Sunday 30 December 2012

THE WAVE PICTURES - Spaghetti

1. Spaghetti
2. I Love You

Released as download on Moshi Moshi Records, April 23rd 2012

Thursday 27 December 2012

THE WAVE PICTURES - Eskimo Kiss





















1. Eskimo Kiss
2. Stay This Way A Little While

Released as download on Moshi Moshi Records, Feb 13th 2012
Released on 7 inch by Fortuna Pop Records
catalogue number: FPOP129

Monday 24 December 2012

The Wave Pictures, 2012

And there goes another year in the history of The Wave Pictures. There's been little bits of info in recent months but nothing I thought was worth a whole post about, particularly as this fan blog does such a good job of highlighting the minutiae of the band:

http://fuckyeahthewavepictures.tumblr.com/

Meanwhile, it seems to an outsider that they've been on tour almost constantly during the year. As I hear this is how modern bands earn money, this is great. As I know this is how modern bands don't get around to recording new material, I'm conflicted. HOWEVER, in this recent interview:

http://hellogoodbyeshow.com/2012/12/05/listen-again-hello-goodbye-01-12-12-dead-rat-orchestra-david-tattersall-halo-halo/

D. Tattersall says they are recording as we speak and we should expect new material in the late summer. I seem to be interested in how they record as much as the results of the recording nowadays. Whilst, in my opinion, Beer In The Breakers sounded much better than Long Black Cars, I really enjoyed the few overdubs which they allowed themselves on this newer record - the title track in particular sounding terrific with the extra guitar line. With their friends Allo Darlin making more and more sophisticated sounding records it would be great to hear the WP's going back into the studio and allowing their imaginations to run beyond the parameters of the 3-piece set up. Time will tell.

As for the live arena, I've seen them a number of times this year and I honestly think they're getting better and better. I can't think of a tighter band at the moment and gigs I've been to have been better attended than previously making me think the word-of-mouth process which their success depends on may actually reward them in the long run.

I'm going to try and finish my documentation of their records in the coming months. In some ways, my initial reason for starting the website has been satiated - I just wanted to shout from the rooftops about a band which were seemingly ignored. Whilst I still think "the kids" would love them if they heard them, it seems like the band have settled into their place in the musical landscape - a sustainable if relatively thankless existence. But, maybe that's enough?


Tuesday 23 October 2012

And those were the days of roses...

Tattersall's new solo lp Little Martha arrived for me yesterday - god bless the pre-order! The personalised signing was a nice touch and happily the excellent pressings of both Happy For A While and The Lobster Boat have been replicated - for an album recorded into one mic it sounds fantastic. Once again no-frills doesn't have to mean lo-fi.

It's interesting that both the WP's and their spiritual forefather Darren Hayman have released instrumental works this year. Like Hayman's Lido, as a fan of their words, I suspect the record may get spun less by me than their "proper" albums but on first listen it sounded lovely and I'm looking forward to hearing it again.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Saturday 18 August 2012

Little Martha Blog

WIAWYA have set up a blog for the release of the new Tattersall solo LP:

http://wiaiwya-littlemartha.blogspot.co.uk/

So far you can learn the LP's are already ready (send them out!!) and have some background from DT himself:

“I recorded Little Martha in one day with Simon Trought at the old Soup Studio, underneath the Duke of Uke ukulele shop on Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane in East London. There are no overdubs on the album, which was recorded live with one microphone. Franic Rozycki stopped by to play mandolin on a couple of tracks, but otherwise it's entirely me playing acoustic guitar. There are no vocals on the album.

I love guitar players. For every songwriter I like, there are a hundred guitarists who impress me. There are too many that I enjoy listening to to mention them all, but there are a few key influences on this particular record that are worth naming: American guitarists like Reverend Gary Davis, LeoKottke, Blind Blake and Ry Cooder. John Fahey, who started recording in 1959, was one of the first guys to get me hooked on instrumental fingerpicking guitar. He plays with a simple thumb-and-two-fingers right hand technique, nice and slow. His music contains tremendous power and mystery, yet it is easy to grasp exactly what he is doing. He called himself an ''American Primitive'', which in technical terms I suppose is true, but his ideas are very strange and sophisticated, particularly in his synthesis of 20th century European classical music and (American) folk and blues. I cover a number of his tunes on the album, and I clumsily attempt to copy his style a little on the ones I wrote. More than anyone else, the album is a tribute to Fahey and to my love of his music, which I have listened to for 20 years now and still find fascinating. We even copied the simple black-on-white style of Fahey's Blind Joe Death LP cover when we made the sleeve.
From the age of 9 until I was about 16, this was all I played: acoustic guitar instrumentals like the kind on this album. I abandoned this practice when I started writing songs and formed The Wave Pictures. It was really nice for me to go back to this way of playing that means so much to me, after 14 years playing rock music. I had a lot of fun learning the tunes, developing big blisters on my fingers again, practising for hours in the bathroom where the acoustics are better. And it was a pleasure, as always, to record with Simon. It's nice to show a different side of yourself every so often. I am so happy I got to make this record and that WIAIWYA records kindly decided to release it. “

Excellent stuff!

