CD arrived - go and buy it!

Here's a box of Pop Songs for the Disenchanted - lucky disenchanted.

Pop Songs for the Disenchanted released!

The album is finally available. You can buy it online for £8 here.
I'm really pleased to see it out. Apologies for getting so distracted over recent months... writing new material and recording it basically. Also amazing myself at how much there is to do in deciding who to send review copies to etc.
It's been difficult deciding how to describe it, both on this site and in the press release: I just want people to hear it and decide what's important from listening. However it seems it's important to create a catchy picture of what it's all about to encourage people to open the wrapping.
I've taken a big risk in not letting anyone else listen to this before realease - I just didn't want people saying 'you should change the track order' or 'turn the drums down' or 'I like that track, you should've put it first' etc. This album is pure me - it's what it needed to be to satisfy me. I think its really brilliant: great songs and a coherent vision.
So I'm happy! That makes a change :-)

It really is official

Album's gone to the pressing plant, artwork design is done, promo materials have been designed and ordered and I've even done all the really tedious stuff like register the songs with PRS, etc.
Now I'm working on the Media Pack - what the hell can I write? It's all in the music. I don't want to spell things out and demystify stuff but I know I've got to grab people's attention and give them a story. There are plenty of stories, but it's a question of selecting one or two and being measured and sensational at the same time. I'm no good at that. SDo if you're a reviewer and you get my media pack know I meant well!

Expect October 1st release

It's happening. For God sake it's good and Pop Songs for the Disenchanted has got to come out. I've actually had a little space to tweak a couple of things and I've realised this just has to happen. Album two and three are well under way and so I'm faced with working up a lot of drums at the moment - all of a sudden a little admin on the record release seems like an easy option. It's just dotting the last 'i's and crossing the last 't' or two and then you can have it.
If you're interested in getting an early copy then email me and info 'at' tripping-cherubs.com

Update

To be honest this is typical me. Finish something and move onto the next thing.
Well you might say the album isn't finished because it isn't out. And you might be right but you don't just stop writing and recording songs because you've got an album to release.
In short I'm more interested in what's next than doing the final mile and releasing the album.
OK, OK. It's got to happen, but first a bit of an update on what's been happening since I last posted in... June!!! I can't believe it's that long.
Musically:

• I've just been writing and recording more Tripping Cherubs stuff,
• I've been doing The Sinister Cleaners' album artwork (it's just gone on and on and on and on)
• I've spent years of my life putting a database of reviewers together so I know where to send it (it used to just be: the NME, Sounds, Melody Maker and John Peel. But now every suburb has a radio station, fanzine, website, student paper, you name it...)
  
• I've spent all my money on The Sinister Cleaners album (there's other people in that band so there is some moral obligation)
• I've just been so busy working (yes, I have another life or two)
• I went into Second Life and never came out.

So, there are the excuses for the fact that The Tripping Cherubs album is not in the shops.
Having done the Cleaners' album I got all depressed thinking what a pointless exercise and waste of money it all is. It's good fun writing and recording the stuff and even doing the artwork, but what's it all mean.
What I'd really like to do is just sell it as a download but then it would be good to get it in the hands of some reviewers and disc jockeys.
I think I may just put this album up online somewhere.
Anyway, enough of that. I need to sort some drums out on a few new recordings.

Tenu-icity - where am I headed with this?!

Tenu-icity (actually 'tenuity)'- I just think it's kind of weird.
What do people from big countries like the USA think when, through no fault of my own, I have tenuous connections? They must think that the UK is a very, very, very small place (though of course we are 58,789,194 in total (I just checked and I'm shocked to see that the population has increased by nearly 3 million since I last checked... and that figure is already 5 years old!).
Or do people from big countries have tenuous connections too?
Maybe the UK is very, very, very samll - and that's the point. I don't know how likely it is that I should know people that you know or that you/we have heard of.
And to be honest I've never really given this much thought and I'm generally not interested in 'celebrity' etc. I don't buy Hello magazine and can't understand why people do. I don't go out much for Gods sake! It shows, I know.
This thread is developing a life of its own (albeit maladjusted) and I think an early death could be on the cards. (Though 'tenous' means 'long and thin' as well as 'having little substance' so it may go on for a long time).

Tenu-icity: people that drive past my house (1)

I live in Sheffield (UK) these days. Occasionally Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) drives past my house, though I haven't seen him for a year or so. He drives (drove?) a funny little Nisan people carrier thing. He and this vehicle appeared in a Guardian magazine article a couple of years ago.

