I don’t do covers very often. Infact, it’s probably one of the main reasons why my guitar playing is nowhere near as good as it should be given the length of time I’ve actually been doing it. Reproducing other people’s songs just isn’t something that comes naturally.

Anyway, sometimes these things just happen.

Back in another life and another band I shared a stage with these chaps, and it struck a chord tonight for a whole set of reasons, and I thought I’d have a bash.

Check out my massacre of ‘Moving to New York’ by the Wombats below.

moving to ny by unexpectedbowtie

Collaboration Preview – Track 3 – ‘marks for effort’

with Burning Buildings

This track is a much softer, less grizzly track than the last one that involved Pulco. It comes with a piano melody courtesy of Manchester’s Burning Buildings. They’re awfully nice chaps, and probably slightly unhinged… but the end product is one that I’m really personally pleased with. Sometimes there are melodies that just fit your vocal-style to a tee, and for me this is one of them. Hopefully you might like it too.

You can find some of their tracks for free over at Bandcamp, tweets on Twitter, and a review over at Artrocker.

marks for effort by unexpectedbowtie

It was only a week or two ago that we posted introducing Ash Cooke aka Pulco, with the news that he’d be contributing some specially recorded samples to be mashed up (i.e. destroyed) in the name of art… and contribute he did, with a whole stash of bizarre loops and rumblings. In true Pulco style, the ‘misery poet’ utilised everyday objects like a wheelbarrow, and chucked rocks at it till it became aurally pleasing.

You can preview the product below; it’s a dark, grungey affair.

For more info on Pulco, check out the interview from Artrocker that went online today.

pre-medication by unexpectedbowtie

At what point do you take a collection of songs that are independent of each other, written over months and changes in preference, and meld them into some sort of coherent ‘album’ form?

Or do you have to bother?

Regardless, it’s now a new year, and here’s a song that was technically all recorded in 2010, but for argument’s sake, since it was finished today, it counts as the first of 2011.

[we] don’t envy those who travel [light]