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

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

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

the nervy betters lp arrives

summer pod

Oh hi.

There will be a new set of polite podcasts coming out in the summer months. The first of these will be published at 7AM tomorrow morning.

Bless you all...

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.

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. 

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

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

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

live at cafe kino

I finished the artwork for this last week. It's been over a year since we made these recordings and we're finally ready to release them. It'll become available on the Polite Records page in the next couple of weeks. 

By the way, Tiger & Panda are playing in London with Goat on Saturday the 14th of December, where we'll be selling this new CD and a load of others. The show is hosted by Burn The Jukebox and will be at the Sebright Arms. This place claims to have an over 18s policy so if you're under 18 and want to go, let us know and we'll figure out how to work it!

polite podcast no.2

kino zino

I really am making work, and in a visual medium see? It's not just gigs. Though having said that I will be playing guitar as part of Palomica this Thursday. It's a house show in London I think. i will try and get more details...

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 

oliver watson: loosestrife: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Loosestrife by Oliver Watson...

cat no.: pcd015
format: CDR/download
artwork: recycled brown envelope, handwriting and water colour
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)
 
How many songs has Olly Watson written in the last ten years? I doubt that he knows. When I knew him in school he was recording one song a day, onto a minidisc player, after school and his job washing dishes at the bakery down the road. We recently rescued over 100 of his recordings from a laptop that crashed in 2007. 

He's made a shit-tonne of recordings. 

And he has made every one of them in the same punk-rock-as-hell way. His philosophy hasn't changed and even from the earliest, roughest recordings he made, his music has remained free of affectations.

He once wrote a set of rules for recording music, the first of which being 'That microphone is fine where it is'...

His songs are his songs. His recordings are his recordings. That is why it was imporatant that Olly had the freedom to make every aspect of this album himself.

A couple of Summers ago, Olly and Steph walked the Thames path from where they live in London to some rural place similar to where Olly grew up. Loosestrife is full of the experiences of that Summer. The sometimes uncomfortable butting together of urban and rural existance. Memories of a past life picked out of the dog-shitted rubble of crumbling city walls.

How the hell do I describe what it sounds like? Olly's voice is soft as Autumn but he's a powerful singer when he chooses to be. His use of a bit of reverb on this new eight-track gives his quieter moments a spaciousness, like an orange campfire light back in the recesses of a deep, dark cave. He's used omnichord and drum machine sparingly, adding occasional vivid bursts to the pastel shades of his music. The guitar, his main deal, is percussive, ranging from soft woody chord sequences and riffs to grating metalic shangalangs.

Olly is never alone now in his songs. Steph is heard in the background in the flat where they live together, where Olly recorded Loosestrife. She is his companion in all of his stories. His art is a reflection of his life and it is a life that he has built artfully. It is clearly the most important thing to him and his songs simply offer glimpses, friezes of that life.

You can listen to songs from Olly's recovered back catalogue, here.

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