I don’t know if I say this enough to all of you…

But this video sums up everything I feel about the people who read this blog and buy things from Alcopop Yes indeed…

Free postage week at Alcopop – pay none, nada,nil!

The Great British post office has always been good to us. Sure, they lose the odd order, destroy envelopes occasionally and periodically put their prices up by a penny or twain – but on the whole they’re generally good eggs. And this week will see us bank-rolling said organisation, because for one week only – we’ve decided to f**k the costs of postage, take it on the chin, and pass all the savings on to you.

For true gentle reader… The 26^th January – 1^st February is FREE POSTAGE WEEK here at Alcopop, and for just these scant few days, you’ll pay nothing whatsoever to have whatever you order shipped out to you, whether you order 1 or 100 discs. Go on – it’s our treat!

So whether you’ve been indulging in the indie-pop stylings of Stars and Sons on MySpace and fancy owning a tasty slab of limited edition vinyl, or maybe picking up the bargain price Cut the Blue Wire EP, now’s definitely the time to do it. This is only a week offer though, and as the clock chimes midnight on Sunday it’s outta here – so don’t miss out.

The shop is here – the postage is free!

Woop!

Alcopop@TNA – Wembley = some serious involvement

Saturday night is, they say, the night for fighting – so Alcopop thought they’d get a little action in! Sadly leaving Kev at home due to crippling fiscal problems, I nevertheless enjoyed some scintillating work in the 6 sided ring from a galaxy of stars, and my god was it awesome.

Apologies if you care little for wrestling, but brief highlights included 3D tabling Beer Money Inc, Mick Foley appearing (yep the Mick Foley) and getting a photo with JB which will be appearing on the Alcopop flickr account in the next few days. Beer was-a-flowing, my lady was delighted to see ODB cleaning house – but… the real excitement was to occur later on when myself, Kathryn, Sam Get Cape and a fella named James who (amongst other things I believe) runs the Hear You Me blog witnessed Mikey from Lions get a little sick of waiting for some wrestlers to grace his presence. Video courtesy of Hear You Me.

Just take a look at this –it’s DEFINATELY worth a gander…

And so you know – the lemon-yellow security goon was threatening arrest – and thus chants of ‘one more time’ were fruitless, as the partially crippled Mikey limped off into the night (or off to speak to his girlfriend anyway).

Spotify touches an Alcopop heart or two…

Ah social media – always providing the work-shy muso types, with a penchant for new stuff, with the opportunity to spend hours messing about with new platforms, and declaring themselves firmly in electronic love. We all set up our MySpace pages in starry eyed wonder a few years ago, soon declaring them shit when we moved to facebook – and lo – you aint no thing these days unless you’re twittering like an angry widow at the supermarket, flickring like a candle in the breeze and scrobbling like a unnecessarily obscure term.

Well – the latest one to dazzle all at team Alcopop, and ensure time set aside for mail orders, to do lists and general record label tasks has been superseded by listening to Longpigs, Blur, Dylan, Bluetones, Pixies and Trail of Dead albums I haven’t heard for ages – is Spotify! And I love it…

It’s like having iTunes, but already packed with a magnificent catalogue of music (you can learn more about the ins and outs of it from this potting shed) – and although it’s fairly short of a lot of my favourite indie labels (although I’d rather buy those records than listen to them free anyway), it’s a great way to listen to old favourites, take a lot of new albums in – and keep the stream of new music to your ears fresh.

Whether it’s going to be another shot to the kneecaps of the majors (and I rather think it’s not going to help them keep on top of the casual consumer) – there are a few people who are worrying for the future of commercial radio. I’m not so sure that’s going to be a massive problem though in truth, ‘cos you just can’t beat that ‘human element’ of tuning in can you? We’ll see – only know that you keep your eye on the music coming through the underground.

What I would suggest though, is that you give Spotify a bash – and I guarantee that with a little thought you’ll soon discover a forgotten classic or 7, and no doubt discover a new album that you love heartily. At the moment it’s beta invitation only (unless you pay), but if you want an invitation I got a few left so just email us at info@ilovealcopop.co.uk, or leave a comment below and I’ll send you one… Marvellous!

courtesy of rajeshvj om flickr.com

Forgot to mention… Alcocroc T-Shirts update

Sad news folks as our lovely ‘You go and tell your friends that you’re my friend’ crocodile T-Shirts are all gone – sold out – dissapeared.. Never to return, and thus ever marking their owners as indie champions.

Fear not though – because we’ll have another, equally sexy yet visually different tee on its way soon. Bukka!

