Illness

One of my favourite bands we’ve played with recently are Sofakings from Nottingham. They have some exciting plans for a split 7” that I am definitely going to enjoy when it comes out in April/May. For now they have a couple of tracks up on their myspace. Great scrappy punk with very interesting but still catchy guitar.

Had a good chat with Phil their guitarist the other night (who has an excellent vinyl collection he should be very proud of), and he pointed me towards lots of interesting bands I hadn’t heard that I will check out, so thanks for that, and for letting us stay Phil!

Our bezzie mates in Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea (hereafter referred to as CMCS for the sake of brevity and concision) have just put their 1st album up for free download. Listened to it a few times already and its some pretty swell dark stuff. Anyway, get it here. It’s on queue for a proper physical release in a couple of months, and I hear they have some pretty exciting packaging plans. Familiarise yourself with the MP3s and then get on that shit.

Stef from Shield Your Eyes (who played an absolute belter last Friday at the Cowley BTW) solo thing is called Guns or Knives. I think it is incredible. Kind of modern blues stuff. Live it is really affecting. He has a pretty good album but much better IMHO is the more recent ‘Live at Spatchcock’ ep which you can get as a digital download for a bargain £1.50 here, or a free stream. Can’t implore you enough to check it out live as well on one of his sporadic live dates. I saw the first four songs of this set at a recent gig and it really blew the crowd away, kind of stealing the show from three other great acts who were playing. Great!

Tour may have come to an end, but music never stops! This Friday at the Cowley Club Alex from Death Pedals is putting on one of his “I Hate The Kids” nights, starring three great bands; his own Death Pedals, Brighton noise trio Fat Bicth and edgy post-hardcore kids Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea. Should be a fat one. May not be able to make it which sucks but you should definitely!

Everyone had a terrific time! We covered our petrol and a bit of the van hire, so everyone got a pretty cheap holiday. We met loads of interesting people, bands and vans. We didn’t die. We only had to call the AA once (burst tire, right at the end). I got to visit my parents. It was great. Best thing was seeing P For Persia play every night. They’ve always been a hugely fun band to watch and their new stuff is so good it was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for coming with us guys! I’ll put up a few more phots and some cool recordings we made over the next few days.

X