Ex Libris Records

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Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

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Producers Blog
Ex Libris Producer and one half of Ex Libris talks about goings on, in the studio and out.

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Producers Blog
Ex Libris Producer and one half of Ex Libris talks about goings on, in the studio and out.

Twitter
Ex Libris Producer and one half of Ex Libris talks about goings on, in the studio and out.

Read

Producers Blog
Ex Libris Producer and one half of Ex Libris talks about goings on, in the studio and out.

Read

Aarons Webcast

Aaron Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast 2010 Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast 2010 Part 2 Listen Download

Aarons Webcast

Aaron Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast 2010 Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast 2010 Part 2 Listen Download

Aarons Webcast

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Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Streams of the McMullan webcast.

Ex Libris Podcast #4 - Aaron Mcmullan. by Unimbued on Mixcloud

Ex Libris Podcast #4 - Aaron Mcmullan (Pt.2) by Unimbued on Mixcloud

weallhavelike,,,,SUPERlongtermboyfriends

s h tks ff ll yr clths.

As I gaze upon the River Neckar…

MA demo - Wooden Ships-esque.

In future we’re going to record all our songs through the dictaphone.

All in August, all on a Friday.

My Attorney - Friday 6th August 2010, The Cumberland Arms, supporting Les Cox (Sportifs), Pale Man Made, Johnny Valentine & Girls Girls Girls.

Blue Screem of Death - Friday 13th August 2010, London, supporting Girls Girls Girls & The Incisors.

Future Loss - Friday 27th August, Lavery’s Bunker, Belfast supporting Shin Jin Rui & indie club night.

2009 - 2010 Company Accounts.

Girls Girls Girls LP3 - session #4.

MA LP2 Production Blog - Stardate 301point4seven2.

BSOD recruit new member shocker.

After things fell off the roof of my car, and we chased VW vans with blacked-out windows on the M5, it was only a matter of time before Ryan H. Fleming was recruited into Blue Screem, and made to play drums on record after three minutes. The session was conducted at Ginger Music Company in Pelaw - the place where I completed my Logic exams. I was playing through a reconditioned vintage Ampeg fan-driven amp, Luke similarly was playing through the studio owner’s own vintage Marshall valve rig. It marked the start of my ambitions to give BSOD a proper recording set up in terms of where the mics go, rather than putting them all in the bass drum as we’ve done in the past. This allows the music to be heard properly. In the same session we did “Your Cock’s Too Big” and the new composition “I Dun A Murrderr, Gwannie”.

Ex Libris Records Presents… Chronicity, Future Loss & Education Education Education @ The Cumberland Arms - 21/05/10.

Education were a hot sweat of noise, deafening the audience. Their new drummer brought urgency to their music that lifted all of the songs immeasurably, and Paul Emmett’s vocals were for once audible; revealing odd mantra-like lyrics and playing the ultimate art school foil to the bludgeoning guitar and bass.

Future Loss were all about the process. Gone was the momentous event of the debut gig, replaced with the sturdy reassuring feeling of being on a journey forwards now. The first half of the set was nervous, with This Is A Crash sounding particularly ropey. But after the audience was invited to stand closer to the front of the stage, something primal took over. A gritty little pearl of adrenalin and fury had to be coaxed out of the last two songs, and through a combination of well-rehearsed structures and free form thrash outs, we got there. There is freedom in walking that tightrope of control.

Brian and I are keen to start pushing the envelope now; it’s reassuring to know we can play the noise card with some assurance now. The next step is counting, complexity and Chronicity. Brian visits in August to begin writing the second set of songs that will take us in this direction, ahead of our show in Belfast.

And as a side note: our rehearsal the night before the show was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with music ever. Four guys in a room, grinding out this racket, everyone locked in to this shared experience, no longer having to struggle to remember what happens next in the songs. James in particular was much more animated and aggressive in his playing. It was glorious; after a session like that the gig was purely a bonus.

“Welcome to the rehearsal,” said Chronicity front man Pete Dale as the band launched into their set. It was ragged at first, but grew with that intensity they have made their own. A large part of this was fueled by the new material; an exciting sign that the band is creatively active once more.

The night somehow managed to break even, by £3. An outstanding success considering the line up issues and lack of proper promotion. The My Attorney show in August will hopefully be less precarious during the run up.

ATP curated by Pavement, Minehead, 14th - 16th May 2010.

ATP was the usual surreal mixture of holiday atmosphere, life-changing musical experiences, and impromptu meetings with one’s artistic heroes. I had only been watching bands for half an hour before engaging Nigel Godrich in stilted conversation.

Wooden Ships deployed a hypnotic and necessary performance after underwhelming acts such as Broken Social Scene and Mission of Burma. Later, dancing and getting the driving out of the system.

Saturday was sunshine, beaches and breakfasts on the main street, followed by the most compelling set I’ve ever seen by Boris. Their mixture of Guitar Hero cut scenes and 80’s hair metal references had been lost in translation, and then extrapolated to the nth degree. Their performance was dramatic, inspiring and physically overwhelming.

Pavement’s performance was all about the beer, chips and the audience. They band was just the MacGuffin to get us all there, in the state we were in.

By Sunday, The Fall appeared to act as examples of how far you can go with a little courage and not much else besides.

Their third encore happened after almost everyone had left the main stage; the house lights were on and the tannoy music was playing, and then… suddenly Smith was back on stage for a frenetic Sparta FC. That’s the first mosh pit I’ve been in for years..

Along the way were DJ sets by Stuart Braithwaite, free pints from Stuart Braithwaite, hugs from Bob Nastanovich and cameos from most of the Newcastle music scene. And the most far out adventures amongst the flower beds and tidal waves of Butlins. To be recommended.

Ex Libris Records Presents…

Chronicity, No Fit State & Future Loss - live @ The Cumberland Arms, Friday 21st May 2010.

Cue panic door-to-door glad handling, in attempt to drum up what those in the industry call “an audience”. Four posters in Heaton Perk coffee shop alone is deemed “a must” by shaking, over-caffeinated promoter.

Ex Libris Records Presents…

Chronicity, No Fit State & Future Loss - live @ The Cumberland Arms, Friday 21st May 2010.

Cue panic door-to-door glad handling, in attempt to drum up what those in the industry call “an audience”. Four posters in Heaton Perk coffee shop alone is deemed “a must” by shaking, over-caffeinated promoter.

The white board, circa May 2010.

There are folders in the doors of big folders.

Darren Hayman - live @ The Star & Shadow Cinema, 02/05/10.

A credit to Luke’s hard work: the gig pre-sold seventy tickets prior to doors opening, and later sold out completely. Darren later emailed to say that this was the best night of the tour; we’ll see him again later in the year when he sets out alone to promote his forthcoming piano album.

Darren Hayman - live @ The Star & Shadow Cinema, 02/05/10.

A credit to Luke’s hard work: the gig pre-sold seventy tickets prior to doors opening, and later sold out completely. Darren later emailed to say that this was the best night of the tour; we’ll see him again later in the year when he sets out alone to promote his forthcoming piano album.

Carla Bozulich live @ The Culture Labs, 01/05/10.

Dark, twisted and thoroughly dramatic; Carla Bozulich tried to untie my shoe during the penultimate song and then shouted crazily “too many fucking KNOTS!” before dragging me across the room in my plastic bucket chair. Other members of the audience were stroked, dived at and wrapped in wires. Yet another success from the CST stable.

Cath & Phil Tyler launch sophomore album - 01/05/10.

Another of the sonic offspring from last year is birthed into the world. Felt very proud of the guys; ‘The Hind Wheels of Bad Luck’ is available to purchase here.

My Attorney - live @ The Star & Shadow Cinema, supporting Darren Hayman.

With thanks, as always, to our taper Elodie Roy.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- My Attorney (live) - 02/05/10.

April 2010

My Attorney supports Darren Hayman from Hefner at the Star & Shadow Cinema on Sunday 2nd May 2010. In preparation for the show they played two gigs during April; one as a four piece with Alex Hall on drums at The Masked Ball, another supporting London laptronica band Toodar on the Newcastle leg of their tour. The latter date marked the first time the band performed as a five-piece, with Sophie Robinson joining the group on keys, percussion and vocals. Things are currently very much a work in progress; our songs have yet to sprout legs and walk unassisted. But the potential of where things could end up is exciting; which might be somewhere between John Hughes and David Lynch if either of them were ever to play in a pop band together.

This show also marked the second liver performance of Blue Screem of Death, and the first with their dizzy drummer. We felt that it was at least 50% okay, even if everything broke and the performance of Painkillers was the longest six minutes of our lives.

The Girls visited for a third time to track another three songs for their third studio album. The final session will be held in June. It was another hard working effort from the lads; recording commenced on Saturday morning at 8:30am and ran right through until the trumpet overdubs were done the following Sunday afternoon.

Aaron McMullan was in residence for a weekend to record a webcast and demo songs for his new album. The atmosphere in the rehearsal space was magic, as everyone from Shin Jin Rui to Blue Screem chipped in with their own performances, while Aaron curated a playlist that ranged from The Pogues to Crystal Castles, not to mention reading extracts from his novel and Dessie Murray YouTube clips. There were live previews of material that will make up his sophomore LP ‘Angus’, as well as an intense and crucial discussion about Jean Claude Van Damme. Below is a brief fragment from Sunday’s demo sessions, where an unfinished scrap of a song is sketched out for future reference.

April also saw the completion of my Apple Certified Logic class, after sitting the beginners 101 session at the end of January. I was taught this time by John Moores, the most senior Logic trainer in Europe, and his off-topic explanations of some of the hidden features of Logic 9 were mind blowing.

The exam was sat after a steady five days researching the software at the Northern School of Sound music labs; I passed by the skin of my teeth in what has been the most challenging qualification I’ve ever undertaken, History BA (Hons) included. And far more useful too.

Ex Libris Webcast No. 4, curated by Aaron McMullan.

This will eventually be available to stream from the website, but in the meantime you can download the whole broadcast here.

Pendulum drummer.

Blue Screem of Death - live at The Head of Steam, Sunday 28th February 2010.

After the blow of hearing that our drummer, Andy Warmington, would be unable to play the gig on account of crippling labyrinthitis, we were in two minds as to whether to go ahead with the show or not. In the end, we stuck to our guns, cut three songs from the setlist, loaded up two car loads of gear and headed off to the venue.

The inevitable panic of exploding wires, missing kettle leads and truly abysmal sound checking performances thus ensued; shaking our confidence to the very core. This was compounded by the obvious quality on display from Dressed In Wires and Onoma, who looked on at our rehearsal of ‘Fuck Buddy’ with a mixture of horror and disinterest. Luke considered doing a runner. I would definitely have done a runner if I hadn’t lugged two car loads of gear to the venue. Our equipment is our collateral against stage fright.

I was surprised to see that the show was well attended for a barely advertised Sunday night gig at the Head of Steam (possibly the most low key night one can programme a show for). The noise hardcore were present and correct for DiW’s set; a truly remarkable and punishing tour de force of ultimate sound collision. Quite simply the best I’ve seen Simon play, which is saying something considering previous performances. He was to be found later in the evening hawking his limited edition DVD by the door. Only five copies have been pressed, and they are £170 each. An audacious move; one I think that is intended to place his work more in the context of an art gallery installation or painting. Despite this he still managed to leave three of them sitting on the bar in a Maplin’s bag.

Onoma played a much more beats-orientated set, with less punishment on the ear drums and more use of omnichord, vocoder and synthesiser. I felt they could have played longer, as it was building up towards something really satisfying, but the duo decided they had pushed their ailing computers as far as they dared.

