Sorry for not updating you on the latest from Colin “6th Member” Murray. He played Don’t Close Your Eyes On Me last night, and Bombay Sapphire Coma last week to much public praise. As always you can listen again on his website or view the tracklistings. If all goes well, he’ll be playing Loop A Loop next Tuesday around 11pm. FWIW, Bombay Sapphire was on the last album, but only the self released version.

Speaking of self-released albums, the band’s 2nd album Secrets Of The Witching Hour is released on May 13th as a free download, but if you like hard-copies (or just love the band) you can pre-order the CD album right here on the Crimea’s official web store. The site also includes a tracklisting if you’ve not been keeping track of Murray’s playlists.

And mentioning much the same thing are Culture Deluxe who posted a news item on the album and download / purchasing details. Hit more to read it.

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So there was no new Witching Hour track on Colin Murray last night. It was a “best of” show so instead he played Raining Planets, previously aired while he was in the BBC1’s Fame Academy (has Barry got an album out yet?). Which is good, cos I missed the original airing. Not this time. Listen again by skipping to 1hr 20, read more for the playlist.

Again, it’s not exactly new news, but Davey’s two latest diary entries (from late last year) have just been added to the band’s MySpace page. If you wanna hear about the struggle for the new album, or an update on the Warner Bros situation (as if you didn’t know already), check em out. “Slugs can do anything”. Believe.

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Mexico City, Paris, Carlisle, Guernsey… can you hear us!!!
Official mail outs are back; get yer gig news ‘ere!

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Sorry for the mistake last week. Although Mr Murray was busying himself in the Fame Academy (why oh why did Barry not win?!?) it didn’t stop another Crimea tune, Raining Planets, being played in his Radio 1 slot. I figured this out literally 20 minutes before the recording was taken down. And now you can’t even listen to the thing. Oh well, just gotta wait for the album release in May don’t ya?

Anyway, last night he played Man and you can listen again here for the next week. Skip to 1hr 20m in if you want babble, or just 1:25 for the tune. And read more for both show’s tracklistings. Annnd tune in next week, same time same place for the next Crimea track, I have this weird feeling it’ll be Bombay Sapphire Coma.

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Last Thursday The Crimea’s lead guitarist Andy Norton performed live with ex-Ash member Charlotte Hatherley during her Radio 2 session with Janice Long. You can check out the show’s tracklisting and listen again (up until this Thursday, when I’ll stick some MP3s up) at Janice’s web page (skip to 30 mins in). Andy only really speaks once, mentioning The Crimea recording their album in Latvia and Janice says they could come in a play a session once it’s released. Thanks for the info, Phil.

Colin Murray continued his Crimea support last night, playing The 48A Waiting Steps during the Black Hole section of his show. I think it’s safe to say that tuning in every Tuesday around 10.45pm will get you a new Crimea track. Anyway, the good stuff: Colin said he loved em so much he got them to play at his engagement party. More news on the suposed “free” album, he said it’ll be made available via MySpace. And he mentioned the song is about a bus Davey gets in Dublin. The bad stuff? By the time the albums out you’ll have heard the whole thing already The inquisitive can click here and skip to 45 minutes in, the not quite so can read more for the evening’s tracklisting.

Here’s a review, albeit a very short one from Rock Beast who were at the Beautiful Days festival last year. At least they have a nice pic of our very own rockbeast-in-my-pocket, Owen Hopkin. They’ve also posted a few more pics of the band up here on pages 4 and 5.

Big Swap news - Contact Music posted an article on the Crimea’s charity job, probably sometime last century, like I care. If it feels like deja vu reading it, welcome to my life.

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Thanks for the heads up on the message board; Colin Murray showed plenty of Crimea love on his Radio 1 show this Tuesday, playing All Conquering from the new album and giving details on its release. Being the first ever Crimea recording I heard, I’ve gotta say it pretty much lives up to the excelence of the original I heard around 4 years ago. And Regina Spektor could well end up all over this new album .

If you’re too late to listen again (skip to exactly 1 hr 20), he basically mentioned Davey’s previous band The Crocketts, the Tragedy Rocks album and their MySpace page. He also mentions that the album will be available for free at the end of April, and the band are just playing gigs for money as they’re fed up with the music industry. I know nothing about that, but the band have never really minded about the whole free thing. I guess it’s even more reason to get to a gig.

