lazy boxing day extravaganza of eating and TV

HEY KIDS

Look at that, two blog posts in two days, as my actual mailing list lies neglected. I'll sort that out sometime soon, it's just easier to post tiny status updates on Facebook and Twitter than sitting down and engaging my brain and telling you all about things in detail. Especially when there's nothing to tell in detail.

Yep, my plans for 2012 are hazy, but there are couple of nailed-on facts: there'll be a second album (my playlist currently consists of fourteen unmixed songs, and we're just getting started) and there'll be a few smaller releases (EP, singles, free downloads, splits and so on) before the year is out. There'll be a tour when I can, and if I can I'll hopefully be re-pressing some of the older stuff to coincide, given that This Is Not What You Had Planned is sold out, there are only two copies of the Exclamation At Asterisk Hash split left with the distributors as I type this, and until the album is re-pressed (if, indeed, it is) I have limited merch to sell. Plus, you know, people do seem to want it.

Of course, if that's to happen it'll mean a little work; the original label Broken Tail Records has only one release left before it shuts down, so it would involve setting up a new imprint, finding distribution and blahblahblah now I'm thinking out loud.

So there are the plans for 2012, laid out before your very eyes. There'll be a few shows announced before too long which will see the new material start being road-tested. There'll probably (finally) be t-shirts and all that nonsense.

But for now it's me, my parents, and Goodnight Mr Tom. So this is Christmas.

merry christmas, one and all

Hey all,

So, it's Christmas! The tour is over, we're waving goodbye to 2011, and I have spent a nice relaxing day with the family. In a couple of days my girlfriend flies into Heathrow for new year and I'll be a normal person again for a little while.

Since the tour finished I've been hard at work, either actually at work, or working on new material. I was all prepared to declare that I had finished writing for the new album until I saw Franz Nicolay and Chris T-T at the non-christmas party here in Reading which ended the tour. Since hearing Franz's new material, though, I'm going to feel much better about my own new stuff if I write a couple more new songs just to give me a few more options in terms of good songs that can feature on a new album. So, I'm gearing up already for rehearsals with drummer Jamie Mead in January, leading up to three days at White House and hopefully it'll all be finished and ready to go in time for the summer.

So, merry christmas to you. I hope you've had, and are having, a good one. Keep your eyes peeled for the slow emergence of new sounds as 2012 gets underway, there are certainly some interesting plans afoot. Thanks to everyone who has included me in year end lists and that (especially Moon and Back Music and The Ruckus), and an honourable mention goes to the recent (and, for me, pretty frank) interview with Adverse Camber about life, the universe and, well, everything.

My favourite Christmas video, by the way is this, courtesy of Amateur Transplants.

HO HO HO.

x

post 101

i've been meaning to write about a lot of things for the past, uh, forever.

for instance, i really wanted to write a piece about the state of BBC TV in the wake of them selling out Formula 1 fans nationwide with their new partnership, or how they've ordered a third series of Mrs Brown's Boys before the second is even screened. Or how they opted not to renew Psychoville. Or how they cancelled Shooting Stars, with Angelos having to make the switch to Channel 4 for his own show - surely the equivalent of an escort resorting to streetwalking for lack of any other option.

Mind you, Charlie Brooker's latest three-part horror mini-series has also found a home on Channel 4, with his 2011Wipe being relegated to BBC Four, and ITV1 won terrestrial channel of the year recently so perhaps the world is turning upside-fucking-down after all.

Part of me wanted to write about the recent strikes, the Eurozone crisis, the death of Gary Speed or that really no-one has noticed that today is World AIDS Day. A few days after the 20th anniversary of Freddie Mercury's passing, and 20 years after Magic Johnson dropped his HIV bombshell.

But then again another part of me wanted to write about how most things I know about Brazil come from this cartoon.

