Ice, Sea, Dead People Pulling Teeth On The Road

Yo!

So we're going on our first tour, ever, between 5th-18th April. Time's been booked off work, essays have been finished uncharacteristically early, new merchandise has been ordered and thousands of emails discussing vans have been exchanged.

WE CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!!!

BUT! We have a few dates free where people have cancelled on us or venues have pulled out last minute. I promise you if we can't fill those then we'll upload the most boring videos of us talking about service station sandwiches to the internet. DON'T LET IT HAPPEN! If you can help us sort out a show then get in touch.

We've wanted to tour ever since we began and having days off will make us feel suicidal.

'PULLING TEETH' APRIL TOUR
5 - The Freebutt - Brighton
6 - FREE
7 - FREE
8 - Mother's Ruin - Bristol
9 - The Cockpit - Leeds
10 - FREE
11 - The Firebug - Leicester
12 - FREE
13 - The 13th Note - Glasgow
14 - The Harley - Sheffield
15 - New Slang - Kingston
16 - FREE
17 - The Cellar - Oxford
18 - FREE (or band Sunday roast?)

Ciao
xx

LaFaro To Support Foals In Dublin

We're pleased to announce that LaFaro have been invited to support Foals in Dublin on May 14th. More info to follow!

Skibunny To Play XFM Showcase In London

SKIBUNNY return to London to play at The Borderline on Saturday 8th May, at an XFM night as part of London's City Showcase. Stay tuned, more Skibunny shows coming soon!

Let Our Enemies Beware Live Videos

ASIWYFA Album #2 Feature In New Rock Sound

The April issue of Rock Sound magazine is already with subscribers and hits the newsagents any day - it contains a feature on the in-progress 2nd And So I Watch You From Afar album, see below!

Watch LaFaro's ATL Session

ATL doesn't like to play favourites, but we do have a rather large soft spot for the rawkus stylings of LaFaro. Voted ATL's local act of the year in both 2006 AND 2007, our admiration for the terrifying tearaways is obvious.

See why they make us go weak at the knees by taking in their splendid session recorded for ATL radio in March 2010, when the usual roar was toned down to a very lovely whisper. There is also frontman Jonny Black performing The Jolly Banker at Belfast's Oh Yeah Centre, or the band covering The Strokes' Juicebox at ATL's big Ulster Hall bash, or you can have a look at the video they made for the glorious Tupenny Nudger back on the third series of ATL TV.

You are then free to enjoy a less noisy sample of their wares in three acoustic session tracks broadcast on October 13th 2008. Frontman Jonny Black also runs us through a few of his personal firsts in a 60 Second Interview, and you can dip into our session archive for a cracking rendition of the Bangles' Walk Like An Egyptian among others.

Ice, Sea, Dead People On Vice Magazine Music Player

Ice, Sea, Dead People grace Vice's Music Player with Brrrrr nestling alongside tunes from Heavy Cream and The Spivs.

April Gig Listings

While our gig listings page is getting a glossy makeover, here's a round-up of April's live shows -

4 Or 5 Magicians
1 Apr The Windmill, Brixton w/ The Muscle Club - this is the final show for 4 Or 5 with their current line-up

And So I Watch You From Afar
26 Mar Andrews Lane Theatre w/ Bats, Jogging DUBLIN
27 Mar Nerve Centre DERRY
1 Apr Masque Liverpool
2 Apr Fibbers YORK
3 Apr Stereo GLASGOW
4 Apr Bannerman’s EDINBURGH
5 Apr Academy 2 NEWCASTLE
6 Apr Ruby Lounge MANCHESTER
7 Apr Rainbow BIRMINGHAM
8 Apr Borderline LONDON
9 Apr Cooler BRISTOL
10 Apr Cavern EXETER
11 Apr Barfly CARDIFF
12 Apr Domino Festival BRUSSELS
14 Apr La Fleche d’Or PARIS
16 Apr Mod Club HASSELT
17 Apr Vera GRONINGEN
18 Apr Merleyn NIJMEGEN
19 Apr O13 TILBURG
21 Apr Underground KOLN
22 Apr Kleine Frieheit OSNABRUCK
23 Apr Gruner Jager HAMBURG
24 Apr Paradiso / London Calling AMSTERDAM
25 Apr Train AARHUS
26 Apr Bla OSLO
28 Apr Privat Club BERLIN
29 Apr Druckluft OBERHAUSEN

Calories
1 May CAMDEN CRAWL LONDON
2 May CAMDEN CRAWL LONDON

Ice, Sea, Dead People
5 Apr The Freebutt Brighton
8 Apr The Mother’s Ruin Bristol
9 Apr The Cockpit Leeds
11 Apr The Firebug Leicester
13 Apr The 13th Note Glasgow
14 Apr The Harley Sheffield
15 Apr New Slang Rm 2 (w/ Friendship) Kingston, London
17 Apr The Cellar Oxford

