coffee, menthols, 4am and big hair
*yawn*
Well well, its all been happening recently, indeed so. Especially the return of insomnia. Boo. No-one invited you, seriously leave me alone will you?! Sitting here with my 5th coffee of the day, listening to Get Cape Wear Cape Fly ( i assumed with that name id hate him – i made the same mistake with Death Cab for Cutie so this time did some investigating) it dawned on me that i havent written for a while … very bad form i know. So i slap my own wrists and make up for it. I hope you appreciate the effort – its not easy to type and slap your own wrists at the same time, and men are historically bad at multi tasking so we are entering scary territory here. Bear with me. Bare with me? No no, that innevitably causes problems. Just bear. Cool? Cool.
Well, Saturday just gone we played a gig at The Borderline in Soho, which was quite the jolly. It was strange to be the opening act but we’d agreed to do it on the understanding the promoter, who has always been good to us, would fix us up with something excellent later in the year … he indeed did, but i digress so more of that later. We brought a good crowd down, a bunch of lovely people who all seemed to have a good time … well, at least until we finished playing. The following bands were, shall we say, likely to appeal to a very specific group of people … ones without ears perhaps … we were not included in that group (all of us have at least 1.7 ears) so headed next door to Crobar very soon afterwards where we proceeded to listen to excellent rock tunes and drink evil green shots and bourbon long into the night. The next day did require some recovery, if im being honest. I woke up feeling rougher than a dead dog. It was a nice way to see the sunrise. Well, i thought it was the sunrise-as it turns out it was about 11am and my eyes were just screwed from being glued shut all night … and possibly the aforementioned green shots. But yes, again a really good vibe and we played a couple of tracks we havent in recent gigs which went down very well. I noticed sales of our debut EP The Shipping Forecast went up on Amazon and Itunes the next day, so i guess we are heading in the right direction.
Since then Caleb has flown off to South Africa for a couple of weeks (driving to the airport at 4 in the morning is something i can recommend for the surreal nature of it all) so while we have a quiet period without rehearsals or gigs im taking the opportunity to catch up on all the admin type stuff, and replying to all the lovely messages we get from you fine people – ah yes indeed, we heart you muchly for your support! Its kind of strange to only play one gig a month, but our hands are tied on this matter – the venues we play now require contracts to be signed, and one of the conditions is always that you dont play another London gig more than 3 weeks either side to ensure lots of people turn up. Fair enough i guess. No point playing a really good venue with no-one there to see you. So we just try to ensure the few gigs we do play are as good as possible. Coming up on Nov 28th we are playing the Water Rats in Kings Cross, followed by PUNK in Soho on December 19th and then on Feb 2nd next year we play a VERY special gig at Bungalow 8 in Covent Garden, where we are only allowed to bring 35 people as the club is members only (and for members, read famous people) … I am hoping playing there will offer the opportunity to play our first New York gig as Bungalow 8 started in NY and having lived and studied in NY it would be UH-MAZING for me to go back – digits crossed eh?
We also have an interview, review and live-lounge type recording coming up for an online music magazine which we are all looking forward to … although Caleb is already agonising over whether to cut his now-enormous hair. I dont think he should. I do think you should also tell him this if he asks. Even if he doesnt. Maybe i need to start a website …
www.dontcutyourhaircaleb/itsmassiveandexcellent
… i wonder how many people just tried to click on that link 
The album is on track – 3 more tracks to complete, whilst the last 3 we did are as we speak being twiddled and fiddled with in their temporary home – the studio of the very excellent Michael Scherchen, who is mixing and mastering the album. We are excited. We do so hope you love it. Should be completed by end of the year so we’ll look to do some kind or swanky album launch type thing … hmm, i’ll set my mind to that one. We’ll need to get some publicity for it. Hmm. I could always kick those those two Irish lads from X-factor into a bloody pulp for their crimes against music, then use the publicity to endlessly hawk our album. I mean come on, thats win win for the entire nation right?! Well, any suggestions that wont land me in prison, drop me a line 
Ok, im off to make coffee number 6 and quickly remove my wet towel from the radiator. Does anyone else have a dad who is full of amazing bits of information that make no sense, like not to put wet towels on radiators as it makes the paint come off? Ive had this all my life, and yet still follow these bizarre hints and tips. He once told me blu-tac is radioactive – i wouldnt use it for 3 years. I was 21.
Love n hugs to you all, keep up the good work (whatever that may be)
Marc xx
ps here’a a couple of snaps from the Borderline gig – thanks to all those who came along
