The all new Team PoP (bands) shot!

How cool is this! Please witness, in all of their hand-drawn glory… The whole of the current Alcopop roster with full radness to boot.

sketched and sent by @karlipea… It’s amazing what you get through when you publically appeal for presents! Totally tempted to put this onto tea-towels… How strong would it be to wash your dishes with Ross My First Tooth’s face!

Alcopop aint no One Trick Pony… Baggs-inspired tee

Oh Poppers – we’re 7 bottles of champagne down in the PoP household (I say champagne which makes us sound rich, it’s the Jacob’s Creek stuff which is in fairness, bloody lovely!) having a great day – and delighted to say our new T-Shirt is selling hard. Strictly limited edition, and just beautiful for those Apprentice fans amongst you (inspired by, of course not official)- check this out, and purchase (if you fancy) for just 8 sheets from the shop! And if you need any inspiration, here’s that magic moment all over again… Oh yeah!

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…

Stagecoach don’t need guns, when they’ve got videos, dub mixes and tours

All’s excitement in the Stagecoach camp as the band prepare for their first EP launch with Alcopop, and in amongst the 1000’s of emails that fly around each day from Team PoP to Team Coach – a few extremely exciting updates have appeared.

Firstly – the mysterious Oxfordshire based DJ known only as Henry has emerged from his underground lair with just enough time to blink at the glaring sun, drop a remix CD in the postbox and scuttle back to his hiding place to concoct more dub mayhem. The results, a scintillating mix so juicy, it’s had Coach’s drummer Matt two-stepping round his house with a massive joint for the last 3 weeks solid. It will be on the EP and is, quite frankly, brilliant.

Secondly, finishing touches are just being sprinkled on a rather juicy tour to bring the record across the country. Full details can be found on the MySpace site, but make sure to leave a special place in your hearts/diary for 10th October which sees a magnificent Alcopop inspired bill including Candle Thieves, My First Tooth and The Coach themselves. Meanwhile, they’ve also recorded a video – which isn’t available for our greedy eyes just yet, but promises to be a cracker…

Screenshots below…

Kev and I made a playlist…

Anyone use Spotify? Well if you have, you’ll probably be needing a playlist to have a listen to now and then – maybe one with all of your favourite indie classics from the mid/late 90s, dance tracks that make you killer killer killer killer dance like a mothertrucker (Stakka Bo for instance) – and pop hits so pomegranate fresh that Persephone just couldn’t help herself.

Well try this badboy out, and enjoy it time and time again. Capiche?

PS – it was my misfortune to catch Al Murray on TV tonight – I think he’s about as funny as a forest fire… When you’re in a low lying treehouse… Guarding barrels of petrol… In a matchbook coat.

Last chance for the mega-deal – and are 4 or 5 Magicians THAT band…?

The croc has crowed..! This is a quick final blog call to let you know that the mega-deal will be seeing its last possible purchase date as of today, so if you want a goFASTER>> EP (loved today by one of our favourite blogs – Come Pick Me Up), My First Tooth EP and limited edition T-Shirt for 16 sheets, do order within the next 14 hours or so, as come midnight (ish) the deal will be finishing.

This is partly because the EPs have now been released, and also the fact that we only have a few Tees left. You will look lovely in them I guarantee

Incidentally – former Alcopop favourites (and by former favourites I mean they’re still favourite, but were formerly with us at Alcopop) 4 or 5 Magicians have been getting a whole lotta’ love from the NME, which is always nice.

“It feels like ages since a British guitar group came up that came from a proper independent background, really knew their indie and not only seemed to have a vision for where they wanted to go, but had the songs and style to take them onto the nether echelons of posters on walls and platinum plaques.

I dunno if 4 Or 5 Magicians are that band, but their album certainly brightened up my week. A band that you look forward to putting your headphones on for their song’s ebola-scale infectiousness, but don’t feel like you’re contributing to the walnut dashboard detail of some head A&R chump’s Hybrid Lexus by purchasing a copy of their record.”

Nice one Dan!

Free bets at Cheltenham races for all Alcopop shoppers…

Alcopop Records are going to Cheltenham racing festival (physically on Friday and digitally Tue – Thur)… Because in between releasing cracking record after magnificent T-Shirt, we love a bit of low end gambling! And we should very much like to get you all involved.

Therefore, we’ve decided on a brusque new promotion that will mean that anyone purchasing anything in the next week from the Pop shop during the festival will get a free bet on one of the races at Cheltenham, courtesy of us. One pound per ten spent, with prizes paid out in prime pop merch.

