LaFaro Recover From Reading/Leeds

Wow.

What a weekend.

We had a bloody great time at Reading / Leeds festivals. Thank you so so much to all who came to see us rather than the bigger boys who were playing at the same time. We are eternally grateful!

Highlights of our weekend -
Having crowdsurfers @ Reading
Meeting Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit!
Seeing Limp Bizkit TWICE (and their washing)
Weezer's version of 'Hot For Teacher'
Meeting Roots Manuva!
Dancing badly to Roots Manuva
Not too much rain =]
Rocking to Exit International (check 'em)
Holy Fuck
Hanging and boogying with the General Fiasco boys (some serious moves...)

Great, great weekend. We hope you all enjoyed your sexy selves too? We're back over in December supporting Helmet - hope to see some of you there!

LaFaro x

Skibunny Belfast Album Launch Line-up Announced

As we may have mentioned already, our debut album HUGS is released on Monday 27th September. To celebrate the release, we will be throwing NOT ONE, but TWO special parties, in BELFAST and EDINBURGH. Here’s the details for BELFAST - it’s on a BOAT!

SKIBUNNY “HUGS” ALBUM LAUNCH PARTY
featuring
SKIBUNNY plus very special guests!
STUART BRAITHWAITE (DJ set)
RAMS POCKET RADIO (solo)
CONEY ISLAND SOUND(DJ set)
visuals by the 15 Second Film Festival
at
THE BARGE, BELFAST (between Waterfront Hall and Queens Bridge)
WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER
DOORS 8PM (Curfew 11pm)
ADMISSION IS FREE!

Capacity is strictly limited to 100, entry guaranteed by advance subscription to info@smalltownamerica.co.uk

AND it’s all part of Belfast’s Music Week, in association with MTV

Watch ASIWYFA @ Pukkelpop

Watch LaFaro Reading Festival Highlights

Click the image to watch video footage of LaFaro performing Tupenny Nudger, The Ballad Of Burnt Dave and Chopper Is A Tout recorded live from the BBC Introducing stage at the Reading festival on Sunday evening.

Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea Look Back On EP Tour

Fresh from touring their new EP, Andy from Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea reports in:

Drove for a thousand miles and screamed at three floors in the north and three ceilings in the south.
Played old and new and unpracticed songs, some well and some badly.
Let's keep it interesting.
Amateurs were really good, I hope they carry on playing and recording lots. They're not scared of a hook or two. I watched them getting better every night which was no mean feat.
Our own new songs took shape on stage and are taking shape on my computer screen, keep your ear to the ground.
It's a dangerous game to take too seriously.

Here are some things that I found out:
There's a surprise rush hour at 2pm on Fridays around London.
Once you run a car battery completely flat it never charges again.
As adults we are far better inventors of childish ball games than we ever were as children.
Nitkowski are the last band you'd want to follow on a line up.
Ginger beer and rum is a really good drink.

Thanks to everyone.

Andy

Fighting With Wire: Tour Exclusive EP On The Way

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO we've announced the UK and Ireland tours for later this year and to go along with it there will be a BRAND NEW FIGHTING WITH WIRE EP!!!

It will only be available on the shows and will feature a whole chunk of new material!

All you need to do is come down to one of the shows and you can grab a copy to keep ya ticking over until the new album is out!!!

What do you think?!

FWW

Skibunny Announce Special Floating Belfast Album Launch

Belfast duo Skibunny release their new album Hugs on September 27th but there'll be a special FREE ENTRY launch gig on a barge in Belfast a couple of weeks beforehand.

SKIBUNNY is TANYA Mellotte (vocals, guitar, keys) and MARK Gordon (vocals, bass, guitar, keys). With one eye on tunes and one on the dance floor, "Hugs" is 40 minutes of bittersweet electronic guitar-pop beating with an uplifting heart, sitting somewhere between NEW ORDER, GOLDFRAPP and THE CURE, ranging from the washed-out bliss of Aah Ooh to the crunching stomp of recent EP lead track Walk Don't Walk, and including a re-imagining of the Afghan Whigs track Milez iz Ded. The album’s central theme is about wanting more than your lot, about taking risks in life and love, and if it doesn’t work out? You pick yourself up, dust yourself down and do it all over again, but this time a little bit better. Hugs also features guest vocals by MAPS and Kaori Tsuchida from THE GO! TEAM.

