Very cool words from the very cool Brooklyn Vegan blog. They host a radio show on Sirius so fingers crossed that we hear some Crimea on the digital airwaves. And tonight is the last U.S. show (for now!). If you’re in the NYC area, drop by Goodbye BLue Monday and watch Davey and Joe play their acoustic set.
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Massive thanks to eagle-eye Carla for finding these on YouTube…videos from the Crimea’s performance at McCarren Park in NYC last week. Perhaps an even bigger thanks should go to YouTube user TangyGal, who is responsible for putting them on YouTube in the first place. So go and show her some love at the comments section.
Reviews keep coming in for 48a. Check out the 4.5 out of 5 stars given by Matthew Hirtes of UK Fusion. Massive!
And last but certainly not least - Martin (grand overlord of the US Street Team) has some photos from the NYC and Boston shows here. Enjoy!!
Most bands release things on Tuesdays. Once again bucking conventional trends, the Crimea released their latest single ‘The 48a Waiting Steps’ on 30 June…a Monday, if you can believe it. (Think of it as a gift to the common working man and woman out there who normally look upon Mondays with much dread.) After an unscheduled run to Curry’s for some gear (no, not that kind of gear, we’re talking the proper electrical stuff), the release party got under way at legendary Sister Ray records. Were you lucky enough to score one of 100 exclusive limited editions of the single, complete with the chickenscratch masquerading as lyrics personally hand-scrawled by Mr. Macmanus? If you were, lucky you…because that means you probably got the chance to see them again at their secret gig later that evening. (Tell us what you think/what you thought at the official Crimea message boards, why don’t ya?)But having reported all that it’s time to get down to some bidness. Reviews!
- Room 13 is up first with a glowing bit of praise for the new single. It’s so nice that we’ll even forgive lovely Jim at Room 13 for misspelling Davey’s name (it’s not Davy as in the former Monkee).
- Glasswerk aptly notes that ‘Davey Macmanus trembles over another epic short player…”
- Contact Music gave the single a respectable 7/10.
- Beat Surrender offers 3/5 More reviews are on the way so stayed tuned.
Or be sure to notify us if you see a kind word or two floating about that’s worth sharing.
You want ‘em, you need ‘em, we got ‘em…
- As of this midnight GMT, The Crimea’s video for 48a Waiting Steps is #12 on the Top 20 most watched video list at e-music TV. Let’s help it move up the charts, whaddya say? Click on the link, watch, repeat.
- Originally posted 30 May, it’ll be new to you if you haven’t read it yet - noizemakesenemies.co.uk story on the upcoming single.
- Music-News.com interview with Andrew and Davey
- The press release over at Mi2N, a music industry website
By the way - clarification over the Glasgow gig…It’s actually Saturday, 05 July. Not on the seventh as I erroneously reported. Sorry for the confusion!
Ok, it’s obvious a fair few of you are a bit gutted that you didn’t find out about Friday’s last minute gig until it was too late. Well Davey sent over a recap of the night –
Joe performed as Jose Blase
He played 2 of his own songs:
-half left (the last time I played this was in leicester at the charlotte and someone filmed it - see youtube)
-somewhere to live
and 1 cover:
-the bad touch by the bloodhound gang which went down pretty well and everyone sang along
davey played as davey macmanus
loop
the only living boy and girl
shredder
how to make you laugh
blue dog (ive stuck an old live version up on myspace/crocketts)
lottery
amazing night, great gig etc. good to be able to smoke in a pub.
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.
Sorry sorry sorry. It flooded. Not here like but any excuse’ll do… Just as you get used to the Crimea actually keeping the same line-up for longer than a year, Andy ups and leaves. Well good luck to you Mr, but who’s gonna join up next? Well watch this space, as I have a strangely psychic knack of predicting new Crimea members. Now, who else thinks that one from The Go Team! would fit well?
Ok, news. The Beijing Beat blog on Claus.com has a long story on the band’s first trip to China. Apparently they’re going back for more in September when they play the Pop Festival.
Free album stories haven’t gone away; the News & Star site features an update on the release with comments from Andy Stafford. Prospect Magazine have a quick mention in a wider free music article, the Independent have an even quicker name drop and the Guardian give em two lines. Though none of them are as pesimistic as Sweeping The Nation’s take on events though.
I think this stuff from La Burroteca is written in Spanish. Theres a donkey. And a pic of LWOA. I know no more…
Gig reviews now, and Dr Alex Hale III (yeah, sure…) was so impressed with the band’s Modest Mouse support that he popped along to see em headline at Birmingham’s Bar Academy too.
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.
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.
Lucky attendees of the O2 Wireless festival in Leeds and London last weekend will have got to see The Crimea play their first festival dates of the year. If you missed it, or just want to reminisce, here’s some O2 Wireless leftovers…
The London performance gets a tiny mention in Virtual Festivals non-Firefox friendly review of the proceedings.
The official O2 Wireless website contains a better-late-than-never biography of the band and also three short video clips of Lottery Winners, Baby Boom and Talking Nonsense. If you just wanna grab the .flv files, they’re here, here and here.
To end with, here’s two longer but poorer quality clips from YouTube user MadeWithCheese, possibly taken in Leeds.
Here’s some gig reviews for you today, but before I start may I point you in the direction of Last.fm’s new Events pages, specifically the Crimea one. I’ll likely be using it to provide listings on this site in a short time, so I’m making sure it’s up to date with all the latest gig info, and you can add reviews and photos of gigs to each listing.
Anyway, on with the reviews. The band support Modest Mouse last month and here’s what The Music Magazine had to say about their performance in Nottingham’s Rock City.
Moving in to Wales, the band’s headlining slot at Wrexham’s Central Station is given the once over by Caught In The Crossfire, along with their thoughts on support band Undercut.
Controlled chaos is what BBC Nottingham called the band’s show at The Social, while High Voltage were more disappointed by the heat at Joshua Brooks than anything else.
No post here would be complete lately without the usual SOTWH news articles, and the Scotsman doesn’t dissapoint, while also plugging the band’s Cabaret Voltaire gig, taking place right now I do believe. They should be well in to Talking Nonsense by now. Speaking of which, here’s some Japanese nonsense from Sailor Music Record Box, also about - you guessed it - the album release.
There’s a very educated review of The Crimea’s gig at Birmingham Bar Academy up on the Fat Amp Music site, with the reviewer leaving quite impressed with the band.
The Sheffield version of This City has a preview of the Leadmill gig still up. It may be a little late with the gig having taken place four days ago, but this one isn’t: Evening News 24’s preview of the Norwich Arts Centre gig on the 14th is still valid and contains a little info on the support bands too.
Album stuff now, and Mark Stanley’s blog contains a recomendation and pointer towards the free album, while foreign blog (still not entirely sure where though) Muzak! contains a review of the whole thing. Unless they number things as differently as they write them, that 29% probably ain’t great.
Judge for yourself though, as the Indiestore wordpress blog points you towards the 7Digital Idiestore online shop, official Crimea online retailer, where you can download the whole album from instead of the official homepage. Strangely enough they also charge £1.50 for downloading the album as a whole. Possibly most interesting though is the last paragraph on the blog which mentions some very interesting stuff. Just don’t trust it any more than those Bombay Sapphire Coma rumours.
Two album reviews today with both Manchester Evening News and This Is Fake DIY giving it 3 out of 5, the former prefering the the previous album and the later liking the subtletie of the lyrics.
A little more impressed us Unkle Rupert who recommends the album in his blog.
Portuguese blog Remixtures also mentions the album and quite a lot more, though I’ll have to have some babelfish fun before knowing exactly what’s there…
Finishing with some gig based stuff, Room Thirteen review the band’s show at the Fez in Reading, giving it an eventual rating of 11 out of 13.
