blind-fitter

I think we'll get round to a Last FM page too. I've mentioned to my collaborator. Latest news is that we're going to be doing the filming for a video for the track "Slashing It Down", on Sunday.

Here we are: Louder Than War: New Band of the Day It's only a short "intro" piece, but I understand LTW mainman John Robb intends to do a bigger "splash" later. I'm well chuffed. Please feel free to FB "like", Tweet, etc. etc. The more the merrier. Much appreciated. Ta!

The highly entertaining, informative and ultra-happening music news blog LOUDER THAN WAR may be featuring Flies On You in its "New Bands" feature very soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks for the positive feedback, folks! You'll never guess what happened last week. On the very day we began publicising our Soundcloud page (last Friday), I received a late-night text from a local promoter, asking if we would like to support Scritti Politti, at their early August gig at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Now, I'm not a huge Scritti Politti fan myself, but they are a band of great pedigree: John Peel Show favourites with post-punk roots, then had some big international hit records in their pure pop incarnation, now releasing critically-acclaimed albums again, after a few "wilderness years". This is not a "low-key" event": it will be a sell-out, I suspect. Shame we had to turn the gig down: we haven't made any plans for live peformance, would need to draft in extra musicians, familiarise them with songs, rehearse together, etc. and the gigs only 5 weeks away. Oh,and my band-mate will be away. But still, quite an exciting thing to have to deal with, so soon after setting the publicity machine in motion.

Update: I didn't know until today that MySpace belongs to Murdoch, so we have deleted our MySpace page for ideological reasons. Use the Soundcloud link for the time being: Cheers!

The Bandcamp page is under construction. Although the album will be available to buy though "the usual suspects", we will promoting bandcamp as the place to purchase it. Apart fromanything else, we will be selling the album/tracks much cheaper through bandcamp than the other outlets allow.

FLIES ON YOU is a band I formed with a fella I know, about a year ago. We are based in Leeds, in the north of England. For simplicity's sake, we describe ourselves as a DIY post-punk duo. I won't bore you with a list of musical interests and influences just now. I am vocalist / lyricist / visionary, and also play guitar on some tracks. We have an album, "Nothing To Write Home About", coming out in September 2012. In the meantime,interested parties can sample some of our wares on our MySpace or Soundcloud pages: http://www.myspace.com/fliesonyou NO LONGER APPLICABLE (see subsequent post) There are some vaguely interesting tales to tell about some of our songs, which may well be revealed in time. There will be videos to accompany several of the album tracks, which I will bring to your attention, when the moment is right. Later!

OK, my band FLIES ON YOU now have an official released date for our debut album "Nothing To Write Home About". Put it in your diaries: September 3rd 2012 To whet your appetites for the album, there are tracks you can listen to on Soundcloud:

Following a band conflab, we have decided to delay the release until September, for various reasons; getting videos completed, website up and running, registering with the PRS, etc. and to avoid the dip in interest in recorded music which apparently occurs during the summer: you can't get reviews anywhere, cus all the journos are distracted by festivals, so I'm told. So, September it is, for the co-ordinated launch of FLIES ON YOU debut album, "Nothing To Write Home About"

Well, some time has passed and I'm still listening to St Vincent a heck of a lot. Her "Strange Mercy" albumwas probably my favourite album of 2011. Here is a video for one of themany great tracks thereupon: "Cheerleader" Another couple of Strange Mercy album tracks, from the 4AD session: "Surgeon" "Strange Mercy" Another of my album favourites:"Northern Lights"

I'm really looking forward to the forthcoming release of my own band's album. That's right, my band FLIES ON YOU, debut album "Nothing To Write Home About", being released in the next couple of weeks. I'll be back with more release details, links to our website, promo vids, etc., as and when. Keep your eyes peeled.

Stayin' Alive!

Well, excuse us.

Pulp: "F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D. L.O.V.E."

The new Killing Joke album "MMX11" is out (in the UK), and it's really splendid stuff. "Rapture" "Trance" "In Cythera"

A band can be a One-Hit Wonder in the US, but be pretty famous at home, or have a global fan-base without actually having a "big hit". Chumbawamba (who I happen to count as "friends of mine"), I first saw live in 1983, and numerous times afterwards as their musical output and live act got better and better. By the late 80s/early 90s they were a popular draw on the live scene and scored a couple of lower-end chart hits. I've no idea, but could ask them, how many European and US tours they had done, before they had their unlikely and unexpected "international superhit". They were certainly "internationally known" before having their hit - a popular band - albeit amongst a non-mainstream audience. There are instances of bands who were massively successful at home,in a "mainstream" way,(both in singles and album sales), but who scored only one hit, or none at all, in the States. Two cases in point: Madness, I understand, are regarded as "One Hit Wonder" material, on account of their catchy single "Our House". However, Madness are one of the UK's most successful bands of all time, in that they had a difficult-to-rival unbroken sequence of umpteen successive chart hits. They had already released a truckload of classic chart-hit singles ("One Step Beyond", "My Girl", "Night Boat To Cairo", "Embarrassment", "Baggy Trousers", "House Of Fun", etc.) before "Our House" came along, and continued to release some great singles afterwards. Describe Madness as a "one hit wonder" over here, and you would be met with bewilderment. Similarly, The Jam were the UK's most popular band to emerge from the UK punk/new-wave explosion, moreso than The Clash, for example, (who were perhaps more overt in selling themselves to the American audience) and in the late 70s and early 80s scored a series of top chart hit singles and instant No. 1s; ("Going Underground", "Start", "Town Called Malice" were all #1s, off the top of my head). Even a single available only as a German Import ("That's Entertainment") entered the Top 10 in first week of availability. The Jam were hugely influential in the UK. Yet as far as I know, and correct me if I'm wrong, they remain a "No Hit Wonder" in the States. Regarding Devo, I agree with the compiler of the list that it's a gross disservice to Devo to consider them a one-hit wonder... ..even if they did only have one hit. Again, they were internationally known and influential on the course and influence of punk / new wave, and released the seminal albums "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are Devo" and "Duty Now For The Future". I was never the coolest, hippest or most knowledgeable teen, but I can tell you that the UK youth danced to Devo in their alternative discos way before "Whip It" came along. Their "big hit" represented a cross-over into the mainstream, but I think they would still be regarded by many as a legendary band today, whether or not that hit happened.

