So the Crimea have invaded the US at long last:  guns blazing, cannons roaring, gatlings cranked and ready for action. And all this on famished bellies as food rations are a tad scarce. Nevermind, reports from the front are that spirits are high. Huzzah!

The 48a Waiting Steps is getting some more radio airplay. Passport Approved, is a radio show on Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles that currently has The Crimea on their playlist.  The syndicated show plays in many markets across the U.S. as well as on MotoFM in Germany.

We’ve also been trying to get the word out to the US music blogosphere and to music critics.  We have an appearance here regarding the upcoming Los Angeles shows.  If you know of a good music blog (or music critic, for that matter)  that could use some Crimea awareness, let me know by dropping me a line at hmboswell@auxarcltd.com

The Sun published this rather splendid interview with Davey on the 27  June.  And much to their credit, not a mention of Big Brother sex antics or Jordan’s boobs in any of it.  (Note: this is a PDF document)

Some U.S. Press release action in the house -CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS EAT YOUR HEART OUT 

“A new album is building buzz on music blogs for its upbeat sound,  wistful lyrics — and unusual price.” “WALL STREET JOURNAL

“Davey’s ability to create such delicious and bizarrely logical imagery through his lyrics proves to be one of the defining strengths of Secrets of the witching hour.” – The Guardian

“Husky soulful vocals and a mixture of lazy, hazy-day summer songs, bursts of heart-string yanking nostalgia and slow bittersweet melodies”  - NME  

The Crimea attempt to conquer the Americas by candlelight and chinese whispers with the official U.S release of their free album “Secrets of the Witching Hour” on July 14th 2008. Long before Prince, Coldplay, and the likes decided to give their music away for free, Back when Thom Yorke was still goin “MP.. what?”.The Crimea were the original pioneers of this revolutionary marketing concept. They became the first established band to release a ‘free album’ in late spring 2007, a landmark industry event which led them to appear in Q magazine’s “Top Five Moments That Changed Music History”, receiving global news attention from the Hindu Times to the Hollywood reporter, and everything in between. The Crimea are a cottage industry with global notoriety. By harnessing the all-encompassing, global reach of the internet, they have radically boosted their revenue streams through syncs, increased profile, and therefore increased live audiences and CD, merchandise sales to form the basis of a brave new business model that places the emphasis back squarely on artistic development and control.  

If you sit there and think,
Who am I?
How did I get here?
what is going to happen when I die?
You can scare the hell out of yourself
For all our science and philosophy
 Nobody actually knows what happens after the last gasp,
Where we go?
Or what we become?
After the last gasp

The above are the opening lines of “Secrets of the Witching Hour“. Released in the USA on July 14th for one week as a free download on Tripwire, then available to download for the duration of all time at www.thecrimea.net , The exclusive U.S.A version of the album has “tywanna jo baskette’ a mysterious songstress from the deepest darkest South, whispering spooky sweet nothings between the songs, The album is free to all, with nothing required from the listeners in return - not even an email address.Recorded above a sweatshop in East London, a crumbling house in Norwich and in the wilds of Latvia. The record was produced by the band over seven agonizing months, ably assisted by Dave Allen (The Cure).

The Crimea first came to light in 2004 when Davey gave a demo to the legendary John Peel who happened to walk past as Davey was sweeping the streets of Soho - John played all 11 tracks and a band was born. The Crimea have always asked people to stop and think, they have been blazing their own trail for years, get played when babies are born and people are buried.

