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Jokingly I ask if he needs it for some Sonic Youth bass experimentalism during the show but its merely to sand down a groove on his bass and prevent him breaking a string tonight, something which beset him the previous night in Edinburgh but didn't seem to affect the show.
"Yeah, it went really well actually," he says. "About two years ago we played the same venue (Cabaret Voltaire) and it was one of our best shows ever when we played there. Last night went really well too, we really got a receptive crowd."
Given the age of the band and their relatively low profile (sure to get much bigger thanks to a recent Orange advertising campaign), it seems strange to be talking about shows from some time ago. Time which the band have filled touring with the likes of Hot Chip, The Hidden Cameras, Cadence Weapon and now their second tour with tonight's headliners Caribou.
"We toured with [Caribou] in the States last fall and that was really cool, we've known them for a little while before that so we're used to touring with them," Mitch continues. "We've done a bunch of other shows with Peter, Bjorn and John and Akron / Family - my favourite live band. So is it all downhill from here? Yes, I'm retiring next winter. Tonight we've got forty five minutes so we're going to try to play as much as possible from the album."
So, to the debut album and Mitch seems pretty happy with it.
"We were really happy with how the whole album turned out but two really stand out for me. 'Little Garcon' sounded really different to everything else on the album sonically and 'Foxes Mate For Life' was one where the recording turned out not only like we wanted it to soundwise but better than we could have expected. Luke made an instrumental demo on his computer using a crappy casio keyboard with programmed beats which created a really long intro. Then, at one point a beat came in which changed the song, so we tried to recreate that in a live setting. When we wrote it we thought it was one of our more different songs and then Luke decided to write the most meaningful and positive song he'd ever written - just straight-up, happy go-lucky lyrics. Life lessons from Luke who's 22. It's about how foxes actually have a partner which they continually mate with for life. Something we can all learn from? Yeah. I don't know if any other animals do. Seahorses do? Maybe some other creature like a crab, lobster or some other crustacean of some kind."
Much has been made of the Born Ruffians signing to Warp, the legendary Sheffield label best known for faceless bleep techno. Mitch has been asked many times before to defend the band's decision to join the roster of an unlikely label. Although, in today's musical climate, is it really all that unlikely?
"I think we share ideals," sighs Mitch. "We're trying to make interesting music. Also, they're entirely independent which is kinda rare these days. They've no other major label backing of any kind. For us to take any flack for it is expected but also strange as Warp approached us and it's them changing direction. I think it's silly to question it too much because they're still doing what they were doing back then, pushing boundaries and making people think, challenging music. But with bands like Grizzly Bear, Battles, us they're moving on - even Jamie Liddell's doing different stuff from what he used to do. Warp have their own Youtube channel and they uploaded our video to it and they had a couple of hundred subscribers of hardcore Warp fans who instantly go and check it out. Within the first day there were loads of negative comments which I laughed at. But the positives definitely outweigh the negatives and it's been amazing to be on the label...like an honour roll, it really gets intimidating when you see the other artists."
Another advantage of being on Warp is the label's continued finger on the pulse of music promotion in a time where music TV and product placement is key. Earlier this year, the label managed to swing an appearance on influential Channel 4 youth drama Skins.
"We were asked to do it and we'd never heard of the show before. We played 'Hummingbird'. We watched the first episode or two and it was a lot better than any teen drama I'd seen on American TV. The episode we were on we filmed in New York and it was a fun day. Did we have to play it over and over again? Yeah, for all the different angles. People have been on our MySpace page saying they found us through Skins."
"Well, we've never played here before so it should be interesting to see who shows up. I think I'm starting to get a cold all of a sudden, I was so close to being cold-free on this tour."
Oh dear, perhaps the result the dangers of living on the road? But, despite the sniffles, Mitch loves it,
"It's fun travelling in the same huge giant cube van. You can stand up straight in it as it has such a high roof. It's got a shelf which one person can lie on and everyone else sits staring at each other throughout the ride until its their turn to lie down."
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Sheffield`s hugely popular Warp label celebrates an amazing 20 years in business throughout 2009 and, as part of the celebrations, they`re giving fans the chance to vote for their ten favourite Warp tracks to be included on a special compilation released this year.
Sure to be in the running will be the likes of early classics `LFO` by LFO and `Tricky Disco` by `Tricky Disco`, later favourites like `Roygbiv` by Boards of Canada and `My Red Hot Car` by Squarepusher all the way up to later successes `Apply Some Pressure` by Maximo Park and `Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard` by !!!.
The `fan`s ten` will be augmented by the choices of label co-founder Steve Beckett resulting in a definitive collection.
You can vote now over at http://warp20.net/, where you can also leave messages stating why you love certain Warp songs and what they`ve meant to you over the years - some of which will make it into the liner notes.
The label have also planned events in Paris, New York, London, Tokyo and, of course, Sheffield over the course of the year to celebrate their birthday in true style. The first takes place in Paris on May 8th and 9th at Cite de la Musique and features music, film and art installation events. Even better, Aphex Twin & Hecker, !!!, Pivot, Andrew Weatherall and DJ Mujava have been confirmed to appear.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
The highly entertaining Born Ruffians (last heard on TV ads for Orange with their `Hummingbird` single) return to the UK for their first headline tour in support of a limited edition double 7" release of `Little Garçon` from their rather fine `Red, Yellow and Blue` album which was released late in May.
The discs come in red and yellow vinyl in an individually numbered gatefold pressing and feature the following tracks.
Disc 1:
1 - `Little Garçon`
2 - `Ready for Bed`
Disc 2:
1 - `Coldness Hot`
2 - `Wedding Rings and Midnight Strollers`
There`s also a hugely limited edition white label remix 12" released the same dat featuring a White Williams mix of `Red, Yellow and Blue` and a Four Tet mix of `I Need a Life`. That, my friends, is a release not to be missed.
September 2008
13 - The Hope, Brighton
15 - Dingwalls, London
16 - Night & Day, Manchester
17 - Rainbow, Birmingham
18 - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
19 - Sumo, Leicester
20 - Korova, Liverpool
21 - Nice n’ Sleazys, Glasgow
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Culturedeluxe is backing Born Ruffians, Basia Bulat, Caribou, Holy Fuck and Stars to come through and win!
The 2008 Polaris Prize Longlist
The Acorn - 'Glory Hope Mountain'
Attack In Black - 'Marriage'
Black Mountain - 'In The Future'
Born Ruffians - 'Red, Yellow and Blue'
Buck 65 - 'Situation'
Basia Bulat - 'Oh, My Darling'
Cadence Weapon - 'Afterparty Babies'
Cancer Bats - 'Hail Destroyer'
Caribou - 'Andorra'
City And Colour - 'Bring Me Your Love'
Constantines - 'Kensington Heights'
Crystal Castles - 'Crystal Castles'
Destroyer - 'Trouble In Dreams'
Fred Eaglesmith - 'Tinderbox'
Kathleen Edwards - 'Asking For Flowers'
Christine Fellows - 'Nevertheless'
Gatineau - 'Gatineau'
Hayden - 'In Field And Town'
Veda Hille - 'This Riot Life'
HILOTRONS - 'Happymatic'
Holy Fuck - 'LP'
Islands - 'Arm’s Way'
Karkwa - 'Le Volume Du Vent'
Corb Lund - 'Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!'
