Social Club on tour with Saves the fu**ing Day!!

Yeah – so they’re just about one of my favourite non-Alcopop! bands of all time… I still remember turning up for a rather uninspiring shift at Coventry JD Wetherspoons back in yonder youth and on the way in picking the newly released (and presumably newly stoken from Virgin Megastore) ‘Stay What you Are’ for 99p from Cash Generator. I got  in to the shop and this guy was just holding the record in his hands, looking at it, checking out the sleeve, umming and ahhing.. And then he put it back on the shelf. My heart literally leapt! It quickly became my favourite album du jour, I snaffled up Through Being Cool and was just very much in love…

And now – the rather benevolent chaps of the Social Club, one of Pop’s newest handsome signings (and ex Captain Everything and Fireapple Red), have kindly snared themselves 5 dates with them. This is epic! SAVES THE DAY….

Nov 22 Talking Heads w/ Saves The Day Southampton
Nov 23 Concorde 2 w/ Saves The Day Brighton
Nov 24 New Slang @ The Hippodrome w/ Saves The Day Kingston
Nov 25 Crauford Arms w/ Saves The Day Milton Keynes
Nov 26 O2 Academy 2 Newcastle w/ Saves The Day Newcastle Upon Tyne

Oh, and if you’re swift – you can get down to see The Social Club tonight… With The Attika State, Dexy and Jim Lockey at the Old Blue Last…

Free entry… You gotta right?

Two shows tonight! Your choice…

So you can either head on down to Northampton Town should you be in the area, and delight in some of the finest poppy punk-tinged awesomeness to drop this side of the Atlantic since ever. The Attika State and The Social Club yeh? You got it brother, and they’re at our favourite venue like ever… The Labour Club. And assorted  Teeth will be there. Rad. Capiche?

Or London based, and weeping cos N’Town is a touch too far away… fear not – just come along to this bad boy!

Johnny Foreigner vs Everything – up for pre order with 20 page comic + PoP only glow in the dark tee!

SO it’s finally here (well to pre-order at least)! Johnny Foreigner’s third (and best we’d say) album yet – out on Alcopop! It’s been a long time coming and real emotional to boot. And now here it is, to unleash to a handsome world… AKA You!

It’s out on November 7^th and called johnny foreigner vs Everything. It’s 17 (count em) tracks and I properly know you’re going to love it! Available from all your very favourite record shops and from the PoP Shop, each of the first 400 CDs we sell comes with a massively limited edition 20 page JoFo comic book designed by Lewes which just looks beautiful (we’ll let you know on the shop when those are still available) – or you can pay several more sheets and get a very VERY limited edition (to 100) JoFo glow in the dark tee shirt as well…

The tee is exclusive to PoP! You literally will not find it anywhere else, and it looks like this!

What’s more, if you’re coming to the shows too, you can bung in the Brum or London ticket too – and save yourself a pound or something. The super, smashing very PoP infused shows are as follows. Head to th PoP Shop to buy innit:

November 

12th – London – Upstairs at the Garage, w/ Stagecoach, Screaming Maldini, My First Tooth + special guests

13th – Birmingham – the Flapper w/ Stagecoach, Screaming Maldini, Calories, Ace Bushy Striptease + Richard Burke

I also ought to point out to our readers from oversears, this is available worldwide, and we do have very reasonable shipping. However, if you’re in Japan or France, two wonderful labels Vinyl Junkie and Hip!Hip!Hip! respectively are working on the record. Love them. They’re epic! You’ll also notice they’re touring both these countries. Oh yeah…

Here’s a track for you to listen, or a link to check out all the options and buy if you like. Hurrah!

Ps = dear lovely vinyl junkies amongst you. Real sorry this one isn’t available for your slipmat yet. It’s not that we don’t appreciate records. We truly, TRULY do – but so much has gone into Alcopop’s end of 2011 (it’s been and being an explosively awesome time for us) that we can’t just outlay any more right now on another expensive record pressing (Alcokitten needs to eat!). That said, that’s not to say this won’t happen in the future if all goes well and we can afford it…. We lead with our hearts, but we can’t pay for records with ventricles (believe me, we’ve tried). Love you!

Rum and Ting at #rumfest baby!

One of the nicest thing about running a record label is a near constant flood of emails and calls and tweets and post and stuff. I know some people in a similar situation hate it, and it times it can get mindblowing… Help. I can’t answer everything!