“That could go on for another three quarters of an hour as far as I’m concerned” – John Peel  

“Secrets of the Witching Hour” has been creeping virally and stealthily into peoples conscious, the counter can only go up, Venice beach isn’t gonna know what hit it, the vikings are coming, the Dunkirk landings are going to look like the Boston tea party, “Secrets of the Witching Hour” is coming to America for all eternity, the Crimea perform the following U.S. dates: 

July 
12 NY Cake shop ; 13 NY Union hall;  14 NY Mccarren park 8pm,Bedford/north 12th entrance, outdoor East coast release gig/party; 15 Boston,  TT the bears; 16 LA, Tangiers; 17 LA Silverlake; 18 San Diego Epicentre; 19 LA Venice beach P zone, 8 pm, outdoor West coast release gig/party; 22 NY  Goodbye Blue Monday 

Dear all those who are concerned

THe CRimea are trying to reach gold in the next week or so,, so we can put out a new press release next week,,, when our single comes out,,, I know that begging letters are a worrying thing

but if anyone hasnt downloaded “secrets of the witching hour” could you possibly go to www.thecrimea.net and download, its free

and if you are gifted with your tongue please tell anyone you see, and if you only communicate by computer like Stephen Hawkins, please email anyone you should wish asking them to download it

it’s free

thank you very much

davey

Well, while some of us may have been engaging in too much drink or having BBQs in the rain over the Bank Holiday weekend, Davey slogged on with a show at Two Floors on Sunday followed by the Rob da Bank appearance in the small hours of Tuesday morning. In case you didn’t stay up for it, the radio appearance will be on Rob’s webpage for one more week. Rumor has it that Christopher has a digital recording of Davey’s performance. Maybe if he is merciful, kind, and loving he would consider SHARING them with us HERE at HIS website.

Really, Christopher. Is this what it’s come to? I have to beg…on your own site?

Moving on - new interview new interview new interview here from seatwave.com. It’s another interview before this peculiar Rage Into Spring show in Shoreditch that none of us seemed to know a stinking thing about. Well, a little light was shed on this. Rage gigs– you have to be a member of their thing/club/whatever,  and you get priority invites to their shindigs and tix at a discounted rate. So our  collective worries that we had suddenly becomel so frightfully uncool that The Crimea didn’t want us turning up at their shows…just a load of rubbish, really.

My exclusive reign as the only person on this side of the Atlantic who had ever known the glory of well-penned Davey Macmanus lyric has, fortunately, come to a resounding end. My fellow residents of the North American continent, now is the time to step up and do some PR gunslinging on behalf of The Crimea by joining the US Street Team. Come on…it’s gonna be fun. And there are all sorts of grand perks like free entry into Crimea gigs. Find out more by e-mailing Martin at thecrimea.teamamerica@yahoo.com

Last but not least -Davey and The Crimea turn up on the latest Tripwire Podcast (that’s #037 if you’re keeping score) in the form of the now-infamous mash up “Always on My Mind” and “Loop-A-Loop”. Thanks to Tripwire for giving them the Pole Position in the podcast.

DontPanicOnline.com has posted an interview they did with Joe and Owen right before the Shoreditch show. Hoovers, whiteys, explanations of the business model…yes sir, defintely a little something for everyone. Check it out…

If things have seemed all too quiet on the front lines of The Crimea, rest assured the cannons are being prepped to fire, dragoons are being assembled…get ready for a brilliant summer campaign.

First up - an article from The Guardian detailing the changes occurring in the music industry and innovative approaches artists are taking to promote themselves. Davey’s bit is in the middle… but I know you’re going to read the entire article, right? sure you are.

Next is… oh dear…sorry. *sigh* I just can’t get past the photo. Will someone please make sure Davey has ready access to a razor and shaving foam on a semi-regular basis? Joe…? Talking to you. Let’s keep this sort of thing a “one-off”: This Is London’s 12 Bar gig review.

Lastly… a scanned copy of The Camden New Journal, hot off the press today…and technically it is still Thusday over here in the CST. Davey is front page news in lovely drenched splendor from the 48A Waiting Steps video. Don’t miss the great side bar in which the journalist encourages you to miss the birth of your first child to see a Crimea show. Ok, maybe she doesn’t say that exactly. But you could certainly get away with missing the birth of your second child…um, unless you are the mother, of course.
Ok that only leaves one thing. Must figure out how to upload said scan to this thing. CHRISTOPHER!! How do you upload stuff to this thing!!?? It’s not letting me upload!
Oh never mind…here’s a link to the scanned glory - And here’s a link to the web page of the Camden New Journal.