Monday 13 August 2012

Little Martha Pre-order

Little Martha, David Tattersall's upcoming instrumental LP is now available to pre-order via the lovely John Jervis at WIAIWYA.

http://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/little-martha

The pre-order includes a couple tracks to download now, the previously available "Yes! Jesus Loves Me" and the new, and quite fantastic sounding, "The Sunshine Hotel".

Roll on October!

Wednesday 18 July 2012

TWP Summer Catch Up

I say summer but England has been beaten down by rain rather than sun for weeks now.

The WP's seem to be wrapping up Long Black Cars with a number of festival appearances which will take them into the late-summer/autumn period.

The Lobster Boat band reconvened during this time for a brief tour. I caught them and can say once again I was stunned by how good they were. Nothing seems to have been mentioned but surely a second LP needs to be made? I guess with DT's solo instrumental record upcoming it's unlikely we'll see anything this year but hopefully getting back together made them realise what a good combination they are.

FREE SONGS in the bands own words:

THE LOBSTER BOAT BAND played their second BBC6 radio session for Marc Riley and had the time of their lives! Send an email to lobsterboatband@gmail.com and we'll send you those songs for FREE. So lucky...

Finally, an interesting article here: http://www.heavemedia.com/2012/07/17/underrated-classics-the-wave-pictures/ which calls out Sophie as a lost classic. Personally, it's my least favourite record they've done, but it's nice to see some attention and reminds me i should really get back to finishing my record by record run down of the WP's work......

Thursday 31 May 2012

The Lobster Boat sails again!

Anyone who's on their mailing list will no know The Lobster Boat band are touring in July in the UK. I can't help wondering if this means they are making a new record. Either way I'll still get the chance to see Jean smash the shit out of his 3 drums. Hooray!

July 1st - London (The Lexington)
July 2nd - Manchester (The Castle)
July 3rd - Birmingham (Station Inn)
July 4th - Nottingham (The Malt Cross)
Free entry
July 5th - Cardiff (Undertone)

Monday 28 May 2012

In Your Own Sweet Time

Great video here from yesterday's acoustic show in London. New(?) tune called In Your Own Sweet Time. I love the songs where Tattersall self-mythologises.


Friday 25 May 2012

Daytrotter Session

The WP's have recently done a Daytrotter Session which is available here:



http://www.daytrotter.com/#!/concert/the-wave-pictures/20055651-37382867

If you don't know, Daytrotter is a website that has daily sessions for download from known and lesser known bands. The downloads were free for a number of years but now seem to be for payment, although their is a free trial so should you want just the Wave Pics you can get it.

The 4 tracks include a song called "It Doesn't Matter Now What Was Said" which I don't recognise. Perhaps a newie?

Friday 18 May 2012

“It’s not 100 percent fun anymore,” he says. “But it’s still a fantastic job.”

Amusingly curmudgeonly interview with Franic here: http://www.mapanare.us/5/post/2012/05/the-wave-pictures-come-from-a-long-tradition-of-uk-music-mostly-unrelated-to-bagging-on-coldplay.html

 
Picture by Wade Millward

The Wave Pictures may be an indie band, but they’re not an indie band.

That’s what Franic Rzycki wants critics and listeners of his Wymeswold, England, pop rock trio to understand. He says the band, now touring the U.S., is more influenced by the classic rock ‘n’ roll of Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones and early Fleetwood Mac than any safe, modern rock band.

What’s more, the bassist boasts about the group’s instrumental prowess. Knowing how to play your instrument is distinctly non-indie, Rzycki says. Rzycki is disappointed by the snobby hipsters his band attracts, especially in the U.K. He rejects bands such as alt-rockers Coldplay, who are “pissing away time and money for something mediocre.”

“That music doesn’t interest me at all,” he says.

Instead, Rzycki and his bandmates — drummer Jonny Helm and singer-guitarist Dave Tattersall, Rzycki’s friend of more than 20 years — prefer to entertain crowds with a musicianship overlooked from the group’s prolific collection of albums. The Wave Pictures’ twelfth album, Long Black Cars, was released April 17.

Rzycki says he and Tattersall are known as the group’s curmudgeons by drummer Helm. Though Rzycki considers Helm’s rationality grounding for the band, he finds his and Tattersall’s complaining justified and an important perspective for living. 

“If you don’t dislike something, how can you fall in love with something else,” he reasons.

He speaks from Austin, Texas, while his mates enjoy an outdoor pool fueled by the Barton Springs. The band is taking a break from its April-May tour with pop quartet Allo Darlin’. Rzycki says attendance for the tour has been on and off. The bands sold out a show at New York’s Mercury Lounge while a gig at the Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge, La., only attracted about 10 people.

Crowd enthusiasm is key for a Wave Pictures show, as the band doesn’t use setlists. Frontman Tattersall picks songs based on how he feels in the moment.

“I think it’s important that when you go to a live show,” Rzycki says, “you see something that’s different.”

Despite the band’s mixed reception, the 29-year-old says the Americans he’s met are “very polite.” He considers this tour much more successful than the band’s previous one in North America, which Rzycki called “disheartening” for its poor organization and poor promotion.

“We got the worst impression of America,” he says. “This tour is really changing that.”Rzycki says the best audiences are in Spain, where crowds go wild with partying and drinking. The craziest fan encounter he’s had while touring was with a Spanish girl who offered to sodomize him.

“She was kind of shy about it,” he says. “You don’t get offered to get sodomized every day.”

In the band’s native U.K., audiences are colder. Rzycki says this is because the band attracts a crowd of indie snobs turned off by the band’s non-indie appearance and most certainly non-indie guitar solos.

Rzycki expresses disappointment at how the band’s rocker side is ignored by critics and reviews. He says the problem with indie crowds is they frown on instrumental ability, such as his beloved soloing. He names New York act The Wows, French act Coming Soon and Stanley Brinks as artists whose live shows actually impress him.

The Wave Pictures have existed for 14 years, but Rzycki met singer Tattersall when they were 4. They’ve played guitars, moved to and from London and got a record deal together.

The difference now that the band is a career is worrying about making money and compromising with necessary evils instead of playing purely for pleasure.

“It’s not 100 percent fun anymore,” he says. “But it’s still a fantastic job.”The evils the Pictures deal with concern their needed Internet presence. The amount of time Rzycki must spend on online promotion frustrates the bassist, particularly the emphasis on social networking and making music videos. He runs the band’s website while a friend maintains its Facebook page.

The process of making videos is a “pain in the ass” to Rzycki for its slowness. This contrasts with the band’s work in the studio, where, to capture true rock ‘n’ roll spirit, it records and produces music as quickly as possible.

“It’s hard to understand how some bands are very slow, unproductive,” Rzycki says.

Yet he recognizes that the band’s most popular songs are from videos and special online releases.

“We’d be screwed without it,” he says.

Even as career musicians, Rzycki and Tattersall make sure they get in a game of pool at every town and in every venue they play. Rzycki, addicted to the game since both men got cheap, foldout pool tables as boys, says they can play for 3 hours straight and into the wee hours of the morning.

After the spring tour, the Pictures will play festivals, including NYC Pop Festival and Green Man Festival in Powys, U.K. Rzycki doesn’t look forward to this leg of the tour.  He much prefers local venues and smaller festivals — such as End of the Road in North Dorset, U.K., and Indietracks in Derbyshire, U.K. — to “unenjoyable,” “depressing” big-name festivals, where the sound quality is poor and the stage separates and disconnects the band from its audience.

And despite the “indie” mislabel, Rzycki likes the positive traits that come with the scene. He says nothing’s more punk than people becoming artists through home recordings.

Not that the Pictures stay at home or are glued to their computers. In addition to the ongoing tour, Tattersall has a solo album coming out, and he and Rzycki will put out an album as the Lobster Boat Band, a rock ‘n’ roll act featuring Coming Soon.

While the best punks can be the most crotchety, Rzycki shares some satisfaction hiding behind his cynical demeanor.

“Even if I complain about a lot of stuff, the truth is I’m living a great life at the moment.”


Thursday 10 May 2012

"The Best Band You've Never Heard Of..."

Nice little bit of press here from the current US tour:

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/leave-the-scene-behind/Content?oid=6064864

Leave the Scene Behind 

The Wave Pictures' Perfectly Imperfect Precision


THE WAVE PICTURES They’re from Wymeswold! Party time! Excellent!
THE WAVE PICTURES are the best band you've never heard of.
I know, I know—music writers love to say shit like this, so you're no doubt skeptical. Or maybe you have heard of the Wave Pictures, and are already enamored with the countless pleasures of their spindly, sprawling discography. Or perhaps you're a fan of Portland songwriter Jack Lewis and are aware that the Wave Pictures covered his "Polar Bear." Still, with an "indifferent" following in their home country of England (according to guitarist/singer David Tattersall) and only a smattering of US shows thus far under their belts—most of them in New York—it's more than likely that the Wave Pictures have escaped your notice.
It's time for that to change. Their sound is a willful marriage of brawny classic rock (like the Stones and CCR) with shambling American indie folk-rock (à la Silver Jews, Violent Femmes, and Jonathan Richman)—with Tattersall's swooning voice and off-kilter lyrics making romantic melodrama out of it all. The number of the Wave Pictures full-length albums now tips into the double digits, surrounded by a flurry of singles and EPs and compilation tracks. Their catalog is excellent across the board, bearing crisp and concise consistency and addictively imperfect precision.
"We've always been pretty focused on the same thing," Tattersall says. "Trying to write songs with interesting words and then play them in a natural way, or what we think of as a natural way, and try to improvise a little bit. And to sound like what we would hope a rock 'n' roll band would sound like, I suppose. Not too pristine."
Tattersall and bassist Franic Rozycki were childhood friends in Wymeswold, a village in England's Midlands, and started playing music together in their teens in the late '90s. Drummer Jonny Helm joined a few years after. "We've been a band for a very long time," says Tattersall of the band's stability, "but I don't know if it's because we've never had a tremendous amount of pressure or outside influence on what we do or anything. Generally we've just enjoyed ourselves more of the time than not, and mainly done what we wanted."
Their latest, Long Black Cars, continues their string of lean, taut rock with oddball lyrics—which Tattersall maintains are written purely for self-amusement. "I may sound confessional, but I'm never in an emotional state when I write these songs," he says. The new record is both sprightlier and nastier than previous efforts, cutting the music down to its raw elements (although not without a few virtuosic guitar solos from Tattersall).
"I think Long Black Cars does sound leaner and more direct, and better than previous albums. We produced that one ourselves a bit more, and spent a lot more time on the sound ourselves—mixing it on our own without anyone else around, mic'ing everything the way we wanted to. We mic'ed the drums with just one microphone. We mixed everything in mono, and we didn't put in reverb on anything, didn't compress anything. We didn't EQ anything unless we absolutely had to. It really sounds much more direct and much more like we wanted it to sound," Tattersall says. "But the live shows are less lean and less direct than they used to be. They're more, probably, more loose and, um, what's the word..."
Jammy?
"Maybe a little more jammy, yeah!" he laughs. "But we're not like Phish or anything. We don't want to sound tight and perfect."
They certainly don't—and thank goodness for that.

