CAJUN DANCE PARTY

well we’ve been to amsterdam and france to do a little tour. it was really great and then here are some photos from our excursion…the ferry from dover. and then we arrived in amsterdam! we played the show for the “London Calling” Festival. which was cool because we’re from London. then we went to Lille… here are some photographs of backstage…  ”Spike” was doing sound for us again, after missing the UK dates, and well here he is with “T” (our back-line technician) Alex (tour manager) and SPikebefore every show, robbie warms up for 2 hours. max tries to join in sometimes… but he’s always too LOUD before every show, will sleeps for 2 hours, and then we went to paris, and played the best venue in the world, La Cigale.   we tried out some real-life TOURISM In Nantes, they had the best microwaves ever.  P.S. in the 1999 les inrocks tour the line up there was Pavement + Flaming Lips + Muse + Guests . robbie and me said “wow! ” ps. we were touring with the ting tings and black kids and late of the pier. Now as much as i love “shut up and let me go” … the whole thing was a massive headfuck…  We drove to the last venue of the tourwe had the day off so i walked 7km along this canal into Toulouse. there were some nice little views the soldiers had breasts on the war memorial…. (sorry)fountain i found Alex celebrated our day off, until he collapsed into his little bunk. and his hand, well it stuck and stuck out hard.  we played the show the next day,here’s a picture of max reflecting on the wonderful european adventure ps. the shows were really good. the food was really really good. the line up was good because there was a lot of diversity it felt…  the singer of black kids gave me this Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair album which i’d highly recommend, but the title i forgot. we played:Colourful LifeTime FallsFive daysFrozen GirlAmylaseDinosaurThe RaceThe Hill, The View and The LightsThe Next Untouchable  there are probably videos on YOUTUBE and PHOTOS on FLICKR if you want to study the subject further… BACK TO WRITING SONGS!! xdaniel     

we’ve been bloody recording and writing lots. it’s been so bloody GOOD. here are some bloody family flicks from our hols… xxx   max’s masterpiece: daniel’s masterpiece
      
  

Although we had perhaps found our feet, and the sets were possibly tighter, the “homecoming” leg of tour was somewhat more gruelling than the outward journey. There’s a tricky balance to strike, because lapsing into routine bodes well for ‘slick’ performances but not necessarily for excitement and spontaneity. That’s not to say the gigs weren’t enjoyable - I found the Leeds show particularly atmospheric. The robbing of Luke by another band on the Birmingham date forced us to change set and throw in “Buttercups” at the last minute, which was not played at any other venue. The Oxford gig saw an embarrassing guitar-strap “malfunction”, followed by my first ever onstage string-breakage (a trick deftly repeated in the same song at the ULU show). So hopefully, the shows retained some individual character.

Nevertheless it was with some degree of relief that we returned home and began to prepare for the ULU show. The decision to play with strings at that gig necessitated a fair a bit of planning - I wanted to involve the players we had used for acoustic shows in the past, all friends of mine, some of whom now study at music conservatories across the country. A whole morning of setting up was needed for only two hours of rehearsal, which given travel arrangements was all we had to put the show together. I was still frantically trying to slot scores into folders on the tube on my way to the studio!

Despite the frenetic nature of that Wednesday, hard work all round paid off - and I think that the Friday’s London show at ULU was fittingly climactic. We played these songs:

Colourful Life
Time Falls
Five Days
‘Frozen Girl’
Amylase
‘Talk to Me’
The Race
No Joanna
‘Train Song’
The Hill, the View and the Lights
The Next Untouchable

The decision to play “No Joanna” was perhaps an unusual one, given that we’d only ever given it one airing at an ‘electric’ show before, but we felt that with the strings in toe, it was too good an opportunity to miss. If the crowd reaction was a little unexpected (clapping to the beat in the verses?), it was still tremendously uplifting to hear a room full of 800 people sing to the chorus. The evening ended in an appropriately surreal manner. A deafening fire alarm meant that the band and crew, along with the crowd, were shepherded out onto the streets and not allowed back in the venue to gather violins, cellos and jackets until after the fire trucks had been and gone. We can count ourselves lucky that unlike at Vampire Weekend’s ULU gig, we’d played our last song before the bells went off.

Having played the largest show, in our hometown, it felt strange to return to the road for our final two gigs. After the ‘posh’ set-up in London, however, it was refreshing to go back to basics and the gig at Chinnery’s in Southend had much of the same energy as the pub and club gigs we played when the band was first starting out in London. Brighton carried on along the same vein - and it was gratifying that the Concorde was packed out for our final show.
I feel that this tour has given us the opportunity to step the live shows right up, and for that our crew (Alex, T, Scooby and Andy - our combined merch-salesman and drum tech) and string section (Hannah, Azita, Robbie - violins, Alex - cello) must all be thanked. We’re looking forward to starting once again in Europe next month - but until then, we’ll be buried in a studio. That is, except on Halloween, when we hope to see all of you at Koko.

Bye for now,
Robbie x

Now Listening to: Rolling Stones - “Let it Bleed”

Now Reading: Kafka - “In the Penal Colony”

We’re now on the road for the longest period yet, although this tour is broken up by a few stops back at home. There have been a few changes too; our soundman Spike wasn’t able to make it so we’ve been working with another man called ‘Scooby’ to get the live show sounding good. We’ve also been joined onstage by an additional live member, Luke, who has been playing guitar, percussion and a little synth too. Finally, we’ve incorporated a load of new songs into the set, and some of these are rotating on different nights. So I won’t post setlists – hopefully any of you who come to the next few shows will be surprised.

