Festival season is over, for me at least. I can't say I'm resentful at not having to wander round any more fields with little idea of what's going on any more this year. It's been a great summer though, and Reading and Leeds topped it off in style. Seriously the best weekend of my life just been.
A few quick things, as ever..
On September 9th I'll be live on the Zane Lowe Show on Radio 1 from 7-9pm, in session with the band. Tune in.
Xtra Mile Recordings have a new shop up and running, where you can buy my stuff (and stuff by Million Dead, Reuben, Chris T-T, Jonah Matrangah.. etc.) for cheap, and it's better for the artists too. They also want to be your myspace friend...
There's more American Tour Dates going up all the time, and there's a big UK support tour to announce for December - more on that soon. In the meantime, tickets for the UK October run are going fast..
I'm back from a short holiday in Cornwall, much refreshed, and I'm now going to do something totally fucking insane: I'm actually going to use this blog to impart important information! Loads of it.
Right, we'll begin with news about releases, and we'll start on that with the UK. First of all, there's a three-way split album with me, Jonah Matranga and Chris T-T due for release on Xtra Mile later this year. However, we're having issues with the title. So YOU can decide! Check out this thread and add your contributions. The record will be available exclusively through iTunes at the end of September.
In other news, the song 'Long Live The Queen' is due to be released as a single in the UK on October 20th. It'll be a download, with some exclusive b-sides.. And more importantly, proceeds will go to Breast Cancer Research (for obvious reasons) so even if you already have the song, get downloading!
Finally, there's a rarities compilation due to be released at the end of this year, which will be called 'The First Three Years'. The idea is that I've always been a stickler for not ripping people off by duplicating songs across releases; however, this means that it's getting harder for people to legitimately get all my material. So the CD will have everything that's not on either of the albums. We're jamming as much music on there as physically possible. Good times.
Now to the USA. The dates I have with Chuck Ragan have long been up, and the shows with Fake Problems are slowly being announced - keep checking the gigs page or the myspace for details. The big news is that Love Ire & Song will be properly released on October 2nd in the USA and Canada through the good people at Arbor Records. At last, you yanks will be able to get it without paying import prices. It has a couple of bonus tracks on too. How can you resist?
Odds and sods.. The UK October Tour is selling well, so if you're planning on coming I'd get a ticket sooner rather than later. The Reading Warmup show at New Slang in Kingston on 21st August is going to be boss, not just because I am going to publicly piss on Cahir from Fighting With Wire, but also because the first 100 people through the door will get an ultra-limited, ultra-collectible split 7" featuring me and FWW. Madness!
Video Schmideo... There's a nice film about the excellent 2000 Trees Festival which you can watch here, and a mammoth interview I did in Reading which starts here and goes on forever. And finally, here's a little video for 'I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous'...
