]]> http://www.loscampesinos.com/blog/a-good-night-for-a-fistfight/feed/ 3 http://www.loscampesinos.com/blog/a-doe-to-a-deer-free-download/ http://www.loscampesinos.com/blog/a-doe-to-a-deer-free-download/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:49:50 +0000 Gareth http://www.loscampesinos.com/?p=4361 A Christmas gift from us to you. Free download of new, LC! seasonal smash ‘A Doe To A Deer’.

I came two weeks before Christ,
not tender nor mild, from the womb I came a-wailing “silent night! “,
but I’ll give you something to believe in.
You’ll see three ships sailing in.
I’m a frail evergreen, be a bauble hanging off of me,
pine needles a’pricking at your bare feet.

I’ll be anything you want of me, carrot nosed encased in snow.
An angel teetering atop a tree, vomiting from vertigo.

If you’ll be mine for Christmas:
a doe to a deer.
I’ll be home for Christmas,
and home will be here.

I’m three sheets to the wind,
but the wind is a sleet, and this sheet ain’t one of snow to play beneath,
and my nose is red, from the whisky.
I’m Boxing Day game away.
Shirtless cherubs on the terrace, singing hymns, praying the saviour scores today,
and that he is one, but not the only.

If you’re looking for me, follow any star
’cause I will be around, no matter where you are.
I’m CCTV video late night on Christmas Eve,
window shopping in full Santa suit,
blind drunk on the high street.
Never got a gift, gold, frankincense or myrrh
and never would’ve cared if you could just have her.
I’m Christmas morning stumbling home up the cul-de-sac,
flanked by kids upon new bikes,
stabilising my walk back.

Artwork by Rob
Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Tom
Music by Tom, words by Gareth.

It is with a sad face I have to report that I am leaving Los Campesinos!. The show on the 15^th of December in London will be my last, and I shall spend it struggling not to cry. Please don’t point out my tears if you come along. Simply pretend it is eye sweat.

Over the last seven years I have been blessed, not by God, because he doesn’t exist, but with opportunities and a life I will not fully appreciate until I am about forty-five. I will look back at old photos of the band, with our smooth skin and questionable hair, and go “fuck me. That was mental.”

The past and present members of Los Campesinos! have been my family for the last seven years and seen me at my lowest, my highest, my most angry, sad, happy, broken, fixed, grown up and immature. They have seen me fail, succeed, let myself and them down, learn the hard way, but they have also seen me grow. And they have always had my back, and I hope, I sincerely hope, I have done my best to have theirs.

There is not a terribly exciting reason for me leaving, (so please start some exciting rumours), I am just going to try something new. Fulfil my ambitions of becoming a failed writer and developing a opium habit. It’s all going to be very retro. I leave with the upmost love and support from the band, but I have requested my replacement not be too cool.

I would say I am sad to go, but that is too simple a word for the variety of emotions I have swimming around my head right now. I am sad, but mostly I am drowning in warm and happy flashbacks, vinaigrette images of us all laughing in the van on long drives across America. Joe Puleo, tour manager, at the front telling a story, Jason playing quizmaster and hosting a game of “Guess the Song,” from an app he has downloaded, and we all scream out responses. Rob taking photos of the scenery on his lomo, Neil watching gangster epics on his laptop, and maybe later on this long long drive Paul and Tom will play Tiger Woods Golf whilst I work out how long I can hold my bladder for before requesting we stop. I was the most frequenter pee needer on long drives. I am not ashamed of this. I owned it.

I felt warm and safe on those drives, listening to everyone tell stories, share experiences, make each other laugh. I am lucky to have shared a hotel room with so many exceptional ladies over the years, Aleks, Harriet and especially Kim, who shared my fear of the cold, love of porridge and put up with my ability to make a mess in any room in under 5 seconds. Starting and ending the day together, we did some good chatting.

I have seen a lot of this world, and I didn’t have to go on a gap year to do it. I have travelled across the breadth and depth of the US and the UK and I have seen a lot of different faces, and sampled a lot of backstage humus.I have seen a lot of graffitied backstage cocks.

I have met and worked with countless wonderful, interesting and horrifically talented people inside the industry, inside the venues, inside the recording studie and inside our practice space. (I won’t gush too much about how talented the people in the band are, you might get diabetes from my sincerity, but it has been a pleasure and a privilege to play the music that Tom writes.)