LaFaro
26 Mar Masons Derry
1 Apr MASQUE / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA Liverpool
2 Apr Fibbers/ UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA YORK
3 Apr STEREO/ UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA GLASGOW
4 Apr BANNERMANS/ UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA EDINBURGH
5 Apr ACADEMY2 / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA NEWCASTLE
6 Apr RUBY LOUNGE / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA MANCHESTER
8 Apr BORDERLINE / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA LONDON
9 Apr COOLER / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA BRISTOL
10 Apr CAVERN / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA EXETER
11 Apr BARFLY / UK TOUR WITH ASIWYFA CARDIFF
17 Apr Cellar Bar (IMRO Showcase) Draperstown
26 Apr Menagerie *SOLD OUT* Belfast, Northern Ireland
27 Apr The Menagerie Belfast, Northern Ireland

Let Our Enemies Beware
2 Apr Watershed, Wimbledon w/ CARS ON FIRE, MUNROE EFFECT, THE 9s
10 Apr Command House, Chatham w/ Up C Down C
24 Apr The Unicorn, London w/ Elephant vs Leopard, Djevara, Pigshackle

Skibunny
27 Mar DJ set @ The Stiff Kitten w/OPTIMO & NOT SQUARES BELFAST

Alan MX On Last Night's Belfast Show And Film Soundtrack

Alan MX showcased tracks from Warspichord and his forthcoming 2nd album Vaudevillan last night in Belfast and he basically killed it - great show/great response. Here's some photos and below are words from the man himself.



Darling, thank you so much for looking after me so well last night. I can't tell you how valuable this was to me as a musician. Working with Alan has got me so excited about the next album and what he will bring to it, and, as ever, the people of Ireland have bolstered me so much with their support. I think it went really well, and really, for the first time I felt like I was performing as an artist rather than a guy singing songs to a backing track. I think it's because beats are so important to me that working with a virtuoso like Alan really intrigued and inspired me. It was an experiment that far exceeded my expectations and I am ready to do it again NOW!

Thank you so much for your hospitality as well, I felt so welcome and comfortable with you both and I'm so grateful for the whole time. I can't wait to come back and see you again. Thank you so much.

The film is called Tears and is directed by John Lochland. There are some details on this page too. Basically I just lent vocals to the film, I didn't really write anything, but I'm going to be developing the track I sang on into a full song with James Loosemore who made the full soundtrack to the film and also remixed Green Tea for the single release (Metro Boulot Disco.

ARGH, I am so buzzed!! Thank you soooooooo much for these two days!!!!! You are a gorgeous person!!!!

xxxxx

Blip! Blip! Alan MX

More Bands For Truck 13

Some great bands join the line-up for STA's favourite farm-based festival:

Attention, TRUCKERS! we are ready to tell you about the first 13 Artists announced to play TRUCK 13. So, in register order (all favourites here), this bakers' dirty dozen - joining the already-announced MEW - consists of:

BATS + ESBEN AND THE WITCH + EGYPTIAN HIP HOP + FONDA 500 + FUTURE OF THE LEFT + GOOD SHOES + ISLET + LAU + LITTLE FISH + LOS CAMPESINOS! + STORNOWAY + THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + DJ ZINC with MS DYNAMITE

Having outgrown the village pub tent, recent 4AD signings Stornoway will be playing a triumphant homecomeing set on the main stage (still on the back of a Truck, of course).

The rest are spread across our five stages – The Beat Hive, the new Last.fm stage (taking over our beloved village pub - the leg test still applies), the Market stage (hosted on the Sunday by Steventon local Whispering Bob Harris), and the Barn, where YMD! Presents take the reigns on Saturday followed by the Cowshed Rave, taking us through to the wee hours in the company of DJ Zinc and Ms Dynamite! That's without mentioning the fabulous Boxford Tune-iversity and our new spoken word/comedy stage...

You already know that The 13th TRUCK FESTIVAL takes place at Hill Farm, Steventon on July 24th & 25th 2010. To celebrate TRUCK becoming a teenager we have actually REDUCED the price for actual human teenagers; a TEEN TRUCKER ticket for those aged 13-17 is now £60. TRUCK is still free for those 12 and under (14-and-unders must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) so it's also great value for families. We are also introducing a £15 Friday ticket for those who want to camp a night early - there will be some bands and DJs as well as food and drink on the Friday evening. All tickets can be found HERE or in local shops- see our website.

Now might also be the time to bite the bullet and buy a ticket for WOOD: it's headlined by that Frank Turner fella, Tunng, Fionn Regan, Martin Simpson, The Unthanks, oh and (breathe) Peggy Sue and Cate Le Bon. Wow! Britain's greenest festival – it even has its own pub, the Hippy Arms.

Secure your place now at both TRUCK and WOOD Festivals in 2010 by purchasing a Supertrucker ticket, saving £30 in the process. You can get your Supertrucker, TRUCK 13 and WOOD tickets online from Gigantic.com, or visit the ticket page of our website to find your local shop outlet.

We have new shops in Reading (Hexagon theatre), Didcot (Cornerstone arts centre) and, for you London types, Rough Trade Shops (East and West) are selling tickets. If you reside in The People's Republic of East Oxford, head to Reign or Music Box on the Cowley Road.