Much of the audience left at this point, easing Blue Screem’s nerves considerably. We began with ‘Money’, which was riddled with mistakes from me, but the conviction of Luke’s vocal carried us through to a feedback, noise groaning climax. ‘I Want To Die’ was another nervy performance from me, but previous shows with Attorney and Loss have taught me to force myself to get into the songs, and enjoy the process no matter how many mistakes are made. We managed to end this one perfectly, which I think gave us a lot more confidence going into ‘Cock’s Too Big’, a song that has more equipment and setting changes than any other. Luke was throwing sheets of paper with knob schematics around, I was plugging and unplugging basses, kaoss pads and amplifiers in a frenzy, leaving the stage a confusion of wires and instruments. We managed to start the song relatively swiftly however, and this was for me the highlight of the set; when noise and performance dovetailed to produce something that we had worked hard at to get right. ‘Painkillers’ followed, with the happy accident of one of the microphones feeding back slightly though a vocal effects pedal to create a haunting, hooting ambience. The sample of “Sophie, will you marry me?” was thankfully obscured from all (including Sophie, by now working the bar) by waves of delay. There then followed an improvised recital of the BBC Maritime Shipping Forecast, with some odd high hat bits in the background, before launching into a hypnotic version of Shellac’s ‘Prayer To God’. This went especially well, despite my tom drum swinging in the breeze atop a mic stand a good two feet above the snare. We closed on ‘Old Salty Seadog’, in a suitably energetic fashion with the keyboard being smashed about a bit and all requests for an encore being flatly refused. Much to our surprise we seemed to have played the entire show mostly as planned.

There then followed the gargantuan task of packing everything up; special thanks to David Littlefair from O’Messy Life in helping us transport three amps, three guitars, three boxes of cabling, two PA speakers, one mixing desk and a plethora of pedals, effects units and samplers back to the Libris rehearsal space.

Upon reflection, Luke put it best when he said that the whole experience had been like “going to Chessington World of Adventures”, such were the highs and lows of putting on and playing a show at the same time.

Our EP is now finished, and was handed out to the audience throughout the evening, as well as some sales of Ryan H. Fleming’s two solo albums, which were played over the PA inbetween acts.

One off sessions.

You can take the girl out of Heaton but…

Rebecca Jones returned to the North East after a year of travelling in Asia, prompting discussions about her second album, and the Spanish Studio Idea.

On Wednesday, an impromptu visit from Ryan H. Fleming saw the following songs played at deafening volume on the Libris soundsystem:

one two three

Nathalie Stern is remixing a track for the new Necro Deathmort album, and on Thursday I helped extract the audio from her desk.

Now playing: Nathalie Stern

Friday saw Cath & Phil Tyler visit to record a Rudyard Kipling poem. The parents nailed it in one take, while Byron slumbered in my bed next door.

Now playing: Cath and Phil Tyler

Work on the solo project continues aimlessly in the background.

March gigs.

Grizzly Bear

Cath Tyler

Girls with swords

Blue Screem of Death back garden firework display

O’Messy Life

AV Festival 2010 - Sunderland Swimming Pool underwater gig

A rare opportunity to float about in a giant swimming pool, listening to ambient tones echo through the air, whilst below the water line clicks, bleeps and stereophonic birdsong whooshed past. Also quite disconcerting to see the great and the good of the Newcastle music scene in nothing but their swimming costumes. A unique experience; almost like wearing inner ear headphones, but with two feeds of sound travelling to the listener at different speeds. While trying to stay afloat.

Orange tape OCD overload.

Equipment at the Libris rehearsal space has now been fanatically covered in bright orange duck tape, to ensure we don’t lose any of it during our gigs out and about. Most people have reacted to this with concern, since the only things that haven’t been taped are the plectrums. And even then, it’s only a matter of time…

Mike & Solveig live @ The Polite Room, Newcastle - 01/03/10.

Having contacted Ex Libris over the summer about playing a show in Newcastle, Mike & Solveig were redirected to more folk-orientated promoters, on account of my declaration that “acoustic guitars now bring me out in a rash”. I liked their stuff, though; it was quirky and different. Two years ago we would have jumped at the chance to pair them with McMullan or Jones. So I was glad to hear they had secured the same venue as Nathalie Stern’s album launch: The Polite Room at The Tyneside Cinema, supporting Emily Portman.

In front of a packed audience they played some of the most original sounding folk music I’ve heard in some time: violin with guitar, banjo and glockenspiel, plenty of rich harmonies, time signature changes and odd tunings, with bonkers lyrics about howling at the moon, rolling around Berlin, and their favourite types of pasta. They duly went down a storm.

Afterwards, there was the customary insomniac convention at Libris Acres involving pints of white wine, pesto at seven in the morning and all the Fugazi albums.

Blue Screem of Death rehearsals - February ‘10.

Blue Screem of Death perform their first gig in public at The Head of Steam on Sunday 28th February 2010.

Preparations for the show have been hampered by numerous problems: Luke’s guitar requires a soldering iron in order for it to work, Andy requires crutches and a fixed spot on the wall to stare at lest he collapse, and the Casio keyboard must be kept very very still to ensure it doesn’t cut out during play. Dressed In Wires and Onoma will gallantly support us.

Below is an unplugged preview of our latest song ‘Fuck Buddy’.

Girls Girls Girls LP3 - session #2.

Ex Libris’ self-proclaimed Hardest Working Band™ arrived late on Friday evening for another intensive recording session.

I was keen to minimise the problems I had experienced with instrument bleed during the November meeting; and spent some time positioning the guitar amps away from the kit, and wrapping them in heavy carpet. Initial impressions from the playback suggests spill has been radically reduced.

Another massive improvement on the previous session was the presence of Adam Schofield’s Fender valve amplifier, coupled with Jeremy Williams brand new SG electric guitar. I’m not usually a gear-fetishist, but these two pieces of equipment seemed to dovetail especially well, creating a really warm, distinctive tone.

Four new songs were tracked, complete with accordion, keys, vocals and piano overdubs. The Girls will visit again in April for another session.

Shin Jin Rui overdubs, February 2010.

Have spent the last few days in subterranean depths, listening to Big Star, Wavves and Liars in the hope that their muse might visit my mixing desk. I also had another listen to ‘Zutiqua!’ and marveled at the guitar tones Ross Lewis had managed to capture.

Judging by the double tracking of acoustic guitars mic-ed up through drums, and arrangements that have in places abandoned percussion and bass guitar entirely; it’s unlikely that Shin Jin Rui’s follow up record will sound anything like their debut. Adam assures me this is part of the plan.

Completion of this LP is now quite close: we only have a few vocals and guitars to tidy up, along with cello, snippets of organ and some backing vocals.

To The Boats..!

Fronted by one-man cultural-vanguard Grilly, To The Boats..! formed in late 2007, under the nom du jour ‘bruised pligrim’ (later used as the title of their first album) and set about the London Band Scene with subtle aplomb.

With myriad influences bubbling under the surface and reacting to create something unique, TTB create a transgressive rock music chowder and feed it up to anyone who cares to wander by without pretension or attitude.

To The Boats..!

Fronted by one-man cultural-vanguard Grilly, To The Boats..! formed in late 2007, under the nom du jour ‘bruised pligrim’ (later used as the title of their first album) and set about the London Band Scene with subtle aplomb.

With myriad influences bubbling under the surface and reacting to create something unique, TTB create a transgressive rock music chowder and feed it up to anyone who cares to wander by without pretension or attitude.

tudor boast daisy change

My Attorney

To The Boats..! formed in late 2007 as ‘Bruised Pilgrim’,

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To The Boats..! Front Album Cover

A document of expansive comic prog-rock come folk come metal music not to be missed.

Listen & Buy HERE

Songs For Grilly Front Album Cover
Songs For Grilly is the sophomore effort from London gypsy punks Girls Girls Girls, and appears to be released through Ex Libris Records.

Go HERE

Grilly webcast online.

Please forgive the ramblings between songs; we had drunk a lot of coffee. The musical selections are impeccable, however. Listen here.

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Coffee and Grilly

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Please click here to listen.

Home Item 1

Coffee and Grilly

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Please click here to listen.

Home Item 1

Coffee and Grilly

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Please click here to listen.

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris Webcast #3.

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris Webcast #3.

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris Webcast #3.

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris Webcast #3.

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris W

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

Home Item 1

Coffee and Grilly

In the third of our themed webcasts, producer, DJ and musician Grilly joins Ex Libris in an antiques and coffee emporium in East London, for a selection of his favourite tunes and an in-depth interview. He discusses upcoming shows for his band To The Boats..! and gives a brief lecture on the nature of Grind Metal. Expect tracks from Napalm Death, Dildano and a rare version of the Knightmare theme tune among other gems.

Grilly Webcast 2010 Listen To All

Webcast Part 1 Listen Download
Webcast Part 2 Listen Download

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Darren Hayman (Hefner, The French) is coming back on the 2nd of May to the Star and Shadow.

Its a bank holiday special, more details to be announced but tickets can be bought in advance from we got tickets.

Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern

Darren Hayman (Hefner, The French) is coming back on the 2nd of May to the Star and Shadow.

Its a bank holiday special, more details to be announced but tickets can be bought in advance from we got tickets.

Darren Hayman & The Secondary Modern

Darren Hayman (Hefner, The French) is coming back on the 2nd of May to the Star and Shadow.

Its a bank holiday special, more details to be announced but tickets can be bought in advance from They will

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Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

XLRGIG012

Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

XLRGIG012

Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

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Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

The production blog has now been updated, spanning a year in the life of Libris, replete with media rich inserts and long discourses on 300Hz. Below is a selection of blips featured within the site.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Christmas Webcast 2009

In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings. We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer. So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Future Loss - live tapes.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Future Loss.

Elodie Roy of Applejack was good enough to tape Future Loss’ gig from a few weeks back; you can stream them from the box above, or download each track individually here. Click the circular icon by each track that contains a downward facing arrow, and the download dialogue box will open.

The cassette player was placed on the wooden floor of The Cumberland, so the bass guitar and drums are the most prominent instruments in the mix. You’ll just have to take my word for it: Brian’s guitar was deafening on the night. Next time we’ll tape the machine to the ceiling…

Lasso You guitar extract.

This reminded me of EVP.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

The production blog has now been updated, spanning a year in the life of Libris, replete with media rich inserts and long discourses on 300Hz. Below is a selection of blips featured within the site.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Our next show will be on Sunday 28th February 2010, featuring the live debut of Blue Screem of Death at The Head of Steam, Newcastle. Entry is £3, with support from Onoma and Dressed In Wires. More information here and from the poster below.

The production blog has now been updated, spanning a year in the life of Libris, replete with media rich inserts and long discourses on 300Hz. Below is a selection of blips featured within the site.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Blue Screem of Death - gig announcement.

Attractive Brute & Animal Grace extracts - 05/02/10.

Keep the curtains shut, don’t answer the phone. Work on Shin Jin Rui’s second album continues.

Nes Advantage (lost tapes) - Fugazi-esque No.1: In A Future World.

Future Loss - live @ The Cumberland Arms, 30/01/10.

Probably best summarised by the first thing Brian said to me as we came off stage: “If I never play another gig, then it’s okay.”

It felt as though five years’ worth of Carlsberg 5am frustration had fueled this fifteen minute apoplexy, in a sudden release that left us feeling calm and momentarily complete.

Began the show tripping up over myself as I flailed into the front row, turned to see Brian bashing his guitar to pieces. In keeping with our scrupulous rehearsals, we made very few mistakes. Amazing, when you consider the Irish Sea divided the band until just last Tuesday.

The set ended in wave upon wave of distortion and noise, whereupon I threw the Kaoss Pad around wildly as Brian spiked his guitar into the stage before hammering it on the top of his amplifier.

Alex and James were exceptional down in the engine room; and with the amplified drums the sound off the stage was tremendous. We now look forward to our next show with real hunger to push things further.

(Photos courtesy of Jazzy Lemon.)

Chronicity - live @ The Cumberland Arms, 30/01/10/

Still the best band in the North East by a country mile, and still the last to realise their considerable talent, Chronicity were on the brink of splitting earlier last year. After Saturday’s headline performance, they can no longer be unaware of the adulation this band carry on their slender set of seven songs.

