SKINNY LISTER NEW SONG 'THE STORY IS...' // WATCH VIDEO FOR TITLE TRACK OF NEW ALBUM OUT 1 MARCH 2019 //

December 13, 2018

Always a band unafraid of testing the limits, Skinny Lister has unveiled a suitably daredevil and highly original video for new single ‘The Story Is…’, the title track from their fourth studio album out 1 March 2019. Preorder on vinyl, CD and download.

Filmed in New York City, the video follows the perilous ascent of an urban explorer as she scales the Big Apple’s Williamsburg Bridge in the dead of night. Watch the video below.

With the cold dark nights closing ever tighter as the year draws toward the solstice, the soul-stirring chimes that lead Skinny’s sparkling latest single could well be the winter warmer you were looking for.

‘The Story Is…’ sees the band sing about love and loss with poetry that will surely tug at the heart strings during this timely season of reflection. Speaking about the track’s themes, Skinny Lister says:

“Everyone has that someone or something that, to live without, would leave them incomplete. ‘The Story Is…’ is an ode to this state of complete dependence. An overdramatic declaration of love, addiction, obsession and surrender.”

The Story Is… was recorded, produced and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, The Enemy, The Temper Trap). In the deep, dark hours of one particular alcohol fuelled studio late night session, Barnicott introduced the band to an old piano and a set of pitched bells and tubes. Quickly striking upon the chiming soundscapes now available at their fingertips, the band began to get experimental with their electric guitars, marrying the two to create the entrancing, ethereal melody that defines the backdrop of this irresistible new single.

A loosely-based concept album, The Story Is… anthologises a series of personal vignettes inspired by a chaotic few years for the band and binds them into 14 tracks of unmistakably Skinny-sounding rock’n’roll. Gather in close and lend your ears as Skinny Lister rifle through The Story Is… and pull out scorched stories of aggravated arsonists (‘Artist Arsonist’), rib-tickling tales of regretful re-fuellings (‘Diesel Vehicle’), and even polemic pleas inspired by some of life’s hardest lessons (‘Stop & Breathe’).

With one of the most reputable live shows in the business (hailed as “a deafening and visceral experience” - The Independent, 5/5), Skinny Lister will also be touring The Story Is… with a series of their tenacious live shows across the UK and Europe in 2019.

Don’t miss your chance to become part of their latest adventures as the band embark on a two-leg UK tour, plus dates in Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, France, Holland and Belgium throughout the spring.

SKINNY LISTER THE STORY IS… 2019 TOUR

FEBRUARY 2019

28 Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

MARCH 2019

01 Norwich, UK @ Arts Centre
02 Southampton, UK @ 1865
06 Bristol, UK @ Fleece
07 Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts
08 Leeds, UK @ Key Club
09 Leicester, UK @ Academy
13 Berlin, Germany @ SO36
14 Kiel, Germany @: Orange Club
15 Erfurt, Germany @ Kalif Storch
16 Prague, Czech Republic @ Futurum
17 Nuremberg, Germany @ Der Hirsch
19 Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
20 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
21 Munich, Germany @ Strom
22 Bern, Switzerland @ Bierhubeli
23 Zürich, Switzerland @ Dynamo
26 Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
27 Rouen, France @ Le 106
28 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Paradiso Noord
29 Cologne, Germany @ Stollwerk
30 Antwerp, Belgium @ Kavka

APRIL 2019

03 Edinburgh, UK @ The Mash House
04 Newcastle, UK @ Riverside
05 Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
06 Manchester, UK @ Club Academy 2
10 Cambridge, UK @ Junction 1
11 London, UK @ Electric Ballroom

https://skinnylister.com

facebook.com/skinnylister // Twitter: @SkinnyLister // skinnylister.com

TRAPPER SCHOEPP NEW ALBUM 'PRIMETIME ILLUSION' OUT 25 JANUARY 2019 // LISTEN TO 'ON, WISCONSIN' USING LYRICS BY BOB DYLAN // UK TOUR WITH SKINNY LISTER IN 2019

November 14, 2018

Xtra Mile Recordings is excited to announce that Wisconsin-based Trapper Schoepp’s new album, Primetime Illusion, will be released worldwide on 25 January 2019. Preorder it on vinyl and CD, and presave on Spotify here.

