Posts filed under ‘Stars and Sons’
ZOMFG!! Why would you be anywhere else? Alcopopalooza this Saturday
There aint no party like an A PoP party. This much is true. So if Latitude is too far away, Guilfest aint your thing and you reckon that sitting inside whilst the sun shines is for nerds. Baby – I need say just one word. Alcopopalooza!
Brixton Windmill this Saturday is therefore very much the place to be for delicious action then – with 13 bands to entertain you inside and outside all day, a free BBQ to tempt even the choosiest of tastebuds – we’ll also be celebrating the launch of the Stagecoach Crash My Ride EP (19th), and Attika State’s Celebration T-Shirt single (26th) 
Oh – and Jack PoP and Kev BSM’s birthday too (Jack will be 23, and Kev 34 (presents are optional ).
Tickets remarkably are just six (count em) pounds in advance, and given that you’ll be seeing the likes of Stagecoach, Tall Ships, The Attika State, Screaming Maldini, Tangled Hair, Stairs to Korea and many more – well the value’s there to see.
You can get full deets over at the facebook group, book slightly cheaper tickets in advance at where else but wegottickets – or sod the internet and just rock up on Saturday for SO much ace music, free meat and booze until you drop. Winner! The 405 agree see, rating it gig of the week. Good shout boys!
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!
Monday night poppin’ at the Old Blue Last
8.00pm on a Saturday night and quite frankly, I’m lacking inspiration. Been packing up Screaming Maldini CDs to the accompaniment of Winter Olympics all afternoon, I’m a few beers down after a majestic Coventry City victory this afternoon against floundering Palace – so all things considered probably a fine time to tell you about Monday night. Sure, sure…
Really – it’s an Alcopop explosion right? Because with Screaming Maldini, Stagecoach and Ross from My First Tooth all treading the boards alongside former PoP pals Stars & Sons, everything will be coming up lovely. And what’s more, it’s all free, free, free to get in. Can’t beat a bit of that. So Old Blue Last tomorrow is surely the only place to be in London town… And if you need more convincing you can download a free Screaming Maldini and Stars & Sons track just here.
Oh, and The 405 & Alcopop DJs will be dropping bombs inbewteen acts…! Yes!
Say you’ll be there.
Screaming Maldini vs Stars and Sons Feb mini tour
With fresh sparkling eyes, and a myriad of melodic loveliness in all of their hearts, it’s rather nice that Screaming Maldini and Stars & Sons met – and have decided to bring their differing brands of balls-out, joy fuelled power pop to the UK this February, taking in a handful of shows and a whole heap of miles in a mission to start the summer early.
Catch them at the following venues
Feb 21st Sheffield – The Grapes
Feb 22nd – London – Old Blue Last (w/ Stagecoach & Ross MFT Telecaster sessions)
Feb 23rd – Brighton – The Albert
Feb 24th – Northampton – The Labour Club
Feb 25th – Oxford – The Cellar
To download tracks from both bands to try before you buy, visit http://drop.io/listenwithmother – and do feel free to distribute/ post… If you fancy popping alone than absolutely do. It should be a really, rather lovely tour!
New Alcopop signing announced: Screaming Maldini!
Happy New Year… And wasn’t 2009 bloody delicious? Dancing and singing in the streets to a riot of super new sounds – but trust me when I tells ya… 2010 is going to be even better. And what better way to kick off than with a brand new signing. So it is with delight, dear poppers, that I’d like to introduce to you the name that will no doubt be a-flirtingly spangling on your lips over the next few months and beyond… Screaming Maldini!
With fresh sparkling eyes, and a myriad of melodic loveliness in their hearts, Screaming Maldini introduce themselves to the world with a 5-track EP out in February via Alcopop Records, accompanied with a UK tour alongside former PoP favourites Stars & Sons! Featuring ex-members of The Situationists, 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).
“We like guitars, horns, keys, cowbells, tambourines, choirs, horses, bicycles and excitement” they say… Which goes some way to understanding their breathlessly exciting sound which mixes lush, layered melody with the kind of foot-tapping indie-pop that makes this a particularly compelling prospect. You WILL love…
Tom Robinson, who tends to know his stuff, said “WOW! Assertive, assured, different, free-ranging…it’s an amazingly sure-footed debut record…one of the most exciting things I’ve heard for months,” but why listen to him? A few of the kids may have already heard this, but for those who haven’t, check out the MySpace or click the megaphone below to download Maldini track The Extroadinary… And get excited!
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 7th for Stagecoach and more… See you there yeah
Alcopop @Pure Groove this Wednesday w/ Stagecoach, Stars & Sons and Paul Steel
*Excitement* ), 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!
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