The end? The end...

So we announced that it will be all over last night @ the Grey Horse. It was a good night. Partly due to Madox Ford who played a set that really was exactly what i needed to hear. It hit that sweet spot inside my head. The other reason it was a good night was because of all of you. It realy was good to see people down. We didn't even have to ask, you just kinda showed up en masse. Which is very much appreciated.

We played a mixture of a set, some old, some really really new. And there were plenty of mistakes. Some worse than others. Some of it was out of tune but either you guys were being nice or you really didn't notice that much. The new songs were:

-Laying like a Moses in the Sun
-DC to Daylight
-Blue

Glad we got to play them. It is a big bumer that everything's ending. I find that i don't know what to do with myself. Each morning i wake up feeling a little bit less here. But there are reasons, but i'm pretty sure I'll never quite fully understand why it all happened so suddenly.

oh.
well.

New vibes

Like every relationship there are ups and downs. Don't know if you know, but being in a band is like being in a relationship. Its the longest one i've had (how sad) and i'm still in love (oh dear).

Today was a good day. New vibes man, new vibes. We've been putting together these new songs for a while and it's nice to have set vocals for most things. I was getting afraid of singing. I didn't want to go near a microphone. I've been at a creative block for a while, but recently i've had some time to face my demons head on. This usually means i lock myself away at rehearsal by myself [sometimes] and scream until something clicks.

Lyrics are hard. Either you write about something important or you make up gobbledeegook. Charlie said that people generally notice the lyrics when they are bad. I think he's right to a certain point. We've never been a vocally led band. We do like our 'music'. Now i'm not clever enough to write something with impact, nor is my imagination fertile enough to create crazy stories but i try. And more often than not i end up in a place between both states. A lyrical limbo. tragic.

on that note...

DC to Daylight:
The party has gotten out of control. Little bits of limbs, hair, skin and souls litter the floor.
If the lights go out then danger is set to come creeping around.
CONTRACT/EXPAND/RELEASE - The worst is yet to come.
The words spilled out even though i never moved my mouth.
And i'm out of touch with everything you say you love, but wait... the BEST is yet to come.
Loose tongues wrap around me & landscapes flood my eyes.
If the bastards confront me i'll be waiting with my BIG sword!

Synonyms for Swearwords:
Brother don't repeat to father what you said to me. Keep driving faster like this accident was meant to be.
We fly out of buildings.
Goodbye to the windshield.
Death, i'm rapping on your door why won't you answer me? Rats and plagues, the human race, and all the in-between(s).
The sky's not a limit, it's just a direction.
So goodbye to the buildings. I fly through the windshield.
I scream and i shout - The breaking of a heart will make no sound - "Mutha-Phuker Get. Out. Of. My. HOUSE!"
Bleed. Softly bleed.
Breathe. Barely breathe.

3 Shades of Blue:
I wrote you a letter i wish you'd read. Filled with voices stuck in my head. Go make your escape and lie in bed where you'll be safe, with him instead. It seems i've come apart at every seam - unthreaded by the words you sing.

Brighton Rocks... well pebbles.

It was a good day. We had to drive down ALL the equipment for the gig even though we were coming all the way from from London - htat was a bit of a downer. Then the cheek of one of the guys organising to tell us to hurry up when the first band had an encore!!! In my head it was like - 'Fuck you man. We bought down all the equipment Without us there would be no show. Plus we drove all the way from London and will have to drive all the way back. If anyone is getting a full set... it's US' - But it came out like - 'Ummm... yeah, ok. we're ready, we're starting!' I hate being nice.

Truth is, I didn't think about how rude it was until i was driving home in the dark back to London. Then i got all angry and shouted at myself for being a pushover.. but i apologised to myself in the end.

The show was wicked. It was a small 'L' shaped venue and though there was a volume limit, we still rocked hard. There should be some videos of it up on Youtube soon as James filmed it. Thanks to Laura for organising the show for us. We will be back there soon.

Here are some photo's -

Moneymoneymoney... MONEY!

CWe've been a little bit ot of the loop with whats going on in the world and have been lack in posting or mailing. We 'HAVE' been keeping to our plan though. We've been writing and have been narrowing down our songs so they're slim and sexy. They still have a little puppy fat but boy, won't you want to make sweet-sweet love to them once they're finished.

Here's a rough tracklisting i came up with at work today -

(1) To Err is Human...
(2) When Kids Attack
(3) From DC to Daylight
(4) Cat Cage
(5) 3 Shades of Blue
(6) Warehouse Throng
(7) ...To Forgive is Divine
(8) Clown
(9) Synonyms for Swearwords

I apreciate that half of those songs mean nothing to you as you havn't heard them... yet. There's been a lot of discussion about what we should put on the album, what we should re-record and how we should go about doing it. Its a little too much sometimes, bt then i remember that we're trying to get the BEST job in the world (well 'Billionaire-Astronaut-Cowboy' would also be cool).

Things are looking better on the gig front. Got a few out of London and looking to get some others too before we have to prepare for the recording. Ah, the recording. We're looking at producers at the moment and places to record but the biggest obstacle is the Money/Moolah/Green. There are only 3 of us, and between rehearsals, work, rent, food, petrol, we can only get so much together. But its not gonna phase us. Why stumble at a hurdle you havn't even tackled. right?

