This Crooked Mile

This Crooked Mile is a Toronto band creating addictively sweet melodies over richly textured music. They perform acoustic music played with electric passion. It's intelligent and emotional alt/pop/rock, so memorable you'll be singing their songs on the way home from the show.

Formed while at university in 1999, Geoff Olsen, Dan Olsen, and Mike Paddags got their first gig playing dinner music at a residence formal. The crowd reaction at that first show was what spurred them to start truly taking their music seriously. They spent the next couple of years seeking as many opportunities to play live as possible across Southern Ontario. From Hamilton to Waterloo to Toronto they performed their acoustic set, fueled by continued audience support and comments.

Eventually the limitations of three-piece acoustic jam band started to set in. Wanting to enter their university's battle of the bands it was decided to more than double the size of the band. Leading up to the 2003 MSU Showoff (Battle of the Bands) the bands current lineup was finalized with Geoff Boyd, Bryan Hall, David Olsen, and Allan Raun. Now TCM's signature sound, a unique combination of the standard rock format, with trumpets and keyboards added for colour, had emerged.

In this new expanded form, TCM went on to win the McMaster finals and move on to the South Western Ontario Finals. Traveling to London for the competition, they found themselves as a standout act among the many standard alternative and pop/punk bands. Despite that fact, they ended up finished in a close second place amongst all the universities in SW Ontario.

After playing a few more shows that year, the band decided it was time to prove that they were serious about their efforts as a band. The band went into temporary gig hiatus and so the process of recording their debut album began. After a few months looking for engineer to work on the project, they were introduced to Adam Tune of Ketchy Tune Entertainment. TCM entered the studio, and quickly, the primary recording was complete. With a few more months of careful mixing with Adam, TCM enlisted veteran mastering engineer George Graves of Lacquer Channel to put the finishing touches on "Proof That Things Are Changing".

TCM have entered a new era of their careers with the CD Release of their debut "Proof That Things Are Changing". Currently distributed by Indie Pool (Canada) Inc., TCM is on the road promoting their creation with as many shows as they can fit in.

They have come a long way in five years. Their initial sound was influenced most by the acoustic music of the Dave Matthews Band and their tastes have expanded ever since. Now, listening to their music, one will hear inspiration drawn from the likes of Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright, The Beatles, and Radiohead. But please keep listening because TCM isn't planning to settle down any time soon.

Cities from Toronto to Waterloo to Hamilton. Venues from the Cameron House to The Horseshoe Tavern to Castros Lounge and the list goes on. Best live moment was having the sound cut off at Castros Lounge because of noise complaints. And as the police came in to talk to the bartender we continued to play a quite acoustic song to the packed house.

Coldplay - Rufus Wainwright - The Beatles - Radiohead - Wilco