TRUCK 13 is dedicated to Alex Chilton (the singer of Big Star and composer of '13', who died last week); if you'd like to join us in appreciating his music, and live in Oxford, come and join Dusty & the Dreaming Spires tonight at the Rusty Bicycle pub on Magdalen Road where will be playing a selection of Big Star numbers (if I finish this mailout in time to learn them...)
so on that note, see you at the bar!

love from Robin, Joe & all the family TRUCK

Let Our Enemies Beware Preview New Song on YouTube

Noisecore behemoths Let Our Enemies Beware unveil their new, epic, unreleased lust-ballad (Who Wants To Ride) The Gay Horse in video form.

LaFaro Play Mason's This Friday!

LaFaro return to Masons venue for a headline performance on Friday 26th March. With constant airplay on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 evening show over the past fortnight, a debut album via Smalltown America in the can, a slot as the main support act on And So I Watch You From Afar's forthcoming UK tour, and two sold out album launch shows in Belfast next month, this is a great time to catch one of Northern Ireland's premier underground Rock bands on the ascendency.

Featuring Johnny Black on Lead Vocals & Guitar, Herb Magee on Bass & Vocals, Dave Magee on Guitar & Vocals and Alan Lynn on Drums, LaFaro are a hard rocking outfit with a brain. As heavy as The Cancer Bats, yet as cerebral as the Pixies, this is most certainly a show you cannot afford to miss.

Support on the evening comes from rising Belfast alt-rockers The Rupture Dogs and local upstarts No Mean City. Doors are at 10pm, with tunes being spun from 10, first band at 11. Admission is £4 with drink promos on the night.

New LaFaro Photos

Rupture Dogs Record At STA Studios

The Rupture Dogs are the latest band to record at STA's new studio set-up. Here's a pair of video diaries documenting the creation of their next EP. If you like what you see, the RDs support LaFaro at their 2nd album launch night next month.

Tanya Skibunny Guest Vocals For New Halfby Album

Our good friend HALFBY, awesome DJ and producer from Kyoto, Japan, releases his new album “The Island of Curiosity” on Second Royal Records on 19th May 2010. The album includes a track “North Marine Drive”, which features vocals by Tanya from Skibunny. We’re really pleased to be working again with Halfby, and have fond memories of our 2 Japanese tours together. Hopefully we’ll be back again soon!

We’ll try and get it streamed up here asap but in the meantime here is the gorgeous cover!

By Popular Demand - 2nd LaFaro Album Launch Added

The first show sold out in just over 2 hours.... so you have been warned - don't disappoint yourself, bag your pass to this incredibly intimate and unique night and grab a copy of the debut album before it hits the shops!!

Smalltown America Presents....
LaFaro
Debut Album Launch
100 tickets - only!
Tuesday 27th April 2010
The Menagerie Belfast
9pm / £5

10 tracks of the most gratifying scuzz-rock you will hear in 2010; fans of JESUS LIZARD, PIXIES, SONIC YOUTH, THE BRONX and CANCER BATS will be thrilled the rest of you will still get steamy for possibly the best debut album by an Irish rock band in the last decade. Scratch that - the best rock album of the last decade.

Support act to be announced.

Tickets Are Onsale Now.

Free Illness Show This Thursday

Illness play a free London show this Thursday with the incredible Pneu and future tourmates Shield Your Eyes.

LaFaro Spun on Zane Lowe

2nd Zane Lowe play of the week for Tupenny Nudger by LaFaro or if you'd prefer a little LaFaro on your pocket, the same track is one of Zane's Hottest Records on his weekly Radio 1 podcast.

Clone Quartet Preview New Album

A preview mix of new Clone Quartet album 'Broken Spectre' is available now on our player. It's finally finished and I'd love to know what you think of the new sound of Clone Quartet!

Full tracklisting:

CLOAK & DAGGER
MEET THE TEAM
JUGGERNAUT PART ONE
JUGGERNAUT PART TWO
THE OPERATOR
TIME TO TELL
LOST (WIRES CROSSED)
ROUGH DIAMOND
THAT’S WHAT’S GOIN’ ON
HIGH HOPES
CAN’T STOP
AMMONITE 2000

The LP was recorded in London and Belfast by Andy Henry from October 2007 – August 2009 and mixed with additional production from Gregory Ferguson (Jupiter Ace) at Osbyte Studios from December 2009 - March 2010.

Let the preparations to get the album out in Ireland, UK and Japan commence!

Zane First Spin For 'Tupenny Nudger'

Great start to the week last night with Zane Lowe spinning the first play of LaFaro's 'Tupenny Nudger' on R1. Big props from Zane about the whole label in fact, for which we are very grateful and we're also delighted with all the texts that were sent in about the tune. It's great when you all get behind on of our bands.

'Tupenny Nudger' will be released on a special TShirt/Download set - which we'll be announcing later this week - another new STA Store Exclusive!

Track comes in at [1:25:05] listen again and feel free to tweet the show showing your respect for the LaFaro boys http://bit.ly/964hNP

LaFaro Album Launch Show - SOLD OUT

Hey - thanks to everyone that got up early/skived for five at work and purchased a LaFaro ticket for the Menagerie show next month, those are all sold out now. We really appreciate your support - and the band are delighted too! Have a great weekend...