If it all goes to plan, maybe we'll make something we're happy with, something that you'll all be happy with? But then the world might end on NOV 23rd anyway (or is it 26th) when scientists at CERN in Geneva try to recreate the immediate moments following the big bang by using that huge particle accelerator and accidently end up creating a black hole that swallows us whole. scary.

Dipping toes into the pressure cooker...

5 gigs in. We sweat more and more after each show. The last one we played was only to a handful of people but we were soaked by the end of it. I wonder why? Maybe because we're hungry. You know what i mean? This is it. With all the shit that gets sent our way because we choose to be in a band... It doesn't mean that we choose to be famous, that we choose to sign a record deal, or that we choose to be puppets for other people's ideas and direction... fuck no.

We just want to play. We just want to make records (great records if possible) to see if we can actually do it but there is a lot of bullshit that we don't have to be a part of it. It may have pretty lights and distract you for a while but you don't have to have it. You really DON'T. This applies to any walk of life. If all you want is 15 minutes of fame and a fat paycheck then sell out. I would do it in a heart beat if i didn't have this stupid consience and an un-natural tendancy to be idealistic and romantically moral, and i don't judge anybody who places themselves in that position. I think they are smart people, but they should be smart enough to realise that if you spread your legs, you must expect to be fucked. right?

When the record fell through with Spud it was like, great... what do we do now? But maybe now we see that the only way we're going to do this with any kinda sanity is if we do it ourselves the hard way.

But what does it all mean Basil??? It means...

(a) We're going to record again in August
(b) We're looking for the right producer
(c) ...and the right studio
(d) We're getting a plan together to do our first tour in Jan/Feb 2008

and we need to do this... like... now. Hence our diping of toes into a pressure cooker. It's getting a little hot. Maybe that's why we're sweating?

A shadow with no clothes

Its been a while since we updated this thing. To be fair we've been prepping for shows. Played 3 now. Red Lion, Metro, Grey Horse.

Next one is at Fighting Cocks, followed by Archway Tavern (the next day). Got one confirmed in Hobgoblin, another at the Cocks, trying to sort out one at Project Orange and another one in Brighton. crazy. Its been far too long, well it feels like it.

In the rehearsal rooms we're making progress. We've started to create 2 seperate sets.

Set A is Heavy in your face
Set B is Chilled in your face

Hopefully for the upcoming Cocks gig we'll be playing Set B, which means tracks like - Riding The Biaxial (RTB), Left Arm in Love (LAIL), Travel in the Light (TITL), Mixed Inglish (MI)... Hopefully we'll pull it together in time. In rehearsal tonight, TITL sounded really good and groovy. We played it badly but thats only to be expected. I think we havn't played that song for close to a year now. RTB was gethering some magic momentum but amusingly fell apart when it went heavy. Just have to sort out the sound. LAIL is a mutha-phuka to get right. We need to sort out some more loopy stuff to fill in gaps. think of this as audio poly-filler(?).

But now there are some new songs emerging. I guess ones worth mentioning are...

The Castratition - Charlie was saying how it shares similarities with 'MI'. but only because there are lots of melodic parts that change very quickly from one to another. We've got the whole song, now its just a case of streching and squeezing phrases until it all fits together nicely. Oh, and its in 3/4 if that helps.

Blue - Its kinda like a ballad. Very soft and delayed guitar line. Some awesome swelling growly Bass lines from Sam. Not quite finished, but its got a nice vocal line so far. A nice head bouncing beat from Charles. It'll be interesting to see where this one heads.

Snail - as the title suggests its very slow. Kinda like Mogwai or Low. Not that close to being finished, maybe we'll attempt it again at some point later on.

Fly out of Buildings - Think Mars Volta meets Radiohead, but not quite as lovely as you imagine it to be. This is quite a tricky one because there is no obvious chorus or verse, its like one big bit of music. 7/8 this one. moving to 8/8 later, and then maybe back...?

This is what we are up to. This is what we'll be doing until July (this and playing more gigs). When something interesting happens we'll keep you informed. If you can help sort us a gig, feel free to so so and let us know. We're all open armed.

thanks for the nice reception at the last few gigs so far.

'Red Lion Rumble'

Last night we played our first gig in...well, nobody actually knows how long, although one well-informed speculator claimed that five months was the approximate time period. Whatever, it felt like forever.

The gig was in aid of raising money for the B.S.S.K. Children's Fund in Pune, India, as organised by a family friend of the Sharmas'. The first time we've really done a fundraiser, I personally hope that there will be many more. The atmosphere and spirit was inspirational, a great time was had by all and the latest figures suggest that over £1000 was raised. Not bad at all for a rainy Sunday night, southwest of the smokey city.

And, to add to all of this, it really did feel most awesomely cool to be back onstage. If there was ever gona be any compensation for the bad luck of late (the most recent additions to the list being the crashing of band transport facilities and, a couple of days later, an equally unfortunate, but not quite so severe, incident with our backup vehicle!), then last night more than satisfied that requirement.

We hope it was enjoyed just as much by you guys. Thank you, to all, for coming on down. Your post-show comments were truly touching. Thank you, also, for making your contribution towards such a good cause and thanks to Ian for inviting us to be part of the event.

Think I'm ready for the Oscars?

See you at the Metro on the 23rd.