Quite simply, Pete, Will, Cath and Phil ripped it up, playing with the kind of inspiration that has bands likes Future Loss scurrying back to the drawing board. During Elvis Prison Guard, frontman Pete Dale seemed to be inducing some kind of asthma attack as he double time strummed his Jazz Master, while Cath stood centre stage, Doc Martin boots placed firmly either side of her monitor, hammering at her Rickenbacker going through Big Muff distortion. Phil stood modestly to one side, head tucked into his chest as he worked away intricately, while Will went in opposite directions on the kit during the improvised sections, until he was called home for his dinner upon which he promptly snapped into place with tight, jazz-style beats.

The audience was left baying for more, but they had played all their songs. It was special to see the four of them on a stage again after such a long time apart; and to finally receive the kind of adulation they deserve. Expect Chronicity to play again at a Libris event soon.

Shin Jin Rui - live @ The Cumberland Arms, 30/01/10.

Still the most beguiling of Ex Libris bands, Shin Jin Rui’s live performances oscillate in strict adherence to the moods of its members.

Saturday evening found them in an exacting state; strong of voice and high in confidence, rattling off the pop numbers that will make up their sophomore release with aplomb.

They warmed the freezing room (James played bass in his ski jacket) and commanded increasingly more attention from the audience. Adam looked every inch the star in his denim jacket and obscure t-shirt; and Alex’s kit sounded great through the PA. Rui continue their post-hiatus return to form with startling pace.

Future Loss t-shirts - design process.

For some time now Brian and I have been interested in making Future Loss t-shirts that we can give to friends and sell at shows. Having considerable expertise in the area of print making, Brian has developed an idea based around swirling lines and chopped up tiles; the evolution of which you can see from an early concept (above), to end up with the finished piece (pictured below).

Future Loss practice session.

Musical tone and style is everything to a man like Brian, and here he can be seen in the midst of his tortured creative process.

On a more productive note, we managed to jam out a twenty minute piece that we hope to cut down into something more coherent. The new song begins with a repeated, shrill one-chord riff, over which delayed vocals echo randomly. The flow is occasionally interrupted by a stuttering series of chords, before heading into a more melodic section with sustained singing harmonising with the guitar. Finally, Brian takes to the drums as I hammer out some cathedral-sized chords on the organ.

Future Loss kitchen rehearsal.

In preparation for our January show, I met with the Shin Jin Rui rhythm section (Alex on drums, and James on bass) several times prior to our rendezvous with Brian, so that we could rehearse the songs without guitar.

When Brian arrived on Tuesday evening, we went straight into an electronic, headphone-only rehearsal using Alex’s MIDI drum kit and a quartet of headphones going through my mixer. After James and Alex had been properly introduced to Brian, we had a cup of tea from the adjacent kettle, and then got down to work. In a truly surreal moment, the first time we played together saw the song ‘She Shouldn’t’ go without a hitch. Dumbfounded at this victory over the Irish Sea, we continued until the set was complete.

It was very strange pulling off my headphones during a song, and hearing just the scratch of plectrums on guitar strings and the thump of Alex’s sticks on his pads; when compared to the all out noise in my headphones. Practicing in kitchens is underrated: you’re nearer the kettle and the cupboard with the biscuits in it.

Word Donor (live) - My Attorney.

One of the more ragged performances, but definite room here to hone this number into something really sharp. I particularly like Ian’s deranged drumming style, which Stuart seems more than happy to emulate at the end.

Missed Connection Room (live) - My Attorney.

With added delay, and Casio CA-20 on setting 04.

Capital City (live) - My Attorney.

Blue Screem Of Death Video Series

Once Weekly series of Death videos, released to a flurry of internet interest, these are the viral hits of the summer.

Actually these are usually the very first time we’ve p

MC Look Over Ya Shoulder

Richer Doors Unbroke your hard

Your Cocks Too Big

In the same way Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour was based on a true story, this is a song about stuff that actually happened. But we’re not sure when, where, or to whom, because 2005 was a bit of a blur to both of us and to be honest the lyric about “my breasts are keeping me awake at night” could quite reasonably apply to anyone watching this. Right?

Prayer To God (Shellac Cover)

The intrepid duo strip to the waist and oil themselves in moisturising granules, while performing Shellac’s Prayer To God. Stamping on broken glass not pictured.

I Want To Die

Another weekly installment of your favourite proto folk-punk-electronica-car crash live extravaganza.

Sad Girl

DOAS AKA BSOD AKA LAP + ATG perform their most recent composition: ‘Painkillers’, live from the Ribena stronghold. Also present are the facial characteristics of world class cricketers Panesar an…

Old Salty Seadog

Blue Screem of Death perform their latest love ballad, containing references to The Wire (series 2) and Jack Nicholson’s The Joker. Excitingly, this comes direct from our new rehearsal space where…

Money

From the band still referred to by 50% of its members as ‘Death Of A Salesman’, comes this chill out classic performed live in the crow’s nest of the Colerabbey Windmill & Chocolate Eclair Research…

Blue Screem Of Death Video Series

Once Weekly series of Death videos, released to a flurry of internet interest, these are the viral hits of the summer.

MC Look Over Ya Shoulder

Richer Doors Unbroke your hard

Your Cocks Too Big

In the same way Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour was based on a true story, this is a song about stuff that actually happened. But we’re not sure when, where, or to whom, because 2005 was a bit of a blur to both of us and to be honest the lyric about “my breasts are keeping me awake at night” could quite reasonably apply to anyone watching this. Right?

Prayer To God (Shellac Cover)

The intrepid duo strip to the waist and oil themselves in moisturising granules, while performing Shellac’s Prayer To God. Stamping on broken glass not pictured.

I Want To Die

Another weekly installment of your favourite proto folk-punk-electronica-car crash live extravaganza.

Sad Girl

DOAS AKA BSOD AKA LAP + ATG perform their most recent composition: ‘Painkillers’, live from the Ribena stronghold. Also present are the facial characteristics of world class cricketers Panesar an…

Old Salty Seadog

Blue Screem of Death perform their latest love ballad, containing references to The Wire (series 2) and Jack Nicholson’s The Joker. Excitingly, this comes direct from our new rehearsal space where…

Money

From the band still referred to by 50% of its members as ‘Death Of A Salesman’, comes this chill out classic performed live in the crow’s nest of the Colerabbey Windmill & Chocolate Eclair Research…

This Is A Crash - guide vocal.

Vivian Girls, live at The Cluny - 21/01/10.

The New York trio had a cohesive brilliance about them: each component of their sound was big, from the reverbed vocals to the resonant tom-based drums to the scuzz guitar that was thin as razor wire. But their skill lay in the economy they used in deploying these motifs, to create catchy surf-punk/pop gems that dripped a dreamy wistfulness. I was won over by the end of their first song.

When Adam informed me that the three goddesses would be residing at his house for the night, I quickly went home, brushed my teeth and applied copious amounts of aftershave, then raced over to his house for the after show party.

I was met with a room full of tea lights and a roaring fire, with the three girls curled up around their amplifiers and flight cases drinking beer, playing David Lee Roth vocal takes and talking about “peanut galleries”. We had a good conversation about “1950’s dust”. Adam and I sat both sat there in a stunned adolescent rapture, until it was time to head home.

Nathalie Stern’s ‘Firetales’ LP launch party.

In the first use of (an albeit legitimate) blag, I managed to wrangle my way into a sold out launch show for Nathalie’s album under the auspices of being “The Producer”. The man with the coily earpiece had nothing to which he could counter that claim, and I was allowed in. This sparked the idea that people should employ this excuse on a more regular basis whether true or not. Scene luminaries such as Peter Brewis from Field Music and Steve Jefferies from Warm Digits were not so lucky.

Miss Stern played a blinder; the venue was perfect for her material, and it marked the first time I was acknowledged in front of the general public as a producer… which made me feel embarrassingly happy in a teen movie wish fulfillment kinda way.

Album available here, with a BBC website interview here and a transcript of the Narc. article here.

Cold Night in Anaheim (live) - My Attorney.

The latest ‘Yonder! Calliope?’ album review, ever.

Here.

The latest ‘Yonder! Calliope?’ album review, ever.

Here.

Dinosaurs (live) - My Attorney.

Subsonics - a film about experimental music.

I was inspired by this film that I saw at the Star & Shadow last week. It documents the crazed experimentalism of, among others, Sun Ra, Faust, Harry Partch and a duo called No Input. The latter utilise no exterior sound sources, and instead create feedback pieces by having lots of boxes, with all the outputs of their units plugged into their inputs. Also of note was the Australian lady who composed using an orchestra of dot matrix printers.

I was at the back of the cinema, taking notes.

My Bloody Valentine article.

DJ Audio Solutions sent me this 2003 Filter article, which has a few choice Kevin Shields quotes about the making of Loveless. My favourite was when he was talking about the guitar equipment he had to work with:

“The sounds are not as important as you’d imagine. It’s just Marshall amps and Vox amps-that’s all I used-except for maybe an Ampeg amp and a fucking strange graphic equalizer-looking amp.”

Chino Necker (live) - My Attorney.

MC Look Ovah Ya Shouldah - Blue Screem of Death, 17/01/10.

Lily (live) - My Attorney studio webcast, 14/01/09.

On Thursday evening, My Attorney convened to record a webcast of their most recent songs under the scrutiny of several high powered microphones. The audio from these performances will go up onto our MySpace as a better indication of what we do live.

Probably the biggest challenge has been getting to grips with Logic’s video soundtrack feature; making sure the audio syncs up (which it still seems reluctant to do). At one point the manual was required, it was that serious.

Still to do… - 13/01/10

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Our next show will be on Saturday 30th January 2010, at The Cumberland Arms in the Ouseburn, Newcastle. More details about the gig can be found on our media rich Facebook events page here, as well as our poster featured below.

The production blog has now been updated, spanning a year in the life of Libris, replete with media rich inserts and long discourses on 300Hz. Below is a selection of blips featured within the site.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Shame The Devil overdubs - 07/01/10

Six different effects settings, a take recorded with each, then edited together into a composite backing of weirdness. Adam shredded while I manipulated the pad; leaving the results to chance as to whether what either of us were doing created something useful or not.

Shame The Devil overdubs - 07/01/10

Six different effects settings, a take recorded with each, then edited together into a composite backing of weirdness. Adam shredded while I manipulated the pad; leaving the results to chance as to whether what either of us were doing created something useful or not.

Lists (scrngrb) - 09/01/10.

Excised outro from I5Y’sTime.

History Revishroom blip - 08/01/10.

FL notes - 07/01/10.

Returned to Libris Acres, and immediately began the final stage of work on the Future Loss material. It’s a nerve wracking process: applying the knowledge I’ve gained from the last nine months of working other band projects such as Boats..!, Whimpshake and Rui, while at the same time being careful not to overcook it. There are still some keys, Kaoss and vocal takes to do before the mixes can be sent to Brian for his inspection.

I’ve started using a second pair of speakers for monitoring purposes; the £5 ones Luke bought from Netto Supermarket several years ago. They have a vulgar blue light on the front and emit the kind of nasty, tinny sound one would expect from speakers with “XtremeIT” written on them. They’ve proved essential, as I’m able to A/B my mixes instantly between the Alesis M1 Mk2s and a less glamorous sound source. Doing this often reveals flaws in the balancing and EQ that I wouldn’t otherwise notice if I was just using one set of speakers.

I felt that quite a few of my mixes at the end of last year were beginning to sound too trebly, especially when played on small stereos, such as in the car. After a vivid dream about a frequency chart in the night’s sky, in which a positive curve was drawn around the 158Hz mark in a spectral blue line, I went back to some of these mixes and boosted them at this exact level. Bingo, they suddenly sounded warmer and less tinny on inferior speakers, while still retaining all the clarity they had shown on the proper monitors.

