Flu

sorry for lack of blog at the moment some of us have contracted deadly swine flu, and the rest of us have bird flu.

I have mad cow disease.

We'll do full updates of the best stuff from our recent tour and how the album is going very shortly.

For the time being i'm off to see Tap Tap tonight in Brixton. So there!

jon

S Pain

So we took a break from our album making antics to do some shows around Europe. We just got back from 3 days in Spain. "Wow that sounds lovely!" i hear you cry.

Well yes and no. I think since Wednesday we have had on average 2/3 hours sleep a night and feel pretty zombie-ish at the moment. On top of that we had a 10 hour drive then a gig at 3.30am in Bilbao. Ouch.

So...complaining aside the gigs were actually pretty good and the Spanish fans are great.

And now follows some pictures from the merry trip...

Jonny Donette?



Pete and Tom looking weird



Cartagena in the south of Spain. Everyone looking happy i see.



Garish



The rain in spain falls mainly on the plain?




So there you have it.

We are now off to Holland, Brussels, Luxembourg...and NYC!


J o n n y P i r a t e x

Almost there, we're almost there

This week is the last week we will be spending in the studio.

all the recording is done, we are now mixing.

I can report that it's sounding sweet. We are all very happy. David has been away on holiday so missed the fun of last week but now he's back and we had a good day today adding the final touches to our new material.

Also today we recorded some brass and although peter is caught here looking sad with a violin, we didn't record any violin.

What more is there to tell.... we are going to Spain early October for a few shows, followed by holland, belgium and that kind of stuff where beer is nice and ther is lots of Nutella, then from Brusells to NYC where I don't really know what happens cos I never been but David says it's good and in the films it seems like a bit like London but with less idiots than London has.




Also end of September (ish) is the release of the new Tap Tap album which is also coming out on Stolen, the first run of which has special limited edtion 'wrong tracks' which don't correspond with the art work due to a phenomenal fuck up at the manufacturing stage. So get your special copy now before it becomes a rarity!!!

In The woods

Here's some video evidence to back up David's post...

this is Micachu at in the woods:

In The Woods

Yesterday we played a festival in a secret place somewhere in Kent called In The Woods. It is organised by the band Laurel Collective, i think this was the fourth time they have done it.
It had the best line-up out of any of the festivals this year: Connan Mockasin, Micachu and the Shapes, Screaming Tea Party, Anna Calvi and of course Laurel Collective themselves to name but a few. It was set in a kinda natural ampitheatre which was surrounded and covered by trees. bee-yew-tea-full.
We got there nice and early so we saw all the bands play and had a really very good time.
By accident we played pretty much all new songs, which was good and we finished with Lost In The Woods (clever huh?)
I played guitar with Micachu and the Shapes on one of their songs which was very fun.
At the end of all the music there was set to be a big Wickerman-esque bonfire, however we had to leave before the fire was set alight. i forgot to take my camera so i'm afraid this report is words only.
tomorrow we go back to The Classroom to continue recording the new record, so expect some in-studio reports over the next few days...

On a Break

Don't worry we're not on a break as a band, that's what couples do who get sick of each other but still have mutual friends so are scared to break up. Although we do get sick of each other as a band, this only tends to happen after prolonged exposure to each other's company especially in confined spaces.

We are on a break from recording which explains why I'm writing total crap to 'pad' the blog and and keep it fresh, innit. It's quite frustrating cos we'd like to get straight back in the studio to keep things moving, but it's good to get the time to reflect and listen to what we've done. And it's sounding good btw, obviuosly not gonna post up any previews yet cos don't want to give too much (anythying) away.

in the meantime, i thought i'd post up some mostly patp unrelated photographs i've taken of things in my days off which caught my eye or make me chuckle.





This sky made me feel worried when i walked out of my house. There were a group of seagulls screaming and I had to run away.


And here is a house opposite a friend of mine's which stopped shaving completely.

Wine tasting


bye

hummmmming

Humming video i made, i hope you're not epileptic

CLICKY CLICK HERE

Sorry couldn't post it to watch on here because the blog is very thin. Go to youtube to watch it and click HQ to see it bigger and better!


Jonny

Tom Seat

I just found this photo of Tom entitled 'Human Seat'













(Thanks jasperbeatnik on flickr)

jp

Big yet Tiny

We are 2 weeks into recording and the songs are sounding great.

We're eating beef and drinking beer which i think is having an effect on how some of the songs are going to sound.

I did a panorama, innit. click on it to make it all big.

yesterday we experimented with tying tissues to guitar strings and playing loud solos through toy amplifiers. Not going to give away too many secrets of our sounds though.

(One of Pete's tricks to getting good sounding takes is to look really fucking cool when recording).

Bobby thanks very much for lending us the guitar and we're really sorry for not giving it back to you xxx

Peter and David take a little break where they share a cigarette and agree that I'm a dick.

Boys on the Beach

What do Pete and the Pirates do on days off from their punshing recording schedule? This exclusive footage reveals all....

Yes, we are in Newqualy soaking up the sun after being locked in some dark rooms for 12 hours a day. Not that I'm complaining, we've been looking forward to recording for about 2 years. We were actually here to do a show but our over zealous tour manager got us here about 4 hours early so we had plenty of time to get all sandy.

New Album Studio Tour

Hi guys this is a video It made at the beginning of last week. Hope it fills in a few gaps. My camera has pretty much broken now I'm sorry to say but that's okay I'll use music for memories from now on.

Speak to you next week.

XPX

We've been having some fun.

We've been having fun in the studio, as you may have gathered.
Here are the edited highlights of the first few days.




More videos to come hopefully.

P xx

that was yesterday, this is today

jonny and peter having good times in the drum room

david making sure everything is sounding right, under the watchful eye of producer gareth parton



jonny doing a drum take

Muggy Morning

welcome to day two recording,
we are just settling in, cups o'coffee, cups o'tea, bacon n egg, tuna melt
first things first, we are listening to all our fine work yesterday.
yep very good.
more news on that later...

in other news if you want to hear my remix for micachu's song lips you can go to her myspace and listen there, it is the 1bpm remix: www.myspace.com/micayomusic

david

DAY 1 in the big fortress house

After spending about 3 hours trying to make a snare sound like a snare we are well on our way.... here are pete jonny and gareth in the fortress where we first recorded Little Death all those moons ago.