Bordeauxxx's Holiday Disasters

Hayfever to tell: Bordeauxx will be found in many a field this summer.

Back in May of this year, Bordeauxxx released their debut single and follow up to last year’s stormer of an EP Mother’s Ruin; the marvellously titled Every Holiday is a Disaster. The Guildford quintet, who all met at university, decided to start a band due to a mutual love of beautifully uncomplicated pop music, glockenspiels, and their guitarist’s haircut (their words, not mine!) They also have a music video which contains loads of balloons and a naked man. So far they’ve been championed by Tom Robinson on BBC6 and have played an impressive number of shows across the south of England – it’s fair to say it’s only a matter of time before they bring their infectious brand of indie-pop to northern climes. We certainly could do with some cheering up considering how damp this holiday season has been, eh?  It could be worse than soggy trainers and a t-shirt tan though, as I found out when I caught up with the band to discuss their own personal holiday disasters....

Jon (drums)
“My worst holiday was definitely a family camping trip to Hastings. I've got nothing against Hastings - it has some of the finest crazy golf courses known to man - but on this occasion it rained. And rained. And rained. I've got nothing against rain either, but when you have to get up at 2am to dig a foot wide trench around your tent and STILL wake up an hour later with an inch of water inside, it's probably time to call it quits and look up the local B&Bs...”

Martin (vocals/keys)

 “I once had a holiday experience that changed my life. If you're under say, twelve years old, everything I'm about to say is a lie. I was eleven at the time, in Spain with my mum and sister having a brilliant time - great weather, great hotel, we even made some friends which became pen pals for years to come. It was the last night, and we were all a bit sad to be leaving, though excitedly planning on doing the same thing the next year. To our surprise, mum agreed, since 'we all know the truth about Father Christmas now'. This of course was a fair plan - less extravagant Christmas, more exciting summer holiday. The twist is that I had absolutely no idea of this truth, and it's a sentence i'll remember for the rest of my life.”

Nat (guitar)

“I don't think I've had actually had a bad holiday experience as such. Probably my least enjoyable holiday was the one where I chose a book about suicide for my pool-side reading, and foolishly kept reading it, which put me in a bit of a mood the whole time. There are also always worst segments of holidays. I always hated being dragged around castle ruins- to quote my nan, once you've seen one you've seen them all! But these were always given a silver lining if my parents bought me a sword from the gift shop.”

Charlie (guitar)

“My worst holiday was probably on a trip to the south of France when I was about 14 and our car broke down 20 miles outside of Calais. This resulted in us being towed to a scrapheap in the middle of nowhere and sitting in the car for many hours whilst we tried to sort out how to get our car back to Calais where there was a garage. We got there late that night and ended up not leaving Calais until the next morning. In fact the following year a different car we were in broke down just before we got on the ferry at Dover, which was quite funny.”

Amy (bass)

“When I was in Year Nine I went on a school trip to Germany. When I arrived I shared a room with one of my friends and we unpacked our stuff. When we got on the beds loads of ants started crawling all over us. It was rank! Also on the same trip the food was horrid, they were feeding us horrid meat and stale bread. Besides all this the trip was fun...”

This summer the band will be braving festival showers at Leefest in Bromley with British Sea Power and Stagecoach, Knee Deep Festival in Cornwall with Tall Ships and Summer Westival in Aldershot with Johnny Foreigner and Dananananaykroyd. Catch ‘em if you can.

Every Holiday is a Disaster, along with last year’s Mother’s Ruin EP, can be downloaded from bordeauxxx.bandcamp.com 

Every Holiday Is A Disaster by bordeauxxx

Distorted Tapes meets... Lady Fortune

Lady Fortune (L-R): Lyndon, Paul and Nick

Telford has never really been seen as a hot-bed of musical talent, however Lady Fortune prove there is more to the New Town than the town park maze and dimly lit shopping centre. Their latest single, I Feel So Slightly Strange, has  already gained support from BBC DJs, being played by Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins and Tom Robinson. I caught up with the three-piece to chat about  festivals, running their own label, and their mysterious debut album...