Yes yes you can stop emailing me about it now, I know you’re ruddy Q…. apparently “this month’s” which could mean anything in the world of print, but the last copy I saw had a title of “The Loud Issue”. I”ll try pick one up at the weekend and add it to the rest of the scans, Joe says there’s got a review and a couple recommendations in there so it’s not to be missed.
Update: Large whole-page article on freeness, 4/5 recommended album review and 31st recommended download, all available in the August 2007 “Loud Issue”.

Browsing the contents of WHSmith last week I missed the very small review of Secrets Of The Witching Hour in Rock Sound (issue 8, June 07), tucked away in the corner of page 90. Good job those on the forum have better eyes as RS give the album the best rating I’ve seen in a mag so far; 8 / 10 describing the band as “eccentric, charming, poetic and imaginative”.

Biggest print article so far goes to Notion mag. I picked up the last copy of issue 28 / July 07 in York’s Smiths and it doesn’t dissapoint, no rating but a good writeup saying Davey & Co “have a consistency of intent that could defeat other equally ambitious outfits”. Thanks, once again, to Lee at Velocity PR for spotting that one.

Not sure where it comes from (looks like the Metro), but this Brighton Barfly gig review was clearly written by a very old skool fan of the group, still using Owen’s old band-name. Not surprising since it was posted and quite likely written by a member of one of Davey’s favourite bands The Fish Brothers.

Update: All recent mag articles now available to view in this Webshots album.

The Crimea’s super-sized bass player Joe Udwin has sat down for a chat with Subba-Cultcha and told them all about his place in the band, the new album and his love for, among other things, Crimea b-side Sideways. I swear if another person mentions that track I’m gonna rip my head off, it’s been stuck in there for weeks and i hate it hate haaatteee iiittttt. Hospital rocks though.

There’s more Crimea love from High Voltage, this time they rate the album with four lightning bolts out of five. Which is three more than nearly hit my house last night, which really would have been one of “summer’s most jubilant and most poignant moments”. Alas, only the album gets that sort of praise.

If by chance a fan of these lot were hit by lightning, I may be seen to dance around exclaiming Burn Baby Burn. In commemoration, of course, as Ash’s songwriting skills now seem to be destined soley for hit singles such as the aforementioned 2001 hit after giving up the album game for good. Noting the similarity with management mates The Crimea, Music Towers gives the free album a very short mention.

If you missed it, here’s the online version of the NME’s album review. Now if only I could burn a few of those baby’s I have stocked in my closet

Today’s gig review comes from the Sunday Mail who gave the King Tuts show 3 / 5 in last weekend’s edition, while Timeout London look forward to Monday’s Borderline show while giving it a recommended rating.

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The Crimea’s Secrets Of The Witching Hour makes its way in to three magazines for a review this week, so head down your local WH Smith and check these lot out:

The June 2007, issue 8 of Play Music mag features the longest and best album review on page 122. The 4 / 5 rating does seem to take the opinion that this may be the band’s last goodbye though.

I daren’t mention the name of the next mag. Yet strangely it rhymes with “the Enemy“. How fitting. Anyway, their 23rd June issue, while also suprisingly passing on another chance to feature Pete Doherty or the Artic Monkeys on the cover for a Glasto 2007 title instead, have another surprise instore on page 36 with a not-one-bad-thing-to-say 6 / 10 score for the album. I guess they’ve eaten more than mud this week.

Not quite so expensive is the June 2007 issue of The Fly magazine, free from all good music venues and stores and still featuring our very own Owen Hopkin as a regular contributor. That pulls them no favours for the review though, a 3.5 / 5 on page 49 yet they’re still full of nothing but praise for the release. And if you can’t find a copy, just pop over to their website to have a read of the magazine online, for free. It’s the new way, people. Free forever.

