Cool or False

I forgot to mention that the Beat Express EP, “Rockstars” is now finished and on it’s way to the printers, if you click on their name you can hear it in it’s entirety, you should check it out… I’ve been playing with them for over a year now and it’s been a lot of fun, i definitely feel like a fully-fledged member now. Everyone in the band worked really hard to make the EP happen, with ridiculous time and money constraints Lee, Claire and Chris all did amazingly, having to record most of their parts in one take! The Cd’s should be available to buy pretty soon, i’ll put something up when i know more.

I’m also really stoked that one of the songs from the EP, ‘We Need Speed’ is going to be on a split 7″ with The Steal. This is being sent off to print today apparently, so we should have it in a matter of weeks…

Speaking of The Steal, we played our first show in about 8 months yesterday and it went surprisingly well… we played with 11 other bands playing 30 second songs. of course. It was nice to push the limits of the crowds patience and have people enjoy such a shambolic performance but then again these punks are weird.

Visuals

As predicted Owen came through with the goods… here is an extremely exciting insight into what it’s like being in a band through our experience of playing at his house.

First of all there was some driving, then a bit of arriving… we then proceeded to the best bit of playing gigs… The Load-in! Luckily for us Owen lives up a big flight of stairs and had broken any source of light in said stairwell. This and the narrow, cramped conditions as you can well guess created much hilarity and inappropriate touching between people who had only just met. Then there was a bit of general setting up, which i stayed well out of. Then… the trip to the corner shop!
Then was then some talking, I found out the bass player from Super Tennis is a secondary school english teacher… I stupidly forgot to ask him about the proper pronunciation of the word ‘Oxymoron’. Some waiting around took place, of course. Then after some confusion we started setting up…

Crazy eh? That’s actually a living room. Mental. Oh yeah, you might not know this but i’m a punk, so that’s what i just do. ok?
So then after setting up the inevitable happened and we… played!

It was getting more and more intense as the night got on, as you can see… my wrists only go that limp when i’m about to crack. Also, that guy had his eye on Ben’s tuner all night… we eventually had to go lock it up in the van.
From this point on the details become hazy, points of interest may or may not include – tapes, microphones made from people’s heads, watching impressive displays of banditry, probably missing most of loading out and eating some crisps.
However when you get this photo back from your photographer in residence, you know it’s been a good night…

Solid. I mean two of us on the bottom are only using one hand… WTF?!!!?!

—

Oh yeah, we also played with Super Tennis and Hooray for Humans last night at the hobgoblin and it was ACE. cheers to Rory, Rachel and Jay for that one.

Riders on the Storm

So… yeah

The two shows yesterday were ace, I’m gutted I missed the Pod but we did have a lot of fun at the house party… however the journey home where I flexed my considerable DJ talents on the van stereo was, and i speak for everyone involved in the evenings proceedings, absolutely the best thing about the whole day. Yep.

I’m sure as Owen’s trigger finger was pumping all night there will be some photographic evidence of the evening… I and, I imagine, you await with baited breath.

oh AND check out these amazing bands that played, they were all well good -
Pennines
Hooray for Humans
Super Tennis

BAM.

No Mental Attitude

busy, busy, dancing, busy…

Hot Damn are playing those 2 shows tomorrow, yeah! I’m very much looking forward to it. We’re on at 4PM at the first show and about 8 the second…

ALSO The Steal is dusting off the cobwebs and doing stuff! Wowzers. We’re playing 4 shows with the wonderful Against Me! In the Easter holidays. This is something i’m really stoked about, I’m going to get to hang out with my boys for 4 whole days… and we’ll probably lose our minds in the process. I get to play fast again. I’ll hopefully get to see some good friends who I haven’t seen in far too long, especially in Bristol AND not only to get to see AM! play every night but also to get to hang out with the Nicest Man In Punk Rock (TM). These are the dates, do come along -

Mon 14 Apr Bristol Academy 2
Tues 15 Apr Liverpool Academy 2
Wed 16 Apr Sheffield Corporation
Thurs 17 Apr London Garage

Neat Parts

alright.

