Some new press

Tattersall gives us some record recommendations here:

http://www.cracklefeedback.com/artists/the-wave-pictures/broken-record

And a brief interview here!:

http://shadowplayfanzine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/interview-mischief-with-allo-darlin.html

The hardest working band in Britain, aka The Wave Pictures, have been firm favourites on this website for pretty much ever. Its great loving a band like this because new material, in one form or another, is never far away. And by this I mean quality releases like Long Black Cars (an album proper) and frontman David Tattersall's second solo album Little Martha, both released in 2012, not put out for the sake of it (in a Ryan Adams kind of way), but for the love of it. 2013 sees them still going strong with a new album, an ingenious "dad rock" video and a substantial UK tour (see below for details). Here, David Tattersall takes time out to talk about his oft-surprising record collection. The new album, City Forgiveness comes out October 21st on the ever reliable Moshi Moshi label.

Under-rated Record

Freschard - Boom Biddy Boom

This album is a masterpiece and since it seems to have slipped out without any reviews, no record-label backing, nothing, i guess it's safe to call it ''under-rated''. I hope that Freschard doesn't remain under-rated because I really love what she is doing. I really like her music.

Favourite Country Album

Buck Owens - The Very Best Of Buck Owens Volume One

This has been one of the records that I have played the most in the last year or so. So many great songs: Under Your Spell Again; Excuse Me (I Think I've Got A Heartache); Act Naturally. And i love the ''Bakersfield Sound'': driving, dry, no frills, twangy guitars. It's glorious, unpretentious, funny, silly, intelligent music.

Favourite Alt-Country Album

The Flying Burrito Brothers - Gilded Palace of Sin

I think this is probably Gram Parson's best work. He's got that mix of being simultaneously down-to-earth and melodramatic that great country music has, that you hear in Johnny Cash and Buck Owens and all the rest. This record has a pleasing crisp sound to it, too. And very good songs, like Sin City. I like his voice, too.

Favourite Jazz Album

Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges

This is such a pleasing record to listen to. I'm sure everyone could like this! It's very easy on the ear compared to the east coast stuff from the same period that everyone knows. And they solo beautifully: no one is in a hurry on this record.

Over-rated Record

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

This does nothing for me whatsoever. It's just lift music. Vague sounds. No songs. No soul. I don't understand it at all.

Record of Sin

Dr. Dre - 2001

I really love this! I don't really feel embarrassed. Perhaps I ought to feel embarrassed! Some of the lyrics are not very nice. But it makes me very happy to listen to this and dance around and sing along. It's only got about 4 good songs, but those songs are very good indeed. The Watcher! Still Dre! Just the best grooves in the world!

Joyful Record

Songs Ohia - Axxess and Ace

This record just has so much heart. It's kind of sad music I suppose but it moves me and lifts my spirits. I suppose it just lifts my spirits that someone made something like this once. Great music. Always perks me up.

Record From My Youth

Rory Gallagher - Rory Gallagher

I used to listen to Rory Gallagher all the time when I was younger. I even had a picture of him taped to my guitar amplifier. I learnt a lot about playing the guitar from him. This record is up there with Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere for having just great, raw, no-effects guitar playing. I still like it a lot.

Surprising Record

Veneno - Veneno

Someone described this to me as ''Spain's Marquee Moon''. I'm not sure that quite describes it. It is a cocaine fuelled fusion of flamenco and rock. It's a bit proggy. It's very bouncy. It isn't like anything that I have ever heard. I go back to it every now and then and it sounds completely different to me every time. It is very odd. I'm not sure it's any good. But I like it!

Record That Reminds Me Of...teenage years

Dirty Three - Whatever You Love You Are

This record reminds me of listening to John Peel when I was a teenager. I remember the churning violins of the first track, Some Summers They Drop Like Flies, coming out of the radio. It was dark and intense and slow and very live sounding. It sounded very real. We went to see them at the arts centre in Leicester. We were very little. They were extraordinary. Almost scary. A great band! 

Interview: Mischief with Allo Darlin' inspires new Wave Pictures record

A tour with indie pop stars Allo Darlin' has inspired The Wave Pictures' new album City Forgiveness. ShadowPlay caught up with frontman David Tattersall to discuss the album and the band's future.

If a decade of being told his voice is a dead ringer for Modern Lovers singer Jonathan Richman is wearing, then Wave Pictures frontman David Tattersall doesn't show it. The likeable songwriter cites Richman's 2008 album 'Because Her Beauty Is Raw and Wild' as a key influence to new album City Forgiveness, along with Rory Gallagher, Neil Young and rumba singer Franco and the OK Jazz.

 David Tattersall

But there's one key influence on the latest LP from the prolific trio - Allo Darlin'. The Fortuna Pop outfit accompanied the Wave Pictures on a six week tour of the US last year and double album City Forgiveness is the result of the trip. "The best thing about that tour was that we all became friends. The highs would be hanging out and drinking tequila and playing frisbee. The lows would be driving nine hours a day in the hot sun," Tattersall explains.

Release on hip London label Moshi Moshi on October 21, the record will be eagerly anticipated by the band's unique and oft-obsessive fan base. "We think it's the best thing we've ever done! We're very happy with it," explains Tattersall. "We have great special guests on there: Paul Rains from Allo Darlin, Stanley Brinks and others. And we've got a deep, rich sound that we never had before. The album has more tones and colours than on our previous efforts, more life, more energy."

If single The Woods is a marker than that description is more than accurate. A live version of the track recorded seminal east London studio Toe Rag shows Tattersall's trademark off beat lyrics ("I have unattractive nurses in my dreams/ stacked  low like pancakes") married to an infectious relentless dirty rhythm to give a performance as good as any the band have ever put in. 

"It was really really fun," Tattersall says of the Toe Rag session. "We certainly enjoyed the analogue aspect of the studio, the absence of a computer was delightful. I don't like computers much to be honest and I try to avoid them for the most part."

New album City Forgiveness

Formed in the East Midlands in the late 1990s, The Wave Pictures - Tattersall, bassist Franic Rozycki and Jonny Helm - have progressed to become royalty in the anti-folk scened finding fans and collaborators in comic supremo Jeffrey Lewis, Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle and Swedish folk legends Herman Dune among others. 

"We've been lucky right from the start with all the wonderful people that we have worked with. I remember hearing Jeff Lewis on John Peel when I was a teenager living in the East Midlands at my parents house," says Tattersall. "I thought his songs were incredible then and I still do now, and we've been friends for ten years and Franic played mandolin on his last album.

"I was uplifted by playing with Daniel Johnston: his songs really cheered me up and made me happy."

The Wave Pictures are one of the hardest working bands in the UK and their staggeringly prolific output has seen the trio release approaching 20 albums as well as solo projects and spin offs. Their tales of marmalade statues and avocado babies have combined with electric tunes like Jimmy Reed and Just Like a Drummer to retain a buzz around the band. Regular tours around the UK, US and Paris include headline slots in New York, a forthcoming gig at the Jazz Cafe in Camden on November 13 and the band even played ShadowPlay's first gig on a snowy night in Sheffield in 2006.

But does the relentless recording and touring ever get too much? "It certainly can be a struggle at times. But we've stayed true to the way we think things should be done. And so we're happy and enjoy what we're doing," Tattersall says.

"Nevertheless, we travel a lot and work hard and it can be a struggle to deal with all the opinions and criticisms that you get and all the indifference too, and all the while you know that the last thing the world needs is another band. 

He adds: "But the secret, I suppose, is to focus on the job at hand and try to disregard everything else that goes along with it. We get along with each other, and we love music, and that helps a lot."

Conviviality then, may be the key, but a heap of energy and a fistful of inventive tunes will doubtless keep the Wave Pictures on top too.