I also wanted to write a piece about the band CAKE. I saw them at the Roundhouse recently - my second time at a CAKE show this year after a decade and a half of waiting - and wanted to commend them on their general show, their shunning of the general music industry practices, their two-sets-a-night outlook, the fact that they give away a tree to people who, er, want to grow a tree for CAKE and mainly just how I've grown up with this bunch of west coast sarc-rockers.

Instead I'm just going to link you to my first end of year list mention (they all count, folks) and a delightful Q&A I did with a cool girl called Jenny recently.

It might sound lazy, but that's my evening down to a tee. This week has been month end at work, which in the finance world is secret code for "everything is going to holy batshit mental" and, now stuff is done going holy batshit mental, I am enjoying one (just one, i promise) evening off. Sure, I could be planning the next podcast, or polishing off the last two songs I haven't finished writing for the new record, or editing the takes from the recording I did last weekend, but instead I rode around like a cowboy on Red Dead Redemption, watched a bit of the ridiculously harsh Charlie Sheen roast from Comedy Central recently until I couldn't take any more unnecessary jokes and I had my hair cut.

Ahead of me this weekend, beginning tomorrow, are four of the final five shows for this year. People are already knocking on the door for 2012 and to them I'll say, I don't know quite when I'll be out yet. Yes I plan to do Scotland. Yes I'll be back in Bristol. Yes Birmingham. I am also due to swing by Exeter as I have been negligent. First things first though, I plan to spend the first few months of the year finding a(nother!) new house to move into, moving into it, spending some time in February in Florida, and then finishing off the new record.

About the new record: I'm currently recording various different versions of 20 songs, and by the end I anticipate having about 29/30 different takes to choose from. There will be a new album by the end of 2012, there will also be a whole heap of smaller releases and they'll all be sexy. There'll be a new set and new shows, but these things take time. Once I finish the album (or at least get close to it) I'll know more about what my plans will be for 2012, aside from not go to the Olympics.

This weekend should be superb though. Three house shows and an almost-sold-out show at York's Basement Bar at the City Screen picturehouse. People seem to be travelling for the show, though Louise Distras, who I have been looking forward to finally meeting, has had to pull out of the show. Still, that leave a four-act bill which is plenty. Tonight, in that very room, Franz Nicolay and Chris T-T are playing and I cannot wait to see them next weekend for the non-christmas party. I had a dream about Franz last night. We were on a train in the wild west and he was doing some kind of cabaret. That's about it.

End of dream sequence.

x

toothache 1, antibiotics 0

Hello bloggers,

Normally when I go six weeks without bidding you hello, it's due mostly to the lack of anything happening to speak of, but it so happens that the last six weeks have been a mess of action and toothache. And whilst it was a little tempting to wait until after the final date of this final tour of 2011 was over - 11th Dec, Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading etc - I thought I'd fire some quick updates your way.

1. FLORIDA IS STILL A GREAT PLACE

I was there in the middle of October as part of my ongoing drive to make sure my long-suffering other half doesn't dump me on grounds of abandonment, and all I can say is holy crap, that place goes nuts for Hallowe'en. I ate lots of steak and sweets and had a lot of subs, and my first american Bud. Hint for beer fans: it tastes just like the English stuff.

2. MY GUITAR GOT FIXED

The magnificent Mick Johnson fixed the input on my poor abused beast whilst I was away, and I'm happy to announce it's going to at least make the end of the year. The hunt continues apace for a new one after this one spent 2011 largely finding numerous ways to fall apart, but this has held up well for now. In Oxford at the Port Mahon, at what I had failed to recognise as being a speakerless, all-acoustic show, Kurt Hamilton and I teamed up to play 'I Will Breathe You In' together in the same room for the first time ever, whilst I had a storming couple of shows with Kyle Evans of Dawn Chorus/RSP and Mynameisian in London and Portsmouth, with London somehow pulling off the first ever round-robin approach to 'Singalong' - the bar not so much raised, more suspended from the clouds. Other good mentions go to Dave Giles for letting me open the final (and sellout) date of his tour at the Borderline, and thanks also to the Crumblin' Cookie in Leicester (and Dan Wright) for allowing me to attempt to drink my toothache into oblivion.

