SKINNY LISTER UK 2017 SPRING TOUR // SUPPORTING DROPKICK MURPHYS ON EUROPEAN ARENA TOUR

Hot off the heels of a sold out UK tour in support of current album The Devil, The Heart & The Fight – available from our shop right now - Skinny Lister has announced a run of even bigger venues for spring 2017. Having just played to a packed out London Garage, Skinny Lister will return to the capital to conquer the famous Scala venue in Kings Cross, as well as their biggest ever venues across the country. Dates are as follows:

UK HEADLINE TOUR
 
APRIL 2017
27 Sheffield @ Leadmill
28 Manchester @ Gorilla
29 Edinburgh @ Voodoo Rooms

MAY 2017
03 Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms
04 Cambridge @ The Junction
05 Birmingham @ Hare & Hounds
06 Bristol @ The Fleece
09 Southampton @ Talking Heads
10 Brighton @ The Haunt
11 London @ Scala
 
The tour will follow a support slot on an enormous European arena tour with American punk/folk legends Dropkick Murphys which includes shows at London Brixton Academy, Munich’s Zenith venue and the 7,000 capacity hall in Dusseldorf.

SUPPORT TOUR WITH DROPKICK MURPHYS

JANUARY 2017
20 Vienna, Austria @ Gasometer
21 Munich, Germany @ Zenith
23 Berlin, Germany @ Max Schmeling Halle
24 Leipzig, Germany @ Auensee
25 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Heineken Music Hall
27 London, UK @ Brixton Academy
28 Paris, France @ Zenith
29 Lille, France @ Aeronef
30 Hamburg, Germany @ Sporthalle

FEBRUARY 2017
01 Hannover, Germany @ Swiss Life Hall
02 Lingen, Germany @ Emsland Arena
03 Dusseldorf, Germany @ Mitsubishi Electri Halle
04 Strasbourg, France @ Zenith
05 Offenbach, Germany @ Stadhalle

These two tours show the massive projection Skinny Lister are on and the formidable year 2016 has been for them. The year has seen them support Frank Turner across Germany, Austria and Switzerland before joining Flogging Molly’s festival Salty Dog Cruise around the Bahamas. They then headed out on their own East Coast headline tour with label pals Beans on Toast and Will Varley in tow where many of the shows were sold out well in advance and signalled a big step up for the band Stateside, with an ever-increasing fanbase begging for more! 

September saw the release of third album The Devil, The Heart & The Fight which has received critical acclaim, including picking up support from 6Music’s Steve Lamacq, and reaching the Top 40 Indie Album Chart in the UK and 38 in the US Americana/Folk Chart. And rounding off the year, the band head back to the US in November for their biggest headline tour to date; the show in Charlotte, NC is already sold out and Boston (the 550 capacity Middle East) is looking likely to sell out very soon. 

With 2017 already looking like yet another incredible year, there’s seemingly no end to what this hard-working, hard-partying, fun-filled band can achieve. 

“…considerably upped their game.” 4/5 Q Magazine
“(a) kaleidoscope of high octane folk punk via Dexy’s and The Pogues.” Louder Than War

AGAINST ME! SPRING 2017 TOUR SUPPORTING GREEN DAY // UK AND EUROPEAN DECEMBER 2016 DATES // NEW ALBUM 'SHAPE SHIFT WITH ME' OUT NOW

Celebrated American rock band Against Me! has announced its upcoming 2017 dates supporting Green Day on the “Revolution Radio” tour. This follows winter UK and European dates from 6 to 22 December 2016 in support of latest album Shape Shift With Me. You can buy the new album on clear vinyl, CD or download from Xtra Mile's online shop now.

Taking in 24 evenings within arenas across North America, the “Revolution Radio” tour will feature Against Me! on all dates and run from 1 March to 8 April 2017. All dates can be found below and on XMR's gig page.