Christmas Webcast 2009

In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings. We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer. So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Christmas Webcast

In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings. We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer. So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

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We are the ghosts of Christmas present…

In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings. We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer. So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Please click here

Xmas Webcast!

Happy Christmas.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Xmas Webcast!

1Happy Christmas.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Christmas Webcast 2009

In the second of our themed webcasts from Libris Acres, guest MC Mr Adam J. Schofield joins us for a mixture of festive, and not so festive, songs and readings. We also have live performances in the studio from My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, as well as tracks by Libris favourites John Egdell and Vanderveer. So warm your egg nog and join us by the fire (or suitable smokeless substitute) for a mixture of Yuletide punk and poetry.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Xmas Webcast!

1Happy Christmas.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Xmas Webcast!

1Happy Christmas.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Xmas Webcast!

1Happy Christmas.

Xmas Webcast 2009 Listen To All

Libris Webcast 1 - Libris Webcast 1 Listen Download
Libris Webcast 2 - Libris Webcast 2 Listen Download

Blue Screem of Death - LP1 sessions - 20/12/09.

Plans are afoot for a BSOD EP launch early next year. A 7″ vinyl release with the two different versions of I Want To Die on them, with finished b-sides of Hal and Knives on the flip should make up the tracklisting.

In this session we tracked a live version of Old Salty Seadog, and Andy’s drums for Your Cock’s Too Big. Luke took special care to remove as many crucial parts of the drum kit as possible before each take, and Andy did an excellent job of reaching across the room mid-take to hit them anyway. I hung a microphone from the ceiling, put one inside the floor tom (which I broke on the first take) with the rest of the mics placed strategically inside the kick drum, except for Luke’s whistle mic which was gaffer taped to his guitar, and the one he put inside his coat. A session earlier in the week had seen an RV4 placed inside an acoustic guitar, and a box placed over the head of the backing vocalist during the recording of Painkillers.

The results of such antics have ranged from the sublime, to the downright unlistenable, which in its own Blue Screem way makes it sublime as well. A lot of things got knocked over.

Shin Jin Rui overdubs, 17th - 21st December ‘09.

Work on Shin Jin Rui’s sophomore effort continues. The weirder the things we do with the Kaoss Pad and mic arrangements, the better the results seem to be upon playback. This has encouraged me to be a lot more experimental with guitar sounds on this record than in any of my other projects that I’ve worked on this year. It’s refreshing to muck around with boxes, samplers and bass feedback again after previous sessions have demanded a more literal representation of what’s coming out of the amp, and nothing more.

Two meetings were held this week, with the first at The Off Quays as the snow came down. I wasn’t expecting Adam to do any vocals, so had neglected to bring a pop shield. I had to improvise with a sock and a bin liner, allowing him to nail the take to Quit Smoking.

The second session was at the Libris Gulag, with bass feedback, pitch shifted solos and an inspired piece of crow bar work from James Emsell, who is by far and away the best kept secret about the band. He’s been in consistently spontaneous and inspired form since we started the project, often playing great takes in less than ideal conditions… with Adam and me crawling over his pedals, amps and Kaoss Pad changing settings mid take and twiddling knobs at random.

Tonight it was the turn of Lasso You to get the kitchen sink treatment, with an executive decision being made by the guys to go with the faster, older take from last year’s demo sessions.

Ex Libris Webcast No. 2: Christmas Edition.

Below is the megaupload link to the festive webcast conducted at Libris Acres on Saturday 19th December, with special guest and narrator Adam Schofield of Shin Jin Rui. Also featured on the show were performances by My Attorney and Blue Screem of Death, with music of varying seasonal relevance by Vanderveer, John Egdell, Nathalie Stern, Four Tet and The Ramones.

A link to the upload site can be found here.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

The production blog has now been updated, spanning a year in the life of Libris, replete with media rich inserts and long discourses on 300Hz. Below is a selection of blips featured within the site.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

Home Item 2

To The Boats..! Front Album Cover

A document of expansive comic prog-rock come folk come metal music not to be missed.

Listen & Buy HERE

Songs For Grilly Front Album Cover
Songs For Grilly is the sophomore effort from London gypsy punks Girls Girls Girls, and appears to be released through Ex Libris Records.

Go HERE

Home Item 2

Now playing: exlibrisrecords’s station
- Funifigium, Nes & Jitters.

To The Boats..! Front Album Cover

A document of expansive comic prog-rock come folk come metal music not to be missed.

Listen & Buy HERE

Songs For Grilly Front Album Cover
Songs For Grilly is the sophomore effort from London gypsy punks Girls Girls Girls, and appears to be released through Ex Libris Records.

Go HERE

Ten Years of All Tomorrow’s Parties - Minehead, Somerset - 11/12/09 to 14/12/09.

Friday

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

A rousing encore from a drunken, messy trio that seemed to fit the mood of an excited audience perfectly. People were still stretching their legs from long car journeys and quaffing beer in a constant attempt to catch up with those around them; Karen O shouted “I’m wasted, are you fuckin’ wasted? This is off our first ever EP,” much to the joy of die hard fans.

Mum

Expecting smooth, subtle, acoustic electronica, I was blown away by these guys. There were no manners in their set; just lots of glitch, strings and aggressive guitar licks. The two female vocalists did well to harmonise together amid the racket going on behind them, before jumping behind various cellos, fiddles and whistles themselves to add to the confusion. Excellent stuff.

Fuck Buttons

A determined and calculated assault on the senses here. Two men pouring over a vast banquet-sized table filled with boxes, synths, analogue systems, modular effects and a giant spinning disco ball got my mouth watering. Throughout the set there were at least four very distinct types of noise that they inflicted on us, all of them deeply pleasurable to listen to. At one point there was a Game Boy solo. During another section a cut up vocal began oscillating into a hypnotic beat. Baseball Cap Man played live percussion like a circus performer. The Clever Wizard to the left just stood in a state of supreme composure, laying layer after layer of monophonic synthesiser on a rapturous audience. At some point I looked up and realised that somewhere along the line they had both begun to twitch like lunatics, and any attempt at keeping beat or melody had been abandoned in favour of all out sonic warfare. Very exciting.

Saturday

Afrirampo

The most bonkers band of the festival, Afrirampo consisted of two dolled up Japanese girls in fishnets and sequins, thrashing out drum and guitar punk rock as if they were actually wearing skinny black jeans and leather jackets. Their energy was infectious, and some of the guitar breaks were truly deranged: they seemed to come from nowhere, one moment a riff, the next a cacophony of fretting and feedback with no warning whatsoever. The drummer was excellent too: she had a speed around the kit which gave the show real momentum. They peppered their set with kazoo solos, bizarre lost-in-translation adlibs about the speed of light, and a cappella duets complete with waving and dancing.

Shellac

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. After their set finished I looked around the hall, and there was this one guy holding his hands over his mouth, still staring at the empty stage in disbelief at what he had just experienced, before his friend came over and hugged him. They both stood there a long time. I almost joined in. I was reeling, shivers zinging up and down my spine, mind expanded, head bent, life irreversibly changed. Why? There was an economy to the trio’s performance that focused the mind and the ear. Their careful choice of tone and arrangement created a powerful density to the songs that seemed to leave an indent on your imagination long after they had finished. There was true showmanship, from Todd Trainer’s drum solos that involved him getting up and walking around the venue with his snare drum and sticks, to Albini’s expression of electrocution inbetween guitar licks as he danced on his tip toes around the left of stage. Surreal humour ran through the whole thing too: the question and answer sessions had people asking all sorts of odd things, from queries about Albini’s mastering to what their favourite type of sandwich was. In each song the lyrics veered from the script. In End of Radio, Steve started riffing: “Snare drum, I am a beacon, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… snare drum, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… drum stool, oh to be Todd Trainer’s… hair stylist,” as the rest of the band broke out in laughter. They didn’t miss a beat either: the proficiency of their playing was acid sharp. Travis guitars, nylon guitar leads, simple kit and only one distortion pedal on the whole stage: this was minimalism at its finest. By the end, I was bopping around like an extra from Top Of The Pops, with most of my brain orbiting around the venue in outer space. Retired to the chalet afterwards to think seriously about amp settings, waist-mounted guitar straps and a drummer who plays with the handles of the sticks rather than the tips.

Battles

Disappointing; none of their arid vibe that their records display was present here. Almost fell asleep standing up, so drifted away in search of something else.

Melvins

This was the something else I needed: two drum kits pummeling away at once, delayed ranting howls from a man dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, and blinding guitar from Buzz Aldrin (hidden behind a huge grey afro). They would not let up, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any heavier, the back curtain was raised to reveal a further two more drum kits. Bloody marvelous. One suspects these guys are as good today as they were when they were first name checked by Nirvana eighteen years ago.

Modest Mouse

Competent, but left me cold. I returned back to the chalet worried that I was missing something everyone else had got.

[below is a handwritten account of The For Carnation and Sunn O)))]

Sunday

Shellac

First into the venue, coffee in hand, placed front and centre. I watch them finish sound check and talk with the audience about possibly touring South America. My camera is recharging back at the chalet, so I’m absorbing all events, images and sounds the old fashioned way. They begin with the drummer walking through the audience from the back of the room bashing his snare to a hail of flashbulb lights from the press pit, and end it by deconstructing the drum kit one drum at a time as he plays frantically with whatever is left in front of him. Inbetween is more of the same brilliance as displayed the day before. This is total indulgence, seeing one of your favourite bands twice in less than twenty four hours. I watch Albini coil up his guitar lead afterwards. He does it the special way. My question of “Can I come and work for you for free and learn all that you know?” goes thankfully unasked. Steady As She Goes is more relentless and uncompromising than yesterday’s rendition, and Squirrel Song is like being hit over the head with a spade. Albini barely bothers with the vocals and instead stalks the stage. At one point both he and Bob Weston creep to the rear of the stage, almost out of sight, leaving Trainer in the limelight he so readily deserves. The man is a vision: Kiss hair, Ramones clothes, Led Zep scarf, and a succinct telepathy with the rest of his colleagues that means every break is cut and dried, exacting to the last millisecond. Weston’s bass playing is crude but limber: nothing too showy, nothing too pretty. Albini’s guitar weaves amongst this, sniping out solos at the most unexpected of moments, other times playing in sympathy with the bass, other times dropping out altogether. They seem to be so far ahead of everything else I’ve seen: they give the impression of being this angry, hard rocking band… yet when you see them their songs are laced with absurd humour, and their three piece set up doesn’t restrict them from conjuring up grooves most dance or Krautrockers would give their eye teeth for. Their arrangements sho no fear at all: they have faith in the bits they have chosen to leave out, in the gaps of silence between the beats. I stand in rapture, eyes closed, on the edge of giving up music forever, learning.

Deerhoof

I was curious to see if these guys could bring the quirky sound of their records to the stage, and it took me about two songs to ‘get my eye in’; after which I was in heaven. Standing in a position where I could see the drummer really helped because his playing was fantastic. Another highlight of the festival, with a suitably crazy rendition of ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ in tribute to the event itself.

Explosions In The Sky

An unexpectedly good show from these guys; I was anticipating something more wishy-washy based on their recordings, but Lauren persuaded me to stay and listen and it was worth it. “We’re on our way to the stars tonight,” said the dude who would end the set hitting his guitar with a tambourine. One of the few acts who managed to fill the Palladium stage with their sound, as many other bands seemed a bit dwarfed by the size of the venue.

Fuck Buttons

An even better set from the Buttons, in the club environment of Reds. Video below demonstrates the Game Boy solo.

Crazy Horse disco

The weekend ended here, in the dilapidated Crazy Horse Wild West-themed bar. Haven’t danced as energetically as I did here in some time.

The whole event was a revelation. I’ve enjoyed festivals in the past, but the choice of music at this one outstripped anything else I’ve been to before. Coupled with the beach on your doorstep, the greasy spoon cafes and trinket shops of Minehead high street, the water slides and snooker halls with the comfort of your own shower and kitchen right by the venues… you cannot knock the Butlin’s experience one bit. A return in the new year is now a certainty.