The album's free barge launch is on Wednesday 15th September in Belfast, somewhere between The Waterfront Hall and the Queen's Bridge; to guarantee entry please email us. "Hugs" itself will be available to buy from September 27th and as always comes with a limited edition CD (containing specially-recorded material) when purchased from the STA store.

STA's Tips For Reading/Leeds 2010

Here's the bands that STA have highlighted with a flourescent Stabilo Boss for this weekend's Leeds and Carling festivals...

LaFaro
Stage: BBC Introducing
Reading Sunday, 19:15
Leeds Saturday, 18:55

We're Only Afraid Of NYC
Stage: BBC Introducing
Reading Friday, 14:45
Leeds Sunday, 15:05

Stagecoach
Stage: BBC Introducing
Reading Friday, 17:40
Leeds Sunday, 17:20

Rolo Tomassi
Stage: NME/Radio 1 Stage
Reading, Saturday 12:00
Leeds, Friday 12:00

Surfer Blood
Stage: NME/Radio 1 Stage
Reading Friday, 12:45
Leeds Sunday, 12:45

Frank Turner
Stage: NME/Radio 1 Stage
Reading Saturday, 17:40
Leeds Friday, 17:15

Serj Tankian
Stage: NME/Radio 1 Stage
Reading Saturday, 18:45
Leeds, Friday 18:20

Holy Fuck
Stage: Lock Up Stage
Reading Sunday, 14:55
Leeds Saturday, 14:35

Gaggle
Stage: Festival Republic Stage
Reading Friday, 11:30
Leeds Sunday, 11:30

General Fiasco
Stage: Festival Republic Stage
Reading Sunday, 15:00
Leeds Saturday, 15:00

Pulled Apart By Horses
Stage: Festival Republic Stage
Reading Friday, 15:50
Leeds Sunday, 15:45

Minus The Bear
Stage: Festival Republic Stage
Reading Sunday, 19:15
Leeds Saturday, 19:00

Blood Red Shoes
Stage: Festival Republic Stage
Reading Friday, 20:25
Leeds Sunday, 20:00

LaFaro Live Update

What a year and it just keeps getting better!

TONIGHT - Retro Bar, Portrush F*CK THE SCENE, SHOW ME THE GREEN *Charity Show*
w/ ASIWYFA, Fighting With Wire, Axis Of, Bomb City 7, Team Fresh. Doors 7pm £5

This Weekend -
Reading and Leeds Festivals
Sat 28th - Leeds - BBC Introducing Stage 18:55
Sun 29th - Reading - BBC Introducing Stage 19:15

October 15th -
Mandela Hall with Axis Of supporting Therapy?
The band will be playing seriously influential album 'Troublegum' in it's entirity from start to finish!

November - December
European Tour w/ Helmet

After all that there's still Christmas to go!!!!

LaFaro x

Make Your Own Ice, Sea, Dead People Video

Ice, Sea, Dead People made a video for their song Grean Tee but as you can see below they forgot to have a background when they filmed it, the fools. Can you help? Click here to find out how you can add your own background and see some examples that have already been made.

1992: The Year Reading Peaked - Tickets On Sale

Tickets for Dan 4 Or 5's unique August Bank Holiday all-dayer are now on sale for just £5. And that's not all - Dan has also gone back in time to 1992 to create a poster using the finest home computing technology of the day.

In late August 1992, on a rainy Sunday evening on a farm in Berkshire, UK, Kurt Cobain was pushed out on a big stage in a wheelchair - an ironic riposte to his widely reported health problems - to perform what must surely be the greatest ever performance at the Reading Festival.

Halfway across the globe in Japan, on the preceeding Friday, what was, and almost certainly still is, the best multiplayer video game of all time - Super Mario Kart - was released.

And so, on Saturday 28th August 2010, we bring these two momentous occasions together in one room, 18 years on, for a celebration of how it used to be.

LaFaro / ASIWYFA In Rock Sound Festivals Review

The new issue of Rock Sound is hitting the doormats of subscribers at the moment and inside you'll find reviews of ASIWYFA and LaFaro from Guilfest and Sonisphere - sneaky scans below.

Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea EP Out Today

Today marks the release of Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea's 3rd EP and their 1st for us. Buy it from the STA store in lovingly hand-finished packaging or from the band themselves at the remaining dates on their tour -

17 Aug The Old Blue Last, London, FREE ENTRY
18 Aug The Mothers Ruin, Bristol
19 Aug Hectors House, Brighton
21 Aug 138 Tanners Hill, Deptford ALL DAY ZINE WORKSHOP - FREE BEFORE 6PM, £3 AFTER - ON-STAGE 10.15PM

The EP is also available from the usual digital outlets.

LaFaro on POP4

Click here to check out LaFaro's impressive acoustic rendition of their woozy sea sick punk winner 'The Ballad of Burnt Dave' live before they take to the stage at Glasgowbury 2010.

August 2010 Newsletter

[0] August Store Bundle Deal


Another new month offers up another new store bundle deal. This month we have nominated our 'newbies' Illness to take to the stand - Illness may be recuperating from a hectic July of touring and recording their debut album in the STA Studios but that doesn't mean they're resting , oh no far from it. This month, exclusive to the STA store, you can pick up their 'Gifts From God' EP and their fresh new T-shirt print for just £7. Stocks are limited - you know what to do.

"'Gifts From God' is a wonderfully, wonderfully uplifting blast of thundering instrumental post rock."

[1] MPFree - Crooked Mountain, Crooked Free


This month's free track is taken from Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea's forthcoming new EP - it's entitled 'Like Mice in the Cellar'. We hope the band don't have mice, it's not very fun.

Click here to download the track and scroll down to read more about the band's new EP and upcoming tour dates.

[2] LaFaro: Reading, Leeds, Helmet & Europe


We've got lots of exciting LaFaro news this month. First up, we're very excited to announce that the band have been confirmed for BBC Introducing stages at both the Reading and Leeds Festivals, which take place across the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of this month. They'll be joining a bill that includes everyone from Guns n Roses and Arcade Fire to Rolo Tomassi and Stagecoach.

Looking further ahead, the band will be starting work on their second album in October (already? cool!), and will then head to Europe in November / December as main tour support to grunge survivalists Helmet. Dates for that tour can be found on their myspace, and here's a list of all the band's upcoming shows this month and next.

21 August 2010 - WARRENPOINT, Square Peg
28 August 2010 - LEEDS, Leeds Festival
29 August 2010 - READING, Reading Festival

The band continue to rack up tour injuries at an impressive rate. While Alan's foot has now recovered from his ligament damage and has shed his crutches, guitarist Dave took a body slam to the ground at Glasgowbury 2010 to round up in a sling with a stretched tendon in his right shoulder - rockstar antics that resulted in two trips to casualty. Were taking bets on what their next catastrophe will be, suggestions to the regular e-mail address.

[3] Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea - New EP & Tour


August 16th sees the release of the Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea's new EP, 'I Watched It From The Roadside'. It's six tracks of Cursive / Fugazi / Red House Painters shaped indie rock, and comes out as a digital download available at all online retailers and as a handmade CD.

The band also have some tour dates coming up this month:
13 August 2010 - DERBY, Bar One %
14 August 2010 - LEEDS, The Well %
15 August 2010 - SCARBOROUGH, The New Tavern %
17 August 2010 - LONDON, Old Blue Last %
18 August 2010 - BRISTOL, The Mother's Ruin %
19 August 2010 - BRIGHTON, Hectors House %
20 August 2010 - LONDON, Utrophia $
% with Amateurs
$ with Tall Ships

The CD version of the EP is a limited edition of fifty, and can be pre-ordered now via the STA online store.

[4] ASIWYFA Summer Festivals


In between laying down tracks for their new album, the ASIWYFA machine continues to plow through Europe's summer festivals:

13 August 2010 - GALWAY, IRE - Roisin Dubh
14 August 2010 - KILKENNY, IRE - Kilkenny Arts Festival
19 August 2010 - HASSELT, BE - Pukklepop Festival
20 August 2010 - NYIRBATOR, HU - Azfest Festival
29 August 2010 - VENLO, NL - Zomerparkfeest
3 September 2010 - CO LAOIS, IRE - Electric Picnic

[5] 4 or 5 Magicians - 1992: The Year Reading Peaked


Dan 4 or 5 is known almost as well for his series of themed-covers shows at the The Windmill in south London as he is for his slack rocker songwriting skills - previous shows have both explored the UK's fertile rock underground whilst being themed topics around the return of indie rock legends Pavement and Michael Azerrard's era-defining tome 'Our Band Could Be Your Life', and all have featured vast amounts of fun and great bands.

