Jumping Ships dominate Rocksound

Not entirely sure what inspired the mad scientist look, but it’s rather fetching aye. Love a bit of full page in Rocksound Magazine. They’re on the covermount too, meaning that £4 is very rarely spent so strongly. Gogo>> Jumping Ships!

Also scope out this super interview over at Noise Addiction, and glorious review on Music Fans Mic. They played with the Xcerts last night and, although PoP weren’t in attendance (stupid pop) apparently it slayed.. Word is not clear as to whether chandaliers were ripped from the ceiling (a must for any perfect show) but either way… Oh YEAH!

Alcopop sign The Social Club for 3EPs and Attika State October Tour!!

There’s nothing like a beautiful punk rock accident. So when Lew from seminal UK pop punk heroes Captain Everything fell into Tom Mitchener’s (Spy Catcher, Haunts) studio only to find himself having recorded a smash hit song – the fact that he soon found himself in a band with members of Fireapple Red, The Remnants and Wartgore Hellsnicker seemed something rather too good to waste. They wrote some killer tunes, took to the road again and the kids still cared, so they continued…

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Social Club!

Teaming up with us and oh aren’t we delighted they’ll be bringing 3 concept releases, based around the key areas of the club; drinking, dancing and the fine art of melodically delivered conversation, the Social Club are the new home of sophistication, fun and noisy pop songs with a punk rock edge. All are welcome…

Mixing classic elements of Weezer, Elvis Costello and The Hold Steady – and performing with the energy and enthusiasm which belies the 1000+ shows under their collective belts… It’s already been a busy year for the Watford foursome, playing The Great Escape, The Macmillan Big Mix, The 100 Club with Graham Coxon, Tunbridge Wells with The Bluetones and Merthyr Rocks in the last few months. But don’t listen to me – check the video out below!

The band will meanwhile be stretching their legs around the country with other Alcopoppers The Attika State. Catch them both here…

15th- the croft, Bristol

16th- the white lion, Watford

17th- edge of the wedge, Portsmouth

18th- the labour club, Northampton

19th- the fighting cocks, Kingston

20th- the avondale, Southampton

24th- old blue last, London

Yeah!

Jumping Ships touring hard, touring fast, rating cake..

So this may be a little late (ahem, sorry Ships…) – but after recent fun times on tour, those charming chaps at Jumping Ships thought they’d document the trials and tribulations of their co-headline UK tour with the lovely Lightguides. Here is the first of two installments in which they talk of love (with LightGuides), loss (of wallets) and loads of cake… Read away, oh and keep an eye out for this months Rock Sound. On the covermount CD, 8/10 review and some lovely interview words. Winner. Damn right winner!

ENGLAND

The Old Blue Last – London

On the first date of the tour we picked up a van from our mates Jouis, which was soon christened ‘The J-Bag’ by Lightguides. We spent the day of the gig and the day preceding it making lots of pre-release tour EP’s. They were super limited edition and super fresh – so fresh that the paint was still a bit sticky upon arrival at the venue! At the Old Blue Last we were joined by label buddies Lightguides, Delta Alaska and Mr Paddy Johnston, which made it a nice, family affair to start the tour off.

Mike [Williams, vocalist] managed to lose his car and house keys in one foul swoop, what would become the first chapter in an ongoing saga…

Kai Smith’s Cake of the Day – Cherry Bakewells

The Croft – Bristol.

We loaded into the Croft to find the sound man operating a mixing desk out of a cupboard in the wall! The crowd was looking a bit tame to begin with, but that soon changed when the legend and icon ‘Big Jeff’ arrived. He proceeded to headbang relentlessly, from the first chord of Lightguides set, to the last of ours. Kai even got involved, jumping off stage to throw some shapes with Jeff mid song.

Mike picked up where he left off and managed to lose his wallet. This left him with no house, car keys, cash, bank cards, so basically, er… no nothing! He slept with his iphone tight to his chest that night!

We finished the night at Kai’s friends house, relaxing and playing the crazy Indian game Karrom – (Picture)

Big thank you to Tom Johnson – Goldflake Paint for putting the show on and putting Lightguides up.

Kai Smith’s Cake of the day – Carrot Cake

The Labour Club – Northampton.

The day began with Cold Shower No. 1

We arrived at the gig to find out that the Northampton women’s legion were having a quiz night in the room upstairs. They kept coming down during the course of the evening to stock up from the bar and didn’t really take to the night’s entertainment! Fingers in ears ladies!

On the way back to reading Rich [Thorp, bass] was nearly mown down by an articulated lorry. Two lanes merged into one and the J-bag wasn’t up to challenge and ended up running through a sea of traffic cones into some overnight road works.

Fry up rating 7/10

Cake of the Day – Cherry Pie

The Borderline – London.

The drive to this show left something to be desired. We fell foul to the brutality of the London one-way system and road works and diversions meant we were circling the venue for a good 45 minutes before getting close enough to park.

We witnessed wicked sets from both RunWalk! and Brontide before everyone parted ways – (with Rich and Kai manning the drive back to Brighton, minus a sat-nav).
Needless to say it was a long one!

“Fri-tarrrta!!!” (Rich-ism – and his Yorkshire accent) for breakfast – fry up rating 7/10

The Carlisle – Hastings.

We arrive at Hasting and things are looking up! Mike has been reunited with his house and car keys and Rich has successfully managed to slay the Lightguides boys with some hard partying in Brighton the night before.

