LIVE VISUALS, YO

Hola!

The inevitable highlight of closing out GameCity7 on Saturday night was playing along to live visuals projected on and above us created and manipulated in real time by members of the audience using a beta version of Tagtool and a couple of iPads. Huge thanks to Urban Canvas and Urban Projections for collaborating with us to organise it, and here's a little showreel to highlight what wonders you missed out on if you weren't there:


Tagtool @ Gamecity 7 from Urban Projections on Vimeo.

POTENT ALPACA TOUPEE

Greetings dear friends and acquaintances,

Did you come to our tour with the incredible Galaxians?  If not, you missed out on 5 nights of ENDLESS BOOGIE and BUSINESS FUNK. Seriously, they were mind-blowing every night and it was probably our favourite run of shows OF ALL TIME. Matt and Jed are fantastic folk and we enjoyed their company as much as their unbelievable chops and jaw-dropping songs. Huge thanks too to everyone who put us on, put us up and generally ate and got drunk with us - you are too numerous to mention by name, but you are extremely dear to our hearts. We all had an awful lot of fun and are now paying for too many consecutive nights of fun by being generally knackered, ill and run down.

BUT NO MATTER! For here is an exclusive set of FREE remixes of tracks from this summer's Teapot EP. And these aren't just any old remixes knocked out by hacks in exchange for grimy money; these are by some extremely talented and special friends; Apalusa, Forever Sound and Moscow Youth Cult. Check 'em out and download to your heart's content:

IMMINENT UK TOUR

Did you know that we're about to embark on a short UK tour with our good buddies Galaxians later this week? There's a Facebook event page here, or check out details of individual gigs below:

Wednesday 24th - THE GREEN ROOM, SHEFFIELD
http://www.facebook.com/events/370736003004312/

Thursday 25th - WHARF CHAMBERS, LEEDS

http://www.facebook.com/events/150596828412569/

Friday 26th - FUEL, MANCHESTER
http://www.facebook.com/events/454034644627605/

Saturday 27th - ONE THORESBY STREET, NOTTINGHAM
http://www.facebook.com/events/434925956544250/

Sunday 28th - OLD BLUE LAST, LONDON
http://www.facebook.com/events/225684324227749/

 

These will be our last live dates for a short while as we finish up on recording and mixing a bunch of new songs that we've been prepping this year. But have no fear! We have grand plans afoot for a handful of live dates in a couple of months and then MOAR TOURING ACKSHUN next year!

GRIN AND BEARD IT

Here's a little something we did one Sunday afternoon earlier this year:


Directed by David Lilley at Loonatik and Drinks:
http://www.loonatikanddrinks.com/

Recorded live at First Love Studio by Peter Fletcher:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Love-Studios/153470198008016

OXJAM - LIVE & LOCAL AT THE LOCK

Aloha!

We had a blast at Music From Elsewhere at the weekend, despite being woefully underprepared for the freezing conditions by the time we got around to playing. We've now just about recovered from a brilliant and exhausting day. Much love to Lancashire & Somerset for hosting us and our huge contingent of fellow performers, friends and family from Nottingham... as well as the fantastic other acts on the day.

NEXT UP: "LIVE AND LOCAL AT THE LOCK", courtesy of OXJAM - at The Navigation, Nottingham on Friday 12th October. We're hugely flattered to have been asked to play an event aiming to raise £500 towards a library. We'll be playing with a huge host of wide-ranging acts, there will be opportunities to choose the tunes between bands in exchange for a donation to OXJAM, and - most importantly - you'll be able to stuff your face with unfeasibly good food courtesy of the incredible Annie's Burger Shack until 8:30pm. Expect to see our stomachs groaning and a smacked-out look of satisfaction on our faces by the time we take to the stage.

Oxjam event page

UK TOUR WITH GALAXIANS

 In October we will head out on a brief tour with our favourite band. Life is sweet:

 
The schedule:
24.10.12 | The Green Room, Sheffield | w/ Galaxians
25.10.12 | Wharf Chambers, Leeds | w/ Galaxians & Chrononautz
26.10.12 | Fuel, Manchester | w/ Galaxians
27.10.12 | Game City Closing Party @ One Thoresby Street, Nottingham | w/ Galaxians
28.10.12 | Old Blue Last, London | w/ Galaxians

Facebook event page

MUSIC FROM ELSEWHERE

Aye up,

We're extremely excited to be playing this wonderful and super-cheap festival in the inevitable Indian summer that this year will bring in early autumn:

MUSIC FROM ELSEWHERE - BISHOPS CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE

Friday 28th September @ Bishops Castle Town Hall  - £free entry/donations:
MUGSTAR - perform AD MARGINEM - Live score to film

Saturday 29th September @ The Six Bells - £5/6:
EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD
CANTALOUPE
THE HORSE LOOM
BARBAROS
RATTLE
ELWOOD JAMES
TROUBLE WITH BOOKS
McWATT
STIG NOISE
POIL
DUSTY BIBLE
THE PLUMMETS
NICK JONAH DAVIS
ROMAN NOSE

"Set in the beautiful South Shropshire Hills in an award winning Brew Pub. 14 or more bands over a night and a day all able to be accompanied by the joys of real ale brewed on the premises.

