Austin, Texas-based eclectic doom rock band GIANT SQUID are keeping busy over the holidays, writing and recording new material and planning an upcoming tour of the US and Canada.

Giant Squid's singer/guitarist/frontman Aaron Gregory checks in to deliver a heads up on the latest happenings in the band:

"Last week after Thanksgiving, exactly a year since we were tracking Metridium Fields in 2005, we hit the Austin-based, personal home studio of Metridium Fields' eccentric producer, Jason Rufuss Sewell, known as Nebulost Productions.

We are tracking a new song called ‘Sutter's Fort', named after the legendary California fort that served as a birth place for early Californian commerce, but was deserted when word spread of the discovery of gold in the near by American River. The fort was vandalized, abused, and exploited until there was nothing left but the founder himself, John Sutter. Many years later, the fort was relocated and restored as a historical landmark to the center of midtown Sacramento, the home town of Giant Squid, and is a huge part of Sacramento's history.

Though this song was written well over a year ago, and has popped in and out of Giant Squid's live set since, it has a whole new meaning today. We've been dying to track some new material forever now, since Metridium Fields is a reissue of a record we did in 2002, and so this is a great opportunity to do that. We plan on including the song on The End Records' 2007 sampler, as well as posting the new track as a MySpace exclusive.

I can say thus far, the presence of new drummer, Scott Sutton, will throw what old Giant Squid fans might expect out of us, right out the window at moments of the track. Both Sewell and I kept throwing ideas at him, pushing him as hard as we could, and he wouldn't flinch. Let's just say this song is rightfully "pissed off" sounding with Scott's bombastic drumming driving it like a gold rush era locomotive.

It will be awesome to hear what Sewell can get out of us (guitarist Aurielle and I) when he is in control of the entire process, from initial microphone placements in the engineering stage, to seeing all of our weird ideas for sonic nuances and flair coming to fruition in the post production. We don't ever know what to expect when we write. This song was written back in the day as spontaneously as all the others in our repertoire. But, it is a perfect snapshot of what the band is going through emotionally at this very moment. It's been a very confusing last couple of months for many of us in our personal lives. It's been equally cathartic for us thus far to put those emotions down on tape while recording this song. It's absolutely the angriest song we've ever recorded. I'm looking forward to seeing people go off when we play this beast live. I really miss that physical energy response that inherently can't always be there when playing the more slow and plodding compositions that we tend to be known for."

We also have in the works a March tour that will revolve around the The End Records' SXSW showcase, and will start in Sacramento, CA and end in Montreal, Quebec. There is also a possibility of some very exciting tours coming up for late spring and into the summer. We’ll keep you posted.”