Friday, February 08, 2008

‘I wont always love these selfish things
I won't always live not stopping’

And so.. a full 4 months on since our last proper post, I’m picking up the dirty baton that is the band blog and running with it.. and sticking down another proverbial (insightful/thought-provoking/interesting/completely pointless - Delete as appropriate) marker flag of a post to let people know what is going on with us. Thank you to anyone who has taken the piss out of us for not updating this regularly enough, please keep doing it as if you hadn’t, it would have been summer before we’d written again.

The gig on Saturday went well despite the 2 other bands that were supposed to be playing pulling out, one on the day.. in fact we still do not know what happened to them. We hope they are ok.

Things that stick in my brain about the gig/night..

People singing and dancing!! Woo-hoo!! Singing and dancing from the audience! In Camden’s fashionable Dublin Castle even!! I may consciously try to write for the singing and dancing masses now, so I guess expect some disco tunes.
The Strawberry cider available there.. lovely.
Pondering the question.. Why do bands have managers if they don’t relay messages about equipment sharing onto band members?

Music..

Bobby Gentry – How have I not known about her before??
The Weakerthans – Song writing genius.. songs written from the perspective of a cat anyone?
Sample lyric:

‘I swear I'm going to bite you hard and taste your tinny bloodif you don't stop the self-defeating lies you've been repeatingsince the day you brought me home.I know you're strong.’

One of my favourite lyrics of theirs is ‘I’ve got more faults than the state of California’.

Pinback – This band should be known by more people. They make such great songs out of building up sparse intricate melodies and harmonies
Radiohead – This band should be known by.. oh that doesn’t really work does it?.. I like the new album a lot, it feels like a concise piece of art which is cool. However, I just wish that they would get round to recording more of the stuff that everyone knows they have. I love the songs that clearly come out of jams but I also think that they leave everyone behind when it comes to flawingly magnificent songs like Nude (although I preferred the ending on the Meeting People with the mini rock bit..). It just seems quite funny that a band who probably have over 100 songs on the back burner only put 10 on one album. Songs I’d like to hear recorded properly on an album: Lift, Big Boots/Man-O-War, True Love Waits.. but hey, I’m just one more fan happy that they’ve released another album.
Jimmy Eat World – Their new album is very good. I’m going to see them soon… woo-hoo!
How about that Feist lady – I was naturally suspicious due to that song being used on an advert.. but I saw her on Jools Holland and she rocked it, she played a couple of wicked guitar solos. I never understand female performers who play guitar allowing some guy to get all the solos when they play live. Anyway, I think her album might be on a mid-price re-release drive at the moment.

New Bands We’ve Seen on Our Travels

www.myspace.com/sevendayslater - Saw these guys at The Purple Turtle, they were very good. They have a strong Biffy Clyro influence(a very good thing in my book) and I heard a little bit of Soundgarden in there too. Good riffage, they rock hard and the singer has a good voice. If you like a bit of good quality British rock check ‘em out.

Things I’ve Learnt:

Rufus Hound the comedian is very very funny.
You can get a black eye from playing 5-a-side football.
February seems to like to make up for January’s quietness.

Anyway, band stuff.. the site should be updated soon with new news. I’m going to be turning my room into a little creative factory this evening in an attempt to try to finish some of the half finished songs we have floating around. I’m a lazy bugger when it comes to finishing songs. Sometimes I like the fact that the individual ‘mini idea’ is sometimes more interesting on it’s own rather than adding anything.. much like a parent in love with their child at a young age, I just don’t want them to grow up too fast.. Ha! Ha! I want to have a brand new tune for the next gig so I’d better get cracking! The most promising things are one thing we jam which has a working title of ‘Zombie Girls’, a piano thing with an orchestral arrangement waiting to happen and a big lovely Chorus I have which is looking for a Verse with a GSOH for fun and frolics.
That’s right my room is a singles event for song ideas tonight, let’s hope a few ‘love connections’ are made.. Ha! Ha! Wish me luck.

Who wants the dirty baton? Who? Come on you blaggards!

WFA

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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Blog Entry 24/11/07

'Good evening ladies and gentleman, what is your desire
Good evening ladies and gentleman, explosions and fire!'

Blog Entry 24/11/07 written in a notebook.. typed up 07/02/08!

Bruce and I are perched on bar stools in a venue known as The Dry Bar in Farringdon enduring what is commonly known as ‘The Sound Check’, for those of you who don’t know, this is when a band checks their sound.
There are 8 bands on the bill tonight which means that the venue might explode at any minute due to the amount of egos crammed in with so many musicians in the room. We anticipate that we won’t get a soundcheck as we are the first band on. However, we have beer and the bar staff are friendly so we’re happy. The others have gone to seek out food. It is 7:05. We were scheduled to check our sound at 6:45pm.
Here are a few things we have decided/learnt:

1) We almost definitely won’t be playing for this promoter again.
2) We are going to dedicate songs to the bar staff and the parents of the band that are on last who are sitting at the back of the venue looking concerned.
3) The sooner we get our own gig night happening the better.

I’ve just overheard a member of a band say to the promoter: ‘I don’t know where the singer is’ which made me laugh out loud.

The third band to check their sound have made it to the stage, leaving 5 more to check theirs. The time is 7:15pm. We are scheduled to perform in 45 minutes.

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Gig life eh? Turned out OK in the end.

The good thing is that after an experience like that, it’s good to know that you can go out and get so drunk that you’re like that advert for sensible drinking (Not the superman one, the 2 different night ones..) forgetting all about it, I’m not saying that any of us did that but we might have and if we didn’t, we could have right?

WFA

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