spotify

Whatever you think of Spotify, it's always nice when your very-much-DIY release gets in one of their playlists. The opening track to 2015's album Even Temper, 'I'm Not Much, But I'm All I Have', is nestled neatly in this Sci-Fi themed list they've just put out.

At first I thought Sci-Fi? The track itself is pretty bare, and just made out of guitar loops and a bit of piano, but I guess it might have to do with the title, which I pinched from a line in a Philip K. Dick book...

football

If you know me at least a little bit, then you'll know that ever since I was a kid, I've supported Aston Villa. For the uninitiated, they're a bit of a fallen giant in the UK football league: a once mighty force - cup and league winners, destroyed by poor management and left to languish in the 2nd division, otherwise known as The Championship.

This season though, the good times came back, and we appointed a manager who used to be a fan when he was a kid, kept hold of our best player, another Villa fan Jack Grealish, and managed to sneak promotion to the Premier League.

Fast forward a few months though, and we're almost bottom of the league, and a genuinely terrible team. I went down to see them at the weekend with Sophie, and couldn't believe my eyes. Anyway, afterwards, I went on The Villa View (a popular youtube channel and podcast) to have a whinge on their Fan Cams. I pop up intermittently and manage to close the video with the phrase "squeaky bum time".

Lovely.

new albums

This morning, everything got approved for a new worriedaboutsatan album. It'll be coming out on a nice little label, and all being told I'm quite excited by it all. There's also another one which was polished off months ago and is already in a release queue. Quite excited about that one as well to be honest. I'm not exactly sure when or how they'll be coming out, but I shall let you all know once I do.

Then there's a few splits, maybe a single-or-two, then who knows? Perhaps 2020 will be a bumper year, with an-album-a-month or something.

Still trying to get a live set sorted too. Got my eye on a nice little UK run around spring time, but I guess I have to finish it properly first, eh?

Plus 2020 is the 10 year anniversary of Heart Monitor. I'll try and do something nice for that.

Until then, feel free to give the back catalogue a listen. I made it proper easy for you and compiled the best bits into a Spotify playlist for you:

sxsw

Back in 2012, when the band was a duo (and we were called something else), we lucked out and won a spot at that year's SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. It was an absolute experience, lemme tell you. From the early starts getting US work visas, to ordering humongous Burger Kings in Texas backwaters, it was ace. Still can't really believe we managed to do it in hindsight.

The best memory I have of it though, is the first night we were there, we met up with a Mancunian band called Brown Brogues. We had next to nothing in common with them musically, but we got on as we all liked a laugh. We'd met them doing some weird corporate thing for Umbro of all people. I think they were trying to attach the brand to Manchester and its big musical output, so we ended up doing this filmed session in front of about 50 people dressed in Umbro gear. It was weird, but both us and the Brogues saw the funny side of it. The other band on that bill really didn't, and apparently kicked up quite the fuss about having to wear sports gear. Looking back, I should've absolutely rinsed their football shirt collection, as it'd probably be worth millions now and you got to keep the thing you played in.

 

Anyway, the first night we were in Austin, we met up and got absolutely wasted at this tiny bar on 6th street, which is the main area for the festival. It was absolute madness, as there was so much going on, but we all sat on this rooftop, drinking $1 jack-and-cokes, watching the sun go down. Magical, it was. 

We played a few shows, but nothing massive ever came of it. We shook a few hands, and met a few people, but 'the biz' sadly escaped our grasp. Still, it was good fun while it lasted. Here's a tour diary we shot at the time if you're at all interested:

codes

It's been a pretty mad year, eh? Well, as we're heading into 2020, I thought it'd be nice to do something with the two worriedaboutsatan albums that have come out this year. So, here are some download codes! It's a first come/ first served type deal, and you can redeem them here: https://worriedaboutsatan.bandcamp.com/yum - enjoy!

