SOLUTIONS
KASA
BLOWGOAT
MASTS
Tuesday 20th December 2011 @ The Undertone (beneath Ten Feet Tall), Cardiff. Doors @ 8pm. Not sure what the damage is on the door, but knowing Tom it's probably no more than a couple of quid.
We'll be playing no less than NINE new songs at this show, last show of the year no less, can't wait.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Needle Drop Radio (US) play Histrionics - 14/12/2011
Big thanks for Needle Drop Radio (US) for playing the title track from our forthcoming record a couple of weeks ago! Again, will upload said link when i get a chance. Alternatively, you could let google do all the work, we're the first track played on Episode #64. I can't copy and paste text from this computer, pain in the arse.
Drug Money played on the Adam Walton show - 14/12/2011
Thanks to Adam Walton for playing Drug Money on his show last Sunday. Will copy and paste the link on here when i get a chance to finally log on to my laptop at home. Adam's twitter suggested that the track 'nearly broke' the studio speakers. Re-sult!
Friday, 25 November 2011
Free Local Show - 25/11/2011
SOLUTIONS
A THOUSAND ARROWS
I AM HOPE
FIRE SEASON
@ The Full Moon (opposite Clwb Ifor Bach) on Saturday 22nd January 2012. Free entry.
Really, really excited for this show! It'll be our first show in what will hopefully be a very, very busy year gig wise. Cheers to Jon Greenwood for sorting this out.
A THOUSAND ARROWS
I AM HOPE
FIRE SEASON
@ The Full Moon (opposite Clwb Ifor Bach) on Saturday 22nd January 2012. Free entry.
Really, really excited for this show! It'll be our first show in what will hopefully be a very, very busy year gig wise. Cheers to Jon Greenwood for sorting this out.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Histrionics has been mastered - 22/11/2011
After more than two months of tracking and wrestling around with the mix, we were finally presented with the Master copy of Histrionics, our second record and first with the new line-up, on Sunday afternoon. I'm pleased to say everything sounds great, from start to finish. Promos are due to be sent out to the usual suspects and more in the next couple of weeks, once we've got an idea of our options for the record, we'll look at getting it released both physically and digitally as soon as possible. Thanks again to Todd for all his hard work and patience.
Expect to see a track from the record surface online before the New Year.
Expect to see a track from the record surface online before the New Year.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Pulp TV / Scuzz TV 'Secret Show' with Madina Lake - 14/11/2011
Last Friday we played a 'secret' acoustic show with Madina Lake for Pulp TV / Scuzz TV. We'd known about it for the better part of two weeks but had been sworn to secrecy(!) as Madina Lake were due to play a show on the same night at the Cardiff University. To much stress, sweating and (eventual) nervous amusement, we only found out that the show was an acoustic and an not electric, full-band affair less than ten hours (i.e. on the previous night) before the performance. We'd never, ever previously practiced an acoustic set before. We basically cobbled ourselves together at 9am the following morning (our set was due t be filmed at 11:30am) and decided on four songs we could feasibly (re-)learn(?) and nail with around two hours practice. As it happens, we ultimately only recorded two, Histrionics and Fighting Tigers, the former sounding a little bit ropey but the latter coming out just great. Performances of one or both of the songs will be shown in Pulp stores accross the UK as of next year, as well appear on a 'Pulp TV' episode on the cable channel Scuzz TV.
Gigantic thanks to all who helped out on the day, not least my old man for lending me an acoustic guitar (cheers dad!), Jimmy from Future Of The Left for lending us the other acoustic guitar (cheers Jimmy!), all the crew on the set for being generally lovely and not least Sammy T for hooking the whole thing up in the first place.
Gigantic thanks to all who helped out on the day, not least my old man for lending me an acoustic guitar (cheers dad!), Jimmy from Future Of The Left for lending us the other acoustic guitar (cheers Jimmy!), all the crew on the set for being generally lovely and not least Sammy T for hooking the whole thing up in the first place.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Show next Monday @ Clwb Ifor Bach - 03/11/2011
We're playing with Arcane Roots @ Clwb Ifor Bach next Monday evening. £6 on the door. Show starts @ 7:30pm. Be good to see some familiar faces.
BBC Radio One - 03/11/11
The title-track from our upcoming second record was debuted on BBC Radio One on Sunday night by our mate Jen Long. Nice one Jen!
Here's a link to the show (we're played around 55 minutes in):
http://www.bbc.co.uk./programmes/b01fpx0
Also, we will be wrapping up production on the record next Wednesday evening. A few minor adjustments need to be made to the opening track, House Of America, and after that we're good to roll out a limited pressing of four-track album promo's to be sent to all the usual suspects and more. The run of promo's will be funded by the good folks at TUBORG (http://www.tuborgmusic.com/) which we're over the moon about. Massive thanks to Nick Davidson and co. at The Promised Land (http://www.thepromisedlanduk.com/) for sorting that sweet little hook-up out for us.
Here's a link to the show (we're played around 55 minutes in):
http://www.bbc.co.uk./programmes/b01fpx0
Also, we will be wrapping up production on the record next Wednesday evening. A few minor adjustments need to be made to the opening track, House Of America, and after that we're good to roll out a limited pressing of four-track album promo's to be sent to all the usual suspects and more. The run of promo's will be funded by the good folks at TUBORG (http://www.tuborgmusic.com/) which we're over the moon about. Massive thanks to Nick Davidson and co. at The Promised Land (http://www.thepromisedlanduk.com/) for sorting that sweet little hook-up out for us.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Facebook Band Page - 17/10/2011
Here's a long overdue link to our facebook band page:
http://www.facebook.com/solutionsmusic
Been meaning to post that link up for months. Feel free to 'LIKE' the bandpage of course, support in any way, shape or form is always greatly appreciated!
http://www.facebook.com/solutionsmusic
Been meaning to post that link up for months. Feel free to 'LIKE' the bandpage of course, support in any way, shape or form is always greatly appreciated!
Thursday, 22 September 2011
Drug Money Free Download (Reminder) - 22/09/2011
The 'Drug Money' (Live Demo) is still available to download for free HERE.
The verse lyrics for the demo are almost entirely different from the album version we recorded the other week, but you'll still be able to get the general idea.
Spent a small fortune on a Blackstar HT Duel Valve Pedal earlier today, with the express intention of bringing a bit more 'beef' to the live shows, here's to hoping it's worth the considerable dent to the wallet.
I'm gonna get Robin to take the free download offline in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to grab it while you can.
The verse lyrics for the demo are almost entirely different from the album version we recorded the other week, but you'll still be able to get the general idea.
Spent a small fortune on a Blackstar HT Duel Valve Pedal earlier today, with the express intention of bringing a bit more 'beef' to the live shows, here's to hoping it's worth the considerable dent to the wallet.
I'm gonna get Robin to take the free download offline in the next couple of weeks, so be sure to grab it while you can.
Can't Get There From Here - 22/09/2011
Adios R.E.M and thanks for all the incredible records accross your thirty one years, not least the first four albums which to my mind are each perfect and utterly seminal. I'd estimate less than 1% of all the bands i've ever loved have managed to make one perfect record in their time, to knock out four in the space of as many years, plus arguably one or two further classics after that is just mind-blowing. The quintessential indie rock band. I fear they won't ever make them like R.E.M any more.
Here are my very favourite R.E.M tracks, just for the hell of it:
1) Laughing
2) Green Grow The Rushes
3) Driver 8
4) Talk About The Passion
5) I Believe
6) You Are The Everything
7) Radio Free Europe
8) Daysleeper
9) Life And How To Live It
10) Man On The Moon
11) Catapult
12) Pretty Pursuasion
13) Nightswimming
14) Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)
15) Harbourcoat
16) Just A Touch
17) Half A World Away
18) The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
19) Try Not To Breathe
20) Perfect Circle
Here are my very favourite R.E.M tracks, just for the hell of it:
1) Laughing
2) Green Grow The Rushes
3) Driver 8
4) Talk About The Passion
5) I Believe
6) You Are The Everything
7) Radio Free Europe
8) Daysleeper
9) Life And How To Live It
10) Man On The Moon
11) Catapult
12) Pretty Pursuasion
13) Nightswimming
14) Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)
15) Harbourcoat
16) Just A Touch
17) Half A World Away
18) The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight
19) Try Not To Breathe
20) Perfect Circle
Monday, 19 September 2011
Histrionics - 19/09/2011
All tracking has now been completed for our second record, Histrionics.
Todd, as ever, played a blinder on the engineering front and brought some great and expertise input into proceedings. Rhys Pierce is also the funniest guy you could ever wish to be in the studio with.
Aside from myself being rotten ill for the first couple of days, everything went swimmingly. Todd played back an initial rough mix of the songs on the last day, and what struck me was how much more rounded and considered a record this is in comparison with Before The Roars and the Goodtime Boys split. I could talk/type all day about the songs, but i'm gonna hang fire until we get the mixes back.
Here is the final track-listing for anyone interested:
1) House Of America
2) Blank Cities
3) Harmony In The Heart Of A Hurricane
4) Drug Money
5) Whatever Keeps You Alive
6) Histrionics
7) Penance For Raped Angels
8) Gorgeous Horses
9) An Extended History Of The Bullfight
10) Lake Palmer
11) New Adventures In Wi-Fi
Sometime next month we have to shoot a video for what will ultimately be the 'first single' i guess. Will be an incredibly tough call as there are currently about six really strong candidates! Think we're gonna need to farm some of the mixes out to a few loved ones and trusted aquaintances and go with the favourite.
Todd, as ever, played a blinder on the engineering front and brought some great and expertise input into proceedings. Rhys Pierce is also the funniest guy you could ever wish to be in the studio with.
Aside from myself being rotten ill for the first couple of days, everything went swimmingly. Todd played back an initial rough mix of the songs on the last day, and what struck me was how much more rounded and considered a record this is in comparison with Before The Roars and the Goodtime Boys split. I could talk/type all day about the songs, but i'm gonna hang fire until we get the mixes back.
Here is the final track-listing for anyone interested:
1) House Of America
2) Blank Cities
3) Harmony In The Heart Of A Hurricane
4) Drug Money
5) Whatever Keeps You Alive
6) Histrionics
7) Penance For Raped Angels
8) Gorgeous Horses
9) An Extended History Of The Bullfight
10) Lake Palmer
11) New Adventures In Wi-Fi
Sometime next month we have to shoot a video for what will ultimately be the 'first single' i guess. Will be an incredibly tough call as there are currently about six really strong candidates! Think we're gonna need to farm some of the mixes out to a few loved ones and trusted aquaintances and go with the favourite.
Friday, 16 September 2011
Condolences... - 16/09/2011
Our condolences go out to the families and friends of the four miners who lost their lives at the Gleision Colliery earlier today...
Monday, 5 September 2011
Merch! - 05/09/2011
The First Two Years CD (seventeen track compilation of everything we recorded between 2009 to *mid* 2011) - £5
The First Two Years T-Shirt (white t-shirt with the album cover, availible in YL, S, M & L) - £5
Before The Roars CD (super limited copy of our self-released debut record!) - £5
Solutions / Goodtime Boys Split CDEP (super limited copy of our split EP with the outstanding Goodtime Boys) - £5
All availible to buy from the merch stand at future shows. The t-shirts are suddenly selling rather well, so get involved soon or miss out! We will never duplicate a t-shirt designs, so once these are gone, they're gone.
If you wanna buy direct from us online, then message robin2285@live.com or againstnick@hotmail.com and we'll sort something out.
The First Two Years T-Shirt (white t-shirt with the album cover, availible in YL, S, M & L) - £5
Before The Roars CD (super limited copy of our self-released debut record!) - £5
Solutions / Goodtime Boys Split CDEP (super limited copy of our split EP with the outstanding Goodtime Boys) - £5
All availible to buy from the merch stand at future shows. The t-shirts are suddenly selling rather well, so get involved soon or miss out! We will never duplicate a t-shirt designs, so once these are gone, they're gone.
If you wanna buy direct from us online, then message robin2285@live.com or againstnick@hotmail.com and we'll sort something out.
Life Becoming A Landslide - 05/09/2011
Thank you to Greg and Jon for the two local gigs last week. We had a complete blast at each. Rhys and Eddie got to fulfil a lifelong ambition of playing alongside Face To Face and we ALL had our mind blown when the Manic Street Preachers own James Dean Bradfield showed up at our set in Buffalo Bar! I met him for the first time a couple months back, chatted about nothing and everything (which was pretty crazy in itself for me, as i've worshipped this man and his band since i was about twelve) and gave him a CD of ours to check out, then kinda forgot about it. Next thing you know Rhi is whispering into my ear "erm, James Dean Bradfield is here..." just as we're setting up to go. I dispersed the news to the boys as nonchalantly and cooly as i could manage (i.e. not very cool at all, very nervously) and before long we were...kicking into Lake Palmer with a kind of buzzing, nervous intensity i haven't felt on stage for a very long time.
After the show we chatted about all things musical and he was kind enough to not only give me some advice on the pedals i was using at the show ("shit... shit... aaaahhhhh i can get you a better one than that..... good... reeeeeally good... okay but i can get you a better one of those too"), but he also took my number as he wants to hook me up with some better ones! Mad.
So yeah, two great local shows on the bounce means we're absolutely raring to start recording on Wednesday. I'm still touching up a few lyrics here and there, but nothing i can't handle (touch wood!).