The series returns over the August Bank Holiday weekend, timed to coincide with this year's of the Reading Festival, but themed around the 1992 event. That year headlining performances from Public Enemy, The Wonder Stuff (really?) and Nirvana's last UK show, and perhaps their most legendary live performance ever. Not much to live up to there, then!

You can read Dan's thoughts on the subject over at the STA blog, but here's the lineup so far:

4 or 5 Magicians as Manic Street Preachers
Amy Blue as The Smashing Pumpkins
Kannberg 1664 (supergroup feat. Dan 4 or 5, Alexi Johnny Foreigner, Craig Internet Forever, Aaron Eelectricity and Lust) as Pavement
+ more to be confirmed

Headlining the event will be Bananirvana, THE ULTIMATE NIRVANA TRIBUTE. Dan (third set of the day) is donning his best wig to play the drums, and has recruited two ex-4 or 5ers to fill the guitar and bass roll. The singer? Well... IT COULD BE YOU. See the blog for more details, but Dan is hoping to get a different vocalist for every song - some from bands, some from members of the crowd.

That's all for this month. Thanks for reading.

Illness In The Studio

I had a really great time working with Illness on their new album, the week was very busy with lots of tracks to put down in a short space of time. We did twelve in all. Emilio was a star as he helped me cut up the drums on PT; one night working through to 7AM - legend. Chris must have worked 70 hours that week too > star man. We've gone for a YLTengo/Second Album Pavement sound on the recordings. Loads of middle and not being too bothered about silly things like string noise and drum rattles.

I'm really looking forward to mixing this one when I get back from holiday later in September. Currently we're chatting to Bob Weston about cutting it as I think he did such a good job with the Ice, Sea, Dead People record. I'll probably mix this to tape > my mate Roger is selling me his Revox B77 Tape Recorder. I need to get it overhauled and whatnot - but I can't think of a better excuse to get this done than for this record. If anyone in NI has any quarter-inch tape stock gethering dust in the loft, can you drop me or Chris a line? We're buying as much virgin tape as we can afford at the moment. Carrie came to Derry to shoot Illness and Skibunny and took some lovely shots of the lads. Note our recent refurbishment!

Cargo Collective August 2010

ASIWYFA Support Trash Talk In North America This Autumn

Huge news - And So I Watch You From Afar will be supporting one of the most talked about bands of the year - Trash Talk - plus Rock Action signed Tokyo hardcore types Envy this September/October. How many burning lorries will they witness on the highways of the USA?

25 Sep The Ottobar Baltimore, MD
26 Sep First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
28 Sep Harper's Ferry Allston, MA
29 Sep Jerky's Providence, RI
30 Sep Santos Party House New York, NY
1 Oct Lily's Pad (Toad's Place Upstairs) New Haven, CT
2 Oct Sneaky Dee’s Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
4 Oct Mohawk Place Buffalo, NY
5 Oct Rex Theatre Pittsburgh, PA
6 Oct Grog Shop Cleveland, OH
7 Oct Magic Stick Detroit, MI
8 Oct Reggie's Rock Club Chicago, IL
9 Oct Triple Rock Minneapolis, MN
10 Oct Jackpot Music Hall Lawrence, Kansas
12 Oct Bluebird Theatre Denver, CO
13 Oct The Basement Ogden, UT
15 Oct El Corazon Seattle, WA
16 Oct Hawthorne Theatre Portland, OR
18 Oct Cafe Du Nord San Francisco, CA
19 Oct Chain Reaction Anaheim, CA
20 Oct Troubadour West Hollywood, CA
22 Oct The Casbah San Diego, CA
23 Oct The Underground Mesa, Arizona
25 Oct Rubber Gloves Denton, TX
26 Oct Emo's Alternative Lounge Austin, TX

ASIWYFA Festival Video Tour Diary

Axis Of Cover LaFaro On New Comp

Here's news of a compilation album we like the sound of -

NI Chart, a website dedicated to supporting local artists, has done just that by working with nine local acts to produce a compilation CD. NI Chart presents We’ve Got It Covered features a cover of one of each band’s favourite local acts, and includes the likes of Mojo Fury, Axis Of and More Than Conquerors.

