Here’s one of the tracks recorded for our album, a bit of a mood setter/slow starter and all that. Get you in a laid back vibe, like R Kelly bump and grind before you knew about his behaviour.
Some blogs have said some really nice stuff about it…look!
“ they are shaping up to give it one hell of a kick up the arse” – Artrocker HERE
“Club Smith may hold the keys to the revival of British guitar music” – Music Broke my bones - HERE
“the band have not been letting up, and steadily have been permeating across the online community sharing their love of The Smiths (really had to think hard about that one) cruising with The Maccabees-style guitar indie – and it has indeed got to the point where this foursome’s music can be brought to bear around their contemporaries…” Killing Moon Records – HERE
“Beautiful & Useless remains firmly fixed on the RotD playlist after we were sent it last week. The chorus has proven unforgettable” - Record of the day – Today! – HERE - admittedly this is a different song…so completely irrelevant.
That’s nice isn’t it. There was one russian one but I don’t know how to speak russian…yet.
Club Smith in Derby - Picture courtesy of Sarah Abigail Bottomley
And so the tour rolls on, after Southend on Sunday we moved onto London to do our own show. It was surprisingly busy and responsive for a London show, as such is the bustle of the capital we often fear being drowned out by people’s thoughts of getting ahead and what not. We also met a lovely bunch of people called Apple Eyes.
We then went to hit the travelodge. However our rooms had been given away, apparently it’s standard practice to overbook by 5 rooms? I pointed and shouted at the guy whilst wearing an 80s mac and the angry Rick Astley routine seemed to work and he booked us into a hotel 10 miles away. We got there and we weren’t booked in. We went back to the travelodge and he sent us another 10 miles away. We slept there and when we got up travelodge still hadn’t paid for the room. We were very outraged so booked into a spa. If there has ever been a more middle class/middle aged solution to a problem on tour I’d like to know it.
Here are 2 of our comrades on tour. The man on the left is Will who does our monitor sound, and the man on the right is Dudley who is selling our merch and driving us. They are both heroes of ours. Will has no volume control on his voice and Dudley has no control over whether what he says is appropriate, so it’s a great combination. One guy shouting all the time the other dishing out outrageous faux pas.
Guildford was great, as was Derby. We’ve sold an outrageous amount of cds and vinyls on tour now. A guy with Kaiser Chiefs told us it was probably enough to chart, which is a bit nuts. We still have time on the merch stand to deface a Jim Davidson flyer though…
So three days into the tour and it’s been quite incredible fun. The crowds have been amazingly responsive to us, the crew and other bands are really friendly and helpful, and we’ve sold out of our tour cds to the point that we need to courier in some new ones for the next gig tomorrow. The down point is every time we get to accommodation our group flips coins to see who won’t sleep in the same room as me due to snoring (I BOUGHT A BLOODY SNORE GUARD TOO), which is a real blow to the confidence…bastards.
Above is a picture from LLandudno. North Wales is pretty cool, some nice cliffs and a right rowdy bunch for a crowd…all of whom were massively charming after.
Here’s a picture from Reading in soundcheck…
The Hexagon was some kind of awesome 80′s spaceship type building with outrageous garish dressing room and posters of heritage act stars in the catering room (Gaby Rosling in various musicals).
The gig was again great, and I’ve managed to cut open two fingers now playing guitar. I like the idea of saying it’s down to being right active on stage and what not but it’s probably due to being pretty bad at playing guitar properly.
Above is a picture from outside Southend Pavillions, where they’ve just finished a round of legally blonde the musical and last night hosted Kaiser Chiefs, All the Young and Club Smith. I think this was our best gig so far, we’d gone out for Lee’s birthday after Reading I thought I was going to cry 2 minutes before stage time I was so hungover…but I think it brought the best out of us. Really could do with a good cry though sometime soon, been a while.
Tonight…London our own gig at the Garage in Islington!
Hey, bad news! it seems our Manchester gig is not happening now…we’ll be back there soon though… have a look at the tour poster below, and omit the Manchester date from your eyes and see if there’s anything else that takes your fancy…
You know we at Club Smith have been banging on about recording a lot? I suppose it makes a change from talking about boxing a lot, which I have, the entire last year, such is the lack of dimension in my personal interests since making this music video. Anyway, we sent a new track from the album we just recorded to Artrocker…
…and they only put it on their website! It’s at this link below:
Some nice words said indeed. I think they said we might help save the world which is pretty cool. Oh no, I think it was just saving guitar music, not quite as important as saving the world, but pretty close? No? No? Ok.
Woo, website is complete, new banners! I’m the only one that probably cares! woo!
We’re excited at Club Smith towers because we’re getting another album mix through, when you’re mixing a recording and you’re doing it remotely you have these periods of time where you’re just waiting for the changes you asked to be made to recordings to come through. It’s better than us breathing down the mixers’ neck for hours while they are done, but when you’re waiting it’s PURGATORY. We’re going in to the studio to finalise everything this week. Exciting. We do not yet know how we will release this yet…one thing at a time I guess…one expensive and confusing thing at a time…
Anyway, enough about me, ok just a little more about me…last year about this time I had the gumption to try and identify some new music for 2011 I thought would become awesome. I’ve learnt that was an arrogant and presumptuous move, but I’m going to do it again because I’m quite frankly well into my own opinions and when I’m alone in the house on a Sunday doing nothing it seems acceptable that the virtual world can appropriate the idea in my head that these opinions should be shared with all. It’s your fault internet.