Meanwhile, word on the street is the two-fer vinyl of BITB and LBC actually exists and is out there. First person to comment they have their hands on it wins!

Friday 27 April 2012

Stay Here....

Spinner are giving away the mp3 of Stay Here And Take Care of The Chickens here:

http://www.spinner.com/2012/04/26/the-wave-pictures-stay-here-and-take-care-of-the-chickens-free-download/

The article has a song explanation from DT which is interesting. We didn't seem to get a track-by-track commentary from him this year so this goes someway to filling that gap.

In Their Words: "This song was inspired by the Humphrey Bogart film ''The Enforcer''. It's an absolute classic and not to be confused with the so-so Clint Eastwood vehicle of the same name. It's a kind of murder mystery song. The expression ''take care of the chickens'' could have several different meanings, depending on who you imagine is saying it. Musically, the song owes some debt to early Dire Straits. Just because Brothers in Arms is total rubbish doesn't mean that their debut album is any less great. I don't know why I feel the need to point this out. Clearly, the Wave Pictures could use the help of Mark Knophler far more than he needs my endorsement. Anyway, we had tried to record this several times in different studios. This is the first version we were pleased with. We were looking for a certain kind of rolling shuffling groove. It's very difficult to do slow songs that are full of energy. This is something that the Rolling Stones are very good at, something that they learned from the blues masters. I think we got a good high-energy slow song here." -- Guitarist David Tattersall

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Without Feathers

Speaking of Without Feathers (see comments to last post) here is what appears to be a new video of the boys peforming the tune. I'm using Jonny's encroaching Alan Shearer hair situation to time stamp this as "new".

Monday 23 April 2012

Spaghetti Single Out Today

Spaghetti is released today. There doesn't seem to be a 7 inch for this one but if you go here:

http://moshimoshi.greedbag.com/buy/spaghetti-0/

you can buy the b-side for 75p! I tend not to buy digital music but the WP's are the exception. It's a Lou Reed cover. In the one good interview I've seen for this LP Tattersall said they recorded 14 songs for the LP and 12 made it. Clearly Stay This Way A Little While (b-side to Eskimo Kiss) was one of the two which missed the cut. Interesting to know if there's another track out there for a future b-side or whether this cover was the 14th song?

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Cut Them Down In The Passes!

While I await the Long Black Cars vinyl edition I finally gave in and listened to the record. What a track this is! Unlike anything else they have done, lovely Feelies-like guitar line and a quasi-military chorus. Brilliant!

Loving the album as a whole too, great work.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Spaghetti Video

The darren Hayman-directed promo for Spaghetti has been released and a lot of fun it is too. This Is Fake DIY also have a brief behind the scenes video to watch - both posted below:



Edit - behind the scenes here: http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/tv/the-wave-pictures-spaghetti/

The video auto-runs which is annoying so I've taken it down. Follow the link to view. Thanks!

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Marc Riley Session - Spaghetti Hoops?!

The WP's were in session last night on BBC Radio 6 where they played 4 tracks off the new LP and had a bit of a chat. This included the news that they've recorded an album of Jason Molina covers. No explanation of how this will see the light of day but interesting nonetheless. If you are not familiar with the man he is the wonderful singer/songwriter for Magnolia Electric Co (and Songs: Ohia before that) and has been unwell in recent times. Perhaps this will be some sort of fund-raising release? The idea of hearing the boys take on The Dark Don't Hide It is enticing. One of the best songs of the last decade in my opinion but Molina has a Tattersall-sized back catalogue so any number of songs could have been included.

Anyway, session here for the next 7 days, and possibly longer:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dcm47

Saturday 31 March 2012

First New Interview For Long Black Cars

Well, the first I've seen at least. Some interesting stuff from Tattersall below, particularly the admission on the economic reasons behind their recording philosophy.

http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/features/the-wave-pictures-its-very-unpleasant-the-music-business/

The Wave Pictures: ‘It’s Very Unpleasant, The Music Business’

Interview

El Hunt chats to singer Dave Tattersall about recording, two-year album models and the death of guitar music.

