This Town Needs Guns

…apparently they’re boring and “no-one wants to read about what we ate for breakfast anyway”.

Oh well.

It’s been a long time coming, but after Animals was so well received by college radio stations across the country, it has been decided to make Animals available to everyone in the US as of now

The US release has a few changes and extra bits and bobs and unlike the UK release, it comes in a pretty digipak (swit-swoo). I think the tracklisting works a bit better on the US release especially with regards to the 2 bonus tracks of ‘26 is dancier than 4′ and ‘If I sit still, maybe I’ll get out of here’.

And as if that wasn’t enough I think that each CD also comes with a download card that gives you the chance to download songs from 8 other Sargent House bands (Tera Melos, Maps and Atlases, Native, Good Old War, Omar Rodriguez Lopez etc), all for the princely sum of $8.99. Lucky you!

For the first month, I think the record will only be available online from here:

You can also download ‘Panda’ from i-tunes. The rest of the album will be available from the 10th of March.

Here’s that tracklisting:

1. Pig
2. Baboon
3. Panda
4. Gibbon
5. Rabbit
6. Badger
7. Elk
8. Crocodile
9. Quetzel
10. Chinchilla
11. Dog
12. Lemur
13. Zebra
14. If I Sit Still, Maybe I’ll Get Out Of Here (Bonus Track)
15. 26 is Dancier Than 4 (Bonus Track)

It’s an early start after a late finish the night before and we’re all a bit sluggish. We’ve got to get a ferry at 2 from Holyhead to Dublin, so we are out of the house and on the road by 12. I decided to skip the fry-up this morning in favour of porridge.

We were all pretty worried about getting sea sick so we all took a whole/half a sea sick pill in the hope that we wouldn’t be seeing breakfast again anytime soon. This unfortunately has the effect of knocking us out and it isn’t long before Rich, Tim and Chris are all curled up in various corners of the ship trying to sleep. Annoying singing foreign students’ aside, the 3 hour trip is pretty uneventful. I passed the time by watching Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Pretty terrible. I think Jamie and Tim managed to get through a few quid’s worth of credit on Time Crisis 4 though.

When we get off the boat, sat-nav screws up our 10 minute journey to the venue. In the end we actually spend an hour and €12 (thanks to a detour into a toll tunnel) trying to get there. Bummer! Whelans is really lovely though. A nice big old venue with loads of character. Nice.

‘And so I watch you from afar’ have already sound checked, so we quickly try to get on with setting up and bashing through a song or two, to make sure everything is working and mics are switched on. Then it’s time to head over the road to Eddie Rockets. It’s one of those faux American diner type places. I love that stuff. Burgers were good to.

When we get back to the venue Adebisi Shank have just started and they totally blow me away. They’re absolutely incredible. Each song builds with wave upon wave of intensity. We’re now suitably nervous as not only have Adebisi put on a great show, but the room is REALLY full.

ASIWYFA, put on a great performance. One of their guitarists looks like the most punk-rock guy I have ever seen and their drummer is some sort of man-mountain. Crazy!

When it’s time for us to get on stage, the room is full. There must be around 200 people waiting to see us. It’s pretty weird and completely unexpected. This is our first gig in Ireland and could potentially be one of the biggest crowds we’ve played to as a headliner.

I don’t think I fully got over whatever it is that was affecting me the night before. I still felt a bit rigid and struggled to get in to it. The soundman kept putting weird effects on my voice, I hate that, but what can you do? The rest of the band sound great as far as I can tell. It’s just disappointing when you feel like you haven’t played your best. Anyway, there were plenty of people post-gig that said they really enjoyed it. So I suppose it couldn’t have been as bad as I thought. Here is a video someone took of Baboon:

After everything is packed away, we say our goodbyes to Mick (the drummer from Adebisi Shank and one of tonight’s promoters) and the ASIWYFA guys as they’re all heading back to Belfast. It seems that we are to be left in the capable hands of Steve (another of the gigs promoters), who takes us to a place called Spy Bar.

It’s a bit of a mission to actually get to the bar. When I finally do get there the decision is made to buy a round of drinks for everyone before we’re attracted by the sound of Atlas by Battles playing in another room…a room that it seems is only populated by a group of young dancing women. Disappointing then that it is only a matter of minutes after we sit down that the room changes dynamic completely and we’re in the midst of a complete ’sausage fest’. Unlucky.

After a few hours I decided to head back to the hotel for the night. Rich and I left the others to drink/dance the night away. Unfortunately, when we got to our hotel I realised that I would only be getting a wake up call from the other guys at some ungodly hour, so I could bring the key to the van down and let them get their stuff. I decided to wait in the lobby for them. Bad idea. It was about 5 in the morning when they finally arrived and even after I gave them the key and some directions to the van, they managed to get lost in the labyrinth of corridors, so I was straight back down again 5 minutes later. At the time it was pretty horrible, but with hindsight it was funny.

