Records are finally out!

After what feels like forever (but in reality is about 2 months or something) the records are done and available.

You can buy one here: www.apologiesihavenone.bigcartel.com

We just this second sold our first one.

*shock face*

Dan

Leaving everything till the last minute.

The 7" records came the other day. The colours and printing are just what we wanted, so I have to recommend anyone getting records pressed to consider Key Production, we had great service from them and I couldn't be happier. Ema finished the inserts at the end of last week - aside from lyrics and notes, they come with a template to make 3d mice and owls. I think this might be a first for a band, google didn't seem to suggest otherwise.

Almost ready to go on tour now. We're just copying the last of the inserts, fixing the prints on the last t-shirts, burning the last of the CDs to go with the records and flyering for the London show. It's awesome that no matter how much planning we do, everything is a race right before we go away.

I wonder if that will ever change.

Dan

Joiners And Windmills

Hi. This is the second song from the 7" that we're doing, again filmed at Harrow. The first chord is missing, you can imagine it if you like, its a D chord that kind of goes "Da-DAA". Its all dramatic and full of tension, you know?

Speaking of the record, they arrived yesterday and look sweet-as, so we will 100% have them on the tour and we'll put them up for order tomorrow or something you can pick one up before we go.

Dan
Apologies, i have none

Joiners and Windmills - Apologies, i have none from emilou on Vimeo.

Screen Printing for tour

The other day I spent all afternoon screen printing shirts for tour with Em. I think they came out great with 3 different designs and a few different colours. When I arrived the screens had already been prepared, but the design needed to be exposed onto it so we could start printing. This involves putting the prepared screens on a UV light box with the design on top and leaving it for 7-9 minutes.

You can then pressure washer the screen and the areas with the design exposed onto them wash away, leaving the design as "gaps" on the screen. This is where the fabric ink can get through the screen and get onto the shirt. The detail possible from screens is really impressive and we used some with a really fine mesh, offering even higher detail.

The actual process of pulling the paint through the screen requires a certain technique and we spent a long time practicing on paper and fabric scraps. Too much ink, or too many pulls with the squeegie and the design will look too heavy and detail will be lost. Too little paint or not enough pulls with the squeegie and the design will look patchy and thin. I was rubbish at it, so Ema did them all. It takes a pretty steady arm and a lot of pressure to do it clean. I like how every shirt came out just slightly different to the last and I thought they all looked great.

We have a few more to do tonight, all black shirts with a few different designs on them. These will be available on our page pretty soon, but probably not till after tour, so if you want one quick, come see us play.

Dan

Sat In Vicky Park

We played both the songs from our upcoming 7" at the Harrow show this weekend. This is the first one of the 2 songs - Sat In Vicky Park.

Sat In Vicky Park - Apologies, i have none from emilou on Vimeo.

Me and josh had a pretty solid discussion on how you would spell the shortened name of "Victoria park" while sitting in the car on the first day of recording this 7". I said we should spell it "vicky park", josh said it should be "viccy park". Well, he wrote the song, so we settled on "viccy park" against my better judgement and Ema did the artwork for the record and spelled it my way without even thinking about it. Some victories are so trivial they aren't worth winning.

Dan

North West Is Best Fest - Video

Ema recorded some bands at this show on Saturday. Sorry we didn't get everyone who played, the whole gig was awesome fun.

myspace.com/ihatecynics
myspace.com/rooftopslondon
myspace.com/leaguesapartmusic
myspace.com/apologiesihavenone
myspace.com/serfcombat
myspace.com/abovethem

Dan

Cynics, Rooftops, Leagues Apart, Apologies, i have none, Serf Combat, Above Them from emilou on Vimeo.

North West Is Best Fest

I figured the best way to spend my Sunday night was uploading tons of photos and video to the internet. Thanks for taking most of the photos Em. Videos are uploading now, I'll post them up when it's done.

Dan

Cynics

Serf Combat (minus Alf)

Rooftops

Leagues Apart

Run/Walk

Apologies, i have none

Serf Combat

Southport

Above Them

Harrow All-Dayer. All Day. Today!

Is everyone going to this today?......yeah?......good!

Not so good if you are planning on going late though. Due to our original slot of 9:50pm being past some of this bands bedtime*** we will now be playing much earlier. I'm not too sure what time but if I was a betting man then i'd say sometime before 7pm.....if I was a betting man that is......which I am.

Basically what i'm saying is if you want to see us then get down earlier, preferably at the beginning as I don't know what time we're playing.

***despite our youthful exuberance and boyish good looks, Dan and I are actually pretty old. Depressingly older than you probably realise.

Josh.

Personal Updates.

