LaFaro w/ Pulled Apart By Horses Saturday, Nerve Centre

LaFaro To Support Therapy? & Pulled Apart By Horses

LaFaro have been invited to support NI legends Therapy? and new shredders on the block Pulled Apart By Horses in Ireland this autumn. Dates and links below.

They said yes obviously.

Therapy? w/ LaFaro
October 2010
Sat 23rd Cork Cyprus Avenue
Sun 24th Cork Cyprus Avenue

Pulled Apart by Horse w/ LaFaro
November 2010
Sat 13 Galway Roisin Dubh
Sun 14 Belfast Auntie Annie's

Calories star in Music Sounds Better With Huw

Great name for a great comp. Plus good to see a bunch of blogcasted bands selected for inclusion. As previously reported, Calories open a Huw Stephens curated compilation out now on Wichita Recordings. Check out the MSBWH for band profiles and more.

Here's what your £4.99 gets you

Adventuring - Calories
You Are My Coal Mine - Copy Haho
World War II, Pt. 2 - Wax Fang
Oh! (Plugs Remix) - We Have Band
The Crapsons - Pulled Apart By Horses
Suitcase Man - Hjaltalín
Woe Unto Me to Get High - Sweet Baboo
See If I Float - Cyclones
Sorrysayer - Swanton Bombs
Eighty-Eight - Banjo Or Freakout
Clean Break - Gentle Friendly
Bring it Home - Young Fathers
Pull the House Down - Stricken City
Solid State Messiah (vs. The Valve Viking) - Holy State
Lasers - Gallops
Somewhere Out There a Dog Is On Fire - Tubelord
Opposites Attract - Dinosaur Pile-Up
4 Minute Warning - Portasound
Oyasumi Baby - Colorama
Everybody - Gold Teeth
Like Totally - Gold Panda

There's even a FREE launch event on Tuesday 9th June at the Social, Little Portland Street, London W1 with sets from Stricken City, Copy Haho, Gallops and Gold Panda. Doors 8pm.

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 7

Seventh Instalment

It's a good thing we're leaving Britain today, because apparently some shit is about to go down. Or is it? I'm referring to the convergence of anarchists and like-minded Ruckus Society alumni for the G20 summit here in London. Apparently the schedule goes something like this: at 10 AM, PM Gordon Brown and President Obama will give a joint press conference. At noon, people wearing gas masks will start hurling bricks through the windows of the Bank of England.

We are scheduled to be picked up around 11.

We're currently in our booking agent Dawn's Bethnol Green apartment following what was a very satisfactory final show in the UK with Pulled Apart By Horses. We're safely east of the action tomorrow and will remain so after we're picked up, but part of me sort of hopes for some sort of detour. Being in We Versus the Shark means, to a certain extent, being apolitical. In the six years we've been a band, we've never been able to agree on much, least of all how we'd approach social issues lyrically. So we haven't. And I realize this might not be so for others, but it's felt a great deal like being a part of this group has meant sort of like part of your brain is attached, bungee-style, to one another. We look to each other for cues, ideas, and affirmation. Going home and shifting into low gear might bring other nuances of our lives to the fore, political motivations very much included.

Like I've said earlier, I've been pretty negligent on the blog front but hope to be more on top of things as we venture into the more linguistically baffling portion of our trip. More updates, more stories, more pictures. It's worth noting that Neil has posted a children's treasury of great photos thus far on his blog which is right here. Thanks for yr patience, and next time you hear from me I'll be on the other side of the English Channel.

Jeff Tobias, We Versus The Shark. Blog courtesy of Flagpole Magazine: Colorbearer of Athens, GA Star Power!

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 6

Sixth Installment: Don't Panic (31/03/09)

Last night was my first experience of going directly from the hospital to the stage.