FWW & ASIWYFA Do SXSW

At SXSW next week? Want to catch Fighting With Wire showcase tracks from their upcoming 2nd album Bones Of The Twilight? Want to see ASIWYFA shred Texan faces? Here's their schedules -

Fighting With Wire
17.03 Belfast Rocks - Lattitude 30 - 1:45 - 2:15pm
18.03 SXSW Official - Red 7 - 10:00 - 10:30pm
19.03 Full Irish Breakfast - BD Reilys - 5:00 - 5:45pm
19.03 InDeGoot Showcase - Creekside Lounge - 11:00 - 11:45pm

And So I Watch You From Afar
17.03 Belfast Rocks - Lattitude 30 - 1:00 - 1:30pm
17.03 MFI official showcase - Friends - Midnight
19.03 Full Irish Breakfast - BD Riely's - 4.30pm
21.03 Goods Bye South By - Red 7 - 5pm

LaFaro Album Tour Announced

Not one of the lucky 100 to get tickets for the ultra-intimate album launch? Fear not...

MON 26-April-10 IRE BELFAST 'ALBUM LAUNCH' @ THE MENAGERIE *SOLD OUT*
THU 6-May-10 IRE GALWAY STRANGE BREW CLUB @ Roisin Dubh
FRI 7-May-10 IRE WATERFORD ELECTRIC AVENUE
SUN 9-May-10 IRE CORK CYPRUS AVENUE
THU 13-May-10 IRE DUNDALK THE SPIRIT STORE
FRI 14-May-10 IRE DUBLIN THE ACADEMY
SAT 15-May-10 IRE WARRENPOINT THE INF
MON 17-May-10 UK BATH MOLES
TUE 18-May-10 UK CAMBRIDGE PORTLAND ARMS
WED 19-May-10 UK LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY FESTIVAL
THU 20-May-10 SCOT GLASGOW CAPTAINS REST
FRI 21-May-10 SCOT ARBROATH DEVITOS
SAT 22-May-10 SCOT DUNDEE HUSTLERS
SUN 23-May-10 SCOT EDINBURGH BANNERMANS
MON 24-May-10 UK YORK DUCHESS
TUE 25-May-10 UK LEEDS THE WELL
WED 26-May-10 UK BIRMINGHAM THE FLAPPER
THU 27-May-10 UK SOUTHAMPTON UNIT
SAT 29-May-10 UK TUNBRIDGE WELLS THE FORUM (all dayer)
MON 31-May-10 UK BRISTOL THE CROFT
TUE 1-Jun-10 UK CARDIFF BARFLY
THU 3-Jun-10 UK OXFORD THE JERICHO
FRI 4-Jun-10 UK MANCHESTER FEVER

Updated: LaFaro Album Launch Tickets Sold Out

Is 'onsale' one word or two, or hyphenated - I'm not sure anyway, thank christ it's Friday - I'm stressed to the max because I've haven't ironed my pants and socks yet for SXSW and we leave on Tuesday - is this enough time for so many pairs of pants?

So much uncertainty in my life - yet so much CLARITY over the news that the LaFaro album launch show tickets have gone on sale this morning at 9AM. Get them now people while there hot and whilst others sleep you can bag yourself a first listen to a band at MAXIMUMRAWPOWER playing 100cap show in their hometown.

Oh yes, it's going to be good - STA know how to host an album launch show that's for certain.

Here be the details:
Mon 26th Apr, 2010
Belfast, The Menagerie
Doors: 9:00pm
Price: £5.00

SOLD OUT, SORRY

The album is out on May 10th - but you can pre-order it from anywhere in the world with an exclusive bonus disc (of yet to be decided quantity and quality material - get the finger out boys) on the all shiny new STA Store. There is a dead duck on the front, you don't want to know how much bother that was to sort out.

Never work with children, or dead animals or bands.

And So I Watch You From Afar Tower Instore Photos

Great coverage including photos of ASIWYFA's recent Tower instore from Nay at Harmless Noise

Calories To Play Camden Crawl

Calories have been added to Camden Crawl line-up Saturday 1st/Sunday 2nd May. Tickets on sale now.

Top Secret LaFaro Album Launch - 100 Tickets Only!

Smalltown America Presents....
LaFaro (Album Launch)
The Menagerie, Belfast
£5
9pm
100 tickets - only!
Available from www.wegottickets.com at 9am Friday 12th March.

This will be the first chance to get your mitts on the long awaited LaFaro debut album...but when is it?

Let Our Enemies Beware Play Wimbledon April 2nd

Slagophiles - pivvy your wetsome sight-globes below-wardly...

Friday 2nd April - we said we were playing in Brixton. We lied. The gig is, in fact, at the Watershed in Wimbledon. The address is as follows:

Watershed:
267 THE BROADWAY WIMBLEDON LONDON SW19 1SD

You can get tickets here.

That's right - tickets. We've hit the big time. Here endth the lesson.