Shape Shift With Me, Against Me!’s critically acclaimed seventh full-length studio album, has the distinction of the first album frontwoman Laura Jane Grace has written truly from the heart, with no metaphorical cloaks cast over the lyrics. It’s an album about love, that deceptively complex emotion we all struggle with yet has somehow eluded most of Grace’s songwriting for the past 20 years. Watch latest video for 'Crash' from the album below.

“This was one of the most difficult videos we've ever made because it was filmed in outer space,” said drummer Atom Willard. “The time it took to get there alone was enough to make some bands back down from the challenge, but we really believed it was the only way to fully realize our vision.” Directed by Jason Thrasher, the video was actually made possible through the kind generosity of the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA who let the band film on location.

Frontwoman Laura Jane Grace has also announced the release of her upcoming memoir titled TRANNY: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. TRANNY is a searing account of Grace’s search for identity and true self. The highly anticipated book also reveals the struggles and victories that the artist experienced in her quest for gender transition. Written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi and illuminated by Grace’s never-before-published journal entries reaching back to childhood, TRANNY is an intensely personal and revelatory look inside her struggles with identity and addiction. Grappling with everything from sex, drugs, failed marriages, music, and soul of a punk rock star, this memoir paints a vivid portrait of one of the most revolutionary transgender icons of our time.

See and book tickets for all dates

DECEMBER 2016 UK AND EUROPE DATES

06 Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
07 Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
08 London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
09 Glasgow, UK @ Garage
10 Bristol, UK @ SWX
11 Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
13 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Melkweg
14 Brussels, Belgium @ Magasin 4
15 Zürich, Switzerland @ Dynamo
16 Munchen, Germany @ Backstage Halle
17 Leipzig, Germany @ Conne Island
18 Vienna, Austria @ WUK
19 Linz, Austria @ Posthof
20 Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
21 Hamburg, Germany @ Fabrik
22 Berlin, Germany @ SO36

2017 NORTH AMERICAN DATES WITH GREEN DAY

MARCH 2017
01 Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Arena
02 El Paso, TX – El Paso County Coliseum
04 Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
05 Houston, TX – Toyota Center
07 Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
08 North Little Rock, AR – Verizon Arena
10 Duluth, GA – Infinite Energy Center
12 Norfolk, VA – Constant Convocation Center
13 Washington, DC – Verizon Center
15 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
17 Worcester, MA – DCU Center
19 London, ON – Budweiser Gardens
20 Hamilton, ON – FirstOntario Centre
22 Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
23 Quebec, QC – Vidéotron Centre
25 Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center
27 Detroit, MI – Joe Louis Arena
28 Champaign, IL – State Farm Center
30 Green Bay, WI – Resch Center

APRIL 2017
01 Saint Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
03 Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena
05 Broomfield, CO – 1st Bank Center
07 Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
08 San Diego, CA – Valley View Casino Center

http://www.againstme.net / http://www.twitter.com/againstme / http://www.facebook.com/againstme

MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 'FROM STAGE TO PAGE' ON 2 DECEMBER 2016 // NEW SINGLE 'BUILD ANOTHER BRICK'

Colin MacIntyre celebrates his latest album Dear Satellite and award-winning debut novel The Letters of Ivor Punch with a night of words and music at the beautiful and intimate St Pancras Old Church in London on 2 December 2016. Tickets are on sale 9am Monday 10 October. Buy tickets here.

MHS also release a new single, 'Build Another Brick' which you can listen to below.

An evening of storytelling, reminiscence and looking ahead, Colin’s special year-end London show will have him playing old and new Mull Historical Society songs sprinkled with a little history and some related yarns. Combing through a 15-year back catalogue, from familiar singles like ‘Barcode Bypass’, ‘Watching Xanadu’, and ‘The Final Arrears’, to gems plucked from his latest like ‘Build Another Brick’, ‘The Ballad of Ivor Punch’ and ‘Sleepy Hollow’, it’ll be a night crammed full of lyrical tales. Complemented by award-winning prose and passages read by Colin from his first novel, it will be an enthralling insight into Colin’s larger-than-life talent and charming, modest persona.