Revenant 

p7vv-c62w
rlb6-xy44
dca2-e3ja
x6fw-cf8e
hzdc-xp7u
j2qq-e2aq
fx8f-3dut
mczx-cha7
9p2j-xe35
3fx8-e3cf

Blind Tiger

l73n-3vsz
q5xv-hkcg
9rq8-j843
yxr2-yrvs
3emw-7lzd
w8re-vmyh
szlf-gg2v
s3pm-3u49
vjzh-gx72
693p-bqph
 

Iceland '15

Seyðisfjörður, Iceland

I drove around Iceland with Sophie back in 2015. Just found some photos I thought I'd lost, so here's one. Seyðisfjörður is a small arty town in the North East, and it's only reachable by one road which always gets cut off with snow in the winter. Luckily we made it through.

tiif 2019

Every year, I put out a compilation album of everything my label has released that year. It's been going since 2014, and whereas they used to be sort-of fundraisers for the up-coming releases on the label, I thought this year I should do it differently. They're always pay-what-you-want, but people often chip in a few quid, which kept the bank account healthy enough to press stuff up, or to pay for PR and things like that.

This year though, I decided against all that. PR can wait, and the pressings are never a massive amount of money, so I thought I'd donate whatever came in to charity. The UK is pretty much fucked at the moment, so to keep the quids that people chipped in and spend them on tapes would be pretty fucking ludicrous to be honest. Anyway, so I picked Shelter, as winter is brutal, and no-one should be without a home in this weather and at this time of year.

So far, the comp has raised £146 for Shelter, which is just awesome. I'd like to say a massive thank you to all who chipped in, and to all who spread the word too, as I know not everyone's in a position to donate. I'll keep an eye on anything else that comes in, round it up, and send it over to Shelter.

on a rope

Fucking hell, can we just have a round of applause at how fucking great this live version of On A Rope by Rocket From The Crypt is?
For younger viewers, TFI Friday was like The One Show but for teenagers, hosted by Chris Evans.

good albums this year

Here are a few albums I really enjoyed this year, seeing as how everyone's doing top 10's at the moment.

Caroline Polachek - Pang


Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated


Pup - Morbid Stuff


 HEALTH - Vol 4: Slaves Of Fear


The Chemical Brothers - No Geography


HTRK - Venus In Leo


Boy Harsher - Careful


Special Request - Bedroom Tapes


Andrew DR Abbott - Dead In Chellow Dean


Hotel Neon - Relic


Laura Secord - Ending Friendships


36 - The Lower Lights

Telefon Tel Aviv - Dreams Are Not Enough


Spheruleus - Light Through Open Blinds

fucking wonderwall

As it's everywhere at the moment, I thought I'd answer one of life's little questions.
Was 'Wonderwall' by Oasis any ever good?
The answer, my friends, is no. No it wasn't.
It is still a phenomenally bad song, somehow made worse when you realise the chorus rhymes "maybe" with "me", & "all" and "wall".

new capac

Oooh, new Capac! Really like Capac. I've released a few of their records on my label, and they never disappoint. If you follow This Is It Forever, you'll be glad to know there will be some new music from these guys appearing throughout 2020. Anyway, here's their new tape, which you should all go pre-order now:

london 08

Seeing as how 'doing a blogspot' is very early-00's, here's a previously hidden away from public view unreleased photo of me onstage at London's Dublin Castle, early 2008.

That was our first ever out-of-town gig, btw. Darren, the old editor of Rocksound, really really liked us for some reason, so asked us to jump on this already-rammed bill for one of their nights. We played to about 3 people I think, but was fun anyway. The other bands on the bill were pop-punks My Awesome Compilation, pop-punks X-certs, and some stoner band from America, so needless to say we probably didn't go down too well anyway. Was fun though!

 

 

marnie

One thing I am doing at the moment, as well as buying up almost-forgotten albums I very nearly forgot about, is replacing some older ones I had, but have since lost.

I've had that Marnie Stern album with the stupidly long title a good few times, losing it each time I moved. I remember I bought it originally about a week after she played Leeds. Everyone was raving about her, but I was like 'ah yeah, whatever'. Heard the album and instantly thought 'oh fuck'. It's ace, but kept on bloody losing it - here's hoping this new version that arrived today lasts a bit longer.

Here she is playing absolutely shredding Transformer for some Pitchfork live thing back in 2008:

If I have to hear that White Stripes football chant one more time

hiya

Twitter's a bit boring these days innit? Quite like having a little blogger to put stuff on, without people retweeting toby fucking young into my eyeballs and ruining my day.

Bought a few CDs lately, including this old Wannadies record that I only just about remember from the turn of the millenium. It's called 'Yeah!' and had this amazing tune on it called 'Big Fan'. The video was also awesome, and directed by now-quite-famous-movie-director Garth Jennings: