Now either Owen or Dan are a fan of the Eels, cos they played them during their XFM Hijack years ago, so this one’s for them everyone who happens to like crazy Flash animations.
Archive for the ‘Other Bands’ Category
Project Winterhaven, former Crimea guitarist Julz Parker’s band, are gonna be playing the Kilburn on Kilburn Road, London on thursday night. Get along to see one of the best guitarist in the world ever ever (well, almost), entrance is free so you have no excuse. They’re also working on a new EP at the moment called Don’t Look At The Monkey :o) check out their website at www.projectwinterhaven.com.
Owen Hopkin, not content with his day job in The Crimea, has provided drums for three new Halflight songs titled Linen, The Ending and Pins Drop. Halflife describe themselves as “a Cardiff based collective, the brainchild of singer/songwriter Sarah Howells. Think Gemma Hayes, Beth Orton, Pixies, Nick Drake, Wolfgang Tillmans, The Bangles, Tori Amos, Pavement… Then think again”. I’ll keep you updated on happenings and where you can get a copy of the tracks. Below is an email I got from Rich, Halflight’s guitarist:
“I used to be in a band called Cartoon. We were based in West Wales at the same time The Crocketts were coming outa Aberystwyth. We did quite a few gigs together and I always admired the boy Hopkins drumming. We (halflight) are mainly ploughing the acoustic furrow at the moment but wanted to get some drums on a few recordings. Owen was the obvious first choice. The stuff will be mixed within the next couple of weeks. Hopefully released in some form as soon as we get our sh*t tohether. Rich”.
Vote Maupa! The competition for the UK’s best new band on the Wanadoo website may have ended in miserable failure for The Crimea, but those cheeky scamps Maupa put in a superb effort and are now looking ahead to many many sleepless nights in their quest to take on the rest of Europe. If you spent any time voting Crimea you’ll know how hard it is, so get on over and help them out.
Adam Walton’s Radio Wales show took itself to new hights last night. Not only did it feature two tracks from The Crimea’s album, but a live recording of a show from The Crocketts’ old tour pals Murry The Hump. Not only that, but I hear a certain singer may be putting in an appearance with another band during a future session on the show. Nothing’s confirmed yet but I’ll let you all know if anything does happen. For now, have a listen to Adam’s show from yeaterday here on the all new version of the BBC On Demand player. Weyhey. No more hours spent trying to skip 5 mins :o). EDIT: I’m just listening to the MTH gig now. Ahhh.. takes me back to the time I just got into the crox :o) And Aber coppers really are fucking strange. Tracks played are Pigs On Parade, Gasolene, Booze And Cigaretes, Don’t Slip Up, Colouring Book, I Will Love, Thrown Like A Stone, (?), Kebab Or Shag.
POSTED BY:: box packer
Date: Thur/6/5/04 19:44
new Barfly label through BMG?
POSTED BY:: bean counter
Date: Thur/6/5/04 22:54
ok, like blue dog was? the former barfly label. This was formed on the back of bands getting signed at barfly gigs and them not participating. fast forward to boxes of unsold records around the office
= Try emailing blue dog (www.bluedogrecords.co.uk) and asking about buying older crocketts singles. they might even have some posters left too.
Disclaimer: The Crocketts are not The Crimea (and if you believe your mates you’ll be bloody pleased about it). A decent Crimea biography is here, come back in about 4.5 days for a proper one.
Spin Magazine Online have posted a little about their thoughts on the SXSW festival, and include a short bit about The Crimea. Click here or on More to hear it.
If you’re like me and wondering if that e-mail link on the CD Baby.com page really is to the band then - it sure is. Go send Owen some fan mail :o) And um.. mystery solved. They sent some albums over to the US for sale, seeing how there’s a few fans over there. If you see anywhere else selling it in the states, let me know.
To finish with, I’ve seen posts on this message board about The Crimea for over a year on cashed Google pages. Seems to be for loads of A&R type people but the posts had always been deleted before I viewed them. Not anymore. I’ve gone through them all and written out the best bits in the extended More section. It’s mainly good, but what the hell is it with The Crocketts? Gives me even more of a reason to keep plugging the band, really. The music industry sucks.
