These days...

Hello the world.

I've not used shuffle on Itunes for ages. Currently, The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by the Anniversary is on, and before that was FEAR, and before that was Animal Collective, and before that was Archers of Loaf, and before that was Sharks Keep Moving, and before that was Metallica, and before that was Operation Ivy, and before that was Eric B and Rakim. Wait! It's just changed! It's Spy Versus Spy!

Ok, so. We have three gigs over the next few days. Obviously they're all on our myspace gigs page, but for those who need to read the facts in plain text, the facts are below:

TONIGHT
8th October, Manchester Apollo with Maximo Park.
9th October, Chester, D'Meltin' Pot
10th October, Liverpool, Kazimier with CLINIC.

I would deffo get tickets for the Saturday one as it is also Lost Art skateshop's 10th birthday so there are chances it'll be chaos. Pop into Lost Art off Bold Street or go to seetickets.com for soe ticket action.

In other news, we've recorded a six song EP for release on Moshi Moshi next year, and are halfway through recording another six song EP, also for release next year. We're also doing a song with Paul Smith of Maximo. We're recording his lungs this afternoon at the Apollo.

I'm now listening to Rocket From the Crypt. My record collection rules.

Hope to see you over the next few days.

Paul.x

Liverpool on Friday and contemporary internet usage

OH HAI GUYZ.

We're playing a show in Korova in Liverpool on Friday. It's a fiver. It starts about 9pm. Possibly a little earlier. It's Alasdair's birthday. My friend is making cookies. We're playing new songs. We have some MERCH. There are plenty of full-colour posters for you to steal, you fucking penny-and-dime cheapskates. Come, party, get wild upon the wilderness.

JUST NOW:

We did this thing called "SIGNING UP TO TWITTER."

Is it any good? I keep reading about it in the weekend Guardian supplement whilst wishing that Birchill was still the columnist. BRING BACK BIRCHILL! Maybe I could update our new Twitter account with that very sentence, along with copy and pasting these paragraphs into our myspace blog, facebook, blogspot, bebo, friendster, faceparty and news page of our website.

So yeah, come read brief sentences that we think of and add us or whatever:

http://twitter.com/hotclubdeparis

I hope you're all well.

Paul.xxx

LOST NOTES

DO YOU LOVE YOUR LOCAL SKATESHOP? We love ours. It's called LOST ART and they're so awesome that they don't seem to mind when those without jobs spend entire mornings in there talking absolute rubbish, drinking barrels of bitter black coffee.

Our friend Nick Brown who loves pointing cameras at us has started a sweet little youtube channel in conjunction with Lost Art called Lost Notes. So far he's only uploaded a few music clips but be sure to check back/subscribe to see more content documenting the more wonky things that happen in and around our native Liverpool.

I did a small performance of Mark Magill's (SSS, Grampus Eight, Meow Meow) Sea Shanty Number 9. We'll be doing our very own Lost Notes Hot Club de Paris performance in the nearest of futures.



Speak soon,

Love Paul.x

THURS dAY FRIDAY JOAN OF ARC SUMMER

Hey the kids.

Look at the weather! Have you seen it? It looks a little bit like THE SUMMER.

We are playing some shows! We have played some shows! Three out of four of those shows have been with/will be with JOAN OF ARC who as some of you may know are a completely AWESOME band and part of the reason why HOT CLUB DE PARIS exist.

Thanks to those of you who turned out to see us and them and Johnny Foreigner at Fighting Cocks in Kingston last week. We had as much fun as we always do in Kingston.

Thanks to those of you who came to see us, The Heebie Jeebies, Blacklisters and that other band that sounded a bit like DOG EAT DOG at the Harley in Sheffield on Sunday.

Tomorrow (THURSDAY 4th JUNE) we are playing with JOAN OF ARC again at the Independent in SUNDERLAND. As some of you Sunderland kids know, we swerved our last show there, which is something we hardly do. Sorry about that. But we're back! TOMORROW! SRSLY.

And then on Friday we play with JOAN OF ARC and SHIELD YOUR EYES in our hometown of Liverpool at the Kazimier. I think this one might be one of the best Liverpool shows ever, so be there.