3. TOOTHACHE

Yeah, it happened. I have been too busy to visit the dentist this year, which is an excuse which is frankly just that. Mind you, until recently I hadn't been to the doctors in more than two years, and the opticians has been a decade. Still, the dentist clearly missed me, because he has announced that we're going to be getting reacquainted. If anyone would like to undergo my root canal for me on the 7th and 21st December I'd be pretty grateful. If album two is called Fuck This or Sweet Jesus of Colgate you'll know why.

4. NEWSFELCH: A ROUNDUP

I have had the delight of talking to a few people recently, all of whom would like you to read about it and all of which are verifiable FACT:

BBC report that I am recording a new album

Valerie made this somehow

A man named Will interviewed me in Portsmouth

And then some poor sap had to watch me actually play (thanks Karen)

.. and then I called into uni radio, Pure FM

Tomorrow I get to go to Swindon. Hopefully see you soon!

b. x

Third time's a charm

Guys/Girls!

Thanks ever so much to the people who came out to the first leg (proper) of the tour. Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham were all superb shows, each in their own special way.

Manchester being in a bar, on a Saturday, in the capital of the North, led to about as much drinking as the start of that sentence suggested - not so much by me, but to the bunch of friends and fans who cheered us on. It was great to catch up with friends I'd made on the May tour with Frank and Franz as well as some I've known for a while.

The good folk of The Ruckus passed on a big kiss via Ian and Ant of Moon and Back (who promoted the show), which for a while was the hottest guy-on-guy action to be posted to YouTube before I requested it be taken down for fear of affecting our nation's fiercest heterosexuals. We all ended up in a pop-punk club until 3am, complete with faux-crowdsurfing to Toto's 'Hold The Line', before heading back to the lounge of the McNeil family where I unsuccessfully attempted to get some sleep.

We made it to Kidderminster the next day to find it was on fire, but instead of a wicker man, it was instead a furniture store. Turnout was mildly affected but it was an afternoon show so we were not expecting The Swan to have been at capacity anyway. Generous locals helped us make a profit for the weekend to the tune of £1.24, which Barry instantly blew on a timeshare in Basingstoke.

A special mention for Barry/Oxygen Thief - before driving us up to Manchester he played a show just outside London on Thursday night, then a house party on Friday. Both involved drinking/dancing, then Saturday involved driving/drinking/dancing/not much sleep, and Sunday involved driving a lot and trying to recover. I'd be much, much worse off without him, so seek out his debut album Destroy It Yourself post-haste, lest the hounds be released upon you.

Oh, and the ensuing working week? Barry's busiest of the year, he being employed by a University and that week being Fresher's week. Quite how he makes the show on Friday in Bristol i'm not quite sure, but he beats me and Jay Newton (with Sid of Club Velocity as our minder) to the Louisiana and is digging into food by the time we roll up. The Louisiana really treat us well, so it's a shame when my guitar's input gives out midway through 'We Are No Longer 25'. Which is the second song. Again, I have to use Barry's but events add up and I never hit my stride. It's a good show, but I think we can all tell it lacks the electricity of the same show back in January.

I try in vain to fix my guitar once we arrive at Birmingham's Bright House, and it dawns on me that Friday's failure means that my guitar has broken in and around all four of the tours I have undertaken - from a busted battery pack in 2009, to a broken input(!) at the start of 2011, to a perilous unglued bridge during the Turner tour, and now this. Still, well prepared for having to use Sir Thief's guitar this time around, I get things hooked up and we have a great time. Oxygen Thief also slays it, as do Quiet Quiet Band and Neil Morris, who is finally getting his record label Front Room Records into gear.

Then, it's back to Addis's for late night chats. Barry excuses himself due to brainexhaustion (which turns out, in the end, to be real conventional illness) and we sleep top to toe in neighbouring single beds crammed into a spare room like either impoverished little boys or very unhappy spouses.

