Album Notes

Vile Richard is comprised of singer/songwriters Olaf Alders and Andrew Vanhorn, joined by a quirky collective of musical friends and neighbours. Alders and Vanhorn have been seen and heard across Eastern Canada, performing live on TV and radio from Hamilton to Halifax. Notable venues include Toronto's CityTV and Edge 102 radio, ATV/CTV in Atlantic Canada and Ottawa's "The New RO". The band has also written and performed music for indie film and stage productions as well as performing improvised pieces for live theatre at Second City.

Having met as Humanities students at McMaster University, Alders and Vanhorn soon started performing regularly at venues around the Hamilton area. Vanhorn put together a band called "Rice", which featured Alders on guitar and bass. Alders formed a band called "Vile Richard", which often featured Vanhorn on guitar and bass. After several years of performing the same songs as two different bands, the boys decided to put all of their energy behind one project, Vile Richard.

In 2003, Vile Richard started off by releasing, "Lucky Me", a rock album which owes a great debt to Matthew Sweet, Elliot Smith and the Lemonheads. The band then toured Eastern Canada opening for Mike Trebilcock (Killjoys) in support of the album.

2004 saw Vile Richard release a single to radio. "Hockey Song" was released for the 2004 NHL playoffs and garnered airplay on FM and AM radio in Canada. As part of the promotional push, Vile Richard performed their "Hockey Song" between periods at Wayne Gretzky's in Toronto during a Toronto Maple Leafs/Ottawa Senators game.

2005 sees the band proudly announcing the birth of their second child, How to Find and Fascinate a Mistress. The sophomore album finds the band picking up some new instruments (banjo and glockenspiel) and recording the album in their own studio. Creating the tracks in their own studio, Vanhorn and Alders have been free to experiment with a sound that blends aspects of traditional country with their own rock roots. The result is an album that is firmly stuck somewhere between folk and rock, with a distinctive Canadian sound, drawing comparisons with Blue Rodeo, Barenaked Ladies and Great Big Sea. VIEW magazine calls it:


"...intellectually driven, quirky folk songs that can be simultaneously cute and bittersweet, fraught with literary allusion and sung with sentimentality."

Ric Taylor, VIEW Magazine, (Hamilton, ON) Sept 2005

Vile Richard follows up its latest release with a tour stretching, fittingly enough, from Hamilton to Halifax.