All Your Sisters

And I knew I was close to you
And I knew
Catch me flying in the sun
Catch me drinking of your wine

I'm gonna put something in you
Make the devil feel surprised
All your sisters wanna fly
Around my golden sky
Around my golden sky

Just because you feel, hollow inside it's real
Just because you feel, hollow inside it's real

I'm gonna put something in you
Make the devil feel surprised
Make the devil feel surprised

And I knew I was close to you
And I knew
Catch me flying in the sun
Catch me drinking of your wine

Goodnight x x x x

I had the most perfect evening today with the most perfect person I've ever met. I thought I'd never get the chance again....but someone somewhere was watching over us...

D-Bird
x x x x x x x x

A little dedication....

I'm so happy to announce we will be supporting The Raveonettes in London on Monday Sep 7th! It will be their first UK show of the year and not only am I excited to be playing for them, I am also excited about hearing their new material, 'In And Out Of Control' which is released on October 6th.

I've mentioned how much I love the band in various interviews/blog posts in the past but I don't think they know just how much they mean to me. I've been a fan of Sune's work for half of my life. I heard his first project, Psyched Up Janis whilst barely in my teens when their song 'I Died In My Teens' was played on the radio. I bought their album and was totally obsessed with them. I followed Sune's other pursuit, an amazing surf band called The Tremolo Beer Gut and the first Raveonettes song I heard was 'Beat City' which was the only amazing song on a Q Magazine compilation I acquired. I bought Whip It On and Chain Gang and I had found my most perfect band since Nirvana.

When I met Sune and Sharin over 4 years ago, life was very very different for me. I was a very shy and awkward fan of theirs and interviewed them for my fanzine, Soma Soma Scene. I emailed their lovely manager Scott telling him about my amazing new web fanzine only thing was that at the time, it was yet to be put into practice. I'd got a small team of people together but we hadn't even got a single web page up. I didn't have a clue how to do it. However Scott immediately replied and agreed to an interview and asked if I wanted to do it by email or face to face. I jumped at the latter and had to wait a good 3 months before they were going to be in the UK. I was so excited in those 3 months and plotted every single question I had ever wanted to ask them.

I interviewed the band in March 2005 and meeting them and seeing them live was a pretty seminal moment in my life. At the time I was studying for a career I later detested and I was torn between following my brain and following my heart. Thank god I am now doing the latter. But at the time, I was totally new and naive to the music industry and bands...The Raveonettes were the first band who supported my fanzine. This initiated the confidence I later developed for writing, which had been a passion of mine from a young age however I had neglected it somewhat at university. They were such great sports that I felt confident to carry on writing and carry on with my fanzine. Through my fanzine I met other like-minded creatives for the first time in my life and started doing showcases of upcoming artists we had interviewed..this has now developed into Decasia and Sick Club. I was completely touched and inspired by Sune's own personal blogs on his Myspace that I felt it was important to do the same for our fans - hence I began this blog.

Since that initial meeting on a cold spring day in March 2005, I've kept in touch with Sune, Sharin and Scott and cherish them dearly. They are one of the few genuine bands out there that I know. They are constantly writing and releasing amazing music, constantly touring, constantly keeping in touch with all their fans...they have a real passion for what they do and do it for all the right reasons. They are just so so inspiring.

You can read my original interview with them here:
http://www.somasomascene.com/raveonettes.html

And buy tickets for the London show with us in support here:
https://crowdsurge.com/theraveonettes

Love love
D-Bird

Take and shake your soul!

Today was the first day of filming for the Maaike Mekking film which I'm providing the soundtrack for. My project is called Blue On Blue and it consists of me playing instruments/singing with a few special guest collaborators. Jerome Watson from Hatcham Social is producing it. There are no other permanent members at the moment (yes, don't believe everything you read....).

Anyway here are some pics from the shoot. A cold summer's evening on an east London rooftop...buckets of blood, virginal girls, lights, camera, action!!

The team assembles in Maaike's studio:


Cue bucket/pan of blood:



Cue Maaike's naughty little pup Seymour who tries to eat all the dresses and/or my toes. He's obsessed with feet:


Cue Maaike, her stylist and the dresses:


Cue ethereal beauty who has no idea what evil is in store for her:




TO BE CONTINUED...!
D-Bird

The Dying Game: B-Sides

I've been listening to Do You Love Me Now Jnr on repeat since we got back from Austria. A rare Breeders B-Side which J Mascis remixed and added vocals to. Justin from Weekender told me about it and I tracked it down and fell in love with it.

This has reminded me of yet another one of my rants about music these days. What the hell has happened to B-Sides? Gone are the days where you would stick a 4 song single on and fall in love with ALL the songs and not just the single. One band whose B-Sides were always phenomenal, was Belly. Their astounding B-Sides as well as album tracks just confirmed what an amazingly talented band they were - they didn't just bung a crap remix on for a laugh. They gave their fans real music everytime. This is why I admire bands of old so much - the music, the ethos, everything was just so much more genuine then.

It may sound extreme but I think a large part of this genuinity died when John Peel died. No matter what people say, I definitely believe this. I grew up in a tiny steel mining village in the north east of England. 40 miles from Newcastle and 30 miles from Durham. Seriously, it was in the middle of absolute nowhere. However, I managed to fall in love with my escapism of music through the radio. I heard Urusei Yatsura, Mazzy Star, PJ Harvey on Radio 1 and managed to track down all their early releases in an indie record store in Newcastle. Seriously, listening to good music changed my life. The infamous Peel sessions were aimed solely at pure music fans - hearing bands play album tracks, covers and B-Sides. It just feels like no one really cares anymore and that hurts having finally given up a lot to be where we are right now. I really wish we met John Peel and would've given anything to have done a session for him....

I never want to release anything with just a remix as a B-Side. I think remixes serve their own purpose but being in a band, you need to constantly challenge yourself and give people as much as you can. You should never feel you are wasting a song by putting it out as a B-Side. Go away and write 5 more great songs instead.

D-Bird

Do You Love Me Now Jnr - download it here:
http://www.noaloha.com/breeders/index.php?page=8&album=6

Check out the entire Peel sessions back catalogue here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/

Album of the Year

Hands down for me, is 'Yoyodyne' by Projekt A-Ko, a band composed of 3 former Urusei Yatsura members - Fergus Lawrie (guitar/vocals), Ian Graham (drums) and Elaine Graham (bass/vocals).

Go to http://www.projektako.co.uk/yoyodyne/, buy the album and you will have a great life.

More songs up on their Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/projektako

I am so happy that there is a band like this out there, creating this type of music and doing it so damn well!!

D-Bird

GOLD SOUNDZ

PJ HARVEY - SNAKE


URUSEI YATSURA - FAKE FUR


ASH - PETROL


ROBOT MONK - The Paper Boy whose Mind and Paper Round Expanded


D-Bird