Dead excited to say our Nature Science Reports paper on field-based DNA extraction, sequencing (and a bit of analysis) has been picked up by the BBC World Service and The Times (UK) newspaper! You can read all about it here (paywall).
If you can’t read it online, my Grandad has a copy he might lend you. We’re proper scientists now…
Then I saw the everlovin Ben Startup at Moulettes‘ LP launch last week, and had a chat with the nice people at Sotones last weekend, and listened to a lot of old stuff, and remembered how much I like little acoustic songs. And we might be going to Denmark / Germany to play a little this summer, too.
Now I have a plan. Basically, we’re going to get together a few small releases between now and October, when the LP campaign’s going to kick off. Some of these will be old demos / rarities; some Ann The Arc stuff I did in Falmouth with Dave Wade-Brown (drums) and Jimmy Shivers (bass) with Dan Parry producing; and rude_NHS has agreed to do some remixes (anyone’s welcome, too – email me). Lastly, I’ve been writing some stuff again.
This song (see above) is one of the new ones. It’s just a quick throwaway number about an obsessive fan. I suppose it’s about living in someone else’s shadow and a bit murder ballad-y, the kind of thing I might cook up with Dave Miatt. Apologies to Tammy Wynette and Billy Sherrill for the middle bit I lifted. And Evan too of course đ
Neither Of Us Will Ever Be Evan (J Parker)
================================It’s hard to follow your idol,
Hard so you’d better be brave,
But I find that it helps if you’re obsessed and it hurts,
To follow them into the grave.So while you play the lead,
I’m drawing a bead –
Neither of us
Will ever
Be EvanYou may think that I’m kind of a friend to you,
You may think of me just like a fan,
But I’m waiting out here with your brake-line and shears,
So good luck driving home in your van.Sometimes it’s hard to be a rock star,
Giving all your love to just one fan…You may think that I’m not very like you,
You may think I’m not much of a threat,
But I’m stood in the wings as the fire-bell rings,
Cos my lighter ain’t failed me yet.So while you play the lead,
I’m drawing a bead –
Neither of us
Will ever
Be Evan
It’s not clever, it’s not meant to be anything serious and I kind of shit these out now and again when I’m in the right phase.. I like songs like this and there’s probably enough for a small EP, I suppose. Here’s hoping, anyway.
.. also I want to marry Katy Goodman and live happily ever after for ever.
So.. in the last couple of weeks we have been recording vocals for the LP at a (fairly) secret (but let’s face it, well-known) location in north-west London. We’ve been dubbing onto the great instrumental tracks recorded at Furnace Studios in Bulgaria.
With James Ewers at the controls, free coffee, bubbly and fame cake, and guest appearances on BVs from Emma Richardson (Band of Skulls) and Alcxxk (Internet Forever – and he also did a wee bit of tromboning) it is sounding ACE.
Just got a few string bits and gang vocals to do now – going to Valley Studios in Winchester of this cos they’ve got a great feel there and we can piss about with real tape as well. Release will be sometime between October and next February. Keep an eye out for stuff on Soundcloud though…
In the meantime we will be releasing the Falmouth sessions very soon. This is a load of louder stuff recorded as Ann The Arc (Jimmy Shivers – bass; Dave Wade-Brown – drums) and produced by Dan Parry. Songs like ‘Hake’, ‘Wolf’ and yes, ‘Stutter’ plus a couple of others should make for a nice fat EP. Working title is ‘The Young Unprofessionals’ and we’re hoping Sotones will release it.
Think that’s all for now, bye x
May’s maillist Letter… If you want to get these at the same time as everyone else, Â email me..
I am leaving facebook for a while*.
It is boring but compulsive, and that is a bad combination of things.
Here’s what I’m doing instead.
You can comment below thru FB / Twitter / Disqus
For more updates subscribe via RSS
Or follow me on Twitter
Yes. I’ve had enough, finally.
To get my instant-gratification social-networking rocks off, I’ll keep using twitter to send important ‘ooh, look, I just saw a banana that looks like Woody Harrelson’ updates. If you want to follow that crap see http://www.twitter.com/lonelyjoeparker
For actual communication I’m gonna use letters on this site, just like this one below. You like? I do.
So to fling new demos at you I’ll keep using myspace a bit but also soundcloud cos the whole thing’s just… nicer. Like this new demo:
You might have heard that I’m not working for Sotones any more. It was a big wrench, and I still love them all, but I’ve been brewing a really good record for 4 years now, and the time is ripe to go for it.
