Space Music, Bog Roll, iLiKETRAiNS, Giants.

So I've just sat down with a couple of free hours and popped on the preview listening of the new Efterklang album, I'm in a good place. If you don't know about Efterklang then I prescribe an immediate dose of THIS VIDEO:

It's palliative effects are endless, in all the numerous times I've watched it i've yet to fail in smiling like an absolute lunatic at the pure joy of it all. I'm three songs in and I can already tell that Piramida is obscenely brilliant, it sounds like music recorded in the crevices and on the precipices of the earth and then produced in space.

In band related news, Watchfires WENT OFF last saturday, if you came then thank you, if you didn't then i'm sorry. Everyone was fantastic: Oh Stockholm!, Terrors and not least our lock-up partners and homies Prayers who stepped up to the plate for what was, i believe, their second gig (they smashed it).

For interested parties (you!) the next Watchfires is on the 10th of November, we've got some treats for you

HIGH FIELDS (Liverpool)

BEN WILLIAMS

And thats just the start, we're awaiting confirmation from another bunch of bad hombres, we'll keep in touch. If you're rearing to reserve your spot drop an email to watchfires@hotmail.com and we will reserve you a ticket for four English pounds, thats a saving of one pound on the door price! Thats the value of three tins of pop, a multipack of penguin biscuits or a six pack of one-ply toilet paper. Don't say we aren't good to you. If you reserve a ticket before the gig, you'll also get a free SOE poster which, incidentally, you could also use as toilet paper should an emergency arise.

In even more exciting news, we will be supporting iLiKETRAiNS on the 21st of October at the Hare & Hounds Kings Heath. If you were ever planning on coming to stare at our miserable faces at any point, make it this point, if only to witness the rare occasion of a smile on Will's face. We are ridiculously excited be playing this show with what has been one of our favourite bands for quite some time. If you want to reserve tickets you can use this link. We will also be selling tickets at a lower price, drop an e-mail to watchfires@hotmail.com to get your thrift on and reserve one.

Well, this has been nice but I think thats about it i'm afraid. On Saturday we're playing a small acoustic set at the one of the stations along the Severn Valley Railway for their Autumn Steam Gala. Yeah, apparently it's autumn, shit. We'll be playing amongst a bunch of model steam trains, so we can stomp around and feel like vengeful ostracised giants. Anyway, we're looking forward to that. We will post photos.

T'ra a bit,
Christopher
x

In the darkness, I will find you... oops sorry, I thought that was your elbow.

Afternoon all.

Right, the first blog in a long time! Chris did write one but never posted it. Shock…

So this is the friendly catch up, imagine its over a cup of tea and we're bitching about someone that is really fat no and the people from school who have got 7 kids. 

Ok, so down to brass tax, a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. A little bit of sport in London called the Olympics happened but mainly we released our album ‘We Raised the Flames and Built a City on the Ashes’ on 6^th August and so far seems to be receiving a positive response, which is a huge sigh of relief for us after all the self doubt and nail biting that we (well, I) had about it.

Thank you to everyone who has brought it and listened to it so far. If you haven’t and wish to, you can purchase it at www.minorartists.com/store.

The album has also brought our first in depth review, which was done by the lovely folk at God Is In The TV and you can read it here: http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2012/08/13/sunrise-over-europe-we-raised-the-flames-and-built-a-city-on-the-ashes-minor-artists/.

A particular favourite line in it for me is “during ‘Escape is an Art, Art is an Escape’, there are a few seconds before the chorus, when (mixed incredibly abrasively) a bass note practically says ‘ fuck this, fuck you, you are a twat, this is all bullshit, I’ll be at the bar watching the world burn …’ In case it isn’t obvious, this is a very VERY good thing.”

I’m glad that listeners pick up on the little details in the music like that as when we recorded the album they seemed so throw away.

The other big news over the past month is that we have released to music videos. They aren’t full of women in bikinis, money, bling and big cars so we havn’t yet reached the heights of west coast rap but you never know, our next album may well have that quality. Check them out below

Little Spoken Wars

The video for ‘Little Spoken Wars’ was filmed in St Nicolas’ church in Dormston where we recorded the album. The last time the church had heard this track it was in separate parts, so it was nice to come back and fill it with the sound of the complete article. It was directed by (ever increasingly) renaissance man Chris Donald and filmed by Verity Milligan. It was a fun day although we were all sick of the song by the end! Thanks to them for their direction, time and effort.

Follow Me Around

The video for ‘Follow Me Around’ was the vision of Yorkshire based director Benjamin Poffley, a friend of Chris Donald’s. He was given the album and it was left to him to choose a track that he could create something for. It’s a truly wonderful piece of work that we incredibly proud of and we are so grateful for Benjamin’s time and effort!

More virgin ground upon which we are walking is merchandise. We have t-shirts and posters based on the plethora of fine artwork Katie Maxted gave us for the album and it is available from http://sunriseovereurope.bigcartel.com/ or from us at gigs.

What else?

The next Watchfires is on 15^th September down at the Flapper and playing we have new post-rock boys Prayers, loud frantic extraordinaire’s Terrors and mellow evocative folkers Oh Stockholm! We’ll be playing our moaning shit-cake music as well. This will be a good one (they all are though aren’t they?) so we expect to see you there. Yeah you.

Quick story about Prayers. Prayers are very likeminded to us as they are also morbid post-rockers who like the darker side of things, see why we like them? The Sunrise Lock-Up curse has struck again. The band we were previously sharing with split up which is the second time that’s happened to us. Leaving our third lock-up seemed inevitable until newly formed Prayers came along and saved the day. I was on holiday when they played their first gig so I can’t comment with authority on their sound but everyone else in the Sunrise camp speak very highly of them.

Ok, now we’re all caught up I’ll let you get on with your life.

Thank you all for your support and see you soon.

Good hunting

Will