First off: generally, I'm fine. (To repeat for anyone with the last name Tobias: I'm fine.) About 10 days ago I started feeling a weird thing in my chest, which was low enough (sternum-ish in proximity) to be mistaken for a pain in my stomach. As the tour has progressed, it's sort of come and gone - mostly feeling okay in the morning, feeling kind of weird by soundcheck, and then generally feeling kind of crappy by the time we're passing out. I've been to two different walk-in clinics (Yep, for free. Thanks, UK taxpayers!) and have been told I've overexerted, strained, inflamed, etc., some muscles in my chest…No shit!

I guess this is what happens when you stop screaming for four months and then go about doing it every night for weeks on end. It's not debilitating, it just means that for the remainder of the tour, I must avoid bad food (next to impossible), loading gear (less so) and alcohol (deeply unfortunate but not soul-crushing). It's a bit of a damper on the experience to be totally honest, but wondering what I did to be dealt a lousy hand in the karma game is inefficient and useless, so I've been trying to enjoy myself despite the busted breastplate.

Feeling fucked up (physically) while singing songs about feeling fucked up (mentally) seems like a fitting coda to this era of We Versus the Shark. We've been touring fairly consistently since we put out this very angry, very screamy record and in that time, where there's been a lot of playing but not a lot of writing, it feels more and more like we need to just put the whiny baby shit to bed. We have girlfriends now. Not to put it in easy stark terms, but we're ready to write some music that's a little less on the self-flaggelation tip. Whether or not the band that plays said music is called We Versus the Shark remains to be seen.

But health concerns aside, everything's been going swimmingly. We've definitely become solid friends with our UK counterparts Pulled Apart By Horses. Neil and drummer man Lee in particular have bonded over common interests (Black Flag, tattoos, copious amounts of alcohol). We'll be sad to leave them tomorrow only to meet a new set of tourmates, Blakfish. In the meantime, I've got some photos up riiiiiight over here.

Jeff Tobias, We Versus The Shark. Blog courtesy of Flagpole Magazine: Colorbearer of Athens, GA Star Power!

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 5

Fifth Installment: The Horror (31/03/09)

It wouldn't be tour if you didn't spend the night in at least one absolute shithole.

Moment of Zen for this wonderful hotel of misery: asking our host if any toilet paper would be available, his response was, after inhaling a balloon's worth of nitrous oxide, a giggly little simple: "No." Perfect!



Jeff Tobias, We Versus The Shark. Blog courtesy of Flagpole Magazine: Colorbearer of Athens, GA Star Power!

Last We Versus The Shark UK Show Tonight

I'm off to hook up again with We Versus The Shark for the final show of their UK tour with Pulled Apart By Horses at Madame Jo Jos in London tonight (tickets still available) before they head on to Europe with Blakfish. It was great to finally meet the band face-to-face for the first time in Brighton on Sunday after talking online since 2005 and their set at the Prince Albert was as energetically nuts as I'd hoped despite the band being leaden with a bumper portion of Harry Ramsden's fish and chips (do all Americans refer to batter as 'shell'?), that also saw a whiteknuckle-tight Pulled Apart By Horses come a-cropper. The WVTS set was recorded for posterity and we hope to host some of those live tracks including their hilarious onstage Sonic Youth Knock Knock joke in the near future.

Pulled Apart By Horses also fall into the jolly nice chaps category and here's a snippet from James Horses' Myspace blog from Brighton.

today we are in brighton. all of the gigs have been amazing and its nearly over sadly. jeff, luke, neil and scott from the shark are some of the most delightful americans we have ever met. bloody lovely chaps and we will miss them dearly when they jet off around europe with blakfish (god forbid). they took all our instruments last night in guilford at the end of the set. lee cracked his kick drum and somehow my 2 piece guitar is still working. playing
prince albert tonight in brighton. stayed with dave from tubelord last night (thanks dave and daves mum) and him and joe cooked us some mean ass breakfast. hopefully they'll pop down tonight so we can booze them up. man, does any one else really wanna hear the tube album as much as me? they wont give us a copy. twits. anywhoo. the lovely ste and laura from blood red shoes have given us a room tonight. we slept in our van for the tour with them earlier this month so i think they'd like to give us some bloody shoey rooms. what lovely chaps n’
chapesses.

