New Website!

Welcome to the brand new and super exciting Xtra Mile Recordings website. 

We have brightened it up and added new areas to make your experience visiting the site a more enjoyable and hopefully fulfilling one.

You’ll notice the store has all our amazing releases neatly profiled as usual but we’ll also be adding xtra special merchandise that is exclusive to our store. On Wednesday you will find exclusive t-shirts designed by Jamie Lenman, Frank Turner, Beans On Toast and Jim Lockey and The Solemn Sun as well as the chance to design your own! Over time, more incredible items will be added so keep your eyes peeled.

There is a brand new area of the site called the XMRHub. This is a forum for everything and anything. We’re giving our act’s free reign to write about whatever is on their mind and we’ll be posting photo galleries, blogs, and comment pieces over the coming weeks. Plus we’re encouraging you, our dear supporters, to contribute too. Check out the XMRHub for more details on that.

As the Xtra Mile family continues to grow all over the world we wanted to create a home where people can keep up to date with all the exciting things that happen on a nearly daily basis.

Enjoy the site and thank you as always for your unwavering support.

Beans On Toast - NEW ALBUM!

As is customary every year, Beans On Toast will be releasing his brand new album on his birthday 1st December 2013 through Xtra Mile Recordings. 

‘Giving Everything’ is Beans’ fifth album in five years – all of which have also been released on his birthday whatever day it falls on!

The album was recorded in the wonderful Toybox studios in Bristol and produced by Mike Freear from Pyro Circus Gypsy Rave outfit Slamboree. It is still a folk record, but it has a twist. Subjects tackled on the album range from Prince Harry joining the army to Fracking; from the Modern day Glastonbury and English music venues to American conspiracy theories and all the way through to swollen throats, love and things, lots and lots of Things.

There's no point in bullshitting, these are simple 3 chord folk songs about the life that he leads and the world as he sees it. Carried through by the heartwarming nature and infectious charisma Beans conveys in every song. You can't really dance to it but its music for people who do like to dance, especially to the beat of their own drum.

You can pre-order the album here: 
iTunes / Amazon / Xtra Mile Recordings

Here's a taster of the album - 'Post Bestival Festival Blues':

The album will be launched with a huge party at The Magic Garden Pub in Battersea, London as well as a whistle stop tour of UK venues. 
Then in February 2014 - Beans will join friend and musical peer Frank Turner on his huge UK Arena Tour. Frank said: "It just wouldn’t be right to head out on a tour like this without having him around to kick the night off in style."

Full touring dates are: 

NOVEMBER

30 London, The Magic Garden

DECEMBER

04 Glasgow, The Poetry Club
05 Manchester, Cuba Cafe
06 Derby, The Brunswick Inn
07 Leeds, Eiger Studios
08 Colchester, Tribal
11 Swansea, Garage Venue
12 Bristol, The Old Bookshop
13 Brighton, The Haunt

FEBRUARY 2014 (Supporting Frank Turner) 

06 Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, 
07 Capital Arena Nottingham, 
08 Edinburgh Corn Exchange
09 Manchester Arena
11 Plymouth Pavillions
12 London O2 Arena
13 Portsmouth Guildhall SOLD OUT

It’s been another busy year for Beans On Toast who has played loads of summer festivals including Glastonbury and Secret Garden Party; made it across the Atlantic to support Frank Turner in North America; played and compered at Mumford & Son's Gentlemen Of The Road festival in Lewes on the 19th & 20th of July, playing alongside Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, British Sea Power and Mumford & Son's themselves – and headlined his biggest UK tour to date.  

Perfectly highlighting Bean’s versatile talents – a modern one-man all-round entertainer.

www.beansontoastmusic.com   www.facebook.com/beansontoastmusic

Twitter - @beanstoast

Xtra Mile Teams Up With XFMXposure

On 15th December 2013 Xtra Mile Recordings and XFM Xposure will host an incredible Xmas gig at London’s Barfly venue to end the year in style. The night will feature live music from label legend Chris T-T and The Hoodrats as well as three other acts from the roster who will be revealed over the coming weeks. 

Curated by XFM Xposure’s very own John Kennedy - who has tirelessly supported the label’s output for all ten years it’s been around - has cherry picked his favourite acts currently on the label whose music he’s championed all year. The night promises to be a true celebration of independent British music and one that showcases the depth of talent within the Xtra Mile stable. 