Also, as per the last blog, Drug Money (Live Demo) can still be downloaded for free via the same link.
After the show we chatted about all things musical and he was kind enough to not only give me some advice on the pedals i was using at the show ("shit... shit... aaaahhhhh i can get you a better one than that..... good... reeeeeally good... okay but i can get you a better one of those too"), but he also took my number as he wants to hook me up with some better ones! Mad.
So yeah, two great local shows on the bounce means we're absolutely raring to start recording on Wednesday. I'm still touching up a few lyrics here and there, but nothing i can't handle (touch wood!).
Also, as per the last blog, Drug Money (Live Demo) can still be downloaded for free via the same link.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Download 'Drug Money (Live Demo)' for FREE - 24/08/2011
http://solutions.bandcamp.com/track/drug-money-live-demo
Hope you enjoy, thanks again to Chris Morgan.
*** FACE TO FACE SHOW MOVED TO CLWB IFOR BACH *** - 24/08/2011
The Face To Face show has been moved to Clwb Ifor Bach. I don't know why, but it just has. All original tickets showing 'The Globe' will be valid, and the price of entry remains £12. Next (Bank Holiday) Monday 29th August. Be there!
Friday, 19 August 2011
Saturday 3rd September @ Buffalo Bar, Cardiff... - 19/08/2011
NO CHOICE
SOLUTIONS.
A VICTORY AT SEA
NOT SINCE THE ACCIDENT
SAME FOUR WALLS
4:30pm doors - 10pm curfew. £5 in. John Greenwood is putting this show, so if you won't come for us then at least pop down for John's sake, he's the nicest man you'll ever meet and we don't want him losing any money on this.
SOLUTIONS.
A VICTORY AT SEA
NOT SINCE THE ACCIDENT
SAME FOUR WALLS
4:30pm doors - 10pm curfew. £5 in. John Greenwood is putting this show, so if you won't come for us then at least pop down for John's sake, he's the nicest man you'll ever meet and we don't want him losing any money on this.
Monday, 15 August 2011
Drug Money / "with fiery arseholes?" - 15/08/2011
On Saturday we picked up the ten initial mixes of the live demos we did with Chris, and they sound great. Some certainly need a lot more work and re-evalution than others, but on the whole, the sessions have proved totally worthwhile and we're now even more prepared for next months 'proper' studio shenanigans. All ten songs are brimming with potential and it's a real shame we didn't have enough time to track the other two new songs as i would have liked the 'full set'. Big thanks again to Chris for all his time, patience, effort and input. He's our unofficial 'fifth member' - our svengali in the wings, if you like.
We have decided to put one of the demos online, availible for free download via bandcamp or soundcloud, or basically wherever Robin thinks it would be best to put it. He's definitely 'the man' when it comes to these thing. That song will be Drug Money. Chris is having another little bash at the mix again and will send us a 'final' version by Thursday, upon reciept we will get it online as soon as we can. Out of all the demos, Drug Money is the one that needs the least amount of re-touching and reparation work, hence why it was chosen out of the ten. It sounds fucking mad, too. The song itself an interpretation of the Second Coming, with the newly re-birthed Christ ultimately going on to become a scorned, bitter junkie and a failed suicide bomber.
We have decided to put one of the demos online, availible for free download via bandcamp or soundcloud, or basically wherever Robin thinks it would be best to put it. He's definitely 'the man' when it comes to these thing. That song will be Drug Money. Chris is having another little bash at the mix again and will send us a 'final' version by Thursday, upon reciept we will get it online as soon as we can. Out of all the demos, Drug Money is the one that needs the least amount of re-touching and reparation work, hence why it was chosen out of the ten. It sounds fucking mad, too. The song itself an interpretation of the Second Coming, with the newly re-birthed Christ ultimately going on to become a scorned, bitter junkie and a failed suicide bomber.
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Hunger Artist - 11/08/2011
Our old bass player, Kai, has started a new band called Hunger Artist. They sound fucking great and you can download their first recordings for free via this link:
hungerartist.bandcamp.com/album/scenescene-magister-ludi
hungerartist.bandcamp.com/album/scenescene-magister-ludi
Monday, 8 August 2011
Perfect Ten? - 08/08/2011
We recently completed live demoing with Chris Morgan and i'm happy to announce that ten brand new tracks were successfully committed to tape. It should really have been eleven, but the track 'Histrionics' had a few guitar and drum issues we didn't notice when tracking initially, but by the time it came to overdubbing a couple of the vocals it was pretty obvious that a few things weren't exactly right. It's totally cool though, the song is absolutely salvageable, i personally think we just need to write a totally new arrangement for the verses. The chorus is gonna be one of the very, very 'biggest' on the record, so none of us are prepared to drop it like a stone just because of a relatively minor hitch rearing it's head in pre-production.
We also didn't have time to track a brand new song we're all incredibly stoked about that was written just last week. It's a super fast, super traditional punk rock song, built around a riff that i've been trying and toiling with for the better part of a year to write something around. It currently sounds like tearing Smoke Or Fire (circa 'This Sinking Ship') to these ears, but when i get some lyrics and melodies in place i'm sure it'll sound more like 'us' by the time we have to record the album. Which brings me rather neatly onto my next point...
We are booked in with Todd Campbell from the 7th to the 15th of September to lay down album #2. Can't fucking wait.
As it stands, we will be taking twelve songs into the session, but i have absolutely no idea how many will end up on the record and how many (if any at all) will end up as b-sides or comp tracks. In an ideal world i'd like all twelve on there, our first record only had nine tracks so i personally think we're due a considerably longer one this time round!
We also didn't have time to track a brand new song we're all incredibly stoked about that was written just last week. It's a super fast, super traditional punk rock song, built around a riff that i've been trying and toiling with for the better part of a year to write something around. It currently sounds like tearing Smoke Or Fire (circa 'This Sinking Ship') to these ears, but when i get some lyrics and melodies in place i'm sure it'll sound more like 'us' by the time we have to record the album. Which brings me rather neatly onto my next point...
We are booked in with Todd Campbell from the 7th to the 15th of September to lay down album #2. Can't fucking wait.
As it stands, we will be taking twelve songs into the session, but i have absolutely no idea how many will end up on the record and how many (if any at all) will end up as b-sides or comp tracks. In an ideal world i'd like all twelve on there, our first record only had nine tracks so i personally think we're due a considerably longer one this time round!
Friday, 5 August 2011
Face To Face / The Globe - 05/08/2011
Due to the sudden and unexpected closure of The Globe venue, some people are understandably a bit confused as to whether or not the Face To Face show will be going ahead as planned later on this month.
We've just had it on supremely good authority that the show WILL be going ahead, on the same date (Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 2011) with the same line-up (Face To Face, The Computers, Solutions)... at The Globe. Apparently the show will happen on the very same day that the venue will be 'officially' re-opening under new ownership.
So yeah. Tickets are £12 and i'd imagine that you'll be okay to pay on the door.
We've just had it on supremely good authority that the show WILL be going ahead, on the same date (Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 2011) with the same line-up (Face To Face, The Computers, Solutions)... at The Globe. Apparently the show will happen on the very same day that the venue will be 'officially' re-opening under new ownership.
So yeah. Tickets are £12 and i'd imagine that you'll be okay to pay on the door.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Friday, 29 July 2011
Writers Blog - 29/07/2011
Vocal tracking starts tomorrow and i've yet to write a complete set of vocals for either 'Penance...' or 'New Adventures...'. It's not for lack of trying, more a case of nothing fitting together well. I'm really disappointed, but i should be able to wing at least one on the day. Probably 'Penance...' as it currently has a half complete verse as well as a chorus that i'm 50/50 as to whether or not i actually like it... the vocal melody i first had in mind when i sat down to write the song simply doesn't work, so i've had to compltelely strip it down and start again. As for 'New Adventures...' it's got a chorus and that's it. The verses are IMPOSSIBLE to work some words in and around. Absolute nightmare.
Nevertheless, apart from the aforementioned little absolute fuckers, i'm entirely happy and chomping at the bit to get stuck into the other nine.
Nevertheless, apart from the aforementioned little absolute fuckers, i'm entirely happy and chomping at the bit to get stuck into the other nine.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Currently listening to... - 26/07/2011
Skying - The Horrors
Society Is A Carnivorous Flower - J Church
Boy - U2
Heaven Is Whenever - The Hold Steady
Jump Salty - Pinhead Gunpowder
What Did You Expect From... - The Vaccines
S/T - Bon Iver
Somewhere At The Bottom... - La Dispute
Mare Vitalis - The Appleseed Cast
Third Album Demos - Future Of The Left
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
... heard six brand new No Choice songs on the weekend too and all genetic bias aside they sound really, really good.
I'm absolutely obsessed with the first four U2 records (Boy, October, War & The Unforgettable Fire) at the moment, all from hearing 'I Will Follow' during their Glastonbury set and thinking "no fucking way is that actually one of their own tunes". I must admit i thought it was a spontaneous cover of The Skids (though not that fucking co-massacre of 'The Saints Are Coming' they did with fellow dinosaurs-at-least-sixteen-years-past-their-prime Greenday, that one unfortunately is still all too fresh in the memory) or perhaps even a Ruts song i somehow hadn't heard before. I was obviously wrong. Took me a couple of days to track down a 'deluxe re-issue' version of their debut album 'Boy' and i was blown away by just how raw and great it sounded. Tight, abrasive, massively melodic post punk. The sourcing of other re-issues followed over the next week or so follow, all the was up until Achtung Baby, which i'm not keen on, and neither am i particularly bothered with The Joshua Tree even though everyone goes mad about it. Not really for me, though there are indeed a few great songs scattered between the two, but i'm personally far more a fan of everything that came before. Suffice to say i didn't worry myself with tracking down anything past Achtung Baby.
It's weird. Up until three or so weeks ago i had written off U2 as a band i'd make a point of not paying any attention to, largely on the basis that everything i'd heard from them in my formative years was just various shades of Extreme Dad Rock, and also because Bono is something of an unrelenting bellend. I was completely ignorant to their rich, prolific post punk beginnings, and now i feel as though i've just stumbled across a veritable gold mine of genuinely brilliant, brilliant songs from one of the very last bands i would ever imagine once being able write. You can say what you like about U2 as a band now, but from 1980 to 1984, they were on fucking fire.
My current favourite tunes from that era are: I Will Follow, The Electric Co, Bad, Out Of Control, The Refugee, A Sort Of Homecoming, I Threw A Brick Through A Window, Another Time, Fire, Two Hearts Beat As One, The Unforgettable Fire & 11 O'Clock Tick Tock. Check them out if you haven't heard them before, like me you might find yourself somewhat stunned to discover just how good this 'dad rock' band really once were.
Society Is A Carnivorous Flower - J Church
Boy - U2
Heaven Is Whenever - The Hold Steady
Jump Salty - Pinhead Gunpowder
What Did You Expect From... - The Vaccines
S/T - Bon Iver
Somewhere At The Bottom... - La Dispute
Mare Vitalis - The Appleseed Cast
Third Album Demos - Future Of The Left
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
... heard six brand new No Choice songs on the weekend too and all genetic bias aside they sound really, really good.
I'm absolutely obsessed with the first four U2 records (Boy, October, War & The Unforgettable Fire) at the moment, all from hearing 'I Will Follow' during their Glastonbury set and thinking "no fucking way is that actually one of their own tunes". I must admit i thought it was a spontaneous cover of The Skids (though not that fucking co-massacre of 'The Saints Are Coming' they did with fellow dinosaurs-at-least-sixteen-years-past-their-prime Greenday, that one unfortunately is still all too fresh in the memory) or perhaps even a Ruts song i somehow hadn't heard before. I was obviously wrong. Took me a couple of days to track down a 'deluxe re-issue' version of their debut album 'Boy' and i was blown away by just how raw and great it sounded. Tight, abrasive, massively melodic post punk. The sourcing of other re-issues followed over the next week or so follow, all the was up until Achtung Baby, which i'm not keen on, and neither am i particularly bothered with The Joshua Tree even though everyone goes mad about it. Not really for me, though there are indeed a few great songs scattered between the two, but i'm personally far more a fan of everything that came before. Suffice to say i didn't worry myself with tracking down anything past Achtung Baby.
It's weird. Up until three or so weeks ago i had written off U2 as a band i'd make a point of not paying any attention to, largely on the basis that everything i'd heard from them in my formative years was just various shades of Extreme Dad Rock, and also because Bono is something of an unrelenting bellend. I was completely ignorant to their rich, prolific post punk beginnings, and now i feel as though i've just stumbled across a veritable gold mine of genuinely brilliant, brilliant songs from one of the very last bands i would ever imagine once being able write. You can say what you like about U2 as a band now, but from 1980 to 1984, they were on fucking fire.
My current favourite tunes from that era are: I Will Follow, The Electric Co, Bad, Out Of Control, The Refugee, A Sort Of Homecoming, I Threw A Brick Through A Window, Another Time, Fire, Two Hearts Beat As One, The Unforgettable Fire & 11 O'Clock Tick Tock. Check them out if you haven't heard them before, like me you might find yourself somewhat stunned to discover just how good this 'dad rock' band really once were.
Monday, 25 July 2011
The Weekenders - 25/07/2011
Last Friday and Saturday's recording session with Chris went really well. Eleven songs were tracked, with vocals to added this coming weekend. Chris will mix them in his own time thereafter, but he won't take too long to get them back to us. Once he does we're gonna put one or possibly two of them online, for anyone and everyone to hear. Every song sounds really promising (if a little rushed in a couple of instances! Sod it, half of these versions probably won't be heard by anyone other than us four in the band), and i'm absolutely itching to start laying some vocals down, however, 'Penance...' currently has no lyrics whatsoever (on account of it being less than a week old) and 'New Adventures...' still doesn't have any verses, so i'll be busy enough scribbling away during the week to get absolutely everything down and ready.
MASSIVE THANK YOU TO SOUND SPACE STUDIOS FOR REALLY GETTING US OUT OF THE SHIT THIS WEEKEND, TOO!
We were originally going to be recording in Pontypridd, but everything fell through at the last possible minute (we really don't seem to be having the best of luck with much of anything at the moment), which effectively cancelled our weekend plans entirely for a moment on Friday afternoon, only for Fudge @ Sound Space to pull off a miraculous emergency recovery operation late on Friday evening to keep us on track. Nice one, Fudge!
MASSIVE THANK YOU TO SOUND SPACE STUDIOS FOR REALLY GETTING US OUT OF THE SHIT THIS WEEKEND, TOO!
We were originally going to be recording in Pontypridd, but everything fell through at the last possible minute (we really don't seem to be having the best of luck with much of anything at the moment), which effectively cancelled our weekend plans entirely for a moment on Friday afternoon, only for Fudge @ Sound Space to pull off a miraculous emergency recovery operation late on Friday evening to keep us on track. Nice one, Fudge!
Friday, 22 July 2011
Seven Records / The First Two Years - 22/07/2011
Due to circumstances out of everyones control, Seven Records will no longer be taking orders or directly selling any more copies of The First Two Years. I won't bore you with the precise details as to why this has happened, but let's just say that an 'admin error' had something, if not absolutely everything, to do with it.
Before the CD got pulled, we're told that orders were shipped across the globe, which humbles the living shit out of me. The fact that there are a couple of kids in Japan, Russia or Italy with our CD in their collections blows my tiny mind.
Our heads are currently far too wrapped up in getting album #2 ready for any us to actively do anything about this situation at this moment in time, but what i can say is that if you do have a copy of The First Two Years then there's a 0.0000001% chance that you're now in the possession of some serious future ebay gold... GO YOU!
A quick google search suggests that you can download The First Two Years via mediafire, thepiratebay and some punk rock blogs. I actively encourage you to do so, and would hugely appreciate anyone taking it upon themselves to point others towards the free download links, the vast majority of the songs on there are fucking great and remain staples in our set, the more people that can get it into their media library the better.
I'd copy and paste the links up here but my computer is being an utterly appalling bastard at the moment, but you know what to do, all i did was google search 'solutions the first two years'. Loads of results.
Massive thanks to everyone who actually bought a copy, and thank you to Rich @ Seven for putting his money where his mouth is to physically get it out there, if only for a short while ultimately.
Before the CD got pulled, we're told that orders were shipped across the globe, which humbles the living shit out of me. The fact that there are a couple of kids in Japan, Russia or Italy with our CD in their collections blows my tiny mind.
Our heads are currently far too wrapped up in getting album #2 ready for any us to actively do anything about this situation at this moment in time, but what i can say is that if you do have a copy of The First Two Years then there's a 0.0000001% chance that you're now in the possession of some serious future ebay gold... GO YOU!
A quick google search suggests that you can download The First Two Years via mediafire, thepiratebay and some punk rock blogs. I actively encourage you to do so, and would hugely appreciate anyone taking it upon themselves to point others towards the free download links, the vast majority of the songs on there are fucking great and remain staples in our set, the more people that can get it into their media library the better.
I'd copy and paste the links up here but my computer is being an utterly appalling bastard at the moment, but you know what to do, all i did was google search 'solutions the first two years'. Loads of results.
Massive thanks to everyone who actually bought a copy, and thank you to Rich @ Seven for putting his money where his mouth is to physically get it out there, if only for a short while ultimately.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
The Final Hill - 20/07/2011
Last night we had our final practice before we head into the studio this weekend. Chris came down for a listen to the tracks and everything went well. We will be recording eleven songs, including a song that slipped through the gates at the last possible minute (i wrote it on Sunday evening, we played it for the first time as a full band around 8:30pm last night) called Penance For Raped Angels. The song itself is complete 'Beaster' era Sugar worship, but with a chorus progression that wouldn't be out of place on Definitely Maybe. Weird? Well, kinda. I initially envisioned it as a perfect track 1 on the record, but it felt more like a pummelling mid to late album number as we were running through it last night. It's cool and really, really easy to play, the boys had it down from start to finish in less than ten minutes. So here's the revised / updated list of songs to be tracked this and next weekend:
1) House Of America
2) Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll
3) Blank Cities
4) Whatever Keeps You Alive
5) Drug Money
6) Gorgeous Horses
7) History Of The Bullfight
8) Histrionics
9) Penance For Raped Angels
10) Lake Palmer
11) New Adventures In Wi-Fi
New Adventures In Wi-Fi was once called The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever, then I Had A Dream... the new, and final, change is of course a doff of the cap to the best band that ever stepped out of Athens, Georgia.
Eddie brought a great riff into practice last night too, catchy as all hell itself, but it's gonna have to wait until our next batch of dates with Chris.
Roll on the weekend...
1) House Of America
2) Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll
3) Blank Cities
4) Whatever Keeps You Alive
5) Drug Money
6) Gorgeous Horses
7) History Of The Bullfight
8) Histrionics
9) Penance For Raped Angels
10) Lake Palmer
11) New Adventures In Wi-Fi
New Adventures In Wi-Fi was once called The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever, then I Had A Dream... the new, and final, change is of course a doff of the cap to the best band that ever stepped out of Athens, Georgia.
Eddie brought a great riff into practice last night too, catchy as all hell itself, but it's gonna have to wait until our next batch of dates with Chris.
Roll on the weekend...
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
And then there was one... or two? - 12/07/2011
All but one of the ten songs to be taken into the studio with Chris now have a full set of lyrics. R'N'R was surprisingly SUPER hard to write, as the lyrics are essentially absolute nonsense from start to finish. Believe it or not it's actually insanely hard to write completely nonsensical lyrics. Somehow a linear commentary is maintained beneath the madness, but quite what that message is i'll have you figure out for yourself. The first draft of the lyrics had 'bitches' rhyme with 'ditches' and then 'ditches' rhyme with 'stitches' (...obviously). Insane Clown Posse are quaking in their boots right now, i'm sure. Alas, i'm saddened to say that said lyric has not found it's way to the finished draft.
I tried to channel The Lemonheads at their most stupid (Rockin' Stroll), The Drips and straight-up Poison Idea (Just To Get Away) to help me nail this unexpectedly complicated beast, and i hope that i've done the influences justice.
Only the last song on the record currently has no lyrics, or even a final working title for that matter, it's changed from The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever (which i thought possibly sounded a bit too Twilight Sad) to I Had A Dream in the last couple of days, but to be honest i think it will be called something else entirely again by the time we get into the studio with it. So yeah, nine of the ten songs are ready to go. Or...
It could be nine of the eleven that are ready to go.
I wrote another song just yesterday evening. It's short, fast and super catchy. I don't know if i have the patience to wait until another session comes along in a couple of months before we record it! However, obviously the other boys haven't even heard a second of it yet, and learning a new song from scratch combined with getting the other ten songs completely musically and vocally tight for recording, in two weeks, may just be too much of an ask. Probably will be, if i'm being honest.
I tried to channel The Lemonheads at their most stupid (Rockin' Stroll), The Drips and straight-up Poison Idea (Just To Get Away) to help me nail this unexpectedly complicated beast, and i hope that i've done the influences justice.
Only the last song on the record currently has no lyrics, or even a final working title for that matter, it's changed from The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever (which i thought possibly sounded a bit too Twilight Sad) to I Had A Dream in the last couple of days, but to be honest i think it will be called something else entirely again by the time we get into the studio with it. So yeah, nine of the ten songs are ready to go. Or...
It could be nine of the eleven that are ready to go.
I wrote another song just yesterday evening. It's short, fast and super catchy. I don't know if i have the patience to wait until another session comes along in a couple of months before we record it! However, obviously the other boys haven't even heard a second of it yet, and learning a new song from scratch combined with getting the other ten songs completely musically and vocally tight for recording, in two weeks, may just be too much of an ask. Probably will be, if i'm being honest.
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Friday, 8 July 2011
Buffalo Headline Show - 08/07/2011
We've just accepted an offer from the lovely Jon Greenwood to headline a show of his at Buffalo Bar, Cardiff on Saturday 3rd September 2011. We haven't got the full details just yet, suffice to say the show will be cheap on the door and will comply with the strict 10pm curfew. Looking forward to it. Cheers Jon!
In Silence / Words Away - 08/07/2011
In an unprecedented burst of productivity and creativity, over the last three days i have managed to totally write (and actually re-write in a couple of cases) eight of the ten songs that needed to be written before we head into the studio with Chris. Don't ask me how, but i did! Less than five days ago i was genuinely stressing at the prospect of sitting down and having absolutely nothing to write about, when in actual fact it turns out i had absolutely everything to write about. As with 90% of all other lyrics i've ever written, i'm unable to comprehend just yet where they've all come from and what they're about exactly, but a few of the songs seem quite political in their lyrical content, especially Lake Palmer and House Of America. It certainly wasn't a conscious decision, but the tone and content more than compliments the music for each. Both are very bleak and claustrophobic numbers, distant cousins of Mexican Waves from the 'Ends Meet' EP i reckon.
I'm over the moon with how things have gone so far, i'm hoping to get the other two, Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll (our personal homage to Anvil and Hot Snakes, which fucking kills if i may say so myself) and I Had A Dream. Rock N' Roll should be written by Sunday evening, but Yellow will take another practice to settle on a vocal melody, never mind a set of lyrics.
I'm over the moon with how things have gone so far, i'm hoping to get the other two, Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll (our personal homage to Anvil and Hot Snakes, which fucking kills if i may say so myself) and I Had A Dream. Rock N' Roll should be written by Sunday evening, but Yellow will take another practice to settle on a vocal melody, never mind a set of lyrics.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Two Hearts In Two Weeks - 05/07/2011
In little over two weeks we will officially begin production on our second full length record. Here are the songs that have made the grade and will be brought be brought along to the first session:
1) House Of America
2) Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll
3) Blank Cities
4) Whatever Keeps You Alive
5) Drug Money
6) Gorgeous Horses
7) Histrionics
8) A History Of The Bullfight
9) Lake Palmer
10) I Had A Dream
Of the above, only Blank Cities and Lake Palmer have a complete set of lyrics, so i've got A LOT of hard work ahead of me for the next couple of weeks!
1) House Of America
2) Don't Say 'No' To Rock N' Roll
3) Blank Cities
4) Whatever Keeps You Alive
5) Drug Money
6) Gorgeous Horses
7) Histrionics
8) A History Of The Bullfight
9) Lake Palmer
10) I Had A Dream
Of the above, only Blank Cities and Lake Palmer have a complete set of lyrics, so i've got A LOT of hard work ahead of me for the next couple of weeks!
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Face To Face - 29/06/2011
Face To Face
The Computers
Solutions
@ The Globe, Cardiff
(Bank Holiday) Monday 29th August 2011
Doors 7:30om. £11 in.
Face To Face are pretty much Rhys and Eddie's favourite band of all time, so to say they're excited about this show is the understatement of the century! I can't wait either, Face To Face are incredible and it's nothing short of a pleasure to share the stage with our Exeter based brethren The Computers again. I know it's only Rock N' Roll, but...
The Computers
Solutions
@ The Globe, Cardiff
(Bank Holiday) Monday 29th August 2011
Doors 7:30om. £11 in.
Face To Face are pretty much Rhys and Eddie's favourite band of all time, so to say they're excited about this show is the understatement of the century! I can't wait either, Face To Face are incredible and it's nothing short of a pleasure to share the stage with our Exeter based brethren The Computers again. I know it's only Rock N' Roll, but...
Friday, 24 June 2011
Rhys, Eddie & Kai - 24/06/2011
One year ago today Eddie and Rhys decided to join Solutions on a full time basis. Happy Anniversary boys! May this anniversary be the first of many. This band would have been long buried, or in a sad state of limbo if it wasn't for you, and now here we are, three weeks away from stepping into the studio to begin production for album number two. Fuckin' A.
For anyone that didn't already know, our old bass player, Kai, joined the Goodtime Boys a couple of months ago, and i'm stoked to report that the future is looking super bright for them. They just got a full page feature in Rock Sound and are heading out on a European tour next month, playing some really great looking shows along the way, alongside the likes of Touche Amour and La Dispute.
For anyone that didn't already know, our old bass player, Kai, joined the Goodtime Boys a couple of months ago, and i'm stoked to report that the future is looking super bright for them. They just got a full page feature in Rock Sound and are heading out on a European tour next month, playing some really great looking shows along the way, alongside the likes of Touche Amour and La Dispute.
FAO: Abertillery... 24/06/2011
We played a great show in Bristol a couple of nights ago with Run From Robot and Room For One More at The Croft. It was only when we arrived at the venue that i discovered i'd left my guitar and all my pedals back at home in Cardiff. I am completely useless. When i mentioned this to Guy (the show promoter, real nice dude) and the other bands, they immediately stepped up the plate and offered a guitar, leads and whatever else i needed. No questions. No fuss. THAT, Abertillery, is what being in a band is all about. Helping out your fellow bands on the night, being supportive, being selfless. We had a blast, playing and watching the other bands, who were awesome players and fellows to boot. Thanks to Guy for asking us to play, and thanks again to the aforementioned bands for being generally fucking awesome.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Undertone Basement - 07/06/2011
We'll be road testing some new songs from the second record at the Underton Basement (which is underneath 10 Feet Tall, in Cardiff) THIS SUNDAY, along with Hell Money (http://www.hellmoney.bandcamp.com/), Arron Rees, Liz Wreck and Olive Anne. Our friend Leigh is putting the show on, and we can't wait to play it.
Sunday 12th June.
The Undertone Basement
(which is underneath 10ft Tall)
£4 at 20:00 on the door.
Sunday 12th June.
The Undertone Basement
(which is underneath 10ft Tall)
£4 at 20:00 on the door.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
YUCK - 19/04/2011
I'm really, reeeeeally pleased to say that we're gonna be playing with YUCK at the Millennium Music Hall on Sunday 15th May 2011. Their debut record has been on constant rotation by both Rhys and I for the past month, so to be asked to play is a really nice surprise. YUCK sound a lot like Dinosaur Jr and The Lemonheads, in case you didn't already know. I'd link a video or something up here to show, but i have absolutely no idea how i'd go about it. Here's a wiki link for that great debut record i mentioned earlier. I can do that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuck_(album)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuck_(album)
Monday, 18 April 2011
Currently listening to... - 18/04/2011
In Love With Oblivion - Crystal Stilts
Gemini - Wild Nothing
Nine Types Of Light - TV On The Radio
Serotonin - Mystery Jets
Psychocandy - The Jesus & Mary Chain
Crush - Abe Vigoda
Nothings Shocking - Jane's Addiction
Live Through This - Hole
S/T - Yuck
Colouring Book - Glassjaw
The Impossible Song & Others Songs - Roddy Woomble
Angels - The Strokes
Forty Licks - The Rolling Stones
... been experiencing the sorely missed pleasure of having copious amounts of time to listen to music recently, thanks in no small part to saying goodbye to five plus hours of driving lessons in my spare time every week by passing my driving test just last week, plus we (as a band) have been utterly cymbal-less since the High Wycombe show. The good news is that Robin is expecting a new set to arrive on Wednesday of this week, and a practice is (finally) planned either Thursday or Friday. In the meantime i have managed to write choruses for a couple of the new ones and i'm pleased to say that they're sounding great. Now for the verses. Kind of an arse backwards way to write a song really, i've never worked like that before, but it's worked for the last bunch of songs so, if it ain't broke...
Gemini - Wild Nothing
Nine Types Of Light - TV On The Radio
Serotonin - Mystery Jets
Psychocandy - The Jesus & Mary Chain
Crush - Abe Vigoda
Nothings Shocking - Jane's Addiction
Live Through This - Hole
S/T - Yuck
Colouring Book - Glassjaw
The Impossible Song & Others Songs - Roddy Woomble
Angels - The Strokes
Forty Licks - The Rolling Stones
... been experiencing the sorely missed pleasure of having copious amounts of time to listen to music recently, thanks in no small part to saying goodbye to five plus hours of driving lessons in my spare time every week by passing my driving test just last week, plus we (as a band) have been utterly cymbal-less since the High Wycombe show. The good news is that Robin is expecting a new set to arrive on Wednesday of this week, and a practice is (finally) planned either Thursday or Friday. In the meantime i have managed to write choruses for a couple of the new ones and i'm pleased to say that they're sounding great. Now for the verses. Kind of an arse backwards way to write a song really, i've never worked like that before, but it's worked for the last bunch of songs so, if it ain't broke...
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
"Robin Obdinwenge" - 05/04/2011
High Wycombe is a great place to visit, and an even better place to play a punk rock show. Fantastic people, great venues and worthy promoters are what make great shows from a bands perspective, and it would seem that High Wycombe is a place that fulfils these requirements in abundance. All the other bands on the bill were fantastic and i think we put a good foot forward too. Thanks to Crazy Arm for all the Robin related banter and Make Do And Mend for all the nice things they said about us during their set. Lovely guys. Thank you to all involved in the show, especially Dave for inviting down to play in the first place.
Robin has taken it upon himself to organise us a tour with Crazy Arm later on this year, seeing as he's friends with the guys it should hopefully shape up without too much hassle. I can't wait. As for the present, we go back to writing more new songs for the next few weeks. We have some demo time booked in for July, total live recordings over a two day period, during which we will try and bare-bones record everything we have up until that point. These sessions will be done with Chris Morgan, and it'll be great to get back working with him, he knows where we want to go with the new stuff and is a bit of genius all round. One song i'm particularly keen to work on this week is a lively little number we wrote during the last twenty minutes of our most recent practice a couple of weeks back. The riff came from nowhere, as did the words to the chorus, and the whole song pretty much wrote itself from start to finish within about ten minutes. Magic! It's a fairly straightforward melodic punk rock song, with the obligatory, gargantuan chorus that to my ear brings to mind early noughties Brit Rock/Post-Hardcore, like Hell Is For Heroes, Hundred Reasons and '100 Broken Windows' era Idlewild. I absolutely love it, itching to play it again.
Robin has taken it upon himself to organise us a tour with Crazy Arm later on this year, seeing as he's friends with the guys it should hopefully shape up without too much hassle. I can't wait. As for the present, we go back to writing more new songs for the next few weeks. We have some demo time booked in for July, total live recordings over a two day period, during which we will try and bare-bones record everything we have up until that point. These sessions will be done with Chris Morgan, and it'll be great to get back working with him, he knows where we want to go with the new stuff and is a bit of genius all round. One song i'm particularly keen to work on this week is a lively little number we wrote during the last twenty minutes of our most recent practice a couple of weeks back. The riff came from nowhere, as did the words to the chorus, and the whole song pretty much wrote itself from start to finish within about ten minutes. Magic! It's a fairly straightforward melodic punk rock song, with the obligatory, gargantuan chorus that to my ear brings to mind early noughties Brit Rock/Post-Hardcore, like Hell Is For Heroes, Hundred Reasons and '100 Broken Windows' era Idlewild. I absolutely love it, itching to play it again.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Plugged In - 01/04/2011
We will be featuring in the next issue of Plugged In magazine. For a 'new band' feature or something, so i'm told. Will update this when i find out an actual date for when the issue will be published.
http://www.pluggedinmagazine.co.uk/home.html
http://www.pluggedinmagazine.co.uk/home.html
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
High Lonesome - 29/03/11
We're playing this Sunday (3rd April) @ the Nags Head in High Wycombe with Make Do & Mend, Crazy Arm and Aplogies I Have None. Can't wait. Will have the new copies of 'The First Two Years' with us, as well as the t-shirts.
Into The Valleys - 29/03/2011
Dolls House in Abertillery, last night.
Firstly, i was really impressed with The Dolts. Their opening numbers were fantastic and their singer (at only seventeen years of age, so i'm told) has an extremely powerful and natural growl. The set tailed off somewhat thanks to couple of clunky covers, but overall i was really impressed. They should stick to writing and focusing on their own material, when they nailed them they were blowing their cover versions clean out of the water. Excellent stuff.
I could go on at (great, great) length about the next band, Dirty Youth, but i think i'll just say that they weren't my bag. Their set was a car crash from start to finish, but it wasn't entirely of their own making to be fair. They seemed to be having some equipment difficulties (cordless mics, kids... they ain't big, cool, or remotely clever), the mix from the desk was awful and the crowd were hardly an enthusiastic bunch.
Minor disasters struck early on in our set. Rhys managed to kick his lead out during Lake Palmer, Robin snapped a stick and had to fumble around for another one midway through The Rest Will Follow, before Rhys broke his bottom E string later on in the same song. An obligatory call for the temporary loan of another guitar to use for the next few numbers went out, of which i have answered the call for tons of bands before as it's simple band etiquette, and i'm genuinely disappointed to say that i've never seen so many guitarists make a sudden and sharp b-line for the back of the room/outside before in my life. The ones that didn't (i'm looking at you Faux Youth... sorry, Dirty Youth) stood stock still and stared at us like we were talking Polish or something. Thanks guys. Rhys re-strung his guitar and the rest of the set went well enough. The sound onstage was absolutely atrocious but apparently didn't sound too bad out in the crowd. The guitar incident was disappointing, but i had lots of fun playing, as did the other boys.
Sadly we couldn't stick around for the entirety of BWXE set, but was i did see/hear sounded like tight screamo. Completely and utterly not my bag, but they were obviously really competent and lots of people seemed to be having a really good time watching them. Shortly after we left a huge fight erupted outside the Dolls House, limbs flying everywhere according to Rhys and Eddie. I detest seeing violence happen at shows, so i'm glad i missed it all. I hope all involved have woken up this morning with nothing more than a sore head, a couple bruised knuckles and a deep sense of embarrassment.
Firstly, i was really impressed with The Dolts. Their opening numbers were fantastic and their singer (at only seventeen years of age, so i'm told) has an extremely powerful and natural growl. The set tailed off somewhat thanks to couple of clunky covers, but overall i was really impressed. They should stick to writing and focusing on their own material, when they nailed them they were blowing their cover versions clean out of the water. Excellent stuff.
I could go on at (great, great) length about the next band, Dirty Youth, but i think i'll just say that they weren't my bag. Their set was a car crash from start to finish, but it wasn't entirely of their own making to be fair. They seemed to be having some equipment difficulties (cordless mics, kids... they ain't big, cool, or remotely clever), the mix from the desk was awful and the crowd were hardly an enthusiastic bunch.
Minor disasters struck early on in our set. Rhys managed to kick his lead out during Lake Palmer, Robin snapped a stick and had to fumble around for another one midway through The Rest Will Follow, before Rhys broke his bottom E string later on in the same song. An obligatory call for the temporary loan of another guitar to use for the next few numbers went out, of which i have answered the call for tons of bands before as it's simple band etiquette, and i'm genuinely disappointed to say that i've never seen so many guitarists make a sudden and sharp b-line for the back of the room/outside before in my life. The ones that didn't (i'm looking at you Faux Youth... sorry, Dirty Youth) stood stock still and stared at us like we were talking Polish or something. Thanks guys. Rhys re-strung his guitar and the rest of the set went well enough. The sound onstage was absolutely atrocious but apparently didn't sound too bad out in the crowd. The guitar incident was disappointing, but i had lots of fun playing, as did the other boys.
Sadly we couldn't stick around for the entirety of BWXE set, but was i did see/hear sounded like tight screamo. Completely and utterly not my bag, but they were obviously really competent and lots of people seemed to be having a really good time watching them. Shortly after we left a huge fight erupted outside the Dolls House, limbs flying everywhere according to Rhys and Eddie. I detest seeing violence happen at shows, so i'm glad i missed it all. I hope all involved have woken up this morning with nothing more than a sore head, a couple bruised knuckles and a deep sense of embarrassment.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
'The First Two Years' faulty CD returns - 23/03/2011
The new, improved and most crucially complete versions of 'The First Two Years' CD's are back with us. Again, anyone who needs or wants one to replace the faulty copy they picked up at the release show, please get in touch with either Robin (robin2285@live.com) or myself (againstnick@hotmail.com). All is quiet for us at the moment. Robin is down in Plymouth and i'm in the process of moving house, which leaves no room for practice or writing. Kinda frustrating, but things should level out in a couple of weeks, thus enabling us to push on with song writing and promoting 'The First Two Years' as far and wide as physically possible. We're actually playing Boys With X-Ray Eyes last show in Abertillery next week in fact (Monday), full details of which i will put up here when i get around to finding them. Truth is i don't know a hell of a lot about Boys With X-Ray Eyes, i don't even think i've heard a song of theirs, but i do know their drummer and he's been nothing but a really, really good dude to us in the past, whatsmore for a short time he was actually the drummer in Rhys and Eddies old band, the brilliant Haddonfield. I believe Boys With X-Ray Eyes have been active for around three years, which is a huge achievement in itself and they should be really proud of that. 95% of bands around here don't get past a second practice. It's a pleasure to play their final show, i really hope that lots of people show up and give them the send off they deserve.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Sons Of Daughters - 16/03/11
Another thanks you is in order for Adam Walton, he played 'Sons Of Daughters' on his BBC Radio Wales show on Sunday. You can check out the rest of the playlist here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/2011/03/adam-walton-playlist-show-13-march-2011.shtml
Motown Junk! Hell yeah.
'Sons Of Daughters' is a weird one for me. I was listening to a lot of The Maccabees around the time i wrote it, hence the STOP/start/STOP verses and the 'indie' centric drumming. I'm really proud of the lyric, especially the chorus, but i can't help but feel that the song sticks out as too much of a black sheep when taken in the context of the eight other tracks that appeared on 'Before The Roars'. I feel that it fares a lot better on 'The First Two Years' which itself is a real mixed bag of sounds, some hitting the mark and others not so much.
I reckon we haven't played 'Sons Of Daughters' live for the better part of a year, since before Kai left the band, as i remember always ragging on him for playing it wrong and always missing his vocal. In hindsight, Sons is a hard song to sing and play, even on guitar, so maybe i could have cut him a bit more slack back then.