Produced in Milwaukee by Pat Sansone (Wilco, Robyn Hitchcock), Primetime Illusion sees Schoepp reaching for his own place in the American songbook canon with a truly remarkable collection of character-driven songs and stories, a carefully-etched series of sonic snapshots in which people we all know struggle to fulfil their own American dream. The album also features a co-write with Bob Dylan called, ‘On, Wisconsin’. Rolling Stone premiered the song alongside a Q&A with Schoepp, and the state of Wisconsin shot a mini documentary about it. Listen to the song and watch the mini-documentary below.

In early 2017, the news emerged that way back in 1961, just months after he’d first moved to New York City, Dylan had drafted a song about Schoepp’s beloved Wisconsin, imagining a homesick rambler pining for the cheese and beer of his faraway Badger State. More than half a century later, the handwritten lyric sheet was uncovered by a former roommate and put up for auction at $30,000. In Milwaukee, Schoepp saw a photograph of Dylan's handwritten lyrics and decided to set them to music, recording a rollicking version of the song that he titled ‘On, Wisconsin.’

“I just connected with it immediately,” Schoepp says. “It’s so obvious. I knew immediately that I had to finish the song. I just thought it’s got to be done.”

Once he finished the song, it was sent to Dylan’s management team to consider it for an official co-write credit with intent to publish. Eventually, consent was given, bestowing Schoepp’s official imprimatur on the collaboration.

“On, Wisconsin” – which closes Primetime Illusion – proved the catalyst for Schoepp, to get creative again after going through some rough personal times. “Publishing a song with Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan! – put wind in my sails,” he says, resulting in a deluge of 40-odd new songs.

When time finally came to record, he reached out to Sansone, who he had met earlier that year in Chicago while supporting The Jayhawks. Impressed by the young troubadour’s “songs and commitment and enthusiasm”, Sansone sorted through the songs Schoepp had written over the past year, whittling it down to an essential ten tunes. The multi-instrumentalist/producer provided “inspiration and Jedi-like guidance” as he helped push the project to completion. Together, artist and producer built upon Schoepp’s newly-acquired piano skills by adopting a refined and relaxed approach akin to the classic Laurel Canyon sound of the 70’s; all glittering piano, ringing guitars, and crisp vocal harmonies courtesy of Trapper’s bassist brother Tanner Schoepp.

“Pat and I were very conscious of not overcooking things,” Schoepp says. “Keeping it sparse and letting the songs and the characters who inhabit them speak for themselves.”

A few years earlier, the Milwaukee-based tunesmith had been on a roll, earning acclaim as one of America’s most gifted new singer-songwriters, singled out for his remarkably well-drawn tales of characters on the fringes of society. His Brendan Benson-produced second album, 2016’s Rangers & Valentines, was hailed among that year’s finest, declared a “mini masterpiece” by Relix after being named Billboard’s “Best of the Week”. But by the time 2016 came to its end, Schoepp had split with his longtime partner, been all but forced out of his longtime home and band clubhouse by a new landlord, and worst of all, painfully re-herniated a disc in his back that had plagued him for years.

“And then on top of all that, we got a new president,” he says. “That put me into an even darker space.”

Schoepp freely admits to Primetime Illusion being a breakup album – “There’s the breakup in the traditional sense, but there was also a breakup with America I was feeling at the time.”

Heartbroken but unbowed, Schoepp found solace and direction in his music, devoting his substantial energies to crafting what now proves his most emotional and expertly-crafted collection of songs so far.

With its extraordinary melding of the personal and political, Primetime Illusion firmly places Trapper Schoepp on the long American continuum of singing storytellers, a pedigree and place on the family tree that inspires and drives him each and every new day.

“I think a lot about the folk process,” he says. “How things are passed down to the next generation and are reinvented and evolve. That’s really important to me, to keep the spirit of what someone might consider old new.