More scope for tenu-icity

I could start to list all the bands I've supported!
No, no!
But it was bizarre seeing Pete Burns in Big Brother (not that I watched it, more that I saw his face in the tabloids of the people that I commute with). Colenso Parade (mentioned in the previous post) supported Dead or Alive at Caesar's (? - it had many names over time, like most night clubs) night club on Manningham Lane in Bradford in about 1982 (?). If I remember correctly, DoA had one hit and it was at that time that we played with them.
But it was weird to see how distorted he had got over time (physically - as I say I didn't watch so I can't comment on how distorted his personality may have become).

Tenuous Connections - The Fall

The Fall aren't on my map. They probably could be or should be but I don't know where the connections may be until someone tells me.
Haven't The Fall had about 40 members? Given they're a northern band and I have Manchester connections on the map somewhere there's bound to be one.
There is one connection I know about, but 'tenuous' is too strong a word. Carl Burns (Fall drummer) once jammed with my band Emergency (later re-named Victim) when the Fall came over to Belfast in 1978/79 (?) at the time 'Bingo Masters Breakout' and 'Live At The Witch Trials' were released. This was in the notorious Harp Bar where we played fairly regularly. It's the place where our lead singer, Joe Zero, nearly got shot by the IRA for wearing a paratroopers cap on stage until the audience carried him to safety. Ahh memories.
Back to The Fall and Carl Burns. As an inexperienced punk musician at the time I remember the feeling of playing with 'a real drummer' - it was likely someone had put a different kind of engine oil into us. I suppose we jammed for no more than 5 or 10 minutes.
We played two gigs on consecutive nights and they stayed at my (mum's) house. Mid-set Mark E. Smith decided it would be a good idea to have a post-gig party and invited the whole audience back. The house was trashed. The RUC (police in armoured landrovers) were called and I was in trouble. Stairs, carpets, walls, beds, kitchen... the scene of devastation is re-emerging.
Anyway, they invited us back to Manchester to play at a venue called (I think) The Factory. All the Manchester names of the day were there. Tony Wilson was running the club, Jilted John was compere, Howard Devoto was in the audience. We had a mixing desk sound system too! We'd never had a proper PA!
We stayed on Carl Burns' floor and I seem to remember his dog crapped in my shoe.
Subsequently I've been told that Echo and the Bunnymen formed that weekend in his flat. Now I think this is pushing it and I'm not sure about the dates.
Strange thing is, if this is true, there's a kind of neat 'tenous tenous' connection because Oscar, the lead singer, of f-Stop and Colenso Parade from my map sounded like (based himselfon?) Ian McCullough. And I came across a statement somewhere about Colenso Parade while searching out info for the map, that he had been approached to replace McCullough though declined.

Barren

Work, world cup, work, world cup... knackered, barren idea-wise.
OK - let's try a few real sentences...
I'm afraid it's excuses. Work sometimes just takes me over. I've got a great job and when it's going really well there's no room or energy for anything else. This is dangerous, because I have a history of falling off highs (work, music, art, etc) into dangerous dismal pits where I lie exhausted and disspirited.
So now certain things (no work details shall sully this blog) are delivered I'm attempting to redress the work-life balance before I keel over and plummet.
So I know it's great news that I haven't progressed with the music because I'm keeping my sanity in check, but the record-buying public (as opposed to other publics?) may wonder what's going on.
Music-wise: sometimes the songs pour out of me and sometimes it feels like there's no more left. Well, it's been barren. I've had a couple of musical bits but the words just seem too forced - they're not flowing. Until today. When I write it's usually very quick. I get a song to 95% very quickly and then over a period of time (1 hour to 10 years or longer) the remaining 5% gets sorted. And then I can set about recording and arranging them.
So I've got two to 95% this morning. I could tell you what they're called and what they're about but that would defeat the object - the songs do the telling. Furthermore telling you what they're about would only tell you about the words. The music's about something too - abstract things: "Ups", "Crashes", "Drones" and other things that don't really have words.
I should continue the tenuous connections thread too. I did have a simple thought on this, which will follow...

Hi

Just wanted to say "Hi." Things are going a bit slow with the Tripping Cherubs release as life gets in the way for a while. However, just got quote for CD production so hopefully I'll find time to give the OK and send whatever needs to be sent to the pressing plant soon.
Setting up a PayPal account too at the moment so that people can buy the CD directly from this site.
Have you noticed I've added a couple of tracks under 'Listen' and all of the lyrics to songs on the album?
When I get time I'll put together the next edition of Tenuous Connections.