Also fans. Fans are awesome. You made it possible for us record an album in Seattle. To play a show outside of Wales. To play in a baseball stadium in Japan. A haunted restaurant in Santa Cruz. a handful of US universities and see Mexico! I saw Mexico! You girls and guys are truly humbling, and I hope I never took you for granted too much. I probably did. Thank you for knowing the words, for bringing cakes, and books, and t-shirts, and comics, and buying us drinks and for waiting and driving miles and cheering and clapping. For reading or watching or listening to anything we have ever done. Thanks. You kept us going and will continue to be the life blood of the Los Campesinos! family.

I was trawling through old photos trying to find the best one to represent a start and an ending, but I got lost in old memories and the process of ageing.

(God we looked young, look at our skin! Look at our clothes! Cardigans and ripped up Distillers t shirts, oh I still have that.)

I have eons of photos of the band at the start, at rehearsals, house parties, with experimental hair, (mine black, Gareth long and wispy, Neil’s fringe nearly covering his eyes and Tom always wearing his hat) and at our first shows. I remember when we first started, our summer of label romance where everyone wanted to take us out for a pub meal, and all we ever did was go out in Cardiff drinking and dancing. We said we would change our last names to Campesinos! if we ever played in the states, but we tempted fate, and we never changed out names but we did get to go to America a lot.

I sometimes wonder what alternative universe me would be doing if she didn’t go to that first rehearsal in Ollie’s bedroom. I think she is picking her nose right now in a bath of baked beans, bored and crazy because she spent all day in an office sitting next to a woman who told her about the time she slept with a navy seal. No one cares Brenda.

So 500 plus gigs, millions of air miles, gallons of backstage whisky and wine, a tonne of sweaty cheese and pita bread, a litre of tears shed on stage, hundreds of “don’t fuck up,” panics, hundreds of fuck ups, hundreds of “this is blowing my mind” moments whilst starring into a sea of unfamiliar and impassioned faces, break ups and ill advised hook ups later (don’t date musicians, like ever, we’re all mental,) I realise I have seen all the travel lodges, service stations, and states of America (apart from Alaska) and I have tasted more Marks and Spencer’s meals then I thought possible. I’ve been with some of the finest people I know doing a very unnatural thing, which is both the best and the worst experience and often at the same time, but never the same any given year. And we have done it fucking well. The best we can.

God I’m being dramatic, but I can’t help it, I was a middle child.

So some more self-indulgence.

I want to thank some people for being ace. John Goodmanson – a brilliant producer and a lesson in style and grace under pressure. Joe Puleo – the best tour manager, you never feel anything but safe in his company. Kelly Pickard – inspiration, mentor, wisest woman. Paul Rattcliff- The loyalist soundman whom gives so much. Kev and Alun and Mark Bowen, Wichita, Ben and Vicky, Gareth Dobson, anyone we have toured with or supported or who I have met along the way, everyone I forgot. I haven’t forgot, I am thinking about you.

My mum, because she told me I could be anything and do anything except get my tongue pierced. And I did that anyway, and she still wasn’t mad at me.

And the band.. Kim, Jason, Gareth, Tom, Neil and Rob who I will miss sharing experiences with that no one will understand, I love you guys. Like, loads. From our first Sweet Dreams, until our last, thanks.

Okay, too long, too emo. Bye bye.

Ellen x

For more pictures of our recent jaunt around the US click on the photo

In anticipation of us going on Tour to America, here are a couple of long overdue photos of our last tour, the delay caused by someone stealing my desktop.

You bastards.

Ellen x

(More photos of the tour can be viewed at Flickr)

DOWNLOAD

TIPTOE THROUGH THE TRUE BITS

You asked if you could see me, before I went to Spain
You didn’t give a reason, didn’t know what you would say
But I was hoping that my breath on your face,
would blow every last thing into place

The bed-spread decked in suns and moons and symbols of the star-signs,
how you read how mine applied to how I would be sex-wise
And in my arms you disappeared and I seemed twice the size,
slept and woke with lips together, sleeping felt like lies

Girl, I helped you with your demons, but your ghosts are now haunting me too
That French bitch, an ex-boyfriend threatening to tie his neck to the roof
But if we tiptoe through the true bits
We might make it to the other side
What doesn’t kill you, leaves you wounded
But I will nurse you better alright
I’ve been waking on your side of the bed
As the sun’s been rising in the west

If your skin feels softer, I’ve no argument to make,
the weight of such apologies caused stronger men to ache
If his kisses draw the bad out, I can’t have a complaint
as they hit your tongue like sedatives while I lay wide awake

You can feel a tremor in a single word, it rattles down your spinal cord
And you can catch a raincloud in an hourglass, but it will turn into a storm
Knee deep in flowers we’ll stray,
You keep the showers away

An update, and an apology.
Obviously, whether you subscribed to the series long ago, or more recently when we offered the one-off opportunity to purchase issue #3, if all had gone according to plan you’d have received the magazine and 7″ a fair time ago.

