We've been busy beavering away behind the scenes so we thought it'd be nice to let you know what's been going on. Here's a bit of background info:
We've been rehearsing and recording demos in the spare room of my house since we formed. You can see what it looks like here:
As you can see it's a bit of a squeeze!
We recently decided to try and get a bit more room. The plan is to move to the upstairs of my house. This involves converting two bedrooms and a hallway into one big room! Pretty exciting.
As we're on a pretty tight budget, I've done most of the work myself. This first thing I had to do was remove all the doors, and then we made a start on demolishing the stud walls.
Here's some pictures of the progress:
Look how manly I am!
You wouldn't mess.
It took three days to remove all of the doors, walls and carpet. This is what remains:
Despite my obvious man skills, we've got to wait for the builders to come in now. They're going to remove the supporting wall and replace it with wooden post. They're also going to sort out the electrics and do some plastering.
Once that's done I'll update the blog with more developments. Hopefully by the end of it the room will be big enough to start filming some of our rehearsals and things like that.
UPDATE:
Builders are still working, but progress has been made:
UPDATE 2!
We're done! Once the builders finished we spent a few days painting, carpet laying and putting up hooks. Check it out:
This week we've been away on our travels to London, Brighton and Canterbury.
On Tuesday we set off to London for the first night of our residency. For those of you who don't know, we've organised four shows at The Big Chill House, near Kings Cross station in London. The purpose behind these shows was to test out some of our new material, whilst at the same time asking some of our favourite bands to play with us. The original plan was to start them on February 3rd, but the snow came down so we had to cancel the first one.
So, we left the T&S North Wales HQ at around 11. Highlights of the journey included passing the 133333 mile mark on my car, and some drink driving:
The night started with Wise Children, who we've been myspace friends with for quite a while. They were a few members down tonight, but it was great to finally see them play. They make lovely acoustic music.
Then came Babel, who are a Bristol based folk rock band. They were amazing. Make sure you go and get their new album.
Some pictures of our set:
There are more pictures on our myspace if you'd like to have a look.
We were really pleased with our first night. We got two encores! Totally unexpected but really very appreciated. There's a lovely review of the night here:
After a healthy bout of merch selling we packed up our car and headed to Luton to stay with a friend.
The following day we set off nice and early to Brighton. The first thing we did was went for a round of mini-golf. This is becoming a bit of a tradition. Fordy won, with Adam and I just a single point behind.
Golf is thirsty work. We decided that now would be a good time to go a drink. We found a lovely tea shop.
After our tea we went to the Hope for our gig. We didn't get two encores this time, but it was a good gig nonetheless. We like Brighton.
On to the final date of our mini-tour. We decided to make another early start to explore Canterbury. People there are tiny.
And they must have one leg shorter than the other:
We started to get thirsty again. We found this aptly named shop:
The tea room is also the most haunted place in Canterbury. Scary.
We did a bit more exploring and then went to the venue. We were pleasantly surprised to find a baby grand on stage! We decided that we'd like to take one on tour with us someday. Practical.
The gig went well again. We got a 45 minute set! We're so used to play for half an hour, it felt good to play an extra few songs.
I think that's everything. Thank you very much to everyone who came to see us.
We've got some very exciting news on the horizon :). More on that soon.
Thank you to everyone who has ordered the Put Your Slippers On EP; we hope you have been enjoying it. We have been overwhelmed by the response we've had. So much so, in fact, that we've been asked to re-release the EP. It will be released on 13th April through Full of Joy Records (don't worry though, copies will still be sold before then). This time, the release will be accompanied by national press and a comprehensive tour of the UK. A full list of dates will be announced very soon, so keep your eyes peeled.
13th April will also see further distribution of the EP in the digital world. It will be available to download of eMusic, Amazon, Napster etc.
Then, in June, we'll be releasing a brand new single! We've been busy recording b-sides for it this month. It's all sounding lovely, and we've got a big surprise in store for you. We will fill you in on all the details in the not too distant future.
