Alcopopular 5 NEEDS YOU!

Oh dear Poppers – I’m always asking things of you, but this one should be pretty fun. Basically we’re putting together a really rather splendid concept for our new compilation ‘Alcopopular 5′ (provisionally entitled The HitHikers Guide to the Galaxy) but we need some help from people who live in the following places (or vaguely nearby)… Can you help?

Sowerby Bridge,
Bournemouth,
Ascot,
Dublin,
Eastbourne,
Addlestone,
Lisburn,
Lewisham,
Brighton,
Birmingham

Basically, we’ve got songs from all these places on the compilation, but we want some form of creation from someone who has a connection there (live, go out, spent a big proportion of your life nearby) to be on the compilation and add even more depth to the sense and story of each location. (whether it be a photo, podcast, video, whatever). It’s all a bit vague, but I promise you it will be AWESOME when its all finished and out in May time – so if you could help we’d really appreciate it.

Just drop us a line at info@ilovealcopop.co.uk and lets have a chat.

We’re getting excited…

Alternative TGE Alcopop show – free pints for Dolphin Suits!

So the strong-faced Alcopop and lustily handsome DIY have teamed up with some super friends (BSM, Idle Hands Club, Ray Gun, Rock Sound’s Ben Patashinak and the like) and put together quite the best free show line up, perhaps ever…

The Xcerts
Stagecoach
Freeze the Atlantic (ex Reuben/Hundred Reasons)
The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
My Firs Tooth
We Are the Physics
Jumping Ships
LightGuides
Special Guests (TBC)
Ute
The Social Club
You Animals
Cat Matador
Dad Rocks
Nicholas Stevenson
Elliot Morris

Lining up on the Alternative Great Escape bill in Brighton town, we’re free entry all day and night to provide you THE best thing in B-town on Friday 13th, except for perhaps the Dolphin Derby on the pier. LOOK AT THIS LINE UP, and say you’re coming on Facebook!!!

Do come along, all day – and rock hard with us yes! we’re running from 12.30pm till about 1.30/2ish – featuring this quite jaw-dropping line up of awesome acts… Free for wrist band holders, and non-wrist band holders alike (we’re just like that you know )

Do say you’ll come… Free pint for anyone dressed in a dolphin suit!

Alcopopular review in Artrocker – 4/5!

It’s a cracker and all! I do love the handsome folk at Artrocker – great bunch… The menu is still available (with burger sleeve) from the shop. Read below… ‘Most forward thinking of record companies’ eh… Well thank you very much Emily Kendrick!

Some words of wisdom about Alcopopular 4: ‘A Feast of Pop’

Ah it’s always lovely to get a nice bit of feedback from handsome heroes – and the compilation seems to be getting some good stuff from my very favourite folk. People have been enjoying picking their preferred tracks from the menu (Kev Devine, Freelance Whales and Stagecoach very popular so far) and the All You Can Eat selection is going down pretty rad too. Yup.

But enough of me – I’m bound to like it right. What’s way more important is folk at the likes of This is Fake DIY “spent a good few minutes gawping at the amazingness of the idea” – whilst Soundblab rate the beast 8/10 and suggest “Alcopop have set the bar in compilation mixes offering something truly unique and fresh for the listener.” Awww – thanks a lot chaps!

Alter the Press meanwhile really dig it – a 4/5/5 review and totally catching the raison d etre as it were… “Alcopop have managed to get a huge range of quality artists, ranging from rising, reasonably unknown talent to bigger tracks that many fans will recognise. The styles vary throughout, so it provides for some enjoyable listening. This compilation is sure to make you want to discover more from each and every one of these artists.”

Thanks all – You can get more info here…

ALCOPOPULAR 4 IS OUT!!! IT’S A F**KING MENU :-) first personalised compilation ever… Yup

(Of the Alcopopular series) “The coolest compilation ever” – The NME

Pick your compilation Menu (14 tracks) – Buy now / All you can eat Menu – Buy now

I know there’s a few of you who dig the previous Alcopopular compilations… (3” CD/ Tape/ Message in a bottle) and it’s finally time for number 4. And this one’s a right little peach!  The world’s fully personalised compilation…

First it was a 3”CD, then a tape – followed up with a treasure map in a bottle… Now it’s dinner time.. Yup! Featuring delicious tracks from the likes of Liam Frost, Stagecoach, Freelance Whales, The Xcerts, Jose Vanders and many more.. This physical menu (all prettily Alcopop made) will be sent out with your personalised CD compilation