Posted 31st March 2012, 10:01am in Features, by El Hunt


The Wave Pictures are no strangers to releasing new albums, and ‘Long Black Cars’ marks their fourth studio album with record label Moshi Moshi. The band are back out on tour now, and with such a wealth of material at their fingertips, they are playing three nights next week at London’s The Old Blue Last; all with different set-lists. El Hunt chats to singer Dave Tattersall about recording, two-year album models and the death of guitar music. The Wave Pictures are some of the nicest guys in rock - just don’t you dare compare them to The Smiths; or bring up Kings of Leon either for that matter.

You’ve been consistently releasing material for a pretty long time now as The Wave Pictures, does it ever get any easier coming up with new albums?
Well, for us it was never difficult to make an album because we always really enjoy recording and playing music. I always wanted to write songs, and there’s always something new I want to write. It’s just always been fun really - and a pleasure. It’s not a struggle in any way for us, luckily. Touch wood [laughs]. I wouldn’t say it’s got any easier or harder. Sometimes you record and it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. The last couple of albums we tried a few different studios before we ended up with the recordings that we liked. It’s not as if we release everything, by any stretch, but yeah, it’s always fun!

You recorded ‘Long Black Cars’ over four days in New York, how did that work out?
We could pretty much only afford four days, so we just had to trust our friends who had said that it was a nice studio, and that he was a nice bloke. We’d never met the guy until the day of recording, and we’d never seen the studio – but he was great, and so nice. We wanted to record the drums with one microphone, like they did in the 60’s, and he was cool with that. A lot of things that normally engineers wouldn’t necessarily be happy with, he would try and experiment with it all. It was very easy and relaxing – up until the last day when we suddenly realised we were in a rush and started panicking a bit. Before we might’ve written 30 songs and picked the best 12. For this album we only went in with 14 songs, and we only left two off the album. It sounds a little bit tighter and cleaner than ‘Beer In The Breakers’ because of that, a little bit punchier sounding. We took the files back home and [Wave Pictures’ bassist] Franic [Rozycki] and I mixed it all ourselves on Franic’s computer, which is something we’d never done before. ‘Long Black Cars’ sounds exactly like we want it to sound; whereas all the other things we’ve done are the result of somebody else mixing, or a lot of other people contributing.

You mentioned the 60’s sound – and The Beatles and Bob Dylan immediately spring to mind as other artists who would often spend less time on recording. Do you think sometimes condensing recording can be a good approach?
Yeah, I think limitations are good. It’s sometimes good to try and do things quickly, and to try and be spontaneous. I tend to look down on bands that spend an awful lot of time and money on recording, and work away as if they’re creating some kind of masterpiece. They spend months and months, throw loads of money at it, and the result always sounds stale to me, dead. I like a lively recording; the old punk and rock n’ roll records. I don’t tend to enjoy very polished recordings. Also I think that while I can talk it up, this approach is mainly just down to our budget – it only enables us to do a limited amount in the studio. That can be a good thing though. If you were a kid coming along now, you would think that you had to spend a fortune to make an album. Almost everything, even indie music, is incredibly polished sounding, so I think it’s good to remember that you can do things cheaply.

What do you think about the ‘two-year model’ that a lot of labels use; where a band will put out a debut, tour, and then come back with something else within a two year gap? Do you think it puts too much pressure on bands?
I’ve seen it work from a marketing viewpoint, and it is very successful – but from a creative standpoint it would kill The Wave Pictures dead. I mean the reason we wanted to be in a band was to make albums and songs. We’d be doing that anyway even if we had less interest or less money than the very little amount that we have at the minute [laughs]. I think creatively it doesn’t suit all bands, I think it suits the industry. It has nothing to do with music; it is just a marketing thing. It’s always been a tug of war between the industry and the creative people, but I think bands have become incredibly placid and malleable. I don’t think there’s a great deal of opposition towards the mainstream any more. All the indie bands want those big success tunes, so the idea of being alternative has been corrupted in some way. That’s what talking about the two-year model makes me think. I’ve seen bands who appear like they’re the type of people who wouldn’t give a shit about being marketed in that way, but actually they’re stuck on this two-year model with the label. An arena plan with the booking agent, trying to build them up to play stadiums, all this stuff. It’s very unpleasant, the music business, once you find out that like everything else, it all comes down to money.

I was watching another interview you did with NME at Benicassim Festival – and you were talking about Kings of Leon’s infamous stage storm off. What do you think about bands having tantrums; do you think that so-called ‘rock n’ roll’ bands have become a little mamby-pamby?
Well, yeah, in that particular instance we were sort of joking because I gather that it was very windy, like, life threateningly windy. I was sort of messing when I said that Kings of Leon were being wussy then, but on the other hand I’ll take any opportunity I can to slag them off. They’re total toss-pieces, wastes of space – their music has no value, and I assume they have a terrible attitude towards making music. That’s more or less the state of affairs as I see it [laughs]. Nearly all of the bands around are absolutely useless. It’s almost a unique time in history in that there’s just almost nothing with any soul selling any records. It’s almost as bad prog rock in the early 70s. There are good things if you root around enough – but Kings of Leon is just an example of a band that have absolutely no ability. It can only be marketing, because they have fantastic marketing. For my money, they don’t have one good song. I have a very reasonable opinion about Kings of Leon, as you can tell [laughs].

