Blog Scary Monsters

Blog Scary Monsters is dead

2011-06-29T15:52:00.000+01:00

Rush

2011-04-18T16:09:00.002+01:00

What a couple of weeks its been! This time 14 days ago I was in midair, en route to New York. From there things really became a blur encompassing 3 nights and 12 meetings in the city, one new band signed, some very exciting possible deals discussed, brief excursions to Philly and Boston, the greatest converted warehouse I've ever seen, my first ever Long Island show, a never-ending hunger for steak, one sleepless one and one sleepy flight. I came crashing back into Oxford one week ago and almost immediately left again for London where this happened:

One of my favourite gigs in a very long time as Tall Ships packed out (twice over) The Social where everyone from T4's Steve Jones to radio hero Steve Lamacq and our favourite DJ/promoter, Huw Stephens, were spotted. The next two days were written off with flu before another London trip for Record Store Day, the Pink Mist launch party, the release (and all but selling out of) our debut 12" compilation, and more of the above from Tall Ships, Hymns, Rosa Valle and Teej. A truly wonderful day.

Today my US email catchup begins and hopefully ends. Tomorrow the US mailorder catchup begins and must definitely end. Wednesday is the next installment from Surf Wax America, this time headlined by Olympians doing a set of Weezer covers, and then Thursday promises another sleepless night as we leave Oxford early evening bound for a 2am ferry to Belgium for Groezrock. By the time I write on here again, I will have seen 'Full Collapse' played live in full.

Here's the new Shapes video:

April Fools!

2011-04-01T09:58:00.004+01:00

On a morning like this when us poor, gullible folk are forced into hiding until midday, living in fear of constant pranks and obvious lies, I bring you these three simple reasons to stare at your screen and waste away a few more valuable minutes until it's safe to once against roam the internet and open your desk drawers.

1. Tall Ships - Plate Tectonics. Released on Monday as a digital single (with the first 50 purchasers via the bands Big Cartel receiving a free, hand-numbered screen print) and backed with 2 exclusive remixes, this video was put together by the band and friend, Todd Atticus.

2. Bear vs Shark - Part of a live set from Anaheim in 2004, we've gone Bear vs Shark crazy (even more so than usual) this week with the announcement of the re-released 'Right Now You're In The Best Of Hands', available on coloured 12" vinyl via our webstore. Limited to just 250 hand-numbered copies, over half the stock went in the first couple of days and it's great to see so many new people discovering this incredible band!

3. Windyman beatdown - I'm going to the US on Tuesday for a week of meetings, meetings, friendly catchups, more meetings, good food, a couple more meetings and Kevin Devine at Webster Hall. With quick trips to Philly and Boston also on the agenda (meetings, of course) it promises to be a pretty intense week. Here's a stupid video I made during my last trip when things weren't quite so "meety".

Hello Pink Mist

2011-03-11T12:15:00.003Z

I came on here with the best intentions, promising myself I'd write something different to the spiel I just knocked up for the website news page. But having read that through again, it seems to quite nicely sum up what it is I'd like to say, so let's start with a lazy copy and paste job...

This has been a very long time in the making so it's with great pleasure we can finally unveil Pink Mist, the new collective formed by Big Scary Monsters alongside our friends at Holy Roar and Blood And Biscuits.

Long time fans of BSM should already be well aware of these two wonderful labels as we've worked with them in the past (with HR on the Holy Monsters split 10" and then B&B on the two Tall Ships EPs), our bands have shared the stage on numerous occasions and we've spent many a good hour winding one another up on Twitter. Pink Mist is our way of solidifying this friendship, partnering up to work on many lovely things together and providing us with more resources than ever before to continue finding and working with the best new bands from around the world. The three labels will continue to work separately as ever before, but you'll notice the PM logo cropping up on all of our releases and in time, we'll be welcoming other friends (and not just record label ones at that) into the fold, effectively creating a tiny community of DIY enthusiasts and hard-working champs.

It all kicks off on 16th April (Record Store Day) with a free entry launch party at Rota in London - lineup to be announced soon - alongside a very special pink and white 12" compilation release, featuring brand new and exclusive tracks from 12 of our bands. This is then followed in May by the first Pink Mist showcase tour featuring the awesome Three Trapped Tigers and our very own Tall Ships. The dates for which are listed at the bottom of this post.

You can read more about Pink Mist at http://hellopinkmist.tumblr.com, follow it on Twitter and Like it on Facebook. All of our new releases will be distributed across the UK by Essential, with European partners to be announced shortly, whilst digital releases will be handled by Believe. Physical releases are lovingly crafted by the good people at Disc Manufacturing Services and ACD/Sleeve.

Pink Mist showcase tour #1 feat. Three Trapped Tigers and Tall Ships:

14.05 - Brighton, The Great Escape
15.05 - Southampton, Talking Heads
16.05 - Cambridge, The Portland
18.05 - Birmingham, Hare and Hounds
19.05 - Cardiff, Buffalo Bar
20.05 - Liverpool, Kazimer (Sound City)
21.05 - Glasgow, GSA
22.05 - Newcastle, Head of Steam
23.05 - Manchester, Night and Day
24.05 - Sheffield, The Harley
25.05 - Leeds, Nation of Shopkeepers
26.05 - Preston, Mad Ferret
27.05 - Bristol, Start The Bus
28.05 - Meadowlands Festival, Glynde Place
31.05 - London, Cargo

So, how was that? Make sense?

Simon (Blood And Biscuits), Alex (Holy Roar) and I have had numerous "meetings" (drinks) discussing this plan over the past year and we think it's a pretty cool idea. We've each worked together on numerous projects in the past, starting with the aforementioned releases for me, as well as the last two Rolo Tomassi albums for Alex and Simon (through their roles as Rolo's co-manager and A&R at Hassle Records) and the Gallops EP, which they co-released last year. Pink Mist is a posh way of saying "hey that was fun, let's do it again" only now with a more official title, a little extra purpose and a bit of a plan.

As I briefly alluded to in the above, we hope to eventually welcome more people into the Pink Mist fold, building what will hopefully become a small community of likeminded individuals with a creative flair and passion for the DIY music scene, who can help one another out and work together with us in one big, lovely family. It's all a little Utopian right now, but the next few months will give us a fair idea of how it all fits together and in the short term, we collectively have the best part of 50 amazing releases coming at you this year!

Alex is hitting SXSW next week and I'm heading over to New York, Boston and Philadelphia at the start of April for (too many) meetings about some ridiculously exciting ideas, potential new signings and hopefully one or two routes into bringing more of our European based bands to the American shores, as we started to work on last year. Its been a brilliant start to the year and things are only going to get better from here, so keep an eye on the Pink Mist Tumblr (and of course the usual BSM channels!) for all of the latest and greatest updates.

If recent form is anything to go by, this will be my last post for a while, so I better make it a good finish. How's this grab you?

cross symbol Hymns cross symbol

2011-02-28T13:11:00.004Z

†Hymns† (or, & h8224; Hymns & h8224;, as iTunes would currently have you believe) release their debut single today. 'A Punch To The Temple' and 'Invidia' are now available to buy from all good digital stores around the world or our webstore as a limited edition t-shirt bundle. The two tracks can be streamed below, for those who like to try before they buy.

Check out these pictures of the single promo sleeve, lovingly crafted by Tom at ACDSleeve. We have a very few left, which may or may not be put on sale via our Boot Sale Music webstore, when it's resurrected later this month.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T12:56:00.002Z

Love it or hate it, here are a couple of things to make this years Valentine's Day a little better for you...

1) For today only you can get 10% off all purchases at www.bsmrocks.com/shop by using the voucher code lovefrombsm. Why not treat your sweetheart to that Talons 7", BSM t-shirt or Mimas CD they've been longing for?

2) In the height of romance, here are a series of 'arty' videos by the guys at Front, each featuring Hold Your Horse Is. True love. Enjoy!

How to promote your band

2011-02-10T10:58:00.002Z

Yesterday I answered a questionnaire for an online magazine about 'how to promote your band the right way'. I've mentioned my thoughts on this subject in conversation once or twice before but never put it into writing, and as this place was (as ever) desperately in need of an update, it seemed a good opportunity to quickly sum it all up...

Every band is different.

That sounds obvious, but it's something which a lot of people seem to forget when it comes to the dog eat dog world of band promotion. Quite simply, there is no fool-proof way to take your band from A (playing to 5 people in Huddersfield on a Sunday night) to B (selling out Wembley and shacking up with a celebrity), although there are plenty of wrong ways. These wrong ways should be obvious, but the phrase "don't piss people off" broadly covers the bulk of them.

Granted, every few years you get a Biffy Clyro or a Frank Turner, champions of the underground who rise and rise, giving us all something to celebrate and hope for the little guy that they could be next. These tend to become everyone's reference point and a model in which to base your own ideas, and rightly so. At the end of the day, however, these two both took very different paths to reach the level they now enjoy, with the real defining factor in both cases being their years of dedication and hard work.

These days I find too many bands looking to carbon copy others, whether it's in their sound, their artwork, their image or indeed their career path. Creativity is the key and with the music scene so over-saturated with very average bands, you need to do anything and everything you can to rise above to the top. Don't look at your idolised bands and think "well by this stage they were playing to 10 times more people than us" and definitely don't look enviously upon your friends bands and think "why are they getting this opportunity and we're not?" Every band is different.

For some this may mean constant touring, gritting your teeth and taking the quiet nights on the chin, slowly but surely building a national fanbase. For others this will mean making all of your music available for free, attempting to establish a solid online presence. In some cases it will mean signing with a label to help you out, in others it might mean staying completely independent and figuring things out for yourself. What I think is important to remember - and unfortunately often isn't - is that everyone is different. There's no set time when a band MUST have a manager, MUST put out their debut album, MUST tour overseas, or MUST go full-time. You define your own path as and when things come to you, making sensible decisions and working hard.

This isn't really going anywhere and I'm straying dangerously close to preachy territory, so should probably wrap it up. Apologies for the rant. I'll post a link to the feature when it goes live as I'm sure some of the other contributors will have different, and probably more useful, opinions on the subject.

This blog was brought to you by the music of Daytrader, the taste of Tesco Orange Squash, and the craving of a chicken bhuna.

Hold Your New Single

2011-01-31T10:23:00.004Z

Hold Your Horse Is release 'Forgive And Forget' as a free digital single today. You can get it from their website http://www.hyhi.co.uk

The video for the single is below. Watch carefully and you may spot Frank Turner, Entrepreneurs (Adam from Elle Milano, for those who remember that awesome band) as well as members of Stagecoach, &U&I, Reuben, Foe, Our Lost Infantry and more.

One year on

2011-01-04T16:20:00.002Z

Happy new year, everyone!

How things change in a year, hey? In January 2010 we were getting set to announce Andrew WK's square-shaped 7" single and Walter Schreifels debut album. Talons were about to set off for a week with Johnny Foreigner and Shapes were confirmed to support Glassjaw and Pulled Apart By Horses on their tour. Tall Ships were a band we had only just started speaking to, and Blakfish were still a band. I spent much of that month sitting at my computer pulling my hair out and trying to get to grips with the well scary idea of a 52 part singles club, whilst kicking myself for not taking a longer Christmas break.

Fast-forward to January 2011 and things couldn't be more different. Right now I have no new releases to announce, very little happening on the touring front, not so much as a furrowed brow over the beginning stages of our new 52 part singles club, and if anything, am struggling to adapt back to a working life after taking a 3 week festive break. It may sound like the beginning stages of a quiet year, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Equally, I couldn't be happier.

After the stress-fest that was 2010, '11 promises to be a really fun year for BSM. When I say I have no new releases to announce, this isn't quite true, I just have none I'm going to tell you about today. Right now is all about waiting for deliveries, so that the working year can really kick off, and playing festive email catchup. Once those things are underway I may have a couple of things you'll be interested in. In the mean time, here's a handful of label bits to look out for this year...

BSM111 will be a book. Our first (of possibly many) and arguably the best value for money music you'll find all year. It also has a clever title, but you'd need to be a bit of a superfan to get it. All will be revealed shortly.
The BSM 5-a-side football tournament will be back in July, hopefully bigger, better and potentially of more benefit to lots of people, than ever before. This one is at least four rum-filled meetings and many phone calls away from announcement, but I hope to have more to tell you in the spring. Training for Team BSM begins next week and I'm not even joking.
Technology is the name of the game this year as we look to make a few little changes and embrace a couple of services we've unfortunately struggled to find time to trial in the past. The sorry decline of Myspace started a long time ago but this looks to be the year when everyone presses the big, red 'delete account' button and moves on to digital pastures new. We're no exception and I'm disappointinly excited by the prospect of testing out a few new platforms. As it turns out, I'm a massive geek.
Record labels are continuously evolving and I think it's quite likely that 2011 will see the biggest step forward so far in our long-term plans. #pinkmist

The new issue of Rock Sound just arrived with a rather lovely piece on Shapes in their tips for 2011 feature, so I'm off to read that. Byeeeee

Tips for 2011

2010-12-31T12:03:00.002Z

1. Gylfi Sigurdsson

2. Rum

3. Delta/Alaska

Happy new year, everyone!

So here it is...

2010-12-21T15:23:00.002Z

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Is everyone having fun?

I planned to start my Christmas holiday yesterday but have spent the past two days solidly working. I think my to-do list as finally waved the white flag, though, and my attention has now turned almost completely to the idea of watching a full series of 24 in one sitting, in real time. What's more festive than pretending to be Jack Bauer for a day?

Been meaning to post something about our xmas tour since I returned home but time has been against me and also, I don't really know where to start. An incredible week of packed (and in a couple of cases, sold) out gigs, people singing and dancing, Christmas spirit and some very fetching hats. Both Tall Ships and Tangled Hair will be back with new releases in early 2011 so keep an eye out for those. I feel good things are on the horizon for them.

We've got a crazy amount of stuff lined up for you in 2011, I think you're all gonna be pretty happy. We've just announced our '11 Collection, following on exactly where the '10 Collection leaves off in just one weeks time. There are new albums on their way from Shapes, Dad Rocks!, Kevin Devine and more, as well as the long-awaited debut EP from Men. In the past week a couple of really cool new things have been confirmed, but I'm not telling you about them until January, and there's a pretty big announcement about the future of the label and a couple of good friends of ours.

Have a good one. Take it away, Mariah...

Banquet

2010-12-15T12:18:00.002Z

It's no secret that Banquet Records is our favourite UK record shop. As if their fine taste and never-ending support of our humble little label (and the independent music scene in general) wasn't enough, they throw the best parties Kingston could ever wish for and will continue to be the lynchpin of one of this countries most thriving scenes for a long time to come.