Due to our extensive touring and the spinning of numerous plates however, we’ve not got it completed as quickly as we’d anticipated or have liked to. Heat Rash is written, designed and edited entirely by us, with no help from outside the 7 of us, so it’s a large and time consuming undertaking. Although, of course this is no excuse ’cause you’ve given us your money for it.

We now have the 7″s in our possession and they’re the best looking (as well as showcasing the best HR songs) to date. Once the ‘zine is back from the printers (this also, is easily the highest quality ‘zine we’ve produced so far), we’ll have them immediately packaged up and sent out to you (we do all this ourselves too).

Once we know exactly when things are being posted we’ll email you the mp3s of the two new songs so you all receive them at the same time.

As ever, thank you for your support, and I’m incredibly sorry (and annoyed myself) that it’s been so long in coming.

Best,
G

ps. If you have changed address since ordering or receiving the last issue, please let us know of these changes via askheatrash@gmail.com.

June 15 TASTE OF RANDOLPH, CHICAGO
June 16 PLUSH, ST, LOUIS, MO (18+)
June 17 HEADLINERS MUSIC HALL, LOUISVILLE KY (18+)
June 19 THE ORANGE PEEL, ASHEVILLE NC (18+)
June 20 THE NATIONAL, RICHMOND VA (ALL AGES)
June 21 MAXWELL’S, HOBOKEN NJ (ALL AGES)
June 22 LE POISSON ROUGE, NEW YORK NY (ALL AGES)
June 23 BROOKLYN BOWL, BROOKLYN NY (21+)
June 24 BRILLOBOX, PITTSBURGH PA (21+)
June 26 OTTOBAR, BALTIMORE MD (ALL AGES)
June 27 CAT’S CRADLE, CARRBORRO NC (ALL AGES)
June 28 MASQUERADE, ATLANTA GA (ALL AGES)
June 29 BEACHMAN THEATRE, ORLANDO FL (ALL AGES)
June 30 BARDOT, MIAMI FL (21+)

Support from YELLOW OSTRICH.

Tickets on sale from 30th March.

For as long as I’ve listened to music, my favourite band has been The Beautiful South. The way in which I’ve loved them has evolved and grown, but they have consistently been the band that I wanted to sing along to when I was young, and the lyrics that I have wanted to emulate since I began writing. The words of Paul Heaton, in The Beautiful South, The Housemartins and in his solo work have been the high-water level that I’ve attempted to breakthrough. More often than not, subtly, but very occasionally shamelessly (our song ‘Straight In At 101”s title is taken straight from The Beautiful South’s ‘Straight in at 37′, our “phallic cake” line in Romance Is Boring is actually Heaton’s line). We even went so far as to cover one of my favourite South songs ‘I Love You (But You’re Boring)’, and my “LOVE ME PLEASE” gesture of wearing a Beautiful South t-shirt on our Letterman performance.

It’s safe to say, if it were not for Paul Heaton, I would never have wanted to write lyrics.

So it is with great pleasure I announce my involvement in a Paul Heaton show this coming July. Paul Heaton’s The 8th’ and ‘Paul Heaton & Friends – Greatest Hits set’ – Two Shows in One Night will involve a performance of Paul’s 70 minute long ‘New Soul Opera’ (in which I will be singing a solo, among other bits) and then a performance by Paul (and his guests) of some of his Greatest Hits, spanning his whole career. The show ran at last year’s Manchester International Festival and was a huge success, causing it now to travel around the country.

I cannot emphasise enough how much of an honour this is for me to be a part of. To be recognised by somebody who I admire so much is truly humbling and I look forward to these run of shows with a real mix of excitement and nervousness. I’ve never considered myself much of a singer, but this is an opportunity for me to push myself and do something I’m really proud of.

I was hoping very much that some of you Los Campesinos! fans (and hopefully a lot of you are Beautiful South fans anyway) would fancy attending a concert and joining me in this. The show is incredible. I’ve been lucky enough to hear it (though not yet see it) and it’s a real triumph. It’d be really nice to see some friendly faces along the way, in these beautiful, professional venues so I hope some of you can make it to a show.

Pardon my gushing,

Best,

Gareth