“Dylan, in his MusiCares speech a few years ago, made the point that his role in music is simply extending the line. That’s my whole MO as well. I want to push this music forward like my life depends on it. It’s all I have.”

Having spent the last half decade “getting home just in time to leave again,” playing countless dates and sharing stages with such like-minded Americana mainstays as The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks, and Old 97’s, Schoepp plans to tour especially hard behind Primetime Illusion.

“I love Milwaukee,” he says. “This is my home. But us singer-songwriters have to be citizens of the world to make it work.”

What that in mind, Schoepp will be spending all of 2019 on the road, first supporting Skinny Lister in the UK and Europe beginning 29 February 2019 and then an American tour and more to be announced soon. Confirmed tour dates are below.

UK TOUR WITH SKINNY LISTER

FEBRUARY 2019

28 Brighton @ Concorde 2

MARCH 2019

01 Norwich @ Arts Centre
02 Southampton @ 1865
06 Bristol @ Fleece
07 Glasgow @ King Tuts
08 Leeds @ Key Club
09 Leicester @ Academy

EUROPEAN TOUR WITH SKINNY LISTER

MARCH 2019

13 Berlin, Germany @ SO36
14 Kiel, Germany @ Orange Club
15 Erfurt, Germany @ Kalif Storch
16 Prague, Czech Republic @ Futurum
17 Nurnberg, Germany @ Der Hirsch
19 Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
20 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
21 Munich, Germany @ Strom
22 Bern, Switzerland @ Bierhubeli
23 Zürich, Sqitzerland @ Dynamo
26 Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
27 Rouen, France @ Le 106
28 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso Noord
29 Cologne, Germany @ Stollwerk
30 Antwerp, Belgium @ Kavka

UK TOUR WITH SKINNY LISTER

APRIL 2019

03 Edinburgh @ The Mash House
04 Newcastle @ Riverside
05 Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms
06 Manchester @ Club Academy
10 Cambridge @ Junction
11 London @ Electric Ballroom

facebook.com/trapperschoepp // Twitter @trapperschoepp // trapperschoepp.com

SKINNY LISTER NEW VIDEO '38 MINUTES' // WATCH NOW // PREORDER NEW ALBUM 'THE STORY IS...' OUT 1 MARCH 2019

November 13, 2018

Inspired by the sounding of a false alarm for a ballistic missile attack in Hawaii earlier this year, Skinny’s intense new track is now accompanied with a suitably heated video that sees the band on full red-alert mode and playing like their lives depend on it. Watch the video below. “38 Minutes” arrives as the tantalising first taster of the long-awaited fourth studio album: The Story Is…., which will be released on Xtra Mile Recordings on 1 March 2019. Preorder it here.

The video was made in collaboration with The Film Smith, who has produced memorable videos for the likes of DJ Yoda, Norman Jay MBE, Cuban Brothers and others, also working with Skinny on their previous videos including ‘Plough & Orion’, ‘Trouble On Oxford Street’ and more.

A loosely-based concept album, The Story Is… anthologises a series of personal vignettes inspired by a chaotic few years for the band and binds them into 14 tracks of unmistakably Skinny-sounding rock’n’roll. Gather-in close and lend your ears as Skinny Lister rifle through ‘The Story Is…’ and pull out: scorched stories of aggravated arsonists (‘Artist Arsonist’), rib-tickling tales of regretful re-fuellings (‘Diesel Vehicle’), and even polemic pleas inspired by some of life’s hardest lessons (‘Stop & Breathe’).

ROB LYNCH RELEASES NEW SINGLE 'BABY' I'M NOT A RUNAWAY ANYMORE' // HEADLINE SHOWS 9–10 NOVEMBER 2018

November 7, 2018

After a year of relative downtime in 2017, ‘Baby, I’m Not A Runaway Anymore’ is Rob Lynch’s second single this year after ‘Red Lion Square’ earlier in 2018. He gives a nod to his 2016 album Baby, I’m A Runaway, which at the time he maybe thought would be his last. Listen to the single below and buy it from Xtra Mile Recordings.