Throughout December they're running an advent calendar, giving away awesome prizes every day. To coincide with our night at New Slang last Thursday they offered a load of free BSM MP3s and 10 bundles of CDs to lucky winners. I now have the difficult task of picking them.

Banquet's web guy, fellow Nando's lover, Man City fan and all-round dashing chap, Tom Pennington, suggested I film a video of said winners being drawn. "I'm sitting here in a dressing gown with a pink towell draped over my head, absolutely full of cold" said I. "There will be no video". Instead, I'm staying behind the comfort of my computer screen and giving you my 10 favourite entries from those posted on their website...

Muhammad Johar - for his use of smiley faces, Twitpic and video cameras

Carrie_hw - for very patiently waiting for her BSM100 order, and probably owning more BSM releases than I do now!

Ben Andrewes and Michael Webb - cos I like to imagine them fighting over the division of the prizes. Shared custordy, people.

ejolleys - for meeting someone special at a BSM gig

lee_from_winchester - for also meeting someone special at a BSM gig. And I don't mean Walter Schreifels, although he's special too

tom__ftw - cos summer '09 was my favourite, too

Scott Williams - for being a big fan... with poor taste in football teams

Greg Moore - for watching Colour play whilst standing on bins outside of a sold out venue

Rob Godley - for wordplay

Azaelgon - for absolutely breaking my heart. Get in touch, I want to send you another CD!

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was a really difficult decision and it means a lot that so many of you took the time to write such nice things. If you were there for Tall Ships and Tangled Hair on Thursday, I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope you enjoyed my little DJ set. Will Smith 'Miami'? You're welcome.

Pick me

2010-11-26T13:15:00.001Z

Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody

2010-11-19T13:04:00.003Z

Over the next 6 months BSM will be going a little quieter on the new release front as we start the build up towards our mid-2011 album campaigns and dedicate a little time to the finer things in life. Things such as updating the website, filling in tax returns, updating some very outdated systems of ours, moaning about how Christmas isn't as fun as it used to be, and scouring the world for our next wave of new signings. I'm going to need some help with one or two of these things (seriously, how do you make Christmas fun again?) and this is where you come in.

Have a read through the below and if you make it to the end still thinking "that doesn't sound too shit", get in touch and we'll have a chat.

Ideally I'm looking for someone based in or around Oxford who could offer up a few hours per week to come here and help with mailorders, collections and deliveries, and some online work. We have broadband internet, a spare computer and Sky Sports News. And best of all; I don't drink tea, so frankly I couldn't give a crap how good you are at making it. HOWEVER, a close friend or relative working in a local bar with potential to supply free liquor is a distinct advantage. Equally, anyone with good gambling tips will be well received.

Having said all of that, I'm also willing to consider people from all around the world (the alcohol and gambling thing still stands) as many of the tasks will be based online, so don't be put off if you're our one regular blog reader from Peru. I'd still love to hear from you.

I won't lie, some of the jobs won't be a whole lot of fun. Stuffing envelopes is tedious, as is making countless website tweaks, updating mailing lists, compiling press reports, researching and sending numerous emails to strangers you know will ignore you. These are the kind of things you'll be doing.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. Meeting and getting to know lots of awesome people and working closely with some brilliant bands is very rewarding, as is going to lots of gigs and getting free CDs. And if you're one of those people who gets genuinely excited about HTML, graphic design or spreadsheets, I definitely want to hear from you. A bit of work experience at an independent record label can also look good on your CV and some of the people who've previously helped out have gone on to find bigger and better paid roles elsewhere soon afterwards.

Not wanting to sound like an arse, but I'm going to be quite specific about the kind of person I'm looking for here. Based on previous experience, this just isn't a job for everyone, so let's save each other some time and figure that out now. What I'm after is someone who is creative, with lots of bright ideas and a willingness to work hard. If I'm going to ask you for an opinion on something and you just shrug at me, it's not going to work. A good knowledge of the industry would be a bonus but not essential. Similar rules apply with your music taste; if it's good, great, if it's bad, that's still ok, we can always talk about the weather. A fair bit of the work will be based online, ranging from updating the website to setting up and maintaining certain social network profiles, so you need to be computer literate and ideally have some knowledge of web design. You need to be contactable, honest and not a dickhead. If you're local and will be working here, the dickhead thing is doubley important, I'd also like it if you don't smell. The label is run from my flat so you may have to face occasional rants about the neighbours, Fantasy Football discussions every Friday afternoon, drop-ins from friends and family, and me leaving you to work whilst I sleep off a hangover.

I think that pretty much covers everything for now. If you're serious about helping out, get in touch and tell me a bit about yourself. Who you are, where you're based, what your interests are, any previous experience in the industry, what you feel your strengths are and, perhaps most importantly of all, what you would like to get out of this role. I don't want this to be a one-sided thing where only the label gains from your hard work, I'd like to make it a good fit where I can find jobs which will interest you and hopefully help with your future career in this crazy little industry.

Football/dogging fans...

2010-11-16T18:41:00.002Z

Recognise this man?

I mean the one on the right...

Pick up the latest issue of Rock Sound magazine (with Bring Me The Horizon on the cover) and not only do you get the above joy, you'll also find a full page feature on Talons, a track of theirs on the covermount CD, and 8/10 reviews for their album and Tall Ships new EP. Bargain.

2010

2010-11-16T17:38:00.003Z

So, 2010. How was it for you?

The year couldn't have got off to a better start for us with the square-shaped (Fantasy Football funded) release of party-loving Andrew W.K.'s 7" single, which sold out in what felt like a matter of hours, quickly followed in similar fashion by the debut Tall Ships EP which also sold out. Twice. With a third pressing on the brink of disappearing, too. The release of Walter Schreifels debut solo album, his ensuing UK tour and my constant "who the hell do I think I am?!" questionning each and every time I was forced to email arguably one of the most influential people in the history of punk rock, chasing up a photo, interview or whether or not he'd remembered to book a hotel in Kingston (he hadn't) took us through the spring and into the summer with a perfect, er, spring in our step, before Chicago's Grown Ups came and kicked all of our arses with their brilliant record, 'More Songs', in May. The saddest news of the year came as Blakfish decided to call it a day, halfway through their European tour with Biffy Clyro! This unfortunately meant that the BSM 5-a-side football tournament was lacking a certain, rowdy Brummy element, but everyone coped admirably with Fear And Records eventually coming through to become the first ever double winners.

Shoes And Socks Off kept relatively quiet this year but still managed to sneak out two albums; the three CD, 40+ track, 'Don't Blame Yourself, It's In Your Blood', and the wonderful, yet confusingly titled 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not' (including a video for each song, made for a total budget of less than £10), before hitting the road for a paltry 30 date tour in September. Kevin Devine followed up last years 5th studio album with a new EP, 'She Stayed As Steam', which featured a couple of 'Brothers Blood' recording session out-takes and saw him crash the iTunes chart, something which he later bettered with the release of his Bad Books album (a band he shares with members of Manchester Orchestra), which topped the Amazon chart in November and even found itself in the US billboard top 200!

Dad Rocks!, the solo project from Mimas front man Snævar Njáll Albertsson landed on British soil for the first time, bringing with him his delightful debut EP, a set of BSM cover songs and a handful of lovely videos, before being joined by the rest of Mimas who celebrated the release of their lovely second album in October. Another new addition to our roster, Hold Your Horse Is, released a stunning debut EP and saw their music soundtrack more than their fair share of "arty" videos for Front Magazine, whilst Adebisi Shank's awesome new record rightly got the internet all hot and bothered as they were propelled into the top 10 of the Hype Machine chart.

BSM itself 'Partied Hard' by hitting the landmark of 100 releases, celebrating with the release of a CD/DVD double pack in our most ellaborate, popup, artwork yet, before Tall Ships came back with another brilliant EP, taking it out on tour with Minus The Bear, Maps And Atlases, 65 Days of Static and more, just before Talons dropped arguably the best album of the year with the brutiful (new word alert) 'Hollow Realm'. A record every bit as crushing as you would expect from the young instrumentalists. Our final release of 2010 comes from Tellison with their long-awaited, Zane Lowe endorsed, new single, 'Collarbone', showing the world they've most definitely still got it, with the excitement rapidly building for their new album, due out early next year.

Throughout the year our '10 Collection, 52 part singles club has been speeding along, providing subscribers with a weekly dosage of great music to brighten up every Monday morning, and we've thrown a number of free parties across the country, including showcases at The Great Escape, Southsea and Swn festivals. Of course, we'll be seeing the year out in our usual style; the BSM Christmas Tour! This year it's the turn of Tall Ships and ex-Colour boys, Tangled Hair, to bring the festive spirit, as we all start turning our attention to mulled wine, Santa and then the new year, which promises, amongst other things...

The debut album from Shapes! The boys have taken much of this year off (apart from a short tour with some band called Glassjaw, of course) to write and will be heading to Sweden later this month to record it with none other than Eskil Lövström, the man behind Refused's seminal 'The Shape of Punk To Come' (the headline puns just right themselves really, don't they?). Look out for a release in the spring, alongside the debut full-length from Dad Rocks!, which may or may not feature a very awesome guest appearance, although I don't want to jinx it, so I won't tell you who just yet. Other new releases lined up for 2011 include EP's from Men and Tangled Hair, as well as our '11 Collection singles club and a book from Shoes And Socks Off.

It seems somewhat of a cliche to wrap this up by saying thanks and we couldn't have done it without you, but if you can make it to any of our xmas tour dates (below), let's raise a glass and toast the continued success of the independent music industry, and the wonderful people within it. Here's to another great year!

BSM Christmas Tour 2010 w/ Tall Ships and Tangled Hair

06.12 - Brighton, The Albert
07.12 - London, Brixton, The Rest Is Noise (free entry)
08.12 - Cambridge, Portland Arms
09.12 - Kingston, New Slang
10.12 - Bristol, Start The Bus
11.12 - Middlesbrough, Uncle Alberts (free entry)
12.12 - Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
13.12 - Sheffield, Bungalows and Bears (free entry - no Tangled Hair)

Gutten tag

2010-11-16T16:56:00.002Z

Have you been to Berlin? You really should. Having spent a wonderful 5 days there, and 4 days since, weighing it up, I think it's my favourite European city. A really nice, easy-going feel to the place, loads of awesome little bars and restaurants and possibly the best atmosphere I've experienced at a football match (an important factor in international travel) made it a wonderful experience. Of course, seeing Jimmy Eat World one night and Tall Ships the next helped a little too!

Here's me and my tandem bike, mid-city tour...

Oh collarbone

2010-11-04T16:32:00.003Z

I'm off to Berlin on Saturday. 3 days of sightseeing and a night of passion with Tall Ships supporting 65 Days of Static. Until then, it's emails, mailorders, deliveries, collections and other such fun. Glorious.

Here's the new Tellison video. You should buy their single, it's released on 22nd November and I'd be surprised if it's around long after that.

So much to do, so much to see

2010-10-28T15:50:00.005+01:00

Why do I have Smash Mouth 'All Star' in my head? Here, share my pain...

I guess this is gonna be another of those "sorry it's been so long" blog updates, huh? For the last few weeks (and much of this year, in truth) I've fallen into a difficult routine which sees me blasting through as much work as possible at home 2 days a week, going away for the other 3, whilst trying to retain some form of 'normal' weekend. Last Sunday I fed some ducks and went to the cinema. How delightful. Anyway, it means that my days at home are generally spent catching up on emails and mailorders, but by the time I've been away and come home, the inbox is once again fit to burst. It's a vicious cycle but I can't complain, things are pretty damn awesome right now. All of our bands seem to be ultra-busy at the moment, so here's a little update on what's new, pussycat...

Tall Ships EP is picking up some wonderful reviews right now. The guys are off to Europe with 65 Days of Static next week, but before then play the NME Weekender on Saturday morning (1.20am!) and then a Time Out gig at the Barfly in London on Monday. They've just finished a nice little video for 'Chemistry', which I'd personally recommend watching, as opposed to the above.

Another band with some exciting live shows coming up are Talons who head out on tour next month in support of their wonderful debut album, which is devestating my speakers as I type. The details are up at www.bsmrocks.com where you can also pre-order the record, along with 'Commemorations', their 8 track discography CD, previously only available at shows. 'Hollow Realm' gets a vinyl release through awesome US label Topshelf on 22nd November and we're about to confirm another territory or two. They're going global!

...And that leads me nicely onto our lovely little Danes, Mimas, who right now are halfway through their long trip back to Denmark. The tour was a great success so huge thanks to all who came to see them play over the past week or so. Thanks also to those who came out to see Dad Rocks! at his solo shows. We'll soon be posting the BSM covers he's recorded (which will be available as free downloads and also on a limited edition CD) as well as a promo video filmed in London last week. Here's a little photo to whet your appetitie...

Sticken with the Scandinavian theme for a moment, Shapes head off to record their debut album in Sweden in just four weeks time. Very shortly they'll be announcing who's handling the production, but let's just say we're all very excited. I'm desparately trying to think of a clever hint to drop but everything's just too obvious and frankly I'll be fucking dead if they catch me.

We seem to have hit Release Season round here, with the last of 2010's 'proper' releases all now available to pre-order. That, of course, includes Tellison's wonderful new single, 'Collarbone'. Let's not call it a comeback, but I think it's fair to say it's long overdue and I think you're all gonna be delighted by what you hear. The single's available on limited edition 7" (500 copies), which comes with a free, 5 track digital EP, including a remix from Rolo Tomassi. During their tour next week (dates are here) there'll also be an even more limited edition CD version (100 copies) available, featuring all 5 tracks.

And to round things up, across the Atlantic, Kevin Devine's been busy with Bad Books, his new band he shares with members of Manchester Orchestra. After their appearance at CMJ in New York last weekend sold out weeks ago, the album was released in a blaze of praise (an awesome phrase - man I can't stop rhyming, in Wyoming, where I go mining, but really should be miming. Sorry, poor timing) and shifted a whopping 8000 units in the first week alone, taking them to #55 in the Billboard top 200 chart!

Now we're about to hit November my mind automatically starts wandering towards our annual Christmas tour and, more importantly, what incredible tack we can find to decorate venues across the country with. Incase you missed the news before, Tall Ships and Tangled Hair are the bands taking part this time, along with an array of lovely local supports. I'll be post the flyer on here very soon along with ticket information.

Gonna end this with another photo of the most popular band to ever grace this blog. Enjoy.

ACD/Sleeve

2010-10-15T16:29:00.003+01:00

Over the past few months, alongside Big Scary Monsters and Alcopop Records, I've been working on a little project with my friend Tom Leggett. Entitled ACD/Sleeve, we create short runs of interesting, bespoke CD packaging. It began with the re-release of Blakfish's 'See You In Another City' EP and now, with the release of the latest and greatest design, BSM's 100th release, 'Partied Hard', it seems the perfect time to tell you all about it.