"Camping is available a short walk out of the town centre as are many B&Bs . Also there is another brewery / 4 real ale pubs and artisan shops and countryside to get lost in - oh yes and the music!"

This festival is being organised by the incredible Lancashire & Somerset label, otherwise known as Mr David Hand. Details will be forthcoming on their website soon, but in the meantime you can email hello@lancashireandsomerset.co.uk for more information. 

Mmmm... music, beautiful countryside, actual beer an the company of esteemed friends. Four of our most favourite things in life. Join us, why don't you?

A NEGATIVE NARRATIVE

We gone dun an ninterview innit. But this time, instead of having to read our drivel in print, the responses are all in photographs. So you can enjoy some random snaps instead. And have a look around a cracking website. If you look at it on your fancy dan smartphone, try hold your phone portrait for a jukebox of all the bands they've featured, or landscape to see the photos!

http://anegativenarrative.com/interviews/cantaloupe/

(Psst! Plus you can download "Scuttle" from the Teapot EP for free!)

VIDEO! 3

Put together by the mysterious and mercurial Mitch Gavell.

Also, thanks once again to the highly excellent BBC Radio 6Music DJ Gideon Coe for continuing to champion our music. He is a very, very nice man - and even played our good friends Kogumaza t'other day to boot! Now can we have a session?

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Our "Teapot" EP hits all three and a half of the remaining record shops on earth. If you live in or near Nottingham, may we recommend you buy a copy from the fabulous Music Exchange? If you don't, how about ordering yourself a copy direct from Hello Thor's site?

VIDEO! 2

Created by Little Kingdoms.

VIDEO!

Hand-crafted by the immensely talented Clem Stamation.

TORA! TORA! TORA!

Guten tag!

HUGE thanks to everyone who came out to the Teapot EP launch party and made it such a special night. We had an incredible time and Eleanor Lee, Nordenfelt, Azores and Forever Sound were all absolutely brilliant. Thanks too to FourbeatWalk, Hello Thor and our dedicated army of DJs and cake-bakers for making it super-sensual.

Here's a little camera-recorded video from our set:



Now we head out on our debut UK tour over the next week! Come and see us if you're in the vicinity:

03.06.12 | Power Lunches Arts Café, London | w/ Verity Susman (Electrelane), Yola Fatoush, Sacred Paws & Flamingods 
04.06.12 | The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds | w/ Runners & Galaxians
06.06.12 | Bloc Bar, Glasgow | w/ Forever Sound & Ancients 
07.06.12 | The Puzzle Hall Inn, Sowerby Bridge | w/ Buen Chico

08.06.12 | KRAAK, Manchester | w/ The FTSE 100, New Hips, Pooch & Arts and Craftwerk

We're also playing Sheffield and Liverpool later in the month - the latter with Damo Suzuki & Mugstar, which we're naturally quite excited about. More on this and much, much more soon...

THE BIG TEASE

Our Teapot EP launch party takes place at Spanky Van Dyke's on Friday 1st June. Here's a small taste of what you can expect...




And here's the obligatory Facebook page with all the details:
http://www.facebook.com/events/280921425329033/?ref=ts

TEAPOT EP LAUNCH PARTY & UK TOUR

Right you rotten lot,

Gideon Coe was good enough to play Scuttle on his show again tonight - cheers fella!

But this is the news we want to tell you about:

 

That's right, we're gonna have a good time. We're gonna have a party. In Nottingham And you're invited. You'll be able to buy a copy of the EP a good 3 weeks before its official release date and we have a couple of surprises up our sleeves. Come! It'll be awesome!

Oh, and after that we'll be heading out on the road around the UK with copies of the EP (and hopefully some super-snazzy t-shirts) in tow:

01.06.12 | Spanky Van Dykes, Nottingham | EP Launch Party with Azores, Nordenfelt & Forever Sound
02.06.12 | UK Tour darn sarf - get in touch!
03.06.12 | Power Lunches Arts Café, London | w/ Verity Susman (Electrelane), Sacred Paws & Flamingods
04.06.12 | The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds | w/ Runners & Galaxians

05.06.12 | UK Tour oop noorf - get in touch!

