We're still not dead

I guess I'll start by wishing a happy new year to the two people who might read this- it has been a VERY long time since I last updated this, I have written nothing since last July to be precise, and right now the season known as summer seems little more than an imaginary world I'm not sure exists where I don't need to wear two pairs of socks and have a constant inability to feel my fingers.

So.... we are still a band, even though 2009 was the year where we probably played the least amount of shows in our whole sorry existence, narrowly edging out 2008 to the title- however I guess last year could be considered something of an annus horribilis, relationship breakdowns, moving house several times and employment worries seemed to shape a fair amount of the year, so we didn't really book any shows and it seemed like the few that we agreed to play were sabotaged by mechanical woes, logistical problems or getting kicked off the bill by A Whilhelm Scream's manager cos they need a 7 hour sound-check to practice pinch harmonics and synchronise their dance moves or some shit- but we had a blast playing the shows that we did, in particularly the Cheap Girls tour back in May, so thanks for anyone that came for those.

At the tail end of 2009 we all spent a weekend in Cambridge and laid down some new jams in our friend Ned's shed, the results of which were purely for ourselves so as to not forget how the songs go, seeing that we practice so infrequently- but we have a couple of totally new songs that are pretty dang banging which we are looking forward to playing live in the near future, and if we get our act together maybe we will do a split record at some point.

I think we have a few things in the pipeline for 'twenty-ten', I am not sure on the specifics but I believe we are doing a couple of shows with Dear Landlord when they come over in May, and we will probably go on tour at some point for a week or whatever time work can allow- keep em peeled! As always, if you would like us to come and play drop me an e-mail and we will try to work something out.

Here's a picture of some ghetto dogs to warm your cockles on a cold winters night

Fest Fest Fest!!!!!!

A couple of days ago I was talking about Fest, I was probably trying to convince a friend to come along or something, the conversation went along these lines...

'Well it's like pretty much the best weekend ever- did you ever go to Out of Spite? Yeah? Well remember how fucking awesome Out of Spite used to be, multiply that one hundred times and that's what Fest is like'
'Really? Are you guys playing it this year?'
'I'm not sure, we've not been asked yet, I know they're cutting down on bands a little this year and there's a ton of UK bands doing it so perhaps we won't get asked- but I'm going regardless so it doesn't matter too much....'
'Sweet, maybe I'll look into coming'
'Trust me, it will be worth it- it's impossible to have a bad time'

Roll on a couple of hours and I'm checking my e-mails and lo and behold I have one from Mr. Tony Weinbender- asking us to come and play. Funny how things work out sometimes.....

So we will be there, it's too early to know which day or venue we'll be at but I know it will be awesome, Tony, Cam and the dudes at No Idea work so fucking hard sorting it out every year, make sure you buy them a drink if you see them around!

Hopefully we will manage to play a few extra shows either pre- or post-, it's something I'll start looking into soon but if anyone reading happens to be able to help us out drop me a line.

Check out www.thefestfl.com for info and tickets and stuff.

Meh...

As the Liar's Academy once sang- 'no news is good news'- particularly on the Chillerton front, we are trying to finalise a date to record 3 or 4 new jams in the next couple of weeks for Kiss of Death Records. We should probably practise and we should definitely play some more shows. As always drop me a line please, we would love to come to your town and get drunk with you. I think the next show is in Swansea on July 26th. This may well be a complete lie, but I'll be sure to post a flyer or something when I know what the deal is.

We have some t-shirts left from tour that I would like to sell. I will post a picture of them in the next couple of days, but they are £6 posted in the UK and pretty fucking sexy. As always we have CDs to shift- check out www.myspace.com/baileygregandjack and you can order them direct through that, I promise I will send them much quicker than the last few we sold, which took a good couple of months. In my defence, this occured during a massive personal upheaval on my part, moving house and dealing with a lot of shit.

I went to Berlin last weekend- it was awesome, literally the most incredible city I have ever visited. I ate alot of pizza, didn't really sleep for 4 days and drank enough booze to kill a lesser man. I was hoping to hang out with Roland and Jan (Yo-Yo Records) but we didn't manage to cross paths- I did however get the see Off With Their Heads in Hamburg, and they played a slamming set to pretty much no-one, there was no support bands and we went to the wrong venue at first so only just got there in time, but they totally killed it.

