmons (@NanSimmons) April 14, 2012

AHHHHH!!! Steven Page concert intermission! Review: I’m… so.. happy…. #fb

— David St Bernard (@chryckie) April 14, 2012

Anyway, Steven Page sounded awesome, and his band was absolutely outstanding! Glad I got the chance to see him with some diehards

— Krystal Sondel (@LovinOnBuffalo) April 14, 2012

Many thanks to Marie for the videos – check out more clips from the show on her Youtube channel !

What do you think to Steven’s set list? Any thoughts about the collaboration with Kevin?

Leave your thoughts!

The clip of “One Week” was played on Sunday morning’s Sunday Brunch, which featured Tara Reid and Eugene Levy promoting the new American Pie film. The original slice of Pie of course memorably featured “One Week“.

Sorry about the poor video quality.

What do you think to the outlandish video?

Plumb may be familiar to BNL fans from his writing collaborations with Ed in the past; notably the beautiful “Satellite” (see Ed’s Bathroom Sessions version). He has also previously cruised on Ships and Dip and won over a large portion of the BNL fan-base with his catchy pop-rock sensibilities – he even performed Box Set and Break Your Heart with BNL on Ships and Dip 4.

This album features guest contributions from both Steven Page and Ed Robertson.

BNLUK reader Sarah Whitfield has kindly put her thoughts into words on All Is More Than Both:

“It was a tense moment while I waited for the new Jason Plumb album to finish downloading from Amazon.  After completely falling in love with Jason’s music on the last BNL cruise, I was excited for new songs but there is always that little nagging doubt that says “I hope this album doesn’t suck”.

I’m glad to report that it definitely does not!

The opening track “First Time” is a strong and vibrant start with some great harmonies that put me in mind of some of The Waltons songs.  There is some excellent electric guitar on this track and it’s a pleasantly surprising way to start the album.

It runs straight into track 2 “Losin” which features guest vocals from Ed Robertson and a little bit of banjo music.  Again it’s a strong track with a killer chorus and one that I think will blow people away when it’s done live.

On through to track 3 “What You Leave” with guest vocals from Steven Page.  The tempo slows a little for this one and the combination of Jason and Steve on vocals gives it a great depth.  This one is a contender for my favourite track.  This is some great saxophone played here too.

Track 4 “Alone With You” – this is Jason’s voice arguably at its best – when paired with a female vocal.  More great background harmonies.

Track 5 “Hold On” is a nice stripped down song with Jason telling a story in a way only he can.  This is one of those songs that you can get lost in.

Bring back the beat and the electric guitar for “All By Myself” and another throwback to the Waltons era.

“On a Chain” is just catchy enough to get stuck in your head without you realising it.  It has a slight bluesy touch to it in places.

For track 8 “Falling Star” you can hear the return of ‘The Broken Heartstrings’ providing some amazing backing.  The song rises and falls beautifully.  It’s not “Satellite“, but it could be the sequel to it.  It’s also the first of 3 songs that last between 5 and 6 minutes.

Things slow right down again for “Under A Gun” which is what I’d call a classic Jason Plumb beautiful song.  It gently picks you up and carries you along with it.

Track 10 is “Sweet Misery” which I saw him perfom on the last cruise but had no idea what the song was.  I loved it when he played it, so it was great to hear it on this album.  As the title suggests it’s a sad song delivered on a happy tune.

The final track is “Naturally (Ain’t Up To Me)” and if you haven’t already I would highly recommend you watch the Jumpy Jumpy video Jason put together for it (see below). Once you do, that’s all you’ll be able to picture anytime you listen to this. But insanely cute video aside, this is an excellent track to finish off with.  It’s an upbeat tune that I hear as being about letting life run it’s course and not worrying about what you can’t control.

On the whole, I’d say this is a great mix of early and more recent sounds that Jason and the band have produced.  There isn’t a skippable track on it.  If you ever wanted to recommend Jason Plumb to somebody that hadn’t heard him before, I’d suggest this album as the best place to start.

As a rule, I don’t like buying an album in MP3 format, as I like to be able to physically hold the CD in my hand when I’ve bought it, but Jason is one of the few artists that I really don’t mind doing it for (BNL being the other).

It’s worth every penny.”

Thanks Sarah!

• You can read more about Jason Plumb on his website.

• All Is More Than Both is available to download on Amazon UK (£7.49)

Check out Jason’s adorable new video for “Naturally” featuring his highly-expressive baby son: