FLEA MARKET POETS's Blog
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59:1 gig, new recordings, Irish tour.... news, basically.
Having witnessed so many fine bands (The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Turin Brakes, Anajo, and Oh Napoleon to name but a few) grace the boards of 59:1 in recent years, it felt great to finally get to play a concert at my favourite music venue here in Munich. It was a big step up for us in terms of both expectations and the size of crowd that we have been playing to over the last few years. We did rehearse really hard for this show, but at the same time we were determined to enjoy it and organise the event so it would feel more like a party for not just the band, but anyone that came.
We were really delighted that our friend Ollie's band "Celeste" were available to play, and it was fantastic that the stars were in alignment to allow our Irish friends "Identity Parade" to swing by Munich on their first German tour and open the night. Sadly for them, Mr Volcano put pay to their excursion to Berlin, but that kind of luck was surely at the back of their minds by the time they were rocking out to the early doors crowd at 59:1. Besides from having one of the tallest (and most genuine) lead singers in the world, and one that made most of my girlfriends swoon with delight, these guys have a really good handle on how to wear their mod influences on their sleeve, but at the same time create a sound that is fresh and exciting and very much in the here and now. It's a slight shame that they were forced to play so early as people were arriving - we had a strict curfew to stick to and the venue is not used to accommodating three bands in one night - however, it made for a cracking start to the evening. "Celeste" raised the bar even higher. They've been together a long time, cut their teeth on the indie circuit over a period of years, and really honed their style of music. At one point, Mr Purcell grabbed the microphone and took a wander off round the front row of the audience to much applause, which really added to the party mood. A really great band to see live, and with their songs and sound neatly side-stepping any form of lazy generic classification, I found them a complete breath of fresh air in an otherwise cramped and sweaty venue ;-)
We hope that our FMP set was well-received by most. Despite a slight misunderstanding with the sound guy resulting in the stage sound being flooded with a wall of reverb for the first few songs, we were pleased that our newer more punky/poppy/call-it-what-you-wanty songs seemed to be going down pretty well. Obviously, as people that write and record music it's of tantamount importance that the "thing" you're currently doing is stuff that people are going to like. It gave us a lot of confidence and encouragement to now go into the studio and try and recreate all of this on our second album. People seemed to be quite complimentary about the live version of "Jessie's Reel", which is obviously just acoustic on Dirty Days, so we are going to try and put a live recording up here on MySpace for you to download very shortly (I agree too that it's much more lively with drums).
At the close of our show, which capped off an amazing night for me personally, Marc Zimmerman then began his "Factory Night" DJ set, playing basically almost my entire record collection from the previous decade. My mate Pete and I jumped about like giddy teenagers to the likes of Lush, Ride, Chapterhouse, and The Happy Mondays, before stumbling off home about 4:30am. I can heartily recommend checking out future "Factory Night" if both old shoegaze and new indie-pop like "The Pains.." is your cup of tea, and also any "Lunastrom" nights have a great party atmosphere.
We then had our first recording session over the weekend just passed, and although as sod's law would predict we got to witness the first break in the Munich clouds since last month from a dank and gloomy recording studio, the five new songs that we began to work on were very encouraging. Particularly, Joschy our new drummer, played exceptionally well, and coupled with some stonking bass lines by your's truly, the rhythm tracks in general are of a much higher-caliber (I think) than Dirty Days. We managed to complete a new song called "Halfway", which we are hoping to get ready, mixed, and out there in time for the Irish tour in July. It's an upbeat and very summery tune, which I have high hopes for in terms of its radio potential. I'm pretty nervous actually, because this is the first song that Jason and I wrote together, with him providing the words and the melody to a piece of music that I'd been working on just prior to joining the band permanently last year. I hope people like it. We'll be posting it up here very shortly I'm sure.
So, the Irish tour seems to be shaping up nicely, and we should within the next week have all the dates fixed. There will be three or possibly four full-band shows in the first week of July along with about the same number of acoustic dates. We're delighted to be joined on the full-band dates by Joschy's mate Tobias Egger on bass - Mike B our normal four-string whizz was sadly unavailable this time round. Tobi's background is metal, which brings an exciting element into the frame, and I know through messing around playing Jam covers in the practice room with him and Joschy what a competent and skilled player he is. I think we're going to sound better and tighter than ever before by the time we get to the Emerald Isle if all goes to plan.
More to follow shortly, but in the meantime thanks to everyone that came to 59:1 and the three recent Tonhalle shows, and stay tuned....
Hx -
Stuttgart gig cancellation
Unfortunately, we're sorry but we have to pull out of our appearance in Stuttgart this Friday. Captain Serious is currently stranded in an airport departure lounge in Atlanta, because of the naughty volcano lava-palava. We're going to dispatch a squad-team to severely spank it with a wet plimsol. Hopefully it will then behave itself in future. Hx -
Gig cancellation - 22nd May
Unfortunately, due to recording commitments we will be unable to play the Nachtflohmarkt next month.
