Twitter updates
News Round
25.01.10
Dear All,
It's a new year, and it's been nice reflecting on a 2009 that finally yielded the joy (and that's not too strong a word) of finally getting a little bit of recognition for our services to banjo / harmonium / laptop based-ambient electronic folk avant-pop music. It's a pretty small sub-sub-sub genre (probably just us in it), but being a Mercury Music Awards album of the year, and receiving all the associated kind messages of support and general loveliness from people throughout (and since) made us go a bit dewy-eyed, so thank you for that. Your contact is always read, always appreciated and answered as often as is possible.
So what's new ?
Well, we have our first headline London show coming up on Saturday the 13th of Feb, as part of HMV's 'Next Big Thing' festival. We're playing upstairs at the Garage, ably supported by the amazing Georgia Ruth (http://www.myspace.com/georgiaruthwilliams)... Get your tickets here: (and it's looking as though it is going to sell out, so not a minute to lose...)
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_london&query=detail&event=364242
What else...?
Well, there's the release of Amina, a non-album, exclusive song via the mine of wonderful music that is the Arctic Circle, if anyone should want to hear some new material. Further details are available here:
http://www.jointhecircle.net/explorer.php
...and you can download it directly from iTunes (search under 'Explorer's Club')
...or from Boomkat
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=243805
Our tour with Portico Quartet was great fun; making our way around this fair isle in a Mondeo with a trailer on the back (quite a cheap way to tour, but don't try using a McDonald's drive-through... That was lesson hard-learned), and getting to watch them do their thing most nights. We'll be doing a few more dates with them in March, and we also have the honour of supporting Malian legend Rokia Traore in late April, early May, for the UK leg of her European tour. We're getting to play some beautiful venues, so there's great excitement here...we'll send you through all of the info on that very soon.
Please pay a visit to http://www.sweetbillypilgrim.com/live for upcoming live dates.
In case anyone missed Phil Hopkins' beautiful video for Kalypso, you can see that here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtRXSm4AJPc
...and his shackumentary, providing a little insight into the life of the shed-based music maker is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5HkX9Uo68
So, that's your lot. We'll hopefully catch you at a gig somewhere in the near future... We have go now and iron our t-shirts... Keep in touch !
SBP
Permalink: » News Round
The Mercury Music Awards 2009
09.09.09
I’m on the Tube home. That’s right: Mercury nominated Banjo/Bass player takes Tube home.
It’s been such a wonderful day. We got to say hello to BBC TV centre this morning for a live session and interview. The first time for all of us and we had a guided tour of the Blue Peter garden. Perhaps not so important for modern day musos but, to us, seeing it every day for so many years of our youth it was a beautiful experience. Especially as the lady who showed us around was so enthusiastic about it. Saying “You wouldn’t believe how many people aren’t bothered about seeing this part of the BBC”. A welcome distraction on a day where we perhaps felt a little out of our depth and grasping for some semblance of reality or at least familiarity.
I know we didn’t win. I didn’t think we had a chance anyway. We were happy to be nominated. And we were. Throughout the day, every time we were asked the stock answer would be “Its enough for us to be here”. And it was.
But then you get the red carpet, the limo (admittedly only 50 yards in the limo) and the ‘press run’. They keep telling us it’s an open competition. “The Grand National of Mercurys”. You could win.
55 minutes on that carpet. “Look at me”, “Over here now”, “Centre”, “Left” said anonymous people behind flashing cameras. We looked, we smiled. We wondered. Could we?
Then the press. TV, radio, bloggers, loggers. We settled into it after a while and got quite composed. Then comfortable. Not cocky but not far off. It took our minds off the performance though which was more than welcome. But still. Might it be the year of the fairy-tale?
A quick run upstairs to our room to be briefed by our Manager, Adrian – with us for years and years he’s part of the furniture and well briefed on the in-gags of 3 lads who grew up in quaint Bucks’ villages.