Tickets are £12.50 and available to buy here:  http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/89705

Chris T-T has just released his phenomenal ninth album ‘The Bear’ receiving unanimous praise across the board. His single by the same name is currently enjoying plays on XFM’s Evening playlist as well as 6Music by Tom Robinson, Gideon Coe, & Marc Riley; Radio 1 by Huw Stephens and Phil & Alice and Amazing Radio playlist. 

You can see the video here: 

The track was released on split 7” as part of the Xtra Mile Single Sessions the Tenth Anniversary Edition, backed by the orchestral indie rock brilliance of To Kill A King. It was the first of 4 vinyl released every Monday in October as part of our tenth anniversary celebrations. Throughout the year we’ve been up to all sorts; a take-over at 2000trees Festival, a SXSW showcase, promotions with Amazon and iTunes to offer discounts on our back catalogue and of course we re-issued our first ever releases by Million Dead and Reuben – to mark how it all began a decade ago. We also just celebrated in style with a raucous 10th birthday party with incredible sets from Chris T-T, Ben Marwood and Algiers, a presentation of gold and silver discs for Frank Turner’s England Keep My Bones and Love Ire & Song respectively and an enormous cake!

Tune into John Kennedy’s XFM Xposure Monday – Thursday from 10pm. 104.9FM

www.xtramilerecordings.com / www.xfm.co.uk / www.christt.com

“Chris has proven his ability to write intelligent, endearing songs, now he and his band The Hoodrats smash the shit out of everything. Fiercely exciting.” - ROCKSOUND

Chris T-T Headline Tour!

Described as an “Outstanding, indispensable genius. A modern-day Blake” by Sunday Times and “One of the great underground artists of our time.” by Jon Snow - CHRIS T-T is truly one of the nation’s best songwriting talents.

Following the release of his critically applauded ninth studio album ‘The Bear’ - which came out on 7th October 2013 – Chris is announcing the details of a headline tour that will start as soon as his support slot on the nationwide Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo tour finishes in late November. His dates will run right through until Christmas. Full tour details are: 

CHRIS T-T ‘THE BEAR’ UK TOUR – SOLO HEADLINE CONCERTS

NOVEMBER

24 Cardiff Mind Fest 
27 Folkestone Googies Arts Café
28 Ipswich The Soapbox House
29 York The Black Swan
30 London Bush Hall Supporting Jim Bob (Carter Usm) *

DECEMBER

5 Manchester Kraak Gallery
6 Leeds All Hallows Church
7 Durham Old Cinema Launderette
10 Newcastle Tba ** 
11 Edinburgh Pivo **
12 Glasgow Roxy 171 **
13 Bexhill Eras Of Style***
14 Margate Tom Thumb Theatre ***
19 Brighton 68 Middle St ***
20 Devizes The Lamb
22 Portsmouth Edge Of The Wedge

*this gig marks Chris’s beard’s 20th birthday
** special guest Dave Hughes (solo)
*** special guest Tom Williams (solo)

 

‘The Bear’ is Chris’s third album for label Xtra Mile Recordings. Recorded with his band The Hoodrats, together they have departed from the paired down introspection of 2010’s Love Is Not Rescue and instead created a full-on psych rock record with hints of Sebadoh, early Hold Steady, early Yo La Tengo, or Blur at their heavier moments and with a nod to grimy garage-y 60s like The Faces and Animals. Channelling these influences, Chris and his band taped the album live in a room and completed it in 3 or 4 takes just as those bands would have done back then. The result is a fascinating and excitingly fresh sounding record and some of his best work to date. 

The title track of the album was released on split 7” as part of the Xtra Mile Single Sessions: The Tenth Anniversary Edition.

There are beautiful lyric videos to every track of the album available to see here:

Photo by Ben Morse, taken at Xtra Mile's 10th Birthday Party. 

Since 1999 Chris T-T has released eight albums, including a trilogy about London: The 253 (2001), London Is Sinking (2003) and Capital (2008), as well as alt-folk protest classic 9 Red Songs (2005) and more recently the inward-looking Love Is Not Rescue (2010). 

Based in Brighton but restlessly mobile, he has written for The Morning Star, Louder Than War, Huffington Post, New Public Thinkers and others. Alongside writing and touring, Chris speaks regularly at conferences and runs seminars and workshops. 

* not that Jon Snow; that Jon Snow. The main dude off of Channel 4 News, not Ned Stark’s bastard off of Game Of Thrones.

Franz Nicolay Returns To Our Shores!