Godspeed,

Sir Michael Edward Andrew Teddington

And So I Watch You From Afar Back On For USA

Hi guys

A minor miracle has occurred and we have recieved our Visas, just a little too late for our initial flights today! So instead we fly to Toronto for Canadian Music Week on Thursday with our lovely, sleek, dashing bedfellows Adebisi Shank at The Hideout on 11th March. THEN on Saturday 13th of March we'll be playing what we hope to be our first of many New York gigs, this one taking place at the Mercury Lounge as part of their yearly CraicFest.

Then the big one, SXSW! From Wednesday 16th until Monday 22nd we shall be playing a series of shows at the legendary festival in Austin, Texas. Please keep updated through here and our facebook twitter tec and through the main SXSW site.

Massive apologies for the earlier mix up, was a collossal mind fuck to all involved!

See you on the other side (of the atlantic!)

Over and Out

ASIWYFA

Ice Sea Dead People DJ Set at Catch, London

Saturday 6th March
GUM TAKES TOOTH + ETAI KESHIKI + the human RACE
Upstairs @ Catch, 22 Kingsland Road, E2 8DA
8pm-2am | FREE ENTRY

Gum Takes Tooth sound like an absolutely mental version of Health which decided to take all of Brainiac's synths which explains why so many people are rating this band very highly. Support comes from Leeds band Etai Keshiki who are making quite a name for themselves for their abrasive noise rock which is kind of like Black Flag crossed with Melt Banana. Opening are the human RACE put together such diverse influences as the Shadow Ring and Loop to make a very interesting noisy beautiful sound.

http://www.myspace.com/gumtakestooth
http://www.myspace.com/etaikeshiki
http://www.myspace.com/tthehumanRACE

Djing in between the bands is Craig from Ice, Sea, Dead People. As always Rajinder will be playing the following dancefloor hits until 2am:

Animal Collective, Battles, Big Black, Breeders, Can, Cure, Dan Deacon, Dead Kennedys, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Dinosaur Jr, Duchess Says, Echo and the Bunneymen, Eighties Matchbox, Erase Errata, Errors, ESG, Faint, Fall, Foals, Fuck Buttons, Fugazi, Future of the Left, Gang of Four, Health, High Places, Holy Fuck, Horrors, Interpol, Jesus & Mary Chain, Jesus Lizard, Joy Division, KaitO, Klaxons, Kotki Dwa, LCD Soundsystem, Liars, Lightning Bolt, Long Blondes, Los Campesinos!, mclusky, Metronomy, M.I.A, Mudhoney, My Bloody Valentine, No Age, Oneida, Pavement, Pete & the Pirates, Pixies, a Place to Bury Strangers, Ramones, Shellac, Sonic Youth, These New Puritans, TV On The Radio, Unicorns, Pulp, Velvet Underground, Von Sudenfed, Wavves, Why?, XX, Yo La Tengo

LaFaro Album Now Available For Pre-order

LaFaro: Drive, Play, Drink, Sleep, Video, Ferry, Home, Repeat

So we made it home in one piece and after all my fretting about being detained for having no ID (my wallet left me in a McDonalds in Oxford) the customes folk in Stranraer didn't care about our ID at all.....they did buy a LaFaro CD though haha! Anyway, here we are in Belfast pondering our next move and lots of exciting things sit on the horizon for LaFaro in 2010. Not just us though, you can be involved too, just get in touch and ask how.

Anyway, next up for us is an acoustic thingy in the Oh Yeah centre on 9th March which is an exclusive kind of a thing so if you want to be there get in touch with the lovely folk at Oh Yeah and ask them how. Okay? Good.

Here's some more footage of us dicking about in England to keep you entertained until we come up with something better.............

Mucho Amore,

LaFarooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo x

Chris ASIWYFA Joins Choice Music Prize Debate

Sticksmith extraordinaire Chris Wee from ASIWYFA is among the names discussing next week's Choice Music Award in this piece from the Irish Independent.

ASIWYFA's self-titled debut is one of ten shortlisted albums vying for the prize - fingers crossed for tomorrow night's event in Dublin which sees live sets from 8 of the ten including ASIWYFA. Tickets are on sale however if you can't make it the show will also be broadcast live on the night by Paul McLoone on Today FM.

Yes Cadets In The Studio

Yes Cadets popped into Smalltown America studio at the weekend to cut their new single Lies.

Sounding like Cut Copy and Bat For Lashes on a first date - we love it!

Some photos by Chris STA

Fighting With Wire SXSW Warm-Up This Thursday

Hey one and all!

There are some shows in the states coming up for SXSW but we are happy to announce that the first show of the 2010 (and the first for AGES) will be a special, one off, SXSW warm up show at...

SANDINOS on THURSDAY 4TH MARCH! @ 10pm

Ticckets are just £5 and there'll be loads of old songs as well as loads of stuff from the forthcoming new album as well!

Exclusively show, limited tickets, get yourself onto here for more details!

Who's coming, should be BRUTAL!

Cheers

Sam FWW Team

Save BBC 6Music Campaign

My Device, Illness: ROTA @ Notting Hill Arts Club Tomorrow

Tomorrow sees another fine ROTA line-up at the Notting Hill Arts Club headlined by Shifty Disco's My Device. Doors are at 4pm, it wraps up at 8pm, it's completely free to get in and what the link above doesn't tell you is that a band STA are getting very excited about, Brighton two-piece Illness, will be opening the show up. Here's them in their practice space...

