Onwards We March

Once again I have been spectacularly inconsistent with blogs posts. What can ye do? February has been pretty damn good for shows. UNIFORMS did our weekender with London punks It’s Not OK and The Kimberly Steaks at the start of the month and played deece shows in Stirling and Dundee with Shatterhand and in Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow with The Walking Targets over five days. All the shows were great and all the bands killed it every night. It was great to finally get to play live again after two months off, which is a big break from playing shows for us. With all the stuff going on with the records, tour booking, promo and everything, sometimes it’s all too easy to forget exactly why you love this shit in the first place; that being getting sweating and singing your heart out with everyone. Shit feels good, yo. Massive thanks to Brian, Kenny, Raph, Greig and everyone involved in helping out with the shows. I sincerely hope that Jugs, Steve and Mike had a deece time. We’ll see you guys when we’re down your way at the end of next month.

Arliss Nancy came to visit us in Dundee and they were incredible, one of those bands whose records I love so much more after meeting them and seeing them play live. Sometimes it goes the other way. The limited edition woodcut sleeved clear vinyl is absolutely beautiful too. Mark McCabe opened that night and was his usual dry and charming self before Terrafraid played what I believe was only their second show. They are a great band that everyone should check out. I always get excited by awesome local bands, of which we’re lucky to have a good few. The Barents Sea also played their first show at Kage which also doubled as the last show with bassist Nico. They played a great show and there was some amusing banter between Nico and Grant, it’s just a shame the line-up is changing again. The show was really busy so big thanks to everyone who came out and supported, much appreciated as always.

I got a lift home from Big Ade and dropped my camera in his car and even though he was gracious enough to drop it off to me on Sunday night, I haven’t had a chance to upload any videos. Our main man Adam Morrow, however, put this little piece together covering the show the next night in Edinburgh. Adam is currently working on Film Yer Ane Fest, details of which will emerge in due course.

 

Next up is a trip to Shetland this weekend for UNIFORMS. I’ve played in Shetland once before, back in 2007 when Irish Leigh and I went up and I played my Tragical History Tour set. It’s a pretty amazing place and I’m excited to be going up with the band. I could probably live without the 32 hours sailing time, but we’ve done these sorts of ridiculous things before, so I’m sure we’ll be all good. I think the shows are going to be absolutely banging and we’re supporting The Roughneck Riot on Saturday night at the British Legion in Lerwick. Should be absolute madness. I’m very much looking forward to it. One important thing though; could anyone recommend a decent boozer for some scran and a certain Scottish Cup quarter final at Sunday lunch time? Shed rule.

Once we get back from Shetland, it’s straight into another busy week. The Murderburgers kick off their 53 date European tour in Glasgow on Thursday night (7th March) with support from Cleavers, The Kimberly Steaks and The Walking Targets (full details). The tour then rolls into Dundee for it is looking like being a pretty special night.

It’s going to be the release show for the incoming Maxwell’s Dead / Walking Targets split and is also the very first show from new Dundee “supergroup” Robot Doctors. Topping this off, we’ll be joined by new Lockjaw Records signees Trails, who were last up this way supporting Elway back in September.

We’ll have copies of the split CD so please come buy one! Full details here.

 

Then the Thursday after that, we are delighted to be welcoming The Arteries back to Dundee. They’ve got a new 12″ EP coming out on Specialist Subject Records and they’ll be touring the UK to promote it with Dundee being the ONLY SCOTTISH SHOW of the tour. The band headlined the Friday night of Book Yer Ane Fest V and were absolutely incredible. They were originally booked to play last year too but had to cancel due to the unforeseen circumstances known as “life”, so it’s with great anticipation that we wait for them to destroy Kage once more. They’ll be joined by us roasters in Uniforms, the mighty Cleavers and Dundee’s coolest blues punks The Shithawks. Sounds like an absolute winner to me. Get full details about that banger here.

Talking of splits; both our split 7″ with Question The Mark on Team Beard Records and our Make-That-A-Take split with Loaded 45 are currently at the pressing plants. This is the first time I’ve ever been personally involved in the production of vinyl, so I’m pretty excited. Jamie has done an incredible job with our artwork (as usual) and I can’t wait to get my hands on the finished product, let alone share it with everyone. It feels good to finally get these songs out there as they were the first that we wrote after Big Mick’s passing and our crazy summer tours. It feels like they were written a lifetime ago but we haven’t really played them live too much and they’re only just coming out publicly. Massive thanks to Boab at Punk Rock Rammy for doing an incredible job of the recording and mixing. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a pair of releases. Big thanks also to Chris Fogal of The Gamits for the mastering job at Black In Bluhm studios in Denver for the Loaded split.

