no more villagers
Here’s a spaced out new track which is made up primarily from bits sent through courtesy of Calamateur (pictured below), as well as some completely mashed up guitar from Reading’s Yer Beauties (pictured above), and some crazy distortion donated by Lee from Everyone an Army (not pictured).
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.
degrading into a party, and nothing respectable
This is the face of Lee, aka Citizen Tank, aka noise-maker in Everyone an Army. Not only is he a fine musician, but he also let me (along with a pile of others) crash on his couch whilst on tour. Not just that, he even cooked breakfast in the morning.
What a guy.
It is him that came up with the beautiful piano playing on the most recent track to be finished from the whole collaborative ditty. You can listen below.
degrading into a party, and nothing respectable by unexpectedbowtie
this is all we’re offering
Pulco’s back for the newest collaborative track with his barrage of sketchbook samples… with a much softer feel to the last. Lee from Everyone an Army also played some of the guitar swooshes featured, but there’s more to come from him, so we’ll hold off introductions for now…
the economic benefits of individual contraction
So far there haven’t been too many elongated track titles on this collaborative jaunt, so the time is right; the time is now.
Delay Trees are a ‘dream-pop’ foursome from Helsinki, Finland. They have all the delicate nature and sing-songy delight of the rather good Iain Archer, and they provide the ambient background to the latest track. There’s an interesting mix of Gameboys, mandolin and other effects to be found. Drums come courtesy of Keith Grantham, who’s already been introduced.
You can find more of Delay Trees at their Soundcloud.
the economic benefits of individual contraction 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.
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.
This is an exciting moment, as we get to release the first track from the tentatively titled ‘unexpected bowtie and friends’ collaborative album.
So this is how it’s going to work: to make the most of each track, every so often one will be put online for streaming with a bit of explanation of who’s involved, with the final collection being brought together as a full release later on in the year.
Pictured is Steven Marino, aka Moor Hound. He comes from sunny Orlando, Florida, and plays music after our heart. You can see the banjo, so need I say more?
Moor Hound contributed some wonderfully laid-back guitar parts, and one of them is used on this track. You can read more about him in an interview on Artrocker, find his blog here, Bandcamp here, and Soundcloud tracks here.
Keith needs no introduction really. He’s been making music alongside me almost since I started, and he lent me his percussive hands for a few hours to give this track the structure it badly needed and that I just couldn’t provide. The Keith Appreciation Society page is on Facebook here, and Closet Organ (in which I also sing and play guitar) can be found on Tumblr.
The track is called let’s crash planes when we’re leaving, and is below.
As weird as it seems to be announcing the release of one record whilst having worked on a totally different one for the past few weeks, that’s the way it goes in the life-cycle of things.
This is an awesome split EP of the 8-bit inspired chiptune electronic variety, with The Wet Dreams taking the first half of the record; myself the second. We took a basic melody for one of the tracks, and wrote our own versions (tracks 3 and 4) which made it all the more interesting.
Click through to the music page for the relevant links and all that.
For those of you not so enamoured with the chiptune side of things, watch this space – there’s other creations in the works.
It’s funny how you can release music all day every day, but have people only listen when you make a video and stick it on Youtube. As a result of the ‘be suspicious…’ video a pile of people have commented on it in real life. I’ve gotten used to only those directly involved in the whole musical world knowing about the whole bowtie project and interacting with it, so it’s strange to have it bleed out into other areas. It’s something I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with, as as soon as that happens, inherently all of the criticisms and harsh scrutiny come along for the ride as well. I’m not entirely sure that it’s what any of this was designed for, so who knows how it’ll unfold or what it’ll withstand. It seems a stupid thing to say when writing on a public blog about songs posted on public sharing sites, but I’m sure there are those of you out there that will understand and see through the seeming duplicity.
Contemplations aside, the collaborative idea is beginning to take some sort of semi-tangible shape in the form of actual, proper recorded songs from all the bits and pieces that I’ve been sent so far. The first full track is almost finished, and has some awesome drums from Ally Craig of Bug Prentice, and nice synthy electronic blips from the legendary Does It Offend You Yeah?
I’ve realised that the whole thing is going to be a big mish-mash of different genres and feels, with each track totally different to the others… I hope that the bowtie can bring some sort of common thread to the whole thing. That’ll be the challenge.
Introducing Pulco
Sticking to the same subject, I’m really chuffed to announce that the wonderful Pulco is sending stuff over for inclusion. Since coming up with the whole thing, I’ve wanted to get him on board. He’s a perfect fit – recording things DIY on a whole host of strange and wonderful everyday household items and keyboards.
His own latest album is out this very month of June, so check out the link above, and get a flavour of what’s possibly to come by watching the awesome video below.
unexpectedbowtie 