He told us we needed to be here at this time, there at that time and if you win…..
If we win?
Really? Could we? Well the people on the red carpet didn’t think it was such an impossibility. They told us as much. Didn’t they?
Well, no. They didn’t. We heard what we wanted to hear. We can win. We can take the award and £20k.
And then Jools Holland announced the winner. Even after he muttered the first syllable of the winner I thought we could still win. “S…”. I was filling in the gaps after that until I realised it wasn’t us.
I cried for the first time in years tonight after the awards. It’s not something I allow myself to do very often. It wasn’t because we didn’t win. I’m smart enough to realise this is just a begininning. It’s because I decided a long, long time ago to abandon, or at least postpone, a conventional career to make music with people I love. Tonight was vindication for that decision. I think tonight was the first time it really sank in that I’d made the right decision.
We did OK.
Bish.
Permalink: » The Mercury Music Awards 2009
The Barbican, London UK.
03.06.09
I'd just like to say we had a fantastic show, and we hope anyone that saw us enjoyed themselves.
We're really looking forward to the rest of the summer's shows now, most especially the Union Chapel gig next week.
Al.
Permalink: » The Barbican, London UK.
Best of 2008
28.12.08
In no particular order, and though some of them are not from this year, that's when I discovered them... hence their inclusion.
1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago: Record of the year, by a fellow shed endorsee... Hate to follow the crowd, but they have a point. Gobsmackingly lovely.
2. The Week That Was - The Week That Was: Who'd have thought that Phil Collin's gated-tom sound could ever be cool again ? Complex chamber prog-pop from the chaps behind Field Music. Twitching time signatures and Geordie accents together on record for the first time ?
3. Ascend - Ample Fire Within: Crushing low end a la Sunn O))) meets Ry Cooder on the Paris, Texas soundtrack. There's even some singing too, and it doesn't all sound like Cookie Monster...
4. Canon Blue - Halcyon Blue EP: Go and download it free from the Rumraket website now... Blissful pop perfection, signed by the always lovely Efterklang. Which leads me to...
5. Efterklang - Parades: Stunning.
6. Joan as Policewoman - Real Life: Late convert to her earthy charms. Funny and sexy, and she always has great hair.
7. Sam Amidon - All is Well: Blues / folk standards reinterpreted with irreverence and inventiveness, with help from Bonnie Prince B's string arranger and engineer. The title track will make you cry.
8. Down I Go - Tyrant: UK metal (should be) giants anthologise the world's tyrants in a flurry of tempo changes and turn-on-a-dime musical acrobatics. Harrowing, hilarious and often quite moving.
9. The Forms - Fans of Pinback could do worse than investigate their jazzy repetitions.
10. Physics of Meaning - Physics of Meaning: Sort of how I always wished the Lips / Grandaddy / Mercury Rev would sound, but they never did.
11. Ungdomskulen - Cry Baby: Norwegian jazzcore pop punk mathrock trio break hearts and drumskins.
12. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Modern Life: From Black Flag to Spiritualised... sometimes in the space of one song.
13. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass: The only good hip-hop I could find this year, from the ever inventive Mr Bavitz. Fearlessly surreal and scatological, as always.
14. Foals - Antidotes: 'Cause I'm down with the kids...
15. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Don't know how I missed this one...
16. The Sontaran Experiment - The Sontaran Experiment: Crawling doom, superfast grindcore bits (sounds a bit like a powertool ? Sometimes they do), electronic noise, piano interludes and 3 songs in an hour. Lovely.
17. Karen Dalton - Green Rocky Road
18. Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
19. Portishead - Third
20. Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Happy 2009 to everyone, with many thanks for your support and messages.
Permalink: » Best of 2008
Next album released on David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label...
08.12.08
Yes, yes y'all... The cogs are grinding and creaking their way back into motion, and the somewhat neglected machinery of our blogs and updates is noisily coming back to life. Actually, I say neglected, but we've got a good excuse. In fact... lots of excuses. So, here they all are, and I just hope they're enough to avoid a detention or a sound thrashing.
