As always the TBM mansions are riddled with snow, submissions, releases, dreams, microphones, more snow and yes, cover versions!
But with spring around the corner we wanted to give you a heads up on what to expect as we thaw out. We have four or five exciting releases planned and maybe more if we can find enough time.
First up, a brilliant release from Spain’s The Yellow Melodies. Rafa Skam leads his group through a wonderful indie pop tribute to the TVP’s, who?? jk :-). They did such a great job on these tracks we’ve decided to release it as a EP on our label. If you have never heard of them, this band is must to check out with so many great releases and with so much talent they make it seem easy. Check out this track ….
TVP Tribute volume 4!! You are going to love it!!!!! There is so much that can be said about it, but I’ll just give you a few hints so you will get the sense of how grand this will be. The Legendary Paul Bonin from one of my all time favourites The Jetset has created a most beautiful version of the song “How I learned To Love The Bomb” with his band of merry men – The Chosen Few which will be contrasted by an equally amazing version of the same song by Mod greats The Dupont Circles. A seven year world-wide search for Dreamworld recording artists, The Impossible Years, has located Todd Shuster as he is reviving his original band, The Jags (not the UK version), and negotiations are under way for a blog interview and a TVP cover. Schuman The Human will serve up a hauntingly classic version of “Look Back In Anger” and even includes the fine talents of one of my favourite drummers and Creation Records staple, Dave Morgan (The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Rockingbirds, etc. etc.). You will certainly fall in love with The Just Joans cover, who are on the verge of releasing their first album and will likely be a household name soon. “Painting by Numbers” is given an interesting facelift by Norb Payr of The Jaybirds and Subcandies fame. There’s so much more, but I’ve said too much.
Dot Dash is turning into a solid line of hits and fantastic reviews, you will have to check out their latest if you haven’t already as it is an easily one of the best releases of 2011 – and that’s not just us talking – here is what Jack Rabid said ” All 14 songs (35 minutes now) “dash” towards the wiry pop nirvana Alan McGee purveyed on his ’80s Creation imprint, picking up where Alan Horne left off with Postcard. Infectious, quickening, and upbeat, Spark produces heat, light, energy… and tunes to haunt.”. We hear they have a new album in the works which will be even better, if that’s possible.
The Sound and Adrian Borland Tribute album. Although I never met him, Adrian’s music with the Sound meant a lot to me and their music were a significant part of my life in the early 80’s and I have followed his career through the years – his solo albums being just as amazing and he released some of the best songs ever written. It was such a tragedy with his death and I have wanted to do the tribute for many years now (even before his passing) but things keep getting in the way. I’m hoping that next year we will have some time to dedicate to this project to do it justice. We have several covers already – one which was previewed on the free label sampler, which is still available.
I also discussed this project with Phil King (from Lush/The Servants/Apple Boutique) as he was an old friend and actually started his first band The Beautiful Losers with equipment that he got from Adrian. Adrian also produced his first few songs which recently got released on edition 59 records in Germany. He also helped out with Second Layer and played guitar on a song on Cinematic as well as linked Adrian with Felt to produce their last album. We are very eager to move forward with this in 2012. We’ll keep you in the loop.
Also in the world of all things Skytone… tributes abound, cover after cover are being released on their youtube channel straight from the Woodside studio, check out one of my fave’s, made famous by First Aid Kit and now covered in an intimate studio session with perfect Doddridge harmonies and timing, great work boys! Stay tuned to this blog and the Skytone site for the latest on their upcoming single expected before the summer is out.
Armstrong is cueing up with their new release, this summer – “Happy Grafitti” and we’ll post a demo from the new album just to give you a taste as Julian continues in creating his magical moods, inspired by Roddy Frame, Lloyd Cole, Edwyn Collins, Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb and many other great songwriters. His next album will shift to more wintery sounds or so he tells us.
The Social Icons have confirmed that they have begun recording their sophomore release with an interesting twist, Nick says they have begun the migration and are becoming a musical collective??? What can this mean for the ex-rebels? Stay tuned to this blog for more news as it happens… or at least every six months!!! Lol.