The Captains' Table

Album Launch - 9th November @ The Lexington

2011-10-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

Buy tickets here

Shooting the new video for Little Joanne in Southend

2011-09-28T02:33:00.000-07:00

Last Monday we shot a video for the single Little Joanne with director Matt Reed. I think it's going to be a beauty.
Many thanks to Adam and the very photogenic Jasper!

The single will be coming out in early November as a digital release with Stolen Recordings and on vinyl 7 inch with Trash Aesthetics Records. It will be a hand screen printed limited edition split pressing with the band H. Hawkline.
You can get more info and buy tickets to the launch party here;

http://www.servantjazzquarters.com/events/trash-aesthetics-presents-its-latest-release-hhawkline-‘you-say-you-love-me’-my-sad-captains-

Resolutions Jam

2011-09-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

Gig Photos

2011-09-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

Spike Island and White Heat

2011-07-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

We have been busy playing gigs over the last couple of weeks.
My highlight was performing at the opening of Richard T. Walker's new show in Spike Island in Bristol.
It's a beautiful installation and well worth checking out next time you're out west.....

Dan setting up his all new log fire for our on stage pyrotechnic display.

We then played a really fun night at Soho's White Heat. Here are a few shots from behind the scenes.

Fold Gallery / The Homefront Pt. II

2011-05-24T04:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who came to one of our gigs last week. Conquering Animal Sound at the Social were especially good.

We are playing a special show at the Fold Gallery in London Fields on Bank Holiday Monday next week. Here is the Facebook event page, if you are so inclined. The gig is part of the Primitive Accumulation show at the gallery, which Dan is curating and features his work as well as Nick's.

We have also made a new song, The Homefront pt. II, available as a free download. You can read all about it, watch the video, and listen/download via Saatchi Online. It's also up as Song of the Day with some kind words over at The Line of Best Fit. You can also watch the video, made by Dan, below.

Shooting the new video for Orienteers

2011-05-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Moving between Canvey Island, Southend on Sea and Dungeness (Britain's only recognised desert) with two fantastic directors James Morton Hayworth and Charlotte Butcher we dodged quick sand, security guards and sun stroke to record our new vid. This will be unleashed some time in June. Big thanks to Izzy and Zoe for pitching in.

ILL FIT @ the social

2011-04-29T01:13:00.000-07:00

New song for Record Store Day

2011-04-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

The first new song to see the light of day from our new album is called 'The Homefront', and it's out on Saturday on a new compilation Stolen Recordings are putting out for Record Store Day.

It's very limited, very good, and involves a trip to your local independent record retailer. More details over at the Stolen site, and that's the artwork up there.

Album out later in the year, details coming soon people.

Tape Op

2011-02-23T05:28:00.000-08:00

Goodnight vienna

2011-01-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some new drawings. All based on various things I have seen in and around Vienna.

As well as playing in my sad captains, I also make paintings. While we wait for our new album to be mastered and plan the mother of all release campaigns I was offered a residency in Vienna. Three months to hang out and make art sounded good.... so here I am..... I thought I would post some photos of what I have been up to for the last few weeks.

Nick

A photo I found of an old Viennese shop called Herzmansky.... what a beauty.

A photo I took while out on a walk in one of Vienna's parks. A gigantic relic from the darker days.

a nice Austrian girl reading the paper.

A ver tasty cake.

Finally, one last drawing.

mixing done...

2010-12-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

...sounding pretty ace. here's larry:

real time mixing

2010-12-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

Pic courtesy of Larry Crane, mixing our album at Jackpot! in Portland, OR. This shit's happening right now...

Nick and Dan at boat gig

2010-12-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

Oh! Inverted World Boat Party w/Superhumanoids next Wednesday

2010-11-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

Recording in Cornwall

2010-10-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

We spent the last 10 days recording our new album in a barn in Cornwall.

Here are some pics.

MSC playing at Seraphina album launch

2010-09-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

Bella Union Stage @ Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park

2010-08-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

new LG

2010-08-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

jim is putting out a new looking glass ep, details at www.lookingglasshq.com

you can download a song for free and pre-order etc. or you can get your mitts on one if you come to the launch gig TONIGHT at the flowerpot in kentish town:

www.flowerpotlondon.com

Plus, Phil Goss has possibly even surpassed his own high standards with the artwork above.