06.06.12 | Bloc Bar, Glasgow
07.06.12 | The Puzzle Hall Inn, Sowerby Bridge

08.06.12 | KRAAK, Manchester | w/ The FTSE 100, New Hips, Pooch & Arts and Craftwerk

As you can see, we've got a couple of gaps that we're trying to fill... we have things in the works, but if you're interested in helping us out, get in touch - we'd love to hear from you. You may have noticed from the videos of our performances at the Music Exchange and Holy Smokes! that we don't even need a PA!

Oh, and we'll be doing a couple of fantastic shows later in the month:

20.06.12 | The Green Room, Sheffield |  People are Strange
22.06.12 | The Kazimier, Liverpool | w/ Damo Suzuki & Mugstar, Mind Mountain

Excitement overload! Of course, if you can't make a show, you can always pre-order a copy of the EP from Hello Thor RIGHT NOW, by following this link and clicking on 'Records' under SHOP on the left-hand side.

CHEERS HOLY SMOKES AND DEAN!

Hej,

We had a great time on Saturday basking in the sunshine as we played our first ever outdoor show at Derby's Holy Smokes "Let's Get Lost" Weekender. Cheers to Jay and all the bods behind Holy Smokes for inviting us to play a load of songs and confuse the hell out of passers-by, skateboarders and small children on scooters. It also gave us an opportunity to unwittingly (almost) recreate the inside sleeve from ZZ Top's 'Tejas'. Awesome.

By the way, if you didn't go, you missed RM Hubbert (again) and Aidan Moffat. Bloody hell.

Oh, and Dean Jackson and the BBC Introducing team were good enough to play "Horse" from our forthcoming TEAPOT EP on BBC Nottingham/Derby/Leicester on Saturday night. Thanks guys! You can have a listen here - it's the first song after the news and weather. Just the way we like it.

More news and details of our EP launch party and UK tour very soon, but until then, enjoy:

TRAILER & PRE-ORDER

Courtesy of the excellent human beings behind Kneel Before Zod.

Can't wait until 25th June? Buy a copy at our TEAPOT EP LAUNCH PARTY...

or pre-order it from Hello Thor now!

CHEERS GIDEON!

Aye up,

We woke up this morning to discover that the wonderful Gideon Coe played "Scuttle" from our forthcoming TEAPOT EP (Hello Thor) on his BBC 6Music show last night. Cheers fella! You can listen back to his show for another few days (and fast-forward onto 1hr 56mins) by digging it out of iPlayer.

We were going to announce this as a world premiere, but then we remembered that Anders had snuck a little something into the background of an interview in this... busted!

We've had a few enquiries since the radio play about accessing Scuttle online... so far we're holding back on putting it and the title track of the EP up until we're a little closer to the launch date of Monday 25th June, but as soon as we've got everything sorted out we'll put it all up for pre-order.

In the meantime, follow us on Facebook or subscribe to this here blog and we'll guarantee you get the latest news on new tracks... and of both a super-special LAUNCH PARTY and UK tour at the start of June - more of which very soon, but check our shows page for a quick preview!

HOLY SMOKES!

Hola!

Fresh off the back of 3 glorious nights with our fab friends Papier Tigre (still on tour in the UK! Check 'em out!), the highly excellent Holy Smokes collective in Derby have invited us to play their LETS GET LOST festival on Saturday 12th May, alongside the likes of Aidan Moffat, Blanck Mass and RM Hubbert - who had the Chameleon, Nottingham in the palm of his hand when he played with us last Friday.

The whole day is a glorious collection of alternative music, art and film in the unorthodox setting of one of the world's first factory buildings situated in the centre of Derby, UK. The Holy Smokes guys have asked us to do something a little different, so - weather allowing - you'll find us opening the day for all you lucky, lucky people at midday on Cathedral Green.

Come say hi!

MINIATOUR

Dave finally snaps after Simmo smuggles battery-powered keyboard in to tour van

A MINIATOUR (mini-uh-tawr) (n.) (not to be confused with a minotaur, as pictured above) is the kind of tour that is undertaken a band featuring three overworked 30-something office functionaries with limited holiday entitlement . It lasts for four! whole! dates! and isn't even sequential any more.

Yet despite its diminutive stature, it's still a bloody good thing, and we are tickled pink to be engaging in such a venture - especially in such stellar company. We'll be playing four shows with our esteemed comrades and highly regarded members of the IAOWB (International Association of One-Off Wedding Bands) PAPIER TIGRE, all the way from Nantes, France. And a further three with Scotch guitar thaumaturge RM HUBBERT.