But most of the time it’s ace, and I guarantee if you’re one of those rad people who have ever ordered something from Alcopop!, or sent us an email saying how much you dig us/the bands/ like my beard whatever  – then you’ve definitely made my heart skip a beat with all excited happiness. It’s so nice to see happy things pop up.

Similar delights today, as an email arrived from the good people at Rum Fest this Saturday, inviting myself and Kev (BSM/POP/Douche without the e) to head on down and get involved in the festivities! “We’d love to” we said. Now, don’t get me wrong – many music festivals this year have essentially been rumfests in themselves (a bottle of backstage Captain Morgn and Coke at Reading led to a VERY messy Friday) but this is like, all about the rum – oh, and reggae.

Rum and Reggae! And notoriously schlonged pornstar Ron Jeremy, who seems to be launching a new rum… Unbelievably it’s not called Rum Jeremy (which would be the best name) but still – that’s kinda cool. Loads of tasting, exotic food and did I mention the reggae? It’ll be like being in the Carribean (or at least the Jamaica bar on the Cowley Road in Oxford which you should definitely go to!)

You should come – we can have a rum party together! I think it’s on in the afternoon (or pretty much all day really), so post rumfest booze will also be required. Brilliant. In the meantime, take a look at this ridiculous trailer for dirty uncle Ron’s rum? Ridiculous but amazing kinda sums it up. It really has to taste magnificent! Thinking we might try and interview him too… But what should we ask him? Any thoughts hit us up here, or on twitter. Presumably something on whether he prefers the strong tangy strains of a good Lemon Hooch, or the more subtle smooth taste of a Smirnoff (Moscow) Mule?

Wonder if he’ll be as nice as Jimmy Greaves

Jack PoP Recommends… CDs, promos, tees, merch and more

So I’m really aware that this blog used to be full of personal stuff, insights into running (or muddling along at least) with an indie record label, and all the lovely stuff we got upto in the name of Alcopop! True, it almost always involved an inordinate amount of booze, and usually some level of Kev related ‘hilarious consequences’ – but what with our little Hooch baby growing up to and way beyond its 50^th release, taking on more and busier bands and getting a kitten (Alcokitten) – the blog’s kinda suffered a bit. Still relevant and all, but more news and announcements and less personal stuff…

This may be good. You may not want to read my ramblings, but for those of you who do, rad! Cos you’ll be getting em. And what better way to start thinks I – than by sharing some of the awesome people who make Alcopop! what it is behind the scenes. So, primarily for folk who press their own CDs, need posters doing, want to get their songs on iTunes and all those unglamorous things that just need done (I asked on Twitter and lodsa folk said it would be useful) – here’s the people we tend to use, who will definitely see you right…

I’m not saying there’s no one else, and there’s plenty other good guys out there that we’ve used – but coming from a popper to a champ – I couldn’t recommend these guys more!

Pressing ‘proper’ CDs/vinyl – DMS… Based in Plymouth and run by the loveliest people around – my amour for DMS may not be grounded by using heaps of competition… But I can safely say that every single release pressed by us in traditional packaging has come through these guys, and they’ve never let us down. Reasonably priced, always beating their own very quick deadlines and excessively personal – they have myriad options, and are really up on green packaging should you be into that kind of thing.

Pressing promo CDS – Tom at E1.. I was introduced to this guy by Kev BSM, and have found him to be by far the cheapest option around – without fail delivering promos within 72 hours should they be needed (ignore the lack of proper website and just email). Tom also masters cheaply (and awesomely), and most importantly for me… Sorts out artwork without needing it on a template or anything stupid. I just say, Tom – here are some words and a picture – can you put them on the disc, and he does. Natch!

Making Tees – Phil at Music is my Poison … Another indie operator, Phil not only shares his name with the Fresh Princes dad, but he also makes good tees, jackets, jumpers. Fuck, he’d probably make you leather jerkins if you asked him… Again, prices are good, turnaround times are short – but what I really like about Phil is that you go to him with an idea and he gives you better ones! I want some silver tees I say to Phil.. Do you fancy some glow in the dark ones too he says. I flip with delight and order 100. Obvs! Phil@musicismypoison.com

Alcopop’s sewing man… Barry at Sew Fuckin’ What… Also known as Oxygen Thief, Barry occupies his time in the rather unlikely occupation of sewing things. He makes hats, scarves, and all of a sudden will pop up in your inbox saying, hey – here’s a really good idea, shall we do it. Yes you say, feed him a small bit of cash and hey presto – you’re warm for winters to come (srsly, check out the upcoming My First Tooth release in a few weeks). We’ve used him several times and he’s ace!

