Wednesday 26 May 2010

Stuff What Is Happening

This went out to the Hello Thor mailing list earlier, and there was such a lot of nice stuff on there I thought I'd post it up here too:

THREE BANDS PLUS CRAFT AND FOOD IN A GALLERY FOR FREE



This Saturday night (29th May), our good friends Yunioshi are launching their new 5 track EP “How to survive a robot uprising” at Nottingham Contemporary. As well as Yunioshi and their super-fun brand of electro funk, there will also be the sunshine pop of Spaceships Are Cool and the indie-folk of the brilliant Japanese Sleepers. Plus a craft competition and, no doubt, something scrumptious courtesy of the Yunioshi catering corps. Free.

TWO BANDS AND US DJING IN ANOTHER GALLERY


Then, the Saturday after (5th June) we’ll be DJing at the launch of the new single by Hhymn at the Refectory (Hooton Street, off Carlton Road, Nottingham). Also playing will be one of our own…the very wonderful We Show Up On RadaR. £3.

TEN ACE SONGS INCLUDING ONE CALLED "LEGO RULES" TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE


One of the greatest bands we have ever had the pleasure of putting on was the much-missed Death By TV - two 16-year olds from Loughborough who enjoyed drinking lemonade, jumping into each other, and making very exciting, very immature, very fun casio-punk in their bedrooms. They played a few gigs, changed their name several times and then split up to be famous, or clever, or something. We’re super happy that their entire discography is now available to download for free from http://www.methodistleisure.com/deathbytv/. Do it, you won't be sorry.

AND FINALLY


Actually, that’s about it for now. We’ll be back soon, but in the mean time, look out for Fists and We Show Up On RadaR at various festivals this summer (Summer Sundae, Y-Not, Splendour…plus more to come), and don’t forget you can buy their records from our website.

Also remember that we hold court at the Alley CafĂ© on the third Thursday of every month with Nottingham’s finest, funnest, free-est felt tips & folk night, Jumpers For Goalposts. Next month (Thurs 17th June) Japanese Sleepers are playing live. Hope to see you there.

 
Bex
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Morning!

It's a grey day today, but after the lovely weekend I still feel all full up of sunshine. Spent most of the weekend working in the garden, and managing not to get sunburned, which is a first for me! I switched some bluebells from the front garden to the back, potted up some cuttings from my herbs, trimmed the hedge, did some weeding, painted the fence, tidied up and began a war against slugs and snails. Now, we're an organic garden, so what to do? Obviously I don't want to stand on them because that's gross & mean, but I also don't want them to eat my newly bought & installed beautiful plants right down until they are nothing but stubs in the ground. [So far they've eaten at least £20 worth...and counting...]. So, I'm trying various things.

First off, coffee grounds, which didn't seem to be effective in the least, but which I've since figured out is at least slowing them down! Thanks to the Little Deli in Carrington for their kind provision in one day of more coffee grounds than we could manage in a week! I've since been recommended digging a plastic cup of beer into the ground and giving them a drink before they (unfortunately) die. For a while we did try taking them round to the park, but apparently they have a homing instinct which works for up to 4 miles, so that's not going to be any use at all! [This instinct has been contested by Joey Chickenskin and apparently I have to put a dot of nail varnish on the snails and see if they come back, if I get round to doing that I'll let you know how it goes!]

Anyway, garden pests aside, it's really nice to work in the garden, to plant stuff and see it grow (or not), to figure out where you've made a mistake and fix it for next time, and then at some point to end up with a bunch of flowers for the bees, seeds for the birds and vegetables for us! It's also really nice to listen to the blackbird who has taken up residence nearby, who Anders described as being "The Police Academy Guy of birds" because it makes all different noises like alarms, bells, beeps and whistles.

I did actually mean to write a whole different post today, but it seems that's what's on my mind, so there we have it!

bex
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Friday 21 May 2010

Spring Fling!

Just wanted to mention that I Dress Myself are having a Spring Fling Studio Sale tomorrow! We're pretty lucky to have such a creative design & printing force on our doorstep, so I hope lots of people will come down and get bargains!


Here's all the info:


This Saturday, the I Dress Myself print studio is opening it's doors for our first studio sale, the Spring Fling. Jon Burgerman will be doodling on the day, Nicholas Saunders will be screen printing some limited edition posters, Norm from Waste will be screen printing some amazing tees and we'll be selling vegan cakes....oh, and lots of other stuff.


Back catalogue tees will be on sale for £10 each and we're putting together a bargain bin of test prints, misprints and random stuff for £5 each. If that's not enough, all our current products will be available for 20% off. All for one day only!


Come to the studio sale:

When: Saturday 22nd May 2010 12-4 pm
Where: I Dress Myself, 32-40 Carrington Street, Nottingham, NG1 7FG






PLUS! It's the final episode of Ashes to Ashes tonight. I haven't seen the whole series, but I'm sad it's totally ending. I love Gene Hunt. He's an amazing creation!