Sometimes I kind of hate living in Cambridge- recently I have missed the whole Lemuria tour, and also the Mike Hale/Josh Small/Austin Lucas tour cos the nearest they got was London and I just couldn't afford to take the train down... Oh well, I'm sure I'll see them at FEST! Other times it is fucking ace, such as when my friends Christian and DS do shows at the Portland. The next thing coming up is Independent's Day on July 4th (get it?!)

Shows that just happened, records that are happening soon

Not alot to report at the moment- we played 4 shows last week, but I completely forgot to advertise the details up here. I drove about 900 miles, slept in motorway lay-bys and went to work a long way away every day. It was alot of fun, particularly the Isle of Wight show- it seems that they have a good thing going at the Black Sheep Bar and I hope to see fun shows continue there. New Bruises have been touring the UK and Europe so it was cool to play a couple of shows and hang with them for a few days and show them around Cambridge, Americans love old stuff and there's plenty of that here.

We have been speaking for years to Bryon from New Bruises who also runs Kiss of Death Records about doing something for the label, and now we finally have the ball rolling- we're doing a 7 inch that it all recorded and will be going to press in the next couple of months when artwork and all that is sorted, and we are also recording in the next couple of weeks for a top secret split record that's to come out at Fest 8. I won't elaborate too much, partially cos I can't remember all the details but it's going to be pretty special. Records are like buses, we do nothing for ages, then 2 sweet things come along at once.

Be sure to check out www.kissofdeathrecords.com -There's so many good releases on the label and we're pretty damn pleased to now be a part of it. Bryon is also going to be doing a super limited US version of our Bleak Unison LP, he has about 50 copies that are going to be printed with alternative artwork- I'll post up here when it becomes available as I think it might be one of the few things we've done that will shift pretty quickly!

As of today we have NO SHOWS booked until August, we would like to rectify this please so drop us a line if you would like us to play. Word.

Debt collectors and bicycle thieves

Taken from 'If you make it'........

'So lately life has been pretty harsh on my wallet. It finally hit the bottom as I walked around Williamsburg tonight with my bike lock and singular wheel in hand. There's something about having a perfectly intact lock that makes you feel like a complete idiot, how you made it so simple for someone to steal your bike.

Currently I am in deep debt, and it may mean a long break from maintaining this site, while I work on raising some money. Work has been really slow lately, and I have a handful of bills, credit card payments, friend debts (ie; recording, bounced rent check help), IRS notices and June rent looming over my head.

I really wish that this site could be my whole existence, but as it is right now, I need to take a leave of absence and concentrate on replenishing my bank accounts.If anyone was thinking of donating, now would be the time.

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. If is wasn't for you, I would be much worse off.'


Anyone who is familiar with this site should appreciate how much hard work goes into it, and anyone who has downloaded any of the free albums or wasted a day by watching EVERY pink couch session when they are hungover (or is that just me?) help these guys out- head over to http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/ and donate a few dollars


On another note, our brothers in Cheap Girls released their album for FREE through another awesome donations based website www.quoteunquotererecords.com you can pick up albums by some slamming other bands too- personally I highly recommend 'Neon Creeps', the new O Pioneers! record. Again wire a few dollars across to these guys if you download anything, I'm sure they will love you forever.

Finally...... When Cheap Girls flew back to the US they didn't want to carry any of their merch back with them so left the remainder with us to sell. We have approximately 10 copies of Find Me A Drink Home LP, and a few copies of their new split 7 inch with Failures Union. Both of these records are awesome, and so if you came out to any of the shows and forgot to pick one up get in contact and we will sort you out.

Find Me A Drink Home LP- £8 (inc. postage/paypal) or £7 if I can get it to you in person

Cheap Girls/Failures Union split 7 inch- £4 (inc. postage/paypal) or £3 in person

As far as I know we are the only people in the UK to have these available at the moment, so it's cheaper than ordering one from the US. Thanks.

Tour is over.....

And we all made it in just about one piece. I'll write a hefty account complete with incriminating pictures when I have a little more time on my hands, but this is just a quick thankyou to eveyone who played a part in making the last 11 days or so some of the best of my whole life. It's so weird to not wake up in a room with 7 dudes, it's weird to not crack open a beer at 11am and it's weird to not spend the majority of my day impersonating Vinnie Stigma.