A lot of people in the industry are talking about this big crisis within music right now and calling it the “death of guitar music”. Do you think that’s a genuine concern?
I have no idea about what sells but commercially at least, guitar music might be dead. There’s every reason to think it might not sell in the quantities it used it. Creatively though, I can’t see any reason why guitar music should be on the way out. The electronic music that’s supposed to have come along to replace guitars I suppose is only slightly less old -the first electronic recordings were early 60’s, and the electric guitar really is a thing that only goes back to about 10 years before that. It seems absurd to me the idea that guitar is very old-hat and electronic music is still some sort of novelty. In fact to me it seems like guitar is very much creatively viable. There are so many new songs to be written. But again, commercially, sure, for all I know guitar is dead – I have no idea what makes record labels money; in fact blokes with guitars probably don’t. Creatively, no, guitar music is never dead; it’s such a wonderfully versatile instrument. It’s so easy to learn, a very good size, and a great harmonic richness compared to everything else. I can’t see people not wanting to play guitar. Any talk of guitar music dying out has to be commercial, to be honest.

What kind of musicians do you like then? Did they influence ‘Long Black Cars’?
I think the new album was the first time where we weren’t particularly thinking about anybody, but we’ve been listening to African music actually, and also a lot of [Filipino rock band] Franco. Other than that, the same old things: Herman Düne, a lot of Jon Lee Hooker. A big mix of stuff, but I don’t know how much it really makes a difference any more because we know what we want to do most of the time…I think.

Reading reviews of your albums, I’ve seen the same comparison to The Smiths time and time again. Obviously they’re an iconic British band, but does the comparison ever get tiresome given that you listen to so much more than just them?
I have to say; it’s a difficult one for me and The Smiths. I think it is a lazy journalistic comparison. If you’re bookish, wordy and English you do get compared instantly to The Smiths, and actually, the way we play, and the way we sound; we don’t sound at all like them at all. However, I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t like The Smiths, because I do [laughs], I mean Morrissey wrote some of the best songs I’ve ever heard, such beautiful songwriting, and I’m sure it was an influence on some level. If you’re interested in lyrics, you’re interested in Morrissey to a degree. They are such big figures, I mean we played in Derby two nights ago, and there was a huge poster of Morrissey in the venue. It can’t be denied, the power of those records. I do find it tiresome though. I would rather not be compared, just because I think it’s a very boring, untrue comparison.

‘Long Black Cars’ sounds more American to me than anything else. You recorded it in New York, and ‘Spaghetti’ in particular reminds me of bands like The Strokes far more than The Smiths. Does American music influence you more than British rock?
I have to admit I don’t like The Strokes but there’s such a wealth of great American music going right back to the 20’s. At least 90% of what The Wave Pictures listen to is American, yeah. Jazz from Louis Armstrong up until the 50’s stuff like Ornette Coleman. Then there are all the blues artists that we love like Chuck Berry, all the rock n’ roll bands too. New wave bands like Television and the Violent Femmes. We also like 90’s alternative rock of course, like Pavement and Silver Jews. Bob Dylan and Lou Reed too, you know, all of that is just a far bigger influence on us than English music. American music has very good unpretentious lyrics, more humourous I think. In terms of that I think of Lou Reed– he’s really great. We never consciously tried to sound American though. I always think it’s really dodgy when bands who are English adopt this American accent – really lame. I’d much rather keep my English voice - you don’t want to be like The Proclaimers doing an exaggerated version of your own accent or anything ridiculous like that. I don’t want to be Bobby Gillespie – I’d sound like a twat [laughs]. Most of our influences are American though, to be honest.

So, what’s next for The Wave Pictures then?
As the album comes out we’re going to tour America for a month, and probably a lot more touring after that. We’ve already started working on a few songs for a new album, we’ve started getting ready for a whole lot of touring and recording and doing a whole lot more of the same sort of stuff, so yeah!

Wednesday 28 March 2012

The New York Album?

Reviews are starting come in ahead of next week's official release date. I've linked a couple here with hopefully more with some interviews to follow. The initial buzz seems to be very positive and it certainly looks like Long Black Cars is the catchiest collection of songs they've put out since Instant Coffee Baby.

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2012/03/the-wave-pictures-long-black-cars/

http://www.musicomh.com/albums/wave-pictures-6_0312.htm

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Vinyl press release and Tracklist

