THE WAVE PICTURES - Salt EP

1. Salt
2. Sugar Maple Charcoal
3. New Born Deer

Released 07 January 2012 on green vinyl 7 inch on WIAIWYA.
The first release of wiaiwya-7777777, a 7" singles club

THE WAVE PICTURES - Spaghetti

1. Spaghetti 2. I Love You

Released as download on Moshi Moshi Records, April 23rd 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

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?

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.

Get your copy here: http://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/little-martha

The Sunshine Hotel

Goodies at the Little Martha blog, including.....

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!