If that weren’t enough, Colin also said he’ll be playing a new track from the album every Tuesday, so tune in if you want some more. He’s not kidding, he played Requiem Aeternam a couple weeks ago. Read more it doesn’t say more anymore, does it? for the tracklistings to both shows. I might upload some of Colin’s Crimea love clips later, depending on just how free everything gets…

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First time I’ve seen this in a while… The Crimea were played on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show (albeit ages ago, Jan 10th) thanks to Gary from Snow Patrol who hosted the thing while Zane was away. The tracklisting says he played Man, which you can hear over on The Crimea’s MySpace page.
Keen inaudible.co.uk readers who happen to both live next door to The Windmill in Brixton, and read this within the next 30 minutes - Joe should be playing with Morton Valance during their gig tonight. Hopefully anyone near heard it on myspace ages ago. I heard I died on myspace ages ago. Just waiting for it to come true, like. Meanwhile YouTube unfortunately says very little on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Just need to find me some pixelated LED light art and both my wishes come true at once. Kabooom :o)
And while they’re up, get vids of Louise Wener (ex-Sleeper front lady) on Celebrity Poker Club while she’s they’re hot. That has nothing to do with The Crimea by the way. But lord knows I don’t write anything about them any more. Maybe I’ll get a Crimea tatoo. It’ll remind me. Get infected. Writhe on the floor in agony. Listen to Eels. Why do I keep missing Mock The Week? Fucking stupid TV schedules…

If anyone missed it last week, The Crimea were on BBC6 radio talking about their Big Swap charity project.
Chris’ll probably rehost this, but here’s the interview portion of the segment up on Rapidshare.
Also running late, here’s my review of Baby Boom with lyrics.

Iain (who I think will be getting his own login shortly, and a good thing too, because I’ve been bloody useless) has found a range of Crimea gig and festival stuff: the Independent and MusicOMH liked the band at V, and the Beeb at Vital 06. There’s also a set list and some photos of a London gig from the 21st up on Flickr, and for another day or two you can listen to a BBC 6 session wherein the band talk about their War Child charity work. More on that at The Big Swap.

Baby Boom is this weeks CD Burner (”single of the week” to the rest of us) for Radio 1’s Colin & Edith show, meaning they play the thing every day for the whole week. Colin seems to be the biggest fan, he played a demo of Opposite Ends in 2002 before even John Peel played em. I shat myself when it came on the radio while I was lying in bed. Anyway, you can currently vote for the track as Brillian or Rubbish on their website. I vote rubbish, rejection seems to make Davey write better songs ;o) Currently 80% of you have no sense of duty.
There’s something else I’m meant to mention… errmm…. errr… hmm… ah whatever. Don’t pigeons make funny noises when they fly? Ahh yess… I was gonna brag about how I fixed my computer so I can upload more Crimea vids to YouTube now. Not like you’d wanna know anything about that…