Check out the below video and then have a look at the website at www.acdsleeve.com for information and videos from some of Tom's other brilliant work.

Lots more designs are on their way and if you run a label/are in a band and are on the look out for an exciting way to package your music, get in touch.

Photos coming next week.

I just beat the crap out of my inbox

2010-10-14T02:51:00.001+01:00

11pm: 431 emails to reply to

3am: 63 emails to reply to

I'm gonna sleep for a week

Dublin and gifts

2010-10-13T13:56:00.003+01:00

Today is my first day back at the computer in a week. I spent the weekend in Dublin watching lots of cool bands, meeting loads of nice people, going to see Republic of Ireland v Russia in the Euro 2012 qualifiers and drinking way more over-priced booze than planned. Dublin's a nice city with a real European feel to it and I recommend visiting sometime. Be sure to pay the Richter Collective boys a visit too. They're good tour guides. A special mention needs to go to Bitches With Wolves and the Brad Pitt Light Orchestra. Two oddly named bands who made my weekend just that little bit more interesting, despite never meeting or seeing them play a full set.

After Dublin it was back to the big city last night for Maps And Atlases and Tall Ships, as they wrapped up their UK tour in triumphant style at a sold out Cargo. TS, very kindly(!) gave me a gift which they'd picked up along the way. Apparently it's a model of me, because of the "always on the phone and drinking cocktails" reputation I seem to have "won" with them recently.

Lovely.

I'm now home for the rest of the week, shipping out the remaining 'Partied Hard' orders (the artwork is blowing peoples minds! More on that coming soon) and catching up on the usual Autumn feast of new TV shows, before running back to London for a few days next week for Talons at the Barfly, Ute, Suffer Like G Did, Dad Rocks and My First Tooth (free gig) at the Old Blue Last, Our Lost Infantry doing UK emo covers at Surf Wax America #4 and then hopping on a train to Cardiff for our showcase at Swn festival in Cardiff. I'm missing my own bed already.

Songs which just shouldn't be covered

2010-09-30T11:39:00.003+01:00

What a funny day yesterday turned out to be. After posting a blog which I thought would provide a 5 minute distraction ended up taking over the whole day as Twitter lit up (resulting with the link being posted on the front page of the site) and the stat counter on this here page going through the roof! By the end of the day Myspace got in touch to see if they could post the blog in their Artist Hub, PR's were asking me if it was a clever marketing stunt (boy do I wish it was!) and hundreds of shocked strangers were messaging me with words of praise and sorrow.

I eventually trundled off to bed around 2am, but not before rediscovering this forgotten gem: Shoes And Socks Off - Piepton EP. As Toby had been staying here for a couple of days earlier in the week, and I'm off to see him again tonight in Oxford, the timing seemed delightfully apt, so decided I'd post a reminder that this free EP is still available. As the man himself described it, "it's a collection of songs which just shouldn't be covered."

Download it for free from here

1. Lounge Act (Nirvana)
2. Not Ready Yet (Eels)
3. You Said Something (PJ Harvey)
4. Wolf At The Door (Radiohead)
5. Tame (Pixies)
6. To Forgive (Smashing Pumpkins)

Of course, Shoes And Socks Off's new album (of his own material, this time), 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not', is still available from here, and the 10 videos which make up the record can be seen here. This is arguably my favourite of the bunch, and not just because it was my old mobile phone gaffataped to our £3 kite...

Unsigned bands (part two)

2010-09-29T12:08:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago I posted this blog and since then have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction from some bands. People have taken the time to read and take into consideration some of the points raised, and it's actually lead me to spend more time than before listening to their music. Two of them have even been invited to take part in next years '11 Collection.

This morning I received an email from a band who definitely haven't read said blog post.

I won't post the entire email or any of their details (as tempted as I am), but here are some of my favourite excerpts from the frankly ludicrous message. Delusional doesn't even begin to tell the story.

"Dear label"

Good start, guys. Thanks for taking the time to make this personal.

"I have attached an entire tracks that I feel is more to what your label illustrates, please have a listen. These guys have more tracks like these, yet I will be honest I tried to prepare them for the commercial market and requested a few softer tracks in the last year, yet they rock well as the attached track demonstrates."

(1) That first sentence doesn't make sense. (2) Does BSM illustrate "commercial" music, or more to the point, soft rock?!

"I am not after a magical record contract and have some options that you may want to consider;"

Good to hear, we're all out of magic right now. This is where it gets good...

"Stage 1 - Test contract - No money up front (retainer agreement), we book in a Euro tour in early 2011 with an established act from your label, duplicate a few C.Ds (5,000 - 10,000) and test the reaction of the audience (website numbers, on-line and live show sales) as well as the radio audience"

Only 5000 - 10000, are you sure that will be enough? I mean, we are testing after all. No point in selling ourselves short here, lads.

"Stage 2 - record contract - retainer agreement - record some new tracks - prepare the band for marketing and promotions - release some serious singles and organise another tour to a larger market etc...."

I absolutely love the term "serious singles"

"I can see your finances return from ticket sales alone, I will be willing to want these expenses paid for the band in this testing period.

1 - travel to Europe (return to Aus) = 5 people = 5000 Euro - being generous (share tour bus with head-liners)

2 - tour accommodations and meals = 2 rooms per night 100 euro x 45 days = 4500 Euro.

3 - a small wage - e.g - 500 Euro per show x 20 = 10,000 Euro (can be negotiable) or equity on ticket sales.

4 - 50% equity for sales - on-line, in stores and live show = 25,000 Euro (example on projections)"

Ticket sales alone? You're probably right. I mean, you're only asking for 44,500 Euros. Or £38,396.63. Thanks for keeping your demands realistic.

"I just want you to consider the stage one option, lets clean up their myspace page..."

Let's not.

"I would appreciate it if you consider this agreement and to make my offer more interesting, this test contract has never proved the theory wrong and always generated the retainer funds for stage two in advanced for the label."

Wow, I can't tell you what a difference that doesn't make.

Delete.

Vader In Burgos

2010-09-29T11:17:00.000+01:00

A late night stream of conciousness

2010-09-29T00:10:00.002+01:00

I don't get to write anywhere near as many blog posts as I used to. It really puzzles me where the time has gone. It seems like the part of my day previously assigned to this kind of rambling has been filled by something else, but I can't work out what. Strange. I'm working late tonight, though, and a bit of a catchup/nonsense post seemed like the perfect way to end the evening.

Earlier today I was interviewed by Rock Sound who have very kindly made BSM their label of the month in an upcoming issue of the magazine. I normally like to do these interviews over email as a bit of time to consider my answers and spellchecking (God bless it) are essential for not sounding like a prick, and today proved that point nicely as I stuttered and stumbled my way to a new world record of um's and err's before completely failing to answer the final two questions, instead returning to the salvation of the computer screen to consider my responses and email them through. I guess I've become one of THOSE kind of internet kids now then. In my defence, they were tough questions. The first was if BSM was a film, what would it be and why? Seriously, what would it be? I won't tell you what I eventually plumped for but after asking for a bit of assistance on Twitter and two people instantly replied with Weekend At Bernies, it might be time to give myself a long hard look. The second troubling question was "Tell us a secret about the label." Sometimes I struggle to separate what's common knowledge in my head and the 'real' world. Not a particularly good trait, especially at times like this. I think I came up with a good one, however, but you'll have to buy the December issue (in shops early November) to find out what it is. The only difficulty left is finding a good photo of myself to include. A horrible selection of drunk, tourist and flat out ridiculous images flash, disappointingly, to mind.

I've just emailed a band called Suffer Like G Did about playing a gig for us in London soon. Have you heard them? They were on our '10 Collection recently and sound great. A lot of people have told me they're awesome live so I'm looking forward to seeing them play soon.

I recently promised myself (seriously, I do that a lot) that I would make no new signings for the foreseeable future. As if this year hadn't already been busy enough, we're just about to hit "Release Season" with arguably our biggest albums and EP's of the year set to the drop over the next few weeks. For this reason I've purposely kept the first half of 2011 relatively quiet, because I'm not sure I'm ready for grey hair just yet, and I've earmarked December '10 for a real Christmas holiday, not like the close calls of recent years. I mean a REAL (that's capital letters and italics) Christmas holiday. Anyway, that plan is in danger of going out the window as I continue to find more and more awesome bands, never more so than when a member of one of my favourite bands in the world got in touch saying that BSM was their number one choice for a label, for his new side project. I think I blushed. I'm 27 years old, that sort of shit shouldn't be happening. As I type this I'm listening to their (really, really good) demos and feel like I'm wrestling with the "ah screw it, what's one more band?!" devil on my right whilst the "but what about Christmas?" angel argues from the left. They both put forward such good cases. What to do, what to do...?

I've got a couple of really exciting - and much needed - trips coming up soon. In 10 days time I head to Dublin for the first time to hang out with the good people from Disc Manufacturing Services, Adebisi Shank, that not-so good guy from Alcopop and attend the HWCH festival. I've only ever been to Northern Ireland before (and hope that my trip home this time will be a lot less eventful) so this will be a lot of fun. Then in early November I get to cross another new city off the 'been meaning to visit' map when I hit Berlin for 65 Days of Static supported by the wonderful (if troublesome on Twitter) Tall Ships. I've heard nothing but good things about this place - including from BSM artist and sometimes Berlin resident, Walter Schreifels - and that many people can't possibly be wrong. Mob mentality is always right, right?

I should go to bed. It's late and I've got a long day of emails, collections, deliveries, emails, mailorders, trying not to sign more bands, emails and to-do lists tomorrow. Night all. x

Competition season

2010-09-24T16:55:00.002+01:00

I've got to write a blog post about something other than a sodding competition soon!

Here's the results of the Dad Rocks! contest we've been running all week. The four songs Snaevar will be covering and posting online next month are...

1. Colour - Chutes
2. Kevin Devine - Another Bag of Bones
3. Tall Ships - Vessels/Chemistry (medley)
4. Shoes And Socks Off - I'm A World Class Assassin

Admittedly we used a little creative licence with the Tall Ships track. Vessels was in the top four most voted four songs but with Snaevar having fallen in love with Chemistry recently, we came up with the idea of a Tall Ships medley. Hope y'all don't mind!

Will post his recordings online soon, and look out for the first ever Dad Rocks! UK tour dates...

Tall Ships comp winner

2010-09-17T17:22:00.015+01:00

We had so many entries to our Tall Ships 'animal collective' competition! Some were weird, all of them were wonderful. I sent them all to the band who spent a fair amount of time carefully considering each before picking this little beauty submitted by Chris Hicks as the winner! Chris wins all of the bits listed here.

But because there were just so many awesome others, here are 10 runners up who win nothing more than their name in lights on this blog, posted alongside the short descriptions of the pictures the band used in their email to me. Congrats.

1. Alice Tragedy - old fashioned photo man holding dog

2. Frank Pell - french prez with deer

3. Jack Clothier - cat in frog suit

4. James Johnstone - cows fucking fence

5. Kaylea Mitchem - penguins and seal

6. Kirsty Nimmo - hot dog dog

7. Mark Pascoe - bear arms out

8. Sinbad Jones - dog getting out of pool

9. Steveo4 - huskie and tv

10. Elliott Freeman - the dog in wig and little suit

Remember we're running a new competition now to win loads of Dad Rocks! bits by picking four songs you think he should cover. Simple, right?

Dad Rocks! competition

2010-09-17T11:41:00.002+01:00

As one competition ends, another begins. Check out www.bsmrocks.com for info on a really cool little contest which will see Dad Rocks! recording covers of your favourite BSM songs, and giving you a chance to win a selection of goodies along the way.

The winner of the Tall Ships competition will be drawn this weekend and announced Monday. We had so many incredible entries so thank you to everyone who sent one in. I'm going to print them all off so we can have a good laugh and stick them in Tall Ships van at Southsea festival tomorrow.

Speaking of Southsea, you should probably come down. The BSM/Alcopop showcase at The Edge of The Wedge features Pulled Apart By Horses, Tall Ships, Stagecoach, &U&I (ex-Blakfish), Elephants, Hold Your Horse Is, Shoes And Socks Off, Stars And Sons and Ute, so it promises to be quite a day! It all kicks off at 12pm. Seeya by the sea!

Tall Ships competition

2010-09-13T11:41:00.007+01:00

Everyone loves a funny picture of an animal, and Tall Ships are no exception. The band have recently started an "animal collective" on the sun visor in their van but with just two pictures so far, they're in need of your help.

What we'd like is for you to send in amusing pictures of animals which they can print off and stick in their collective, to help keep their spirits up during the long drives of their upcoming tours with Tubelord, Maps And Atlases and 65 Days of Static. You can submit pictures via email, Twitter or Facebook and they can be ones you've taken yourself, ones with you in, or just things you've laughed at and stolen from the internet.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 17th September, on which date we'll choose our favourite one and that person will win...

The very last copy of the 2nd pressing of self-titled Tall Ships EP's, hand-numbered as 500/500
A Tall Ships t-shirt
Guestlist to any of their upcoming shows

No doubt we'll also post a selection of the entries on here too.

Here's a picture of the animal collective right now. It's a good start but between us we can make it amazing!

There Is Nothing But Chemistry Here

2010-09-09T18:10:00.000+01:00

BSM100: around the world

2010-09-08T11:12:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was amazing. I was left completely overwhelmed and flattered by the messages of support we received as well as the number of people who ordered 'Partied Hard'. I honestly couldn't have asked for more and just wanted to send a MASSIVE thank you to everyone.

So far we've received orders from the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, USA, Australia, South Africa and Japan. If your country isn't on that list and fancy doing your nation proud, get yourself over to www.bsmrocks.com

BSM100: Interviews

2010-09-07T12:53:00.007+01:00

Over the next few weeks there'll likely be a few interviews and things cropping up online, talking about the label, it's history, the back-story to how we came to work with a few of our bands and so on. I thought it might be nice to post links to some of them here.

First up, an interview with This Is Fake DIY.

And secondly, Rock Sound asked me to name my top 10 BSM songs. Not an easy decision, I must admit, and one or two controversial inclusions/exclusions here, I think.

EDIT: Another interview, this time with the lovely Bearded Magazine.

You've come along way baby

2010-09-07T09:40:00.003+01:00

...is the title of my favourite Fatboy Slim album. It's also a thought which has been spinning around my head a lot of late.

Today, Big Scary Monsters Records turns 100 releases old. I was up until 3am this morning making final adjustments to the website and answering a bunch of email interviews with different magazines, all of which asked the same question: Did I ever think it would come this far? Simple answer: no. When the label began I didn't even know what a record company does, let alone stopping to consider how far it might go. Of course I had childish dreams of swimming in pools of money like Scrooge McDuck, but as time wore on, naivety was replaced with excitement as I discovered the joy of finding and working with new bands, doing all I can to get their music out to as many people as possible. There's a certain, addictive joy to discovering a brand new band and watching them grow. A proud father feeling, perhaps?

You can read all about 'Partied Hard', our celebratory DVD/CD compilation over at www.bsmrocks.com and watch the trailer I posted on here yesterday. As you'll see, the release is only available until 24th October (the day before BSM101 comes out), and will be limited to however many sell during that time, so I'd encourage you to order sooner rather than later. During this period I'll be writing bits and pieces for the blog, talking about some of the content on the discs, running competitions and making a few new announcements. Hopefully it won't get too boring!

I wanted to finish this post by saying thanks. We really couldn't have come this far without you all. It's a cliche but that doesn't mean it's not true, and you'll probably never know how much your support has meant to myself and the bands over the course of the last 9 years. For every CD you've bought, gig you've attended, band you've put up for a night, nice email you've sent, friend you've recommended the label to, or minute you've read this silly little blog, you've helped make it all worthwhile.

Here's to the next 100. Cheers

Tomorrow

2010-09-06T14:35:00.001+01:00

Demos

2010-08-26T12:18:00.003+01:00

I receive a lot of emails from unsigned bands. Too many emails, in fact. There's the occasional gem in there which is clearly from a true fan, who passionately discusses their love for the label and our bands, or goes into detail about the first time they saw xyz play live, or how many times they've listened to abc's debut album. Unfortunately, for every one of those, there's roughly 50 inappropriate ones. Bands who have filled the cc field of their email with the address of every label ripped from The Unsigned Guide. Bands who have read so far as the "Records" part of our name and immediately sent a message, ignorant to the fact that we don't sign funk bands or artists influenced by the Stone Roses. Bands who have played 3 gigs in their local school, recorded a terrible quality demo and proclaimed themselves "the next big thing". Bands who send 20 MP3 attachments. Bands who send recordings of the bass and drums, claiming that not only is it far from being their best song, they haven't yet recorded the guitar or vocals. Bands who include Red Hot Chilli Peppers in their influences. Bands who list their members in big, bold letters as if I'm meant to know who they are. Bands with crap names. Bands with crap music. All of these annoy me beyond belief, rightly or wrongly.

This morning, upon deleting my 9th such email in an hour, I took a moment to think about the perfect band submission, if such a thing could exist. Perhaps a list of rules would be a good idea?

This is where I realised I'm as contradictory as I am angry.

Be concise... yet make sure you give me lots of info
Be friendly and charming... but don't suck up
Be confident... but do not, under any circumstances, be arrogant
Tell me why your band is going to sell records... but don't tell me they're the next big thing
Make it be known that you're not afraid to work hard... but don't you dare call me at 9pm on a Sunday night
Do tell me your Myspace address... but I will frown on you for still using that terrible website
Don't send MP3 attachments... but do make sure there are streaming and download links available
Don't tell me I should sign you cos you're friends with our bands... although I do kinda like hearing that
Don't list a bunch of gigs in towns I've never heard of... but do show me you're willing to tour hard
And finally, continuing from the above; don't offer me guestlist for a gig in a village hall on the other side of the country one rainy Monday night... but do, it makes me feel powerful

Dear unsigned band, if after reading this somewhat confused list you still think you have what it takes, I excitedly await your email.

Much love

Adebisi Hype

2010-08-17T17:27:00.003+01:00

Adebisi Shank seem to be all over the place this week. Having wrapped up their tour with a triumphant set in Kingston last night, and their new album now available to stream online, the internet was ablaze with talk of our favourite Dubliners today, so it was an absolute delight to discover The Independent reporting on the trio hitting the Hype Machine top 10 yesterday, above Arcade Fire, no less. On top of this, the record picked up its second 5/5 review, this time from the lovely chaps at Alter The Press, whilst a quick search of their name on Twitter just fills my heart with joy to see so many discussions going on.

And as if that wasn't enough pixel-inspired excitement, Bad Books (the new band from Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra) launched their online profiles to an overwhelming response last night, putting a track from their forthcoming, self-titled album up to stream via Facebook. Kevin also showed a little glimpse of his somewhat eccentric personality, as you can see below.

And, as if that STILL wasn't enough... NME are featuring Dad Rocks! video on their website

NB: Non-geeks may not understand why any of the above excites me. I'm a little envious of you, I must admit.

Keep your NME's closer

2010-08-11T11:23:00.002+01:00

Sometimes NME get things spot on.

"A DIY inspiration"

Busy week this week. I've been listening to mixes of the new Tall Ships and Men EP's loads, making the usual world domination plans, figuring out some tours, reading a hefty contract and meeting some awesome people in London. The week is bookended by my friends stag do this past Saturday, and the ensuing wedding this coming Saturday. It means a trip to the former capital of culture, Liverpool, so that'll be fun.

All I seem to post on here these days is videos

2010-08-10T10:15:00.000+01:00

Shoes And Socks Off - 'Robin Hood' - the videos

2010-08-05T11:05:00.003+01:00

That's it, we've made it to the end of the Shoes And Socks Off series of videos for new album, 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not'. 10 videos in 10 weeks, for a budget of around a fiver in total, all posted below for your convenience. If you like what you hear, the album is now available to pre-order via www.bsmrocks.com

Kribs

2010-08-02T10:03:00.003+01:00

Dad Rocks! was back in the studio recording for a new split single due out in the autumn on his Danish label, Kanel Records. Judging by this video, it was a pretty productive time...

Busking

2010-07-30T15:31:00.002+01:00

In January 2008 I went to New York and filmed a short video of a man playing his pots and pans in the 42nd Street subway. Since then the video has received 333,501 views and counting, as well as hundreds of comments and 1449 'likes'. This is all to be expected as the guy is clearly very talented.

In July 2010 I went to Barcelona and filmed an unlikely bunch playing near Port Vell one evening. Uploaded only minutes ago so no figures are yet available, the only stats I can give you are as follows: Yes, that's a didgeridoo. Yes, he's wearing pink trousers and has a big gong (wahey) next to him. Yes, that's a man standing, holding CDs aloft. No, nobody is watching. And you're right, it really is hard to pick just one single, favourite thing about that 'drummer'.

Well, there you have it. The tale of two buskers.

Throwing Opinions At Walls

2010-07-29T14:27:00.002+01:00

Last night I was fortunate enough to see the first ever Shoes And Socks Off London headline show, as part of this weeks full band tour. It was quite a spectacle and a joy to see so many people there, watching these stripped down acoustic songs we've all come to know and love be brought to life by an array of very talented musicians.

Me and my Flipcam managed to capture three videos which will be up online over the next few weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy this version of 'Throwing Opinions At Walls' featuring Toby on guitar accompanied by Sam and Reuben from Talons, recorded upstairs at The Barfly before the gig for This Is Fake DIY magazine.

Tapes

2010-07-29T10:55:00.003+01:00

I've had a small pile of cassettes sitting next to me on my desk ever since we moved into this place exactly two years ago. Here's a photo of the full collection. This is every cassette tape I own in the world, also known as, the reason I cannot use Last.fm. "Guilty pleasures" doesn't even begin to tell the story...

Just to confirm, the tapes are...

Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
V/A - Crocodile Dundee OST
The Manchester United Football Squad - Come On You Reds
The Cat (from Red Dwarf) - Tongue Tied
MC Hammer - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em
Loop Da Loop - Hazel
Collapsed Lung - Eat My Goal
Badiel And Skinner w/ The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions (original)
Bernard Butler - The Garage Tapes (free with NME)

I'll get my coat.

GoldFlakePaint

2010-07-27T09:46:00.003+01:00

I was recently interviewed by GoldFlakePaint online magazine and managed to somehow mention the Fresh Prince twice, in two different contexts, which was pretty exciting! They also wrote some really nice things about the label and posted some free MP3 downloads. If you have a couple of minutes, I'd love for you to read it.

Century

2010-07-26T12:31:00.004+01:00

Our 100th release is so very near. Perhaps nearer than you may realise, infact. Next month sees the release is of 96 (Shoes And Socks Off - 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have Not' album), 97 (Dad Rocks! - 'Digital Age' EP) and 98 (Hold Your Horse Is - 'Rammin' It Home' EP), which means we head into September just one short. Nail biting.

I've kept my cards very close to my chest with BSM100, partly because I like it that way, but mostly because I've changed my mind roughly every 3.4 seconds about the concept I feel best reflects the body of work we've churned out thus far. I've toyed with the idea of a 7" compilation featuring 10 bands each contributing 30 second songs, I've considered the logistical nightmare of getting as many bodies together in a recording studio to knock out a massive, combined song, I've even mulled over releasing something which isn't actually music. Our 50th release, '50 Not Out', the 50 track MP3 compilation a few years back was - and still is - perfect to me. It captured exactly where we were both in terms of the bands I was working with as well as the shift to digital music we were somewhere in the middle of making. The only problem with it now, looking back, is how do you top something you're totally, 100% happy with?

A few weeks ago I finally settled on an idea for our centenary. I haven't told many people (not even all of the bands yet know the details), and it won't be announced anywhere for a few more weeks yet, but here's a teeny tiny little bit of info for you, dear blog...

BSM100 will be entitled 'Partied Hard', which works on a few levels for me. The original inspiration for the phrase shouldn't be too difficult to guess, we've all sang along in the rock clubs enough times, but the past tense twist is what really seems appropriate. The release rounds up a lot of what we've achieved over the past few years, drawing a line under some things, summing it up and showcasing some of the many highlights, as well as opening the door to the next generation. It'll feature a lot of content - some you'll be aware of, some you won't - too many in-jokes and a lot of amazing artwork. The package will only be available for a very short time, our shortest ever, infact, and then gone forever. All of the little puzzle pieces are coming together here and I hope to have an end product within the next 2 weeks, at which point I'll tell you a lot more.

Around the release there'll be little bits and pieces of press. A few interviews with myself, some new content going online, that kind of thing. I've been asked this morning by one magazine if I'll make a playlist of my all time top 10 BSM songs, which is as exciting as it is daunting. Never before have I attempted to rate these pieces of work. It feels like choosing between my children.

Whilst writing this blog I've written, scrapped, re-written and scrapped again my thank you list for 'Partied Hard'. It's difficult summing up the best part of a decade in such a small amount of space. Time to do something mind numbing for a while and come back to that one later, I feel. It must be mailorder time.

Dad Rocks

2010-07-22T10:24:00.005+01:00

Have I posted this before? Who knows? Who cares? I'm doing it anyway. We've just signed the guy and I'm in a defiant mood, so I'll do what I want.

The 'Digital Age' EP finally gets a UK release via BSM on August 16th. There's a bonus track on the end and the CD looks wonderful in this very nice, childlike popup digipak sleeve...

For those of you who don't know/haven't just realised after watching the above video (seriously, watch it), Dad Rocks! is the solo project from Mimas frontman Snævar Njáll Albertsson, featuring his typically unique lyrical stylings and an array of instruments. We've confirmed the first of what will hopefully be three awesome UK shows in October, so look out for info on that.

Now you should go and pre-order the EP.

Kite

2010-07-14T11:14:00.002+01:00

That last post was my 600th. WOW! Doesn't time fly when you're blogging?

Sitting in my hotel room in Barcelona after a very weird night involving a bar called Obama's, getting lost, dancing with some Serbian's and a strange old Spannish man. Sightseeing day today, but haven't got a clue where to start. An open top bus might make sense. Drink by the harbour tonight is a must.

Check this video out, it's the latest in our series of Shoes And Socks Off series and features the highest budget of all; £5 for a kite, a roll of gaffa tape and a couple of Twix's. We filmed it on my old Nokia N95 phone, strapped to said kite and flown over White Horse Hill in Oxford one windy day back in April. DIY to the max.

Ole

2010-07-12T11:55:00.002+01:00

What a crazy 24 hours. Right now I’m sitting on the sunny balcony of our over the top hotel suite in Pamplona. Two skinny little English boys in a 2 bedroom place bigger than my own flat, with beds large enough to sleep across in any direction, a big, flatscreen TV, full kitchen and a bidet in the bathroom. We arrived yesterday afternoon to a sea of red and white. San Fermin festival is in full swing and the streets are lined with thousands of people in the traditional all white clothing with red neckerchiefs and belts. First stop was to find a shop so we could join in, second was the square where we settled to watch Spain win their first ever World Cup final. Hours of fireworks, marching bands, singing, dancing and drinking later, there was the small matter of a bunch of idiots racing a herd of pissed off, confused bulls down a cobblestone road. No serious injuries today, thankfully, although if everyone elses head is throbbing like mine right now, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

Today promises much of the same, again ending in the early hours of tomorrow with some bulls, then we head to Barcelona for a few days. I’ve had an image of sitting in a harbour side bar, drinking a cold beer and doing absolutely nothing for a few weeks now, and hope to make this idea of complete tranquillity a reality in 24 hours time. Wish me luck.

For now, it’s nose to the grindstone (or as close to as I can get right now). What a hard life. Download Hold Your Horse Is and Talons new, free, singles today. They're both absolute gold.

5 things I learnt in France

2010-07-12T11:45:00.004+01:00

1. It’s too big
2. Wild horses roam the streets
3. After the age of 50, all men are fat, overly tanned and topless
4. Football commentary is jibberish
5. Buffalo Grill

Viva La Espana

2010-07-09T09:02:00.004+01:00

I'm off on my summer holidays early tomorrow morning. Really excited. Can't remember the last time I went away in July for something more than a few days in a little tent with a couple of tins of beans and some paracetemol. Myself and a friend are driving to Pamplona for the San Fermin festival (that thing where crazy people run with bulls through the street each morning) and then heading to Barcelona for a few days. Spain getting to the World Cup final - their first ever - on Sunday night is the biggest blessing we could've asked for, as the whole country is likely to reach new levels of partying should they win. Man, I hope they win. At the end of the week we make the daunting 12 hour drive back to the UK, heading straight to The Windmill in London to see Tall Ships, Tangled Hair, Hold Your Horse Is and loads of friends such as Stagecoach, Screaming Maldini and Cat Matador playing the annual Alcopopalooza all-dayer. It's also my 27th birthday. I think it's a very safe assumption that Sunday 18th July 2010 will be lost to my duvet.

Typically the week I dare to go away on holiday looks to be our busiest in a while with all manner of action going on. Some of this I'd been keeping under wraps but I trust you, dear blog. So here's the scoop...

- On Monday Talons will make a previously unreleased recording, 'Trevelyan' (yep, like Sean Bean's character in Goldeneye), available as a free download through Music Glue. This preceeds a tour only CD we'll be releasing in Septemer, featuring all of their recorded material to date. The anthology is currently lacking a title and my suggestion of 'The Electric Dwight Yorkestra' seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

- Sticking with the "free music Monday" theme, Hold Your Horse Is also have a new download going live. It's the first track from their forthcoming EP, 'Rammin' It Home', and is a damn catchy little number. It will be available from their website and coincides with the announcement of their mammoth, 28 date UK tour with Shoes And Socks Off. Which leads me nicely onto...

