Stagecoach Tour w/Twin Atlantic – Tour Pass notes

Dates: 6

Territory: North

Passengers: Luke, Matt, Tom, John, Nick (band). Tom Pandycane (Merch wizard/impromptu Tour Manager.)

Special Costumes: Wilco headband (Luke). Blue Lacoste tennis shorts (Tom). “Rad-Camp” Cycling Jersey (John).

Setlist: Hieroglyphics//We Got Tazers//Axe Behind My Back//Headbangers Ball//Map To The Freezer//Ice Age//Not Even Giles//Good Luck With Your 45

What are Twin Atlantic like? Awesome. Within minutes of meeting them we are knee-deep in a pun-off. They are charming and friendly and their Scottish accents make us weak at the knees. Then they offer to carry our amps with them in their van. And THEN their soundguy Paul helps out with mandolin sound. Extra good dudes.

How are the shows? Every venue pulls through with decent sound, good turnouts and friendly promoters. Twin Atlantic are a good draw and we do everything in our powers to entertain their fans. Generally they respond in like. Crowd invasions are welcomed and there’s plenty of dudes singing along who already know our stuff.

Did you mention pun-offs? After someone says ‘Buffy Clyro’ by accident we then spend the next 3 days thinking up TV/band combos which get added to Twitter. Turns out Twitter loves #tvbands. Everyone joins in the fun (nerd heaven). “Johnny Cash in the Attic” and “How I Met Your Wolfmother” are winners. Twin Atlantic entries are impressive, particularly “J-Location, J-Location, J-Location.” We love these boys!

Best/worst show? Worst is Durham. (Poor Durham. Too many rugby players = stunted emotional growth & lack of ability to express enjoyment). Best is Liverpool Academy. Turbo sound, enthusiastic crowd and our old pals My Amiga have come down too so lovely to catch up.

Most drunken night? Sheffield. After the show we meet up with our Alcopop buddies from Screaming Maldini plus the Jordan brothers one of whom we met at our last Sheffield show. Everyone is very much up for some party so we hit the town. First up is some old man pub where the DJ rocks some Beach Boys, Kenickie, At the Drive In and Erasure all in the same set –well good! Then to The Harley for a dubstep night (yikes!) where Tom Pandycane teaches us some sweet Crabcore moves. I think it’s the first time the two genres have joined forces but hopefully not the last.

Do say: “Lighthouse Family Fortunes.”

Don’t say: “Why’d you give the mandolin to me? I don’t know how to play it.”

To continue onward with Stagecoach?: Turn to page Punktastic

F**k off Alcopop, I can’t be bothered with your shenanigans right now!: Ok, Ok, go visit my favourite site on the internet of all time instead

Touring Teeth on Tour!

It’s ever so lucky MFT come from Northampton (famous for its bangin’ shoe industry) as they’re on the road so often, Ross is always down the cobblers having his old hob-nailed boots fixed. Off they go, hither and thither, delighting the masses with not a thought for their own hooves.

And goodness me – they’re off again… Just a short jaunt this time, but if you live in York, Leeds or Cheltenham then you’re on to a winner – and if you’re good at sneaking into sold out venues then maybe it’s London for you (they’re playing with f****ing Danan! Who wouldn’t want to be at that!!!) Just don’t let Tim from the Windmill catch you or he might set roofdog on to you…

Oh – and look what The Word said about them.. ”A full-on blast of raucous folk-pop that’s all hoedown and no slowdown, Orchards was one of our favourite singles of the summer”

Jan 26 – Stereo, York
with Penny & The Poppet

Jan 27 – Milo Leeds
with Sharp Darts + The Arcadian Kicks

Jan 28 – Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham
with Midnight Mile + Nicholas Stevenson + The North Ship

Jan 29 – Windmill, Brixton *SOLD OUT*
with Dananananaykroyd + Cats in Paris + Olympians + Stairs To Korea

Sooooo – if you’re in town, these are MUSTS!

Elephants farewell EP to listen too hard…

So this is it. The final hurrah from Elephants… We’ve told you all about it, and no doubt you know the score. Elephants of Folkestone have split, and as a last goodbye they’ve recorded this magnificent 5 trk CD EP ‘I Won’t Forget You, You Won’t Forget Me’. It’s limited to just 100 (of which we have just 50)… And just to make them extra special, each copy comes with a demo bonus disc and extremely rare blue Alexander 7″ (the band’s debut single).

I thought we only had 25 vinyl, but luckily Owen found another box – so massively, each one goes out with a 7″… But they’re pretty close to sold out right now so be quick if you want physical copies. Plllluuus the whole EP, and awesome Ivory Coast World Cup anthem is available to listen to just there, below… Have yourselves a butchers!

Boys – we’ll miss you!

Have you seen the new JoFo video

It’s sooooooo good! Harriet, By Proxy baby! Matthew J Nix for all your VHS needs…

I Won’t Forget You, You Won’t Forget Me…

Is a pretty relevant title for how we’re feeling at Alcopop right now… And as the sun comes down on a truly unforgettable band, it’s time to announce that the final Elephant’s EP is out with us on Monday, to signal the end of it all for them. And it’s bloody brilliant… Oh – and available from the shop just about now yo!