Me and Ema spent about 8 hours yesterday screen printing shirts for tour. It wasn't hugely fun, but the shirts came out real well. Ema did two new designs, one of them is below and will be available in all sizes for tour. We should be doing some with a gold print on black shirts for people who are into the bling. 60 miles away, Josh was fitting the van out so that our gear will be safer and easier to "tetris" into place by bolting wood and metal inside the back of it. PJ has been playing shows with Rooftops. Speaking of Rooftops, they just upped their whole EP onto myspace and it's awesome. Get learning the words (or where to scream) so that when you come see us on tour you can look like the dude who got in the band before they blew up. Yeah? Anyway: www.myspace.com/rooftopslondon. Joe, well, I have no idea what joe has been up to, but he usually works 2 jobs and sessions in random bands at his studio and fucks about with effects pedals and shit. He's probably been busy, I'll find out tonight.

Come to this: PJ Fest

Dan

7" Lyrics

Yo. The record is all on-schedule, so I thought I would post the lyrics to it here, even if most people have no idea how the songs go.



Sat In Vicky Park
Give me east london summer, give me under the radar and i'm done. My name is no longer low level worker I'm gone. I'm gone where bank accounts have no weight, where the 26 takes me all the way past landlords and managers, where i only move in straight lines forward now. I only move in straight lines forward now. And i'm taking this lesson with me - the worst mistake to make is to be afraid to make mistakes. I can't believe this took so long to learn, it should be so obvious, like a man cannot be measured by the number of people he's fucked, like numbers on a payslip are no indication of worth. My relationship with reality, it comes and goes and we rarely see eye to eye.

(Lines in Italics are from a song by Grade from the album 'Under The Radar')



Joiners and Windmills
I can hear it all from outside, the choked up sounds of another night. I'm breathing deep through clenched teeth, watching my steps carefully. These concrete slabs and kurb cuts are looking more familiar by now and the words escape me, I can't drag them up to say "I'm sorry". There's no excuses. We had such high hopes but it's always difficult to keep everything balanced, to not leave anything behind. It's so hard to fall apart when there's nowhere you'd rather land, so this is it: the choices that we made, like not giving up just yet. I'm not giving up. Sometimes what it takes is to listen to what you say and try to hear it, to try to feel it.

Test pressings arrived.

The test pressings came the other day. They sound great and its cool to finally hear how we sound on an analogue format. The difference in sound between the .wav files and the 7" is huge, I can totally understand why some people get all "audiophile" about non-digital formats, there is a lot to like about the sound you get from vinyl, it definitely sounds less "bang on" and less sharp, a little more like the band is playing right there with you. I can't wait till we get them all back with the artwork and inserts (which are also looking amazing).

Cue gratuitous shot of my awesome record player:


Woop!

Dan

Norwich.

This photo is kind of funny. PJ and Joe are getting loose and if you could see me, I'd be doing the same. Josh is tuning up after he broke string. Some shows just kind of go that way.

Inter-when?

Yo. Whats going on? Why has my laptop slowly crawled to a halt when all I use it for is recording bullshit attempts at songs using cracked software and photoshopping on illegal copies of expensive programs? Its like the world doesn't want me to be productive using the fruits of someone else's labour for free. I thought this was a free country?! As much as I am an Apple fanboy, this has gone on long enough. I want them to build me a computer that gets FASTER the more I use it. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but the computer should LEARN what I am doing and pre-empt me. It should know that after I check my e-mail, I'm going to check the Myspace, then Punktastic, then Be-Mag. It should load that shit up the second I start my web-routine. It should know that I also use the internet to watch Southpark and Family Guy. Why do I have to search for pirated videos of them on the internet? It should find them for me and say "Yo Bondy, you haven't seen this Family Guy yet, I already checked and the video plays all the way through, no lie!". Blammo! There I am, saving time, watching stuff online without the poker adverts and disappointment.

"Yo Bond! Thought you might like this video of cats falling off tables - you haven't seen it yet and you will totally LOL at it".

"Well thanks very much computer, another few precious seconds saved".

Steve Jobs, please hire me. I don't expect much money, but I do expect regular days off, to turn up late and quite frequently leave early. I will expect quite a bit of slacking during the day and a long lunch, but shit man, if you need some tips on how to improve software, call me.

ps:

Tour!

I'm so excited about this:


Thanks Ema!

Broken screens and busted batteries.

My current iPod situation looks like this.

• IPod A: This is a very old blue iPod mini I am borrowing from a friend. This has my favourite stuff on it and the battery lasts, at best, 2 hours. 1 hour if it’s cold outside
• IPod B: This is my old silver IPod nano. It has some stuff from a few years ago on it as well as some newer stuff on it. The screen is broken and I can only listen to it on random.

I had an awesome black iPod nano, I lost that while on tour with Calvinball and Onsind. I had the very first iPod (with actual buttons) and that broke while I was skating. I borrowed an awesome new nano for a while, but had to give it back. My iPod situation right now isn’t great.

Still, PJ still uses a Discman and carries actual CDs around with him. Everywhere.

I am still winning.

Laters

Dan

Tuesday, in haiku format.

I don’t like Tuesdays
At least it’s not Monday though
Friday seems way off.



Dan Bond
Tuesday, 2nd March
Greenwich, London.