Great Escape show added!

this is going to be very cool....Free entry too.

My oh my.

What a cluster-fuck.

Last 3 weeks have seen a ridiculous online flurry of activity, culminating in us releasing the Fed to the Ocean video, which can now be seen in shiny HD on, well pretty much all of our online bits which have mushroomed/bloomed/whatever.

We're obviously going on tour tomorrow and we always promise tour blogs and then get fed up with doing them halfway through ( we being me ), and whilst I'm sure this time will prove no exception I have asked the rest of the band to remind me daily to put something up, most likely on here or the myspace, Jag tends to be the Facebook man these days and bloody good at it he is too.

The nice people at Vans in particular have asked for regular updates so I should do my bloody job really, fuck it's not like I'm writing a novel or anything whilst trundling around in the van, usually its just listening to man-rock and looking out the window and the tundra/desert/concrete jungle ( most likely in Europe )

Case in point, promised a big SXSW blog and nothing happened, guess why? Oh cos we were having to much fun thats fucking why, jesus you people leave us alone etc etc. I think maybe next time around I'll resort to the Godspeed approach and leave all press/ blogs yadayada to a simple one page release, such as this : http://www.1119732.net/

Funnily enough I was chatting about them the other day to a fellow friend and fan and relating how missed they were...if you're not familiar with their really quite extraordinary body of deeply disquieting work, then please feel free to congratulate me on introducing you to one of the best bands ever to have quietly stalked the planet. No please, I insist, keep the expensive gifts, you DESERVE them.

I digress, we're on tour as of tomorrow and packing and ipod filling is needed. Til now I'll say look at out nice new myspace layout and video and come and say hi at the merch stand.

Cancer Bats Tour poster.

Which is very nice, keep meaning to ask who did all the illustrations on their new record under the band logo, very cool. Looks like Tom Hooper possibly ( hard to tell, sorry if not please feel free to correct me ) but can't be sure til the album drops, either way.... here's the Punk Euro tour of the year you cheese eating surrender monkeys!

SXSW pics and bits.

Ok, so lifted this from the myspace one, but can be much more flippant here about the whole thing, although as it's just gone midnight I've lost an hour putting this up. Bloody DST.

Thought we'd start a little blog of shots of us out in SXSW, being our first time in the states. Unfortunately Mem couldn't make it out with us as he had a few delays with his visa ( all sorted now ) so a friend of our Hayden drove down from LA to fill in, and did a fucking awesome job too.

We'll just keep adding to these, some really cool ones, some really stupid.

Doesn't look right without Membo being there.

They were handing these out at the Stone Temple Pilots show, the koosies not the beers, both made the whole thing more tolerable.

We got this for Mem to say we missed him ( not just this, we're not that tight ) and the ungrateful bugger hasn't eaten it yet.

..

We don't endorse violence, death, any of that shit, but the fact remains that you put an assault rifle in a young mans hands and suddenly you feel like you're either :

Danny Dyer ( Gaz )

Leon ( Jag )

Grizzly Adams ( Andy )

Lord Byron ( Tom )

Just can't be helped.

Oh, we played a show or two as well. More of this coming, still collecting photos.

Texas Chain Store Massacre

We ate to much.

5 guys rules.

that is all.

No, i'll do a proper one tomo, jet lag is biting.

The Fear is Here.

I'm going to complete this properly after the outcome is certain, some of the more perceptive of you may have noticed an air of tension over our twitter/ myspace and er...well now this, maybe the few that stalk us on Facebook may have also read about some issues regarding SXSW... well today we find out if its all good in the hood or .....urm...... not all good in the hood.

As ever, eyes peeled.

I'm as serious as cancer when I say we're on tour with the Cancerbats.

Boom.

Bosh.: For tickets follow the little blue links!

18 April France Paris Batofar www.fnacspectacles.com/

20 April Holland Rotterdam Watt www.watt-rotterdam.nl

21 April Holland Nijmegen Doornroosje www.doornroosje.nl
22 April Holland Sneek Bolwerk www.hetbolwerk.nl
23 April Germany Cologne Underground www.eventim.de
24 April Germany Dortmund Visions Event www.eventim.de
25 April Germany Hamburg Molotow www.eventim.de
27 April Germany Berlin Magnet www.eventim.de
29 April Austria Vienna Arena www.musicticket.at or www.oeticket.com
30 April Switzerland Basel Sommercasino www.starticket.ch

Biff. Should be great, small amendment to the SXSW show on the 18th too, will now be playing at 5.30pm at the WaveBar, not with Agnostic Front due to a bloody double booking, super duper.

Tours coming in, songs churning out.

so shit, we've got three tunes for the new record already...this is most unlike us. Any of you who may have read this come 2008 and we were writing for New Hopes, may recall a vaguely manic and panicked edge to the text....big news being another new tune once every 2 months.

I had the misfortune recently of having to re-visit a lot of our old emails from that period, looking for my old passport number as it so happens, and had to sit glued to the computer scanning every email in my inbox in a desperate attempt to locate it, the result: nadda. Luckily my mum had a photocopy of it, but thats not the point, the point is what I had to read in the process of said scan. Untold waves of misery fell upon me, I think in my traumatised state I'd blocked out the worst of what was being exchanged between us, from angry rants about lack of productivity to simple desperation and despair as the weeks ground by with so little to show, the endless practices where we'd leave silently and scurry home to glare at the television and turn our backs on our instruments.....

My least favourite one of all, entitled ' 4 weeks to go ' ( until the studio, which was all booked ), documented on a day by day basis our final writing itinerary, and I include it now just purely cos I believe it needs to be purged, note also my wedding is tucked amongst this!