I don't know whether or not we'll eventually re-learn it with the new line-up. We get asked for it quite a bit actually, Tal from the Goodtime Boys always asks for it, and i know its Jon Slowdance/Hidden Switch favourite song from 'Before The Roars'. To be honest i'm more focused on writing new songs at the moment, but maybe it'd be cool to dig deep and brush off a 'golden oldie', even if it isn't a personal favourite of mine.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/2011/03/adam-walton-playlist-show-13-march-2011.shtml
Motown Junk! Hell yeah.
'Sons Of Daughters' is a weird one for me. I was listening to a lot of The Maccabees around the time i wrote it, hence the STOP/start/STOP verses and the 'indie' centric drumming. I'm really proud of the lyric, especially the chorus, but i can't help but feel that the song sticks out as too much of a black sheep when taken in the context of the eight other tracks that appeared on 'Before The Roars'. I feel that it fares a lot better on 'The First Two Years' which itself is a real mixed bag of sounds, some hitting the mark and others not so much.
I reckon we haven't played 'Sons Of Daughters' live for the better part of a year, since before Kai left the band, as i remember always ragging on him for playing it wrong and always missing his vocal. In hindsight, Sons is a hard song to sing and play, even on guitar, so maybe i could have cut him a bit more slack back then.
I don't know whether or not we'll eventually re-learn it with the new line-up. We get asked for it quite a bit actually, Tal from the Goodtime Boys always asks for it, and i know its Jon Slowdance/Hidden Switch favourite song from 'Before The Roars'. To be honest i'm more focused on writing new songs at the moment, but maybe it'd be cool to dig deep and brush off a 'golden oldie', even if it isn't a personal favourite of mine.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
'The First Two Years' FIRST PRESSING ERROR - 15/03/2011
For the benefit of anyone who bought or was given a free copy of 'The First Two Years' at the launch show last week, there is a track missing on the disk. The track missing, in case you hadn't already noticed, is Apparatus Separator. Nightmare! The master copy of the CD sent to the pressing plant had the full seventeen tracks on it, so it's definitely their error and not ours. Rich is getting on their case this morning to get us a new batch of CD's with ALL the songs back within the next seven days.
IF YOU WERE GIVEN A COPY THE CD WANT A NEW/COMPLETE VERSION WHEN IT COMES BACK NEXT WEEK, PLEASE EMAIL againstnick@hotmail.com or robin2285@hotmail.com. The cases and booklets are totally fine, so you'll just be getting a new CD to replace the one with the missing track. You SHOULD get in touch with us, you paid or got to the show early to get a seventeen track CD and the fact is you didn't get entirely what you came/paid for.
We're really sorry about the mistake, one of us really should have checked it before the show.
Get in touch with either one of us and i promise that all efforts will be made to get the new CD to you as soon as physically possible.
IF YOU WERE GIVEN A COPY THE CD WANT A NEW/COMPLETE VERSION WHEN IT COMES BACK NEXT WEEK, PLEASE EMAIL againstnick@hotmail.com or robin2285@hotmail.com. The cases and booklets are totally fine, so you'll just be getting a new CD to replace the one with the missing track. You SHOULD get in touch with us, you paid or got to the show early to get a seventeen track CD and the fact is you didn't get entirely what you came/paid for.
We're really sorry about the mistake, one of us really should have checked it before the show.
Get in touch with either one of us and i promise that all efforts will be made to get the new CD to you as soon as physically possible.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Last (Friday) Nite - 14/03/2011
Huge thanks to everybody that came out to Clwb for the First Two Years release show last Friday. We were truly overwhelmed and had a really great time to boot. By the end of our set, we had played no less than eleven songs, which for us something of a G'n'R esque monster set!
The show was both recorded on the desk by our friend Phil and filmed by a girl who's name i can't remember right now. She's a friend of Eddie's and came equipt with some seriously pro gear! When i got told that the show was being filmed i just expected someone to be wandering around with a camcorder or something, but the camera was positively HUGE and there we tripods set up and everything. Very bizzare, but cool. I look forward to seeing the footage.
The setlist, for anyone that wants to know, was as follows:
Lake Palmer
The Rest Will Follow
A Devil Among The Dancers
The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever
Fighting Tigers
Mexican Waves
Drug Money
Blank Cities
Apparatus Separator
---------
Mary Anne, Come Out Tonight...
Young Loins
The last two were due to an unplanned encore. And you can believe me when i say it was unplanned! Mary Anne, considering we hadn't played it together for the best part of two months, went fine and to be honest we should have called it quits there. However, and i can't really tell you why, i decided to go straight into the opening chords of a song we'd never, ever played before immediately after, that song being Before The Roars acoustic campfire punkrock closer, Young Loins. The problem was, those opening chords, i had absolutely no fucking idea what they were. Cue what seemed like an absolute eternity of me thumbing around the fretboard to try and figure out what they were. Thankfully it was Rhys who eventually showed me what they were. Yes, Rhys, who wasn't even in the band when i wrote the damn song, showing me how to play it. Oh, the shame! What followed was nothing short of a massacre of the original, i don't know what happened, except for the fact that all the way through i was thinking "this is YOUR fault, young man... it's all you". Hah! Believe it or not we had people rushing up to us after the set exclaiming "i'm so glad you played that last song!"- these people were met with a perplexed and incredulous grimace.
Young Loins aside, i had a ton of fun playing, as did the other boys. We weren't perfect, i totally forgot the words to both new songs, Rhys' guitar was screaming like a banshee from first song to last and Robin (bless him) managed to whack his hands and his feet on various parts of his drum kit (he has several ugly bruises to show), but who really wants or expects perfection at a punk rock gig? You're in the wrong scene if you do. My favourite song of our set was probably Blank Cities, it sounded better than ever, and for a song i practically wrote of as a perfectly acceptable 'punk by numbers' song just a few weeks back, it really is starting to stand on it's own two feet as one of our finest efforts to date.
Cell Mates and A Thousand Arrows were both incredible too. It was an awesome night, if we get any more like that this year then we'll be a very, very happy and content bunch of dudes indeed.
Now it's back to the grind. We need to promote The First To Years outside of South Wales as well as keep the creating juices fully spilling over into lots of new tracks. Onwards and upwards.
The show was both recorded on the desk by our friend Phil and filmed by a girl who's name i can't remember right now. She's a friend of Eddie's and came equipt with some seriously pro gear! When i got told that the show was being filmed i just expected someone to be wandering around with a camcorder or something, but the camera was positively HUGE and there we tripods set up and everything. Very bizzare, but cool. I look forward to seeing the footage.
The setlist, for anyone that wants to know, was as follows:
Lake Palmer
The Rest Will Follow
A Devil Among The Dancers
The Plastic Stays Yellow Forever
Fighting Tigers
Mexican Waves
Drug Money
Blank Cities
Apparatus Separator
---------
Mary Anne, Come Out Tonight...
Young Loins
The last two were due to an unplanned encore. And you can believe me when i say it was unplanned! Mary Anne, considering we hadn't played it together for the best part of two months, went fine and to be honest we should have called it quits there. However, and i can't really tell you why, i decided to go straight into the opening chords of a song we'd never, ever played before immediately after, that song being Before The Roars acoustic campfire punkrock closer, Young Loins. The problem was, those opening chords, i had absolutely no fucking idea what they were. Cue what seemed like an absolute eternity of me thumbing around the fretboard to try and figure out what they were. Thankfully it was Rhys who eventually showed me what they were. Yes, Rhys, who wasn't even in the band when i wrote the damn song, showing me how to play it. Oh, the shame! What followed was nothing short of a massacre of the original, i don't know what happened, except for the fact that all the way through i was thinking "this is YOUR fault, young man... it's all you". Hah! Believe it or not we had people rushing up to us after the set exclaiming "i'm so glad you played that last song!"- these people were met with a perplexed and incredulous grimace.
Young Loins aside, i had a ton of fun playing, as did the other boys. We weren't perfect, i totally forgot the words to both new songs, Rhys' guitar was screaming like a banshee from first song to last and Robin (bless him) managed to whack his hands and his feet on various parts of his drum kit (he has several ugly bruises to show), but who really wants or expects perfection at a punk rock gig? You're in the wrong scene if you do. My favourite song of our set was probably Blank Cities, it sounded better than ever, and for a song i practically wrote of as a perfectly acceptable 'punk by numbers' song just a few weeks back, it really is starting to stand on it's own two feet as one of our finest efforts to date.
Cell Mates and A Thousand Arrows were both incredible too. It was an awesome night, if we get any more like that this year then we'll be a very, very happy and content bunch of dudes indeed.
Now it's back to the grind. We need to promote The First To Years outside of South Wales as well as keep the creating juices fully spilling over into lots of new tracks. Onwards and upwards.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Can a shark even make a fist, let alone begin to partake in a fist fight? - 09/03/2011
Head on over to http://www.teatopiamagazine.com/ for a recent interview with solutions.
When i read Robin and Eddie's earnest and heartfelt answers, i get the feeling that i may have misjudged the whole tone of this interview? Yeah. Well, if you want overwrought, hyperbole answers then go read 99.6% of all other band interviews. God bless Teatopia mag for wanting to interview us miserable bastards in the first place, but it's hard to find the strength to give a damn when someone asks you what you're gonna be doing in TEN YEARS TIME. I don't know what i'm gonna be doing in ten minutes time. Still being an prick, probably? I dunno.
Anyway, Rhys totally steals the interview with his "fist fight with a shark" comment. It's the best thing i've read in a long, long time.
When i read Robin and Eddie's earnest and heartfelt answers, i get the feeling that i may have misjudged the whole tone of this interview? Yeah. Well, if you want overwrought, hyperbole answers then go read 99.6% of all other band interviews. God bless Teatopia mag for wanting to interview us miserable bastards in the first place, but it's hard to find the strength to give a damn when someone asks you what you're gonna be doing in TEN YEARS TIME. I don't know what i'm gonna be doing in ten minutes time. Still being an prick, probably? I dunno.
Anyway, Rhys totally steals the interview with his "fist fight with a shark" comment. It's the best thing i've read in a long, long time.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Drug Money - 08/03/2011
The set list for Friday evening has been agreed. Five songs off 'The First Two Years' and four new ones, two of which are brand new. The newest of the bunch is called Drug Money. I wanted to call it Sleeping Martyrs on the basis that it fits with the lyrical content, but for some reason the term 'drug money' had been bouncing around my head all morning, so i suggested it as an alternative title to the boys and they loved it plenty more than the original title. I'm not one for discussing the lyrical content of a song, but i will say that music came about during a two or three week period of me listening to nothing but 'Journal For Plague Lovers' by the Manics. The verse riff is painfully simple, but one of my very favourite little licks i've written. Robin thinks the song sounds like Future Of The Left, but i can't say i agree entirely. The verses remind me of the Manics, yet the pre-chorus and chorus just sound like us to my ears. I really like it. I mentioned before that the show is getting recorded for a forthcoming release, of all the songs we'll be playing on Friday night, i think Drug Money is the one i'm most looking forward to hearing back. That is, of course, on the basis that we don't completely fuck it up! Here's to hoping we don't...
Monday, 7 March 2011
'The First Two Years' release show line-up change... - 07/03/2011
Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Computers have had to pull out of playing the release show this Friday. I'd be bummed out if it weren't for the quality of the band stepping onto the bill to replace them...
Friday 11th March 2011 @ Clwb Ifor Bach...
SOLUTIONS.
A THOUSAND ARROWS
CELL MATES
Doors @ 7:30pm. First band on @ 8pm.£4 entry - The first fifteen people through the door will recieve a copy of 'The First Two Years' CD for free. The show will be finished by 10pm in accordance with the club night curfew restrictions.
A THOUSAND ARROWS are a post hardcore band from Cardiff, they're fucking amazing and have ex(and current)-members of The Slowdance, Panel, Raging Speedhorn and Shaped By Fate in their ranks. Great bunch of boys to boot. I'm beyond excited.
Friday 11th March 2011 @ Clwb Ifor Bach...
SOLUTIONS.
A THOUSAND ARROWS
CELL MATES
Doors @ 7:30pm. First band on @ 8pm.£4 entry - The first fifteen people through the door will recieve a copy of 'The First Two Years' CD for free. The show will be finished by 10pm in accordance with the club night curfew restrictions.
A THOUSAND ARROWS are a post hardcore band from Cardiff, they're fucking amazing and have ex(and current)-members of The Slowdance, Panel, Raging Speedhorn and Shaped By Fate in their ranks. Great bunch of boys to boot. I'm beyond excited.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Alter The Press! - 04/03/2011
The folks over at Alter The Press! were kind enough to run an article on the pending release of 'The First Two Years'. You can check it out here:
http://www.alterthepress.com/2011/03/solutions-announce-retrospective.html
http://www.alterthepress.com/2011/03/solutions-announce-retrospective.html
Monday, 28 February 2011
Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales - 28/02/2011
The lovely Adam Walton was kind enough to play a track off 'The First Two Years' on his show last night. He chose to play 'Ghost Writers', a track which features some top grade guitar noodling by the one and only Todd Campbell. Big thanks to Adam for his continuing support, which we've been lucky enough to have since pretty much day one.
A shotgun practice tonight will decide the setlist for the release show next week. Expect the expected... and four new songs.