Limited to just 100 copies (like, ever) and bound to sell out pretty damn quickly – the five track EP is nice enough on it’s own – Owen has also been quite the doll and knocked up 50 real special bonus discs with demos, rare recordings and the like – including the frankly wonderful Ivory Coast World Cup 2010 track ‘(Ivory) Coast To Victory’. We’re also chucking in a splendid download of Strong Arms, covered by Pop faves Ute. All for just 5 of your English sheets. Oh – and if that’s not enough the first 25 come with a nice slab of Elephants vinyl – the Alexander single!

I Won’t Forget You, You Won’t Forget Me is also available on all the hippest digital sites too (packaged up with the Ivory Coast bonus track) if you prefer your music like that.

Tracklisting for the main disc goes a little something like that, and I’ll leave you the bonus tracks as a little surprise for you.

Another Song for Laika
Little Thoughts
Since You’ve Been Gone (My Heart Swells)
Girls
I Still Remember

And just know, that though this Elephants chapter may be over.. With strong arms they will hold you tight, and make everything alright!

Johnny Foreigner release their video exclusively to … You!

So we talked and pondered over email and wondered who we should release the new video too. You see, the lovely J Matthew Nix in the U.SofA has created this awesome feast of moving images to go with Harriet, By Proxy – and while it seemed right to give it out as an exclusive, we weren’t really sure who we should give it too.

So we said… Why not release it as an exclusive to you… Yeah you. It’s a little ‘punk’ experiment we wanted to try, and rather than saying ‘go visit NME/Drowned in Sound/ The 405/Rocksound’ (all fine names under debate) – we thought – well help yourself to the vid, and make it exclusive on your facebook page, get the first play on YouTube – or you know – just download it and tell your mum that she’s the first person in Drotwich who’s gonna see it…

Whatever – it’s up to you. JoFo have promised not to show it off to the media for at least 24 hours… So in that time it’s yours.. Lex says…

“You get the exclusive. yeh, YOU. welcome to the fun fun world of music journalism. here are two links to our manager’s dropbox. (click right mouse button on the link and ‘save as’ to download)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1121527/JxFx%20Harriet%20by%20Proxy%20Med.mov

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1121527/HARRIET_BY_PROXY%20-%20iPhone.m4v

the first is our awesome video for harriet, by proxy, the second is the same thing only ready for iStuff. The Music Press won’t see this till the end of this week/start of next, and we’ll put it on our youporn account and that soon if you just don’t want to play our stupid game anyway.”

So yeah – if you want to get involved – it’s all yours. An exclusive for the bestest people out there ☺

Interviewed about all things by Alter the Press

Ah – the old arrogant post. Well, you got to occasionally haven’t you *ahem*. It’s been a busy time of late, and for some reason I seem to have been invited to do a whole load of interviews… Which is always really gratifying when people are happy to dedicate parts of their publication to my musings on what we do and where I see the interview going. So thanks to Sam at BBC Radio Oxford, Richard at Pornography for Cowards Zine and Andrew at Purple Revolver who have done just that of late.

As well as that – Sean from Alter the Press – a site who have always supported our output, literally from day 1, and posted about a million news pieces about Team PoP over the years, sent over an almost novel-length interview… Which took literally the whole of Christmas to answer, but it’s up now – and will keep you busy for a good 10 minutes at least if you’re bored.

So if you ever have been interested about the inner workings of Alcopop, why we do this, my love for Fierce Panda or what a bitch Kev BSM is to work with (kidding er…), go have yourself a butchers!

Calling Kingston – Free show tomorrow!!!

Oh hells yes, we’re taking over the asylum! (The Hippodrome) tomorrow from 9. Come to Kingston with Banquet Records, tell em you love Alcopop, sing a Stagecoach song or dress as a giant Hooch Lemon* and you’ll get in free – and check out this lineup…

Oh yeah!

* ps – if anyone dresses up as a massive hooch lemon i will buy them 8 pints

New year, new signing, new delight! Please welcome…

Jumping Ships! Alcopop’s newest bad boys, and the latest addition to what is becoming a very juicy roster. As ever, they’re handsome of face (something My First Tooth insist on when a band gets involved with us these days) – and busting up the scene with the sort of balls out pop-punk, rock tinged epic anthems that will make them an instant hit with your heart we wager.

Rock Sound got all frothy over their new EP, stating that they are “Eclectic, affecting and Jumping Ships out as a genuinely exciting prospect” – and at last count, their Christmas show at OBL saw a packed throng of folk elbow their way in to witness them rip it up with a bevy of stupidly infectious raptures.

Currently the hottest thing in Brighton (one of our favourite places to scour for talent – we love that city), Jumping Ships will be releasing a single and EP with us in the next few months, and touring like angry mothers! Seriously, these boys have wheels for feet and are seriously road-bound. This is ace, as it means we can all go and party with them in as many eclectic locations as possible.

Have a listen and download above, and dear poppers – please welcome them to the family! Lets go Ships….