Foxes and Convicts: The Leeds Indie Radio Sessions

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Over Christmas our beloved Hope House studios flooded, so we had to shift to the room next door. The silver lining with this was a great new studio for us to practice in, and record live sessions.

Photos by Louise Distrass

I’ve been running a Podcast with Jon from the Dimes, called Foxes and Convicts, for a while now. We’ve been bringing various different acts in to Hope House to record some sessions and have a bit of a chat, and we’ve been putting them out on podcasts. If I’m honest I have no idea how many people have actually been listening to them cos I screwed up a setting on the tracking software, but that’s by the by. Lots of people tell me they listen and like it, and that’s good enough for me.

To celebrate re-opening our studio, we got some of the finest acts we have worked with on the Foxes and Convicts night to all pop down on Saturday afternoon and record some songs for a brand new version of the podcast which will be premiered exclusively on Leeds Indie Radio. It’s a great privilige to turn our daft larking around into a proper show for LIR, who are celebrating a year doing amazing things for local music. Having heard the early mixes this will be a great part of their lineup.

So – coming soon to LIR, a brand new series of Foxes and Convicts, featuring:

March of Dimes - Photo by Louise Distrass

  • Daniel Pearson
  • Charlie Barnes
  • Louise Distrass
  • March of Dimes
  • Tag Team Preacher
  • Secret Sirens

…and many more! I’ll post up when they’re finished and scheduled in!

Depending on how the various life-changing events pan out I’ll be looking to record the next series in the late Autumn… Keep in touch if you’d like to be part of it and get your live set on Leeds Indie Radio!

It’s flipping Pancake Tuesday!

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Hello! Jo here, borrowing Sean’s blog. Again.

This morning's pancakes!

This morning's pancakes!

Pancake Day is brilliant. I still get ridiculously and unashamedly excited about it! When I was little we’d sit around the table every year, while my Mum made pancake after pancake, bringing each one through as they were made until we were full. I think it might have gone on for hours! I still make them every year on Pancake Day, and at every opportunity in between. I don’t know why, but pancakes seem a lot more fun than a lot of foods?!

Please make your own pancakes on Pancake Day! Packet mixtures, especially when made from things that are already in most people’s cupboards, make me unreasonably cross. It’s cheaper, and so much better to make your own. People say it’s easier from a packet, but it honestly isn’t for pancakes – making the batter is the easy bit!

(Also, I just googled ‘why use packet food’, and on the first page was a link – Tips for adding taste to bland packet food – enough said.)

Here is the recipe that I’ve used ever since I can remember, from the olde worlde cookery book I pinched from home. It’s really simple and has worked every time. (Apart from when I was at university, and a friend thought that adding red wine to the batter would make for an interesting pancake… disastrous!)

Give it a go this Pancake Day!

What do you have on yours? I’m a lemon a sugar classic pancake girl myself.

New March of Dimes website

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In all the kerfuffle of the last week (birthdays, gigs, life altering announcements etc)  I forgot to mention that I’ve recently launched a new website for my band, March of Dimes.

You can see it at http://www.marchofdimesmusic.com

It’s got videos, gig listings, and our album and EP in full to listen to (and buy, if you haven’t already!)

If you like it, it would be great if you could pass on the address to your chums. Just a wee facebook post, or tweet, or anything to share what we do.

Also, if you know of any promoters or bands that might want to work with us, put them in touch with me :)

For those who are wondering, I built it in WordPress (my favourite CMS!) with a metric boatload of plugins. Every single part of the site – from the base system, to the music store, to the email system) is free to set up. In fact, apart from a bit of commission we pay to Bandcamp for the sales, it’s free to run as well! Brilliant! Gotta love ya some open source. If anyone wants to know what plugins I used for any part of it, just ask and I’ll let you know.

So… go forth and share… please! :)

New single recording & interview with Independent Music News

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It’s a busy Monday for sure – Today I’m off to put down the bass for our new single – it’s called Sleeping Giant and should be out in the spring :)

Some of the Manley equipment

It’s part of a really interesting experiement – we’re recording digitally, then being mixed and mastered in pure analogue by the hugely talented Stephen Anders – should give us a real rootsy feeling, that echos some of the great 70′s country greats… For those musically inclined reading, there’ll be lots of Manley equipment on the go!

A lovely chap called Daniel has interviewed me and Jon for the Independent Music News blog, you can read it here.

That’s it for today – more Dimes news tomorrow…

Major plot twist! Jo and I are having a baby!

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Hello!

My good lady wife, Jo is preggers! Up the duff! Avec le bun dans le four! In the family way!

Yes, we’re having a baby. It’s rather exciting, you know.

And no, we won’t be changing our facebook profile pictures to be pics of the scan/child. Because we will still have faces, you know?

Thanks for the lovely messages from everyone who’s said nice things about it all so far :)

Sean & Jo x

Stupid Tax

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Hello. Happy new year. Do we still say that? Sure, why not. It’s the first blog post of the year after all.

Now, we’re not far into this year, and I’m already £2.85 worse off. Why is this? Interest rates? VAT? Inflation?

No. Stupid Tax. In short “Stupid Tax” is the tax you pay when you do something a bit stupid. In this case, I left my train pass at home last friday, so that was £2.85 Stupid Tax to buy a day return. Not the biggest Stupid Tax I’ve paid, but a totally avoidable payment.

Ever drunkenly broken one of your wineglasses? That’s a Stupid Tax of a couple of quid. Forgotten to change out of your decent pair of jeans when decorating? Ouch, that can be a fair bit of Stupid Tax on a new pair. Bought something that needs batteries, bought the batteries, then realised it came with batteries anyway? Yep, that’s a couple of quid more.

Let a gym mebership go on for 6 months, unused? Put some food in the fridge and let it go past the use-by date? You just paid some stupid tax, retrospectively.

We’ve all paid it at some point in our lives. On the plus side, it means we spend more.

Maybe what we really need to save the economy is more people being really *REALLY* stupid.

The Dissemination Awards 2010

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Every year my chum @ColByrne and I
award our favourite albums of the year, and although we’re a bit
late this time around, it’s been another corking year of music.

Runners Up in no particular order:

Winter of Mixed Drinks – Frightened Rabbit
A real grower – what seems like quite a lightweight album on first listen has great
depth if you persevere. More and more people are latching on to this band now, and rightly so. Being on TV shows like Chuck can’t hurt either.

The Devil and I – Lone Wolf
Leeds musician Paul Marshall shows why Bella Union were smart to snap him up. A rich, intense and sinister album.

Hope & Social – April
If Lone Wolf leaves you feeling like you’re in your “dark place” the hope and social pick you up, dust you down and get you marching onwards. Uplifting both in style and spirit, their whole fan-funded ethos and incredible live events like the snowball (and, below, come dine with us) make Hope and Social more than just a band you listen to, they’re something to be a part of.

And the Dissemination Award 2010 goes
to…

High Violet – The National

A few months back, @Jo said to me “Listen to this three times, it will be your favourite album of the year” and she was right. The best albums need three listens to
get into, and this is right up there. Dark, moody, powerful, funny… this has everything I’d want from an album. Each time I listen to this album make me feel even more strongly fond of the live set I saw from them at Latitude. An incredible band, and
totally deserving of their new found exposure and plaudits.

(Dis)honorable Mention?

I’m probably not allowed to give an award to March of Dimes – From Those Who Were There, am I? Am I? No.

Thought not. Well screw it. I’m very proud of it.