The idea is that I want to concentrate on things I like, those being:
… and not things I don’t, like
So the plan is that Dave Miatt, Dave Wade-Brown, Michael Anderson and me (plus a couple of special guests) are going to go out to Bulgaria in March to record an album at Furnace Studios…
We’re doing a lot of pre-production on this one, even though most of the songs are fully written because it’s basically gonna be, in Davo’s words “a Joe Parker greatest hits, yeah? Done really well, really.. right! Isn’t that what people wanna hear?!”
We’re down to a shortlist of just 30 songs now, which includes faves like Number Nine, Brooklyn and Stutter but also new ones like Sherine!, Barny’s Bathroom and really new one Dead Man’s Pen (listen above or on Soundcloud). NO, Liz – Spanish Girls is not on the list!!!
When we get back we’ve got about a month to mix it. Some will be done by us, some by friends (Parry etc) and also remixed (paging rude_NHS and Ed Hix now..) and there’s going to be a few sprinkles of production magic courtesy of the brilliant James Ewers (My Luminaries.)
It depends on how the sessions go, but the likely plan is we’ll do a couple of free tracks and a single over the summer (anyone up for a 7″?) with some gigs then aim to get the LP out about October in time for all your crimbo stockings.
But we gotta get there first – so there’s pageloads of arranging and rehearsing to do for now! Will be bunging new tracks up on Soundcloud – updates about that on this site and also twitter if you want to follow us on our little journey…
In the meantime we’ve got a couple of gigs before we go:
Listening a lot to Black Hearted Love at the moment (PJH/John Parish). Looking forward to her new album, too…
Well. Thats enough from me, so see you soon and thanks for leaving the warm blue safety of Facebook and coming over to mine for a bit.Hope you enjoyed it, come back soon!
Joe xxx
*Okay… I’ll still put gig listings up there, and let you know when the LP’s done and records are coming out…
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Hey peeps,
How’s it all going? Big men of 2010? Rode from Hythe to Islington to see Thomas Tantrum, the Moules and Montage Populaire last weekend, brought back some memories of the summer, seems like aaages since i toured then – not for long, read below.. see you at a gig real soon..
New Band, New Years
wow. Mental new years! Basically jimmy shivers, dave wade-brown, and me have got together for a little side-project. It’s called ANN THE ARC and sounds a bit grungy like sonic youth, a bit grungy like pavement, and a bit grungy like nirvana or the replacements.
Ace, basically. so all the fuss at new years was, we went down to cornwall to record some tracks in our friends’ house with Dan Parry (who did the Fresh Legs stuff and also some 6NS stuff, among others). in the end we managed to get through about 12 tracks (and a shitload of booze and leccy on the metre – was reeeeal cold) so whaddya know, there’s an album there! we recorded pretty much 95% of it LIVE too!!! I’m itching like hell to show you the stuff, but there’s a wee bit of mixing left to do so it all sounds really really good. but, remember the band: ANN THE ARC… rest assured i’ll let you all know! loudly…
‘Shanty’ single
Sotones are releasing ‘Shanty’, one of the tracks from the Oxjam EP I did with Jackie Paper last summer. It’s gonna be out on iTunes / Spotify / VERY limited cassette on the 8th March and like the EP, all proceeds will go to Oxjam. As well as the title track, there’s a live version featuring The Moulettes and ‘Mary Rose’ which some of you will remember from like, years ago.. we’ve kind of resurrected it. Or ‘raised’ it, if you will..
To, well, flog records basically, I’ll be on tour in March. We’re still settling the dates but stay tuned for an announcement soon. If you think there’s somewhere cool I Â / we could play (some dates will be solo, others with the East Street Band) drop me an email to joe@sotones.co.uk huh? like, good club nights but weird interesting stuff too, yeah?
Live Record! 11th Feb at Hamptons
Let’s face it, I’m shit at recording. I’m not very good at playing the guitar, and I even get a bit nervous singing when there’s nothing but a red light to look at, which is weird. I overcook stuff; I take way too many takes, or too few; I try and drink to chill out and get wasted; I redo the lyrics at the last moment, then find I can’t get my tongue around them, or it sounds naff.
No, I prefer playing live by about a million miles and to be honest, most of the time I only really see recording as a way to get you to come to gigs so we can all hang out. cos lord knows records don’t make ANY money, ever! haharrrr!!! (by the way, did i mention i’ve got a bunch of stuff on digital now? buy buy buy, $uckers…)
SO.
The obvious thing to do is try a live record. simple, really. get a load of people down, rehearse loads, maybe even film a little bit, offer everyone who comes a free copy of said record when it’s finished? yeah, that’s what i’m talking about. i’ve been running down the setlist, trying out various guitars for different songs, really getting into it all. it’s going to be quite a quiet / intimate kind of show. maybe even a bit sad here and there. but ultimately good and happy etc.