Also, here's an alternative link to the 'Fighting Tigers' video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE
A shotgun practice tonight will decide the setlist for the release show next week. Expect the expected... and four new songs.
Also, here's an alternative link to the 'Fighting Tigers' video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Testimonials - 23/02/2011
"An anthem-toting punk trio from South Wales. Solutions are neither following or explicitly shunning fashion, they are just following their own path. Before The Roars touches on Gainesville punk and bassy post-hardcore, exhibiting a jerky lyrical cadence of the sort At The Drive-In hit pay dirt with. Solutions have a real quality in them." - (RockSound)
"Solutions forge an exciting gruff punk/indie hybrid - imagine Tom Gabel fronting Kubichek! and you're halfway there. Before the Roars was released as a free download last December and serves as a testament to the breadth and vibrancy of UK punk rock in 2010." - (PunkNews)
"It goes without saying that a truckload of modern punk bands owe a huge debt to Hot Water Music. Cardiff's Solutions go one further, 'The Rest Will Follow' is 'HWM's' 'Southeast First' in new skin, while the gravel throated , emotional clout with which they power-drive through the likes of 'Sons Of Daughters' would even impress ol' Chuck himself. Passionate, Powerful stuff." - (24/7 Magazine)
"Three piece Solutions aren't falling among the ranks and following what you may have come to expect from South Wales from the likes of Lostprophets or Funeral For A Friend, but their gritty and energetic punk found on debut album 'Before the Roars' is full of potential and shout-a-long choruses." - (Punktastic)
"South Wales' latest emerging talents Solutions sing from a slightly different sheet to their mainstream countrymen - dabbling in the kind of muddied sound that indicates a familiarity more in keeping with the likes of Biffy Clyro than it does their fellow townsfolk. Before The Roars showcases just enough to have you believing that this Cardiff-based trio may just have another passage to write in Wales' burgeoning success story." - (RockMidgets)
... will be adding to these as and when we get press back for 'The First Two Years'.
"Solutions forge an exciting gruff punk/indie hybrid - imagine Tom Gabel fronting Kubichek! and you're halfway there. Before the Roars was released as a free download last December and serves as a testament to the breadth and vibrancy of UK punk rock in 2010." - (PunkNews)
"It goes without saying that a truckload of modern punk bands owe a huge debt to Hot Water Music. Cardiff's Solutions go one further, 'The Rest Will Follow' is 'HWM's' 'Southeast First' in new skin, while the gravel throated , emotional clout with which they power-drive through the likes of 'Sons Of Daughters' would even impress ol' Chuck himself. Passionate, Powerful stuff." - (24/7 Magazine)
"Three piece Solutions aren't falling among the ranks and following what you may have come to expect from South Wales from the likes of Lostprophets or Funeral For A Friend, but their gritty and energetic punk found on debut album 'Before the Roars' is full of potential and shout-a-long choruses." - (Punktastic)
"South Wales' latest emerging talents Solutions sing from a slightly different sheet to their mainstream countrymen - dabbling in the kind of muddied sound that indicates a familiarity more in keeping with the likes of Biffy Clyro than it does their fellow townsfolk. Before The Roars showcases just enough to have you believing that this Cardiff-based trio may just have another passage to write in Wales' burgeoning success story." - (RockMidgets)
... will be adding to these as and when we get press back for 'The First Two Years'.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
'The First Two Years' Release Show Details - 22/02/2011
Friday 11th March 2011 @ Clwb Ifor Bach...
SOLUTIONS.
THE COMPUTERS
CELL MATES
Doors @ 7:30pm. First band on @ 7:45pm.
£4 entry - The first fifteen people through the door will recieve a copy of 'The First Two Years' CD for free. The show will be finished by 10pm in accordance with the club night curfew restrictions.
The Computers are a rock n' roll band from Exeter and have been friends of ours for many years; i'm thrilled that they've agreed to play. Cell Mates are a brand new South Wales band who i know nothing about to be honest, but they seemed like nice enough dudes to Robin and he was hugely impressed by the their first live outing at the Gay For Johnny Depp show at Clwb a week or so ago.
SOLUTIONS.
THE COMPUTERS
CELL MATES
Doors @ 7:30pm. First band on @ 7:45pm.
£4 entry - The first fifteen people through the door will recieve a copy of 'The First Two Years' CD for free. The show will be finished by 10pm in accordance with the club night curfew restrictions.
The Computers are a rock n' roll band from Exeter and have been friends of ours for many years; i'm thrilled that they've agreed to play. Cell Mates are a brand new South Wales band who i know nothing about to be honest, but they seemed like nice enough dudes to Robin and he was hugely impressed by the their first live outing at the Gay For Johnny Depp show at Clwb a week or so ago.
Monday, 21 February 2011
'The First Two Years' pre-order links - 21/02/2011
You can pre-order 'The First Two Years' via these links:
http://solutionsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-first-two-years
http://www.seveninchrecords.bigcartel.com/product/seven12
As mentioned before, the record will be released via Seven Records on MONDAY 14TH MARCH 2011.
Also, you can still view the 'Fighting Tigers' video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE
http://solutionsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-first-two-years
http://www.seveninchrecords.bigcartel.com/product/seven12
As mentioned before, the record will be released via Seven Records on MONDAY 14TH MARCH 2011.
Also, you can still view the 'Fighting Tigers' video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE
Histrionics - 21/02/2011
I can confirm that our second full-length record will be called 'Histrionics'.
Writing for said record is going well. Yesterday at practice we wrote a brand new song that sounds like 'Yield' era Pearl Jam. Even in it's extreme infancy, it sounds huge, and absolutely nowhere close to anything we've ever written before. Truth be told it kinda started as piss-take free jam between practicing sets, but it soon evolved into it's own kind of beast after around five minutes. Rhys pretty much solo's over the entire thing, and Eddie's bassline is 'sick'. I'm playing through a clean channel using tons of chorus and delay effect. It's our first song that utilises my new chorus pedal no less, and it'll be the first of many if they all turn out like this. The best things come from nowhere.
So yeah, back to Histrionics... including 'Pearl Jam' we now have around eight complete songs to take into the album session, whenever that may be. I'm thinking the first two weekends of October. Eight days, if we incorporate Thursday and Friday of each week respectively. That's the plan, by which time i expect us to have a pool of at very, very least fifteen songs to hack down to the final ten/eleven to make up the record.
There will be at least one other release between 'The First Two Years' anthology CD and the eventual release 'Histrionics'. One that is definitely happening is an ultra limited edition live CD., which will be recorded during our set at 'The First Two Years' release show in Clwb Ifor Bach (details and a poster for that show to follow).
Writing for said record is going well. Yesterday at practice we wrote a brand new song that sounds like 'Yield' era Pearl Jam. Even in it's extreme infancy, it sounds huge, and absolutely nowhere close to anything we've ever written before. Truth be told it kinda started as piss-take free jam between practicing sets, but it soon evolved into it's own kind of beast after around five minutes. Rhys pretty much solo's over the entire thing, and Eddie's bassline is 'sick'. I'm playing through a clean channel using tons of chorus and delay effect. It's our first song that utilises my new chorus pedal no less, and it'll be the first of many if they all turn out like this. The best things come from nowhere.
So yeah, back to Histrionics... including 'Pearl Jam' we now have around eight complete songs to take into the album session, whenever that may be. I'm thinking the first two weekends of October. Eight days, if we incorporate Thursday and Friday of each week respectively. That's the plan, by which time i expect us to have a pool of at very, very least fifteen songs to hack down to the final ten/eleven to make up the record.
There will be at least one other release between 'The First Two Years' anthology CD and the eventual release 'Histrionics'. One that is definitely happening is an ultra limited edition live CD., which will be recorded during our set at 'The First Two Years' release show in Clwb Ifor Bach (details and a poster for that show to follow).
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Update / Best of The Decade... - 03/02/2011
In a few days we will have the finished video back from Chris Callow. We're all super excited to see it, the few screenshots we've seen so far look sharper than anything we ever could have imagined. The addition of a full lighting rig on set was certainly something of a masterstroke (good call, Rob).
Along with some really promising news with regards to immediate touring plans (which i painfully refrain from spilling on here just yet, for fear of jinxing the whole deal), we suffered a huge setback with regards to the recording process for the second album. Cut a long story short, the great studio we were using, at a crazy cheap rate, has been closed. Our friend and producer Chris Morgan wants to fully continue the project elsewhere, which is great as we're all more than happy to continue our work with him, but some serious consideration is gonna need to be given as to where and exactly when we're gonna resume the process. There are a few ideas bouncing back and forth between me and Robin, not one of which we've been able to entirely agree on as of yet so the thought process continues. I myself was pretty heartbroken when i first heard the news, but upon reflection i actually now take the stance that in the grand scheme of things, it probably works out best for us. The four songs we already had down didn't quite connect as much as i hoped they would, and i've since figured out why that was. I was looking forward to going back in the studio and carrying out a grand re-patching of what we previously had down, but now it'll most certainly be a case of starting back at square one. I guess, our initial sessions can be seen as something of a trial run.
So that's where we are at the moment. Back to square one with the recording of LP2 and awaiting our first ever music video.
In the meantime, i thought i'd share a list of my very favourite albums of the last decade, between 2000 and 2010. I've been meaning to do so since the start of the year, but only found the time to do-so during some rare down time over the last week. I've tried to keep it 'in order' as best as i could, but after the eighty or so mark, things can pretty much get interchangeable i guess. By 'in order' i mean the most special to me and clostest to my heart taking up the higher positions on the list, but every record here has a place in my heart, for some genuine, obscure, ridiculous or other reason.
1) Reinventing Axl Rose – Against Me!
2) Not Enough Night – Kubichek!
3) Turn On The Bright Lights – Interpol
4) In Remote Part – Idlewild
5) Relationship Of Command – At The Drive-In
6) This Is My Ship – Dartz!
7) My Secret Is My Silence – Roddy Woomble
8) Curses – Future Of The Left
9) Forget The Night Ahead – The Twilight Sad
10) Love Is Hell – Ryan Adams
11) Dead Reckoning – Small Brown Bike
12) Caution – Hot Water Music
13) The Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit
14) You & Me – The Walkmen
15) Daisies Of The Galaxy – The Eels
16) Better Days – Fiya
17) Up In Them Guts – Planes Mistaken For Stars
18) Dry River Fishing – No Choice
19) Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad
20) From Here To Infirmary – Alkaline Trio
21) S/T – The Drips
22) Board Of Rejection – Gunmoll
23) Alligator – The National
24) Read Music / Speak Spanish – Desaparecidos
25) White Pony – Deftones
26) Source Tags & Codes - … Trail Of Dead
27) No Division – Hot Water Music
28) Patent Pending – Heavens
29) A Certain Trigger – Maximo Park
30) Desperate Youth And Bloodthirsty Babes – TV On The Radio
31) Wall Of Arms – The Maccabees
32) Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World
33) Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams
34) Give Me A Wall – Forward Russia!
35) Antics – Interpol
36) Above The City – Smoke Or Fire
37) S/T I / The Bronx
38) 100 Broken Windows – Idlewild
39) The Greatest Story Ever Hula’d – Grabass Charlestons
40) Worship & Tribute – Glassjaw
41) Shootenanny! – The Eels
42) Oxeneers – These Arms Are Snakes
43) Colour It In – The Maccabees
44) S/T – Lucero
45) The Last Broadcast – Doves
46) Journal For Plague Lovers – Manic Street Preachers
47) Capture / Release – The Rakes
48) Boys & Girls In America – The Hold Steady
49) Wiretap Scars – Sparta
50) Maybe I’ll Catch Fire – Alkaline Trio
51) Belt Up – Milloy
52) Worlds Apart - … Trail Of Dead
53) Kensington Heights – The Constantines
54) Post Electric Blues – Idlewild
55) Oh! Calcutta – The Lawrence Arms
56) Is This It? – The Strokes
57) Cease To Begin – Band Of Horses
58) S/T – Conor Oberst
59) A Weekend In The City – Bloc Party
60) Some Cities – Doves
61) Primary Colours – The Horrors
62) Home – Josh Rouse
63) Through The Windowpane – Guillemots
64) So Jealous – Tegan & Sara
65) Saturdays = Youth – M83
66) Now Here Is Nowhere – Secret Machines
67) Dear Science – TV On The Radio
68) Do You Like Rock Music? – British Sea Power
69) Magpie – Stephen Fretwell
70) The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique – Dartz!
71) Easy Tiger – Ryan Adams
72) The ’59 Sound – Gaslight Anthem
73) Madonna - … Trail Of Dead
74) Destroy Their Future – American Steel
75) Nobodies Darlings – Lucero
76) As The Eternal Cowboy – Against Me!