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 4

Jeff from We Versus The Shark is blogging his band's UK experiences on the road with Pulled Apart By Horses for Athens Georgia online arts magazine Flagpole. Thanks to both for allowing Jeff's tour diary to be carried on the STA blog and here's chapter 4.

Fourth Installment (25/03/09)

That's (obviously) the front page of the map for how to get around London via the underground subway system. Throughout the tube, you can find other pieces of art amongst the billboards for Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Vincent Gallo shilling for H&M (goddamn him). I don't want to fall into the familiar lib American spiel about Europeans and their high appreciation for the higher arts, but this is simply not something you would see in even New York. It speaks of a different attitude. It's nice.

That said, Tom Hudson, vocalist for Pulled Apart By Horses and our host here in Leeds for the past few days, rides a similar train to us through his "artistic" "career": he works a moderately blase job by day to support his habit of needing to act the fool in front of crowds. Between rent and needs, it's a scrape-by situation. I'm excited to get to the Nordic regions--we've just confirmed a show in Oslo--and see what socialism has done for them over there. Especially considering Neil's New Hampshire-borne libertarian streak.

The shows have been consistently fun, and tonight was our first headlining show. Our Middlesbrough venue, Uncle Albert's, was a perfect antidote to the shitshow of a barricaded-stage bougie joint we played in York, which shall remain nameless (The Duchess). I've just assumed that pretty much no one knows us around here, and we've been enjoying the comfy slot of playing before the Horses, who are newly minted up-and-comers according to the NME. Tonight, we played last of four bands and played to about forty kids. Despite my lingering stomach problem, god damn if that isn't a nice experience.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid boring folks with details about backstage amenities (or lack thereof) or garbage soundguys. Do you guys want to hear about that stuff? I doubt it. Next post I think I'll get into one of the more bizarre aspects of British culture: the tabloids.

Jeff Tobias

Pulled Apart By Horses Competition

We Versus The Shark tourmates Pulled Apart By Horses are running a competition on their myspace to win tickets to the London show on March 31st as well as a signed copy of the latest PABH single. Good luck!

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 3

Jeff from We Versus The Shark is blogging his band's UK experiences on the road with Pulled Apart By Horses for Athens Georgia online arts magazine Flagpole. Thanks to both for allowing Jeff's tour diary to be carried on the STA blog and here's chapter 3.

Third Installment: Sure Do Feel Like a Homemade Piece of... (24/03/09)

Waking up too early after--let's face it--a bender...is unpleasant.

This is how I woke up a few days ago. Feeling weirdly defeated for no reason, falling back asleep quickly became a distant possibility. I sat around listening to Wire and eventually took my first shower of tour. (I have no one to impress in this company.) I immediately felt around 70 percent better and found my tourmates waking up, for the most part. We quickly ascertained the following: we were locked in (after staying in the upstairs apartment belonging to a pub, and we didn't feel the need to wake our hosts to unlock the door) and the power was out. So, without internet for constant conversation points, we just sort of hung out. It was really nice.

Later we made the hour-long trek to Sheffield from Leeds. Soon after arriving, I came down with a weird stomach/chest ailment. Not debilitating, but very uncomfortable and definitely mobility-limiting. It sort of zapped my sense of humor, and I spent a great deal of the show lying down on a couch in the rear of the venue (a fairweather but decent bar named the Harley). As the opening bands played, my mental train of thought considered the following bullet points, not necessarily in this order:

How sick am I?

Do I have a hernia?

Do I have an ulcer?

If I have these problems, will I continue the tour?

Do I value the anticipated good times of my bandmates over my personal comfort?

Could the band tour as a trio without me?

Do I want to return home early, secretly?

If so, why would I feel that way?

Do I have cancer?