The tour didn’t get off to an easy start when we arrived in Portsmouth to find we were without two of our guitars. The first show was a particularly difficult one for us, partly because of some technical glitches but also just thanks to the shock of playing onstage once again. Things picked up the next night though at the Bristol ‘Thekla’, which for those of you not from Bristol – is a great venue set inside a metal boat. A revamped setlist and the arrival of the missing guitars augured for a much better show and set us on the right footing for the rest of the tour.

It was particularly nice to see good friends of ours at Nottingham (whose ‘freshers’ week’ luckily coincided with the show) and nostalgic to be back at the “Rescue Rooms”. Our first ever show in Wales the next night (Wrexham ‘Central Station’) gave us the opportunity to experiment with some projected visuals which Daniel had been investigating, and once again play a slightly changed set.

The crowd at Newcastle last night were particularly fantastic, but it’s a lucky coincidence that tonight’s gig at King Tut’s (another venue we visited last year) has been in my view the best so far. We’re feeling increasingly confident with a particular combination of new and old songs, and are playing more and more together as the tour goes on. Which is the ultimately most important thing.

Love from Glasgow,

Robbie x

Now Listening to: Mstislav Rostropovitch – Shostakovitch Cello Concerto, Kings of Leon – “Youth & Young Manhood”, Jim O’ Rourke – “Eureka”

Now Reading: Terry Eagleton – “Introduction to Literary Theory”

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it’s been such a long time since I last posted – hopefully Daniel’s photos have given you some idea of how we spent the second half of the summer. I thought I’d just fill in with a few quick tales.

We left off for Japan on a Thursday just under a month after finishing the ‘mini tour’. We flew out with the same 3-man crew, although we were met there by our essential beautiful American/Japanese former-model-now translator Layla (”as in the Eric Clapton song”) who remains close to our hearts - always.

The Friday was rehearsal day, and from the very outset - we were shown something of Japanese efficiency (first example: the very concept of a rehearsal day at the venue, unheard of elsewhere. Second example: they save the front-of-house mix on a memory stick and email the settings from Tokyo to Osaka for the alternate show. I found this terribly exciting. Third example: the toilets are quite extraordinary – especially the spray functions. Wow). Rehearsal done, Daniel and I spent the evening playing acoustic versions of “Time Falls” and “Amylase” for a Japanese TV station. That was fine. What was not so fine was being dragged in for an impromptu appearance for a TV chat show. ‘Zebrahead’ were there too - causing havoc and chatting up the presenter while Daniel and I sat on the edge of the couch like nervous wrecks.

The next day was the Tokyo gig. It was amazing playing in front of so many (in fact, at 5,000 - the largest crowd we’ve played to) and despite a consensus that the setlist could have been improved and we could have been tighter, I really enjoyed being onstage again. The press rounds that day were really fucking exhausting though, and to cap it all off we had to fly to Osaka that night. So it was a very, very tiring day in the Japanese heat.

The Osaka set, in a slightly smaller arena and with a slightly modified setlist went a lot better – and so it was on a high that we bullet-trained it back to Tokyo for two more days of press. There was a lot to squeeze in but it was interesting work. Amongst the standard back-to-back interviews on the first day was a “musical cross-conversation” with an upcoming Japanese band, as well as a manic whistle-stop tour of a department store (where we were given £50 to spend between us in half an hour. Why?) That night was spent in a karaoke bar with the nice fellows from Vampire Weekend. Max did very nice topless versions of both Amylase (NB. Daniel’s photo below) and The Human League. Daniel ‘peformed’ My Chemical Romance. Unfortunately although perhaps reassuringly, Vampire were far more adept at it than us – and their version of The Band’s ‘The Weight’ was so enthusiastic that there was little I could do but jump ship and change sides.

The most bizarre experiences were certainly had on our final full day. What appeared to be a fairly standard radio session was turned on its head when a curtain was raised and we realised the ‘studio’ we were in was in fact a fish-tank-like-contraption in the middle of a packed café. So it was with an audience literally peering in that we performed ‘Time Falls’ and ‘Amylase’ acoustically once again as well as ‘5 Days’. That evening, HMV surpassed themselves by dressing us in Kimonos, and letting us loose at local festival, where we twatted around joining in the traditional dance routines. As night fell, we were lead to a park and given fireworks to set off. While this began as quite a novelty, after an hour we were pleading for them to just stop handing us more and more and more fucking sparklers.

These descriptions cannot really convey just how busy and unworldly that week was, but we had the most wonderful time and the level of support we felt out there was really quite mindboggling. So thanks are extended to everyone we worked with out there and predominantly to the fans.

The rest of August was essentially spent working on new material – although we had the Leeds and Reading appearances at the back of our minds throughout the period. For me, the highlight of the Leeds show was meeting Jonny Marr prior to going on, although the thought of him watching sidestage was utterly nerve-wracking. The Reading performance was the better of the two shows. It was lovely having quite a few friends down to see us that day – and meant that I stayed on after our show and watched a few other sets.

Some of you may have heard the session we did for Colin Murray’s show on Radio 1, where a few of the BBC Symphonic Orchestra were accosted at the very last minute to play ‘No Joanna’ with us. The session seemed a fitting way to end the summer’s work – as after, we embarked on full-on rehearsals at our new London home, getting songs ready for tour and ushering in our extra live member, Luke.

And that more or less takes us up to the beginning of our current tour – which should be covered in the next entry.

Best to all,

Robbie x

Listened to: Björk – “Debut”, Arthur Grumiaux – Complete Mozart Violin Concertos

Read: Philip Roth - “The Plot Against America”, Freud – “Lectures on Psychoanalysis”

last time people sent some really cool ones, send some more!!!   

 Robbie with some stringys 
Dx

on thursday we did a session at maida vale studios.  it’s gonna be on radio1 in september sometime….  

 karaokeee amylase
      picture taken by layla         xDaniel 

-Daniel