All pre-orders for the old single LP have been cancelled, make sure you order this version (This we have been assured will be out on time !!). Long Black Cars, the new album from The Wave Pictures, will be released in the UK on April 2nd by Moshi Moshi Records. To coincide with the band's European dates, Acuarela will be releasing a double LP with Long Black Cars and Beer In The Breakers in April 9th. The band will be touring Europe in March, the UK in March and April, and the US in April and May. The 2 x 12” will be limited to 1000 copies and will include the lyrics of both albums plus 3 songs previously released as B-sides. About Long Black Cars: Recorded over 4 days in New York City, The Wave Pictures return with their 5th album, Long Black Cars - 13 tracks of wry, observational lyrics “peppered with details of the everyday”. Produced by long time cohort Stanley Brinks the album features star turns from Wave Pictures’ favourites Turner Cody and The WoWz, and was inspired by topics as diverse as Humphrey Bogart, the story of Job and police brutality. Frontman Dave Tattersall’s vocals are familiarly rich, warm and soulful, with bassist Franic Rozycki’s fretwork on fine form for stand out track “Never Go Home Again”. Accompanied by an unusually mournful arrangement that perfectly reverberates the song’s narrative about a couple on the run, the result is pure poetry through an almost elegiac solemnity. Proceeding track “My Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year” deals with the theme of family feuds - in it, a man addresses his long lost brother - and faces the reality that it is often those closest to you that one knows the least. Elsewhere, standout track “Eskimo Kiss” features drummer Jonny ‘Huddersfield’ Helm’s first recorded vocal on a Wave Pictures album. “This song is very New York to me... a very enigmatic, dark and mysterious lyric...” says Dave Tattersall.  Concentrating on finding the beautiful moments in the everyday, “Eskimo Kiss” ponders the little things that keep life exciting. It’s an overarching theme throughout Long Black Cars - “The point is not that it is interesting to sing about the mundane rather than the magical, but that we find the mundane magical: the everyday amazes me.”, explains Tattersall. On this, their fifth official album, The Wave Pictures once again blend their perfect mixture of minor key ballads and characteristic rock’n’roll harmonies - the result is the ebullient, sardonic pop they’ve come to be cherished for. Web : www.thewavepictures.com

Track Listing:
DISC 1– A SIDE:
1. Blue Harbour /
2. Now Your Smile Comes Over in Your Voice /
3. Little Surprise /
4. Blink Back a Tear /
5. Walk the Back Stairs Quiet /
6. China Whale Brand /
7. I Walked Past Them Sleeping
DISC 1– B SIDE:
1. The Worm Inside the Brain /
2. Pale Thin Lips /
3. In Her Kitchen /
4. Beer In The Breakers /
5. Two Lemons, One Lime /
6. Rain Down /
7. Epping Forest
DISC 2 – A SIDE:
1. Stay Here and Take Care of the Chickens /
2. Eskimo Kiss /
3. Never Go Home Again /
4. My Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year /
5. Cut Them Down in the Passes /
6. Hoops
DISC 2 – B SIDE:
1. Spaghetti /
2. Give Me a Second Chance /
3. The West Country /
4. Come Home Tessa Buckman /
5. Seagulls /
6. Long Black Cars /
7. Stay This Way a Little While

Two-fer!

Unconfirmed, but online shops are reporting the following:

To coincide with the band's European dates, Acuarela will be releasing a double LP with Long Black Cars and Beer In The Breakers in April 9th. The band will be touring Europe in March, the UK in March and April, and the US in April and May.

The 2 x 12” will be limited to 1000 copies and will include the lyrics of both albums plus 3 songs previously released as B-sides. 

In a perfect world these extra tracks would be the tracks off the Beer In The Breakers bonus disc which didn't make it to the singles - particularly Apple Boy which has become a firm favourite of mine. We shall see.....

Saturday 10 March 2012

The Result is in!

I have the Eskimo Kiss 7" and can reveal this is the cover:


Interestingly, one of the previous covers has changed from wherever I linked it and now my last post doesn't even make sense. Expunged from existence!

Slightly less fun is the single itself. I must admit to being slightly underwhelmed for the first time by one of the band's releases. I love both songs but the performances/recording seem to lack verve. For all the talk of the live to tape, no overdubs technique, I can't say I've previously thought about it whilst listening to their work - but neither track here seems to go anywhere. I'd be interested to hear what others think - maybe it's just Jonny's vocals, which are uneven and lack the surprise factor of his previous leads. Tattersall is perhaps being too generous with his job delegation.

Still can't wait for the LP proper but my anticipation is now tinged with anxiety that the bash them out approach could come unstuck.

Monday 13 February 2012

Sunday 12 February 2012

Eskimo Kiss Video

The new single is out tomorrow. I've yet to see the 7 inch listed anywhere but Fortuna Pop are supposedly releasing it. I think they generally include mp3 codes with vinyl so here's hoping, otherwise I'm sure I can stretch to a pound for the bside digitally.

Here's the recently released video. Probably not going to get Just Like A Drummer hit numbers on Youtube but fun all the same:



Friday 27 January 2012

VINYL! VINYL! VINYL!

As pointed out by our eagle-eyed readers:

To coincide with the bands European dates, Acuarela Records will be releasing a double lp with Long Black Cars and Beer In The Breakers in March.

Superb news. A two-fer like the old days. I guess Acuarela's original plan to put out BITB got put on hold and a new idea developed. Great stuff. Kudos to Moshi Moshi also as they presumably allowed this to happen (unless the WP's have a vinyl clause in their contract?)

In other news the Music page of the official website has 8 new unused demos added to it. As of yet, the links don't seem to work but I'm sure the IT Department of TWP Corp is working on that glitch as we speak. Should be interesting...

