A Little Solidarity...

Festival season is long gone, right? - Wrong! Those Lovely chaps from Belfast-based Post-Rockers And So I Watch You From Afar, are curating perhaps the biggest and best show the country has seen since the triumphant Glasgowbury festival way back in July. Featuring a host of Northern Ireland's top bands, "A Little Solidarity" is sure to warm the cockles of any heart in this particularly harsh weather.

Kicking off on the evening of Thursday 13th November at the Oh Yeah! Centre in Belfast, A Little Solidarity spans 3 days, 3 venues and 4 shows - Hot Damn!

The following acts will be showing a little solidarity (sorry) over the 3 day event;

Thursday 13th November

Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast, 7pm - 11pm

Ed Zealous

The Lowly Knights

A Plastic Rose

G Sessions Slot

Friday 14th November

QUB Speakeasy, Belfast, 7pm - 10pm

LaFaro

Desert Hearts

Pocket Billiards

Axis Of

Saturday 15th November

QUB Speakeasy, Belfast, Matinee Show! 1pm - 6pm

Mojo Fury

Two Door Cinema Club

Team Fresh

Bruised Fruit Slot*

QUB Mandela Hall, Belfast, 7pm - Late

Fighting With Wire

And So I Watch You From Afar

General Fiasco

Panama Kings

We Are Knives

QUB Bunatee, Belfast, 7pm - Late

AU Room Featuring DJs

Jonny Tiernan

Sully

plus more TBC

In addition to all of this great music, you will have the chance to submit your demo, win a slot on the show, win studio time @ Studio 5, and check out a photography exhibition by our good friend Graham Smith.

There will also be a Speed networking session with 10 industry panellists - The networking session will be taking place between 1-2pm on Saturday 15th November in Queen's University Student's Union. If you are in a band and would like to attend, please contact the good folk at Bruised Fruit by emailing Jen - jen[at]bruisedfruitpromotions[dot]com

Oh, and of course your good old pals from Smalltown America will be there as well!

Tickets will be cheap and on sale soon!

For more details - please point your mouse at the following link - http://www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

Public Service Blogcast Episode 7

On this week's PS-Bl show Brian files his post-Rage Against The Joyriders report; ace new tunes from Plus/Minus, Situationists, Collapsing Cities and O'Death; plus an especially poor Jackie Gleason impression (thanks Sunset Cinema Club!)

Public Service Blogcast Episode 7
39 minutes no seconds
Recorded 29/10/08
Tracklisting
00.29 Rabbit Transit - This Ain't No Marley Raggae (from self released debut album)
04.06 Plus/Minus - Subdued (from Xs On Your Eyes album - Absolutely Kosher Records)
08.16 Panda Kopanda - Spirals (from forthcoming Hope album)
Rage Against The Joyriders update
15.42 Pope Joan - Pocket Of Change (from Hot Water, Lines and Rickety Machines album - OIB Records)
20.07 Situationists - Onwards And Upwards (from Onwards And Upwards EP - Tough Love Records)
23.48 Nephu Huzzband - Clockwork (from Should Have Used An Abacus single - Deep Recording Company)
27.03 Foundlings - Function Creep (previously unreleased)
29.26 Sunset Cinema Club - Reflex DJ (from Homina Homina Homina album - Knew Noise Recordings JP)
33.30 Collapsing Cities - So I Said Last Weekend (from Disguised As A Mall album)
37.08 O'Death - Lean-To (from Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin album - City Slang)

If you have any feedback or want to get a track played, get in touch - email blogcast@smalltownamerica.co.uk
Next week we plumb greater depths of host-ineptness as Dan Ormsby of 4 Or 5 Magicians fame shares the blogcast mike with me. We'll be playing some recommendations from Dan, catching up on all things Magicians and No Doubt, there'll be ample waffle inbetween and no doubt there'll be ample waffle inbetween.

Public Service Blogcast Episode 6

The strongest set of submissions yet plus some classic/posthumous Fickle Public - ruined by a lackadaisical voiceover (I really shouldn't blogcast on a Monday).

Public Service Blogcast Episode 6
36 minutes 31 seconds
Recorded 20/10/08
Tracklisting
00.29 The Jane Bradfords - Hide From The Cold (from self-titled album - Simple Tapestry Records)
03.31 Le Tetsuo - Chicken Shack (from Your Elbow limited 10” - Parlour Records)
05.53 Haemostatic Picnic Races - I'd Wear A Hat Like That If I Was From Yorkshire (from Helios! These Are Instructions album - Small Town Records, no relation)
09.48 Minnaars - Busy Hands (from forthcoming self-titled EP - Airbag Recordings)
13.13 Pulled Apart By Horses - High Five Swan Dive Nose Dive (previously unreleased - Big Scary Monsters)
16.51 We Are Trapped In Kansas - Our Bodies On Fire (from forthcoming debut EP When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be - self-released)
21.26 In The Annexe - Galleries (previously unreleased)
25.47 De Jour - Run This City (previously unreleased)
30.04 My Tiger My Timing - This Is Not The Fire (previously unreleased)
34.03 Fickle Public - Revel Revel (previously unreleased)

If you have any feedback or want to get a track played, get in touch - email blogcast@smalltownamerica.co.uk
Meet back here at the weekend for what went down at Rage Against The Joyriders plus another dose of the best new music taking up residence on the STA hardrive.