Lynch says: “After I’d finished the touring cycle for Baby, I’m A Runaway, I thought I was done with playing music. I was burnt out. I’d spent the best part of a decade sacrificing everything in pursuit of playing music and I’d lost my direction. Afer a bit of time off, I picked up my guitar and I wrote ‘Baby, I’m Not A Runaway Anymore’. It’s a love song that I wrote for music, saying sorry to it for almost giving up on it. I found a new approach to make this work.”

Rob enlisted long time friend and Deaf Havana frontman, James Veck-Gilodi, to oversee production duties, who lent his pop expertise and love of sad music to the process. Having visited a full-band setup on Baby, I’m A Runaway, Lynch returns to his more stripped back emo roots on, a sound that we can expect to hear more of on his third album, which is due for a 2019 release.

HEADLINE SHOWS NOVEMBER 2018

09 London @ St.Pancras Old Church
10 Manchester @ Night People

Get tickets here.

facebook.com/roblynchmusic // Twitter @theroblynch // Instagram @roblynch_

SKINNY LISTER NEW ALBUM 'THE STORY IS...' OUT 1 MARCH 2019 // PREORDER NOW AND LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE '38 MINUTES' // UK & EUROPEAN TOUR 2019

October 31, 2018

Skinny Lister today lay out the incendiary plans for their fourth studio album The Story Is…, released on 1 March 2019. Preorder now. Bundles include vinyl, CD or download with 2019 tour tickets in UK and Europe. Check out the options on the website.

That’s not all. Batten down the hatches ladies and gentlemen, as tempestuous folk-punk renegades Skinny Lister are back with their explosive new single, ‘38 Minutes’, the first taken from The Story Is… . Listen below.

Lead single ‘38 Minutes’ is a tense new track inspired by the ballistic missile alert triggered in Hawaii at the beginning of 2018. For a terrifying half hour, officials led the island to believe that the end was nigh. As sirens wailed and panic prevailed, the locals were starkly informed that “this is not a drill”.

But it was, of course, just that. While it might not go down as a red letter day for the Hawaiian authorities, Skinny Lister fans can rejoice as this episode arrives transformed some months later into an ebullient new single ‘38 Minutes’ and the first to emerge of many stories that make up their new album The Story Is… .

If it sounds like something of a pick’n’mix of assorted tales ready to share with you, well that’s because it is. A loosely-based concept album, The Story Is… anthologises a series of personal vignettes inspired by a chaotic few years for the band and binds them into 14 tracks of unmistakably Skinny-sounding rock’n’roll.

Gather in close and lend your ears as Skinny Lister rifle through The Story Is… and pull out scorched stories of aggravated arsonists (‘Artist Arsonist’), rib-tickling tales of regretful re-fuellings (‘Diesel Vehicle’), and pleas inspired by some of life’s hardest lessons (‘Stop & Breathe’).

From tales inspired by the minutiae of our day-to-day lives to paranoid ruminations of impending apocalypse, The Story Is… sees Skinny Lister deliver their most lyrically astute and compelling album to date. Coupled with a veritable sonic smorgasbord of new sounds and songcraft, there are plenty of tell-tale signs that ring true of a band on stimulated form and at the top of their game. From the new wave nuances of The Jam’s classic output (‘Cause for Chorus’) to vintage ska-janglings (‘Second Amendment’), not to mention lashings of the band’s trademarkedly barnstorming folk-punk (‘Rattle & Roar’) and gentle ballads (‘Sometimes So It Goes’), the sextet’s latest release not only sees them expand their horizons but arguably finds them in the most potent pop form of their career, all produced and mixed by the highly capable Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, The Enemy, The Temper Trap).

But the story doesn’t end here. With one of the most reputable live shows in the business (hailed as “a deafening and visceral experience” by The Independent, 5/5), Skinny Lister will also be touring The Story Is… with a series of their incredible live shows across the UK and Europe in 2019.

Tickets for all dates will go on general sale Friday 2 November, with pre-sale available from Wednesday 31 October 2018 from their website.

