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