Tease me. Please me. 2000Trees me.

HOORAY FOR SUMMER.

Indeed, it's happening. It's finally happening. Late last week, the sun came out, and it has stayed out. It wasn't a day of sun followed by two days of light drizzle, hail or snow. It has been hot, and there has been tennis, and the pub, and all these things together finally herald the arrival of Summer In Britain.

I don't mean "the arrival of summer in Britain this year", either. I mean, this is probably the first proper few days of uninterrupted sunshine during conventional summer months (you remember those? June to August) we've had since, ooh, 1995. Well maybe not, but you get the picture.

All this means that after the washout of 2000Trees last year, albeit the most fun washout ever, I am looking forward especially to this year's festival action. Aside from not getting rained on until your pockets are full of sky juice, here's a list of ten acts to look forward to next weekend, clashes allowing and in no particular order:


1. Oxygen Thief - GreenHouse, Friday
Mr Thief, or Oxygen to his friends, is probably holed up at the moment writing a second album. As well as being one of my best friends, he's also one of the only men to ever successfully wield just an acoustic guitar and still be considered metal. He throws shapes! He rages! He writes two-minute pop songs then crowbars in an obscure breakdown until you forget how the song started! He is not to be missed.

2. Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo - The Leaf Lounge, Friday
& Emily Barker solo - GreenHouse, Friday
Emily Barker and chums rock my world. The melodies are sweet, the music is gentle, and latest album 'Dear River' is on repeat in my ears as of yesterday when I first picked it up. Emily's even kind enough to be pulling a double shift, so catch her at least once.

3. Frank Turner - Main Stage, Friday (headline)
Some dude. Maybe you've heard of him. I hear he's hand-picked ten acts to be on this year's bill, and he's going to close Friday night with a headline show. I'm going to pretend that at least one person reading this blog hasn't heard of Frank Turner, and if that's you, check out his new (fifth) album Tape Deck Heart and opening track/single 'Recovery'. Then see him play.

4. Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun - Main Stage, Friday
& Jim Lockey solo - GreenHouse, Friday
2000Trees' foremost success story. As far as I'm aware, Jim has played every 2000Trees ever and this year, like Emily, he's giving you two bites of the cherry. His second album proper 'Death' was released on Xtra Mile last year and is wall-to-wall heavy-folk-rock gold. Don't tell Jim that though, he offically hates folk music. Catch him on the main stage with his full band for full effect.

5. Beans On Toast - GreenHouse, Friday
It is hard to sum up the appeal of Beans On Toast without just taking someone to a show he's playing and going "look, SEE? I told you". After going down well in the States with Frank Turner in June, Beans on Toast closes out the GreenHouse on Friday. His Essex vocals are more spoken than sung, and no matter how short his songs are, there's always a chance he'll stop halfway through and do something else, but this just increases the general hilarity and banter of a man who can't be second guessed. No two shows are the same. See him.

6. Fight Like Apes - Leaf Lounge, Saturday
These days they have a home with fun label types Alcopop! (one of the brightest and fan-friendliest UK small labels you could ever wish for, in my opinion) and they've recently been crowd-funding in an attempt to raise money for a third full-length release, so generally it seems like a new dawn for Fight Like Apes. Frontwoman MayKay has more stage presence than is strictly healthy - I really am surprised she has not imploded or exploded or something - but the main strength here lies in the lyrics. There's no time to type any out. Suffice to say their second album was called The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner. Steve Lamacq is a huge fan and, on the record, I am too. Sadly I'm only there on Friday though, so I get to miss this bunch.

7. Hold Your Horse Is - The Cave, Friday
I once saw this band play Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading. It is a tiny room with a capacity of fifty, maybe sixty, tops. The room was half-full, the sound was bouncing around and my ears were bleeding. The band's response? Turn it up louder. Their rock is a jagged rock, razor sharp and not happy until you are crying. See and be impressed or deaf or something like that.

8. Retrospective Soundtrack Players - Main Stage, Friday
In terms of brave ideas for a band, the notion that you should only write albums based around famous works is definitely among the top ten. First of all, you need to convince the people who aren't a fan of the original material that they've been wrong all along, and secondly, you need to convince the people who love the original works that you're good enough to do it justice. It could be carnage, but the RSP somehow make it incredible. Their three-minute numbers capture the strong songwriting of one Kyle Evans, who is not unlike Steven Adams of the Broken Family Band (RIP) and, these days, Singing Adams (wait, they're currently on hiatus). The band also comprise former members of Dawn Chorus (RIP). Shit, check out second RSP album  Catcher In The Rye before they break up or something.

