It’s been over a week since album release, and almost as long since my last blog post – after all that daily blogging action I decided to give my typing muscles a bit of a rest so the RSI doesn’t set in too quickly.

Why? Because I use the same muscles for playing my geetar and we’ve got a gig on Wednesday, that’s why! Details …

• Where?
  The Comedy, 7 Oxendon St, Lonndon SW1Y 4EE
• When?
  Wednesday 19th August, 9.30pm
• C’est combien?
  £5 on the door, or £4 if you let us know you’re coming in advance – leave a comment on the facebook page by 4pm tomorrow to be on the list!

Now then, didn’t we just release an album? Yes, I think we did. Here’s another couple of the fine reviews that keep popping up all over the interweb:

• Rockfeedback – 3/5 stars
• The Music Fix - 9/10(!)

And finally, a winner in our picture contest! The first to send us a photo of our CD in the racks at HMV was … my mum! True story. Congratulations mum, your free CD’s in the post!
Here is the winning picture:

THWFoS in HMV!

Amusing to see that our name is too long for the CD racks. And a £10 price tag?! If you haven’t gone out and got yourself a copy yet, you’re better off picking one up from here. Or come to the show tomorrow night and buy one from us in person – they’re only £5 at gigs!

Til tomorrow then …

Markus

xx

PS. Don’t forget you’ve only got til 31st August to send us your remixes of St. Cecilia! No idea what I’m talking about? Haven’t you been reading my blogs, hmmm? Go see this for all you need to know.

Just keeping you up to date with all things album-related …

• There’s a rather nice new review that’s just been posted here at http://www.rockmidgets.com - sounds to us like the fella who wrote it really seemed to get what we were trying to do with the record – always gratifying when that happens, and we’ll take a 4/5 score thank you very much!
• And for those of you located in the north-eastern parts of this country, tune into Radio Teesdale on 102.1 and 105.5FM tonight just after 8pm to hear Markus interviewed live on air by Colin Robinson on his Undercurrent show – Colin has made us his artsists of the week to help celebrate the release of our album – thanks Colin!
• *** LAST MINUTE UPDATE! apparently by the magic and wonder of t’internet it’s possible to listen to the show from anywhere at all in the world as long as you’ve got an internet connection. Awesomeness! Dunno how it works but you’ve got about 15 minutes to work it out – I suggest o to the Radio Teesdale website and take it from there. ***

And just in case you’ve been distracted and haven’t gotten round to it yet, don’t forget to buy yourself a copy of our album, will you?

Lovely.

Markus

xx

The day has finally dawned (and it’s now actually closer to dusk but I’ve been at work all day and was too busy to post this earlier, so this’ll have to do) when our new album hits the shelves of the nation’s record shops – hurray!

And to celebrate this long overdue arrival we have one more impromptu competition to invite you to partake in – first one to send us a picture of our album on the shelves of their local record shop wins a free copy! And maybe a couple of badges or something as well.

Just post your picture somewhere online and send us a link to it, either via this site or via email or via our Facebook or MySpace pages, or to the Marketstall Records equivalents … anyway you can really – we’ll announce the winner as soon as we have one!

And that, my friends, is that for today – I’m knackered, all this anticipation has worn me out and now that there’s none left I’m gonna have an early one.

Night night.

Markus

xx

OK, the final instalment before this album is GO!

And, to wrap it all up, a reminder of the important things you’ll need for tomorrow:

1. To buy the album go here, or head out to your local record shop and ask for a copy – if they don’t have one demand to know why, and then go find yourself a record shop that does have copies in stock – the record shop you went to first is obviously nowhere near cool enough.

2. To download the stems for St. Cecilia so you can enter the remix competition and get your track on our next single, go see our friends at God Is In The TV zine.

And finally, for all those of you who missed it, some pictures from last night at our album launch show @ The Fox in Lewisham, taken by friend-of-the-band Mr. Mark Bannon. It was a blast – thanks to everyone who came and made it awesome!

Markus

The Keeleys

Matth, Vicky and Ian

Steve

Vicky

Night night.

Markus

xx

Absolutely no time to write for two reasons:

1) desparate for a wee

2) I’ve just come home after the soundcheck for our album launch gig show party at The Fox tonight and I have about 7 minutes to shower, shave head, dress up smart like, and get back to Lewisham.

Phew!

Will try and make up for this brief posting with extra special something or other tomorrow.

Buy our record!

Markus

xx

Getting close now, eh? Just the weekend to go and the long wait is over! Ah, sweet relief.

For those of you who just can’t wait til Monday, I have some good news: Marketstall Records have made our 2007 single “A Question of Trust” available as a free download from their website to celebrate the impending new album!

You’ve already got that single? Well in that case you can scroll straight down to the bottom of the same page and download “Let There Be Light“ – recorded during the same session that yielded “A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away” and  ”I Saw The Lights Go Out“, but this one never made it onto the final tracklist for the album.

