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.

New LaFaro Remix by Skibunny

We’ve just finished our second remix for old friends and label mates LAFARO. Our version of Great Conversations Remembered No.36: Jeff Hinton will be featured on the BONUS CD that accompanies pre-orders of Lafaro’s AMAZING debut LP, released 10th May on Smalltown America Records.

LaFaro Album Now Available For Pre-order

Warpsichord : first sighting

The first copies of Alan MX's Warpsichord album came back from the printers this week. Check out the ace shots below of Alan getting his first look at them:







Warpsichord can be preorder NOW at sta.co.uk - anyone who buys it from us will get an exclusive bonus EP. Alan has a lot of songs and we want to get as many out there as we can. Yeah? YEAH!

STA BSM Joint Releases Pre-Order-A-Rama

The previously announced new co-releases with Big Scary Monsters - the brand new 4 track CDEP from Calories in limited edition denim sleeve with badge and the ASIWYFA ultra-limited split 3" CD with Talons are now both available for pre-order from the easy-on-the-eye BSM store. Calories is £5 while ASI vs Talons is £3 so with P&P you get change from a tenner for two of November's coolest releases. We're sold!

4 Or 5 Magicians Support Johnny Foreigner Tonight In London

Who doesn't like Johnny Foreigner? No-one, that's who. Which is why it looks like their 14+ show tonight at the recently reopened Garage in London is nearly sold-out but there's a few tickets available here.

JoFo's 2nd album Grace And The Bigger Picture is out on 26th Oct up against our own 4 Or 5 Magicians whose Empty Derivative Pop Songs album drops the same day and who just happen to be supporting JoFo tonight!

And if you can't for wait the weekend for Monday's Nice Little Earner digital download launch at Hector's House in Brighton, there'll be a few sneaky copies of the gig-exclusive CD single available from 4 Or 5 tonight. Said single comes with an exclusive bonus track - Out Of My Hands (too much coffee version), costs just one and a half gold nuggets and are currently piled up in my front room waiting to be packaged and boxed up for tonight.

4 Or 5 Magicians Vs Myspace (And Other News)

Here's the latest from Ormsby HQ in Brighton via the 4 Or 5 Magicians Myspace blog:

ALBUM PRE-ORDER !!
Firstly you can now pre-order our debut album 'Empty, Derivative Pop Songs' from the Smalltown America website by going to www.smalltownamerica.co.uk, finding it, and ordering it (couldn't get the cocking direct link to work - myspace BASTARDS!). Apologies for the wonky page, apparently this is an inavoidable coding thing to do with the site due to the length of the album title or something...

The first 25 pre-orders will receive a free 'Live In Bristol' CD, of a 9 song set we recorded at The Croft in February. It's a pretty raucous, drunk performance, but me and my main man (and album keyboard maestro) Mike Lord have mixed it really loud so it blasts outta yo speakers. So yeah, super-fun, and super-limited - get ordering!

As an additional point, if you pre-order, you will definitely receive the album by the release date of October 26th, and may well receive the album before October 26th if the stock arrives early. Also please note the album will now not be available in most shops until November 2nd.

TOUR WITH THE MUSCLE CLUB 5th to 14th NOVEMBER !!
I have just today confirmed the final show to complete our ten date tour with our buddies The Muscle Club in November. Here are the dates :

Thursday 5th - CARDIFF Buffalo Bar
Friday 6th - KIDDERMINSTER Tap House
Saturday 7th - NORTHAMPTON Roadmender (venue TBC)
Sunday 8th - LONDON Flowerpot
Monday 9th - PORTSMOUTH Cellars
Tuesday 10th - BRIGHTON Hobgoblin
Wednesday 11th - SOUTHAMPTON Hamptons
Thursday 12th - BRISTOL Start The Bus
Friday 13th - NEWPORT OTT
Saturday 14th - OXFORD Vacuous Pop @ The Cellar

It's a co-headline, some dates we will be on last, some dates The Muscle Club will be on last, and on a couple of dates there is a seperate headliner. More info as I have it!

