For those who are about to rock this Christmas…

Ah gentle Christmas. What do you bring us for our winter-shocked shell pink ears? Oh I care little for the maudlin parumpapumpums of old, and one would barely give a sodden stocking satsuma for the turgid, glitzy, no-mark pop covers of the new… But somewhere in between this proliferation of crap, resides something a bit special. Those seasonal gems that make us indie kids dance and sing and think of mince pies, drunken dinners and grandparents looking befuddled as they ask you what a ‘Saves the Day’ is when you’re trying to explain what you want for Christmas.

Well I’ve been giving it a little think – and over on rockmidgets put together my top five Xmas hits, which they kindly found videos for. There’s one below – enjoy, or pop over to the site to read all about it…..

Alcopop raffling off some super prizes on Monday…

 Preparations are underway for Monday’s Xmas Party @ The Social, presents are being wrapped – and I’m fretting about the size of the venue… But I felt I ought to take a moment to let anyone who’s coming know about the dream raffle that’s going on that evening. Hopefully we’ll have a man/ woman in a Santa suit selling them – but they should be available on the door/ merch table too… But, for your 50p stake, what on earth can you win..?

Well it goes a little something like this!

4^th prize: God knows why this isn’t first (Gammers is a very humble man) but this is your chance to win an evening out date with the great man himself (pictured). Wining and dining him, you will get to experience all the wit and delight of this great man – for a whole evening. Wow!

3^rd prize: Friend of Pop and deliciously talented writer Richard Galbraith has donated a super deluxe version of his novel ‘Operation Concrete’, complete with artbook and CD featuring a previously unreleased My First Tooth track. For more info about it, check it here…

2^nd prize: Thanks to those chaps at The 405 (and we here at Alcopop), a whole load of awesome album promos, EPs and singles from the Alcopop stable and way beyond… Rare promos, very cool packaging ahoy and lots of it. This is an ace prize

1^st prize: And lo, our first prize winner will take home Stagecoach (not literally)… They will get a glorious Stagecoach gig in their lounge, bedroom or well – wherever else really. You just tell em’ when, and as long as it fits with their schedule, they’ll rock up and play a killer, killer show just for you and your pals. Ace!

Go on – get yourself a ticket on the night and win big. Ole!

Keeping My First Tooth on the Streets!

What’s even better than a My First Tooth single, released to the masses in a big ball of love, all beautifully performed by Ross and Sophie et al? Give up? Well, in my book it’s a bloody ace tour to go with it too. Treating us once again to tooth magic trotting up and down the globe, the boys (and girls) of the good ship MFT have booked a tour with Alcopop favourites Aspen Sails, and are trekking around the british isles over the next week or too.

Full facebook details (with all you’d ever need to know) can be found over here, or check out the lovely poster below. Highlight of the tour well…. There’s many a highlight, but especially keep an eye out for December 14^th, where Tooth and Sails will be joining Stagecoach and Tellison for the Alcopop Xmas Party, W1.

It’s but a fiver in advance (slightly more pricey on the door) and will be packed I promise you… What’s more is that there’s going to be a raffle where you can win a sizzling date with Tooth drummer Gareth/ Gammers/ G-Unit as one of a selection of sickeningly ace prizes. So come to this one, or if you’re elsewhere go to another.

Don’t just listen to me though – read this, the thoughts of Alcopop connoisseur Darren on the blog, “Totally captivating stuff that gained a generous audience response and even an unprecedented (for this venue) encore. I felt I heard a previously unnoticed Go-Betweens vibe throughout that gave the songs an added warmth”. Yes!

New Stagecoach/ MFT limited edition releases for pre-sale

Ah updating the shop page is always my favourite thing… Why have you gone over there HTML code – oh look I changed the colour and now the picture is somewhere in the right hand corner of a post I wrote in July 2008 (well not quite that bad, but you get the picture…)

Well today is an exciting day, because we have two (count ‘em… That didn’t take long) new releases up for pre-order, both out on the 14^th December! I’m really stoked about both, not least because they are delicious bands – but also because each release looks so damn cool. Let me take you through them…

First up is My First Tooth’s Margaret Yen, a crowd-pleasing anthem that has been too long coming for the MFT faithful. Backed by two lovely demos (only ever previously available on a very limited edition bonus Rubies EP CD now long gone) and Judge & Jury – it is presented in packaging handmade by our boy Ross with paints, potatoes and plenty of love in spoonfuls.

Second is the new Stagecoach EP – very limited and only available in physical form (vinyl effect CD) – showcasing the acoustic side of those lovable chaps from Surrey. Acely, it comes packaged in a magical Christmas card fronted by the boys in their loveliest Christmas sweaters…. And like other Christmas Cards, these come singularly or in multi-packs… After all what more could a mother/father/grandparent/lonely neighbour desire more on Christmas Day than a musical/ Xmas card treat!