9. Freeze The Atlantic - The Cave, Thursday
Of all the ways to win my heart, here are three:
1) Your band should be formed of ex members of Reuben and Hundred Reasons
2) You should name yourself after one of the best songs of one of the greatest UK bands of all time, Cable.
3) You should sign yourself up to aforementioned Alcopop label
A special treat for those of you with an early camping ticket, catch Freeze The Atlantic on Thursday night, before the gates officially open to the non-special plebs. Can you still say plebs? Anyway, recent single 'Shivering and Dazed' shows with FTA are all about - sugared pop-rock like mama used to make.

10. The Crimea - Main Stage, Friday
The first time I heard The Crimea, it was on John Peel's show in the mid-2000s.
"John", I emailed, "is that Davey Crockett, ex of the Crocketts?".
"Why, yes", he replied, "I think I have some Crocketts CDs somewhere, I must dig them out and have a listen to them over the weekend."
I like to think that he did, and he enjoyed them. I first saw Davey Macmanus fronting The Crocketts when they supported the Stereophonics a long, long time ago. I hated it. One year later when I found some music taste, I hated the Stereophonics and loved The Crocketts. Watch him jerk, watch him spasm, watch him possess the voice of a nutter, who may or may not have informed my own vocal sound in some small way over the years. The life of these guys didn't ever run smoothly. I'm pretty sure I saw Davey appear as a model playing a musician in the Sun's 'Dear Diedre' column once, and that's not even a joke. When the Crocketts gave up, The Crimea arrived with an extra depth to their sound. You know, some pianos and such. Tragedy Rocks was the first album I played when I set up my new stereo in 2005, just like the Crocketts' Great Brain Robbery was the first album I played during my Freshers Week at uni in 2000. This band and this man have formed an important part of me without even realising, and it is with a heavy heart that I learn that this will be one of their final ever shows. Third album Square Moon is released on 29th July on, you guessed it, Alcopop, and they call time with one final show in London on 30th July. Do not miss them.


The last few tickets for 2000Trees are available here, and I hear Xtra Mile might even bust out the swingball.

Webstore 2: Return of the webstore

Two posts in one day? This is surely nuts, but I think it's merited.

For the first time this year(!), the webstore is open, and will remain open for a month or so. This is a good excuse to get rid of all the new albums on my dining room table, take pre-orders on a great new shirt (which, after all the time I spent faffing around with new designs, is the very first one we came up with due to Shit's Law) and a whole bunch of other things.

The full list:

New t-shirt (below): Ben Marwood Life Advice
Pre-order any size, expected to ship mid-July. Only fifty to be made!


'Back Down' new album!
The latest major release comes to the webstore. Hear the sounds which had critics so baffled, that most places didn't review it.


'Outside There's A Curse'
Album one! 2011's debut holds up as well now as it did then due to Science!


Ben Marwood/Quiet Quiet Band split EP CD-R promos
Back in February, my good buddies Quiet Quiet Band and I put our heads together and spammed out eight tracks to be sold digitally. We still have a whole set of CD-R promos of the EP in card wallets, never to see a traditional physical release. Strictly limited edition. Get them before they're gone forever and ever.


Bundle offer! Get both albums and the split EP for just £20
All three CDs available in the webstore at a combined price of £20, which ships free to anywhere and everywhere!

The new store is powered by the user- (and seller-) friendly Bigcartel, who are one of the few places who'll sell your stuff for free.. as long as you don't have much to sell. Which is fine because I never do as you can tell from the above.

The t-shirts are expected to ship mid-July, just as the store shuts down so I can bugger off the US for a few weeks. Set wallets to BUY.

Bennnnnn In The U.S.A (I was..)

Curiously enough, the biggest news for me on Ben Marwood Day (way back on the 13th May, when the album was released) was not the revelation that I had somehow squeezed out a second album from my brain a mere (ahem) nearly two and a half years after the first, but that I am about to do something I have said for a while I just would never do on the grounds I couldn't afford to.

And now I'm making a liar of myself.

This late July and early August, you can find me Stateside not as a freeloader (sadly), but as a musician, puzzlingly-expensive visa permitting. And massively-expensive flights. Seriously America, why do you make it so hard for people to bring angsty folk joy to your country?