Or you can have all you can eat and have every track! Yummy…

Full tracklisting here…

STARTERS (Pick 2)
1. Liam Frost – Skylark Avenue
2. Klaus – Under The Sheets (Ellie Goulding cover)
3. Jose Vanders – These Times
4. Lucy Day - A Fire in the Sea

MAIN COURSE – Pick 5
5. Kevin Devine – All of Everything, Erased
6. Tom Williams & The Boat – My Will
7. Perms – Give Me All Your Lovin’
8. Person L – Pleasure Is All Mine
9. SuperFantastics – As the Lights Go Down
10. Spring Offensive – A Let Down
11. Heathers - Remember When
12. Freelance Whales – Generator Second Floor
13. Ute – Brother
14. Spectres – Spider and Fly
15. The Xcerts – Home vs Home (Blueskies Remix)

DESSERTS – Pick 3
16. Muchuu – Their World
17. Talons – Manatee
18. Mimas – Mac, Get your Gear
19. Hiawata! – Lightning of the Sun

HOUSE WINE – Pick 4
20. The Candle Thieves – The Sunshine Song (live acoustic at G&Ds ice cream parlour)
21. My First Tooth – June July
22. Aspen Sails – Comfort
23. Stagecoach - Headbangers Ball
24. Elephants – Alexander
25. Screaming Maldini – Monkey See Badger Do
26. A Mystery Beverage… Alcopop’s new signing! (as yet unveiled)

Alcopopular 4 costs £5 for the full menu experience (you’ll be emailed a tick box menu and then posted the menu and compilation on CD, or have the menu and all tracks on 2 CDs for just £7  in an all you can eat deal!

Pick your compilation Menu (14 tracks) - Buy now / All you can eat Menu - Buy now

New Alcopop column on Rock Midgets… Sure, sure

It’s been a massive weekend, there’s a new Alcopop single out tomorrow – and I had perhaps the best weekend ever at The Great Escape.. Huw Stephens came to hang out at Stagecoach, I heard perhaps the most exciting demo of all time (Elephants delivered) and met the Momeroths, soon to be release pals with My First Tooth. Meanwhile, friends from everywhere came down to drink and make merry at the Alcopop showcase, Kev BSM put on a blinding sesh at Belushis on the Thursday – and we sung reggae tunes with a great busker.. A GREAT busker.

But for now – as I’m about to lapse into Brighton fuelled dreams of gigs, jager and on-pier gambling, I shall leave you with just this… My latest column on Rock Midgets about a few festivals – most notably Sziget in Hungary. It really is bloody awesome. More tomorrow, most notably the lovely Aspen Sails…!

Alcopopular 4 – a few good details

Just a quick update to remind anyone who hasn’t got involved, to get involved with the Alcopop Cheltenham promotion (poppers across the country, nay globe, will be popping champagne corks together come Friday afternoon) – but also to give you a quick update on the new compilation which we shall we releasing within the next couple of months.

Those of you with keen minds may remember last years Alcopopular Vol 3, the treasure map and bottle thing so called by the NME “the coolest compilation ever”.., well this bad boy is going to be even better. The format for now is a closely guarded secret being worked on deep in Alcopop towers (shhh shhh) but what I can tell you is some of the fine acts who have put their names to the compilation… And this is just a sample mind you!

Sure you know the magnificent Kevin Devine who currently plies his trade on the UK’s finest alt-indie label Big Scary Monsters, but what say you fancy a bit of The Xcverts too? Anyone a fan of Liam Frost who has kindly agreed to thrust a bit of his killer material onboard, and with all of that added into the mix with Jose Vanders (pictured), Mimas… And kick-ass Canadian lot Superfantastics involved too, it’s all looking rather hip.

There’s a whole heap more for you to choose from [oops, did I let something slip there], and for an idea we’ve been honing for the last few months, I really hope it’s kinda safe to say…

I think you’re going to like this one!

Screaming Maldini up for pre-order today… And the Kookaburra

Apologies any Italians who have got through to this page expecting to find career statistics on their raven-haired former captain Pierluigi – but I’m very glad you did. Because that’ll give me a chance to tell you about the debut EP release by the similarly monikered band from Sheffield, now available in our shop.

Featuring ex-members of local heroes (now sadly departed) The Situationists, Screaming Maldini are nevertheless a very different proposition – somewhere between the likes of Mew and a ‘Muppet Babies Bloc Party’ (God is in the TV zine)… Something like that anyway.