OCTOBER

Week 1 commencing Mon 6th - 12th
2 practices with Tom
Finish new song Music + Tom Vocals
Finalise fast song Arrangements/Parts
Finish Guitars for Pre-prod 1st session. If possible burn CD for everyone especially Gaz and Tom.
Work on new song(s)
Plan Pre-production 2nd session

Mon 6th Record Guitars @home w/Gelang + Practice w/Gaz work on current songs
Tue 7th Record Guitars @home w/Gelang + Practice w/Gaz work on current songs
Wed 8th Picking up drum kit London. Practice w/Tom on current set-list
Thur 9th Practice 6:30-9:30 w/Tom on current set-list
Fri 10th Record Bass @home w/Gaz?
Sat 11th Sweden show. Meet Pelle.
Sun 12th Rest


Week 2 commencing Mon 13th - 19th
Discuss recording arrangements/sound with Pelle
Book Pre-Production for next week w/Guy
Confirm Travel for Equipment to Sweden
Confirm Travel for Me, Jag and equipment to Guy's studio
Work on new song(s)?
Obtain gear
3 Practices for Studio
5 Recording sessions

Mon 13th Practice w/Gaz work on new songs + Vocals
Tue 14th Practice w/Gaz work on new songs + Vocals
Wed 15th Practice w/Gaz work on new songs + Vocals
Thur 16th Record Bass @home w/Gaz + Record drum parts on v-drums
Fri 17th Record Bass @home w/Gaz + Record drum parts on v-drums or Record Vocals @home w/Tom
Sat 18th Record Vocals @home w/Tom
Sun 19th Obtain all equipment inc skins/percussion/strings etc by today + Record drum parts on v-drums

Week 3 Commencing Mon 20th - 26th
Drum Pre-production 2nd session (may need 2 days?)
Send Pelle complete Pre-production sessions via email
2 Practices for Studio
4 Recording sessions
Plan Studio itinerary w/Pelle. Finalise studio days/week for Gaz.

Mon 20th Drum Pre-production w/Guy £150/£250 Note that we may need to push this a few days back to ease logistics? Discussion needed.
Tue 21st Record Guitars @home w/Gelang
Wed 22nd Record Guitars @home w/Gelang + Record Percussion @home and or practice
Thurs 23rd Record Vocals @home w/Tom
Fri 24th Record Bass @home w/Gaz and or practice
Sat 25th Record Bass @home w/Gaz + Send Pelle complete Pre-Production sessions via Email
Sun 26th Tom/Jenni's wedding

Final week Commencing Mon 27th - 31st (only 5 days)
1 Practice for Show
2 Practices for Studio
Confirm travel + driver for show on 1st Nov Leeds
Pick up van for Studio Equipment
Finalise studio itinerary w/Pelle

Mon 27th Rest or Record Guitars/Bass @home
Tue 28th Record Guitars/Bass @home and or Practice
Wed 29th Record Tom vocals @home
Thur 30th Record Tom Vocals @home
Fri 31st Practice w/Tom on current set-list + Pack

Quite how we didn't kill each other is remarkable, I think I've put this up just as a warning to all bands, don't expect anyone to write your record for you, also, don't leave it up to anyone in the team to carry you! It's all on you. Also, this is for the rest of the band so we can all pat ourselves on the back for NOT killing each other, and infact having a ball in Sweden when we did get out there.

Oh, I forgot to mention the tour, next time.

Big balls, but with a twist.

So , our good friends the Plight have had to drop out of the valentines day we're doing this year at the Camden Purple turtle, which is bad, I think they're whole tour is down at the moment which is a right fucking shame, hopefully it'll all get sorted for them soon.

Thankfully the nice lads in Turbowolf are stepping in, and good for me too cos I meant I could pull the original poster for the show down ( as I really really hated it ) and put something far more slapdash and thrown together up, hurrah! amazing what you find if you type badger into google image search eh kids?

Front Magazine! Us in looking cool shock!

Holy fuck, this is actually genuinely cool, we're terrified of photoshoots as we always seem to end up looking, at best, gormless, or, worse, like cunts. Those of you reading this on iphones I apologise for the tiny tiny images, for the rest of us, enjoy! Or buy the mag and get free boobs and football shite, if that's your bag.

Ahem, and this is pretty sexy.

http://sxsw.com/music

We appear to be playing! Ha!

London Show, Feb 14th

Yes I know, I know I'm sorry we're ruining valentines day this year by playing a punk show, but come on people, it's not all bad. thrilled about the Plight being on there, been listening to their record over the last week, shame on me for not having the chance sooner, but shame on you too if you haven't bought it because it's excellent.

Oh fucking hell.

So...er...its been like 6 fucking months since we blogged on this...so I think we should officially start again because occurred to me that actually this only gets filled in when we're not touring. Which is kind of the opposite of what its meant for.

So if you're looking for tour and show updates, in fact any type of up to date news on the band then this is not the blog for you. But lets be honest, if you were looking for that coca cola , bright coloured, neon sign style discourse then you're probably not a fan of this band. So I figured a nice dour approach will fill the void much more than any kind of flash bang theatrics.

We writing again. This means home time which means rummaging through old albums, me doing lots of drawing, Jag sitting in his room playing guitar for hours and occasionally emailing me about a record he's heard, or me doing the same.

I like it, not that I don't love the touring but just because its Ghost without the performance bit, just the songs slowly coming together. We'll practice for the first time this year this week hopefully, the first time we'll have played since Helsinki last year, so it'll be good to dust off the old songs just bring in the new. I've got a few album titles running through my head, all dark and terrible ( terrible as in ominous, not shite, well maybe both ), and when I've rejected them all I'll put them up here for you to throw verbal apples at.

We'll see how it goes, both songs and new blog policy, you lasted a six months old girl, time to re-kindle that love affair.