I’m very happy to say that I’m putting on one of my favourite bands – Field Music – on Saturday 26th November.
It was meant to be at The Westgarth Social Club in Middlesbrough, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve had to move the gig over to The Georgian Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees. All original tickets are still valid, and there’s still tickets left – priced at just £6.50 in advance – from WeGotTickets and Seetickets etc if you want to get involved!
Hullo.
I will be doing a little talk/Q & A up in Newcastle at Dance City this Wednesday on behalf of the fine folks at Generator.
If you’re interested in becoming a music promoter, then it could be a good opportunity for you to pick up some top tips! Full info can be found here:
http://www.generator.org.uk/event/compact-starting-live-music-business
Check out the rather brilliant video to the debut Toyger single ‘Karl’s Diary’:
The single was played at half time during Middlesbrough’s thrilling 0-0 draw with Ipswich at The Riverside Stadium on Saturday too – it sounded splendid through those big speakers!
The single is released on Monday 24th October through Pay For The Piano Recordings.
A few months ago, I jokingly said if I ever formed a new band, then it’d sound like Wakefield circa 2001. Well, tonight I think my new band possibly took that a little bit too far by accidentally completely ripping off Dugong… I guess there’s worse bands to rip off!
And by worse bands, I mean pretty much every band that has ever existed bar maybe The Dismemberment Plan, Stapleton, Field Music, M83 and Phoenix.
If you’re not familiar with Dugong, shame on you. They split up a fair few years ago, but you should go and buy their back catalogue (or at least stream the tracks) from the Bombed Out Records website:
The press campaign for the new Lifeless record is going well. Today we confirmed a track on the cover-mount CD and a review in the next issue of Zero Tolerance magazine and we’ve also got reviews lined up various other rather splendid magazines too – not to mention the fact that Total Rock Radio are play-listing Judgement Day from 3rd October. I’ll be sure to post scans etc of all press that the band get – it’s coming together nicely!
They’re touring to coincide with the release, if you’re a promoter – contact lifelessboro@gmail.com to get them booked. Confirmed dates at the moment are as follows:
24th Sept - Whitmore, Manchester 29th Sept - Head of Steam, Durham 1st Oct - Duke of Wellington, Lincoln 23rd Oct - Fish Tank, Durham 26th Oct - Riverside, Selby 29th Oct - Venue tbc, Newcastle 30th Oct - Venue tbc, Huddersfield 31st Oct - Atik, Middlesbrough - RECORD RELEASE PARTY!!! 14th Nov - The Empire, Middlesbrough 2nd Dec - House Show, Sheffield 17th Dec - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Photograph by Robin Chamberlain - 83 Photography
As you may or may not know, One Tree Hill is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Actually, I don’t even feel guilty about it. I LIKE ONE TREE HILL. GET OVER IT.
Anyway, the wonderful Cattle & Cane have previewed a new track from their forthcoming EP and do you know what? It sounds like it’d fit perfectly with an episode of One Tree Hill:
Helen’s voice is amazing in this song, isn’t it?
I put on the first ever Cattle & Cane gig, so I always feel a little bit proud when they do something good. Like this song. Or like T In The Park. Or like sold out gigs across the region.
Lovely people and a lovely band. Lovely.
The brand new eponymous album from LIFELESS is being released this Halloween (Monday 31st October of course) through Thrash Town and Pay For The Piano. The first review of the record can be seen on this here link:
http://www.worldofshit.co.uk/?p=192
You can pre-order the album directly from Lifeless: http://www.lifeless.bandcamp.com and be sure to check out their new video if you haven’t already done so… and see if you can spot a little cameo from yours truly:
I’d pretty much forgotten that this song ever existed:
It’s the last song that DARTZ!/Dartz recorded. Probably worth a listen if you like that sort of thing!
In other news, I’m having a jam with a couple of mates tomorrow with the intention of doing some kind of melodic punk-rock thing in the vein of Leatherface/Hot Water Music/Samiam/Gaslight Anthem/Milloy/Polar Bear Club et al. The last two jams I’ve had, I’ve hated and never wanted to play music with anybody else ever again… hopefully that won’t happen again!
When I was 13 years old, I set up a hotmail address using this song title as the username. The song is The Right Escape and the band is Idaho. All these years later, I still think it’s bloody lovely. Enjoy.
I think I’ve finally almost recovered from last weekend’s Out Of Spite XI festival at The Well in Leeds. Musical highlights included Leatherface, Milloy, Pylon, Protectors, Bangers, The Dauntless Elite, Glass Avalanche and Coal Train to name but a few, although the real highlight was seeing an awful lot of friends that I don’t get to see even half as much as I wish I could.
Pylon played their last ever gig on the Sunday night and to say they’ll be sorely missed is a massive understatement. I’ve got to know them quite well as people over the past few years and was fortunate enough to share a stage with them on a few occasions back in the DARTZ! days so it’s hard to articulate how I genuinely feel about their music without coming across as a bit creepy… I’ll just keep it simple and say that they’ve been a pretty important band in my musical upbringing!
Thankfully Chris Pylon’s new band Protectors are pretty nifty too, eh? Cheers to everybody who picked up one of the Protectors Party Bags at OOS – fair to say that they were probably the fastest selling Pay For The Piano Recordings release to date! Get me on the Apprentice. I’ve saved the music industry. Who’d have thought that putting a CD, a bottle opener, a t-shirt and a few stickers inside a tote bag would prove so popular… tote-ally brilliant.