Dates are as follows - if you are one of the approximately 17% of the population that live either in London, Nottingham, Manchester or Derby you've really no excuse not to be there.

03 May | The Old Blue Last | London (w/ Papier Tigre)
04 May | Chameleon | Nottingham (w/ Papier Tigre and RM Hubbert)
05 May | Night & Day Café | Manchester (w/ Papier Tigre and RM Hubbert)
12 May | Holy Smokes Festival | The Salt Mill, Derby (w/ Papier Tigre and RM Hubbert)

To get you all aquiver with excitation, here are some fine videos or our touring partners:






See you there!

OTTERS

We're delighted to announce that we'll be performing at Nottingham Contemporary as part of Record Store Day on Saturday 21st April.

The show is being promoted by our comrades at Left Lion and The Music Exchange. We'll be sharing a bill with some of Nottingham's finest indie rockers in the form of FISTS and KAGOULE. And best of all, it's F to the R to the motherfucking double E.

There are more event details here. Facebook event and poster to follow, but given the current lack of poster here's a picture of a pair of baby otters:

Come along, buy a record, enjoy a cupcake, tap your feet mercilessly.

CUTTING DEALS

We are delighted to announce that Hello Thor will be releasing our debut EP this June.

We like the cut of Hello Thor's jib. They are fine, upstanding gentlemen; the kind of men you'd happily take home to meet your mothers. But they are not mere men of moral fibre, nor just pretty faces. No! They are also upholders of a grand Nottingham tradition, bringing yet another marvellous DIY record label to this fine city. We're delighted to be working with them, and strongly recommend you investigate some of the other winsome bands on their roster:

Anxieteam
Fists
We Show Up On Radar
Dan  Toporowski

The EP is as yet untitled, and shall probably contain four tracks. Our somewhat rudderless ship shall be receiving some welcome steering from the capable hands of Pete Fletcher at First Love Studio. There are lots of exciting plans afoot for promo videos, launch parties, tours, remixes, etc - we'll keep you abreast of all developments as details come in!

ELECTRIC! MAYHEM!!

Tomorrow, Cantaloupe will be venturing in to the Heart Of Darkness for the first time.

We're recording at Nottingham's Electric Mayhem Studio. We're only doing a one day session and we're only laying down some drum parts, but we'll still probably somehow manage to get cabin fever, have a nervous breakdown, develop a drug dependency, split up, reform again, and finish the day by finding Jesus.

The bonkers thing is that it's free. Electric Mayhem is managed by Degree students at Confetti College. And contrary to any preconceptions you might have, it's a damn professional outfit equipped with the kind of gear that can only be described as both "shit" and "hot". Hi, Neve VR 60 Mk3 Mixing Desk! Mmmmmm.

Keep your ears to the ground, as we understand that students at Confetti are often looking for artists to record.

Now here's a little video for you in honour of the original Electric Mayhem:

HELLO 2012

Ho!

Hope 2012 is proving full of awesome for you so far. We're feeling pretty good about it: we're working on an EP that will likely be released in late Spring/early Summer (more on this later); we're lining up a June tour to promote this release; and we've got a couple of shows in the works between now and then.

We're delighted to announce that our first show of 2012 will be on Tuesday 20th March  at The Bodega Social Club with Thrill Jockey's White Hills.



The tour is being promoted by the actually rather good The Quietus, who have this to say on the subject of White Hills:

“White Hills are a cosmic power trio who have blasted off so far into the unfathomable void of space that only the Hubble Deep Field telescope on its loosest setting can pick up sight of them. The core of the group is powerhouse bassist Ego Sensation and live wire guitarist singer Dave W and they have pushed their warm, overdriven sound into straddling the Mudhoney/ Hawkwind divide like a mighty colossus. With a flying V. And a kamikaze pilot headband. They are no strangers to the Protestant work ethic finding time to release at least three albums per year as well as guesting on and producing other bands’ albums, not mentioning Dave’s Freshly Fucked side project and glorious split albums with Mancunian heavy riffnologists GNOD. We had a recent reminder of just how powerful the group are during a typically peerless live set at Supersonic last October. One small step for man, one giant bong-loaded, wah-wah addled, pulsar destroying guitar chord for mankind.
We’re therefore very excited and honoured to be able to tell you that White Hills will be celebrating the release of their new Thrill Jockey album Frying On This Rock with a European tour to which we are encouraging you all to go, ALL HAIL WHITE HILLS!”

The show is being promoted by our friend The Music Exchange. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, The Music Exchange is a bloody brilliant idea. not only do they sell excellent records, but they do it to support Framework, a homelessness charity doing essential work with the homeless and vulnerable in the community.

Tickets are £6, and you can find the Facebook event here. See you there!