Saturday 30 October 2010

Illness Documentary No. 2: Shield Your Eyes

Illness present their 2nd documentary film; this time their subject is recent tourmates and STA favourites Shield Your Eyes.

This is a short documentary I made about the UK band, Shield Your Eyes, consisting of an even mix between live footage and mechanical intuition, before a full performance of their song, 'Come On Melissa Are You A Kisser'.

The band have recently released their third album, 'Theme From Kindness', available through their Myspace or through Function Records, and they are constantly touring the UK and Europe.

'Come On Melissa Are You A Kisser' is available on their first album, 'Shield Your Eyes', also available via the band's myspace.

This is the second of hopefully many short band documentaries by Illness, and is edited in part by Stef from Shield Your Eyes.


Shield Your Eyes Documentary from Illness on Vimeo.

ASIWYFA Do America In 7 Minutes 14 Seconds



ASIWYFA - AMERICA 2010 - it took 5 weeks to tour...here it is in 7 mins 14secs.

Please not this is just random footage and not to be perceived as making any sense. This is the preview to the full length film/rockumentary of ASIWYFA in America. Watch this space for the full length.

Video and sound by A. Coles

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Skibunny On Jim Gellatly New Music podcast


Skibunny are cover stars for this week's episode of Jim Gellatly's New Music podcast, always a goldmine for new bands. Download or better still, subscribe via iTunes.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

ASIWYFA Take Manhattan

Read US blog's Live4Ever's extensive coverage of ASIWYFA's recent Manhattan Santos Party House gig.

ASIWYFA on RTE Under Ether This Thursday

ASIWYFA will feature as special guests on this week's Under Ether. It broadcasts this Thursday night 28th, 11.25pm on RTE 2 with a repeat on Friday night 29th at 11.50pm.

For those without the RTE channels, you can catch it on the PLAYER on RTE.ie

Friday 22 October 2010

XFM Xposure Plays for Illness, More Than Conquerors

Thanks John!

X-Posure Thursday 21st October 2010

10-11pm
The XX ‘Crystalised (Rory Phillips Remix)’ (XL)
Kele ‘On The Lam’ (Polydor)
them:youth ‘Toothache’ (Big Hand)
Wolf Gang ‘Lions In Cages’ (Atlantic)
X-Posure Hot One: Josephine ‘A Freak A’ (Ark)
Stornoway ‘I Saw You Blink’ (4AD)
The Slits ‘Typical Girls’ (Island)
One Night Stand, Session Track: Middleman ‘Not Over Yet’
One Night Stand: Phone Interview w/ Andy of Middleman
One Night Stand, Session Track: Middleman ‘Chipping Away’

11pm-Midnight (Deep)
The Vaccines ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ (Marshall Teller)
Friends Electric ‘Golden Blood’ ()
Foreign Office ‘On Repeat’ (Quiet Life)
Penguin Prison ‘Golden Train’ ()
Chapel Club ‘All The Eastern Girls (The Shoes Remix)’ (East City)
Guest Correspondent: Russell Porter, Barclaycard Mercury Prize Recommends
Dels ‘Trumpalump (Joe Goddard Remix feat. Ghostpoet)’ (Big Dada)
Guest Correspondent: Russell Porter, Barclaycard Mercury Prize Recommends
Remember Remember ‘Get Good’ (Rock Action)
Artists In Residence, Session Track: Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern ‘Drive Too Fast’
One Night Stand, Session Track: Middleman ‘Spinning Plates’

Midnight-1am (Deeper!)
X-Posure Big One: We Three And The Death Rattle ‘Double Or Quits’ (myspace.com/wethreeandthedeathrattle)
The Brute Chorus ‘Could This Be Love?’ (Tape)
Sissy & The Blisters ‘Things May Change’ (Hit Club)
Lost Classic: Motorhead ‘Doctor Rock’ (Universal)
Action Beat ‘Car Crash Halloween Disco’ (Truth Cult)
One Night Stand, Session Track: Middleman ‘Snapshots’
Lightspeed Champion ”Til I Die’ (Domino)
Lazy Dre ‘When You’re Outside Her’ ()
Boy & Bear ‘Mexican Mavis’ (Chess Club)
The Good The Bad ‘030’ (www.myspace.com/tgtb)
Live Studio Guests: Interview w/ Adam of The Good The Bad
Live Studio Guests, Session Track: The Good The Bad ‘004’
Live Studio Guests: Interview w/ Adam of The Good The Bad
Live Studio Guests, Session Track: The Good The Bad ‘003’
Live Studio Guests: Interview w/ Adam of The Good The Bad
Live Studio Guests, Session Track: The Good The Bad ‘017’
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion ‘Afro’ (Shove!)

1-2am (Deeper Still!)
Light Asylum ‘A Certain Person’ (www.myspace.com/lightasylum)
SBTRKT ‘Look At Stars’ (Young Turks)
Armand Van Helden & Steve Aoki ‘Brrrat!’ (3Beat)
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs ‘Household Goods’ (Greco-Roman)
The 2 Bears ‘Church’ (Southern Fried)
Silver Columns ‘Brow Beaten (Donovans Remix)’ (Moshi Moshi)
Hotpants Romance ‘Go Dancing’ (Cherryade)
Das Wanderlust ‘Swan Song’ (Cherryade)
More Than Conquerors ‘I’ve Done Nothing / I’ve Done It All’ (Smalltown America)
Illness ‘Paper Cut’ (Smalltown America)

Ensemble ‘Envies D’Avalanches’ (Fat Cat)
Nina Nastasia ‘You Can Take Your Time’ (Fat Cat)
Frightened Rabbit ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ (Fat Cat)

Skibunny: Coughing, Sneezing, Gigging, and… Vegas?

Wow, it’s properly cold out there now, isn’t it? Well we squeezed as much fun as we possibly could out of our Indian summer, hope you did too. Our debut album was released last month, we had TWO amazing launch parties, one was on a BOAT, Tanya went to the Matador 21 gigs in Vegas where she drank too much tequila and accidently married Ted Leo*, we played some shows in the very very north of Scotland with Stanley Odd, then Tanya got a bad dose of the flu and was forced to stay in bed and do nothing. Now said flu is pretty much gone and it’s business as usual at Skibunny HQ, hurrah! So here’s the round up of stuff coming up…

Sat 23rd Oct - EDINBURGH, Hidden Door Festival (DJ set @ 11pm)
Wed 17th Nov - BELFAST, Trenchfoot @ Lavery’s
Thurs 18th Nov - BALLYNAHINCH, Pure Savage @ Cloisters
Fri 19th Nov - DUBLIN, Tower Records in-store (1pm)
Fri 19th Nov - DUBLIN, The Good Social (w/ CRYSTAL FIGHTERS)
Sat 20th Nov - STRABANE, Dice Rileys
Sun 21st Nov - DERRY (details to follow!)
Mon 22nd Nov - GALWAY, Roisin Dubh
Sat 27th Nov - EDINBURGH, Devil Disco @The Bongo Club

More shows will be added as confirmed!

We have a new track “Black Dark, White Light” included in the latest TEN TRACKS mp3 bundle, where you get 10 tracks for just £1, you can really argue with that!
Don’t forget our album is out now, get your copy here, they ship WORLDWIDE and FREE shipping in the UK!
And just for fun, here’s Guided By Voices, live in Vegas!

*Not really, of course.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Brand New Skibunny Download, Hidden Door II Slot

A brand new Skibunny track Black Dark, White Light (feat. Barry Peak) is available for download along with one of my new favourite bands The Social Services and 8 more for a mere £1 to promote this weekend's Hidden Door II not-for-profit arts festival in Edinburgh.

Skibunny are DJing Saturday at 11pm; check out the impressive full line-up.

4 Or 5 Magicians: The End

4 or 5 Magicians was a band that existed between October 11th 2005 and October 20th 2010.

We just completed, what has become quite clear to me in the past few days and hours, our final tour tonight in Nottingham and I am now sad, but in a sense relieved that I am calling an end to the "4 or 5 Magicians" moniker.

I will be recording new material over the coming months (which I am very optimistic about!), and hopefully will be back with a new project and a more focused direction by next spring.

I am now 26 years and 6 months old, and it is a big shame that I wasn't able to make 4 or 5 Magicians work exactly how I wanted it to while I was still young and (slightly more) carefree, and hoped it could have done. The fickle nature of the industry is partly to blame, I am also partly to blame for perhaps not having more focus or drive, and making the occasional flippant or naive decision. This is something I can hopefully now rectify with a clean break, and a clean slate, free from any prejudice that goes with the name, and with the experience of it not totally working out for me.

I have had some good times, and some not so good times, but overall it has been an experience I have hugely enjoyed, and while it is a cliche, music is basically my life, and I will definitely carry on writing songs, and hopefully getting them out there to the widest audience possible.

My thanks go out to all the musicians who have played in the bands over the years, and the three labels that have helped us along the way - Smalltown America, This Is Fake DIY, and Alcopop. Also to everyone who has put us on, put us up for the night, bought our records, come to see us live, or anything like that - thank you.

If I can organise it, there will perhaps be one final show in London for the band at an unspecified date in the future where a number of past members get together to play an extended set of songs from the entire history of the band. I would definitely like to do this. Perhaps I will even keep the band going as a very occasional ceremonial band that plays special occasions once or twice a year as a couple of our contemporaries have done. Right now I am not sure.

But yeah, thanks for all your support, and I'll be back soon with a new project.

Bye for now,

Dan x

Go On Go On Get Out....is Out!

More Than Conquerors are set to release Go On Go On Get Out as the first single from their debut s/t EP. There are 5 tracks total on the EP and what the heck we have even thrown in the video for you to have and hold also - can't wait that long? Have a sneek peek by clicking here

The official release date is 15 November 2010 - it is however available to pre-order on the STA Store now by clicking here.

The band hit the road in just under two weeks with Fighting With Wire who also have a new offering to make. I can confirm, I am Ursus is fresh out of the studio and sounding monsterous...obviously!

Tour dates are as follows:

1 Nov - Stereo, Glasgow
2 Nov - The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
3 Nov - HMV Institute Temple, Birmingham
4 Nov - Cellar, Oxford
5 Nov - Joiners, Southampton
7-Nov - Prince Albert, Brighton
8 Nov - Club Ifor Bach, Cardiff
9 Nov - Barfly, London

Sunday 10 October 2010

Illness Go Acoustic

Video from Illness' acoustic session from yesterday afternoon at Brighton's Northern Lights will be online soon (where you'll find out if Spencer got his Yamaha working).

Their next show is Monday at Vines in Derby with Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea courtesy the good people at Button Pusher. It's a FREE ENTRY so no excuses!


Tuesday 5 October 2010

Skibunny Play On Huw Stephens

Skibunny's Aah Ooh gets a Radio 1 spin courtesy Huw Stephens - listen again, Skibunny goodness at about 77 mins in!

October Newsletter

[0] EPFree: STA Autumn Mixtape


This month's a busy one and for that reason we thought one free track just won't cut it so we have packaged together 5 of the best tracks propping up our busy October schedule. Click here
to get your free mix from the carefully considered listings below.

1. More Than Conquerors: I've Done Nothing/I Have Done It All
2. 4 or 5 Magicians: Oh! Darwin
3. Ace Bushy Striptease: Bon Nuit, J'ai Changé Mon Esprit
4. Illness: Paper Cut
5. Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea: Slow News Day


[1] Introducing: More Than Conquerors



New signings to the Smalltown stable are Northern Irish punch/riff/rawk early risers More Than Conquerors.

Formed in late 2009 the band have wasted no time - less than a year later they have racked up impressive supports with General Fiasco, Feeder, Twin Atlantic & our very own Fighting With Wire.

Their debut 5 track EP written and recorded in a week in a DIY home studio is a confident display of who-the-flip-are-Arctic-Monkeys? era danceable punk rock meets Me Without You rock structures delivered with the live raw passion of As Cities Burn. Its available to pre-order NOW! on the Smalltown America shop - click here to bag your copy...

Check them live when they take to the road in November in support of Fighting With Wire, dates as follows;

1 Nov - Stereo, Glasgow
2 Nov - The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
3 Nov - HMV Institute Temple, Birmingham
4 Nov - Cellar, Oxford
5 Nov - Joiners, Southampton
7-Nov - Prince Albert, Brighton
8 Nov - Club Ifor Bach, Cardiff
9 Nov - Barfly, London


[2] Recurring Illness: New EP, Tour with Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea



Hot on the heels of their first EP, Brighton instrumental slackermath duo Emilio and Spencer return with another fifteen minute argument against the need for vocals. For All You ABC-1s Out There... features a further 6 tracks from their session earlier this year with Rory Bratwell plus a video-slash-Palinesque travel documentary of lead track Paper Cut. Lead track Paper Cut is available right now on the EPFree [0]

Illness will be going out for some dates with labelmates and neighbours Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea where you'll be able to get the EP directly from the band a full month ahead of it's proper release date.

