Alcopop instore @Pure Groove

It’s taken me a good few weeks to post this update about Alcopop’s recent Pure Groove jam (waiting for photos which have now arrived and are beautiful) – but I thought I’d relay the events of the eve, which were – in truth – bloody ace.

Somehow it was the first time I’d ever been to Pure Groove and it was lovely. Basically an opulent Faringdon bar with a record shop spread amongst shelves around the shop – it’s the ideal haunt for anyone with a penchant for the limited editions and niche formats.

Putting on a bill of Stagecoach *acoustic set* and Stars and Sons with Paul Steel providing a delectable melodic introduction, we all bonded over a small message in a bottle compilation – the bands entertained, and Kev and I (along with a few of the great and good from the indie music industry and plenty of happy poppers) assaulted the bar.

Highlight of the evening for me, for its unexpected appearance as much as highly polished form, was perhaps a delicate Stagecoach cover of The Lemonheads’ Drug Buddy. Awesome… What followed was an evening at the Ish Bar, a high octane Team Stagecoach Vs Team PoP pool match (we’ll get you next time Stagecoach), phantom tequilas (where do they always spring from) and plenty more hi-jinks…

The next one’s on October 7^th for Stagecoach and more… See you there yeah

Alcopop @Pure Groove this Wednesday w/ Stagecoach, Stars & Sons and Paul Steel

*Excitement*

It’s the first Alcopop Pure Groove instore (I was so excited to see us on the listings ), and coincides with the stocking of Alcopopular 3 ‘map and bottle compilation’ by said emporium… Great times, free entry and 7pm (ish) start to see:

Stars and Sons (full band) play “Big brash intelligent indie pop” – Huw Stephens
New Alcopop signings Stagecoach (acoustic) rock out “a sumptuous slice of Wilco-esque alt.country” (The Fly)
- with Paul Steel provideing a melodic piano ballad interlude with his “veritable masterwork of pop brilliance” – Under the Radar

And we can all get boozed too in London’s finest record shop – winner? Winner! See you there…

The Guardian – a wonderful rag!

The Guardian clearly knows its music… Tis true, tis true – and while I was busy sunning myself in bonny London on a magnificent eve of gigs which included catching the Candle Thieves at London’s Fly Bar at a rather secret show (shhhh) and Unicorn Kids bumping dance classics at The Borderline – this was busily being dropped into my inbox.

You can see the full article of Guardian reader’s un-put-downable tracks, which includes Christy Moore and Little Boots, here – but I’ve carved up the most alcorelevant section below. Jude Rogers and Chris Salmon, consider yourselves hearty friends of Alcopop Records!

The AA however can consider themselves mortal enemies (well, whoever writes their procedures anyway) – just found out i’ve spent £180 in renewal costs over the last few years, becuase they were sending letters to my old address. Refund for this year maybe… No, because i didn’t spot it within 14 days.  Stupid AA!

Mike from Stars and Sons belts out the hits

YouTube always turns up some gems when looking for hot rock covers, provided you manage to avoid the perilous pitfalls of whiney American kids wailing horrible covers of Dashboard Confessional B-sides – then you’re pretty much there…

Provided by the ever handsome Mike from Alcopop favourites Stars and Sons, and accompined by nothing more than a keyboard – take a look at his youtube channel for Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend, Come Together by the Beatles, Sensual Seduction by Snoop Dogg  and my very favourite – No One Knows by QOTSA…

Speak of the devil, here it is now…

Merry Christmas from all at Alcopop – and nice work Luke Slater (DiS)

And with a flurry of filthy sleet rain (that could be snow but isn’t), a million parties generating 10 million bitter, hungover pints and news that Stars and Sons ‘In the Ocean has made Luke Slater from DiS’s top 10 list for the year – he say “If you don’t like this song, you’re not human” – fuck yeah Alcopoppers… It’s Christmas!

Joy to the world and such – and here’s to 2009! A year that’s bound to be a cracker…. Trust me, I just know it is!

Just a quick one to firstly… thank everyone who has come to the blog, bought a record or generally mucked in with us this year – cos’ we really appreciate your support, secondly let you know that we have plenty of very exciting plans-a-coming next year so make sure to keep ‘poppin in the free world – and thirdly, that once again foreign climes have proven more appealing that England, and so Kev will be taking over the blog for the next few weeks (Expect a queen-esque speech at 3 o clock sharp on Christmas Day from the sluggishly bearded mogul of BSM fame live) while I smash round New Zealand in a camper van.

It does mean that Christmas Day will be spent on a plane (probably with loads of snakes), but hey ho – it’ll be an experience.

Remember that the £20.08 deal is still on, whereby you can get every release from the year for a limited amount of sheets, or if you’re more skint – seize upon CTBW’s debut (and only) EP for a temporarily magnificent price of £3. It’ll make January seem all the less bleak…

Now away with me, and here it is, Merry Christmas!

Alcopop CHRISTMAS PARTY – 15th December

Ah – Christmas time again, and time for a good-ol’ Alcopop knees up. It’s been a super year, and we’d love to see it off in style…

So what better than:

Sam Isaac
Stars and Sons
Pavilion
Nima (ex Hush the Many now w/ Arrows of Love performing a magnificent solo acoustic spot)

As you can see, we’ve picked just some of the finest acts from our current rosta to tantalise and delight you on a miserable Monday evening. Expect magnificent music, Christmas cakes, 90s dance/indie/Christmas DJs -

And, a loving Christmas present for the first 15 people through the door……

Tickets just a fiver – will cost more on the door!