And because some idiot in those messages said all the bripop bands were crap, and cos i’m on the subjects of non-crimea bands, and cos Sleeper just kickass, go find Bedside Manners and Blazer Sleeves by them on some illegal download site. They’re britpopowego :oD
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With the lack of any decent Crimea news, I’m just gonna make stuff up and inflict mildly interesting happenings upon you all.
Sometime over the Christmas period, Davey ate a few too many birds and unfortunately turned into one himself. After moving back to Aber for a few days and laying a large egg, he’s now back home creating all new weird and wonderful masterpieces.
Sleeper… well I like them… are gonna be on Radio 6 (they love The Crimea too you know) this evening around 10pm. It’s a broadcast of a show they played years ago while the Crimea were still banging stones together as The Crocketts. Course you could just go here and listen to their Oxford Uni show.
JULZ NEWS No I’m not obsessed with her… much… There’s a video of her with a strange looking arab dude on her website. Here’s hoping the ransom money gets through OK…. Only kidding 
she’s back in London with her brother band and is recording a new EP called, well, i dunno… but it’s got the word monkey in it, so it’s gotta be hella good.
If anyone, anyone at all would like to help redesign and recode this site to stop it looking like sh*te, I’d be eternally grateful.
Owen, if you’re reading, someone wants you to play Bristol’s Fleece & Firkin. So get over there.
The guy from The Vanden Plas who remixed Baby Boom should be sending me a CD of it soon. Some persuasive e-mails could help out anyone who wants to hear it.
And be sure to check you local newsagent’s supply of fashion mags, you just never know when a band member’ll get pissed and do something stupid again…
The Crimea gig at Builth Wells on December 12th as part of the venue’s Big Bash 2003 has been cancelled after the event’s organisers pulled out. The gig the following day featuring The Keys has also been cancelled. Click [More] to read Owen’s appology.
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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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Kerrang! has a small review of The Crimea playing The Borderline on 17/4/03 on page 46 of the latest May 10th issue. A scan of the review will be up on the press clippings page shortly.
Now I’m sure that March wasn’t the last time someone took a camera to a Crimea gig. If you’ve seen them play and took pics, send them in to photos@inaudible.co.uk and they shall be up on the site soon afterwards.
The Hot Puppies. If you’ve been reading this news section long enough, you’ll know who they are. The next big band out of Aber have their debut single reviewed on the Radio 1 Session In Wales website. It’s out on June 2nd too, along with the single from another Aber originating band you may know about. They played both singles on the show aswell, mentioning the joys of female guitarists in the form of Julia Parker inwetween the two. Click [More] for the tracklisting.
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Christ, I’m kept in at work for two hours and suddenly the Crimea world takeover suddenly moves up a few gears. Here’s the latest…
The Fly magazine for May 2003 has gone Crimea crazy, with an introduction from magazine deputy editor and Crimea drummer Owen Hopkin on his tour with the band. There’s also loads of photos of the band, tour dates and a chance to win a signed Crimea camera through the Fly’s website, if you wait a week for it to be updated. You can pick up a copy in your local Barfly venue, HMV or Virgin Megastore for absolutely nothing. Thanks to Craig for the info, and I’ll post more on the magazine when I get hold of a copy.
Two words. Colin Murray. Recording (1:40), tracklisting (or click [More]). That’s another play for W.R.G. on Radio 1 then.
The first review of White Russian Galaxy I’ve seen is up on the SoundsXP website. It’s in the singles section and they like it. If you look hard enough you can also find a review of the band supporting Electric Six at Camden Barfly on Wednesday 23rd October 2002. Click on [More] if you just want to read the Crimea bits.
If you made your way to the Nottingham Social last night, stay tuned to this page for a little improvised good will.
And you might wanna get over to Project Winterhaven’s website and hear Crimea guitarist Julz’s new masterpiece.
