now where

polite podcast no.8

This is the last episode of the second series of the polite podcast. It is a tour diary of the Frozy/Nervy Betters July tour 2014. 

Weds 9th July - The Nest, Bath 
Thurs 10th July - Gwdihŵ Café Bar, Cardiff 
Fri 11th July - House Show, London
Sat 12th July - The Vagina Stereolodge, Birmingham
Sun 13th July - Gulivers, Manchester
Mon14th July - 13th Note, Glasgow
Tues 15th July - Mystery Day 
Weds 16th July - Traveling Man Bookshop, Newcastle

There will probably be one more series of podcasts in the new year.

credits

from Polite Podcasts, track released 31 August 2014 
live recordings of Frozy and The Nervy Betters by Nicol Parkinson 
field recordings by Henry Ireland 
photo by Steve Brett

theo brown and the folklore of dartmoor

I'm putting on this Folklore Tapes event in London for my friend Ian Humberstone. It is pretty much like a real event that someone from society might go to. Details are as follows:

Theo Brown and the Folklore of Dartmoor explores the hidden tales of seven Dartmoor villages through experiments in sound and vision. It also celebrates the life of the late folklorist and artist Theo Brown, whose publications, papers and woodcuts have lain dormant in the archives at Exeter University since her death in 1993. Using Brown’s unpublished research, Ian Humberstone and David Chatton Barker have crafted an audio-visual retelling of Dartmoor folklore grounded in the moor’s topography, history and folk-culture.

The project was realised as a box-set of seven-inch records, artwork, essays and manipulated 8mm films (shot on-location on Dartmoor) in spring 2014, and the performance will translate these elements into a live setting. The show will include information on Theo Brown, readings from the tales and a screening of the film accompanied by a live soundtrack. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and share stories after the event.

Expect an evening of spectral pigs, skeletal horses, salted cadavers, hungry rivers and malevolent sprites.

“But if you decide in middle-life to leave the city and go to live alone at the heart of the moor — because you love it and cannot resist its spell — you soon find that in all those years you have learned little about the essential moor. What has been happening is that she has learned the essentials about you, and has fixed her grappling-irons upon you!”

- Anonymous cutting found in Theo Brown Archive papers.

https://soundcloud.com/folklore-tapes

Weds 30th July | St Mary’s Old Church | Stoke Newington Church Street | 7.30pm

£8 on door | £6 adv. (tickets: http://politerecords.bandcamp.com/merch/theo-brown-and-the-folklore-of-dartmoor-st-marys-old-church-weds-30th-july)

we are putting on our own show in glasgow

tiger & panda & goat in stoke newington

Totally ace flyer by Rosa Tyhurst

nervy betters pre-order

Steve Brett is good people. He has my undying devotion. As well as being a great person, he is also a fantastic songwriter. Over the last year or so, we have been recording and polishing some pop songs, with help from our friends. What has come of this is an album of songs, which is now available to pre-order.

The album was lovingly recorded by Steve and mixed with great care by Nico Marcel until the sound was clear as a bell. I'm pretty proud to be a part of this album and I hope you enjoy it.

tell everyone everything

Hey! The Nervy Betters are playing at this great nice all day gig. The money made goes to LinkAge Bristol. There is a Facebook event. See you there! 

d.i.yuletide

This nice show is being held at the Sebright Arms on Sat 14th Dec by Burn The Jukebox who have very kindly asked us to play. The Sebright claims to be over 18s only on its website but if you are under 18 and would like to go, contact me and we will figure something out!

With:
Dead Flowers
Full-on Americana/beards assault from London, with a new album out
http://ianwilliamsandthedeadflowers.bandcamp.com/

Tiger & Panda & Goat
Wondrous folk-inspired songs from DIY label Polite Records
http://politerecords.bandcamp.com/

William Nein
Wry anti-folk
http://williamnein.blogspot.co.uk/

Kindling
Heartwarming slowcore alt-folk
http://thekindling.bandcamp.com/

+mince pies, BTJ DJs, dancing and Christmas Burgers upstairs in the pub!

£3 o.t.d
Nearest tube is Bethnal Green/Cambridge Heath, or buses going up Hackney Road

tiger & panda & ox & otter live at cafe kino: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Tiger & Panda & Ox & Otter Live at Cafe Kino

cat no.: pcd016 
format: CDR/download
artwork: CDR with photographic print, lino printed title and 12 page mini-zine
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)

The night this record was made was something special. One of those times that you get so rarely in life when you can't think of anywhere you'd rather be or anything you'd rather be doing. The atmosphere in the basement of Cafe Kino was cosy and warm (thanks to the large crowd mostly -it had been freezing during setup), and it felt like the whole room was willing the performers to do well. 