For those who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe your sound in three words – one word each, no conferring?

Nick Robinson (Vocals, Guitar): Catchy
Paul Pugh (Bass, Vocals): Non-Pop
Lyndon Thompson (Drums, Vocals): DIY

How did you three originally come together?

N: Lyndon served me tea at New College in Telford. I wasn’t at New College, but I went to watch some bands play on the advice of a friend. So I met Lyndon, we had various members playing bass until Paul came along. Paul used to play in a band from Birmingham which I used to follow pretty religiously, and he told me he was looking to play bass so I thought ‘brilliant’, and as I was to find guitarists do make great bassists! That would have been around October 2006, because Paul’s first gig with us was my dad’s 50^th Birthday. Our first proper gig was in Leeds…
P: …and I was drunk.

Over the years you’ve developed a very strong local following – why do you think you have managed to hit such a note in Telford?

N: We’re normally quite friendly, but I was thinking about this the other day. A friend said he didn’t think many people would come and watch his band if they weren’t friends with them and I said ‘to be fair, we wouldn’t have met if you weren’t in an awesome band.’ I suppose you make friends because people regularly come to your shows. I’d say that probably is a factor, but they probably wouldn’t have liked our music otherwise. I think there is some relevance that people like the music in Telford because we mention the word Telford… I saw this group on Facebook that said ‘OMG, Telford is famous – it’s in a song by Lady Fortune.’ It had 63 members,  but I couldn’t quite bring myself to like it.

Would you say living in Telford has been a major influence on your music?

N: Yeah, I guess so. A lot of our friends’ bands have moved – Foreign Hands are in Manchester now, 3 of them used to live in Telford; INTL were all from Telford or Albrighton and now live in London – but we never wanted to do that really. I like living in Telford, it’s not great and we have better nights out in Manchester and London.
L: But it’s our hometown, so it does strike a chord with what we play and the people that come and see us. Plus we wanted to play at the Wrekin* once.
N: Yeah, we wrote to the person who owns the Wrekin to see if we could play. Never got a letter back. Lyndon had a generator, so we thought we could pull that one off.
L: Maybe one day…

It must be weird then that despite being a band writing songs inspired by life in small town England, your debut, 2008’s Manners Darling was only released in Japan. How did that come about?

N: We got an email from a guy called Daichi who runs a little label called Magnetic Records. He said he wanted to release an album, and we said alright. He gave us a bit of money, and we licensed it to him. We got a bit of an advance to pay for the studio time – it was all pretty budget, we literally had pennies. With that we got six days in a studio, including mixing, and we just caned it really. But I have no idea why it was just released in Japan and nowhere else.

Are there  any plans to re-release the record in the UK?

L: I like the fact it’s just in Japan!
N: I think it’s too late because we’re different now.
L: Our sound has changed a lot since Manners Darling.
N: I listened to it not so long ago and really enjoyed it, and we still play a couple of songs from it. I’m very proud of that record, but I like the songs we write now better. I do quite like the fact that if you wanted it there’s effort involved getting it and ridiculous postage costs.
L: I always worry where the stocks are kept, and if they are now floating somewhere in the Pacific…
N: Lyndon, we’re going to hell…
L: Well, I am.

Last year you got to play the holy grail of festivals – Reading and Leeds - on the BBC Introducing stage.  How did it feel having the opportunity to get your music exposed at that level?

All: It was the best couple of days ever.         
N: I smiled for about a week afterwards. We played Leeds first; you walk out and you just see a few hundred people and you think ‘okay… that’s cool’ but then you think ‘I don’t know any of these people!’ and then you see a couple of friendly faces waving at you, which is cool. And then your lead breaks, you start sweating profusely, and start playing a song which isn’t on the setlist! But we ran with it, and it was fine. Leeds was really good fun and a good experience. By the end of the set we probably had about six hundred people watching, and then Reading was just…
L: Reading was the best.
N: At Reading we walked out to about six hundred people and you just think ‘oh shit! This is going to be a good day’ and by the end of the set it was mental, the crowd had probably doubled. It was pretty rad!
L: It was good. Nerve-wracking, but good.