I'll be out on the road to form the most unruly and unpredictable line-up since my collaboration with Shaggy - incidentally, I'm still waiting for that call - as I hit the road as an opener for the mighty Frank Turner and his sleepy souls, and also Off With Their Heads, who I hadn't heard when I agreed to the shows and now I have I can only say "I have to compete with whaaaaaat?".

Friends of the USA! Welcome me with open arms, direct me to your Publix stores where you have them and prepare to make lots of jokes about the Queen as I invade the following places in a few weeks.

JULY
26 POUGHKEEPSIE, NY The Chance
28 PORTLAND, ME Port City Music Hall
30 BROOKLYN, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
31 BROOKLYN, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg

AUGUST
01 SILVER SPRING, MD The Fillmore
02 SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT Higher Ground
05 ANN ARBOR, MI The Blind Pig
06 MADISON, WI Majestic Theatre

(Thank you, Xtra Mile, for all of this)

Review: Back Down in Rock Sound

Thanks to Oxygen Thief for pointing this at me - nice review of the new album in Rock Sound.

Saturday, We Ride (or, Tina Fey is allergic to dogs)

Blogs blogs blogs blogs
Bloggers bloggers bloggers
Friends, Romans, Countrymen

Send help. I am going crazy. In a few days I hit the road with one bag, one suitcase and one guitar to visit eight of my most favourite places in the United Kingdom and whilst I can't wait, I'm also praying for much better weather than the water of depression that has fallen from the sky in the past 48 hours. It's Wednesday evening. Precisely 52 hours ago I was in the sunshine feeding the ducks. The ducks.

Still, whilst the potential of being soaked through on a regular basis, that I'm relying mostly on public transport for getting from A to B to C to D and that I don't have a consistent touring partner on this tour accompanying me everywhere and generally helping me keep a grip on sanity, if the next eight dates are anything like the opening weekend in London and Reading I will be very happy indeed. Those two got their own weekend because I suspected they would be (and they were) complete carnage, so thanks to those of you who came, who sung, who shouted and who stayed on at the after parties (London: hip hop night, Reading: 80s night). Thanks especially to Jay and Scott from Quiet Quiet Band who formed my unconventional but highly impressive band for the one-off special album launch show.

On the topic of the album, I'm not sure how well it did, I don't think it charted anywhere (because I mostly directly you away from chart-legible sources, didn't I?) and I'm not aware of it winning all the music prizes yet, but I'm still proud of it and I'm glad people like it. The good folk of Adverse Camber had some questions for me regarding the making of the album and I was happy to answer and swear a bit whilst doing it. Join us as we discuss what would happen if I ever met Tina Fey, why I never have to do the garden ever again ever (ever) and also what it's like to be definitely not a murderer.

Read the interview here!

Right, now off with you. Pass my umbrella on your way out.

ps. York show is sold out! Well done York.

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1st June - Leicester, Cookie Jar
2nd June - Birmingham, The Railway (also known as The Brighthouse)
3rd June - York, Black Swan
4th June - Dundee, Cerberus Bar
5th June - Edinburgh, Pivo
6th June - Manchester, Bay Horse
7th June - Cheltenham, Frog and Fiddle
8th June - Bristol, Louisiana

News from the mailing list: Ben Marwood Day, 2000Trees and more.

The following is taken from the recent Ben Marwood mailing list mailshot. To get on the list, the box is at the bottom of this webpage.

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Hey mailshotters!

I am on the train from London to Oxford.

It stops at places that aren't even places.

What better time to update you all on the latest news? Well, it is going to keep me awake, and I'm thankful that I caught the train this time around - three weeks ago today I missed them all and spent the night in Paddington. You'd think I'd have learned by now, but I've only been making the trip on and off for a decade.

So, today is going well. Next week, though, will be even better:

>>Album out this Monday
Yes. I am excited, nervous, proud and terrified in equal measure, for my new album Back Down is out on Monday. I'm not sure that I can accurately portray how this makes me feel without the medium of dance, but it will all be good come Monday. Here's a short breakdown of things you might want to know, followed by some long-winded sentences about stuff you probably don't.

>>Ben, where can I get it?
Why, I'm glad you asked. Back Down is available from all fine establishments and probably the crap ones too. Popular links are Banquet, Amazon, iTunes or how about Xtra Mile themselves?