Stars and Sons live video. Light it up

It’s Friday, brother. I’ve watched so many episodes of The Wire over the past three days the voice inside my head has turned into a gangster and I feel like I should be out selling yellow tops and dropping bodies right now, you feel me? Instead, I’m going to have a busy, civilized day of doing ‘bidness’. I guess I’m more Stringer Bell than Avon Barksdale.

Here’s a video of Stars and Sons live from last months In The City event, courtesy of those lovely people at Channel M. The stupid thing won’t embed so just follow that link, homes.

Stars and Sons In the Ocean 7″ out today! – read what the net says…

Boom!

Tis the 17^th, and with it cometh the new single from the Alcopop stable. This time, the majestic steeds whinnying with impatience to get going in their inaugural race are Stars and Sons (pictured here at Shepherds Bush Empire). Brainchild of Mike Lord, and featuring Paul Steel – you should definitely buy this vinyl (ltd. to just 500 copies)… But why? Well, I thought I’d let the blogosphere explain that for me. Partly because I’m lazy… But also because they are princes of semantics, fine purveyors of taste – and knowers of musical knowledge!

Firstly, Sweeping the Nation, who said “lovely lovely Alcopop Records, previously responsible for singles we’ve openly admired by 4 Or 5 Magicians and This City, are putting out a limited edition 7″ from an outfit that we had a homemade EP from ages ago and have since had quite a bit of specialist radio play and even praise off evil Jonathan Ross. We talk up so many new bands that by the law of averages eventually one of them had to take off. Stars And Sons are Mike Lord, once of the aforementioned 4 Or 5 Magicians and now making delicious hand-crafted optimistic indiepop nuggets. In The Ocean is one of those songs that’s at once naggingly familiar and freshly minted. Good work all round.”

Dirty Sexy Music too seem to love ‘em, stating “Their lyrics are both sweet and tremendously humorous. After a few listens you begin to feel you’ve known these songs your entire life, so quickly and insidiously they permeate your consciousness. Touches of Belle and Sebastian, The Beach Boys and The Beatles lace their music. The sound is multilayered, to the point that each song at some point could be described as a cacophony, yet it works perfectly.”

Puregroove Records have got involved too, saying “This sounds like a band that are shaping up to become pop stars in 2009. Not the cool kind that appear in fashionable mags and get blogged but sell seven records. The proper kind, that write songs that thousands celebrate life and love with at huge events in the country. We love em.” And if anyone’s gonna’ know what’s hot… They should!

… We’ll leave the final word to Music under Fire though… “Pop this rock ’til your limbs fall off. Enjoy.”

Mike from Stars and Sons – the new Guybrush Threepwood?

Sometimes you see a review, and you think… Yeah! They’ve got that just about spot on… And such an occasion arrived in the Daily today, with their take on Stars and Son’s ‘In the Ocean‘ (below), which not only talks of Monkey Island (pictured) which sets my heart-a-glowing with nostalgic thoughts of poorly-rendered (yet magnificently witty) 3D imagery, but also gets to the integral enjoyment behind this record that’s so far from pretension.. Good work!

SINGLE REVIEW: Stars And Sons – In the Ocean (Alcopop)

Noah And The Whale offered up their take on the indie pop anthem earlier this year with ‘5 Years Time’ giving Mighty Boosh fans a few new dance moves to show off at their underage discos. The band’s contrived image though, with tweed, trilbies and waistcoats galore, made it all just a bit too hard to stomach. It’s good news then that Stars And Sons, aka Mike Lord, has created something as equally joyous in its three-minute pop ways, yet without any smug pretension to mire its good intentions. Citing both The Flaming Lips and Amiga classic, videogame ‘Monkey Island’, as equal influences, it’s no surprise this single revels in its fun attitude, not once getting above its hand-claps and ‘ooh-oohs’. Mike won’t be wearing sunglasses indoors any time soon.

Also, the archivist from ‘The Folly of Youth’ blog has recently been to see Brighton’s aforementioned kings of pop punk in the flesh with Okkervil River, and had rather a good time by all acounts. No surprise when they made our pal at MP3Hugger suggest that “This band makes my heart skip a beat, which at my age can be very dangerous, but it’s worth the risk”. As far as we know, he’s not dead yet – which is a very good thing!

Oh, and luckily I can confirm that noone I know has ever seen Mike wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors.

You can buy the record here…

Stars and Sons to support Okkervil River in the UK

Good news in the Stars & Sons camp today, as management have confirmed that to support the new In the Ocean single – and happily for all of you in Norwich, Manchester, Wolverhampton, London and Brighton that they are to support Okkervil River on the UK leg of their tour.

The American band, who apparently “have the dusty feel of some long-lost precious thing you found in your attic” (Rolling Stone Magazine) – should go well with our Brighton-based pop hipsters, not least because they effortlessly provide the “high-octane excitement of getting something really awesomely new and shiny” (Jack Alcopop).

Meanwhile, you should definitely check out Pulled Apart by Horses. I saw them last night after trekking through a bleak, snowy London – with the handsome Kev BSM and a plastic bottle of Sprite/Dirty Vodka for company (pictured below), and they were great. Really rock n’ roll!

PS – Don’t eat KFC ‘molten chocolate puddings’, especially from the Baker Street branch.

1.) They’re far from Molten – tepid would be a more accurate description

2.) They’re full of greasy mange. Between every bite (of which there were few), a thin film of fatty filth congealed around each mouthful.

Also – you know Eddie Argos of Art Brut fame. Yeah, me too – and I’ve always thought he seemed like a cracking fella. Good news is he’s started a new blog where he paints a picture for every song that he’s ever written and will ever write, and writes pretentiously about them. Which I think is pretty damn cool. Here’s the work for the classic Formed a Band. I look forward to Guns of Milan…