- A new week obviously means a new video. Number 7 of 10 from the new SASO record, 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not' (number 6 is here, by the way). This was actually the highest budget of the series, clocking in at a whopping £5, mostly blown on a kite and gaffa tape, although a couple of Twix's were also involved. I love this video and it'll be made available exclusively via Punktastic, as part of a minisite alongside an interview with Toby, a bunch of free MP3 downloads and more. Be sure to check that out when it goes live on Monday morning.

- Also next week we have numerous mailouts and press releases set to auto send, detailing the above and a whole lot more, including the return of Adebisi Shank. The lovely Irish boys hit the UK in mid-August for a series of dates ahead of their new album release. I don't think you have to be the smartest Adebisi fan in the world to guess that it's called 'This Is The Second Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank'.

- Also in next weeks mailout is the rather tasty looking list of upcoming Tall Ships gigs. Yesterday the band were confirmed to support Maps And Atlases on their October tour of the UK, so add that to the dates with 65 Days of Static, Futureheads, Tubelord and Errors, and it's going to be pretty difficult to avoid this lot for the rest of the year. Their second EP is out in late September and the masters should be awaiting me upon my return from Spain. Expect much gloating.

That's all I'm gonna give away for the moment. There may be one or two other new and interesting pieces of info leaking out (along with lots of updates on hopefully not being gored by a bull) on Twitter and Facebook, so keep an eye on those and I'll see you in a week or so, tanned and tired. Ole.

CYF

2010-06-30T23:46:00.005+01:00

Another blog post lacking title inspiration. This is getting serious. Speaking of title inspiration and a disappointing lack of it, I've been wrestling with a few possible ideas for our forthcoming 100th release compilation moniker. When I tell you that 'Don't Worry, BSM Happy' is my current second favourite, it probably tells you a lot about the overall quality of my shortlist.

Not cool.

Anyway, it's a new week which of course means, a new Shoes And Socks Off video. Hurrah! This one is track 5 of 10, entitled 'CYF'. Many of you will already be familiar with the song as its a long-time live favourite. Toby put the video together using some old footage he found on The Prelinger Archives and I think it acts as a good road safety advert for us all. Well, maybe.

The master CD for 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not', the new album all of these new songs are taken from, should be dropping through my door Friday. We've managed to squeeze all 10 of the videos onto the CD - along with a few little bonuses - and conveniently, they're already in MP4 format so you can slip them straight onto your iPod. God bless this digital age of ours.

The artwork for the album looks great too. It's the first Shoes And Socks Off record to get a full, 'proper' release, instead of the made-to-order, no distro, no press efforts of before. In an almost symbolic move, the black and white images have been replaced by some lovely full colour work and I'm excited to get the finished product back here and selling. 2 new t-shirt designs are also in the works and the September tour dates will soon be announced. There's a lot of them so I don't want to hear any excuses.

Think it's time to call it a night. I'm not cut out for these sweaty evenings. When did it get so hot around here?! Planning a bit of an impromptu holiday for July and just can't stop daydreaming about sitting next to a pool somewhere. Anywhere. With cocktails. And the World Cup final.

Adebisi

2010-06-25T11:14:00.002+01:00

Feeling very low on blog title inspiration this morning. I've been writing press releases since 8am and feel I've exhausted my vocabulary twice over. So, to save my weary head, let's keep this simple. It's a crazy live video of Adebisi Shank, who are recording their new album right now, ready for a very quick release. More soon. Too many words already

Enjoy

Lots of little things

2010-06-17T18:20:00.009+01:00

Brace yourselves, here's a whole load of rambled nonsense for you. It's a massive update, BSM style.

The World Cup has started, but you probably know that. After a disappointing first week the tournament exploded with excitement yesterday, most notably for me as I sat surrounded by literally every South African in Oxford (vuvu's and all) trying not to show my pleasure as Diego Forlan scored his second of the game for Uruguay. My speculative 180/1 bet on him to be the competitions top scorer suddenly didn't look quite so ridiculous as his odds crashed to 13/1 by the end of the night. And just before I let the football subject go, I just need to mention that Team BSM took part in The Fly magazine's own World Cup last weekend and despite losing our first two games (even with Sam Get Cape Wear Cape Fly hitting the woodwork approximately 2893 times) we clubbed together and beat The Kaiser Chiefs in the final group stage match. Oh my God, they couldn't believe it. 1-0.

Grown Ups are now back in the US. It feels as though they were here for years (5 weeks, in reality) and from all accounts the European dates were just as well attended and fun as those here in the UK. Massive thanks to everyone who went out to see them play, bought a record and had a chat with the guys. It was the first time any of them had left the States - bless em - and it meant the world to them all. We have a few tour exclusive t-shirts left, so I'll stick those online next week.

On a similarly American, and very brief, note... Plans are slowly coming together to get both Kevin Devine and Walter Schreifels back here (separately) in the not too distant future. There may also be another US signing or two yet. Nothing concrete, but balls are in the air (is that the correct expression for this situation? Who knows). Kevin is currently in the middle of a massive 6 week US tour with Thrice and will be hitting Germany next month in support of the wonderful Nada Surf.

Tall Ships and Men have just finished up the 2nd BSM free tour of the year. Brighton, London, Southampton, Cardiff and Birmingham, you were awesome. NME rated the London date their number one must-see gig of the week (and right they were) and you'll be hearing lots more from both bands soon as they each put the finishing touches to their new EP's.

Each week leading up to the new Shoes And Socks Off album release in early August there'll be a new video posted. The total budget for the 10 pieces of work is £4, all of which was spent on the 7th installment, in part on Twix's (is that the plural for Twix? Twii?). Drowned In Sound got the ball rolling for us with the beautifully animated Spit/Shake, Bearded followed up with the appropriately hairy Smithereens, and now The 405 are in on the act with Psychological Tinnitus, which is pieced together by a few hundred photographs and a number of random props! The first ever full band SASO tour dates have also just been announced. Check the news page at www.bsmrocks.com for those. More info on the new album, 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not', will be coming soon, and online orders for the new 3 CD set, 'Don't Blame Yourself, It's In Your Blood', are on their way out.

New band alert: We've done it again. Another awesome band has joined the stable (geddit? You will). Please welcome... Hold Your Horse Is! (You get it now, right?). A lot of you will already be well aware of this bunch as they've played numerous gigs with many of our bands over the past year, as well as appearing in the recent 5-a-side football tournament - They're the half-naked ones below. Their new EP, 'Rammin' It Home', will be released in August with a stupid amount of tour dates to support it. Get a head start and check them out now at www.myspace.com/hyhi

Last week I went to the middle-of-bloody-nowhere in Wales to visit Talons in their studio with Tom Woodhead, he of Forward Russia fame. The boys were going slowly crazy having spent the previous few days there working on their debut album (which sounds absolutely incredible!), playing copious amounts of Fifa and wading through the stream to get to the nearest shop. Seriously. Look out for a whole load of new tour dates and release news coming soon. This album is going to break your heart, then rip it out of your chest and stomp it to death, just to be sure. I've never used the word 'tragic' in a positive context before, but this is it.

In other new album news, Mimas' 2nd record will be released this autumn. It's called 'Lifejackets' and it's absolutely brilliant. We're just working out the details with a few very nice labels around the world, as well as making tour and festival plans for the boys in ol' Blighty. Meanwhile, Shapes are halfway through writing their own little masterpiece (most likely for an early 2011 release), and have a remix EP planned to see the light of day sometime before the end of this year.

What else, what else? Oh yes, Pulled Apart By Horses brilliant debut album is out very soon on Transgressive Records. They're playing a few shows at the moment and have been added to the Radio One playlist, which is pretty exciting! Definitely pick that album up when it hits the shelves. Remember where it all started? We still have some very cool charcoal and pink t-shirts hidden away in our webstore if anyone wants them?

Talking American again for a moment, This Town Needs Guns have just spent two weeks touring over there with Native, and it sounds like everything went perfectly well. I bumped into bassist Jamie in Tesco last night where he was filling his basket with as much healthy food as he could lay his hands on to try and get the blood pumping through his clogged up veins once again. Us Brits are delicate flowers.

Early next week I'll show you all the BSM 5-a-side 2010 video. I've seen the full, unedited, 25 minute version and it's awesome! A bit of action, a number of tired bodies, quite a lot of booze. The usual story. A shorter version will be up on the Rock Sound website soon, but we're going to find a home for the full one in a couple of months in a more physical way (oi oiii). More on that soon. The brilliant Maryam has posted all of her photos from the big day on Flickr. Here are a couple of my favourites to finish this long yet devastatingly exciting blog post. Spot the dickheads in the glitter. Byeeeeee...

A Lovely Tuesday Afternoon In June

2010-06-08T14:38:00.002+01:00

Through the lovely weather of the last week I'd been excitedly awaiting Tuesday afternoon so I could gleefully post this link and talk about how appropriate it is. Typically, I was woken this morning by the sound of rain thumping against the window. Still, it's one of my favourite songs right now so here it is anyway...

Sunbears - A Lovely Tuesday Afternoon In June (MP3 stream link)

Fans of The Flamin' Lips and Death Cab For Cutie are gonna enjoy this. I hope.

(BSM 5-a-side info, photos and videos coming soon. I haven't forgotten)

Beards

2010-06-08T09:46:00.001+01:00

Like beards? You might enjoy this, the 2nd new video from Shoes And Socks Off forthcoming album. 8 more to come over the next 2 months.

Sticker update

2010-06-02T13:38:00.003+01:00

A 13 year old me would've lost his mind this week. With reckless abandon and a small dent in my wallet I'm now only 130 away from completing the Panini World Cup sticker album 2010. Here's a list of my swaps for my equally regressed friends...

000, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 25, 30, 40, 41, 42, 43, 48, 51, 59, 63, 73, 78, 79, 81, 83, 96, 98, 103, 109, 112, 116, 126, 128, 132, 134, 141, 149, 153, 156, 162, 163, 178, 179, 183, 187, 188, 189, 204, 220, 231, 235, 241, 242, 243, 244, 252, 256, 284, 311, 316, 318, 319, 320, 325, 327, 337, 338, 345, 349, 358, 365, 369, 370, 372, 378, 381, 383, 388, 390, 391, 392, 396, 415, 433, 446, 447, 450, 465, 466, 467, 468, 472, 474, 476, 479, 480, 483, 485, 486, 488, 491, 496, 498, 503, 510, 513, 518, 519, 523, 531, 536, 536, 546, 551, 552, 565, 566, 570, 571, 578, 581, 590, 591, 592, 595, 602, 610, 621, 625, 634, 635

Videos videos videos

2010-06-01T16:28:00.003+01:00

A few weeks back now Toby Shoes And Socks Off and I sat down and discussed the possibility of self-producing 10 videos; one for each track on his forthcoming new album, the confusingly titled 'Robin Hood Waiter Champion Have-Not'. An ambitious idea, for sure, but with a little help from a few friends, a mobile phone, a kite and numerous other props, maybe we could pull it off. Well today it begins. Week one, video one, and it's thanks to more than a little help this time, as Toby's friend Danielle has worked her socks off (no pun intended) to produce this beautiful little animation for the album opener, 'Spit/Shake'...

All 10 videos will be given to different magazines to run as exclusives, with our friends at Drowned In Sound handling the responsibility here.

Next week: A very hairy little number. Look out!

I'll post more news and info on the album itself over the coming weeks, as well as many, many new tour dates, a few festival appearances and lots of other lovely news. It's an exciting time and I hope you all enjoy the new music as much as I am. It's my favourite SASO record to date and I'm confident a lot of you will agree.

Treehouse

2010-05-28T12:03:00.002+01:00

You know when you go to see your friends band play a gig at an ice cream cafe in Oxford and the openers close their set with a cover which turns out to be an album track from one of your bands...?

Trying to think of a pun involving the word distro

2010-05-28T00:52:00.003+01:00

My mind keeps saying "play on bistro" but I just can't think of anything obvious at all. Stupid brain. Stupid 1am.

After over a year of trying to find time to launch it, the BSM distro is finally here! Click your way over to www.bsmrocks.com/distro and you'll see that from now on, on top of the already impossible to ignore Big Scary Monsters bargains, our online shop also stocks the best releases from some of our favourite other labels! Right now that includes lovely CDs, vinyl and even a cassette from Pulled Apart By Horses, Rolo Tomassi, Three Trapped Tigers, Tangled Hair, Throats, And So I Watch You From Afar, Bats and loads more. Exciting stuff, shoppers.

As I mentioned, this is something I've been meaning to launch for a very long time now. In fact, many of these items have been sitting around the flat for way longer than they should have, but "unfortunately" its just been release after release lately, meaning this was pushed a little down the priorities ladder, hence my delighted to finally have it up and running.

The next step is to add more items - hopefully including a number from overseas labels which are currently hard to find/expensive to import individually - keeping the quality control setting at 11 throughout. I'd like to also add more clothing items, although we're already getting dangerously close to our 100 item limit on Big Cartel, so some of those may have to wait until our new website is finally launched. I also plan to build on the 'Recommended if you like' info currently dotted around the website, to help new fans find music perfectly tailored for their taste, and buy it all under the one roof.

I'm off to bed. Big day of work and then a Lost party tomorrow. How I've managed to get through 4 days without finding out what happens, I don't know, but if anyone tries to give the game away to me before 9pm tomorrow, so hope me God...

Swaps

2010-05-27T10:14:00.006+01:00

What a hectic week. Grown Ups have completed the first leg of their European tour, having laid waste to the UK and had a damn good time doing it. The response has been amazing and the album is getting a lot of love. Right now the guys are in Paris but in 3 weeks time they may or may not stop by to play a couple of final shows here. What a cryptic little mystery. I'll post info as and when. Or will I? Ooooh.