Lots of people there from the off and a wicked show all in all. We whipped out some older tunes which went down a storm, including an encore of ‘The Whole Truth.’

Kai Smith’s Cake of the Day – Lemon drizzle Cake

The Milo – Leeds.

We headed to Leeds as part of the Fringe festival to play a little venue called the Milo. One word comes to mind! Oven!

The venue was like a small tin can with metal walls and ceiling and was by far the hottest and loudest show. Steaming!

We made sure to indulge in some Yorkshire delicacies before playing (Fish Chips and Gravy with a mug of Tea) and drove through the night, post-set to stay with Kai and Rich’s family in the Yorkshire Dales. Lightguides however, got seriously lost and ended up four miles down a beaten mud track in the middle of a field. Epic Fail!

Kai Smith’s Cake of the day – Flapjack

The Milton Rooms – York.

Today began with Cold Shower no. 2

This was a massive venue, the biggest of all tour. We tucked into some quality Thai food across the road whilst Kai sorted all the bits and bobs that needed taking care of – PA hire, Venue hire, Backline, etc

Friends Surprise… Fire reformed in time to play the show and it was a great night! Lots of people there and loads of family and friends for Kai and Rich, which was amazing!

Queue after party at Cocktail bar and Thai restaurant Tui’s – but not before the drummers get whacky with some Strawpedo’s [stupid way of downing drinks with staws] backstage – something which will soon become Al {Potts, drums]’s calling card.

Spent the night at Tui’s partying and then stayed at Sam Keyworth’s place – Kai got cake – and poor Mike got Al sleeping on top of him – (cough).

Kai Smith’s Cake of the day – Carrot Cake, Marshmallow Cake

Travel Day.

We took advantage of our travel day to hit up some Yorkshire sights!

We went up to Castle Howard for a hefty fry up in the Castle courtyard accompanied by peacocks strolling around us whilst we ate. Oh, how very gentrified.

We went on a tractor train and hung out with some ducks in a play park before heading back to the cars.

Kai made sure to tape “GAY” across the back of Al’s car before we set off, something which was a sure fire hit with the truckers in and around Glasgow – prompting lots of Flashing and Beeping on route.

Fry up rating 8/10

Kai Smith’s Cake of the Day – Toffee and Honeycomb cheesecake

New Jumping Ships EP up for pre-order (and free download yo!)

Holllllaaaaa – as if draining the country dry of burritos and jager during their lengthy tour with LighGuides wasn’t enough, alt-rock 4 piece Jumping Ships are back and sounding bigger than ever! Unleashing brand new 6 track EP ‘Standard Bearer’ in mid-September with us boys in the PoP hood, you can pre-order it now all fresh and lovely in all of it’s splendid glory.

Sounding a bit like Hundred Reasons meets Reuben with a bit of epic big brash Lost Prophet style pop rock epic twinge about it (you can see why we liked them right), the Brighton 4-piece have had a remarkable summer, and this little beauty should just about top it off – and perfectly soundrack the ultimate autumnal romp, booting leaves about or playing conkers – or something like that ☺

But don’t take our word for it, oh no no… Or Rocksound (10/10), Big Cheese or Artrocker (not cos we’re liars or anything, but we’ve heard you poppers have the strongest of ears)… So take a listen to one of the brand new tracks from the EP below (and download it for free why not)…

And then purchase pre-order from the shop, or any of your favoured digital etailers, should you be so bold…
Jumping Ships will be rocking something of a launch celebration at Southsea Festival on the 17th September, and a proper full old homecoming celebration show in Brighton. South Coasters – take note x

New Johnny Foreigner STingle released

You Poppers like Johnny Foreigner right? Yeah why not – they’re good champs and handsome to boot (have you noticed how bloody good looking the whole Alcopop roster is, it’s not an accident you know)…

So – not only can we announce that their new record is a-coming, but there’s a rad little concept thing going on with the first single (and why wouldn’t their be)… As ever, we could have gone off and printed jewel sleeve thin singles and sold them to you for £4 but meh – that’s no fun is it. So here’ssssss details:

So basically – we wanted to put out two brand new JoFo tracks, but do it in a fun old way, whilst keeping it super cheap for y’all. So for just 100 of your shiny pennies (and 50 for postage – worldwide innit) we’re releasing a dual skateboard sticker pack (The STingle – geddit), basically offering two red hot tracks via a nice shiny URL detailed on said stickers. They look like this, and while one is to keep precious and safe from prying eyes, the other is to smash wherever you can in your fine town that’s ace – and take a photo of it.

Send the photo of the sticker in an awesome place to johnnyforeigner@hotmail.co.uk, Lex will look at them all – and then pick the best one – which will win like 2 copies of the album signed, exclusive artwork and a picture of a unicorn drawn by Lex (he doesn’t know this yet). You can buy the single ‘give us your fangs/the hand that slaps you back’ from the PoP Shop – and as we’re limited to just 500 copies you probably should fairly soon…

You can listen to (don’t) show me ur fangs, and download it, here!

The album meanwhile, oh the album! It’s an absolute banger and well, here’s what JoFo have to say about it… “hello world. we are bursting with excitement to be able to start talking about our wonderful record. it was made this spring and summer in our hometown by our old friend dominique james, and will be released november 7th on alcopop. it’s going to be called Johnny Foreigner vs Everything” – and it’s gonna fill your hearts with joy. We’re looking at a full 18 track winner, we’re looking at super artwork and we’re looking at a PoP Shop exclusive extra that’s going to make you cry with delight.

Lets go shall we?