First off then... the record. SBP are pleased to announce that their new album 'Twice Born Men', which is now finished, mastered and almost ready to go, will be released early next year on David Sylvian's Samadhisound label, with artwork by the amazing Tacita Dean, and you can get a little taster of how it will look here on the holding page of our forthcoming website.
We've also been playing some shows, notably in Madrid (where we landed a very nice review in their national paper El Pais) and in the breathtaking new London venue, King's Place, as part of the UK Punkt festival in November. It was a great experience... We got to meet and remix Norwegian trumpet royalty Arve Henriksen, shake hands with Jon Hassell, drink beer with and ask John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin to explain that weird bit in 'Black Dog' (more confused than ever, now), and then we got remixed by pedal steel legend BJ Cole (The Verve, David Sylvian). A thrilling couple of days.
So, there you go. Lots on. Lots more to come. We'll be back in a bit.
Permalink: » Next album released on David Sylvian’s Samadhisound label...
7th of December Show Cancelled
02.12.08
Apologies to all, but our show with Valgeir S. at The Slaughtered Lamb has been postponed. Please check back soon for a rescheduled date.
Many thanks.
Permalink: » 7th of December Show Cancelled
Sweet Billy Pilgrim remix Steve Jansen. Available now!
30.08.08
The Sweet Billy Pilgrim remix of 'Conversation Over', a song from Steve Jansen's critically acclaimed album 'Slope' is now available for download in standard mp3 and FLAC formats from the Samadhisound website.
Hope you like it.
Well... hope you download it, then like it.
T
Permalink: » Sweet Billy Pilgrim remix Steve Jansen. Available now!
SBP’s Spanish Debut
24.08.08
In case we have any Spanish friends (yes, we know about you, Isabel !)... we're going to be playing at a festival in Madrid in October. Details are a bit sketchy at the moment, but we'll provide more of that sort of thing a bit closer to the time. Hope you can make it.
Date: 15th October
Venue: La Casa Encendida, Ronda Valencia, 2, 28012. Madrid
Stage times and ticket prices tbc.
Permalink: » SBP’s Spanish Debut
The Best Now That’s What I Call an Album of 2007... Ever
23.02.08
While I realise that the time for this sort of thing has come and gone, I've been compiling this in my head for weeks now without the time to actually set it down, thus. They're not all from 2007, but that's when I discovered them, so... ner. The first ten albums are probably in some kind of order of preference, the rest are pretty random, but buy any of them and your life will be a better place. Promise.
Field Music - Tones of Town. One of the greatest pop records I've ever heard... That's ever...
My Brightest Diamond - Bring me the Workhorse. Haven't felt like this about a singer since Jeff Buckley...
El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead. An emotional Hip Hop album ? Angry. Bleak. Poetic. Astonishing.
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity. Quirky and joyful.
Feist - The Reminder. Along with Field Music, brought me back to pop songs again.
The National - Boxer. Darlings of the mp3 Blogosphere, and rightfully so.
PJ Harvey - White Chalk. Piano and falsetto led atmos-fest.
Claudia Quintet - For. A free jazz accordion solo ? That's fun ? Oh yeah.
Cadence Weapon - Breaking Kayfabe. Dizzying verbal technique from Canadian rapper, and in 'Sharks,' the best use of squelchy bass noise since Bootsy strapped on a star-shaped guitar.
Botch - We Are Romans (reissue). Metalcore pioneers ritually abuse various time signatures with the precision of brain surgeons.
Tunng - Good Arrows
Greg Haines - Slumber Tides
Sunn O))) - Black One
Marnie Stern - In Advance of the Broken Arm
St. Vincent - Marry Me
Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Amiina - Kurr
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses
Permalink: » The Best Now That’s What I Call an Album of 2007... Ever