Ho Ho Ho! Some ideas for pressies!

I haven't posted anything here for over a month. I simply haven't had time.

So, what's been happening in Nik land. Well, the new Moustache EP is almost finished. We've recorded all the songs and only need to add some keyboard bits and do some mixing. Paul from Hexicon will be doing some of the artwork, which I'm rather excited about. Woot! Hopefully it'll be ready before the end of the year, but it probably won't. Haha. We're just not very efficient when it comes to these things.

The next Allo Darlin' single, The Polaroid Song, is officially out on 7th December, but as far as I know you can pre-order the seven-inch already. If not, you should at least be able to get it at Allo Darlin' shows, the next of which is tomorrow at Jamm in Brixton. Both songs are absolutely incredible and guaranteed to make you want to dance the winter blues away. Irresistable bouncy pop songs and just the perfect stocking filler for just about anyone. Oh, and the artwork! Let's not forget the artwork, since it consists of Polaroids taken by me :)

The single cover, a Polaroid of Elizabeth taken in Brooklyn a couple of years ago.

What else is new in music land. Oh yes, the new Eagleowl single Sleep The Winter dropped into my mailbox the other week and what a stunner that is! The Edinburgh gang has really outdone themselves this time, with two glorious songs of alt-folk-fuzz-bliss that recalls Low at their very best. Hell, I much prefer it to Low. Yes, I said it. So, keep an eye out for Sleep The Winter, which is released any day soon. Another perfect stocking filler, perhaps to be used to calm down after the energy burst that is The Polaroid Song. So, in short, Allo Darlin' provides the perfect soundtrack for tearing the wrapping off your presents on Christmas morning and Eagleowl might be better suited for sipping mulled wine by the open fire in the evening. Or, I guess you could reverse the two and open your presents really slowly to Eagleowl, then get drunk on mulled wine in the evning and dance manically by the open fire to Allo Darlin'. Either way, they're both pretty awesome ways to spend Christmas.

I'm starting the new year with a bang, by putting on a show with an incredible line-up. Withered Hand, Sweet Baboo and Lofty Heights will be playing a Records Make Great Pets night at The Wilmington Arms on 22nd January. A flyer will be coming soon, but advance tickets are available now for only FIVE POUNDS from wegottickets. Another great stocking filler!

I can't really begin to say how excited I am about this show. Withered Hand's album Good News is definitely a candidate for album of the year and I can't think of anything that could beat Love In The Time Of Ecstacy to my song of the year title. Here's a clip of Withered Hand playing that very song at some birthday party in Edinburgh.



Awesome! Yes.

I don't need to tell you about the awesomeness of Sweet Baboo. Steve played the last Records Make Great Pets night in July and simply blew everyone away. Lofty Heights are from London and if their performance at the Duke of Uke's easter alldayer is anything to go by, this should just be stunning.

All bands have new releases out, so get yourself to their respective websites and get ordering.

I think that's it for now.

An warm, knitted autumn podcast

Autumn. Love it or hate it…or maybe love it AND hate it. For every fluffy pile of leaves to jump in there's soggy shoes and giant spiders. You marvel at the beautiful colours everywhere, but the daylight only lasts as long as the working day, so there's no time to enjoy it. You get excited about snuggling in front of the fireplace only to remember that you live in London and can't afford a flat with a working fireplace.

This is quite a mellow podcast. Better suited for strolling through pretty parks than jumping in piles of leaves. Kinda like the musical equivalent of a knitted jumper. Hope you enjoy it.


