NME rate Alcopopular 3 the ‘coolest compilation ever’

Nothing like a proud, grainy photo to cheer a Monday morning (Must remember to get a phone without a crappy camera) – and it is with great pleasure I can announce that the cheeky little bottle compilation ‘Alcopopular 3’ has been covered by music rag NME this week.

Nestled in next to some Adidas sneaks (that look a touch dull in truth), a nice King Blues T-Shirt and a waterproof video camera (?!) on page 64 – you won’t be able to read the text from the image below, but it goes a little something like this…

‘Proving that music can still be presented in interesting ways, labels like Alcopop are keeping homegrown UK music alive. This compilation comes in a bottle – the included treasure map ends with a code so you can download the likes of PABH, The Computers and Unicorn Kid. Which makes it the coolest compilation ever.’

Nice stuff NME and specifically pensman Ben Patashnik – cheers for that.

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!

We Move out today – This City single available!

Coming to the end of a pretty bangin’ UK tour – with a show at London Barfly tomorrow (congratulations to Niall and Thomas who won pairs of tickets by the way) – it’s good news for us at Alcopop Records, as today sees Brighton rockers This City release limited edition 7” (to 500) single ‘We Move’… Today!

Full of the kind of heavy disco-based rhythms that have made the boys such a favourite with the likes of Kerrang, NME, Radio 1, XFM and all the other hip places that have taken them to heart – we’re lucky enough to be working with them now before they hit unimaginable heights!

You can get the vinyl from the band when they play live (best), direct from us (awesome), or from any good record shop or your favourite digital music retailer (still bloody ace – you have magnificent taste), and add something a bit sexy to your record (or MP3) collection…

Meanwhile, any internet savvy types may have noticed that Sam Isaac has been somewhat dominating the blogosphere this week, with a whole heap of blogs getting involved with the awesome remixes crafted by James Yuell and Rod Thomas. MP3 Hugger, Zombie Attack, Alter the Press, indierocker.net are just some of the gents in the know.

Also, exciting news to come in the next few days as Alcopop have signed one of THE hottest properties right now, to release his [a gender-based clue there] debut single before the end of the year… Oh, and I’m currently in some form of musical infatuation (as if I wasn’t already) with Andrew WK – whose gig on Saturday was magnificent, and saw me pop backstage to talk to great man himself, and be gifted with a number of his beers. What a gent…

This City full page features in NME and Kerrang

Wow – this week has been a bloody good one for us, and the music-press buying public alike, as lovable tattooed Brighton rockers This City have had a big ‘ol full-page spread in not one – but two of the nations top rags. Discussing everything from ‘the band food game’ to how they met, they really are bloody great articles – and prove (if proof was needed) just why all at Alcopop HQ love them quite as much as we do.

The single ‘We Move’ (a fucking tour de force of a tune) can be pre-ordered now on very limited edition 7” vinyl (ltd to 500) – and is released on the 22^nd September. Check out the MySpace, or order from the shop.

Meanwhile – here’s that tasty press…

Pavilion and Ryan Jarman featured in the NME!

And not so much as a mention, but a bloody big piece, brought to you by those sometime enemies/mostly friends at Britains finest music rag. They loved Hush the Many (Heed the Few) and sometime Sam Isaac, and just look at this handsome write up of Alcopop’s newest favourites from the Wakefield scene. Pictured with Cribs frontman Ryan Jarman who is producing the debut single in Edwyn Collin’s studio, it’s all sounding like there’s a fantastic production relationship going on in the Pavilion camp – and having heard the single, I can cast-iron, guarantee promise it WILL be one of your feel-good hits of the summer.

“We love Ryan’s ethos – we think alike, so it’s hard not to share ideas. Otherwise we wouldn’t get on.” True that!

Cast your eyes below to see a copy of the article, but it might be worth commandeering a microscope, magnifying glass or laser eye surgery from somewhere first – because flickr has painfully rendered the image a good half of the dimensions of the original, and for the life of me I can’t get the bloody thing resized.

Hush the Many’s Revolve out today – and Coleen wants my hair

Quite a bizarre meeting of minds this weekend as I flitted about the Bristol town occurred – as I was approached by two researchers from some TV station offering me a job as a hair model on a show they were involved in… Apparently a ‘bloke’ version of Coleen McLoughlin’s Real Women – it all sounded OK, other than the obviously charisma-less beau of Wayne Rooney’s involvement, and upon further inspection it seemed that they were offering upto (hmmm – that magic word ‘upto’) £1000 a day for filming.

But then disaster, and as they continued excitedly, the realisation hit in that I’d have to put my hair up for chopping, styling and generally ruining by some trained ITV2 monkey, trying to make me look hip. So I did the only sensible thing, and bailed… Still, hair modelling sounds quite good – and if it wasn’t for the cutting I would have been well in – so Armani/ CK… if you’re reading

Anyway – more importantly than my hair (yes… Really!), today see’s the official launch of Revolve by Hush the Many (Heed the Few) – a wonderful record, and one you really should have ordered, or donloaded from itunes via the button below… If you haven’t though – fear not – and do it now… You won’t be dissapointed, as these others weren’t!