How did the festival experience compare to the more intimate setting of club shows?

P: To be honest I don’t think I noticed much difference. It felt the same - there was just more people and blue sky rather than a grubby club roof!
N: It was weird, I remember at one point looking out and feeling wind on my face and thinking ‘ahh, that’s lovely.’ I could get used to that.
L: We’re usually sweating on a cramped stage.
N: It was awesome. I do like the intimacy of a club show, but on the stage we played at Reading there was only a couple of foot between the stage and the crowd so we were still quite close and didn’t quite lose the vibe of everyone going mental.
P: That’s the only thing I was worried about, the sound, because you don’t get a sound check so I was worried about just going on and the sound being lost in the air, but it was spot on.
N: When you play a normal gig or smaller festival, you go on and put the microphone where you want it, but at Reading everything is done for you ; our manager said they had sent a plan over for where we put our amps, where we wanted the microphones, so when we walked out everything was just there – they know what they’re doing!  

You also are heavily involved with your own club night, Facts of Life, which puts on semi-regular shows at The Haygate in Telford. Why did you decide to start putting on your own gigs?

N: Before Paul was in the band, me and Lyndon used to put on a night called Viva la Fortune and Paul’s old band played there, it was just something we thought well there’s no indie clubs in Telford anymore – Reach Out & Fuck Somebody [legendary Telford indie night] that had gone and they were always good nights – so we thought we would see what we could do, and if anything we just get to listen to the bands we like, book who we feel like and go from there.

Are there any plans afoot for future Facts of Life?

N: We are putting on an all-dayer in August: Thursday Night Facts of Life presents Saturday Night and Day All-Dayer of Life. We’ll be playing, plus Foreign Hands, God Damn, Arcade Parade, Fever Fever and hopefully some more.

You’ve also released you last few singles on your own label, Moorhouse Records. Why did you decide to release your records yourselves rather than through someone else?

N: At first it was just to see if it was feasible and if it was something we could easily do. We researched it, it was me and my housemate at the time Ross, who does all the artwork for Lady Fortune, and we just thought we could try it, and now we are at a point where we are planning to release other bands too, but at first it was to see what happened. The singles got played on the radio, people bought them, and we realised that it was pretty easy! It’s pretty stressful at times, there are a lot of envelopes and emails but it’s fun to have your own thing. I’m just terrified that no-one is going to like the next single, but hopefully we’ll be alright!

Do you have any tips for bands worth checking check out, in the Midlands or beyond?

N: Arcade Parade – a fantastic Telford band, the best Telford band ever? God Damn – they’re heavy, I’ve never really been into heavy music but I’m into them. Cajole Cajole were awesome but I think they’re on hiatus. I like Foreign Hands, but they moved to Manchester so can’t class them as a Midlands band anymore. AMiTY is fantastic too, she’s amazing.

What’s next on the agenda for Lady Fortune?

N: More of the same really, just carry on gigging. We’re working on some new songs, so we’ll work on them and then record, repeat process.

And finally, have you ever considered in how many record collections your record sits next to Lady Gaga?

N: On my iPod we’re next to La Roux which is bad, so Lady Gaga is probably better? You wouldn’t have La Roux on yours would you Paul?
P: No, mine would be The Lambrettas or Lostprophets I think.
N: That’s way cooler than La Roux.
L: I haven’t even got anything that would play anything like that so, no, it’s next to
nothing!