However, this event still carries a great line-up and, if you are not aware already, then both these bands will be worth checking out:
http://www.myspace.com/mexicanelvis
http://www.myspace.com/dearhenrybliss
.... I'll definitely be recording my guitars at double-speed so I can get out of the studio and down for a few beers that evening ;-)
Hx
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Ireland 101
Current mood:
gratefulThe important points:
- Bass players are not technically capable of being in charge of operating anything other than a remote-controlled car (with no passengers... not even an Action Man fixed to the roof with elastic bands would be safe), let alone Ireland’s biggest tour-bus (henceforth, known as “The Beast”).
- Cork is home to some of the biggest seagulls I have ever seen. You know like the greedy fat fucks that lurk above Newquay beach waiting to swoop down and nick the Cornish Pasty straight out of your hand? Multiply that by two and you are somewhere close.
- Walk and carry the equipment everywhere, wherever possible, as turning right is banned on 99% of Irish highways. Apparently, it is punishable by death or something.
- Dublin is a bit like London except that it has a giant penis injecting friendliness and goodwill into the sky.
- Limerick’s premier car thief, who operates with the stealth of Macavity The Cat, is now in possession of the most sarcastic satellite navigation system ever to exist. Good luck being led round in circles and "Mally", as we christened her, randomly switching herself off at critical points during the trip. You didn’t defeat us sir, we just merely bought a map… thus doing our bit for the Irish economy. Lovely.
- Everyone should go on Dublin's "Ghost Bus" tour if the opportunity arises and preferably more than once.
- Irish ale is very pure, and therefore subsequently you are less likely to suffer from a hangover, which is good news for functional alcoholics all around the world planning on making the trip.
- When one is lost in an unfamiliar Irish town the correct course of action is to take random turns to find the correct destination. This operates at about a 98% success rate.
- We all instantly wanted to move to Galway, but the one thing that stopped us in our tracks was the price of beer.
- The shops in Kilkenny refuse to sell things displayed in the window. It’s a sort of “in joke” that although holiday-makers (and touring bands) fail to understand, the locals regard with a sharpness of wit that Oscar Wilde himself would have been proud of.
So, of course, as you will have already noted we had a fantastic time and can’t wait to go back. My brain is still puddled from the experience and major parts of the tour still remain a total blur, but despite one or two hitches along the way the whole experience was a lot of fun. The concerts were one giant party spread over 10 days, the radio interviews and acoustic sessions were richly rewarding, and the BalconyTV thing was a total hoot. Along the way we had some great support bands and made a lot of friends. “Exit The Street” set the tone in Cork with a stonking opening set, followed in Limerick and Galway by the mod-tastic “Identity Parade”. A special thanks to these guys for going out of their way to help us with equipment loan, and particularly as they were so busy with other gigs and stuff in between the shows. Our support for the last show in Dublin was the mighty “Bipolar Empire” who came to our rescue at the last minute and managed to get us a drum kit for the Tower Records in-store concert just in the nick of time! *stands and salutes*
We'd like to thank all the fine people that took us under their respective wings during the trip. Francesca and Ger in Cork, firstly, for relieving my Cork one-way system dyslexia by actually enabling The Beast and I to locate the Pavillion (of course, countless wheelie bins were murdered during the load-in, but let's just put that down to collateral damage), and secondly for coming down to the show and sharing a few beers and some great conversation after. The next night we were lucky enough to receive an after-show tour of Limerick's wacky night-life courtesy of Nadene who proved to be a perfect guide, and who also even managed to put up with Captain Serious and I acting like totally embarrassing buffoons on the dance floor. I know that we both rolled out of the taxi at the end of the night with big smiles on our faces, and, in his case, still sipping from the same large glass of red wine that he had been carefully guarding since we left Dolan's. Galway was somewhat of a blur, but I definitely remember something called "Galway Hooker" that proved to be very popular, and an amusing chap called "John" who was so drunk that he evidently forgot he had been guest-listed for next day's show. Far too many people to mention in Dublin, so I'll just say everyone that came to the concert and hung around afterwards to chat, oh, and my friend Julia (well, I'm the one writing this blog so some favouritism is ok yes?) for coming out despite being severely jet-lagged.
Special thanks to our good friend Mike for stepping in and doing such a fine job on bass for the Galway show, thus allowing me to swap to 6-strings for one night and proceed to murder all of Brian's guitar parts (Brian had to dive back to Munich to get to a Kammerspieler gig).
Of course, there were lowlights as well. Grainne sloping off to be interviewed by Ashley Keating (drummer in one of my favourite Irish bands, and heavens I am showing my age now….) without telling me had to top the list, and also playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right places during the first few songs at the Galway show was a tad annoying, however I did get to go on the “Ghost Bus” tour. Did I mention how cool the “Ghost Bus” tour was?
Spooky!
Hx