77) The Back Room – Editors
78) Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions – Milloy
79) Drop It Til’ It Pops – Hot Club De Paris
80) Antidotes – Foals
81) S/T – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
82) Infinity On High – Fall Out Boy
83) Travels With Myself And Another – Future Of The Left
84) For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
85) How You Gonna Scare Us Now? – K-Line
86) Paradise – Paint It Black
87) So Many You Could Never Win – Army Of Ponch
88) Lisbon – The Walkmen
89) Your New Favourite Band – The Hives
90) S/T – The Lemonheads
91) From A Basement On A Hill – Elliot Smith
92) Nashville – Josh Rouse
93) The New Romance – Pretty Girls Make Graves
94) Room On Fire – The Strokes
95) S/T – The XX
96) Make Another World – Idlewild
97) We Bare All – Radon
98) Decaydance – Head Automatica
99) Kid A – Radiohead
100) The End Of History – Fionn Regan
101) Agony & Irony – Alkaline Trio
102) Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeys
103) Gang Violins – Read Yellow
104) S/T – Deftones
105) Keep Your Heart – The Loved Ones
106) Toxicity – System Of A Down
107) Live At Los Feliz – Chuck Ragan
108) A Song To Ruin – Million Dead
109) LP III – The Soviettes
110) Ten New Messages – The Rakes
111) Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell – Killing Joke
112) In A Million Pieces – The Draft
113) Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
114) S/T – Kudzu Wish
115) Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady
116) The Eraser – Thom Yorke
117) The Sufferer & The Witness – Rise Against
118) Gold – Ryan Adams
119) High Violet – The National
120) Radios Burn Faster – Read Yellow
121) Shine A Light – Constantines
122) Isolation Drills – Guided By Voices
123) 28 – Radon
124) For Blood & Empire – Anti Flag
125) Diamond Eyes – Deftones
126) Mercy – Planes Mistaken For Stars
127) S/T – Friendly Fires
128) McLusky Do Dallas – McLusky
129) End Times – The Eels
130) Whatever People Say I Am, That Is What I Am Not – Arctic Monkeys
131) S/T – The Futureheads
132) Open Season – British Sea Power
133) Jacksonville City Night – Ryan Adams
134) The New Fellas – The Cribs
135) The Chemistry Of Common Life – Fucked Up
136) Panic Prevention – Jamie T
137) That Much Further West – Lucero
138) New Wave – Against Me!
139) Fuel For The Hate Game – Hot Water Music
140) Beyond – Dinosaur Jr
141) Where The Humans Eat – Willy Mason
142) Gold Country – Chuck Ragan
143) Original Pirate Material – The Streets
144) Absolute Dissent – Killing Joke
145) Good Health – Pretty Girls Make Graves
146) Magic – Bruce Springsteen
147) Dancing For Decadence – The Sainte Catherines
148) Futures – Jimmy Eat World
149) Death & Entrances – My Latest Novel
150) Funeral – Arcade Fire
151) Alight Of Night – Crystal Stilts
152) The New Drop Era – Young Livers
153) Twenty One – Mystery Jets
154) Ideas Above Our Station – Hundred Reasons
155) New Lexicon – Paint It Black
156) Everything All The Time – Band Of Horses
157) In Rainbows – Radiohead
158) Blinking Lights And Other Revelations – The Eels
159) Meanderthal - Torche
160) Sink Or Swim – The Gaslight Anthem
161) Promises / Warnings – Idlewild
162) From Under The Cork Tree – Fall Out Boy
163) Kingdom Of Rust – Doves
164) Hold On Now Youngster – Los Campesinos!
165) Two Suns – Bat For Lashes
166) In Boca Al Lupo – Murder By Death
167) Boxer – The National
168) Calling The Public – 59 Times The Pain
169) The Age Of The Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets
170) Supporting Caste – Propagandhi
171) Dits From The Commuter Belt – Bromheads Jacket
172) Total Life Forever – Foals
173) Good News For People Who Love Bad News – Modest Mouse
174) Cardinology – Ryan Adams
175) Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers – Lucero
176) By The Way – Red Hot Chili Peppers
177) The Song Of The Blackbird – William Elliot Whitmore
178) Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
179) The Great Depression – Defiance, Ohio
180) Farm – Dinosaur Jr
181) Truth Is A Menace – North Lincoln
182) 13 In My 31 – My Red Cell
183) Ask Mark Twain – Grabass Charlestons
184) Humbug – Arctic Monkeys
185) A Flight And A Crash – Hot Water Music
186) Left & Leaving – The Weakerthans
187) The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me – Brand New
188) Dead FM – Strike Anywhere
189) The Artist In The Ambulance – Thrice
190) Women’s Needs, Men’s Needs, Whatever – The Cribs
191) Perfecting Loneliness – Jets To Brazil
192) Society Is A Carnivorous Flower – J Church
193) Infinite Arms – Band Of Horses
194) Revolutions Per Minute – Rise Against
195) It’s Blitz – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
196) Romance Is Boring – Los Campesinos!
197) LP II – The Bronx
198) Earthquake Glue – Guided By Voices
199) Accelerate - REM
200) In Ghost Colours – Cut Copy
Along with some really promising news with regards to immediate touring plans (which i painfully refrain from spilling on here just yet, for fear of jinxing the whole deal), we suffered a huge setback with regards to the recording process for the second album. Cut a long story short, the great studio we were using, at a crazy cheap rate, has been closed. Our friend and producer Chris Morgan wants to fully continue the project elsewhere, which is great as we're all more than happy to continue our work with him, but some serious consideration is gonna need to be given as to where and exactly when we're gonna resume the process. There are a few ideas bouncing back and forth between me and Robin, not one of which we've been able to entirely agree on as of yet so the thought process continues. I myself was pretty heartbroken when i first heard the news, but upon reflection i actually now take the stance that in the grand scheme of things, it probably works out best for us. The four songs we already had down didn't quite connect as much as i hoped they would, and i've since figured out why that was. I was looking forward to going back in the studio and carrying out a grand re-patching of what we previously had down, but now it'll most certainly be a case of starting back at square one. I guess, our initial sessions can be seen as something of a trial run.
So that's where we are at the moment. Back to square one with the recording of LP2 and awaiting our first ever music video.
In the meantime, i thought i'd share a list of my very favourite albums of the last decade, between 2000 and 2010. I've been meaning to do so since the start of the year, but only found the time to do-so during some rare down time over the last week. I've tried to keep it 'in order' as best as i could, but after the eighty or so mark, things can pretty much get interchangeable i guess. By 'in order' i mean the most special to me and clostest to my heart taking up the higher positions on the list, but every record here has a place in my heart, for some genuine, obscure, ridiculous or other reason.
1) Reinventing Axl Rose – Against Me!
2) Not Enough Night – Kubichek!
3) Turn On The Bright Lights – Interpol
4) In Remote Part – Idlewild
5) Relationship Of Command – At The Drive-In
6) This Is My Ship – Dartz!
7) My Secret Is My Silence – Roddy Woomble
8) Curses – Future Of The Left
9) Forget The Night Ahead – The Twilight Sad
10) Love Is Hell – Ryan Adams
11) Dead Reckoning – Small Brown Bike
12) Caution – Hot Water Music
13) The Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit
14) You & Me – The Walkmen
15) Daisies Of The Galaxy – The Eels
16) Better Days – Fiya
17) Up In Them Guts – Planes Mistaken For Stars
18) Dry River Fishing – No Choice
19) Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad
20) From Here To Infirmary – Alkaline Trio
21) S/T – The Drips
22) Board Of Rejection – Gunmoll
23) Alligator – The National
24) Read Music / Speak Spanish – Desaparecidos
25) White Pony – Deftones
26) Source Tags & Codes - … Trail Of Dead
27) No Division – Hot Water Music
28) Patent Pending – Heavens
29) A Certain Trigger – Maximo Park
30) Desperate Youth And Bloodthirsty Babes – TV On The Radio
31) Wall Of Arms – The Maccabees
32) Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World
33) Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams
34) Give Me A Wall – Forward Russia!
35) Antics – Interpol
36) Above The City – Smoke Or Fire
37) S/T I / The Bronx
38) 100 Broken Windows – Idlewild
39) The Greatest Story Ever Hula’d – Grabass Charlestons
40) Worship & Tribute – Glassjaw
41) Shootenanny! – The Eels
42) Oxeneers – These Arms Are Snakes
43) Colour It In – The Maccabees
44) S/T – Lucero
45) The Last Broadcast – Doves
46) Journal For Plague Lovers – Manic Street Preachers
47) Capture / Release – The Rakes
48) Boys & Girls In America – The Hold Steady
49) Wiretap Scars – Sparta
50) Maybe I’ll Catch Fire – Alkaline Trio
51) Belt Up – Milloy
52) Worlds Apart - … Trail Of Dead
53) Kensington Heights – The Constantines
54) Post Electric Blues – Idlewild
55) Oh! Calcutta – The Lawrence Arms
56) Is This It? – The Strokes
57) Cease To Begin – Band Of Horses
58) S/T – Conor Oberst
59) A Weekend In The City – Bloc Party
60) Some Cities – Doves
61) Primary Colours – The Horrors
62) Home – Josh Rouse
63) Through The Windowpane – Guillemots
64) So Jealous – Tegan & Sara
65) Saturdays = Youth – M83
66) Now Here Is Nowhere – Secret Machines
67) Dear Science – TV On The Radio
68) Do You Like Rock Music? – British Sea Power
69) Magpie – Stephen Fretwell
70) The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique – Dartz!
71) Easy Tiger – Ryan Adams
72) The ’59 Sound – Gaslight Anthem
73) Madonna - … Trail Of Dead
74) Destroy Their Future – American Steel
75) Nobodies Darlings – Lucero
76) As The Eternal Cowboy – Against Me!
77) The Back Room – Editors
78) Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions – Milloy
79) Drop It Til’ It Pops – Hot Club De Paris
80) Antidotes – Foals
81) S/T – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
82) Infinity On High – Fall Out Boy
83) Travels With Myself And Another – Future Of The Left
84) For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
85) How You Gonna Scare Us Now? – K-Line
86) Paradise – Paint It Black
87) So Many You Could Never Win – Army Of Ponch
88) Lisbon – The Walkmen
89) Your New Favourite Band – The Hives
90) S/T – The Lemonheads
91) From A Basement On A Hill – Elliot Smith
92) Nashville – Josh Rouse
93) The New Romance – Pretty Girls Make Graves
94) Room On Fire – The Strokes
95) S/T – The XX
96) Make Another World – Idlewild
97) We Bare All – Radon
98) Decaydance – Head Automatica
99) Kid A – Radiohead
100) The End Of History – Fionn Regan
101) Agony & Irony – Alkaline Trio
102) Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeys
103) Gang Violins – Read Yellow
104) S/T – Deftones
105) Keep Your Heart – The Loved Ones
106) Toxicity – System Of A Down
107) Live At Los Feliz – Chuck Ragan
108) A Song To Ruin – Million Dead
109) LP III – The Soviettes
110) Ten New Messages – The Rakes
111) Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell – Killing Joke
112) In A Million Pieces – The Draft
113) Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
114) S/T – Kudzu Wish
115) Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady
116) The Eraser – Thom Yorke
117) The Sufferer & The Witness – Rise Against
118) Gold – Ryan Adams
119) High Violet – The National
120) Radios Burn Faster – Read Yellow
121) Shine A Light – Constantines
122) Isolation Drills – Guided By Voices
123) 28 – Radon
124) For Blood & Empire – Anti Flag
125) Diamond Eyes – Deftones
126) Mercy – Planes Mistaken For Stars
127) S/T – Friendly Fires
128) McLusky Do Dallas – McLusky
129) End Times – The Eels
130) Whatever People Say I Am, That Is What I Am Not – Arctic Monkeys
131) S/T – The Futureheads
132) Open Season – British Sea Power
133) Jacksonville City Night – Ryan Adams
134) The New Fellas – The Cribs
135) The Chemistry Of Common Life – Fucked Up
136) Panic Prevention – Jamie T
137) That Much Further West – Lucero
138) New Wave – Against Me!
139) Fuel For The Hate Game – Hot Water Music
140) Beyond – Dinosaur Jr
141) Where The Humans Eat – Willy Mason
142) Gold Country – Chuck Ragan
143) Original Pirate Material – The Streets
144) Absolute Dissent – Killing Joke
145) Good Health – Pretty Girls Make Graves
146) Magic – Bruce Springsteen
147) Dancing For Decadence – The Sainte Catherines
148) Futures – Jimmy Eat World
149) Death & Entrances – My Latest Novel
150) Funeral – Arcade Fire
151) Alight Of Night – Crystal Stilts
152) The New Drop Era – Young Livers
153) Twenty One – Mystery Jets
154) Ideas Above Our Station – Hundred Reasons
155) New Lexicon – Paint It Black
156) Everything All The Time – Band Of Horses
157) In Rainbows – Radiohead
158) Blinking Lights And Other Revelations – The Eels
159) Meanderthal - Torche
160) Sink Or Swim – The Gaslight Anthem
161) Promises / Warnings – Idlewild
162) From Under The Cork Tree – Fall Out Boy
163) Kingdom Of Rust – Doves
164) Hold On Now Youngster – Los Campesinos!
165) Two Suns – Bat For Lashes
166) In Boca Al Lupo – Murder By Death
167) Boxer – The National
168) Calling The Public – 59 Times The Pain
169) The Age Of The Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets
170) Supporting Caste – Propagandhi
171) Dits From The Commuter Belt – Bromheads Jacket
172) Total Life Forever – Foals
173) Good News For People Who Love Bad News – Modest Mouse
174) Cardinology – Ryan Adams
175) Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers – Lucero
176) By The Way – Red Hot Chili Peppers
177) The Song Of The Blackbird – William Elliot Whitmore
178) Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
179) The Great Depression – Defiance, Ohio
180) Farm – Dinosaur Jr
181) Truth Is A Menace – North Lincoln
182) 13 In My 31 – My Red Cell
183) Ask Mark Twain – Grabass Charlestons
184) Humbug – Arctic Monkeys
185) A Flight And A Crash – Hot Water Music
186) Left & Leaving – The Weakerthans
187) The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me – Brand New
188) Dead FM – Strike Anywhere
189) The Artist In The Ambulance – Thrice
190) Women’s Needs, Men’s Needs, Whatever – The Cribs
191) Perfecting Loneliness – Jets To Brazil
192) Society Is A Carnivorous Flower – J Church
193) Infinite Arms – Band Of Horses
194) Revolutions Per Minute – Rise Against
195) It’s Blitz – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
196) Romance Is Boring – Los Campesinos!
