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
 

WILL VARLEY NEW ALBUM 'KINGSDOWN SUNDOWN' OUT 4 NOVEMBER 2016 // WATCH 'TO BUILD A WALL' VIDEO // NOVEMBER UK HEADLINE TOUR

Will Varley has reached an unstoppable velocity since signing with Xtra Mile Recordings in 2015 and shows no signs of slowing down as we announce his fourth album Kingsdown Sundown out 4 November 2016. Preorder the album from our shop.

With the follow-up to the stellar Postcards From Ursa Minor, an album that propelled Will into unexplored territory, return tours with The Proclaimers and unbelievable summer festival sets, he continues to build upon broken spirits with this set of almost unbearably raw songs. The first track to be lifted from the album is ‘To Build A Wall’, an unnervingly timely indictment of simplistic solutions to incredible complex problems on both sides of the pond. Watch the simple but powerful and provocative video here.

Recorded underneath a pub by the sea in Deal, Kent as the waves roared outside, Kingsdown Sundown is a bleak and uncompromising critique of the human condition, journeying deep into our dreams, faults, regrets and politics. The songs are more visceral and uneasy than before, with fights in KFC descending into world wars, and remarking on the all-too-real plight of refugees and the recent rise in hate crime. A collection of folk songs written over the course of the last year while travelling and touring – written on tour buses and trains, scribbled on the back of set lists and receipts – Will says “these are the most honest songs I've ever written and they represent new ground for me creatively. They may not be radio friendly, or even 'friendly' at all, but I’ve been wanting to make a record like this for a long time."

The rest of the album is hazier, more spectral and a phantom of memories, dreams, and hopes. If there's one song that haunts as much as it heals and warms the soul, it's 'Let Your Guard Down' which sounds like it was sung deeply into the howling wind in defiance, in hope and fear. The most directly political song 'We Want Our Planet Back' feels strongly enough to strap on an electric guitar and strum over Will's patient protest, but it indirectly lends its brooding power to 'Too Late Too Soon' which seems ready to crumple and break, a sandcastle made from a simmering mood. 'Back To Hell' could have come from any period in superstitious folk history, a tale of vague menace, mysticism and the underworld. Finally, 'We'll Keep Making Plans' threatens to build to a crescendo, but instead lets us drift out into a mental sea where the sun is setting on what we knew in favour of the unknown, resolving to carry on, continuing to build our futures on shakier foundations. It’s somehow not dispiriting; it’s more driven by determination to allow sadness not to rule our lives, but be an important part of it. 

Kingsdown Sundown Tracklisting: 
1.    To Build A Wall
2.    Something Is Breaking
3.    When She Wakes Up
4.    February Snow
5.    Let Your Guard Down
6.    We Want Our Planet Back
7.    Too Late Too Soon
8.    Wild Bird
9.    Back To Hell
10.   One Last Look At The View
11.    We’ll Keep Making Plans

Will Varley UK & Ireland Headline Tour (Tickets)

NOVEMBER
08 Glasgow @ King Tuts
09 Manchester @ Gorilla
10 Newcastle @ Cluny
11 Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms
15 Portsmouth @ The Wedgewood Rooms
16 Bristol @ Thekla
17 Brighton @ Komedia
18 London @ Union Chapel
23 Galway, Ireland @ Roisin Dubh
24 Dublin, Ireland @Whelans
25 Belfast @ The Sunflower
26 Cork, Ireland Cyprus Avenue

facebook.com/willvarleymusic / Twitter @WillVarleyMusic / www.willvarley.com    

XTRA MILE US TOUR FEATURING WILL VARLEY AND BEANS ON TOAST OCTOBER 2016

Xtra Mile Recordings and London-based singer-songwriters Beans On Toast and Will Varley are excited to announce their upcoming fall US tour. Coming on the heels of both artists’ supporting slots for labelmates Frank Turner and Skinny Lister throughout Europe and the UK, the run will begin on 4 October at Hotel Café in Los Angeles, CA. Tickets and dates for the upcoming tour can be found here. The poster below says it all.

Drunk folk singer, barefoot troubadour and cult legend Beans On Toast has been around the block more times than he cares to remember. With seven studio albums in his back catalogue, Beans On Toast provokes thought on subjects from Prince Harry to popcorn, from friendship to fracking, from romance to riots, from childhood songs to cartoons, and from current events to getting off your head. These are simple songs with no-holds-barred honest lyrics and quick wit. 

Beans On Toast's unique art of songwriting is entirely present on his latest album, Rolling Up The Hill, an album Billboard deemed “nothing if not lyrical – a zany, idiosyncratic alt-folk sermon on life’s more awkward moments” and Rocksound declaring it “possibly his most accessible and immediate album to date.” Beans On Toast will release the follow-up to Rolling Up The Hill this year on his birthday, December 1, as he does every year. Buy Rolling Up The Hill.