Henry Ireland and Olly Watson have been my friends for a long time and I am extremely lucky that this is the case. From the outset of this record, you get a taste of what their music is about -at once intensely personally revealing and incredibly shy. The way Henry introduces the concept of the evening and then instantly rubbishes it reflects their style of serious ideas and high concepts refracted through a prism of “let's not take this too seriously, eh?”. Their music is always both serious, but in its own way, not some poe-faced reallyfuckingartisticactually way that often comes out of the independent music scene. 

I recorded the performance in a pretty simple way: 2 large diaphragm condensers in a mid-side stereo pattern. This works by combining the signal of one mic in cardioid pattern facing the front and another in figure of 8 pattern facing both sides. You double up the figure of 8 signal and invert the phase of one of those. Through magic I don't understand, this creates a nice, wide stereo field with a strong centre. I also had a boundary microphone on the back room of the wall to add extra detail (this comes into its own in the noisier parts of the show, when it really picks up the delay repeated keyboard bass notes), and took a direct out from the mixing desk to give me a clean vocal signal. The direct out is what means we can actually hear the boys' lyrics, and is the reason I had a tear in my eye at the end of the show, having been one of the only people in the room who heard exactly what Henry was saying in the midst of the music. 

I am immensely proud to have been a part of this and I hope that I am allowed to record many more Tiger and Panda records in the future. 

-Phil Dodd

polite podcast no.1

Hello, so this is the first polite podcast. It contains songs by different people, oral histories and field recordings. I will be releasing an episode in the last hour of every month until the end of this year. So that's four episodes in total, okay? Okay!

coffee machines: palomica
the whole town watching: here is the river (liz melia; blake gifford; ben meschko)
the river: two white cranes
glimmer: we wanted to be lions

interviews: marion ireland; maggie willans
field recordings: henry ireland; nicol parkinson
edited: henry ireland 

a drawing of me

This is a nice drawing by Joff Winterhart of my face wearing a My Two Toms hat at the Shhh festival a couple of weeks ago. There are other drawings of the day by Rosie Faragher.

shhh

Hey, on Sunday 15th of September this amazing day will be happening at the folk house in Bristol. Our tour buddy Two White Cranes is on the lineup and Steve and I will be holding a Stitch-Stitch/Polite Records stall in the garden. 

The whole thing is curated by awesome Rachael Dadd!

You can get tickets here

two white cranes/nervy betters tour 2013

 

I'll try and keep this short...

Bristol
We play at Aaron and Roxy's house and Kano and Ohne are there. We have a pizza party. The next day, we pick up the car. Super sporty with a spoiler. The rental men are excited for us. We see Rachael and Shuki. We pick up Roxy from work and drive to Birmingham

Birmingham
We listen to podcasts in the car. The show is at the Ace Bushy house (the Vagina Monolodge). Eve made us a tasty vegan cake. Jen Schande plays a lovely set then runs away. Everyone is super nice. We have fun. Next day, we go to have breakfast with lovely people. We do a crossword together.

Peak District
Friendly people at the youth hostel. We walk to Lud's Church. It is a big ravine all covered in moss. I guess it might be the Green Knight's castle. Steve makes such a great miso soup and stir fry dinner. We have a band practice by the river and scouts come with a chainsaw. We are afraid they might bully us.

Manchester
Liam makes us such tasty burgers and we meet Natalie. Roxy has an essay in her zine. She gives us vegan pie and cookies. LLION SWYD are so great. "Only dickheads win the lottery". We thought we had food poisoning but really we are just nervous. We stay up late and chat and then sleep in luxury. I have a chocolate milkshake with my breakfast.

Oxford
The light is prickly and nice on the drive. The owners of this house are both called Matt. We play to a little living room of people and then have a nice time chatting. In the morning, Steve and Roxy swim in the river. I sleep in.

Norwich
Anna takes us to a tea room. Me and Franky want to move here maybe... I am pretty exhausted. We get food at the place and set up with our own things. Stephen and Tammy arrive. They are so great! This is probably the best we play on tour. We have lost our minds at this point. I swap records with Anna. Her 10" has my favourite Middle Ones song on it. We eat breakfast at a raw vegan cafe. Anna picks up a shelving unit off the street.

Seaford
Nicol is waiting outside for us. So good to see him. We walk to the beach and swim in the sea at sunset. Roxy - a vegan - goads me into eating a battered sausage. We each play a song and then go to bed. Verity's room is very comforting to sleep in. In the morning, Nicol records some drums for the album.