TOUR OF THE NORTH 25th NOVEMBER to 4th DECEMBER !!
I am now focusing on booking some shows in the north of England (and perhaps Scotland) on the above dates. So if anyone out there wants to book us, or knows anyone that might want to book us, or if you are a band that would like to play with us, or simply a person that would like us to visit your town, then please get in touch! We have a vague route planned, a couple of TBCs, and a show confirmed in Leicester for December 3rd, but apart from that we have a pretty open schedule. Please get in touch if you want to put us on!

I'm sure there was some other stuff but I'll do another blog / bulletin as I remember it.

Dan x

4 Or 5 Magicians Video for New Single

Here's the laugh-out-loud (or LOL as the yute say) and aptly zero budget video of a surprisingly athletic 4 Or 5 Magicians for their Nice Little Earner single which will be available as free download on October 12th.



Shot on location in Brighton by Graham Pembrey and edited by Mark Pembrey

There will also be 100 unique hand-finished CDs available from the merch desk at the plethora of 4 Or 5 M shows over the autumn - check the STA shows page over the coming weeks. And two weeks later will see the streeting of the band's long awaited debut full length record Empty, Derivative Pop Songs - STA pre-order customers can pick up an exclusive Live In Bristol bonus disc when pre-orers go live later this month.

And So I Watch You From Afar - Pre-order News

If you've already pre-ordered the And So I Watch You From Afar album, you've also probably noticed that you haven't received it yet. Unfortunately, due to manufacturing issues beyond our control, the dispatching of the album was delayed by a week. All orders will begin shipping tomorrow, with the last of them going out on Thursday.

Apologies for the inconvenience and thanks for being so patient!

Team STA x

P.S If you haven't ordered already, please hit up the store to secure your copy! - no further delays, we promise!

ASIWYFA Bonus Disc Details!

Judging by the unprecedented number of pre-orders (A Smalltown America record-breaker no less), most, if not all of you, will already know that when you make an advance purchase of the forthcoming aural juggernaut that also goes by the name of And So I Watch You From Afar by And So I Watch You From Afar, you will receive a lovely bonus disc.

With that in mind, we are now happy to announce the bonus disc details. There will be 8 tracks in all, which includes older deleted material and a smattering of breathtaking live recordings.

The tracklisting is;

1. Intro
2. Marching Over The Coals
3. Clench Fists, Grit Teeth...Go! (Live)
4. Holylands, 4am (Live)
5. The Machine (Live)
6. theseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING (Original Version)
7. Mount Kailash
8. The Voiceless (Beatdown Motorcore Version)

Remember, once the official street date of Monday 13th April arrives, the bonus discs will be no more.

So if you haven't preordered yet, take a cyber-run over to the store. If you're outside the United Kingdom, hit up the ASIWYFA myspace where you can purchase directly via paypal.

ASIWYFA Invade The Mainline

Rory and Tony from ASIWYFA dropped in to Radio Foyle to co-present last night's edition of Electric Mainline with our good friend Stephen McCauley. The guys premiered a number of tracks from the forthcoming album and talked about their influences, how the band came to be and how they approach making music.

If you missed it, or where unable to listen as you live outside of the Derry area, never fear as thanks to the ever reliant iplayer, you can check it out at anytime and as many times as possible until next Thursday - Click here to listen

On the subject of the forthcoming album, we are taking preorders for the album over at the STA store. If you order the album prior to it's release date of Monday 13th April, you will also receive an exclusive bonus disc featuring nine previously unreleased tracks.

If you live outside of the UK, you can preorder the album directly from the band's myspace page.

And So I Watch You From Afar - Preorder the album now!

You can now secure your copy of ASIWYFA's forthcoming eponymous long player through the STA store. Whilst the album has a street date of Monday 13th April, if you preorder the album you'll not have to wait so long to get your hands on this beauty as we will start dispatching the album on March 30th - a whole two weeks earlier!

But there's more; All preorders received will come with an ultra exclusive bonus disk containing unreleased material.

You're sold aren't you? Head over to the store right now!