Just think, it might be as good as the first time Mates of State dropped jaws at the Slaughterhouse, or when the original line up of Dananananananananaykroyd destroyed Korova, or seeing Minus the Bear get their knickers in a twist at Heaven and Hell whilst Broomo from Walk the Plank played his guitar upstairs, dressed as a pretty convincing Rocky. It might be as good as the Down and Outs first ever show or when Architecture in Helsinki delivered the goods at the Masque, or when Enablers stormed through their journey on the hottest day of the year sometime during the 24/7 days. It might be as good as Lungfish! Municipal Waste! The Wow when the Magnet was tiny!

Just as a side note; Remember when you used to be able to watch a Deep Elm band everyday of the week?

OK. HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON.

Paul.x

NOWSER!

Right. Teenage Lust did a compilation that you can download for a quid. We made up a song called Extra Time Then Sudden Death which is featured upon it. All the other songs are good, as far as I can tell from the tiny clips on the site. Totally buy it and enjoy supporting truely DIY music please.

Lately, our friends have been saying things like "Hey, isn't it rad that you guys are playing with Joan of Arc in Liverpool, Kingston and Sunderland?" and we have been saying things like "Yeah, it is totally rad! JOA are partly responsible for our band existing in the first place so playing shows with them will be a supreme honour." Look at our forthcoming dates to see when you can clap your peepers upon us and them on our MYSPACE.

What else? Oh yeah, we've almost written our next record. We've been recording demos but today our computer broke down for seemingly no reason. Computers are pricks. Anyway, we're going to find some sort of way to make our music come into the world and towards your ears in the near future.

Good things of late:

1. Our roomates Bendal Interlude and Bow & Arrow both turning in beyond awesome sets at the Zanzibar last Sunday.
2. Married to the Sea throwing a severely wonderful party and entertaining us with a dead along set of terrific covers last Saturday.
3. Cold Ones at The Picket, Liverpool on Thursday.
4. I got a new bike.

That's it. What's happening with you?

Paul.x

DOING THINGS

We've been writing a song and pointing microphones at it for a forthcoming compilation on the woefully wonderful TEENAGE LUST label. I think it might be available on the INTERNET and will feature righteous jams right outta Copy Haho, Calories, some kind of Los Campesinos side project called Crimesss and some more. Our song is about a man who is attached to a windmill. What a dick!

So, hey. We'll be contributing to a blog called AWESOME PALS alongside these people:

• COPY HAHO
  
• DANANANANAYKROYD
• DUTCH UNCLES
• FAVOURS FOR SAILORS
• FOALS
• HOT CLUB DE PARIS
• JOHNNY FOREIGNER
• LOS CAMPESINOS!
• ROLO TOMASSI
• SKY LARKIN
• THE FUTUREHEADS

Go and read about how everyone is having a fucking awesome time in Texas and how I spent the day in Runcorn, searching fruitlessly for a midi keyboard.

I went and did a sing with Leeds' punk-rock sensations THE MAGNIFICENT. I sang a song called Doctor and the Freeze-Up and it will be on their fortcoming record Pay The Crimes on Boss Tunage Records. If you have any interest in Rancid, Springsteen, The Clash and awesome songs, you should totally check it out.

Speak soon,

Love Paul.x

4 and 3 and 2 and 1, when I'm on the mic, them suckers run.

I've been awake since 4 o'clock this morning. I can't find sleep.

Later today we're recording four new songs in our new home at Elevator in Liverpool. Here's some LOWDOWNz on our new songs:

Dance the Ragged Rag has an outro that sounds like an advert for the Scottish tourist board/a Big Country record. I'm trying to score the services of a Northumbrian piper that my parents told me about. My housemate reckons the first bit sounds like a bunch of dickheads playing table tennis with 100 ping-pong balls at once.

The next song is about naughty people who go out on the town and spend all their time in a toilet cubicle NOT having a shit and don't realise the vile things that people are forced to endure just so they can enjoy spending their night in a toilet cubicle not having a shit. Dont worry though, it ain't all bad, bro. It sounds like the Allman Brothers on cough medz.

The third song had the working title of 'Pterodactyl to Nowhere' because I'd been listening to quite a lot of Pterodactyl's Blue Jay and bits of our early versions reminded me of them (a bit) and of Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads. But then imagine my suprise when I then got caught stealing a fibre glass Pterodactyl from a derelict funfair a couple of weeks back. The planets and stars alligned, and with synchronicity buzzing overhead, I was awarded the SUBJECT MATTER for this DEAD SLOW jam. The current working title is 'FREE THE PTERODACTYL 3'.