If you do nothing else today, order the new Shoes And Socks Off 3 CD set, 'Don't Blame Yourself, It's In Your Blood'. It's comprised of the 3 previous albums along with hours of bonus material including unreleased recordings, videos, artwork and more. It all comes in a lovely cardboard gatefold sleeve which myself, Toby and Gemma spent a solid day making! The tracklisting and more can be found in the shop at www.bsmrocks.com

I've decided to enjoy a bit of regressing this year and collect Panini World Cup stickers. Having started my collection by buying enough packets to give a 12 year old me a small heart attack, I'm well on my way and through the wonder of social media, can now publicise my swaps list to a wider audience than the kids on my block. Get in touch, you know the drill. "Got, got, got, need, need, got"

83 - Edinson Cavani
136 - Seyi Olofinjana
163 - Greece squad
204 - Carlos Bocanegra
316 - Ghana shiny
325 - Michael Essien
366 - Martin Jorgensen
369 - Soren Larsen
391 - Cameroon squad
429 - Paraguay squad
430 - Paraguay shiny
441 - Enrique Vera
446 - Edgar Benitez
485 - Flip Holosko
491 - Luisao
536 - Guy Demel
546 - Ricardo Carvalho
591 - Banjamin Huggel
595 - Hakan Yakin
610 - Amado Guevara

Why Alcopop won't win the BSM 5-a-side 2010

2010-05-22T00:26:00.002+01:00

Look at Jack jumping out of the way of that FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRLS penalty.

All surfed out

2010-05-18T21:31:00.002+01:00

Every time I start to write a new blog post I get an overwhelming sense of guilt due to the extended breaks between each entry. Reminds me of getting to the exam hall back at school and thinking "oh crap, why didn't I revise more?! Next time I promise to do better."

I never did better.

So, Monday night was the first ever Surf Wax America club night (our new thing with the boys from The 405) in London and I think/hope I speak for everyone when I see it was a brilliant night. The place was packed as Into It. Over It did a splendid job on a short set of Texas Is The Reason covers before Grown Ups got the crowd singing along for a few Saves The Day hits and - in celebration of it being the first night - this little beauty...

Unfortunately the DJing came to an early end but after a nice man at the bar downstairs bought me a shot and explained that he and his friend had taken the day off work the following day, so to properly enjoy the evenings entertainment, there was really only one thing for it... I offered to move the party to a local flat where the DJ set continued from a laptop until the sun came up, to an intimate gathering of 12 happy ears. BSM; it's all about the personal touch!

Here are a few pictures from last night taken by the very talented Maryam Hassan. A collection from last weekends epic Great Escape showcase will also be up soon, so check back for those later on in the week, as well as another video or two from last night.

Walter press update #2

2010-05-12T16:10:00.006+01:00

As promised (a long, long time ago), here's another press update on Walter Schreifels album.

Let's start at the start with the Kerrang feature. Soon enough I'll show you one of the photos they decided not to print, which includes an invisible cameo from yours truly. Confused? You will be. Camera trickery at its finest.

"As if we weren’t gagging enough for the new Rival Schools material, he’s gone and raised the bar again. 8/10" - AU Magazine

"Perhaps the most surprising thing about Walter Schreifels' new record is that it sounds completely effortless, like the hardcore/post-hardcore luminary is not even breaking a sweat, like the music simply exists out there in the universe waiting to flow through whenever Mr. Schreifels picks up a guitar and opens his mouth" - Clicky Clicky music blog

"“Don’t forget the struggle, don’t forget the streets, don’t sell out, an open letter to the scene.” Walter Schreifels has a message to send, and the songs are beautifully imploring; far too imploring to ignore their pleas" - The 405

"Trust me; Walter Schreifels never makes bad records" - Die Shellsuit Die

"There is something magnetic about Schreifels and his music" - QRO (tour diary, photos)

"The result of this, is a simple, beautiful and honest album, which will leave you thinking about it long after the album has finished" - The Easy Mode

"Collection of smart and tuneful songs" - InForty

I've stuck this one at the bottom because it's an embarrassingly bad photo of the magazine, taken on my mobile phone. Unfortunately the BSM office isn't blessed with a scanner. Here's the feature which ran in Big Cheese magazine. If you click the image you might just be able to read the blurry text. Good luck.

And an exclusive almost-but-not-really-news exclusive for those of you who are still reading: Plans are coming together for one - possibly two - Walter Schreifels UK tours before the end of the year. Exciting!

3's

2010-05-12T15:53:00.002+01:00

People always talk about things coming in 3's. I was about to write a blog post to say that I'm only stressed about 2 things right now, but after half an hour of kids shouting at each other outside, I think I can tick the final box. The irony of the loudest one of them all complaining about her friend having no social awareness seemed totally lost on the little dickheads.

The Great Escape starts tomorrow. Always a fun weekend and with a daunting yet exciting 48 hours of meetings, showcases, DJ sets and stone skimming coming up, tonights sleep will be very much cherished.

Going hand in hand with the above, Grown Ups start their UK tour Friday night. Their album pre-sales are flying and lots of people seem almost as excited as I am to finally see them play live. The dates and details are posted at www.bsmrocks.com if you haven't already seen them.

I've been listening to the new Shoes And Socks Off album on repeat for the past day or so. It's odd, having lived with and loved the demo's for so long, to now hear different - and in some cases, full band - versions of these songs, but even so, this is definitely my favourite of his releases so far. Look out for loads of news and MP3s coming soon. In the mean time, here's a live video of CYF, one of the songs from the album...

Maida Vale

2010-05-09T11:33:00.006+01:00

Earlier this week I made my fourth visit to the lovely Maida Vale studios in London to see Tall Ships record a live session for Huw Stephens, to be broadcast later this summer. Standard fare; I got lost in the local area, stared at by builders, marvelled at the houses, wondered what I could do to get rich enough to buy such a place, picked up a pass at the studio front desk, meandered around the maze of corridors and stopped to consider how many famous people may be in the building at that precise moment (Gorillaz recorded in the same room just 24 hours earlier. True story. Their cartoon van got a ticket outside).

The band recorded four songs, three from the self-titled EP and one huge newbie, and they also took a few photos. I've posted a couple below. Will let you all know the air date for the session as soon as it's confirmed.

Can't Lib With Dem, Can't Lib Without Dem

2010-04-28T12:03:00.005+01:00

I really want to tell you all about my trip to Blackpool (seriously, get out of the 90's! If ever a town - and group of people - needed a major update...) and Gretna (No marriage, just a 600 mile round trip to watch non-league Scottish football and hang out at a social club) but it would end up being a post simply littered with in-jokes, tales of drunken nonsense and a boy named Cod. Instead, I'm going to give you something much more worthwhile... A little press update on Walter Schreifels album.

Its wonderful to see the media enjoying this record as much as I'm sure the rest of you all will as soon as you hear it. I'm going to post a second update soon which will include some of the forthcoming bits such as his Kerrang feature (along with a photo I play an integral role in, not that you'll see me) and album review, as well as a feature from Big Cheese, and no doubt a bunch more reviews and videos. Right now, here are some of my favourite press clippings to have run thus far...

Walter reviews the singles in Rock Sound. You'll have to buy the magazine to read his views on Foals, Biffy Clyro, Attack! Attack!, Cerebal Ballzy, Pendulum and more but I had to post the photo. Seriously, have a look at that! What a thing of splendour. On the way to the RS offices I told him all about the wonderful TV show that is Booze Britain, as well as our finest drinking chain, Wetherspoons. With his mind freshly blown, see how many times he manages to mention these things in his short, consistently scored summaries! It's in the issue with Deftones on the cover, out now.

Also in this months Rock Sound is a review of the new album, 'An Open Letter To The Scene', which you can read just here (scoring a nice 8/10) and a 9/10 live review from his recent gig in Sheffield. A night which, from the sounds of it, saw the reviewer fell head over heels in love with the man's sackful of charm.

And completing the Rock Sound trident of Walter love is this little piece about the UK election, including an incredible catchphrase, more recently seen as the title of this post.

In the online world, Punktastic (4/5), Alter The Press (4.5/5) and Rock Midgets (4/5) have all weighed in with some serious praise, with PT also giving us this little live video for 'She Is To Me' and ATP offering this interview. Manchester Screenwipe also have a live video online.

From the US side, there's a great in the studio video doing the rounds on a few online magazine/blog websites, and now AOL and Spinner are both streaming the album in its entirety. Have a listen here.

Completing this first round-up is a clip of an interview from a documentary I'll be telling you a lot more about over the coming weeks. Enjoy.

And I would drive 600 miles

2010-04-23T14:27:00.003+01:00

Day three of my week off. Yesterday's London trip to see Chris Conley of Saves The Day fame was cancelled (thanks, volcano!) but ended up a blissful affair full of beer gardens, political debates and online gambling. I doubled down on 13, convinced it was a lesson I learnt in Swingers. I was wrong, but thankfully the cards weren't. Blackjack!

This afternoon I'm starting a 600 mile round trip to watch Scottish non-league football.

This line shouldn't really be a new paragraph but I felt the dramatic pause was necessary. Tomorrow at 2.30pm Alcopop Records will be sponsoring what is arguably the game of the weekend... Gretna 2008 vs Vale of Leithen! In front of an expected crowd of 150, Jack and I will be handling the daunting responsibility of picking man of the match before celebrating a glorious home win in the neighbouring Social Club. Come on you Black and Whites!

But, first things first... A night out in Blackpool. This is gonna be horrible.

Oblivion

2010-04-22T08:49:00.003+01:00

I'm taking a few days off over the next week to enjoy a bit of down-time and hang out with friends. It started yesterday with a mates birthday celebrations at Alton Towers. I'd never previously been on a rollercoaster and it took my body a while to adapt, to say the least. Ever been on Oblivion? Don't. A 90ft vertical drop into a black hole in the ground says it all, really. Just stupid. Thankfully the log flume proved to be a little easier. Nonchalance is definitely a better look on me.

Surf Wax America #1

2010-04-20T16:13:00.002+01:00

Forget about volcanoes and politics for one minute and ask yourself this... If Carlsberg ran clubnights, would they be as good as this?

It's highly unlikely, right?

To give you the background to this night, it turned out that both myself and the guys at The 405 had the idea of starting something up in London where we could basically play a few great records for our friends once a month. As far as I'm aware, there's nowhere else in town you would hear Meet Me In St Louis mixed into Renegade Master followed by Blink 182 and then Phoenix. Equally, there's very few places you get to see awesome bands forgoing their own material for an evening to cover some huge hits from others. So with Grown Ups doing Saves The Day and Into It. Over It having a bash at Texas Is The Reason, I feel this night is going to tick many boxes for many people, and we're all gonna have a damn good time along the way!

Another important factor in the coming together of Surf Wax America was the financial side of things. We hoped to make it free entry for all, but as with most things, overheads need to be covered and as such we had to set a door price. We've kept this as low as possible, and after a small number of advance tickets for just £2 selling out in 15 minutes on Friday, they're available for £3, which will stay that price right the way up until 11pm on the night, when it jumps to £5.

I'll no doubt be posting more about this night over the next month, but in the meantime, here are some useful links for you... Buy tickets. Facebook event. Last.fm event.

My week

2010-04-19T09:49:00.003+01:00

As now so often seems to be the way, I'm writing a long-overdue catchup blog post whilst sitting here editing myself in my head, trying to filter out the 'absolute nonsense' and just leave the 'pretty much nonsense' news for you to read about.

Since my last update my knowledge of the UK political system has quadrupled. I guess the TV debate really did have the desired effect as I've come away for the for the first time in my life feeling as though I have a vague idea about what's going on, who I'm going to vote for and even enjoyed a conversation about it with friends over the weekend. I must be growing up.

Sticking with the theme of current affairs, the gsgn'sgseggnjfg volcano (did I mash the keyboard correctly there?) in Iceland continues to cause all sorts of problems for many people, with air traffic entering its 5th day of standstill. Pool old Walter Schreifels has been caught up in the middle of it all. Having flown to Japan - via Moscow - after finishing up his UK tour, his return plans hit a rather large stumbling block which saw him grounded in a Dharma Initiative style camp in Russia for the past three days. Right now he's in Barcelona and hopes to finally return to London and then NYC on Thursday. Meanwhile This Town Needs Guns are nervously keeping an eye on the news, ahead of their tour of Japan which is due to begin next week. Closer to home, I have two trips planned myself this week, but thankfully no dust clouds will be stopping me from hitting Alton Towers or Gretna Social Club. More on those later in the week...

We've upgraded our web server this week to a bigger and better service. It turns out that the old one was a little out-dated which meant it was not only slow and limited in capabilities, but also more than three times the price I should've been paying. Nice! The switch to the new server - touch wood - seems to have been made seamlessly, but if you do experience any problems, keep an eye on our Twitter feed for updates, and you can access our webstore directly at any time. The letters MySQL, SSL, FTP and many more have been floating around my head for days now and still mean absolutely nothing!

Talons begin their tour with Three Trapped Tigers (who are this week's '10 Collection band) on Thursday and I heartily recommend you check them out. The split single with Noumenon is getting close to selling out so you should try and pick up a copy of that soon or risk the chance of missing out completely.

And last but by no means least, I've started making plans for this years BSM 5-a-side football tournament. As ever, 16 teams will make up four groups of 4 battling it out over a hot summers afternoon, before we can crown the champions of the underground music scene. Look out for a run-down of the competitors coming soon...

Now I need to get on with my usual Monday morning tasks of beating the tiredness and uploading the latest '10 Collection track. Subscribers, brace yourselves.

The new guy

2010-04-14T10:08:00.003+01:00

I get a few emails every day from people asking for a job - be it paid or unpaid - but due to being a one-man operation based in a small flat, it's not exactly the ideal setup to have someone here working with me. From time to time I ask 'applicants' to handle a bit of work for the label from the comfort of their own home, in return for free CDs, gig tickets, etc, so when one of my friends emailed saying he needed a few days of work experience in order to pass his creative writing module at uni, it all fell nicely into place... It's my responsibility to the educational system of the United Kingdom to make him work for it!

I set him a series of small tasks ranging from some fairly dull band biog updates and spellchecking to the more difficult of challenges, beginning with the below. An introductory blog post and essay on why Big Scary Monsters is the best record label in the world.

Hello gang!

Thom Rogers here! Most of you won’t know me so let me fill you in on why I have hijacked the Blog Scary Monsters today. Well the short answer is because I’m actually doing a few odd jobs to help Kev – Big Boss, as I will call him this week - in exchange for “work experience” for University. I got an email with a list of duties I had to fulfil, one being an introduction on who I am via the blog and an essay on why Big Scary Monsters is best indie record label ever!

However, the long answer to why you are reading me today instead of Big Boss (Kev, just in case you weren’t reading earlier… keep up!) is a series of events that fumbled together that will also reveal why, in my opinion, Big Scary Monsters is the best indie record label ever.

I first stumbled across BSM when the label discovered a hot bed music in the Dorset area, with two awesome bands – Secondsmile and Sparks, Lights And Flames – being picked up about five or six years ago. It just so happened that these guys were my gang of friend from home. However, these would not become the only friends I would make because of Big Scary Monsters.

The reason for this is that BSM is the one record label I can think of where a community has developed, with Kev as den mother, introducing us all to new bands constantly. Six Years ago it was Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. through to Itch, The Campaign For Real Time, Cats And Cats And Cats and its still going on now, as I discover Grown Ups this week.