The Question The Mark split can be pre-ordered with instant digital download from the Team Beard Records website right here. Our split with Loaded 45 will be up for streaming on the MTAT bandcamp page in the next couple of weeks before we head out on tour starting in Perth on Thursday 21st March at The Green Room. We’ll be playing with Vicenti and Sink Alaska that night, with both bands playing their first ever shows. Vicenti feature Gash and Dav of Dirtbox and this is their first show together in over three years I believe and Sink Alaska are well-seasoned veterans from Beauty School Dropout and The Day I Snapped. High calibre punk rock for fuck all in Perth on a Thursday night, so don’t say that nothing deece ever happens!

 

We’re also tying up the loose ends of our tour with Loaded 45 but we are still looking for a couple of shows in England, specifically Friday 29th March anywhere around the south coast as we’ll be between Exeter and Brighton, and Tuesday 2nd April literally anywhere in middle England as we’ll be between Cambridge and Liverpool. If anyone can help us out or give us a heads-up or let us jump on something, please get in touch and let us know!

As it stands, tour is looking a bit like this;

Thursday 21 March @ The Green Room, Perth w/ Vicenti + Sink Alaska

Friday 22 March @ 20 Rocks, Stirling w/ Get It Together + Empty Lungs

Saturday 23 March @ The Tunnels, Aberdeen w/ Maxwell’s Dead + Empty Lungs

Sunday 24 March @ The 13th Note, Glasgow w/ Sink Alaska

Monday 25 March @ Santiago’s, Leeds

Tuesday 26 March @ North Wales Inn, Rhyl

Wednesday 27 March @ Gwdihw Cafe Bar, Cardiff w/ Question The Mark

Thursday 28 March @ The Cavern, Exeter w/ Bleach Blood (ex King Blues)

Friday 29 March @ ***BOOK US PLEASE***

Saturday 30 March @ The Cowley Club, Brighton w/ Fighting Fiction

Sunday 31 March @ Till The Wheels Fest, New Cross Inn, London

Monday 1 April @ The Corner House, Cambridge w/ It’s Not OK

Tuesday 2 April @ ***BOOK US PLEASE***

Wednesday 3 April @ The Lomax, Liverpool w/ Throwing Stuff + Addictive Philosophy

Thursday 4 April @ The Dog and Partridge, Bolton

Friday 5 April @ The Central, Gateshead (early show!) w/ The Social Club

Friday 5 April @ Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh (late show!)

Saturday 6 April @ The Forest Cafe, Edinburgh (acoustic matinee show)

Saturday 6th April @ Kage, Dundee *End of tour party* w/ Sink Alaska + Get It Together

You can keep up to date with any changes/amendments on the tour event page.

Right, that’s more than enough from me for one day. It’s a beautiful sunny day outside and I’m heading to work in just over an hour, so I’d best go and get my shit together. I’ve listened to “Today’s Empires Tomorrow’s Ashes” by Propagandhi, “Exodus” by Bob Marley and The Wailers and The Cut Ups “Building Bridges. Starting Here”, drank two cups of coffee and went outside for two tabbies during the composition of this blog, as I know you were dying to know.

Hope to see some of y’all at the upcoming shows!

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It Starts Here!!!

With due thanks to Billy Liar for the my commandeered title, 2013 kicks off good and proper for us roasters in UNIFORMS this week. We haven’t played a show in a couple of months, the last one being at The Twa Tams on the Thursday post-Book Yer Ane Fest VI. That’s a long time for us, especially given how many shows we played last year. I’ve played a solo show with Billy, Tim Loud and Nic (X-Ray Cat) but that’s been all since then (I think!).  On the other hand, we’ve never been busier with everything that’s been going on with Make-That-A-Take and planning for the year ahead. I was out putting up posters in Perth the other and it hit me that the best part of all of this caper is actually the playing of the music and that I haven’t done it in a while, by my standards anyway. As such, I am itching to get going with these shows.

I missed a trick by not naming this jaunt “Book Yer Ane Tour”. This is the first time that we’ve done a “package” tour of sorts. Even though it’s five shows across five days in Scotland, it’s another thing that we haven’t done before. We’ll be playing all dates with our friends It’s Not OK from London. We first met Jugs when he was driving Dear Landlord back in 2009 and this is the first time we’ve put his band on. They are touring their new “It’s Never OK” EP and are making their way up here this week. We shall also be joined by our best pals The Kimberly Steaks. I’m going to corner Greig and try talk some business at some point over this weekend. They’re such a great band and I’m very happy that we’re getting to do more than just the odd one-off show together.

We’ll be joined for the first three nights in Stirling, Dundee and Perth by the mighty Shatterhand. I’ve known these guys for well over ten years now and they are also a riot wherever they go. They’ve been touring quite a lot recently so are likely to be even more unhinged than usual.  In Perth, we shall be joined by The Late Heavy Bombardment. They play bonkers shouty dance-rock craziness and are a very rowdy bunch indeed. Saturday night may well be the wildcard of the bunch. On Sunday and Monday in Edinburgh and Glasgow, The Walking Targets will be joining us. If you haven’t checked them out yet, I’d urge you to do so.  You can hear the first song from their split with Maxwell’s Dead on Make Yer Ane Comp IV.

