Artic Circle Resonance FM session
You can hear a recording of the live session we did for Arctic Circle at Resonance FM below, with acoustic versions of songs from Twin Feathers. Fuzzy Lights (Resonance FM) #20 by Arctic Circle Radio
“Lucida” video
Justin Watson has made a video for “Lucida”. Watch it here.
Birmingham, Edinburgh shows canceled
Unfortunately the promoter of the Birmingham show at The Victoria decided to cancel the event at late notice. We’re currently looking at alternatives, so keep your eyes peeled and watch this space.
Update: the Edinburgh show has been canceled today as the venue (Roxy Art House) as sadly closed down with immediate effect. Damn.
Radio sessions - Resonance FM/Cam FM
We’ll be playing a few songs live on Cam FM on Sunday evening, 9-11pm. Tune in to 97.2FM if you’re in the Cambridge area, or I imagine you can listen online at http://www.camfm.co.uk/ elsewhere…
On Sunday 31 October, 1–2pm, we’ll also do a live session on Resonance FM in London. 104.4FM if you’re in the area, http://resonancefm.com/ elsewhere…
September mini tour
An aural and culinary description of these couple of dates.
24/09/10 Buffalo Bar, London
The Buffalo Bar entrance is right next to the Islington tube station which is slightly daunting when trying to park. During soundcheck we establish a Cambridge connection with Hong Kong in the 60s, and afterwards we all head out to find some food. We end up in a pub just down the road (not the one with the table football game I saw when arriving though), called The Alwyne which is rammed full of people as you’d expect for a Friday, but manage to find a table and …. hang on…. does that say “serano ham & camembert burger” on the menu? I think so. The wine is good too. Mark has his usual liver [edit: I am told it was pork belly, which would explain why he missed a fill on Shipwrecks]. We get back just in time to catch the end of Lillies on Mars’ set, 2 Italian girls playing guitar and a drummer playing 90s tinted rock (with phasers!). Hong Kong in the 60s play Casio-rchestrated little retro-pop gems. Unfortunately some of the more noisy audience covers up their delicate music which doesn’t allow for the right mood to set in - which reminds me I need to get some of their music to hear it properly. Rachel borrowed an amp from Lillies on Mars to run her violin through (good old Roland Jazz Chorus) which turned out to be a version with 4 speakers… I don’t think a violin physically moved me like this before. The Museum [Song] was on fire. You can read a review of the gig here although there is a case of mistaken identity (swap Chris and me). As the club empties from gig goers and fills up with wined up highly paid executives, we make an exit and drive back home.
Banter meter: 6/10
25/09/10 Dulcimer, Manchester
We’re welcomed in Chorlton by the lovely David from LRR who kindly drove the gear we’re borrowing from Last Harbour to the venue. That’s the thing with cutting down costs when touring, you have to rely on other people being kind enough to lend you gear (there’s an article by Nels Cline called “Amp du jour” a bit down the page here. Good read), which is always very stressful (except in this case - thanks again Last Harbour!). Once in Leeds last year we noticed during soundcheck we missed some parts for the drumkit and had to drive at full speed through the city from house to house to find the missing bits. The Dulcimer’s walls are covered in screen printed posters and photos, nice poster for a performance of Jean Claude Vannier’s “L’Enfant Assassin des Mouches” and “Melody Nelson” if I remember well, and coincidentally a poster of the cover of an old LP I found in a charity shop in Paris called “American Folk Blues festival 1965”. Don’t know if Joe Boyd was involved. David cooks beautiful goats cheese and roasted veg Mexican wraps for us and we manage to catch a couple of songs by Maladies of Bellafontaine, who play lovely psych-pop. During our set my mic gets all upset and refuses to work, so I have to use Dan’s. There is a twinkle in Mark’s eye as he reallises Dan and I are going to have to share a mic for the harmonies in Shipwrecks (BTW there was a really nice ale at Dulcimer called Shipwrecked).We do our best to strike 80s stadium rock poses but fail.
Banter meter: 4/10
29/09/10 The Social, London
Reunited with all our gear, we now face the dilemma of fitting it on the Social’s tiny stage. Helped by the really nice soundguy (didn’t catch his name) we somehow all end up with enough space to strike our signature rock poses. After running around under the tropical rain we end up in a Thai restaurant where I ruined my soup by deciding to put the whole chilli in. I spent the next 25min sweating it out and lost the ability to speak. Back at the venue our set gets interrupted by fireworks noises through the PA which meant…Dan and I have to share a mic again, much to Mark’s delight (he’s a sucker for stadium rock). Nat from Sonic Cathedral has arranged for a secret acoustic set after us, 2/5’s of Sad Day for Puppets. I’d never heard any of their stuff before but it works beautifully with just an acoustic guitar and two voices, providing a delicate, gentle closer to send us through the night.
Banter meter: 5/10
30/09/10 The Portland Arms, Cambridge
C Joynes masterfully opens proceedings with fingerpicked resonator and banjo. Having not seen him in a long time, his singular technique is always something to witness. Next is Kerry Andrew aka You are Wolf. Having came across her looped vocals adaptation of a traditional English song on a Tom Robinson show after he played one of our tracks, I really wanted to hear what it was like live: impressive and enthralling. No shared mics tonight, but David as a very skilled guitar tech. Review here.
Banter meter: 8/10 (Dan 2/10)
Conclusion: we need to work on improving the banter ratings. Birmingham, York, Dundee, Newcastle, Edingburgh, Hull… see you in November!
A couple of shows this week and next…
Fri 24 Sept
The Buffalo Bar, Islington
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140420839328575
Sat 25 Sept
Dulcimer, Chorlton (Manchester)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=159541347396330
Weds 29 Sept
The Social, London
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151677794861373
Thurs 30 Sept
The Portland Arms, Cambridge
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140303359345181
THE WIRE Tapper
“Obscura” from Twin Feathers is featured on this month’s Wire Tapper. You can get it here www.thewire.co.uk or any good newsagent.
Album out Today! - Track by track feature on TLOBF
“Twin Feathers” is out today!
The lovely chaps at the Line of Best Fit have asked us to do a track-by-track run through of the album. You can read it here http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08/fuzzy-lights-twin-feathers-track-by-track/
Track on The Line OF Best Fit podcast
New Track “Through Water” is featured on this month The Line Of Best Fit podcast: http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08/the-line-of-best-fit-podcast-august-2010/
Reviews!
The first reviews of “Twin Feathers” are starting to emerge in the press: 4 stars and “Underground Album of the Month” in MOJO Magazine, 4 stars in UNCUT and Artrocker!
