It's been a while...

Hello stranger! After what feels like an age this is my first post on the blog in ages and I have to admit that I have missed my rambles (although I am sure that most of you haven't). It's been pretty strange having other folk write for me, good weird that is. My only fear is that by bringing in Steve, Boab and Mike to write for me just highlights what good writing should be like!

So although on the surface it might look like I haven't been up to much, but trust me I have been a busy boy as of late, there's always scheming going on in one way or another. Some of which I plan to share with you in this post, plus there are still other plans afoot that I am going to keep a lid in for now. Trust me though, it will be worth the wait.

First things first I'll start with the blog, my more frequent visitors might well have noticed a distinct lack of sessions being posted lately. The reason for this being that I got a polite email from someone at the BBC pointing out that the majority of their sessions are available on line and would I mind stopping recording them. I did cheekily ask if it was something that they could perhaps turn a blind eye too, but alas not. Fair play to them for being so nice about it all, I was pretty surprised that I hadn't been pulled up for it well before then. So from now I am afraid that there will be no more BBC sessions getting posted, I have been exploring other avenues to find sessions, so all is not lost, not yet at least.

You might also have noticed that I have revived my Fresh Meat Monday posts, what with Flutes and Siobhan Wilson, I think we are off to a bit of a flyer, plus the artists that I have lined up for the next few weeks are pretty damn brawsome too. It's nice to have the post back.

For those of you who are missing Friday Freebies, you should check out Aye Tunes who's now taken up the mantle of trawling the Internet for the weeks best free songs from that week. It has to be said that he's doing a mighty fine job of it too.

Also, form Saturday coming I'll be bringing back my weekly cover version posts, We've Got It Covered, which died away mainly due laziness on my part. That and it's pretty tricky writing something half readable whilst looking after a two year old (watching Peppa Pig marathons doesn't really help the old writers block!)

So that's us caught up a wee bit with what's going on with the blog, now for a wee bit of what else I have been up to and what I've got coming up in the next few months. When I posted a while back that I was taking a break from blogging to concentrate on running Olive Grove Records and manage Randolph's Leap, that's exactly what I have been up to. A couple of weeks back we released, Ghosts We Must Carry by the State Broadcasters which seems to have gone down pretty damn well. Having lived with the album for almost a year now, it's great to see that it going down so well with others. If you haven't heard the album then I'd urge you to check it out, not just because it's on my label, but mainly because it's a great fucking record.

If you come back here later in the week, I am going to be posting up a wee Track By Track that Graeme from the band has written for me, it's pretty damn ace. Although the album came out on the 17th of September, we've not actually had the the album launch yet, we've been building up to that in order to make it pretty special. On Sunday the 21st of October we're going to be taking over Wellington Church Hall (off University Avenue) in Glasgow for an evening of entertainment. We will of course have the State Broadcasters playing live with Edinburgh's finest, eagleowl supporting. Not only that but we're also going to have the premier of the bands video for their song Trespassers. It's only £4 to get in, plus it's BYOB, so it should be a pretty fun evening.

Another gig that I am going to be involved with is going to be in conjunction with my pals over at Fence Records. On Friday the 26th of February we're putting on a joint shindig at the Glad Cafe in the southside of Glasgow to celebrate the release of Randolph's Leap's new Hermit EP which comes out on Fence that same day. As I am sure you are aware my life has very much become entwined with the Leap and their adventures. So the fact that they've now signed up to Fence is a pretty big deal to me. Tickets for the gig are available in advance from the Fence Records website, we've got some pretty special guests lined up for the evening so it should be a cracking night.

Last, but most certainly not least, I have one last gig to tell you about. Myself, Jim from the Aye Tunes blog and Neil from newbie blog, Scottish Fiction, have teamed up to put a series of monthly gigs at the Flying Duck in Glasgow. Our first night is on Saturday the 27th of October and I reckon we've got a corking line up in store. We've got French Wives, Cancel the Astronauts and The Bad Books, all for the measly sum of £6. For fear of overloading you with information I will let you a bit more about the gig closer to the time. Just get it pencilled in your diaries for now!