Two nights at home have renewed our energy levels. I’m only working a half-day so I can pick up my friend (and driver/merch guy) Rich in town. We’ve never had a driver before, but I was determined that I wouldn’t end up doing all the driving on this tour. I’m glad Rich can do it, as it takes a fair bit of pressure off.

New t-shirts and tote bags have arrived. Yes! Unfortunately, the snow that has brought the UK to it’s knees over the last few days has also prevented the badges from turning up on time

Tim is working a full day today so we leave really late for tonight’s gig in Birmingham. We were supposed to be at soundcheck for 3 (although the promoter only emailed me these details at 2:30 that afternoon. Oh well), but we end up leaving Oxford at 4:30. When we get to the Birmingham Barfly we’re told that none of the other bands have turned up yet either, but that doors are in less than an hour (7 p.m.), so there is a fair bit of urgency required about soundcheck.

Once soundcheck is done and dusted the guys from Shapes and Great Eskimo Hoax arrive. We say brief “hello’s” before heading up the road to the Bullring to buy some dinner.

We’re not that enthusiastic about attendance for tonight’s show. Birmingham is tough for attendances at the best of times, but tonight is freezing and there is snow everywhere. We’d resigned ourselves to the prospect of playing to the other bands and writing it off as a bad experience. Imagine then our surprise when we return to find a room full of people and Shapes in full flow. Turns out that there were actually 100 people in attendance. Way better than we ever could’ve predicted (given the circumstances). It was great.

Shapes rock! That is all you need to know about them. Like their Birmingham brothers Blakfish they certainly know how to put on a show and have the chops to boot.

We’ve played with Great Eskimo Hoax a few times now, but this is by far the best I’ve seen them. Joe is way more animated than he has been in the past and really seems to be relishing the role of ‘front-man’. It’s just great to see such a talented bunch of musicians enjoying themselves. They’re on tour a LOT this year. You would be mad to miss them.

There are a couple of pretty major cock-ups tonight, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and I for one am having a great time. We’re trying to mix up the set as much as possible, which is leading to some interesting mid-set discussions. We play ‘26′ in the middle tonight as some guys want to hear it before they have to leave to get their train home. It’s kinda cool not having to play it at the end for a change.

After the gig we head to an indie-disco-club-thing down the road. The people we’re staying with tonight know the organiser so we get in free. Result! We’ve made a new friend tonight. Josh is a guy from Melbourne in Australia. He’s heading back in a few days, but came up from London to see us and we thought it only polite to invite him to join us for a few drinks.

When we get back to our friends place we develope ‘Wii boxing’ injuries and get to sleep.

Wake up on the floor, freezing cold. Get ready. Play some more Wii sports. Get fry-up at “Leslie’s”. Waitress (I don’t think it was Leslie) calls us all “Babs” and “Chuck”. We laugh. Get in van. Head to Liverpool.

Today is the first day I feel confident enough to let Rich drive without paying too much attention to what he is doing, so I watch ‘Hancock’ on my laptop. It’s not bad…it’s not great either. This is the best bit:

We get to Liverpool Barfly super early and have close to 2 hours to soundcheck and play around. It makes for a pleasant change. The weather outside isn’t much better than it has been the last few nights, so again we’re pretty worried about how it will affect attendance for tonight. When we get back from our dinner at a Chinese a few streets over from the venue, all of the other bands have arrived. It’s great to see so many familiar faces, along with a few new ones. That’s the good thing about this tour, we’ve been able to pick our own local supports on a lot of the dates and it’s been good to get friends in great bands to play with us.

Chrik are a two piece (drums and guitar) from Huddersfield and are the first band on tonight. Their guitarist is 19 and an absolute demon on the guitar. Turns out he has just taken over from Chris in goFASTER>> and was able to pick up all the songs in their set in just over a week, from simply listening to the songs on record. Ridiculous!

Speaking of Chris, he has teamed up with goFASTER>>’s drummer to start a new project called EastFifeFourForFarFive, who are up next on the bill. Turns out that this is all a bit of fun and the two guys haven’t played together since before Christmas. Tonight’s soundcheck was rehearsal, not that you would know. They were really impressive.

Puzzle and My Amiga both play fine sets of indie-pop and attendance slowly starts to swell. By the time MA finish the whole room is full. Tonight’s attendance is around 150

We play a lot better tonight than in Birmingham and the crowd are really receptive. For some reason though I struggle to get into it tonight. It feels like every move I’m making is completely out of time and I can’t help but feel really rigid. Weird! Someone was kind enough to video Chinchilla. See if you can spot my srew up:

We don’t have long after the set to chat to people after the gig. The bouncers at the venue seem a little too eager to get everyone out, which is a shame. Chatting to people after the gig is one of my favourite things about playing.