>>Is there anything else important happening on Monday like, say, your brother Tom's 28th birthday?YES. But also Monday has been declared #BenMarwoodDay on Twitter (not by me), and I'll be part of a Twitter Q&A between the hour of 6 -7pm UK time. There's also going to be lots of other stuff happening throughout the day when no-one at work is looking (only kidding, people from work, I work dead hard). For more information on Ben Marwood Day you can read all about it on the Xtra Mile site. I'm pretty excited by all the attention, so I shall be doing my royal wave all day.

>>Recorded music is so April, what are your UK tour dates again? You know, the ones that start this Friday.

May 17 LONDON Camden Monarch (18+)
May 18 READING Rising Sun Arts Centre (18+)

Jun 01 LEICESTER Cookie Jar/Crumblin' Cookie (14+)
Jun 02 BIRMINGHAM The Railway (18+)
Jun 03 YORK Black Swan (18+)
Jun 04 DUNDEE Cerberus Bar (18+)
Jun 05 EDINBURGH Pivo (18+)
Jun 06 MANCHESTER Bay Horse (18+)
Jun 07 CHELTENHAM Frog and Fiddle (18+)
Jun 08 BRISTOL The Louisiana (16+)

For more details head to the gigs page here.
People, I can't wait. I'll be joined at various points on the tour by so many incredible acts it is making my head hurt. No two bills are the same, and do yourself a favour and look some of these up: Retrospective Soundtrack Players, Jay Newton, Oxygen Thief, My Name Is Ian, Helen Chambers, Dave Hughes, Mark McCabe and Jim Lockey just for starters.

**JUST ANNOUNCED**
On July 12th/13th I'll be making my seemingly annual outing to the only festival worth your time and money, 2000Trees in Cheltenham. Come and help me go crazy with the excitement. I promise this year I'll bring sensible footwear..

>>The end

For some reason that I'm definitely not complaining about, I am Band of the Week on fairsharemusic. I'm really not sure how these things happen, but i'm very happy with it. Check them out - they give half of their profits to charity. Whilst we're on the topic of unexpected happenings, and in conclusion, I am humbled by the number of people who have emailed, tweeted, facebooked and rugby-tackled me to the ground to express their support for the new album, from the people who gave up their time to play on it, to the people who are just going to sit and listen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Now I need to go home and edit this draft so it looks slightly more colourful. Right now it's looking like a thesis or a classic Penguin book, and we all know that's not what you signed up for.

Hello from platform 13,

Ben.

xx

ps. I know you probably have already, but please do check out Frank Turner's new album Tape Deck Heart, out on Xtra Mile. If his new video compared to mine is anything to go by, all Xtra Mile bands will be digging holes in their videos in 2013.

pps. Still no approach received from Everton.

gigs and tickets and sugar and spice and all things whatever

Hello bloggers!

It is with great pleasure that I can give an update on the Back Down tour supports, tickets, door charges and such. In the run-up to the dates, I'll be keeping the gigs page on the website updated as much as possible, so head over to there for regular updates.

Below is the list: four ticketed shows, two pay-on-the-door and four free shows. I think it's a nice mix, and I'm intensely proud of the supports who have been willing to give up their time to join me. As well as below there'll be other supports tbc. I really can't wait to get out and play some new songs, catch up with people and issue some high-fives.

See you there!


MAY
17 London Camden Monarch // [[facebook]]

----18+, free show, w/Kyle Evans of Retrospective Soundtrack Players

18 Reading Rising Sun Arts Centre // [[facebook]] // [[tickets]]

----18+, w/Oxygen Thief and Jay Newton

JUNE
1 Leicester Cookie Jar // [[facebook]] // [[tickets]]
----14+, w/My Name Is Ian
2 Birmingham Bright House **EARLY onstage 8pm** // [[facebook]]
----18+, free show, w/My Name Is Ian
3 York Black Swan // [[facebook]] // [[tickets]]
----18+, w/Helen Chambers
4 Dundee Cerberus Bar // [[facebook]]
----18+, free show, w/Dave Hughes
5 Edinburgh Pivos // [[facebook]]
----18+, free show, w/Dave Hughes and Mark McCabe
6 Manchester Bay Horse // [[facebook]]
----18+, £5 on the door, w/Helen Chambers and Mark McCabe
7 Cheltenham Frog and Fiddle // [[facebook]]
----18+, £4 on the door (£3 NUS), w/Jim Lockey and Oxygen Thief
8 Bristol The Louisiana // [[facebook]] // [[tickets]]
----16+, w/Oxygen Thief