197) LP II – The Bronx
198) Earthquake Glue – Guided By Voices
199) Accelerate - REM
200) In Ghost Colours – Cut Copy
Monday, 24 January 2011
'The First Two Years' Release Date 24/01/2011
During the weekend we had it confirmed by Rich @ Seven Records that 'The First Two Years' will be released both physically and digitally on Monday 14th March 2011. All pre-orders of the record through the Seven Records website will automatically receive a brand new song via email. That song will be Blank Cities, which is currently in the running to appear on our second full length record which is due for release later this year. Of the four songs we already have recorded for the next record, it's the one that currently needs the least amount changed to it's current form. It's a simple, breathless melodic punk song, and listening to it takes me back to being fifteen and hearing '24 Hour Revenge Therapy' by Jawbreaker for the first time. Whereas the majority of the stuff we're writing at the moment sits heavily on the drop-D tuned, post hardcore side of the spectrum, Blank Cities serves as a bolt of simple, youthful exuberance among the more commonplace dirge. And that's no slight on the dirge, i'm all about the dirge, in fact i'll have you know that i am an otherwise forceful architect in our tireless pursuit of the dirge!
Chris Morgan wants to do another desk mix of Blank Cities before the offer of the pre-order/free download goes live on the Seven Records site, we're hoping to have a new mix by this weekend, upon reciept we will give it a once over before thorwing it over to Rich who will put the whole deal up as soon as physically possible.
So yeah, on Monday 14th March 2011, The First Two Years will be released out into the wild.
Chris Morgan wants to do another desk mix of Blank Cities before the offer of the pre-order/free download goes live on the Seven Records site, we're hoping to have a new mix by this weekend, upon reciept we will give it a once over before thorwing it over to Rich who will put the whole deal up as soon as physically possible.
So yeah, on Monday 14th March 2011, The First Two Years will be released out into the wild.
Chris Callow & Colin Kersley 24/01/2011
Huge thanks to Chris for the successful shoot on Saturday. Everything went according to plan and we all had a ton of fun before, during and after the shoot. Chris is great to work with and we all look forward to working with him again in the not too distant future. The editing and production process is set to take at least two weeks, as soon as Chris sends us back the finished article i will upload it to this site.
We also had our good friend, awesome photographer and all-round good egg Colin Kersley on set throughout the shoot, taking shots that that will serve to make up(/beef up?) the contents of 'The First Two Years' CD booklet. I got a sneak peak of some of the shots he took during the recording process, and i must say that they look pretty great, even in their current, unedited, rough-cut form.
Robin will be hard at work this week doing a manner of internet duties for the band. We need to sort out youtube, bandcamp and facebook accounts, each of which i literally wouldn't have an idea where to start with. Not to mention we need to tidy up our colossal facefuck of a myspace page, even if it will only ultimately now serve to point people in the direction of this blog and our lasf.fm page. As well as all of this, he is also knocking up a thirty second preview video for 'The First Two Years' release. Just this second had a text off the man himself to say that the 'first draft' is complete, in fact. Like the other video, i will post the finished article up here as soon as possible.
We also had our good friend, awesome photographer and all-round good egg Colin Kersley on set throughout the shoot, taking shots that that will serve to make up(/beef up?) the contents of 'The First Two Years' CD booklet. I got a sneak peak of some of the shots he took during the recording process, and i must say that they look pretty great, even in their current, unedited, rough-cut form.
Robin will be hard at work this week doing a manner of internet duties for the band. We need to sort out youtube, bandcamp and facebook accounts, each of which i literally wouldn't have an idea where to start with. Not to mention we need to tidy up our colossal facefuck of a myspace page, even if it will only ultimately now serve to point people in the direction of this blog and our lasf.fm page. As well as all of this, he is also knocking up a thirty second preview video for 'The First Two Years' release. Just this second had a text off the man himself to say that the 'first draft' is complete, in fact. Like the other video, i will post the finished article up here as soon as possible.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
First Video Shoot 20/01/2011
On Saturday we'll be recording our first music video. Our friend Chris Callow will be shooting it for us on location in our practice room, just off City Road. The room was the first place we ever had a full band practice, both with the original line-up with Kai, and with current four piece line-up now. Our first video in the first place we all ever jammed together. Seems entirely apt.
This afternoon will see me hand over £35 to a second hand store for a Chorus effects pedal. My first ever Chorus pedal, no less. To be completely honest, i don't actually know how a Chorus directly affects the sound of anything, but on the basis of me telling more than a few folks that i'm looking for a kind of 'Fables Of The Reconstruction'/'Reckoning' (REM) meets 'Talk Talk Talk' (The Psychedelic Furs) ethereal, dreamy sort of clean guitar tone on some of the new tracks. "You know you'll need a Chorus pedal, right?" was the common retort, therefore i've decided, quite blindly, and yet willingly, that other people know best. And £35 isn't too bad a hit, especially if it provides me with the sound i'm looking for, or at least close enough.
This afternoon will see me hand over £35 to a second hand store for a Chorus effects pedal. My first ever Chorus pedal, no less. To be completely honest, i don't actually know how a Chorus directly affects the sound of anything, but on the basis of me telling more than a few folks that i'm looking for a kind of 'Fables Of The Reconstruction'/'Reckoning' (REM) meets 'Talk Talk Talk' (The Psychedelic Furs) ethereal, dreamy sort of clean guitar tone on some of the new tracks. "You know you'll need a Chorus pedal, right?" was the common retort, therefore i've decided, quite blindly, and yet willingly, that other people know best. And £35 isn't too bad a hit, especially if it provides me with the sound i'm looking for, or at least close enough.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Steve Lamaq 18/01/2011
Steve Lamaq (BBC Radio 6 Music) has personally tipped solutions. as one of his 'band to watch in 2011'. Cheers Steve! Check out his show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stevelamacq/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stevelamacq/
The Best Laid Plans 18/01/2011
As well as the aforementioned 'The First Two Years' release due for March, we will also be releasing our second full length record this year. Currently very tentatively titled 'the goodnight vermont', all efforts are being made to see the record released digitally by October, with physical release to follow in 2012.
Throughout 2011 we will be in and out of the studio in Caerphilly with Chris Morgan (Midasuno/Accident Music). We already have four tracks down, everything is sounding great at the moment, Chris is a joy to work with and we're hugely looking forward to our following sessions throughout the year.
Writing for the second record really couldn't be going any better. Including the four tracks already recorded, we have eight full songs written and they're all sounding great. It's our first record as a four piece and things are coming together a great deal faster than they did for our debut record. Rhys' guitar melodies are blowing my mind, and Eddie's vocal abilities put my own to shame. The both of them have now been in the band for half a year and they've reinvented, revived and completely reinforced our sound. They feel like proper solutions now, no longer the new boys, i can't imagine the band without either of them. I'm pinching myself after practice, they're so good, and we're currently producing music of the likes i could only dream of having a hand in when i was fifteen. Whether these songs get heard by fifteen people or fifteen thousand people, doesn't really affect how strong i currently feel about the songs, they're each a joy and thrill to play, even to ourselves.
Songs in the running to appear on the second record include: House Of America, The Courage, Blank Cities, The Young And The Beautiful, The Goodnight Vermont, Gorgeous Horses and Lake Palmer.
Throughout 2011 we will be in and out of the studio in Caerphilly with Chris Morgan (Midasuno/Accident Music). We already have four tracks down, everything is sounding great at the moment, Chris is a joy to work with and we're hugely looking forward to our following sessions throughout the year.
Writing for the second record really couldn't be going any better. Including the four tracks already recorded, we have eight full songs written and they're all sounding great. It's our first record as a four piece and things are coming together a great deal faster than they did for our debut record. Rhys' guitar melodies are blowing my mind, and Eddie's vocal abilities put my own to shame. The both of them have now been in the band for half a year and they've reinvented, revived and completely reinforced our sound. They feel like proper solutions now, no longer the new boys, i can't imagine the band without either of them. I'm pinching myself after practice, they're so good, and we're currently producing music of the likes i could only dream of having a hand in when i was fifteen. Whether these songs get heard by fifteen people or fifteen thousand people, doesn't really affect how strong i currently feel about the songs, they're each a joy and thrill to play, even to ourselves.
Songs in the running to appear on the second record include: House Of America, The Courage, Blank Cities, The Young And The Beautiful, The Goodnight Vermont, Gorgeous Horses and Lake Palmer.
Band Biog / 'The First Two Years' 18/01/2011
Solutions are a progressive post hardcore band from Cardiff, South Wales. Formed in the Summer of 2008, the band take inspiration in both method and aesthetic from their forward thinking punk and post-punk forefathers, with the spirit and visceral intelligence of bands like Fugazi, These Arms Are Snakes, Manic Street Preachers, Hot Water Music, Kubichek and Husker Du unmistakably apparent in Solutions artistic endeavours to date. A resolute persistence and a strong DIY approach has already seen Solutions share the stage with established acts such as HOT WATER MUSIC, FUTURE OF THE LEFT, PAINT IT BLACK, THE MISFITS, SHARKS, STRIKE ANYWHERE, LEATHERFACE, PULLED APART BY HORSES and more.
As well as playing their part in some incredible live shows, Solutions have also received regular airplay on BBC Radio Wales thanks to some heavy support in the form of Adam Walton, whom the band recorded a studio session for in January 2009, and also from Bethan Elfyn, whom the band recorded a live session for as part of a BBC Introducing show.
In December 2009, the band self released their debut album, ‘Before The Roars’, to widespread critical acclaim, garnering particularly high praise in Rock Sound magazine, earning the band a ‘Hot New Music’ feature in the same issue. In June 2010, the band recorded and released four brand new tracks for a split EP with Cardiff post-hardcore quintet Goodtime Boys.
March 2011 will see the physical and digital release of a seventeen track retrospective record entitled 'The First Two Years' via Seven Records. The track listing for the release is as follows...
1) Fighting Tigers
2) The Rest Will Follow
3) I Turned To Knife Crime
4) You Can’t Outnumber A Mathematician
5) A Devil Among The Dancers
6) Where The Good Ships Go To Sink
7) Sons Of Daughters
8) Mary Anne, Come Out Tonight
9) Young Loins
10) Ghost Writers
11) Mexican Waves
12) In Threes
13) Apparatus Separator
14) A Devil Among The Dancers
15) Young Hearts
16) To Die A Pioneer!
17) Stone Cobras
Tracks 1 – 9 taken from the ‘Before The Roars’ LP, self-released in December 2009
Tracks 10 – 13 taken from Solutions/Goodtime Boys Split EP, self-released in April 2010
Tracks 14, 15 & 16 taken from the BBC Wales Introducing sessions for Adam Walton, recorded in February 2009.
Track 17 is an unreleased track from the ‘Fighting Tigers’ promo sessions, recorded in July 2009.
Tracks 1 – 13 & 17 recorded with Todd Campbell @ Skwad HQ.
Tracks 14, 15 & 16 recorded with Carl Bevan @ The Shed.
As well as playing their part in some incredible live shows, Solutions have also received regular airplay on BBC Radio Wales thanks to some heavy support in the form of Adam Walton, whom the band recorded a studio session for in January 2009, and also from Bethan Elfyn, whom the band recorded a live session for as part of a BBC Introducing show.
In December 2009, the band self released their debut album, ‘Before The Roars’, to widespread critical acclaim, garnering particularly high praise in Rock Sound magazine, earning the band a ‘Hot New Music’ feature in the same issue. In June 2010, the band recorded and released four brand new tracks for a split EP with Cardiff post-hardcore quintet Goodtime Boys.
March 2011 will see the physical and digital release of a seventeen track retrospective record entitled 'The First Two Years' via Seven Records. The track listing for the release is as follows...
1) Fighting Tigers
2) The Rest Will Follow
3) I Turned To Knife Crime
4) You Can’t Outnumber A Mathematician
5) A Devil Among The Dancers
6) Where The Good Ships Go To Sink
7) Sons Of Daughters
8) Mary Anne, Come Out Tonight
9) Young Loins
10) Ghost Writers
11) Mexican Waves
12) In Threes
13) Apparatus Separator
14) A Devil Among The Dancers
15) Young Hearts
16) To Die A Pioneer!
17) Stone Cobras
Tracks 1 – 9 taken from the ‘Before The Roars’ LP, self-released in December 2009
Tracks 10 – 13 taken from Solutions/Goodtime Boys Split EP, self-released in April 2010
Tracks 14, 15 & 16 taken from the BBC Wales Introducing sessions for Adam Walton, recorded in February 2009.
Track 17 is an unreleased track from the ‘Fighting Tigers’ promo sessions, recorded in July 2009.
Tracks 1 – 13 & 17 recorded with Todd Campbell @ Skwad HQ.
Tracks 14, 15 & 16 recorded with Carl Bevan @ The Shed.
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