The New Pornographers - 'Challengers'
Pas Chic Chic - 'Au Contraire'
Sandro Perri - 'Tiny Mirrors'
Plants And Animals - 'Parc Avenue'
Ghislain Poirier - 'No Ground Under'
Protest The Hero - 'Fortress'
Justin Rutledge - 'Man Descending'
Sadies - 'New Seasons'
Shad - 'The Old Prince'
Socalled - 'Ghetto Blaster'
Stars - 'In Our Bedroom After The War'
Tegan And Sara - 'The Con'
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band - '13 Blues for Thirteen Moons'
Two Hours Traffic - 'Little Jabs'
The Weakerthans - 'Reunion Tour'
Wintersleep - 'Welcome To The Night Sky'
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Never ones to miss a trick, Warp are hastily re-issuing the single, but as a limited 450 only 7" pressing with the band's now famous cover of Grizzly Bear's 'Knife' on the flip. Naturally, the track will also be available to download digitally (along with a brand new acoustic version) meaning they could see chart action.
The band are nearing the end of their mammoth tour and bassist Mitch DeRosier is looking forward to getting hold of some clean clothes. He writes:
"when I washed my clothes the day before we had to leave for Paris, they remained wet for the whole trip, and now stink worse than ever before. It's entirely backwards. I can't wear anything I washed because it smells too bad and I would just offend people. I want to try to avoid that."
"I think we're going to go check out a comic book museum here in Brussels. I hope they have t-shirts (to replace my smelly ones)."
'Hummingbird' is back in the shops on July 7th.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Striking a similar deal with Orange Mobile are Warp's Born Ruffians whose recent single 'Hummingbird' has been picked up as backing for the latest inflatables-a-go-go phone advert. Bassist Mitch from the band is already taken aback by the amount of exposure the song has been getting.
"I guess we didn't realise how often it would be on," he told us in a recent interview. "A few people at Warp said they were watching TV and during one show they saw it four times. We knew it'd be heavy rotation but that's kinda crazy. We didn't think about the magnitude it held."
There are no plans as yet to re-release 'Hummingbird' to a wider audience, but sales of their debut album 'Red Yellow & Blue' which is released this week are expected to benefit from such regular exposure.
The full Born Ruffians interview will be posted very soon.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Some more famous, yet interesting, inclusions are R.E.M., Daryl Hall, Was (Not Was), Hanson, The Presidents of the United States of America, Tia 'Wayne's World' Carrera and Dolly Parton.
The list is, naturally, subject to change and can be viewed in its entirity here. As always the site will expand with exact dates, venues and times and, hopefully, a considerable collection of free MP3 files to download.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
Come on Warp Records, you can do better than this. If this is what your foray into 'guitar' music is going to give us then get back to the dance geeks now.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
"This is our first time in Aberdeen." Luke tells a crowd only now sure they've finished their last song (in truth, they're at least three tracks in, such is their initial breakneck speed and the shortness of pauses between songs) before adding a deadpan "But it shouldn't be our last...hopefully."
Working their way through songs as varied as 'Barnacle Goose', 'Badonkadonkey' and 'Hedonistic Me' the band quickly have the crowd on side, each exhibiting the talents of each member - the multi-layered drumming of Steven, Mitch's juddering bass and Luke's soon-to-be-celebrated falsetto and, as a whole, the trio exhibit such natural chemistry when sharing vocals.
Saving their strongest songs for a memorable outro, they give us the Talking Heads funk of the life-affirming 'Foxes Mate for Life', the lilting harmonica-led country balladry of 'Little Garcon' and future hit single 'Kurt Vonnegut' which finally morphs into a surf rock jam. Finishing with former single 'Hummingbird', soon to be beloved by millions of Orange customers, and recent single 'I Need a Life', the band have built up a legion of fruggers who repay the band with a great cheer as they bring a highly entertaining forty five minute set to a close.
Richard Brown (View Original Article)
| 1. | Hummingbird |
| 2. | I Need a Life |
| 3. | Foxes Mate for Life |
| 4. | Barnacle Goose |
| 5. | Hedonistic Me |
| 6. | Kurt Vonnegut |
| 7. | Badonkadonkey |
| 8. | In a Mirror |
| 9. | Red Elephant |
| 10. | Little Garçon |