An exclusive! And we’re not sure how long it’s gonna be available for, so you’d best hop over to the Marketstall Records website and get it now.

Right, that’s enough for tonight, more tomorrow, as you’ve no doubt come to expect by now. Oh and we will be seeing you at the show, won’t we … ?

Markus

xx

… days til the album launch and things are getting a bit exciting round at Hearts HQ. As well as the launch party this Saturday and, as Mark mentioned yesterday, our appearance at the end of the month at Greenbelt Festival (alongside Athlete, Royksopp and … Sixpence None The Richer, no less!), some of us will be art imitating life imitating art as a part of the Oubliette Arthouse homage to Antony Gormley’s One and Other project in Trafalgar Square.

It all takes place in a former language school on Oxford Street; currently the base for the Oubliette collective since their eviction from their first home in Waterloo. Entitled “The Fifth Plinth: 24 Hours on Oxford Street” and framed by the glass door of the building, there will be twenty-four hour long performances running from 9am tomorrow (Friday) to 9am on Saturday morning. These will include a former teacher at the school giving a final lesson through the letterbox, a wine-swilling transsexual, a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from the Rambling Restaurant and one of the Oubliette occupants, the writer Lucky Jimm writing on a laptop, with his ruminations projected against the wall.

Some of Their Hearts will be closing the installation from 8am to 9am on Saturday (even I, the perpetually late one, will bravely attempt to be there on time) with some songs from the album, plus whatever else we feel like throwing in at the time (which may include sitting down for a bacon sarnie or two). We’re doing it for the hundreds of musicians who trapse the streets of London every single day – mostly overworked and underpaid, of course, but continuing on for the sheer love of rock and roll. Or whatever genre you fancy.

So if you’re passing, or even if it’s out of your way – come on down and take a gander through the window and request a song or two.

Vicky xxo

… days to go!!

I have almost no time to write this as we’ve got a rehearsal tonight (I’m already running late) and I won’t be home again til very-late pm after that – it wouldn’t do to keep you people waiting all that time for today’s instalment now, would it?

Right, so this is what we’re rehearsing for: Album launch on Saturday at The Fox, innit?
If you just can’t wait til Monday to get your hands on a copy then this is the place to be – we’ll have advance copies for sale on the night.

Now, what else do we have for you today? How about a couple of Truck-related items …
1. A little post-performance interview with the girls, here.
2. A review, here. Not the best review ever to be honest, and there’s that whole twee / Belle and Sebastien thing thrown in again which always irks me, but I did enjoy the author’s description of Truck as a “gentile” festival – I’m sure I saw some Jews there y’know …

But that leads me nicely onto my final bit of stuff for today – our next festival is definitely “gentile” – Greenbelt Festival is a big old Christian knees-up on Cheltenham Race Course! It’s on the last weekend in August and we are looking forward to singing a song about atheism to the assembled masses, oh yes. Might even dedicate one to Richard Dawkins …

More tomorrow.

Markus
xx

… til album release date for our new album How I Wasted My Youth! And what do we have to tell you today? Ah yes, I mentioned something about a competition, didn’t I?

Here’s the deal:

• We’re gonna give away the ’stems’ (separate tracks of drums, bass, guitars, vocals, keys and FX) of St. Cecilia as free downloads.
• You’re gonna take them away, chop them up, remix and re-arrange them all into wonderful new shapes and beautiful patterns, and then send them back to us.
• We’re gonna choose the ones we like best and use them as b-sides for when we release St. Cecilia as a single, which we hope will be round about November time.

There are details, of course, and terms and conditions apply (don’t they always?), but that’s the basic thrust of the thing. All you Radiohead fans out there should get the gist – we did, after all, steal the whole idea from them. Bloody good one though, innit?

Our good friends at God Is In The TV zine will be hosting the competition for us, and the stems will be available to download from their website, but the competition doesn’t open til Monday (to coincide with the album release, see?) so you can’t get hold of them til then – you will just have to exercise a little patience and restraint in the meantime!

To pass the time til then, and to get you in the mood, here’s a mixed-up version of My Big Test which friend-of-the-band Sir Roman Rappak of Breton threw together in an afternoon for us a few weeks ago, just for shits and giggles:

That’s it for today, more tomorrow.

Hi-de-hi, campers.

Markus

xx

… before you can get your grubby mits on our lovely record, “How I Wasted My Youth“.

How do you know it’s gonna be lovely? Well how about because of this and this?

Reviews are starting to appear thick and fast across the interweb, and so far it’s all so good!

And if you’re not convinced by what you just read you can hop over to the Marketstall Records website and have a listen yourself – the whole album’s available to stream from there right now! And you can even pre-order a copy for a measly £6.00 (including postage)!

We’ll be back tomorrow with another instalment including news of a little competition we’ve arranged for you …

Smell you later.

Markus

xx