"you talk all night" round up

2010-06-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

here are some of the people who hosted and said nice things about "you talk all night" recently:

British Sea Power present Sing Ye From The Hillsides! @ The Tan Hill Inn

2010-05-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

new video for 'you talk all night'

2010-04-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

We have a new video for 'you talk all night' and we are giving the song away as a free download from bandcamp. More details over here.

first london show in six months

2010-04-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

no news is good news

2010-04-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

we've been maintaining a pretty rigourous radio silence of late, which to some might suggest a lack of activity. this would be a mistake. we decided at the end of last year that we didn't want to work out how to play all the new songs we had been collecting, but instead it would be more interesting to record them and figure them out that way.

i think this was a good call and we've nearly finished demoing a bunch of songs that we are all feeling very excited about. i had what sounds like a simple and obvious aim but is often easy to lose sight of in practice: to make some songs that i want to listen to. the last record was a collection of songs 'honed' over a period of years; they were written, played at gigs, practiced to within an inch of their lives, and only then recorded. this time, we wanted to just record them, let them breathe and not worry about whether any one is going to talk all the way through them or clap at the end. just try and make some music that sounds good to our ears and makes us happy. and so this is what we've done. we are now going to live with them for a bit and then decide what to do.

but we're are getting back on the gig horse in may, so you can hear what we've been up to - at the British Sea Power shindig in north Yorkshire, and at our guitar player Nick's show at a gallery in London. Details on our myspace.

i've done a playlist...

2009-10-23T05:05:00.001-07:00

...for this here website.

looking glass album out now

2009-10-22T05:31:00.000-07:00

so we did the looking glass album launch this week, which went pretty well i thought, apart from: jack telling me i had "drum face"; nick and jack's dj set/the evening's music being prematurely curtailed after nick got into a petulent stand-off with the bar man over the volume control.

details on how to get hold of jim's excellent looking glass record can be found on his blog.

poster ist rad

2009-10-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

reading matter

2009-10-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

there is an interview i did with the dumbing of america website here

on numbers

2009-10-15T04:57:00.000-07:00

anyone who saw us at our white light gig the other week or who sees us on our upcoming tour will be aware that we are now trading as a four piece. i thought a little bit of information was in order about how we got here and what happens next.

so obviously cathy was in the band, and on the album, but then committments with the fanfarlos became a bit onerous with us both having albums out, so we decided to get our good friend juliet to play with us instead. this worked out very well, and a better and more lovely lucas replacement could not have been wished for. but time rolls on, and juliet has gone off to become an advanced brainiac in a learned institution, and so we decided it might be fun and productive to go back to four like in the old days.

apart from the negative effects on the gender equality of the stolen roster and indie rock in general, this is working out well. our first show felt like genuine progress, and we are at a stage where we have lots of new songs and are figuring out what the next record will sound like, so it seems a timely shake up. we'll see how it all goes.

onwards and upwards.

tour

2009-10-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

we've been rightly criticised for our failure to make it outside the M25 in any sustained kind of way, so have been taking steps to make amends. we have a tour, which will wend its way around the country in a slightly haphazard way: starting from this saturday, 17th, in windsor and then more consistently for a week or so from 28th in chelmsford, before finishing with a few dates in december.

we're going to have all kinds of merch goodies at the shows - more details about this and the full schedule on our myspace.

hello bears demo

2009-10-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

here is an early demo i did back in the day of hello bears, which i just came across on my computer. it's kind of the same but different:

listen

next gig is soon

2009-09-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

we are playing at white light at the lexington on Friday 2nd October. we are headlining, and also playing are the totally ace Stolen Recordings folk Hot Silk Pockets, plus our Italian chums A Classic Education. can't find a link for tickets at present; will update if i do. otherwise, just turn up.

point of interest: this will be our first gig in many years as a 4-piece...i won't spoil the surprise by saying who won't be there.

so come and check out a potential car crash. actually, it will be great...

After that we are heading out on a bit of a tour which is starting to come together nicely - details over at myspace

s'all for now.

free songs

2009-08-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

seems there has been a slight balls up somewhere along the way with actually making the b sides to ghost song (out now, review here) available free. it's a bureacratic itunes technical thingy that i can't fathom, but it is being rectified. we weren't lying about the whole thing though, just to clear that up.

but, despite all this, the songs are available free from the stolen shop, so follow the link below to download ghost song and get the whole shebang:

http://www.stolenrecordings.co.uk/merchandise/ghost_song/index.html

sorry to anyone that has been struggling with this.

and we are playing an instore at puregroove at 730pm tomorrow (26th)...

buy one, get five free

2009-08-05T00:58:00.000-07:00

we are releasing 'ghost song' as a download only single on 24th august. it's off the album so if you've got that you've heard it already, so no need to bother, right? wrong.

when you download it you also get five new songs, for free. these are songs that we didn't get finished up in time to put on the record but we liked a lot and didn't want to just leave hanging around. they fit together well with 'ghost song' and make a coherent little EP of bedroom pop songs. we recorded them ourselves, mostly after we were done with the record proper, and then had a mad one week dash to get them finished in time for inclusion on the single.

there is more lovely artwork from phil and nick up there. tracklisting is as follows:

1. ghost song

2. boy, you'll go far

3. told you so

4. ebb and flow

5. made your mark

6. a change of scenery (demo)

(slight caveat - you only get all of them if get if off itunes. users of other download merchants only get the first 4. this, apparently, is just the way it goes. but apologies to anyone with technical/political difficulties with itunes.)

we've got some shows around the release of this, at white heat and puregroove - dates and details over on our myspace.

xfm

2009-07-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

we recorded a session for john kennedy which is going out this week. and you can listen to me me me talking to john tomorrow (tuesday) evening...

rough trade album club this month...

