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

Aspen Sails single out this week

For any of you not aware of Gloucester’s finest, Aspen Sails, well come on now, why not. Recently crowned BBC Gloucestershire’s Band of 2009, and purveyors of some of the freshest acoustic pop this side of well… Anywhere really – Aspen Sails release their debut single on Alcopop yesterday. And it’s really rather lovely. Yup.

Having shared stages with the likes of The Magic Numbers, Adam Green, Slow Club, First Aid Kit, Jay Jay Pistolet, Wild Beasts in the last 12 months, as well as touring with US favourites Chief, Aspen are gently carving out a band of loyal followers, well and truly captivated by their sound.

Blurring influences from all the finest in folk pop but breathing their own tender life into the genre, they bring the tradition mix of melody and heartache folk guitar, whilst building and narrative lyrics into something overly intimate and overwhelming. An insight into snatches of bohemian life that paints vivid pictures without every revealing the whole truth.

Think Fleet Foxes, Turin Brakes and Iron and Wine – and you’re someway towards capturing the sound of Aspen Sails – but you’ll really have to listen to truly define it… It can be purchased as a limited edition 2 track single from our shop, or on all your favourite digital e-tailers.

Alcopop showcase at The Great Escape festival

Ah the stony beaches of Brighton! Wind whipping bitterly through your bones as you breeze (quite literally) along the pier, rich with places to literally throw your money away. Whether you want to roll balls at holes to win a crap cuddly fish, or spend 30 seconds asking ‘how do I make this computer horse fucking move’ and paying £1 for the privelage. Brighton is an idiot’s dream… And I love it.

For me it’s synonymous with great times, excess and horrible drunken behaviour with horrible drunken bands (AKA Stagecoach, Blakfish et al) – oh and the first ice cream of the year, complete with flake, and usually kicked out of my hand.

In short it’s brilliant! But with money so easily parted from fools, how on earth are you supposed to live frugally at The Great Escape, whether you have a wristband or not? Well here’s the answer in poster form… Courtesy of Wowee Zowee promotions and our good pals Idle Hands and Ray Gun (design by @ryannevill).

To cut a long story short – Alcopop showcase at TGE in my favourite pub in the city, free entry, during the day 12-4pm… With all these bands! Lose? No way. See you there yeah, and this time the ice creams on you fate!

Alcopop and BSM dropping anchor and heading to @Southseafest!

Yes it’s early to announce and yes, there’s a few more fine festivals to hit up beforehand… But as it’s been officially aired on the facebook page, it was with no little pleasure that I can happily let y’all know that it’s going to get a bit ‘fuckin’ indie’ at Southsea Festial 2010 – as the good ship BSM and us at Alcopop Records are sharing a stage at the event @ The Edge of the Wedge! Yessir.

Although Kev and I toyed with the idea of performing a 5 hour stand-up show each, full of poorly written material and overused gags, we relented in the end and decided to book some of our favourite bands instead. Looking at something like a 10 act bill over the day in our neck of the woods, we’ve already secured the services of the likes of Stagecoach (hip), Tall Ships (hype), Elephants (hyper), Aspen Sails (handsome) and Talons (habsolutely ace) – and there will be plenty more announced (well approximately 5 actually) on the stage in the next few months.

Slotting our lovely lot alongside what I have no doubt will be a bloody beautiful bill (last year I caught Sam Isaac, The Xcerts, Blakfish, Tellison and many more) – anyone who can should definitely get down to what is a brilliant festival on the south coast. Booze flows freely, tickets are an insanely cheap £12 (yes twelve!!) in advance and last year – naked, drunken 4am night swimming with My First Tooth was made compulsory! This year, Stagecoach are aiming to make sausage roll street surfing the sport of choice. I for one am cool with that.

More updates as they come… But for now I say, ahoy there me Southsea hearties – it’s a bottle of rum for me!

Alcopop sign Aspen Sails!

It’s been a while since we announced the signing of Screaming Maldini in a firework laden splash of excitement – so it seems about time that the Alcopop family (lets for a moment pretend they’re a happily grazing herd of horses) welcome the newest foal into the stable, nuzzle him gently and show him to the oatbag. Is this a ridiculous analogy? Neigh! So without further ado, it is my pleasure to announce Alcopop’s newest recruits. Aspen Sails!

Lazily comparing them to other bands is nigh on impossible, but ideal for those who enjoy soul-searching folk-infused indie with the kind of river-deep soul that the likes of Fleet Foxes, Iron and Wine and My First Tooth deliver with aplomb… It should be perfect. The duo, recently named as BBC Radio Gloucester’s band of the year, quite an accolade no doubt, have been on the PoP radar for some time, and after some storming shows in the latter part of 2010, sealed the deal, as it were.

The 405 said of them that they have “harmonious music that had the atmosphere of an endearing American county ballad. They had the skill to silence the room with such soaring vocals and foot-tapping sequences”, whilst The Fly were also keen to wax lyrical “perfect harmonies, songs that will melt your heart.”

Their debut single (following a freely downloadable EP you can introduce yourselves to here) will be out early in the month of May on an exciting format which, y’know – we’ll tell you all about soon. Strong of face and warm of heart, do take Aspen to your bosom with open arms. Yes!