Come back home Sam Isaac

Fresh from the touring rigours of 2008 and slipping off the back of a momentous 5 track EP released here on Alcopop, there’s good news in the Sam Isaac camp… Good news that revolves round a new single ‘Come back home’. Taken from the forthcoming album ‘Bears’ it’s a sumptuously tasty teaser of what’s to come…

Every inch the pounding, heart-churning melodic delight that is so characteristic of Sam’s sound (complete with ambling piano, ooh oohs and delectable sentiment) ‘Come back home’ is released 9.3.09 on CD and download on Hear You Me. Extremely limited edition CDs come in beautiful hand-made packaging by Two Ducks Disco. Every CD package will be individual and hand-numbered. 3-track CD comes with exclusive b-side “July” and a Rod Thomas remix of the single.

I’m told, and have no doubt that they will sell out, so make sure you listen to it on Sam’s MySpace page – or order yours now for just £2 from Sam’s webshop. You may as well buy a tee while you’re there as well. Ace!

95% of tracks illegally downloaded – what does the future hold i muse….

So with the news that 95% of all tracks downloaded last year were done so illegally has no doubt sent many a shiver down the necks of big music bosses across the ‘big four’ labels – and despite some ballsy commentary from those at the top – cue Marcel Engh from Sony “The good thing is we’re sitting on the hottest currency in the digital age – music” must be leaving them worried about where exactly the cash is coming from.

Will it be all about charging for some kind of legal p2p file sharing system? Or will, with more massive artists utilising their marketing creative muscle and ploughing out on their own to great success – mean that major labels continue to haemorrhage money, down-size, cut jobs and eventually are so ineffective for artists (many of whom don’t enjoy the corporate culture of majors anyway) that they become an antiquated waste of space.

For sure, and I think I speak for the majority of real music fans (although I may be being hopelessly optimistic) – I believe a proportion of music fans are going to keep buying music. After all, even during the credit crunch there’s no way I’d trawl the net to download the new Tubelord single (for example) when I can get a tasty slab of vinyl with hand-made limited edition packaging for a few sheets…

But with DRM free iTunes – not to mention the raft of free streaming software proliferating across the net (see the magnificent spotify), why the hell would you spend £8 on downloading an album you could get fro free in less than a minute. Does it mean that digital music is going to end up viable as a free product? I can see it…

We think – here at Alcopop Records, and amongst the other indie labels I’ve spoken to, that although tremendously hard times are-a-coming – that if we continue to innovate, and don’t sit around getting fat on pints of out-of-date liquor… Oh, and continue to make sure that what we’re producing is of direct interest to the consumer with taste, heart and musical soul (aka you), then we’ve got a fair ol’ chance of keeping our heads above water and doing what we genuinely love… Releasing fuckin’ great music!

Admittedly this blog post is more questions than answers, and in the climate of the times I think that’s pretty much the only thing anyone can offer with any certainty right about now – but it’s set to be an interesting few months.

Alcopop… Onward!

Mike from Stars and Sons belts out the hits

YouTube always turns up some gems when looking for hot rock covers, provided you manage to avoid the perilous pitfalls of whiney American kids wailing horrible covers of Dashboard Confessional B-sides – then you’re pretty much there…

Provided by the ever handsome Mike from Alcopop favourites Stars and Sons, and accompined by nothing more than a keyboard – take a look at his youtube channel for Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend, Come Together by the Beatles, Sensual Seduction by Snoop Dogg  and my very favourite – No One Knows by QOTSA…

Speak of the devil, here it is now…

You know when…

You’re going to post out some mail orders and you realise that a bloody yoghurt in the bottom of your bag has split – well, it doesn’t go well with the 3″ cardboard sheathed singles club singles! Oh no…

Back to the drawing board for that piece of mail, and it’s safe to say that the 4 or 5 Magicians ‘Forever on the Edge’ single is now limited to 498 copies…

Grrrrrr

You owe me £6 Muller Light!

demos, demos, demos…

So I’m back in the country, and after a lazy morning in bed, it’s time to take a few minutes to listen to some of the demos that were a piled upon the mat after Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere (I do listen to them all you know, even if it does take a while).

There’s some really nice stuff thus far (amongst the usual crap), and I have to say – one of the things that delights me about running a small label is when you get something in that’s either exquisitely packaged, or comes with a personally intended hand-written note. You know, something that really excites the eyes. Much better indeed than the band I’ve just slipped in who have provided me with a blank CD of their stuff – nice work chaps!

Unfortunately I ought to keep this post brief, as I have a to-do list the length of the usual Sam Isaac tour date list, but I shouldn’t leave without a quick mention of This City – who have ditched rainy Brighton in favour of Seattle to record their album, and are blogging about it – which is nice. So far updates about drunken scooter races, Minus the Bear and borrowing a glutful of gear from Gibson make me not only want to read it, but be there an’ all.

You can read all about it, and send your love over here…