So – if you spend anywhere between 1-10 pounds in our shop you’ll get a quid bet, 11-20 = 2 pounds, 21 – 30 = 3 pounds and so on. I’ll be picking the horses, and sticking the money down on Betfair (which should end up with better odds than anywhere else) and updating every bet via the Alcopop Twitter feed pre race – so you’ll know what has gone on for who.

Follow us here if you don’t already, or to find out what Twitter is – this is your link!

Got it? So, when said nag romps home at 30-1 after you’ve purchased our new 16 pound mega deal (for instance) you’ll win a further 60 quids worth of stuff – which will be nice. Similarly, just 3 pounds on an Encyclopedia single could win you a T-Shirt and Family Machine album if Crack away Jack comes in at 16-1 tomorrow. And let’s be fair, he probably will.

Plus – for anyone who doesn’t fancy a flutter, but still has some excellent tips – let us know via comments below or emailing info@ilovealcopop.co.uk. Go horse go!

Awesome crocodile on skateboard Alcopop tees available now…

Get startled yeah… I’m watching Nathan Barley and my god I love it as much as when I first blooded my peepers to it the first time around! Sometimes I think that the Alcopop offices should be a little more like Sugar Ape magazine. Sure Kev’s always riding around on a tiny tricycle and ‘cock, muff, bumhole’ is regularly played – but we really need more preacher man costumes.

Anyway – moving on to more important issues… You may note that the second batch of limited edition Alcopop T-Shirts have been ordered, despatched and they’re going to look super ace. Due to extremely popular demand the crocodile design is back, along with Andrew WK’s killer quote that he once scribed on a friend of Kev’s gig ticket – ‘You go and tell your friends that you’re my friend’… But as promised – green and yellow are never to be re-printed, so this time it’s white on red. Oh yes!

As before, there are only 20 of these ever to be crafted and ready to grace the chests of heroic Alcopoppers across the globe (ever). So do feel free to pop into the shop and order one now, and set yourself up to be quite the most handsome kid on your street.

They’re well Jackson!

A tribute to Fierce Panda Records and 15 years – by Alcopop

It has recently been brought to my attention, via the handsome Sam Isaac who just last night supported the Spinto Band as part of their birthday celebrations, that Fierce Panda Records is 15 this year… and while no doubt there will be a milieu of tributes across the web to a label that has brought us the likes of Idlewild, Kenickie, A Hundred Reasons, 3CR, Llama Farmers, Seafood and more – I was keen to throw my own little bit of nostalgic loving towards what I see as one of the most influential labels (in my life anyway) and, quite frankly, one of those institutions that without – Alcopop (and I’m sure a lot of labels like us) may be an awful lot poorer for, if here at all…

My love affair with Mr Bongo and his lot really begun back when I was just out of 6^th form, and already heavily into my alt/indie scene, I happened across the ‘Dead Cheap’ Fierce Panda sampler for 3 quid in (I believe) spinadisc records in Coventry. Already vaguely knowing the label, I snapped it up and it literally became my favourite compilation of ever. Looking back now and working it out I bought releases from 10 of the bands featured, fell in love with at least 6 of them – 3 of which were particularly passionate… And out of 15 songs that aint not bad (as the illiterate say).

Post that, more of my ‘life highlights’ that included the mighty Panda included my first year of university when, featuring them as label of the week on my student radio station, they sent me a white label test pressing (limited to 10 copies) and a load of stickers (very kind I thought), still owning a Ning 154 limited edition Panda jacket despite losing it temporarily at so many venues across the country and thinking myself continually cool in my youth knowing that getting into Panda bands was not only the way to guarantee bucket loads of indie-cool points, but also enjoy a massive hit rate of favourites in my record collection. Plus they seemed to run the label in the right way – releasing stuff they liked, doing it in a fun way – and releasing rather super merch (tea-cups, coats and polos)

And now – operating an indie label of my very co-own, it is with great love, thanks and praise indeed that I’d like to wish all at Fierce Panda a very happy fifteenth birthday. Whether they can continue to be the behemoth of great indie talent that they were after 15 years hard slog, who knows, but for me – and I imagine a whole swathe of kids who grew up in my generation – it’s “Panda for life”… Or so I once scrawled on the toilet wall of the Coventry Collosseum after a particularly epic Llama Farmer’s set anyway