Produced by Tristan Ivemy and mastered at Abbey Road by Frank Arkwright (Arcade Fire, Blur) Will Varley’s debut album, Postcards From Ursa Minor, pushes the boundaries of the 'one man and a guitar' format. From rowdy drinking songs with sprawling chaotic arrangements to his sparse solo performances, he covers a range of subjects with his trademark sprinkling of social commentary, politics and wry humour. Observing the world and the plight of humanity as if perched cross-legged on the edge of the moon, Varley’s existential themes cover the planet’s lonely existence within the universe as well focusing in to tackle the everyday minutia of human life. Varley is currently writing songs for his follow-up album. Buy Postcards From Ursa Minor.

Beans On Toast and Will Varley will be making the following U.S. appearances together during October 2016. Tour dates below.

OCTOBER
04 – Los Angeles, CA – Hotel Café 
05 – Santa Barbara, CA – Velvet Jones
08 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
12 – New York, NY – Rockwood
13 – Manchester, NH – Jewel 

facebook.com/beansontoastmusic / Twitter @beanstoast / 

facebook.com/willvarleymusic / Twitter @WillVarleyMusic

RECREATIONS 'BEACHES AIN'T SHIT' TOUR // WATCH 'PIPE DOWN' VIDEO // 'LIVE AT LUX' EP OUT 9 SEPTEMBER 2016

Following a summer of festival performances, Recreations (Sam Duckworth, formerly Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.) will embark on a tour of south coast seaside towns throughout October, in what will be a celebration of these provincial British holiday destinations.

The run comes after two very special performances in his hometown of Southend On Sea – one at legendary venue Chinnerys and the other at the end of Southend Pier as part of the Estuary Festival. At both gigs, Recreations will play Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.’s debut gold-selling album The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager in its entirety before putting the mouthful of a moniker to bed forever with a Viking funeral. 

Full dates are:

OCTOBER
01 Southend @ Chinnerys
02 Southend @ Pier
13 Bournemouth @ Anvil
14 Worthing @ Bar 42
15 Ipswich @ South Street Studio
20 Hastings @ Observer Building
21 Ramsgate @ Music Hall
22 Eastbourne @ Printers Playhouse

Coinciding with the announcement of these dates, Recreations has made available a live EP recorded in Hamburg earlier this year. Live At Lux EP – out 9th September 2016 - features ‘Pipe Down’, ‘Red Spex’, ‘Built To Last’ and ‘Shake It Off 2’ showing how incredible his one-man performance is in the live arena. Watch a live performance of the single ‘Pipe Down’ which is currently soundtracking the summer by being blasted out across 6Music courtesy of Steve Lamacq and Radio X on the Xposure Playlist. Watch the live performance video below.

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. 

Never one to rest on his laurels, Recreations’ creative output continues apace with an EP of brand new tracks to be released very soon. More information to follow.

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

SKINNY LISTER NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO 'GEORDIE LAD' // NEW ALBUM 'THE DEVIL, THE HEART & THE FIGHT' OUT 30 SEPTEMBER

The unstoppable, wide-eyed, rump-shaking force of Skinny Lister continues apace with new single ‘Geordie Lad’ – a jubilant anthem focusing on past friendships. The track is taken from their forthcoming third album The Devil, The Heart & The Fight to be released on 30th September 2016 through Xtra Mile Recordings. Preorder now on CD, vinyl or download. Digital preorders will get both 'Geordie Lad' and album opener 'Wanted' right now.

Watch the video below.

Frontman Daniel explains: "‘Geordie Lad’ is a very personal track that we hope also chimes on a more universal level. Written about an ex-member of Skinny Lister, it’s an ode to the breakdown of a friendship and drifting apart. It’s for anyone who’s ever wondered what an estranged friend is up to now. It's also a little nod to the traditional song 'Geordie Hinny' that we used to perform in our early days." 

If their folk debut album (Forge & Flagon, 2012) celebrated the sticks and their punkier second (Down On Deptford Broadway, 2015) blinked in the bright lights of London, their rocked-up third, The Devil, The Heart & The Fight, sees them go global. Pieced together while on the road, and recorded over five weeks in Newcastle Under Lyme’s Silk Mill Studio in May 2016 with producer Tristan Ivemy (Frank Turner, The Holloways), it is Skinny Lister’s most far-reaching, exciting and accomplished album yet. It’s a full-on rock record that splashes even more punk vigour and eighties pop elements across their fervent folk canvas, taking in hints of Adam Ant and The Clash. 

A mature, vibrant and varied record, it mingles classic Skinny folk romances with epic rock takes on rafter-rattling shanties and hearty Dexys-style tributes, plus a hitherto unseen darker side. ‘The Devil, The Heart & The Fight’ is like Skinny’s previous albums gone backpacking; expanding its horizons, full of adventure, discovering itself and doing things it regrets in the morning. Have heart, ye devils, join the fight.

TRACKLISTING
1. Wanted
2. Geordie Lad
3. Tragedy In A Minor
4. Devil In Me
5. Injuries
6. Reunion
7. Beat It From The Chest
8. Hamburg Drunk
9. Grace
10. Charlie
11. Fair Winds & Following Seas
12. Carry

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