After the show, we pack up and give Elliot (remember Elliot?) a lift home to Wrexham, before we head on to my parents house near Rhyl. Pizza. Beer. Hot-tub. Bed.

Waking up the next morning at 10, I made my way upstairs (I was sleeping in a basement room) to the kitchen and help myself to a cup of tea. It seems that I am the only one awake so far. Ben and Pete have a pretty awesome setup at their house. A projector hooked up to a Playstation 2 and an empty Pro Evo case can only mean that the guys have stayed up late the night before indulging on their weakness for console football games. Not long after I wake up, Chris (Wintermute) pops his head in and we debate the merits of this years finalists on Channel 4’s unsigned battle of the bands program. Neither of us are particularly impressed.

When I spot a copy of ‘Lady Vengeance’ on the coffee table, it isn’t long before we’re hooking up the DVD player and I’m lost in a sea of subtitles. I’d never seen it before, but having been a fan of ‘Old Boy’ I’d wanted to watch it for a while. Unfortunately FilmFour only ever show it at 11 o’clock on a weekday and when you have to be up for work at 6 everyday for work, the thought of staying up till 1:30 isn’t that appealing (at least not to me anyway).

Once ‘Lady Vengeance’ had finished (by the way it’s pretty good. Not as good as Old Boy, but still definitely worth watching), the rest of the house began to stir and slowly but surely people started waking up. Pete and Ben were kind enough to make us all breakfast and we were pleased to find that ITV were showing ‘The Never Ending Story’ .

At around 4, we say our goodbyes and head off in the van to Sheffield. We arrive about an hour earlier than we needed too, so I filled the time watching ‘The Onion’ on Tim’s i-pod. Pretty funny.

Tonight we’re playing at The Red House. Last time we played here was with Dartz on the BSM Christmas tour ‘07 and it was rammed. Tonight’s attendance isn’t quite as overwhelming, but it’s full and we’re to be treated with sets from Meadowlands (Will from Dartz solo project), Pattern and Calories.

I don’t think Will is particularly confident about playing solo yet, but he needn’t worry. He plays beautifully tonight. So much so that the room is completely silent while he plucks at the strings of his new guitar (it gets its first outing tonight). I’ve been listening to his recordings on myspace for a while now and they lose nothing when played live.

Pattern don’t seem to be too happy tonight, which is a shame. They’ve got some good ideas going on and with a bit more stage time I think they could develope into something pretty interesting.

Calories are my new favourite band. Their set isn’t note perfect but it doesn’t matter. They play really good, fun songs and the banter between them is great. They’ve got charisma by the bucket load and if they don’t rocket to superstardom during the next year then there really is no justice in the world.

We play pretty well tonight and it’s the first time since Europe that I’ve really enjoyed playing live. I think we played for about an hour, but the time flew by and it was all over far too soon.

After the show, Tim and Jamie headed to a house party with the promoter and some of her friends, while Chris and I head back to Will’s flat. We stay up late chatting and drinking beer and have a good sleep on their sofa-bed. The only disturbance being Jamie and Tim’s pie-whielding invasion at 6 a.m.

Two days off now as we head back to Oxford. Clean clothes, own bed, healthy food

So I’ve been pretty lazy with the whole tour diary thing this time. I wasn’t completely sure that I would do one this time, but as I’m currently sat in the back of the van with precious little else to do for the next three hours, I may as well.

First date of the tour and it’s a mad rush after work from Oxford to Leeds. A three and a half hour drive after work is not fun, but somehow the traffic works in our favour and we get to the gig in enough time that we can have a soundcheck. Nice!

Last time we played The Library in Leeds was with Jonquil in September and it very nearly sold out, so expectations were high for tonight’s show with Wintermute (BSM’s latest signing). Tonight is about celebrating their first single release on BSM, so they’re headlining tonight. It’s good for us though, we’re still a bit rusty after our Christmas break and the shorter half-hour set works as a nice warm up for the tour.

First band on tonight are Situationists and they’re REALLY good. Along with super-tight vocal melodies between three of the members, intertwining guitar parts also help to invoke the spirit of Hot Club de Paris, which in my opinion can’t be a bad thing.

By the time we get on stage the room is close to capacity. Our set tonight is short and sweet. We play most of the ‘crowd pleasers’ and a couple of album tracks.

Wintermute are on form tonight. It’s a blistering set, with each song surpassing the last with intensity. Dan’s wild stares and stage gymnastics are used to their full potential. They’ve come a long way since we played with them a few years back. I for one am looking forward to hearing their album later this year.

After the show we pack up and head over the road for a curry (accompanied by the largest naan breads I have ever seen). Ben (Wintermute) and Pete (tonight’s soundman) have offered us beds for the night and we gratefully accept. Getting a bed on tour is a rare treat and should be enjoyed at every available opportunity.

Photo’s (by Bart Pettman):