Road warrior general Tom Hussey and Tim Atom Bomb worked incredibly hard to ensure that everything ran relatively smoothly, and I'm proud to call those guys friends. A huge thanks to everyone who sorted out a show, let us stay at their house, cooked for us, bought a t-shirt/record/booze.

It's on!!

I am tour-bound in about an hour. It is 5.15am, I have been up since about 8am yesterday morning, and have yet to sleep a wink. A horrific evening shift at work was massively improved by listening to Dillinger Four and drinking a Corona in the kitchen while washing a mountain of dishes. I am now firmly of the opinion that beer and punk rock can pretty much cure anything.

Right now I think my eyeballs are drying up.

My car is loaded up with my drums and a sleeping bag, I need to be 150 miles away by 9am. We are having a practise from 9am until midday then driving straight to London for Punk N Bowl, EVERYONE SHOULD DEFINITELY COME because there are some awesome bands playing, and if you are broke you have no excuse because it's free entry suckers!

Over the next week and a bit we are probably playing really close to wherever you live so come along, stamp your feet to Cheap Girls and throw beer all over Bailey. He loves it when people do that.

New shirts and other fun stuff!!!

These were delivered to Jack today, and they're looking pretty sexy. They come in blue or white with orange print and are available in emo/punk/hip hop sizes (that's small/medium/large to you) Unfortunately if you are grindcore (youth large) grime (XL)or any other music genre-sized you are shit out of luck and have terrible taste. They are going to cost you £6, which is a bargain if I may say so myself.

Here are the running times for Punk N Bowl- so you can strategically schedule your bowling games

2:00 - 2:25pm L Morgan
2:35 - 3:00pm More Than a Joke
3:15 - 3:40pm Break the Habit
3:55 - 4:25pm The Dead City Stereo
4:40 - 5:10pm The 255's
5:25 - 5:50pm Crocus
6:05 - 6.35pm Cutting Class
6:50 - 7:20pm The Computers
7:35 - 8:05pm The Cut Ups
8:20 - 8:50pm Chillerton
9:05 - 9.35 The Don Ramos Players
9.50 - 10:20 Milloy
10:35 - 11:05 Virgins

Unfortunately all bowling lanes are closed between 8.20 and 8.50pm, which by some strange coincidence is the time we are playing. Mad props to Greg for putting all the bands whose name begins with a C back to back, the obsessive compulsive in me loves that shit.


TOUR DILEMMA!

So we are not very famous, we don't play big venues or anything like that, but part of me thinks we should definitely have some entrance music for when we are on tour. Not enough bands do it these days- I think the concept has been stolen by WWF wrestlers and Darts players. Let's bring it back and get the party started?

Either of my two favourite songs right now would be perfect.

Asher Roth- I Love College



Or Quiet Riot- Metal Health (Bang Your Head)



Answers on a postcard please. Thanks.

Oh another one I just found.

ALSO when we get back from tour if we haven't died/checked into rehab/split up we are playing on the Isle of Wight on June 5th, and in Brighton with the mighty Milloy on June 7th. We would like a gig on the 6th please, ideally somewhere south. Get in contact yeah?

One other thing, our Floridian brothers in New Bruises are coming over to the UK for a couple of weeks at the beginning of June, we played together a bunch when they were last over here, they totally looked after us at Fest and leant us all their instruments, they printed our t-shirts, and I stayed with Bryon for a week when I went to the Hot Water Music reunion last year. We are pretty 'tight' let's say. HOWEVER it seems that we are not playing a single show together this tour. This needs to be addressed, so if you have them booked to play and you can squeeze us on the bill drop us a line. We will be happy, they will be happy, you will be happy. Everyone wins.

Tour is nearly here

So it's a matter of days til we head out on the road for the first time in forever and everything is almost falling into place. We have some new t-shirts, with a picture of a dog on, designed by Alex Curtis http://www.thr33designs.co.uk/ and printed up by the awesome Kay at Cut Out Shop http://www.cutoutshop.com/ Check these guys out if you want anything screen printed with love and care, they are very reasonably priced, unbelievably helpful and totally DIY.




A couple more tour posters for you perusal