The Last Ever 4 or 5 Magicians Rock Concert, Friday April 1st @ Brixton Windmill

In October 2005, The Freebutt in Brighton saw the first show of 4 or 5 Magicians, a band I started with some friends from university. Almost exactly 5 years on in October 2010, 190 shows, 23 members, 3 record labels, 2 Lamacq singles of the week, and 1 critically acclaimed album down the line I decided to call and end to the band in a van somewhere between Nottingham and Birmingham.

Following the announcment that 4 or 5 Magicians were to disappear, many people contacted me requesting I organise one final show for the band, and after some umming and ahhing I have decided to do just this, on my birthday Friday April 1st, at our most played and most loved venue, The Windmill in Brixton.

The 2009 album tour lineup of myself, Sam Clarke, Ivan Berry and Alex Wilkinson will play the bulk of the set which will feature every track from our album 'Empty, Derivative Pop Songs'. There will also be a special short section of golden oldies performed by the first proper lineup of the band, that of Myself, Matt Hayward, Jon Wood and Alex Lovell. Other past members will also be in attendance and making cameo appearances!

Doors will be at 7pm, three excellent support bands will be announced in due course starting at 7:30pm. 4 or 5 Magicians will hit the stage at 10pm. DJs will follow into the early hours and we will all stay and dance a lot because it is my birthday.

Entry will be £5 in advance (ticket link to follow shortly), and we will also be selling copies of our 9/10 rated album 'Empty, Derivative Pop Songs' for the knock down price of £5 as well as some other stuff we have left including the last few copies of the Forever On The Edge and Nice Little Earner singles, the CD-R demo 'Wakey Wakey Everyone' and our last few T-Shirts. So remember to bring your pocket money!

The show will act as a fundraiser for the recording costs of my new project. It is currently unnamed and unmanned, but I have ten new songs almost ready to record properly which I am very excited about.

Thanks to everyone for your support over the past five years, let's make this last show the best one ever!

Dan x

Illness Play OIB Sea Monsters Fest & Compilation

One of the UK's best label-slash-promoters One Inch Badge kick off 2011 with a five night stand at the Prince Albert in Brighton at the end of the month bringing together 17 of the most crucial bands coming out the Brighton scene right now and offering them up for just £15 for all 5 shows or £4 per night. Tickets on sale now.

The series of shows are the live counterpart to OIB's new compilation SEA MONSTERS, containing 18 tracks representing the cream of Brighton in 2011: you’ll hear the cool surf-rock of The Squadron Leaders and the Sticks; the slick pop perfection of Pope Joan and Nullifier; the enveloping folk-noir of Sons of Noel and Adrian and Birdengine; the 8-bit brutality of Drum Eyes and Soccer96; and the harsh garage rock of Illness and Cold Pumas. The comp is free when you buy the 5 night pass too!


Here's the breakdown of the nights:

Wednesday 26th January
SALTER CANE – 10:15pm
CROWNS ON THE RATS ORCHESTRA – 9:15pm
THE SQUADRON LEADERS – 8:30pm

Thursday 27th January
DRUM EYES – 10:15pm
COLD PUMAS – 9:30pm
THE STICKS – 8:50pm
SPEAK GALACTIC – 8:20pm

Friday 28th January
POPE JOAN – 10:15pm
Falling somewhere between the kinetic playfulness of Les Savy Fav, quirky pop of early-era XTC and the sonic spectrum of TV on the Radio, Pope Joan are a band that demand serious attention and have quickly established themselves as part of the new wave of exciting and experimental UK art-pop.
NULLIFIER – 9:40pm
Recent signings to OIB Records, Nullifier deliver perfectly formed infectious hyper-pop tunes on the subject of space, waves, girls, and the Armageddon associated with all of the above… ‘Most Evil’ – out Spring 2011.
HIND EAR – 8:50pm
Hind Ear are an experimental technicolour rhythm band who utalise guitars, electronics, voices and drums to fuse hearts to feet and headphones to dancefloors. Like Black Dice on a diet of Chicago House and Fleetwood Mac.
ILLNESS – 8:15pm
Illness are an electric guitar and drums two-piece who create fast, catchy, and abrasive noise-rock. Their sound is equally raw, fast, abrasive and very heavy. Think Lightning Bolt meets Pavement!

Saturday 29th January
MARY HAMPTON – 10:00pm
JANE BARTHOLOMEW – 9:15pm
CURLY HAIR – 8:30pm

Sun 30th January
STUART WARWICK – 10:00pm
US BABY BEAR BONES – 9:15pm
BIRDENGINE – 8:30pm

CD OUT 31st JANAURY 2011 exclusively from Resident Music / Rounder Records / Edgeworld in BRIGHTON

CD / Download OUT 4th April 2011 internationally

Rock Sound Highlights - ASIWYFA 2011 Preview, LaFaro Rank Among Best Newcomers, FWW Live Review

The February issue of Rock Sound is about to hit newsagents wherein you'll find LaFaro placing on the list of best newcomers of 2010, Fighting With Wire reviewed alongside headliners Helmet and ASIWYFA look ahead to the new year.

Happy New (Tenth!) Year for STA - It's Art Fucking Rock Okay?

STA is TEN years old, a fact of which I'm very proud (our official Tenth Birthday Party will be on Saturday, September 3rd 2011, commemorating the anniversary of STA001).

When the label began in '01 I didn't for a moment think that this project would have coloured my own life so much over the last decade. Arguably the main reason that Smalltown America still exists is the is the reason that we began in the first place - we don't like anyone to tell us that our ideas are bad ones.

In life, it's much easier to do things yourself and exist within a self-protectionist bubble than to go into battle with larger forces; we've been good at one thing - surrounding ourselves always with supporters rather than Naysayers. Fuck.You.Naysayers!

10/10/2000 - an e-Letter from Jamie (re JPL Lyrics) printed during the time that printing emails was not a bad thing to do

I feel that over the last ten years we've been brave and sensible in equal measure. We've always endeavoured to operate on the right side of 'self-destruct'. We're not afraid to take a chance on the music we love and we're always improving trying to get the business right behind our bands so they have a proper chance of a career doing the thing they love most in life. Making music.

I've rarely been more excited about a year's prospective output at our label. This is largely due to 2010 having been our busiest ever year (thanks to a great staff) and arguably our best in terms of reaching more and more of you with our releases.

Our bands now tour all over the world and the world listens to what they have to say.

Here's to a fearless 2011.

Next Illness Show: Tues 11th w/ Nope