“HTMHTF blend aggression and beauty in unique fashion, hitting like a bolt of lightning across a barren landscape. The Revolve-lution starts here. 4/5” – Daily Mirror

“Overly pretty strings and lilting harmonies. ‘Revolve’ is the kind of power-goth love song that Tom Editors will put on when he gets down on one knee and makes an honest woman out of Edith Bowman” – NME

“A glorious, effervescent rush to the head, arch and poised yet with an unflinching sentimentality, HTM Deserve your attention NOW” – Subba-Cultcha

“For those looking for the next Arcade Fire or Get Cape, you’d do well to listen up” – Gigwise

Hush the Many (Heed the Few) review in NME

Another Tuesday, and another great review for Hush the Many (Heed the Few) – and this time it’s the NME rising unsteadily from the Alcopop bed – all cheeks flushed red, utterly spent and clutching a bottle of something that may, in a few years time, seriously rot teeth. Of course (much like this post) it takes them a while to get to the point, even thought the whole review is less than 100 words long (they’re nattering on about lemurs or something) – but do feast your eyes on the entire happy summary below…

And pre-order the very limited (to 500) 7” single here…

Stop Press: NME now love Sam Isaac

Awwww, just two months ago he was “edging them closer to slumber with a relatively inoffensive ditty….. zzzzzzzz“, but the good tug Sam Isaac seems now to have steadied the NME battlecruiser – and is setting their stereo alight! About time too… and tequila without the messiness sounds bloody brilliant, although i prefer a good bottle of Captain Morgans really! All good news – and coupled with his mountains of Radio 1 play, it seems that Sam is beginning to make thems in the know sit up and take notice. Go and take a listen to his new single (coming out soon on Another Music = Another Kitchen) or buy his single, released on Alcopop, – Sideways.

Go Faster to release on Alcopop

After being soaked in a freak Oxfordshire hailstorm, i kid you not, fumbling with mouse buttons that refuse to click on anything they are supposed too and resorting to a bottle of (very poor) Orchard Mill Medium Dry cider that isn’t sitting well on the Jack POP palette – I am still a much delighted young man! That’s because I can proudly announce the next Alcopop release – Flammable Leisurewear by scouse champs ‘Go Faster’, who – are not only some of the nicest lads you could ever hope to meet, but purveyors of the finest pop this side of the murky Mersey (although they are s**t at table football – Alcopop 3 Go faster 0 *ahem*).

Formed in the summer of 2006 in Liverpool to write pop songs about rubbish jobs, daytime television and STD’s, Go Faster have toured a sell-out UK tour with The Wombats, been championed by Steve Lamacq (Radio1, Radio 6) and John Kennedy (XFM) and been described as “Brilliant new wave punk” by the NME. Releasing their new limited edition single on Feb 11th through Alcopop with matchbook artwork designed by Paul Rafferty of Hot Club de Paris, there will be a a special (1 of 100) tracksuit sleeve on 7″ with accompanying CD (available soon)…. A vivacious indie anthem all about their home town.

On the ‘Boss Pop’ tour with Elle s’apelle throughout February, be sure to check out the listings of your nearest Barfly. Oh, and there’s plenty of dates coming up before that too! Meanwhile, have a listen to them over on MySpace

15 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly w/ Elle s’appelle (14+)	Liverpool
16 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly w/ Elle s’appelle (18+)	Glasgow
17 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Drummonds w/ Elle s’appelle (14+)	Aberdeen
18 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly Fibbers w/ Elle s’appelle (15+)	York
19 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly w/ Elle s’appelle, Sunset Cinema Club (14+)	Birmingham
20 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly w/ Elle s’appelle (14+)	Cardiff
21 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Barfly w/ Elle s’appelle (18+)	Brighton
22 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! The Fly w/ Elle s’appelle (18+)	London
23 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Long Live Rock n’ Roll w/ Elle s’appelle	Southampton
24 Feb 2008 20:00	BOSS POP TOUR! Jericho Tavern w/ Elle s’appelle	Oxford

Sam Isaac in the NME

Fresh to press, and still warm as it slipped on to the shelves of every WH Smiths, Borders and scrubby newsagent across the land – Alcopop’s grubby fingers were soon excitedly flicking through the pages of the NME. Why so eager? Well, with the promise of a Sam Isaac review lurking within, and the fragile musical minds of expectant kids ready to be impressed upon – ’twas an important day…

And there it was. Not entirely to plan, but there nonetheless. So, disagreeing with the likes of Whiley, Lowe, Lamacq and Stephens – they gave Sam (and Malvern) this rather dissapointing review… Well I shall say no more (I think it’s probably unwise for the industry seedling of Alcopop! to go slagging off the in-print bastion of British Music), but in the words of Help She Can’t Swim – what would Morrisey say?