The sense of community is felt throughout the year, with Christmas tours, summer showcases and of course everyone’s favourite, the BSM 5-a-side football tournament, unless you were a ref.

This is a truly wonderful and eclectic music label, just by looking at the 50 Not Out compilation CD, you can see that BSM have proved that quantity and quality can co-exist. The label has consistently released some of the world’s best underground music, be it Sweden’s Audrey, the mid-land’s Blakfish, Boston’s The Campaign For Real Time or Michigan’s Anathello.

So there it is, the reason why I believe Big Scary Monsters to be the best indie record label ever. I have met so many wonderful people throughout the years due to this label and listened to even more wonderful bands. With their 100th release on the way, going intercontinental and starting to get some seriously big names like Andrew W.K, the future bright, the future is BSM.

Look out for more from Thom over the next couple of weeks. If you have any ideas of paces he needs to be put through (or hoops he should be jumping through, more like) then let me know. The man's education is in our hands here, people.

Wally

2010-04-07T00:50:00.003+01:00

Last night I awoke at 4am and struggled to get back to sleep amidst thoughts and fears of work backlogs and problems. I hadn't felt stressed before going to bed, but I sure as hell felt it whilst there. It was very strange, made even more so when I found out earlier on today that our webstore is down, with no explanation or resolution in sight. As far as I can tell - and that isn't very far at all, considering my total lack of technical knowledge - the providers servers have failed, making this a problem I can do little about. My girlfriend tells me that I spend so much time on the computer, it and my mind are now one, hence the twin-like feelings of worry late last night. Unlikely stories aside, my afternoon quickly developed into a race against time to shift as many of our products as possible over onto a new webstore platform and get it integrated with the website layout, without looking like the preverial sore thumb. At 1am, 7 hours after I began with no more than a 10 minute break in that time, I am 50% finished. And that's before the bugs are ironed out. It almost seems pointless bothering trying to sleep tonight.

Walter Schreifels ends his UK tour in London tomorrow night. Unfortunately the planned gig in Southampton on Thursday has had to be cancelled at short notice, with Walter heading straight from London to Japan for some last-minute Rival Schools bits and pieces. Life in the fast lane, and all that. I'll be joining him early tomorrow lunchtime for a final 24 hours of press work in the UK, including a Kerrang photoshoot, some fun in the Rock Sound office, a number of interviews, acoustic performances and a farewell drink or two.

I'll post a bunch of the above videos, interviews, reviews and so on as and when they filter through, starting with this lovely little video from our good friends at Beatcast, filmed last week in Kingston.

Apologies for the tired nature of this post. Brain's shutting down. See you next week.

Tall Ships press

2010-03-26T13:43:00.004Z

Lots and lots of lovely reviews for Tall Ships EP have been flooding in (geddit?! Oh come on!) over the past few weeks. Here's a few quotes - in one context or another - for you. Make of them what you will.

"Just slightly weirder than your average briton... Fairground influenced instrumentation... One of the more interesting EPs I've heard this year" - Alter The Press

"I've been meaning to write something about any of the bands signed to Big Scary Monsters for quite sometime. Finally I can cross that off my list title "Lifetime Goals"... a little bit of Foals first record about it, mixed with a bit of Explosions In The Sky" - And Everyone's A DJ

"Think of them as a quieter Enter Shikari or a less American The Killers" - Audio Flare

"Ricky P, Parksy and Jamie B are better known as Tall Ships" - BBC Introducing

"With such a fun multi instrumental set up they really could never fail to entertain" - Dark Party

"Their mathy, artschool tech is delivered with rousing assurance to a sea of bobble hats" - Drowned In Sound (live review for EP launch show)

"There is no reason why they can’t achieve NME domination" - God Is In The TV

"Consistent quality and energy in the songwriting" - InForty

"Some great rhyming... Modern church music" - Let Me Touch Your Face

"For comparisons you could loosely look at progressive bands such as Foals, Late Of The Pier, and The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg, but Tall Ships deserve more than to be bandied amongst others such is the strength of their ideas and music" - Music Liberation

"Pretty much everything they turn their hand to here is a success. Fascinating stuff" - Rock Midgets

"A varied, entertaining, and vibrant experience" - The Easy Mode

"At a time when I’m finding less and less indie to adore Tall Ships have come out of nowhere and peaked my interest. Their sound is playful without being annoying or kooky, there is a underlying hopeful yet subdued atmosphere to it all and they seem at home in their own off-kilter world, truly refreshing" - Sonic Minefield

"Anyone wanting to fill a Youthmovies-shaped void might want to investigate Tall Ships further" - The 405

"The record label Big Scary Monsters puts out some of the best independent music in the UK... No-wave grooves... Tall Ships are certainly going to make great waves" - Your Cardiff (live review)

And of course, the NME said this...

10 Collection blogs

2010-03-23T13:37:00.003Z

I've recently found a couple of nice blogs/articles on our '10 Collection, which were very flattering and deserved sharing with you all.

First up is In Worried Piles, I Typed For Miles, who are undertaking the slightly daunting challenge of reviewing all 52 tracks from the series. Have a scroll through and see what they made of the first 10.

Secondly there's Rock Pulse magazine, who asked me a few questions regarding the series, along with Hold Your Horse Is, one of our 12 entries thus far.

And finally we have Ignatius ofLoyola blog, who wrote a nice little entry about our '09 and '10 Collections back at the start of the year.

If I find any more I'll post them up on here. If indeed you're a blog writer yourself and have posted anything about the series - or the label/our bands in general - please do send me the link(s). I can't post everything on here but do my best to share as many as possible. Next week I have a fairly length list of Tall Ships EP reviews to add, all of which are brilliantly nice.

Gotta love the blogosphere... no matter how crap that word is.

K-Dev update

2010-03-23T09:38:00.003Z

Its been a while since I mentioned this man's name. After seeing him every few weeks through the second half of last year - thanks to the UK tours with Brand New and then Manchester Orchestra, followed by The Get Up Kids in the US and the back over here for our xmas extraveganza - it feels like ages since he last graced us with his presence.

Kevin's playing some awesome festivals in America this summer (Coachella, Bamboozle and Bonaroo) with the likes of Jay-Z, Muse, Weezer, Paramore, Minus The Bear and seemingly every other band under the sun, as well as a very cool US tour, soon to be announced, and a few days in Australia with Brand New. Busy times, as ever, but he'll be back over here soon, with lots of plans currently being worked on. Hold tight.

In the meantime, here's a little video of him covering Belle and Sebastian's 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying'. Enjoy

CYF

2010-03-22T16:25:00.003Z

Go here to watch Shoes And Socks Off performing CYF (a track which will feature on his new album this summer) live in an abandoned playground for the lovely people of Clinic promotions.

Toby's new, 6 track, free download covers EP, 'Piepton', is available now. Download it here or stream it here.

Lovely.

My morning so far

2010-03-22T12:24:00.002Z

I have...

Woken up, considered going back to sleep, managed to battle on
Read, replied to and deleted somewhere in the region of 100 emails
Updated the webstore with the remaining 40 copies of the re-released Blakfish EP
Updated the '10 Collection webpages and sent this weeks MP3 out
Sent a news mailout to 80-odd websites re: the Shoes And Socks Off free covers EP
Promoted said EP on Facebook, Twitter, the website news page and, last and very much least, Myspace
Eaten more Maryland cookies than one person should in a morning
Marked the aforementioned Blakfish EP as 'sold out'. Already.
Fought the continuous urge to stop working and watch Dexter
Wrote our next mailout, set to go tomorrow morning, announcing the Grown Ups tour dates, a heavy hint on a new band, a reminder of Walter Schreifels UK tour, Talons live appointments and split single with Noumenon, and a few more bits and bobs.
Shocked a delivery guy by opening the door in a dressing gown at 1pm
Ordered some new badges
Decided I will leave 'the office' early today as I've done loads and Dexter is stronger than me

Seeya tomorrow

Happy St Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T11:11:00.001Z

Two years ago, to celebrate Tubelord's debut single release...

The wheels on the bus

2010-03-16T21:12:00.002Z

I'm on my way into a very sunny London, listening to the girl in front boast on the phone about how she earns between £700 and £1000 a day. The wi-fi connection on the bus and/or my laptop is having an off-day so this seemed like as good a time as any to write a blog update ready to post later, in a more internet-friendly location.

One year ago I was doing the exact same thing, only in a slightly more exciting place. I was on my way to SXSW in Austin, Texas. After a 5am, St Patrick's Day Guiness at Wetherspoons in Heathrow, the long flight had literally flown by, and by this point in the day I was sitting in Houston airport, eating disappointing pizza and looking out for cowboy hats. The two week trip was wonderful from start to finish and was one I very much intended to repeat this year, but later opted out of. A huge mistake, it would seem, judging by how desperate I am to be there right now. High Wycombe from my window here just doesn't compete.

Not sure what to tell you right now. I'm in a bit of a funny position as I feel that everything I can say has already been said. A lot of the stuff I'm working on right now - for one reason or another - is kind of secret or up in the air. It feels a little deceitful to not tell you about it all but such is the nature of this job, a small web of lies is sometimes necessary.

Over recent weeks I've actually started to ponder what I may do with my life were it not for the label. It's a strange question to ask yourself after close to a decade of hard work. I began BSM at the tender age of 17 and despite spending the early years also working 4 or 5 other jobs (from stocking shelves at the local Co-Op to pretending to be an amorous penguin on Myspace. Seriously) this is the only occupation to ever receive my full love and attention. The idea of doing something different has never previously crossed my mind but the reality of running a bedroom indie label which has by FAR outgrown itself, not to mention its owners wildest dreams, is that one day this is a bridge which will need to be crossed. Brief moments of considering seeing out my days like The Dude in the Big Lebowski are enjoyable, although frustrating enough in a hypothetical world to know the lack of, well, anything would drive me insane. Football is another great passion of mine, but the boyhood dreams of playing in the Premier League died the day I realised even Ray Parlour was better than me. Travelling the world and writing a book on an as yet undetermined subject or whim is extremely appealing, and would certainly be one in the eye of the line of GCSE English teachers who slated my lack of effort, although hardly the most lucrative of career paths. I'm turning 27 this year, after all. I always promised myself I'd have a pension by 25 and am already two years behind schedule on that small goal.

This whole subject is, of course, very premature. Looking at the release schedule we already have 23 little beauties coming up for you between now and the end of the year, divided across the CD, vinyl, cassette and paperback formats. If some of the aforementioned secret plans come into fruition, this number will rise closer to 30 and file any such thoughts of career changes under "you're kidding me, right?!"

It's funny how even when doing your dream job can occasionally mistake the grass on the other side as being that little bit greener. A rude awakening is needed. Maybe I should see if I could reprise my role as Sunday morning yogurt stock assistant in a little village supermarket for <£4.50 an hour and then check those colours again?

Puns

2010-03-14T10:31:00.002Z

Last night I went to a gig to see my friends band (who I missed, oops) and two others I'd never previously heard but really enjoyed. Can't remember the last time that happened. I seem to be going to less gigs these days and when I do, it's rare it's to see bands I have no previous knowledge of who turn out to be really good. I must remember to try this blind opportunism again.

Between bands the subject of puns somehow arose, initially through talking about the Air Bud film series, I believe. Golden Receiver, the movie about a dog playing American Football, still blows my mind. As does this:

And indeed, this:

Fellow pun fans, I urge you to check out this blog and make your Sunday a little bit better. Perhaps forward the link to your Mum and wish her all the best on Mothering Sunday?

Fact: Sean, the man responsible for the blog, designed the Holy Monsters artwork for our split 10" with Holy Roar Records last year.

You just can't keep a good Tall Ship down

2010-03-12T12:24:00.003Z

Having enjoyed their first Radio One play this week from the ever-dependable Huw Stephens (as well as being the opening track on his new podcast), the BBC have given the seaside based threesome their 'tip of the week', er... tip. Check it out here.

A cheeky live video of a new Tall Ships song is below. It may or may not appear on their next EP, due out later on this year...

I've lost my way

2010-03-09T09:50:00.002Z

I've really gone off the blogging boil in 2010. It seems like days, or even weeks, pass before I get a chance to post on here, leaving millions of people around the world heartbroken and lost, no doubt! Here's a little catchup of a few things going on around here right now...

Tall Ships self-titled debut EP is released on Monday... but has already sold out! The 250, screen printed, hand-numbered CDs flew out via pre-order and gig sales alone (and that's before they get to play their triumphant homecoming show in Falmouth next week!), which really did leave a lot of people heartbroken and lost towards the end of their recent tour with Tubelord. Good news, however, is that it's being repressed straight away, with a further 250 copies set to be ready in the next few days. This second batch will be printed in red, rather than blue, and will be numbered 251-500. They continue to be available from our online shop and the band will be back out on tour in a couple of months time. We've just booked up a Huw Stephens live session too, which won't air until later on in the year, but means another nice BBC canteen lunch for me, and frankly that's the most important thing here.

We're pitching for a new release. I'm not telling anyone who it is, but if it comes off, you're all gonna love it!

We've also pitched for another release. This one isn't new, but is actually in my top 10 albums of all-time. The plan is to re-release it, some 7 years(!) after it's original birth, on limited edition vinyl, hopefully with a couple of bonus tracks. This one is pretty much sorted and will be finalised early next week, so look out for an announcement shortly. In the meantime, if you want to try and work out what this mystery release is, you could start by looking up every album from 2003.

Grown Ups UK tour is pretty much finalised. Just waiting on confirmation of the final two shows, which should be sometime in the next few days. The European dates are starting to fill up too, and all will be posted online shortly. Check out the two new tracks and the live videos on their Myspace page, and start getting excited.

I've recently become addicted to Dexter. Halfway through series two right now.

Walter Schreifels hits our shores in a few weeks time. He's currently in Canada recording some new material and is due to land in the UK on March 26th. The tour dates can be found on our website. A second UK run is already being planned.

There's loads more I could tell you about but I'll save that for my next "oops, I haven't blogged in a long time" post. Same bat channel, same boring excuses.

Tall Ships in NME

2010-02-24T10:32:00.002Z

Always a big day for a band, today Tall Ships receive their first small feature in NME. Congratulations guys, here's to many more.

Check it out and download the MP3 here. The band are currently out on tour with Tubelord. The self-titled debut EP is due out on 15th March... If there are any copies left by then!

Open Letter To The Scene

2010-02-24T10:25:00.001Z

Walter Schreifels recently stopped in to record a live version of 'Open Letter To The Scene' for our friends over at Ifyoumakeit.com. Enjoy.