As for the EP itself, the 5 track behemoth hovers somewhere between epic and tumultuous, switching from huge orchestral sonatas to punchier power pop and well, you’ll really have to have a listen to it yourself… As I’m not really sure how to do this one justice.

CD is lovingly artworked and hand crafted with lavish-looking folded cardboard sleeve (with kookaburra present) – and for a very limited period we have mega deal packs to ive away for just a shade over a tenner, which include a magnificent Kookaburra tee (well of course)… But we’ve literally got 20, tops (below), so do order quick.

Oh – and I probably should take this opportunity to tell you that postage rates are fixed in the pop shop however much stuff you buy. 75p to UK for 1 or 1000 discs (although you may struggle to find the latter in our shop J) – so have yourselves a butchers….

Alcopop ist Wunderbar!

It’s lovely to get recognition from foreign shores, so ‘pop points’ galore for terminally super pal Dorte, who not only has spent the year delighting us with lovely Twitter and email messages, but even flying in from Germany to take in a Candle Thieves show…  She’s ace, and what’s more – she saw fit to include The Candle Thieves ‘Sunshine EP’, and Alcopopular 3 in her list of the best releases in 2009, even describing the former as wunderbar! Amazing…

Pop over to the article over here at Fast Forward magazine, or you can read the translation below (again kindly provided by the lovely author herself).

The Candle Thieves – The Sunshine EP

I love The Candle Thieves. The day can be as foozled and gray as it wants to be, “The Sunshine Song” will bring sunshine into it. I always thought songs like that doesn’t exist or exist very rarely until The Candle Thieves taught me wrong. Their mix of poppy playful melodies with their quite dark lyrics is just wonderful. My advice: listen and melt away. Those two charming guys make the most beautiful music I have heard in quite a while. And their lyrics reflect me so good in many ways that it almost leaves me anxious.

I am really looking forward to their album in 2010.

Alcopop – Alcopopular 3 (Compilation)

I must admit: At first I just bought this Compilation because of its packing. Alcopop is a small but mighty indie label from UK and they have the most charming ideas for the special something. You could just buy a boring mp3 download OR you can order treasure map in a bottle! Amazing!

And by the way you’ll also get the perfect Saturday morning soundtrack and a bunch of british band you should take a closer look at. To name those who fascinated me right from the beginning: Stagecoach, Tellsion, Apple, David Gibb and Pulled Apart by Horses.

Cheers Dorte!

Excellent poppers part 6: Mixmaster Henry – our dub overlord

Tell your friends, rouse the neighbours – the most irregular feature ever to grace the side of a blog is back, and this time it’s in stereo. For you see excellent poppers, this is excellent poppers – where we look at some of the brilliant folk who help us, buy from us – or are just generally around the lovely world of Alcopop.

Today – we meet Henry, who’s mashed together two fine mixes for goFASTER>> and latterly Stagecoach… Normally you might think out paths would not cross… Alcopop would be drinking merrily in a dimly lit indie dance club, whilst Henry would be wedged in-between 2 fire engine-sized speakers at a smoky dub session – you’d be wrong though.

Now tell us….

1.) You are Henry and we’ve heard your face is magnificent… How do you plead? That’s a compliment indeed from the glowing visage of Alcopop – this is actually my “game face”, I have a barn full of alternative faces which I interchange for various purposes. I’m like a Worzel Gummidge for the E4+1 generation. I can’t get E4 round our way, reception’s shite.

2.) As a ‘mixmaster extraordinaire’ who recently put together a magnificent re-imagining of stagecoach’s ‘We Got Tazers’… What was your inspiration behind the mix? It was the result of a horrific cultural car-crash involving too many robot movies, the deconstruction of various words and phrases in the lyrics, a bloody-minded determination to crowbar a vocoder in at any opportunity, a creeping sense of impending apocalypse, and too much red wine. The short answer is- I got a bit carried away….

3.) And where else do you ply your musical trade? I work as a DJ in merry olde Oxford, occasionally London “and surrounding”, skipping between the overpriced corporate cocktail-sucking swanky places and the slightly hipper dives, such as the Po Na Na in Oxford. For it is there I play fortnightly Friday’s, which is a lovely mix of old and new indie, electro and eclectic beataroonies of many persuasions. Truthfully though, I’m at my happiest sitting for days on end in front of my funky old PC making beats and getting amazing and freaky sounds out of my lovely machines. They’re me bezzie mates they are.

Part 2, tomorrow…. Where we talk Collapsed Lung, Milli Vanilli and the possibility of a free phat Henry track… Ole!