December 2009

Met with Mark from TEDCO to discuss accessing public funding to finance my Apple Certified Logic 301 training course at the Northern School of Sound.

Also tackled the mastering of The Yummy Fur’s debut album ‘Night Club’; which featured two future members of Franz Ferdinand amongst their ranks when they were a functioning band back in 1996. Issued as a joint release between Slampt and Guided Missile Records, it was a debut album that achieved cult status amongst the Scottish indie underground, but has since gone out of print. Pete wants the thing brightened up for an American reissue through a label Slampt has worked with in the past.

On the whole, the lo-fi sound of the record is sublime – the vocals distort and the drums are often AWOL, but it works. Each song is mixed differently, with plenty of volume and tone changes between each track. The added mystique of Night Club’s producer Mark Gibbons later committing suicide after battling heroin addiction only adds to the mystique. This is the sound of a band ten years ahead of its time stuck in some Glaswegian basement, shouting about housing estate youth clubs, blue movies and going roller skating with the school tart who tells you to “put lipstick on your nipples”. It should be held up as an example of that most romantic of achievements: musical greatness coupled with virtual obscurity.

I’ve managed to remove some rogue frequencies, and generally make the songs louder, though I would hesitate to say they sound any better. I had quite a struggle in my head to convince myself
I wasn’t messing with something that should be better left alone, as its creators intended. Just because something isn’t technically proficient doesn’t mean it should be reduxed. The spectre of George Lucas hangs heavily over this project; and my dismay at the inclusion of a CGI Anakin at Vader’s funeral pyre at the end of the Special Edition DVD release of Return of the Jedi.

In the end, I think the disc does sound better; and I was glad of the mastering practice. It’s a dark art that needs further investigation; there’s too much smoke and mirrors surrounding it.

Much of December was spent working at the Whitley Bay Playhouse as a sound tech and stage crew member on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The whole production was a friendly bunch of people at the peak of their game; doing two or three shows a day with full-on dance routines, pyrotechnics, multiple costume changes and two hours of singing in each performance. The amount of work that went into the sound, lighting, staging and wardrobe behind the scenes was astonishing: a two-day load-in with a metal rig that required twelve men to lift, a sound desk that required eight pairs of hands to get up to the back of the theater, three tons of sets and lights, and a full sized motorbike that I had to position stage left for the show’s finale. I have a new found respect for theaters and the companies that tour them - the work involved in putting on such an accomplished show is staggering.

On the 10th, Luke was screening a 35mm print of The Flaming Lips’ film Christmas on Mars, complete with a personalised introduction from Wayne Coyne where he namechecked The Star & Shadow Cinema before explaining how the film was made. After the credits had rolled, Luke, Nick and I ran the Zaireeka Experiment on five stereos. A crazy, four CD album that only reveals its contents when all the discs are played simultaneously after vocal instructions at the start of each track get you to sync the whole thing together.

The results were mixed: after a shaky start, some of the middle songs on the album sounded great and quite crisp. Others were more noise based and messy, especially when played back in such a large, reverberant room. The best thing was being able to walk around the room and get a different sonic experience depending on where you were standing: some corners of the room were just bass and vocals, other parts were just the reverb washes and some cymbals. Well worth doing, and we think the noise scene in Newcastle might appreciate it even more than Lips fans. Especially the bit where it sounds like you’re being attacked by killer bees.

November 2009

A satisfied Phil Tyler signed off on The Hind Wheels of Bad Luck – the name of the second Tyler LP – on Saturday 7th November after a few final fiddle parts were added at the very last. And Nathalie called over for the data DVDs of her disc on the 10th, officially closing the case on that one too.

Saturday 14th saw the debut live show of My Attorney at Retreat @ St. Dominic’s (the venue used by Pop Klubb), where we supported No Fit State and British Lichen Society in a triumphant show that finally got one of the projects closest to my heart off the mark. We played as well as could be expected for a first gig: plenty of mistakes but also lots of passion and grit, and I’m proud to say that I don’t think there’s anything else in the region that does weird pop music quite the way we do. The next step is to hunt for that elusive fifth member that can add the depth we so desperately need to our arrangements… The night as whole was successful; I covered my costs and was able to pay the other two bands enough to cover their fuel, not to mention the fact that we had over forty people in to see the show which was startling when one considered the other events we were up against that evening. I would say this however: running a gig, doing the sound and performing a set all at the same time is quite a challenge. Luke did a sterling job on the door and stepped in on the desk while Attorney were attempting their four part harmonies on Moon & The Sea, without which the whole trifle would have fallen off the table. Photo below is of No Fit State with their Desperate Housewives-inspired washing line and domestic garb.

Luke had his own promotional duties around this time: The Wave Pictures visited the Star & Shadow Cinema in October, to a great reception. Very pop, very indie, very sweet - but with the songs to carry it off.

The week beginning Monday 16th November was spent working on Gx3, trying to rescue the difficult guitar tones out of the gutter. I’ve resolved to minimise the compression around the kit so that less ambient white noise from the guitars feeds into the drum track; hopefully clarity will improve as a result of this method. No doubt I’ll post more on this in the future.

Week beginning the 23rd saw the first concerted effort begin on mixing the Shin Jin Rui stuff. Giddy with elation after seeing them perform at the Head of Steam that evening, I was all over their stuff now that I have the hard disk space to store it on the Mac. They more than upstaged Wavves; they played 12 hits in less than twenty five minutes, which left the audience reeling. It feels as though a new band has suddenly emerged, fully formed and completely in control of their faculties. Brilliant to see them tread the boards once more. Have been tinkering with the space ship guitar sounds and thunderous drum takes on their recordings ever since.

Saturday 28th saw the live debut of Blue Screem of Death, in the safe environment of the rehearsal rooms. Despite the load-in taking almost two hours, we managed to play our seven songs without any obvious disasters or howling errors (with the possible exception of our Shellac cover Prayer To God). Our audience of eight people was actually quite appreciative, though it was such an intimate environment that I found myself feeling quite self conscious. The biggest challenge was getting all the changes in settings between songs right. I play eight different devices during the set, with Luke mastering four; requiring a lot of fiddling around between tracks. We managed this ok though, which was encouraging… leaving only the musical proficiency of the three band members to cause us any difficulties. For example: I appear to be playing bass on four songs. This troubles me. Thanks to Attorney bassist Ian Leaf for the photos and film.

Luke and I finished the show itching to play a “proper” gig at a show where unsuspecting punters can be exposed to our mad ramble.

Above a short clip of an unworked b-side: JulianO.

October 2009

The start of the month was spent tidying up the last of the Milk Wimpshake mixes, which to date is probably the work I’m proudest of: it has all the levity of an indie pop release, with plenty of left turns and obscure moments to keep the listener interested long after the hooks and melodies have been ingested.

In a sudden fit of completionism, I resolved to finish the Chronicity recordings too; so that both discs could be handed over to Pete at the same time. Employing what I had learnt from Pilgrim, Wimpshake and the Rui demos, I was able to cut versions that sounded even more solid than before. Hopefully the group will be able to release the songs in some format or another next year.

On Saturday 10^th October, Ex Libris achieved its ultimate dream: to DJ at PopKlubb. Rather optimistically I turned up with my Kaoss Pad in tow, expected to sample and bit crush my way through the set… but their equipment was unable to accept such equipment. The night began quietly, but the room filled to its usual busy self during our hour on the decks, and playing Modeselektor and Grilly to a bunch of unsuspecting indie geeks was too good for words. If only all dreams could be so easily realised as this one; I was very, very happy and got to finish the set with John Peel’s shout out he gave me on Radio 1 the night before my dissertation was due, when he played the Kreutzfeld Nausflauten Orkestra. Fitting, considering it was the anniversary of his death.

Key: red - Luke, black - Andrew

Vaselines - You think your a man, you are only a boy [album]

Outdoor Miner - Wire

CSS - Lets make love and listen to death from above

That 80s Vibe - Assfunk vs DJ IBM PC COMPATIBLE*

Moldy Peaches - track 5 - Downloading Porn With Davo

I ‘Aint Thick - Jeffery Lewis / Crass

FYC - Suspicious Minds

Dark Side Of The Sun (feat. Debutonner) - Modeselektor

The organ - Memorize the city

The Beach - Milky Wimpshake / Jonathan Richman*

Roxy Music - Dance Away

Filmstar - Suede

Strangelove - Track 4 (20th century gold)

Klein Bottle Fish Tank - Grilly

chuck berry - Roll Over Beethoven

Star Wars Main Theme (disco rmx) - Mecco

Hefner - Live at the John Peel Wingding - The Day The Thatcher Dies

Teenage Slave - Girls Girls Girls

The Cure - The Catapiller

Louie Louie - Krautzfeldt Nausflauten Orkestra (w/introduction by John Peel)

More practicing with Death and Attorney, more guitar overdubs with Rui – this time extensively employing the Kaoss Pad to twist everything James was playing into something even more unusual. More mixing of Phil & Cath Tyler’s material, with a perfectionist Phil stopping by on the 13^th to add more finishing touches to various songs, and insist on a particular guitar EQ and compression combination which he wanted applied to all the songs, rather than just a couple. More work on Nathalie’s album too… many days spent indoors, wearing the clothes that I had been wearing all week, leaving the house only to get milk or rehearse, drinking obscene amounts of coffee, and sweating down arrangements and EQ-ing layer after layer to get everything sounding just so: not the sort of stuff that makes interesting blogging, especially since the proof should be in the listening rather than the writing.

The Girls arrived on Friday 16^th to begin recording their new EP, thus christening the new rehearsal space with its first studio work. All in all the session went well: they tracked four songs and one demo in a day, with keys and percussion being added later in the evening, and vocals and guitar overdubs being done on the Sunday. They seemed enthusiastic enough about how things went to warrant a return in the new year to lay down more songs for their third album. It was good to get the guys playing and recording live again; the stuff they’ve done so far is miles more energetic than anything on Stop or Songs. A step ladder was employed for added percussion on O’Pathological Life, and Andy laid down some sick trumpet on Record Label.

Monday 19^th and Tuesday 20^th spent putting the finishing touches to Nathalie’s work; some of the tracks have benefited from mastering, others have lost a little air, so it was just a case of picking the best bounces and making the final sequence flow. I had Nathalie pause the machine after each song when she felt ready for the next one to come in, and then dragged the wav to that exact location. A real buzz to finish this particular record so quickly and cleanly; proof that the artist is also a project manager when she isn’t mucking around with loop pedals… I’m very happy with the album, and intend to give a copy of Firetales to my relatives come Christmas, as I think it’s the most accessible thing I’ve worked on this year.

On Monday 26^th Pete signed off the Wimpshake and Chronicity records, bringing the total number of projects I’ve finished this year to four albums and three EPs, with five more albums and one EP on the slate in various stages of completion. Much of the rest of the week was spent battling with unruly guitar sounds on the Gx3 material.

September 2009

To my great excitement, Amelia Fletcher – the lead singer from 80s indie pop band Heavenly – had been lined up to contribute backing vocals on a couple of Milky Wimpshake tracks, and I had offered to visit her in London to track the parts. My reason for visiting the capital was primarily to see To The Boats..! launch the Bruised Pilgrim LP, a party which united much of the extended Libris clan: with Aaron McMullan, Jo Kelly and Jeremy Williams all out in force. Sadly, Amelia had lost her voice and had to cancel our appointment at the 11th hour, so I was unable to meet what Pete described as “the dream girl of every teenage indie boy during the Eighties”. She promised to mp3 the .wavs to me instead.

On the 11th I began the audio extraction from the big old desk that lives in Nathalie’s music room, in preparation for mixing her album. It meant lots of laborious cabling between channels on her desk and my mixer, and I was sure to use the desk EQ to colour the sound on the way out: some sweep in the 600Hz region (since most of the layers consisted of female vocals) and a touch of brightness about 10kHz – although this kicked up as much dust as anything. Nathalie was very clear that she wanted all the hiss and noise left in, with all the analogue desk warmth included in the mix.