‘Build Another Brick’ will also be Mull Historical Society’s next single, which you can listen to here. It’s the opening track from Dear Satellite, ten tracks of floating, positive, textually diverse pop songs, produced by Grammy award-winning Dom Morley, known for his work on Amy Winehouse's Back To Black, as well as working with Adele, Grinderman and Sting.

The show and single celebrate a very successful 12 months. Starting last October, when The Letters of Ivor Punch won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book award, he then released seventh album Dear Satellite through Xtra Mile Recordings to wide acclaim six months later, in April. The paperback version of his novel came out a month later. Since then he’s played a handful of sold out shows, revealed a new electronic pop project called Field Stars, and will now play one of his final shows of 2016, both as a thank you and a farewell to a fantastic year.

“…this is the sound of an artist on top form. He really does deserve to go interstellar.” 
Louder Than War
“’Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘This Little Sister’ effortlessly underline MacIntyre’s ear for a pop hook.”
 Uncut
“Colin MacIntyre’s ability to wrap textural complexity and shard-filled lyrics in pop coatings endures. Pop needs more of this.”
Sunday Times
"With the big indie-rock of ’Sleepy Hollow’ his journey continues more widescreen than ever." 
Q Magazine
"Peopled by a cast of brilliantly off-the-wall characters, and full of keen-eyed observations about life on a remote Scottish island - and, by extension, everywhere. A must-read.”
Laura Barnett, author of The Versions Of Us (Praise for The Letters Of Ivor Punch)

RECREATIONS 'BEACHES AIN'T SHIT' EP OUT 14 OCTOBER 2016 // TOUR OCTOBER 2016

Celebrating an upcoming October tour of UK seaside towns, Recreations releases the Beaches Ain't Shit EP on 14 October 2016. It features four brand new tracks showcasing Duckworth’s prolific songwriting abilities and experimental flair. You can preorder the download EP now from our shop.

Listen to lead track 'Dandelion' below.

Having finally put the moniker Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly to bed at a ceremonious gig at the end of Southend pier on 2 October, Sam Duckworth continues apace under his new guise, Recreations.

Following the release of the album ‘Baby Boomers 2’ in April and a summer of festival performances, Recreations embarks on a tour of the south coast in praise of these often forgotten, provincial British holiday destinations. 

Also in October, Sam joins an illustrious line-up at the Music Venues Day gig at London’s Roundhouse on 18 October 2016 – a night of live music raising awareness for the plight facing independent venues. Watch Sam’s video about it below.

'Beaches Ain't Shit' tour dates are:

OCTOBER
13 Bournemouth @ Anvil
14 Worthing @ Bar 42
15 Ipswich @ South Street Studio
18 London @ Roundhouse – Music Venue Trust (full band show) 
21 Ramsgate @ Music Hall

Recreations released the self-produced debut album Baby Boomers 2 back in April. It’s a collection full of wide-eyed, big-dreaming, conscientious pop songs that are undeniably /him/, but delivered with looser funk, crisper electronics and notably less tubs to thump on. In more ways than one, it sees Duckworth get his groove back. 

facebook.com/getcapewearcapefly /  Twitter: @recreations2k / musicglue.com/recreations

ESMÉ PATTERSON 'WE WERE WILD' OUT 11 NOVEMBER 2016 // WATCH VIDEO 'NO RIVER' NOW

Xtra Mile Recordings is pleased to announce that it will release Esmé Patterson's third album; We Were Wild on CD and limited edition red vinyl on 11 November 2016. The album is available to preorder on physical formats from our shop. You can download the album now from iTunes.

Watch the video for 'No River' below:

When you're used to something, routine can be the most fun thing to smash to pieces. So it was that Esmé's efficient, straight-from-live recordings that served her so well for debut All Princes, I and breakthrough album 2014's Woman To Woman were jettisoned in favour of a prolonged period of pre-production. With it came splashes of vibrant colour, a swirl of hazy reverb, a twang of country and some sharper, more distorted and choppier electric guitars. It all lends necessary contrast and depth to the albums theme of seeking what Esmé's spirit needs, and indeed perhaps helping the listener on their way too, as explicitly suggested in 'Find It'.