How would that affect my relationships?

Who would I want to play at my funeral? (Mouser, I later determined)

If I still feel this way tomorrow, what would the doctor situation be?

Are Luke and Neil right: Is it gas?

As we started our set, I announced to the crowd: "I live my life in constant pain occasionally interrupted by less pain. We're We Versus the Shark from Athens, Georgia, which is in America." We've collapsed into communicating almost entirely in quotes from comedians, television, and film. We played and I went back to the couches to lie down. Only two hours later did it occur to me: I think I took too much Ibuprofen with too little food. That can fuck with your stomach, right?

Jeff Tobias

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 2

Jeff from We Versus The Shark is blogging his band's UK experiences on the road with Pulled Apart By Horses for Athens Georgia online arts magazine Flagpole. Thanks to both for allowing Jeff's tour diary to be carried on the STA blog and here's chapter 2.

Second Installment: Nice Castle, Guys (23/03/09)

A proper update would probably be in order. Instead of the revving up/down of time, i.e. minutes become hours, hours become days, etc. you can basically throw time out of the window on this tour. My cell phone is off -- no international usage -- and I have no watch, plus I'm still shaking off the lingering effects of jet lag; suffice to say, my sense of "when" is markedly dulled, to say nothing of "how," "why," and so on.

We've got four gigs under our belts so far, and they've gotten exponentially better every day. That probably has less to do with the tour getting "up and running" and more with the holy gradient towards the weekend: everything has the potential to suck until you get to Friday. And as such, our Glasgow show on Wednesday was a fine warm-up to four enthusiastic Scots. We retired to nearby Edinburgh at the apartment of Gavin, our affable tour manager. I slept in and effectively missed out on all sorts of awesome castles--thanks, guys. In theory, they looked like this:

Next stop was Newcastle, where good buddies of Pulled Apart By Horses were waiting at their dynamite venue, The End. Club on the ground floor, apartments of the staff above: ideal. A photographer kept doing that move where he tosses the camera every which way without looking through the lens so there are a few pictures on the internet of us looking like spastic giants; many, many chins. The show wrapped up with Neil, our illustrious touring guitar player, reciting the entirety of Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy" immediately before we adjourned to the nearby gay bar, Camp David.

Then we played Barrow, which was a sort of out-of-the-way place full of kind folks who couldn't stop reminding us that we have no business coming to Barrow. It was all meant with a sort of goofy self-deprecation, and while I know young people are supposed to hate where they're from, we were sort of taken aback. The show turned out just fine, and afterwards we got our first dose of ASDA, Walmart's UK proxy. Just as terrifying!

And last night was our Pulled Apart By Horses' hometown show in Leeds. A note on Pulled Apart By Horses: this is a pretty wacky group. It's sort of like the spastic hardcore genre stripped of all and any pretensions. They put on one fuck of a show, and we've been struggling to keep up. Not only that, but offstage they're hyperactive as all get out, compared to our sort of, I dunno, generally bookish/spaced-out vibe. Neil is sort of a social godsend on tour for We Versus the Shark; whereas we sort of huddle around quietly until the set and then stumble around sweaty and brainless afterwards, Neil is always up for a pint and quick with a joke. He is also blogging over here.

I'm going to try to do these with more frequency so I can be a bit more detailed. Pictures and videos will be on their way as well. I'm at the mercy of wireless networks and time, so please be patient! Next stop: Sheffield.

Jeff Tobias

We Versus The Shark Tour Diary Part 1

Jeff from We Versus The Shark is blogging his band's UK experiences on the road with Pulled Apart By Horses for Athens Georgia online arts magazine Flagpole. Thanks to both for allowing Jeff's tour diary to be carried on the STA blog and here's chapter 1.

First Installment: Jetlagged in Newcastle (22/03/09)

Flagpole readership is about as interested in that as we were in experiencing it. So we'll skip the awful terrible and get to Day 2: as of Tuesday, things were generally looking up for We Versus the Shark in our first bout of international touring!