Getting stuff on iTunes… Believe Digital… Having used 5 different digital providers, we’re fairly clued up on this side of things, and while we had reasonable experiences at most of our others, we’ve found Believe to be pretty damn awesome.  Always trying to go beyond the call of duty and do more for you than you thought possible, our catalogue swiftly migrated over to them when they got us features on 7 Digital and eMusic, front page releases on iTunes, 20k plays for ute in a week on Deezer and loads more besides. They also run Zimbalan if you’re an unsigned band looking for high quality distribution for a set fee rather than a percentage. Not used that in truth, but can only imagine it’s a cracker…

Physical Merch (AKA badges and stickers and stuff)… Awesome Merch – Yes it’s obvious, but yes they work! Time after time, I’ve given Awesome Merch stupidly awkward orders and tight deliveries and they’ve always nailed them. Always! Really approachable and another lot good for helping out photoshop dickheads like me, love the fact you can order really small quantities, mix up badge designs, and more importantly that there’s no stress or bother. Genuinely simple!

Artwork.. We use a combination of many different artworkers, and I couldn’t possibly name drop them all. Well worth checking out though are Graphic Bomb (Alcopop050 sensible soccer sleeves), Kev BSM’s girlfriend Gemma (Alcopopular 3 and 4), Secretly Swedish (all the Stagecoach stuff), Tony Proud (Wolf Am I and forthcoming new website), Laura Bell (all the PoP OBL posters), Adrian Dutt (Alcopop vs BSM compilation) and Lewes Herriot – all of JoFo’s stuff… Joe Idle Hands is pretty good at making websites look all arty and nice too actually.

Concept releases… Tom AC/DSleeve – Now a lot of these we do ourselves, and I’m not about to start recommending Frisbee manufacturers, but we’ve recently done our first job with the lovely Tom at AC/DSleeve – and he’s tremendous. Good value (for the time and effort her puts in) you get an amazing product, really hyper-personal service, and can be a lot more cost effective if you’re more likely to sell 200, rather than 2,000 CDs. Tom’s stuff WILL fly off the merch table as well. Jewel case you say sir? Fuck you buddy, I’d rather have a pop up digifile with interchangeable covers hand stamped in braille thanks. He’s that fucking good!

Sending massive files… www.wetransfer.com – Simple, huge, pretty pictures. I couldn’t recommend this site more. I literally cried with delight when I found this site. Forget paying for rival sites. This baby owns! We also host files with a combination of box.net and dropbox which are both pretty useful too.

Hosting music to listen too… www.soundcloud.com – Sorry to be obvious here, but in my humble opinion there’s nothing right now that touches soundcloud for simplicity, ease of sharing – and embedding. I’ve actually a fully paid user I’m so into this site, and for me – it solves so many problems. OK, in fairness, it is susceptible to the odd outage which can be seriously frustrating if you happen to be delivering a bunch of promos that day, but it’s very rare. I find a lot of bloggers like soundcloud and download links now, so they can effortlessly have a listen without going to the effort of downloading something they don’t like.

Buying Envelopes… When I was at Hevy festival this year I recall having a really in-depth chat with Kev BSM and Mike Hassle (I think) about the relative merits of ordering in different stock levels of T-Shirts to which a haggard Ben Rocksound (with hungover eyes like tiny black peanuts) gruffly interrupted, castigating us for having the most boring conversation of all time. Unbeknownst to him, I’m just about to trump it (with you, yo). But, in all seriousness, if you’re a label requiring some serious amounts of jiffy bags – keep it simple and get em from eBay. Packaging has hit its costing zenith on there, and they are SERIOUSLY cheap.

SO yeah – I hope that helps, and if you think I’m wrong or have other real good options do let me know… As I say, we’ve by no means used all the competition, and I’m sure there are lots of wonderful guys out there, but I guess we get asked about these kind of things all the time, and this is the PoP guide to the best people we’ve used…! <3 Rock on!