'Feel Right' is a high energy opener, a happy-go-lucky Esmé careening into early 2000s garage rock. As a statement of intention lyrically and musically, it goes a long way to explaining the rest of the album, while sounding a little off kilter from it. ‘No River’ is a little more familiar but with the misty echoes and brittle sounds promised earlier, all allowing Esmé's evocative voice to swim in textured waters. 'The Waves' draws the sound underwater, adding a murkier, mysterious swarm of sound. 'Waitin' Ain't Gettin'' pedal steels to safety, gliding on a gorgeous shimmering melody. Lynchpin track 'Find It' has an almost doo-wop verse and chiming chords contrasting a sober warning about waiting too long to seek what you desire.

We Were Wild is a cohesive but experimental album, teasing further ambitions without losing the glorious clutch of melodies and harmonies that hammers Esmé's songwriting into your heart every time. Last time around, Esmé broke stereotypes and the one-dimensional views on females in songs. This time she's snapping her own restraints and weaving her way to more freedom than she ever thought she could have.

Catch Esmé on tour this winter when she supports Frank Turner throughout November and December as well as her own headline show in London.  Esmé says:  
"Really looking forward to my British Entrance (‘brentrance’) tour this November and December, opening for the one and only Frank Turner! Thanks so much to the wonderful folks at Xtra Mile for releasing We Were Wild to the rest of the world, it's such a pleasure working with that rad team. See you soon, UK!"

All dates are below. Find dates and ticket links here:

NOVEMBER
Tue 15 Dublin @ The Ruby Sessions, Doyles Bar – headline show
Wed 16 Dublin @ Olympia Theatre
Fri 18 Salisbury @ City Hall
Mon 21 Liverpool @ O2 Academy Liverpool
Tue 22 Carlisle @ Sands Centre
Wed 23 Doncaster @ Dome
Fri 25 Coventry @ The Empire
Sat 26 Cardiff @ The Great Hall
Sun 27 Oxford @ New Theatre
Mon 28 Exeter @ The Great Hall
Wed 30 Reading @ Hexagon 

DECEMBER
Thu 1st Leeds @ University Refectory
Fri 2nd Aberdeen @ The Garage
Sat 3rd Edinburgh @ Usher Hall
Mon 5th Scunthorpe @ Baths Hall
Tue 6th Warrington @ Parr Hall
Wed 7th Newcastle @ Northumbria Uni
Fri 9th Nottingham @ Rock City
Sat 10th De La Warr @ Pavilion
Sun 11th Norwich @ UEA
Mon 12th Guildford @ G Live
Tues 13th London @ Servant Jazz Quarters – Headline show
Wed 14th Portsmouth @ Guildhall 

facebook.com/EsmePattersonMusic / Twitter @EsmePatterson / esmepatterson.com

BEANS ON TOAST NEW ALBUM 'A SPANNER IN THE WORKS' OUT 1 DECEMBER 2016 // WATCH VIDEO '2016' NOW

Beans on Toast's eighth studio album A Spanner in the Works will be released on 1st December 2016 on Xtra Mile Recordings. You can preorder it from next week.

As the name may suggest, this time around he’s decided to do things a little differently. 

With his unfaltering DIY ethic still at the forefront of its making, ‘A Spanner In The Works’ sees Beans embracing technology to create a record simply made on a laptop, around a mate’s house. While the new recordings still have Beans’ trademark three chord folk songs at their heart, this time around each track is layered in myriad beats, loops, synths and samples, spanning an array of genres and styles, that make for an album by Beans unlike any you’ve heard before.