Thursday 17th September was an important day, as My Attorney had their first rehearsal at the new Libris rehearsal space we’ve started renting from the Roots & Wings group. It’s opposite the Star & Shadow Cinema, and next door to the Tanners Bar and Blank Studios, and has a PA, amps and drum kit ready for use. It’s an ideal locale for web casts, small gigs and recording; and we intend to use it for such in the coming months. Sunday 20th saw Blue Screem of Death start to use the space for their rehearsals too, adding fresh impetus to the project to get gig ready before Christmas.

The end of the month saw continued rehearsals with Attorney and Death, overdubs at the new space with Rui (during which I rigged up a floor tom next to a guitar amp to act as a reverb chamber ) and more audio extraction from Nathalie’s desk. Phil also visited to keep an eye on the Tyler mixes, adding backing vocals and some extra fiddle to a couple of numbers.

February 2009

Darren Hayman visited Libris Acres on the 13th, upon which Luke and Imogen fed him lots of lasagne and we listened to him talk about his failed exploits as a music teacher. The sound check to the show was painful: the Star and Shadow equipment is categorically useless. One needs an internecine knowledge of which cables, amps and speakers are broken, so that one can cobble together a PA that actually works from the remaining gear. Surprisingly despite the feedback-ridden rehearsal, the sound during the show was perfect, with Darren starting proceedings entirely un-miced with nothing but banjo and voice. The highlights of the show were ‘Porn Shoes’ on the banjo at the start (you could hear a pin drop, and a real pinch-yourself moment when the mind flashbacked to the wine-soaked afternoon when Luke emailed Hayman for the first time while I shouted encouragement in the background) and the encores on the piano, which conjured up an atmosphere of a lock-in singalong at your local drinking tavern.

For the final time, the company accounts were filed via recorded delivery, bringing to a close a long-running dispute over whether Companies House in Belfast received our initial submission or not.

February also saw my first live experience of No Fit State, a roaring menace of girrrl punk, and the return of Khunnt and Bong to the stage, strengthening my desire to have them play at a Libris show as soon as possible.

March 2009

Near the end of February, Luke and I were lucky enough to happen upon a Khunnt rehearsal at The Off Quays building, late on a Saturday night. The deal was struck there and then to have them play at the Narc. Fest that we were helping curate at the Star & Shadow Cinema later in the year. In a confined space, with the Blank Studios gear piled high around us, and the avian screams of the singer ringing out over truly disorientating levels of bass and guitar noise, it was the ultimate way to experience one of the best bands Newcastle has offered up in some time. Bizarre to think that one of the players is the same man who produced O’Messy Life…

I was also fortunate enough to see a rare appearance by the Country Teasers at Morden Tower, supported by Les Cox (Sportifs). Les Cox played arguably their best show in years; no doubt raising their game as a result of the family connection between the two bands (LCS drummer Christo and CT singer Ben Waller are brothers). Equally shambolic and intense, the Teasers played a marathon set that seemed to get progressively more divergent as the whiskey bottle by the mic stand was emptied.

It was at this show that I was offered the Milky Wimpshake work by Pete Dale, and we retired to the corner of the room to thrash out specifics on how the sessions would proceed.

At this juncture, My Attorney recorded some drum tracks for our long delayed second album/7” single release. Andy and I were lucky enough to get our resident session man Stuart Stone in to do drums for Missed Connection Room, using the upstairs room in the Cumberland Arms as a makeshift studio. Because we were all using headphone feeds for monitoring purposes, I was able to open the drum mics right up and capture the whole room. The wooden floors and sparse furnishing gave a really bright, expansive sound that should sound fantastic once mixed. We also made use of the old organ in the corner behind the stacked chairs for the choruses, and sampled some interesting beats off the built in drum machine too.

On the 14^th, Girls Girls Girls visited to launch their album in Newcastle. The night on the whole was a resounding success: we had a large audience that covered our costs and the supporting bands played brilliantly. British Lichen Society was a punk, twelve minute tour de force of bass noise with Casio teeth. Education Education Education were a more grungey affair, while The Wooden Spoons conjured up images of the show bands of old: virtuoso guitar and key lines mixed with big anthemic numbers. The Morrissey disco which followed Gx3 was also packed with people coming across from PopKlubb over the road; at one point the floor in the Star & Shadow was full. Local artists from Newcastle Art College had also decked out the foyer with their works in progress for their degree shows, attracting a whole new clientele of art students to the gig. None of that can make up for the disaster that was the Girls’ set. Through no fault of their own, of course. After all the bands sounding great up until that point, one of the S&S amps blew just as the guys took to the stage, meaning much of their music was either murky or inaudible. It was a painful hour before the problem was diagnosed and in the end they abandoned their set in favour of doing the disco (using the monitors turned around to face the audience as a replacement PA). Again, the Star & Shadow equipment had ruined what was otherwise a successful evening and after about a month of prep organising the publicity and support, the Girls and I were understandably crestfallen.

At the end of the month, I began rehearsals with Ian Courtney for the Airstrip One shows that were scheduled to take place up in Edinburgh. During these meetings in Ian’s freezing spare room, I managed to capture a rough and ready recording of our repertoire, which would form the ‘Fall and Stay Down EP’.

August 2009

August began with me collecting a church organ from The Colt .45s in Crook, in part payment for the sessions in May. It now sits pride of place in the Libris sitting room, complete with dual layer console, pedals, drum machine and multiple drawbars to affect the tone of the notes. There’s also a Leslie-style speaker inside that rotates to create beautifully rich chorus and tremolo effects. The best payment-in-kind I’ve ever received.

More Shin Jin Rui recording was done, as well as long hours spent mixing the Milky Wimpshake material. My Attorney continued to rehearse on Thursdays and Sundays, sometimes with Ian present, other times just Andy and me working on the song arrangements. I took an entire day in Heaton Perk to organise all my lyrics into filed, alphabetic order. The difference to practices was huge: I could now arrive properly prepared to rehearse any song from our repertoire, making things much more productive.

On the 27^th I met with Nathalie Stern to discuss the timetable for mixing and mastering her album, and had a look at the desk she had been using.

July 2009

The summer was split between three projects: continuing to lay down parts on the Milky Wimpshake album with Pete (including recording cello at his school), mopping up the last of the outstanding numbers for Shin Jin Rui’s second album, and beginning the Cath & Phil Tyler LP which was tracked at Morden Tower.

Situated behind Chinatown, and making up part of the ancient fortifications of the City walls, Morden Tower has been the preferred location for poetry gigs since 1964. People who have read there have included Ginsberg and Hughes, as well as a host of weird gigs by bands such as A Hawk And A Hacksaw and Whitehouse. Famously, the toilet is situated within an alcove set into the wall, and rats can frequently be seen running around the base of the stone steps leading up the thick wooden door. Inside is a single circular room, with books and chairs arranged much in the way one would expect to find a Sunday school classroom. It was within this space that I set up numerous microphones to capture the barren folk ballads of Cath & Phil Tyler.

Having already released work through No Fi Records, the Tylers gained good exposure in the national music press with their debut Dumb Supper, produced by Warm Digits drummer Andy Hodgson. The formula for the second record was much the same: bleak, Irish American folk music set to spartan guitar, banjo and fiddle. I had the guys play live together in the room with plenty of close and ambient mics dotted around the place, and left them to it. Most of the work was done by them, chasing the right take for each song. In two and a half days, they managed eighteen songs which was later whittled down to twelve for the album. Overdubs consisted of violin, viola, box cello, distorted guitar and dulcimer (played to great effect with the lid of a Biro), while their incredibly well-behaved one year old son, Byron, amused himself with my percussion box on the other side of the room. In one particularly surreal incident, Cath breast fed the infant as Phil recorded some cello, and I made sure to stare at the ceiling.

It was during this session that my mixer packed up again; and a replacement adaptor was ordered at great expense while I limped through the remaining overdubs with my usb interface. I suspect that power irregularities caused by the failing device may have prompted the strange unexpected data loss from the Rui session last month. To compound problems further, the atmosphere of Morden Tower was, from a sound engineering point of view, a knightmare. There were dogs barking and children shouting in the park outside, the refurbishment of St. James’ Metro station up the road meant lots of pneumatic drills hammering in the distance, and the extractor fans from the Chinese restaurants located in the back alleyway added a deep whirring to every track of audio recorded. Once I got the recordings home, I managed to remove most of this noise by notching out 50Hz on a graphic equaliser, without affecting too much of the richness of the low end. Despite all this, the atmosphere of the Tower was worth incurring the sonic shortcomings. The place had an other worldly quality that made us all feel quite removed from the modern city around us, and I have no doubt Cath & Phil’s spell binding performances were a direct result of this.

As a postscript to these sessions, I also recorded the poetry of Aaron Tieger, a friend of Cath’s who accompanied the duo to the sessions. Hailing from Boston in the US, it marked the first time I had recorded the spoken word. Payment was Aaron’s promise of a place on his sofa any time I should be passing through. A pleasure to listen to; his more recent work from his travels around Europe were very sharp indeed.

On the 18th July Ex Libris curated the Star & Shadow part of another Narc. Fest gig. It was a rare opportunity to run amok with the line up: any costs would be picked up by the Arts Council, entry was therefore free and the bands even received a rider. The British Lichen Society unfortunately had to pull out at the last moment, leaving Glaswegian laptop songstrel Plum to open proceedings. As her set progressed, the audience warmed to her warm vocals and icy beats. Her live drummer was an inspiration too, and they both proved excellent company when they crashed at Libris Acres later that night with long conversations about The Wire. Dressed In Wires’ set ended with him chucking his equipment at the floor in a fit of genius that I have come to expect from Simon – he remains one of the most challenging and exciting acts in the country let alone the North East. Bong demanded that all the lights be turned off prior to their set, plunging the S&S into complete darkness before the audience was subjected to their unmistakable brand of very, very heavy drone n’ doom core that attracted a huge audience; at one point the venue was close to reaching its 200 person capacity. The addition of female wailing was also a welcome addition to their arrangements. That just left Khunnt to pummel home a roaring, avian scream attack of a performance that was so loud I lost balance several times while walking between the desk and the stage. Their drummer Matt donned a balaclava and Sam was bent double over his stack, lost in feedback. A seminal outpouring from four bands who got far more bodies in the room than I ever expected, and received the adulation they most definitely deserved. It was satisfying to see that people had chosen to finish their evening at the Libris venue rather than with official headliners The Twilight Sad at The Cluny.

June 2009

The first part of this month was dominated by the residential session in Crook, Co. Durham, where I was recording punk electro upstarts The Colt .45’s. Already having released one album themselves, the glossy “Let’s Have An Accident”, the four piece were looking to capture a more raw sound for their sophomore effort, and knowing I was a fan had approached me to take up the challenge.

This was the first time I had conducted a residential session since the days of Colerabbey in Portrush, and I admit I relished the opportunity to move my gear wholesale to their abandoned, unfurnished mansion and set up everything permanently. The sitting room had a wooden floor, an old piano, plenty of natural light which came through large patio doors, a kitchen next door, two friendly dogs that frequently invaded proceedings and an old desk upon which I could set up my laptop, mixer and monitoring equipment. Around the room were various amps, guitars and samplers which in turn were close mic-ed by a plethora of SM57 and 58s. Andy made good use of my Fender Jazz bass, and the girls tucked into the Marshall and Laney amps I’d brought along specially. The glockenspiel, stylophone and percussive bits and pieces were also on hand for use at any time. No neighbours to worry about and plenty of time to concentrate solely on the music; in short a perfect recording environment.