We've also just started a Twitter. Follow us here:
Here's a summary of our year. It includes a break down of Tim and Sam's year, and lists of our favourite albums and gigs. There's also the odd picture, too. Enjoy!
T&S highlights:
January - We made our TV debut! on 31st Jan we recorded a session for Channel M. It was the windiest day ever and we got blown away when we were carrying our stuff into the studio. It was great fun though.
February - Started our first tour of the year. We played 10 dates starting at the end of Feb. We travelled all over the UK and had lots of fun. There is a blog up on Myspace if you'd like to read more about it.
March - We finished our tour and then we started our epic recording session. This month, we mainly focused on recording drums for all of the songs.
April - More recording. We ended up recording 19 songs. 7 of them are on our EP, which is out now. The rest should be released as an album next year. How exciting. We also played a few great gigs, including Huw Stephen's Introducing night at The Social, and a show with Shady Bard and Polytechnic. Both of whom are ace.
Hello,
May - A fun month. We played at The Great Escape Festival, which turned out to be one of our favourite gigs so far. I also got a new car. This was exciting because we could now travel in one vehicle to all of our gigs.
June - We locked ourselves away to get a move on with our recording. We also did a lot of rehearsing, so we could play all of these songs live.
July - Latitude Festival! This was lots of fun. Thank you very much to Huw Stephens for asking us to play.
August - Our second tour of the year. This time slightly longer, playing at a number of small but lovely festivals.
September - We set up Full of Joy Records in September, and set about work on releasing our EP. This was a really big learning curve for all of us. We also recorded the live video for House by the Sea, which you can watch on Youtube here:
October - A small number of gigs in between doing the PR for our EP. This involved lots of promo CDs and lots of envelopes.
November - We released our EP! Our first proper CD. Something we'd been looking forward to having for a long time. We also had an amazing launch party at the Sacred Trinity Church in Salford.
December - Our first in-store at Purgroove in London. We also did as session for Tom Robinson on BBC 6Music, which was amazing.
Some lists. All are in no particular order:
Favourite T&S gigs of the year:
27th Nov - EP Launch Party - Sacred Trinity Church, Salford. A really special night in a fantastic venue. Couldn't have wished for a better way to celebrate our EP launch.
28th March - St Peter's Church, Kingston - It took us 8 hours to get there. We turned up and went straight on stage, and we didn't get home until 5 in the morning. Despite this, we were still in the studio for 9 the following day. Hardcore. Anyway, the gig itself was great.
4th May - Sounds from the Other City Festival, Salford - Great festival. We played in a pub that was completely packed to the rafters.
16th May - Great Escape Festival - Our first larger festival. We were expecting to play to an empty room, but instead we got a full one. Better still, they were all quite and appreciative.
20th July - Latitude Festival - Easily the biggest gig we've done so far. Our second set in the woods was equally as good too. Definitely something we'll always remember.
4th Nov - Tommy's Bar, Cardiff - Dwi'n hoffi Caerdydd! We played with The Kabedees, who all bought T&S T-Shirts and wore them on stage. For this, we love them forever.
21st Dec - Wirksworth Town Hall, Wirksworth - A small town in the middle of no-where, but it turned out to be the perfect final gig of the year.
Non T&S gigs of the year:
Radiohead - Manchester LCCG. Probably our collective all-time favourite band. David Bazan - Night n Day, Manchester. What a voice. Bon Iver - The Great Escape Festival. We were all really impressed. Great show. Okkervil River - The Great Escape Festival. Amazing live band. Adem - Brudenell Social Club. With his band. One of our collective favourite solo artists. Elbow - Delemer Forest. Elbow in a forest. What more could you want? Great that they've done so well this year, too.
Albums of the year:
These are all albums that have been doing the rounds in our tour car a lot.
Micah P. Hinson - The Red Empire Orchestra Okkervil River - The Stand Ins Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes Death Vessel - Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Why? - Alopecia
I hope you've enjoyed this year as much as we have. Very much looking forward to the next one!
Happy new year,
Tim and Sam x
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Hello.
We thought it would be nice to make a round-up of all of the reviews we’ve had of the Put Your Slippers On EP so far. Enjoy!