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The winners of the CDs full of Crimea radio session tracks are Martin Hough, Craig Nunn and Sam Barker. The CDs have been posted and should arrive with you soon. Sorry to everyone who entered and didn’t win, check out the downloads section for some of the tracks which were on the CDs.
Bethan And Huw’s Radio 1 show website has some details and updates on The Crimea in the news section. Click here or on [More] to see the article. They’ve also added the recording of the rest of the Aberystwyth University Exposure Tour gig. To go along with headliners and ex-Murry The Hump band The Keys, you can now hear support bands and Aber locals The Hot Puppies and Gabrielle 25. They’re all worth a listen and as I was around the Uni at the time, I wrote a review of the gig which you can read here.
Staying with Radio 1, last Tuesday (15th April) Colin Murray played The Crimea’s new single White Russian Galaxy at the end of his show. You can see the tracklisting for the show here or by clicking [More] and if you’re quick you can hear a recording of the show here and skip to 1 hour 50 minutes to hear the start of the track. If it sounds at all familiar, that’ll be because it was exactly the same version as the one year old Klutzville Promo EP version. Now I’m not saying it’s the version they’ll eventually release, cos surely they wouldn’t release a song with band members as different from the current Crimea line up as The Crocketts line up was, would they? Well you might just have to wait till the release date to find out, which according to Colin Murray has moved to June 2nd. As they say, good things come to those who wait.
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Dunno if I’ve said it before, but I’m lazy. Sorry for the delay, and you’re gonna have to keep waiting a while, but there really will be a review of the XFM session and some MP3s of radio interviews up on the site soon. Also coming soon should be some more pictures, an update from Owen is just around the corner, and if this is your first visit to the site, don’t believe the main page. Julz is staying in the band, although she continues her work with her other band Project Winterhaven, who have just put up a new MP3 on their website.
A flyer is available for download to get you in ?1 cheaper at the Crimea gig this Friday evening at The Borderline. Look on the gigs page for the download and more information on this and any other upcoming gigs.
A Crocketts We May Be Skinny & Wirey style card deck is up for sale on Ebay here. I’ve only ever heard of one person who owns a set, so it’s a nice collectors item. The price is currently ?2.86 with four days left, and if you buy it you’ll get a James Dean-Esque 7″ record too.
A review by Jonathan Birch of The Crimea’s gig at the 45 Club on the 22nd has been put up in the reviews section here.
Pictures I took of the Radio 1 Exposure Tour in Aberystwyth have been put up at www.inaudible.co.uk/aberexposure. There’s pics of The Keys, The Hot Puppies and Gabrielle 25 but don’t go expecting any masterpieces.
The Crimea have just played their first two gigs this year, and who was to fill the position of lead guitarist but none other than the first female band member since Hannah provided some vocals back in 1995. Giving away more than Owen wants to, Julia Parker (or Julz if you know her) has said that she’s part of the band unless she has “a huge row with anyone”. What can I say other than Kick Ass.
XFM are bringing in the band to record a few songs for the Music:Response show on Thursday 27th of this month. One song should be broadcast at around 8.00pm, and I’d listen to the rest of the show incase they decide to play anything else. You can hear XFM on 104.9 FM in the London area, through digital TV and radio or online via the XFM website.
The next series of Cable TV, available through BBC 2 Wales, will be featuring The Crimea as guests on one show. There’ll be more details posted about that later, as soon as I get ahold of some.
The Independent newspaper has given the upcoming Crimea show at The Borderline this Friday the top spot in it’s ‘Five Indie’ish Things’ gig listings for the week, putting them ahead of both the Athelete and Hell Is For Heroes gigs.
Site regulars will have noticed that the normal message board has dissapeared again. If anyone spots a decent type board that can be used as a permanent replacement, then let me know at christopher@inaudible.co.uk.
I’ll end with something that has nothing to do with The Crimea, as on Thursday evening I was in The Crocketts’ home of Aberystwyth, just at the right time to see three other local bands The Keys, The Hot Puppies and Gabrielle 25 do a gig for the Radio 1 Exposure Tour. There’s a review of the whole event here, and fuck me does Andy’s Records have a lot of Crox CDs for sale :o).