The final song is called The Ocean but only because 3 split seconds of it sound vaguely like The Ocean by Led Zep. We'll call it something different once we have words. It's a gift for our bro Bobby in Chicago. Maybe I'll write the words about THE ATLANTIC OCEAN and how awesome it's going to be when Bobby crosses said ocean this coming summer to spend time playing shows in the UK. Go to the Love of Everything Myspace for details.

What else has been happening? We went to a panto (Mother Goose, Everyman, Liverpool). Matthew has been doing our tax returns. Liverpool spent the weekend in a black-out. It felt a bit like some kind of Victorian apocalypse. Matthew and Al formed a band called SEX WIZARD. I'm in the midst of forming a rap-metal band. We have some radical folks currently remixing songs from Live at Dead Lake. There is an as-yet-nameless dub-step producer working on a possible EP entitled 'LIVE AT DREAD LAKE', which is obviously a completely awesome PUN. I liked 'Scive at Dread Lake', but it wasn't as awesome. Colony Collapse Disorder is blowing my mind. Got told this:

Mother: WHAT'S THAT MAN'S NAME WHO WAS IN STING?
Boy: STING?
Mother: YEAH, HE WAS IN STING.
Boy: THE GUY WHO USED TO BE IN THE POLICE?
Mother: OH, I THOUGHT HE USED TO BE A TEACHER.
Narrator: SRSLY.

The new Copy Haho EP is THE most raddest thing I heard all year. It's currently available for PRE ORDER. Go to their Myspace for details. I did a little bit of singing for Leeds punk-rock phenomenon The Magnificent the other night. They asked me to sing their song 'The Doctor and the Freeze Up' when they recorded their album in Liverpool. I was stoked because it sounds a little bit like The Clash's cover of Police and Thieves and I thoroughly adore that song.

The end. I'll let you hear the new things as soon as we have them.

Love Paul.x

Picks from Live at Dead Lake on Myspace, new music and January.

Hot friends,

We're writing our third record right now. It's going great and we're still nice to each other. We have a kettle and chug bottomless teas. We've been pointing microphones at ourselves and bringing packed lunches. Today, Alasdair had sandwiches, I ate last night's green lentil spaghetti and Matthew brought in some pasta he cooked yesterday. He told me more than once that it was the nicest thing he'd ever eaten.


In other news, I have uploaded 4 new songs to the Myspace player. They're not totally brand new, per se. They're from our 2nd studio album Live at Dead Lake (2008), but they've never been on the player before and some of you may not have heard them so I feel I'm well within my rights to use the term 'new'.


The songs added are:

I Wasn't Being Heartless When I Said Your Favourite Song Lacked Heart, Boy Awaits Return of The Runaway Girl, Let Go of Everything and For the Parties Past and Present.


You're welcome to like them, if you wanna.


Seriously guys, I caught a faint glimmer of springtime on the breeze this afternoon. Hold on, hope.

Love Paul.
x

Happy New One...

Many, many, many thanks right at those of you who came to party with us at Korova last night. We had a well decent time and hope you did too. We played a bunch of covers as well as a handful of our own stuff.
For those who missed it, we played these songs:

Auld Lang Syne
Ruby Soho - Rancid
Squirell Song - Shellac
Where Eagles Dare - Misfits
Working - Cock Sparrer (sung by Magill of SSS and Down and Outs)
Call Me Al - Paul Simon
Sweet Leaf - Sabbath

Maybe we'll record some of them for the sake of FUN. Thanks also to all the bands (My Amiga, Voo, 28 Costumes, Married to the Sea, Bells for Rene, House that Jack Built) and all the decent folk at Korova for making the party a totally successful one.


NB: If you lose your phone battery on the floor at a really busy gig, do not expect the band to stop the show to ask an audience of hundreds of pissed-up party heads to look for it. And, when you don't get your own way, don't be a complete dickhead and kick over the microphone stand and storm off in a childish huff.


Happy New year everyone. I hope your 2009 delivers the goods.


Paul.
x