Lady Fortune’s latest single I Feel So Slightly Strange is available now on Moorhouse Records via http://ladyfortuneshop.bigcartel.com

Lady Fortune - I Feel So Slightly Strange by Lady Fortune


*The Wrekin is a hill in east Shropshire (OS 52.769322 -2.450601)

This Is Not Revolution Rock: Andrew Ferris/Smalltown America

Andrew Ferris (pictured front left) with Jetplane Landing

After 10 years in the business, Andrew Ferris passion for independent music hasn't waned. In fact, his hard work is paying off - or at least being recognised for the significant achievement it is. Earlier this year Ferris was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year prize at the Derry Business Awards for his work with independent artists. Andrew kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me regarding the 10th anniversary of his label, as well as give slip that a new Jetplane Landing album could be on the cards... 

  

Congratulations on making it to the big 1-0! You started Smalltown America back in 2001, with the first release being Jetplane Landing's Zero for Conduct. Why did you decide to release the album yourselves, and did you imagine yourself still releasing records 10 years later? 

Thank you very much, it's been a blast. We released ZFC ourselves because Jamie (Burchell label co-founder) and myself felt that no one else would want to put it out. It was an odd record with lots of influences and we felt like we were quite old to be beginning a commercial career with a major - so self-publishing felt like the least stressful path, no-one to answer to and everyone to impress. I'm very proud of that album; it has a lot of passion and some great songs. In the back of my mind, I kinda hoped that I would have a career in the music industry, but I didn't really have it figured out how that would work. My hero was/is Ian MacKaye and in later years people like Alison @ Southern have become great inspirations. From what I read and know of the people I admire, they are music lovers first and believe in the power of songs as a changing force - the actual dealing with bands and their management is pretty shitty, I don't really like bands - but I love their music. We're ten years into this and making plans for releases over the next 18 months, so we seem to be rolling well.

How has the running of the label changed over the past 10 years? With labels like Deep Elm switching their distribution to purely digital, and others disappearing completely, has STA had to make any changes to survive?

The label is now my fulltime job and I have people who help me now as opposed to doing everything myself. To be honest, I was a shocking label manager; I did my best - but was generally late with most things. We've put lots of procedures and checks in place now to make sure our artists are being fairly treated and looked after. It's quite complicated now to sell music; as there are many little 'pots' of money that have to be collected. When Deep Elm went digital, it made sense for them as they have a big back catalogue that they were faced with either repressing or deleting; as the physical sales aren't there anymore to run 2000 vinyls of an old record - labels are faced with little choice. I like the way they have streamlined things, changed it up and refreshed the brand. STA changes every day - there are mistakes and successes to be analysed, repeated or not repeated. The biggest change we have made is to focus all our attention on our customers rather than splitting it with stores; we were too slow to make that change - I see that now as a mistake, but we're back on track. 

One of my favourite releases from the STA back-catalogue is the Calories LP. Being from the Midlands myself I've got a bit of a soft spot for them, they are mainstays of the Birmingham 'scene' after all. How did you come to work with them?

I love that record too 'To Encounter a Deer' is one of the best tracks we've released. When the band were called Distophia we shared a live agent (we might still do actually I'm not sure) and he gave us a copy of their first demo. It had 'Robert Redford' on it and a bunch of other songs - I thought they were great pop tracks. We took them on tour as Jetplane and offered to put the Distophia record out, we couldn't because they were tied into a deal already, which was a pity. As soon as they became free from that, I called John - he agreed to let us help out and we put out the record really quickly, I think we did the whole thing in 8 weeks. I love music from that region - in my altered universe Johnny Foreigner would be as big as Biffy Clyro. The world doesn't work like that, more's the pity!  

The past couple of years have seen an emergence of fresh Irish talent who, in a lot of cases, are giving their English contemporaries a run for their money. From your perspective just how healthy is the Irish rock scene at the moment? And have you got any tips of bands we should be keeping an eye on? 