Alan MX: Different Drummers

I'm getting so excited now about the second album.

I'm off over to Ireland in March to do a Showcase for IMRO in Belfast, but I will also be going into the studio to record the live drums for the next album. This is going to be a first for me as I have never worked with a live drummer before. It's gonna be an experience I think. I'm so used to building beats synthetically by now that it will be difficult to hand over the duty to another person, but the songs that are coming out just now really need that gristle running through them.

On drumming duty is Alan (another one) from LaFaro, who are also signed to STA. I'm so fucking excited to be working with Alan as the drums on the LaFaro tracks are mind bending. I'm not sure whats going to happen really but it's going to be really enlightening to work with someone who properly knows about beats and maybe doesn't see them as geometrically as me. The thing about working electronically is that, especially in midi, everything is square and graphic and it is hard to break that convention, to move away from the longitude and latitude of the grid and view sounds as animals.

The beats on Warpsichord were pretty formulaic and loop based, which worked for the theme of the album, but things have to get a little bit more weird from here on out. the howl is getting deeper, the synths dirtier and, hopefully, the beats more primal.

so Yeah, Alan from LaFaro is going to teach me things and lend me his mind for a few days this March.

Lookee Lookee: http://www.myspace.com/lafaro

Also! Another new thing for this album, I'm going to lend out some vocal duties. I've never written a duet until now, well, actually, I did write a terrible duet when I was younger called Bite the Apple for me and Siobhan Donaghy. No one will ever hear this song. EVER. I really want this new one to be a departure from the last and one way to achieve this is to be less greedy. So I will be working with two surprise vocalists for this album. The tracks will turn up somewhere if not on the album proper, then somewhere down the line, but it's gonna be lots of fun to try things out. I'm booking some Can Can girls too.

This one has come around really quickly actually. Just when I thought I would never write another song and writing another album seemed like a fictional hope, loads and LOADS of new material came spinning out. and I think its quite good. What the critics will say is something I can't think about at this point. Some people were really nice about Warpsichord and some didn't like it, which is bound to happen. I hope to fuck they will like this one though.

That Carter woman is making a huge impression on me at the moment so there will be a lot of her in there, Alan Moore too and some Norse mythology. It's gonna be a big mixed assortment of magical realism i hope and to ensure that it works I am saluting all the magpies i see and enquiring after their families.

The IMRO show is on the 25th of March at somewhere in Ireland that I don't know yet, but I will update of course.

And the next item on my agenda is the second single from Warpsichord; Green Tea. This is going to come as a sort of special edition 2 CD set. and it is SO COOL! basically, there will be disc one, which will have the single Edit (minus fucks) an alternate version of the track and four new tracks which have never been released anywhere before! thats exciting, and it will come as a download from iTunes and a limited edition physical release. Disc 2 is going to have a whole different set of things. First, you will have the Green Tea video, made by Stuart Sandford ( http://stuartsandford.co.uk/ ) which is reaaaaaalllllly sexy and naughty, and five remixes from some really talented and lovely people. This is going to be solely a physical release and will be extremely limited edition, so you will have to snap this up if you want it. I hope you will enjoy this package, it's taken a long time and a lot of effort from people to make it really stunning, it's gonna be worth it.

Speak soon.

Be Good.

x

4 Or 5 Magicians Welcome New Drummer

One in, one to get! We have chosen a new drummer, and his name is James Thomas. He used to be the drummer in legends of the London rock scene Sludgefeast, and has also served as the touring skin basher in Europe for Electric Eel Shock! "THIS A-ONE FOR GEORGE A-BUSH! BAAAAAAASSSSTAAAAAARRRRDDDD!!!". Here he is in action with the Japanese rock n' rollers :



Punk as fuck! I might have to start wearing earplugs. Or we need to get one of those screens around the kit like Reef / M People have.

On a seperate note, where are you guitarists? Doesn't everyone play guitar? Get in touch and join in the fun! fourorfivemagicians[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk

Dan xx

ASIWYFA Namechecked By Wall Street Journal

No, really

Pavement Tribute Night Planned By 4 Or 5 Magicians

With this May being renamed 'the month that Pavement came back' (Pavementuary?), news of a 4 Or 5 Magicians-curated tribute night courtesy Sweeping The Nation: We gather Dan Ormsby, increasingly 'and your granny on bongos'-like frontman of 4 Or 5 Magicians, is planning to follow up last year's Our Band Could Be Your Life tribute weekender at the Brixton Windmill with a Pavement covers/tribute night on May 10th, with Ace Bushy Striptease and The Muscle Club involved. Those probably won't be the last of them either.

LaFaro: It's Raining Severed Heads!

The Helsinki Seven/LaFaro travelling freakshow rolls on.........