SKINNY LISTER: ‘THE STORY IS…’ 2019 TOUR

FEBRUARY 2019

28 Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2

MARCH 2019

APRIL 2019

03 Edinburgh, UK @ The Mash House
04 Newcastle, UK @ Riverside
05 Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
06 Manchester, UK @ Club Academy 2
10 Cambridge, UK @ Junction 1
11 London, UK @ Electric Ballroom

Since 2009, Skinny Lister, have never done things by half measures. Passing the growing flagon of their experiences with every album and tour, they’ve led an endless parade gathering fans old and new, from the respected folk circuit to the riotous Download Festival, igniting pogoing mosh-pits at each. Over the past ten years they’ve travelled from rain-soaked London to the vast arteries of the USA, upgrading from narrow boat to Salty Dog Cruise, played huge tours across Europe and North America with Frank Turner, Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly as well as headlining themselves across festivals, sweatboxes and ever-larger venues.

With three previous albums under their belt, Forge & Flagon, Down on Deptford Broadway and The Devil, the Heart & the Fight, the band have explored a lexicon of tastes through a whirlwind of adventures across the globe. And in 2019, Skinny Lister will open an all new chapter as they release their fourth studio LP The Story Is… .

facebook.com/skinnylister // Twitter @SkinnyLister // skinnylister.com // Youtube

SEAN MCGOWAN NEW SINGLE 'ROMANCE ISN'T DEAD' // WATCH THE VIDEO // EUROPE AND UK TOUR WITH THE LEVELLERS

October 30, 2018

Sean McGowan has released his latest single ‘Romance Ain’t Dead’ taken from his debut album Son of the Smith. Buy the album now on white vinyl, CD and download. Watch the animated video for it below:

Opening-up about the song, Sean says:

“‘Romance Ain't Dead’ is a song about escaping the mundane. I spent so many hours people watching and day-dreaming whilst working in retail. Hoping for a bit of adventure and spontaneity. It's a hard one to sing but satisfying to play!”

The single arrives as Sean plots a series of big European support shows with kindred spirits, The Levellers. Joining his fellow south coast folk-punk heroes for the whole run, Sean will find himself back on home turf again for dates in Cardiff, Brighton, Bristol, Norwich, and Nottingham as the leg bends back to Blighty (21-25 Nov).

Then, driving home for Christmas to the promise of his biggest ever hometown gig, Sean will be receiving something of a hero’s welcome as he headlines Southampton’s The 1865 on 15 December - a show dubbed: ‘Sean McGowan: The Son of Smith Comes Home for Crimbo’. Featuring very special guests Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. and Cassava, the last few tickets are available here. Sean McGowan released his “outstanding” (8/10, Louder Than War) debut album Son of the Smith via Xtra Mile Recordings in May 2018. A year Sean surely won’t be forgetting soon, the young and talented punk poet has pinballed across Europe performing with his heroes Billy Bragg, Will Varley, Skinny Lister, and Frank Turner; worked with coveted songwriter and producer Get Cape. Wear Cape Fly.; released a string of infectious singles (‘Cuppa Tea’, ‘Off the Rails’); and even performed to a momentous sold out crowd in his hometown at Southampton’s legendary Joiners venue.

Bowing out of a buoyant year and into a bright future, catch Sean at his last remaining dates this winter as follows:

LEVELLERS EUROPEAN SHOWS

OCTOBER

31 Breda, The Netherlands @ Mezz

NOVEMBER

01 Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Melkweg
02 Koln, Germany @ Luxor
03 Berlin, Germany @ Lido
04 Hamburg, Germany @ Fabrik
06 Prague, Poland @ Lucerna Music Bar
07 Vienna, Austria @ Szene
08 Munich, Germany @ Technikum
09 Frankfurt, Germany @ Batschkapp
10 Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma
21 Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
22 Brighton, UK @ Dome
23 Bristol, UK @ 02 Academy
24 Norwich, UK @ UEA
25 Nottingham, UK @ Rock City

DECEMBER

15 Southampton @ 1865 -

‘The Son of Smith Comes Home for Crimbo’

+ Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. + Cassava

Tickets available now

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