Weekend Fun

In London this weekend and lacking some way to occupy your Saturday afternoon?

Check it out:



On top of three great bands you also get me DJing, the quality of which (Kev BSM really has no idea what he's letting himself in for) will depend on how much cider I have beforehand. YUM YUM.

I'm off on holiday to New York on Sunday (nicely coinciding with CMJ), and there's no better way to do an early morning transatlantic flight than with a hangover... right? Should be a blast though, on top of there being about six shows a day I want to go to Fighting With Wire, Hooray For Humans and We Versus The Shark are all going to be there as well. STA 4 NYC 4 LYFE.

More interactive content

I've mentioned on here before how friend-of-STA Aaron Connolly has been making a documentary about us. Here's his latest video diary, shot at This Ain't No Picnic and featuring live footage of both Alan MX and The Young Playthings. Thankfully there's also no footage of me, probably because every time he pointed the camera at me I shouted "STOP POINTING THAT [expletive deleted] CAMERA AT ME!". High strung, me? NEVER. Sorry Aaron.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Public Service Blogcast Episode 5

Three quarters of an hour of the best new songs to drop into the Smalltown America inbox not just this week but possibly this year plus we have Brian checking in from STA HQ to tell us about about next weekend's Rage Against The Joyriders benefit. It takes place Friday 17th October 2008 @ The Nerve Centre, Derry. Doors are at 8pm and it's just £10 in with all proceeds going to the LaFaro equipment fund. The huge line-up includes special appearences from Fighting With Wire among others; if you're in that part of the world, please take part - it will definitely be a night to remember!

Public Service Blogcast Episode 5
45 minutes 24 seconds
Recorded 11/10/08
Tracklisting
00.29 Dartz - The End, Moving On (from The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique mini-album - Xtra Mile Recordings)
03.12 Gentleman Auction House - ABCDEFGraveyard (from Alphabet Graveyard album - Emergency Umbrella Records)
07.03 The Shame - Cosmic Love (from current single - Dual Records)
09.49 Former Friends Of Young Americans - All Time Low (previously unreleased)
15.03 Yes Cadets - Fashionista Art Party (previously unreleased)
21.57 LaFaro - Tuppenny Nudger (from self-titled EP - Field Records)
25.30 Lonely Ghosts - So Young, So Beautiful (from Don't Get Lost Or Hurt album - OIB Records)
29.24 Man Flu - Egghead Stole My Shoe (previously unreleased)
32.33 Witches - Josef’s Lament (from Heart Of Stone album - Within The Woods Records)
This Ain't No Picnic Video Blogcast Part 1
36.07 Susan George Booth - Death Slacks (from 4 Track Demo CD - self-released)
41.36 I Am Not Left Handed - Rushing (from The Least Of Our Worries album - Letterbox Records)

If you have any feedback or want to get a track played, get in touch - email blogcast@smalltownamerica.co.uk
Listen til the end of this episode for the outtakes. Next week’s blogcast will come with an audio commentary.

Public Service Blogcast Episode 4

A week later and still exhausted from This Ain't No Picnic, Ash resumes command of the good ship Blogcast.

Public Service Blogcast Episode 4
39 minutes 44 seconds
Recorded 04/10/08
Tracklisting
00.29 Baddies - Battleships (from forthcoming single released 27th Oct - self released)
04.46 The Young Playthings - Y Don't You Like Me (from This Ain't No Picnic 2008 compilation - Smalltown America)
08.26 Disco Drive - Things To Do Today (from Things To Do Today album - Unhip Records)
12.16 Great Eskimo Hoax - I Was An Englishman (from Of Many Victories album)
15.20 The Joy Formidable - Austere (from current single - self released)
18.31 Innercity Pirates - Eat The Paint (from Cockney Sparra single - Superdark)
21.11 Let's Go Sailing - Sideways (from The Chaos In Order album - Gr2 Classics)
25.44 Sharks - Museum (previously unreleased)
28.03 Sucioperro - You Can't Lose (What You Don't Have) (from Pain Agency album - self released)
31.51 Mia Vigar - Lost Cause (from Lost Cause EP - self released)
35.36 Combinations - Let's Build Our Kingdom (previously unreleased)

If you have any feedback or want to get a track played, get in touch - email blogcast@smalltownamerica.co.uk
In the coming weeks we'll be hearing from some of the STA bands themselves with thier own talking* and track selections.

*Inside voices please.