DieShellSuit: “Lovely cheery melodic post indie rock, with what seems like a complete lack of pretension and a very down to earth feel.Highly recommended.” 9/10 <
The Fugitive Motel:“Seemingly seizing on any new tool in the musical family, beautifully constructed melodies compete with each other for the listener’s full attention. You can follow any of them for as long as you wish, or take a step back and appreciate the way they combine to make a totally satisfying whole.” 5.0/6.0
Huddersfield University Student Newspaper: “From the endearingly silly name down to the playful and astonishingly pretty details of their music, Tim and his very able band-mates seem to come from another Britain altogether, a sweeter and more thoughtful place, with this sensibility woven through their heartfelt and cinematic instrumentals.” 9.0/10
CMU Music Network: “'Stepping Stones' is a beautiful acoustic highlight, although truthfully every song is a joy. Composed by a patchwork orchestra of eclectic instruments and tied together in the band's indie-inclined roots, 'Put Your Slippers On' is pretty, magical and rich; an emblem of DIY chamber-pop delight.”
Isthismusic?: "Tim and Sam’s… are a band, that specialise in songs which are immensely and impossibly beautiful. The violins join in on title track, ‘Put Your Slippers On’, it’s one of the finest moments of any song I’ve ever heard.These guys are pretty special."
MEN: “The Manc oufit make music as snug as a warm winter blanket; all folk-drenched pastoral psychedelia, like a mix of Sigur Ros, Belle And Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens, with an extra sprinkling of ethereal wooziness.”
MP3 Hugger: “ ‘Join The Dots’ is an unbridled success as much for the emotions it inspires as the instrumentation, which is both fragile and adventurous.”
Organ: "Lovely indie-flavoured light delicate simple clever post-rock and gorgeous drops of fresh rain in the sun and jumping over stepping stones and badger sets and all warm and organic and wholesome and good” SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Planet Sound: “Brings back summer.” 7/10
Student Direct: “This is the epitome of summer music - and if it’s not summer, listen to it and you’ll never care about what’s going on outside.” 4/5
Subba-Cultcha: “A pastoral symphony of textures and colours played on everything that makes a noise.”
Supersweet: “‘Put Your Slippers On’ weaves an aural tapestry of naivety and maturation. Their songs cajole the senses into a comfortable state of comatose for what is ultimately an ethereal listen.”
ThisisfakeDIY: "Tim and Sam haven’t stuck to the norm really, choosing instruments which are better suited to the BBC Philharmonic rather than an indie-folk band, but the fusion of classical (flute, clarinet, piano, glockenspiel and violin) and modern (guitar and percussion) works wonderfully well, and partly contributes to their quirkiness.”
ToxicPete: “These instrumental renderings, are wonderfully constructed, gentle and sensual works of fluid and organic 'scores' or mini-symphonies. Post-rock maybe but, there's nothing at all stark, angular or obtuse about this EP. What's offered here is gently lilting, softly flowing, cosseting and easy on the ear. A classy and very well structured EP of excellent modernistic music for the heart, mind and soul."
Below is a live version of our song "House by the Sea". It was a bit of an experiment. We used a bunch of old cameras and carefully set them up so we could film it whilst playing the song, and then we took the footage home to edit it ourselves. Don't expect a super pro video, but we think it's a charming representation of one of our live songs. Enjoy!
The properly record version can be heard on our forthcoming EP Put Your Slippers On. You can order it here:
There have been some big developments in the Tim and Sam camp this week. Here's the news:
Tim has started a brand new record label called Full of Joy Records, which will be releasing Tim and Sam's debut EP! It will have a whopping 7 tracks and will be released on November 28th on CD and download. Here's the track listing:
1. Put Your Slippers On 2. House by the Sea 3. Join the Dots 4. Notebook 5. Stepping Stones 6. Staring into Space 7. The Badger Set
All this for just £5!
All of these songs have been newly recorded, re-worked and re-vamped.
Tim and Sam will be having a big launch party on Thursday November 27th at Salford Trinity Church. More news on that, and lots of other things coming soon.
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