Prospecting Distant Systems

Falling and Laughing have got a few gigs lined up, so um, I should mention them probably.

First up, we’re playing at The Autumn Store on 20th March, with The School, and Pagan Wanderer Lu

There’s a bit of info on The Autumn Store blog and a facebook event. It’s at The Victoria.

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We’re playing at Island Bar on 2nd April for I Love Noise Pop.

Really looking forward to this gig, as it’s the second I Love Noise Pop and the first was pretty ace. We’re playing with Barry’s Attic, Sonic Delays and My Imaginary Friend.

There’s an I Love Noise Pop facebook group here.

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Third and finally, we’re making it down to Bristol (yaaay) on 4th April to play Antifolk 3

So many good bands on that line up. Paul Busst Paul Busst has kindly invited us to do a bit of a collaboration which we’re very excited about too

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Cool, that’s all the gigs. The one other bit of news is there’s finally a Falling and Laughing video page linked on the left with a Falling and Laughing video on it, performing a Falling and Laughing song called Navigating The Split Screen! It was recorded by Liam from Kidnapper Bell. Thank you Liam!

Ive just had a tip off that Needless Alley by The Tiddlywhips is going to be on Brumcast tomorrow (15th Feb).

You can listen to Brumcast at Rhubarb Radio these days and it kicks off at 8pm. There’s a listen again option, on the link above though too if you miss it.

Needless Alley is from the latest Tiddlywhips EP - Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street? - which can all be downloaded for free. If you want.

Falling & Laughing Present… a free gig! It’s a free gig! And we’ve lined up four ace bands for you

There’s a Facebook event here. Write up below…

Kidnapper Bell are an Anglo-American band in Birmingham, they touch upon musical stepping stones such as emo - when it was a genuinely good and not-at-all over-marketed genre. They bring other influences to the party too - such as room filling shoegaze guitars and interesting song structures and dynamics more typical of post-rock bands such as Mono (ooh, who have a song called Kidnapper Bell - coincidence?)

http://www.myspace.com/kidnapperbell

Black Heart Generator are one of the main proponents of the pre-post-new-Birmingham-rabble-core genre. Alright, so there’s no such genre, but imagine if there was and you’d be close to Black Heart Generator’s sound. Combining shouting with Dinosaur Jr influences and ace drumming and rhythms. They put on a cracking live show, you’ve never really experienced them until you’ve seen Greg stood on a stool strumming a guitar into someone.

http://www.myspace.com/blackheartgenerator

Falling & Laughing are us and it’s always hard to write about yourself (other people have here - http://is.gd/60zNI). I’d like to say we’re halfway between indiepop and post-rock but, um, I suppose it’s your call on whether we’ve achieved that.

http://www.myspace.com/duncsfallingandlaughing

Magnetic Four were a fantastic Birmingham band who sadly split up a few years ago, and we held on, hoping that they’d find a new drummer or carry on as a band somehow, but sadly it never happened (though there are free M4 downloads here - http://is.gd/60ApN). However, when bands split up the excitement of new bands and solo projects follow and Cast and Crew are one such solo project by singer and bassist Nick - who composes songs in a similar Hefner inspired, slash, good emo (there’s that phrase again) vein.

http://www.myspace.com/allweneediscastandcrew

It’s all free entry and is at The Victoria - http://www.thevictoriabirmingham.co.uk/

(some of the keys on my keyboard have given up the ghost while typing this. I blame overplaying Realm Of The Mad God)

The night organised by Ace Bushy Striptease is having it’s 3rd (2nd) outing, and the line up’s looking pretty ace, so I’m thinking we’re pretty lucky to cadge a slot at the bottom of it. Here’s the poster and some information from the facebook event below.

The 3rd edition of Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff will include performances from:

INTERNET FOREVER

Gushing fuzz pop hits with shouting and drums all the way from London. They’ve recently recorded a session for Radio 1 and they’re about to put out real life singles and there is a video they have made.
Comparison: Beat Happening and Hundreds, Tens and Units.

KIDNAPPER BELL

Real awesome pop punk from Birmingham. They have guitar all over the place and then these other parts of their songs which are really catchy and brill.
Comparison: Jimmy Eat World and something poppier and with more girl backing vocals than JEW.