Franz Nicolay is set to release his latest single 'Hearts of Boston' out on 25th November from his third vaudevillian world folk extravaganza, 'Do the Struggle' out now on Xtra Mile Recordings.   The video was shot at Franz's ancestral homeland in the mountains of New Hampshire, and features a lot of flaming things.  Possibly including Franz. 

Check it out here: 

The single is a whacked-out Pogues via Arcade Fire burst of handclaps and violin. Crammed with his Americana storytelling across a pace and passion to match any punk outfit, it's as good an introduction to Franz Nicolay as you could get. He worked with producer oktopus, of the innovative New Jersey industrial/hip-hop group dälek, to move beyond the singer-songwriter sound world and create a dark, explosive, and cinematic opus of personal and political anger.

With the help of Guignol rhythm section John Bollinger (drums) and George Rush (bass, tuba) and guests including Ezra Kire (Leftover Crack, Morning Glory), Franz Nicolay has woven tales for everyone to hold onto.

He is over this side of the pond this November for a UK tour with The Cut Ups. The 'Bearing Torches' tour will see the Exeter band back Franz during his headline sets, and they'll also be main support each night, with Franz joining them on keyboards. 

Catch them at:

NOVEMBER

13 The Exchange, Bristol
14 The Cavern, Exeter 
15 Tiki Bar and Diner, Plymouth
16 Wharf Chambers, Leeds
17 Chameleon Arts Cafe, Nottingham
18 Tiger Lounge, Manchester
19 Kage, Dundee
20 Audio, Glasgow
21 The Central, Gateshead
22 The Prince Albert, Brighton
23 The Black Heart, London
24 Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading (Franz only, acoustic, w/ Ben Marwood)

Oxygen Thief - Joins The XMR Family!

Content with playing acoustic guitar "with such ferocity that it takes the top of your head off" (as Tom Robinson from BBC 6Music put it), he had no plans to turn Oxygen Thief into a band but Neil and Ben from of Xtra Mile's own The Retrospective Soundtrack Players had other ideas; re-recording some of his songs with distortion pedals firmly engaged and firing the demos at his inbox. 

Oxygen Thief & Band, photo by Joe Watson.

So, Barry dusted off his electric guitar and started rehearsing and recording with this new line-up and played their first shows; opening for Left Side Brain in Bristol, and at London's legendary charity knees-up Lexapalooza in March 2013.

Solo, acoustic, loud / 3 piece, electric, louder: Oxygen Thief will tour the UK in both incarnations to celebrate the release of the ‘Accidents Do Not Happen, They Are Caused’ mini album – firstly solo supporting Jonah Matranga (far, onelindrawing) and then full band headline shows as well as a support slot for Jamie Lenman. Full dates below.

 Oxygen Thief has been unofficially part of the Xtra Mile family for a while now – Charlie Caplowe, Managing Director of Xtra Mile explains:

“We’re delighted to have Oxygen Thief join the XM clan. To be honest he’d somehow managed to get himself onto so many Xtra Mile Recordings bills and stages over this last summer that we were almost convinced he was already signed!"

Dolan says:

"Having released a split EP with Ben Marwood & Jim Lockey (2009's ‘Exclamation At Asterisk Hash’) I've watched them go from strength to strength since signing to Xtra Mile, and we've often chatted about whether I might end up joining them on the label someday. The opening song (There Can Be Only One) from the band mini album appeared on that split in acoustic form, so I'm glad to have it kick off the new release as a link back to the fun we had touring together. I'm excited to be joining a roster with so many other acts that I've been both a huge fan of, and great friends with, over the years, especially as the label celebrates its 10th anniversary."

TOUR DATES

November
Solo tour supporting Jonah Matranga

12th: London - Windmill Brixton
13th: Newport - Le Pub
14th: Stoke-on-Trent: Minster's
15th: Nottingham - Guitar Bar
16th: Dunlop - Auld Hoose
17th: Aberdeen - Tunnels
18th: Edinburgh - Sneaky Pete's
19th: Glasgow - Nice & Sleazys
21st: Newcastle - Trillians
22nd: York - The Basement
23rd: Brighton - The Hope

November
Full band shows:

29th: Plymouth - Tiki
30th: The Louisiana - Bristol

December
1st: The Loft, Portsmouth
3rd: Cookie Jar, Leicester
4th: The Vic, Swindon
5th: Avondale House, Southampton
8th: Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham
9th: The Garage, London w/Jamie Lenman

www.oxygenthiefmusic.co