Album opener ‘2016’, lulls the listener in with a teasing taste of the familiar being the only song on the record to feature any guitar. A classic Beans song and an ode to the mood of the country in what has been a tumultuous year.  With celebrity deaths, terror threats, the referendum and the worrying rise of fascism, the track’s conscious lyrics see Beans trying to make sense of the year and making a stand for what’s right and good. 

“It might not be the cheeriest Beans on Toast song ever, but sadly it’s been that kind of year.” reflects Beans. Watch the video below.
 

From then on, you can strap yourself in for a different experience all together. ‘I Can Be That Tree’ sees the synths truly kick in on a song about Beans and his wife Lizzy Bee planting a tree in a public park to celebrate their first anniversary; it’s a true digital folk love song. Elsewhere, ‘The Drum Kit’ sees Beans getting bold and brassy, on a song that bitterly tackles the issue of the increasing closure of live music venues across the country; the very same music venues that Beans has spent the last decade playing, touring and working in for nearly a decade. 

Epic album closer, ‘Fast Train’, sees Beans dabbling in the forgotten art of waltz for a song that takes on the worldwide problem of gentrification, a huge subject dealt with openly and honestly, as is Beans’ usual style.

The chewing of usual cogs doesn’t stop there, however and the record features a number of special guests. House vocal diva Alex Mills enters the frame on ‘We Made It To The Waterfall’ to add some fruity doo-waps reminiscent of the Sixties Girl Group sound. Elsewhere on the record, the brilliant Matt Millership from Tensheds drops in to lay down the keys on a number of tracks throughout the album. Speaking about his valuable contribution to the record, Beans says: 

“Boy can [Matt] play! His honky tonk playing on drinking song ‘Down The Pub’ is out of this world. He also contributes to ‘Nanny Mac’ a song about my Nan living in the old East End and ‘It’s Only Natural’; a new anthem for stoners.”

Most special all of all these guests perhaps though, is the appearance of Beans’ own Mum, Pauline, who takes to the mic to add her thoughts on the looming threat of climate change on ‘Fear Mongering Clap Trap’.
Recorded over a single weekend with old friend and long time collaborator Scampi Dan, the album is a fresh and different, but very much a welcome addition to the Beans On Toast catalogue. 

Talking about the making of A Spanner In The Works, Beans On Toast says:

“For this album I came up with the name first and had the urge to do something little different when recording it. The idea of doing it without guitars seemed like a suitable spanner. The sounds and rhythms you can make on a computer are absolutely endless and we had a lot of fun exploring that world, as it’s interesting to see how many twisting paths a song can go down after it’s been written. I’m super proud of this album, it’s a bit different but to me it’s still folk music and it sits well with all my other albums, past and future.”

As Beans On Toast prepares to embark on his annual Winter tour of the UK, you’d be forgiven for wondering how the new set up will impact the stripped back live show we have come to know and love. Fear not, there’s no plan to start taking laptops on stage and pressing play. At the live shows the album will all be played on the usual guitar, banjo, harmonica set up, in the way they were originally written. As usual Beans doesn’t pull any punches, he says it as it is. Protest songs, heart on his sleeve love songs and social commentary that feels just like a conversation with your mates down the pub.

Beans On Toast plays (see all dates and ticket links here):

17/11 London, Oslo
18/11 Newcastle, Cluny
19/11 Dundee, Fat Sam’s
20/11 Glasgow, Stereo
23/11 Hull, Fruit
24/11 Sheffield, The Leadmill
25/11 Liverpool, Constellations
26/11 Manchester, Gorilla
29/11 Nottingham, Bodega
30/11 Leicester, Soundhouse
01/12 Norwich, The Owl Sanctuary (SOLD OUT)
02/12 Margate, The Talking Drum
03/12 Hastings, Brass Monkey
04/12 Norwich, The Owl Sanctuary
06/12 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
07/12 Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
08/12 Bristol, Thekla
09/12 Swansea, The Garage

facebook.com/beansontoastmusic / Twitter @beanstoast / www.beansontoastmusic.com