When is this epic live event taking place, I hear you ask? It so happens I’m playing at Hamptons in Southampton on the 11th of February. I’ll be supporting Polly And The Billets Doux, who are well good, having been all over the radio etc. At the moment they’re doing the whole tour-gig-instore thing.
Because of getting rid of the recording equipment etc (plus no-one gives a shit) we have to do the recording at the start of the night, so make sure you get there at the start of the night – doors are 7.30. it’s ÂŁ5 and like i said, make sure we get your name and details so w can send you a record when we’re done (we won’t put them on any maillist or anything like that)
The facebook page, if you can be arsed, is:Â http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=307285802081, and make sure you’ve got your best rowdy singing / heckling voice on!
see you,
joe x x
PS: in other unrelated news, some group somewhere have found a way to ask people in comas what they think about stuff using fMRI (kinda). I reckon they think about what we think about, ie highways, sex and bombay mix. or is that just me?
so – a bit quiet for a while because all that goddamn snow just before christmas killed my laptop. cycling through a mad blizzard in northeast london with the moulettes’ manager to get to their video shoot and heaving in looking like a yeti did my indiana jones rating a power of pooj, but buried the precious silicon chips. god knows how i’m going to survive without one.
but then, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because straight after christmas i set out with shivers, dan parry and dave wade-brown in my nan’s camper van on a super-secret mission to falmouth. it was cold, we ran out of electricity and storm’s very kind housemates might have just gone deaf for the rest of this new decade, but it was WELL worth it. more to come soon, hahharr!
also dave got drunk on NYE at mags’ in land’s end. and I mean VERY drunk.
what else apart from drinking, skating and seditious sessions? well, i’m back working for sotones for another few weeks. hopefully i’ll get the sack at the AGM, we’ll see. plus i want a canoe, anyone got one?
oh yeah – on the 22nd i’m curating a night at hamptons. i know i play there all the bloody time, but this go round i actually get to pick the bands and DJs and dress the stage and stuff, it’s totally my night!
here’s the event, http://www.facebook.com/ev..ent.php?eid=238389029806woooooooooooohoooo! the idea is to go for a kind of film noir thing like raymond chandler, or the dwarf bit in twin peaks, or something. hope everyone comes and dresses up loads. like this stuff http://t2.gstatic.com/imag..es?q=tbn:ymiOMYXaBFDE0M%3A..http://justfellshort.files…wordpress.com/2009/09/nig..ht-hawks.jpg
playing are MY LUMINARIES who i have fucking loved since I ran into them in dublin years ago, and nato, who are in my opinion the best band in the south by a million miles, joe ann the arc and a special guest.
so i hope to see you there! x
ps: congrats to barny & robin, getting engaged behind my back, apparently… huh.
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/lonelyjoeparker/blog?page=1#ixzz1524Y35Uy
I’m writing this with my battered laptop on my lap (and the ever present cup of strong, shitty, HOT instant coffee) in yet another front room belonging to someone else.
I sat down the other day while I waited in the drizzle for the train from somewhere weird in Sussex to London, and started to work out how many trains/busses/cycle rides I’ve taken in the last year since I set out busking up the East Coast in the states…
It turned out to be a bit to hard to remember. Looking back my memory is kind of a bit too fucked, but my diary and the persistent ache in my back and patches on my gig bag tell me that the longest I’ve spent in one place since this time last year is a whopping 7 nights . . and that was technically while on holiday, helping out a friend at a studio in Bulgaria (Furnace – will be recording there soon – check it).
But I’m not complaining. Couldn’t. I fucking love this! Megabus stubs and empty bottles; scribbled set-lists; snatches of new songs on answerphones and coffee, coffee, coffee. Would be nice to get a week or two to sit around and relax, maybe write some of this up, though. For instance…
It’s been a hectic ole year. From busking on the L train in NYC to recording the Oxfam 12″ in London, Bike Touring across the UK to hitching a ride in Georgia – and some wonderful amazing shows and audiences! Big thanks to everyone at Sotones, Hamptons / Long Live Rock & Roll, Ejector Seat, Believe Digital, CSV and Oxfam for all their help..
Also, really special buttlicky love to everyone who helped out or promoted us on the Bike Tour. You were all amazing and couldn’t have done it. Especially the BBC and Campaign Against Arms Trade – we were meant to be helping them, but they were so organised it was a massive kick up the arse for us!
~~~
Oh yeah – about the Oxfam EP. Thanks again to everyone who helped. Got some great reviews, have been selling well and generally ace. Please have a listen and buy it if you like – it all supports Oxfam and god knows however hard the credit crunch is stiffing us in the UK, the rest of the world is even more shafted.