The fortnight that followed was one of the most productive, and grueling, sessions I had ever been part of. On an average day I would travel the one hour journey by car to the makeshift studio to arrive by noon, have a coffee made for me by Anne-Marie, start up my gear and say hello to the dogs, then consult the whiteboard to see what we had planned for the day. Work would go right through to the early hours of the morning, upon which I would pack up my Mac and return home listening to the rough mixes on the car stereo.

The band were keen to write brand new material, some of which had already been prepped by Andy and Keith into demos which they played each morning as the band were having breakfast together. From these ten or so sketches, four were selected for our attention. Guitar parts were then worked out, singing duties decided and arrangements fleshed out with keyboards, different guitar effects and various instruments I had left lying around the room. Very often I was able to record the bands’ rehearsals of new songs so they could have instant playback, which helped the creative process considerably. I was keen to capture as much of them playing live as possible for the proper studio versions, so real effort was taken to get a good take upon which to build the rest of the song upon. We flitted between overdubs on older takes (conducted around the time of the Mugison gig last year), doing completely new versions of old songs from the first album, and nailing down definitive versions of the tunes which were being written in the studio. I have never in my life drunk so much coffee.

It was a real privilege to be allowed into such a close knit group, and I went out of my way to only offer advice, criticism or encouragement when I thought it was explicitly needed. The rest of the time I just let them get on with it, and was privy to moments of group inspiration, the odd squabble over the number of verses a certain song should contain, or the late night buzz of everyone being wired on too much caffeine and firing toy guns into the mics as overdubs. A warts-and-all experience of a band that had a work ethic like no other: there were tea breaks and trips to Gregg’s, but it wasn’t long before somebody would pipe up and say “well, shall we crack on then?” and return to their stations. The whiteboard was filled to the frames with vocal parts, structures, amp settings and notes for each of the songs, and the band regularly grilled me for my ideas on extra instruments and structures. A compelling atmosphere to work in, and one which I hope has yielded material far beyond the recordings the band have made in the past.

As these sessions came to a close, I did some very quick work for Haz and Helen from the Star & Shadow one evening. They were both involved in Gay Shame, an antidote to the garishness of the Gay Pride festival in London. Their stall was to feature Haz with two prosthetic breasts, each containing different flavours of milkshake. Punters would be encouraged to suckle at the teats while being stroked by Haz in an motherly fashion, whilst listening to a capella nursery rhymes sung by Haz and her sister Helen on headphones. The idea was to create a fully immersive and regressional experience back to the days of early childhood. Or something. Anyway, it was my job to track their singing, which I did with two mics in the Libris Acres studio, as the two girls worked on their alto/soprano harmonies. Luke appeared with wine, and soon all four of us were having a merry time smoking and drinking in the tiny room. As requested, I mixed the songs into a continuous stream so that there were no gaps between numbers, and ensured it was mastered to be loud enough to be heard through headphones in a club environment.

The month ended with another two sessions on the 29th and 30th with Shin Jin Rui, capturing the songs that were lost in the hard disk debacle.

May 2009

After two demo sessions that managed to capture rough takes of almost forty songs, Shin Jin Rui began tracking their second album on the 4th. A hot Monday bank holiday, my initial problem was making sure the fan didn’t interfere with the high hat mic. The guys were recording live, and as the day wore on we honed the bass tone on James’ Trace Elliot amp to perfection, boxing it into a corner of the room with other amps to achieve the most amount of isolation, boosting the treble on the EQ and a Fender Precision for ultimate bite. In short, the exact same technique Brian perfected on the Future Loss stuff several weeks prior. The band are slow to start, but by the end of the session they’re nailing song after song virtually first or second take. We take time over certain guitar settings on Adam’s Fender valve amp, and he makes good use of the borrowed Rickenbacker. Imagine my despair when I got home and found that the Mac, in a sole incident of inconsistency, had eaten half the session. Hours were spent trawling the hard drives with specialist software, but the audio had only been cached before the machine had unexpectedly crashed, thus losing almost an hour’s worth of recording. Arrange pages filled with blank, mute wave files. Horrible. The band and I duly schedule more sessions for later in the month. I consider tattooing “File & Save” into my wrist, and have a real crisis of professional confidence.

In the middle of the week I visited Thomas Hepburn Community School in Gateshead to record some overdubs for the Milky Wimpshake project. I had suggested to Pete to add piano to Itchy Feet, a song that owed much to that mid-Sixties songwriting period McCartney went through, where all the melodies were vertical and bright. As head of music at the school, Pete had the luxury of using his baby grand piano for the song; the first time I had worked with such an instrument. In the end I opted for the mic to be placed facing the diagonal lid, rather than directly over the strings, thus capturing more of the resonance of the casing instead of just the string sounds. Pete played the bass and treble parts separately, allowing me to get the mic aligned with the relevant area of the scale. The finished mix of the song would later drop out the rhythm guitar completely to expose the piano part as the main instrument, giving it the striking arrangement the song deserved.

The second song to be featured at this session was Lorraine, which for some bizarre reason had made me think xylophone might work with it. Pete took some time rummaging through the various boxes of broken musical gear in his store to cobble together a scale that fitted the song.

It was also during this time that the mixing of Bruised Pilgrim’s debut was started in earnest. The quality of the recordings was a mixed bag: on one hand the kit sounded quite weak, on the other the guitars were nice and thick. The bass was very spiky and prone to clipping, while on one particular track the high hat mic had ceased to function meaning I had to grab as much spill from the snare mics as possible. The room we recorded in was very bright, which actually meant the ambient mics at the back of the hall were unnecessary since the dynamic ones captured some of the room anyway.

The biggest challenge with the Pilgrim album was making things clear and distinct. So often the settings, sounds and instruments would shift in focus several times during a song, requiring a treatment that could adapt to each change without sounding uneven. To do this I employed extensive amounts of automation to vary everything from volume, to EQ settings, to bus send amounts, to delay trails as each song progressed. It also marked the first time I used gating aggressively; both kick and snare feeds were clipped ruthlessly to make them as crisp as possible, and minimise ambient snare rattle inbetween beats. There was also a breakthrough on compression settings, where slower attack times on the kit seemed to yield a punchier result.

There was also no denying that this was a heavy, guitar driven record, a genre I hadn’t produced before… and so the guitars had to verge on the metal at times. This meant quite often complementing the existing six string audio with overdrive, distortion and Guitar Amp Pro plug ins on bus channels to give greater weight to certain parts. At other times however, I was amazed at just how little was needed to polish the guitars: both Ian and Grilly had many of their sounds down pat in advance of the recording.

Much of the rough mixing I had done prior to May was therefore scrapped in favour of these revised techniques, along with quite aggressive multiband compression at the mastering stage. The whole disc was cut well into the red, but I felt it had to if it was to do the energetic, garage-rock performances justice. By far one of the most challenging projects of my career so far; this disc taught me how to use the business end of compressors, gates and mastering tools to wring the most power from the raw audio. I seem to remember getting very obsessed by this record near the end: having my first gin at half eleven in the morning, staying up until 7am, sending Grilly emails in nothing but BLOCK CAPITALS, making endless notes on the whiteboard about certain frequency bands that seemed beyond the reach of the multiband compressor, removing the peaks in Sam’s Rickenbacker bass by hand… but I believe it was worth it, as it demonstrates a band at its most quirky and vital without losing too much to its lo-fi environs.

There was a traumatic return to the Star & Shadow sound desk on Saturday 22nd May, for the Narc. Fest gig that was linked with numerous other shows throughout the Ouseburn. One of my own PA speakers blew this time, I suspect because of the faulty amps that belong to the cinema. I also had serious feedback problems during The Cornshed Sisters’ set, and vowed to never be a soundman for hire ever again. The Warm Digits however, were fantastic. Employing their new inner ear monitoring system, the drums were tighter than ever before and I was sure to heed their request to keep the synth as loud as the guitar, giving their show a truly psychedelic edge that made them stand out a mile. Nathalie Stern also played an excellent set, and there was loose talk of me helping her mix and master her album at some stage later in the year; something I would love to do especially since Lake Me split before I could do a session with them.

My diary informs me that it was also around this time that the dead horse of My Attorney was kick started once more, this time with the talents of Ian Leaf and Stuart Stone in the rhythm section. New songs written during this time included Donor, Dinosaurs and Sky, Sky, Sky prompting a new list in my notebook entitled “MA LP4”.

April 2009

The shows in Edinburgh were a mixed bag; with the first one at the Forest Cafe being by far the best of the lot. A volunteer-run coffee shop and art space, it had a similar vibe and ethos to the Star & Shadow, with candle lit tables and vegan food served at the counter. A venue definitely worth checking out should other Libris acts want to tour north of the border.

Edinburgh was having a rare fit of sunny weather, and you could cut glass with the daylight there. Plenty of exploring second hand book shops in the New Town area, including picking up a couple of Michael Jackson LPs in mint condition for £1 each.

The second show was one played to nobody but our touring companions, in a dreadful underground bar. However the day’s busking off from Princess Street had made Ian and I cocky, and we thrashed through our set with gusto. Things got kicked over, vocal chords were broken. Excellent stuff.

The final day was spent in coffee shops and pubs, with a quick detour to another splendidly alternative venue The Roxy, which is housed within an old church and run by an art collective. The bar is in the crypt, which is well stocked with strange ales and antique furniture, while the upstairs doubles as a gallery and gig space.

Also had time to visit an art gallery just by Waverly Station and see pictures by Francesca Woodman, before heading to the final venue. My voice was shot by this point and so the performance wasn’t much to write home about, but Patrick Snape and Ian Breidis performed well as ever. Thanks to Robert for organising the gigs and making us feel welcome in his hometown.

The first recording session of Milky Wimpshake’s 5^th album began on Monday 6^th, at the abandoned Tyne Tees Studios. Roots and Wings rent a small space there, and are happy for bands to rehearse and record in the room that would once have been a television studio. The band raced through most of the rhythm parts for the songs, including bass overdubs – with some numbers being quite literally arranged, learnt and then performed instantaneously.

By halfway through April, Brian was in town for a second Future Loss session. Drums were done for three songs in The Cumberland Arms hall during Saturday daytime. Fortunately Stuart only needed the one day, so we spent Sunday laying down the bass and Monday saw Adam’s amp being employed to blistering degree for the guitar overdubs. A radical departure from the more ‘rock’ orientated stuff from the last session; this time the songs that emerged are pared to the bone and mainly bass-driven.

There was also the first Libris webcast, available here.

The following weekend saw more recording with Milky Wimpshake, with Pete laying down cello, violin, guitar overdubs, vocals and acoustic guitars. We also played around with some of the Balao world percussion instruments and the resident church organ there. Pete and I reconvened mid-week in the Rui rehearsal space for a gruelling, but extremely productive, overdubs session where most of the lead guitar parts were tracked. We started around 9pm, and by 2am were completely spent by the time we left, but his playing was so exacting it won’t require much comping.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Latest news: My Attorney will perform their debut gig as a four-piece at the following show:

Ex Libris Records presents...

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Ex Libris Records presents...

nfs-ma-gig-poster

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

From Ex Libris Website

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

From Ex Libris Website

On Benefit

Have you ever had a nosebleed in outer space? Grilly’s masterpiece double album will show you how. Metal collides with pop as it too collides with so many other genres that the mind boggles.

Homemade instruments (’Haardvark’), popsongs about finding purple milk down the Spar cornershop (’Purple Milk’), drum loops made entirely from Street Fighter II sound effects (’New Boyfriend’), lyrics centred around girls who wear Radiohead merchandise at bus stops (’Girl In The Kid A Top’), and thumping East Berlin techno that talks of nothing but string theory and Drew Barrymore (the fearsome ‘Klein Bottle Fishtank’) send the listener on a voyage to John Peel’s ghost and back.

Without doubt, the strangest and most expansive offering on the Libris imprint: it should be heard by everyone.

Blue Screem Of Death Video Series

Once Weekly series of Death videos, released to a flurry of internet interest, these are the viral hits of the summer.

