We did it! Hooray, etc. We played a set of the new record in Liverpool, London and Newcastle, and it was fun. I’d say we got better each gig, and it was a pleasure to play with such cool guests at each stop along the way. In Liverpool, we met Germanager, whose weird multicoloured iPad pop was a great fit – cheers, Ben, for making the match. Alex releases all singles, and they’re all a quid. They’re all tremendous, but if forced to pick one, I’d say that Lows is my fave. In London we got to play with Will Gardner, who did a first-ever improvised set based on his next record, which is about the hadal zone, a part of the ocean I didn’t know much about, and it was still and beautiful and eerie and absolutely slapped. The record isn’t out yet, but I made a little bootleg of a part of the performance on my phone which I have titled ‘Will transcendental gorgeous bit’, and for now that’s my favourite of his new tunes. For our last gig, in Newcastle, we had the daunting pleasure of playing after Jæd, whose furious beautiful virtuosic-with-purpose post-blues situation is one of the best things I have ever heard in the flesh. She played solo but somehow it was as if there was an entire symphony orchestra backing her up. Lucky for us, there was a 15 minute break before we played to reset the stage, and to give the audience an opportunity to forget to make a comparison between what they’d just heard and our plinky-plonky pop songs. THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY who came out, and to all of the organisers, and to Arts Council England, who helped to bankroll the affair, despite the very real Technical Difficulties they are Experiencing. Photo of the dying moments of the Newcastle show, at Cobalt Studios, below (taken by newly North Eastern Joe Bates) for now back to administering invoices and pecuniary disbursements, bc paying for petrol is the new rock & roll.
After all manner of internet shenanigans (but fewer impasses than I had anticipated, to be fair to Bandcamp), Action Vibration is up for sale there; a snip at £10 for the strange physical thing that I will personally post to you, and £9 for a digital copy. Buy it, help us to move this thing forward. If you can’t afford it but really want it, email me (see ???) and we can talk. More things are due to join the Bandcamp shop, including maybe some fun whimzzical one-off things. We made up a game on tour called ‘Scrunch’, involving broomsticks and crumpled sheet music and rules loosely derived from ice hockey and croquet (which is an originally Irish game, if you can credit it), and we might publish these on there, but we’ll see. Keep an eye if you like that kind of thing.
My buddy T.Z has been B.Z (see what I did there?) Two new little EPs, available for bargain basement prices. He’s been in a bit of a sulk, I think. Like, the music is fine but it’s also a bit of a bummer, perhaps suitably for the time of year on this wet island, though rumour has it he lives in (on?) Jersey for tax reasons, and where the weather is basically French. He did wreck his Lambo, though, which might have something to do with his mood. But whatever, it’s OK music. Tune below:
In other news, I’m neck deep in the making of a long old theatricalish thing about the joys and miseries of life in, on and through the Internet, called The Life Coach, or TLC for short (so clever). I think it’s going to be quite good, but I’m at the part where it’s not entirely evident that it actually will be. I shall keep everybody abreast of developments as they develop. Over and OUT.
joesna.pe 