2009-07-07T02:36:00.000-07:00

just got back from 'tour'

2009-06-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

here is my three word review of each of the main events:

*marc riley session - didn't embarrass ourselves

*gig at manchester roadhouse - really, really shit

*gig at the flapper in birmingham - fun, fun, fun

gonna try and post the 6 music tracks, as they seem to sound pretty good.

track by track

2009-06-16T07:01:00.001-07:00

there is a track-by-track guide thingy that i did for the website 'this is fake DIY' that you can read here

thank you...

2009-06-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

...to everyone who came to the album launch last night. it was a really good night for us and lovely to see so many people there, particularly all our friends. we appreciate it big time. x

album out today

2009-06-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

get get get

album launch...

2009-06-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Cathy's gonna be djing too.
click on the flyer for tickets - they're going like the proverbial.

new sounds

2009-05-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

We've just put some new songs on our myspace.

There is our new single 'good to go': our friends henna, ailsa and dan made us a video that you can watch.

Also there is 'you talk all night', which is probably our collective favourite on the record, and an early demo of 'a change of scenery'. To protect jim's rep in the harsh world of the drumming community i should point out that the reason that the drums are a bit shaky on this is because they was done by me.

must do better

2009-04-22T03:08:00.000-07:00

so have been a bit quiet on the blog front of late. i know this blogging thing needs updates and it's all been a bit functional so far...

been lots going on though: played at record store day at rough trade east, which was fun and really good to be part of, and i irritated everyone by going on about getting the beck/sonik youth split 7"; and now its all systems go for next single 'good to go' and the album.

got a gig tonight playing with our friends 'a classic education' at their single launch - hear here

then on wednesday we are playing at the flowerpot, a new place in kentish town, which seems really good. they have had the good idea of just having one band and a dj per night which, if you like the band and dj, should work pretty well.

i'm gonna get better at this blogging thing, so more updates to follow and will try and put some songs and other fun stuff on here too...

a change of scenery

2009-04-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

so, our new single 'a change of scenery' is out today on stolen recordings. it's download only and you can get it at:

itunes or the stolen shop

to try before you buy, watch the video

we have two gigs this week in celebration: one on wednesday 8th supporting ex-pavement drummer steve west's band marble valley at the luminaire - tickets here (also on the bill are the excellent italians a classic education); and a single launch party at the old blue last on thursday 9th - details here

another show at sxsw

2009-03-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

i was incredibly vague about the details of our next show at sxsw at our show last night, so for anyone that's interested here are the details on a nice flyer we just got sent. we are on at 5 on the saturday (a classic education are on before that day at 415, and fanfarlo too at 3).

stolen showcase at sxsw

2009-03-13T07:28:00.001-07:00

next gig (after texas)

2009-03-12T15:05:00.001-07:00

here & elsewhere

2009-03-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

i'm going to try and avoid just posting stuff that's already on our myspace here, but just as catch-up, our album is all done and being released so thought it worth mentioning the details...

it's coming out on stolen recordings, which we are really excited about because they've put out loads of great stuff and are on the same page as us in terms of how they see the world and our music.

we recorded the album mostly over the last summer - in north london at random colours with paul jones - but it took us a while to finish up/tweak/varnish etc, and then sort out who was going to put it out and how, hence the fact that it's not coming out until summer.

but coming out it is. in may. it's called "here & elsewhere" and this is the tracklisting:

1. great expectations

2. the sum total of everything

3. good to go

4. hello bears

5. here and elsewhere

6. troika

7. you talk all night

8. ghost song

9. bad decisions

10. all hat and no plans

11. building blocks

12. a change of scenery

we are pretty pleased with how it turned out, having not been particularly satisfied with how our recordings have sounded in the past. not that we don't like them, but we never thought they sounded like the kind of band we thought we were. these do, so we can happily put the record out into the big wide world and see what happens.

new news

2009-03-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

we've added new songs over at our myspace one of which is our new single 'a change of scenery'. it's only coming out digitally but that's artwork above. there is also a video here

6th april is the day.

hello

2009-03-06T01:27:00.000-08:00

this is going to be an experiment in whether we can actually keep updating a blog to the extent that it becomes worthwhile. we (my sad captains) have various things going on from now on that may or may not turn out to be worth communicating to the wider world - sxsw, our first record etc - and our website has been dead for some time and is too fiddly and difficult to resuscitate, so thought we'd give the blog thing a try.