Still, the sleep is great, and there's even time to squeeze in a trip to Birmingham's PMT to find me a new guitar.. a mission which we fail at. It turns out I'm a pretty picky consumer. By now I've booked my broken beast in with Mick Johnson for Monday, who will turn out to be as jovially frank as ever. He has until October 29th and my show at the Borderline to get it fixed, hopefully once and for all. Two inputs in a year is poor form. I'll pick it up when I return from the break in proceedings which will see me go Stateside tomorrow.

Oh, and a special mention goes to the Pontings, Els and Jon, who give up their afternoon on the Sunday to put us on for a house show where we meet some new friends and have a chat. Thanks for letting us occupy your Sunday, folks!

x

**non-christmas party: supports announced!!**

hey YOU,

yeah, you.

you may remember the other day i posted that i'll be hosting a non-christmas party in conjunction with Club Velocity at the Rising Sun Arts Centre on Sunday, 11th December 2011 with a couple of special guests in tow. well, i'm going to announce those supports right now.

but first, some more about the nature of this party. it happens that this year i turned 30 but any celebrations were overshadowed by tour preparations and it fizzled out (though a fun time was had in a back bar of a club with Oxygen Thief and [edit]'s Kev Lawson performing death metal covers of advertising jingles), so it's a good excuse to have a second attempt at celebration. also this year the album finally came out, then got incinerated in a giant fire, and after the second of two headline tours this year and being present and correct in my 9-5 for the rest of it, I can guarantee i'll be both relieved to make it through 2011 clinging to my sanity, but also eager to draw a line under Outside There's A Curse and look to finishing the second record.

Also i'd really like some sleep.

So in summary, join me from 7pm onwards on Sunday, 11th December at Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading for a catch-up, a drink, and some live music the likes of which you may never get for as little as £5 ever again as long as you live.

The ticket link is here and the first batch is selling well. A second batch might be possible and there may then be some on the door, but why risk it?

The full line-up is:

FRANZ NICOLAY (NY, USA)

I'm honoured, proud, excited and much more broke to bring one of the world's bestest songwriters to Reading. Hailing from New York and having been on the road in various bands (World/Inferno Friendship Society and The Hold Steady to name but two) since he was but a teenager playing everything from stadiums to squats along the way, Franz has two great solo albums under his belt and is recording a third. He'll be bringing his own unique brand of one-man acoustic-plus-banjo-plus-accordion almost-but-not-quite-gypsy-folk-but-really-what-is-it? directly to you on 11th December, and communicating it to you using the power of his great moustache.

BEN MARWOOD

Yes, ME. I'm so egotistical I'm playing my own damn party.

CHRIS T-T

My Xtra Mile labelmate, friend and a man I hold in very high regard, Chris T-T has recorded twenty billion albums and somehow each one manages to be even more brilliant than the last. Previous album Love Is Not Rescue was easily one of the greatest albums of 2010, and his mini-album 9 Red Songs spawned the wonderful fan favourite protest anthem 'The Hunstman Comes A-Marching'. Oh, and he also recorded a borderline-apocalyptic trilogy of albums about London and used to spin a great line in novelty hits like 'Eminem Is Gay', 'Dreaming of Injured Popstars' and 'Drink Beer'.

What do you say, Reading?

b. x

help franz do the struggle

Hey friends,

you like good music, right? some of you might have seen the incredible Franz Nicolay on the Frank Turner tour this May, and he's coming back to these shores in November/December for some shows. See him if you can, it's heartily recommended.

Even back in May his new songs alerted people to how good his new album will doubtless be, but (take it from me) funding a new album is not easy if you're not on a label who will throw money at it. Franz has set himself a goal of raising $10,000 to go towards recording his new album through Kickstarter, and given that he's one of the greatest songwriters to ever do writing to a song, it would be just plain rude of me to not encourage you to throw your hard-earned in his direction.

No coins though.

Link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/625130797/franz-nicolay-do-the-struggle-lp?ref=card