And that as they say, is that. It's the blogs 4th birthday in less than two weeks time and I have something pretty damn special lined up, which I will of course tell you more about nearer to the time...

Peenko Records Present: Randolph's Leap - As Fast As A Man

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't been posting much on the sight lately, what with everything that's been going on over at Olive Grove Records and managerial duties of Randolph's Leap, I haven't had much time to dedicate to the blog. So it might look like I have been slacking, but trust me I haven't, trying to squeeze everything in alongside a day time job, being a dad and a husband, plus having some form of a life ain't easy. All of that being said I still love running this site, so it's been a great help to have Boab, Steve and Mike take some of the slack for me. Plus it's great to have actual proper writers on the site, hopefully you'll agree that they've been a pretty good addition and have freshened the place up a bit.

If you've been frequenting this site for a while now, then you might be aware that next month will be the blog's 4th birthday. I have always tried to celebrate the event by doing something a bit different each year, for the 1st birthday I gave away free badges, for the 2nd birthday I released the first ever release on Peenko Records with I Build Collapsible Mountains and last year I started my ill-fated podcast (I'm still toying with bringing it back at some point in the future - if I can find the time that is). So the the blogs 4th birthday celebrations I have a number of things coming up over the next month or so. To start it all off here's the first exciting bit of news, as you've already guessed from the post header I am putting out another release on Peenko Records. To date I've released the aforementioned IBCM EP, plus there was Randolph's Leap and the Curse of the Haunted Headphones which I released on cassette back at the start of the year. Now I am chuffed to be able to share with you all the next release which is a mini album from Randolph's Leap called 'As Fast As A Man'. Not one to linger in the past, Adam has controversially suggested that cassette tapes might be a dying format and has jumped ship to the weird and wonderful world of the compact disc.

I am not pretty chuffed to be able to share with you what is essentially a follow-up to The Curse of the Haunted Headphones.  Adam has upgraded from a tape recorder to a laptop and bought a new microphone.  If the Curse of the Haunted Headphones was an album of bedroom recordings, Randoph’s Leap: As Fast As A Man has entered the heady domain of living room recordings.  Retaining the same lo-fi charm / shambolic laziness of the Haunted Headphones, As Fast As A Man consists of 9 tracks, featuring acoustic guitar, occasional keyboard fuzz and sumptuous violin (thanks to Heather Thikey).  The limited edition album is available now on Bandcamp. Each one is unique, hand-made and decorated with a member of the animal kingdom (sadly the monkey cover has already been sold). As wee teaser we've made the song Goodbye available as a free download, it's one of my personal favourite tracks from the album - although Weatherman is the song that I have been obsessed with for the past few months.




As if all of that wasn't exciting enough, the band have also just been signed up to Fence Records, the home to King Creosote, Kid Canaveral and the Pictish Trail. I have been bursting to tell folk about this for months now, so it's great to that it's now been properly announced. On the 26th of October they will be releasing their new EP, Hermit as part of Fence's Buff Tracks EP series. The EP contains 3 new tracks, and a remix (courtesy of the massively talented, Jonnie Common). You can pre-order yourself a copy of the EP from the Fence website, although I would suggest you sign up to the whole of the Buff Tracks series as the Pictish Trail EP is properly ace.

 To celebrate the release of the Hermit EP, myself and Fence Records are putting on a launch show at the Glad Cafe in Shawlands on the Southside of Glasgow. Support on the evening comes from an array of folk from within the Fence Collective, so it has all the makings of being a pretty special evening. Tickets for the gig are available in advance here. The venue only holds 100 folk, so if you're planning on coming along you would be advised to get a ticket in advance as we're expecting it to be pretty damn busy.

I'll let you know more about what I've got coming up over the next few days, for now you should check out As Fast As A Man and marvel at the awesome poster above. Oh and if you live in London and you're free on Friday night, then should get yourself along to the London Palladium as Randolph's Leap are supporting the Pictish Trail at his big birthday bash. This is going to be the bands first ever show outside of Scotland, so we're all a bit excited about it. I'll be at it too, but don't let that put you off!