I have seen Nick Cowling's cock and balls more than I have seen my own in the last week. I don't particularly mind, it's all new. We played in Manchester after Man Utd beat AC Milan yeo and hung out with Ian and Paddy, it was fun and games and fun and games.......then we hit Leeds, where we had a guest saxophone player for a song. From leeds we went to sheffield where we made too many Def Leppard jokes and partied with Oisin and 'Daniel Maytree'. Well, I say 'we', I mean 'they'....I fell asleep under a table instead. Then began the fun of a 5 hour drive to Glasgow to play the 13th note, which was AWESOME! After that we headed to nice n sleazys for a wee drink & said hello to Bill Mastodon and James Biffy as well as plenty of friends from back home, a strange night which ended in Gok Wan's cousin's house but a good night all the same. Props to Bruce, Stella, Ian, Sarah & Laila, Andrea & Stef, James, Niall, Kathy and Jesus for making it all possible.

Last night was Henry's cellar in Edinburgh and a certain Nick Cowling's birthday so we had a few more drinks with the good friends that we have in this part of the world. Big GIGGIDY PROPS to Rick, Anouska, Alan Davidson and his lovely wife, Sander, Matthew, Nadine, Owen Morris and Norah, the nicest and certainly prettiest soundwoman we've ever had.

We were supposed to be in Stoke tonite but, alas, it has been cancelled because we're TOO FUCKING AWESOME so we shall head back to Northwich for the night before driving to London tomorrow to play with Let our enemies beware & hang out with a few more friends.

We're all pretty tired right now, 5 weeks on the road, sleeping on floors and getting shitfaced every night while rocking hard for 45 minutes every night takes it's toll but we're still having lots of fun. Going home will be weird but we'll give it a go. We've been drunk but well behaved. Kinda.

It's like a beautiful summers day here in Edinburgh but it's cold as fook. Boring weather talk......it's not much of a conversation this is it? Ive been talking for ages and you haven't even said " Oh that's nice Herb, sounds like you're having fun!" Pfffffffffffffft I'm away on now, there is a fine-ass bacon smell coming from Rick's kitchen so i'm gonna EAT.

Stay classy anonymous internet surfer, stay classy.

Herb x

ASIWYFA & LOEB For New Exploding In Sound Comp

And So I Watch You From Afar and Let Our Enemies Beware feature on the GLORIOUS NOISE compilation out on March 1st from Exploding In Sound. The track listing is as follows...

1. Traindodge - If I Pass You on the Street
2. Mr. Gnome - Vampires
3. LIONS - Poster Child
4. Regular John - Language
5. The Blind Pets - Fever
6. Disco Doom - The Magic Arc Song
7. And So I Watch You From Afar - A Little Bit of Solidarity Goes a Long Way
8. Let Our Enemies Beware - Personal Space Invaders
9. STEREO IS A LIE - What We Do
10. Battleme - No Time For Blood
11. Apteka - Traitors
12. Talons - Dazzling Metallic Stallions
13. Turbo Fruits - Mama's Mad Cos I Fried My Brain
14. Postdata - Tobias Grey
15. Sugar Army - Building Castles
16. Ceremony - Dreams Stripped Away
17. Prayer for Animals - Neutral Bees
18. Black Nite Crash - Jonah Dive
19. Veil Veil Vanish - Anthem For a Doomed Youth

The cover art was done by Jon Turner (www.thisisjonturner.com) and as you can see many great makers of noise are featured so worth checking out.

Spinner Interview ASIWYFA

Read an interview with ASI as part of Spinner's pre-SXSW coverage

LaFaro/Helsinki Seven Daily Tour Show Episodes 1-5

Sat Nav Sam's on the road with the bands, making the rockumentary as we go

LaFaro On The Road In New Alternative Ulster

>>>from>>>

4 Or 5 Magicians: Final Show (of sorts) on April 1st in London (not a joke!)

Ok so as previously reported, Alex and Sam are leaving the band, and we are recruiting a new drummer and guitarist.

However, we will be playing one final show with the lineup we have had for the past year or so of Dan - Sam - Ivan - Alex (and probably Graham for a couple of songs too). This will take place on THURSDAY APRIL 1st (which is my birthday!) at The Windmill in Brixton. We will be playing our album 'Empty, Derivative Pop Songs' in full, in order. This will be the last ever opportunity for you to hear a few of the songs from the album played live, and the ones we do keep on we will not be playing regularly, as we are effectively relaunching as a new band in May (though for various reasons, after a lot of thought, I am keeping the name '4 or 5 Magicians' on) so make sure you come down if you are a fan of the band as this will definitely be the last opportunity to see 4 or 5 Magicians as you know them (us? them?). I know I said this at Christmas, but as we only managed to play about five of our own songs then, I felt we had to do one more show! Support comes from our touring buddies The Muscle Club, playing their first show of the 2010, and two more super duper bands that are yet to confirm but I'm sure will shortly. Entry is £4 on the door, but alternatively you could pay £8 on the door, and gain entry to the show as well as receiving a copy of our album! Doors are at 7:30pm, we're on at 10:00pm. DJs spinning ultimate party choons until the landlord kicks us out!

On the new members front, fingers crossed, we appear to have found a new drummer already. Me and Ivan are meeting up with him next week, and if an initial rehearsal goes well, then we have ourselves a perfect replacement. We are still looking for a new lead guitarist though - please get in touch with me if you are interested, or know anyone that might be! fourorfivemagicians[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk is the place to email me.