Your Cocks Too Big

In the same way Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour was based on a true story, this is a song about stuff that actually happened. But we’re not sure when, where, or to whom, because 2005 was a bit of a blur to both of us and to be honest the lyric about “my breasts are keeping me awake at night” could quite reasonably apply to anyone watching this. Right?

Prayer To God (Shellac Cover)

The intrepid duo strip to the waist and oil themselves in moisturising granules, while performing Shellac’s Prayer To God. Stamping on broken glass not pictured.

I Want To Die

Another weekly installment of your favourite proto folk-punk-electronica-car crash live extravaganza.

Sad Girl

DOAS AKA BSOD AKA LAP + ATG perform their most recent composition: ‘Painkillers’, live from the Ribena stronghold. Also present are the facial characteristics of world class cricketers Panesar an…

Old Salty Seadog

Blue Screem of Death perform their latest love ballad, containing references to The Wire (series 2) and Jack Nicholson’s The Joker. Excitingly, this comes direct from our new rehearsal space where…

Money

From the band still referred to by 50% of its members as ‘Death Of A Salesman’, comes this chill out classic performed live in the crow’s nest of the Colerabbey Windmill & Chocolate Eclair Research…

Blue Screem Of Death Video Series

Once Weekly series of Death videos, released to a flurry of internet interest, these are the viral hits of the summer.

Your Cocks Too Big

In the same way Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour was based on a true story, this is a song about stuff that actually happened. But we’re not sure when, where, or to whom, because 2005 was a bit of a blur to both of us and to be honest the lyric about “my breasts are keeping me awake at night” could quite reasonably apply to anyone watching this. Right?

Prayer To God (Shellac Cover)

The intrepid duo strip to the waist and oil themselves in moisturising granules, while performing Shellac’s Prayer To God. Stamping on broken glass not pictured.

I Want To Die

Another weekly installment of your favourite proto folk-punk-electronica-car crash live extravaganza.

Sad Girl

DOAS AKA BSOD AKA LAP + ATG perform their most recent composition: ‘Painkillers’, live from the Ribena stronghold. Also present are the facial characteristics of world class cricketers Panesar an…

Old Salty Seadog

Blue Screem of Death perform their latest love ballad, containing references to The Wire (series 2) and Jack Nicholson’s The Joker. Excitingly, this comes direct from our new rehearsal space where…

Money

From the band still referred to by 50% of its members as ‘Death Of A Salesman’, comes this chill out classic performed live in the crow’s nest of the Colerabbey Windmill & Chocolate Eclair Research…

xlrgig010

The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks at the star and shadow on October the 16th. Tickets £7 Advance (£8 on the door). available at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/53001

xlrgig010

The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks at the star and shadow on October the 16th. Tickets £7 Advance (£8 on the door). available at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/53001

Pop Klubb

We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009 - so come along to St Dominics and dance to some indie-pop.

Pop Klubb

We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009 - so come along to St Dominics and dance to some indie-pop.

Pop Klubb

We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009 - so come along to St Dominics and dance to some indie-pop.

Pop Klubb

popklubb Flyer
We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009 - so come along to St Dominics and dance to some indie-pop.

Pop Klubb

popklubb Flyer
We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009 - so come along to St Dominics and dance to some indie-pop.

Pop Klubb

popklubb Flyer
We are DJ-ing at Pop Klubb on the 10th October 2009

popklubb Flyer

Blue Screem Of Death Video Series

Once Weekly series of Death videos, released to a flurry of internet interest, these are the viral hits of the summer.

Prayer To God (Shellac Cover)

The intrepid duo strip to the waist and oil themselves in moisturising granules, while performing Shellac’s Prayer To God. Stamping on broken glass not pictured.

I Want To Die

Another weekly installment of your favourite proto folk-punk-electronica-car crash live extravaganza.

Sad Girl

DOAS AKA BSOD AKA LAP + ATG perform their most recent composition: ‘Painkillers’, live from the Ribena stronghold. Also present are the facial characteristics of world class cricketers Panesar an…

Old Salty Seadog

Blue Screem of Death perform their latest love ballad, containing references to The Wire (series 2) and Jack Nicholson’s The Joker. Excitingly, this comes direct from our new rehearsal space where…

Money

From the band still referred to by 50% of its members as ‘Death Of A Salesman’, comes this chill out classic performed live in the crow’s nest of the Colerabbey Windmill & Chocolate Eclair Research…

Bruised Pilgrim

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of supermarkets, Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls, and broken hearts & minds.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track this record mostly live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, percussive hardcore. Grilly’s twisted approach to prog-spazz songwriting has been matched with the rawness of an experienced hard-rocking, fun-loving troupe to produce a unique and effecting cat

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

Home Item 2

To The Boats..! Front Album Cover

A document of expansive comic prog-rock come folk come metal music not to be missed.

Listen & Buy HERE

Songs For Grilly Front Album Cover
Songs For Grilly is the sophomore effort from London gypsy punks Girls Girls Girls, and appears to be released through Ex Libris Records.

Go HERE

To The Boats..!

Fronted by one-man cultural-vanguard Grilly, To The Boats..! formed in late 2007, under the nom du jour ‘bruised pligrim’ (later used as the title of their first album) and set about the London Band Scene with subtle aplomb.

With myriad influences bubbling under the surface and reacting to create something unique, TTB create a transgressive rock music chowder and feed it up to anyone who cares to wander by without pretension or attitude.

To The Boats..!

Bruised Pilgrim

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of purple milk at Spar, klein bottles fish tanks and Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track much of this record live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, punishing Berserker-esque grindcore.

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

Bruised Pilgrim

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of purple milk at Spar, klein bottles fish tanks and Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track much of this record live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, punishing Berserker-esque grindcore.

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

Bruised Pilgrim

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of purple milk at Spar, klein bottles fish tanks and Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track much of this record live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, punishing Berserker-esque grindcore.

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

Times Are Grand

A true anomaly in the Libris archives, Times Are Grand is an EP comprising of four radically different mixes of the same song, from which the disc takes its name.

Composed and performed by Graeme McClure as a sad farewell to a former lover, the original piece (featured here on track three) is a tender acoustic ballad, that owes much to Conor Oberst and Damien Rice in its vocal and lyrical style.

By contrast, the various remixes by the Nes production laboratory turn this heartfelt offering into something completely different. With layers of delayed, discordant guitar and massively distorted saucepan lid drums, Times Are Grand becomes a spooky soundtrack to some kind of disturbed Hallowe’en gathering. The unedited, eight minute cut features four minutes of complete noise, and is some of the most avant garde material within our catelogue.

Nes Advantage myspace.

Graeme McClure myspace.

To The Boats..!

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of purple milk at Spar, klein bottles fish tanks and Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track much of this record live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, punishing Berserker-esque grindcore.

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

xlrgig010

The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks at the star and shadow on October the 16th. Tickets £7 Advance (£8 on the door). available at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/53001

xlrgig010

The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks at the star and shadow on October the 16th. Tickets £7 Advance (£8 on the door). available at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/53001

xlrgig010

The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks at the star and shadow on October the 16th. Tickets £7 Advance (£8 on the door). available at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/53001

xlrgig010

Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks At the Star And Shadow

Home Item 2

To The Boats..! Front Album Cover

A document of expansive comic prog-rock come folk come metal music not to be missed.

Listen & Buy HERE

Songs For Grilly Front Album Cover
Songs For Grilly is the sophomore effort from London gypsy punks Girls Girls Girls, and appears to be released through Ex Libris Records.

Go HERE

To The Boats..!

Bruised Pilgrim

To The Boats..! began their career in “custom rock music’ in 2007, bringing the songs of Grilly’s ‘On Benefit’ album to an unsuspecting London audience. Combining the folk charm of Half Man Half Biscuit, with the metal pretensions of Dillinger Escape Plan, TTB..! revel in their strange world of supermarkets, Kid A hoodie-wearing goth girls, and broken hearts & minds.

Their live shows have always been an exuberant affair, and in choosing to track this record mostly live over the space of a weekend in a disused basement under London Bridge, the Bruised Pilgrim LP loses none of the energy in translation from stage to disc. The evolution of the music from bedroom recordings to full band renditions is remarkable: Love has become a freewheeling guitar-laced epic, while Klein Bottle Fishtank has evolved from a proto-Berlin dance song to brutal, percussive hardcore. Grilly’s twisted approach to prog-spazz songwriting has been matched with the rawness of an experienced hard-rocking, fun-loving troupe to produce a unique and effecting set.

Official site.

To The Boats..! myspace.

To The Boats..! Last FM page.

To The Boats..!

Grilly - live unplugged session @ Phoenix Fm - April 2007.

An exclusive performance from Grilly prior to the release of his magnum opus LP (from which many of these songs are culled) entitled “On Benefit’, for Brentwood radio station Pheonix FM.
Pheonix FM

Grilly’s website.

Grilly’s Last FM page.

Grilly’s myspace.

Grilly - live at Phoenix FM. Listen To All

Introduction Listen Download
Girl In The Kid A Top Listen Download
Interview 1 Listen Download
Interview 2 Listen Download
Goldtop Listen Download
My Superb Listen Download
Purple Milk Listen Download
The In Joke Listen Download

Grilly - live unplugged session @ Phoenix Fm - April 2007.

An exclusive performance from Grilly prior to the release of his magnum opus LP (from which many of these songs are culled) entitled “On Benefit’, for Brentwood radio station Pheonix FM.
Pheonix FM

Grilly’s website.

Grilly’s Last FM page.

Grilly’s myspace.

Grilly - live at Phoenix FM. Listen To All

Introduction Listen Download
Girl In The Kid A Top Listen Download
Interview 1 Listen Download
Interview 2 Listen Download
Goldtop Listen Download
My Superb Listen Download
Purple Milk Listen Download
The In Joke Listen Download

Home Item 1

This is Radio Libris calling…

In the first of a series of themed webcasts, guest DJ Miss Elodie Roy chooses her favourite tape cassette pop gems from the late 1980s. Expect to hear plenty of Beat Happening b-sides, cake tasting live on air and a rare live performance from Girls Girls Girls’ pinup bassist Adrian Martineau.

Please click here

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Home Item 3

Ex Libris Records is a small, independent music label based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England.

Operating from deep below ground in a Ribena encased bunker, we aim to document the music we love through releasing records with ink smudges on them, promoting live shows that feature the heavy use of fairy lights and confectionery, and various electronic splutterings from this website in the form of webcasts, videos, music and brownie recipes.

Grilly - live unplugged session @ Phoenix Fm - April 2007.

An exclusive performance from Grilly prior to the release of his magnum opus (from which many of these songs are culled) “On Benefit’.

Pheonix FM

Grilly’s website.

Grilly - live at Phoenix FM. Listen To All

Introduction Listen Download
Girl In The Kid A Top Listen Download
Interview 1 Listen Download
Interview 2 Listen Download
Goldtop Listen Download
My Superb Listen Download
Purple Milk Listen Download
The In Joke Listen Download

Rebecca Jones - live in concert @ The Corner House, Newcastle - June 2007.

One of the final solo performances from Rebecca Jones, before she was joined by her ensemble band of musicians. This gig was in support of the punk metal band Silo, bizarrely. Of special note is the number of times Jones clears her throat.

Rebecca Jones - live in concert @ The Corner House Listen To All

Fields & Mountains Listen Download
The Optimist's Song Listen Download
December's Burning Listen Download
Monty Listen Download
Byker Bridge Listen Download
Magic Roads Listen Download
Of You, Somewhere Listen Download
Someday Listen Download

Listen

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Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 54

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 55

Warning: mktime() [function.mktime]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 41

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 50

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 52

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 54

Warning: date() [function.date]: It is not safe to rely on the system’s timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected ‘Europe/London’ for ‘BST/1.0/DST’ instead in /home/lpage/public_html/wp/wp-includes/functions.php on line 55

Coffee and Grilly - Ex Libris Webcast #3.

Join Grilly as he guides you through the finest in folk, metal and Knightmare theme tune covers.