AND I'd like to say a very happy birthday to Mr Joe Wrigley, in case he reads this. See you on Sunday!


Love Bex
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Saturday 8 May 2010

BURLYYYYYYYY NAGASAKIIIIIIIIIIIIII !!!!!!!!!

Went to the Burly Nagasaki Album Launch @ the Chameleon last night. It was ace. It helped that they'd chosen 3 bands/artists to play with who I really like and that everyone there seemed full of friendliness and goodwill and cheer.

First up was Matthew Stephen Cooper who I've only seen in the teenytiny space at the Alley Cafe when he played Jumpers For Goalposts. It was really good to see him with a big soundsystem and to hear his playing & singing properly.

THEN came the wonderful Smell of Success, aka the very talented Joe & BD. They played some new tunes which BD told us he'd only learned 1 week ago. It showed a little round the edges, but not in a way that took away from how good the songwriting was and they were still full of heart and melody and sounded great. Plus Joe looked super cool with a sharp suit and shades and an old-school keyboard.

NEXT came the big BURLY NAGASAKI set. Having been lucky enough to hear the album when we made the video for forthcoming single Fools' Gold, I was really excited to hear it live. They opened with a supercool Berlin-influenced underground dance piece with an awesome performance art aspect to it in the shape of an awful ear-splitting electronic feedback-type of noise which prompted some kindly help from a member of 20 Year Hurricane who thought that something was genuinely going wrong. Music where people think something is going wrong is brilliant, like the Tom Tomas Club at the Alley Cafe covering Prince and having a member of the audience genuinely concerned shouting "What's going wrong?"! Anyway, awesome intro over Tez & Joey treated us to a full live album set including the following instruments: guitar, drums, saw, keyboard, sandwiches, scissors, ukelele, a giant cardboard gun, an apron and probably more that I've forgotten. There was a brilliant air of rehearsal about it, with a few false starts and a couple of "who begins the next one?" moments. I was really into that, like this was the rehearsal show and next week the whole night would run again and everyone would be note perfect. We were seeing something special with a few charming, minor imperfections which gave it its heart.

I think my favourite moment was the crowd singalong to "look at all the babies we've killed" and then Joey's explanation story about Elvis. Ask him if you want to know what it is.

LAST but of course not least, were Twenty Year Hurricane. Despite Nick's proclamations that their opener was a new song and was probably going to be rubbish it worked really well. The sound in the chameleon is really good, credit to Simon the sound engineer, and it's so nice to hear bands you like playing there. the Hurricane sounded great and even though the crowd thinned a little they still really created an atmosphere. Gareth is ace on the drums, really playing and smiling and involved, Chris on bass is focused and intense and Nick singing has a charm all of his own. (Nick if you read this i mean that in a good way I promise x).

Anyway, few pics here, more Burly gigs to come, can't wait!

Random layout once again courtesy of Blogger. Well done Blogger team.

Bought a Burly Nagaasaki album for only £4. Haven't looked through it and my goodies properly yet as I'm waiting for Anders to return from a stag weekend. Can't wait though, looks choc-full of fun!

bye for now
x
Bex

Wednesday 5 May 2010

The Election: Who Wins? You Decide!

Just read an incredible article on the election on the Guardian's website. I've been a bit wavering, still undecided one day before the election whether to vote Liberal or Labour, whether I know enough about either to make an informed choice is debatable. I feel a lot more involved and aware in this election thanks to the TV debates, but I haven't read any manifestos and still feel I have only a scant knowledge of each party's policies. Anyway, this made for fascinating, horrifying reading. I'll copy a bit in, but I urge you to read the article in full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/05/1983-cameron-victory-kinnocks-words

On the eve of the 1983 election – which, until this year, seemed destined to represent for ever the low watermark of Labour performances – a young member of the party's shadow cabinet delivered what was to be one of his most compelling speeches. Neil Kinnock knew a landslide defeat was imminent so, speaking in Bridgend, he sketched the world to come. "I warn you," he began, addressing a nation about to descend into the bitterest stretch of the Thatcher era. "I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old."

and

I warn you that the economy could slide back into despair. Maybe people have not paid attention to this argument because Gordon Brown has been making it, but the danger is real. A sudden shut-off of the public spending tap could well send a frail recovery staggering back into recession: the dreaded double-dip. It's happened elsewhere and could happen here. The US and other economies are seeing the tide turn, but that's because they've kept the public cash coming. Cameron's aim, played down in the rhetoric because it polled so badly, is to cut spending immediately, ushering in what he once proudly trumpeted as an "age of austerity".


I kind of wanted to copy and paste the whole article then. Anyway, hope you're going to vote tomorrow, however you're going to vote.

Becky
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