Henry Rollins, Get In The Van: On the road with Black Flag, pg 81: "After many practices, we were ready and a tour was booked. 1984 was a great year. We played all over and all the time. We had the fiercest attitude on earth. We had been in the practice place for months. Our first record in a couple years, the My War album was out and we wanted to kill everyone. The shows were great. Kill Everyone Now was the agenda. KEN mode all the time. It was good to be out on the road again with an album out and an excuse to live."
NEWS
April 9, 2012
Well, we won the inaugural Heavy Metal/Hard album of the year JUNO (Canadian Grammy). Check out our facebook for some funny pictures. Also, to celebrate, we're again offering up our 'Reprisal' and 'Mennonite' albums for free/paywhatyouwant download. Check it out, and check out the leftover tour stock that is now available in our webstore. Another intensive writing session is booked for May, and we'll be playing a few select dates here and there while we write. Be on the lookout for tour plans and all kinds of other crazy developments in the next while. KEN mode's on the move.
March 20, 2012
SXSW has come and gone and we had a blast both seeing and playing with some truly amazing bands. We have a lot of really cool things in the works, but can't let any cats out of the proverbial bag yet. Expect updates soon. For now we're writing more material in May for our 5th full length, with plans to record later this year. The JUNOS (the Canadian grammy's) are 12 days away, so wish us luck!
February 28, 2012
Big thanks to Kylesa, Circle Takes the Square and Avocado Booking for the amazing European run over the past two months. Please check the shows section for our SXSW dates in Austin and our upcoming Juno Fest show in Ottawa, ON. There should be many interesting things to come in 2012, so stay tuned for more sounds, tour dates, recording plans, crazy new merch from Randy Ortiz, and much more!
February 16, 2012
A short update: we've been nominated for a JUNO award (basically a Canadian Grammy) and are playing a few shows at SXSW in Austin in March. More updates soon once more details are announced. We might do a show in Ottawa for the Junos too, but nothing is confirmed yet.
December 26, 2011
In celebration of the impending new year and our upcoming dates with KYLESA & Circle Takes the Square, for a limited time you can download our 'Mennonite' and 'Reprisal' albums for FREE at our Bandcamp site. We're also putting 'Venerable' on sale for a measly $5. Spread the word.
December 18, 2011
We've been holed up in our Winnipeg, MB Canada den for the past week writing with our latest four-string-slinger Andrew LaCour, guitarist of the Florida (USA)/Blackmarket Activities artist Khann (hint, click the link and go listen to their new record). For those of you in Eastern Canada and everywhere in the United States but the west coast, he has been on tour with us since July this year. We have several loose song structures together and a whole slew of new material to work with that we're hoping we can piece together in time to record sometime before 2012 is through. Again, check the shows section for the itinerary of our full European tour with Kylesa and Circle Takes the Square.
November 22, 2011
European dates with Kylesa and Circle Takes the Square are now up! See the shows section immediately!
November 7, 2011
The never ending tour has come to a pause. We're home for a couple months now after doing endless loops of Canada and the US since March. Big thanks to the Atlas Moth and the Great Sabatini for the months of smashing noise from Aug through October. Check out the "Store" section of the site right now for a pretty massive sale on all items. We have discounted all inventory that we've had on tour, and you can get pretty great deals (some cds as low as $5-7). European dates should be announced soon as a full six week tour is being planned for Jan/Feb 2012. Be on the lookout for those dates!
June 25, 2011
Again, thanks to everyone who came out to our shows in the US w/Deafheaven and everyone we met in France at Hellfest 2011. It was trippy as hell to be a part of something so huge and to play with bands like the Melvins, Converge, Electric Wizard, Goatsnake, Ozzy Osborne and Rob Zombie, haha. We will be returning to Europe in the fall for a full tour, so keep on the lookout, especially on our Facebook where we will make consistent progress updates!
We'll be heading back to the US for Dudefest 2011 at the end of July in Indianapolis, as well as hitting up Eastern Canada with our friends in The Great Sabatini in August. Check out the shows section for details! Fall dates are being planned, which we'll announce once we start to figure out where we're going! East Coast US and Western Canada, we're looking at YOUUUUU.
May 13, 2011
Huge thanks to everyone over the past two months for the killer shows! We'll be back to see you all again soon, some of your sooner than others. We're off for a loop of the United States with Deafheaven in just a couple weeks, so check out the shows section of the site. We are sorry to those of you on the East Coast though, as we had to duck out to fly over to France to partake in Hellfest 2011; we'll be making these shows up to you all in the coming months. Also note, we'll be hitting up Init Fest and Dudefest in July, with more dates to come around those fest dates.
My brain still feels fried, so I'll give everyone a better update when I'm an actual person again.
April 6, 2011
We're in the middle of a North American tour right now and are presently relaxing in a lake house in North Carolina before a brisk drive to Athens, Georgia where we meet up with the Khann guys. The shows so far have been amazing, and "big ups" to Black Breath, Engineer, Vilipend, Mountains Unfold, Lunglust, Black Faxes, Alaskan, Castevet, Grayceon, Tombs, Gaza, Yob, The Secret, Deafheaven, and all of the other killer bands we've come across in our travels thus far. Our dates with Deafheaven in June have been posted, check out the shows section. We can't stop. Khann, Ganon and Fuck the Facts await, as does the midwestern US, west coast and western Canada! 'Venerable' is out now, head to our store to buy it directly from us!