Axis Of, Event Horses, Key Of Atlas, Ram's Pocket Radio and More Than Conquerors would be the current breed of younger NI acts that might bother people. There is a band called Eaten By Bears that are pretty good too. Sea Pinks are very well thought of. For me the electronica scene is the most exciting space in NI, it's really underdeveloped - but very cool. I don't think the Irish scene is particularly healthy, I'm not down on it but for every Villagers there are twenty fuckers that sound like him; for every Two Door there are fifty drummers playing that disco beat. It's kinda annoying - but I'm hungover today, so perhaps slightly grumpy! 

What's in the pipeline for the rest of 2011 and beyond? 

Okay - we have a compilation of new bands coming out, a documentary about the label on DVD/Digital, a book of artefacts and thoughts about the last few years and albums from JPL, LaFaro, More Than Conquerors and Fighting With Wire - so all pretty busy.  

A burning question that I've had since 2007s Backlash Cop: Are we ever going to see another Jetplane Landing record?  

As above - absolutely. I'm remaining tight lipped about the title, but I can say that some of the riffs are the best we've ever had and some of the lyrics are the most bonkers. It's probably closer in sound to Once Like A Spark - but it's not finished yet so I could well be bullshitting you.  

As a label you've been fortunate to work with some great bands, however, if you could work with any act - past or present - who would it be? Everyone would like Arcade Fire or Radiohead I guess but for me I'd take Tom Vek, At The Drive-In, Ron Sexsmith, The Band, Rage Against The Machine and Talking Heads - if I had to pick one it would be Nirvana 'cos that really started this whole thing and I would have liked to have watched it blow up from the inside.

www.smalltownamerica.co.uk

www.independentmusic.com 

Digital vs. Physical: the debate that refuses to die

Richard Franks over at Counteract Magazine posed the following question on Facebook earlier, and I couldn't help but add my two cents to the argument.

What we want to know is: do you still buy CDs? Is there something special about physical copies? If not, why not?

I've been buying records for over ten years, and don't see my habits changing anytime soon. I've been saddened by the decline in record stores available on the high street, and struggle to see what the appeal of MP3s outside of the portabil...ity factor! Personally, I don't see why anyone would want their music collection to be entirely digital. For me a big part of the appeal of music is the asthetic, the artistic element, the sleeves and art that makes a record great. Sure - you can have a thumbnail in iTunes, but it's not the same as holding a 12" slab of card which immortalises your favourite record. Saying this I do digitise all of my CDs, vinyls and cassettes, due to the ease of adding things to my MP3 player - but I see this as only the next step from kids in the 80s recording all their fave tracks from LP to cassette. I suppose my main issue is that when I buy a record I feel invested in it, its part of my character and feel a closeness to it that I don't feel when I download an digital file. You buy an MP3 and it's instantly worthless, there's no resale value, you can't leave it as your legacy to your kids, its just a bunch of 1 and 0s that works when played through a computer. I know I wouldn't pay much for someones MP3 collection, but will literally kill to flick through someones physical collection. My record collection is me, and I am my record collection, I couldn't part with any of it. I suppose I see my record collection a bit like sex: digitally it's alright, but it's much better in real life.

Kong at the Hare & Hounds 28/04/2011

It's Just Noise have put together a corking line up this evening, and one that would give environmentalists obsessed with noise pollution a fit. First up are God Damn, who treat those who have turned up early to a solid set of heavy, bluesy, stoner rock and roll. Opening with their namesake track, the manifesto of sound that is 'God Damn', it's obvious that the crowds ears are going to get a bit of a bruising before Kong even make the stage. There's something of Queens of the Stone Age in their sound, whilst the duel vocals recall the Blood Brothers - to this reviewer at least. Since the last time I saw the Wolverhampton three-piece (at a gig in their lock-up in Wolves last Oct) they've come on leaps and bounds, and despite Thom Edwards' usual antics being somewhat restricted by the tightly packed stage, the songs speak for themselves. And if the rush for free CDs the band were offering is anything to go by, it's an indication that these boys are ones-to-watch.