Please note…most of this is Leeds centric as it’s where I live…
The world needs Stalking Horse, I’m entirely convinced that their album needs to come out this year. It’s a guy who used to be in a Leeds band called This et al who recorded a really really awesome album then split up. They were very good live. Anyway the singer has a new thing, and it’s called Stalking Horse and sounds a bit like In Rainbows by Radiohead had it been more 60′s girl group. It’s true. The album has a wicked track called 99 stairs which I can’t find recorded on the internet, but I found it live…so you can hear it HERE.
Ellen and the Escapades
This lot have been doing loads of stuff like playing Glastonbury and what not, but I think their album is coming out this year. It’s overly nice folk. It’s so nice I feel like volunteering for a soup kitchen every time I hear it. Once it’s finished I return to being completely self-concerned of course. Perfect. I think what makes it stand out a bit is the vocals of the lead singer, which I think sounds a bit like when you pick up a shell at the seaside and put to your ear. Perhaps she records vocals through a really good shell, or perhaps she’s just a great singer…I love the mystery?
This video is by our friends “B-side” who have done numerous great videos for Club Smith.
This guy occasionally plays footie with me on a Monday night, he’s outrageously tricky, but on the old guitar he’s a bit more laid back. I think, though I’ve not actually asked, that he might have his album out this year. He got his first Radio 1 daytime play this week which is really awesome, and recently a youtube video got something like a million views after youtube playlisted it. All deservedly so…this song is my favourite, it shows off his voice, which I think sounds like it is made out of wood. I hope to provide more absurd descriptions of voices later on in this post.
I’m appearing to be indulging in serious nepotism of sorts now, as this is a band we’ve played with in York a couple of times, and they have another video by B-side, and this song used the same producer as us, so basically I have no imagination? Well I think it’s good, the chorus feels pretty strong but I can’t quite warm to the voice/delivery yet, though I like the little bit of distortion on it.
Paul Thomas Saunders
Yes I did actually point this guy out a year ago. However he’s just multiplying his awesomeness. I think he’s now signed to a major label which I assume means everyone will get exposed to him more. Sounds kind of smutty but I think that’s good. Here is my favourite song off his second EP release: Paul Thomas Saunders – Good Time Rags And Requiems by Paul Thomas Saunders
Owen Richards / Owen Brinley
Please retain these names in your mind. Confusing, because there are two, not sure which one he’ll go by this time. He is the former singer of Grammatics, a horribly under-exposed band from Leeds. He’s recording an album and the producer (who was one of ours) let me hear a bit of one song and it sounds a bit like a male Bjork or something. Massive statement of the post number 2 there. Anyway I think he’s some kind of musical genius he just needs to find his stride, let’s hope this happens this year. Here’s a track from his old band: Grammatics – Broken Wing by James Kenosha
It’s probably the most poppy thing by Grammatics, the album they did was AWESOME. Grower. PERSONAL FACT: This particular song attached itself to me like a limpet for the month following the death of my mother. I’ve probably got a wildly affected opinion of it, but I’m hugely thankful for it as it seemed to speak to me personally without actually being in anyway related to me…I had assumed it was about missing a huge chunk of yourself in some way, and listening to it helped make me feel less than completely alone…isn’t it bloody lovely when songs do that?
Goyte
No point in pretending I’m not a thousand miles behind everyone else on this, but I only discovered it this weekend, and apparently the UK release is this year…it’s a really incredible song and video…
Lonewolf
This guy’s new album should be out on Bella Union (fleet foxes) label this year…not got any links to the music, but keep an eye out it will be Saaaweeet. Check out his previous super hit below:
Hey, been a while…why? Well there was a new version of the website thing I had to get and I had to upgrade some database thing and it took ages. God I’m so boring.
Anyway we had the best time supporting Shed Seven, it was a watershed (sorry) moment for us, due to them being from York as we originally are, and they also once coming third in Fibbers battle of the bands, as I once did, somehow it hasn’t held them back but I’m still bitter years on.
Here are some pictures from the night, Shed Seven were fine characters (some of the finest we’ve ever played with and a really nice crew too), they introduced themselves in our dressing room just as I was exiting the toilet which had no towels in, I had to dry my hands on the calf area of my jeans (my usual choice of jean area actually) before extending my hand. It was embarrassing, but I think we got over it as Rick Witter gave me an enormous hug after the gig. A really powerful one. I felt all the power of the 90s in his embrace and I shall cherish it.
Shed Seven performing Chasing rainbows. notice the rainbow...you see it? Oh you did...cool.
First two pics were by our buddy Helen, 3rd one by Vijay. Also if you know Shed Seven you may know they did a song called “She left me on Friday”. On Friday night onstage I said to the crowd “has anyone’s girlfriend left them today?” in reference to the song. It was a spectacular failure of a joke, and I was punished by complete indifference/bewilderment.
Club Smith are in Music Week which is a music magazine for those who work in music and like to use other senses other than their ears with music. Tom Robinson of 6music gave us massive props. What a dude!