Those lovely fellas at Team Beard Records have put together a discography tape of sorts for us, featuring all eight songs from our demo and the Spectacular Terry Butcher EP. There are only going to be 50 of them made, all on canary yellow cassette, and we’ll only have a slack handful for sale at shows ourselves this weekend. We’ll also have a couple of limited edition shirts. Big thanks to The Doctor at TeesOnTap for sorting the prints out for us.

“The Tape” will be released from the Team Beard website on February 18th, the same day that the pre-order for our split 7″ with Question The Mark goes live. We’ll have a stream up around that time too so you’ll finally get to hear a song we’ve been sitting on for a couple of months now. So stoked. The 7″ itself is going to come on two different colours of vinyl and will have download codes and the like included. It’s pretty safe to say that we’re all pretty excited about it. I can’t thank Bunky and the boys enough for everything they’ve done to help us out. Our European trip in May is going to be something very special indeed.

However, that’s not all. Our split 7″ with our Colorado brothers Loaded 45 is currently being mastered by Chris Fogal of The Gamits at Black In Bluhm Studios in Denver. Jamie is currently doing the artwork and everything is getting shipped off for press very shortly. It’s getting pressed in the States and we’ll have about 100 of them for our UK tour at the end of March, full details of which will be available soon (as soon as we know them ourselves, ken?). Loaded will have their new album by with them by the time they get here, with artwork from Ryan Willard and Bryan Kienlen of The Bouncing Souls.

Then it’s off to Shetland for a couple of shows at the start of March before we head out around the UK together. We’ll be on the road for 16/17 shows, including a couple of matinee acoustic shows. As I said before, full details will spill out over the next week or so.

We’ll be filming some video footage over the course of these five shows, although chiefly at the Dundee show on Friday night, courtesy of our friend Adam Morrow. He did an awesome job on the video for “The Fear” across the BYAF VI weekend so I’m excited for what he’s going to come up with this time. The Dundee date is also free entry at Kage and has Kenny’s new KAOS club night afterwards, so it should be a blast of a show. Please come down and make us look cool yo.

Right, that’s enough for now. I’m working at two and I’ve been sitting in front of this computer for hours already. I’ve had two mugs of coffee, two tabbies and listened to two Jeff Rowe records and both sides of “Nevermind” whilst doing so.

A rare old morning I reckon.

MAKE YER ANE COMP IV

(Click cover for download link!)

Today marks the release of the fourth instalment of the MAKE YER ANE COMP series. This is by far the biggest one that we’ve ever done and it features 33 absolute bangers from all branches of the Make-That-A-Take family tree; punk, hardcore, emo, ska, acoustic, indie,  folk; there’s plenty to feast upon.

The comp also features a number of exclusives, including being the very first place to listen to and download a brand new track from the upcoming Kaddish LP as well as tracks from the forthcoming UNIFORMS/Loaded 45 and Maxwell’s Dead/The Walking Targets splits on MTAT Records.

This is also the first comp that we’ve charged for and we hope that you don’t find £2 (or more if you’re feeling generous!) to be unreasonable.  It’s looking like 2013 is going to be a crazy year for the collective with loads of awesome shows, our first ventures into putting out other bands and putting out vinyl, all leading up to Book Yer Ane Fest VII at the end of November.

We couldn’t do what we do without the people who support us. Thank you all so much. We sincerely hope you enjoy MAKE YER ANE COMP IV. Please feel free to spread it around and share it with your friends.

Tracklisting;

UNIFORMS – Not Tonight *exclusive*
The Kimberly Steaks – Self Destruct
The Walking Targets – There’s Nothing Quite Like Indecision *exclusive*
Oi Polloi – Na Geill Is Tu Beo
Kaddish – But A Beat From Your Bones *exclusive*
Billy Liar – The Ghosts Of Punk Rock *exclusive*
It’s Not OK! – The Captain
Sweet Empire – Torches
Bonehouse – A Grasp Too Far
Min Diesel – Love Disease
Terrafraid – Self-Indulgent Spotlight
Carson Wells – Home
From The Cradle To The Rave – 48 Years
Taking Chase – Jaws V
Maxwell’s Dead – Chemicals
The Murderburgers – Gimme Gimme Negativity
Loaded 45 – 3 Beers

Question The Mark – W.t. H. I. H. N (The God One)
A Victory At Sea – We Both Know
Get It Together – Skinned Knees and Bruises
Holiday – They Said We Could Have Everything In The Argos Catalogue
The Screichs – Conrad Brooks *exclusive*
Shatterhand – Just For A Minute
Müg – Tigers and Bears
Boneshakers – Empty Pockets
Dave Hughes and The Renegade Folk Punk Band – Tacitus
Little Anchors – My Grandfather Was A Projectionist
Gone Wishing – A Course You’ve Plot
Broken Stories – First Impression
Mark McCabe – Just Ask Nicely
The Won Over – Chances
Davey Nolan – A Better Model
Algernon Doll – Son of a Gun, Brother To None

GO!!!GO!!!GO!!!