March 2, 2011.
We leave for tour in just over a week and are unbelievably stoked to get out there again; check the shows section for all of the details - and visit our facebook page and check our notes for "events" for each show. Additionally, our friends at EXCLAIM! Magazine posted ANOTHER teaser track: listen to Flight of the Echo Hawk, our tribute to our friend David Kelly from KITTENS, who tragically passed in 2008.
February 16, 2011.
Please click HERE to PRE-ORDER our new album "Venerable" directly from the band. All orders will ship March 10th before we head out on our massive 2 month North American tour. You can check out the dates in the SHOWS section! Also head over to REVOLVER to listen to ANOTHER advance track; 'A Wicked Pike'.
February 4, 2011.
I posted a whole bunch of North American dates in the SHOWS section. There's still some holes to be filled, but at least this gives some of you an idea if we'll be coming through anytime soon. California, we'll give you some love in June, I promise. Start spreading the word, and check out another track debut at Brooklyn Vegan. It'll make you sweat. 'Book of Muscle' plays for keeps.
January 26, 2011.
Welcome to the new KEN mode site! We're going to have a bunch of announcements soon regarding touring, but songs from our fourth album "Venerable" have been premiered on a few sites already including AOL Noisecreep and Invisible Oranges. Check out the new store as well, linked above. We'll be hitting up SXSW in Austin this year, as a part of the Profound Lore showcase with Slough Feg, Grayceon, Castevet, Wolvhammer, and Bruce Lamont's solo project on March 19th, but that's the only date I'm officially letting out of the bag. Expect a full North American tour announcement next week.
December 17, 2010.
As things come together for the release of 'Venerable', the fine people at Invisible Oranges have posted the first teaser track from the album Obeying The Iron Will.... Click to listen. In other news, we're currently booking dates around a SXSW showcase in March and completing some routing for a full scale North American assault to mark the release of 'Venerable' on March 15.
October 29, 2010.
Well, it's been a busy year for KEN mode. We did a few months worth of touring with the likes of Gaza, Engineer, Wolvhammer, Mares of Thrace and Clinging to the trees of a forest fire; we tracked a brand new album with Mr. Kurt Ballou @ Godcity that will see the light of day in March 2011 via Profound Lore; we've begun the painful process of starting to plan out touring in 2011; we all are back to hating being office stooges; we're plotting out a video for our song "Obeying the Iron Will" from our new album; and we decided to give away our last two records for FREE in mp3 form. Head over to the "store" section of the site to find links to download 2006's 'Reprisal' and 2008's 'Mennonite'. We are also having a sale on our new shirts and our re-stocked CDs, so check that out....*instert crack about them being excellent stocking stuffers*
April 6, 2010.
Well, first things first, this is our humble little announcement that we'll be creating a partnership with fellow Canadians, Profound Lore Records. The label has been doing a lot of great things over the years, and it is with great pride that we announce that we'll be joining forces with them to release our fourth full length album, titled "Venerable". The album will be recorded late August in Salem, MA with Kurt Ballou (Converge, Cave In, everyone) at the helm. Artwork is being handled by Julie Anne Mann with layouts by Josh Graham of Neurosis fame. It should see the light of day earlier in 2011.
In other news, KEN mode will be returning to the United States for the first time in six long years. We embark on somewhat of a North American tour starting in May (if our visas get denied we're killing ourselves). Please see our myspace for details.
March 3, 2010.
It's been a busy beginning to 2010 and we have a lot of announcements to make, but most will have to wait. We've submitted our paperwork to finally return to the US, and have begun booking dates for May and June. An official announcement will follow in the next month or two. New merch is in the works, lots of shows, new album news, etc. Stay tuned.
November 27, 2009
We recently had some drama over the past week in regards to Myspace removing some of our songs claiming that Warner Music Group owned the copyrights. Thankfully, it's been sorted out, but you can read a few articles that Exclaim! magazine wrote about it here and a follow up here.
Additionally, we've been increasingly aware that our former bricks and mortar distribution networks have dried up; notably with Lumberjack going tits up this past summer, KEN mode's material is getting harder and harder to find.
In the spirit of the impending holiday season (whichever holiday you may be celebrating, or not celebrating), we've made up a sampler of songs from our last two records that we're making available on our myspace page. Click the button stating "Holiday KEN mode free sampler download". If you are so inclined, you can subsequently purchase a CD, LP, 7", t-shirt or hoodie from our webstore. We also have a limited time special pricing on a shirt and CD deal on our myspace ($14 CDN!!)
If you like what you hear, pass the link on. We're finally going to be getting out of our stuffy office jobs next year and hitting the road in a real way (US for the first time since 2004, Europe, Canada, and anywhere else that will have us!), so it's time to spread the word!