Reality B

I just sent off the first Set Your Goals shirt design to the US of A… I’m hoping I might get to see these in the flesh/fabric one day but until then all i have is this picture -

Minty.

Apparently they’ll be selling them at some forthcoming shows with Saves The Day, who will hopefully play loads of songs from In Reverie… which I still maintain is a very good album… if you disagree you can fuck off.

Other than that i’ve been very busy either producing a plethora of musical projects or having extremely long conversations about making internet fortunes.

London Town

Yesterday I helped build the best Lego hotel you’ve ever seen in your entire life, oh yeah.

This morning, whilst drawing a Siberian Jay, I realised i hadn’t mentioned anything about the Gallows/Set Your Goals show & poster… It was a good night indeed, cheap sushi, expensive beer and some excellent surprises in the good friends department, oh and the bands were good too. A load of the posters were sold on the night, the bands got a bunch and i left the night with 6 on my person, unfortunately these now all have homes assigned to them  so there are zero left for sale. sorry about that.
From that show though i’ve had a few things thrown my way and i’m currently finishing off (well, after i’ve done this…) a t-shirt design for Set Your Goals with another on its way and it’s looking like there are some other things coming up after that.

I will put up the design when it’s done. Instant Fun.

Infomatics / Informatics

Loads of things going on, not much time to talk about them… however…

+ Hot Damn… we got reviewed in The Brighton Source magazine, which was pretty ace… not only that but it was a good review!
We also got included in Not For Resale’s free mix of the best demos to come out of Brighton, put together by Meatbreak (the man who reviewed us in the source)… lovely. You can download and listen to that here.

We’re also playing some shows this month… on the 23rd of March we’re playing two in a day… yes, two! wowzers. We’ll be in Brighton for the first at Buz’s birthday bash at the Hobgoblin, this is free and we’ll be on early, i guess around 3ish?? The second show is at Owen Richard’s and Murphy’s house in London and should be a lot of fun… don’t know what the deal is with attendance, mail me and i’ll find out.

The other show is on the 25th at the Hobgoblin again, this time upstairs and with these amazing bands – Super Tennis, Hooray for Humans and Jalopy. This should be very good, here is the beautiful flyer (with incorrect exclamation mark… tsk, tsk Will) -

Susan would be proud

+ So after a hard day at work discussing transformers, the second world war, painting pictures of night, painting my hands pink and black AND playing the yes/no game… I then went to Beat Express practice… Whilst sucking pretty bad on bass I heard the rough mix of the EP that’s getting pressed up real soon. Tom has done a great job, especially with the time we’ve had to do it, sneaking in recording bits here and there, it sounds ace… I have to record my guitars tomorrow, wait for the red light fever. We’re all super excited to hear it finished… Chris, Claire and Lee seems stoked so far too!

+ Whilst at work I was told that Hot Damn needed to have some kind of band photo sent off tonight for something in Rock Sound, which was nice. However we don’t have a band photo and of course media exposure is job number one, the great motivator.
I got home at 11, everyone came round and we went out with Brian Montgomery in tow to push the buttons on Luke’s camera. First stop was the train station down the road, here we got some suitably urban shots where we felt at one with the streets, we thankfully gave up on that idea pretty quick… not least because it was fucking freezing. We then headed down to my painting studio and arsed around for ages, how do you take a band photo that doesn’t look like a band photo?
After taking a couple of the worst pictures ever, “I know, everyone put their foot on this chair and lean in…” we got ‘the one’ —->

Great stuff, we’re a good-looking band eh? Don’t worry I am available for modeling… photoshoots, catwalk, film, i’m pretty much a natural at all forms of looking totally cool and selling you shit. Hire me, you won’t regret it.

+ I’ll be at the Gallows/Set Your Goals show at the 100 club tomorrow looking cool and selling you shit, say hello, buy me a drink, give me your money.

yes!