But yeah Thursday April 1st - come along, yes? It is Good Friday the next day, so you have the day off, right? Party time!

Dan

PS. Just to reiterate - I know the show is on April 1st, but this is not a joke!

LaFaro: Fookin' Hell Luv, It's 'im Off Telly

bonjourno,

we are now in Northwich.

With all that there salt, like. its nowt but salt and I.C.I. even the fookin practice room and studio are in I.C. fookin I. every fooker in town is wearing a hi-viz jacket like, and a hard hat except for that Tim Burgess off of the charlatans fame, like, who works in charlies coffee shop and served me a lovely fry with plum tomatoes instead of real ones. That were this mornin. You what, love? Tip him? did i 'eck.

actually there is one other guy who doesn't work for I.C.I. His name is john and he's the scot wot runs bar, like. He's from Glasgow but his folks moved to the west coast when he were three. and it took him 18 years to find them. BOOOM BOOOM!!!

Q. what exactly has happened in the last week, Jonny?

A. Well....we went to Portsmouth. Then we went to Oxford. Then we went to Northwich. Then we went to Crewe.

Q. Jonny, can you please elaborate on this succinct, yet basic and uninformative order of events? Your attempt at a slightly humourous and pithy retort is found to be nothing more than numbingly banal and retarded blah flum. Sort it out.

A. Ok, I will try.....We jumped on the arse end of a bill in Portsmouth because we were there and playing is better than not playing, ain't it? We found out when we got there that the two bands we were playing with needed to be taught the basic principles of polite ettiquette. just a few simple mannerly questions, eg. - "I say Paddy, we've had a little chat amongst ourselves and a few of the lads were wondering if one would mind awfully if one was to use some of that rather spiffing looking musical equipment in order to play this bloody awful caterwauling that we have decided to call 'hard-core', what what?"

Needless to say, when i pointed this out it was met with a brazen "fuck off Paddy." Well as you can imagine, this kinda grinded my gears, so i then pointed out that his attitude problem was probably the reason he had never succeeded at life and was nearly 40, in a shit job, in a shit band, playing shit music with shit lyrics to 8 shit mates in Portsmouth, where he was from just so that once every shit month, for a shit half-hour he could live out the spastic-mongol shite that was his musical vision. what what?

Anyway, there were more pressing matters to attend to on this night and a certain legend of a man who we shall call Mr. Hatton made this possible by letting us come round to his house, sit in front of what i can only describe as a cinema screen and watch the superbowl. i still cant quite believe what good athletes those homeless people were.

Then we went to Oxford where the promoter Jimmy was an absolute sweetheart. We played with 2 very different but equally great bands called 'Hold your horse is' (get it?) and 'Ute'. I hope to be seeing both these guys again. Great people, great music.

After Oxford we hooked up with a group of guys who simply call themselves 'the Helsinki Seven'. After much confusion and head-wrangling we found out that, oddly, there were only three of them and they were in fact from Northwich, in Cheshire, not Finlands' beautiful capital as their name would suggest. Whilst not the biggest or most offensive lie ever told, it has to be said that it is a lie nonetheless, and that as a band we feel like they are now outside the circle of trust. Dark days do indeed lie ahead...

In case you haven't noticed we are back to Northwich, which is the place i mentioned at the start of the blog. I feel an enormous sense of achievement being talented enough to round a story off like this and bring it back to logical conclusion in such an organised and brilliantly concise fashion. Duz mie gramatticle +literry talunt railly no no bowns ?£

I am going to stop writng because to tell you the truth, it is now 4.40 in the morning and im very tired/farty/horny and i need a wee-wee.

Thats a bingo, arrivaderci,

Jonny. x.

Fighting With Wire: SXSW Dates So Far...

Hey all,

This is where you can catch FWW so far at SXSW, any extra shows will arrive on the homepage and here when they are confirmed!

Hope you can make it down, it'd be nice to see plenty of friendly faces! Also make sure you check out the ASIWYFA shows too!

March 17th Belfast Rocks at SXSW
Lattitude 30 , 6th Street
Stage Time: 2pm (this could alter slightly)

March 18th SXSW Official
Red 7 , 7th Street
Stage Time: 10pm

March 19th The Full Irish Breakfast MFI at SXSW
BD Riely's , 6th Street
Stage Time: 5pm

Cheers guys!
Sam FWW Team

Free ASIWYFA Belfast Show

Hey guys!

Monday the 15th of Feb is the date and its a free instore show at HMV in Belfast!

Who's coming?! Starts at around 5pm, so get there early to make sure you get in! Should be LETHAL (I always thought "lethal" was actually spelt "leathal", it also is giving me an annoying red line under "spelt" thats a word isn't it? Its not spelled is it? That doesn't get a red line?!?! AHHHHH, stupid international spell checks that got me questioning the world!

Anyway, the important things are:

MONDAY
FEB 15TH
5PM
HMV - BELFAST
TOTALLY FREE!

Cheers

Sam ASIWYFA Team

PS - Let us know if you are coming and also if you can help on my grammatical quandary!