We flew into London, via Washington DC, via Charlotte, via Atlanta. After crashing super-hard at our booking agent Dawnie's Bethnal Green apartment, we roused ourselves for a tube ride (THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL THE SUBWAY HERE, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, ETC.) to a bar called the Mucky Pup. Each pint of Guinness came with a free shot of Jameson and the gratis jukebox was stacked with all the American classics: the Melvins, the Jesus Lizard, and the Stooges. Then, on four hours of sleep, we drove, via bus and van, the eight hours from London to Glasgow.

And these are the two themes of our journey thus far, officially four days in: long bouts of travel followed by blitzkrieg spurts of revelry. And I'm about as far from complaining as you can get, but as of yet, I've reached few concrete revelations about the differences between Yanks and Brits. Everyone's generally very nice, and beyond that, I'm too jet-lagged to really expound further. The West is the West is the West, I guess; I have to admit, however, that I sporadically wake up from naps in the van briefly terrified that we're about to have a head-on collision.

One thing I have thought about a bit is the subject of the Athenian doppelgangers of our lovely tourmates, the Leeds, UK-based band Pulled Apart By Horses. To wit:

PABH's Robert Lee = Gasmasks & Matchsticks' Tom Brandow

PABH's Tom Hudson (he's less bearded these days) = The Empties' Ben Wills

PABH's James Brown = Mouser's Colby Carter

and finally:

PABH's Lee Vincent = Reno 911's Ben Garant

Okay, minor cheating employed. Anyway: last night was our first show, we were fed tons of free vegan meals, and no one came. More to come!

Jeff Tobias

We Versus Incorrect Press Listings

Reminder: the Pulled Apart By Horses/We Versus The Shark London show at Madame Jo Jo's is Tuesday 31st March NOT TONIGHT as I incorrectly read in the listings in yesterday evening's newspapers. The show is 18+ and you can buy tickets here.

We Versus Unimaginative Tour Promotion

At STA we're big fans of gig art so we're stoked with the poster for We Versus The Shark's UK jaunt with Pulled Apart By Horses that begins the week after next. Click the tag for ticket links.

Shark Versus Horses

STA's first American signing, the arithmetic Melvins meets Mclusky-inspired We Versus the Shark will be hitting the UK for the first time in support of their Dirty Versions record and playing with the blistering hot Pulled Apart By Horses in the second half of March. If you like your noise to come with a capital N these shows are not to be missed. Below are the details with some handy ticket links.

Asterixed shows also boast support from Castrovalva who are either named after the painting by Escher or a Peter Davison-era Doctor Who story. I like to think it's the latter but I will endeavour to find out.

Glasgow, Stereo, March 18th, Wednesday - TICKETS(18+)
Newcastle, The End Bar, March 19th, Thursday - TICKETS*
Barrow, The Canteen, March 20th, Friday
Leeds, The Fenton, March 21st, Saturday - TICKETS (18+)
Sheffield, The Harley, March 22nd, Sunday - *
York, Duchess, March 23rd, Monday - TICKETS * (14+)
Middlesbrough, Uncle Albert's, March 24th, Tuesday - TICKETS (18+)
Nottingham, Chameleon Arts Cafe, March 25th, Wednesday - TICKETS (14+)
Oxford, Cellar, March 26th, Thursday - TICKETS (18+)
Kingston, Fighting Cocks, March 27th, Friday
Guildford Boileroom, March 28th, Saturday - TICKETS (18+)
Brighton, Prince Albert, March 29th Sunday - TICKETS (16+)
Southampton, Hamptons, March 30th, Monday - TICKETS (14+)
London, Madame Jo Jo's, March 31st, Tuesday - TICKETS (18+)

For a full taste of Dirty Versions, the record can be previewed on our patented monkey jukebox and to hear WVTS discussing the record check out the blogcast takeover they did for us late last year.

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.