And here’s the line-up:

1. Mojo Fury – Alloy Mental (Alloy Mental)
2. Cara Cowan – It Bends In The Middle (Dutch Schultz)
3. More Than Conquerors – Children (Panama Kings)
4. Paul Pilot – Burial Ground (Henry McCullough)
5. Axis Of – Tuppenny Nudger (LaFaro)
6. Skip Moses – Moonlight Kiss (Bap Kennedy)
7. Alice Kona Band – Pretty Face (Ed Zealous)
8. Katie & the Carnival – Hats on Sticks (The Good Fight)
9. Skp – Annexed (Escape Fails)

Pre-order now or pick it up at festivals and gigs throughout Northern Ireland during the summer.

Skibunny & LaFaro Play Forfey Festival This Weekend

This weekend sees Skibunny and LaFaro alongside STA favourites Adebisi Shank, Axis Of, The Cast Of Cheers, Not Squares and More Than Conquerors play the 5th Forfey festival on Forfey Farm, near Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh. Dirtcheap tickets are still on sale and you can check the full schedule including an interesting arts programme here.

Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea Play Deptford Popshot Night

Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea: Source Magazine Interview

Ahead of thier EP release in a couple of weeks, Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea get a grilling from Brighton's excellent Source magazine...

Post-rock four-piece Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea have covered a lot of ground since they began playing shows last year. Their sound is ever evolving, taking post-rock and making it poignant, relevant and interesting again. Complex rhythms and intelligent lyrics sung with agitated, shouty vocals lead to far flung comparisons, ranging from Cursive for their similarly narrative songs to the restrained rage of Fugazi and At The Drive In. Already a favourite of BBC 6Music's Tom Robinson, Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea are destined for great things.

What kind of bands did you grow up watching?

Dave: Having always lived in Brighton, none of the bands I grew up watching were similar to us in the slightest. Until I joined I could never really find anything I liked on the Brighton music scene, I guess I was looking in the wrong places. As soon as I met these guys though they started dragging me to gigs unwillingly and then eventually I started finding bands that were actually quite good and had their place on the scene here.

Some people would say that post-rock is a bit of a staid genre these days having gone through so many phases, why do you persist in that scene, what makes you different?

Andy: I wouldn't particularly say we're a post-rock band.

Steve: I'd say we're more post-hardcore to put a name to it, or you could even say post-punk because it kind of fits in with that too. The thing is that we all like different music, we all call our band by a different genre anyway and we all take different inspirations and bring it to our songs.

Andy: I still kind of see it as just writing songs, and they just end up sounding a bit like that...

Sean: I don't want to speak for Dave but, I'm pretty sure Dave and I don't know anything about post-rock, we have all these other influences from other bands that we like to listen to, and I suppose they reflect the style we bring to our songs. I've always mainly been into electronica and IDM myself, I didn't really go to gigs before I joined the band, I was all about going to clubs but that's all changed now.

How did the band end up in Brighton?

Andy: Me and Steve both moved to Brighton to start a band individually, Dave our bassist is from Hove, and Sean moved here for university, so we all met up with each other about a year ago. I grew up quite close to Brighton and went to gigs here quite a lot when I was younger. I suppose Brighton's always been notorious for its music scene.

You've played quite a few shows in Brighton, especially when you first started out, what's your favourite venue?

All: Hector's House.

Steve: The sound guy Jack's great, it's the best live sound we've had, I think.

Sean: There's always a good crowd of people in there because the gigs are usually free, and it's always locals that you play to.

Dave: The promoter there really supports local music, he puts local bands’ EPs on sometimes in between bands playing at shows.

What other local bands have you played shows with that you'd recommend?

Andy: We're friends with a band called Illness who we really like, we've also played a few shows with Everyone To The Anderson, who are great. Hold Your Horse Is have to get a mention too. We've played quite a few shows and a tour with them earlier this year, they're fun to gig with.

FYI LIVE: With Amateurs at Hector's House, Thurs 19th August

WORDS BY THOM DAVIES