Next to the stage are &U&I who, for those who don't know, feature 3/4s of the legendary Blakfish. This is the second time I've caught them play since Blakfish's demise early last year. Last time was at the Off the Cuff festival last year, where they received mental support despite having only played a couple of shows with the new material. Tonight the lads are in good humour: "Good evening Birmingham, we're from Sutton Coldfield!" they joke during a pause midway through their set. Certainly the most melodic of the bands on the bill tonight, &U&I know how to write a catchy hook, with latest single 'Stalk this City' a shining example of the bands technical abilities when it comes to writing a good tune. Wary of running out of time, the band bring their set to a close with "the hit," 'Chancer's Paradise' off of last year's debut EP. I still feel it's their best song to date, and I'm pretty sure I caught a few people in the crowd singing along. They're playing the Saturday at this year's Off the Cuff festival at the Flapper, so if you're planning on going make sure you catch them.

Kong are easily the scariest band I've ever seen. Forget the masks Slipknot wear - there's nothing creepy about those rubber faced fools - Kong are the real deal, and are waaay off the chart when it comes to weirdness. Their music is difficult to describe, it's very fucking heavy (expletive necessary), but it's not just noise for noise sake; there's an inventiveness in their music, as well as a sense of humour that makes them absolutley fantastic as a live band to watch. Just like all the best horror movies, you don't want to look, but at the same time you know you need to because otherwish you'll miss guitarist Magpie flashing his arse at the crowd and calling the crowd something along the lines of "turkeyheads", or bassist Lulu's pale body scrawled over in felt-tip pen with the evening's setlist (amongst other things) gyrating at the edge of the stage. Yes, it's confrontational, it's aurally violent, but tonight Kong have the crowd eating out of their hand. Previous singles 'Leather Penny' and 'Blood of a Dove' give the crowd a good reason to (to steal from Willow Smith's vocab) whip their hair back and forth, equally as does the new material, which leaves us with the question just when will they follow up 2009s Snake Magnet?

Johnny Foreigner added to Off the Cuff 2011

Johnny Foreigner have been confirmed to headline the Friday night of this years Off the Cuff festival at the Flapper. Also added to the bill for Saturday are Brontide and The James Cleaver Quintet. These new additions compliment the already burgeoning bill which includes returning favourites Tubelord, Tall Ships, and &U&I, as well as headlines from Dananananaykroyd and DD/MM/YYYY. This years' festival is also going to be taking place in the upstairs of the Flapper rather than the cellar gig room - the first time it will have played host to bands in a long time - increasing the capacity in the process. Keep an eye on the official OtC website for the latest updates: http://offthecuffbirmingham.co.uk/

Besides, it's Monday #1: Million Dead

I've always been a fan of the single format. Perhaps because a lot of the first records I bought tended to be cassette singles from Woolworths. Whilst some people overlook them and head straight for the album, I've always felt it was worth investing in singles for one main reason: the b-side! Whilst these days a lot of groups see it as an opportunity to bundle off a dodgy remix and increasingly, in our digital world, no b-side altogether. However, in it's hayday the other side of the wax was an opportunity for a group to display another side to their craft - perhaps a song that didn't gel with the rest of the record, perhaps a demo, or a cover. In some cases the b-side would end up almost as popular as the a-side (see New Order's 1963, originally released as the b-side to True Faith in 1987, later issued as a single in it's own right).

Right then, my first audible treat for you comes in the form of the b-side to Million Dead's 2003 single Breaking the Back. The track in question is There are Ghosts, a cover of a Karate song from their 1998 record The Bed is in the Ocean. As previously mentioned, the b-side is a great chance for a group to throw down a cover of a group that have been an influence on their music, and Geoff Farina et al may not instantly be an obvious influence on Million Dead, their take on the track shows similar regard to breaking the standard as Karate's take on indie, punk, jazz and the blues.

Million Dead

'Breaking the Back'

Integrity Records, 2003

b-side:

There are Ghosts

Recorded at Mighty Atom Studios, Swansea by Joe Gibb.