Arctic Take Cool, Green Vibes On Tour

Vancouver band, and sometimes solo project, Arctic are heading across Canada to promote their new Today Brought Me Here EP on a 16-date tour.

Marcus Martin is Arctic's driving force and sometimes performs on his own. At other times the singer/guitarist is joined by bassist/keyboardist/backing singer Kirsten Starcher and drummer Todd Biffard. The music is a blend of progressive and industrial rock, jazz, ambient and acoustic singer/songwriter styles.

Today Brought Me Here was produced and recorded by Martin and Starcher at Martin's private studio, where he also mixed the songs. It was later mastered by Brett Zilahi (Nickelback, Alexisonfire).

Arctic's tour will encourage fans to be more eco-friendly. The band plan to avoid shopping at chain stores and eating in chain restaurants while on tour. Arctic hand-bleach their logo into their T-shirts and handle all of their own booking, licensing and production.

Neither Today Brought Me Here nor the earlier Music For Rain have printed booklets and they're sold in minimalist clear cases with the band name embossed on the front. Arctic also developed a Flash-based CD cover and liner notes generator on their website that allows fans to design and print their own booklet.

"Part of the rationale for this is that we realize that many people are going to buy, copy or download the tracks and MP3s, and they won't need or want a printed booklet anyway," says Martin. "It gives our fans a chance to engage with the music and packaging in a more interactive way than just looking at a printed booklet."

Here are Arctic's tour dates:

May 10 Vancouver, BC @ Wired Monk w/Benjamin Keith
May 13 Regina, SK @ The Gaslight w/Devon Floyd
May 14 Winnipeg, MB @ Mondragon Cafe w/The Playing Cards
May 15 Thunder Bay, ON @ The Apollo
May16 Sault Ste Marie, ON @ Loplops
May 20 Guelph, ON @ Albion Hotel
May 21 Toronto, ON @ The Boat w/The City
May 22 Montreal, QC @ Bar St. Laurent 2 w/Postcards and Diamond Sea
May 25 Kitchener, ON @ Circus Room w/Union Of Lanterns
May 26 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah
May 28 Peterborough, ON @ The Spill w/Fire Flower Revue
May 29 Wakefield, QC @ Black Sheep Inn w/Culture Reject and Flotilla
May 31 Windsor, ON @ Phog Lounge
June 4 Winnipeg, MB @ The Cavern Club
June 6 Calgary, AB @ The Stetson
June 7 Kelowna, BC @ The Grateful Fed