I’ve just uploaded a load of scans of articles from various newspapers and mags on The Crimea’s free Secrets Of The Witching Hour album to Webshots. You can view them in this album, click on each image to view a larger version, and then click the “full size” link (a small magnifying glass with a + in it) to view the original size of the image if it’s still too small to read.

I’m also busy uploading all press articles and adverts to the same webshots account ( community.webshots.com/user/thecrimea ) to replace the self made pages on inaudible.co.uk which took far too long to produce. Therefore the image page on this site is also getting a little makeover, you can check there for any further updates to Crimea photos and scans.

Incidently, if you don’t like the new Webshots albums, and know of somewhere with similar functionality that you prefer, then let me know. I’ve already counted out Flickr as, unless I pay em money, I can’t have more than a few albums to contain pics and that’s just gonna look a mess.

The Crimea have been in a few different papers and magazines over the past week, but these two are the only ones I’ve got scans of. I should get them up in the Crimea webshots album later this week but for now you can click the read more link to see em.

Firstly there’s the index and article page from Music Week for 12th May, detailing the album release and giveaway. You can probably still pick up a copy from the newsagents if you’re quick.

And they were also mentioned in the Telegraph on on 30th April in an article mostly about the Artic Monkeys’ album.

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Someone run out and buy a copy and pleeease tell me this is in the actual paper, beacause UK newspaper The Independent’s online site has just about the biggest Crimea article I’ve ever read. Not only that, but it’s bloody good too. Unlike every other Crimea related article I’ve read over the past few weeks, there’s little mention of the new album and mainly concentrates on the band’s trip to China and ensuing food based madness; Davey really should pay more attention to those HSBC adverts. Unlike the Guardian article, this one does include a link to the band’s official website so hopefully there’ll be plenty of new fans heading that way soon. There’s also a quick mention of a pretty interesting development band wise, but you’ll have to read the article to find out .

Back to the album, but this time focusing on the amount of downloads and press interest in the thing, ICWales have another pretty big article on their website with a bit of history on the band too.

Bringing us all back to earth is the No Rock And Roll Fun blog who question the uniqueness of a free music offering. But they get my reward for best Crimea album article title so far.

And here’s another copy of the Guardian article, this time appearing in the Hindu Times, apparently the world’s biggest Hindu Language newspaper. Although on the site it’s in English, I think it may well have been in the actual newspaper a couple weeks ago.

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The third major UK publication to mention The Crimea’s album giveaway is The Times. Not sure if the online version featured in todays paper or not, but if it did I don’t have a copy so I’m still left begging for scans of that and any other print based Crimea articles. Speaking of which, this article from the Sidney Morning Herald did appear in the actual paper a few days ago.

The Leeds edition of Glasswerk promotes the band’s gig in Leeds on June 5th along with news of the album. No doubt I’ll be there making a cock of myself once again.

Back to the regular album storys; The Music of Zhisou features a good original write up from some topless bloke. “It’s in The Guardian, now I’m blogging about it, I’m sure there are many other people doing the same.” Yeah, rub it in why not.

While I was at Uni in Wales there was this one channel on TV that caused me much facination. For a while I didn’t think I could get it tuned properly, then I figured all the presenters must be pissed, and had just settled on it being a free porn channel when I eventually realised it was just the Welsh language channel S4C and all the talk about pimps was just the announcer giving program time updates. Anyway, if you wanna learn to speak a bit Cymraeg ala S4C style, start every sentance with “Ferret”, end every one with “like”, and finally recite this Crimea article from Uned5 until you can understand what the hell that Owen’s going on about. Take a look at all the new pretty pics while you’re there, too. Am dani.

A little paragraph from the German Rock-A-Hula Baby, quite a few paragraphs from Javno and if it’s anything like All Of Mp3, most of the album from the Russian @Music site round up the foreign articles. Now it’s late, and I must go watch my favourite new show 2 Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps while dreaming of a life outside Crimea news story hell. Nosh da.

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