8th Oct - The Cowley Club, Brighton
11th Oct - Vines Bar, Derby
13th Oct - Harry's Bar, Stoke On Trent
16th Oct - Old Blue Last, London
18th Oct - The Boiler Room, Guildford

The band will then be touring mainland Europe from Nov 10th - Dec 2nd so if you'd like to put Illness on in your country get in touch with them via Myspace. Meanwhile, their recently recorded debut album is currently being mixed in the STA studio ahead of release next year.


[3] Skibunny Hug the Scottish



Skibunny take their critically-embraced debut album of electro-rock gems Hugs to some rather more conventional venues than their recent Belfast album launch on a barge with 6 Scottish shows:

8th Oct - Mad Hatters, Inverness (w/Stanley Odd)
9th Oct - Skinandi's, Thurso, Caithness (w/Stanley Odd)
13th Oct - Captain's Rest, Glasgow
14th Oct - The Greenside, Leslie, Fife (w/Islet)
15th Oct - Harley's Bathgate, West Lothian
16th Oct - Doghouse, Dundee

At time of writing, there's a handful of album bonus discs left - featuring brand new songs written and recorded specially. Order it now from the STA store. Keep watching the band's myspace for news of more UK dates.


[4] FWW November UK Tour



The band are currently in the Smalltown America studio adding a little here and taking away a little there before they announce the completion of their exclusive tour EP. The title of the super special 4 track titan is I Am Ursus - which references a bear and a constellation - both are huge, are you trying to say something here lads? I'm excited....


[5] Ace Ormsby Striptease: New 4 or 5 Magicians Tour

Brighton's irony-laden indie favourites 4 Or 5 Magicians and hotly-tipped Birmingham 4 piece Ace Bushy Striptease have announced a joint tour for October.

Ace Bushy Striptease are fast earning a reputation for their short, sharp songs which stubbornly avoid repetition and spring along with light melody and inescapable fun as witnessed by anyone who's heard their 12 song, 22 minute long recent album. Some have dubbed them as an extrapolation of Mclusky and The Pastels, others just stand there a little stunned, not entirely sure what's going on, but enjoying every precious minute.

Magician-in-Chief Dan Ormsby says: "I'm excited about making our first trip as a band to both Manchester and Nottingham, and a long awaited return to old haunts in the three Bs of Birmingham, Bristol and Bournemouth. Oh and Brighton and London too, of course!

On tour we will be showcasing new material which will feature on our 2nd album, hopefully out next spring. We just demoed two of the newies and even the dodgy rough mixes sound ace! The plan is to record the album in November and December, so this may well be the last time you get to see 4 Or 5 Magicians until 2011!"

Oct 14th - Big Chill House, Kings Cross, London (FREE ENTRY)
Oct 15th - The Hobgoblin, Brighton
Oct 16th - The Green Room @ The Portman Hotel, Bournemouth
Oct 17th - Mother's Ruin, Bristol
Oct 18th - The Victoria, Birmingham
Oct 19th - Tiger Lounge, Manchester
Oct 20th - Spanky Van Dykes, Nottingham

An mp3 from each band - Oh! Darwin from the 4 or 5 Magicians album Empty, Derivative Pop Songs and Bon Nuit, J'ai Changé Mon Esprit from the Ace Bushy Striptease album A Little More Suspicion In Our Fairytales Plz (Odd Box Records) - can be heard on the EPFree [0]

[6] And So I Watch USA from Afar



And So I Watch You From Afar get properly stuck into North America this month in the company of Trash Talk. Expect tour diary anecdotes aplenty.

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

Barely pausing for breath, ASIWYFA's next UK tour in November is selling fast...

22 Nov - Dingwalls, London
23 Nov - Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
24 Nov - Club Ifor Bach, Cardiff
25 Nov - Kazimier, Liverpool
26 Nov - King Tuts, Glasgow


[7] LaFaro in not touring this month controversy



It appears that relaxation for LaFaro after an intense year of live shows is to record a 2nd album(!). Expect to hear new material sneak into these select live appearences ahead of November's much anticpated European tour with Helmet.

9th Oct - HWCH Twisted Pepper, Dublin
15th Oct - Mandela Hall, Belfast w/Therapy?
23rd Oct - Cypress Avenue, Cork w/Therapy?
24th Oct - Cypress Avenue, Cork w/Therapy?


[8] Crooked Mountain, Honest Giveaway



Post-hardcore rejuvenators Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea are giving away their previous EP It's The Falling That Counts, Not The Landing for free via their Bandcamp. Click here to download the songs that seduced the likes of BBC 6Music's Tom Robinson into playing them and well, us into signing them!

Catch CM,CS out on the road with Illness [2]