Given the tragic circumstances of Kirsty MacColl's premature death, mown down by a speedboat in a designated swimming area, in front of her onlooking children, I'd suggest a little more respect wouldn't go amiss.

I really don't care for all that Meatloaf / Jim Steinman stuff, and I kind of hate myself for even intervening to mention it, but wasn't that "Dead Ringer For Love" a more obvious example of a "He Said, she said..." song?

I read the remainder of that article and can't help feeling a little scared. Not being overly familiar with these odd people you guys occasionally elevate to positions of influence, I have googled "Michele Bachmann quotes" to try and and substantiate for myself her position on gay teen suicides. Whilst after 10 minutes of hard googling, I haven't yet found that specific quote, I have seen more than enough evidence that this individual is mad, bad and dangerous to indulge. How the hell is she taken seriously by anyone other than the inmates of asylums? Can anyone explain this to a bewildered foreigner? http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-controversial-michele-bachmann-quotes/pilgrimsprogressive?page=3&format=BLOG&sortby=&sortdir=&limit= was one of the best links I found, as all the quotes here are provable (attributable and viewable) and contextualised to some degree.

Did AC/DC have a song that went "She's got the Jack"? Or am I imagining it? Of course, it might nothave been about a card-game, though I seem to think some of the lyrics were "My ace was high, her deuce was wild..." or somesuch. It was a long time ago.

Re the notion of backwards-looking music. Moreso than ever before, musicians are swimming in a swill of shallow superfice and artifice, largely thanks to the recent trend for all-pervasive "talent-discovery" shows. You know the sort I mean? There's always been shallow, superficial and artificial pop/rock music about - not necessarily a bad thing, I have enjoyed plenty of it myself - but there really has been a veritable avalanche of vacuous, indefensible rubbish in recent years, on both pop and rock fronts. That is not to take the "modern music is rubbish" angle, which I don't agree with at all. I'll get to my point in a minute, whenI remember what it was. I think that perceived "authenticity" has become an essential tool for musical artists wishing to avoid the lack of credibility afforded by involvement in vacuous modern "celebrity" culture and the commercial music world. They want to be taken "seriously"; in order to do so they need to claim and demonstrate credible influences (artists and producers of a certain pedigree with the cognoscenti) However, "authenticity" is merely a construct in itself. An analysis of most of the reputable rock and pop artists of the last decade would see their claims of authenticity reduced to dust. In the UK, breakthrough artists of recent years seem to be disproportionately represented by graduates of stage school or the private school system. Such artists, if they wish to be "taken seriously" have to go to the extra mile to persuade the discerning music-buyer of their credibility / authenticity, which they do by referencing and replicating credible artists of the past in sound and style. I'm Ok with that; I like loads of artists whose music appears (at first glance, at least) to be somewhat backward-looking. However, I am also rather sceptical about artists who go out of their way to over-emphasise their obsessive insistence on vintage sounds and styles. "Why are they so insecure and just who are they trying to impress?" I can't help wondering. The great thing is that - get this, I don't know if you've noticed - the charts don't really matter any more; they're always full of complete tosh, all the time. For pity's sake, the people that buy the stuff that gets in the charts don't even like music. We know that now, so it's time to move on. The great music around - and there really is lots of it, whether it's determinedly retro or innovative and forward-looking - exists mainly outside of the commercially-driven star-system. But moreso than ever before, these alternatives are accessible to everyone, rather than the hipster elite, as used to be the case.* (This muddies the water somewhat, as exclusivity was sometimes a salient factor in the measurement of an artists credibility; not sure if this is the case any more, unless anybody knows otherwise. I mean, I know there are still niche genresof interest to specific minorities, but they don't necessarily infer any "cool/hip" quotient, and are relatively accessible to those that want.)

Good point.

How dare you use my signature as a Trojan Horse for your advertisement? :beady:

A Leeds legend, and unbeknownst to most of you, a true rock'n'roll pioneer. Also, reputedly, the first DJ to use two turntables and a microphone. Link to informative tribute.

Album Covers Come Alive