1. The Robot Ate Me – Just One Girl
2. Vit Päls – Vackert Väder
3. Quasi – It's Raining
4. Burl Ives – A Little Bitty Tear
5. Only Son – Only A Tool
6. Let's Go Sailing – Heart Condition
7. Pavement – Harness Your Hopes
8. All-time Quarterback – Dinner At Eight In The Suburbs
9. Palace Music – The Mountain Low
10. Camper Van Beethoven – Good Guys & Bad Guys
11. Pit Er Pat – Baby's Fist
12. Laurel Music – Dreams And Lies
13. Megamoog – Icicle
14. Mount Eerie – Domesticated Dog
15. Park Ave. – All Boy Band
16. The Mekons – Only Darkness Has The Power
17. Azure Ray – November

Download it HERE

Baby Come Dance With Me

So, last night was an absolute blast. Found out that Adam Green was playing a (not very well-kept) secret show at The Flowerpot in Kentish Town, so we headed down. The show was meant to start at 9pm, but I really didn't want to miss out, so we got there around seven. Good thing we did, cause around eight it was completely mobbed with a queue around the whole buliding.

It was just a brilliant show, with an electric atmosphere you don't get very often at gigs these days. Adam played with a full band and played a mix of newer songs and oldies, including classics like Jessica, Dance With Me and No Legs. It's a real shame I only had my phone with me, since I pretty much had the best position in the house for pictures.

Woo-hoo!

I decided to try the video recording on my phone during Dance With Me, but the quality is really, really terrible. Anyway, you get the idea :)

Definitely in the best gigs of 2009 list.

Post cards...

The third thing I ever posted on this blog was a postcard from a place in Edmonton called Story Land Valley. I had found it in a charity shop somewhere and just liked the look of it. This afternoon I was in another charity shop browsing through the postcard bin and surprisingly I found another postcard from Story Land Valley.

This time it's a picture of 'The Raccoon Club House'.

I really love the look of this place. If I ever go to Edmonton, Alberta I need to look it up.

Indietracks memories

I got a Google alert this morning saying that some Moustache videos had been posted on youtube. It's the first footage I've seen of our performance and it made me smile. We had such an amazing time.

Both clips are from our second, quieter set on the train. The first video is of Imagine.



The next video is the rather shambolic end of I Like These Shoes.

Haha. Aww, the memories. A nicer version of I Like These Shoes will be on our next EP, which will hopefully come out before the end of the year. I've also recorded a bleepy laptop version of the song myself. This can be found on www.myspace.com/fulhast

If anyone has any more footage from either of our sets, I'd love to see it.

Also, I wonder what happened to clip 2 of 3. Hmmmm?

Trash Humpers!!

A brand-spanking new film by Harmony Korine is to be unveiled at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend. After three screenings it will travel to the New York Film Festival and then....then.....LONDON BABY!!! This is the most exciting movie news I've heard all year.

I've been a huge fan of Korine since Kids (which he wrote) in 1995 and his directorial debut Gummo (1997) is one of my all-time favorite films.

Gummo (1997)

Nostalgia trip

This post will only be of interest to very few people, but I was on a bit of a nostalgia trip during my walk home from work today, so here goes...

When I was in high school I was in a punk band called Tarmgniders. The name doesn't really mean anything, but roughly translates into 'intestine rubbers', as in the verb 'rub', not the noun 'rubber'. We made some insane songs about utterly random things and recorded a lot of them in our drummers bedroom, straight into the mic on his ghetto blaster. Unfortunately, all these recordings are probably lost forever, unless he finds them in a box somewhere in the future. This picture is probably the only picture of Tarmgniders in existence, at least the only one I know of. It was taken at a gig at some point in 1995 or early 1996. I printed it out on a crappy laser printer in high school and then kept it in a folder until today.

Dana on drums, me on vocals, Andreas on bass and Martin on guitar

Anyway, at some point in 1995 or 1996 we had the opportunity to record a song properly at the local youth club. This is the resulting song, Legosoldaten (The Mercenary)

Tarmgniders - Legosoldaten

There was only one other punk band in our year in school, Happy Piraya. They were completely awesome as well.

Happy Piraya live in 1995

Happy Piraya had an amazing song called Kaktus, which we occasionally cover live with Moustache of Insanity. The original is pretty much the best song ever recorded.

Happy Piraya - Kaktus

The sound on these mp3's is absolutely terrible, but it's the best I could come up with.