Easy like Monday morning

2010-02-22T10:15:00.003Z

Monday's are gradually working their way into a little routine for me. Wake up, fall asleep, wake up, get angry because it's later than it should be, check my email on the phone until I see something important enough to convince my tired brain I definitely need to get up, shower, sit at the computer, pause for a moment to think over my to-do list, update the '10 Collection. Every week starts in exactlty the same way. I'm not normally one for routines but I think I like this one. I enjoy the moment after pressing send and imagining people downloading the new musical installment as I excitedly await reaction.

Last week was certainly no exception as we unveiled the first new Tellison track in over a year, something which it seemed many people out there were very pleased to hear. This week we've followed it up with a band called Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea, who are one of my favourite new UK acts. I came across them back in December, during the BSM xmas tour when, wonderfully, two separate people recommended them on the same day. Whenever that happens it gives you a tiny little glimour of excitement and the suggestion of something special. Thankfully, both of these people were dead right.

Last week I was pointed in the direction of this blog which is very kindly reviewing all 52 tracks from the series. So far the writer seems to be enjoying what he's been sent, which is pretty cool. I wonder what he'll make of CMCS? I guess we'll find out soon. Time to press send...

Dear UK gigs

2010-02-17T15:49:00.003Z

I really like you, don't get me wrong, but if you could be just a little more like this, I'd really like it

R.I.P. Blakfish

2010-02-16T16:00:00.002Z

Unfortunately, as of late last week, Blakfish are no more. I don't think I was alone in believing this band would be touring until the end of time, but unfortunately Sam (vocals and guitar) has decided to leave. During a European tour with Biffy Clyro certainly isn't the worst way to bow out, but it's an unfortunate and very unexpected demise, all the same. It goes without saying that they'll be sorely missed and we hope to bring you news of future musical projects as soon as they begin to surface.

Something which has bothered me a little over the past few days, since the announcement was made on Saturday evening, is the number of fans appearing from nowhere. Obviously that in itself hasn't bothered me, I love it that people enjoyed the bands music, it's just a shame that some have stayed so quiet until now.

The same thing seems to happen everytime. Whenever a band splits up, everyone suddenly declares their love for the music, but whilst they're together, plugging away 200 nights a year touring in cold vans, peddling their wares trying to make ends meet, it seems a somewhat different story. We've seen it with Meet Me In St Louis, Jairus, Secondsmile and countless others here, whilst more recently, away from the label, These Arms Are Snakes seemed to suffer a pretty similar fate.

I don't want this to turn into a preachy rant, demanding people spend all of their time and money, devoting their lives to the bands they enjoy, I completely understand and respect that life is about a hell of a lot more than that, but what I'm saying is that sometimes - just, every now and again - maybe take a moment out to appreciate what you've got. It's a bit of an old cliche to say "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" but that's not to say it isn't true. I'm as guilty of it as the next man and much like a near death experience shaking you into action to sort out your life, I'm going to try and make more of an effort to get out and enjoy the bands I love, whilst they're still in need of my support.

Going to gigs, buying CDs and even sending quick emails to let someone know you appreciate what they do isn't a big commitment, but you never know, at the end of the day it could make all the difference.

Rant over. As you were, people.

Drowned In Scary Monsters #7

2010-02-16T15:59:00.001Z

My first of the year. This one talks about some of the stuff we have coming up, as well as a little bit of insight into the Andrew W.K. single. Enjoy.

Thank you, love from AWK

2010-02-11T16:05:00.009Z

As you may have heard, the first 100 copies of Andrew W.K.'s square 7" single, 'I'm A Vagabond', comes with a hand-written thank you note. All 100 are different. Here are just a few of my favourites. Enjoy...

Talons in Heaven

2010-02-11T15:57:00.002Z

Just watched this video back and remembered how amazing this show was. On this occasion, Talons supported Manchester Orchestra, but one day they'll be back to headline and it'll be the best thing you've ever seen or heard. Believe.

Free Tupolev

2010-02-10T11:36:00.003Z

The Tupolev Ghost unfortunately decided to call it a day towards the end of last year, after playing one final show at The Fest in Florida. Not a bad way for a band to bow out, but a massive shame nonetheless.

If You Make It is an awesome Brooklyn based website which features acoustic sessions with Kevin Devine and many others, hosts free album downloads from some incredible bands. They recently posted the Grown Ups EP and have now (with our full permission, of course) followed it with The Tupolev Ghost's self-titled mini-album from last year.

Download it from here.

You're welcome.

Here's the video to 'Diagrams', one of my favourite songs of 2009.

Another day, another W.K.

2010-02-09T18:22:00.000Z

Gloriously weird

'10 Collection update

2010-02-09T11:00:00.002Z

Just wanted to post a little update on where we're upto with the BSM '10 Collection. We're now 6 weeks in and things from this side are going swimmingly, I hope everyone who has subscribed thus far is enjoying it just as much. We've had music from Tangled Hair, Walter Schreifels, Ice Sea Dead People, Ute, Hold Your Horse Is and Tall Ships (in that order), the lovely t-shirts are printed and being posted out over the next week, and we're now running our first monthly competition, exclusively for subscribers, offering everyone a chance to win an Andrew W.K. square 7" and a copy of the new Tall Ships CDEP. Exciting times.

If you haven't signed up but fancy a piece of the above action, it costs just £17 and you'll receive everything already mentioned, along with another 46 MP3s through the course of the year, numerous more competition chances and no doubt a bunch of other nice things. www.bsmrocks.com/10collection is where you want to be.

Lovely.

You square

2010-02-05T11:31:00.003Z

Big day of deliveries today, kicking off with a few hundred Andrew W.K. square 7"s just like this one...

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she won-der-fuuuul?

Lunch

2010-02-04T14:18:00.002Z

It's all got a bit "worky" around here lately, hasn't it? So how about we take 5 minutes out and get serious?

Blakfish Clyro

2010-02-02T20:43:00.002Z

I'm sorry, you must be getting bored of these endlessly happy blog posts about more and more good news. Well, I don't want to be rude, but I'm certainly not getting bored. So deal with it.

As recapped below, this year's already off to a flyer with a multitude of exciting things going on, and now we have another one to add to the list: Blakfish have been confirmed to support Biffy Clyro on their European tour, this week! Germany, I've translated the key words for you. Learn these, sing and repeat until delerious at the end of the set...

Es könnte schlimmer sein,
könnte man tot sein,
ich weiß nicht wie wir alle überlebt,
aber ich weiß ist,
wir haben

(if this is wrong, blame Google translate. And my E in GCSE German)

I'm wrote this (although I forgot to post it!) on the laptop in bed. Its become a little bit of a 2010 tradition already. The very welcome addition of a heated blanket in the BSM "office" has lead to way too many mornings giving in to temptation and choosing warmth and a dodgy wireless connection over the cold, yet reliable PC, outside of my comfortable, soft shell. This time is slightly different, however, as it's 11pm on a Friday night, a good 12 hours later than my usual bed shift. Last night I, along with Eva of Rolo Tomassi fame, DJ'd at a club night up in Manchester called Crack Yr Skull. I can honestly say I've never been to a place like it before. Saves The Day: nothing. Limp Bizkit: pretty decent reaction. Renegade Master: moderate. Coolio: arms up. Meet Me In St Louis, Algernon Cadwallader and Owls: out of this world. People were requesting obscure math rock songs and complaining about Jay-Z. Some sort of alternative universe, surely. Being packed out until the early hours left everyone buzzing and eventually resulted in me trundling off to bed sometime after the sun came up. Something which is perhaps justifiable in the peak of summer, but January is a little too far for this 26 year old wouldbe old man. When I tell you my total sleep for the night was around the one hour mark it should come as no surprise that today was pretty much a write-off. A difficult train trip home, with my head rolling around on my shoulders like that of a broken wooden toy. I certainly didn't feel like a real boy today.

Warning: This week will likely boast yet more good news. Walter Schreifels tour dates are now confirmed and ready to be announced, and there's a lot of them! If you can't make it to one of these shows, you're simply not trying hard enough. There'll also be a new release announced sometime over the next forthnight, and two of my very favourite new bands coming up in the '10 Collection.

Have a good night. Keep it in your pants.

Lie-in

2010-01-26T09:44:00.002Z

It never feels quite right, claiming a day of travelling north to see one of your bands play in front of 1500 people and drinking with friends as "work", but nobody can deny the tiredness which follows. Similarly it's difficult to class a night out in London, running around panicing as the still-being-refurbished venue is literally a pile of rubble and dust just 30 minutes prior to opening, before watching three amazing bands absolutely pack out and wow the room, with friendly faces grinning at every turn. The two-day tiredness is difficult to deny, however. This is why I'm sitting in bed writing this blog post. This is why I'm going to be replying to emails from my bed. This is why I love working from home. No brave faces, no cold trips to the office, just pure, warm, comfort as the batteries recharge ready to tackle the world.

Shapes will soon be departing Nottingham, heading across the border to Glasgow for their final show with Glassjaw tonight. Sunday Daryl Palumbo thanked the guys for going out with them. The excited Brummie squeal could be heard for miles.

As you will see from yesterday's post, we've announced the next part of 2010's exciting plans. Mr W.K.'s single has been flying out, breaking previous pre-order records and lighting up my inbox with PayPal confirmations upon every check. We still have a couple of new bands to announce over the coming weeks, our first homegrown talent of the new year and a couple of very exciting prospects at that. It's going to be busy and I'm not sure there's enough lie-in time in a whole year to recharge my batteries that much! Maybe this will help...?

Party hard

2010-01-25T13:54:00.005Z

I promised some exciting things in 2010. Let's have a little recap...

Walter Schreifels album and UK tour

Shapes and Pulled Apart By Horses touring with Glassjaw

Talons touring with Johnny Foreigner

The 52-part '10 Collection subscription series

And now this...

Check out www.bsmrocks.com for more info and to pre-order. I'll write more about this on here later in the week, but right now I'm eating potato waffles and that's kinda hampering my typing. Keeping it real, y'all

Come and celebrate with us at the Old Blue Last in London tonight. Free gig with Talons, Shoes And Socks Off and Tall Ships.

Have you met Chase?

2010-01-19T10:43:00.007Z

I feel the need to apologise for my absence in every new blog post at the moment. I guess the times of writing on here daily are gone, crushed by the realities of a growing workload and unfortunately more pressing matters. We're now three parts (Tangled Hair, Walter Schreifels and Ice Sea Dead People) into our 52 track '10 Collection and plan to unveil a new 7" release before the end of the week. We also have some amazing gigs coming up as Shapes head out in support of Glassjaw whilst Talons and Shoes And Socks Off play five free entry shows around the UK, with an array of wonderful supports (dates for both tours are listed on bsmrocks.com). On the other side of the Atlantic things are starting to take shape. Castevet's 12" is being pressed right now and will be available to pre-order from our online store over the next couple of days, Grown Ups hit the studio next week (with producer Matt Allison, who has previously worked with the likes of Alkaline Trio and Lawrence Arms) and will be touring the UK in May, Walter Schreifels returns to Brooklyn from a tour of Australia, where he'll be finishing up the artwork for his album and finalising plans for his UK tour in March/April, and Noumenon complete work on their new EP ahead of the split single with Talons. On that note, I'm going to hand this over to Chase, BSM US label manager, to say hi...

Hello all. As was stated back a few months ago, I will be running the US "branch" of Big Scary Monsters. Kev and I thought it would be fun for me to share a few things about myself and post 5 U.S. artists I personally think you should all be listening too! I hope you enjoy what you read and if so, maybe I will post here more often!

5 U.S. bands you may or may not know about but should:

- Noumenon (Chicago, IL): This 3 piece "math rock" band will seriously blow your mind. Its distorted, its ridiculously technical but at the same time tasteful. The bands forthcoming EP is going to bend this over-saturated genre into something really original and well, FUN. - http://www.myspace.com/daftkrunk

- Into It. Over It (Chicago, IL): Another act from the wonderful city of Chicago! Into. It Over It is the brainchild of ex Damiera, The Progress and Up Up Down Left Right Left Right B A Start member Evan Weiss. Its really a flash back to late 90's emo but with a bit of a modern feel. Think Death Cab For Cutie, Braid and Piebald all mashed up into one artist. Songs range from upbeat and technical to quiet and emotional. One of my favorite up and coming songwriters! - http://www.myspace.com/intoitoverit

- The Felix Culpa (Chicago, IL/Milwaukee, WI): The Felix Culpa is a band I've been into since I was in high school. I've had the joy of playing shows with them in my previous bands and over the years watching them continue to write these incredible songs. A great, great live band. One of the best drummers I've ever seen live. If you are into some really solid post hardcore jams, I highly recommend The Culpa. They have a new record coming out at the end of this month titled Sever Your Roots and I think you should check it out! - http://www.myspace.com/thefelixculpa

- Mountain Asleep (Louisville, KY): If you like your punk rock fast with a dash of melodic, technical guitar/drum work then you will love this band. Some of the more fun live experiences I've had the past year have been at Mountain Asleep shows. Check out this band, download the record, and learn all the words: http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/mountain-asleep/hello-anxious

- Thousandaires (Brooklyn, NY): It doesn't get much better than this. Catchy, upbeat punk rock with tons gang vocals and sing-a-longs. Thousandaires features members of Bridge and Tunnel, Get Bent and Halo Fauna. How can you go wrong with that combination? You can download the record for free here: http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/album/thousandaires/land-seal-demo/

(Sorry about the abundance of Chicago bands in my lists. I grew up with this scene and call it home. Too many talented bands you should all know about!)

a few of my favorite bands/artists:

- The Lawrence Arms
- The Jesus Lizard
- Sonic Youth
- Modern Life Is War
- Owen
- The Smiths
- Owls
- The Ghost
- Hot Water Music
- Black Flag
- Fela Kuti
- My Bloody Valentine- Colossal
- Converge
- Fugazi
- Sigur Rós
- Michael Jackson
- Tom Waits
- Bob Dylan
- The Promise Ring
- Braid
- Cap'n Jazz
- Morrissey
- Alkaline Trio (Pre Good Morning)

a few records I'm currently listening to:

- A Sunny Day in Glasgow Ashes Grammar (Carrot Top)
- Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls Lord Newborn and the Magic Skulls (Ubiquity)
- Narrows New Distances (Deathwish)
- Phoenix Wolfgang Amaadeus Phoenix (Glass Note)
- Russian Circles Geneva (Suicide Squeeze)
- Toe For Long Tomorrow (Manchu Picchu)
- Noumenon Party Mathematics (TBA)
- Pissed Jeans King of Jeans (Sub Pop)
- Dear Landlord Dream Homes (Red Scare)
- Dirty Projectors Ascending Melody 7" (Domino)
- The Pains Of Being Pure At Higher Than The Stars EP

a few books I'm currently reading:

- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
- god is not Great by Christopher Hitchens
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Feel free to contact me anytime!
email: chase.igliori@gmail.com
blog: http://chaseinaction.blogspot.com/
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chaseigliori