You can buy MP3s online here, or get the 12″ vinyl! We’ll send you MP3s if you want those too with every vinyl purchase, just ask. The vinyl looks and sounds fucking lush (they’re individually numbered, you know), and you can get it in southampton and reading Oxfam Music stores, or from Rough Trade East (they’ve nearly sold out though). You can also mail-order through Rough Trade.
~ ~ ~
So what next? most of the 100+ performances this year have been me, solo, with my smashed acoustic. It’s been nice doing things that way – you get a lot more freedom when you’ve only got yourself to rely on – but it definitely limits what you can do and where you can play. It does. And the lows are as dark as the highs are bright.
Over the summer we experimented with some full-band arrangements; a whole range of sounds, some folky, some electronic, some Feist-y, some straight-up rock stuff. What I found was that I like them all, and that there’s plenty of room in the songs I’m writing at the moment for all of this stuff.
So I think we’ll probably just keep doing that for a bit. Maybe a single or two early next year, see how we go? You never can tell. I’ve been listening to a lot of Feist, St. Vincent, PJH and Cat Power (all girls strangely; I think they make much smarter music) this year. It would be nice to weave some of their, like, eclecticism and subtlety into stuff I’ve listened to for ages like YYY, Tom Waits, At The Drive In, Pavement and of course THE CLASH who will never ever stop being my favourite band ever.
Live shows for the next few months are gonna be a bit of a pick and mix then, as I’ll be trying out a few different arrangements of stuff and try and blag various people into playing with me.
I like the idea of having a power trio at the centre (which tonight means Jimmy Shivers, me and Dave Wade-Brown) with maybe a couple of multi-instrumentalist types most of the time, and pulling in friends like The Moulettes, Pete Lyons or Moneytree for big gigs and special stuff. Stay tuned, we’ll see…
All the best, thank-you so very very much for all your kind support (& keep teling your friends!). Hope to see you at a show sometime and crash on your floor,
Joe x x
ps: thanks again to the East Street Band, at various times:
Jimi Ray
Campbell Austin
Ben Stoop
Peter Lyons
David Miatt
Jimmy Shivers
Dave Wade-Brown
Barny Lanman
Ollie Austin
Hannah Miller
Ruth Skipper
Tom Cummings
Rysia Burmicz
.. and admin/press/artwork stuff from:
Storm Poorun
Sally Campbell (CAAT)
Rob Milner (Oxfam)
Billy Mather
Caity
Liz Moores
Jimmy Hatherley.
Jim, you get two credits, see? Happy?! x
just a quick note to say what’s going on at the moment…
recording-wise, i’m meant to be finishing leila, brooklyn and shanty to go on this split EP for Oxjam with Dave Miatt. unfortunately we’re doing it all on tick, and its going really frustratingly slowly.. hence the shitty demos on myspace at the moment, sorry about that. the idea is to do some more tracking of the current sessions (produced by Izaak Bullen a.k.a. The Scarlet Letter Union) very soon. we’ll see.
longer term at least we’ve got round to putting this facebook page up which took longer to sit down and do than you might imagine.. “will people fan me?” “should it be just me editing it or should i let someone else do it?” “why am i such a massive cunt?” etc.. but we figured it was better to have these pages up and going rather than spend ages waiting for some mythical ‘jump off’ moment. so there you go.
in the summer months lots of fun happening – will be doing another bike tour like last summer, but this time it’ll be longer and (hopefully) a few bigger venues. also the legs will be shorter and planned longer in advance – this time i REALLY want loads more people to come along for the ride!
then sometime towards the end of the summer, depending on everyone’s commitments, we’re spending a few weeks at Furnace Studios – a residential studios in Bulgaria – to jam out an LP proper for an autumn release on Sotones. Also all the back catalogue is getting slowly re-issued on digital too – stay posted for that.
in the meantime, take care of each other x
joe
ps: don’t put tipex on the keys of your computer to tell black notes from white ones in gareageband.. really bad idea…
Read more: http://www.myspace.com/lonelyjoeparker/blog?page=2#ixzz152AADp7Q
here are some new demos then
they are well rough – did about 11 tracks in an hour at the fabulous RANCH studios with mister neil kennedy cos he was in a hurry – and mainly they’re there to help me learn the songs.
you see i’ve got no way to record anything here. and my memorys fucked so learning songs once ive written them (don’t laugh..) is hard. but now i can go to sleep listening to them, learn the words, and work out what they mean
i hope you do too.
.. the background to all this is me and dave (who you might know better from thomas tantrum) in his incarnation as jackie paper are going to have a split 12″ out on sotones in the near future. yay