London
Driving through London is intense. Holy shit. we stop for pizzas. I'm so happy to see Franky. We set up the flat and people start arriving. Olly plays first. He is great. It's his album party and he's made a good album. It's really hot and we have such a fun show and sing happy birthday to Olly. So many lovelies there! After I wave Steve and Roxy off I go straight to bed and sleep.

oliver watson, two white cranes, the nervy betters in our living room

So Last night was the last stop on the Two White Cranes/Nervy Betters tour and also the album party for Oliver Watson's 'loosestrife'. We had it at our house and it was lots of fun!

great people we're playing with on tour

 Bristol



Birmingham



Manchester



Norwich



Seaford



London



Super exciting! Here is the facebook page for the whole thing. Lots of them are house shows, so just contact me if you want to come to one of them!

two white cranes + the nervy betters on tour

So later this month I'm going on tour for the first time ever with good humans Steve and Roxy. I'm pretty excited! More dates TBA!
 

B R I S T O L
house show | thursday 22nd august

B I R M I N G H A M 

the vagina monolodge (houseshow) | friday 23rd august
facebook event

M A N C H E S T E R 

 house show | sunday 25th august
facebook event

 O X F O R D
house show | monday 26th august



N O R W I C H 

 the bicycle shop | tuesday 27th august
facebook event

S E A F O R D 

house show | wednesday 28th august
secret location

L O N D O N 

house show | thursday 29th august
secret location

brainlove festival

The Nervy Betters are playing at this festival at the Brixton Windmill in London, hosted by, and celebrating the tenth birthday of Brainlove Records.

There are lots of great bands playing and tickets are only £5. Steve and I are hoping to be joined by some special guests for our set...

rob st john + the nervy betters

poster by Steve Brett

The Nervy Betters are going to be playing at Cafe Kino supporting Rob St John on Thursday the 2nd of May. The show is being organised by Stitch-Stitch Records. 

cafe kino and stitch-stitch present:

Rob St John
Lancastrian Rob St John plays drawn-out and ghostly songs underpinned by the creaks and drones of the harmonium, musical saw, fiddle, skittering drums, analogue synth and field recordings. Backed by a talented cast of collaborators and co-conspirators, his first album 'Weald' combined kraut, drone and psych influences with peals of British folk guitar and wheeling gusts of rich, cryptic vocals. Since then, he's been recording illegal bird hunting in Malta, field recording in Cornwall and curating the critically acclaimed Pendle, 1612 compilation. His new 7", Charcoal Black and the Bonny Grey / Shallow Brown, will be released on May Day.

The Nervy Betters
A mild-mannered experimental pop band, figuring out their place in the world.

Tickets £5 in advance, available from Bristol Ticket Shop

kino residency: prints and drawings

My last Cafe Kino event was in November and I hung some prints and drawings around the gallery and invited some friends to play some music and records down in the basement. It was a fun year and this work is still hanging in Kino for the foreseeable future, so stop by and have a look if you are in town.

kino residency: exhibition

 

 So, the Next event of my residency at Cafe Kino will be on Sunday the 25th of November (this Sunday) from 2pm

hey, come to a bunch of stuff at cafe kino with lots of everything everywhere!

i'm gonna hang an exhibition i think and there will be musicians and all...

t w o   w h i t e   c r a n e s | upstairs

roxy has been touring japan and meeting her new nephew and she is sure to have some amazing stories and excellent songs for us.

g e o r g e ' s   r e e l - t o - r e e l | downstairs
george has promised to perform his giant tape loop in kino's basement. he is the king of sound.

n i c o l   p a r k i n s o n   (frozy) | upstairs
nicol will be playing without irina and rhiannon, who are not around, but he will hopefully be joined by lots of friends. also, it's his birthday!

d j   c u p c a k e | downstairs
lisa will flip the black pancake and drop the needle in all of the latest and most up to date manners.

t i g e r   &   p a n d a | upstairs
we're going to meet up tomorrow and come up with two sets. the upstairs one with involve songs and hopefully some pals.

w e   w a n t e d   t o   b e   l i o n s | downstairs
jack writes plays and makes beats and is planning a special sound and spoken word performance down in the basement.

t i g e r   &   p a n d a | downstairs
so the second thing will have drums i think and remember, phil dodd will be recording the music on his 4-track casette-o-matic.

UPSTAIRS and DOWNSTAIRS at kino

while this is going on, i guess i'll go around kino and hang pictures throughout the day, so the exhibition will be growing over time... i hope.

performance times to come!