Monday 23 January 2012

LP cover and New Single

The WP's website has been updated with some interesting info. First, the terrific LP cover:



Great looking tracklisting:

- Stay Here And Take Care Of The Chickens
- Eskimo Kiss
- Never Go Home Again
- My Head Gets Screwed On Tighter Every Year
- Cut Them Down In The Passes
- Hoops
- Spaghetti
- Give Me A Second Chance
- The West Country
- Come Home Tessa Buckman
- Seagulls
- Long Black Cars

A nice selection of tracks people have been enjoying live recently (My Head..., Hoops, Spaghetti, Give Me A Second Chance), tracks we've been waiting for (Chickens, Long Black Cars) and the odd surprise (the brilliant Eskimo Kiss, previously available on their website as a free download).

And that's not all, it looks like there will be a single preceding the LP as soon as February 13th, with Fortuna Pop putting out the 7inch:


And the b-side is the excellent Stay This Way A Little While which could be single in itself judging by the live versions I've heard.

No mention of the LP on vinyl though. As someone who is still waiting for Beer In The Breakers on vinyl this may mean upcoming disappointment. Even if Moshi Moshi aren't pressing it you'd hope one of the benevolent labels in Europe (Little Teddy Recordings, Acuarela) or the UK (Fortuna Pop, WIAIWYA) would get to put it out. I'm sure the band want it on that format so it's even more disappointing if it's not possible.

Friday 20 January 2012

Long Black Cars Release date and UK Tour!

A huge day today in WP's land. Not only has the UK tour to support the new album been announced, not only is the release date settled, and not only has some recording information dribbled out, but, gasp.... it looks like they may have some new press shots!! About time, 90% of online Wave Pics articles are accompanied by the Instant Coffee Baby shot. Details below...

The Wave Pictures return with their fourth album, Long Black Cars on April 2nd. Recorded over 4 days in New York City, and produced by the band, Long Black Cars also features star turns from Turner Cody and The WoWz and was inspired by topics as diverse as Humphrey Bogart, the story of Job and police brutality.

In support of the album the band embark on a UK tour in March:

MARCH
21 LEEDS - Brudenell Social 4
22 GLASGOW - Nice N Sleazy
23 SUNDERLAND - Bar One
24 MANCHESTER - The King’s Arms
26 NOTTINGHAM - Chameleon
27 MILTON KEYNES - SNO!Bar
28 CARDIFF - Clwb Ifor Bach
29 BRISTOL - Fleece
30 TRURO - Bunters
APRIL
1 SOUTHAMPTON Cellar
2 LONDON - Old Blue Last
3 LONDON - Old Blue Last
4 LONDON - Old Blue Last
5 BRIGHTON - Green Door Store
6 CHELTENHAM - Frog & Fiddle

Wednesday 18 January 2012

More Instrumental LP Details...

For those of you not on the WIAIWYA mailing list (and you should be, they'll give you a least a couple tunes a year you didn't realise you liked) I quote the following from a message about an upcoming solo show:

David will be playing material from his next solo album (i know, i know, the new Wave Pictures album isn't even out yet!) of instrumentals, and maybe a couple of songs from his other solo records

we're just sorting out the details of the record, the sleeve is designed, and the tracks are recorded, expect a late summer release date...

Slowly, the future begins to form.....

Wednesday 4 January 2012

US Tour

How odd. This afternoon I was listening to Allo Darlin, thinking about their upcoming UK tour and considering how good it would be if the WP's supported them. As it turns out that's exactly what's happening - except in the US only.

According to Brooklyn Vegan here:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2012/01/allo_darlin_and.html

The following dates will be both bands. Lucky folks across the pond!

Allo Darlin' & The Wave Pictures - 2012 US Tour Dates
04/24 New York, NY Mercury Lounge
04/25 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
04/26 Washington, DC Black Cat Backstage
04/27 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
04/28 Atlanta, GA 529
04/30 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
05/01 Austin, TX Mohawk
05/03 Santa Fe, NM VFW
05/04 Tucson, AZ Club Congress
05/05 Los Angeles, CA Echo
05/06 San Diego, CA Casbah
05/08 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
05/10 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
05/11 Seattle, WA Vera Project
05/14 Minneapolis, MN 7th St. Entry
05/15 Chicago, IL Schubas
05/16 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern
05/18 New Haven, CT Cafe Nine

Monday 2 January 2012

New Year, New Album!

Happy New Year! According to The Wave Pictures' website their new album, "Long Black Cars", will be released in March 2012 on Moshi Moshi. Great news to start the year.

Hopefully more info will start to dribble out soon regarding the record. Is this what they recorded in New York during their late summer jaunt over to the US? Or perhaps it's the result of the sessions they supposedly had in Leeds and London before the Hayman produced Beer In The Breakers? Who knows, but we will soon I'm sure. There certainly seems to be a number of tunes being played live in the last few months which could make the cut, not least the title track, and hopefully Stay Here And Take Care Of The Chickens makes the record as it's a personal, unreleased favourite of mine.

This blog is currently hosting a bootleg of a an Austrian show from September:

http://niko-records.blogspot.com/

A number of unreleased songs can be heard on here and although a few spellings may have got lost in translation it's well worth your time. Jonny singing lead is a noticeable change and it'll be interesting to see if that's just something to keep the live arena engaging or whether he makes the album.

And finally, we await the most important news of all - will it come out on vinyl!!??