Falling and Laughing are taking our first steps to becoming an actual proper band and are releasing our first actual proper CD soon (yay) and it’s going to be an EP called Bunnyhood!

It’s going to be made up of four songs which we’ve been performing over the last year

1) Feral Fanzine Frenzy
2) Roly Poly
3) Kim’s Song
4) Stockholm Archipelago

Pete Horowitz has been wonderfully kind and helped us record the songs up in Stoke and it’s coming out on Oddbox Records, hopefully at some point in early June.

The cover image (which, honestly, I think looks amazing… more on that next post) was designed by Kooky Koala and printed by Get A Grip in the Custard Factory.

And here it is:

Yay.

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!

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.

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.

Now really I should have posted this up before Indietracks Festival where it was on sale, but you can still get hold of the recent Oddbox Records sampler from their website, which excitingly features Thank You Daniel by Falling and Laughing.

I think the idea that as well as being able to buy it on its own for £4, it also goes out as a freebie if you buy other stuff from Oddbox, it’s worth having a shuffle through their back catalogue they do have loads of ace releases on the label already, despite only being a few months old.

Full Track list

01 It’s Always the Quiet Ones – The Kick Inside
02 2000 & Something – The Sunday Reeds
03 Deerland – Pinkshinyultrablast
04 Four Day Week – The Give It Ups
05 Shine – The Crack Babies
06 You Should Be Your Light – The Monorals
07 Soft Silver Young (Single Mix) – Golau Glau
08 Thank You Daniel – Falling & Laughing
09 If You Lived Here – Play People
10 Are You Dead? – The Humms
11 Sun Don’t Reach – Lovelust
12 Ooh Wee – The Millipedes
13 One 2 One – Sparky’s Magic Piano
14 Oso Panda – Papa Topo

Hurrah, following on from the last batch of free pop one has been arranged down at The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath on the 12th March.

This gig’s got KateGoes, Betty & the Id and Bom & His Magic Drumstick. And an Autumn Store DJ set.

The poster features Zot!