Londown.

Everyone seems to be moving to London. I don't know what's going on - the recession seems to be driving people into the city, where jobs seem few and rent seems high and I know this seems crazy but it's happening. I've struggled with London for the last few years, I don't feel at home here at all and yet I know I can't move back to Oxfordshire where I came from. No where else in the country has people that I even vaguely know to say anything other than "Hi, hows things?" to and so I will stay here, until my friends move away or I can afford that over-the-top mansion in the Lake District with the petting zoo and multiple water slides or something else that gives away my inability to grow-up. With more people I know living here the more I feel less stranded but it doesn't actually help anything at all - if you live 5 miles away from each other here you might as well live 50. London is too big - for everyone I know considering moving here think "Hackney" please.

We're still homeless and if it wasn't for Ema and her awesome housemates I'd probably have slept at work by now on a pile of lost property jumpers and scarfs that smell like beer and floor and bring me out in a rash on my face. I can't wait to find somewhere to move into and alienate our neighbours immediately. I've been toying with the idea of getting a new amp recently and my GAS is at an all time high. Despite being broke and being about to get broker (is that a word?!) after buying my America flight, I have been watching ebay hard looking for a good deal on an amp that is far too loud for me and will be a ball-ache to carry upstairs. Our new neighbours will love it, whoever they might be. We looked at a place last night with the agent who owned it and the girl that lived there was trying to give us pretty subtle but clear hints that the place was shitty and over priced. Thanks for that, whoever you were. We won't me moving into your house. The internet can't seem to help us now. I'm rambling really. I just needed to write something that wasn't a response to an e-mail complaining about Andrea Bocellis concert last night. (Customer Services department, large arena) Back to all my favourite websites to kill some time.

Insert random photo:



Cheers, Dan

Self-Promotion

I'm not comfortable in telling people about our band really. I'm not ashamed of anything we have done (except some of the very early gigs where, looking back, we were undeniably terrible) but I just don't like putting what we do in peoples faces. I'd rather people saw us at a show, or picked up our CD and then listened to it and liked it and then came to see us again. I imagine most bands are like that, except for the really cocky bands that you often see on Shut Up Bands. But we've been lucky so far, any sort of press we have had has been with people I either know and like, or people who have contacted us and been friendly with no agenda. There is an element of having to "play the game" in this country in order to get some serious attention on your band and so far we've avoided that almost entirely. These things aren't easy. Regardless, I am posting here some blatant self-promotion - I figure, you're on our website, you probably like our band (or hate us and read this out of some sort of self-hate or self-justification) and might want to read some more.

Shattered Glass Magazine did a feature on us (page 45) and Punknews reviewed our record

I feel like a sell-out now.

Dan

It's Official.

My parents were so impressed when I told them we were going to America to play a show. They asked me a few more details and when they found out we were having to buy our own flights and it was in only 40 or so days I could feel the mood shift a little. I think they know I have no money and I'm shit at organising anything, let alone getting halfway round the world to play a show where I will know absolutely no-one (except some awesome Uk bands who are trekking over as well)

If I'm honest, I still need to settle into the idea that in 40 days I will climb into my overdraft and credit limit and get on a plane to go and play someone elses gear in a room of strangers on the other side of the world. It un-nerves me a little, probably because I have never left Europe before and know that the whole trip relies on us playing well but also because I haven't booked my flights yet so I'm unsettled. I'm excited though, I'm desperately happy that we get to play to more people and I cannot wait to watch a ton of my favourite bands shoulder to shoulder with a ton of people who also love those bands. lets hope we play early in the fest so I don't have to worry about blowing my voice out while screaming along with Bomb The Music Industry or something.

So we have a fest page now and it's streaming "Re-arranginging The Dust" from our newest EP if you haven't already heard that song.

http://www.thefestfl.com/fest8/bands/A/apologies-i-have-none/

*insert happy Dan, Josh and Scammy Russo picture*


*Ps: Scammy is in this picture because everything is better with a bit of Sam Russo. Who do I talk to about getting Sam Russo to headline the Fest?

"Mainline Florida, oh say. Mainline Florida, O.K."

There's still so much to sort out that I am trying not to get too carried away, but we got accepted to play Fest this year and it's going to be awesome. We'll be playing (hopefully, if all goes to plan) with a drummer and bassist. We're just getting into practicing as a 4 piece band and it's still in the early days, but we are all keen to pull everything together in time for Fest, which will likely be our first full-band show. That seems massively risky doesn't it? I'll write more about the full band thing soon, I could go on for hours about it, but this isn't the time or the place. Anyway Tommy, get your flight booked, we're going to Flo-Rida.

This post is entirely about other bands.

Things go a bit quiet from us for a while now, we don't have many gigs lined up and we're really just working out some new songs stuff. I'll explain about the "full band" thing soon, its just that it's 5.59 and I want to leave work on time. Here's some stuff to listen to in the meantime, in case you missed it.

Our good friends just started a new band. Its awesome. I saw their 3rd ever show and already they are tight and the songs sound really banging. Check them out here:
http://www.myspace.com/rooftopslondon

I have been listening to Bangers A LOT recently. Their split with Break The Habit is really good so you should also check them out:
http://www.myspace.com/bangersbangers
http://www.myspace.com/wearebreakthehabit

As always, if you somehow missed out on the greatest dude with a guitar ever, go listen to Sam Russo.
http://www.myspace.com/samrussomusic

We still need a house.

Vanity post.

Dear whoever took this photo:

Thank you. This is the first photo of me playing guitar, in colour, where I am not completely bright red.

I should play under a blue light more often.

Much Love

Dan

Welcome, September.

I remember taking this photo. It was ages ago, probably sometime in late 2006 or around that time. I had this incredibly bad digital camera with a fixed focus and a shutter-lag of about a second which made framing photos almost impossible and any photos that I managed to get were usually blurry or badly exposed. I loved it. It was like the digital equivalent of Holga but without the light leaks and expensive processing. I think I lost it or broke it, I guess when your camera is £25 you take less care of it but I was gutted when I realised it was gone. I have tried to curb my losing-and-breaking habits more recently, but it's a habit of a lifetime and I still seem to lose my things. Most recently, I left my entire bag in a park in South London. Ipod, wallet, keys, everything.

I remember what I was thinking when I pressed the shutter button and waited the second or so until the picture was taken. It was the night we tried to record a rough version of Justine's Housemate using Joshs Ibanez Artcore guitar through his Peavey Amp. At this time, I didn't even own a semi-good electric guitar, let alone an amp, but it didn't stop our enthusiasm for putting a band together. The semi-acoustic Ibanez dwarfed me and I didn't like playing it standing up. I tended to use an old Strat knock-off that had seen far better days instead, despite its bad tuning and dodgy jack. No matter how it was tuned, F Major was way out. We spent hours that night trying to get a good sound from the Ibanez/Peavey combo and it just wasn't happening. It just sounded shit. Nothing we did could correct the fact that the song we liked playing just would not record how we wanted it to. I think we were about 4 hours in when we deleted all the guitar tracks and resolved ourselves to defeat. I took this photo right as we gave up. The photo below shows Josh, 1 second later, turning off the laptop.

Soon after, I got my first "real" electric guitar - An Epiphone Les Paul. I didn't have it very long. It wasn't very good either and I didn't like the weight of it and the fact that it always sounded "heavy". I accepted there and then that good gear costs money, recording was always going to be a brick-wall and that everything, everything takes 5 times longer than I think it will when it comes to band related stuff.

I think I finished a song last night. I started it 5 months ago and I don't consider that to have taken long at all.