Here’s part three of yesterday’s news downpour, and hopefully the floodgates will now shut for a while so I can get some rest. I’ve got some real special treats in store but first up, some info some more Crimea radio sessions. That would be live sessions, on the radio in Glasgow, Manchester and on Liverpool’s Radio City. Unfortunately, they were on Wednesday. Sorry for not having any info up before, but I only found out via Davey’s MySpace blog on Thursday. Apparently they played a cover of Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” in Glasgow, and interviews elsewhere. If you happen to have a recording (likely) then I’ve stuck all my e-mail addresses on the bar to the left.
Another public service announcement; Wild UK are organising The Crimea’s official street team, including some mini-raffles at each gig, and they need some help. If you’re available to assist at the Harlow show in London tomorrow then please get in touch with Sam at streetteam@wild-uk.com and he’ll most likely make it worth your while.
Right, good stuff. Channel 4. As well as broadcasting a live performance of Lottery Winners On Acid on the Digital Music Awards on Channel 4 last Tuesday, S4C this Sunday and 4Music err.. sometime… They’ve also behind The Crimea’s first popular kiddie interview! Yes, the kind where they ask what flavour ice cream you like. Not only that, but they’ve stuck the link to it on their main Music Features page! Ohh yes, everything you’ve wanted to know about their looks vs. McFly’s, and their attraction to Rachel Stevens. Next up, a Saturday morning MOM appearance. If it’s good enough for Sleeper, it’s good enough for The Crimea.
If you’re lucky enough to live in the States, you can order a copy of October’s issue 11 of State Of Mind magazine for only $4.00. Ahh, I hear you ask, why would you want to? Their interview with Davey and Andy Stafford from The Crimea of course!
Now for the icing on the cake, and I hope you’ve kept reading this far. They may have been on Channel 4, the official site may have exclusive live videos on the way, but you can watch the band right now on the South By Southwest site who have a near 4 minute video of them playing SXSW 2005, including clips from their performance of Baby Boom, Girl Just Died and Someone’s Crying. And it’s the fourth item on their videos page, no less (with a lower quality version if needed). I do have copies saved incase it’s ever removed, so lemme know if it dissapears and I’ll stick it up here.
Some old news mentioned elsewhere before comes in from the CMU Music Network with their Out Of Africa and live dates post.
Also old, but a little more detailed; Loose Record’s news on the band’s WOXY radio show session.
On the sales front, Picadilly Records have what at first glance seems to be a simple sales listing, but a quick read will revel links to two sample mp3s from the album.
Going even further is the twmsiy* blog who have a news-article-come-review of the album and links to three whole MP3s: the WRG album version, original LWOA version and great remix of Baby Boom by The Vaden Plas.
And if that ain’t enough media for you, check out the other images and Bowery Ballroom photo pages for new Crimea flyers, setlists and live photos thanks to Awreye.
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Anyone wanna take over a fair to middling Crimea fansite? I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up. Damn Uni. I know why Davey called it an internment camp now…
Sooo… Thought the WOXY session was the only radio promotion the band were doing over in the States? Think again. They also popped over to British Accents Radio to talk and play another session on monday afternoon. Of course, no one thought about telling anyone, but never mind eh… Oh wait, they played Sleeper just before The Crimea. Noooooooooo… Show recordings anyone?
Here’s Filter Mag’s news on the show and the tracklisting via Spinitron.
Also giving the band some radio luvin’ on Monday was Zane Lowe, who played White Russian Galaxy during his radio one show. Whether he procedes to play the remainder of the album during a single future show remains to be seen, though lord knows Peel would. Single in January? Unlikely, but hopefully the US album should be out around then.
This month’s scandalous appearance of The Crimea in tantalisingly feminine surrondings come curtosey of SheKnows.com. The self styled “web for women” features a bio on the band which looks to be a larger version of the one on their MySpace profile. Next up, PlayBoy. Or some shots of them surrounded by naked women… Nah, it’ll never happen.
This Out Of Africa download seems to be getting music news sites in a twist. FMagazine have a large bio and gig dates along with a link to the download, GigWise a much shorter post with link, This Is Fake DIY virtually nothing but the link and Thunder Chucky have the news hidden away down the bottom of their news coloumn.
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A small update tonight before something bigger in a couple of days. White Russian Galaxy was played on Radio 1’s Session In Ireland for the first time last night, and there’s a tiny review of the Crimea at the March DiS Vs DSP gig on Linenoise. To save you the trouble of clicking the link, it says “I sat through The Crimea’s set grinning like a mad thing”. A bit like I do every gig then.

The website for Welsh magazine Honk has been updated. The article on The Crimea’s publishing deal has gone and been replaced by a review of the White Russian Galaxy single. Click [More] or visit the Honk website for it.
The single has been added to BBC Radio 6’s playlist B. Click [More] or here for the current playlist and listen to the station online here.
Two days ago I mentioned The Hot Puppies. Well tonight they’re in session on Adam Walton’s Radio Wales show between 9pm and 12pm. You can listen online, on Welsh radio or through various Digital TV and radio channels.
Another different band, The Keys have had their upcoming single Strength Of Strigs reviewed by Crimea fan Stuart Denyer, along with comments on their previous single Gurl Next Door. You can read the review on his website here.
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