MINOR COLES

Harmony-tastic post-emotional pop about girls and stuff like that. They’re from Oxford and quite new but brilliant despite that (lolz). The kind of band Laura Wolf would like listening to I feel.
Comparison: Brand New and Dogs In 1930’s Clothing.

FALLING & LAUGHING

Chordgazing (the gazing is the best part of what they do) band from Birmingham who take pop music to thoughtful rolling-down-hills places it hasn’t been before and post-rock to thoughtful upbeat-and-brief-enough-for-it-to-actually-be-enjoyable places.
Comparisons: Field Mice and something a bit heavier but still lovely.

There’s a fantastic selection of bands playing at Oxjam Birmingham next weekend, it mostly takes place on Saturday 24th.

Tickets are £6 for a good cause and we’re playing at Island Bar. The times for the stage are below…

22:30pm - 23:00pm Tantrums
21:30pm - 22:00pm Idiosync
20:30pm - 21:00pm Is I Cinema
19:30pm - 20:00pm Ace Bushy Striptease
18:30pm - 19:00pm Miss Halliwell
17:30pm - 18:00pm Philly-G
16:30pm - 17:00pm Falling & Laughing (us)
15:30pm – 16:00pm Rob Allen (Little Dipper)
14:30pm – 15:00pm James Rea

So yaaay, we’re putting on another DIY ‘Falling and Laughing presents…’ style gig. This cover star (again on a white background) is Dr Zoidberg if he was going to bemade from a sheet of paper. If you want to make the box you can find the full thing with arms here . While googling round I also found this terrifying Zoidberg image, but also this knitted cuddly Zoidberg hat that counteracts it.

Poster -

This gig is again upstairs at Island Bar with…

Waldo Jeffers
Hillary & The Democrats
Ben Calvert
Falling & Laughing

Ace. Doors are at 8.30. Hillary and the Democrats are coming down from Liverpool so there’ll be donations (suggested donation is £1 or £2) to cover their travel costs.

Hurrah, so far Falling and Laughing have played two gigs outside of Birmingham - one in London and one in Stourbridge - so we’re looking forward to our trip to Bristol!

It’s on Saturday 3rd October at The Mother’s Ruin on St Nicholas Street

Big Pink Cake are hosting. There’s a facebook event here.

£3.00 in. Think we’re on first, probably sometime soon after half past eight. Also playing are Hi-Life Companion and Phil Wilson. Ace, hopefully he’ll pull out a version of No Place Called Home.

Mother’s Ruin is one of the strangest (in a lovable way) venues I’ve ever been to. The bands play upstairs on the right hand side of the stairs, and the audience stand on the left on a balcony which sort of overlooks the stage. There is a little bit of space to stand in front of the bands, but it involves balancing precariously at the top of the stairs.

I sat at the front last time I went, and here was a picture of Manhatten Love Suicides that was taken from there -

Genuinely looking forward to Moseley Folk Festival this weekend. Lime Chalks are playing on the Bohemian Jukebox stage at 6.45 on Saturday if you’re going and want to see us. Looook - here’s words on the Moseley Folk Festival website to prove that it’s not just a figment of my imagination - like the time I tuned up with a uke and demanded to headline V Festival. Now *that* was embarrasing.

It looks like the best Moseley Folk Festival line up ever - Friday is borderline popfest, with Saint Etienne, The Pastels & Tenniscoats, El Perro Del Mar, Seeland and Rose Elinor Dougall.

The Bohemian Jukebox stage is full of some great bands who have played at BoJo over the last few years too - Hatchlings, Gemma Quarterman, David Leach, Pete Green, Theatre of the Absurd, Superman Revenge Squad, Friends of The Stars, Perrots Folly, Ben Calvert, Mitch & Murray, Cat Green Bike, Richard Burke, James Summerfield and Fox are the ones I’ve heard of and am looking forward, though clicking on some random links from the folk fest website is comming up with other great bands.

Ace!

The videos for the London gig at Totally Acoustic keep popping out of the woodwork. Here’s Hey Sleep!

Rob Howard has just popped up a Lime Chalks video on YouTube. It’s the start of the recent Totally Acoustic gig at on 30th April with Dunc’s Skiffle trickling into B.A.B.E.

Do you ever see videos of yourself and worry that you don’t look like how you thought you look like? Why was I not smiling? It’s a Uke, the happiest of all intruments. Smile me, smile.