Guaranteed delivery before the big day! So pop to the shop and have a butchers – and if you need those (or any other PoP CDs wrapping up for a pal for Christmas – just tell us and we’re on it!)

Mother – Stagecoach are on the radio…

… And taking over the Smalltown America blog, as well as being played on podcasts and all! It’s been a good week for the boys in handsome, so bear with me whilst I relay. There’s plenty to listen to, so you’d be forgiven for not taking it all in – but do have a butchers if any appeal.

Firstly, and I quote – “Surrey’s smart jangle-popsters Stagecoach present a blogcast that will please the song-hungry listeners among you, with not minimal but rather optimal chat and importantly loads of quality tunes” as they take over the STA blog… And play some My First Tooth, Kevin Devine, Pavement, Dinosaur Pile Up to boot…. Them boys know how to pick em’.

Secondly they were played (Hot Doggin’ was anyway) on the handsome Tom Robinson’s BBC Radio 6 show (he knows talent) – and finally on the super Shifter Sounds podcast, featured alongside Cloud Cult, Zoos of Berlin and The Medders. You should probably have a listen over here, and apparently you can win some stuff too.

Great!

Literally, the very last of the Stagecoach megadeals….

Are available today… As after that they will be gone, capiche – vanito! And I believe I have the last few bags ever in existence (well available to buy anyway), so if you want one do get involved. Otherwise you’ll look like this b**tard, and we wouldn’t want that. Oh no, not at all!

The Alcopop Christmas show @Social in visual form

AH – just wanted to show you the poster for the upcoming Christmas show which is just super… Thanks be to the lovely @rollerdiscos who made it for us, and do make sure you get your tickets if you fancy popping out with us in London come December 14th. I’m awaiting on confirmation on the capacity of the old Social, but it’s fair to say tickets are fair flying out of the door (no surprise with a line up like this really) – and they’re gonna be a touch cheaper in advance too.

Presents for the first 20 through the door too, and although they may not contain dinosaurs this year, they’re still gonna be pretty damn ace! Lets just say some retro turtle cards from 1989 might be making an appearance along with a whole lot more….

Alcopop get into managment – big sheepskin coats an all!

So it’s a big day for Alcopop…  Well it was yesterday really, but unfortunately a hangover registered after a 7am boozy finish in a club with swimming pool (surely a mistake for smashed revelers) and the pains of British rail transport rendered it not at all so. I digress – but today is the day, the good ship Alcopop takes its first tentative steps into music management.

It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, sure the music industry is all about being able to diversify at the moment, and it is with no little delight that, together with the charming Joe from Idle Hands Management (Talons/ Aspen Sails), we have decided to take on the mighty Stagecoach.

You no doubt know all about them already, but just in case you don’t, Joe has lavishly summed up – They’ve played with the likes of The Wombats, Phoenix and Frightened Rabbit. Radio play has been strong so far from Radio 1, 6Music, XFM and NME radio. They’ve had tracks used on Skins and on the forthcoming series of Gavin and Stacey. And last but not least, they have a celebrity fan in Radio 2 presenter and X Factor host Dermot O’Leary.

Things are in place, plans are being planned – and you will be seeing a lot of these chaps in 2010. The year, so I have heard, of the Alcopop!

Any managment or label enquiries.. Do get in touch!

New Stagecoach release is a comin’….

How exciting. Yep, it’s not just one new release this December – but two, and as My First Tooth are just putting the finishing touches to the very limited edition, hand-made and let’s be honest… Delicious ‘Margaret Yen’ sleeves, Stagecoach are just about ready to launch their similarly scarce Christmas acoustic single.

Artwork will be following sometime in the next couple of days, and full details revealed – but I’ll tell you this much, it aint no standard release oh no! You see, this one ladies and gentleman is going to be ideal in the run up to the festive season. I suss I may as well wait until is ready to be revealed, but in the mean time… This may just give you a little clue as to what’s-a-coming.

Yup, it’s Coach drummer Matt in suitably dubious xmas sweater… Awww, lovely!

Crowdsourcing best songs of the decade: I choose Saves the Day!

I’ve always liked crowd-sourcing… Individuals outsourcing a whole lot of work to other individuals who can get together in a collaborative manner to create something ace between them (although that’s probably not the official definition of course). So I was more than delighted to be invited by the marvelous music blog ‘Sweeping the Nation’ to get involved with their most recent project ‘Noughties by Nature’, where a whole load of folk from across the blogosphere suggest their song of the last decade, and write a paragraph or two on well, exactly why.

Gamely I got into the flow of it, and was rewarded with being number #85 of the #150 they want to put up (presumably before the New Year). It was a tough call, and a worrying amount of my favourite songs ever it turns out are over 10 years old, but after much soul searching I pinned it down to this little peach. As my Ghost Takes Flight by Saves the Day.

It may seem an odd choice, and perhaps it’s not balls out, my favourite song ever. But for what it represents, where it came from, and its place in my heart all these years later… I think I can justify the choice… Pop over to see why, or watch it below.