press release: birds like waves

Darling, do you promise to love me in the punk times? Love me in the wussy times? The fat wallet times? Baby-mine , you held the chromatic tuner to your lips and expressed a perfect G. Meanwhile, my tape machine sings a rattling A#. 

I bus home happy this evening. The city's feelings are a din. Like that one time on Buffy (Season 3, Episode 18, production code: 3ABB18). 

Mucus adheres. The mucus of my music adheres to your waxy canals. Thank you for listening. 

Things have changed a lot and this is a heavy thing to consider. My love for you is still eternal and tender. 

CDs, tapes and downloads to follow. 

Today, something just clicked for me and there was no fear.

birds like waves

There is a new thing up on the Polite Records page today. It's one song from an album length collection of recordings I've made for a new projects called Sea Glass. I made these recordings in the summer as something to do. Part of the point of starting a new thing with just me was so that I'd have something to work on when my other bands are not in the same place as me (The Nervy Betters are all over the South of England and Olly is about to move back to Bristol). I'm making a small number of CDs and Cassettes and I'm guessing they'll be later this month so I will write an update when that happens.

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

our blood is an ocean

I get to work on this cool project with my pal Jack. I'm making an animated backdrop and he is being weird and awkward on stage. I think it's going to be really great!

polite podcast no.7

This is the third in this series or season of the Polite Podcast. It's being published at 8AM on the 16th of July. There is one more podcast in this series, which will be published at some time in August.

credits

from Polite Podcasts, track released 16 July 2014
Thick Like Snow - Oh Peas! (ohpeas.bandcamp.com)
One - Attacked by Wolves (attackedbywolves.bandcamp.com)
Folds - Nick Gunzburg (www.nickgunzburg.com)
Big Sound - Glowy (glowingcateyes.bandcamp.com/releases)

Interview: A-J

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

polite podcast no.6

This is the second episode of a second series ('series') of polite podcasts. Things are as they were. There will be four shows, this time in the summer months and I will be publishing them in the mornings, not the evenings.

This episode was published on 21st June at 4.43AM, which is sunrise on the year's longest day. the next episode will be ay 8AM on the 16th of July. No special occasion this time, but it will be the last day that we are on tour.

credits

from Polite Podcasts, released 30 September 2013
We're Doing it - Ace Bushy Striptease acebushystriptease.com
Mao's Dynasty www.handidiom.co.uk/mao'sdynasty.html
Dirty White Van - King of Cats kingofcats.tumblr.com
The Girls of Summer - Hugh John Noble hughjohnnoble.bandcamp.com

Interviews - Gef Lucena (Saydisc Records: www.saydisc.com ); Nicol Parkinson

music videos

Video by Grace Denton

video by David Hopkinson

fan art

I got an envelope of nice stuff in the post today from Stef Purenins and Sarah Graley. Among the many great creative things that they do separately and together, Stef and Sarah are also a band called Sonic the Comic. I totally love their songs. they are making a new album right now and I only just started listening to their last one, Pixel!



And if that wasn't enough, they made this cover song of Gravestone by The Nervy Betters!

the nervy betters lp arrives

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.

we're planning a tour!

photo by Steve Brett

Over the weekend on 18th - 22nd of April, we're planning to play in London, Brighton, Birmingham, Cambridge/Northampton with: 

photo by Steve Brett

photo by Rhiannon Parkinson

photo by Roxy Brennan

party tzar

polite records is proud to present party tzar by tiger & panda & goat.

we recorded these songs on 4-track cassette on saturday the 22nd of february 2014.

There is no long press release to go with this recording. All we really want to say is that we are genuinely delighted with the outcome. The songs are indie-pop songs and we think that they will sound good to you. We are selling them at a good price because we are currently fundraising for some future projects. 

If you enjoy this maxi-ep, It would mean a lot to us if you purchased it as a download or CDR, or maybe tell your friends?

Anyway, here it is, world. 

stars don't shine to noise

Headfall released Stars Don't Shine to Noise in November 2004, just short of ten years ago. The record has just recently been made available to order online, along with a free digital download of the whole album. It was one of the first records I ever owned and it is still one of my favourite and most prized possessions by far. 

Seriously, you should buy this album. It is a genuine undiscovered classic. The only reason this thing is not completely sold out is that for a long time, the only place you could purchase it was at Headfall shows, which only tend to happen once, maybe twice a year in pretty small venues.

George McKenzie (drums, guitar, violin, piano, humming, tape loops, clarinet.) once told me that this album was the only thing he's ever made that he is still proud of. He then went on to tell me where all of the mistakes were. But they don't sound like mistakes to me. This whole shuffling, brooding thing sounds so on purpose, grey as mist on the sea, broken glass, to sand, to salt water. A bunch of punk kids trying to make jazz, awkwardness exploding out of them. Everything is poetry, sung and played, 'a truth too teenage'. 


I don't want to keep describing how it sounds. You can find out for yourself, and you should. I just think that what it does sound like, what it wants to sound like, is captured perfectly, stylistically, aesthetically, framed in smokey static electricity, perfectly honed and curated, artfully presented. a jagged frenzy beneath a swelling surface, barely restrained, three yearning hearts.

polite podcast no.4

Hello, this is the fourth and final 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!

credits

from Polite Podcasts, track released 31 December 2013
ribbons (live): palomica palomica.bandcamp.com
untitled: headfall myspace.com/headfall
mackerel sky: the living end! thelivingend.bandcamp.com
sea air/five roses (live): palomica
eugene v. debbs: grizzly and the bears
in the winter: frozy frozy.bandcamp.com
the snowfall which promised so much (yet gave so little): unecdotesoundcloud.com/unecdote
untitled: roxy brennan; steve brett; henry ireland; nicol parkinson
ferris wheel (live): palomica
coffee machines (live): palomica

interviews: Florence Carson; Mike Lollipop; Karis Clapperton; Jack Horton

sounds and recordings sourced by Henry Ireland and Nicol Parkinson

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

polite podcast no.3

from Polite Podcasts, released 30 September 2013

impossible walls: fontaine 
inclosure: moscow rules 
i found you: the dream is over
middling good boy: damh

interviews: marion ireland; mark dillon; philip dodd; elisa lloyd; james cabaniuk